[VGC] Entei Moveset - Physical Attacker / Support

[GiMYz]

THE METAGAME, a flow that never stops . Sometimes the metagame evolves to a point where a completely underused Pokemon starts to shine thanks to a combination of moves, stats, ability and typing that were previously completely outclassed by something else or simply not fitting into the metagame... those same moves and stats that now have more than a reason to work in the actual meta.

This is the story of Entei.

Entei has lived in Arcanine's shadow for almost the whole VGC15 season, due to its set being physical (and consequently susceptible to opposing Intimidate), an awkard base stats spread, an irrelevant ability and an irreparable weakness to both Choice Scarf Landorus-T and Heatran, two of the top3 most used non-mega Pokemon in the format along with Thundurus. Arcanine is able to run a special set, with decent physical and special bulk stats, an incredible support movepool and oh... Intimidate. The best ability in the game.  

What happened?
Why have top players closed an eye to these flaws? Why is Entei getting popular?
There would be a lot of factors to analyze, but this is probably one of the most important points to take in consideration as we talk about VGC Worlds and post-Worlds metagame:

CHALK teams (Cresselia, Heatran, Amoonguss, Landorus-T, Kangaskhan) not usually filled with a Water type in the 6th slot and also featuring slower Landorus-T and M-Kangaskhan sets than we were used to see in Battle Spot (AV/LO/Sash instead of Choice Scarf Lando-T and Adamant instead of Jolly M-Kang) have made Entei's great speed stat and Pressure ability a reliable way to scout M-Kangaskhan nature (Entei can potentially speed tie with a Jolly M-Kang thanks to its base 100 Speed stat) and opposing Landorus-T set immediatly on turn 1 (being Jolly max speed Entei's Pressure faster than any non-Scarfed Lando-T's Intimidate). Hey don't move.. here comes the best past: Sacred Fire. The best fire type move in the game. Thanks its 50% chance to burn the target, a fast Entei is now able to outspeed and to put A LOOOOOOT of pressure on any physical attacker, named AV Lando and Adamant Kang in particular, which are not willing to take a Sacred Fire, not because of its damage output but because of a potential burn that could compromise the rest of their game. Count the fact that thanks to this move you also have 50% chance to OHKO both Sash Breloom and Sash Bisharp and the fact that you can deal damage + potential (and important) burn on a bulky Cresselia, it's usually a 2HKO on Aegislash and Amoonguss while being able to outspeed and abuse of its second best move, Snarl, to annoy M-Gardevoir, Timid SubHeatran and Modest M-CharY and there you have it.. a combination of two deadly moves (Sacred Fire and Snarl) on a fast pokemon.

Type: Fire
Base Stats: 115 HP / 115 Attack / 85 Defense / 90 Special Attack / 75 Special Defense / 100 Speed
Weaknesses: Ground (X2), Rock (X2), Water (X2)
Resistances:  Fire (X0.5), Grass (X0.5), Fairy (X0.5), Steel (X0.5), Bug (X0.5), Ice (X0.5)
Ability: Pressure - If this Pokemon is the target of a foe's move, that move loses one additional PP. It is an active ability (it is showed when the pokemon enters the field).


Ray's Entei



Entei @ Leftovers  
Ability: Pressure  
EVs: 148 HP / 100 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Sacred Fire  
- Snarl  
- Substitute  
- Protect

This set takes advantage of Entei's speed and decent bulk to achieve many important benchmarks. SubLefties Entei is probably its most annoying set as it is capable of spamming Sacred Fire and Snarl behind a Substitute most of the times.

Notable points: (reminder for every other build: i won't post damage calcs but i'll just list the most important defensive and offensive benchmarks)

# Hits 167 Speed stat
# 148 HP EVs maximize Leftovers recovery
# Sacred Fire is a 2HKO on 180HP / 116Def M-Gardevoir, 252HP Aegislash and 252HP / 252+Def Amoonguss
# Sacred Fire is also a 2HKO on 4 HP M-Kang if you manage to burn it and if you use Protect for just one turn.
# Adamant Landorus-T Rock Slide is a 3HKO
# -2 Adamant Landorus-T Earthquake is a 3HKO
# Survives a Jolly M-Kang Double-Edge
# Specs Sylveon Hyper Voice is a 3HKO
# Thanks to Leftovers + Protect, 252 SpA Aegislash Shadow Ball is usually a 3HKO


Speedy



Entei @ Lum Berry  
Ability: Pressure  
EVs: 148 HP / 100 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Sacred Fire  
- Snarl  
- Stone Edge  
- Protect

Same EV spread as Ray's build, but with Lum Berry to avoid being slowed down by Thunder Wave (Thundurus often targets Entei) but it also happens to be a way to counter a potential Spore from Amoonguss, since we cannot OHKO it with Sacred Fire. Finally, Stone Edge is able to OHKO 252 HP / 4 Def M-CharY and to 2HKO a bulky Thundurus most of the times.


All-Rounder build



Entei @ Safety Goggles  
Ability: Pressure  
EVs: 100 HP / 116 Atk / 44 Def / 52 SpD / 196 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
- Sacred Fire  
- Snarl  
- Stone Edge  
- Protect

This set provides a bunch of important utilities and objectives to support your team.

Notable points:

# Hits 145 Speed stat
# Adamant nature to put some more offensive pressure on the field. 116 Evs also achieve "the bump"
# Safety Googles makes Entei a great counter to Amoonguss under Trick Room or Amoonguss + M-Kangaskhan/Azumarill/M-Gardevoir lead
# Outspeeds Adamant Landorus-T, Timid Heatran and the common Modest 188 (or even 196) Speed M-CharY
# Stone Edge is a OHKO on 252 HP / 4 Def M-CharY. At -1 Attack, you still have a 43% chance to OHKO (Snarl KO range)
# -1 Timid Heatran Earth Power is a 3HKO
# Modest M-Gardevoir Hyper Voice is a 4HKO
# Survives Jolly M-Kangaskhan Double-Edge



Faster Arcanine



Entei @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure  
EVs: 236 HP / 84 Def / 188 Spe  
Jolly Nature  
- Sacred Fire  
- Snarl  
- Will-O-Wisp  
- Protect

This set resembles an Arcanine set, for those who like to use W-o-W + Snarl support but cannot afford to use Intimidate Arcanine (because you already have an Intimidate user in your team and/or because you cannot afford to worsen your matchup against Milotic). Based on the opposing pokemon, you can choose between Sacred Fire mostly - this time - for damage, W-o-W for a more reliable burn chance against physical attackers and Snarl against special attackers since we have no special bulk on this set.

Notable points:

# Hits 158 Speed stat, which is 1 point faster than Jolly Landorus-T. This means that if your Pressure activates before his Intimidate, you know it is not a Scarfed variant and you can always outspeed it and burn it with W-o-W. This set also outspeeds Adamant M-Kang
# There's around 75-80% chance to survive the following condition: you can take a Jolly M-Kang Return, then hit it with W-o-W, and then you'll be able to survive the following -2 Return. If you count x4 Rocky Helmet damage + burn, you'll leave the opposing (burned) M-Kang with around 30-35% HP.
# -1 100 SpA EVs Suicune Scald is a 3HKO
# -1 Aegislash Shadow Ball is a 3HKO


Specially bulky supporter



Entei @ Sitrus Berry  
Ability: Pressure  
EVs: 236 HP / 116 Atk / 4 Def / 124 SpD / 28 Spe  
Adamant Nature  
- Sacred Fire  
- Snarl  
- Stone Edge / Will-O-Wisp / Reflect / Toxic / Roar
- Protect

This set works better if paired with an Intimidate user. There's not much Speed investment this time, but thanks to the Sitrus Berry we are guaranteed to survive many hits and to consequently attack with Sacred Fire, Snarl or its third move (at your choice).

Notable points:

# Hits 124 Speed stat, which is 1 point faster than 132 Speed EVs Rotom-W/H (the common set to outspeed Adamant Bisharp) so that you can use Snarl before its Hydro Pump
# -1 60 SpA EVs Rotom-W Hydro Pump is basically a 3HKO
# Aegislash Shadow Ball is a 3HKO. You are also guaranteed to survive a +2 Shadow Ball 100% of the times (if you happen to activate its Weakness Policy)
# Specs Sylveon Hyper Voice is a 5HKO
# 4 SpA EVs Thundurus Thunderbolt is a 4HKO
# Timid/Naive M-Salamence Hyper Voice is a 4HKO

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Other Notable Moves:

- Flare Blitz & Extreme Speed if you want to use a non-pentagon Entei in the current Battle Spot format
- Reflect (a weaker but 100% accurate alternative to W-o-W)
- Toxic (used mainly if you have problems against opposing Cresselia and bulky Water types)
- Bulldoze (a weak form of speed control, but if you really need some Ground coverage..)
- Iron Head (its damage output is underwhelming against Fairy types anyway - Sacred Fire is better)
- Rain Dance (an option if your overall matchup with M-CharY is really bad, or if you want to use Entei as your Fire type pokemon in a Rain team and you like to have a manual rain setter to surprise opposing Tyranitar and M-CharY)
- Roar (it stops Trick Room, Minimize and Belly Drum Azumarill from happening)

Notable teammates:

Gastrodon: simply the perfect teammate. Opposing Water types can't touch Entei thanks to its Storm Drain ability, furthermore Gastrodon easily takes care of Heatran, Landorus-T, Terrakion and Tyranitar.
Swampert: while it doesn't help Entei against Water types, it can support it with Wide Guard.. it can also fullfil the same offensive role as Gastrodon.
Landorus-T: Lando offers Intimidate support to weaken opposing Rock Slides and Earthquakes, but it can also threaten the opposing Heatran, Terrakion and Tyranitar with a OHKO.

Supports:

T-Wave and Tailwind make Entei faster than the opposing pokemon, which means it can threaten most of the popular pokemon in the format with one of its moves (Sacred Fire, Snarl, Stone Edge or W-o-W) giving you a huge advantage.

Fake Out support allows Entei to setup a Substitute most of the times.

[Delta]

Thanks a lot. Now you have made my build submissions feel woefully inferior.

[Black117]

There's this weird feeling I have had since the end of the 32 Person Tourney which I notice Entei usage spiked and only continued to gain traction in the VGC community in the west (US, EU, Latin America). Not saying that the usage was heavily influenced by me (at least in the community here like Mitch or Coogin) or by other notable VGC and Japanese Battle Spot Players. Just that around that week leading to Worlds Entei usage somewhat picked up so it kinda uplifting if you ask me.

Mainly I've only used Entei because honestly its the "best" disruptor to Mega Gardevoir teams and doesn't trigger the competitive/defiant boost from Bisharp/Milotic. This was my mindset about using Entei for the defensive Mega Salamence team since it fairs poorly against Mega Gardevoir trick room and Entei acted as a band aid with Ferrothorn and Aegislash. Funny enough, Entei to me has only gotten "better" ironically with the increase of Mega Kang, AV Landorus-T, and other chalk based teams. Its even more funny to me that Pressure is more valuable than I thought since I always consider any Pokemon with 100 speed subpar at best. Pressure is a great to scout of the speeds of the opponent much like how Porygon2 you can figure out their EV spread with Download (welp I spoiled my new team). Its quite genius since with more Kangaskhan and Landorus-T usage on the rise players need ways to distinguish whether its a slow Kang/Landorus.

Course it only proves how centralizing these two are but players are going to up with ways to deal with the current trends of the metagame...... even it results to seeing Specs Cubchoo with Sheer Cold kappa

[Kasoman]

Let's not forget that Entei is also a hard counter to Ferrothorn! :D

[Podfighterninja123]

no he isnt, justin is running out of ideas

[NightWolf]

Nice build grats on getting it featured!