Iron Thorns Competitive Guide

Iron Thorns

Iron Thorns is essentially Mecha Godzilla, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Its design is great and its shiny color palette is even better as it shares a similar silver color to its metal-kaiju counterpart.

If you believe the lore, Iron Thorns is apparently a Tyranitar from 1 billion years in the future. Oddly enough, unlike the present-day Tyranitar, this one is genderless.

This is a common theme amongst the paradox Pokemon. I suppose breeding, at least in the traditional sense, was not needed in the distant past as well as the distant future.

How To Use Iron Thorns

Iron Thorns, much like Tyranitar is a Pokemon that excels as a bulky or somewhat speedy physical attacker. However, unlike its present day relative, its special attack is way too low to be a mixed attacker.

Its also slightly less bulky as it has a base special defense of 84 vs Tyranitar's base 100 stat. The mecha kaiju is not totally inferior to the original though. Iron Thorns carries an 11 stat point advantage over Tyranitar in speed.

This puts its speed at 72, which isn't super fast but does make it harder to outspeed after unleasing a Dragon Dance or two.

Is Iron Thorns Better Than Tyranitar?

If we are going on base stat total alone, then Tyranitar is better since overall it has a 30 point base stat total advantage. In addition, Sand Stream is a much better ability than Quark Drive as Tyranitar does not need an item or terrain to reep the rewards of its trait.

Iron Thorns does not have a crippling 4x weakness to Fighting moves. But, it does have its own Achilles hee Irons Thorns weakness is to Ground moves, so if it isn't holding an air balloon it'll have to try and tank a Super Saiyan 4 Earthquake.

When it comes to resistances, Iron Thorns is the clear winner. Being part electric gives Iron Thorns quad resistance to Flying, a resistance to Electric moves. In addition, you don't have to worry Fighting or Steel moves as much because they only inflict neutral damage.

What is the best EV spread for Iron Thorns?

The best EV spread for Iron Thorns is 252 in Attack 100 in Speed and 152 in HP. Adamant is the best nature for Iron Thorns using this spread.

This spread gives future Tyrantiar enough speed to outpace most threats after a Dragon Dance and hit them hard with either Stone Edge or Wild Charge.

If you prefer a speedier approach, use a Jolly nature and invest 252 EV points into its speed with the remaining 4 being allocated to its HP.

The Best Iron Thorns Moveset

Iron Thorns move sets are very similar to physically oriented Tyranitar builds. The best build for Iron Thorns focuses on using its immense movepool to check some of its main counters.

The Electric Kaiju

Move	Power	Type	Accuracy	Effect
Wild Charge	90	Electric	100	Inflicts recoil damage to the user
Stone Edge	100	Rock	80	High critical hit ratio but not 100% reliable
Dragon Dance	-	Dragon	-	Raises the user's speed and physical attack by one stage
Ice Punch	75	Ice	100	Carries a small chance of freezing the opponent

The best held item for Iron Thorns for this set is either Life Orb or Muscle Band. The latter provides less of a power boost but doesn't drain your HP either.

Since Wild Charge gives Iron Thorns recoil damage you will need to be careful spamming it if you run this set with a Life Orb. Ice Punch is an absolute must so Clodsire and other ground types don't completely wall you.

If you want to try something a little gimmicky but fun, this next set is for you.

Loaded Dice of the Future

Loaded Dice is an item that was introduced in generation 9. It grants multi-strike moves like Pin Missle has the ability to hit more times. Iron Thorns may not seem like a great candidate for this at first glance but he does have access to two moves that can take advantage of this item.

Move	Power	Type	Accuracy	Effect
Wild Charge	90	Electric	100	Inflicts recoil damage to the user
Rock Blast	25	Rock	90	Strikes between 2 and 5 time
Pin Missle	25	Bug	95	Strikes between 2 and 5 times
Ice Punch	75	Ice	100	Carries a small chance of freezing the opponent

With Loaded Dice equipped, Pin Missle and Rock Blast go from trash moves to super accurate base 100 or 125 moves with no drawbacks. These moves also have the added bonus of breaking through substitutes.

This is especially useful given the number of Cyclizars using Shed Tail to drop bulky substitutes all throughout the competitive scene. An Adamant nature works well here since you won't be able to use your item slot to boost Iron Thorns' attack.

If you would rather have Dragon Dance in this set, consider swapping out Wild Charge for it. I would be wary of removing Ice Punch as you are almost guaranteeing it will be walled by ground types by doing so.