Hey Guys,
As you may have seen if you battle random people on the Battlespot feature, there are many Pokémon who see far too much attention and with Pokébank now out, we're only going to see more of them. It's unfortunate, but these Pokémon are good, so it's only natural that people would use them. This can be incredibly frustrating battling similar teams over and over again.... or incredibly satisfying to punish people for being totally unimaginative.
That said, this little series that i'm starting will be show casing some Pokémon who i see far too often, and some nice ways to counter it. Let's begin, with this guy;
Heatran
Fire/Steel
Heatran is... an oddball to say the least. Despite having 2 types which are rarely good offensively, it's a Pokémon who has potential both Offensively and defensively, although is more often used offensively. Back in the weather era of gen 5, i used him as a Politoed/Ninetales/Abomasnow killer.
The most common sets involve him using either a life orb, choice scarf, or choice specs. His Special attack and movepool are both powerful, making him all the more dangerous. His typing and considerable bulk means that you probably wont be killing him in 1 hit unless boosted. An Earthquake could do it, assuming you're opponent isn't carrying an Air balloon (Also a common item). More often that not he'll have an attack to hit you for neutral damage, and it'll hurt.
Ok, so there's the bad news. Time to think about it's flaws. First we'll talk about what can switch into an attack from heatran. The most common sets use, Lava Plume, Earth Power... and not much else really. They normally carry hidden power, but i can't say which they would use.
Bulky water types are normally the way forward with heatran. Something like Milotic which has recovery works wonders as does swampert. Hidden Power grass would wreck Swampert though. Water types would normally force Heatran to switch, so i like to carry something like Roar/Dragon Tail on them, just to troll them when they switch it out (It works great if they switch, you roar and they send heatran back out). Outside of water types, Snorlax and Blissey both work wonders, although having blissey makes you predictable. Anything that can safely thunder wave it also helps. Anything with Prankster that can inflict status will die from a STAB lava plume, so that should only be used as a last resort.
Now, walling Heatran is one thing but killing him is another matter entirely. Luckily it's much easier. Heatran is weak to; Water, Fighting, and Ground. All of which are common attacks. Personally, i would aim for something like a Close Combat, in case they carry a balloon. Normally, at some point in the game, if your opponent sends out Heatran, you will lose a Pokémon so safely switching in a fighting type isn't hard work. Heatran has a relatively slow base speed of 77, meaning that a lot of fighting types can outspeed it without a boost. Those that do need a boost, are probably bulky enough to hit it with a Drain punch (thinking of conkeldurr) to negate the damage.
That's about it for this session, i haven't really done reviews like this before, so if you have an suggestions for improvements just send me a cheeky PM.
Any extra comments on how to take down Heatran? Want some advice for the next installment? Feel free to post it below.
Stay Sexy People,
Jace
As you may have seen if you battle random people on the Battlespot feature, there are many Pokémon who see far too much attention and with Pokébank now out, we're only going to see more of them. It's unfortunate, but these Pokémon are good, so it's only natural that people would use them. This can be incredibly frustrating battling similar teams over and over again.... or incredibly satisfying to punish people for being totally unimaginative.
That said, this little series that i'm starting will be show casing some Pokémon who i see far too often, and some nice ways to counter it. Let's begin, with this guy;
Heatran
Fire/Steel
Heatran is... an oddball to say the least. Despite having 2 types which are rarely good offensively, it's a Pokémon who has potential both Offensively and defensively, although is more often used offensively. Back in the weather era of gen 5, i used him as a Politoed/Ninetales/Abomasnow killer.
The most common sets involve him using either a life orb, choice scarf, or choice specs. His Special attack and movepool are both powerful, making him all the more dangerous. His typing and considerable bulk means that you probably wont be killing him in 1 hit unless boosted. An Earthquake could do it, assuming you're opponent isn't carrying an Air balloon (Also a common item). More often that not he'll have an attack to hit you for neutral damage, and it'll hurt.
Ok, so there's the bad news. Time to think about it's flaws. First we'll talk about what can switch into an attack from heatran. The most common sets use, Lava Plume, Earth Power... and not much else really. They normally carry hidden power, but i can't say which they would use.
Bulky water types are normally the way forward with heatran. Something like Milotic which has recovery works wonders as does swampert. Hidden Power grass would wreck Swampert though. Water types would normally force Heatran to switch, so i like to carry something like Roar/Dragon Tail on them, just to troll them when they switch it out (It works great if they switch, you roar and they send heatran back out). Outside of water types, Snorlax and Blissey both work wonders, although having blissey makes you predictable. Anything that can safely thunder wave it also helps. Anything with Prankster that can inflict status will die from a STAB lava plume, so that should only be used as a last resort.
Now, walling Heatran is one thing but killing him is another matter entirely. Luckily it's much easier. Heatran is weak to; Water, Fighting, and Ground. All of which are common attacks. Personally, i would aim for something like a Close Combat, in case they carry a balloon. Normally, at some point in the game, if your opponent sends out Heatran, you will lose a Pokémon so safely switching in a fighting type isn't hard work. Heatran has a relatively slow base speed of 77, meaning that a lot of fighting types can outspeed it without a boost. Those that do need a boost, are probably bulky enough to hit it with a Drain punch (thinking of conkeldurr) to negate the damage.
That's about it for this session, i haven't really done reviews like this before, so if you have an suggestions for improvements just send me a cheeky PM.
Any extra comments on how to take down Heatran? Want some advice for the next installment? Feel free to post it below.
Stay Sexy People,
Jace
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