Iron Jugulis, the Paradox Pokémon. It resembles a certain Pokémon introduced in a paranormal magazine, described as the offspring of a Hydreigon that fell in love with a robot. It's possible that Iron Jugulis, an object described in an old book, may actually be this Pokémon.

Overview

When Iron Jugulis was first discovered, it was meant with some derision, being an distorted copy of Hydreigon that is worse than it in most ways. Trading the Dragon typing for Flying is a big one, costing Iron Jugulis a bevy of resistances its nominate counterpart enjoys. Dark Flying is also littered with common weaknesses that make Iron Jugulis’ slightly lower defenses stand out even more and make it more prone to being revenge KO’d by priority. The loss of Levitate is another serious blow, especially with how well the ability synergizes with Terastalization. Offensively, Iron Jugulis doesn’t appear much better. While Flying is a strong offensive type, Iron Jugulis being forced to rely on the notoriously unreliable Hurricane for power STAB over Draco Meteor still hurts. This is not even getting into Iron Jugulis’ power woes, being forced to rely on Work Up, Charge Beam or Meteor Beam to bump up its Special Attack.

Yet despite all these ways Iron Jugulis fails to live up to its predecessor, it has still made a name for itself as a terrifying attacker. The biggest one up Iron Jugulis has over Hydreigon is its Speed. Base 108 Speed is a solid starting point, getting the jump on numerous fast Pokémon such as Zarude, and Sandy Shocks while keeping pace with Keldeo and Cobalion. However, with Quark Drive, Iron Jugulis gains a new dimension to its speed, out running everything short of Regieleki, allowing Iron Jugulis to pressure opponents in ways Hydreigon can only dream. Taunt becomes a far more reliable disruptive tool, shutting down setup sweepers before they can start and preventing walls from reliably outlasting Iron Jugulis. The high Speed also pairs well with Iron Jugulis’ STABs in Dark Pulse and Air Slash, allowing for flinching shenanigans that can turn games on their heads. Add in fantastic coverage with Earth Power and Fire Blast to hand the Rock and Steel types that resist Iron Jugulis’ Flying STAB and the end result is that Iron Jugulis is more than capable of cleaning up weakened teams.
Positives
Base 122 Special Attack alone is impressive even before considering all the ways Iron Jugulis can boost its power.
Flying Dark STABs offer good neutral coverage to start and Iron Jugulis has the coverage to answer what its STABs can’t.
Base 108 Speed is well above average before even factoring in Quark Drive allowing Iron Jugulis to act as a one time Scarf user without the Choice lock.

Negatives
Base 80 defenses and common weaknesses leave Iron Jugulis without much hit taking ability.
Lack of viable Electric Terrain setters in most formats makes it Iron Jugulis reliant on the one time Booster Energy for truly incredible speed.

Movesets

Jet Powered Hydra

-Dark Pulse
-Air Slash
-Earth Power
-Fire Blast
Ability: Quark Drive
Item: Booster Energy
EVs and Nature:
4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

Iron Jugulis makes for an excellent revenge killer with just its base power, STABs and excellent neutral coverage. Dark Pulse is primary STAB, its good power and wide neutral coverage along with nigh peerless speed makes Iron Jugulis ideal for cleaning up normally faster Pokémon like Latios, and Deoxys-Speed, while easily handling normally bulky Pokémon like Slowking, Metagross, and Skeledirge. Air Slash is reliable secondary STAB, handling Dark resists including the likes of Lokix, Zarude, and Galarian Zapdos the latter a preeminent Choice Scarf user in its own right that Quark Drive Iron Jugulis outspeeds. Both moves also having a flinch chance combined with Iron Jugulis’s incredible speed means that a lucky roll can prevent even targets that survive one hit from moving. Earth Power provides incredible coverage, especially against Flying resistant Rock and Steel types, especially Tyranitar who resists both STABs, as well as directly threatening prominent sponges in Clodsire and Heatran. Being able to threaten Electric types like Sandy Shocks Sandy Shocks is a nice bonus as well. Fire Blast is further coverage, offering an even stronger hits on Cobalion and Excadrill than Earth Power while avoiding any potential Air Balloons the latter might have.

Tera Types:
While Flying Dark has common weaknesses in Electric, Ice, Rock and Fairy, Iron Jugulis does get mileage from the immunities and resistances it offers, not entirely beholding it to Terastalization. However, given Booster Energy’s one time use, Iron Jugulis loves the offensive applications of Terastalization to grab otherwise out of reach knock outs. Tera Ground is rather popular, giving a boost to Earth Power while providing an immunity to Electric and resistance to Rock, turning what is otherwise a difficult matchup against Tyranitar into a far more even one. Tera Fire provides similar offensive defensive merit, allowing Iron Jugulis to outright melt Cobalion and Excadrill while gaining important resistances to Ice and Fairy. Both types do share one of Iron Jugulis’ base weaknesses in Ice and Rock respectively, so Iron Jugulis will still have difficult matchups regardless. Tera Electric is a more offensive option that is recommended if running Charge Beam, turning Iron Jugulis’ boosting move into proper coverage.

EVs and Items:
As with most special attackers, max Speed and Special Attack investment are recommended. Note that in order to get the Speed boost from Quark Drive, Iron Jugulis needs a Speed boosting nature and max investment in Speed to get the speed boost if one wants to max out Special Attack investment as well (if at level 100, Iron Jugulis can afford to drop down to 244 Speed EVs). It is hard to recommend other Items or EV investments given how much Iron Jugulis benefits from the Speed boost and being able to outrun Galarian Zapdos, Cornerstone Ogerpon, Thundurus Therian, Greninja, and Latios. Even dropping down to Modest nature is difficult to stomach as without the speed boost, Iron Jugulis is outran by Jolly Mimikyu and other positive Speed natured base 100+ Pokémon, making it low defenses that much more apparent. Iron Jugulis can run other items aside from Booster Energy as its base Speed isn’t that bad and still threatens a wide range of Pokémon. Life Orb is as always a good standby option for power and move flexibility. If running Meteor Beam, Power Herb is mandatory as being able to setup and attack in one turn generates so much momentum. Heavy-Duty Boots is another good option, allowing Iron Jugulis to switch in repeatedly without being ravaged by Stealth Rocks, allowing it to more freely pick its battles.

Partners:
: Allies that can handle targets Iron Jugulis struggles against are greatly appreciated. Cornerstone Ogerpon is notable for its positive matchups into Tyranitar, Zapdos, and Mandibuzz all Pokémon Iron Jugulis struggles with. Qurak Drive Iron Jugulis in turn threatens targets normally faster than Ogerpon, allowing it to pressure what Cornerstone Ogerpon can’t. This is further accentuated by Iron Jugulis’ positive matchup into opposing Grass types which can be troublesome for Ogerpon. Revavroom also deserves mention as one of the most anti Fairy Pokémon ever, a distinction Iron Jugulis greatly appreciates while Iron Jugulis can use the Ground attacks sent Revavroom’s way as free switch ins. Both Revavroom and Ogerpon are also physical attackers to Iron Jugulis’ special, allowing them to better cover sponges that Iron Jugulis can’t while Iron Jugulis handles bothersome physical walls. Greninja, while seeming redundant at first, actually works well with Iron Jugulis, in a similar vein as Ugerpon loving Iron Jugulis handling faster targets while Greninja’s absurd coverage and Protean is great into cleaning up what Iron Jugulis can’t, especially opposing Fairy types with Sludge Wave, Rock types with Surf and opposing Cornerstone Ogerpon with Ice Beam. In turn, Iron Jugulis can easily pivot on Grass attacks aimed Greninja’s way, account for one of Greninja’s base weaknesses.

Other Options:
Hurricane is a much stronger Flying STAB option than Air Slash but comes with horrid accuracy that may not make it worth it. Charge Beam, Meteor Beam and Work Up are all boosting options that Iron Jugulis has access to that allow it to more conventionally sweep, especially with the Quark Drive Boost. The former two also being great into Mandibuzz is a nice bonus. Taunt is a great way for Iron Jugulis to prevent walls like Clodsire, Skeledirge, and Toxapex from simply outlasting it as well as prevent setup sweepers like Comfey and Sinistcha from accruing too many boosts.

Doubles and VGC Options

Despite being a future Hydreigon, Iron Jugulis’ performance in Doubles has been more akin to Tornadus and Roaring Moon. This is by no means a mark against Iron Jugulis’s performance in Doubles as this blend of traits has allowed it to carve a niche for itself in the strongest formats for VGC. Like Roaring Moon, Iron Jugulis is a Dark typed Booster Energy user with Tailwind, allowing it to reliably setup Tailwind without fearing being punished by Taunt or Encore from Prankster users like Tornadus or Whimsicott. Iron Jugulis draws more from Tornadus’ toolkit in other respects, possessing potent STAB Hurricanes and incredibly fast Taunts at its disposal. Add in Dark STAB for Calyrex-Shadow Rider and this has allowed Iron Jugulis as an alternative option to Tornadus on Kyogre teams. However, being so similar to Tornadus is also a curse, and Iron Jugulis often finds itself in a losing position outside of Kyogre teams since Tornadus can offer more consistent offense in and out of Rain with Bleakwind Storm. Being reliant on Quark Drive to outspeed dire threats like the Raidons, Chien-Pao and Flutter Mane means that Iron Jugulis cannot freely pivot out like its contemporaries, which can make it dead weight in poor field conditions.

Cyber Support

-Tailwind
-Hurricane
-Snarl
-Protect
Ability: Quark Drive
Item: Booster Energy
Tera Type: Ground/Fire
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 132 SDef / 124 Speed
Timid Nature

Much like Tornadus, Iron Jugulis finds itself primarily on Kyogre teams, its Tailwind support vital for ensuring Kyogre moves first and unleashes its deadly Water Spouts and Origin Pulses. Iron Jugulis stands out from Tornadus thanks to its Dark subtyping providing immunity to Prankster Taunt and Encore, making it far more difficult to stop Iron Jugulis' setup. Hurricane is another way in that Iron Jugulis is simlar to Tornadus offering potent anti Grass coverage that makes the likes of Rillaboom, Ogerpon, Brute Bonnet, Amoonguss and Tera Grass users far less willing to take on Kyogre with Hurricane waiting in the wings. Snarl is Dark STAB that saps the power of opposing Special Attackers such as Miraidon, Terapagos and Calyrex-Shadow Rider, while doing incredible damage to the latter. Protect is the best move in doubles for good reason, and is vital here for blocking Fake Out and punishing double ups into Iron Jugulis while scouting for moves, Terastalizations as well as stalling for allied setup or stalling out opposing field conditions.

While Iron Jugulis is more a supporter than attacker, it can be imperative to keep it around. Tera Ground greatly improves Iron Jugulis' matchup into opposing Miraidon and Raging Bolt, preventing them from clipping Iron Jugulis. With the given Special Defense investment, Iron Jugulis is guaranteed to survive a Non-Specs Miraidon's Draco Meteor bar the rare Modest + Max Special Attack where Iron Jugulis is still favored to survive. The given Speed investment ensures Iron Jugulis always outruns Scarf Kyogre with Quark Drive. If wanting to invest more in bulk, 60 Speed EVs with Timid is the minimum needed to outrun Calyrex-Shadow Rider.

Preferred Partners:
This set is all about supporting Kyogre, with Tailwind and Hurricane addressing Kyogre's speed and Grass weaknesses while Kyogre fixes Hurricane's horrid accuracy. It is not uncommon to have games open Iron Jugulis and Kyogre and just Tailwind + Water Spout for the opener. Taunt stopping Wide Guard just further enables Kyogre in the process. Calyrex-Ice Rider is another common partner in crime for Iron Jugulis, slotting well with the Rain setting Kyogre. While Tailwind may seem anathema to Trick Room, Calyrex-Ice Rider loves the support from Snarl and Taunt in making it even harder to take out while depriving the opponent of disruption and Protect that could be used to waste Trick Room turns. Answers to Miraidon are also necessary given how bad a matchup Iron Jugulis has against Miraidon and how it is obligated to come to setup the Tailwind so its teammates can better handle Miraidon. Rillaboom is the most natural choice, again loving the support from Taunt along with Hurricane handling troublesome Grass types that Rillaboom itself can strugle to handle. Taunt is an incredible disruptive option, shutting down all sorts of setup and disruption, namely Wide Guards blocking Kyogre’s Water STAB, though its utility in denying opposing Taunts, Screens, Trick Room, Tailwinds, Protect and more cannot be denied. Air Slash is an option if not on a Kyogre team, and the flinch rate is nice, but the power drop is severe. Earth Power pairs nicely with Tera Ground and helps Iron Jugulis handle Steel and Electric types that soak up its Hurricane. Rain Dance furthers the Kyogre support, countering Torkoal, Groudon and Koraidon pivots looking to remove Kyogre's Rain.

Countering Iron Jugulis

Iron Jugulis’ incredible Quark Drive Speed, disruption and solid coverage can make it a tricky foe to navigate.

Normally, Special Walls would be called to handle Iron Jugulis’ offense and they do work to a degree, given Iron Jugulis’s lack of explosive boosting power. However, most walls are ruined by Taunt which Iron Jugulis frequently runs compared to other attackers. Blissey is one of the few walls whose sheer bulk means that Taunt is insufficient and reliably 4HKOs with Seismic Toss, though being taunted makes it much more vulnerable to Iron Jugulis’ teammates. Tyranitar perhaps the most reliable sponge, its Sandstream causing Earth Powers to bounce off while threatening a reliable OHKO with Stone Edge. Assault Vest Tornadus-Therian dislikes Charge Beam and Meteor Beam, but otherwise takes 3 Hurricanes to knock out while it can more or less do the same with Bleakwind Storm, with the Hurricane’s poor accuracy and Bleakwind Storm’s Speed drop pushing the odds into Tornadus-Therian’s favor.

If lacking Taunt, options to handle Iron Jugulis open up considerably. While Mandibuzz fears Charge Beam and Meteor Beam, it scoffs at any other move and can place Iron Jugulis on a timer with Toxic. Clodsire also does well, even ignoring boosting attempts from Iron Jugulis but also needs to run it down with Toxic. Umbreon is another Toxic user that can easily outlast Iron Jugulis with its own Recovery.

Otherwise, the best way to handle Iron Jugulis is with its own brand of offense. While Iron Jugulis is absurdly fast with Booster Energy, it isn’t the fastest and can be preyed upon if chipped down itself. Scarf Latios outspeeds by dint of higher base speed and grabs an guaranteed OHKO with Draco Meteor after Stealth Rocks. Sand Rush Excadrill can nab an OHKO after Stealth Rocks and Sandstorm chip with Rock Slide, though comfortably does half to Iron Jugulis with Iron Head. Priority users also work. Lokix’s Banded First Impression OHKOs more often than not with Stealth Rocks. Comfey and Mamoswine also work decently, dealing half with their Triage Draining Kiss and Ice Shard respectively, while Slitherwing can deal a slight bit more with its own First Impression.

If Quark Drive is not a factor, several more checks emerge. Cornerstone Ogerpon, Specs Greninja, Booster Energy Sandy Shocks, Scarf Keavlor, and Scarf Gardevoir all summarily dispatch Iron Jugulis, even if they can’t switch in safely.

Anime Appearences

Iron Jugulis has yet to make any appearances in the anime # -English Episode Name- -Jp. Episode Name- Pics