[SET]
Clear Amulet (Arcanine-Hisui) @ Clear Amulet
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Tera Type: Water / Ghost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- Extreme Speed
- Protect
[SET COMMENTS]
- With great Attack and decent Speed, good utility in Intimidate, and unique Fire/Rock typing, Hisuian Arcanine can be a solid offensive pick for teams, threatening metagame staples such as Rillaboom, Gholdengo, Incineroar, and Dragonite.
- Flare Blitz is Hisuian Arcanine's best STAB attack, threatening massive damage on Grass- and Steel-types like Amoonguss, Whimsicott, and Kingambit, while Rock Slide provides spread damage and a way to damage Incineroar, Torkoal, and Dragonite. Extreme Speed gives Hisuian Arcanine priority, which picks off weakened foes. Extreme Speed also goes before most forms of priority like Grassy Glide and Sucker Punch, allowing it to finish off Rillaboom and Kingambit.
- Clear Amulet prevents Attack drops from Intimidate and Parting Shot, as well as Icy Wind Speed drops from Alolan Ninetales.
- Tera Water grants Hisuian Arcanine Water- and Steel-type resistances against Pelipper, Basculegion-M, and Gholdengo, as well as neutrality to Fighting- and Ground- type attacks like Close Combat, Drain Punch, Earth Power, and Headlong Rush. Tera Water does grant new weaknesses to Grass-type attacks from Rillaboom and Hisuian Lilligant, and Electro Shot from Archaludon.
- Tera Ghost grants a immunity to Hisuian Arcanine's previous weakness to Fighting-type Attacks from Sneasler, Annilhilape, and Kommo-o, as well as a Fake Out immunity from the likes of Incineroar, Rillaboom, and Sneasler. Tera Ghost does make Hisuian Arcanine weak to Gholdengo's Shadow Ball and Annihilape's Rage Fist, as well as Dark-type attacks like Knock Off or Kowtow Cleave from Incineroar and Kingambit. Incineroar's Knock Off also removes Hisuian Arcanine's Clear Amulet, no longer having a favourable matchup against Incineroar.
- Hisuian Arcanine has an advantage over Incineroar, another option for a Fire-type with Intimidate, for having a much larger offensive presence, able to actually threaten an OHKO on Pokemon like Volcarona, and having access to better priority via Extreme Speed.
- Exploitable typing and subpar bulk means Hisuian Arcanine isn't able to switch around often to take advantage of Intimidate. It also can't damage the most of the Water-, Ground-, and Fighting-types that roam the metagame, while also having undesirable speed ties against Annihilape and Flamigo.
Mirror Herb (Arcanine-Hisui) @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
Tera Type: Fairy
EVs: 180 HP / 44 Atk / 12 Def / 20 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat
- Protect
[SET COMMENTS]
- Mirror Herb can take advantage of boosts from Kingambit and Annihilape and can threaten both for massive damage, as well as other set up sweepers like Sneasler, Volcarona, and Dragonite.
- Close Combat threatens the likes of Kingambit and Incineroar much more effectively, and can also deal solid chunks of damage against the Ursaluna formes and Archaludon.
- Tera Fairy can be used to resist Dark- and Fighting-type moves, which can be helpful against Kingambit's Sucker Punch and Sneasler's Close Combat. Tera Fairy Hisuian Arcanine needs to be wary of Gholdengo's Make It Rain if Gholdengo can gain the speed advantage.
- The spread has enough investment to live +1 Sucker Punch from Black Glasses Kingambit, while still having enough Speed to outspeed maximum Archaludon, Gholdengo, and Basculegion-M.
- Unlike Clear Amulet, Mirror Herb Hisuian Arcanine can be more flexible and act more recklessly with less worry of Defiant or set up moves, while also having a way to damage Ursaluna-B and Archaludon which would otherwise wall Hisuian Arcanine if it used Extreme Speed instead.
- This set has a worse matchup into Incineroar with the loss of Clear Amulet, making it more vulnerable to Intimidate and Parting Shot cycling and other stat drops without Clear Amulet. The loss of priority also hurts Hisuian Arcanine's speed and presence on the field, being much more manageable.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Teambuilding
============
- Clear Amulet Hisuian Arcanine shines on teams that lean towards offense, featuring Coaching and a reliable form of speed control to make up for its average Speed, while Mirror Herb sets prefers to be on teams that appreciate Mirror Herb Hisuian Arcanine's ability to remove Kingambit and potentially Annihilape.
- Dragonite and Sneasler are incredible partners for Hisuian Arcanine, especially Clear Amulet sets, with Dragonite supporting it with Tailwind while having key resistances to Grass-, Water-, and Fighting-type attacks and an immunity to Ground-type attacks, while Sneasler provides Coaching boosts for Hisuian Arcanine, which can become incredibly problematic for teams to handle after one or two Coaching boosts.
- Alolan Ninetales is also a good partner for Hisuian Arcanine, providing speed control via Icy Wind and removing the Ursaluna formes with Blizzard, and in return Hisuian Arcanine can threaten huge damage to Alolan Ninetales's checks such as Incineroar, Gholdengo, and Kingambit.
- Rillaboom also has good synergy with Hisuian Arcanine, able to super-effectively hit the Water- and Ground-types that give Hisuian Arcanine a hard time with Wood Hammer, Grassy Glide, and Drum Beating. Rillaboom also packs Fake Out support, and potentially U-turn to help get Hisuian Arcanine onto the field and activate Intimidate. Intimidate can also help Rillaboom stick around a lot longer throughout the game, allowing it to live Ursaluna's Guts boosted Facade and Baxcalibur's 5 hit Icicle Spear.
- Nasty Plot Gholdengo can be a solid pick to pair with Mirror Herb sets, as it appreciates Hisuian Arcanine's ability to remove its common checks, Kingambit, Volcarona, and opposing Gholdengo, which threaten with winning the speed tie and dealing massive damage with Shadow Ball.
Strategy Comments
============
- Hisuian Arcanine's main role on teams is to function as a decently fast burst damage attacker, while providing some utility with Intimidate. It works best early-game, weakening and removing threats on the opposing side for its other teammates like Gholdengo, Sneasler, and Dragonite to clean up, or can be sent out late-game where the opposing teams has been weakened enough for Hisuian Arcanine to pick off with Rock Slide or Extreme Speed. Clear Amulet Hisuian Arcanine is a great tool against balance compositions with Incineroar, Rillaboom, and Dragonite, while Mirror Herb Hisuian Arcanine is incredibly useful for teams that have a hard time handling teams that use Kingambit and set up sweepers like Unburden Sneasler and Annihilape as their winning pieces.
- Hisuian Arcanine likes applying immediate pressure with Intimidate and its STAB moves for its other teammates, threatening common leads composing of Rillaboom, Incineroar, Gholdengo, or Volcarona. It can also sweep with Coaching support from Sneasler, and appreciating Sneasler and Rillaboom being able to weaken or remove Ursaluna-B, Basculegion-M, and Archaludon for an easier clean up or sweep.
- Water- and Ground-types can give Hisuian Arcanine a hard time, due to not having any way to threaten reliable damage, especially Ursaluna-B. Hisuian Arcanine also doesnt appreciate rain compositions, weakening its Flare Blitz and always using Basculegion-M to revenge kill and Archaludon to sponge any attacks Hisuian Arcanine throws at it. Using Hisuian Arcanine with teammates that help against these problems are recommended, such as Rillaboom to remove and deter the use of Water- and Ground-types with its STAB moves, and Annihilape and Sneasler can reliably threaten Archaludon.
- Faster threats like Sneasler, Choice Scarf Basculegion-M, and Hisuian Lilligant can outspeed and cleanly OHKO Hisuian Arcanine with their STAB moves, while Annihilape and Flamigo have the chance to win the speed tie and can also OHKO Hisuian Arcanine, so it is worth using Hisuian Arcanine with speed control like Tailwind from Dragonite to outspeed the aforementioned checks.
- Teams that center around Trick Room and feature Psyspam cores and strong Trick Room sweepers like Torkoal and Ursaluna also cause problems, underspeeding and OHKOing Hisuian Arcanine with their strong attacks. The user can stall Trick Room turns until it expires by positioning Rillaboom for Fake Out and Hisuian Arcanine's Protect. Rillaboom also replaces Indeedee's Psychic Terrain with Grassy Terrain, threatening Grassy Glide on Ursaluna and a weakened Hatterene, and also allows Hisuian Arcanine to use Extreme Speed.
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