Pokémon Emboar

[Jayd]

Name: Emboar
Type: Fire/Fighting
Ability: Blaze
Base Stats: 110 / 123 / 65 / 100 / 65 / 65

Movepool

Level-Up Movepool
Start - Hammer Arm
Start - Tackle
Start/Lv.3 - Tail Whip
Start/Lv.7 - Ember
Start/Lv.9 - Odor Sleuth
Lv.13 - Defense Curl
Lv.15 - Flame Charge
Lv.17 - Arm Thrust
Lv.20 - Smog
Lv.23 - Rollout
Lv.28 - Take Down
Lv.31 - Heat Crash
Lv.38 - Assurance
Lv.43 - Flamethrower
Lv.50 - Head Smash
Lv.55 - Roar
Lv.62 - Flare Blitz

TM and HM Compatibility
TM05 Roar
TM06 Toxic
TM08 Bulk Up
TM10 Hidden Power
TM11 Sunny Day
TM12 Taunt
TM15 Hyper Beam
TM17 Protect
TM21 Frustration
TM22 Solar Beam
TM23 Smack Down
TM26 Earthquake
TM27 Return
TM31 Brick Break
TM32 Double Team
TM35 Flamethrower
TM38 Fire Blast
TM39 Rock TOmb
TM42 Facade
TM43 Flame Charge
TM44 Rest
TM45 Attract
TM47 Low Sweep
TM48 Round
TM49 Echoed Voice
TM50 Overheat
TM52 Focus Blast
TM55 Scald
TM56 Fling
TM59 Incinerate
TM61 Will-O-Wisp
TM68 Giga Impact
TM71 Stone Edge
TM74 Gyro Ball
TM78 Bulldoze
TM80 Rock Slide
TM84 Poison Jab
TM86 Grass Knot
TM87 Swagger
TM88 Sleep Talk
TM90 Substitute
TM93 Wild Charge
TM94 Rock Smash
TM98 Power-Up Punch
TM100 Confide
HM04 Strength

Egg Moves
Body Slam
Covet
Curse
Endeavor
Heavy Slam
Magnitude
Sleep Talk
Sucker Punch
Superpower
Thrash
Yawn

General Analysis
Emboar has received a significant buff in X and Y with the addition of Sucker Punch to its movepool via breeding. As a slow Pokemon with a high Attack stat, priority is invaluable to it, and Sucker Punch is arguably the best existing priority move it could have possibly received. This is because, with it, it boasts the coveted Dark/Fighting offensive coverage along with a priority move 20 points stronger than a STAB Mach Punch would be. It is my opinion that this development occasions a fair re-evaluation of its potential generally and in the context of the current metagame.

Possible Movesets

Emboar@Choice Band
Adamant nature
EVs: 252 Atk / x HP / y Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Sucker Punch
- Superpower
- Wild Charge/Head Smash

This set suits wallbreaking. With Choice Band switches have hell coming in. Sucker Punch now allows you to threaten sweepers who would have previously outsped and OHKO'd you. Wild Charge punishes Azumarill who thinks he can come in happily, while Head Smash does the same for flying dragons. The value of y depends on what Speed tier you decide you need to outpace, with the rest going into HP. With 110 base, Emboar can also take a hit or two and can also put in more Flare Blitzes. But consider:

Emboar@Life Orb
Adamant nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Sucker Punch
- Hammer Arm
- Yawn/Will-O-Wisp/Wild Charge/Head Smash

Running Life Orb opens the door to smacking a switch and then picking up its spare HP with a Sucker Punch. I recommend Hammer Arm on this set so that your follow up Sucker Punch is not weakened. The presence of Hammer Arm also makes me think you will probably want to go for maximum bulk as opposed to any speed, but that is debatable.

The possibilities of Yawn I find exciting. On a wallbreaking force like Emboar it takes on greater significance than with a wall like Umbreon. After a counter (like Rotom-W) switches in and holds a Yawn it has an ultimatum: get out of there and expose another Pokemon to a STAB Life Orb Flare Blitz or Hammer Arm coming off of 123 base Attack, or stay in and go to sleep, probably for nothing if you switch Emboar out. This strategy has the possibility of putting immense pressure on your opponent's team with the right prediction. Rotom-W will of course Volt Switch but Emboar can take it and punish the next, or possibly switch to a Ground type to get Rotom asleep. Obviously there's plenty of wiggle room, but the possibilities are all there. Will-O-Wisp is an alternative to punishing switch-ins (hello Dragonite/Salamence/Garchomp/Hippowdon/Gliscor/etc), and we already know about Wild Charge and Head Smash.

Other:
A Scarf set is also possible. You'll want Jolly nature and may consider replacing Sucker Punch. A Bulk-Up set looks like the Life Orb one but with Leftovers and the last slot is Bulk-Up. Emboar also has a workable 100 base Sp.Attack and can abuse physical wall switch ins with a Fire Blast, Overheat, or even Scald or Grass Knot. I would have to put a lot more thought into such a mixed set to spell one out here but I'd prefer for it to come out in discussion. I hope this is enough to start us off.

I hope we can have an engaging and productive discussion about my favourite Pokemon a perhaps overlooked face that has received a significant buff this generation.

 

[seoulwolf]

I like Emboar and all, but I just don't think he has what it takes to be a true force in OU. There are better Sucker Punch users (i.e. Bisharp who also has great typing this gen) and he is also outclassed by Infernape for a Fire/Fighting type. And he may be able to hit hard-ish with Sucker Punch, but it is still slow when it uses any other attack. Sadly, I think this guy will remain where is in the tiers. But that's only my two cents :)

 

[farranpoison]

While Sucker Punch was a good addition to Emboar, the only possible chance Emboar would have in OU is if it gets its HA, Reckless. With that, Emboar's Flare Blitz/Wild Charge/Head Smash has stupidly high power, and would allow Emboar to have somewhat of a niche as a powerful wallbreaker.

As of right now, though, Emboar is still average.

 

[Jayd]

No one's arguing that Emboar's going to be taking OU by storm anytime soon, but I would argue that it already has his niche without Reckless (which would indeed be a help). It also is not strictly outclassed by any Pokemon since its particular concoction of possibilites is unique. Infernape indeed probably performs better generally speaking, but in a significantly different capacity; they therefore do not compete directly for a teamslot.

 

[seoulwolf]

I would definitely say that with support, he could be a beast of a Pokemon. There are many pokemon that fit in this category, but a Speed booster Swords Dance pass to this guy, and you would most likely sweep the rest of the team. With a few speed boosts, he could even take down Talonflame via sucker punch.

 

[Jaroda]

Dark/Fighting isn't exactly coveted coverage anymore when Fairy resists both. Ghost/Fighting on the other hand hits everything.

At the very least, having a wallbreaker immune to Burn and with Fire/Fighting STAB is pretty good.

 

[zachmac]

SAMUROTT Y U NO GET...oh, right. :/

Dark/Fighting isn't exactly coveted coverage anymore when Fairy resists both. Ghost/Fighting on the other hand hits everything.

At the very least, having a wallbreaker immune to Burn and with Fire/Fighting STAB is pretty good.

With fire STAB, Azumarill is the only fairy that poses a problem. As far as coverage goes, at least.

So dark still provides pretty good coverage.

 

[Katakiri]

Emboar has the unfortunate situation of being slow with low defenses. With his decent HP stat factored in, Emboar only has about the same the bulk as Flygon (80/80/80) which is by no means fantastic. Emboar faces stiff competition with Conkeldurr and Machamp as where those two heal themselves/confuse the opponent respectively, Emboar damages itself or lowers its offensive stats when it attacks with STAB. Game Freak wanted Emboar's gimmick to be Flame Charge with its great attack and passable bulk, but Emboar's still too slow after a Flame Charge, only ever passing the Base 110 speed tier if it's Jolly.

However Emboar's typing is rather nice. Next to Heatran, Emboar has the nicest typing for handling Genesect. It also shuts down Mega Absol, Scizor, Volcarona, Trevenant, and Bisharp as well. Sucker Punch is a decent move to get which at least gives it Emboar a fighting chance against Starmie and Deoxys-S. But the real winner would have been Mach Punch. Sucker Punch is stronger than STAB Mach Punch but Sucker Punch doesn't help against the rampant Mega Lucario, Greninja, and Excadrill more than peppering-on a little damage. With the exception of Starmie, Alakazam, and the Lati, Sucker Punch doesn't help Emboar overcome any major obstacles that kept it from being OU viable last Gen (Water-types, Gliscor, all of the Genies/Therians, 4-Move-Slot Syndrome against Dragons) and, with the addition of Fairy to resist Fighting/Dark coverage, I don't see a lot of hope for the big lug this time around either.

With all of that and Assault Vest making Conkeldurr better than it has ever been, what direction does Emboar have to go to differentiate itself in OU?

 

[UsernameSayWha]

it's just gonna compete with darmanitan in uu because it can actually do shit to blastoise

 

[AOPSUser]

it's just gonna compete with darmanitan in uu because it can actually do shit to blastoise

252 Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Blastoise: 175-207 (48.3 - 57.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

I don't think Emboar has anything over Darmanitan TBH. Hammer Arm hits hard but Superpower from Darmanitan hits harder. Sucker Punch is cool, but it's bad on Choiced sets and non-Choiced sets are probably going to overly rely on it.

 

[UsernameSayWha]

252 Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Blastoise: 175-207 (48.3 - 57.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

I don't think Emboar has anything over Darmanitan TBH. Hammer Arm hits hard but Superpower from Darmanitan hits harder. Sucker Punch is cool, but it's bad on Choiced sets and non-Choiced sets are probably going to overly rely on it.

add def evs to blastoise or at least an even spread. standard is 252 hp 252 def with bold lol

 

[Goutland]

I don't think Emboar has anything over Darmanitan TBH. Hammer Arm hits hard but Superpower from Darmanitan hits harder. Sucker Punch is cool, but it's bad on Choiced sets and non-Choiced sets are probably going to overly rely on it.

I wouldn't say Emboar has nothing over Darmanitan... wild charge can let it beat some of the bulkiest of water types if they switch in, while Darmanitan can easily be forced out.

252+ Atk Life Orb Emboar Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 177-211 (43.8 - 52.2%) -- 71.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Darmanitan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 108-127 (26.7 - 31.4%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Not to mention Emboar has head smash to dish out some serious damage to Rotom-W without the nasty side effects of hammer arm or superpower:

252+ Atk Life Orb Emboar Head Smash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-W: 155-182 (50.9 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Darmanitan's rock slide and superpower fall quite short of the 2 hit KO:

252+ Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Darmanitan Rock Slide vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-W: 110-131 (36.1 - 43%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Life Orb Darmanitan Superpower vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-W: 135-160 (44.4 - 52.6%) -- will never 2 hit KO after the attack drop

Of course, Darmanitan can just u-turn out of Rotom-W, but that requires prediction most of the time as Darmanitan is generally brought in on revenge kills (and is usually scarfed anyway, but I put life orb in the calcs just for comparison).

Now I'm not saying Emboar is amazing or is very viable, but it certainly has its merits outside of choiced sets now with sucker punch available to it, despite perma-sun being gone. It can even go mixed with overheat, fire blast, and/or grass knot (don't even think about using scald ಠ_ಠ), which can be helpful against Aegislash as to not have your attack lowered by king's shield. Unfortunately its speed holds it back far too much to be as useful as Darmanitan, Entei, and even Infernape which is a shame. Once reckless is released Emboar may prove itself to be a decent wallbreaker, but for now it's pretty subpar outside of its outstanding coverage.

 

[zachmac]

Not to mention Emboar has head smash to dish out some serious damage to Rotom-W without the nasty side effects of hammer arm or superpower:

Well, to be fair, Head Smash's downsides are even worse. 80% accuracy along with taking half the damage you deal does not sound pleasant.

 

[Goutland]

It's worth it if it can guarantee OHKOs/2HKOs. It has the power of STAB stone edge backed by even more attack than scarf Terrakion, with a life orb on top. It'll deal a massive chunk to almost anything that doesn't resist it. Although you're right about the recoil being pretty bad, especially with life orb.

 

[UsernameSayWha]

gf keeps releasing these "all out attack and hope for the best" mons. I love these types of mons, they're really fun to play. but it's not working. electivire, magmortar, medicham all fall under that category and they all are pretty bad. emboar looks like he could break this mold just by better stat distribution but i don't know if he can with having an extra type to deal with that resits his stab

you're probably confused so I'm gonna use an example I'm more familiar with

so in the game "league of legends" there's all types of characters, but there's a type of character called Melee carries who are Melee damage dealers. they typically can't take very much damage, but thy can deal a lot if given the chance. this class has been constantly the worst in the game, because of the amount of cc in the game. (slows stuns, think paralyze, freeze) for a while this type of character was released quite frequently, only to be insanely strong at release and then slowly fade to terrible status due to the exact same problems the person before them had.

recently they released a new character. he is a Melee carry, he still has the same problems, but he has some patches in his kit (move pool?) to help make them less severe. the company took a risk knowing this character could be completely broken, but they made some changes and released him and let me say, he is one of the most fun characters to play as, and is balanced enough to be fun to play against

to tie this in with pokemon and emboar, I think gf needs to release a slow, but moderately bulky and with a good attack stat pokemon with a good recoil stab move and maybe rock head. Just a rampardos with less attack and bulkier.

 

[Jayd]

Emboar has the unfortunate situation of being slow with low defenses. With his decent HP stat factored in, Emboar only has about the same the bulk as Flygon (80/80/80) which is by no means fantastic. Emboar faces stiff competition with Conkeldurr and Machamp as where those two heal themselves/confuse the opponent respectively, Emboar damages itself or lowers its offensive stats when it attacks with STAB. Game Freak wanted Emboar's gimmick to be Flame Charge with its great attack and passable bulk, but Emboar's still too slow after a Flame Charge, only ever passing the Base 110 speed tier if it's Jolly.

However Emboar's typing is rather nice. Next to Heatran, Emboar has the nicest typing for handling Genesect. It also shuts down Mega Absol, Scizor, Volcarona, Trevenant, and Bisharp as well. Sucker Punch is a decent move to get which at least gives it Emboar a fighting chance against Starmie and Deoxys-S. But the real winner would have been Mach Punch. Sucker Punch is stronger than STAB Mach Punch but Sucker Punch doesn't help against the rampant Mega Lucario, Greninja, and Excadrill more than peppering-on a little damage. With the exception of Starmie, Alakazam, and the Lati, Sucker Punch doesn't help Emboar overcome any major obstacles that kept it from being OU viable last Gen (Water-types, Gliscor, all of the Genies/Therians, 4-Move-Slot Syndrome against Dragons) and, with the addition of Fairy to resist Fighting/Dark coverage, I don't see a lot of hope for the big lug this time around either.

With all of that and Assault Vest making Conkeldurr better than it has ever been, what direction does Emboar have to go to differentiate itself in OU?

You'll get no argument from me about its stat distribution being far less than ideal. I disagree about the Mach Punch points though. Yes, it has checks that it would be able to handle with Mach Punch, but the same is true without Sucker Punch, and Mega Lucario, Greninja, and Excadrill cannot switch into it. The benefit of SP isn't just in what sweepers it hits for SE damage but the fact that it is a good strong priority that's neutral against much of the game and can pick up 2HKOs in conjunction with a non-priority attack; I don't see any genie switching into a Flare Blitz and then holding a follow-up SP and living to tell the tale. It also expands Emboar's coverage instead of being redundant coverage with a slower Fighting attack. So I stand by saying that it's the better one for it to have gotten, although both are good.

As far as differentiating itself from Conkeldurr, I think the points I made on my Life Orb set are key. Yawn and Will-O-Wisp can destroy some of of the OU counters you mentioned. In fact that's why I favour that set: it adds a dimension most players may not be expecting and is especially deadly coming from a Pokemon with wallbreaking power. Conkeldurr can't mimic that at all and Machamp only has confusion. They also don't have the advantages of Emboar's typing, which you acknowledged.

 

[Jaroda]

Emboar also now has Entei for competition as a Fire type. Entei has comparable Attack and HP, but FAR better speed and defenses on top of mother effing Sacred Fire. Add Extreme Speed for your priority and its a tough sell for Emboar, where if they simply moves even 20 points from his SpA to his Spd he would be far more competitive. Would make a good BP recipient from Scolipede, but then again, most things are.

 

[CerberusSONE]

While I do like the Yawn on the second set, I believe Will o'Wisp is a better option as it can complement the raised HP by making opponents hit softer.

Wild Charge would give Boar more coverage against threats like Slowbro, Gyrados (supposing its been weakened beforehand), and Flying types excluding Skarmory.
Flare Blitz can handle that.
Head Smash does much more damage and would basically defeat the purpose of the extra HP.

 

[Ilan]

gf keeps releasing these "all out attack and hope for the best" mons. I love these types of mons, they're really fun to play. but it's not working. electivire, magmortar, medicham all fall under that category and they all are pretty bad. emboar looks like he could break this mold just by better stat distribution but i don't know if he can with having an extra type to deal with that resits his stab

you're probably confused so I'm gonna use an example I'm more familiar with

so in the game "league of legends" there's all types of characters, but there's a type of character called Melee carries who are Melee damage dealers. they typically can't take very much damage, but thy can deal a lot if given the chance. this class has been constantly the worst in the game, because of the amount of cc in the game. (slows stuns, think paralyze, freeze) for a while this type of character was released quite frequently, only to be insanely strong at release and then slowly fade to terrible status due to the exact same problems the person before them had.

recently they released a new character. he is a Melee carry, he still has the same problems, but he has some patches in his kit (move pool?) to help make them less severe. the company took a risk knowing this character could be completely broken, but they made some changes and released him and let me say, he is one of the most fun characters to play as, and is balanced enough to be fun to play against

to tie this in with pokemon and emboar, I think gf needs to release a slow, but moderately bulky and with a good attack stat pokemon with a good recoil stab move and maybe rock head. Just a rampardos with less attack and bulkier.

Yasuo has 35% win rate on ranks XD (Well probably cause people mindlessly took him without team synergy)
If you are gonna compare pokemon with LOL Emboar is more of a Sion his kit(stats) is kinda weird he is a physical attacker but has so much sp.atack that goes to waste (same with Sion he has AP scaling abilities that just go to waste or if going AD his AP abilities go to waste) in short I have no idea why GF gave emboar 100 sp.attack which he has so little use of if he just has +20 speed and -20 sp.attack he would be so much better or -40 sp.attack +20 to each defense.. his sp.attack is a wasted stat. if just GF would rework pokemons like Riot does.
It has average bulk his attack isn't THAT high he has low speed and he also relies on recoil attacks.. if he had reckless all he can do is to deal significal damage but then die why would you use emboar when you can use something that can deal more damage with lower risk having the same charasteristical stats like crawdaunt

 

[SmashBrosBrawl]

Choice item+sucker punch is one of the worst combos possible. Its literally screaming setup bait. Seriously emboar has a bunch of problems that extend far more than just its bad speed. Poor bulk, poor defensive typing, reliance on recoil moves (notice a pattern here

?). I could see it as a fun nuke for trick room teams but i doubt it would be worth it when there are so much better nukes out there (entei, victini, darmanitan). Sucker punch isnt really enough to make it relevant, and bulkier sets have nothing over entei and arcanine. Maybe a mixed set with sucker punch would be more suitable, but then it has to compete with infernape. Yeah i think the pig really got shafted.

 

[rachet67]

Choice sucker punch is a terrible combination, as said above. Without the band boost however, sucker punch is only 80 BP, has a nasty side condition, and not going to do a whole lot to neutral pokes. I don't see why sucker punch is viewed as such a big deal for Emboar, of all pokes. I don't see Emboar being that much better than it was last generation, and definately not viable in OU for the same reasons discussed above.

 

[alexwolf]

Without Reckless, Emboar is not even close to viable in OU. It is an offensive Pokemon with mediocre bulk, mediocre defensive typing (yeah it's still mediocre, this thing is OHKOed by most offensive Pokemon), and horrible Speed. And it's not even that strong, not to mention that its best STAB and coverage moves have recoil (or negative side effects, which make it easier to play around). Sucker Punch is good and can help it a bit against faster foes, but cannot make it a viable Pokemon in itself and is certainly not enough to make up for its weaknesses. Heatran, Talonflame, Volcarona, Mega Char X, Mega Char Y, Ninetales, Victini, Darmanitan, Chandelure, Entei, hell fucking Infernape are all Pokemon that Emboar faces competition from, and all are better than Emboar. Yeah no single one of those Pokemon completely outclass Emboar, but collectively they do. There is nothing that Emboar can do and one of those Pokemon can't.

With Reckless, at least Emboar becomes pretty fucking strong and almost impossible to switch into, meaning it could actually become a decent wallbreaker with strong priority, giving it use against offensive teams too. But right now, Emboar is not viable.

I will give to this thread roughly a 24-hour limit before locking it, to give a chance to people that disagree with me to present some quality feedback as to why they think Emboar is indeed viable and worth of having its own thread.

 

[Jayd]

Without Reckless, Emboar is not even close to viable in OU. It is an offensive Pokemon with mediocre bulk, mediocre defensive typing (yeah it's still mediocre, this thing is OHKOed by most offensive Pokemon), and horrible Speed. And it's not even that strong, not to mention that its best STAB and coverage moves have recoil (or negative side effects, which make it easier to play around). Sucker Punch is good and can help it a bit against faster foes, but cannot make it a viable Pokemon in itself and is certainly not enough to make up for its weaknesses. Heatran, Talonflame, Volcarona, Mega Char X, Mega Char Y, Ninetales, Victini, Darmanitan, Chandelure, Entei, hell fucking Infernape are all Pokemon that Emboar faces competition from, and all are better than Emboar. Yeah no single one of those Pokemon completely outclass Emboar, but collectively they do. There is nothing that Emboar can do and one of those Pokemon can't.

With Reckless, at least Emboar becomes pretty fucking strong and almost impossible to switch into, meaning it could actually become a decent wallbreaker with strong priority, giving it use against offensive teams too. But right now, Emboar is not viable.

I will give to this thread roughly a 24-hour limit before locking it, to give a chance to people that disagree with me to present some quality feedback as to why they think Emboar is indeed viable and worth of having its own thread.

Does Reckless give it crucial KOs which make such a fundamental difference in its ability to carry out such a role? 24 more BP on Flare Blitz, 18 on Wild Charch, 30 on Head Smash are definitely an improvement, but what Pokemon will switch in on a non-Reckless attack that couldn't switch in on a Reckless attack? Without an explanation of how it has real effects on the options that an opponent has when facing Emboar, I can't see how it makes it fundamentally more viable.

Collectively, none of those Pokemon have Fighting/Dark coverage (Fight with STAB) with priority at all, much less in conjunction with the strongest Fire/Fighting STAB in the game bar Mega Blaziken. Emboar also has an expansive movepool beyond that including support, and a usable Special Attack stat that can take things off guard. It therefore has more than one possible set that none of those Pokemon can mimic. It's flaws are still crippling, but hey, if Malamar can have a 12 page thread that is still open, why can't he have one in case someone comes up with some interesting ideas or data that they'd like to share?

That said, I won't be angry if this thread is locked as it is mostly just negativity, deserved or not. Thanks for at least giving the grace period.

 

[LoDart210]

sorry, but those 65 defense stats are the dealbreakers. You'd think with a hefty pokemon like Emboar, they'd follow the trend for other fat pokemon and give him a decent special defense, but... I dunno, I like him a lot, but I feel like with emboar, he always punches in a day late and a dollar short.

His speed doesn't even matter, if they'd...just... boosted his defenses....

Anyway, enough RU sympathy for me today.

 

[alexwolf]

Does Reckless give it crucial KOs which make such a fundamental difference in its ability to carry out such a role? 24 more BP on Flare Blitz, 18 on Wild Charch, 30 on Head Smash are definitely an improvement, but what Pokemon will switch in on a non-Reckless attack that couldn't switch in on a Reckless attack? Without an explanation of how it has real effects on the options that an opponent has when facing Emboar, I can't see how it makes it fundamentally more viable.

Collectively, none of those Pokemon have Fighting/Dark coverage (Fight with STAB) with priority at all, much less in conjunction with the strongest Fire/Fighting STAB in the game bar Mega Blaziken. Emboar also has an expansive movepool beyond that including support, and a usable Special Attack stat that can take things off guard. It therefore has more than one possible set that none of those Pokemon can mimic. It's flaws are still crippling, but hey, if Malamar can have a 12 page thread that is still open, why can't he have one in case someone comes up with some interesting ideas or data that they'd like to share?

That said, I won't be angry if this thread is locked as it is mostly just negativity, deserved or not. Thanks for at least giving the grace period.

Here are some 2HKOes against imporant defensive Pokemon that you achieve with Reckless:

• 252+ Atk Life Orb Reckless Emboar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 208-246 (49.5 - 58.5%) -- 64.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
  
• -1 252+ Atk Life Orb Reckless Emboar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Landorus-T: 165-196 (43.1 - 51.3%) -- 57.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
  
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Reckless Emboar Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 221-260 (56 - 65.9%)
  
• 252+ Atk Life Orb Reckless Emboar Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Thick Fat Mega Venusaur: 203-242 (55.7 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

All those calcs are very important. Getting walled by one of the best physical walls in OU is obviously not fun (Hippowdon), and same goes for RestTalk Lando-T or max Def Lando-T in general (which is a viable stall mon). Also, by doing ~60% to Slowbro with Wild Charge, it means that you almost don't have to predict the switch-in anymore, as long as it has 10% residual damage on it and SR is up. Finally, the extra damage against Mega Venusaur means that it is much harder for it to stall you with recoil to death by spamming Synthesis.

Btw, i am talking about a 4 attacks set with Flare Blitz, Superpower, Wild Charge, Sucker Punch, Adamant, max Atk / max Spe, and LO, as this would be its best set with Reckless. Having a strong priority move to use at will against offense is one of the pros of Emboar as a wallbreaker, so you can't take this away by using CB.

And of course, there are a dozen of OHKO/2HKOes that you get with Flare Blitz and/or Sucker Punch that you couldn't without Reckless, but i won't go through details as what mattes more is its power against defensive Pokemon.

Finally, Malamar has a thread because it's a new Pokemon, and it's only logical to allow people to discuss about new Pokemon somewhere don't you think? At least until the tiers they belong to are formed.