[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 3 onwards
**Price Range**: 12-13 points
**Tera Price range**: 14-15 points
**Overview**: Iron Moth is a strong special wallbreaker and sweeper, boasting a solid Speed tier with a high Special Attack while threatening many teams with a wide variety of coverage moves. With Booster Energy, it can further boost its Speed or Special Attack to enhance its sweeping and wallbreaking ability even further, especially with the potential of Fiery Dance boosts. It can also utilize its high Special Defense to survive attacks from many special threats while using reliable recovery in Morning Sun to increase its longevity throughout the match. However, Iron Moth often struggles to find safe entry onto the field because of its weakness to entry hazards, vulnerability to Ground-types, and physical frailty.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Wallbreaker**: Iron Moth's high Special Attack makes it a threatening special wallbreaker, especially when combined with Choice Specs or Booster Energy and strong STAB moves like Overheat and Fire Blast.
**Sweeper**: Iron Moth can boost its Speed with Booster Energy and Agility and quickly gather boosts with Fiery Dance or Meteor Beam to snowball out of control. Its access to a wide variety of coverage moves makes it a serviceable late-game sweeper that can clean up weakened teams. Additionally, Terastallization enables Iron Moth to break through typical checks or gain a new typing entirely for added coverage to help power through opposing teams.
**Offensive Pivot**: Iron Moth's solid Speed and access to U-turn allow it to threaten KOs and pivot out on potential checks. It often runs Heavy-Duty Boots in this role, which minimizes its weakness to Stealth Rock while it switches multiple times.
**Defensive Utility**: Iron Moth can take on a supportive role by utilizing its special bulk and access to reliable recovery in Morning Sun. It can be a potent status spreader, utilizing Toxic, Toxic Spikes, and Discharge to debilitate opposing teams and better support its teammates. Terastallization enables Iron Moth to gain a better defensive typing, letting it be less reliant on Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid damage to Stealth Rock when it switches in.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Fiery Dance, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Overheat, Sludge Wave
**Setup Moves**: Agility, Meteor Beam
**Utility Moves**: U-turn, Morning Sun, Toxic, Toxic Spikes, Substitute
**Coverage**: Air Slash, Bug Buzz, Dazzling Gleam, Discharge, Energy Ball, Flash Cannon, Hurricane, Psychic
Niche Moves
========
**Whirlwind**: Using Whirlwind allows Iron Moth to prevent the rare foes that it doesn't offensively threaten from freely setting up on it.
**Acid Spray / Metal Sound**: These moves can punish special walls that attempt to check Iron Moth by dropping their Special Defense to levels where they cannot safely stay in against it. Combining Throat Spray with Metal Sound, in particular, to immediately gain a Special Attack boost can make Iron Moth even more threatening.
**Fire Spin**: Fire Spin can trap foes and deal chip damage to them, allowing Iron Moth to attempt to set up on overly passive foes with Fiery Dance or force switch-ins to stay in while Iron Moth switches out to a teammate.
Common Items
========
**Booster Energy**: Booster Energy allows Iron Moth to boost either its Speed or Special Attack without being locked into a single move, giving it the freedom to sweep teams.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Heavy-Duty Boots can give Iron Moth more longevity by removing its weakness to Stealth Rock.
**Choice Specs**: Choice Specs further boost Iron Moth's wallbreaking power, allowing it to fire off an extremely powerful Overheat.
**Choice Scarf**: A Choice Scarf can turn Iron Moth into effective speed control or a late-game cleaner.
**Power Herb**: Power Herb can be used with Meteor Beam to provide Iron Moth Rock-type coverage without Terastallizing and a guaranteed boost to Special Attack. Additionally, It can also be used with Solar Beam as a stronger Grass-type coverage move compared to Energy Ball.
Niche Items
========
**Damage-boosting Items**: Expert Belt and Life Orb pair well with Iron Moth's variety of coverage moves to further support wallbreaker and sweeper sets. Additionally, it can utilize Charcoal or Poison Barb to consistently boost the damage of Iron Moth's STAB moves further.
**Air Balloon**: With Air Balloon, Iron Moth can gain temporary immunity to its 4x Ground weakness, switching in safely on Ground-type attacks and utilizing an extra turn to set up an Agility or potentially KO them with a coverage move like Energy Ball.
**Eject Pack**: Holding an Eject Pack enables Iron Moth to pivot out once after using Overheat and generate momentum.
**Throat Spray**: Throat Spray can be combined with Metal Sound to give Iron Moth a Special Attack boost.
**Resistance Berries**: With a resistance Berry, Iron Moth can lure an opposing Pokemon or use it to help survive an attack. It commonly runs Shuca Berry to compensate for its 4x weakness to Ground, but Iron Moth's low physical bulk is often not enough to enable survival of an Earthquake from strong physical attackers even with the power reduction, which warrants caution. Iron Moth can safely utilize other types of resistance Berries to protect against attacks that are less likely to KO it even through the Berry's activation.
Tera
========
Iron Moth greatly benefits as a Tera Captain, but it also functions as a potent special wallbreaker and sweeper without Terastallization. Offensively, it can utilize Tera Fire to further boost its Overheat and increase its wallbreaking potential. It can also utilize Tera Ground and Ghost to gain valuable coverage in Tera Blast to maximize its potential as a sweeper. Defensively, it can utilize Tera Water, Grass, and Flying to bypass its weaknesses and enable more opportunities to set up an Agility or safely fish for more boosts with Fiery Dance.
Draft Strategy
========
Iron Moth is a good option on either offensive or balanced drafts that are looking for a strong special wallbreaker or sweeper that can also reliably act as an offensive pivot with decent defensive utility, notably absorbing Toxic Spikes. It often looks for teammates that remove or provide entry hazards and Pokemon that can safely pivot to it.
**Ground-resistant or -immune Pokemon**: Iron Moth is extremely vulnerable to bulky Ground-types and Ground-type coverage moves, so it appreciates at least one partner that can safely switch into Earthquake. Grass-types like Zarude and Sinistcha resist two of its weaknesses, Ground and Water, and offensively threaten foes with those typings in return. Flying-types like Gliscor, Mandibuzz, and Corviknight are reliable switch-ins to many Ground-types that threaten Iron Moth and additionally provide entry hazard and safe pivoting support.
**Entry Hazard Removal**: Iron Moth is weak to entry hazards, especially Stealth Rock, as it often prefers to run an offensive item over Heavy-Duty Boots. It finds great success with reliable hazard removal options like Terapagos, Great Tusk, and Iron Treads so that it can maximize its offensive potential.
**Entry Hazard Setters**: Similarly to most wallbreakers, Iron Moth greatly appreciates hazards to further boost its offensive potential. Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Gliscor, and Hisuian Samurott provide such support while also supporting Iron Moth by safely switching into many moves it is threatened by and being able to pivot back to it later.
**Other Wallbreakers**: Pokemon such as Iron Valiant, Darkrai, Garchomp, and Roaring Moon can be great partners for Iron Moth, as they can provide complementary offense that continuously wear down teams to facilitate a potential sweep. Additionally, Iron Moth is able to utilize U-turn to better position these wallbreakers and allow them to break apart opposing teams.
**Pivots**: Iron Moth appreciates opportunities to enter the field without taking an attack first. Offensive pivots like Zapdos and Rotom-W or slow, bulky pivots like Slowking and Corviknight can give it the chances it needs to safely take the field and break open the opposing team.
**Secondary Tera Captain**: Iron Moth is not overly reliant on using Terastallization in every matchup, and its relatively cheap price point allows it to be paired with a secondary Tera Captain to place more pressure on opponents during the teambuilder process. Pokemon such as Gliscor, Gholdengo, and Iron Crown particularly complement Iron Moth exceptionally well as secondary Tera Captains due to the defensive and offensive properties they possess, and they can be relied on during matchups where Iron Moth does not want to Terastallize.
Checks and Counters
========
**Entry Hazards**: Iron Moth's strongest wallbreaker and sweeper sets normally run offensive items like Choice Specs and Booster Energy. Combined with its weakness to Stealth Rock, this can limit the number of times Iron Moth can take the field if it does not sacrifice its offensive potential by running Heavy-Duty Boots.
**Specially Bulky Pokemon**: Pokemon that can easily take Iron Moth's attacks and threaten it back like Galarian Slowking, Tentacruel, and Heatran greatly halt progress and momentum for its team. Common Assault Vest users like Tornadus-T, Hisuian Samurott, and Hisuian Goodra can also be dangerous for this reason.
**Faster Pokemon / Priority**: Although Iron Moth is fast and can boost its Speed further with Booster Energy or Choice Scarf, its poor physical bulk can leave it susceptible to opposing Pokemon that can outspeed it, such as Meowscarada and Roaring Moon, or strong priority moves, like Palafin's Jet Punch and Dragonite's Extreme Speed.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/crysite.504469/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-blue-banana.649096/
This is a rewrite, original written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
**Draft Order**: Round 3 onwards
**Price Range**: 12-13 points
**Tera Price range**: 14-15 points
**Overview**: Iron Moth is a strong special wallbreaker and sweeper, boasting a solid Speed tier with a high Special Attack while threatening many teams with a wide variety of coverage moves. With Booster Energy, it can further boost its Speed or Special Attack to enhance its sweeping and wallbreaking ability even further, especially with the potential of Fiery Dance boosts. It can also utilize its high Special Defense to survive attacks from many special threats while using reliable recovery in Morning Sun to increase its longevity throughout the match. However, Iron Moth often struggles to find safe entry onto the field because of its weakness to entry hazards, vulnerability to Ground-types, and physical frailty.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Wallbreaker**: Iron Moth's high Special Attack makes it a threatening special wallbreaker, especially when combined with Choice Specs or Booster Energy and strong STAB moves like Overheat and Fire Blast.
**Sweeper**: Iron Moth can boost its Speed with Booster Energy and Agility and quickly gather boosts with Fiery Dance or Meteor Beam to snowball out of control. Its access to a wide variety of coverage moves makes it a serviceable late-game sweeper that can clean up weakened teams. Additionally, Terastallization enables Iron Moth to break through typical checks or gain a new typing entirely for added coverage to help power through opposing teams.
**Offensive Pivot**: Iron Moth's solid Speed and access to U-turn allow it to threaten KOs and pivot out on potential checks. It often runs Heavy-Duty Boots in this role, which minimizes its weakness to Stealth Rock while it switches multiple times.
**Defensive Utility**: Iron Moth can take on a supportive role by utilizing its special bulk and access to reliable recovery in Morning Sun. It can be a potent status spreader, utilizing Toxic, Toxic Spikes, and Discharge to debilitate opposing teams and better support its teammates. Terastallization enables Iron Moth to gain a better defensive typing, letting it be less reliant on Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid damage to Stealth Rock when it switches in.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Fiery Dance, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Overheat, Sludge Wave
**Setup Moves**: Agility, Meteor Beam
**Utility Moves**: U-turn, Morning Sun, Toxic, Toxic Spikes, Substitute
**Coverage**: Air Slash, Bug Buzz, Dazzling Gleam, Discharge, Energy Ball, Flash Cannon, Hurricane, Psychic
Niche Moves
========
**Whirlwind**: Using Whirlwind allows Iron Moth to prevent the rare foes that it doesn't offensively threaten from freely setting up on it.
**Acid Spray / Metal Sound**: These moves can punish special walls that attempt to check Iron Moth by dropping their Special Defense to levels where they cannot safely stay in against it. Combining Throat Spray with Metal Sound, in particular, to immediately gain a Special Attack boost can make Iron Moth even more threatening.
**Fire Spin**: Fire Spin can trap foes and deal chip damage to them, allowing Iron Moth to attempt to set up on overly passive foes with Fiery Dance or force switch-ins to stay in while Iron Moth switches out to a teammate.
Common Items
========
**Booster Energy**: Booster Energy allows Iron Moth to boost either its Speed or Special Attack without being locked into a single move, giving it the freedom to sweep teams.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Heavy-Duty Boots can give Iron Moth more longevity by removing its weakness to Stealth Rock.
**Choice Specs**: Choice Specs further boost Iron Moth's wallbreaking power, allowing it to fire off an extremely powerful Overheat.
**Choice Scarf**: A Choice Scarf can turn Iron Moth into effective speed control or a late-game cleaner.
**Power Herb**: Power Herb can be used with Meteor Beam to provide Iron Moth Rock-type coverage without Terastallizing and a guaranteed boost to Special Attack. Additionally, It can also be used with Solar Beam as a stronger Grass-type coverage move compared to Energy Ball.
Niche Items
========
**Damage-boosting Items**: Expert Belt and Life Orb pair well with Iron Moth's variety of coverage moves to further support wallbreaker and sweeper sets. Additionally, it can utilize Charcoal or Poison Barb to consistently boost the damage of Iron Moth's STAB moves further.
**Air Balloon**: With Air Balloon, Iron Moth can gain temporary immunity to its 4x Ground weakness, switching in safely on Ground-type attacks and utilizing an extra turn to set up an Agility or potentially KO them with a coverage move like Energy Ball.
**Eject Pack**: Holding an Eject Pack enables Iron Moth to pivot out once after using Overheat and generate momentum.
**Throat Spray**: Throat Spray can be combined with Metal Sound to give Iron Moth a Special Attack boost.
**Resistance Berries**: With a resistance Berry, Iron Moth can lure an opposing Pokemon or use it to help survive an attack. It commonly runs Shuca Berry to compensate for its 4x weakness to Ground, but Iron Moth's low physical bulk is often not enough to enable survival of an Earthquake from strong physical attackers even with the power reduction, which warrants caution. Iron Moth can safely utilize other types of resistance Berries to protect against attacks that are less likely to KO it even through the Berry's activation.
Tera
========
Iron Moth greatly benefits as a Tera Captain, but it also functions as a potent special wallbreaker and sweeper without Terastallization. Offensively, it can utilize Tera Fire to further boost its Overheat and increase its wallbreaking potential. It can also utilize Tera Ground and Ghost to gain valuable coverage in Tera Blast to maximize its potential as a sweeper. Defensively, it can utilize Tera Water, Grass, and Flying to bypass its weaknesses and enable more opportunities to set up an Agility or safely fish for more boosts with Fiery Dance.
Draft Strategy
========
Iron Moth is a good option on either offensive or balanced drafts that are looking for a strong special wallbreaker or sweeper that can also reliably act as an offensive pivot with decent defensive utility, notably absorbing Toxic Spikes. It often looks for teammates that remove or provide entry hazards and Pokemon that can safely pivot to it.
**Ground-resistant or -immune Pokemon**: Iron Moth is extremely vulnerable to bulky Ground-types and Ground-type coverage moves, so it appreciates at least one partner that can safely switch into Earthquake. Grass-types like Zarude and Sinistcha resist two of its weaknesses, Ground and Water, and offensively threaten foes with those typings in return. Flying-types like Gliscor, Mandibuzz, and Corviknight are reliable switch-ins to many Ground-types that threaten Iron Moth and additionally provide entry hazard and safe pivoting support.
**Entry Hazard Removal**: Iron Moth is weak to entry hazards, especially Stealth Rock, as it often prefers to run an offensive item over Heavy-Duty Boots. It finds great success with reliable hazard removal options like Terapagos, Great Tusk, and Iron Treads so that it can maximize its offensive potential.
**Entry Hazard Setters**: Similarly to most wallbreakers, Iron Moth greatly appreciates hazards to further boost its offensive potential. Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Gliscor, and Hisuian Samurott provide such support while also supporting Iron Moth by safely switching into many moves it is threatened by and being able to pivot back to it later.
**Other Wallbreakers**: Pokemon such as Iron Valiant, Darkrai, Garchomp, and Roaring Moon can be great partners for Iron Moth, as they can provide complementary offense that continuously wear down teams to facilitate a potential sweep. Additionally, Iron Moth is able to utilize U-turn to better position these wallbreakers and allow them to break apart opposing teams.
**Pivots**: Iron Moth appreciates opportunities to enter the field without taking an attack first. Offensive pivots like Zapdos and Rotom-W or slow, bulky pivots like Slowking and Corviknight can give it the chances it needs to safely take the field and break open the opposing team.
**Secondary Tera Captain**: Iron Moth is not overly reliant on using Terastallization in every matchup, and its relatively cheap price point allows it to be paired with a secondary Tera Captain to place more pressure on opponents during the teambuilder process. Pokemon such as Gliscor, Gholdengo, and Iron Crown particularly complement Iron Moth exceptionally well as secondary Tera Captains due to the defensive and offensive properties they possess, and they can be relied on during matchups where Iron Moth does not want to Terastallize.
Checks and Counters
========
**Entry Hazards**: Iron Moth's strongest wallbreaker and sweeper sets normally run offensive items like Choice Specs and Booster Energy. Combined with its weakness to Stealth Rock, this can limit the number of times Iron Moth can take the field if it does not sacrifice its offensive potential by running Heavy-Duty Boots.
**Specially Bulky Pokemon**: Pokemon that can easily take Iron Moth's attacks and threaten it back like Galarian Slowking, Tentacruel, and Heatran greatly halt progress and momentum for its team. Common Assault Vest users like Tornadus-T, Hisuian Samurott, and Hisuian Goodra can also be dangerous for this reason.
**Faster Pokemon / Priority**: Although Iron Moth is fast and can boost its Speed further with Booster Energy or Choice Scarf, its poor physical bulk can leave it susceptible to opposing Pokemon that can outspeed it, such as Meowscarada and Roaring Moon, or strong priority moves, like Palafin's Jet Punch and Dragonite's Extreme Speed.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/crysite.504469/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/a-blue-banana.649096/
This is a rewrite, original written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Last edited:
