Ponyta for S tier (if not more)
Disclaimer : unlike Aipom or Clamperl nominations for S, this one is serious.
So. Ponyta has Flame Body, and a healing move. It also has wow, and the godly 19 speed.
Now let's take a look at the viability ranking's A and S tiers.
For my calcs I will be using this set :
Shiny: Yes <- certified cuteness viability ranking top tier
EVs: 36 HP / 156 Def / 76 SpD / 196 Spe (22/15/14/11/15/19)
Jolly Nature
- Will-O-Wisp
- Morning Sun
- Toxic
- Flare Blitz
S-Rank
Ponyta is an excellent switch to mienfoo. In 1v1, Mienfoo cannot harm it as it will get outsped and burned. full atk foo does 27% to ponyta with stone edge when burned. In short, it can't do shit. Burn and spam heal.
A-Rank Physical attacks ? Here I come. Pawniard does 22% to Ponyta when burned. In other cases, it can't do shit.
High
Abra, in addition to possibly losing the speed tie, does not 2HKO ponyta with psychic. It does if flare blitz recoil, or rocks, tho.
Some people say Archen checks Ponyta. .. well they're wrong. 180 Atk burned Archen Stone Edge vs. 36 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Ponyta: 10-13 (45.4 - 59%) -- 93.8% chance to 2HKO. Burn and spam heal ? It might crit tho. But that's only for full offensive archen, which is barely played since Archen's job is 90% of time to check fletchling. Obviously, Ponyta shits on defensive archen. And in the case of Wild Charge... 76 Atk Ponyta Wild Charge vs. 76 HP / 0 Def Archen: 20-24 (86.9 - 104.3%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO. That says long enough ?
Oh damn the only ponyta check ! I do mean check, not counter. Restalk + Heal bell is the only Chinchou set that will fully wall pony. 0 SpA Chinchou Scald vs. 36 HP / 76 SpD Eviolite Ponyta: 12-14 (54.5 - 63.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO <- doesn't even hit that hard. If another set is played, chinchou will fall to residual damages caused by on switch statues, rocks, and stuff. Also, I heard of something called Diglett. And finally, you'd better not switch your chinchou into a sunnybeam pony or you'll be in a terrible situation. Tho, I must agree ponyta has one check in the world, yipee !
tired of using Archen to check Fletch ? Just slap ponyta somewhere and switch it relentlessly into fletch (if you removed the rocks earlier obviously). Acrobatics does not 2HKO, and it doesn't OHKO after sd. Obv Flare blitz / Wild charge are instant kills, and Wow ruins it. But unless it SD, you can heal up any acrobatics.
hello i'm magnemite i have sturdyjuice recycle. hello i'm ponyta i have wow. Next.
... the main reason toxic pony exists. When all else solutions to check a mon fail, using this very mon to check it sometimes is the best solution. Did somebody say gligar ?
"If you want to check burns, use Timburr !" Nope. Drain punch + Mach punch under burn does not kill pony, and that's in the case timburr wasn't anticipated. <-
0 Atk Ponyta Flare Blitz vs. 76 HP / 76+ Def Eviolite Timburr: 9-12 (36 - 48%) -- guaranteed 3HKO ; said timburr will not appreciate. And in any case, why would one fear timburr when his DP does at most 40% and you have Morning Sun ?
Mid
erm
Drilbur loses in 1v1 to pony. Eq does not OHKO, neither does it 2HKO when burned. Ponyta wows and spam heals. It can also choose to do around 75% damages with a flare blitz if said Drilbur gets bored and puts rocks instead of Eq spamming. Also, Drilbur better not get the bright idea to try to rapid spin in a game with ponyta.
lol
lol
lol
toxic + heals
Ponyta ends up winning the 1v1, even against max hp max def+. 0 Atk Ponyta Flare Blitz vs. 212 HP / 196+ Def Eviolite Spritzee: 9-12 (33.3 - 44.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO. Spritzee cannot handle Burn/Flare Blitz/Burn spamming. Wish will only recover 14 hp, not 9-12 + 2*3 = 16-19 hp. Recoil might be an issue, but well, heals ... In any case, spritzee sure can't do shit to ponyta.
oh damn a water/rock against a fire type ! ... ... ... burn it and watch it burn.
Thank you for boosting my healing move ! Very kind of you !
Low
ponyta clearly isn't supposed to stop carv. carv shall not dare switching into ponyta. 0 Atk Ponyta Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 36 Def Carvanha: 11-13 (57.8 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO, wild charge ohkos, and burn .. burns.
lol
diglett does not OHKO ponyta without LO. 236 Atk Diglett Earthquake vs. 36 HP / 156 Def Eviolite Ponyta: 14-20 (63.6 - 90.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO. He indeed rks ponyta, to the cost of its life if took a single damage.
lol
lol
wild charge would help. Otherwise, toxic or burns ruins it if you've got sucker punch pawn as a backup, since omanyte will not be able to try to outplay sucker punch. he'll just die if he waits.
lol
lol
quite a good check, unless it has wild charge
lol
So let's sum it up. Against the nearly the entire tier except Chinchou/Carvanha(uh)/Staryu(uh)/Diglett(he's a rk, not a check. and better ohko this one), Ponyta wins the 1v1, usually simply by spamming burn + Morning Sun. (or doing dumbass damages) Against physical attacker who represents clearly more than half the offensive pokemon, ponyta can come in, take a nop, watch them burn, heal itself and walk away.
So I'll make a little list of my comments on ponyta :
This Pokemon is by itself insanely powerful :
By its raw power
Does "410" BST says it straight ? Ponyta has access to the godly 19 speed. It will win 90% of 1v1 due to having an insane ability, having DUMBLY HIGH stats. (22 hp, 21 def, 21 def, this while having 85 bs atk and 90 bs spe ? Sure ! )
And by its versatility
Given his stats being bs everywhere, ponyta can either run a fast staller set, a wall set, an all-out attacker set wrecking shit with an insanely powerful STAB (180, zz.), plus the LO and its access to 19 hp, plus 19 speed. It can also run the sunnybeam set, this way wrecking its only checks. Or a sunnystall set .. whatever .. Given how good vulpix is right now, It only makes Ponyta's flames brighter to work so well under sun.
Ponyta is godly into the post Misdreavus meta
Now that missy is gone, it's far easier to rapid spin rocks. The only serious spinblocker right now is Pump, which gets obviously raped by Pony. So yeah, Drilbur/Pony is a core to be feared.
Also, Missy gone makes one less pokemon Ponyta could speed tie with. Then there is the Fletch/Dig thing. Chinchou is the main check to Pony ?
Chinchou gets trapped by Diglett. Fletchling is so scary with proper support that Chinchou usually musn't show itself unless the beast is released. With Ponyta around, it will sure have to show itself. Every time
Pony forces the switch on Chinchou, if Diglett is here, it puts the opponent in a really scary situation. In short, you'd have to use Archen AND Chinchou to counter
Pony/Fletch/Dig. This group of 3 pokemons really breaks trough the meta so hard that each appearence of one of them means the enemy has got serious problems.
How can using Ponyta ever be wrong ?
Opponent seted up with sd, dd, belly drum ?!? He might get burned when killing Pony. Opponent is sweeping you with Abra ? Ponytaaaa. Opponent is stalling ? Toxic is viable on pony. Toxic+Heal stallbreaks anything. (besides tentacool but he's useless, he doesn't 2HKO w/ scald, and get burned to eventual death. ) Rapid Spin ? Ponyta ! Knock Off ? Ponyta ! Someone pissing you of with Fake out ? PONYTA ! PONYTA DOES IT ALL !!
Shiny Ponyta is basically too cute for this tier.
Who can even stand up to this ?
(also, ponyta ruins aipom...)
In short, i'm
nominating Ponyta for S tier (if not higher. Imo Ponyta is stronger than foo and pawn.)
Unless you are playing Chinchou, Ponyta nearly sweeps your entire team. And we can't admit as a basis that if you don't have chinchou in your team, it's your fault. That would mean 100% of teams should have Chinchou, which doesn't match the idea of Pokemon. Even though ... | 2 | Chinchou | 38.59675% | 18577 | 16.822% | 15302 | 17.210% | ... we're not that far from full chinchou spam ... Anyway, Chinchou isn't even enough to handle ponyta. It will eventually fall to repeated minor damages, or simply to an OHKO from LO Dig.
Also, some people will say "use a status healing move". I agree. Healing the pokemon that burnt while knocking off ponyta is one of the best way to handle it. But that means you have either Chinchou, either Spritzee. And that you're not using Scarf Chou. Plus you've got to find a turn to heal bell. Do you plan on heal belling with Spritzee when the opponent has sub pawniard, or heal belling with Chinchou when the opponent has Diglett ? You've got at most 50% chance to succeed.
Some replays :
http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/lc-200310481 <- typical fight where the first one who loses ponyta can surrender
also, another fight happened the next day vs macle, where i could only forfeit at 5-6 the turn ponyta died, but idk why wasn't the replay saved, when i meant to use it in this post. People might see the game I am talking about.