Ray Jay
"Jump first, ask questions later, oui oui!"
Houndour is pretty obviously the right choice here, although y'all sleepin' on the dog even when he has a secondary ability of Early Bird (lol).
Houndour @ Life Orb
Ability: Early Bird / Flash Fire
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Atk / 196 SpA / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Substitute / Sucker Punch
- Destiny Bond
If y'all never used D-Bond Houndour alongside a Pokemon that gets checked by Water-types, get ready for the ride of your life. Houndour hits like a truck and laughs at our Ferroseed weakness, but also provides unique advantages over like Ponyta or Larvesta (ew Ray Jay your old age is showing). I agree with every thing Fiend said about why Cottonee is pretty unconvincing here, basically forcing us to successfully sweep with Clamperl or lose (and like Fiend, I believe we'll do the latter most of the time. There's a reason why Clamperl still struggled even when we had busted trapping support like Goth around). Houndour does a good job of being a side thing for Clamperl because if Diglett is in a spot where Mementoing is impossible and you have to sac it for some reason, you can bring in Houndour and start blasting things. You do this at the right point in the game and it's likely you're going to start blasting a potential Water-type with Dark Pulse. The offensive presence alongside Clamperl I believe is pivotal for this third slot. Houndour is also a good Pokemon to send in when you're mourning the death of Clamperl as well and your sweep didn't go the way you thought it would, because it shines when teams are weakened. That, however, requires a bit more Sucker Punch action, whereas I enjoy Substitute to ease prediction and Fire Blast misses.
It's going to be easy to build a defensive backbone around Diglett / Houndour as we have potentially two offensive Pokemon to abuse useful immunities to help us think about defensive typings to utilize. Some thinking ahead.
Early Bird is if we feeling the Foongus blues, Flash Fire is otherwise superior.
Houndour @ Life Orb
Ability: Early Bird / Flash Fire
Level: 5
EVs: 36 Atk / 196 SpA / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Substitute / Sucker Punch
- Destiny Bond
If y'all never used D-Bond Houndour alongside a Pokemon that gets checked by Water-types, get ready for the ride of your life. Houndour hits like a truck and laughs at our Ferroseed weakness, but also provides unique advantages over like Ponyta or Larvesta (ew Ray Jay your old age is showing). I agree with every thing Fiend said about why Cottonee is pretty unconvincing here, basically forcing us to successfully sweep with Clamperl or lose (and like Fiend, I believe we'll do the latter most of the time. There's a reason why Clamperl still struggled even when we had busted trapping support like Goth around). Houndour does a good job of being a side thing for Clamperl because if Diglett is in a spot where Mementoing is impossible and you have to sac it for some reason, you can bring in Houndour and start blasting things. You do this at the right point in the game and it's likely you're going to start blasting a potential Water-type with Dark Pulse. The offensive presence alongside Clamperl I believe is pivotal for this third slot. Houndour is also a good Pokemon to send in when you're mourning the death of Clamperl as well and your sweep didn't go the way you thought it would, because it shines when teams are weakened. That, however, requires a bit more Sucker Punch action, whereas I enjoy Substitute to ease prediction and Fire Blast misses.
It's going to be easy to build a defensive backbone around Diglett / Houndour as we have potentially two offensive Pokemon to abuse useful immunities to help us think about defensive typings to utilize. Some thinking ahead.
Early Bird is if we feeling the Foongus blues, Flash Fire is otherwise superior.