ITT I would like to discuss Entei's little boost to usefulness as of late.
He now has access to an attack boosting move in Howl, along with Flare Blitz and ExtremeSpeed as the most notable aditions.
I believe this opens the door for Entei to become a huge physical or mixed threat. A few sets I can see being useful:
@Life Orb
Adamant Nature (+ATT, -Sp. ATT)
4 HP, 252, ATT, 252 Speed
-Howl
-Flare Blitz
-Extremespeed
-Stone Edge
Decent Coverage, hitting Grass, Ice, Bug, Steel, Fire, and Flying for SE damage. Extremespeed is a great move for dealing with frail pokemon that outspeed you or hold a scarf trying to end your fun. After a howl it packs quite a punch.
ExtremeSpeed after one Howl:
vs. 0 HP, 0 DEF Azelf- 70-83% Easily 2HKOs and doesn't fear anything but an explosion. Even a max Sp. ATT Psychic with life orb wont OHKO Entei after SR.
VS. min DEF, Max HP Blissey- 100%
VS. Max DEF, Min HP Blissey- 47-56%
VS. 4 HP, 0 DEF Starmie- 74-88%
VS. 0 HP, 0 DEF Infernape- 77-91%
VS. 0 HP, 0 DEF Flygon- 68-80% (OHKO If flygon switches into either one of Entei's other attacks)
Just a few examples of that sets power. If you manage to get more than one howl in you could be looking at an easy late game sweep if fast ghost types like Gengar are out. Rock types wall this set fairly easily, so obviously having an appropriate counter to the likes of TTar and others would be good.
@Leftovers/Life Orb
Adamant Nature (+ATT, -Sp. ATT)
4 HP, 252 ATT, 252 Speed
-Substitute
-Howl
-Flare Blitz
-Stone Edge/Iron Head
This is is Brelooms and other grass types like Celebi and Shaymin's worst nightmare. Sub on the switch, Howl, and Blitz. Stone Edge is the preferable attack but Iron Head is there if you want to hit rock types. Life orb will boost your attacks further but with Blitz's recoil hurts his survivability.
@Choice Scarf
Mild/Rash Nature (+Sp ATT, -DEF/Sp. DEF)
172 Speed, 252 Sp. ATT, 84 ATT
-Flamethrower/Heat Wave/Fire Blast/Overheat
-Hidden Power Ground
-Shadow Ball
-Stone Edge/Iron Head
Good Mixed Scarf set. Doesn't utilize anything new, but I think it's useful enough to be mentioned either way. The given EVs allow you to outspeed Scarftran and hit it hard with HP Ground. First slot is your choice of Power vs. Acc./secondary effect.
Stone Edge is good for coverage, but again Iron head is available to hit rock types
Entei is reasonably bulky by nature with a very big base HP. This allows him to get in at least one Howl almost always when running a Howl set which I personally think carry the must destructive power. There are of course other possibilities as always.
What do you guys think? I personally am loving the first set.