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Fire has always been a double edged sword. It has consistently been one of the smallest types, as far as pokemon go, in each successive generation. While fire types usually have good available attacks of their type to make use of, in addition to, generally speaking, decent special attack (but typically a higher physical attack, then SA), the fire type is weak to some of the most popular attack types; ground, rock, and water. All three of those types are very commonly used in the metagame with earthquake being arguably the single most commonly used attack. At the same time water types deploy many popular tanks, which further decreases the usefulness of fire types. Thus fire types really should be employed with care as they probably won't last too long, with specific reference to the OU metagame. While fire may be super effective to grass, ice, bug, and steel. Steel is arguably the most important of those type advantages especially with pokemon like bronzong being so widely used in the metagame, not to mention perennial favorites such as Skarmory. An ice type advantage isn't alltogether that significant either because most ice types carry a water type as a second type which negates any advantage fire types might have; even something like Regice doesn't have to worry too much about fire types. While bug types can be annoying, such as ninjask, the fact that bug types are weak to rock types pretty much relegates the utilitarian value of fire types in that area as well. Thus fire types are most useful with respect to fighting steel types first, and perhaps grass types as a secondary concern. It is for these reasons why the fire type can be considered a double edged sword, strong against a popular type like steel but annihilated by another popular type, ground. And now... The Top 5: #1: Ho-Oh It really is kinda sad that Ho-Oh the once mystical head of pokemon mythology has been so severly relegated to the background in the pokemon games today, especially with the advent of a true pantheon in pokemon mythology, with Arceus at the top. The fact that Lugia is a much more popular choice in the metagame also has seen this pokemyth become a rarity in the uber metagame. At the same time, Ho-Oh is still a threat to be reckoned with, especially with his high special defense and still significant movepool, he does have almost everything he needs to pull off a strong showing. His one lack is the fact that he doesn't have the time to set up with sunny day and is therefore forced to rely on the antics of a set up. Nevertheless, Ho-Oh has had a rich history, regardless of his fall from grace, he nevertheless deserves the #1 spot as the greatest fire type. #2: Infernape Infernape is arguably the one responsible for giving fire types some much needed respect in the 4th generation. With a plethora of equally useful movesets and just the right stats to take advantage of them, Infernape can sit pretty in the OU tier knowing it will get used. Infernape, like most fire types, suffers from inadequate defenses and is thus, unlike Ho-Oh, unable to deal with a threat. This boy is pure sweeper. #3: Heatran Heatran is one of the few new fire types in diamond and pearl and thankfully comes with a second type, steel. This addition is enormously useful since with flash fire, the fire type weakness to steel (regardless of Heatran's fire type resisting it in the first place) effectively eliminates that from our list of things to worry about. Furthermore steel provides an effective line of defense which most fire types are missing. Toss in some pwnage with a choice scarf set and you can see why Heatran belongs in the top 5. #4: Houndoom Houndoom's kind of a classic fire type in a way. Solid special attack, good typing (dark/fire), but poor defenses. Even more unfortunate is Houndoom's lack of decent speed which was probably what ended up sending it to the BL tier. Still that is both a bane and a boon given that Houndoom was not even legendary and being a gsc gen pokemon means there's been plenty of time for it to be surpassed by other pokemon. The fact that it is BL is perhaps a sign that Houndoom is still hanging in there. #5: Entei It seems kind of ironic that fire is one of the lesser types yet there are 3 legendary pokemon in her top 5. The funny thing about Entei is that it has a decent attack, but doesn't really have any solid moves to make use of that good attack. Still Entei does have decent speed and HP which may help to compensate somewhat for not being able to play into a physical sweeper as it could otherwise have done. Honorable mentions definitley go out to both Arcanine and Blaziken. Pokemon in the fire type: - Charizard
- Ninetales
- Arcanine
- Rapidash
- Flareon
- Moltres
- Typhlosion
- Magcargo
- Houndoom
- Entei
- Ho-Oh
- Blaziken
- Camerupt
- Torkoal
- Infernape
- Magmortar
- Heatran
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