[OVERVIEW]
Moltres stands out as the strongest special attacker in the tier, tied with Articuno. It shares a lot of strengths and weaknesses with the other legendary bird: Moltres can also 2HKO Tauros and threaten Snorlax significantly while nailing Exeggutor and having Agility to clean up late-game. However, it too has a hard time breaking through very common special walls such as Starmie and Chansey, which holds it back tremendously. Should these walls be incapacitated or removed, Moltres can wreak havoc and make great use of its titanic Special stat.
Due to these shared traits with Articuno, it is worth analyzing where they differ to understand which fits your team best. Moltres has access to Fire Spin in tandem with higher Attack, giving it a stronger Hyper Beam. These two qualities allow Moltres to muscle through checks like Starmie and Chansey more effectively than Articuno, especially when these Pokemon have been paralyzed and chipped beforehand. Moltres also possesses no hard walls: while Articuno really struggles against Lapras and Cloyster, there aren't any Pokemon that shut down Moltres quite so hard. However, Moltres's lower physical bulk and a weakness to Ice make it considerably easier to take down. Additionally, the type chart is unkind to Fire-type attacks in RBY, making Moltres considerably weaker in various matchups compared to Articuno, such as Zapdos and especially Rhydon. Furthermore, Fire Spin's accuracy makes it very unreliable; Fire Blast also suffers from this problem to a lesser degree. Overall, Moltres is a phenomenal late-game threat, despite being niche overall, as the ability to beat Tauros one-on-one is of crucial importance; while supporting it can be difficult, this Pokemon remains a sweeping threat that can tear down passive builds.
[SET]
name: Standard
move 1: Fire Blast
move 2: Hyper Beam
move 3: Agility
move 4: Fire Spin
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Fire Blast is the main draw to Moltres. It threatens significant damage to a majority of the tier, including notable 2HKOs on Tauros, Exeggutor, and Cloyster, and has a nice 30.1% burn chance that forces sturdier physical attackers such as Snorlax and Rhydon to tread very carefully around Moltres. However, much like most special attackers in RBY OU, it must contend with the existence of Chansey and Starmie. These two Pokemon can comfortably heal off all damage taken by Fire Blast, and due to Fire Blast only having 8 PP, Moltres usually doesn't want to waste any on Pokemon that can just shrug it off; furthermore, landing a burn on these Pokemon can sometimes be counterproductive, as it removes the option of paralyzing them. Moltres packs a relatively powerful Hyper Beam to help it deal with special walls, thankfully; in tandem with a Fire Blast, it can hit both Chansey and Starmie for over 60% of their HP over two turns, meaning that, if such walls have been weakened, it stands a good chance of finishing the job. Agility is extremely helpful to ignore the Speed drop from paralysis and gain the upper hand on other fast late-game Pokemon such as Tauros and Zapdos; it is especially powerful in combination with Fire Spin, as a fast partial trapping move completely shuts down the opponent's ability to attack as long as it doesn't miss. Fire Spin excels when the opposition has been statused; it has great synergy with paralysis, which enables Moltres to move faster than any foe even without setting up Agility, and with burn, as repeatedly stopping the foe from moving racks up burn damage.
Moltres's specialty is cleanup. If you are running Moltres, you ought to spend the early-game trying to cripple, chip, and potentially even remove the opposing Chansey and Starmie. Moltres is very unconventional in that it doesn't synergize particularly well with the two most powerful statuses in RBY, freeze and sleep. Fire Blast will thaw frozen opponents, and Fire Spin provides sleeping enemies with opportunities to wake while only taking minimal damage per turn. This means Moltres needs a very deliberate plan early-game and beyond to weaken checks and make your opponent play into your hand, especially against Starmie. Many teams are willing to let Starmie absorb sleep early-game, which is great for other Pokemon that struggle with it, like Articuno and Slowbro, but Moltres's resisted Fire Spin is the perfect opportunity for Starmie to burn sleep turns. You might want to try luring your opponent into letting you sleep a different Pokemon, even forgoing sleep altogether if you are feeling creative, or hoping sleeping Starmie falls victim to players' willingness to sacrifice sleeping Pokemon. Similarly, it won't be much use gambling your early-game trying to freeze a Chansey.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Moltres possesses a few other viable moves, but they are all hard to justify in most cases. Double-Edge gives it a strong move to hit Chansey on the switch, and to a lesser extent Starmie, which might make its job of taking down these checks a little easier, though you will usually be content to source your extra damage from an additional Fire Spin. Sky Attack hits for over 50% on both Starmie and Chansey, threatening to OHKO on a critical hit, but it requires good prediction to get away with the charge turn. Toxic allows Moltres to functionally empower its own Fire Spin without needing to land a Fire Blast burn, which helps with working around Chansey as long as Moltres can chain enough Fire Spins without missing.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Water-types**: Starmie and Slowbro stop Moltres dead in its tracks thanks to their great special bulk and lack of concern for burns, which allows them to switch into Fire Blast frequently. Starmie is particularly brutal, being faster and threatening hefty damage with any of Blizzard, Thunderbolt, or Surf, or even paralysis from Thunder Wave. Slowbro can use Moltres as setup fodder after paralyzing it, usually forcing it to try and pivot out with Fire Spin as to not give it a free Amnesia boost, though it needs to be wary when burned, as Fire Spin chains can rapidly rack up sufficient residual damage for Moltres to KO it.
**Chansey**: Chansey can put a hard stop to Moltres thanks to its gargantuan Special bulk; however, Moltres outspeeds it and can therefore stop it from recovering with Fire Spin. Therefore, it can muscle through Chansey with some luck, especially with a Fire Blast burn alongside Fire Spin, as Hyper Beam hits for over 40%. However, this can be quite risky for Moltres, as a miss lets Chansey cripple its late-game with Thunder Wave.
**Jolteon and Zapdos**: While neither is particularly willing to take a Fire Blast, both Jolteon and Zapdos outspeed Moltres while 2HKOing it with STAB Thunderbolt. However, Moltres can beat a chipped or resting Jolteon, having a good shot at 2HKOing it with Fire Blast + Hyper Beam.
**Rhydon**: While it looks enticing to switch Rhydon in on Fire Blast, its pathetic Special makes it take surprisingly high damage; there is even a chance of a 3HKO. Additionally, being burned is an utter death sentence for Rhydon, making it little more than fodder in the long run. However, Rhydon is otherwise one of the better Moltres checks, absorbing Hyper Beam well and PP stalling Fire Spin better than most OU staples, all while having an OHKO against it Rock Slide; if it drops Rock Slide in favor of Rest, it gives up the OHKO, but it gains the ability to heal off the burns and stall Moltres out of Fire Blasts, which is just as good.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Amaranth, 265630], [Plague von Karma, 236353]]
- Quality checked by: [[FriendOfMrGolem120, 424525], [Enigami, 233818]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [Bandkrook, 301217]]
Moltres stands out as the strongest special attacker in the tier, tied with Articuno. It shares a lot of strengths and weaknesses with the other legendary bird: Moltres can also 2HKO Tauros and threaten Snorlax significantly while nailing Exeggutor and having Agility to clean up late-game. However, it too has a hard time breaking through very common special walls such as Starmie and Chansey, which holds it back tremendously. Should these walls be incapacitated or removed, Moltres can wreak havoc and make great use of its titanic Special stat.
Due to these shared traits with Articuno, it is worth analyzing where they differ to understand which fits your team best. Moltres has access to Fire Spin in tandem with higher Attack, giving it a stronger Hyper Beam. These two qualities allow Moltres to muscle through checks like Starmie and Chansey more effectively than Articuno, especially when these Pokemon have been paralyzed and chipped beforehand. Moltres also possesses no hard walls: while Articuno really struggles against Lapras and Cloyster, there aren't any Pokemon that shut down Moltres quite so hard. However, Moltres's lower physical bulk and a weakness to Ice make it considerably easier to take down. Additionally, the type chart is unkind to Fire-type attacks in RBY, making Moltres considerably weaker in various matchups compared to Articuno, such as Zapdos and especially Rhydon. Furthermore, Fire Spin's accuracy makes it very unreliable; Fire Blast also suffers from this problem to a lesser degree. Overall, Moltres is a phenomenal late-game threat, despite being niche overall, as the ability to beat Tauros one-on-one is of crucial importance; while supporting it can be difficult, this Pokemon remains a sweeping threat that can tear down passive builds.
[SET]
name: Standard
move 1: Fire Blast
move 2: Hyper Beam
move 3: Agility
move 4: Fire Spin
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Fire Blast is the main draw to Moltres. It threatens significant damage to a majority of the tier, including notable 2HKOs on Tauros, Exeggutor, and Cloyster, and has a nice 30.1% burn chance that forces sturdier physical attackers such as Snorlax and Rhydon to tread very carefully around Moltres. However, much like most special attackers in RBY OU, it must contend with the existence of Chansey and Starmie. These two Pokemon can comfortably heal off all damage taken by Fire Blast, and due to Fire Blast only having 8 PP, Moltres usually doesn't want to waste any on Pokemon that can just shrug it off; furthermore, landing a burn on these Pokemon can sometimes be counterproductive, as it removes the option of paralyzing them. Moltres packs a relatively powerful Hyper Beam to help it deal with special walls, thankfully; in tandem with a Fire Blast, it can hit both Chansey and Starmie for over 60% of their HP over two turns, meaning that, if such walls have been weakened, it stands a good chance of finishing the job. Agility is extremely helpful to ignore the Speed drop from paralysis and gain the upper hand on other fast late-game Pokemon such as Tauros and Zapdos; it is especially powerful in combination with Fire Spin, as a fast partial trapping move completely shuts down the opponent's ability to attack as long as it doesn't miss. Fire Spin excels when the opposition has been statused; it has great synergy with paralysis, which enables Moltres to move faster than any foe even without setting up Agility, and with burn, as repeatedly stopping the foe from moving racks up burn damage.
Moltres's specialty is cleanup. If you are running Moltres, you ought to spend the early-game trying to cripple, chip, and potentially even remove the opposing Chansey and Starmie. Moltres is very unconventional in that it doesn't synergize particularly well with the two most powerful statuses in RBY, freeze and sleep. Fire Blast will thaw frozen opponents, and Fire Spin provides sleeping enemies with opportunities to wake while only taking minimal damage per turn. This means Moltres needs a very deliberate plan early-game and beyond to weaken checks and make your opponent play into your hand, especially against Starmie. Many teams are willing to let Starmie absorb sleep early-game, which is great for other Pokemon that struggle with it, like Articuno and Slowbro, but Moltres's resisted Fire Spin is the perfect opportunity for Starmie to burn sleep turns. You might want to try luring your opponent into letting you sleep a different Pokemon, even forgoing sleep altogether if you are feeling creative, or hoping sleeping Starmie falls victim to players' willingness to sacrifice sleeping Pokemon. Similarly, it won't be much use gambling your early-game trying to freeze a Chansey.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Moltres possesses a few other viable moves, but they are all hard to justify in most cases. Double-Edge gives it a strong move to hit Chansey on the switch, and to a lesser extent Starmie, which might make its job of taking down these checks a little easier, though you will usually be content to source your extra damage from an additional Fire Spin. Sky Attack hits for over 50% on both Starmie and Chansey, threatening to OHKO on a critical hit, but it requires good prediction to get away with the charge turn. Toxic allows Moltres to functionally empower its own Fire Spin without needing to land a Fire Blast burn, which helps with working around Chansey as long as Moltres can chain enough Fire Spins without missing.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Water-types**: Starmie and Slowbro stop Moltres dead in its tracks thanks to their great special bulk and lack of concern for burns, which allows them to switch into Fire Blast frequently. Starmie is particularly brutal, being faster and threatening hefty damage with any of Blizzard, Thunderbolt, or Surf, or even paralysis from Thunder Wave. Slowbro can use Moltres as setup fodder after paralyzing it, usually forcing it to try and pivot out with Fire Spin as to not give it a free Amnesia boost, though it needs to be wary when burned, as Fire Spin chains can rapidly rack up sufficient residual damage for Moltres to KO it.
**Chansey**: Chansey can put a hard stop to Moltres thanks to its gargantuan Special bulk; however, Moltres outspeeds it and can therefore stop it from recovering with Fire Spin. Therefore, it can muscle through Chansey with some luck, especially with a Fire Blast burn alongside Fire Spin, as Hyper Beam hits for over 40%. However, this can be quite risky for Moltres, as a miss lets Chansey cripple its late-game with Thunder Wave.
**Jolteon and Zapdos**: While neither is particularly willing to take a Fire Blast, both Jolteon and Zapdos outspeed Moltres while 2HKOing it with STAB Thunderbolt. However, Moltres can beat a chipped or resting Jolteon, having a good shot at 2HKOing it with Fire Blast + Hyper Beam.
**Rhydon**: While it looks enticing to switch Rhydon in on Fire Blast, its pathetic Special makes it take surprisingly high damage; there is even a chance of a 3HKO. Additionally, being burned is an utter death sentence for Rhydon, making it little more than fodder in the long run. However, Rhydon is otherwise one of the better Moltres checks, absorbing Hyper Beam well and PP stalling Fire Spin better than most OU staples, all while having an OHKO against it Rock Slide; if it drops Rock Slide in favor of Rest, it gives up the OHKO, but it gains the ability to heal off the burns and stall Moltres out of Fire Blasts, which is just as good.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Amaranth, 265630], [Plague von Karma, 236353]]
- Quality checked by: [[FriendOfMrGolem120, 424525], [Enigami, 233818]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [Bandkrook, 301217]]
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