[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 a good offensive tpying in Fire/Rock, 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, avoids redirection, and hits Incineroar, Volcarona, and Dragonite. Extreme Speed lets Hisuian Arcanine pickoff weakened foes and goes before most forms of priority like Grassy Glide and Sucker Punch, allowing it to finish off Rillaboom and Kingambit. Extreme Speed can also outprioritize and evade redirection from Amoonguss's Rage Powder.
- Clear Amulet prevents Attack drops from Intimidate and Parting Shot from Incineroar and opposing Hisuian Arcanine, though Incineroar can remove Hisuian Arcanine's Clear Amulet via Knock Off. Clear Amulet also blocks other stat drops such as Speed drops from Alolan Ninetales's Icy Wind.
- Tera Water grants Hisuian Arcanine Water and Steel resistances against Pelipper, Basculegion-M, and Gholdengoas well as a neutrality to Fighting- and Ground- type attacks like Close Combat, Drain Punch, Earth Power, and Headlong Rush from Sneasler, Annihilape, and both Ursaluna formes. Tera Water does make Hisuian Arcanine weak to Grass-type attacks from Rillaboom and Electro Shot from Archaludon.
- Tera Ghost grants an immunity to Fighting-type attacks from Sneasler and Annilhilape as well as an immunity to Fake Out 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. Some Sneasler sets also utilize Tera Dark with Throat Chop, hitting Tera Ghost Hisuian Arcanine super effectively.
- Hisuian Arcanine has advantages over Incineroar, another option for a Fire-type with Intimidate, in its much larger offensive presence, being able to actually threaten an OHKO on Pokemon like Volcarona, and access to strong priority in Extreme Speed.
- Hisuian Arcanine's exploitable typing and subpar bulk against common checks like Sneasler, Archaludon, and Basculegion means it isn't able to switch around often to take advantage of Intimidate. It also can't damage most of the Water-, Ground-, and Fighting-types that roam the metagame while also Speed tying against Annihilape and being outsped by Sneasler, Garchomp, and boosted Dondozo.
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 lets Hisuian Arcanine take advantage of Attack boosts from Swords Dance Kingambit, Swords Dance Sneasler, and Bulk Up Annihilape and remove them with boosted Flare Blitz. It can gain Speed boosts from other setup sweepers like Quiver Dance Volcarona and Scale Shot 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 Let Hisuian Arcanine resist Dark- and Fighting-type moves, which can be helpful against Kingambit's Sucker Punch and Sneasler's Close Combat. Tera Fairy also grants an immunity to Dragon-type moves, mainly Dragonite's Scale Shot, and a neutrality to Ground-type moves from the Ursaluna formes. Tera Fairy Hisuian Arcanine needs to be wary of Sneasler's Dire Claw and Gholdengo's Make It Rain.
- The EV spread has enough investment to let Hisuian Arcanine survive +1 Sucker Punch from Black Glasses Kingambit while still having enough Speed to outspeed maximum Speed Archaludon, Gholdengo, and Basculegion-M. The rest of the EVs are put into Attack.
- Mirror Herb Hisuian Arcanine can be more flexible and act more recklessly with less worry of Defiant or setup moves while also having a way to damage both Ursaluna formes and Archaludon, which would otherwise more heavily trouble it.
- This set has a worse matchup against Incineroar with the loss of Clear Amulet, making it more vulnerable to Intimidate and Parting Shot cycling as well as other stat drops. The loss of priority also hurts Hisuian Arcanine's presence on the field, losing the ability to finish off weakened foes.
[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 the Mirror Herb set prefers to be on teams that appreciate its ability to remove Kingambit and potentially Annihilape.
- Dragonite and Sneasler are incredible partners for Hisuian Arcanine, especially Clear Amulet sets. Dragonite supports it with Tailwind while having key resistances to Grass-, Water-, and Fighting-type attacks and an immunity to Ground-type attacks, with Scale Shot to remove Focus Sash Sneasler. Sneasler threatens and removes both Ursaluna formes and Archaludon while providing Coaching boosts for Hisuian Arcanine, which can become incredibly problematic for teams to handle after one or two boosts.
- Rillaboom also has good synergy with Hisuian Arcanine, being able to super effectively hit the Water- and Ground-types like both Ursaluna formes and Dondozo that give Hisuian Arcanine a hard time. Rillaboom can pin Dondozo, forcing it to either Terastallize into the Grass typing and take good chunks of damage from Flare Blitz or not Terastallize and take massive damage from Rillaboom's attacks. Rillaboom also packs Fake Out support and potentially U-turn to help get Hisuian Arcanine onto the field safely and activate Intimidate. Intimidate can help Rillaboom stick around a lot longer throughout the game, allowing it to survive Ursaluna's Guts-boosted Facade and Baxcalibur's five-hit Icicle Spear.
- Alolan Ninetales is also a good partner for Hisuian Arcanine, providing speed control via Icy Wind and removing the Ursaluna formes with Blizzard In return, Hisuian Arcanine can threaten huge damage to Alolan Ninetales's checks, such as Incineroar, Gholdengo, and Kingambit.
- 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 and both Ursaluna formes,with Close Combat, as well as Volcarona and opposing Gholdengo.
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, but can be sent out late-game where the opposing team has been weakened enough for Hisuian Arcanine to pick off foes 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 have common setup sweepers.
- Hisuian Arcanine can apply immediate pressure with Intimidate and its STAB moves for its other teammates, threatening common leads such as Rillaboom, Incineroar, Gholdengo, and Volcarona. It can also sweep with Coaching support from Sneasler, and it appreciates Sneasler and Rillaboom being able to weaken or remove both Ursaluna formes, Basculegion-M, and Archaludon for an easier cleanup or sweep.
- Water- and Ground-types can give Hisuian Arcanine a hard time due to it not having any way to threaten reliable damage against them, especially both Ursaluna formes. Hisuian Arcanine also doesn't appreciate rain compositions, which weaken its Flare Blitz and always use Basculegion-M to revenge kill it and Archaludon to sponge its attacks. Using Hisuian Arcanine with teammates that help against these problems is recommended; Rillaboom can remove and deter the use of Water- and Ground-types with its STAB moves, while Annihilape and Sneasler can reliably threaten Archaludon.
- Faster threats like Sneasler, Choice Scarf Basculegion-M, and boosted Dondozo can outspeed and cleanly OHKO Hisuian Arcanine with their STAB moves, while Annihilape and Flamigo have a 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 and redirection support from Amoonguss or Indeedee-F.
- Teams that center around Trick Room and feature Psychic-type spam cores and strong Trick Room sweepers like Torkoal and Ursaluna also cause problems, underspeeding Hisuian Arcanine in Trick Room and OHKOing it with their strong attacks. The user can stall Trick Room turns until it expires by positioning Rillaboom for Fake Out and using Hisuian Arcanine's Protect. Both Dragonite and Hisuian Arcanine take Eruption from Torkoal well and can fire back with Scale Shot and Rock Slide, respectively. Rillaboom replaces Indeedee's Psychic Terrain with Grassy Terrain, threatening Grassy Glide on Ursaluna and a weakened Hatterene and also allowing Hisuian Arcanine to use Extreme Speed.
[CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/forkuser.625105/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/rausakura.589964/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/pengu.650323/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ethanlac.391343/
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