• Rain and Bulky Water types: In all honestly, Rain is such convenient way to patch Ferrohthorn's main quadruple Fire weakness by reducing the damage output by 50%. Essentially Water Pokemon like Politoed, Kingdra, Rotom-W, Gyarados, Suicune, Milotic can protect Ferrothorn against Fire type attacks while at the same time retaliate with a STAB Water hit. Some of these Pokemon have the potential to neutralize physical attackers with either Scald burns, Intimidate, or Will-O-Wisp to make Ferrothorn's walling potential much easier. In turn, Ferrothorn easily handles most Electric and Grass types since it either takes half or quarter damage.
  
  
• Fighting Resistant Pokemon (Fairy and Flying types): So what do Pokemon like Mega Gardvoir, Sylveon, Azumarill, Mega Salamence, Talonflame, Tornadus,  Gyarados, and Landorus-T have in common. All of them can take a resisted Fighting type hit for Ferrothorn considering its one of its only two major weaknesses. Mega Gardevoir, Sylveon, Azumarill, and other Fairy types are offensively capable enough to beat a vast majority of Fighting Pokemon with just Pixilate Hyper Voice and Play Rough alone. Mega Salamence, Talonflame, and Tornadus fuffill the same role like their Fairy counterparts as they are able to KO most Fighting Pokemon with an Aerilate hit, Brave Bird, or Hurricane receptively. Landorus-T and Gyarados are resisted to most Fighting types and help Ferrothorn by reducing the damage done from Fighting types so that it can continue attacking or spreading Leech Seeds. One last thing to note is that most Fighting type Pokemon usually carry either Ice or Rock type coverage for Flying types.
  
  
• Offensive Partners Rock and Ground type Pokemon like Tyranitar, Terrakiom, Excadrill, Rhyperior, Landorus-T, Aerodactyl, Krookdile, Swampert, Garchomp, Mamoswine are able to deal with Fire types with their own STAB options while Ferrothorn can easily sponge Water, Grass, and moderate Ice hits without breaking a sweat. Ironically some Fire types like Heatran, Entei, Arcanine, Rotom-H, and others need ways to deal with either Rock, Ground, or Water types in which Ferrothorn can easily hit with a STAB Power Whip or setup on with Leech Seed.
  
  

• Fire Types and Coverage: In all seriousness, Ferrothorn absolutely cannot take a Fire type hit well otherwise it will faint immediately due to both Grass/Steel being quad weak to Fire. Pretty much every Fire Pokemon in the game can be mentioned as a hard counter since they all resist Ferrothorn's STABs and just eliminate it with a STAB Fire attack. The following Fire Pokemon who can handle Ferrothorn are Mega Charizard Y/X, Entei, Arcanine, Rotom-H, Heatran, Blaziken, Infernape, Mega Camerupt, Talonflame, Volcarona, Chandelure, etc. Pokemon with Fire type coverage like Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Fire Punch/Overheat on Mega Salamence, Hydreigon, NidoKing/Nidoqueen, Tyranitar, Mega Manetric, Mega Altaria, Garchomp, Togekiss, Eleketross, Goodra, Mega Kangaskhan, etc can all deal heavy damage or are capable of knock out Ferrothorn with ease as well.
  
  
• Fighting Types and Coverage: Though not quad weak to Fighting unlike Fire type attacks, Ferrothorn cannot take Fighting attacks without losing too much health to the point where it will get knocked out the in the sequential turns. Fighting type Pokemon like Terrakion, Virizion, Cobalion, Infernape, Blaziken, Conkeldurr, Machamp, Scrafty, Mega Gallade, Breloom, Heracross, Mega Lopunny, Mega Lucario, etc all can either inflict substantial damage or can even OHKO Ferrothorn at times. Pokemon with strong Fighting coverage like Mega Kangaskhan, Tyranitar, Scizor, Landorus-T, etc can deal heavy damage to Ferrothorn to reduce its effectiveness as a vital wall to the opposing team.
  
  
• Negating its Effectiveness: Have something like an Intimidate user or a burn spreader like Will-O-Wisp to mitigate Ferrothorn's physical attack to reduce its damage potential. Burning Ferrothorn is a great way to stop most sets as Ferrothorn's health is wither away to the point a strong neutral attack or super effective Fire/Fighting move deal with it. Taunt is another utility option to have for Ferrothorn so it doesn't use Leech Seed-Protect or have any setup in general.
  
  
• Strong Neutral Attackers and Double Targeting : Continue hitting Ferrothorn for as much residual damage as possible and result to double targeting in case the team doesn't have any of the above options for Ferrothorn. Consider using Substitute Pokemon so they won't be effected with Leech Seed or any other status ailment.
  
  
  

• Curse: - A overall strong setup option for Ferrothorn as it increases both its attacks and defense stats by one stage however reduces its abysmal speed stat by only one stage as well. Since Ferrothorn is likely going last every turn, this is a great option to have for a long term sweeping potential.
  
  
• Explosion:- A base 250 attack in which Ferrothorn faints itself to inflict heavy damage against the opposing side of the field including its ally. Make sure that Ferrothorn's ally hasn't gone for Protect or there's no Feint user to break the Protect since this is basically all about deal enough damage to the opposing side. Normal Gem, Life Orb, or Choice Band should be the preferred items of choice for this strategy.
  
  
• Sword Dance: - Can increase Ferrothorn's physical attacks by 2 stages and makes it a formidable offensive threat with already powerful STABs like Power Whip and Gyro Ball.
  
  
• Toxic - A status ailment in which the target is "badly poisoned" and every turn the target is inflicted with N+1/16 damage base on its full HP. Given how defensively oriented Ferrothorn is Toxic can wear down teams in addition to Leech Seed set as well though its better off attack targets. This tech move is a great answer for Calm Mind users like Cresselia or Sylveon who can immediately become threatening after a couple of boost.
  
  
• Worry Seed - Give the target Pokemon the ability "Insomnia" while negating the target's primary ability until it switches out. Basically if you want a creative way to deal with Pixilate Sylveon/Mega Gardevoir, Prankster Thundurus, or even Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan just fire a Worry Seed to neuter their attacking potential.
  
  
• Endeavor - Can be a fun move to utilize if timed well. Essentially Endeavor equalizes the opponent's HP to the user's HP so in case Ferrothorn is low in health it can deal heavy damage to the opposing target. This will fail if Ferrothorn has more HP than its opponent so predict if the opponent is going for a strong hit against Ferrothorn.
  
  
• Bulldoze - Bulldoze not only deals deals super effective damage to Fire type Pokemon especially Heatran but reduces the speed of all three Pokemon (the opposing side and the ally) by one stage. This can also work as an effective speed control method in case Ferrothorn's team lacks one.
  
  

• Occa Berry - Cuts the power of Fire move by 50%.
  
• Chople Berry - Cuts the power of Fighting move by 50%.
  
• Choice Band - The holder's physical attack is boosted by 50% at the cost of losing the ability to alternate items.
  

(Oct 16, 2015, 08:16 PM)Delta Wrote: Nice! I have been using Ferrothorn lately, but I have been doing something quite dirty with it. Substitute Ferrothorn. It is amazing. It can get its in, and once behind a Sub, it is hard to get rid off.