[OVERVIEW]
Talonflame is a staple Pokemon in the Battle Spot Triples metagame that provides teams with a good offensive Pokemon with incredible support options. It has priority STAB Brave Bird that can hit any side of the field, no matter what position Talonflame is in; this means that unlike against most other Pokemon, your opponent can't position their Pokemon to avoid Talonflame's attacks. Talonflame is very useful for disrupting opposing strategies and providing your own team with speed control. It has support moves such as Tailwind, Quick Guard, and Snatch, all incredibly useful moves to have on a Triples team. Talonflame has a nice Fire / Flying typing as well, giving it some useful resistances to common types such as Fairy and Fire and an immunity to Ground. Furthermore, Talonflame can work on almost any kind of team: it's great on offensive teams because it can provide support without being dead weight offensively, and it provides great support for balanced teams or Trick Room teams as a fast backup attacker. However, Talonflame is very frail and has a crippling 4x weakness to the common Rock Slide, so it can often be hard to keep it in the fight for more than a few turns.
[SET]
name: Offensive Support
move 1: Brave Bird
move 2: Tailwind / Protect / Flare Blitz / Taunt / Will-O-Wisp
move 3: Quick Guard
move 4: Snatch
item: Sharp Beak / Life Orb
ability: Gale Wings
nature: Jolly
evs: 60 HP / 196 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Brave Bird is Talonflame's strongest STAB Flying-type move and hits any side of the field regardless of what position it's in. Thanks to Gale Wings, Talonflame can set up Tailwind very reliably, providing speed control for your team, which is very important in Triples. Quick Guard protects your team from various moves such as Fake Out, Sucker Punch, and Flying-type attacks from opposing Talonflame. Fake Out is an especially important move to block because it's incredibly common in the metagame, and Talonflame conveniently outspeeds every unboosted user of Fake Out bar Mega-Evolved Mega Lopunny. Snatch is a very useful move in Triples, as it can stop many common moves such as Wide Guard, Quick Guard, Reflect, Light Screen, and Tailwind. Stopping your opponent from using Wide Guard and Quick Guard is especially useful for helping Talonflame's teammates use spread moves or Fake Out. If you don't need Tailwind on Talonflame, or are using it on a Trick Room team, it has many other options it can use. Protect can be used for stalling Trick Room and keeping Talonflame on the field for another crucial turn of support. Flare Blitz allows Talonflame to hit Steel-types such as Aegislash. Taunt can help prevent Wide Guard, Trick Room, and other strategies. Will-O-Wisp can be used to cripple many physical attackers such as Mega Kangaskhan.
Set Details
========
A Jolly nature with maximum Speed investment is used to at least Speed tie with other Talonflame and allows Talonflame to outspeed Weavile and Quick Guard its Fake Out. 60 EVs in HP help Talonflame survive a -1 Rock Slide from Landorus-T. The remaining EVs are put into Attack to get the best damage output possible. Sharp Beak is used to give Talonflame a better offensive presence; it is usually used over Life Orb so that Talonflame will have a little less recoil and potentially survive a turn or two longer, as well as allowing another teammate to use Life Orb if need be. If you don't mind the extra recoil and want more damage, Life Orb is still a viable option. Gale Wings is an amazing ability, allowing Talonflame to usually move first, even against opposing speed control such as Trick Room and Tailwind.
Usage Tips
========
Talonflame should utilize its support moves to give your team the biggest advantage possible. If the opposing team doesn't have any way to initially stop your speed control, Tailwind should be used. If the opponent has their own Tailwind setter, you might want to attempt to Snatch it, preventing it and using it for yourself. Snatch should also be used if you have teammates using spread attacks, such as Earthquake and Hyper Voice, against a foe that might have Wide Guard. If you need to get a Fake Out off with one of Talonflame's teammates, Snatch can also be used if you expect your opponent to use Quick Guard. You can also use Talonflame's Quick Guard when you expect opposing Fake Out or other priority moves to come your way. Successfully stopping any Fake Out will usually put a big dent in your opponent's plans. Aside from its great support, Talonflame can use its strong priority attacks to get off good damage, being especially useful for its ability to hit any side of the field. Because of this, you usually want to position Talonflame away from the center to avoid more Pokemon being able to target it. Positioning it away from the center is also nice because Talonflame can use its great natural Speed for shifting, which can be very useful for protecting Talonflame's teammates from predicted attacks.
Team Options
========
Pokemon with spread attacks, such as Earthquake and Heat Wave, really appreciate Talonflame's ability to Snatch away opposing Wide Guard. Pokemon with good spread attacks that work well with Talonflame include Sylveon, Landorus-T, Blastoise, and many more. Talonflame can also use its strong Brave Birds to weaken Pokemon for these spread attacks to clean through the opposing team. Pokemon with Wide Guard, such as Aegislash, Hitmontop, and Hariyama, can assist Talonflame by blocking Rock Slide. Hitmontop and Hariyama also appreciate Talonflame's Snatch because it helps them get off Fake Out against Quick Guard users. They can also use Feint to break Quick Guard for Talonflame's Brave Bird. Pokemon with average Speed, such as Mega Blastoise, Sylveon, and Assault Vest Landorus-T, can benefit from the Tailwind that Talonflame provides. Trick Room teams like having Talonflame as a backup fast attacker and for the support it can provide against Fake Out users that try to stop Trick Room from going up. Snatch also helps stop Wide Guard, which normally threatens most strong Trick Room sweepers such as Sylveon, Mega Camerupt, and Jellicent. Talonflame also deals with Amoonguss well, which can be a major problem for Trick Room teams. Talonflame is very frail, so Intimidate support is useful to soften some blows. Landorus-T and Hitmontop both offer Intimidate support and synergize well with Talonflame for reasons listed above. Talonflame also hates opposing Intimidate, so having Bisharp as a partner helps to play against it and discourages your opponent from leading with or bringing in their Intimidate users. Some other viable Defiant or Competitive Pokemon to accomplish this with are Milotic and Braviary. Although Braviary stacks weaknesses with Talonflame and functions similarly, having both can quickly wear down the opponent's Flying-type checks. Electric-types such as Zapdos and Rotom-W can help against bulky Water-types that Talonflame struggles with. Rotom-W can easily deal with Landorus-T and can also Snatch away Quick Guards for Talonflame.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Choice Band makes Talonflame a very strong attacker that can hit any side of the field; it's especially good on Trick Room teams to OHKO Amoonguss, which usually is a pain. Running Choice Band means Talonflame gives up a lot of its support options and becomes much less flexible. Lum Berry can be useful when facing Dark Void Smeargle or Amoonguss. Focus Sash can guarantee Talonflame survives a second turn after setting up Tailwind. Talonflame can be run more defensively, as priority can make up for lack of Speed investment, allowing you to run bulk to patch up Talonflame's frailty. Acrobatics can be used as an alternative to Brave Bird with no recoil, but it has a much lower damage output and your opponent will be able to see Talonflame's lack of item in Team Preview and know what to expect. Charti Berry can be used to allow Talonflame to survive one Rock Slide. Bulk Up can be used to help Talonflame survive some attacks and become very strong, but it is often hard to find good setup opportunities and it is difficult to fit into a moveset. Bulk Up is also susceptible to being taken by opposing Snatch users.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Intimidate**: Talonflame's Attack isn't very impressive to begin with, and after an Attack drop from Intimidate, Talonflame can really struggle to do significant damage.
**Bulky Water-types**: Water-types such as Mega Blastoise, Politoed, and Jellicent can take Talonfame's hits fairly easily and fire back with super effective STAB moves. Mega Blastoise can also hit Talonflame from any side of the field when running Water Pulse.
**Rock-type Moves**: Talonflame will be KOed by almost any Rock-type move without Intimidate factored in. Landorus-T with Rock Slide is especially common and Intimidates Talonflame as well. Tyranitar takes Brave Birds easily and fires back with powerful STAB Rock Slides.
**Snatch**: Talonflame often provides great support with Quick Guard and Tailwind, both being susceptible to Snatch, making it difficult to play around opponents with it.
**Quick Guard**: Talonflame's main attack has priority, so Quick Guard completely shuts Talonflame down offensively. Without a partner with Feint or Snatch, there isn't much Talonflame can do to stop this.
**Electric-types**: Pokemon such as Zapdos, Rotom-W, and Thundurus resist Brave Bird and hit back with super effective STAB moves. Zapdos is especially good because it's very bulky and can Roost off any damage Talonflame does to it. Zapdos can also use Tailwind itself to match Talonflame's Tailwind.
Talonflame is a staple Pokemon in the Battle Spot Triples metagame that provides teams with a good offensive Pokemon with incredible support options. It has priority STAB Brave Bird that can hit any side of the field, no matter what position Talonflame is in; this means that unlike against most other Pokemon, your opponent can't position their Pokemon to avoid Talonflame's attacks. Talonflame is very useful for disrupting opposing strategies and providing your own team with speed control. It has support moves such as Tailwind, Quick Guard, and Snatch, all incredibly useful moves to have on a Triples team. Talonflame has a nice Fire / Flying typing as well, giving it some useful resistances to common types such as Fairy and Fire and an immunity to Ground. Furthermore, Talonflame can work on almost any kind of team: it's great on offensive teams because it can provide support without being dead weight offensively, and it provides great support for balanced teams or Trick Room teams as a fast backup attacker. However, Talonflame is very frail and has a crippling 4x weakness to the common Rock Slide, so it can often be hard to keep it in the fight for more than a few turns.
[SET]
name: Offensive Support
move 1: Brave Bird
move 2: Tailwind / Protect / Flare Blitz / Taunt / Will-O-Wisp
move 3: Quick Guard
move 4: Snatch
item: Sharp Beak / Life Orb
ability: Gale Wings
nature: Jolly
evs: 60 HP / 196 Atk / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Brave Bird is Talonflame's strongest STAB Flying-type move and hits any side of the field regardless of what position it's in. Thanks to Gale Wings, Talonflame can set up Tailwind very reliably, providing speed control for your team, which is very important in Triples. Quick Guard protects your team from various moves such as Fake Out, Sucker Punch, and Flying-type attacks from opposing Talonflame. Fake Out is an especially important move to block because it's incredibly common in the metagame, and Talonflame conveniently outspeeds every unboosted user of Fake Out bar Mega-Evolved Mega Lopunny. Snatch is a very useful move in Triples, as it can stop many common moves such as Wide Guard, Quick Guard, Reflect, Light Screen, and Tailwind. Stopping your opponent from using Wide Guard and Quick Guard is especially useful for helping Talonflame's teammates use spread moves or Fake Out. If you don't need Tailwind on Talonflame, or are using it on a Trick Room team, it has many other options it can use. Protect can be used for stalling Trick Room and keeping Talonflame on the field for another crucial turn of support. Flare Blitz allows Talonflame to hit Steel-types such as Aegislash. Taunt can help prevent Wide Guard, Trick Room, and other strategies. Will-O-Wisp can be used to cripple many physical attackers such as Mega Kangaskhan.
Set Details
========
A Jolly nature with maximum Speed investment is used to at least Speed tie with other Talonflame and allows Talonflame to outspeed Weavile and Quick Guard its Fake Out. 60 EVs in HP help Talonflame survive a -1 Rock Slide from Landorus-T. The remaining EVs are put into Attack to get the best damage output possible. Sharp Beak is used to give Talonflame a better offensive presence; it is usually used over Life Orb so that Talonflame will have a little less recoil and potentially survive a turn or two longer, as well as allowing another teammate to use Life Orb if need be. If you don't mind the extra recoil and want more damage, Life Orb is still a viable option. Gale Wings is an amazing ability, allowing Talonflame to usually move first, even against opposing speed control such as Trick Room and Tailwind.
Usage Tips
========
Talonflame should utilize its support moves to give your team the biggest advantage possible. If the opposing team doesn't have any way to initially stop your speed control, Tailwind should be used. If the opponent has their own Tailwind setter, you might want to attempt to Snatch it, preventing it and using it for yourself. Snatch should also be used if you have teammates using spread attacks, such as Earthquake and Hyper Voice, against a foe that might have Wide Guard. If you need to get a Fake Out off with one of Talonflame's teammates, Snatch can also be used if you expect your opponent to use Quick Guard. You can also use Talonflame's Quick Guard when you expect opposing Fake Out or other priority moves to come your way. Successfully stopping any Fake Out will usually put a big dent in your opponent's plans. Aside from its great support, Talonflame can use its strong priority attacks to get off good damage, being especially useful for its ability to hit any side of the field. Because of this, you usually want to position Talonflame away from the center to avoid more Pokemon being able to target it. Positioning it away from the center is also nice because Talonflame can use its great natural Speed for shifting, which can be very useful for protecting Talonflame's teammates from predicted attacks.
Team Options
========
Pokemon with spread attacks, such as Earthquake and Heat Wave, really appreciate Talonflame's ability to Snatch away opposing Wide Guard. Pokemon with good spread attacks that work well with Talonflame include Sylveon, Landorus-T, Blastoise, and many more. Talonflame can also use its strong Brave Birds to weaken Pokemon for these spread attacks to clean through the opposing team. Pokemon with Wide Guard, such as Aegislash, Hitmontop, and Hariyama, can assist Talonflame by blocking Rock Slide. Hitmontop and Hariyama also appreciate Talonflame's Snatch because it helps them get off Fake Out against Quick Guard users. They can also use Feint to break Quick Guard for Talonflame's Brave Bird. Pokemon with average Speed, such as Mega Blastoise, Sylveon, and Assault Vest Landorus-T, can benefit from the Tailwind that Talonflame provides. Trick Room teams like having Talonflame as a backup fast attacker and for the support it can provide against Fake Out users that try to stop Trick Room from going up. Snatch also helps stop Wide Guard, which normally threatens most strong Trick Room sweepers such as Sylveon, Mega Camerupt, and Jellicent. Talonflame also deals with Amoonguss well, which can be a major problem for Trick Room teams. Talonflame is very frail, so Intimidate support is useful to soften some blows. Landorus-T and Hitmontop both offer Intimidate support and synergize well with Talonflame for reasons listed above. Talonflame also hates opposing Intimidate, so having Bisharp as a partner helps to play against it and discourages your opponent from leading with or bringing in their Intimidate users. Some other viable Defiant or Competitive Pokemon to accomplish this with are Milotic and Braviary. Although Braviary stacks weaknesses with Talonflame and functions similarly, having both can quickly wear down the opponent's Flying-type checks. Electric-types such as Zapdos and Rotom-W can help against bulky Water-types that Talonflame struggles with. Rotom-W can easily deal with Landorus-T and can also Snatch away Quick Guards for Talonflame.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Choice Band makes Talonflame a very strong attacker that can hit any side of the field; it's especially good on Trick Room teams to OHKO Amoonguss, which usually is a pain. Running Choice Band means Talonflame gives up a lot of its support options and becomes much less flexible. Lum Berry can be useful when facing Dark Void Smeargle or Amoonguss. Focus Sash can guarantee Talonflame survives a second turn after setting up Tailwind. Talonflame can be run more defensively, as priority can make up for lack of Speed investment, allowing you to run bulk to patch up Talonflame's frailty. Acrobatics can be used as an alternative to Brave Bird with no recoil, but it has a much lower damage output and your opponent will be able to see Talonflame's lack of item in Team Preview and know what to expect. Charti Berry can be used to allow Talonflame to survive one Rock Slide. Bulk Up can be used to help Talonflame survive some attacks and become very strong, but it is often hard to find good setup opportunities and it is difficult to fit into a moveset. Bulk Up is also susceptible to being taken by opposing Snatch users.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Intimidate**: Talonflame's Attack isn't very impressive to begin with, and after an Attack drop from Intimidate, Talonflame can really struggle to do significant damage.
**Bulky Water-types**: Water-types such as Mega Blastoise, Politoed, and Jellicent can take Talonfame's hits fairly easily and fire back with super effective STAB moves. Mega Blastoise can also hit Talonflame from any side of the field when running Water Pulse.
**Rock-type Moves**: Talonflame will be KOed by almost any Rock-type move without Intimidate factored in. Landorus-T with Rock Slide is especially common and Intimidates Talonflame as well. Tyranitar takes Brave Birds easily and fires back with powerful STAB Rock Slides.
**Snatch**: Talonflame often provides great support with Quick Guard and Tailwind, both being susceptible to Snatch, making it difficult to play around opponents with it.
**Quick Guard**: Talonflame's main attack has priority, so Quick Guard completely shuts Talonflame down offensively. Without a partner with Feint or Snatch, there isn't much Talonflame can do to stop this.
**Electric-types**: Pokemon such as Zapdos, Rotom-W, and Thundurus resist Brave Bird and hit back with super effective STAB moves. Zapdos is especially good because it's very bulky and can Roost off any damage Talonflame does to it. Zapdos can also use Tailwind itself to match Talonflame's Tailwind.
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