INCINEROAR STRATEGY IN COMPETITIVE POKÉMON

We bring you a very special Competitive Strategy, one of the best Pokémon ever created and one of the most dominant in Competitive, Incineroar .

This Pokémon is present in many teams due to its great versatility. It has a great Typing, great stats, and a really huge number of good moves. All this means that we can adapt Incineroar to cover many of the needs that our team may have; from covering a specific Pokémon with good resistance to its hits and returning damage to its favorite function, lessening the impact of a Pokémon by forcing it to switch.

Whether you decide to carry it on your team or not, it is very important to understand what this great support can do, what its weaknesses and strengths are, and how to counter it.

We show it here, let’s go to it.

? INCINEROAR STATS

Its stats add up to a total of 530 points , which places it in the average starting Pokémon:

• Health: 95.
• Attack: 115.
• Defense: 90.
• Special Attack: 80.
• Special Defense: 90.
• Speed: 60.

With a total sum of 530 we are looking at a Pokémon with good statistics, but in the average of the statistics of other starter Pokémon. Its 115 Attack means that despite being used as a support Pokémon, focused on removing or reducing threats, it hits really hard and surprises many Pokémon.

One problem it has offensively is that it’s not a fast Pokémon, but it’s also not extremely slow. Although going last will benefit you at times, although we must pay special attention to Pokémon like Groudon that can do us a lot of damage.

It is on the defensive side where Incineroar especially shines. With 95 Health and 90 Resistances, it’s very solid, which coupled with its typing makes it an excellent defensive Pokemon.

TYPE, RESISTANCES AND WEAKNESSES

Incineroar is a Dark Fire Type , which gives it the following weaknesses and resistances:

• He is immune to Psychic.
• It is resistant to Fire, Earth, Ice, Ghost, Dark, and Steel.
• It is weak to Water, Fighting, Rock, and Ground.

As we can see, Incineroar has 6 resistances, an immunity and no weakness x4, which makes it a very difficult Pokémon to eliminate. It can be a great Pokemon for soaking up a hit on a forced switch, or undermining a Pokemon’s attack and taking it easily.

And now we go with the bad, its weaknesses:

• Earth : If we do not carry the Acardo Berry, it is the most common type of cover that can hurt us. Special attention to Groudon.
• Water : Same as land. Keep in mind that with Assault Vest we usually lower the damage since most Water attacks are Special damage. Kiogre is the most dangerous for the special part, and Ursifu Fuído is very dangerous since his attack is always critical, which cancels the intimidate effect.
• Roca : It is not the most common and dangerous type, but Solgaelo and Tyranitar can do a lot of damage to us, especially the first one as it is immune to our Intimidate
• Fighting : In this type, Ursifu is the most dangerous Pokémon of the type, but it is very common for other Pokémon to carry Fighting coverage.

INCINEROAR ABILITIES

Let’s now see his abilities and which ones could become interesting:

SEA ​​FLAMES

Incineroar’s basic ability is very weak, it will give us an extra 50% damage on our fire-type attack when we are at 1/3 health points. We will never use this ability in any set because, in addition to being a bad ability, Incineroar has access to a much superior ability.

INTIMIDATE

Incineroar’s hidden ability lowers enemies’ Physical Attack damage by one stage when entering the field. One of the best abilities in the game, which also affects both enemy Pokémon in doubles. This will make it so that with the correct EVs it can resist even very effective attacks, something that will surprise your opponent. One of the best skills in Competitive.

IVS, EVS AND NATURE

The perfect Iv’s, seldom will it be like that… let’s get to the interesting thing, which are the EV’s and Nature:

For the more defensive version :

• EV’s : We want Incineroar to last as long as possible, that we can take it out and put it on the field as many times as possible, that’s why we will prioritize Health and Defense/Special Defense.
• Nature : One that lowers our Special Attack (which we don’t care about) and improves our Attack or Defenses, which is what we really want to enhance. Steadfast (+Attack -Special Attack), Agitated (+Defense -Special Attack), Cautious (+Special Def – Special Attack).. This will depend on what you prefer and the strategy you are looking for, we will see below.

For a more offensive version :

• EV’s : We seek to make Incineroar as fast as possible to surprise our rival. For this reason we will carry 252 in Attack and 252 in Speed, with the remaining 4 in Health.
• Nature : We will carry Happy Nature (+Speed, -Special Attack).

RECOMMENDED ITEM

These are the items I recommend for Incineroar. Yes, there are many and it will depend on what we want Incineroar for (the Pokémon we want to cover and reduce its damage):

• Assault Vest : Increases our Special Defense in exchange for only using damage moves, not allowing us to use status moves.
• Acardo Berry : It will halve the damage of the first Earth-type attack we receive, especially important against Groudon, Garchomp , Heatran and Gastrodon.
• Zidra Berry : The safest item. It will restore 1/4 of your Health when it drops below 50%, making it very difficult to remove your Incineroar.
• Jagged Helmet : The opposing Pokémon will lose 1/6 of its health when making a contact attack. Interesting for breaking Focus Band and doing some damage on forced switches.
• Chunky Boots : If we don’t have a Pokémon to wear them, they are very good in singles to avoid Trap Rocks.
• Goggles : Makes the Pokémon immune to dust-based moves like Spore, Sleeping Powder, Rage Dust, Hail (for example, Alolan Ninetales ) and Sandstorm (for example, Tyranitar).

BEST MOVES FOR INCINEROAR

The movements that I recommend the most for Incineroar:

• Igneous Envite : STAB Fire, Physical, 120 power and 100% accuracy, which will do 1/3 of the damage caused to us. A great move that can do a lot of damage to Pokemon like Zacian , Kartana, or Rillaboom . Remember that Fire is effective against Grass, Steel, Ice and Bug.
• Dark Lariat : Dark STAB, Physical, 85 power, 100% accuracy and ignores changes to enemy defenses and evasion. It can do a lot of damage to Ghost-type Pokémon like Gengar or Calyrex Spectral Rider and Dark-type Pokémon like Weavile . Also, it does a lot of damage to Pokémon that raise their defenses.
• Surprise : Normal, Physical, 40 power and 100% accuracy. Movement with Priority +1, that is, it hits before movements without priority. It also prevents the opposing Pokémon from making a move. CAN ONLY BE USED ON THE FIRST TURN the Pokémon enters the field (every time it enters). A very powerful movement, which is widely used especially in Doubles.
• Fatuous Fire: Fire, Status, 85% accuracy that burns the enemy, status that halves the physical damage that it will produce.
• Round Trip : Bug, Physical, 70 power and 100% accuracy and returns the Pokémon to its Poké Ball. Move that does little damage, but allows us to switch to Incineroar, making a safe switch, and being able to put it back on the field for Intimacy again.
• Last Word : This Status move lowers the enemy’s Attack and Special Attack by one level, and returns the Poké Ball to Incineroar. So we can get him back into the field and get back to Intimidate. The best support move in the game was given to Incineroar in Gen 8 and is almost always the best option, especially in doubles.
• Scream : STAB Dark, Special, 55 power and 95% accuracy. Lower the Special Attack level of the enemy Pokémon(s) by 1. Very good move to lower the damage of Special Attackers.
• Taunt : Dark, Status, 100% Accuracy. Makes the enemy Pokemon only able to use combat moves, so if it uses status moves it will fail. Those Rare Spaces that annoy so much will not be a problem.
• Gag Strike : STAB Dark, Physical, 80 power and 100% accuracy. Prevents the enemy Pokémon from using Sound moves for 2 turns; moves such as Scream, Last Word, Death Song or Vozarrón.

INCINEROAR STRATEGIES

Here are some strategies on how to play Incineroar in Competitive, but it is very important that we understand its role. Incineroar is a disabler ; with Intimidate, Last Word, Surprise and absorbing damage he can decide a game with almost no hits. Its damage isn’t low, it can knock out more than a few unexpected Pokémon, but it’s important to think of Incineroar as a slow but sure wear. Let’s see what sets you can use:

INCINERATE THE UNKILLABLE – SINGLES

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: 252 Health, 4 Attack, 4 Defense, 228 Special Defense, 20 Speed
• Nature: Cautious.
• Item: Assault Vest.
• Ability: Intimidate.
• Movements:
  • Dark Lariat.
  • Igneous Envy.
  • Round trip.
  • Howl.

This Pokémon can take a lot of hits and by going in and out of the field it can easily break enemy Pokémon’s strategies. Round Trip will be our way of introducing other Pokémon after Incineroar has absorbed a good hit; that’s why we don’t want it too fast. And with Dark Lariat and Fire Rush we can take down threats as strong as Metagross.

Try not to abuse damage, we can lose our Incineroar before it does what it does best, reduce the damage done by the rival .

INCINEROAR SWEEPER – THE SWEEPER KITTEN IN SINGLES

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Health.
• Nature: Cheerful.
• Item: Assault Vest.
• Ability: Intimidate.
• Movements:
  • Dark Lariat.
  • Igneous Envy.
  • Earthquake.
  • Sword dance.

Thanks to its great defensive typing and base stats, Incineroar has very good sustain, but with this strategy we’re looking for Incineroar to sweep the opposing team with sheer force. Let’s see how we can make our kitten a real tiger.

The key is to bring Incineroar in when it’s an uncomfortable danger to the opposing Pokémon by forcing a switch. Then we will take the opportunity to use Sword Dance and raise our Attack two levels and it will give enough power to weaken many Pokémon in one hit.

We advise you to use Tailwind beforehand with another Pokémon to ensure that it hits before, although it is not entirely necessary since Incineroar withstands blows wonderfully.

INCINERATE THE PERFECT SUPPORT – DOUBLE VGC

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: 252 Health, 4 Attack, 156 Defense, 84 Special Defense, 12 Speed
• Nature: Cautious.
• Object: Zidra Berry.
• Ability: Intimidate.
• Movements:
  • Igneous Envy.
  • Last word.
  • Gag Blow.
  • Surprise.

With this Competitive Strategy our Incineroar will act as a total disabler . Surprise to have that pressure on the turn in which it enters the field, Last Word to lower the opponent’s damage and be able to pivot. Fire Burst as the only damage move for Pokemon like Ferrothorn and Rillaboom. Gag Strike is very useful against other Incineroar, preventing them from using their Last Word and breaking Deathsong strategies. You can change this movement for Mofa if you need for Rare Space .

INCINERATE OFFENSIVE

This set is very hard to predict as we’ll be using Incineroar as an attacker rather than a support; It usually surprises with its coverage and damage, making it ideal for best-of-1 games.

• IVs: Perfect.
• EVs: 244 Health, 148 Attack, 4 Defense, 92 Special Defense, 20 Speed.
• Nature: Firm.
• Item: Assault Vest.
• Ability: Intimidate.
• Movements:
  • Igneous Envy.
  • Dark Lariat.
  • To Bocajarro.
  • Round trip.

With our two Fire and Dark STABs plus Close Combat Fighting-type coverage they will be our main forms of damage. Round Trip will be our only way to change you without forcing the change. It is very important to have speed control in our team, either with Trick Space or Tailwind, because Incineroar will never overtake fast Pokémon and it is better to add Health and Defense statistics to it so that it can last as long as possible.

HOW TO DEFEAT INCINEROAR AND COUNTERS

Being the great Pokémon that Incineroar is and the infinite number of sets it can carry, countering it is no easy task. We are going to show you the best ways here:

• Competitive and Tenacity : These abilities add 2 levels to the Attack and Special Attack stats respectively when one of their stats is negatively affected. So when Incineroar enters the field, by Intimidating and lowering its Attack, these abilities will buff the Pokémon in question. The best ones for this use are Thundurus for Competitive (special mention for Bisharp and Zapdos de Galar) and Milotic for Tenacity (special mention for Articuno de Galar ). In addition, having these Pokémon in your team already conditions a lot when and how to use Incineroar, because a bad change and our Pokémon will increase its attack power a lot, which can be decisive.
• Pure Body and Metal Guard : Skills that prevent our stats from lowering by disabling Intimidate and Last Word. Dragapult is a great Pokemon with Pure Body and Metal Guard is Solgaleo’s ability. The latter also learns Earthquake with which he can hit Incineroar very hard.
• Special Attackers : Pokemon like Kiogre, Coalossal , or Primarina are capable of doing a lot of damage to it before it uses Last Word, and Intimidate doesn’t affect our damage.