[overview]
**Draft order**: Round 1
**Price range**: 18-19 points
**Overview**: Iron Valiant is one of the most versatile offensive Pokemon in the format. With its great Fairy and Fighting typing, strong mixed offensive stats, one of the deepest movepools in the game including offensive coverage and support moves, and a great Speed tier that can be further boosted by Booster Energy, Iron Valiant can sometimes seem like an unstoppable force. As such, Iron Valiant is the centerpiece of drafts that take it. Its teammates should be chosen to support Iron Valiant and allow it to reach its game-winning potential.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Speed Booster Energy cleaner**: With Speed Booster Energy, Iron Valiant outspeeds the entire unboosted metagame. This type of set aims to save Iron Valiant for late-game when the opponent's team is weakened. These sets often run 4 attacks, making use of Iron Valiant’s superb coverage to finish off the enemy team, and the Speed boost prevents it from being revenge killed.
**Breaker**: Iron Valiant can also be used early-game as a breaker, usually running Choice Specs Moonblast, Choice Band Close Combat, or mixed offense Life Orb to do so. It's very effective at this role because Iron Valiant's expansive coverage allows it to 2HKO most Pokemon if it uses the right move.
**Setup wincon**: These sets will also often run Speed Booster Energy but sacrifice one or two coverage moves for Calm Mind or Swords Dance and an optional utility move like Encore or Taunt. The tradeoff of less coverage for setup potential allows Iron Valiant to sweep teams without needing them as weakened. However, this requires finding an opportunity to set up.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Moonblast, Aura Sphere, Focus Blast, Vacuum Wave, Spirit Break, Close Combat, Drain Punch
**Setup moves**: Calm Mind, Swords Dance, Agility, Substitute
**Utility moves**: Encore, Taunt, Destiny Bond, Disable, Trick, Hypnosis, Thunder Wave
**Coverage**: Energy Ball, Fire Punch, Grass Knot, Ice Punch, Knock Off, Leaf Blade, Liquidation, Poison Jab, Psychic, Psyshock, Shadow Ball, Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak, Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, X-Scissor, Zen Headbutt
Niche Moves
========
**Reflect and Light Screen**: Reflect and Light Screen can be run on Iron Valiant to have it take on a more supportive role on the off chance it has a really bad matchup against your opponent's team.
**Hex**: Hex can be combined with Toxic Spikes or other status spreading support to give Iron Valiant a 130 Base Power Ghost-type coverage option. This is notably useful for Iron Valiant to break through bulky Psychic-type Pokemon, which can be decent defensive answers to Iron Valiant.
Common Items
========
**Booster Energy**: Most Iron Valiant wincon sets will run Speed Booster Energy, but Special Attack Booster Energy or Attack Booster Energy is also possible for wallbreaker sets.
**Choice Specs**: On special wallbreaker sets, Iron Valiant maximizes its offense to dish out powerful Moonblast and Focus Blast.
**Choice Band**: On physical wallbreaker sets, Iron Valiant maximizes its offense to dish out powerful Close Combat and Spirit Break.
**Life Orb/Expert Belt**: These damage-boosting items are used on mixed wallbreaker Iron Valiant sets, offering a boost to both of Iron Valiant's offensive stats and not locking Iron Valiant into any single move. Life Orb offers more damage at the cost of longevity, so the better for this role will depend on the matchup.
Niche Items
========
**Choice Scarf**: It is mostly outclassed by Speed Booster Energy, but Iron Valiant can run Choice Scarf for more consistent speed control if needed.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: If you expect your opponent to bring a team that will stack entry hazards, Heavy-Duty Boots is always a nice option to limit their effectiveness.
**Air Balloon**: Iron Valiant can combine its natural Dragon immunity with Air Balloon's temporary Ground immunity to become immune to Garchomp's STAB moves, allowing it to safely switch in on Garchomp and threaten it out with a Fairy-type attack.
Tera
========
Iron Valiant is widely Tera-banned in Draft, so it is usually ineligible to be a Tera Captain. If you have the chance to let Iron Valiant Tera, it should definitely be a Tera Captain, as its already amazing offenses become extremely overwhelming. Virtually every type can be helpful for Iron Valiant in some way thanks to its broad movepool. It can use Tera Fighting or Fairy to boost its already strong STAB moves, any type that boosts chosen coverage moves like Tera Water to power up Liquidation, or a defensive Tera type like Steel to resist common forms of priority, making it harder to revenge kill.
Draft Strategy
========
Because Iron Valiant should be picked in round 1, the rest of the team should be formed with an Iron Valiant game plan in mind.
**Strong alternate wincon**: Iron Valiant most often wants to be run as a late-game cleaner when everything is weakened. A strong wincon like Salamence or Volcarona can be paired with Iron Valiant to accomplish this, seeing as either it sweeps through the opponent's team, or Iron Valiant can clean up what little is left behind. This Pokemon will most likely be one of your Tera Captains, since Iron Valiant is usually Tera-banned.
**Spikes**: The threat of Iron Valiant's many coverage moves can force foes to switch, and stacking layers of Spikes will punish this heavily. It's already hard to switch into a late-game Iron Valiant with a weakened team, and Spikes makes it even more painful.
**Secondary Dragon-type answer**: Iron Valiant is sometimes considered a "fake" Fairy-type; it's not bulky, and it has to be mindful of when to come onto the field when it's running Booster Energy. As such, opposing Dragon-types may not respect a team whose only Dragon-type answer is Iron Valiant, so a good Steel-type or a secondary Fairy-type, such as Gholdengo or Tinkaton, is appreciated.
**Secondary speed control**: While Iron Valiant can be used as speed control with Speed Booster Energy, it often doesn't want to consume its Booster Energy before it's ready to sweep. Therefore, Iron Valiant should be paired with another source of speed control like strong priority users or a different fast Pokemon that can viably run Choice Scarf.
Checks and Counters
========
**Poison-types**: Iron Valiant's STAB combination is resisted by Poison-types, so bulky Poison-types do a good job at handling Iron Valiant defensively. Iron Valiant can only threaten them with Psychic-type coverage, but without the STAB multiplier, most Poison-types will be able to live a Psychic-type hit or two. Naturally, Iron Valiant benefits from being paired with strong Ground- or Psychic-type Pokemon to break through these Poison-types.
**Resistance Berry lures**: A common way of dealing with Iron Valiant's immense coverage is accepting Iron Valiant will hit your Pokemon super effectively and using a resistance Berry to survive a super effective hit. These are generally most effective on bulky Pokemon with an option to threaten Iron Valiant after surviving its attack, such as Galarian Slowking using Colbur Berry to survive Knock Off and OHKO Iron Valiant with Sludge Bomb.
**Faster Choice Scarf users**: To cover a Speed-boosted Iron Valiant, teams with a Pokemon with a better Speed tier than Iron Valiant can run a Choice Scarf to try to revenge kill. Cleaner Iron Valiant sets will often try to save its Booster Energy until it is able to identify if a Choice Scarf user faster than Iron Valiant is on the opponent's team, and if one exists, they wait until it is no longer threatening to Iron Valiant to come onto the field.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/dartrix-joker.356084/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/hacker.387847/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ken.594478/
**Draft order**: Round 1
**Price range**: 18-19 points
**Overview**: Iron Valiant is one of the most versatile offensive Pokemon in the format. With its great Fairy and Fighting typing, strong mixed offensive stats, one of the deepest movepools in the game including offensive coverage and support moves, and a great Speed tier that can be further boosted by Booster Energy, Iron Valiant can sometimes seem like an unstoppable force. As such, Iron Valiant is the centerpiece of drafts that take it. Its teammates should be chosen to support Iron Valiant and allow it to reach its game-winning potential.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Speed Booster Energy cleaner**: With Speed Booster Energy, Iron Valiant outspeeds the entire unboosted metagame. This type of set aims to save Iron Valiant for late-game when the opponent's team is weakened. These sets often run 4 attacks, making use of Iron Valiant’s superb coverage to finish off the enemy team, and the Speed boost prevents it from being revenge killed.
**Breaker**: Iron Valiant can also be used early-game as a breaker, usually running Choice Specs Moonblast, Choice Band Close Combat, or mixed offense Life Orb to do so. It's very effective at this role because Iron Valiant's expansive coverage allows it to 2HKO most Pokemon if it uses the right move.
**Setup wincon**: These sets will also often run Speed Booster Energy but sacrifice one or two coverage moves for Calm Mind or Swords Dance and an optional utility move like Encore or Taunt. The tradeoff of less coverage for setup potential allows Iron Valiant to sweep teams without needing them as weakened. However, this requires finding an opportunity to set up.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Moonblast, Aura Sphere, Focus Blast, Vacuum Wave, Spirit Break, Close Combat, Drain Punch
**Setup moves**: Calm Mind, Swords Dance, Agility, Substitute
**Utility moves**: Encore, Taunt, Destiny Bond, Disable, Trick, Hypnosis, Thunder Wave
**Coverage**: Energy Ball, Fire Punch, Grass Knot, Ice Punch, Knock Off, Leaf Blade, Liquidation, Poison Jab, Psychic, Psyshock, Shadow Ball, Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak, Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, X-Scissor, Zen Headbutt
Niche Moves
========
**Reflect and Light Screen**: Reflect and Light Screen can be run on Iron Valiant to have it take on a more supportive role on the off chance it has a really bad matchup against your opponent's team.
**Hex**: Hex can be combined with Toxic Spikes or other status spreading support to give Iron Valiant a 130 Base Power Ghost-type coverage option. This is notably useful for Iron Valiant to break through bulky Psychic-type Pokemon, which can be decent defensive answers to Iron Valiant.
Common Items
========
**Booster Energy**: Most Iron Valiant wincon sets will run Speed Booster Energy, but Special Attack Booster Energy or Attack Booster Energy is also possible for wallbreaker sets.
**Choice Specs**: On special wallbreaker sets, Iron Valiant maximizes its offense to dish out powerful Moonblast and Focus Blast.
**Choice Band**: On physical wallbreaker sets, Iron Valiant maximizes its offense to dish out powerful Close Combat and Spirit Break.
**Life Orb/Expert Belt**: These damage-boosting items are used on mixed wallbreaker Iron Valiant sets, offering a boost to both of Iron Valiant's offensive stats and not locking Iron Valiant into any single move. Life Orb offers more damage at the cost of longevity, so the better for this role will depend on the matchup.
Niche Items
========
**Choice Scarf**: It is mostly outclassed by Speed Booster Energy, but Iron Valiant can run Choice Scarf for more consistent speed control if needed.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: If you expect your opponent to bring a team that will stack entry hazards, Heavy-Duty Boots is always a nice option to limit their effectiveness.
**Air Balloon**: Iron Valiant can combine its natural Dragon immunity with Air Balloon's temporary Ground immunity to become immune to Garchomp's STAB moves, allowing it to safely switch in on Garchomp and threaten it out with a Fairy-type attack.
Tera
========
Iron Valiant is widely Tera-banned in Draft, so it is usually ineligible to be a Tera Captain. If you have the chance to let Iron Valiant Tera, it should definitely be a Tera Captain, as its already amazing offenses become extremely overwhelming. Virtually every type can be helpful for Iron Valiant in some way thanks to its broad movepool. It can use Tera Fighting or Fairy to boost its already strong STAB moves, any type that boosts chosen coverage moves like Tera Water to power up Liquidation, or a defensive Tera type like Steel to resist common forms of priority, making it harder to revenge kill.
Draft Strategy
========
Because Iron Valiant should be picked in round 1, the rest of the team should be formed with an Iron Valiant game plan in mind.
**Strong alternate wincon**: Iron Valiant most often wants to be run as a late-game cleaner when everything is weakened. A strong wincon like Salamence or Volcarona can be paired with Iron Valiant to accomplish this, seeing as either it sweeps through the opponent's team, or Iron Valiant can clean up what little is left behind. This Pokemon will most likely be one of your Tera Captains, since Iron Valiant is usually Tera-banned.
**Spikes**: The threat of Iron Valiant's many coverage moves can force foes to switch, and stacking layers of Spikes will punish this heavily. It's already hard to switch into a late-game Iron Valiant with a weakened team, and Spikes makes it even more painful.
**Secondary Dragon-type answer**: Iron Valiant is sometimes considered a "fake" Fairy-type; it's not bulky, and it has to be mindful of when to come onto the field when it's running Booster Energy. As such, opposing Dragon-types may not respect a team whose only Dragon-type answer is Iron Valiant, so a good Steel-type or a secondary Fairy-type, such as Gholdengo or Tinkaton, is appreciated.
**Secondary speed control**: While Iron Valiant can be used as speed control with Speed Booster Energy, it often doesn't want to consume its Booster Energy before it's ready to sweep. Therefore, Iron Valiant should be paired with another source of speed control like strong priority users or a different fast Pokemon that can viably run Choice Scarf.
Checks and Counters
========
**Poison-types**: Iron Valiant's STAB combination is resisted by Poison-types, so bulky Poison-types do a good job at handling Iron Valiant defensively. Iron Valiant can only threaten them with Psychic-type coverage, but without the STAB multiplier, most Poison-types will be able to live a Psychic-type hit or two. Naturally, Iron Valiant benefits from being paired with strong Ground- or Psychic-type Pokemon to break through these Poison-types.
**Resistance Berry lures**: A common way of dealing with Iron Valiant's immense coverage is accepting Iron Valiant will hit your Pokemon super effectively and using a resistance Berry to survive a super effective hit. These are generally most effective on bulky Pokemon with an option to threaten Iron Valiant after surviving its attack, such as Galarian Slowking using Colbur Berry to survive Knock Off and OHKO Iron Valiant with Sludge Bomb.
**Faster Choice Scarf users**: To cover a Speed-boosted Iron Valiant, teams with a Pokemon with a better Speed tier than Iron Valiant can run a Choice Scarf to try to revenge kill. Cleaner Iron Valiant sets will often try to save its Booster Energy until it is able to identify if a Choice Scarf user faster than Iron Valiant is on the opponent's team, and if one exists, they wait until it is no longer threatening to Iron Valiant to come onto the field.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/dartrix-joker.356084/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/hacker.387847/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ken.594478/
Last edited:
