View attachment 34192
Alright, I'm going to propose a preliminary
C- rank for Emboar.
When I made the Emboar thread, I initially thought that Reckless Band Emboar would be the set to put it on the rankings. However, after using it, Choice Scarf Emboar was doing really well while Band was more difficult to use.
Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly / Naive Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge / Grass Knot
- Superpower / Grass Knot
- Head Smash / Grass Knot
Choice Scarf Emboar outspeeds Tornadus-T and down, meaning that it outspeeds the majority of the relevant metagame. With Reckless and 123 base attack, it hits hard with Flare Blitz, Wild Charge and Head Smash while outspeeding most of OU when equipped with a Scarf. With these traits, it is able to put pressure on most offensive threats, including Mega Metagross, Mega Gallade, Raikou, weakened Keldeo, weakened Latis, weakened Mega Diancie, Charizard, Starmie, Gengar and others. It has enough firepower to 2HKO Mega Sableye and Clefable as well.
The main thing holding Scarf Emboar back is that it has to hold a Choice Scarf in the first place. It is very prediction reliant, meaning that the omnipresent Lando-T and Rotom-W can take advantage of it and it is walled by most bulky Waters without Grass Knot. It also doesn't have any moves like U-turn or Healing Wish to keep momentum and take advantage of the Scarf. However, it performs very well against offense, and decently against other teams, making it a fine choice in OU.
I managed to get a couple replays of Scarf Emboar:
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-203920079
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-203917724
Emboar @ Choice Band
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 24 HP / 252 Atk / 232 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Head Smash
- Superpower
- Wild Charge
Band is the other set that I've used and, while it's disappointed me, it does its job pretty decently. It hits really hard to the point where it has no true counters and it can't be burned. It has a neutrality to Stealth Rock unlike other Fire type wallbreakers and its just fast enough to outspeed most defensive Pokemon. However, the state of the metagame is really unkind to it at the moment. Some defensive cores just take way too much prediction to break through. Rotom-W + Lando-T is an extremely common core at the moment that falls to Head Smash, but when there is a Mega Metagross or Ferrothorn waiting as well, it puts a lot of strain on the player. Also, Emboar's 110/65/65 bulk is only that of a standard offensive Pokemon and when combined with the recoil that it takes, Emboar is easy to wear down. Band Emboar needs a lot of support to function well: SR + Rapid Spin are required for Emboar to wallbreak at his best, and Wish/Healing Wish support is very helpful (Jirachi and Latias are good for this).
All in all, Choice Scarf Emboar at least deserves to be ranked somewhere in the C ranks, though I won't be to bothered if it's D rank until the metagame becomes more favorable for it.