[SET]
Swords Dance (Iron Hands) @ Booster Energy / Shuca Berry / Grassy Seed
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying / Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 172 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch / Close Combat
- Thunder Punch / Supercell Slam
- Ice Punch
[SET COMMENTS]
Swords Dance Iron Hands carves a decent niche as an extremely bulky and hard-hitting wallbreaker as well as a physical tank capable of outdamaging and outlasting most other physical attackers. Drain Punch greatly enhances Iron Hands's longevity, allowing it to heal itself out of 2HKO range against threats like Ogerpon-W, Ting-Lu, and all-out attacking Zamazenta variants while maintaining significant offensive pressure. Close Combat is a solid alternative; while it completely sacrifices the added longevity from Drain Punch, its astonishing damage output—outdamaging a super effective Ice Punch against neutral targets—allows Iron Hands to wallbreak more easily. This gives it a high chance to OHKO Raging Bolt after Stealth Rock damage with Booster Energy active while outright OHKOing the likes of maximum HP Great Tusk and uninvested Zamazenta with Booster Energy and a Swords Dance boost. Thunder Punch is a consistent and reliable option that KOes the likes of Primarina, Skarmory, and Corviknight while also offering a stronger hit against Fairy-types like Clefable, Enamorus, and Iron Valiant. Supercell Slam is a significantly stronger alternative, boasting a high chance to OHKO Corviknight after Stealth Rock damage and 2HKO Clefable and bulky Gholdengo variants outright. However, the risk of Iron Hands suffering disastrous recoil damage if it misses or if the opponent switches into a Ground-type can be unappealing. Ice Punch rounds out Iron Hands's coverage with a strong attack against Dragon-types like Dragapult and Dragonite, as well as Ground-types like Landorus-T and Gliscor. If Iron Hands opts to run Drain Punch over Close Combat, Ice Punch is also its strongest attack into Raging Bolt and Great Tusk. The massive one-time Attack boost from Booster Energy cranks up Iron Hands's damage to absurd levels, allowing it to reach crucial OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks against Raging Bolt, Great Tusk, Skarmory, and Clefable with Close Combat and Supercell Slam. Shuca Berry is a great alternative, particularly on Tera Fire variants, to provide Iron Hands with a one-time neutrality to powerful Ground-type attacks like Great Tusk's and Ursaluna's Headlong Rush, Dragonite's and Roaring Moon's Earthquake, or, if Tera Fire, Enamorus's Earth Power, allowing Iron Hands to trade against these threats. Tera Flying allows Iron Hands to turn its exploitable Ground weakness into an immunity, flipping its matchup against Great Tusk in its favor, and allowing it to more easily trade against the aforementioned attackers. Tera Fire is a great alternative, especially when paired with Shuca Berry, to grant Iron Hands a resistance to Fairy-type attacks from Iron Valiant, Enamorus, and Clefable and an immunity to Flame Body from Moltres and Will-O-Wisp from Dragapult, Moltres, and Cinderace. Grassy Seed can be considered when paired with Rillaboom to provide a one-time Defense boost, dramatically improving Iron Hands's longevity, particularly against defensive Great Tusk, allowing it to more easily set up a Swords Dance and start throwing out powerful boosted attacks. The Speed EVs let Iron Hands outspeed uninvested base 60s like Clefable and Primarina; after maximizing its Attack, the remaining EVs improve Iron Hands's lower special bulk.
Iron Hands generally fits best on dual screens and Aurora Veil teams, which can support its setup by rendering it extremely difficult to 2HKO and nearly impossible to OHKO. Alolan Ninetales is far and away the best dual screens setter thanks to Aurora Veil and as such is a fantastic teammate for Iron Hands. On these teams, Iron Hands can help wallbreak against threats like Dondozo, Corviknight, Skarmory, Clodsire, and Blissey to support faster setup sweepers like Roaring Moon, Dragonite, and Raging Bolt that struggle against these defensive threats. In return, their higher Speed or powerful priority attacks can patch up Iron Hands's less-than-stellar matchup against faster offensive teams. Great Tusk is a solid teammate that provides Rapid Spin support to preserve Iron Hands's precious HP. It also benefits from Iron Hands's ability to remove the likes of Dondozo, Corviknight, and Skarmory should Great Tusk opt to run a fast Bulk Up set. Iron Hands is a tremendous defensive answer to Kingambit, which requires either Low Kick alongside a Swords Dance boost and multiple fainted allies, or the highly committal Tera Blast Fairy, to even have a chance to KO a healthy Iron Hands. Kingambit is then easily dispatched by a Fighting-type attack if it doesn't Terastallize. Offensive threats that appreciate Kingambit's removal, with Gholdengo and Dragapult being standout options among these, make for great teammates, as they can more easily spam their powerful Ghost-type STAB moves without worrying about Kingambit resisting them. Iron Hands is quite solid on Grassy Terrain teams with Rillaboom, which can support it by letting it run Grassy Seed as an item, granting it much-needed passive recovery, and even cutting Earthquake's damage to make Iron Hands incredibly difficult to eliminate. Rillaboom and its frequent partner Hawlucha enjoy Iron Hands's removal of Corviknight, Skarmory, Moltres, Zapdos, and Dragonite, letting them clean up late-game after Iron Hands tears holes in the opposing team. Iron Hands can also function on more standard offensive teams due to its solid breaking power and hit-taking capabilities. On these teams, Landorus-T can use Intimidate alongside U-turn to pivot Iron Hands in safely, give it opportunities to wallbreak, and can support its wallbreaking capabilities further with Stealth Rock. Pecharunt can support Iron Hands by more safely answering Iron Defense Zamazenta, which can give Iron Hands some issues.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/dreadfury.408271/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/veti.612907/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/dead-by-daylight.571069/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/vaderaven.657738/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/autumn.384270/
Swords Dance (Iron Hands) @ Booster Energy / Shuca Berry / Grassy Seed
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying / Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 172 SpD / 84 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Drain Punch / Close Combat
- Thunder Punch / Supercell Slam
- Ice Punch
[SET COMMENTS]
Swords Dance Iron Hands carves a decent niche as an extremely bulky and hard-hitting wallbreaker as well as a physical tank capable of outdamaging and outlasting most other physical attackers. Drain Punch greatly enhances Iron Hands's longevity, allowing it to heal itself out of 2HKO range against threats like Ogerpon-W, Ting-Lu, and all-out attacking Zamazenta variants while maintaining significant offensive pressure. Close Combat is a solid alternative; while it completely sacrifices the added longevity from Drain Punch, its astonishing damage output—outdamaging a super effective Ice Punch against neutral targets—allows Iron Hands to wallbreak more easily. This gives it a high chance to OHKO Raging Bolt after Stealth Rock damage with Booster Energy active while outright OHKOing the likes of maximum HP Great Tusk and uninvested Zamazenta with Booster Energy and a Swords Dance boost. Thunder Punch is a consistent and reliable option that KOes the likes of Primarina, Skarmory, and Corviknight while also offering a stronger hit against Fairy-types like Clefable, Enamorus, and Iron Valiant. Supercell Slam is a significantly stronger alternative, boasting a high chance to OHKO Corviknight after Stealth Rock damage and 2HKO Clefable and bulky Gholdengo variants outright. However, the risk of Iron Hands suffering disastrous recoil damage if it misses or if the opponent switches into a Ground-type can be unappealing. Ice Punch rounds out Iron Hands's coverage with a strong attack against Dragon-types like Dragapult and Dragonite, as well as Ground-types like Landorus-T and Gliscor. If Iron Hands opts to run Drain Punch over Close Combat, Ice Punch is also its strongest attack into Raging Bolt and Great Tusk. The massive one-time Attack boost from Booster Energy cranks up Iron Hands's damage to absurd levels, allowing it to reach crucial OHKO and 2HKO benchmarks against Raging Bolt, Great Tusk, Skarmory, and Clefable with Close Combat and Supercell Slam. Shuca Berry is a great alternative, particularly on Tera Fire variants, to provide Iron Hands with a one-time neutrality to powerful Ground-type attacks like Great Tusk's and Ursaluna's Headlong Rush, Dragonite's and Roaring Moon's Earthquake, or, if Tera Fire, Enamorus's Earth Power, allowing Iron Hands to trade against these threats. Tera Flying allows Iron Hands to turn its exploitable Ground weakness into an immunity, flipping its matchup against Great Tusk in its favor, and allowing it to more easily trade against the aforementioned attackers. Tera Fire is a great alternative, especially when paired with Shuca Berry, to grant Iron Hands a resistance to Fairy-type attacks from Iron Valiant, Enamorus, and Clefable and an immunity to Flame Body from Moltres and Will-O-Wisp from Dragapult, Moltres, and Cinderace. Grassy Seed can be considered when paired with Rillaboom to provide a one-time Defense boost, dramatically improving Iron Hands's longevity, particularly against defensive Great Tusk, allowing it to more easily set up a Swords Dance and start throwing out powerful boosted attacks. The Speed EVs let Iron Hands outspeed uninvested base 60s like Clefable and Primarina; after maximizing its Attack, the remaining EVs improve Iron Hands's lower special bulk.
Iron Hands generally fits best on dual screens and Aurora Veil teams, which can support its setup by rendering it extremely difficult to 2HKO and nearly impossible to OHKO. Alolan Ninetales is far and away the best dual screens setter thanks to Aurora Veil and as such is a fantastic teammate for Iron Hands. On these teams, Iron Hands can help wallbreak against threats like Dondozo, Corviknight, Skarmory, Clodsire, and Blissey to support faster setup sweepers like Roaring Moon, Dragonite, and Raging Bolt that struggle against these defensive threats. In return, their higher Speed or powerful priority attacks can patch up Iron Hands's less-than-stellar matchup against faster offensive teams. Great Tusk is a solid teammate that provides Rapid Spin support to preserve Iron Hands's precious HP. It also benefits from Iron Hands's ability to remove the likes of Dondozo, Corviknight, and Skarmory should Great Tusk opt to run a fast Bulk Up set. Iron Hands is a tremendous defensive answer to Kingambit, which requires either Low Kick alongside a Swords Dance boost and multiple fainted allies, or the highly committal Tera Blast Fairy, to even have a chance to KO a healthy Iron Hands. Kingambit is then easily dispatched by a Fighting-type attack if it doesn't Terastallize. Offensive threats that appreciate Kingambit's removal, with Gholdengo and Dragapult being standout options among these, make for great teammates, as they can more easily spam their powerful Ghost-type STAB moves without worrying about Kingambit resisting them. Iron Hands is quite solid on Grassy Terrain teams with Rillaboom, which can support it by letting it run Grassy Seed as an item, granting it much-needed passive recovery, and even cutting Earthquake's damage to make Iron Hands incredibly difficult to eliminate. Rillaboom and its frequent partner Hawlucha enjoy Iron Hands's removal of Corviknight, Skarmory, Moltres, Zapdos, and Dragonite, letting them clean up late-game after Iron Hands tears holes in the opposing team. Iron Hands can also function on more standard offensive teams due to its solid breaking power and hit-taking capabilities. On these teams, Landorus-T can use Intimidate alongside U-turn to pivot Iron Hands in safely, give it opportunities to wallbreak, and can support its wallbreaking capabilities further with Stealth Rock. Pecharunt can support Iron Hands by more safely answering Iron Defense Zamazenta, which can give Iron Hands some issues.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/dreadfury.408271/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/veti.612907/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/dead-by-daylight.571069/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/vaderaven.657738/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/autumn.384270/
Last edited:
