![[Image: talonflame_pokemon_x_y_by_ningeko16-d68qqfk.png]](http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/163/f/7/talonflame_pokemon_x_y_by_ningeko16-d68qqfk.png)
Credit to Ningeko16
Look! It's Rogue's favourite Pokemon!
Despite it's - lets face it - pretty dismal stats in everything barring speed, Talonflame has managed to stay in the top 12 most used Pokemon on Battle Spot. The main reson for this is because of Talonflames's Hidden Ability, Gale Wings. With Gale Wings giving prority to Flying type moves, Talonflame can always get a move off before it faints, either supporting the team with a priority Taiwind or taking a hefty chunk of damage off the opponents with a priority Brave Bird while it's partner cleans up. If you like defensive play, Talonflame probably isn't going to be on any of your teams, but if you like immediate offensive pressure it may be worth considering. Be wary - On the wrong team, Talonflame can become dead weight, but on the right team it can be a great support Pokemon with moves like Tailwind and Will-o-Wisp, or help pick apart the opposing team by dealing some pretty good "chip" damage for it's teammates to clean up or even picking off weakened Pokemon itself
![[Image: talonflame.gif]](http://www.pkparaiso.com/imagenes/xy/sprites/animados/talonflame.gif)
Base Stats: 78 HP / 81 Attack / 71 Defense / 74 Special Attack / 69 Special Defense / 126 Speed
Type: Fire/Flying
Weaknesses: Rock (X4), Water (X2), Electric (X2)
Resistances: Fighting (X0.5), Bug (X0.25), Steel (X0.5), Fire (X0.5), Grass (0.25), Fairy (X0.5)
Immunities: Ground
Abilities: Flame Body - When a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a move that makes contact, there is a 30% chance that the attacking Pokémon will become burned.
If a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a multi-strike move that makes contact, each hit has an independent chance to activate this Ability.
Gale Wings (Hidden Ability) - Gale Wings increases the priority of Flying-type moves by one. Affected Flying-type attacks and offensive status moves can be blocked by Quick Guard. This Ability does not increase the priority of Flying-type Hidden Power, as it is treated as a Normal-type move.
Physical Attacker
![[Image: talonflame-3.gif]](http://www.pkparaiso.com/imagenes/xy/sprites/animados/talonflame-3.gif)
Talonflame @ Life Orb / Choice Band
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Flare Blitz
- U-turn
- Protect
As metioned earlier, Talonflame doesn't have the best stats so it benifits from having an attack boosting item such as Life Orb or Choice Band. The EV spread is basic because the idea with this set is to do as much damage a possible, primarily from the priority Brave Birds, as well as speed tying with other max speed adamant Talonflame (A speed tie win could swing the game in your favour). Brave Bird and Flare Blitz are both very strong STAB attacks with 120 Base Power each, meaning you can do a lot of damage to anything that's weak against these types, and do a decent amount to anything that doesn't resist them, however this does come at the cost of recoil damage. With base 126 Speed, Talonflame is the 22nd fastest Pokemon (Which includes Mega formes and Legendaries), so if it's threatened it can use U-Turn to switch out while doing some chip damage in the process. Protect is protect, if you can predict your opponent correctly and protect Talonflame while getting rid of whatever threatens it, you'll have another turn of priority Brave Bird damage. On the choice band set, there's not really any other physical attack worth using, but you can substitute protect for whatever you feel helps, such as Tailwind, or any other filler move, but at the cost of locking yourself into a move
Damage Calculations
Offensive (All calculations are done with Life Orb as the item choice. Naturally, choice band will deal more damage without receiving recoil damage, but at the cost of locking yourself into one move)
Defensive - With such poor defenses, it's not worth makig a list of defensive calculations. Most super effective hits will OHKO Talonflame such as Rock Slides from Terrakion and Landorus-T, and even Thunderbolts from Thundurus that aren't invested in SpA. It can survive a lot of unboosted neutral attacks, but they still do a lot of damage and Talonflame is likely to get 2HKOd by most of them
Mixed Attacker / Support
![[Image: talonflame-2.gif]](http://www.pkparaiso.com/imagenes/xy/sprites/animados/talonflame-2.gif)
Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 116 SpA / 140 Spe
Naive Nature
- Brave Bird
- Overheat
- Tailwind / Quick Guard / Taunt / Will-o-Wisp
- Protect / Tailwind / Quick Guard / Taunt / Will-o-Wisp
With Gale Wings, Talonflame is one of the best Tailwind users since it's almost always guaranteed to set it up. With 140 Speed EVs and a Naive nature (+ Speed -SpD) Talonflame will always outspeed Timid max speed Thundurus, meaning you can get a Tailwind up before it Taunts you or if you're running Quick Guard you can block Taunts / Thunder Waves from it, or even use Taunt yourself. If you want, you can 8 EVs out of SpA and put them into Speed which will allow you to speed creep Timid 220 Speed EVd Whimsicotts by 1 point. Max Attack EVs are to maximise Brave Bird damage, and the rest were thrown into SpA to give Overheat as much power as possible. Will-o-Wisp is another great support option to cripple physical attackers
For those wondering why Overheat is a thing on Talonflame, it's for 2 reasons;
1. It's not affected by Intimidate or King's Sheild
2. There's no recoil like with Flare Blitz
Overheat does, however, lower your Special Attack by 2 stages
Damage Calculations
Offensive - Similar to the previous set but because we're running a +Speed nature not a +Attack nature, the damage from Brave Bird will be slightly less. However the general idea remains the same - Talonflame provides enough damage for it's partner to clean up, or it does it itself if the opponents have already taken enough damage. Overheat over Flare Blitz gives you the option to hit things like Ferrothorn, Scizor and Aegislash without taking recoil or an Attack stat drop, and it isn't affected by Intimidate. Your likely to be using Brave Bird most of the time, but Overheat is for anything that resists Brave Bird. Again, the idea is the same, Assist in the KO or pick off weakend Pokemon
Defensive - Same as previous set
Potential Teammates include,, but aren't limited to;
- Heavy Hitters / Sweepers that can benifit from Tailwind such as Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Gardevior, Landorus-T (Who can Earthquake without hitting Talonflame and also provides Intimidate support), Bisharp, Sylveon
- Can be part of the Fire-Water-Grass core providing Tailwind support for Mega Venusaur and Rotom-W
- Trick Room - Because of Gale Wings, Talonflame still goes first under Trick Room, meaning it can pick off opponents when TR is up, and with such a high Speed stat it can work when TR expires
- Rain Teams - Despite being a Fire type, Talonflame can be useful on Rain Teams by picking off opposing Grass type Pokemon
Threats
- With defenses like Talonflame's, anything is threatening. Most super effective hits will OHKO and a lot of strong neutral hits will either do the same or bring it to low health. Even some not very effective hits will do a decent chunk
- Itself - What?! It's true though. Talonflame is notorious for knocking itself out due to the recoil from Brave Bird and Life Orb
Other Notable Moves
While Talonflame doesn't have the widest range of moves to choose from, I'll list a couple here which may give you some ideas for set
- Natural Gift - A damage inflicting move where the damage and type of the move is dependant on which berry the user is holding. There's a list Here showing which berry is what type and power. The main choices for this move on Talonflame would be Liechi Berry which makes Natural Gift a grass type move with base 100 power for helping against things like Rotom-W or Salac berry, which is also 100 base power but makes it a Fighting type move to help against Heatran and Tyranitar. The berry gets used after using this move and it also fails if the user is not holding a berry
- Me First - If the user is faster than the opponent, this move copies damage dealing moves and increases the power by 50%. It will fail if the target uses a non-damaging move. Me First will only work if the user moves before the target, and as such it is unable to copy moves with increased priority such as Fake Out or Sucker Punch (it can copy moves with +1 priority if used by a Pokémon with Prankster); it is also unable to copy Focus Punch.
If the foe goes second in the recharge turn of a move like Frenzy Plant, Me First will work and copy that move. If a move like Outrage is copied, it will act as usual, forcing the user of Me First to use the move for several turns.
- Roost - Restores half of the users maximum HP. If a flying type uses this move, it loses it Flting typing for that turn (So for one turn, Talonflame will be pure Fire type)
- Bulk Up - Raises the user's Attack and Defense by one stage each.
- Double Team - (Not this again...) Raises the user's evasion by one stage
- Acrobatics - If you decide to use an item that gets used up - Like Focus Sash for example - Acrobatics is probably a better choice than Brave Bird since you'll be using a 110 base power move with no recoil as opposed to a 120 base power move that does recoil equal to 1/3 of the damage done to the target
- Swords Dance - Raises the users Attack stat by 2 stages
- Swagger - (As if Rogue didn't hate Talonflame enough already) Raises the target's Attack by two stages and confuses them. Useful against special attackers
Other Notable Items
- Sky Plate / Sharp Beak - Raises the power of Flying type moves by 20%
- Focus Sash - Allows Talonflame to survive a move that would normally OHKO. As an example, unless Talonflame gets doubled up on, this would allow you to set up Tailwind and get one hit off with Talonflame
- Charti Berry - Reduces the damage taken from super effective Rock Type attacks
Thanks for reading, hopefully these builds will prove useful to a few of you. As always, feel free to customise the EVs to your liking :D
