Battle Spot Singles Viability Rankings

You can predict, that if someone have have gengar and he lead with mkanga he might not sac his mega.

Also if i'm doing trade 1 for 1 with opponent's mega I won't call it bad in any mean.

PorygonZ perform best as last pokemon, when you know all your enemy's pick and can choose best move to lock yourself in.
 
You can predict, that if someone have have gengar and he lead with mkanga he might not sac his mega.

Also if i'm doing trade 1 for 1 with opponent's mega I won't call it bad in any mean.

PorygonZ perform best as last pokemon, when you know all your enemy's pick and can choose best move to lock yourself in.
No one said it was bad. All we are saying is that choice scarf and hyper beam doesn't make sense as it gets locked into hyper beam and you basically lose a turn allowing your opponent to switch in and set up with a pokemon.
 
Yeah, dude, show me your switch ins...

252+ SpA Porygon-Z Dark Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Gengar: 130-154 (95.5 - 113.2%) -- 75% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Porygon-Z Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 74-88 (44.3 - 52.6%) -- 16.8% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Porygon-Z Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Altaria: 224-264 (123 - 145%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam vs. 108 HP / 4 SpD Gardevoir: 170-202 (108.2 - 128.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Porygon-Z Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 76 SpD Garchomp: 244-288 (113.4 - 133.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

And the list goes on...

Only cres and sylveon from top 12 are 3hko.
Focus Sash, Protect.

It's not tough.
 
It has sense, but it's ONE OF FOUR moves. It's just an option, you know. Not everybody expect hyper beam, and it's nice way to clean OHKO your opponent's last enemy.

And Porygon Z hardly has anything better for that slot. Thunderbolt gives you neutral hit against steel/fighting and steel/fairy and supper effective hits against water don't gives you too much because you deal only slightly more damage with triattack.

Only better thing is HP fire against ferrothorns and scizors (walls your every move).

In ou I've seen PorygonsZ with double-edge to 2hko chansey. That was some kind of amazing moveset ;)

Focus Sash, Protect.

It's not tough.
Okay m8, focus sash exist, protect also (even if that's don't have nothing to do, since after block of protect you don't have to recharge).

Does this thing make PorygonZ bad or unreliabe? Because I can't see your point in two-line comment.
 
Hi guys, let's talk about porygon-z!
For my experience the most viable set is scarf adaptability. Triattack, hyper beam, dark pules and ice beam.

Even if stats doesn't look so special (almost like slower but a bit more tanky zam) adaptability fixes it. Tri attack has 160 base power and still has 20% to status opponent. The power of hyper beam... IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!

Many things are outspeeded and 2hko this set, some even ohko. With scarf it outspeed regular blaziken at +1, and base 80 scarfs. Hyper beam breaks many tough walls and its good to ohko things which you want to be gone.

Also porygon can take usually one hit so he usualy has at least one kill.
Umm..Trick? TrickScarf is great, and Hyper Beam can go. Its power is great, but the recharge turn generally renders it a moot point. One set I liked I saw in an RMT, and that had Agility. Maybe try that out. You could also go for something more out there like double dance w/ Tri-Attack and Dark pulse. Really, Porygon-z seems better than my suggestion of Exploud, so maybe C+?

As for Exploud, it may be a bad nomination. Something like Greninja would probably be better, so I'll definitely look into other options that work for my team. Exploud has done very well for me in the past, but the only video i(might) have is on cart, and it's probably too much of a pain to upload that for a video that won't prove anything. Still, no one has said that it shouldn't be ranked, so maybe C/C-.
 
Yeah, exploud is good enough to be at least nominated. If honchcrow and omastar have theri place on the list I don't see a reason why exploud shouldn't.

I don't really think that agility set has potential, because P-Z has reliable ohko only with hyper beam or 4x effective. while 2hko with tri attack is most common case, so sacrifacing one turn for speed doesn't sound right. Maybe it has some usage, but for me late game scarf cleaner sounds more reasonable.
 
It seems pretty hard to justify using Exploud. It's pretty frail and very slow. Of course it hits hard as hell but is it really worth using just for that? There are plenty of good pokemon that can nuke shit similar to Exploud. Sylveon, Char Y, Salamence, Kanga, Mawile. Yes they all do less damage than exploud but these mons have many other merits over exploud, they have the stats/typing to actually perform well. As a normal type with shit defenses it just doesnt seem to provide a lot of synergy and you probably have to build a lot around it for it to be worth using. Idk if I agree with it being ranked, but if it were i think it'd be somewhere around D range. Idk exactly cause I havent tested with it yet or ever played against it in BSS(which says something in itself), but on paper it doesnt seem very good.
 
Yeah, exploud is good enough to be at least nominated. If honchcrow and omastar have theri place on the list I don't see a reason why exploud shouldn't.

I don't really think that agility set has potential, because P-Z has reliable ohko only with hyper beam or 4x effective. while 2hko with tri attack is most common case, so sacrifacing one turn for speed doesn't sound right. Maybe it has some usage, but for me late game scarf cleaner sounds more reasonable.
Thank you. Everyone always seems to be like "lol, no, you can't not that for C cuz X Pokemon in rank B or higher is better." There's no point to the lower ranks unless we're gonna recognize that they do see much less use than higher ranked Pokemon, but are still nominated, just for lower ranks. The only time a Pokemon shouldn't be ranked is if it's just trash(Luvdisc), or completely outclassed by something already on here(Mismagius.) I don't think Exploud tally into either of those categories, so it at the very least should be D rank.

Exploud is really held back by a lacking support movepool, having T-Wave or Agility would make it a lot better.
 

cant say

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Us guys on the viability council have been talking about the Pokemon recently brought up for placement, we haven't come to a conclusion yet but I thought I'd at least share my thoughts...

Mamoswine: current rank: A- | proposed rank: A

I have to agree with this, he's gotten pretty crazy popular and has several really good sets. offensive typing is amazing, good stats / movepool, able to pull off a bunch of different roles effectively, somewhat unpredictable as a result, Ice-typing isn't so poo defensively thanks to Thick Fat, checks some of the biggest threats in the game. Just a good solid mon.

Goodra: current rank: N/A | proposed rank: B

First off, when it comes to being a special wall, Goodra is heavily outclassed by Chansey which is currently ranked B-. Perhaps Chansey needs to go up (I support this), but to suggest that Goodra should be ranked above it without any reference to Chansey at all confuses me. I will admit that after looking at calcs, Goodra's special bulk is impressive, and it can do some damage back which is always helpful. But even still, I'd still take Chansey with Seismic Toss over Goodra any day. Goodra relies on running either Assault Vest - where it lacks an offensive presence and can't use any of it's status moves like Acid Armor, Rest, Toxic etc. - or Choice Specs - where it can do ok damage but gets locked into undesirable moves and isn't as bulky anymore... It's overall just a really awkward Pokemon, not something I'd recommend to a lot of people that's for sure. somewhere in C would be fine with me.

Exploud: current rank: N/A | proposed rank: B-

Another really awkward Pokemon, one which I think you're using wrong, Omastar. He should be primarily used as a wallbreaker, busting through defensive mons with his insanely powerful, no-setup-required Boomburst. The problem with this though is that he need significant speed investment to beat things like Rotom, Suicune, Tyranitar, slow Gliscor, Cresselia, Mega Venusaur, and Scizor. This then makes him really frail. I think EVing him specifically to take hits from the scary guys like Garchomp, Talonflame etc. and retaliate with a KO won't actually work in practice. He can't switch so at best he'll be revenging everything, and after doing so he'll be so low on health that it may as well have been a suicide mission. He also needs crazy amounts of support if you want him to do more than one kill, whether it's Trick Room, Tailwind, Sticky Web or Thunder Wave, or Baton Pass or Screens or WHATEVER. This does not equate to a B- mon imo, somewhere in C for him too...

Porygon-Z: current rank: N/A | proposed rank: ???

Another Normal-type with a nuke move, at least this one has some speed. A shame you made no mention of Specs or Uproar, both are more common then Scarf and Tri-Attack. I suppose that once the Rock/Steel types (and Ghosts so you don't have to use Dark Pulse) are taken care of you can start spamming your boosted Normal-type moves, I guess that's why Garchomp and Blaziken are the top two teammates. He's pretty niche though, not something you'd just slap on a team, and needs proper support to make sure it isn't bodied, so I think somewhere in C is good for it as well...

There's a whole bunch of more popular / viable mons that still aren't ranked yet, can we talk about some of them instead of these nichemons? n_n
 
Hippie JK. So so nice Mamo is moving up in the world, it deserves it. I agree on Goodra. It belongs in the C's-it just has too much trouble w/ common threats and doesn't really do enough damage. I guess I have to agree on Exploud. My team might use T-Wave a lot, but it's better to have a Pokemon that appreciates para support, as opposed to depending on it. I don't think the slow Pokes that uninvested Exploud outspeeds see enough use for its speed to be good enough. Switch ins are few and far between. Ghost type attacks, Substitute, WoW, and maybe T-Wave and Toxic. I kinda talked myself down on Exploud, eventually deciding it should be D rank, maybe low C's. It isn't a common thing, nor should it be, but I've seen Exploud on a handful of other teams, so it's not just my wacky idea.

I really like Porygon2 and Z, and it's nice to see that Uproar is common, since I feel like the move has quite a bit of potential. Porygon-Z is definitely better than Exploud, at least, so C would be a very reasonable rank for it.

I'm not really sure what you think is popular/viable that isn't read-the list is pretty comprehensive. One big thing would be Smeargle, which isn't even on here. W/ Moody and Spore, it can get very annoying and Baton Pass a bunch of boosts to something like Sigilyph or Espeon, the latter of which isn't even ranked. Another thing is Ludicolo. I haven't seen it very much, but it seems ok as a rain sweeper. Another thing is Tyrantrum.

I'm not saying any of those Pokemon are extremely good, but you wanted stuff on here that's at least decent and I'm just trying to give some ideas.
 
There's a whole bunch of more popular / viable mons that still aren't ranked yet, can we talk about some of them instead of these nichemons? n_n
I like playing dumb teams for fun. People call it "stupid", bu I prefere " innovative".

I would agree with C for porygon, but Clawitzer is B-. And IMO clawitzer is much worse.
 
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I just noticed that Heracross is unranked as of now. AV Heracross can surprise its would-be checks, notably Gengar. Scarf Heracross can clean effectively. However, both of these sets are pretty outclassed by other Pokemon, with Garchomp in particular being a much better check to Gar and Aegis, and can clean with SD if it gets the proper setup. I'd put it to around B.

I also support Chansey moving up a rank or two.

I would agree with C for porygon, but Clawitzer is B-. And IMO clawitzer is much worse.
Clawitzer should not be B-. Why is this thing B-? It's very outclassed and easy to check.
 
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Gardevoir to B/ B-

I just realized that although mega gardevoir is ranked, normal gardevoir isn't ranked at all! Gardevoir is such a strong pokemon when combined with a choice scarf and the ability trace. It can be pretty hard to stop if you aren't prepared for it. Trace really helps as it can copy some strong abilities such as parental bond, rough skin, speed boost, thick fat etc. I certainly feel it deserves a spot in B as it outclasses so many of the mons listed in the B- and below categories.

Another pokemon I feel can be helpful with proper team support is Darmantian. It has an absurd base 140 attack and coupled with sheer force can seriously be a great wall breaker for the team or even a revenge killer. Despite it's great attack stat, it has terrible defense and special defense stats so I feel the highest it can go is maybe C.

I also agree with 6tennis that heracross should be ranked and placed at B or B-. I feel it is pretty versatile and a good user of many items such as choice scarf, choice band, life orb or even assault vest. A huge problem for it is the omnipresent talonflame though as it completely destroys heracross so while building a team with heracross, a hard talonflame counter must be present.
 
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Gardevoir has some great gimmick and I have great fun switchinch in hetrans but she definitely needs scarf. Too frail to take physical.

She has some nice moves with STAB moonblast, STAB Psyshock, whisp, destini bound, encore but I have never have any success with sets other than scarf. Clefable is just better cleric, while Sylveon is better damage dealer.

Fun to play, but outclassed by other fairy types.
 
Another thing I thought of is Arcanine...maybe for C+/B-.

It has good stats all around, and can be bulky w/ WoW and Snarl or an all-out attacker w/ its good coverage and access to Extremespeed. Intimidate and a great offensive movepool pair well w/ an Assault Vest as well, though Landog probably outclasses it in that role. Just a good mon in general, especially w/ Stealth Rock seeing little use in BSS.
 
Maybe let's make a list:
-Heracross
-Arcaine
-Amoonguss
-Hawlucha
-Dragagle
-Chesnaught
-Crawdaunt
-Seismitoad
-Nido duo
-Staraptor
 
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Gardevoir has some great gimmick and I have great fun switchinch in hetrans but she definitely needs scarf. Too frail to take physical.

She has some nice moves with STAB moonblast, STAB Psyshock, whisp, destini bound, encore but I have never have any success with sets other than scarf. Clefable is just better cleric, while Sylveon is better damage dealer.

Fun to play, but outclassed by other fairy types.
Yeah while I do agree with you that gardevoir is pretty frail and unable to take a hit, I certainly don't think its a gimmick. Also, Gardevoir is best later in the game when you know your opponent's pokemon. Besides only about three other fairy types outclass it and they are sylveon, mawile-mega and clefable.
 
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Maybe let's make a list:
-Heracross
-Arcaine
-Amoonguss
-Hawlucha
-Dragagle
-Chesnaught
-Crawdaunt
-Seismitoad
-Nido duo
-Staraptor
Love this thread is seeing so much activity. Enter should be added to that list, too. We could talk about how it compares to Arcanine, since they'll probably end up very close in rank.
 
Arcaine has this problem, that he is outclassed by many mons. IMO most viable set is snarl, whisp and morning sun, but Sableye has it all and better typing (say hi to mega kanga), some extra amazing moves like taunt and prankser which greatly raises his power.

And Arcaine as attacker doesn't seems to be good at it at all. You have some coverage, but attack is low, speed also. Entei is just much better as attacker due to sacred fire, which messes some tanks.
 
Ditto is also missing, which has a niche as a revenge killer against setup sweepers (although it's rather rarely used). However Ditto can't really do anything else. Well Ditto has one other niche as far as I'm aware: Assist can't select Transform, which is why Liepard and Breloom are its 4th and 5th most common team mates (priority Spore).

Of the Pokémon I see semi-regularly, I think only Jolteon stands out as being unranked (besides Crawdaunt which was already mentioned).

The following I see less regularly but I've seen them used a few times:
- Jellicent
- Mega Medicham
- Crobat
- Liepard (for completeness sake because I mentioned it above, I don't actually remember facing one except for priority Spore teams)

I can't really propose a ranking for them, but I could see Ditto being rank D.
 
Arcaine has this problem, that he is outclassed by many mons. IMO most viable set is snarl, whisp and morning sun, but Sableye has it all and better typing (say hi to mega kanga), some extra amazing moves like taunt and prankser which greatly raises his power.

And Arcaine as attacker doesn't seems to be good at it at all. You have some coverage, but attack is low, speed also. Entei is just much better as attacker due to sacred fire, which messes some tanks.
Back in my day, Feraligatr had good attack and Houndoom had good speed. Alakazam was a god. TTar was shit. Ghost wasn't near-completely unresisted and had immaculate resists; in fact, it was pretty awful.

I ran Arcanine as my team's wallbreaker in BW2; did you know it hits harder than Char-X AND Char-Y at the same time with one set, right at Turn 1, and no Choice Band/Specs/LO? In doubles, at least. :P

Non-Mega Sableye has absolute shit for defenses. We're talking:
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Sableye: 108-127 (68.7 - 80.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Floatzel: 135-160 (70.3 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Exeggcute: 102-121 (61 - 72.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (ignoring resistances; ie Soak)

Yes. An Exeggcute, with no Eviolite, is bulkier. And that's Sableye's higher Def stat, nevermind Sp. Def:

252 SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Sableye: 93-111 (59.2 - 70.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Skiploom: 93-111 (57.4 - 68.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Venonat: 105-124 (62.8 - 74.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Kricketune: 111-132 (60.3 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dewott: 99-117 (54.3 - 64.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

A Lum Berry Skiploom, again, is bulkier. Now, let's look at Arcanine:

252 SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Arcanine: 81-96 (48.7 - 57.8%) -- 94.9% chance to 2HKO

An univested Arcanine has more bulk than a Sableye with 256 EVs in bulk, even without Intimidate. Not to mention the actual offensive existence. As for max/max spreads: do the same thing with Exeggcute and Skiploom. Doesn't change the results. I know Prankster is broke af, but shitty defenses do have limitations. The Mega argument: Dusknoir has better bulk/Speed/Atk + Leftovers. Dusknoir is shit. Mega Sableye is good, I agree, but imo it's not that bulky.


Entei and Arcanine:

- Entei has a pretty bad ability. Intimidate, Flash Fire, and even lolJustified are better.
- Entei has Sacred Fire, Stone Edge, and- no wait, that's its entire movepool. Arcanine lacks Rock moves, but does have Close Combat and Extremespeed (remember kids: Pentagon rule) along with other, not-all-that-great moves like Crunch and Wild Charge, plus a higher Sp. Atk to run Mixed/Special sets. It's hard to predict Arcanine.
- Entei has Rest for recovery. Arcanine has that plus Morning Sun.
+ Entei has better overall bulk (disregarding Intimidate) and slightly higher Atk/Speed.
+ Entei has Sacred Fire.
+ They're both cute.

Can't go wrong with either one imo, Entei has superior stats and Sacred Fire, Arcanine has Intimidate and can actually heal itself, plus offensive options beyond Stone Miss + Sacred Fire. Both have been successful this gen.
I'd gander at B for both Entei and Arcanine; Heatran / Rotom-H are generally better, but they aren't bad on the level of Vivillion and Noivern. Comprable to Sableye, roughly, and pretty equal to one another. Fire's a damn good type this gen too.

Arcanine and Sableye:

- Sableye has Prankster, which is obnoxious in any situation.
- Sableye has STAB on Foul Play.
- Sableye has Taunt. Because fuck cheeseteams.
- Sableye has only 1 weakness.
- Sableye is not weak to Stealth Rock.
+ Arcanine has much better bulk.
+ Arcanine has Intimidate, so it can actually hinder Char-X, Blaziken, and things with Lum Berry / Poison Heal.
+ Arcanine has resistances to actual, relevent types, like Fire and Fairy.
+ Arcanine can actually KO shit without stalling WoW / Swagger damage.
+ Arcanine has Roar to elimanate already-boosted foes and forcing out annoying switchins while racking hazard damage. Because fuck Baton Pass.
> They both have decent recovery options that aren't ChestoRest/Pain Split.
> They both cover different mons. Arcanine? Not so great for a Garchomp weak team. Sableye? Not so great for a Gardevoir weak team.

Hawlucha:

Fast as fuck. Like, super fast. 118 Speed is pretty solid, U-Turn lets it annoy your foe, and after a Swords Dance it has enough power to actually KO things like Garchomp:
+2 252 Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 184-217 (100.5 - 118.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Problem is, it's always weak to Priority, especially Thundurus, and it gets ONE shot to set up. And if it doesn't set up, it's pretty meek. Base 92 Atk and a Jolly nature is, well, the offensive power of an Abra.
Set up is Sash (depending on + baiting the foe to T-bolt you or something + dodging Stealth Rocks), Sub + Sitrus, or Sky Attack + power Herb which is trash on several levels. Nevermind setting up a much-needed Swords Dance while doing this.

Hawlucha is bad, do not use Hawlucha. very niche mon, needs a metric fuckton of support, gets ONE SHOT at setting up Unburden, and isn't all that great. Slurpuff is pretty similar; Slurpuff is not that good. D at best, it's about as bad as Drifblim but doesn't have the dumb luck factor of Minimize.

Staraptor:

The original YOLObird. Spamming Brave Bird way before it was cool. Reckless+STAB Double-Edge/Brave Bird is brutal with Close Combat to slam Heatran, TTar, and Ferrothorn. Scarf + U-Turn is fast and annoying. Intimidate + bulk + Roost + featherdance could honestly be kind of funny, but I wouldn't bank on it much; Arcanine is way better as a "fuck all things physical" mon. Speed isn't bad, sitting on the forever clogged to the point of choking Base 100 crowd.
Looks swag as fuck, Staraptor for S+ Rank. 27/10. Thundurus is shit by comparison.
But seriously, C- rank if ranked at all. Outclassed by MegaMence, Talonflame, and even Mega Pinsir. Still better than Drifblim though.
 
Back in my day, Feraligatr had good attack and Houndoom had good speed. Alakazam was a god. TTar was shit. Ghost wasn't near-completely unresisted and had immaculate resists; in fact, it was pretty awful.
You are old man. I can respect that*.

And zam is still good, but in OU.
- Entei has Sacred Fire, Stone Edge, and- no wait, that's its entire movepool. Arcanine lacks Rock moves, but does have Close Combat and Extremespeed (remember kids: Pentagon rule) along with other, not-all-that-great moves like Crunch and Wild Charge, plus a higher Sp. Atk to run Mixed/Special sets. It's hard to predict Arcanine.
Entei has also bulldoze for heatrans and iron head for rock types (namely Ttar). And sacred fire is extremly good, because even things which resist fire don't really want to switch in because of burn.

Arcaine might be hard to predict, but easy to wall. He has nothing to hurt defensive Garchomp (doesn't even have 50% chance to burn) and gets OHKO back by earthquake. Entei at least can burn. Another thing which can wall it is mega altaria.

B for Entei
C+ for Arcaine

- Sableye has Prankster, which is obnoxious in any situation.
- Sableye has STAB on Foul Play.
- Sableye has Taunt. Because fuck cheeseteams.
- Sableye has only 1 weakness.
- Sableye is not weak to Stealth Rock.
+ Arcanine has much better bulk.
+ Arcanine has Intimidate, so it can actually hinder Char-X, Blaziken, and things with Lum Berry / Poison Heal.
+ Arcanine has resistances to actual, relevent types, like Fire and Fairy.
+ Arcanine can actually KO shit without stalling WoW / Swagger damage.
+ Arcanine has Roar to elimanate already-boosted foes and forcing out annoying switchins while racking hazard damage. Because fuck Baton Pass.
> They both have decent recovery options that aren't ChestoRest/Pain Split.
> They both cover different mons. Arcanine? Not so great for a Garchomp weak team. Sableye? Not so great for a Gardevoir weak team.
The thing is recovery has more PP and if you are runing deffensive arcaine you don't invest anything in attack what mean foul play might be better option. Foul play makes Sableye staller, because if enemy try to ignore burn and stack SD sableye can actually foul play and OHKO them back. Arcaine is not even close to that.

Arcaine is doing his job fine but look, Sableye is a champ.

You missed final gimmick set for Staraptor. Full Hp, full speed, scarf and nuking thing with final gambit.

______
*Just kidding, I'm probably same age, but never played gen1
 
I have to agree with seth_ . Entei is definetly better than arcanine and the main reason is sacred fire. Sacred fire is just an amazing move and in a meta filled with strong physical attackers on practically every team, getting a burn can really ruin the opponent's flow. Besides sacred fire, entei is bulkier, faster, and hits harder than arcanine. While I do agree that arcanine's movepool is better and has better healing options but in a fast-paced meta like bss, healing should be left to the super strong walls like cress, porygon2 and chansey. Entei should probably be a B and arcanine should be C+.
 
Since they were my ideas, I thought I'd throw my two cents in. Enter>Arcanine, but never are cream of the crop or bottom of the barrel. I'd agree w/ B for Entei and C+ for Arcanine.

Staraptor should definitely be ranked, as it has quite a bit of power and enough to distinguish it(in a good way) from Talon. It's still mostly outclassed, but not completely. I'm also skeptical of saying that it's outclassed by Megamence and Pinsir, since they take a mega stone and Staraptor doesn't. C- seems about right.
 
Entei has also bulldoze for heatrans and iron head for rock types (namely Ttar). And sacred fire is extremly good, because even things which resist fire don't really want to switch in because of burn.

Arcaine might be hard to predict, but easy to wall. He has nothing to hurt defensive Garchomp (doesn't even have 50% chance to burn) and gets OHKO back by earthquake. Entei at least can burn. Another thing which can wall it is mega altaria.

B for Entei
C+ for Arcaine
Arcanine has Bulldoze and Iron Head too. :P

BulkyChomp and Mega Altaria rape both of them; Arcanine's combination of Intimidate + WoW + recovery makes it hands-down the best physical crippler in the game. Example:
-1 252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 138-164 (70 - 83.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Entei: 198-234 (89.1 - 105.4%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

Arcanine, despite lower stats, is eating STAB SE Earthquakes just fine. And that's ScarfChomp, not the much-weaker TankChomp. WoW is an 85% burn rate (accuracy), over Sacred Fire's 50% (if it hits). Entei has to hit Garchomp on a switchin; or Chompy just outruns and smashes it. Arcanine can WoW it on the switchin - the same way Entei is tossing Sacred Fire - with an even higher Burn rate. Or, Arcanine can come in after Chompy KO's something, Intimidate it, and click WoW. Garchomp can't even 2HKO with Outrage unless it's already got an SD boost or a Choice Band. Entei's even more fucked in the same cases, btw.

Basically, what I'm saying is, when it comes to a BULKY Fire type, nothing really compares to Arcanine. Heatran is the next closest thing.
Offensively, Entei has Stone Edge and Sacred Fire; Arcanine has everything else. Entei's superior stats make it better at offense, imo, unless you really need Close Combat's coverage; in which case, use Blaziken.

The thing is recovery has more PP and if you are runing deffensive arcaine you don't invest anything in attack what mean foul play might be better option. Foul play makes Sableye staller, because if enemy try to ignore burn and stack SD sableye can actually foul play and OHKO them back. Arcaine is not even close to that.

Arcaine is doing his job fine but look, Sableye is a champ.
Foul Play is pretty trash against 1) burned opponents, 2) Special attackers, 3) Fighting/Fairy/Dark types. Considering Sableye is burning, luring Special attackers, and Fairy types, that's all pretty damning.
Recover has better PP, and is overall better than Morning Sun; I do not argue this :P
No one's going to spam SD when burned, in front of Sableye.
Arcanine's Flamethrower/etc is bad against resists, Flash Fire, and stupidly bulky special mons like cress. If they ignore the burn chopping off 1/4th HP every other turn, well, they're going to be pummeled to death pretty quick by either mon.

You missed final gimmick set for Staraptor. Full Hp, full speed, scarf and nuking thing with final gambit.
I always did like that set, yes. Sucks when it gets hit or doesn't use Final Gambit but eh.

Besides sacred fire, entei is bulkier, faster, and hits harder than arcanine
Arcanine's bulkier on the physical side, I've spent two posts already proving this. Not even using a defensive set on Arcanine to boot.

252+ SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Arcanine: 172-203 (87.3 - 103%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Entei: 179-213 (80.6 - 95.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

But again, Arcanine is usually running bulk and a physically defensive set; Entei generally isn't running much bulk, instead focusing on its offenses.
AV Entei looks amazing with calcs guys, use it. cannibal had fun with that one.

Faster, yes. Arcanine has Extremespeed to somewhat make up for it but eh, Entei still obviously has the point.
"Hits harder":

252 Atk Entei Sacred Fire vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 79-94 (43.6 - 51.9%) -- 13.3% chance to 2HKO
252 Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 93-109 (51.3 - 60.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

180 > 150 guys. 5 point difference in Atk isn't going to make up the difference.

252 SpA Arcanine Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 79-94 (43.6 - 51.9%) -- 13.3% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Entei Fire Blast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 75-88 (41.4 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Same on the special side; they actually have an identical movepool here. Entei has CM and Eruption, but not really enough recovery to justify either one.

tl;dr I don't understand the Arcanine hate. I'm not saying Entei is bad (it's actually pretty damn good, and I like it) but Arcanine and Entei have been almost interchangable since XY. Arcanine is better at a bulky set, Entei's better at an offensive set; but Arcanine can hit hard when it wants to and Entei can definetly be bulky. I'm still set on ~B for both; everyone seems to agree on a B- for Entei, I'd rank it equal to Arcanine but I guess B- on Entei/C+ for Arcanine isn't that sad to me.[/quote]
 

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