Pokémon Entei

[Dreadfury]

Fire

115 HP / 115 Atk / 85 Def / 90 SpA / 75 SpD / 100 Spe

Inner Focus/Pressure (HA)

Notable Moves

Crunch
Stomping Tantrum
Sacred Fire
Flare Blitz
Extreme Speed
Stone Edge
Iron Head
oh god this thing's physical movepool sucks

Pros:

- Entei's great natural bulk offsets its often-awkward defensive typing.
- Being a physically-offensive Fire type is somewhat of a boon by granting Entei an immunity to the Burn status that would cripple all other physical attackers.
- Entei has access to the truly-excellent Sacred Fire, giving it a powerful, spammable, and highly-punishing STAB attack with virtually zero drawbacks barring having slightly less-than-perfect accuracy and limited PP.
- Entei's Flare Blitz is strong and Entei has the high base HP stat to slightly offset its high recoil damage.
- Entei has access to powerful priority in Extreme Speed to give it a decent matchup against offensive teams.
- Entei has passable coverage options in Crunch, Stone Edge, Iron Head, and Stomping Tantrum to attempt to break past Fire-resistant targets.
- While it still prefers the default Adamant Nature it used to run to be able to use both Extreme Speed and Flare Blitz legally in many cases, Entei can now legally run a Jolly nature alongside these moves if one of the three people actually using this thing on a serious OU team opts to prioritize Speed over sheer power.

Cons:

- Entei's defensive typing leaves a LOT to be desired, and it can't afford to run Heavy-Duty Boots more often than not as it sorely misses the power from Choice Band.
- Entei is a victim of several generations' worth of power creep; its Speed and Attack stats are by no means bad, but it can't hold a candle to more modern-day wallbreakers. It doesn't hit as hard and just isn't as fast as its extremely stiff competition as a fast wallbreaker.
- Entei invites in bulky, hard-hitting Ground types, although both are very hampered by Sacred Fire's burn chance.
- Entei's movepool is passable, but that's about it. Its coverage options barring Stone Edge are all laughably weak more often than not.
- Having powerful priority isn't quite as uncommon as it once was; Entei is far from the only viable user of Extreme Speed in OU.
- Entei recently gained access to an incredible move in Scorching Sands and has excellent moves in Eruption, Shadow Ball, and Extrasensory to go with it, but its Special Attack stat is just too low to viably run any sort of specially offensive set over Heatran, which hits much harder and has a much better defensive typing and Ability.

Potential Set:

Just Use Cinderace (Choice Band)
Entei @ Choice Band
Shiny: Yes
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant / Jolly Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge / Stomping Tantrum
- Flare Blitz

This is the only thing Entei can do that even remotely resembles an OU-viable set, and is carried largely by Sacred Fire and Extreme Speed both being incredible moves. Sacred Fire hits hard and has a very high chance to burn would-be switchins unless they are outright immune to the status effect or the move itself. Flare Blitz hits even harder than Sacred Fire but has high recoil and cuts into Entei's bulk as a result, and only has a 10% Burn chance. Extreme Speed hits rather hard and can give weakened offensive teams a headache. Stone Edge hits Water-type staples of Rain teams harder than anything else Entei learns most of the time, while Stomping Tantrum KOs Heatran and almost always 2HKOs Toxapex after Stealth Rock.

Commentary:

Well, this was something that had a thread reservation open. Entei isn't exactly bad in a vacuum, but the OU tier sets an extremely high bar for what a "good" wallbreaker or revenge killer should be. Entei unfortunately isn't quite up to par with the power level that defines OU in today's day and age, and is much, much worse than the likes of Cinderace and Blaziken as offensive Fire-type wallbreakers or Genesect and Zygarde as Extreme Speed-using revenge killers.

Don't use this in OU please. But if anyone else managed to figure out something this thing is able to do that isn't horribly outclassed by something else, I'm all ears.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I'd say Inner Focus is better than Pressure. Pressure may be an amazing ability on defensive mons, but on a physical offensive mon, ignoring Intimidate is very nice.

 

[Dreadfury]

I'd say Inner Focus is better than Pressure. Pressure may be an amazing ability on defensive mons, but on a physical offensive mon, ignoring Intimidate is very nice.

Edited to reflect this.

 

[Martin]

I don’t think Flare Blitz serves much of a purpose with the Inner Focus buff. You might as well maximise you coverage to help wallbreak more effectively versus Heatran, Pex, Moltres, Pelipper, Rotom-H, etc.

 

[astroshagger]

I don’t think Flare Blitz serves much of a purpose with the Inner Focus buff. You might as well maximise you coverage to help wallbreak more effectively versus Heatran, Pex, Moltres, Pelipper, Rotom-H, etc.

Can you elaborate? How does Inner Focus blocking intimidate make flare blitz more obsolete?

 

[Katy]

Can you elaborate? How does Inner Focus blocking intimidate make flare blitz more obsolete?

in the new gen, inner focus blocks intimidate entirely, making it, so that entei isnt at a neutral stage after, when a pokemon with intimidate such as krookodile, arcanine or landorus-therian enters the field.

 

[astroshagger]

in the new gen, inner focus blocks intimidate entirely, making it, so that entei isnt at a neutral stage after, when a pokemon with intimidate such as krookodile, arcanine or landorus-therian enters the field.

Yes, I know that, which is why my first post alluded to that fact. My question was no about what the Inner Focus buff did, but rather why that is relevant to using Flare Blitz on Entei

 

[Martin]

Can you elaborate? How does Inner Focus blocking intimidate make flare blitz more obsolete?

Sacred Fire 2HKOs PhysDef Lando now. There might be some other KO it nets, but 2HKOing PhysDef Lando after two rounds of SR (or faster phat lando variants/helmet sets after one) was always one of the bigger ones. It’s not totally obsolete or anything, as it is still stronger/100% accurate, just I think coverage is more useful in a meta like this.

 

[Hematemesis]

They're basically saying that Entei doesn't need to run flare blitz anymore because sacred fire has the burn chance and still does good enough damage to not need flare blitz. Since you can't be intimidated anymore, needing flare blitz for the damage isn't as important is basically what people are saying. Entei seems to be a pretty fringe OU option as it struggles to separate from its fire contemporary Blaziken, so as much coverage as possible is healthy for it. Hope this helps.

 

[Cuddly]

A slight error, but Entei’s HA is Inner Focus, not Pressure.
Also pretty unfortunate that Entei doesn’t get reliable recovery, as it could have ran a pretty sweet Burn everything set.
Entei @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Scorching Sands
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
Like so thid, but in an alternate timeline or future it has Morning Sun or Recover.

 

[Empress Mobile]

I would honestly run Bulldoze over Flare Blitz. It wrecks Heatran and puts whatever switched in at -1, preventing Entei from surrendering momentum. I think the comments of it being horribly outclassed are a bit harsh. Once all of the broken stuff is banned, namely Blaziken, I wouldn't be surprised to see some niche OU play for it. Sacred Fire burns will discourage a number of otherwise easy switch ins like Tyranitar, Azumarill, Hippowdon, Quagsire, Rhyperior, Garchomp, Landorus-T, etc.

 

[Cuddly]

I would honestly run Bulldoze over Flare Blitz. It wrecks Heatran and puts whatever switched in at -1, preventing Entei from surrendering momentum. I think the comments of it being horribly outclassed are a bit harsh. Once all of the broken stuff is banned, namely Blaziken, I wouldn't be surprised to see some niche OU play for it. Sacred Fire burns will discourage a number of otherwise easy switch ins like Tyranitar, Azumarill, Hippowdon, Quagsire, Rhyperior, Garchomp, Landorus-T, etc.

Well it’s currently outclassed by Cinderace as the physically offensive Fire type.
I think Entei has potential to be more supportive, by spreading around burns.
It will be extremely Niche at this without a proper healing move.

 

[nameless90]

Entei's niche over Arcanine is the combination of Inner Focus+100 base Spe (instead of 95)+Sacred Fire that prevents careless switch-ins of physical attackers. I don't know if this things make Entei better than Arcanine, though.
Maybe a set like this one can be used as a niche set although you miss a lot of power without Choice Band + Inner Focus.

Entei @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Shiny: Yes
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Sacred Fire
- Extreme Speed
- Stone Edge / Stomping Tantrum or Bulldoze
- Will-O-Wisp

Here we have an attacker with Sacred Fire that prevents switch-ins + priority + a third coverage move.
Will-O-Wisp is here to spread burns with 85% accuracy when you really need it. Maybe Entei con work as a burn-spreading pivot...but it doesn't have U-turn to work with.

 

[PlusC]

Seconding Bulldoze over Stomping Tantrum, because almost everything you want to hit with Ground coverage that's faster than you is slower at - 1 (barring ScarfCinder and Regileki) and everything that was slower is still thrashed (Heatran basically).

 

[Deck Knight]

Entei is differentiated by its combination of attack-reduction resistance and strong priority. The best set is Inner Focus Jolly with Sacred Fire / Extreme Speed / Stone Edge / [Bulldoze / Stomping Tantrum] and either Life Orb or Heavy-Duty Boots. Entei can't afford being locked into a move and Fire is solid enough of a defensive typing on pivot that HDB is worth it.

This combination lets you outspeed Lando-T, KyuB, Moltres, Hydreigon, and Urshifu, tie with Zappy/G-Zappy/unboosted Volc, and generally just enables you to use the characteristics Entei does have over Arcanine.

If you just want strong Extreme Speed and burst damage. Run Band Arcanine Flare Blitz, Wild Charge, and Close Combat. Entei's strength is these four specific moves in combination to threaten / pressure the entire subset of physically biased Intimidate Pokemon that don't want to deal with the threat of Burn + Stone Edge. Stomping Tantrum keeps Heatran away and provides a decent neutral option against opposing Fire types and Ground-weak Pokemon.

I think the general tone of the analysis is way too negative. Cinderace is a better offensive fire type generally because of Libero, but Entei is significantly more bulky. Extreme Speed can't be played around to the extent Sucker Punch can be. Entei hits a different set of targets, and it isn't susceptible to Intimidate checking it or wearing it down. Once Entei is in it should be threatening a burn followed by a coverage move.

 

[RedxThree]

Entei is niche, but not at all outclassed. Banded Sacred Fire is a no-drawback play early game because of its solid damage, high burn chance and it’s a non-contact physical move. Ground-types are abundant rn and it cripples tanks like Lando-T, Swampert, Hippo and Rhyperior as well as TTar, while easy resists like DNite, Azu, Zygarde and Chomp fear the burn even more. Spreading burns can also help net some cheeky KOs: Mandibuzz is 2HKO’d by Sacred Fire after burn, Torkoal by Stone Edge and as is the aforementioned Toxapex by Stomping Tantrum after burn and SR, while mons like Hex Dragapult and Spectrier would also appreciate the status spread for late game cleaning. It’s been used to some success in sun in previous gens as well, but that level of power isn’t getting many notable 2HKOs outside of Tapu Fini after SR or an outside shot at defensive Kommo-o.

Extreme Speed also helps it pick off weakened mons late game, screws Sucker Punch and other priority and keeps it relevant vs offense overall. Flare Blitz doesn’t sound like a worthwhile option since it Entei needs both coverage moves and it adds recoil to a SR-weak mon when Sacred Fire already bypasses helmet and Rough Skin/Iron Barbs damage and offers additional chip damage with burns.