This took 40 minutes to write xd Introduction The firebird is somewhat under-rated in RBY. Fire is surely a horrible typing, but of those with it, Moltres stands out as above the rest. Its Flying typing lends it a helpful Ground immunity, nullifying a weakness, and allowing it to switch in when played cleverly (Gengar and Jolteon are notable partners as a consequence), although its weaknesses to Rock (4x!), Electric, and Ice (Fire doesn't resist it in generation 1!) are somewhat crippling issues. The main problem with Fire types in RBY is burning Starmie and Chansey, as well as that Fire-type moves undo the Freeze status (an incredibly powerful status). There are multiple ways around this first problem though - the first is to otherwise status them (i.e. with Paralysis or Sleep) before Moltres is revealed, thus making them unburnable, although with Starmie that can be troublesome, but pokemon such as Slowbro can achieve it quite easily as a partner. Another method is to possess a back-up plan should you burn either of these Pokemon - Jolteon, Zapdos, and Victreebel stand out as exemplary examples of Pokemon that can still sweep whilst Starmie is burnt, if played successfully. The final option is to abuse the burns upon these Pokemon - Burn can stack with Wrap, so Dragonite, Victreebel, and maybe other Pokemon, can make use of Starmie and Chansey being burnt. Around the second problem, you just need careful play, and to build a team where you're not conflicting heavy Ice attack usage and Fire attack usage. Now onto Moltres' positives! Base 90 speed is pretty good, although Jynx and faster outspeed it, it's fast enough to function nicely, especially when augmented with an Agility. Fire Blast is actually a pretty useful STAB with Chansey and Starmie out of the picture. Fire Blast hits Exeggutor and Jynx for incredible damage, whilst Tauros and Snorlax detest being burnt - and it does a huge amount to them as well. Fire Blast on a critical hit can OHKO Tauros and do about 80% to Snorlax! Although it has 85% accuracy, which is frustrating, the 30% burn chance makes it worthwhile over Flamethrower, since even factoring accuracy it has more than twice the probability to Burn. With Hyper Beam, Chansey can be beaten up too if you can maintain momentum nicely. At 62%, Chansey can't switch into Fire Blast safely, unless it misses. Lapras cannot switch in even at 67%! (although please note, Fire Blast outdamages Hyper Beam). Moltres' Base 100 Attack means that Hyper Beam can really hurt certain targets. Sets Standard Moltres - Fire Blast - Hyper Beam - Agility - Fire Spin Set Details Fire Blast is your main STAB and nukes most of the metagame, burning it some of the time too. Hyper Beam is nessecary for the KO on Chansey, which is an important target. Sky Attack never actually outdamages something Fire Blast+Hyper Beam could achieve on any target, so it's not included. Fire Spin and Agility are more filler, but suprisingly useful filler. Fire Spin, whilst its accuracy is frustrating, sometimes can be used for chip damage versus certain Pokemon to bring them into KO range, whilst Agility is fantastic as its speed loves a push, and it hates being slower than stuff it would otherwise outspeed whilst Paralyzed. Flamethrower is unfortunately not in its movepool unless you play with GSC tradebacks allowed (which this analysis is not written for!). Other Options Double Edge, Mimic, Reflect, and Substitute all exist but Double Edge is the only one that could possibly suit its high-speed and risky style of play - although its bulk is certainly not awful either (which the recoil does hurt). Double Edge is probably the move to choose if you're playing with partial trapping disallowed! Checks and Counters STARMIE! Other than that, Slowbro, Chansey, and other specially bulky mons that aren't Fire-weak act as great checks to it, particularly if they can Paralyze it. It's not an exceptionally important pokemon to consider in teambuilding, but it's important to consider if it poses a risk to your teams, and if it comes up how do you deal with it. Electrics (Jolteon and Zapdos primarily) outspeed (at least in those cases) and do fantastic damage to it, and thus act as pretty decent offensive checks on teams where it'd be viable to drop Chansey. Rock types are mediocre checks due to their low Special and hatred of being burnt, but they can easily dispose of Moltres if they aren't burnt or Moltres is paralyzed.
Cool stuff. Intro-wise I think in general it's cool that you go into depth, but it kinda comes at the expense of brevity. I feel like your comments on its typing are a little off in that Flying also brings Ice and Electric weaknesses which are notable. When discussing Starmie and Chansey (wouldn't Zam be worthy of mention here as well?) imo just say that you should try to status them before playing Moltres, and also have a plan for dealing with Burned mons e.g. Electrics, Wrap w/e. Just that quick mention should suffice. When discussing its positives, I don't think you need to go into too much detail, just talk about how its STAB FB hits like a nuke and how anything without recovery dislikes getting burned, particularly physical attackers OO, I'm not sure what you're getting at when you say its bulk is not bad either. Just feels like an incomplete thought. Also I feel obliged to oppose any mention of Mimic, that move is awful. Likewise I don't think Reflect is all that useful, since most physical attackers are staying a million miles away from Moltres. C&C Maybe mention Lapras/Zam here? Lap can live a hit and has STAB Blizzard, while Zam is fat and doesn't mind burns. GolDon could maybe be mentioned, with the caveat that they are neutered by burns. Mentioning that it's not that important to consider when teambuilding is good because it's so uncommon. Electric mention is good, maybe a general point about exploiting its common weaknesses? idk
Updated what was nessecary imo :) if I need to trim stuff more for PO though it's chill lmk if that's the way to roll out
Moltres would see lots of use if Dragonite and/or Articuno didn't exist. Unfortunately for Moltres, they do exist. I guess it sort-of plays as a middle ground between Articuno and Dragonite; Dnite doesn't have a 120 BP STAB off 348 Spc, after all. If it was just a little bit faster it'd be a viable anti-Jynx lead, but oh well. The fact that Fire moves undo freezes needs a mention. Using Fire Spin means anything you've frozen (which is otherwise effectively dead) is now healthy again.