SV OU Suspect Coverage: Gouging Fire

By SetsuSetsuna. Released: 2024/03/24.
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Art by Pissog

Art by Pissog.

Introduction

The Indigo Disk DLC introduced Gouging Fire, a Dragon- and Fire-type with solid Attack and Speed stats, good bulk complemented by reliable recovery in Morning Sun, and a boosting move in Dragon Dance backed up by extra boost in one of its stats such as Attack, Speed, or even Defense from its ability Protosynthesis. Specifically, its aforementioned defensive profile gives it multiple opportunities to switch in and set up, obtaining entry points against common threats like Gholdengo and Rillaboom. These traits made Gouging Fire a potent setup sweeper and wallbreaker since its release, with offensive Dragon Dance sets being particularly common that would opt for moves such as Heat Crash, Flare Blitz, Earthquake, Dragon Claw, and Morning Sun. As time went on, however, more sets starting to pop up, such as Choice Band sets in sun, which make the most of Gouging Fire's unique status as the only Fire-type with Protosynthesis and of its high-Base Power Fire-type moves in Flare Blitz and Raging Fury, to get pass even Pokémon that resist its attacks such as Dondozo. A bulky Dragon Dance set with Breaking Swipe also started to break teams apart; its side effect of lowering the foe's Attack allowed Gouging Fire to potentially beat would-be checks in Dondozo, Gliscor, and Great Tusk. The variety of sets allowed Gouging Fire to fit on a variety of teams from hyper offense, to sun, and bulky offense, unlike the last Pokémon banned from OU in Archaludon, which would mostly be seen on rain teams. This all proved to be too much for the playerbase, with Gouging Fire scoring a 4.1 / 5 among qualified voters during a tiering survey at the end of February. With such support for action to be taken against it, the SV OU Gouging Fire suspect test was started on March 4th.

Sets

Offensive Dragon Dance

gouging fire

Gouging Fire's access to Dragon Dance and solid attacking moves in Flare Blitz, Heat Crash, Dragon Claw, and Earthquake makes this set almost too obvious, and it is thus no surprise that it was the first to show up when Gouging Fire was first released. Earthquake threatens the likes of Heatran, Cinderace, and Iron Boulder. Morning Sun can be used to keep Gouging Fire healthy throughout the game, finding more opportunities to set up against Pokémon it threatens such as Gholdengo and Rillaboom, negating revenge killing attempts from Kingambit's Sucker Punch, and healing the damage taken from Flare Blitz recoil. Furthermore, sun boosts Morning Sun's recovery to 2/3 instead of 1/2 of Gouging Fire's health, in addition to powering up Gouging Fire's Fire-type attacks and activating its Protosynthesis ability for a 1.3 Attack boost. Heavy-Duty Boots removes Gouging Fire's weakness to entry hazards, while Booster Energy can be used to activate Protosynthesis on non-sun teams, such as hyper offense. Air Balloon is another option that grants Gouging Fire an immunity to Ground-type moves such as Great Tusk's, Landorus-T's, and Gliscor's Earthquake, potentially providing it with free turns to further set up against these foes. An Adamant nature boosts Gouging Fire's Attack stat to its fullest, while Jolly can be used instead to outspeed the likes of Gholdengo, Hisuian Samurott, and Great Tusk. Tera Fairy turns Gouging Fire's Dragon weakness into an immunity, letting it turn the tables on Dragon-types such as Walking Wake, Kyurem and Dragapult trying to revenge kill it with Draco Meteor. Tera Ground is an alternative that powers up Earthquake, letting it OHKO Raging Bolt if Protsynthesis is active, and turns Gouging Fire's Rock weakness into a resistance, which most notably lets it deny revenge killing attempts from Iron Boulder's Mighty Cleave.

Choice Band

gouging fire

Choice Band provides Gouging Fire with immediate attacking power, without the need for it to set up a Dragon Dance. Teams such as Chico's Choice Band Gouging Fire sun showed its power by reaching the top of the ladder with this set. 168 Attack EVs and 252 Speed EVs with a Jolly nature ensure Gouging Fire gets a Speed boost from Protosynthesis, rather than an Attack one. This lack of power is more than compensated by Choice Band and Tera Fire, all of which work in tandem to let it outspeed and OHKO Pokémon such as Dragapult and Kyurem in sun. An Adamant nature with max Attack investment is another option, which lets Gouging Fire 2HKO even the bulkiest Pokémon with a resistance such as Dondozo, Alomomola, and Garganacl.

Bulky Dragon Dance

gouging fire

This bulky set takes advantage of Gouging Fire's high Defense and HP stats. Breaking Swipe is used to lower the opponent's Attack, thus allowing Gouging Fire to take on even super effective attacks such as Great Tusk's, Gliscor's, and Landorus-T's Earthquake. Breaking Swipe also allows Gouging Fire to take on Curse Dondozo by preventing it from boosting its Attack due to Breaking Swipe's 24 PP over Curse's 16 PP and forcing it to waste PP on its other moves like Rest, effectively winning the interaction and leaving Dondozo vulnerable for teammates like Kingambit and Zamazenta to break through it late-game. The Defense EVs allow Gouging Fire to tank a +2 Tera Water-boosted Ivy Cudgel from Ogerpon-W, the Special Defense EVs let it tank two Dark Pulses from Darkrai after Stealth Rock damage, and the 64 Speed EVs allow it to outspeed Ogerpon-W after a Dragon Dance. Tera Poison grants Gouging Fire an immunity to Toxic, mainly from Gliscor, and generally works greats as a defensive Tera type given the lack of Psychic-type Pokémon in OU, while the Ground-types get their Attack lowered by Breaking Swipe. Tera Ghost is another option that provides Gouging Fire with an immunity to Zamazenta's and Terastallized Skarmory's Body Press, effectively being able to beat them. Leftovers keeps Gouging Fire healthy throughout the game, but Covert Cloak can be used instead to further improve its matchup against Garganacl by denying the passive damage of Salt Cure; Covert Cloak also denies the side effects of Hatterene's Nuzzle and Primarina's Psychic Noise, rendering said ways to cripple Gouging Fire useless. Grassy Seed may also be used alongside Rillaboom, with Grassy Terrain providing passive healing and halving the power of Earthquake's aimed at Gouging Fire. This set also proved effective on teams such as spook's Breaking Swipe Gouging Fire bulky offense.

Pro Ban Arguments

The diversity of sets makes Gouging Fire hard to account for in the teambuilder, as the number of Pokémon that can check it head-on is pretty limited. Said checks may also lose to the right set, with bulky Pokémon such as Dondozo, Gliscor, and Great Tusk having a hard time taking on bulky Dragon Dance and Attack-boosting Choice Band variants, while offensive teams can potentially lose in the spot if they give it space to set up.

Gouging Fire's Fire typing gives it an immunity to burns from the likes of Will-O-Wisp Dragapult and Cinderace and Flame Body Volcarona, which are often used to cripple other physical attackers such as Kingambit, Ogerpon-W, and Great Tusk. Furthermore, unlike said physical attackers, its access to reliable recovery in Morning Sun makes the game plan against it pretty different compared to how it is against other physical attackers, as one can't just chip it bit by bit hoping the next Pokémon in line will be able to revenge kill it, as this would only give Gouging Fire with space to set up more Dragon Dances. Furthermore, other ways of crippling such as Hatterene's Nuzzle, Garganacl's Salt Cure, and Gliscor's Toxic can be negated by Cover Cloak, Tera Ground, or Tera Poison.

One must also consider the context of this argument, as SV OU is filled with several offensive Pokémon one must account for such as Ogerpon-W, Kingambit, Iron Valiant, and Raging Bolt to name a few, and Gouging Fire's presence helps to further push teambuilding to the extreme, making it near impossible to cover all threats. This issue is even more apparent because Gouging Fire also works naturally well with the aforementioned Pokémon, potentially requiring way too much effort to account all of them at once; for instance, Ground-types like Gliscor, Landorus-T, and Great Tusk expending their health to check Gouging Fire makes late-game Kingambit and Raging Bolt much scarier.

Anti Ban Arguments

While no single Pokémon may be able to take on Gouging Fire on its own, several cores can be used to great effect. Likewise, while all of Gouging Fire's sets are strong, none of them come without their flaws. Landorus-T is a great soft check thanks to Intimidate and its ability to hit Gouging Fire super effectively with Earthquake or Earth Power, the latter of which is unaffected by Breaking Swipe and thus can beat down bulky Dragon Dance variants, with Taunt preventing Gouging Fire from healing with Morning Sun and further setting up with Dragon Dance. Offensive Dragon Dance variants will have trouble setting up against more offensive teams that constantly pressure Gouging Fire and are able to fit in Pokémon such as Booster Energy Iron Valiant and Iron Boulder that outspeed it after a Dragon Dance. Meanwhile, bulky variants get stopped by Landorus-T, are taken advantage of by fast threats such as Dragapult and Roaring Moon due to their low Speed investment, and don't immediately threaten Pokémon like Raging Bolt and Kyurem due to their low Attack investment and Breaking Swipe's low Base Power.

Gliscor, Dondozo, Alomomola, and Zamazenta may also serve as defensive answers. While Gliscor can struggle against Tera Poison variants, it is able to take on the others, while Iron Defense Zamazenta can take on Tera Poison variants, with Roar further annoying Gouging Fire by forcing it out of the field. Both Terastallized variants may struggle against Alomomola's Scald, as Gouging Fire loses its immunity to burns once Terastallized into Poison, Ghost, Fairy, or Ground. This leaves Gouging Fire in lose-lose situations against Gliscor and Alomomola cores that threaten it with either Toxic or Scald depending if it decides to Terastallize. Protect Alomomola and Dondozo can help around Choice Band variants by stalling out sun turns, thus removing a big part of its damage boosts. Moreover, Choice Band sets are susceptible to entry hazards and Flare Blitz recoil and lack Morning Sun's recovery to keep them healthy throughout long periods of time, on top of being restricted to only sun teams, which are required to run an otherwise mediocre Pokémon in Torkoal. Heatran may also annoy Gouging Fire, with Flash Fire, Air Balloon, and Tera Fairy providing Heatran with immunities to all Gouging Fire's attacks, as well as Earth Power allowing Heatran to hit Gouging Fire super effectively and Taunt to shut down Morning Sun attempts.

Result

On March 16th, with 111 out of 156 votes cast, Gouging Fire remained unbanned from SV OU with a ban margin of only 42.35%. This margin is the lowest in this generation, even moreso than those of Walking Wake and Zamazenta, which scored 46.23% and 45.05%, respectively.

Despite the outcome of this and Kyurem's suspect test, several threats remain on the radar for many SV OU players, such as Ogerpon-W, Raging Bolt, and former Ubers Roaring Moon and Volcarona. The next suspect test might just be around the corner!

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