Infernape

I think I'm gonna vote for the banning of both Latios and Latias out of spite...

If going mixed or purely physical (which will probably be avoided), then would shadow claw be a good option for hitting the above dragons on the switch? Yes, it's shadow claw we're talking about here, but still!

Meh, I'll stick with nasty plot. How much power do you need to ohko trick room reuniclus with fire blast? Aside from him, the likes of Jellicient and the lati twins can be covered by partnering infernape up with a team member. Let's see if the king of swing can make a comeback into OU.
STAB close combat and fire blast/overheat both hit harder than neutral shadow claw.
 
Wait. Where are people getting these claims that 'Infernape will finally rise to OU' or 'He's finally not UU'? Have tiers been out? I know Smogon has a new server with usage statistics but are they accessible? The usage statistics for the beta server are accessible 24/7 here http://91.121.73.228/Wifi/index.html but it has always shown Infernape up a few spots above Blaziken, around the 20s.
i think its because blaziken got moved up to ubers (i just found out like a minute ago lol)
blaziken was taking infernapes place in ou but now that hes gone infernape will probably get more usage
 
Wait. Where are people getting these claims that 'Infernape will finally rise to OU' or 'He's finally not UU'? Have tiers been out? I know Smogon has a new server with usage statistics but are they accessible? The usage statistics for the beta server are accessible 24/7 here http://91.121.73.228/Wifi/index.html but it has always shown Infernape up a few spots above Blaziken, around the 20s.
Personal experience.
 
[SET]

name: I have no claws
move1: Fire Punch
move2: Thunder Punch
move3: Swords Dance
move4: Mach Punch
ability: Iron Fist
item: Life Orb
evs: 4 hp / 252 atk / 252 spe
nature: jolly

This is the only thing it can do better than Blaziken due to higher powered and boostable priority attack in mach punch. With it it can revenge numerous things without the speed boost, namely Dory and Hydreigon, as well as set up for a sweep itself. Ive tried it to surprising success, really.
 
Personal experience.
I don't know about that, but I do run into Infernape often. They are always either a lead set or the awesome Choice Band set.

[SET]

name: I have no claws
move1: Fire Punch
move2: Thunder Punch
move3: Swords Dance
move4: Mach Punch
ability: Iron Fist
item: Life Orb
evs: 4 hp / 252 atk / 252 spe
nature: jolly
Fire Punch and ThunderPunch are illegal with Iron Fist at the moment due to the lack of move tutors in Black and White.
 
I personally ran into Blaziken much more frequently, and the fact that Infernape was relegated to the lead slot made it much less of a threat.

And yeah, that punch set is illegal. Hopefully when the rest of the world gets Global Link they will finally release all female events.
 
Let me give the laydown here:
ALL DW starters, including chimchar, CANNOT breed down their DW abilities because they will all be male. Therefore, all egg moves cannot be used with the DW ability, and most of the punches are unusable. ALso, Blaziken has much higher offensive stats and a better ability, along with access to o.k. STABs in HJK and Blaze Kick. The only time you will ever use infernape's new moves and ability is as a mixed sweeper. That, or special/physical sweepers. You will only see other apes, such as the leadape, in 4th gen or without Iron fist. Basically, iron fist is only usable with mach punch anyway.
 
Let me give the laydown here:
ALL DW starters, including chimchar, CANNOT breed down their DW abilities because they will all be male. Therefore, all egg moves cannot be used with the DW ability, and most of the punches are unusable. ALso, Blaziken has much higher offensive stats and a better ability, along with access to o.k. STABs in HJK and Blaze Kick. The only time you will ever use infernape's new moves and ability is as a mixed sweeper. That, or special/physical sweepers. You will only see other apes, such as the leadape, in 4th gen or without Iron fist. Basically, iron fist is only usable with mach punch anyway.
Yeah well Blaziken is banned, so SD and NP sets are viable, and so is the lead role. Nape is still quite good, and 108 speed is no slouch, despite it no longer being the great tier it used to be.
 
Its so sad that a stupid chicken stole the apes spot but I will still use my trusty physical set:
Infernape@ Life Orb
Adamant, Blaze
252 Attack, 252 speed, 4 HP
- Close Combat
- Flare Blitz
- Thunder Punch
- Mach Punch
Get in, hit shit, die.
 
Lol, you do realize that Infernape actually stole Blaziken's niche, and Blaze just happened to get it back (and much, much more) this gen?

Anyway, I think that set would be better with a Choice Band since you aren't boosting your attack, and Flare Blitz will have pretty significant recoil when combined with LO. You also get a stronger Mach Punch, which is cool.
 

alphatron

Volt turn in every tier! I'm in despair!
I think Stone edge is a good option to slap on that physical set if you don't want chandelure making fun of you. No, not shadow tag...just plain old flash fire chandy. I'm sick of seeing those things whenever I use pokemon who aren't prepared for it.
 
no discussion since ken's out? anyway, what set is recommended? cc/uturn/overheat/stone edge? i think 252 speed evs is needed now too, to match muskateers and galvantula.
 
move 1: Close Combat
move 2: Fire Blast
move 3: Mach Punch
move 4: Hidden Power Ice
item: Life Orb
nature: Naïve
evs: 20 Atk / 236 SpA / 252 Spe

Debating whether to use Cheer Up instead of Mach Punch but that delicious priority...
 

alphatron

Volt turn in every tier! I'm in despair!
Choice Band Infernape is wonderful stuff. Just freaking wonderful. It's like opening a care package in Black Ops and getting a death machine/grim reaper.

Sadly, I think this may be his most viable set. NP Infernape would have been great if not for Latios ruining everything, forcing you to run team support just to succeed. Lead Infernape seems pretty much dead though and I've never tried SD Infernape so I can't say much on its success.
 
No offense to anyone in particular, but I've had a great time listening to all these people whining about blaziken being better than infernape and "stealing it's place"
Gamefreak makes the decisions. Quit hating on a videogame character for being improved by the company that makes the game.
 
Choice Band Infernape is wonderful stuff. Just freaking wonderful. It's like opening a care package in Black Ops and getting a death machine/grim reaper.

Sadly, I think this may be his most viable set. NP Infernape would have been great if not for Latios ruining everything, forcing you to run team support just to succeed. Lead Infernape seems pretty much dead though and I've never tried SD Infernape so I can't say much on its success.
I have to agree, it has so much utility, I mean literally I can justify it on 90% of my teams. Have a problem with Jirachi, use Infernape, Ferrothorn, use Infernape, Scizor, use Infernape. And even if they bring in a counter, they still take massive damage from infernape, sometimes even enough to 2HKO.
 
IMO Blaziken outclasses Infernape as a sweeper, but not generally since Infernape has many different options and a higher speed off the bat.

Now, that's been said a ton of times in this thread, but what no one's considered is that all the blaziken awesomeness is tied to PO. In the actual games, you can't breed speed boost ken since it's a male only pokemon as far as I know, so you can't have 70 BP HP Grass, 31 IVs on Attack and Speed, or the nature you want. Maybe one or two of this things, but not all of them, so when playing in the VGC or via Wi-Fi, Blaziken's nowhere as good as Infernape.

Also thanks for the Choice Band idea, I've been running a LO set with Flare Blitz/ Close Combat/ Mach Punch/ Stone Edge and I'm having trouble making it work nicely, and thought CB would be a problem since I wouldn't get the versatility Infernape is known for, especially when it comes to predicting the switch in and hitting hard, but I always end up switching him out anyway since I usually need to save him for Ferro or Blissey, so I'll try it out and see if it's better than LO.
 

Pocket

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Namely Latias / Latios, but they need to be careful of U-turn. Gyarados, Dragonite, Salamence, Jellicent, Slowbro, and Tentacruel are all good answers to Infernape, although they need to be wary of certain coverage moves that Infernape may carry, such as Thunderpunch, Stone-Edge, HP Ice, or Grass Knot.

Heatran wearing a Choice Scarf and Gengar are good checks that can even switch-in on one of Infernape's STAB. To a lesser extent Starmie, too.
 
Namely Latias / Latios, but they need to be careful of U-turn. Gyarados, Dragonite, Salamence, Jellicent, Slowbro, and Tentacruel are all good answers to Infernape, although they need to be wary of certain coverage moves that Infernape may carry, such as Thunderpunch, Stone-Edge, HP Ice, or Grass Knot.

Heatran wearing a Choice Scarf and Gengar are good checks that can even switch-in on one of Infernape's STAB. To a lesser extent Starmie, too.
Don't forget Chandelure who doesn't fear much except Stone Edge.
 

alphatron

Volt turn in every tier! I'm in despair!
I've been bored of forcing myself to play, so I'm gonna try messing around with some fun stuff. Like Nasty Plot Infernape for example. Only, I need some help. I'll be using him on a sun team, because I haven't been playing sun for quite some time(!!!).

Infernape @ Life Orb
Evs: 252 SpA, 252 Spd, 4 Atk
Nature: Naive
-Nasty Plot
-Close Combat
-Fire Blast
-Vacuum Wave/Stone Edge/HP Electric

Close combat is mainly for Tyranitar and Blissey. Vacuum Wave is primarily for Excadrill but has other uses too. Stone Edge and hp electric were slashed in as a personal attack against gyarados and chandelure, but I can manage without them. A hidden power isn't totally necessary when +2 LO sun boosted fire blast ohkos things like max hp Vaporeon after SR.

What I'm mainly having trouble with is team support. I was thinking that having an Escavelier/Scizor/Metagross to pick off Lati@s, etc. could be useful. Something to get rid of Tentacruel would also be appreciated. Or whatever else this set can't handle.
 
Infernape is a very underrated Pokemon in this meta. I find Mixape to be his best set, similar to the one Gungnir85 posted a little up, although I prefer U-turn over Mach Punch for nailing Lati@s, especially since Mach Punch doesn't OHKO Excadrill. Speaking of which, Infernape pairs beautifully with Excadrill, since it deals with Skarmory, Bronzong, and Gliscor quite handily. Something hilarious I like to do when facing a team with Tyrantiar and Gliscor is HP Ice while their Tyranitar is out, because it invariably catches Gliscor as they switch in to take the Close Combat / U-turn. Teams that rely on Gliscor to handle Excadrill often lose almost immediately when this happens. Nape also loves Scarftar support, since it can deal with Jellicent / Thundurus / Lati@s, etc., some of Infernape's most common checks.
 

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