" So you say Silvally was based on Arceus? Just watch me. "
-Delta Arcanine
Hi guys, girls, stone lion and everything in-between! It was a close call, but Delta Arcanine stole the vote from Mega Crawdaunt after maybe 4 hours of draw. Rest assured, this won’t be a mistake! At first, when I saw it, I said " Meh! Not bad! " Then, I looked at its wiki page and I said " Maybe UU. And suddenly I saw three moves and normal typing and I said " Oh s**t its OU. "
Be warned, since there is no competitive usage stats avaliable, I do not have any reliable ways to accurately predict the metagame. This analysis is theoretical and does not entirely reflect a Pokémon’s viability.
Typing, Stats, Abilities & Movepool
Normal/Dragon
Ability: Inner Focus/Intimidate/Multiscale (DW)
Hp: 90
Atk: 110
Def: 80
SpA: 100
SpD: 80
Spe: 95
Multiscale man, MULTISCALE! Coupled with its bulk, it get SO MUCH EASY to setup a Swords Dance! We all know what happened to Dragonite when it got that in Gen 5. Being able to setup on a Ice Beam Spamming Starmie kind of thing. Oh god it can do a rampage if hazards nor sandstorm are up.
Just like Arcanine, it got great stats distribution. Nice bulk, coupled with Intimidate (even though it won’t use it). 90/80/80 make him quite bulky for an offensive Pokémon and 110/100/95 are nice offense too. 95 speed is arguably shaky, as it speed tie with Kyurem-B but crucially underspend the very crowed base 100 speed tier.
About its typing… I guess Meh would be quite accurate. It is weak to the somewhat popular fighting type as well as Ice and Fairy. It has resistances to Fire, Water and a Ghost immunity, all prominent types in Ins OU. Its not shiny on the offensive either.
Where Delta Arcanine shine is on the movepool. Swords Dance, Extreme Speed, Crunch, Flamethrower, Eartquake, doesn’t that remember something? Oh yeah, Acreus-Normal in OU, minus 10 base attack and a lot less bulk. He does not get much outside of it, but hey, that’s still a heck of a good niche if you ask me.
Sets Suggestion.
Extreme Killer
Delta Arcanine @ Lum Berry
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamand/Rash Nature
-Swords Dance
-Extreme Speed
-Draco Jet/Crunch
-Earthquake/Fire Blast
The three moves cover a lot of Pokémon, Crunch hitting neutrally of supper effectively Ghost types who are immune. Earthquake hits most Steels and Rock types, while Fire Blast 2HKO Specially Defensive Skarmory, something no other move can do.Do NOT use Flamethrower, its damage outpud is too little. For example, it 3HKO 252 Hp/4 Spd Skarmory. Draco Jet can be used to hit faster Ghost types like Mega Delta Charizard and Gengar in priority. Multiscale makes setting up Swords Dance very easy.
Other Option
I don’t see that much other options, as it does not has a flashy movepool and lack support moves to be effactive defensively.
Good Teammates
- Hazard removal is essential to keep multiscale intact. Zapdos is a good teammate as it can defeat Bulky Water types.
- Steel types resists Fairy, Ice and Dragon. Klefky is a prime teammate, able to settup Spikes to weaken Steel types and Toxic defensives foes.
- Wallbreakers like Mega Gardevoir, Mega Medichamp, Mega D.Typhlosion and Swords Dance Garchomp appreciate D.Arcanine’s ability to deal with faster offensive treats like Mega Flygon. In return, they heavily treaten slower, bulkyer opponent.
- Fairy and Psychic types deal with Fighting types that can annoy D.Arcanine. The previously mentionned Mega Gardevoir and Mega Medichamp, Latios, Clafable and Mega D.Venusaur are good examples.
- Electric and Grass types deal with Bulky Waters who can be roadblock for our lion friend. Zapdos, Mega Delta Gardevoir, Mega Delta Gallade and Thundurus suits the job very well fot the Electric, whereas Delta Greninja and Ferrothorn are good Grass ones.
Checks & Counters
- Sprirtomb activates New Moon (more on that later), is immuned to E-Speed and can burn D.Arcanine.
- Pressure users can ruin D.Arcanine as it has only 8 PP for Extreme Speed. This is further emplified under New Moon. Weavile and Raikou are by no mean checks, but are exremely annoying in that regard. Suicune is by far the best, as it can also check it.
- Gengar is faster, immuned to Extreme Speed and Earthquake, often carry Focus Blast but more importantly, carry Will-O-Wisp on most of its set. It dose loose hard to Draco Jet.
- Bulky Waters can proove to be hard to break. Espacially with reliable recovery. Mega Miloctic and Suicune are notable ones.
- Tankchomp eavely weaken D.Arcanine via Chip Damages from Rocky Helmet and Rough Skin and can phaze via Dragon Tail. However, Garchomp will take big damage in the process.
- Coverage dependent Pokémon are a huge problem. When carrying Earthquake, Skarmory and Ferrothorn can sits there and settup hazards. When having Fire Blast, most of the other steels and Tyranitar shut it down.
- Unnaware users in Quagsire and Clefable do not mind D.Arcanine that much.
- Burns, not matter how you slice it, totally invalidate D.Arcanine. It breaks Multiscale, turn its damage output from great to laughable and weaken it bits by bits. At least, Delta Arcanine runs can run Lum Berry.
Overall
D.Arcanine is a Pokémon easy to use and has great matchup against most Offensive Pokémon. It has dedicated checks that prevent its ban. It took some time to come out, but I was very busy this week. Hope you enjoy!
- Mega Crawdaunt
- Keldeo
- Landorus-T
- Mega Delta Venusaur
- Mega Gardevoir
- Others