[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 3-4 points
**Overview**: Altaria is an okay, cheap wall that can help patch up a team's defensive backbone while also having access to the notoriously rare Defog. Sporting a solid defensive typing, great support moves, and good bulk, Altaria is usually able to be a dedicated check to a single threat on the opponent's team. It also has a solid selection of abilities, with Natural Cure allowing it to absorb status-inflicting moves and Cloud Nine allowing it to disrupt opposing weather strategies. Altaria's biggest drawback is that it has a debilitating weakness to Ice-type coverage, often being 2HKOed by even the weakest of Ice Beams. It also lacks any item flexibility, is very strapped for moveslots, and can often be passive against Pokemon that resist Brave Bird. Altaria's linearity can make it quite easy for an opponent to account for, meaning that it will usually end up riding the bench in most games.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Wall**: Altaria's able to check both physical and special attackers alike, thanks to its good defensive stats. Having access to Will-O-Wisp allows it to permanently weaken most physical attackers while also having Roar to phaze setup threats. It needs to be paired with other defensive Pokemon as a part of a defensive backbone, since it usually will be overwhelmed after checking just one specific foe.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Brave Bird, Draco Meteor, Hurricane, Dragon Pulse, Outrage
**Setup Moves**: Cotton Guard, Agility
**Utility Moves**: Defog, Will-O-Wisp, Fire Spin, Roar, Haze, Tailwind, Sing, Dragon Breath, Body Slam, Alluring Voice
**Coverage**: Earthquake, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Moonblast, Play Rough, Solar Beam, Weather Ball
Niche Moves
========
**Perish Song**: Coupled with Fire Spin, Perish Song can allow Altaria to trap and remove specific foes so that its teammates can have an easier chance to sweep. Given the committal nature of this set, it may be beneficial to also run Protect to stall Perish Song turns or Haze to prevent setup, but both of these can severely dampen Altaria's ability to do much else in the battle.
**Dragon Dance**: Offensive Altaria borders into meme territory, but given the high Base Power of its STAB attacks, it can be a borderline usable option. It mandates a damage-boosting item, as Altaria's Attack stat fringes on outright bad, and shouldn't be considered unless the opponent truly has no way around Flying-types.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Heavy-Duty Boots is Altaria's best-in-slot item in almost every matchup. Without it, Altaria would take far too much damage on switching in and be vulnerable to being 2HKOed. On a lot of builds, Altaria will end up being the sole Pokemon with entry hazard removal, and having the hazard remover be KOed by entry hazards defeats its purpose.
Niche Items
========
**Rocky Helmet**: When paired with solid entry hazard removal, Rocky Helmet can be used to punish physical attackers, especially those that attempt to spam U-turn and gain momentum.
**Resistance Berries**: In an attempt to check specific Pokemon, Altaria can act as a lure that takes a super effective hit and threatens to OHKO the foe with its coverage.
**Red Card**: Red Card aims to do the same thing as a resistance Berry, just against neutral attacks, which Altaria can usually survive thanks to its good bulk.
Tera
========
Altaria should never a Tera Captain. Even for its price point, there are better offensive and defensive Tera users. If you still choose it as a Tera Captain, Tera Water, Fairy, and Steel can help fix its defensive matchups.
Draft Strategy
========
Since Altaria is the last pick of any draft, it tends to just slot onto teams as the final piece of a defensive backbone. For this reason, it tends to only find a place on balance drafts, as it's simply too much of a momentum sink on anything more offensive.
**BulkySteel-types**: Altaria has perfect defensive synergy with most bulky Steel-types and can help to form a solid defensive core for a draft. Examples of such Steel-types include Gholdengo, Heatran, and Metagross.
**Ground-weak Drafts**: Altaria can excel at checking most Ground-types, as it's immune to Earthquake and can burn most of them, meaning that it can even bypass their coverage Stone Edge.
Checks and Counters
========
**Ice-type Attacks**: Altaria is 4x weak to Ice. Most Ice-type attacks will either OHKO it or put it at such low health that it is immediately KOed on the next turn.
**Fairy-types**: The only way Altaria can threaten Fairy-types is Brave Bird, which many can comfortably take and then threaten big damage with STAB Moonblast or Play Rough.
**Substitute**: While Altaria does get phazing options, it can't always afford to run them, as it is quite strapped for moveslots, and without phazing, it is prone to being a free Substitute opportunity for the foe.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/vmnunes.613460/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 3-4 points
**Overview**: Altaria is an okay, cheap wall that can help patch up a team's defensive backbone while also having access to the notoriously rare Defog. Sporting a solid defensive typing, great support moves, and good bulk, Altaria is usually able to be a dedicated check to a single threat on the opponent's team. It also has a solid selection of abilities, with Natural Cure allowing it to absorb status-inflicting moves and Cloud Nine allowing it to disrupt opposing weather strategies. Altaria's biggest drawback is that it has a debilitating weakness to Ice-type coverage, often being 2HKOed by even the weakest of Ice Beams. It also lacks any item flexibility, is very strapped for moveslots, and can often be passive against Pokemon that resist Brave Bird. Altaria's linearity can make it quite easy for an opponent to account for, meaning that it will usually end up riding the bench in most games.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Wall**: Altaria's able to check both physical and special attackers alike, thanks to its good defensive stats. Having access to Will-O-Wisp allows it to permanently weaken most physical attackers while also having Roar to phaze setup threats. It needs to be paired with other defensive Pokemon as a part of a defensive backbone, since it usually will be overwhelmed after checking just one specific foe.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Brave Bird, Draco Meteor, Hurricane, Dragon Pulse, Outrage
**Setup Moves**: Cotton Guard, Agility
**Utility Moves**: Defog, Will-O-Wisp, Fire Spin, Roar, Haze, Tailwind, Sing, Dragon Breath, Body Slam, Alluring Voice
**Coverage**: Earthquake, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Moonblast, Play Rough, Solar Beam, Weather Ball
Niche Moves
========
**Perish Song**: Coupled with Fire Spin, Perish Song can allow Altaria to trap and remove specific foes so that its teammates can have an easier chance to sweep. Given the committal nature of this set, it may be beneficial to also run Protect to stall Perish Song turns or Haze to prevent setup, but both of these can severely dampen Altaria's ability to do much else in the battle.
**Dragon Dance**: Offensive Altaria borders into meme territory, but given the high Base Power of its STAB attacks, it can be a borderline usable option. It mandates a damage-boosting item, as Altaria's Attack stat fringes on outright bad, and shouldn't be considered unless the opponent truly has no way around Flying-types.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Heavy-Duty Boots is Altaria's best-in-slot item in almost every matchup. Without it, Altaria would take far too much damage on switching in and be vulnerable to being 2HKOed. On a lot of builds, Altaria will end up being the sole Pokemon with entry hazard removal, and having the hazard remover be KOed by entry hazards defeats its purpose.
Niche Items
========
**Rocky Helmet**: When paired with solid entry hazard removal, Rocky Helmet can be used to punish physical attackers, especially those that attempt to spam U-turn and gain momentum.
**Resistance Berries**: In an attempt to check specific Pokemon, Altaria can act as a lure that takes a super effective hit and threatens to OHKO the foe with its coverage.
**Red Card**: Red Card aims to do the same thing as a resistance Berry, just against neutral attacks, which Altaria can usually survive thanks to its good bulk.
Tera
========
Altaria should never a Tera Captain. Even for its price point, there are better offensive and defensive Tera users. If you still choose it as a Tera Captain, Tera Water, Fairy, and Steel can help fix its defensive matchups.
Draft Strategy
========
Since Altaria is the last pick of any draft, it tends to just slot onto teams as the final piece of a defensive backbone. For this reason, it tends to only find a place on balance drafts, as it's simply too much of a momentum sink on anything more offensive.
**BulkySteel-types**: Altaria has perfect defensive synergy with most bulky Steel-types and can help to form a solid defensive core for a draft. Examples of such Steel-types include Gholdengo, Heatran, and Metagross.
**Ground-weak Drafts**: Altaria can excel at checking most Ground-types, as it's immune to Earthquake and can burn most of them, meaning that it can even bypass their coverage Stone Edge.
Checks and Counters
========
**Ice-type Attacks**: Altaria is 4x weak to Ice. Most Ice-type attacks will either OHKO it or put it at such low health that it is immediately KOed on the next turn.
**Fairy-types**: The only way Altaria can threaten Fairy-types is Brave Bird, which many can comfortably take and then threaten big damage with STAB Moonblast or Play Rough.
**Substitute**: While Altaria does get phazing options, it can't always afford to run them, as it is quite strapped for moveslots, and without phazing, it is prone to being a free Substitute opportunity for the foe.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/vmnunes.613460/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Last edited:
