A Wild Pokemon Appeared: Week 15 - Chandelure

Chandelure





Type(s): &


Abilities:

Flash Fire: One of Chandelure's great abilities. When switching into a Fire Move, it gains 50% on a Fire move. So now, you have base 240 Fire Blasts coming off of a 145 Base Attack.

Flame Body: When struck with a Physical Attack, Chandelure has a 30% chance of burning them. I bet you're already seeing how awful this is for it.

Shadow Tag: Usually blinds people from Flash Fire. It is certainly an absolutely insane ability... oh I forgot to say what it does? No pokemon can switch away from Chandelure. This makes a great ability on Annoyer and Revenge Killer sets.



Base Stats:

60 HP
55 Atk
90 Def
145 SpA
90 SpD
80 Spe



Overview:

All right, so two things stand out here. One is its insanely high special attack, even higher than the likes of Alakazam and Porygon Z. Another is its insane ability, shadow tag. One of the reasons that Wobuffet got banned to the uber tier was because of its ability, shadow tag, which meant that Wobuffet could essentally kill one of the opponent's pokemon almost guaranteed through the use of Mirror coat/Counter and because of its high HP. Well, Chandelure could perform this role also, just by overwealming the opponent through sheer force rather than using countering moves. Indeed, there could be an argument that Chandelure should be banned to the uber tier just because of its abilty, Shadow Tag.

Chandelure's typing can be both good and bad for it. Its typing gives it eight resistances/immunities, including Normal, Fire, Grass, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Bug, and Steel, while its typing also gives it five weaknesses, including Water, Rock, Ground, Ghost, and Dark. The bad part is that all of these attacks are fairly common attacking types, so your opponent will almost always have a pokemon that can hit Chandelure super-effectively. Also, Chandelure is weak to Stealth Rock, losing 25% of its health when the floating rocks are on the field. Nevertheless, Chandelure can be quite deadly when used correctly.


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Movesets:

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Chandelure @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Nature: Timid

~ Overheat / Fire Blast / Flamethrower
~ Shadow Ball
~ Hidden Power [Ice]
~ Energy Ball


Chandelure makes (possibly) the best revenge killer ever known. Huge attack, Shadow Tag to prevent switches, and a decent movepool. The first slot has quite a few options. Overheat is there for the ultra power, and is the preffered option as most weakened pokemon are easily OHKO'd by it. Fire Blast if you want to give it a decent chance at sweeping. Flamethrower if you want overall consistency, though it is not reccomended. Shadow Ball gives secondary STAB, and let's face it, with the Jellicent Ferrothorn core gone, who stands in your way? Hidden Power is for pesky Ground types, and Energy Ball for Waters.

However, Heatran fights for his spot for the best revenge killer and resists every move here. It is reccomended you bring a Ground Type or Blissey to counter it. If you use the latter, beware of Explosion.

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Boosting Sweeper

Chandelure @ Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Nature: Timid

~ Fire Blast / Flamethrower
~ Shadow Ball
~ Nitro Charge
~ Energy Ball


Chandelure's only hope of boosting is Nitro Charge, but luckily that's not that bad a move. Even with Chandelure's lesser Attack stat, it still gets STAB. It could be worse. It's easy: Switch into an attack Chandelure can take (Preferably a Fire Attack, and especially from a choice user) and use Nitro Charge on the switch. 426 Speed makes Chandelure the fastest house lighting fixture on the block. Fire Blast is better than Overheat in this case because of overall consistency, but Flamethrower still has 190 Base Power, and since Fire Blast, even with 240 power, has low PP and Accuracy, you may opt for Flamethrower. Shadow Ball for STAB, Energy Ball for water types.

It is reccomended you have a pokemon weak to Fire attacks, so as to lure an attack and switch. Ferrothorn makes a good pokemon, since Stealth Rock or Spikes can help Chandelure greatly. But, Forretress is a great option, since you can Rapid Spin Stealth Rock while your opponent switches and switch away from the Fire Attack. If you have no worry about rocks, Scizor is a great option for this as well since they do perform a formidable duo, though a strange one.

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Chandelure @ Leftovers
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Nature: Bold

~ Calm Mind
~ Curse
~ Pain Split
~ Will-O-Wisp


Chandelure makes a great pokemon to annoy the hell out of your opponent. Calm Mind just to boost Special Defense. Curse, although risky, will easily drain the opponent of their HP, and now that your HP is probably low, Pain Split and make the job faster. Will-O-Wisp makes Chandelure hard to take down, and supports the team in all.

[b]~ And you thought Umbreon was annoying.
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Taunt Breaker

Chandelure @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Shadow Tag
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Nature: Timid

~ Taunt
~ Imprison
~ Fire Blast
~ Shadow Ball


This set is usually played in the Lead Spot. Although odd, Imprison is the merit of this set. Any pokemon that will try to ruin your Stallers or Walls in general will take this wrath and lose all their PP in Taunt. And if your lucky, Fire Blast or Shadow Ball. Taunt is by no means useless on this set either: You can also use it to stop Stealth Rock, which is why it's in the Lead Spot.


~ And no need for Mean Look either. Just don't get taunted.
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Other Options

Flash Fire can feasibly be run over Flame Body on the Choice Scarf set, but it only really helps against opposing Chandelure, as Fire-type attacks are quite uncommon in VGC 2011. Flash Fire gives Chandelure a boost should the opposing Chandelure use Heat Wave, but it's far more likely that the opposing Chandelure will just use Shadow Ball, making Flash Fire almost useless. Fire Gem or Ghost Gem can both help Chandelure against specific threats. A Fire Gem-boosted Heat Wave OHKOes Amoonguss, so Chandelure doesn't have to use the single-targeting Fire Blast, and a Ghost Gem-boosted Shadow Ball OHKOs every Ghost- and Psychic-type in the metagame, making Chandelure especially potent against opposing Trick Room teams. Taunt is an option to stop opposing setup, but with Chandelure's Speed, it'll only be able to stop Trick Room, and Imprison does that very effectively already without being blocked by Mental Herb.



Will-O-Wisp

Will-O-Wisp may seem like a good idea to cripple Pokemon that might threaten Chandelure, but when Chandelure has so much attacking power at its disposal, it's much more effective to just attack and KO the opponent than attempting to cripple them. Fire Blast can be run over Overheat on any of the sets to avoid the Special Attack drop, but its lower accuracy and inability to guarantee an OHKO on the genies and Amoonguss generally makes it the inferior choice. Chandelure can run Flame Charge to increase its Speed without having to resort to using a Choice Scarf, but Trick Room does that very effectively already, and Tailwind is a far more effective way to increase Speed. Chandelure can use Choice Specs to make its attacks incredibly powerful, but loses the ability to set up Trick Room, and must be used in Tailwind or Trick Room due to its low Speed. Chandelure can become a powerful Tailwind abuser with its middling Speed and huge Special Attack, and can form the core of a strategy involving both Tailwind and Trick Room.




Team Options

The Trick Room Sweeper really benefits from Conkeldurr as an ally as Chandelure is pretty well afraid of Surf, Earthquake and Rock Slide. Wide Guard mitigates that fear. Whisicott makes for a good ally for the Headache set as it can either set up Tailwind or Sunny Day (or both), as Chandelure really appreciates any boost it can string together.



Best Counter Opponent:

The best counter to Chandelure (barring an Imprison from a faster Chandelure) is Hydreigon. Hydreigon resists both of Chandelure's STABs and everything in its movepool barring a Hidden Power Ice or Fighting. Anything with Sucker Punch is also a good choice, as Chandelure is pretty frail. All in all, the best way to counter Chandelure otherwise is to simply outspeed it.



Checks and Counters

Users of Rock Slide or Earthquake, such as Terrakion and Landorus, threaten to quickly remove Chandelure from the match. However, they need to be careful, as Fake Out users such as Scrafty can immobilize them for a turn and allow Chandelure to set up Trick Room, outspeeding and hitting them hard the next turn. While Chandelure's incredible attacking prowess makes it much less prone to Taunt than other Trick Room users, an untimely Taunt can stop Chandelure from setting up Trick Room, leaving it susceptible to faster attackers which can take advantage of its many weaknesses. Hydreigon resists both of Chandelure's STAB moves, only fearing a super effective Hidden Power, and can OHKO in return with its STAB Dark Pulse. Sucker Punch users, such as Bisharp, Druddigon, and Heatmor, can threaten to KO Chandelure before it moves, even if Trick Room is up, although they must be wary of a Rage Powder user, which can redirect and neutralize any Sucker Punch.


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Source(s):

1) http://www.serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?t=482033
2) http://teamuber.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8952
3) http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101942

Stated, according to the stuff taken.

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