1. Weather ball is better consistent STAB, flamethrower is never used 2 confuse ray and fire spin are useless 3. In sun, with STAB, on a special attacker weather ball still does more damage than body slam, even when resisted, plus rock types still wall you anyway. 4. Quick attack has very limited uses, overheat or energy ball will always be more useful. 5. Vulpix hits harder, is special in a meta where many mon run higher physical defences than special, has energy ball coverage to hit water types, and setting sun for other fire types or solar beam users. It’s generally considered to be MUCH MUCH better than Ponyta, OHKOing most of the mate when running choice specs