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 Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:02 pm
 Houndour & Houndoom The Dark PokémonGreetings fellow guildies! LF here with this weeks Pokémon of the Week, Houndour & Houndoom. I've decided to do something a little special this week being that I'm hosting our upcoming Little Cup Tournament. I will be covering Houndour for both 4th and 5th gen LC and I will also be covering Houndoom for both 4th and 5th gen. As most of you know, Houndoom is one of my all time favorite Pokémon so I'm going to have some fun with this one. Hope you all enjoy it!
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:57 pm
HoundourLets get started, first we have Houndour, one of the top contenders in the Little Cup Metagame. This guy makes for a great sweeper on any LC team. Great typing along with some nice stats gives Houndour the tools to sweep with many options.
First lets look at Houndour's Abilities and Stats: Flash Fire - Grants immunity to Fire-type moves and increases the power of Fire-type moves by 50% when hit by a Fire-type move. Early Bird - Reduces sleep time by 50%. HP - 45Atk - 60Def - 30SpAtk - 80SpDef - 50Spd - 65As you can see, Houndour has two decent abilities with a very nice SpAtk stat. Personally I prefer to use Flash Fire over Early Bird so that with some predicting, you can switch in on a fire attack and get a nice boost.
Houndour has a decent movepool to work with so lets go over some options.
First off I'll start with my favorite moveset which takes advantage of Houndour's nice offensive stats.
Nature - Lonely
EVs - 196 Atk / 196 SpA / 36 SpD / 76 Spe
Moves
Sucker Punch
Fire Blast, Flamethrower
Crunch
Hidden Power Ground,Grass,Fighting
This is mixed sweeper set, given the nice STAB moves along with coverage this makes Houndoom a hard poke for your opponent to switch into. Given a Life Orb only adds to the effectiveness of this set, however leftovers is always a good option too. What's so awesome about this set is that STAB/Life Orb boosted Crunch and Flamethrower hits hard on anything that doesn't resist it. I prefer Flamethrower over Fire Blast for its accuracy, however if you're willing to risk it for more power then Fire Blast is the way to go. Sucker Punch comes in handy once you take out an opponent's Poke, more than likely they'll switch in with something that would easily take Houndoom out, however Sucker Punch helps keeps revenge killer in check. Last we have Hidden Power, any of these type will provide decent extra coverage but out of all of them I'd go with Grass.
Counters
Some main counters to watch out for are: Gligar, Munchlax, Caravahna and Croagunk.
Gligar can easily take a boosted sucker punch from Houndour and make the kill with a quake.
Munchlax is bulky enough to take the hits and wear Houndour down.
Caravahna has STAB aqua jet whereas Croagunk has STAB Vacuum Wave
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:28 pm
HoundoomNow its time for Houndoom, one of my personal favorites. Like its pre-evolution, Houndoom also has a decent SpAtk, typing, and movepool to work with. Normally found in the UU, I've personally used Houndoom successfully in standard OU battles. I'll admit Houndoom is outclassed and not the best choice for OU but like any poke, with the right predictions and setup you can make it work.
First lets look at Houndoom's Abilities and Stats: Flash Fire - Grants immunity to Fire-type moves and increases the power of Fire-type moves by 50% when hit by a Fire-type move. Early Bird - Reduces sleep time by 50%. HP - 75Atk - 90Def - 50SpAtk - 110SpDef - 80Spd - 95As you can see, Houndoom's main selling points are its nice SpAtk and Spd stats. Again I prefer to use Flash Fire over Early Bird.
Both Houndoom and Houndour have pretty much the same movesets however Houndoom does better when used solely as a Special Sweeper.
First off I'll start again with my favorite moveset which takes advantage of Houndoom's SpAtk.
Choice Specs
Nature - Timid/Modest
EVs - 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Moves
Dark Pulse
Overheat, Fire Blast, Flamethrower
Hidden Power Ground,Grass,Fighting
Hyper Beam
This set is meant to use Houndoom's high SpAtk to its full power, with Choice Specs Houndoom is sure to do some heavy damage to anything that doesn't resist it. Again you have you're two STAB slots, for Dark Always go with Dark Pulse no question there. However for Fire you have 3 good moves depending on what you're looking for. If you want accuracy then Flamethrower is for you. If you want a bit more power that may not be as reliable there's Fire Blast, and lastly if you want pure fire power there's Overheat at 140 base damage. The downside is it lowers your SpAtk 2 stages, however if you have a choice specs on it you'll prolly be switching out after an attack anyway due to Houndoom's lackluster defenses. Hidden Power is always good for some added coverage, the type depends on which of your counters you want to be able to take out. For Swamert, Grass. Tyranitar, Fighting and for anything else Ground is always a good way to go. Last we have Hyper Beam, 150 base damage boosted with specs is sure to hit really hard, however its risky due to the recharge, again its mainly a filler in this case.
Now this next set is pretty much the same idea however it allows more freedom.
Plot Sweeper @leftovers/berry
Nature - Timid/Modest
EVs - 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Moves
Dark Pulse
Overheat, Fire Blast, Flamethrower
Hidden Power Ground,Grass,Fighting
Nasty Plot
Like I said this is pretty much the same idea as the first set, however you'll need to boost yourself with a Plot or two in order to hit as hard. Being able to switch in on a fire attack is best for this set, once you switch in you can get a plot up assuming they're a fire type and will switch out. As for the item, Leftovers always works but you may want a berry to cover one of its weaknesses or cure any status.
Houndoom in Gen. 5
The 5th gen hasn't changed Houndoom too much but it does gain a new ability:
Unnerve - The opponent's Pokémon will never use their held Berry while the Pokémon is in battle
The addition of the Balloon item could prove usefull on the Plot set due to Houndoom's weakness to ground, it could give you a free boost.
Other than that there really isn't anything else worth mentioning.
Counters
Some main counters to watch out for are: Swampet, Milotic, Tyranitar, Blissey.
Swampert is common and bulky enough to take Houndooms hits well, however HP grass always take it out.
Milotic is another common bulky water type, with its access to haze it can ruin your boosts. It goes down after 2 HP grass hits but you're better off switching out.
Tyranitar is strong and depending on what set your opponent is using it can also be very bulky, thus taking an HP grass no problem, however that's where HP Fighting could help out.
Blissey, do I really have to say it? One of the best special walls in the game...walls Houndoom to no end.
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:31 pm
Fun Facts"Houndour is a dog-like Pokémon with short, black fur. It has a red underbelly and snout. Houndour has short, pointed ears and a tail. Houndour’s fangs protrude out of its mouth, and its nose is dark in coloration. There are white bands on Houndour's ankles, and more rib-like ones on its back. Houndour appears to have a simplistic, stylized skull on its forehead, with the orbits looking much like ‘eyebrow’ patterning commonly seen on dogs. Houndour also has circular, red-colored patterning on the underside of its paws."
"Having the same coloration as its pre-evolved form, Houndour, Houndoom has a taller build with a longer snout. There are two white bands at each of Houndoom's ankles instead of just one, as well as three bands on its back instead of two. Houndoom has a long, skinny tail that ends in an arrowhead and visible claws on its feet. It appears to have a collar with a small skull pendant and a pair of curled horns, but no discernible ears. Houndoom's abilities are the same as Houndour's, only stronger. As a matter of fact, legends claim that anyone that gets burned by Houndoom's Fire attacks will never be healed and that Houndoom's howling was once claimed to be the call of the Grim Reaper. Its fire comes from toxins burning in its gut, this also gives its fire a foul odor.
* No other Pokémon has the same type combination as Houndour and Houndoom
* Despite being a Generation II Pokémon, it was actually native to Kanto in Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. The same is true for Murkrow and Slugma.
* Houndour is one of fourteen Pokémon that one can collect foreign Pokédex entries for in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
*Houndour and Houndoom are similar to a Doberman or a Rottweiler, but may have been inspired by Cerberus or other legends of hellhounds.
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:49 pm
Good job LF, as ussual... comment time!
1) for houndour (and houndoom) under counters you left out flash fire pokemon... since they commonly run scarfs/specs, any poke with flash fire would make an excellent counter, however, houndour actually seems to be the best houndour counter... as for houndoom, I think heatran is one of the big important counters.
in both these cases I would suggest either HP ground, or HP fighting, ground to hit the flash fire pokes, especially heatran at x4 weakness, and then HP fighting cause it hits houndour hard as well as hitting carvanah and munchlax.
2) blissey is the reason some houndoom's run sucker punch even if they mainly focus on special, cause lets face it, his movepool is shallow, after flamethrower/dark pulse/hidden power there isn't much to improve coverage, and priority can help finsih something off, and the physical attack would help in dealing with blissey, especially ones with less defense investment... however I think the days of blissey are over, I mainly see evolite chansey's now, and Im not sure how well it would fair against the increased defenses...
3) does houndour get unnerve? cause in LC that ability could be pretty useful, given how common oran barries are.
4)Houndoom/dour might do well with the new elemental gems, give it one that matches its hidden power to have one good hidden power burst, or possible mix it with overheat to have one hella strong super powered fire attack, especially with flash fire.
the last two are more "Questions/Conversation pieces" than comments... xd what do you think!
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:20 pm
Houndoom gets Unnerve from the Dream World. Didn't you think of that? xd Also, elemental gems can only be used once per battle, and then they disappear, which seriously sucks. I'd rather give it a plate or a type-specific boost item (such as Charcoal or BlackGlasses) to get a permanent boost.
LF- Good job, this is one of the best PotWs I've read. I've tried using a Houndoom on PO. Well... I just suck at building Pokemon. xd
It seems like everyone's doing there favorites...
*must get on the crew before someone does Luxray*
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