Hariyama



Type:
Weaknesses: (X2)
Resistances: and if it has Thick Fat


Abilities:


Thick Fat: Fire and Ice-type moves deal 50% damage.


Guts: Attack is increased by 50% when induced with a status (burn, paralysis, sleep, poison or freeze). Burn’s effect of lowering Attack is not applied.



Hidden Ability:


Sheer Force: Moves with a secondary effect are increased in power by 33% but lose their secondary effect



Base stats: 144 HP / 120 Attack / 60 Defense / 40 Special Attack / 60 Special Defense / 50 Speed


While it has an average defensive and offensive typing and below average stats for the most part, Hariyama is still the best fighting type in VGC at the moment due to its useful abilities, good movepool, combination of great HP, which helps mitigate its defenses, and Attack and its effectiveness under Trick Room.

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the sets

1- Assault Vest (Trick Room)



Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 220 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Heavy Slam/Rock Tomb

Milestones:

-Is never OHKO'd by Modest Tapu Lele's Psychic
-Cannot be OHKO'd by anything A-Marowak can do
-Outspeeds under Trick Room and KOes max HP Tapu Lele with Heavy Slam
-Can 2HKO some of the bulkiest Pokémon in the tier, such as Celesteela and Porygon2

Hariyama is a great Pokémon to use on Trick Room teams due to its poor Speed, allowing it to outspeed a lot of things under Trick Room, and good Attack. However, despite having an enormous HP stat, it does have below average defenses, but Assault Vest can somewhat fix it by giving it a 1.5x boost to its Special Defense, allowing it to take hits from some of the strongest Pokémon in the format, such as Tapu Lele and A-Marowak, and retaliate hard. While its defensive typing isn't very good, only resisting Bug and Dark, its ability allows it to have the equivalent to a resistance to Fire and Ice, allowing it to be an effective check to A-Marowak, Torkoal, Vanilluxe and A-Ninetales. Offensively, while one might think fighting is mediocre due to the amount of Fairy types running around, it still has decent coverage and can hit most of the tier for neutral damage. Also, Hariyama can provide some utility to the team with Fake Out and Rock Tomb, making it more of an offensive support Pokémon.

Fake Out is more of a support option, allowing it to give a free turn to its partner if used right (assuming Psychic Terrain isn't up since it blocks priotiy). Close Combat is Hariyama's strongest STAB option, allowing it to 2HKO a lot of Pokémon that are neutral to Fighting. Knock Off is used to hit Psychic and Ghost types that wouldn't take much/anything from Close Combat, such as Oranguru and A-Marowak. For the last slot, Heavy Slam is the primary option, allowing it to take on the various Fairy-types running around, such as the Tapus, but Rock Tomb can allow it to function outside of Trick Room by manually slowing down its opponents. It can also help out its partners who will most likely be slow too since Hariyama's niche is Trick Room. The milestones I talked about in the beginning explain the EV spread, and a Brave nature is used to be as slow as possible to work effectively under Trick Room.


calcs

Defensive:


Offensive:



2- Guts Attacker (Trick Room)



Hariyama @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 28 HP / 252 Atk / 108 Def / 116 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Fake Out
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Heavy Slam

Milestones:

-OHKOes the standard Porygon2 set
-OHKOes Krookodile and 2HKOes max HP Arcanine even after Intimidate
-Is never 2HKO'd by Scarf Chomp even after burn damage

This set, unlike the first one, is focused on Hariyama's ability Guts, which gives it a 1.5x boost to its Attack stat when statused, meaning that it can be a very strong Trick Room abuser when paired with a Flame Orb. Burn also got a damage nerf this gen, allowing Hariyama to stay alive longer and not get worn down. Once burned, Hairyama can 2HKO if not OHKO most of the tier, making it a very strong choice for Trick Room oriented teams since they can effectively abuse its lack of Speed.

Fake Out is useful since it provides a free turn for its partner and it also helps it activate the Flame Orb. Close Combat is a very strong STAB move that allows it to 2HKO or OHKO a lot of the tier after the Guts boost. Knock Off hits Psychic and Ghost types like Oranguru and A-Marowak who could be problematic for Hariyama and Heavy Slam is used to hit the Fairy types, like the Tapus. The HP and Defense EVs allow Hariyama to live 2 Earthquakes for a Scarf Garchomp even after burn damage, while Attack EVs are maximized to ensure that it can deal as much damage as possible. The rest of the EVs are dumped into Special Defense instead of Speed since you would want your Hariyama to be as slow as possible to outspeed most Pokémon under Trick Room (which is pretty much its only niche).


calcs

Offensive:


Defensive:



Note: Rock Slide is a viable option on those sets, but it is generally outclassed by its other moves.


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good partners

Trick Room Users: Hariyama's main niche is being a Trick Room attacker, so Pokémon like Oranguru, Mimikyu and Porygon2 who can use Trick Room are a must.

Psychic, Flying and Fairy Checks/Counters: Hariyama is weak to those typings, so having a check to those is very important, and while Hariyama can muscle through them with the Flame Orb set, it still struggles to deal effectively with so fairy types like the Tapus, especially outside of Trick Room. Hairyama also can't 2HKO Pelipper with anything, bar the rare Rock Slide.

Will probably add stuff here later.

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threats

Psychic, Fairy and Flying types: Hariyama is weak to these typings, so be careful when facing those.

Taunt Users: Taunt users can prevent Trick Room from being set up by its partner, making Hariyama very vulnerable due to its low speed.

Will probably add stuff here later.
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