Well, the boon to Grass (the immunity to Spore) can be exploited to use an anti-lead tactic, especially against Smeargle. A fast U-Turn user (defined here as anything that at least outspeeds Jolly Smeargle) can break a Focus Sash and switch into Ferrothorn who can then set-up Stealth Rock without having a Pokemon crippled by Spore. However, Ferrothorn's speed makes it unable to thwart boost + Pass. Grass Knot Greninja also accomplishes a similar thing" it can break the Sash but either scare Smeargle away or kill it.
I don't play competitive Pokemon that much, so I do not have much experience using Ferrothorn, this generation or last generation. I really did not like it that much, but perhaps I was using it on teams with 2 other Pokemon with Fire weaknesses or I was not familiar with its weaknesses. I suppose it is an excellent choice as a Stealth Rock setter if one does not want to exacerbate a team's Ice or Ground weakness (counting the times Mold Breaker is activated) as that would reduce the attractiveness of Landorus-T, Heatran (if one does not want to use Balloon), and Tyranitar (or the more exotic Empoleon) in team member selection.
Due to its absolutely abysmal speed, a Ferrothorn player has to be wary of Taunt, but the rewards for keeping Rocks up this gen are huge. Also, it can be set-up bait for a Substitute user, making the Sub user impervious to T-Wave and Leech Seed. Due to the latter issue, in a bulky offense team, a player should remember that its primary support role is to set-up Stealth Rock by exploiting its raw statistical bulk and its good typing; although the prospect of a crippling a Pokemon with paralysis or passive damage and healing from Leech Seed may be enticing, Substitute and Taunt would cost you a valuable turn that would have been better spent attacking to break a sub or doing enough damage so the opposing Pokemon can be in KO range for another Pokemon or switching out. It does not seem to be reliable at providing paralysis support or a means of passive damage/healing with Leech Seed.
I like this suggestion:
Maybe talk about Defog ruining all of Ferrothorn's hard work with ease when it comes to entry hazards [spikes in particular] + not really being able to use Spikes if running Defog on your team [maybe SR due to ease of setup though] - also could add Iron Head as an option if running TWave because both together is a bit dumb + more PP for a stally 'mon is particularly good. Perhaps mention Impish if not running Gyro Ball/running TWave + Iron Head in particular if Ferrothorn might want to try its hand at being Jirachi for Halloween this year.
Iron Head is an underestimated option and it has more merit than it seems. I actually thought deeply about this.
For instance the
usage stats:
| Leech Seed 86.247% |
| Stealth Rock 64.763% |
| Power Whip 59.973% |
| Gyro Ball 42.890% |
| Thunder Wave 42.556% |
| Spikes 41.572% |
| Protect 40.926% |
| Toxic 5.084% |
| Other 15.989%
Admittedly, it is niche option, but it does come in quite handy in a few situations. To put it briefly, Iron Head is viable option if one is using T-Wave (and additional paralysis support for other team members) and risk averse not to risk a 15% miss with Power Whip to break a Substitute or inflict damage on a Pokemon setting up so it can be in KO range for a revenge killer. Of course, 85% of the time Power Whip is superior, and many times, the target would not be paralyzed. The accuracy issue is bad in protracted battles (as Ferrothorn will need to land multiple hits due to its lack of power) as landing two consecutive hits is a 72% chance, similar to much maligned Focus Blast and lower than Stone Edge and Hydro Pump.
I used paraflinch Jirachi in Gen 5 and it was inferior against walls with Earthquake or resists Iron Head and carry Leftovers. For Ferrothorn, it does not even have Serene Grace and cannot flinch anything with priority.
More specifically, Ferrothorn has a
76 Speed Stat with max speed IVs, neutral nature, and no investment. This would mean that it would outspeed any Pokemon with a Speed Stat of
304 if that Pokemon is paralyzed. The Gen 5
speed tiers table is quite instructive and provide some general benchmarks: paralysis support enables Ferrothorn to outspeed uninvested base 116 Pokemon (Whimscott at 268), Adamant/Modest fully invested base 100s (Volcarona, Salamence, and Mega Kanghaskhan at 299), and barely misses the 306 mark for positive nature based 90s (Lucario).
So, unlike Jirachi, Ferrothorn cannot even flinch many offensive Pokemon (as those above base 100 would likely leverage their Speed Stat and fully invest with a positive nature), but it can potentially score some flinches on defensive Pokemon (whose speeds investments are used to outspeed other walls or tanks). However, those Pokemon are bulky, have passive recovery, and mostly a recovery move. For Sticky Web, the magic speed stat is 200, which corresponds to uninvested base 81 (for example Gyarados at 198).
Ferrothorn is a better donor of paralysis support (if it is provided the opportunity to do so) than a beneficiary of paralysis support. A 47.5% chance of a free turn is a nice bonus for Iron Head, but many things have to work out to receive that bonus, such as first being able to paralyze the target Pokemon (again, this is not that simple due to Ferrothorn's exploitable low speed stat), the target Pokemon being slow enough that Ferrothorn could outspeed, no Sticky Web, and of course, the blessing of the RNG gods.
For Iron Head, I would recommend 36 atk evs to break Garchomp's sub 89 HP sub (from its 357 HP stat).
36 Atk Ferrothorn Iron Head vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 90-106 (25.2 - 29.6%)
(90, 91, 91, 93, 94, 94, 96, 97, 99, 99, 100, 102, 102, 103, 105, 106)
Garchomp has 108 base HP and 95 defense, and that is some nice natural bulk. Iron Head Ferrothorn could break the subs of most uninvested, non-mega OU offensive Pokemon that don't resist Steel.
