Armarouge
Type: Fire / Psychic
Base Stats: 85 HP / 60 Atk / 100 Def / 125 SpA / 80 SpD / 75 Spe
Abilities: Flash Fire / Weak Armor
Notable Moves:
- Armor Cannon
- Fire Blast
- Flamethrower
- Psychic
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Aura Sphere
- Energy Ball
- Dark Pulse
- Shadow Ball
- Tera Blast
- Will-O-Wisp
- Calm Mind
- Trick
- Taunt
New Moves:
Armor Cannon
Type: Fire
Category: Special
BP: 120
PP: 5
Accuracy: 100%
Description: Lowers the user's Defense and Special Defense by one stage.
Pros:
- 125 SpA is very solid, letting it serve as a decently powerful wallbreaker and revenge killer.
- Great movepool with tons of relevant coverage options such as Focus Blast, Energy Ball, and Shadow Ball.
- Amazing signature move with extreme power, at the cost of lowering its defenses
- Flash Fire is a nice ability, giving it an immunity that also powers up its Fire type moves.
- 85/100 Physical Bulk is nothing special but can let it take a hit or two.
Cons:
- Very awkward speed tier, making it slow to the point where most offensive Pokemon can revenge kill it easily, but also too fast to use Trick Room.
- Fire/Psychic is not a good defensive typing and gives it loads of common weaknesses such as Ground, Water, and Dark.
- Special bulk is quite mediocre at only 85/80, making it vulnerable to special attackers.
- Vulnerable to both status and entry hazards.
- Receives high competition from other offensive Fire types such as Chi-Yu and Iron Moth, as they are stronger, much faster, and have less disadvantageous typings.
Terastal Potential:
- Armarouge already has all the coverage it needs, so it doesn’t need to use Tera Blast. It can go for a Tera Fire or Psychic to further boost the power of its STAB moves, as well as making it less vulnerable to certain types and hazards.
- Alternatively, it can go for Tera Fighting to get rid of all its initial weaknesses and give its Fighting type moves more power
Potential Sets:
Choice Specs
Armarouge @ Choice Specs
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Fire / Psychic / Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Modest / Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Armor Cannon
- Psychic / Psyshock
- Energy Ball / Focus Blast / Aura Sphere
- Trick / Shadow Ball
One of Armarouge's primary roles is to serve as a wallbreaker. Armor Cannon is its most powerful move but shouldn't be spammed too much due to dropping Armarouge's defenses, and it doesn't have the bulk or speed to use it often. Psychic is slightly more powerful than Psyshock, but Psyshock can get past problematic special walls such as Blissey and Clodsire. Energy Ball is the preferred coverage move if running Trick, as it counters Water, Rock, and Ground types that attempt to take it out, and is more reliable than Focus Blast, yet stronger than Aura Sphere. However, if Shadow Ball is run instead of Trick, it should be used with either Focus Blast or Aura Sphere, as the combined coverage moves make it impossible for a Pokemon to resist any of its moves.
Choice Scarf
Armarouge @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Fire / Psychic / Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Armor Cannon
- Focus Blast/Aura Sphere
- Trick
- Psyshock
Armarouge can also serve as a revenge killer by patching up its poor speed with a Choice Scarf. The details are basically the same as before, with Armor Cannon being its most powerful move, while Psyshock targets special walls as the STAB Psychic move of choice. Aura Sphere is more accurate, but Focus Blast is much more powerful. Finally, Trick is used to cripple any walls that switch in on this set.
Other Options:
- A Calm Mind set may seem promising to patch up its middling special bulk and make it even stronger, but its very easily countered due it still being too slow and having common weaknesses.
Overall Thoughts:
Armarouge is a very neat Pokemon with a slick design and a nice Special Attack with some good coverage options, but it has no chance in OU. Its typing combined with an awkward speed tier and average bulk makes it easily revenge killed, and there's much better offensive Pokémon out there. However, I could definitely it having usage in lower tiers, as it's still decently powerful. It just suffers too much from competition in the current metagame.
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