Community POTW #044

[Serebii]

Time for the next Pokémon, and this week we have the first Legendary Pokémon capable of being both Genders

It's Heatran!

https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/485.shtml

Go nuts

 

[TheIceCream]

I LOVE Heatran. It's one of my favourite Legendaries and one of my favourite Pokemon of all time. There's so many ways to use it, so how about it?

Positives:
+ 130 Sp Attack is without a doubt, amazing.
+ A good offensive movepool with moves such as Flash Cannon, Earth Power, Heat Wave, Magma Storm, even Ancient Power!
+ Fire/Steel means it double-resists 5 types while having 3 weaknesses. One of its double-resistances is Fairy, which until Salazzle existed, was the only Pokemon that had it
+ 91/106/106 is very bulky and can allow defensive Heatran to thrive
+ Flash Fire gives it an immunity to something it didn't resist and boosts its own fire moves when hit by one. Awesome!

Negatives:
- A very glaring 4x Ground weakness means that with Earthquake everywhere, this can mean Heatran doesn't stick around as long as it would like
- Base 90 Attack is solid but Heatran would probably never use it with its superior Sp Attack
- It's 3 weaknesses are very common
- 77 Speed isn't too bad but it does fall short of outspeeding a lot of Pokemon
- Flame Body while cool, isn't yet released

Abilities:
Flash Fire: A brilliant ability for a Fire-Type that doesn't resist its own type. Since its hidden ability isn't released, you'll always be using Flash Fire
Flame Body: It isn't released yet but even if it was, Flash Fire would be better unless on sets that are completely dedicated to bulk, which is rare. So, even when it is released, stick with Flash Fire.

Counters: Garchomp is an amazing counter, being able to OHKO Heatran with Earthquake if they don't carry a Shuca Berry, Tapu Fini fares rather well as well, Landorus T does a similar job to Garchomp, Bulky Waters such as Jellicent, Suicune, (Mega) Slowbro, Gastrodon or Araquanid do very well as well, with Araquanid having its ability to help with Fire Moves, Offensive Waters such as Pelipper or Mega Swampert also thrive with Swampert having 2 options to kill Heatran. Finally, strong fighting moves such as Kartana's Sacred Sword (Kartana must outspeed or is roasted) or Mega Lopunny's High Jump Kick. It's not too hard to counter Heatran, but you must need the right Pokemon.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

Don't forget Heatran gets Eruption from a 4th gen event. It forces it to be Quiet but it's very destructive in the right circumstances, especially in Doubles. Pair it up with something like Lava Plume Torkoal, if you manage to set that up successfully you can activate both Sun and Flash Fire at the same time, after which Heatran gets close to a OHKO on Cresselia with Eruption on the spread damage, without an item boost.

 

[Gardellade]

Heatran is one of the most versatile pokemon in OU. It has a plethora of sets it can run, all of which are complemented by an amazing defensive typing and ability.

Choice Scarf
Heatran with Choice Scarf
Flash Fire
Timid 252 Spatk/252 Speed/4 SpDef
~Fire Blast
~Flash Cannon
~Earth Power
~Hidden Power Ice/Stone Edge

ScarfTran is a nice lure for pokemon that normally love revenge killing it, such as Mega Mawile and non-scarfed Landorus-Therian. Fire blast is a consistently strong STAB attack, which is why it's preferred over Overheat. Flash Cannon is also good STAB that hits the plethora of fairies in the tier hard. Earth Power and Hidden POwer Ice are coverage moves that hit a lot of pokemon in the tier hard, such as Lando-T, Zygarde, and Toxapex. As an alternative over Hidden Power Ice, you can also run Stone Edge to hit Volcarona and Mega Charizard Y.

Bulky Heatran
Heatran with Leftovers
Flash Fire
Calm 248 HP/220 SpDefense/40 Speed
~Lava Plume
~Toxic
~Taunt
~Stealth Rocks
Heatran's defensive typing gives it plenty of nice resistances to work with. This heatran set is designed to take advantage of those resistances to set up rocks, status multiple opposing pokemon, and potentially shut down some more passive mons as well. 248 ev's go into HP for bulk. The 40 speed is used to outspeed neutral nautred mega mawile, which otherwise could knock off heatran's leftovers.

Z-Heatran
Heatran with Grassium Z or Groundium Z
Flash Fire
Timid 252 SpAtk/252 Speed/4 SpDef
~Lava Plume
~Earth Power
~Taunt
~Stealth Rocks/Solarbeam
This set functions as somewhat of a combination of the previous two. Lava Plume is STAB of choice because of its decent power and solid burn chance. Earth Power is secondary coverage that hits a lot of things that Lava Plume might not. Taunt is used to shut down set up and stall pokemon, while the last slot is used for rocks because of how consistently Heatran can set them up. Groundium Z is used with earth power to hit things such as Toxapex and Volcanion that normally wall Heatran, but if those are easily covered by teammates, Grassium Z is a better option because it lures many water types that think they can come in and wall Heatran, specifically Tapu Fini.

Other Options
Magma Storm: Magma storm is a STAB option that should be considered on all of Heatran's sets. It's stronger than Lava Plume and allows Heatran to trap and deal with a lot of pokemon in the tier.
Roar: Roar is an interesting option on bulky sets that can be used to shuffle opponents around and deal passive damage using rocks.
Will-O-Wisp: Will-O-Wisp can reliably burn opponents, but Lava Plume already has a high chance and deals damage.
Choice Specs: Specs Heatran is another interesting option that doesn't see too much usage, so it may catch opponents off guard, but Heatran is just too slow to comfortably run specs.

Checks and Counters
Heatran is a very versatile pokemon that has answers for a lot of its tradition checks and counters. Water types and Pokemon with water type coverage deal with Heatran pretty easily, if Heatran isn't running Bloom Doom and don't appreciate various status moves. Fighting types and fighting type coverage are also in the same boat, but they don't appreciate burns. Mega Charizard Y can deal a lot of damage using focus blast, but has to watch out for the occasional Stone Edge. Knock Off ruins defensive Heatran sets because Heatran has no other means of recovery. The biggest answer to Heatran, however, is ground types and ground type coverage. Heatran's amazing defensive typing leaves it 4x weak to ground types so faster ground types, whether it be via scarf or just natural speed, have an advantage over Heatran. Zygarde, Garchomp, and Landorus-T all naturally outspeed, but have to watch out for burns and Hidden Power Ice. Scarf variants of the latter two and boosted variants of all three can reliably OHKO Heatran with their Ground STAB. Many fast pokemon in the tier run Earthquake and Earth Power as coverage (such as Mega Pinsir, Mega Charizard X, Mega Diancie, etc.), all of which give Heatran a hard time.

 

[BillyBobJoe]

Considering its higher Sp. Atk than Atk, a more special-oriented set is desired. A support move set would be:
-Magma Storm -Sunny Day -Solar Beam -Iron Head/Flash Cannon

Magma Storm traps the opponent and thus, you can set up a Sunny Day and fire off Solar Beams. Solar Beam is Heatran's only defense against its 4x weakness. Iron Head & Flash Cannon offer a physical/special STAB option respectively.

 

[TheIceCream]

Don't forget Heatran gets Eruption from a 4th gen event.

That is very true. However, as you mentioned, forcing to be Quiet Nature makes it so it can't be fast, and it isn't usable in VGC due to having no Blue Pentagon or Black Clover. And, getting one in the first place is difficult.

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

That is very true. However, as you mentioned, forcing to be Quiet Nature makes it so it can't be fast, and it isn't usable in VGC due to having no Blue Pentagon or Black Clover. And, getting one in the first place is difficult.

Heatran can't be used in VGC anyway, it's not in the Alola Dex. But it is legal in Battle Spot Doubles. And yeah, it's difficult to set up reliably and keep that HP stat high for Eruption, and its speed tier is a bit awkward. With a low Speed IV and Quiet, it can outslow uninvested base 55 speeds with a neutral nature, but it's still somewhat fast for Trick Room. Ideally you'd use something like After You Lilligant in the sun after setting up to get around that speed problem, but first setting up with Torkoal and then bringing in Lilligant while keeping Heatran at high HP isn't easy. You'd need to avoid damage somehow while Torkoal uses Lava Plume, maybe by switching in Heatran with a slow U-turner which still outspeeds Torkoal (like Eelektross), and then Protect on the switching turn. With that kind of setup time it's difficult to pull off successfully. But if you manage to set it up, it absolutely destroys everything, because Flash Fire + Sun + STAB + Base 130 Sp.Atk + Eruption = insane power, it one-shots almost everything that doesn't resist fire. At full health in sun with Flash Fire, Eruption hits fire types harder than Earth Power does, on the spread damage.

So the idea is basically this:

Lead with Torkoal + Eelektross
turn 1: Use Lava Plume and U-Turn. The opposing side presumably goes first and deals its damage. Eelektross switches out after opponent damage and brings in Heatran, then Torkoal uses Lava Plume to activate Flash Fire and damage opponents
turn 2: Switch out Torkoal for Lilligant while Heatran protects. Presumably the opposing offence is focused on Heatran, which is the largest threat. Alternatively you can also Explode Torkoal in this turn to help Lilligant get in safely.
turn 3: Lilligant uses After You, Heatran uses Eruption and destroys.

It can be stopped in several ways. If Eelektross U-Turns on an opponent that uses Protect the entire strategy falls apart for instance. If Eelektross suffers from Fake Out it also fails. Alternatively, you can go with a slow Baton Passer to get around the Protect problem, for instance Musharna. Musharna can also be used as a Trick Room setter to go with Trick Room Torkoal instead if the opposing team causes that to be more desirable.

 

[EKZ1505]

Heatran can't be used in VGC anyway, it's not in the Alola Dex. But it is legal in Battle Spot Doubles. And yeah, it's difficult to set up reliably and keep that HP stat high for Eruption, and its speed tier is a bit awkward. With a low Speed IV and Quiet, it can outslow uninvested base 55 speeds with a neutral nature, but it's still somewhat fast for Trick Room. Ideally you'd use something like After You Lilligant in the sun after setting up to get around that speed problem, but first setting up with Torkoal and then bringing in Lilligant while keeping Heatran at high HP isn't easy. You'd need to avoid damage somehow while Torkoal uses Lava Plume, maybe by switching in Heatran with a slow U-turner which still outspeeds Torkoal (like Eelektross), and then Protect on the switching turn. With that kind of setup time it's difficult to pull off successfully. But if you manage to set it up, it absolutely destroys everything, because Flash Fire + Sun + STAB + Base 130 Sp.Atk + Eruption = insane power, it one-shots almost everything that doesn't resist fire. At full health in sun with Flash Fire, Eruption hits fire types harder than Earth Power does, on the spread damage.

I mean Eruption Heatran can't be used on Battle Spot Doubles if you're doing an actual Ranked Battle either, but it was powerful in VGC wayyyyyyy back in the day lol

 

[generic villager #5]

Call me crazy, but I think Air Balloon deserves to at least be an OO for Heatran. Granted, with Z-moves being a thing now, most offensively-oriented sets will want a Choice item or a Z-crystal instead. But there is some value in being able to avoid an outright KO from a coverage Earthquake, since it's such a common move and tends to appear on a lot of faster pokes. In particular, this can be frustrating to a weakened Garchomp (if at <50% of max HP), who could KO with Earthquake but instead has to use a NVE Dragon Claw or Stone Edge to break the Air Balloon. Even worse if said Garchomp is holding a Choice item or has to lock into Outrage. If nothing else, the Air Balloon is like a Focus Sash that doesn't break from entry hazard damage (since it's so hard to OHKO Heatran unboosted with anything but a Ground-type move) so you'll at least get a chance to set up Stealth Rocks or hit something with status.

Also, probably no one's going to bring it up but Assault Vest Heatran is a terrible idea. I saw it on a few forums last gen, it was a bad idea then and it's a bad idea now.

 

[Aduro]

One of the more obscure singles sets for Heatran is worth a mention. Z-Sunny Day. USing Z Sunny day pushed heatran to +1 speed. And at max speed modest Heatran will outspeed any unboosted Greninja, Azelf and Starmie. And in the sun it deals massive neutral damage. Or in a pinch it can just use Inferno overdrive to get over certain walls.

Heatran @ Firium Z
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sunny Day
- Fire Blast
- Solar Beam
- Flash Cannon/dark pulse/earth power/dragon pulse

Your last attacking move will depend on your teams coverage. Z-Sunny Day with solar beam is a really nice answer to any water or ground types trying to switch into heatran. With rocks it threatens Rotom, Keldeo and Manaphy with OHKOs. And fire blast just does massive damage in the sun.

252+ SpA Heatran Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Starmie: 328-388 (101.2 - 119.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Heatran Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Fini: 230-272 (66.8 - 79%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Heatran Fire Blast vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-Therian in Sun: 357-420 (111.9 - 131.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Heatran Solar Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Manaphy: 288-340 (84.2 - 99.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
252+ SpA Heatran Solar Beam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Keldeo: 314-370 (97.2 - 114.5%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Heatran Fire Blast vs. 248 HP / 156+ SpD Thick Fat Venusaur-Mega in Sun: 204-242 (56.1 - 66.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO