Typhlosion, The Volcano Pokémon. It can hide behind a shimmering heat haze that it creates using its intense flames. Typhlosion create blazing explosive blasts that burn everything to cinders. It has a secret, devastating move. It rubs its blazing fur together to cause huge explosions. If its rage peaks, it becomes so hot that anything that touches it will instantly go up in flames. When heat from its body causes the air around it to shimmer, this is a sign that it is ready to battle.It attacks using blasts of fire. It creates heat shimmers with intense fire to hide itself.
Overview
The realm of Fire types is a mildly depressing one. The type picks up a lot of weaknesses, including a nasty one from Stealth Rocks, and with the popularity of Water types, its primary STAB can be walled by a lot of Pokémon. The type is packed with many "capable" Pokémon, but only a select few are capable enough to break into the Standard tier. So where does this leave Typhlosion? Well, as a final starter evolution, its stats are impressive, and they are fairly nicely distributed too. However, Typhlosion's big bumper came in the form of Eruption. It's still not enough to claw it out of the Underused tier into the Standard environment, but with numerous viable Fire Pokémon surrounding it, that little unique 'something' gives it a weapon to cling to, and it makes for a very viable option in the crowded Underused tier.
Ability
Blaze: boosts Typhlosion's STAB by 50% when its HP falls to 1/3rd or less. This works pretty well for Typhlosion, who usually sweeps until it faints, and when Typhlosion's HP drops and Eruption loses its charm, it'll then get a boost to its next-best Fire move, maintaining a threat of similar scale.
Move Sets
Scarf-Eruption
- Eruption
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Focus Blast
- Flamethrower
Item Attached:
Ability: Blaze
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
With 100% HP, Eruption is a 150 Base Power move with STAB, which makes for quite an effective battering ram when it comes to raw offensive power. Choice Scarf keeps Typhlosion striking first, with the obvious intent being for it to stay perfectly healthy, mixing pace and power in the way that every sweeper dreams of.
The moment we start looking outside of that “perfect” combination is when Typhlosion's story gets bleaker. Outside of STAB Eruption, there's very little for Typhlosion to boast about. When Hidden Power is the second move I mention, you know you're dealing with a shallow move-pool. Hidden Power Grass gives Typhlosion a reliable super-effective hit against most Water types. Focus Blast provides a few super-effective hits, particularly a useful one against Typhlosion's fellow Fire type, Houndoom. Flamethrower rounds things off to provide some reliable STAB when Eruption is weakened.
Sub-Berry-Blaze
- Substitute
- Flamethrower
- Sunny Day
- Solarbeam / Focus Punch
Item Attached: Petaya Berry
Ability: Blaze
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
Like Eruption, but in reverse, this is all about stacking up power boosts one after another as your HP falls. As you Substitute down (and make sure your HP is divisible by four, otherwise it'll take four Subs, not three, to set-up the Berry boost), the 1.5x boost from Blaze and the one stage boost from the Petaya kicks in. Back that up with Sunny Day too and Flamethrower becomes your Eruption-esque battering ram. During the HP-lowering phase of things, you can try Solarbeam alongside Sunny Day, or alternatively try Focus Punch (which does take a bit of a switch-around with the EVs) which has plenty of synergy with Substitute.
Although there's room for the Salac Berry (for the “almost always strike first” effect), Petaya Berry is preferred for stacking all that power together.
Choice Specs
- Eruption
- Hidden Power [Grass / Electric]
- Focus Blast
- Flamethrower
Item Attached: Choice Specs
Ability: Blaze
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
It's a near-carbon copy of the Scarfer but with an item change, but the item change does have a large effect on things. Eruption is key, once again. It becomes massively dangerous with the backing of a Specs boost, but without the Speed from Scarf, the focus of the move-set changes from simply sweeping to more conventional Choice Specs fare, although there is a bit of emphasis on keeping Typhlosion healthy for a prolonged period of time to fully exploit Specs-boosted Eruption.
EVs and Nature:
You're looking at a pretty simple Modest 252/252 in most cases, with some possible consideration for a Timid Nature (since there's a world of difference between 299 Speed and 328 Speed in the UU tier). The only time you'd wanna fiddle with this is if you make room for Focus Punch, but even then it'd be best to run a Defence hindering Nature and allow Typhlosion's Base Stat to carry the rest of it (since, unlike in the Standard tier, you aren't aiming to bring down Blissey or Snorlax).
Other Options
Fire Blast, Overheat, Hidden Power [Electric / Ice], Flare Blitz, Earthquake, Thunderpunch, Will-o-Wisp, Lava Plume.
Fire Blast surprisingly hasn't gotten a mention, but it's viable on all of these sets (in place of Flamethrower), particularly the Blaze move-set which abuses so many power boosts that that extra 35 Base Power really makes a difference when all the multiplication is finished. Overheat is quite viable on the Choice sets, particularly as it gives Typhlosion a power outlet when Eruption loses its charm.
Hidden Power Grass has stolen much of the attention here, but Electric and Ice are two other viable options. In the Underused tier, Electric is primarily used for Mantine, but it's also favoured for Gyarados in the Standard tier. Ice is less impressive in the Underused tier but in the Standard tier, that 4x hit on Salamence and Dragonite is rather favourable.
Typhlosion has a rather impressive physical repertoire. In particular, Earthquake is nice in the Standard tier for its 4x hit on Heatran. You also have Flare Blitz and Thunderpunch, although with very viable special equivalents available they make for less attractive attacking options.
Will-o-Wisp is a nice all-encompassing move in the Standard tier, crippling Salamence, Gyarados, Tyranitar, Swampert and others, making for an effective threat to potential switch-ins. Lava Plume is something of a go-between between Wisp and Flamethrower, but it's a lesser version of each and Typhlosion tends to overlook it, since it usually needs one or the other and rarely both at once.
Countering Typhlosion
Since Typhlosion tends to stack a lot of power, it's rare for a Pokémon to be able to take a repeated beating from it with ease, particularly in the Underused environment. Milotic is one of the better ones, being able to heal off repeated beatings and soak up much of Typhlosion's best work with its wonderful Special Defence, and as you can imagine, STAB Surf poses a more than plentiful threat to Typhlosion's survivability too. Slowking does a similar kind of job thanks to Slack Off, as well as the “lesser” defensive Water Types: Mantine, Blastoise, Walrein et al. There's not much else that's a “sure-fire” counter. Flash Fire Fire types aren't far off if they're equipped with an adequate move, and other things like Stealth Rock really helps things to move along too, but otherwise, Typhlosion will have to be coped with whatever tools you have at your disposal at the time.
Locations in Games
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Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Trade from ECXD (RS) Evolve Quilava (Em) Colosseum/XD Evolve Quilava Fire Red/Leaf Green Trade from ECXD Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Trade from EHGSS HeartGold/SoulSilver Evolve Quilava
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Animé Appearences
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Typhlosion has had a few Animé Appearences. First, Jimmy had one and used it during his efforts to prevent Team Rocket capturing Raikou. After that, Mr. Moore used one while defenting Lavaridge Town against Team Rocket
Legend of Thunder |
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