Pokémon Hearthflame Mask

[veti]

Hearthflame Mask

Type: Grass/Fire

Stats: 80 HP/120 ATK/84 DEF/60 SPA/96 SPD/110 SPE (Total: 550)

Ability: Mold Breaker and Embody Aspect (starts as Mold Breaker, changes to Embody Aspect when it terastalizes.

New Ability:
Embody Aspect - The Pokémon's heart fills with memories, causing the Hearthflame Mask to shine and the Pokémon's Attack stat to be boosted.

New Move:
Ivy Cudgel - The user strikes with an ivy-wrapped cudgel. This move's type changes depending on the mask worn by the user, and it has a heightened chance of landing a critical hit.

100 BP/100 ACC/10 PP/Physical, Fire when holding Hearthflame Mask

Notable Moves:
Ivy Cudgel
Wood Hammer
Power Whip
Swords Dance
Knock Off
U-Turn
Spikes
Superpower
Horn Leech
Play Rough
Zen Headbutt
Encore
Synthesis
Taunt

Pros:

• Speed tier of 110 allows Ogerpon to outspeed threats like Walking Wake and Enamorus while tying with Iron Moth
• Gaining Embody Aspect after Terastalization increases Ogerpons damage output even further for the rest of the game
• Swords Dance alongside a great STAB combo of Ivy Cudgel and one of Wood Hammer or Power Whip allows Ogeepon to be a threatening wallbreaker, even bypassing defensive abilities like Flash Fire and Unaware before terastalization
• Great coverage in primarily Knock Off and Superpower allowing Ogerpon to add more reach in the slower pokemon it instantly threatens
• Utility options such as Spikes and U-Turn to punish predicted switches, Taunt to block hazards, status, setup and recovery, Encore for easier SD and the ability to check Kingambit and Knock Off to remove items
• Hearthflame Mask gives an unremovable 20% damage bonus to all attacks, making it a solid option.

Cons:

• Hearthflame Ogerpon requires the held item "Hearthflame Mask" to use, making Ogerpon very vulnerable to hazards and limiting Ogerpons speed tier. Update: Masks were found to boost the damage of both of Ogerpons STAB moves by 20%! Source: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/scarlet-violet-battle-mechanics-research.3709545/post-9780615
• While holding the Hearthflame Mask, Ogerpon is locked to Tera Fire making the hazard problem even worse and limiting it's set diversity
• Due to Species Clause, you will not be able to use Teal Mask, Wellspring Mask or Cornerstone Mask on your team by using this Ogerpon form
• Lack of Choice Scarf leaves Ogerpon always outsped by threats like Iron Valiant, Cinderace and Sneasler
• While Ogerpon is not frail, hazard vulnerability combined with a typing that doesn't resist common priority leaves Ogerpon easy to pick off with priority

Terastalization Potential:
Hearthflame Mask Ogerpon is locked to Tera Fire and it's terastalization has a special effect that gives Ogerpon Embody Aspect Attack.

Mold Breaker isn't too useful for Ogerpon and the attack boost turns Ogerpon into even more of a nuke, especially in sun. However, Ogerpons Terastalization is very telegraphed due to only being possibly one type that it already is so defensive applications will be limited.

Potential Sets:

Swords Dance

Ogerpon @ Hearthflame Mask
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ivy Cudgel
- Power Whip/Wood Hammer/Horn Leech
- Knock Off/Superpower/Horn Leech/Play Rough

Swords Dance allows Ogerpon to be a truly threatening wallbreaker, with it's high pase power STAB and good attack stat. Ivy Cudgel is it's only fire move, for Grass stab it has the options of Wood Hammer and Power Whip, Wood Hammer comes at the cost of valuable HP and Power Whip is innacurate. Alternatively, Horn Leech can be used to try and offset Stealth Rocks. For slot four, none of the moves are necessary but Knock and Superpower are good coverage and Horn Leech can be used in slot four instead if you want the 120 base power of Wood Hammer and Power Whip. Play Rough ohkos dragons after an SD.

Offensive Pivot

Ogerpon @ Hearthflame Mask
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-Turn
- Ivy Cudgel
- Power Whip/Spikes/Horn Leech/Knock Off
- Power Whip/Spikes/Horn Leech/Knock Off

With it's good speed tier and movepool, Ogerpon has potential to be an effective offensive pivot. U-Turn is mandatory for a pivot set and Ivy Cudgel is hard to pass on, however Ogerpon has some choices in the third and fourth slots. Wood Hammer is not an option on this set because the recoil is too much when it's hazard weak and can't run boots and pivoting with u-turn. Power Whip is a strong secondary STAB, Knock Off is gauranteed progress and pairs excellently alongside Spikes, Spikes is a great option to spike on forced switches à la Greninja, and Horn Leech can offset Stealth Rock.

Other moves that could work but would be hard fitting include Encore and Taunt.

Final Thoughts:
Hearthflame Ogerpon looks like it has potential to be a solid but not defining OU pokemon. Despite it's huge flaws, it has good offensive stats and an amazing offensive/utility movepool, I'm looking forward to seeing how Ogerpon develops over the next few months. I could see it dropping to BL but I doubt it will go below the B Ranks on the VR.

 

[Vengeance417]

Mold Breaker does have solid applications, actually. For starters, it prevents Heatran from walling this form of Ogrepon. Mold Breaker also ignores Unaware, which is great for an SD user. Dondozo, Skeledirge, and Clodsire can't withstand its boosted attacks. I'd go so far as to say Tera on this thing is a downgrade against fatter teams.

 

[ausma]

Ogrepon @ Hearthflame Mask
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ivy Cudgel
- Power Whip/Wood Hammer/Horn Leech
- Knock Off/Superpower/Horn Leech

Unsure how much of a stretch this might be, but I had the thought of Trailblaze for your Grass-type STAB. With Post-Tera, you effectively have +3 Attack, making it far easier for Trailblaze to actually pose some kind of a threat and potentially enable the ability to clean offense.

 

[veti]

Unsure how much of a stretch this might be, but I had the thought of Trailblaze for your Grass-type STAB. With Post-Tera, you effectively have +3 Attack, making it far easier for Trailblaze to actually pose some kind of a threat and potentially enable the ability to clean offense.

A while after posting this I was thinking about Trailblaze, I haven't added it because I haven't seen or used it yet though

 

[SnackWasTaken]

Maybe worth adding: From personal experience, HearthFlame pairs well with early Twave support (most notably from Rotom-W), which allows it to outspeed the speedy leads like scarf samurott-h that could give it trouble otherwise. Rotom-W in particular helps to take care of those pesky Fire-Types that resist your stabs.

Unsure how much of a stretch this might be, but I had the thought of Trailblaze for your Grass-type STAB. With Post-Tera, you effectively have +3 Attack, making it far easier for Trailblaze to actually pose some kind of a threat and potentially enable the ability to clean offense.

Trailblaze is definitely a fair option. I’ve used HearthFlame in most of my Post-DLC matches thus far, it out speeds most real threats with max speed and Horn Leech’s recovery and higher damage output has been most beneficial, especially given the decent but not great bulk. When HearthFlame goes down, it’s mostly to priority. I like Trailblaze as an option, but horn leech is more consistent. Don’t mean to argue with a council member tho, just making points from my experiences.

 

[ausma]

Maybe worth adding: From personal experience, HearthFlame pairs well with early Twave support (most notably from Rotom-W), which allows it to outspeed the speedy leads like scarf samurott-h that could give it trouble otherwise. Rotom-W in particular helps to take care of those pesky Fire-Types that resist your stabs.

Trailblaze is definitely a fair option. I’ve used HearthFlame in most of my Post-DLC matches thus far, it out speeds most real threats with max speed and Horn Leech’s recovery and higher damage output has been most beneficial, especially given the decent but not great bulk. When HearthFlame goes down, it’s mostly to priority.

I would also say Encore is really strong on it, between Trailblaze, its initial Speed tier, and Mold Breaker expanding its targets. However Play Rough is also a really strong third.

 

[R8]

Ogerpon-Hearthflame (F) @ Hearthflame Mask
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Atk / 8 SpD / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature
-Encore
-Ivy Cudgel
-Knock Off
-Synthesis

Checks every gholdengo on the planet but dies to hazards (which is unfortunate for a ghold check lol...) - the spread can probably be optimized, this outspeeds any non scarf ghold and can KO 0 bulk Ghold pre tera. Encore goes through good as gold thanks to mold breaker

 

[pika pal]

Mold Breaker does have solid applications, actually. For starters, it prevents Heatran from walling this form of Ogrepon. Mold Breaker also ignores Unaware, which is great for an SD user. Dondozo, Skeledirge, and Clodsire can't withstand its boosted attacks. I'd go so far as to say Tera on this thing is a downgrade against fatter teams.

Unaware is a good note, though if running Superpower I don't know how often that comes up for Heatran then.

Related, is Low Kick significant enough to run as Fighting Coverage on this form even? Off the top of my head the main targets for Fighting Coverage over a STAB are Baxcalibur, Roaring Moon, Heatran, and then maybe some Tera targets like Tera Fire Gambit? The first 3 listed all hit 120 BP Weight for Low Kick without Ogerpon debuffing itself for riskier priority if you need the Coverage anyway (Low Kick mostly matters for Heatran in specific if you Tera and thus lose Mold Breaker, as +0 Ogerpon 2HKO's with neutral Cudgel after 1 layer of Spikes damage)

 

[Joseph Gomes]

Play Rough allows Ogerpon to OHKO all the dragons after a single SD, especially Dragonite

 

[Magcargo]

So information is preliminary, but based on research done by GreenDrac0 it is possible that Ogrepon's mask will boost its damage output.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/scarlet-violet-battle-mechanics-research.3709545/post-9780615

 

[curtiswright123.cw@gmail.]

A while after posting this I was thinking about Trailblaze, I haven't added it because I haven't seen or used it yet though

I feel a trailblaze set would still get out sped by alot of meta mons and not worth, as opposed to calm mind moon sets

 

[Blitz]

Turns out the masks aren’t actually useless after all!

When held, the corresponding Ogerpon mask grants it a 20% boost to ALL of its moves, including coverage.

 

[Dreadfury]

Yeeeeah this thing's probably getting banned after this discovery LMAO

This thing effectively has base 154 Attack or something after factoring in what these masks do, and Hearthflame has by FAR the best ability and coverage of the bunch.

 

[Surgo]

This 'mon is absolutely insane thanks to mold breaker. Can stall as an archetype even survive with this thing in OU?

 

[NeveringStar]

Final Thoughts:
Hearthflame Ogerpon looks like it has potential to be a solid but not defining OU pokemon. Despite it's huge flaws, it has good offensive stats and an amazing offensive/utility movepool, I'm looking forward to seeing how Ogerpon develops over the next few months. I could see it dropping to BL but I doubt it will go below the B Ranks on the VR.

I feel like Heartflame Ogerpon has banning potential. Given how powerful Embody Aspect+ Swords Dance + Trailblaze is, plus there are ways to clear or avoid hazards, and the weaknesses of Poison, Flying and Rock being present on slower, less offensive pokemon, (think and ), I think this is an situation all over again.
Or I'm just salty that I have gotten sweeped by it for like 12 games in a row.
To prove my point, i shall quote Finchinator:

"Annihilape escaped most people's sights before the tier was formally released and during the chaos of the first few days, but it quickly emerged as one of the most important threats of the metagame."

" Annihilape is one of the best abusers of Terastallization in OU."

Seeing this, we can clearly draw parallels to Hearthflame Ogerpon. Thank you for listening to reading my TED Talk.

 

[BolTingBlazie]

I've seen some calcs on this thing, and they are honestly chi yu levels of stupid, I don't expect this Mon to stay OU for much longer, abuse Hearthflame while you can, because its probably going to ubers.

 

[malomyotismon]

I feel like Heartflame Ogerpon has banning potential. Given how powerful Embody Aspect+ Swords Dance + Trailblaze is, plus there are ways to clear or avoid hazards, and the weaknesses of Poison, Flying and Rock being present on slower, less offensive pokemon, (think and ), I think this is an situation all over again.
Or I'm just salty that I have gotten sweeped by it for like 12 games in a row.
To prove my point, i shall quote Finchinator:

"Annihilape escaped most people's sights before the tier was formally released and during the chaos of the first few days, but it quickly emerged as one of the most important threats of the metagame."

" Annihilape is one of the best abusers of Terastallization in OU."

Seeing this, we can clearly draw parallels to Hearthflame Ogerpon. Thank you for listening to reading my TED Talk.

True but annhilape had the obvious luxury of item choice, a fantastic natural typing that resist sr not is weak to it being fantastic both on the defence and offence, and an amazing stab combo that includes its own exclusive ghost stab that gets stronger and does not reset.

 

[NeveringStar]

I've seen some calcs on this thing, and they are honestly chi yu levels of stupid, I don't expect this Mon to stay OU for much longer, abuse Hearthflame while you can, because its probably going to ubers.

Exactly. They had the audacity to ban my boy Bax but for some reason they can't ban this beast.

 

[toshimelonhead]

Here's my personal favorite Ogerpon set if you want to try it out before it gets banned from OU.

Ogerpon-Hearthflame (F) @ Hearthflame Mask
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ivy Cudgel
- Trailblaze
- Play Rough

 

[pika pal]

People thinking Ogerpon-Hearth is a slamdunk ban on the level of Bax is bizarre to me. Spikes and Rocks turn 1 have never ben easier to keep up from the outset of a game, and those are a legitimate consideration to using this form compard to Boots Bax with his Blissey level bulk from Turn 1 A-Tales. No arguing the power output is high, but this isn't like Bax where you get to fire those off for free if you get on the field once since most of these call for your Tera, a SD boost, Sun, and/or a Trailblaze turn to not be outrun by a revenge killer.

The thing that made Chi-Yu stupid meanwhile is that it did most of this shit the literal second it hit the field because of Beads of Ruin and the even more absurd BP of Overheat under Sun (when Weather was also much less contested) with no set-up or prediction required to kill things. Ogerpon has good coverage but has to click the right move and is only okay at surviving a hit if it guesses wrong or is staring down a revenge kill. Big number calcs are definitely impressive but Chi-Yu and Bax took significantly less work to achieve those in a practical game. Same to Crown-Zacian in SS Ubers as another somewhat memetic comparison made, the typing, speed for the tier, and lack of opportunity cost all compound the funny free +1.

More to the point, defensive counterplay being non-existent has not consistently gotten a mon banned, Bax got hit because the Snow bulk deprived it of Offensive Counterplay to match.

 

[veti]

I think this is an situation all over again.

Not really, this was written before the masks were found out to be good items and I just didn't update my final thoughts, Ogerpon is like a top 10 mon possibly and probably will get banned.

 

[BolTingBlazie]

People thinking Ogerpon-Hearth is a slamdunk ban on the level of Bax is bizarre to me. Spikes and Rocks turn 1 have never ben easier to keep up from the outset of a game, and those are a legitimate consideration to using this form compard to Boots Bax with his Blissey level bulk from Turn 1 A-Tales. No arguing the power output is high, but this isn't like Bax where you get to fire those off for free if you get on the field once since most of these call for your Tera, a SD boost, Sun, and/or a Trailblaze turn to not be outrun by a revenge killer.

The thing that made Chi-Yu stupid meanwhile is that it did most of this shit the literal second it hit the field because of Beads of Ruin and the even more absurd BP of Overheat under Sun (when Weather was also much less contested) with no set-up or prediction required to kill things. Ogerpon has good coverage but has to click the right move and is only okay at surviving a hit if it guesses wrong or is staring down a revenge kill. Big number calcs are definitely impressive but Chi-Yu and Bax took significantly less work to achieve those in a practical game. Same to Crown-Zacian in SS Ubers as another somewhat memetic comparison made, the typing, speed for the tier, and lack of opportunity cost all compound the funny free +1.

More to the point, defensive counterplay being non-existent has not consistently gotten a mon banned, Bax got hit because the Snow bulk deprived it of Offensive Counterplay to match.

Yeah its weak to spikes and rocks and restricted to an item, and one trailblaze or SD is often all it takes for it to win a game straight up. Sure its not free to fire off attacks or come in on strong stuff, but its wallbreaking power is absolutely ludicrous on the levels of a chi yu firing overheat in Sun. Also even if you wanted to unaware wall it, you are gonna get your ability suppressed anyway before it teras. Ogerpon Hearthflame is literally the same case even if it needs a turn to set up. My point being is that this Mon is still blatantly unhealthy even if it might be a little less broken than Bax behind veil.

Edit: Yep seeming to me like a quickban may be in order for the Hearthflame mask

 

[Finchinator]

gone

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ogerpon-hearthflame-is-banned-from-sv-ou.3728312/#post-9793091

 

[NoobHereWaddup]

rightfully banned

 

[Bice]

ding dong the ogre is dead