Iron Boulder
HP: 90
Atk: 120
Def: 80
SpA: 68
SpD: 108
Spe: 124
BST: 590
Ability: Quark Drive
Signature Move: Mighty Cleave - 95 BP, 100 Acc, Physical Rock Move - Hits through Protect
Notable Moves:
Agility
Close Combat
Earthquake
Iron Head
Megahorn
Mighty Cleave
Poison Jab
Psycho Cut
Stone Edge
Swords Dance
Taunt
Tera Blast
Throat Chop
Zen Headbutt
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Aerial Ace
Body Slam
Brick Break
Bulldoze
Close Combat
Counter
Double-Edge
Earthquake
Facade
Giga Impact
Horn Attack
Iron Head
Megahorn
Mighty Cleave
Poison Jab
Psycho Cut
Quick Attack
Rock Blast
Rock Throw
Rock Tomb
Rock Tomb
Sacred Sword
Slash
Solar Blade
Stone Edge
Stone Edge
Take Down
Tera Blast
Throat Chop
Wild Charge
X-Scissor
Zen Headbutt
Air Slash
Hyper Beam
Meteor Beam
Psychic
Psyshock
Tera Blast
Agility
Electric Terrain
Endure
Iron Defense
Leer
Protect
Quick Guard
Rest
Sandstorm
Scary Face
Sleep Talk
Substitute
Swords Dance
Taunt
Pros:- 124 Speed plus Booster Energy makes Iron Boulder one of the fastest mons in the metagame, even outspeeding base 80s at +2.
- Good attack stat of 120 bolstered by Swords Dance and good coverage options like Earthquake and Close Combat.
- Solid natural bulk allows it to live hits like Dragapult's Specs Draco Meteor and even some super-effective attacks like an unboosted Darkrai Dark Pulse.
Cons:- Typing leaves it with a plethora of common weaknesses, seven in total, can often feel like its needs to Tera in order to have any staying power.
-Relatively low defense and weaknesses leaves it highly vulnerable to the most common priority moves in the metagame, Sucker Punch and Grassy Glide.
- STAB combination is resisted by notable threats such as Gholdengo, Kingambit, and Ting-Lu
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Tera Potential
Iron Boulder seems to have a large number of viable Tera types early on. Pretty much any single type has some degree of defensive merit given the amount of common weaknesses Boulder possesses. Fighting and Ground are the most obvious ones as they boost Boulder's most common coverage moves, while Fairy and Flying are both great Tera Blast types that also provide excellent defensive utility. Electric and Fire could also be useful for their status immunities that would otherwise cripple Boulder.
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Iron Boulder has two options for each of its STABs that each have some pros and cons so I mention them here.
For Rock STABs there is the new Mighty Cleave and old “reliable” Stone Edge. The main advantage Stone Edge has is the fact it doesn’t make contact allowing you to safely click it in the face of Zapdos and Moltres. Mighty Cleave on the other is only slightly less powerful with the big advantage of being a perfectly accurate Rock move and it’s ability to break through Protect which notably allows Boulder to somewhat reliably 2HKO Gliscor at +2.
On the Psychic side there is Zen Headbutt and Psycho Cut. Zen Headbutt again has the BP advantage but also has the added bonus of a 20% flinch chance which Gyarados has proven is more than enough to cause some chaos. Alternatively, Psycho Cut is a more consistent option with its 100 Acc and the fact it is also a non-contact move like Stone Edge.
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Potential Sets
Iron Boulder @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fighting / Fairy / Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Mighty Cleave
- Earthquake
- Close Combat / Zen Headbutt / Tera Blast / Taunt
- Swords Dance
With Booster Energy, Iron Boulder becomes one of the absolute fastest Pokemon in the metagame, and when combined with a Swords Dance boost, transforms into an indomitable sweeper. Boulder's wide array of viable coverage moves and Tera types leads to a very customizable mon that is able fit pretty much anything you might desire. I'm not even going to try going over every three attack combination you could use, but generally speaking EdgeQuake + 1 will always be effective.
Iron Boulder @ Choice Band
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fighting / Fairy / Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Mighty Cleave
- Zen Headbutt / Tera Blast
- Earthquake
- Close Combat
Iron Boulder can also forgo speed for immediate power with a Choice Band. I do not think this set will be nearly as effective as the Booster Energy set but Iron Boulder's speed and movepool gives it some merit. Like I mentioned above, Boulder's movepool allows it cover basically anything you want, notably Mighty Cleave allows it to break through attempts to stall or scout out its move especially against its Scarlet counterpart, Gouging Fire. Another note I will make is that on any set forgoing a speed boost is now at risk of being burned by Dragapult (also Rotom but that's every set) so Tera Fire could be a viable option that lets you hit the metal birbs as well.
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Closing Thoughts
Iron Boulder seems really, really good. While it can't quite match the insane versatility of Iron Valiant, Boulder has a key advantage in speed while still having enough coverage options that building around and playing against Boulder will likely prove to be a headache. It's honestly difficult to find anything thought-provoking to say about Boulder as its stats and kit lead down a somewhat linear albeit monstrously effective path. I'm curious to see what kind of teams Iron Boulder will find itself on, its Ground weakness and potentially difficult time switching in lends itself to pairing well with Rillaboom. Also with Excadrill making its return perhaps Sand teams could be a viable path going forward, making Boulder impressively bulky on the special side. Regardless, it seems to me that Iron Boulder will be a more than worthy successor to the terror that was BW1 Terrakion.
Also just for fun, here is Terrakion's original thread from 2010 by Ditto
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