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Abilities can make or break a Pokemon. The whole reason people run Talonflame is obviously because of its Gale Wings ability.

I constantly run into it and I'm sure a lot of you do as well. Because a lot of the time I randomly select 6 fully EV trained Pokemon out of the PC (for a bit of fun) I find myself vulnerable to Talonflame or I have to carefully and painfully play around it.

So I'm looking for a solid counter that can safely switch in taking little damage from it and maybe set up and support. Should something like Carbink be a staple for my future teams? I always like the idea of obscure and unpredictable Pokemon. I also don't really want to run Heatran as I hate the x4 Ground weakness.

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Anything that can take a hit and can run Stone Edge
The x4 Ground Weakness from Heatran is nothing compared to how many resistances it gets :0

3 Answers

4 votes
 
Best answer

When I wrote this answer the whole X and Y metagame was fairly new, as tiers hadn't been established at the time. I also never anticipated Talonflame to turn out to be as good as it is, so since this answer is outdated and just plain bad, allow me to rewrite it completely!


Stealth Rocks:

Once you get Stealth Rocks up on the field, the threat Talonflame possess is essentially cut in half as it loses 50% of it's maximum HP upon switching in. That and when you consider two of it's moves are recoil moves (Flare Blitz and Brave Bird), it's not going to be sweeping many Pokémon at all especially if it's holding a Life Orb. Talonflame is generally partnered with a Pokémon that can learn either Defog or Rapid Spin, so that it can clear away Stealth Rocks and Talonflame can switch in safely without losing 50% of it's maximum HP. So once you get rid of it's support then Talonflame becomes a lot more vulnerable, as Choice Band variants are essentially useless as they generally don't carry Roost due to being locked into it. Variants who carry Roost generally use it as soon as they switch in due to Talonflame losing 50% of it's maximum HP upon switching in. This leaves Talonflame open to being hit by Ground type moves, as when it uses Roost it loses it's Flying typing, thus becoming a pure Fire type and temporarily losing it's Ground type immunity.


Pokémon who resist Talonflame's STABs (generally Flare Blitz and Brave Bird) and can hit back twice as hard!

Pokémon who fall into this category include:

Aerodactyl Mega Aerodactyl Tyranitar Mega Tyranitar Rotom-H Rotom-W Diancie Mega Diancie


Physical Defensive Pokémon:

Pokémon who fall into this category include:

Slowbro Mega Slowbro Gyarados Zapdos QuagsireSuicune Gastrodon Hippowdon Gliscor Mandubuzz Landorus-T


Other good counters:

Mega Manectric Heatran Thundurus (potentially*)


Passive Damage:

As I mentioned before Talonflame's two main moves are Flare Blitz and Brave Bird, both of which are recoil moves. Recoil moves are moves where the user receives damage equal to a certain amount of the damage dealt to the target, for Flare Blitz and Brave Bird this being 1/3. Because Talonflame loses 50% of it's maximum HP upon switching in with Stealth Rocks up on the field and because it sustains damage each time it's attack with one of it's STAB moves, you can use this to your advantage by letting it attack your Pokémon to rack up the damage. Of course this isn't recommended if you're Pokémon isn't holding a Rocky Helmet or hasn't got Rough Skin/Iron Barbs as it's Ability. This is why Garchomp with the Rough Skin Ability and Ferrothorn with the Iron Barbs Ability can both be used to potentially counter Talonflame (Garchomp more so as it can actually take a hit from Talonflame at maximum HP and strike back). If they were given a Rocket Helmet to hold the damage Talonflame would sustain would increase, as Talonflame would not only sustain damage from using one of it's STAB moves, but also from Rough Skin/Iron Barbs and the Rocky Helmet as well. Although Ferrothorn must sacrifice itself in order to take out Talonflame.

Garchomp Ferrothorn

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edited by
Good answer.
Awesome answer fwend.
1 vote

Use Tyranitar, a powerful Pseudo legend, and his speed is low anyway, so priority wont matter, and his defenses are high, just like talonflames x4 weakness to rock. Just use stone edge and your troubles are over.

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The only thing with Tyranitar is he comes with the annoying Sand Stream ability which you're then forced into pretty much building a sand team.
Well, the sandstorm wears off after 5 turns or if he faints
0 votes

Aerodactyl is the best counter.
You have rock typing which not only resists flying and fire moves, is 4x to Talonflame.

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