Forretress should be played like Skarmory, mostly: switch into a physical attacker, check for any harmful Special Attacks by switching again if you want, and lay down Spikes. Switch out if your opponent brought in something that could be a threat to Forretress. Forretress can also Rapid Spin opposing Spikes away, but beware of Ghosts. Earthquake should be used to repel Magneton, keep Metagross at bay, and hurt Dugtrio. Explosion is for when you're through or when Forretress is done with its business, namely when the opponent has no Spiker or Rapid Spinner anymore, you have enough Spikes yourself, and you don't need Forretress's walling potential anymore. However, Rest allows it to stay alive for a while longer, and is great if you're using it on a defensive team with Heal Bell or Aromatherapy in reserve.
This version of Forretress can live nearly forever, countering Celebi nicely and keeping the Spikes coming. Metagross has a hard time getting past this as well, but it's likely he gets a Critical Hit or an Attack boost from Meteor Mash sooner or later, which is why Earthquake can be used in the fourth slot. Use it to absorb the Sleep from Grasses and from Jynx who usually have no real threatening move for Forretress without setting up (except the occasional Hidden Power Fire and Breloom's Focus Punch).
Forretress has a lot of useful resistances in ubers, including Psychic, Ice, and Dragon, as well as Toxic. Hidden Power Bug will 2HKO Latias, Latios, Mewtwo, and the like, and will OHKO Deoxys-A. You can set up Spikes, and use Rapid Spin to get rid of Spikes set up by enemy Forretress and Deoxys-D. Counter lets you take a hit from the likes of Rayquaza, Groudon, or the rare Heracross and OHKO it back. It also helps against physical Tyranitar. Hidden Power is also always countered, regardless of its type, so if you encounter a Hidden Power Fire Forretress, you can take the hit, survive with the Special Defense EVs (enemy Forretress needs near max Special Attack and Sunlight to OHKO this Forretress spread), and OHKO it back, leaving the way clear for your Spikes to dominate. The given EVs will always survive a +1 Special Attack Deoxys-A Thunder, so you're safe from anything but the rare Fire Punch on that end. Other OptionsZap Cannon can paralyze stuff like Skarmory, Gengar, Gyarados, Salamence, or Cloyster. Heracross likes to absorb this and get a boost with Guts sometimes, though. Reflect and Light Screen work great for pseudo passing, Light Screen especially, since most people will switch in a special Pokémon, and this way you can survive a Magneton Hidden Power Fire and OHKO it with Earthquake. Toxic is a decent choice on Forretress as it stops Dusclops from repeatedly blocking your Rapid Spin and it gives him something to do against Cloyster as well. Forretress survives even +6 attack stuff from Snorlax for the OHKO with Counter. Hidden Power Flying suddenly lets Forretress take on Heracross, and Breloom somewhat. Protect gets you extra Leftovers recovery, but more importantly, allows you to scout for Fire moves on Snorlax, Salamence, check for Water moves on Swampert, etc. Hidden Power Steel provides STAB and is this thing's best option of hitting Gengar somewhat hard, unless you're into Hidden Power Ghost, which won't do anything to Tyranitar. EVsMaxed HP and around 400 Defense (192 EVs) with a +Defense nature. You'll usually want Impish, but obviously change to Bold if you're using Zap Cannon as your only attack, or Relaxed if you're using both a physical attack and Zap Cannon. Forretress using Hidden Power Bug can use some Special Defense EVs to take on Celebi, or it can build up some Attack to actually put a hurting. OpinionForretress has an easy time setting up Spikes, making it a good choice on standard teams. It can also Rapid Spin, which is always a plus. However, it has one really, really big problem: its offense blows. It has to resort to type advantages from Hidden Power Bug and Earthquake, status from Zap Cannon or Toxic, or just plain Exploding to be any sort of threat. While it makes a great guard with its excellent resistances, Forretress is easily rendered useless by a lot of things with a set-up move. In addition, it is rivaled as a brick wall by Skarmory, who has a lot of advantages over him. First and foremost, Skarmory can abuse Whirlwind or Roar to enforce its Spikes by itself, giving it a lead in offense, and making it a lot harder to set up on. It also gets a STAB Drill Peck or Hidden Power Flying, which can actually keep Gyarados and Heracross at bay. Forretress can barely touch them without Explosion or things like Hidden Power or Zap Cannon. Skarmory is immune to Earthquake and has a quadruple Megahorn resistance, Forretress is neutral to the former and only a 2x resistance to Megahorn. Skarmory also resists Flying. Therefore, Skarmory fares better against a load of physical heavy-hitters. Forretress has the slight advantage of having only weakness (to Fire), as opposed to Skarmory's Fire and Electric weakness. However, Forretress is going to get OHKOed by any Fire move under the sun because his weakness to Fire is 4x, while Skarmory will usually live through one unforeseen Thunderbolt or Flamethrower. So basically, if you want Spikes and Rapid Spin on your team, or need something that resists Metagross and can actually hurt it, Forretress is your friend. As long as you know where it shines (walling and utility) and where it sucks (stopping set-ups and taking Special hits), it is a welcome addition to your team. CountersThe best counter in the game is Gengar, because it is immune to Rapid Spin and packs Special attacks from a 130 base Special Attack. Any Ghost blocks Rapid Spin and thereby ruins a huge part of Forretress' usefulness. Rapid Spinners are another thing Forretress has a hard time with. Claydol is immune to Earthquake, Zap Cannon and Spikes, but it is weak to Hidden Power Bug and hates Toxic. Donphan isn't scared of anything but Toxic and Starmie is even more annoying, shrugging off everything but Hidden Power Bug with Recover and threatening with STAB Surfs. Gyarados can Taunt, allowing it to set up Dragon Dances for a free sweep. Counter and Zap Cannon stop that from happening though. Salamence cannot Taunt, so you can Spike up on it, however it often packs Fire Blast or Flamethrower. Forretress isn't going to beat Heracross without using Hidden Power Flying. If you're lucky, it is a Choice Band Heracross, and you can just Spike a bit or use Counter. If you're out of luck, you run into one with Swords Dance or Substitute, and you will probably have to sacrifice something to make up for Forretress' lack of offense. Magneton can trap Forretress, but is unable to OHKO without Hidden Power Fire, which is rare. A weakened Forretress is going to die to Thunderbolt (Thunderbolt will usually do at least 65%, but depends on the EVs of both Pokémon), but if Magneton fails to OHKO Forretress, it risks eating an Earthquake. Besides all this, Forretress cannot take Special hits at all. Any semi-decent Fire attack OHKOs it, any decent neutral Special Attack is at least a 3HKO. Therefore, heavy Special hitters like Zapdos give Forretress a run for his money. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
