Pokemon of the Week #2 - Arcanine

This week's pokemon is Arcanine a pokemon capable of Physcial Attacking and Special Attacking, also a hecka bulky pokemon.



Tier: BL

Type: Fire

Abilities
Itimidate: Lowers the foe's Attack 1 stage. Decreases wild encounter rate.
Flash Fire: Grants immunity to Fire and increases Fire's power 50% when hit by a Fire move.

	Base	Min-	Min	Max	Max+
HP	90		321	384
ATK	110	230	256	319	350
DEF	80	176	196	259	284
Sp. ATK	100	212	236	299	328
Sp. DEF	80	176	196	259	284
SPE	95	203	226	289	317

ChoiceBandArcanine
Held Item: Choice Band
Ability: Itimidate
Adamant / Jolly Nature
EVS: 6 HP 252 ATK 252 SPEED
Flare Blitz
Extremespeed
Thunder Fang
Iron Head / Crunch

Choice Band Arcanine has a monstorous atk of 525 when its adamant nature and choice banded. Flare Blitz is a awesome STAB move it tends to dent everything that doesn't resist fire. Extremespeed is to finish already worn down pokes, or if your trapped by dugtrio which is rare case.Thunderfang dents bulky waters and OHKO's Gyarados either if Arcanine is itmidated or not. As for the last slot, the choice is up to you Iron Head dents rock types, even do Arcanine shouldn't be up against Rock types usually. Crunch scars up Cresselia and Dusknoir without taking recoil like flare blitz does, but flare blitz will still do more damage. Crunch also dents the likes of Slowbro and Slowking that resists Arcanine's STAB.

ScarfMixArcanine
Held Item: Choice Scarf
Ability Itimidate
Lonely Nature
EVS: 252 ATK 48 Sp. ATK 208 Speed
Flare Blitz
Thunder Fang / Iron Head
Hidden Power Grass / Ground / Ice / Electric
Overheat / Dragon Pulse

This sets evs are given to outspeed max speed Electrode and DD mence after a dragon dance. Flare Blitz is a powerful STAB move. Thunderfang will not OHKO Gyarados on this set when its itimidated, but will OHKO if its not. Iron Head dents Rock Types. Hidden Power Choices, you have a lot of them, Hidden Power grass deals with Swamperts and Rhyperior, Hidden Power Ground hits hard on other Fire types. Hidden Power Ice will OHKO the common dragons, unless they contain yache berry which is rare. Hidden Power Electric is needed if you don't have thunderfang, it will also OHKO Gyarados usually. Overheat hits physical walls hard and suprises them. Dragon Pulse is a option if you don't have Hidden Power Ice.

SpecsArcanine
Held Item: Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
Naive Nature
EVS: 6 HP 252 Sp. ATK 252 Speed
Flamethrower
Dragon Pulse
Hidden Power Grass
Overheat / Extremespeed

SpecsArcanine is not as effective as the other sets since its base sp. atk is lower, but he can be a suprise to physical defensive threats. Flamethrower and Dragon Pulse give Arcanine quite some coverage. Hidden Power Grass will always OHKO Swampert and Rhyperior. Overheat is always nice on this set for damaging Cresselia badly, as for Extremespeed finishes worn down pokemon.

Mix Sweeper Arcanine
Held Item: Life Orb
Ability: Flash Fire
Naive Nature
EVS: 228 ATK 92 Sp. ATK 188 Speed
Flare Blitz
Over Heat
Extremespeed / Dragon Pulse
Hidden Power Electric / Ground / Grass / Fighting

This set rapes just like most mix sweeping sets. Getting a Flash Fire bonus means the opponents is going to have to watch out big time he can hit hard on the side which the opponents pokemon is weaker to. Flare Blitz hits hard on the physcial side, with life orb and flash fire, using Flare Blitz will OHKO the common Blissey and make the opponent cry to mommy. Overheat hits hard on the Special side of the spectrum after Flash Fire activation it will nail Hippowdon and Donphan, it will OHKO Gliscor with no problem. Extremespeed will quickly finish off the pokemon that are nearly finished. Dragon Pulse is used against Dragon types, but the ev investment in Atk makes extremespeed the prior option. Hidden Power choices are Eletric, Ground, Grass, and Fighting. Hidden Power Eletric OHKO's Gyarados. Hidden Power Ground hits hard on Rock Types. Hidden Power Grass gets rid of common Swampert and also dents Rhyperior usually a OHKO if not in sandstorm. Hidden Power Fighting deals Tyranitar, but makes more counters for this set come in.

Bulky Arcanine
Held Item: Leftovers
Ability: Itimidate
Bold Nature
IVS: 30 Sp. ATK / 30 Sp. DEF
EVS: 240 HP 168 Def 28 Sp. ATK 72 Speed
Will-o-Wisp
Flamethrower / Fire Blast
Hidden Power Ground
Roar

Due to itimidate and Arcanine's decent defenses, Arcanine makes a ok defender. The evs ensure that Arcanine is faster than jolly Tyranitar, but make sure the speed iv is good. Will-o-Wisp wears down physical sweepers by a lot. Dugtrio will have no way of OHKOing Arcanine while burned or even itmidated. Flamethrower and Fire Blast are choices for the next slot Flamethrower does a good amount of damage, but this Arcanine set tends to not hit so hard so Fire Blast is there if needed. Hidden Power ground takes on threats such as Heatran. Roar things away if they plan on setting up.

Opinon
Arcanine is mainly a sweeper pokemon. He is best when you have a choice item on him.

Counters
Rhyperior and Swampert are the biggest counters to Arcanine if he doesn't pack Hidden Power Grass. Heatran tears apart every set possible Arcanine except for the scarf set if its packing Hidden Power Ground. Blissey walls almost every hit you throw at it without a Choice Band. Bulky Waters easily counter Arcanine even if he has Thunder Fang. Gyarados is the biggest threat making Arcanine since it will subtract his attack with itimidate making thunder fang sometimes not even OHKOing him.

Other Options
You can try other moves like howl, or try and make a rest sleep talk set, but there isnt much more than whats here.

Well Arcanine isnt the best sweeper so he makes a rating of...

Rating: 7.5/10