Community POTW #002

[Serebii]

Time for Week 2 of th Galar Special!

It's Cinderace!

Go nuts

https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-swsh/cinderace/

 

[pikadon92]

It's been years since I'm out of competitive battling. I've just started playing pokemon showdown and had Cinerace first as part of my hyper offence team:

Cinderace @ Wide Lens
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Pyro Ball
- Reversal
- Endure
- Zen Headbutt

When I build this set, I have it in mind to make use of its ability Blaze. Use Endure to whittle down to 1HP, then use Reversal/Pyro Ball to dish out maximum power! I picked Zen Headbutt as the last slot as I though it could fight back against Toxapex, though I haven't met it to see whether it's worth being used. I gave it Wide Len just like my Cinderace in-game to boost the accuracy of especially Pyro Ball, but as I had missed it there twice in a row despite the item held, 99% accuracy may not be better than 90% after all.

Potential alterations

• For the item, it could hold Leichi or Salac berry for stat boost instead.
• I'm thinking of replacing Zen Headbutt with Court Change as I didn't lead with cinderace and my opponent set up stealth rock earlier. My plan is that after the setter is ko'd, I'll eventually have cinderace switched in and use court change, then endure + Reversal / Pyro Ball until it gets revenge killed.

 

[infernape612]

I haven't posted on Serebii forums in years... Well, might as well try to help out the community a bit.

Anyways, Cinderace has pretty good physical offensive stats with 116 Atk and 119 Spd. Movepool's a bit weak, though. I'm going to take a wild guess and say it'll end up in UU - I notice on Smogon that there seem to be a lot of powerful Water-types getting OU and Uber movesets fast (Gyarados, Quagsire, Toxapex).

Offensive Cinderace
Ability: Libero (preferred)
Item: Life Orb / Choice Band
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -Sp Atk) / Jolly (+Spd, -Sp Atk)
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Spd, 4 HP (or other defensive stat of your choice)
Pyro Ball
Zen Headbutt
U-Turn
Bulk Up / Agility / High Jump Kick

A basic lategame sweeper setup. Bulk Up and Agility buff your stats - Bulk Up for Jolly and Agility for Adamant. If you're running a Choice Band, however, you obviously want an extra offensive move. High Jump Kick is alright. Pyro Ball is your STAB Fire move. Zen Headbutt gives Toxapex pause. U-Turn is there to make a hasty exit if something nasty shows up (*cough* Hydregion *cough*).

 

[XaelOstigian]

Greninja may not have managed to sneak past the Galar border patrol, but he may already have infiltrated via his accomplice Cinderace. Seriously, Libero is basically just Protean by a different name, and Cinderace has the necessary speed and attack to be Greninja's physical replacement (Once the hidden ability is released that is...)

GOOOOAAAAAALLLLL!
Ability: Blaze (Replace with Libero when Released)
Item: Life Orb
Nature: Jolly
EVs: (HP 4) (Attack: 252) (Speed 252)
Pyro Ball
Hi Jump Kick
Gunk Shot
Zen Headbutt/ U-Turn/Sucker Punch

Set Details:
Pyro Ball is a powerful and fairly consistent STAB, Hi Jump Kick is comparable in power and offers you coverage against Rock Types as well as most Water and Dragon types, and Gunk Shot is mostly there for additional power coverage and a means to punish Fairy types. The last slit is a toss up depending on what you want. Zen Headbutt allows you a means to check Toxapex, U-Turn allows you to switch out and gain momentum, and Sucker Punch gives you priority against certain threats. Life Orb for extra damage, nature for speed, and EVs maxed for both.

 

[Divine Retribution]

Here's a fun little set I've been using the past few days. I'm not sure I'd call it amazing, but it's a nice way to make use of Cinderace's niches (specifically Court Change) until its Hidden Ability gets released.

Cinderace @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Jolly - Blaze
252 Attack, 4 Sp. Def, 252 Speed
-Pyro Ball
-U-Turn
-Court Change
-Taunt

Court Change is actually a pretty amazing move. Did your opponent just spend 5 turns setting up rocks, webs, and a full set of spikes? With just one move, all those hazards are now on your opponent's side of the field instead of yours! Taunt prevents them from setting up more hazards (and also stops set-up sweepers from setting up on him, if you can predict correctly), while the new Heavy-Duty Boots item prevents Cinderace from being affected by the hazards he's meant to reverse. Pyro Ball is his strongest STAB attack, and it still does pretty decent damage despite this set not using a boosting item. U-Turn is used to pivot out to a better check against opponents that resist his STAB, and can be used to grab momentum in general against offensive teams.

Not really the best Pokemon by any means, but Court Change is still a very fun little toy to play with, and it can screw over many teams if they don't know how to play around it properly. Once Libero is released, I think we'll see our rabbit friend doing some serious damage with its Protean clone ability and decent coverage. It boasts a fair bit more power than Greninja, at the cost of less coverage and no access to Spikes/Toxic Spikes (and no real capacity to go mixed thanks to its paltry base 65 Sp. Atk).​

 

[BillyBobJoe]

Cinderace is going to be a competitive Pokémon due to Court Change alone. The ability to not only switch Stealth Rocks and Spikes to the opponent but also take Aurora Veil for yourself is a massive boon.

 

[Emboar_Rulez]

I love Cinderace and use him in my Sword competitive team

Cinderace@Expert Belt
Jolly-Blaze
252-Speed
252-Attack
4-HP
Pyro ball
High jump kick
U Turn
Court change

I had my doubts about him when I first saw him but now I realize how good he is.

 

[pikadon92]

Looks like we're done talking about competitive battling, so I'm gonna talk about co-operative battling. I have posted by suggestion to include POTW with raid battles here.

In Max Raid battles, Cinderace can be a powerhouse the high attack and speed. Excellent pick for type advantages, plus it could be picked for coverages like fighting attacks against normal-type raid bosses if you don't have any other pokemon with the type advantage.

Recommended

• Blaze Kick can go along with Pyro Ball as its back up move, in case the latter's low PP is used up.
• Iron Head could be part of its moveset, as its very accurate to be used against barriers should you need to save PP.
• Choice Band for boosting your power. Locking to a single move isn't an issue, unless said move has low PP to begin with.
• Wide Lens as a safer option when you have inaccurate moves, especially Pyro Ball. But that said, the final accuracy not reaching 100 could still be a problem...
• If you use Helping Hand on another powerhouse, they can potentially take a huge chunk of HP off from the raid boss before they can set the barrier up. Doing so also helps to save PP depending on the choice of moves.
• Coverage moves if you don't have other type advantage to use yet: High Jump Kick, Zen Headbutt, and the previously-mentioned Iron Head.

Unrecommended

• Moves with low PP, which are Sucker Punch, Bounce and Gunk Shot. Pyro Ball is no exception either, though it helps to have a backup move.
  • The exception to this is when you have access to PP Up or PP Max. With 8 PP, you only have to worry about giving up 2 turns for attack, which can be used in using another move to break barriers. Watch out for raid bosses with Pressure, though.
  • Another disclaimer on this case is that my own pokemon aren't at full-level during raids, plus I mostly fought alongside NPCs, so I'm not confident that their power is worth it.
• Like the previous POTW, self-setup moves like Agility as the raid boss can unpredictably debuff them back.
• Low Kick won't work on raid bosses either.
• Don't bother with Special moves. Not only its special attack is low, it doesn't even have access to Nasty Plot!

Potential Future
Once its HA Libero is release, we no longer have to see Cinderace as a Fire-type, as it would have STAB to all the other coverage moves.
Offensive covereages (note: duplicates are striked out):

• Fire (from Pyro Ball): Grass, Bug, Ice, Steel
• Fighting (from High Jump Kick): Normal, Ice, Dark, Rock, Steel
• Psychic (Zen Headbutt): Fighting, Poison
• Steel (Iron Head): Rock, Ice, Fairy
• Poison (Gunk Shot): Grass, Fairy
• Flying (Bounce or Acrobatics): Grass, Bug, Fighting

In total, Cinderace Libero has the super-effective coverage against 10 of the 18 types.

 

[Alita54]

Yeah once cinderace HA is available it will probably be the best galar fully evolved starter.