Strategy for Arcanine [Pokémon Sun and Moon]

This article contains information for the Legendary Pokémon Arcanine in Pokémon Sun and Moon.
The analysis would involve: the distribution of effort values, choice of movesets, recommended held items, and other suggested options. This will also show information on how to deal with Crobat during free battles and rating battles on Wi-Fi.

Basic Information for Arcanine

_{Source: http://www.pokemon.jp/zukan/}

Fitting Arcanine on your team

■ Physical Attacker set

• A strong Close Combat complements its STAB Flare Blitz well.
• Extreme Speed damage is maximized due to its Attack investment.
• Other options include Crunch and Wild Charge to provide additional type coverage.

■ Special Attacker set

Contrary to the Physical variant, this set does not suffer from recoil damage.

• Flame Charge provides a way to outspeed some threats like Garchomp and Salamence later on, allowing Arcanine to finish them off with Hidden Power (Ice).

■ Mixed Attacker set

• For reference: A minimum of 148 Attack Effort Values (EV) grants Arcanine a high chance to knock out Mega-Tyranitar with Close Combat.
• Whereas, a minimum of 124 Sp. Attack Effort Values (EV) gurantees it to knock out Aegislash with STAB Overheat.
• As a mixed attacker, it is able to effectively threaten both defensive and specially defensive Pokemon.

■ Physical endurance set

• As a physically defensive set, it can withstand Physical moves with a combination of Intimidate and Will-O-Wisp.
• A combination of Snarl and Substitute allows it to lower the opponent’s Sp. Attack, increasing its chance to survive even super-effective Sp. Attacks before its opponent blows its cover.

Countering Arcanine

Due to Arcanine’s wide movepool, it seems difficult to determine the its set when its hasn’t been revealed yet.

However, judging from its typing alone, Fire, Dragon resist its STAB moves. Another option is using Water-Types, but be wary of the occasional Wild Charge from the Physical set.

Intimidate and Will-O-Wisp are also troublesome, thus Sp. Attackers are recommended since majority of the time it will be using Intimidate as its ability.

Its lack of a buffing move allows Pokemon with high durability to come in on it.

Similarly, Pokemon with the abilities Competitive or Defiant can take advantage of its Intimidate to boost their stats.

The preferred Pokemon to send out are those that have high Speed, however if your Pokemon is running low on health it should be wary of Extreme Speed due to its priority.

Pokemon Sun and Moon Recommended Article List

This article is about Pokemon Sun and Moon. For information about Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon, click below.