Richard's Reasoning - Heracross

Welcome to the tenth article of Richard's Reasoning where we discuss competitive Pokemon in Crystal Clear's unique metagame. This time we'll be covering a Pokemon that the community voted to have an article written about. Let's talk about Heracross.

Base Stats: 80 HP / 125 Attack / 75 Defense / 40 Sp. Attack / 95 Sp. Defense / 85 Speed

Heracross is one of the brightest stars to emerge from the Battle Tutor. It was already a decent Pokemon, but held back by its own lack of good Fighting coverage. Once it was gifted access to Cross Chop it quickly emerged as the premier Fighting type of Crystal Clear's metagame. Even after losing access to Rock Slide, Heracross remains at the top of the Fighting type hierarchy, stalwart and steadfast in defending the tier against the once-dominant bulky Normal types.

Heracross isn't perfect. Its lack of Rock Slide now forces it to run Hidden Power Rock if it wants to be able to deal significant damage to most Flying types, and both of its STAB attacks have shaky accuracy. It's somewhat fast, but not as fast as it would like to be in a metagame full of Pokemon like Gengar, Alakazam, and Crobat. It also almost has to run the exact same 4 moves every time to maximize coverage or else it'll be walled by something important, which really makes it predictable.

All of that said, Heracross is the best Fighting type in the tier for a reason, so let's get into why.

-Blue Beetle-

Heracross@ MiracleBerry / PrzCureBerry / Ice Berry / Scope Lens
Megahorn
Cross Chop
Earthquake
Hidden Power [Rock] / Counter / Hidden Power [Flying] / Toxic / Curse

Heracross is a very straightforward Pokemon in terms of the moveset. Megahorn is by far its best attack, sporting a massive 120 base power before factoring in STAB, and an okay 85% accuracy. It's easy to resist, but even resistant Pokemon will take a chunk from it. It's an extremely important move, and what defines Heracross as the best Fighting type in the tier - Psychic Pokemon cannot switch into it for free, as if the Heracross user predicts the switch, they'll be decimated.

Cross Chop completes the STAB duo, and while it is both weaker (100 base power) and less accurate (80% accuracy), it makes up for it in both the coverage it provides and the 25% critical hit ratio it sports. Even if a Fighting-resistant Pokemon switches in on this attack, they often fear the massive damage a critical hit will deal to them. The unreliable accuracy is its biggest drawback, and it can be really frustrating to deal with, but it is a necessary evil. Dropping to something like Karate Chop will see a noticeable dip in power and consistency for Heracross, given how weak the move is.

Earthquake is the final necessary move, in my opinion. It allows Heracross to hit Gengar and Weezing on predicted switch-ins, which are among some of the most common threats in the metagame. Granting them free switch-ins gives up entirely too much momentum for the Heracross user. It also gives Heracross a reliable 100% accurate move to finish off weakened Pokemon without risking the miss from its STAB attacks.

The last slot has a few options, but each one comes with caveats. Hidden Power Rock is the best choice overall, as it allows Heracross to deal damage to Flying types. It's a pretty weak attack overall, and is mostly useful for hitting Flying types as they're switching in to weaken them for later in the game, but it's very reliant on prediction. Without Hidden Power Rock, Crobat can switch in for free forever as well, which is especially worth considering, given that it is one of the best Heracross counters. Counter can be used as a surprise attack to OHKO a physical attacker, but the problem is the use case is so narrow. Almost every common Flying type will OHKO Heracross with their STAB of choice, and many other common physical attackers like Miltank, Steelix, and other Fighting types are unlikely to stay in against Heracross anyway, given how threatened they are by it. Hidden Power Flying can be used as a means to win the Heracross mirror match, but is relatively useless outside of that function, as all other Fighting types will be hit harder by a Cross Chop. Toxic is an option to ease early-game switch-ins. It can cripple some Flying-type switches for later in the game, as well as making it less of an option to pivot in an effective counter for Heracross by taking advantage of predicted STAB attacks. The problem with this, though, is that Poison types are already some of the best switch-ins to Heracross's STAB attacks, so this can turn into a free turn for them. Finally, Curse can be used to start snowballing Heracross's Attack power, but lowering Heracross's Speed stat is not advised, and you'll often find you don't have time for it with how common Heracross's checks and counters are.

The choice of item can be difficult, so I'll run through them. I think MiracleBerry is far and away the best item for Heracross, allowing it a one-time immunity to status effects, which tends to be huge for momentum. Not allowing status to be a possibility for crippling Heracross without doing it twice completely changes how the opponent has to answer Heracross. If the MiracleBerry is already being taken by something else on the team that can't afford to let it go, PrzCureBerry becomes the next-best option, as it's the most common status effect. You'll get about as much mileage here as with MiracleBerry, but it's not as flexible. Ice Berry is a choice for letting you stay in on Weezing and potentially beating it one-on-one, as it'll cure the Burn from Weezing's Sacred Fire while Earthquake is a 41% chance to 2HKO a Weezing holding Leftovers. It is very specific, though, and if the opponent doesn't have Weezing it's a pretty useless item most of the time. Finally, Scope Lens buffs Cross Chop to a 33% chance to land a Critical Hit, as well as buffing everything else on the moveset to a 12.5% chance. This makes Heracross much harder to switch into, but don't be fooled by Gyarados's success with the item - this is not the same as Aeroblast. The shaky accuracy of Cross Chop, as well as the existence of Pokemon that are immune to the move makes this not quite as effective, and Heracross really does appreciate the status-curing berries much more overall. Still, it's worth considering on an offensive team that aims to break through opponents with sheer force.

Heracross has some other options, but they generally make him much less effective, given how efficient the main set is. Return can be used as an early-game scouting attack to see what the opponent plans to switch into Heracross's STABs, but its lack of Super-Effective potential makes it pretty weak, and one of Heracross's most common switch-ins, Gengar, is also immune to it anyway. Thief can be fun early on to cripple a would-be counter, but it's inconsistent and you'd probably be better off just applying real offensive pressure. Vital Throw can be decent in the last slot to have a second Fighting STAB that isn't inaccurate, but it has to be run alongside Cross Chop because Vital Throw always makes the user move last, and Heracross really cannot afford that as its only STAB. It makes Heracross much easier to switch into as well. I'm mentioning Karate Chop here again to say don't use it. It's really bad and makes Heracross a laughably easy Pokemon to switch into, compared to Cross Chop. 75% of the time it's a pathetically weak attack compared to the devastatingly powerful Cross Chop.

A special mention must go to Crobat in terms of effective counters to Heracross. While it doesn't enjoy switching into Hidden Power Rock (which deals 37-44% to Crobat), it easily absorbs all other attacks that Heracross can throw around. It's faster, threatens a OHKO, and given how easily it forces Heracross to switch out your team absolutely needs to have this Pokemon in mind when thinking about partners for Heracross. Luckily, the same kinds of partners that do well against Gengar and Weezing, Heracross's other best answers, tend to mostly do about as well for Crobat. Special thanks to Dysprosium for mentioning Crobat deserving its own section in the article!

Lastly, I'd like to talk about Heracross's defensive qualities, because they're surprisingly nice. Heracross resists, Fighting, Ground, Grass, Bug, and Dark. These are incredible resistances to have, and single-handedly allows it to beat most other Fighting types one-on-one unless they've opted for Hidden Power Flying for the sole purpose of targeting Heracross. It presents many opportunities to switch into common Pokemon and exert pressure on the opponent, so keep these resistances in mind.

-My Opinion-

I've always liked Heracross. It's charming, it's cool, and the anime depicted it as very mischievous, which was fun. Fighting is one of my favorite types as well, and Heracross stands as unique even among them. Ken also loves Heracross, and Ken is a bro for life so there's no way I could ever feel any negativity for this guy. He's a fan favorite for a reason!

Thanks again for voting, everyone! There will be more polls for RR in the future, so please look forward to them!