Analysis

In a meta with Pelipper, Ninetales, and Tyranitar; weather wars seemed like an inevitability. As such many teams in the early meta were centered around one weather, and Ninetales’ sun teams were by far the worst. None of the weathers had amazing abusers, but rain teams had Gyarados, one of the months’ top Pokemon, and Tyranitar was able to stand on its own without much support on the merit of its stats alone. On early sun teams, Ninetales’ winrate was abysmal and the public’s opinion of it turned sour quickly. However, out from the ashes of a playstyle doomed to fail, Ninetales rose as a powerful pokemon in its own right. With no pokemon to abuse sun, Ninetales’ Drought turned from an ability meant to support others, to an ability which bolstered both its offensive and defensive prowess. Ninetales base Special Attack stat of 81 is nothing special, but its sun-boosted fire moves like flamethrower and fire blast could mow through fast, frail threats. December was full of Durant, Dodrio, and Morpeko who were melted by Ninetales’ flamethrowers along with slightly less common pokemon like Emolga and Lurantis and even the tier’s undeniable king: Chesnaught. Ninetales’ 75/73/100 defensive stats did hold it back somewhat, but it could use a choice scarf to ensure it was KOing its targets before they could hit it. Additionally, Ninetales was able to switch in on Pelipper, which usually used Weather Ball for water STAB and had no way to hit Ninetales super effectively in sun. Once Ninetales ditched the shackles of dedicated sun teams, it was able to flourish as a revenge killer and rose to finish the month with the sixth highest winrate in the tier. 

Choice Scarf 

Ninetales @ Choice Scarf  

Ability: Drought  

Tera Type: Fire  

EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  

Timid/Modest Nature  

IVs: 0 Atk  

- Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Weather Ball  

- Energy Ball  

- Scorching Sands  

- Psyshock

Written by Carnivore04