Ability
Blaze : When user’s HP drops below 1/3rd, Fire-type moves increases by 1.5 times.

Base Stats
HP: 78
Atk: 84
Def: 78
SpA: 109
SpD: 85
Spe: 100

Erupt-Typhlosion

Typhlosion @Choice Scarf
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 6 HP
Ability: Blaze
Moveset:
- Eruption
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]/Hidden Power [Grass]

Typhlosion isn’t as bad as you would think. With decent stats in Speed and Special Attack, Typhlosion is capable to conducting a few sweeps before going down. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to choose from in its movepool to make full use of its Special Attack. On the brighter side though, Typhlosion does gain access to one of the most powerful Fire-type move – Eruption. The higher the HP of the user, the higher the damage done.

And that is why Choice Scarf is slapped onto this erupting beast. With Typhlosion acting first most of the time due to Timid Nature, max Speed EVs and Choice Scarf, Eruption is able to do optmum damage before taking a hit. However, as Typhlosion’s HP slowly wither down, Fire Blast becomes a better option, also getting STAB.

Fortunately, Typhlosion does learn Focus Blast, which is therefore, in his arsenal of moves. Focus Blast takes care of Regirock, Houndoom, and Clefable slightly harder than max Eruption. Don’t be fooled though, a Focus Blast coming from a 109 base Special Attack stat isn’t something to be laughing at, still causing plenty of damage even when Eruption becomes weak.

The last slot is very situational, and is up to preference. Hidden Power [Ice] allows Typhlosion to do plenty on Altaria and the like. Hidden Power [Grass] is mainly for things like Quagsire, Kabutops and Claydol, whom all easily wall or counter Typhlosion.

Max Speed is necessary to allow Eruption to do its up-most damage, but not fully necessary. One whom would prefer power over speed can easily swap Timid nature for a Modest nature to really floor the accelerator. If one were to be confident with Typhlosion’s Speed, then Choice Specs can replace Choice Scarf to deal plenty of damage, although putting max Eruption damage on the line.

Considering there are two Pokemon with the Flash Fire ability – Houndoom and Arcanine, a choice-locked Eruption or Fire Blast should be used very wisely. Acitvating their abilities might cause plenty of havoc considering Houndoom and Arcanine can easily sweep with two 50% boosts – one from Flash Fire and another from STAB.

In this case, it is necessary to have teammates that can help against Pokemon like these. An example would be Altaria, whom is pretty bulky and resists Fire-type moves. A bulky Water-type, such as Blastoise acts as a wonderful wall towards these Pokemon as well.

Howler-Typhlosion

Typhlosion @Salac Berry/Leftovers
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 6 HP
Ability: Blaze
Moveset:
- Howl
- Substitute/Rock Slide
- Focus Punch/Earthquake /Reversal
- Flare Blitz/Fire Punch

And this is where Typhlosion’s movepool really shines. With plenty of Physical moves to choose from, Typhlosion can easily get a Howl or two in, and sweep. Howl increases the user’s Attack stat by one stage, allowing Typhlosion to increase its petty 84 base Attack stat.

The second move decides the rest. If Substitute is used, then Focus Punch or Reversal becomes a viable option for the third move and Fire Punch takes the last slot. Substitute allows Typhlosion to safely increase its Attack and sweep behind a protection. Reversal does more damage when the user’s HP is low, while Focus Punch can easily take place behind a Substitute. Fire Punch then becomes a choice to avoid suicide from the recoil from Flare Blitz.

If Substitute is not used, however, Rock Slide can take its place, which gives type coverage. Rock Slide hits other fellow Fire-types as well which is definitely a plus, not forgetting Flying-types like Swellow. The third move, then opens up to Earthquake. Earthquake hits Drapion pretty well and disallows Nidoqueen to set up in front of Typhlosion.

And therefore, Flare Blitz becomes an instant pick. Not many can take a +2, or maybe even a +1 STAB Flare Blitz from Typhlosion. Imagine when Blaze gets activated.

Again, max Speed and Attack increase sweeping capabilities. Salac Berry is used preferably with Substitute, taking advantage of the slow, but steady increase of Attack stat. Leftovers, on the other hand, allows Typhlosion to stay in play longer and negate Stealth Rock damage in the long run.

Other Options
Typhlosion does gain a lot of Physical moves in its movepool, such as Low Kick which is exceptionally useful in the OU tier, being able to hit things like Heatproof Bronzong or Heatran if Typhlosion lacks Earthquake. It wouldn’t mind holding a Focus Sash to act as a lead Pokemon, while carrying Counter to deal atrocious damage to the likes of Metagross leads, Aerodactyl leads and the rare, Feraligatr lead.

Shadow Claw can also be used to gain more type coverage. ThunderPunch can take care of Water-types, especially in OU hitting Gyarados much harder than Flare Blitz or Eruption can.

The SunnyBeam combo is also part of Typhlosion’s arsenal, getting access to Solarbeam and Sunny Day. If a team lacks the inducing of status ailments, Typhlosion can always pack Lava Plume to (hopefully) burn a Pokemon or two, where Will-o-Wisp can do the same. Extrasensory also becomes an option, where Psychic-type moves gain quite a lot of coverage in the UU tier, hitting the likes of Nidoqueen, Hitmontop and a few more.

Opinion
100 base Speed is wonderful when compared to Arcanine’s and Houndoom’s 95 Speed, and only losing out to a few Pokemon, but its Special movepool isn’t very astounding to make full use of its 109 base Special Attack stat. When compared to other Special sweepers like Alakazam, Mismagius, or even Venusaur, Typhlosion doesn’t really stand out.

Blaze is very, very situational and is not as effective when compared to the abilities that other Special Sweeper has – Inner Focus (Alakazam), Levitate (Mismagius) or Synchronize (Espeon).

But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining.

With only 5 Fire-type Pokemon in the UU tier, Typhlosion does lose out to the likes of Houndoom and Arcanine whom have better abilities and better offensive stats. However, Typhlosion does gain an upper hand via Eruption, which is arguably the best Fire-type move depending on the situation.

Scarf-Typhlosion leads have little problem getting a kill or two, barring those packing Focus Sash, before having the need to switch out. Eruption does plenty of damage to practically anything not resisting to it in the UU tier. But again, Pokemon with Flash Fire can come into an Eruption/Fire Blast and sweep. However, this can be dealt with by having the right teammates around Typhlosion.

The Howler-Typhlosion does gain many, many moves to pick from as well, but without Howl, Typhlosion cannot really make the absolute maximum use of its movepool due to its very mediocre Attack stat.

Counters
Slowbro becomes a good example of a Typhlosion counter which doesn’t carry Hidden Power [Grass], as it can easily switch into Typhlosion, take a hit from Eruption or Focus Blast, recover the damage with Slack Off and set up in front of it. Altaria is superior towards Typhlosion that doesn’t carry Hidden Power [Ice], resisting Eruption/Fire Blast and Focus Blast, and then start to use Dragon Dance.

Milotic walls both the Howler-Typhlosion and Eruption-Typhlosion, easily taking a few hits, Recover or Rest-Sleep Talk it off, and get the kill with STAB Surf. Dugtrio cannot switch into a Choice Specs Eruption or a +1 Flare Blitz, but it can certainly revenge kill Typhlosion with ease, while Choice Scarf variations of Typhlosion can still take Dugtrio one-on-one. Thick Fat Miltank can cause lots of trouble as well.

---

May have a typo or two I guess. Was kinda rushing in finishing this. Please leave comments, suggestions, and do corrections, if you may.

A plain special attacking set is really necessery, saying that anything other than physical or scarf is just other options really isn't true. Also there are many instances of this so I'm not going to specify them all, but think about the bp of stuff before claiming something can be helpful for coverage, for instance fire blast hits nidoqueen and hitmontop just as hard as extrasensory and you don't really want to choice into a weak coverage attack unless you have to.

Also you should mention the danger of locking into eruption or fireblast as houndoom comes in, if your unprepared it could mean the end of the game. In fact you should probably mention some teammates that help Typhlosion both in stopping Flash Fire'ers and in taking down what few things can take an eruption.

ALSO remove all traces of Gyro Ball from Typhlosion's memory - NOTHING is worth lowering its Spe that much, and it can't even get to a decent BP when you do so.

Extrasensory doesn't appeal to me at all as a primary option - I think HP's are much much better for coverage, and should therefore be mentioned in place of Extra as the first move. The extra power is very little, and Psychic has poor SE coverage.

Editted everything - removed Gyro Ball, move Extrasensory into Other Options, tweaked the Opinion section a bit. Also explained the dangers of Flash Fire in the Choice-variation set. Anything else I'm missing?

Considering there are two Pokemon with the Flash Fire ability – Houndoom and Arcanine, a choice-locked Eruption or Fire Blast should be used very wisely. Acitvating their abilities might cause plenty of havoc considering Houndoom and Arcanine can easily sweep with two 50% boosts – one from Flash Fire and another from STAB.

should be

A Choice-locked Eruption or Fire Blast should be used very wisely, as having Arcanine or Houndoom come in and receive a Flash Fire boost could be devastating. Very few things are capable of taking Arcanine's Flare Blitz after the boost and giving Houndoom the opportunity for a free Substitute can spell disaster.

Also, again, a description of what teammates to give Typhlosion is important, for instance a Milotic is amost mandatory as it can reliably deal with both Arcanine and Houndoom while also Toxic'ing and walling Slowbro.

Finally there are quite a number of grammar and form errors having to pokemon and in general. I'll make a full note of those tomorrow.

Okay, I'll have a look at it again and edit whatever I can.

(11-03-2009 12:21 AM)ArmaldoEX Wrote:  

Ability
Blaze: Boosts power of Fire-type moves by 50% when at 1/3 HP or less.

Base Stats
HP: 78
Atk: 84
Def: 78
SpA: 109
SpD: 85
Spe: 100

Erupt-Typhlosion

Typhlosion @Choice Scarf
Nature: Timid
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 6 HP
Ability: Blaze
Moveset:
- Eruption
- Fire Blast
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]/Hidden Power [Grass]

Typhlosion isn’t as bad as you would think.I wouldn't say at all that there is a stereotype of Typhlosion being bad, in fact I think Typhlosion is often overrated because of Eruption. Basically, drop that sentance and mention something about how Eruption defines Typhlosion. With decent stats in Speed and Special Attack, Typhlosion is capable of orchestrating a sweep. Unfortunately, there aren't many options in its movepool to make full use of its Special Attackpotential would probably work better than Special Attack here. On the bright side though, Typhlosion does gain access to one of the most powerful Fire-type moves – Eruption. The higher the HP of the user, the higher the damage done. This sentence isn't really very descriptive enough, say something like "The base power of Eruptions varies directly with the percentage health of the user." However, once Typhlosion's HP drops below 80% Fire Blast becomes more powerfulThis sentence is moved from the end of the next paragraph where is was awkward.

That is why Choice Scarf is slapped onto this erupting beast. Typlosion outspeeds most Pokemon due to Timid Nature, max Speed EVs and Choice Scarf, allowing Eruption to do optmum damage before Typhlosion takes a hit.

Dropped the entire first sentence, it was awkward and unecessery. Focus Blast takes care of [/color]Regirock and Houndoom. Don’t be fooled though, a Focus Blast coming from a 109 base Special Attack stat isn’t something to be laughing at, still causing plenty of damage.Dropped mention of Eruption as it is irrelevant here

The last slot is very situational, and is up to preference. Hidden Power [Ice] allows Typhlosion to do plenty on Altaria and the like. Hidden Power [Grass] is mainly for things like Quagsire, Kabutops and Claydol, whom all easily wall or counter Typhlosion.
This paragraph needs some work. First of all, its not really purely situational and provides important coverage either way. Secondly, what is "the like" there are no other Dragon-Flyings in UU so that doesn't really make sense, you should probably just drop that. Finally Claydol is not doing anything close to walling you, without a resistance to Eruption is has no hope and wouldn't fare especially well against Fire Blast either. Rhyperior is an important mention for HP-Grass though, because otherwise it completely stops you cold in SS and kills you with Earthquake or its Rock-Type STAB of choice.


Max Speed is necessary to allow Eruption to do its up-most damage, but not fully necessary. Max speed doesn't increase Eruptions power, I know you know that but that is what your wording says. Instead give a Specific example of what max speed allows Typhlosion to outspeed. If you would prefer power over speed you can easily swap Timid nature for a Modest nature to really floor the accelerator.acelerator increases speed <_< again change the reference If you are satisfied with Typhlosion’s Speed, then Choice Specs can replace Choice Scarf to deal plenty of damage, although putting max Eruption damage on the line.

Considering there are two common Pokemon with the Flash Fire ability – Houndoom and Arcanine; a Choice-locked Eruption or Fire Blast should be used very wisely, because having Arcanine or Houndoom come in and receive a Flash Fire boost could be devastating. Very few things are capable of taking Arcanine's Flare Blitz after the boost and giving Houndoom the opportunity for a free Substitute can spell disaster.

In this case, it is necessary to have teammates that can help against Pokemon like these. An example would be Altaria, whom is pretty bulky and resists Fire-type moves. A bulky Water-type, such as Blastoise or Milotic Milotic fills this role better than either of your examples, it deserves a mention. acts as a wonderful check towards these Pokemon as well.

Needs a mention of a spinner, Typhlosion will be forced to switch because of its choice item and loosing 25% of its health coming in kills Eruption.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll do the rest later.