Since its release around 10 years ago, incineroar has been the face of competitive pokemon. Why? one of the best type combos, some incredible stats, one of the single best abilities of all time, the best movepool of all time and, most notably, the single most flexible support pokémon ever. with all of these tools, it has won tournament upon tournament, but now, in Pokémon Champions, Incineroars usage has had a sharp decline. But why? We have to understand all of the elements that made incineroar great, and all of what has led to its downfall. So first, what made it great? firstly, its stats. great defences, and good offences. its middling speed wasnt that important as its movepool was its real take away, with u turn, knock off, parting shot, a signature move in darkest lariat, flare blitz, will-o-wisp, etc. great typing as well. When did the king's downfall actually start? Incin dominated play in sun and moon VGC after it got access to its hidden ability, intimidate, another factor that led to its success. game freak saw it was overtuned, and so added some nerfs in sword and shield. However, these weren't real nerfs. they came in the form of pokemon, but they didn't do it well enough. Both restricted legendaries in sword and shield were given a tough matchup by incin, but the pokemon that clearly was intended to do something about incineroar was dragapult. as a ghost type, its immune to incin's fake out, and its dragon typing lets it resist incineroars fire type STAB moves. clear body made it immune to intimidate and parting shot, but, it wasn't enough, as a pokemon immune to fake out is weak to dark STAB attacks, and so it was left undefeated. rillaboom was also introduced in gen 8, and we all know it is basically just less bulky incin without some key dark moves, and so is considered only just as good. Going into gen 9, incineroar was almost eradicated, again though, it wasn't enough. the introduction of new pokemon like gholdengo, archaludon and flutter mane display the clearest example of power creep thus far, even bringing koraidon, a pokemon which resists both incins STAB moves. the real nerf came in the items. New held items being introduced meant that incineroar struggled against many more pokemon. covert cloak and clear amulet are the two most notable, blocking incineroars intimidate and fake out, its two main tools. This all of a sudden meant that incineroar was in fact not essential to every team. This still didn't mean that incineroar was less popular; it was still often seen on nearly half the teams at almost any regional. however, incineroar was no longer on every team on the ladder. alternatives became popular, like the faster sneasler, the more offensive hisuian arcanine and the healing support of rillaboom. the king was on a decline. The straw that broke the camel's back however was Pokémon champions. in a game without clear amulets and covert cloaks, you would expect a pokemon like incineroar to dominate. But the reality is that game freak finally gave incineroar an actual nerf, to its moveset. incineroar's knock off AND u-turn were both removed, two moves that were staples of its identity. These moves are really important for incineroars success, as u-turn means that it has access to a secondary pivot move which lets it run assault vest, and knock off has always been a great way of getting additional damage done and removes the opponents item. incineroars usage levels have been on a sharp decline since, and in most games its actually knocked out in turn one. while its ability intimidate remains untouched, pokemon with abilities such as defiant and competitive like kingambit and milotic are on a rise, and white herb has become one of the most popular items in the game. personally, I think this brings a wave of change that the game needed, and I'm looking forward to seeing less of incineroar so the spotlight can be shared. Thanks for reading. This was one of the most difficult projects i've made, so support is always appreciated. if you enjoyed, you might be interested in other pokemon projects i have made, such as how to use megas properly or a project where I rate the best added mega evolutions, besides floette:
