Pokémon Iron Leaves

[Jaxhawk]

Iron Leaves

Type: Grass / Psychic
Base Stats: 590 - 90 / 130 / 88 / 70 / 108 / 104
Ability: Quark Drive

Signature Move:
Psyblade: Psychic / 80 BP / 100acc / 24pp. Gets a 1.5x boost if electric terrain is active.

Notable Moves:
Leaf Blade
Close Combat
Swords Dance
Night Slash
Wild Charge
Trailblaze
Tera Blast
Sacred Sword

Pros:

1. New typing in the tier that resists both Great Tusks stab. Is the only physical Psychic Stab in the tier.
2. Strong fast attacker that hits 337 speed with 252+, notably out speeds Garchomp.
3. 90/88/108 bulk lets it switch in to many moves and can survive super-effective hits with investment.
4. Is an attacker that beats Great Tusk, Toxapex and Dondozo some of the best physical checks in the tier.

Cons:

1. Grass/Psychic type is awful. Is 4x weak to U-turn and other common types like Dark and Fire.
2. Requires terrain support to function well which is limited to the mediocre Pincurchin.
3. Vulnerable to every entry hazard and without reliable recovery that limits its offensive capabilities.
4. Misses several key OHKOs and 2HKOs and is easily revenge killed by priority or faster threats.

Sets:

1. Swords Dance Booster Energy

Iron Leaves @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fighting / Dark / Fire
EVs: 96 HP / 160 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Psyblade
- Close Combat / Leaf Blade
- Night Slash / Tera Blast (Fire) / Leaf Blade​

Your standard Swords Dance set that uses Booster Energy to gain the speed boost to sweep late game once its checks are worn down enough.
Night Slash is for Gholdengo and Skeledirge (though it will need to tera to beat the latter). Leaf Blade is a strong Stab alternative.
Tera Fire is used for Corviknight, Gholdengo and to absorb Will-o-Wisp which can easily take advantage of Iron Leaves.

2. Choice Band

Iron Leaves @ Choice Band
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Psyblade
- Close Combat
- Wild Charge / Night Slash​

This set is used as a midgame wallbreaker that works especially well on Electric Terrain.
Wild Charge is notable as always 2HKOs Phys. Def Corviknight. Add in electric terrain and you near OHKO it.
Night Slash is useful without electric terrain as it allows it to beat Skeledirge with proper prediction. (its also helpful against Gholdengo or opposing Iron Leaves).

3. Weakness Policy

Iron Leaves @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 172 HP / 104 Atk / 4 SpD / 228 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Psyblade
- Close Combat
- Night Slash
- Trailblaze​

Got an interesting set that abuses the 7 types Grass/Psychic is weak to activate Weakness Policy, Trailblaze up and break past counters
The EV spread is used to survive strong hits like Iron Moth's Sludge Wave or Gholdengo's Shadow Ball and the Attack investment always OHKOs Gholdengo with Night Slash at +2Atk.
Tera Fighting allows it to beat Kingambit that revenge kills otherwise and does the most damage to Corviknight.
I've found this set has no trouble activating Weakness Policy (Tusk just loves spamming Knock Off) but has trouble breaking Skeledirge and is limited by priority killers.

Overview:
Iron Leaves is a severely Underused Pokemon (it might just be UU) but has its viable sets in OU. It requires help from its teammates to wear down its counters like Corviknight and Skeledirge but is a beast under Electric terrain. It can provide a huge surprise factor by beating its checks with a timely Tera and somewhat diverse movepool.

 

[Lectrys]

Left behind this in the OU thread:

Walking Wake looks threatening as hell and I look forward to seeing the carnage it can and will wreak, but let's take a closer look at Iron Leaves!


The first things you notice about Iron Leaves's stat spread are its nice 130 base Attack, its chunky special bulk, and its actually solid base 104 Speed. In fact, that special bulk starts to remind me of Hoopa-U: it's actually enough to tank a powerful super-effective special attack once! This is good because it shares that biting 4x weakness to U-turn and lower physical bulk with Hoopa-U. If you're using Iron Leaves instead of Meowscarada, it's because of that bulk (along with easier access to Swords Dance).

Iron Leaves @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat
- Night Slash
- Psyblade

Scarf Iron Leaves outspeeds Scarf Garchomp and can leverage its bulk to revenge things despite its nasty weakness profile:


Vs. Scarf Gholdengo
252 Atk Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gholdengo: 160-190 (50.7 - 60.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Gholdengo Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 252-296 (78.2 - 91.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Vs. Great Tusk
252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 234-276 (63 - 74.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 238-280 (73.9 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Vs. Iron Treads
252 Atk Iron Leaves Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 226-266 (70.4 - 82.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Treads: 127-150 (39.5 - 46.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 Atk Iron Treads Ice Spinner vs. -1 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 262-310 (81.3 - 96.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Iron Treads Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. -1 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 318-376 (98.7 - 116.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO


Vs. Specs Greninja
252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 408-482 (143.1 - 169.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 Atk Iron Leaves Close Combat vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Greninja: 362-428 (127 - 150.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO


Vs. Booster Energy Iron Valiant
252 Atk Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Valiant: 288-338 (99.6 - 116.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Iron Valiant Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 156-184 (48.4 - 57.1%) -- 91.4% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Iron Valiant Moonblast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 138-163 (42.8 - 50.6%) -- 2% chance to 2HKO


Vs. Rotom-W
252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Rotom-Wash: 278-330 (91.4 - 108.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock)
252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 204-240 (67.1 - 78.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk burned Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Rotom-Wash: 102-120 (33.5 - 39.4%) -- 14.1% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery


Vs. Specs Dragapult
(OK, this one's not so good)
252 Atk Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 194-230 (61.1 - 72.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Tera Dark Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 290-344 (91.4 - 108.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock)
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 306-362 (95 - 112.4%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
0- Atk Dragapult U-turn vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 236-280 (73.2 - 86.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Dragapult Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 249-294 (77.3 - 91.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

This leaves Swords Dance, Taunt, Substitute, and friends for wallbreaker sets.

Iron Leaves @ Life Orb
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Taunt / Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade
- Close Combat / Wild Charge / Psyblade
- Night Slash


If you can actually catch Skeledirge trying to Will-O-Wisp Iron Leaves, a Taunt set can break through Skeledirge, its mightiest Unaware wall and normally one of its best checks:

252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 248 HP / 0 Def Skeledirge: 200-237 (48.6 - 57.6%) -- 94.9% chance to 2HKO
8 SpA Skeledirge Torch Song vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 176-210 (54.6 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Gholdengo is immune to Taunt, forcing Iron Leaves to use Swords Dance instead to try to break it. Unfortunately, Iron Leaves has trouble cracking fully defensive Gholdengo without Terastallizing. Meta shifts may make Gholdengo not want to go full Bold max. Defense, though:

252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 96 Def Gholdengo: 190-224 (50.2 - 59.2%) -- 74.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 148-177 (39.1 - 46.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 96 Def Gholdengo: 374-442 (98.9 - 116.9%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 296-351 (78.3 - 92.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 336-396 (104.3 - 122.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Hex (130 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tera Dark Iron Leaves: 84-99 (26 - 30.7%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 154-183 (47.8 - 56.8%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO
0 SpA Gholdengo Make It Rain over 2 turns vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 257-306 (79.8 - 95%) -- not a KO
252 Atk Life Orb Tera Dark Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 221-265 (58.4 - 70.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Tera Dark Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gholdengo: 445-525 (117.7 - 138.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Tera Dark Iron Leaves Night Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tera Flying Gholdengo: 222-263 (58.7 - 69.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery


So the Taunt set cracks Dondozo easily.

252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 252-299 (50 - 59.3%) -- 77% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Dondozo Wave Crash vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 72-85 (22.3 - 26.3%) -- 16.8% chance to 4HKO
0 Atk Dondozo Avalanche (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 192-228 (59.6 - 70.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Clodsire is easily broken period:

252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 248 HP / 8 Def Clodsire: 286-337 (61.7 - 72.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Clodsire Poison Jab vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 152-180 (47.2 - 55.9%) -- 74.6% chance to 2HKO


Unfortunately, Iron Leaves needs Wild Charge to even try to get past Corviknight without Terastallizing:

252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 118-140 (29.5 - 35%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 237-279 (59.3 - 69.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Wild Charge vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 179-213 (44.8 - 53.3%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
+2 252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Wild Charge vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 356-421 (89.2 - 105.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO
0 Atk Corviknight Brave Bird vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 254-302 (78.8 - 93.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Corviknight U-turn vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 204-240 (63.3 - 74.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO


Toxapex is easier to crack with Taunt than Swords Dance thanks to the threat of Haze. Iron Leaves might need both Taunt and Swords Dance or to use Psyblade to crack Chilling Water Toxapex, though:

252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 107-126 (35.1 - 41.4%) -- 70.6% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 143-169 (47 - 55.5%) -- 16.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (11.1 - 13.1% recoil damage)
252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 252 HP / 192+ Def Toxapex: 190-226 (62.5 - 74.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Toxapex Sludge Bomb vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 110-132 (34.1 - 40.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
0 SpA Toxapex Chilling Water vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Iron Leaves: 15-18 (4.6 - 5.5%) -- possibly the worst move ever


Garganacl is also easier to crack with Taunt than Swords Dance:

252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Garganacl: 234-276 (57.9 - 68.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Tera Fairy Garganacl: 117-138 (28.9 - 34.1%) -- 98.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Life Orb Iron Leaves Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Tera Flying Garganacl: 156-185 (38.6 - 45.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Garganacl Salt Cure vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 49-58 (15.2 - 18%) -- 97.4% chance to 4HKO after Salt Cure

I concluded that Scarf didn't look too bad (although missing out on the Baxcalibur OHKO hurts) and Taunt might be better than Swords Dance for it: if you predict right, every Unaware user falls to Taunt LO Iron Leaves unless they Tera.

 

[furyofyuriy]

I feel i should make mention that Iron leaves is a pokemon that benefits from 3 different terrains, which is a rarity amongst pokemon. Both Psychic and Grassy boost its main stab, while psychic protects it from priority. However, electric boosts not only Quark drive but Pysblade to levels of power that exceed psychic terrain.
I think that in time, Iron leaves will come to have an OU spot, however that time will come when HOME releases and Grassy terrain is more prevalent. Despite its abysmal typing, Leaves has some power to be reckoned with under the right conditions. It's in a weird spot due to it's ability and signature attack, however it can def benefit in the future from having a unique niche.

 

[pika pal]

I mentioned in I believe the Metagame discussion thread, but Iron Leaves is a Pokemon that has almost everything going for it except its typing, while not being quite as overwhelming for a "Tera Demand" as something like Garganacl.

Its stats and boosting options are pretty good for a Physical Sweeper or Wallbreaker, and a lot of its moves have decent power on neutral targets, but it's functionally without an ability and pretty frail physically for how many weaknesses it has in this meta full of both Ghosts and big Physical hitters. At first glance you'd think it can check Great Tusk, but being weak to Knock Off shoots that match-up in the foot since it can't come in on basically any move and win with hazards up even against 0 HP Offensive Tusk.

0 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 132-156 (41.1 - 48.5%) -- 69.9% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252 Atk Great Tusk Knock Off vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 158-188 (49.2 - 58.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Great Tusk: 176-210 (40.5 - 48.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Iron Leaves Leaf Blade vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Great Tusk: 234-276 (63 - 74.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

It plays well with all 3 Terrains, which I think is a creative parallel to Walking Wake's "Water Sun Mon" that helps it also function in/check Rain, but suffers comparatively from there being no presence of any Terrain in OU outside of some very niche and specific Psychic Terrain ones right now. I would genuinely entertain the idea it's better in Ubers since Miraidon exists for it to actually utilize Quark Drive.

Its STABs then have a hard stop in Steel that more or less necessitates it run Fighting Coverage, which limits flexibility with Offensive Tera or even weird utility like Double Dance or Manual Terrain. Maybe there's a way to make this work but Leaves is going to depend desperately on teammates or some major Meta upset before it starts influencing anything itself.

 

[TMaster23]

I’m of the opinion that Iron Leaves works much better in a doubles meta game than a singles meta game at present. It’s a bit easier to set the terrains that Iron Leaves likes to have in Doubles, where Pincurchin has a bit more use as a status spreader and terrain setter between Discharge hitting both opposing Pokémon and the immediate team pressure Electric Terrain offers when a Pokémon that can really abuse it is already on the field. It also helps that, at least as far as current VGC is concerned, Iron Leaves is straight up a hard counter to Amoongus without Pollen Puff, being both a grass type immune to Spore and a Psychic type with a super effective move that benefits on both electric and psychic terrain. The ability to outspeed Garchomp naturally is also huge in a Doubles meta game, as Chompy is quite popular and the ability to outspeed it is huge when you have the natural power to 2HKO it under terrain. Iron Leaves also works well with Indeedee, gaining an immunity to Sucker Punch and still boosting its best move courtesy of the typing.

In short, I see this Pokémon functioning extremely well in the Doubles meta game, and especially in VGC when it becomes legal (I don’t think it’s VGC legal just yet courtesy of not being in the Paldea Pokédex, but I could be wrong).

Edit: minor grammar

 

[TMaster23]

I’m of the opinion that Iron Leaves works much better in a doubles meta game than a singles meta game at present. It’s a bit easier to set the terrains that Iron Leaves likes to have in Doubles, where Pincurchin has a bit more use as a status spreader and terrain setter between Discharge hitting both opposing Pokémon and the immediate team pressure Electric Terrain offers when a Pokémon that can really abuse it is already on the field. It also helps that, at least as far as current VGC is concerned, Iron Leaves is straight up a hard counter to Amoongus without Pollen Puff, being both a grass type immune to Spore and a Psychic type with a super effective move that benefits on both electric and psychic terrain. The ability to outspeed Garchomp naturally is also huge in a Doubles meta game, as Chompy is quite popular and the ability to outspeed it is huge when you have the natural power to 2HKO it under terrain. Iron Leaves also works well with Indeedee, gaining an immunity to Sucker Punch and still boosting its best move courtesy of the typing.

In short, I see this Pokémon functioning extremely well in the Doubles meta gameand especially in VGC when it becomes legal (I don’t think it’s VGC legal just yet courtesy of not being in the Paldea Pokédex, but I could be wrong).

Relevant Calcs to back this up (using the Choice Scarf set recommended in the above post for sake of ScarfChomp)

252 Atk Quark Drive Iron Leaves Psyblade (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp in Electric Terrain: 267-315 (74.7 - 88.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 Atk Iron Leaves Psyblade vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp in Psychic Terrain: 178-210 (49.8 - 58.8%) -- 99.6% chance to 2HKO

252 Atk Garchomp Dragon Claw vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Iron Leaves: 145-172 (45 - 53.4%) -- 36.3% chance to 2HKO

The ability to reliably revenge kill ScarfChomp in any metagame is huge, but especially when it’s quite common in Doubles is even better. What’s more, this isn’t even considering Tera types; with Tera Psychic, Psyblade approaches ludicrous power levels.

252 Atk Quark Drive Tera Psychic Iron Leaves Psyblade (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp in Electric Terrain: 356-420 (99.7 - 117.6%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO

I hope this Paradox Pokémon gets the love it absolutely deserves upon its release into VGC. It may end up being a niche pick as VGC shifts occur quite often, but it absolutely can hold its own with a partner present.

 

[sims796]

Ugh, I'm trying so hard but without a high powered move he requires so much support. I'm giving it a go in both grassy and psychic terrains, I wish it had a bit more power or speed to it. Why is is itbslower than Wake?