Set Description

Ferrothorn is one of the few Pokemon that learns Spikes in the metagame and can support its team immensely with them. Stealth Rock can be run if the team lacks another entry hazard setter, but the opportunity cost of not having Spikes is very high. Multiple layers of Spikes can quickly wear down walls like Tapu Fini, Melmetal, and Heatran. Leech Seed is Ferrothorn's only viable recovery move and can provide valuable chip damage on switch-ins like Heatran for its teammates, force switches to stop its HP drain, and heal allies as they come in. The remaining moveslots are heavily team-dependent. Power Whip is often Ferrothorn's strongest attack and particularly eliminates Water-types like Tapu Fini and Rotom-W, while Body Press allows it to hit Steel-types such as opposing Ferrothorn, Heatran, Melmetal, and Kartana. Importantly, Body Press chunks Heatran as it comes in, which can be huge for many of Ferrothorn's common teammates. Gyro Ball is its best option versus Fairy-types like Tapu Lele while also dealing huge damage to speedy threats such as Dragapult and Tornadus-T. Both it and Body Press notably OHKO Weavile. Knock Off allows Ferrothorn to remove the omnipresent Heavy-Duty Boots from Pokemon like Zapdos and Tornadus-T and Leftovers from Ferrothorn, Melmetal, and Clefable. It can also punish Dragapult and Blacephalon for switching in. Alternatively, Thunder Wave can slow down Pokemon such as Dragapult and Tornadus-T on the switch, enabling Ferrothorn's teammates to take advantage of them. It can also be used against more defensive Pokemon like Clefable and Melmetal to allow Ferrothorn or its teammates to fish for a devastating full paralysis.

Iron Barbs allows Ferrothorn to punish physical attackers such as Weavile and Urshifu-R that make contact with it. Leftovers offers more recovery to Ferrothorn for prolonged games, while Rocky Helmet doubles up with Iron Barbs to make anything that makes contact with Ferrothorn regret it. An Impish nature maximizes Ferrothorn's Defense, but a Relaxed nature and 0 Speed IVs are correct if running Gyro Ball to maximize damage. The spread maximizes Ferrothorn's physical bulk, although it is very customizable if a particular benchmark is desired.

Team Options

Pokemon such as Tapu Lele, Weavile, and Urshifu-R that struggle to break grounded walls lacking Heavy-Duty Boots such as Heatran and Tapu Fini appreciate Ferrothorn for its ability to wear down their checks with Spikes. Tapu Lele and Urshifu-R also appreciate that Ferrothorn can use Thunder Wave to paralyze faster Pokemon like Tornadus-T and Dragapult to better enable them to wallbreak. Powerful wallbreakers like Nidoking and Tapu Lele work well with the entry hazards Ferrothorn sets, as they force switches, meaning Ferrothorn's Spikes chip down the opposing team, including their checks. Knock Off users such as Clefable and Weavile also support Ferrothorn well by removing Heavy-Duty Boots from Pokemon such as Slowbro and Blissey. Toxapex and other Water-types like Gastrodon and Slowbro are fantastic teammates defensively, covering Ferrothorn's weaknesses to Fire- and Fighting-types such as Volcanion and Urshifu-R. Ground-types like Hippowdon, Garchomp, and Gastrodon cover Ferrothorn's main enemy in Heatran, while Ferrothorn effectively deals with one of their biggest concerns in Weavile.