Pokémon Chandelure

[Sultan]

Ghost/Fire
60/55/90/145/90/80
Flash Fire/Flame Body/Infiltrator

Notable moves:

• Acid Armor
• Calm Mind
• Clear Smog
• Dark Pulse
• Energy Ball
• Fire Blast
• Fire Spin
• Flamethrower
• Haze
• Hex
• Memento
• Night Shade
• Overheat
• Pain Split
• Psychic
• Shadow Ball
• Solar Beam
• Taunt
• Trick
• Trick Room
• Will-O-Wisp

Pros:

• High 145 Special Attack, which even after four generations of power creep is still impressive.
• Ghost/Fire is a great STAB combo, only being resisted by things like Greninja.
• Has a few neat resistances due to its typing, like Fairy, Ice, Bug, and Poison, and is immune to Fighting.
• Three good abilities: Flash Fire gives it another immunity, Flame Body can punish U-Turn, and Infiltrator pierces Aurora Veil as well as Substitute.
• Has a decent setup option in Calm Mind and Trick which is useful on Choice sets.

Cons:

• 80 Speed is pretty poor, being outsped by Tusk, Baxcalibur, and most other offensive Pokémon.
• Its bulk is poor. 90/90 defenses seem decent, until you realize its HP is only 60.
• While its typing grants it cool resistances, it also has nasty weaknesses, including to Knock Off, Stealth Rock, and Earthquake.

Tera Potential:

• Tera Fire in the Sun can be nuclear
• Tera Fighting gives it a resistance to Dark and Rock and is a good type for Tera Blast if you choose to run it
• Setup sets appreciate a defensive Tera like Fairy, Water, or Steel

Set potential:
Choice (Chandelure) @ Choice Specs / Choice Scarf
Ability: Flash Fire / Flame Body
Tera Type: Fire / Fighting
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast / Overheat
- Shadow Ball
- Overheat / Tera Blast / Solar Beam
- Trick

A classic. Give it Specs to make its power nuclear or Scarf to boost its low speed, and just click buttons. Trick is always a good move for a choice user to have, and it can easily cripple defensive Pokémon with it while also giving it an out against Kingambit's Sucker Punch. Solar Beam is an option for Sun Teams, where its Overheat will be nuclear.

CM sweeper (Chandelure) @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Water / Steel / Fairy
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast / Pain Split / Acid Armor
- Substitute

Set a substitute on something you force out or that can't touch you due to your defensive typing, and start setting up boosts. The spread can probably be adjusted, but it allows you to outspeed max speed Kingambit while putting the rest in bulk. Its low HP makes Pain Split an option for healing and CM+Acid Armor is always fun, but both will basically require you to run only one attacking move.

Overall, Chandelure may have a small niche in OU, as it is still good against defensive teams and it has options against some of its biggest threats, like Kingambit. The downfall of Chansey/Blissey is also good news for it. However, I don't see it surviving very long in a meta as offense-focused as this one, as its low speed is still its downfall, but I expect it to perform quite well in UU or RU.

 

[LordHelix]

I think infiltrator might be the way to go IF you choose to run it in this meta because it makes it deal full damage through aurora veil which is the new hot thing^TM right now

Also fighting tera is probably best option right now for being able to kill gambit, ttar (only other thing resisting its stab combo besides gren) and hit ting-lu harder.

I doubt itll stick in OU but hey its always a fun scarfer. Glad its back

 

[Magcargo]

Glad to see Chandy back. Unfortunately, this generation introduced even more Fire / Ghost types like Hisui Typhlosion and Skeledirge which have superior movepools and are bound to give it competition in lower tiers. I don't think Skeledirge will compete with Chandy too much since it is more of a defensive Pokemon, but Hisuian Typhlosion will be big competition for Chandelure due to its better Speed. This next point is unimportant, but it also has slightly better uninvested bulk overall.

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252 Atk Incineroar Knock Off vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chandelure: 216-254 (82.7 - 97.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Incineroar Dark Pulse vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Chandelure: 206-246 (78.9 - 94.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Incineroar Knock Off vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Typhlosion-Hisui: 240-284 (83.6 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Incineroar Dark Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Typhlosion-Hisui: 218-258 (75.9 - 89.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Chandy still has the firepower advantage, but I think Hisuian Typhlosion will be tough competition for it to overcome, especially since it lost some key tools like Toxic which were strong on Hex sets. Hisuian-Typhlosion has some key tools like Eruption and Infernal Parade to also jack its damage output above Chandelure's.

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252 SpA Chandelure Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 195-231 (48.2 - 57.1%) -- 42.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Chandelure Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 284-336 (70.2 - 83.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Typhlosion-Hisui Eruption (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 229-271 (56.6 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 SpA Typhlosion-Hisui Infernal Parade (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 368-434 (91 - 107.4%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO

Now, Chandelure's firepower is obviously more consistent, but it would have been nice if the firepower gap between it and Hisuian Typhlosion was a bit bigger considering its worse statistically in every other category.

One big advantage Chandelure can leverage are its abilities. Flash Fire + Tera will give it a very unique defensive profile as we saw with Ceruledge earlier this generation. Flame body is also a powerful ability due to its ability to punish U-Turns and the like. I think it will have to leverage these tools in order to not be outclassed. In higher tiers, I feel there are too many new powerful Ghost-types like Gholdengo and Hisiuian Zoroark which largely outclass Chandy.

Chandelure may be in a fine spot this generation, but I think it may venture to NU for the first time, as it may struggle to find a niche over Hisuian Typhlosion.