Pokémon Iron Moth

[Rasar]

Iron Moth
Type: Fire / Poison
Ability: Quark Drive
Base Stats: 80 / 70 / 60 / 140 / 110 / 110 / 570 (Total)

Notable Moves:

- Discharge
- Sludge Wave
- Fiery Dance
- Hurricane
- Bug Buzz
- Overheat
- Agility
- U-turn
- Energy Ball
- Psychic
- Flamethrower
- Fire Blast
- Tera Blast

Full Learnset:

Hide

1	Electric Terrain
1	Gust
1	Whirlwind
1	Ember
1	Acid Spray
7	Struggle Bug
14	Fire Spin
21	Take Down
28	Lunge
35	Screech
42	Discharge
49	Sludge Wave
56	Fiery Dance
63	Metal Sound
70	Morning Sun
77	Hurricane
84	Bug Buzz
91	Overheat
TM001	Take Down
TM004	Agility
TM007	Protect
TM013	Acid Spray
TM014	Acrobatics
TM015	Struggle Bug
TM017	Confuse Ray
TM021	Pounce
TM023	Charge Beam
TM024	Fire Spin
TM025	Facade
TM032	Swift
TM038	Flame Charge
TM045	Venoshock
TM047	Endure
TM049	Sunny Day
TM060	U-turn
TM065	Air Slash
TM070	Sleep Talk
TM075	Light Screen
TM079	Dazzling Gleam
TM085	Rest
TM091	Toxic Spikes
TM093	Flash Cannon
TM103	Substitute
TM118	Heat Wave
TM119	Energy Ball
TM120	Psychic
TM125	Flamethrower
TM130	Helping Hand
TM136	Electric Terrain
TM141	Fire Blast
TM152	Giga Impact
TM157	Overheat
TM160	Hurricane
TM162	Bug Buzz
TM163	Hyper Beam
TM165	Flare Blitz
TM168	Solar Beam
TM171	Tera Blast

Pros:

- Sky-high Special Attack and great Speed stat make it a good wallbreaker / sweeper.
- Quark Drive boosts its highest stat (Special Attack) turning it from a good to a terrifying wallbreaker.
- Decent coverage with Energy Ball, Hurricane, and of course, Tera Blast.

Cons:

- Frail on the Physical side
- Is weak to Stealth Rock unless using Heavy Duty Boots
- 110 Speed is good, but it's still outsped by common threats like Flutter Mane and Chien-Pao. It could use Agility but may find it difficult to find an opportunity to set up.

Terastal Potential:

- Grass: A good tera type since it turns its Water-, Rock-, and Ground- weaknesses into resistances. But it's sort of redundant since Iron Moth shouldn't be taking hits anyway, and it could hit those types super-effectively with Energy Ball.
- Fairy: This is pure theorymoning but Fairy might be a decent tera type for Iron Moth. It allows Iron Moth to hit Dragon-types super-effectively and pairs well with Fire to deal with Steel-types.

Overall, I don't think you should terastalize Iron Moth since it doesn't really gain much from it.

Set-Up Sweeper

Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- Energy Ball
- Agility

This plays like regular Volcarona: You find an opportunity to set up Agility and then sweep. You could switch Booster Energy out for HDB to avoid hazards, but I prefer Booster Energy for the extra Special Attack. It can decimate anything on the opposing team..... as long as they don't have priority moves. Iron Moth may have difficulty finding an opportunity to set up Agility, so maybe you can switch it out for Psychic or Hurricane and turn it into an All-Out Attacker.


Overall, I think Iron Moth will be a top threat once the tier settles down. Is it broken? Maybe, but it's hard to tell since the metagame is still new.

 

[Eeveeto]

I would slash Morning Sun in the Ability slot. The bulk is not good, but the typing gives many resistances, so it will have plenty of chances to use it.
In general, lots of options to be explored with this Mon, like Toxic Spikes, U-Turn and Discharge.

 

[Rasar]

Oh shit I forgot that it got Toxic Spikes. Seems like it'll be one of the best users of it.

Do you think a set like this will work?

Iron Moth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- U-turn
- Toxic Spikes
- Morning Sun

 

[sharkb@it]

Iron Moth with Booster energy, sunny weather, and speed stat as highest stat = a terrifying 2x speed on entry. Which outspeeds choice scarf!

 

[Duck Chris]

Iron Moth with Booster energy, sunny weather, and speed stat as highest stat = a terrifying 2x speed on entry. Which outspeeds choice scarf!

Yeah nah doesn't really work that way, protosynthesis only goes off once for sun and the item goes off only if there's no sun

 

[LuckyTux]

It’s really tough to diversify Iron Moth’s movesets. With the way it’s set up, it doesn’t really *want* another type. If anything, I’d say a mix of the offensive and defensive sets would work better. Outside of Tyranitar, Garchomp, Dragapult, and Pex (plus Hisuian Arcanine when the post-home meta begins), nothing viable resists both of its STAB options— plus, outside of setting up a toxic spike on a mind game, there is not a real reason for Volcarona to try to stay in against these Pokémon. Here’s the set I would go with:

Iron Moth @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- Toxic Spikes
- Morning Sun / Tera Blast

While 252 HP sounds nice, Iron Moth needs the damage output against its offensive threats. On a good switch in, it can safely get up morning sun and recover reliably. Tera Blast (grass) could in theory work, but Iron Moth isn’t strong because it can check surprise check Gastrodon. It’s viable because it hits hard and has access to solid recovery and spikes

 

[Speny]

The concept of this set is to get the speed boost from Quark Drive, get a boost from Fiery Dance and potentially dodge an Earthquake well fishing for flinch with Air Slash. It's kind of gimmicky but when it goes off it's really fun to use. I kind of just took stats out of special attack and dumped it into HP, if you wanted to you could calculate it to survive something in particular.

Iron Moth @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 124 HP / 132 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fiery Dance
- Sludge Wave
- Air Slash / Hurricane
- Energy Ball

 

[Mahiru]

Regarding Agility sets, isnt Modest a better nature for this mon? After an agility it outspeeds the whole tier I think? (Bar some really edge cases I guess) Mdest would give it stronger fiery dances while still outspeeding.

Is there any speedy threat I'm missing? (Can't check right now but just thought about this while training mine in cartridge)

 

[escarlata]

Regarding Agility sets, isnt Modest a better nature for this mon? After an agility it outspeeds the whole tier I think? (Bar some really edge cases I guess) Mdest would give it stronger fiery dances while still outspeeding.

Is there any speedy threat I'm missing? (Can't check right now but just thought about this while training mine in cartridge)

At Modest, you notably get outsped by Iron Treads, Garchomp and Chi-Yu when unboosted, which Timid could otherwise beat from 100% / 40% / 80% respectively.

 

[Rasar]

After the true booster energy mechanics were discovered, yeah I usually run Modest for the extra power, but it's just my preference. I don't think either makes much of a difference, both work well since both its Special Attack and Speed are quite high, and it has ways of boosting them further.

 

[Suricata]

nice toxic spikes setter

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Iron Moth faces a lot of fierce competion from other Fire types such as Charizard, Volcarona and Chi-Yu. It is fastest of them all though and one of the few offensive Pokémon that absorbs Toxic Spikes. It also gets Acid Spray which is lethal when paired with hazards. Pretty underrated for the most part

 

[Loginator]

So what are the benefits of using this over Volcarona? I heard Volcarona mostly outclasses it so what is its unique niche?

 

[Yarvy]

So what are the benefits of using this over Volcarona? I heard Volcarona mostly outclasses it so what is its unique niche?

They're pretty similar. Right off the bat, Iron Moth has higher base SpA (140 to Volcarona's 135) and Speed (110 to Volcarona's 100). Volcarona is a little better defensively with slightly higher HP and Def but lower SpD. The big difference is that Volcarona gets Quiver Dance, and Iron Moth does not. Thus, Volcarona works better as a setup sweeper / bulky setup sweeper. Volcarona also gets Flame Body, which can help cripple physical attackers.

Iron Moth, I think, is a better Choice attacker since it has such high SpA and Speed. For grass coverage, it gets Energy Ball (90 base power) while Volcarona is stuck with Giga Drain (75 base power). Sludge Wave is a nice secondary STAB move behind Fire Blast/Flamethrower/Fiery Dance (better than Bug Buzz, imo). I've been running the below set. Tera Grass Energy Ball really chunks Ting Lu on the switch in.

Iron Moth @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Wave
- Energy Ball
- Psychic

While I haven't tried it, I also think Iron Moth is likely a better option on sun teams. Sun + Quark Drive and Booster Energy or Specs + Tera Fire (optional) + your Fire attack of choice makes Iron Moth a discount Chi-Yu.

 

[Loginator]

They're pretty similar. Right off the bat, Iron Moth has higher base SpA (140 to Volcarona's 135) and Speed (110 to Volcarona's 100). Volcarona is a little better defensively with slightly higher HP and Def but lower SpD. The big difference is that Volcarona gets Quiver Dance, and Iron Moth does not. Thus, Volcarona works better as a setup sweeper / bulky setup sweeper. Volcarona also gets Flame Body, which can help cripple physical attackers.

Iron Moth, I think, is a better Choice attacker since it has such high SpA and Speed. For grass coverage, it gets Energy Ball (90 base power) while Volcarona is stuck with Giga Drain (75 base power). Sludge Wave is a nice secondary STAB move behind Fire Blast/Flamethrower/Fiery Dance (better than Bug Buzz, imo). I've been running the below set. Tera Grass Energy Ball really chunks Ting Lu on the switch in.

Iron Moth @ Choice Specs
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Wave
- Energy Ball
- Psychic

While I haven't tried it, I also think Iron Moth is likely a better option on sun teams. Sun + Protosynthesis + Tera Fire (optional) + your Fire attack of choice makes Iron Moth a discount Chi-Yu.

I normally see people run Agility sets so this is interesting. Thank you!

 

[Venduria]

Iron Moth also has a 4x resistance to Bug and Fairy which Volcaorna lacks, which is pretty handy in this metagame since not very much wants to switch into Moonblast spam and U Turn. This can give it pretty decent opportunities to get in and cause some damage. I think Agility sets are fine for a late sweep but realistically there is so much priority spam that it can be difficult to pull off. Choice Specs, LO 4 Attacks, Air Balloon Toxic Spikes are probably the most useful sets right now, since I see Iron Moth better as a hit and run mon rather than a set up and sweep with Booster Energy Agility mon. Volcarona Quiver Dance just does it better.

 

[turd2]

Volcarona punishes U-turn more than Iron Moth ever could thanks to flame body... I've lost games because Scizor got burned from contact with Volc.

4x fairy resist is cool, but the premier fairy attacker in the tier (Iron Valiant) outspeeds Iron Moth and can run mixed sets to 2HKO you with physical attacks. Or psyshock to 1HKO you with special attacks.

Glimmora does "special attacker that drops toxic spikes" far better because it doesn't need to use a turn to drop the spikes.

Overall Iron Moth is a disappointment. Probably belongs in UU.