Ferrothorn

[Magicxgame]

Overview
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• Has high defenses
• Great defensive typing, with nine resistances and one immunity
• Hits surprisingly hard for a wall, with Gyro Ball and Power Whip off of 95 base Attack
• Can OHKO the most common wall, Rotom-W, if it avoids a burn
  
• Doesn't have to worry about some VGC13 Fighters, such as Terrakion, Breloom, and Hitmontop
  
• Type changes are a mixed bag: it's immune to Sleep Powder/Spore and hits Fairies super-effectively with Gyro Ball, but lost its Ghost and Dark resistances
• Has a horrible Fire weakness. It doesn't help that Charizard Y and Talonflame are everywhere.
• Slow as hell
• Mediocre HP slightly undermines its defenses
  
• Has competition as a bulky Steel-type from Mega Mawile, and as a bulky Grass-type from Amoonguss and Gourgeist

Standard
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name: Standard
move 1: Power Whip
move 2: Gyro Ball / Thunder Wave / Substitute
move 3: Leech Seed
move 4: Protect
ability: Iron Barbs
item: Lum Berry
evs: 252 HP / 204 Atk / 52 SDef
IVs: 0 Spe
nature: Brave

Moves
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-Power Whip is STAB, OHKOs standard Rotom-W and has a beastly 120 base power
-Gyro Ball is alternate STAB, and is also powerful thanks to Ferrothorn's pathetic Speed, but has unimpressive coverage
-Thunder Wave cripples faster sweepers
-Substitute is solid, since its resistances give it opportunities to set one up and it can annoy with SubSeed (even though it's not as good as in Singles)
-Leech Seed saps opposing Pokemon and restores HP, and Ferrothorn can find opportunities to use it
-Protect is Protect

Set Details
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-Max HP to cover its mediocre 74 base HP
-204 Atk EVs and a Brave nature allow it to OHKO 252 HP / 44 Def neutral Rotom-W with Power Whip
-52 SpDef EVs cover its weaker Special Defense
-0 Speed IV to maximize Gyro Ball's power, and underspeed othr Pokemon in Trick Room
-Iron Barbs to discourage physical attackers, especially Mega Khan
-Lum Berry prevents it from being burned by Rotom-W. It's also useful for taking Smeargle's Dark Void.
-Sitrus Berry and Leftovers provide additional healing
-Could also consider Sassy and a more defensive spread, or Adamant with a 31 Speed IV for more Speed if Gyro Ball isn't used.

Usage Tips
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-Send it out on one of its many resistances, such as a Choice-locked Draco Meteor
-Throw out Leech Seed first, since Ferrothorn's STABs are easily walled and it lacks recovery. However, if it still has its Lum Berry and the opponent has Rotom-W out, go for the KO instead.
-Try to save it for a "checkmate" situation in the late game, since Ferrothorn's resistances can make it surprisingly hard to get around

Team Options
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-Ferrothorn appreciates teammates that cover its horrible Fire weakness
-Salamence and Gyarados provide Intimidate and have good defensive synergy
-Dragons such as Garchomp appreciate Ferrothorn's Dragon and Fairy resistances, though Ferrothorn takes neutral damage from Ice attacks
-Talonflame and Ferrothorn cover each other's weaknesses, while Talonflame smites Fighting-types with priority Brave Bird
-Politoed resists Fire and weakens power of Fire attacks with Drizzle, while Ferrothorn resists its weaknesses
-Rotom-W covers Fire weakness and spreads around burns to soften up physical attackers
-Trick Room compensates for low Speed. Flash Fire Chandelure gets a special mention for being immune to both of Ferrothorn's weaknesses.


Other Options
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-Rocky Helmet stacks with Iron Barbs, but Ferrothorn prefers a defensive item
-Iron Head is an alternate Steel STAB with a consistent base power, and can provide flinches with paralysis or Trick Room support. However, Gyro Ball is more powerful unless it's being used on other slow targets.
-Seed Bomb is more accurate than Power Whip, but has a noticeable drop in power
-Payback and Shadow Claw hit certain Ghost-types such as Chandelure, Gourgeist, and Trevenant, but they outpace and OHKO Ferrothorn (Chandelure) or avoid the 2HKO and can burn it twice (others)
-ChestoRest to provide additional recovery and heal off a burn, but space is an issue


Checks & Counters
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-Super-effective moves: Fire-types are the main culprit: Talonflame, Mega Charizard Y, Rotom-H, and Chandelure all outspeed and OHKO it. The occasional Fighting-type such as Conkeldurr or Machamp are also problematic, though physical Fighters don't like Iron Barbs.
-Other Steel-types: Ferrothorn can't do a lot to them. Aegislash can set up a Substitute and start throwing Shadow Balls, while Mawile can get a free switch-in and spread Intimidate or use the odd Fire Fang.
-Intimidate: Salamence, Scrafty, and Mega Manectric lower Ferrothorn's Attack and can hit it with a super-effective move
-Burns: Gourgeist and Trevenant are immune to Leech Seed, have high Defense, and can just burn Ferrothorn twice and chip away with Phantom Force

 

[Martin]

I feel that Ferrothorn is too slow to use Substitute effectively in this fast paced metagame, so I'd leave it for OO. Your point about SubSeed is moot as it isn't good on Ferrothorn even in singles as it is way to slow to use properly.

Occa Berry is very good on this thing, letting you survive Fire-type coverage moves such as Tyranitar's Fire Blast with ease, and even some STAB ones such as Life Orb Talonflame's Flare Blitz, which then completely murders it with recoil + Iron Barbs damage.

 

[Laurel]

Bumping this - this looks QC ready Magicxgame

Add in usage tips that ferrothorn knows what it walls and knows what it can't, which makes it really easy to use. e.g.: can't wall tyranitar mence noivern zards or talonflame, but it walls almost everything else. I'd also move Gourgeist and Trevenant to the top of the counter list because they are hard hard counters. Can't be leeched and have low speed so gyro + power whip does nothing.

 

[bwebber]

Bumping this - this looks QC ready Magicxgame

Add in usage tips that ferrothorn knows what it walls and knows what it can't, which makes it really easy to use. e.g.: can't wall tyranitar mence noivern zards or talonflame, but it walls almost everything else. I'd also move Gourgeist and Trevenant to the top of the counter list because they are hard hard counters. Can't be leeched and have low speed so gyro + power whip does nothing.

Ferrothorn walls physical Tyranitar (DD variants, especially mega)

 

[Laurel]

Ferrothorn walls physical Tyranitar (DD variants, especially mega)

Much more run special sets with like dark pulse ice beam fire blast then DD in personal experience.

 

[Laurel]

Magicxgame Do you have any desire to finish this? o:

 

[skies]

Laurel TheMantyke May I take this over ;_;? I've recently been getting into VGC and would like to try my first VGC analysis n_n.

 

[Laurel]

yes unfixable go for it.