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Pokémon Moltres-Galar

gmoltres_2x.png

Galarian Moltres

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Base Stats - 90 HP / 85 Atk / 90 Def / 100 SpA / 125 SpD / 90 Spe
Abilities: Berserk (When this Pokemon's HP drops below half, it gets +1 to its Special Attack.)

Level Up Moves:
- [01] Gust
- [01] Leer
- [05] Payback
- [10] Safeguard
- [15] Wing Attack
- [20] Agility
- [25] Ancient Power
- [30] Sucker Punch
- [35] Air Slash
- [40] After You
- [45] Fiery Wrath
- [50] Nasty Plot
- [55] Hurricane
- [60] Endure
- [65] Memento
- [70] Sky Attack
TMs:
- [TM06] Fly
- [TM08] Hyper Beam
- [TM09] Giga Impact
- [TM19] Safeguard
- [TM21] Rest
- [TM24] Snore
- [TM25] Protect
- [TM26] Scary Face
- [TM30] Steel Wing
- [TM39] Facade
- [TM40] Swift
- [TM44] Imprison
- [TM56] U-turn
- [TM57] Payback
- [TM58] Assurance
- [TM76] Round
- [TM77] Hex
- [TM85] Snarl
- [TM95] Air Slash
TRs:
- [TR12] Agility
- [TR20] Substitute
- [TR26] Endure
- [TR27] Sleep Talk
- [TR33] Shadow Ball
- [TR37] Taunt
- [TR42] Hyper Voice
- [TR58] Dark Pulse
- [TR66] Brave Bird
- [TR68] Nasty Plot
- [TR81] Foul Play
- [TR89] Hurricane
Armor Tutors:
- Dual Wingbeat
- Lash Out
Notable Moves:
Fiery Wrath (90 BP, 100 Accuracy, 16 PP. A special Dark-type move with a 20% chance to flinch. Hits both foes in a Double Battle.)
Hurricane
Nasty Plot
Substitute
Agility
Air Slash
U-turn
Brave Bird
Taunt
Memento
Steel Wing


Pros:
- Dark/Flying is an excellent STAB combo. The only potentially OU-relevant Pokemon in the game that resist it are Tapu Koko, Magearna, Tyranitar, Bisharp, Diancie, and Klefki.
- Nasty Plot is a perfect move for it, letting it effectively break through balance teams.
- Berserk is a good ability that lets it turn up the heat even more as its HP gets low, and it has good enough bulk (especially special bulk) to survive at least one hit, putting it into Berserk range. For instance, it takes only about 55% from Clefable's uninvested Moonblast, and even has a chance to live AV Magearna's Fleur Cannon, and if it does, it gets even more juice to break through them.

Cons:
- It has relatively poor offensive stats. 100 Special Attack isn't all that great, and 90 speed leaves it outsped by other common breakers like Kyurem-B or Urshifu, meaning it can be revenge killed fairly easily.
- It doesn't really have any good coverage options at all, meaning that it is extremely walled by Magearna and Tyranitar.
- Lack of a reliable recovery move limits the use of its good bulk. A move like Roost would let it also accrue multiple Berserk boosts in certain situations, but it doesn't have that.

Potential Movesets:

Bootleg Hydreigon
Moltres-Galar @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Leftovers / Life Orb
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest / Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane
- Agility / Substitute / Air Slash / U-turn

The name is fitting. Moltres-Galar competes a lot with Hydreigon, another special Dark type breaker, for a teamslot. Moltres' Fiery Wrath is only a hair weaker than Hydreigon's Dark Pulse, and Moltres has an awesome secondary STAB, although it loses out in the stats and coverage department. The first three moves are self-explanatory, but the choice of the last move, item, and nature is somewhat flexible and depends what you want to go for. I personally think Agility is the best option, turning Moltres-G into a double dancer. With a Modest nature and max speed, Moltres-G outspeeds max speed Heatran, and at +2, it outspeeds max speed Regieleki, as well as Modest Kingdra in Rain and Adamant Excadrill in Sand. Timid lets it beat Jolly Excadrill in Sand, as well as just perform better without the Agility boost by naturally outspeeding all Excadrills and Rotoms, but it comes at the cost of power. Timid may be the better option to run for non-Agility sets. Substitute lets Moltres-G dodge status from stuff like Blissey or Toxapex, and it can also be used to deliberately lower your own health to get in Berserk range, which can be beneficial in some situations. It's worth noting that a Moltres-G with no bulk investment can maintain Substitutes against Toxapex and most of the time they are not broken by Slowbro's Scald either. Air Slash gives you a more consistent option for when you need to use a Flying move but don't want to risk Hurricane missing. U-turn can help in matchups against Tyranitar, letting you chip it down before committing to a sweep. As for items, Heavy-Duty Boots lets you avoid Stealth Rock damage and is less reliant on hazard control, while Leftovers let you gradually heal up, which is useful on Substitute sets and can let you get out of range of certain priority moves on Agility sets, such as Grassy Glide for instance. Leftovers can also let you engage Berserk more than once in some rare situations. Life Orb is the best option for sheer power and can potentially let you get into Berserk range naturally, but is far more prone to being worn down and necessitates strict hazard control; it is likely less consistent than the other choices for this reason. Special mention to Weakness Policy, which can allow for a lot of boosts when coupled with double dance. A meme option to try could be Sitrus Berry, which can basically guarantee you to get two Berserk boosts in certain cases but is a one-use item, so you have to make it count.
 
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Umm... a fully defensive set with Rest and sleep talk and heavy duty boots sounds good on paper... it gets stronger when at half health and it only really has dark and flying for attacking moves. What do you guys/gals think?
 
Umm... a fully defensive set with Rest and sleep talk and heavy duty boots sounds good on paper... it gets stronger when at half health and it only really has dark and flying for attacking moves. What do you guys/gals think?

I used it and it was okay, pretty hard to take down because of its bulk so it could reliably keep the rest talk cycle up against certain Mons... but it's just not worth the team slot at the moment. Maybe when the meta settles down.
 
Have been playtesting Moltres-G quite extensively over the past days, and turns out every offensive set that Moltres can pull off is better done by Hydreigon or Tornadus-T (surprise surprise...), except the Sub+Lefties variants (which is still not too impressive, but at least it's unique to Moltres)
Moltres-Galar @ Leftovers
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane

Moltres-Galar @ Leftovers
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature / Timid Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane / Air Slash
Both sets have a HP value divisible by 4, which means using Substitute upon switching into SR guarantees 2 Berserk activations, along with an additional boost from your choice of boosting move. This puts you at +2 SpA / +2 Spe or +4 SpA relatively consistently. The main problem is that you only get to do it once like Hawlucha or Xerneas, but unlike Hawlucha or Xerneas, Moltres-G lack either the firepower (if running Agility) or the speed (if running NP) to pull off a gaming-ending sweep. This is because Dark STAB just isn't that good when your secondary STAB against Clefable is only 70% accurate, not to mention Magearna being on every other team as well.
The other weird problem is that if SR aren't up on your side of the field, Sub Moltres can't actually reliably get the second Berserk boost.


This doesn't work anymore and has been fixed on Showdown.
 
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A suggestion for a late game cleaning setos Endure / Petaya Berry. You can fish guarantee your survival and end up with +1/+1 ready to sweep. Vulnerable to priority, San/Hail and it sadly isn't that fast at +1 (fuck you leki) but it could be fun, probably more so in UU.

Maybe a SubSalac set to fish for extra Berserk boosts? Maybe with Agility/Sub/Fiery Wrath /Hurricane?
 
Have been playtesting Moltres-G quite extensively over the past days, and turns out every offensive set that Moltres can pull off is better done by Hydreigon or Tornadus-T (surprise surprise...), except the Sub+Lefties variants (which is still not too impressive, but at least it's unique to Moltres)
Moltres-Galar @ Leftovers
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane

Moltres-Galar @ Leftovers
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature / Timid Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane / Air Slash
Both sets have a HP value divisible by 4, which means using Substitute upon switching into SR guarantees 2 Berserk activations, along with an additional boost from your choice of boosting move. This puts you at +2 SpA / +2 Spe or +4 SpA relatively consistently. The main problem is that you only get to do it once like Hawlucha or Xerneas, but unlike Hawlucha or Xerneas, Moltres-G lack either the firepower (if running Agility) or the speed (if running NP) to pull off a gaming-ending sweep. This is because Dark STAB just isn't that good when your secondary STAB against Clefable is only 70% accurate, not to mention Magearna being on every other team as well.
The other weird problem is that if SR aren't up on your side of the field, Sub Moltres can't actually reliably get the second Berserk boost.
Could you explain what the EV Spread on the Sub + Agility set is for?
 
Have been playtesting Moltres-G quite extensively over the past days, and turns out every offensive set that Moltres can pull off is better done by Hydreigon or Tornadus-T (surprise surprise...), except the Sub+Lefties variants (which is still not too impressive, but at least it's unique to Moltres)
Moltres-Galar @ Leftovers
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD / 188 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane

Moltres-Galar @ Leftovers
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature / Timid Nature
IVs: 30 HP / 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Nasty Plot
- Fiery Wrath
- Hurricane / Air Slash
Both sets have a HP value divisible by 4, which means using Substitute upon switching into SR guarantees 2 Berserk activations, along with an additional boost from your choice of boosting move. This puts you at +2 SpA / +2 Spe or +4 SpA relatively consistently. The main problem is that you only get to do it once like Hawlucha or Xerneas, but unlike Hawlucha or Xerneas, Moltres-G lack either the firepower (if running Agility) or the speed (if running NP) to pull off a gaming-ending sweep. This is because Dark STAB just isn't that good when your secondary STAB against Clefable is only 70% accurate, not to mention Magearna being on every other team as well.
The other weird problem is that if SR aren't up on your side of the field, Sub Moltres can't actually reliably get the second Berserk boost.
Ok, so, unfortunately, Berserk only activates if the opponent hits you with a move. Substitute doesn’t help activate it.
 
So Double Dance Moltres-G has picked up in UU, and I want to see what people think of it in OU.

Moltres-Galar @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Air Slash / Hurricane

It's common used on Screens and AVeil squads in UU, so pairing it with Screens Regieleki might be a good choice. Also a Ground-type (SD Scale Shot Chomp seems like a good pick) to deal with Ttar and Magearna.
 
The removal of Roost was a hard hit to the Galarian birds, but I think it hit Galarian Moltres the hardest due to how amazing it would have been as a special wall with recovery. Though on that note, had it gotten Roost, G-Moltres would be able to accrue multiple Berserk boosts, which probably would be a bastard to deal with. And while Drampa can do the same, it works so much better for G-Moltres because of its amazing bulk and decent speed.
 
So Double Dance Moltres-G has picked up in UU, and I want to see what people think of it in OU.

Moltres-Galar @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Weakness Policy
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Agility
- Fiery Wrath
- Air Slash / Hurricane

It's common used on Screens and AVeil squads in UU, so pairing it with Screens Regieleki might be a good choice. Also a Ground-type (SD Scale Shot Chomp seems like a good pick) to deal with Ttar and Magearna.
hurricane should be the primary move, not air slash. Also timid is probably best.
 
Rest talk should be one of it's primary sets. Imo it's far more consistent and effective than WP anyway. It sits in on and walls so much stuff while getting off really solid chip, it's a great status absorber, and as long as they can't 2HKO you, their just gonna keep triggering berserk, watching you heal up to full and rolling for fiery wrath or air slash on your sleep turns.
Don't try to run 'bootleg hydreigon' because it's not at all what this mon is. It's more like an offensive mandibuzz without so much utility.

Moltres-Galar @ Leftovers
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 248 HP / 204 SpA / 56 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
- Fiery Wrath
- Air Slash
 
Rest talk should be one of it's primary sets. Imo it's far more consistent and effective than WP anyway. It sits in on and walls so much stuff while getting off really solid chip, it's a great status absorber, and as long as they can't 2HKO you, their just gonna keep triggering berserk, watching you heal up to full and rolling for fiery wrath or air slash on your sleep turns.
Don't try to run 'bootleg hydreigon' because it's not at all what this mon is. It's more like an offensive mandibuzz without so much utility.

Moltres-Galar @ Leftovers
Ability: Berserk
EVs: 248 HP / 204 SpA / 56 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Sleep Talk
- Rest
- Fiery Wrath
- Air Slash

So far in UU, the Double Dance set seems to be the scariest to date. Thanks to Galarian Moltres' bulk, it's so easy getting up both boosts and thenjust winning. The only mon who can resist both STABs in UU is Klefki, who is merely setup fodder for Galarian Moltres.
 
So far in UU, the Double Dance set seems to be the scariest to date. Thanks to Galarian Moltres' bulk, it's so easy getting up both boosts and thenjust winning. The only mon who can resist both STABs in UU is Klefki, who is merely setup fodder for Galarian Moltres.

That may be so, but it's irrelevant to OU play, which this subforum is about.
 
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