Talonflame - Moveset & Best Build for Ranked Battle

Talonflame Movesets in Other Games
SV	SWSH

This is a strategy guide for using Talonflame in competitive play for the games Pokemon Sword and Shield. Read on for tips on the best Nature, EV spreads, Movesets, and Held Items to use with Talonflame, as well as its strengths and weak points.

Talonflame - Related Guides
Evolution and Learnset	Build for Ranked Battle

Basic Information for Talonflame

Types and Abilities

Pokemon	Type 1	Type 2
Talonflame
Abilities
Flame Body	Contact with the Pokemon may burn the attacker.
Gale Wings (Hidden)	Gives priority to Flying-type moves.

Talonflame Weaknesses and Resistances

	Type
Takes 4x damage
Takes 2x damage
Takes 0.5x damage
Takes 1/4x damage
Takes 0x damage

What is Type Effectiveness?

Base Stats

Best Nature for Talonflame

What are Natures?

Singles Movesets for Talonflame

Life Orb Moveset & Best Build

With its Hidden Ability Gale Wings, Talonflame is able to use Flying-type Moves with priority while at full health. This build adds Life Orb to allow it to deal even more damage. When Dynamaxed, it can use Max Airstream together with Gale Wings to hit with priority and deal extreme damage from the outset.

Other Viable Moves

How to Use Talonflame Effectively

Hit first with Max Airstream

Thanks to its Ability Gale Wings, Talonflame can hit first with Max Airstream, making it a Dynamax ace. Steel Wing can change into Max Steel, which can also raise its Defense, enabling it to go toe-to-toe with Physical attackers.

How to Build a Team with Talonflame

Talonflame's niche in the metagame is limited to either supporting teams with priority boosted Max Airstream or as a revenge killer.

With proper teambuilding and a partner that can heal its HP, the Scorching Pokemon can threaten opposing teams with its STAB moves.

Dynamax Lead for Defensive Teams

Although Talonflame isn't the monstrous revenge killer it was in previous generations, it still has a niche in the current metagame as a strong Dynamax Lead thanks to its access to Max Airstream.

Example Build Team

Dynamax Lead	Defensive Pivot	Special Sweeper
Talonflame	Vaporeon	Nidoking

Talonflame's main role is to Dynamax as soon as possible and fire strong, priority Max Airstream- with the speed boost ensuring that it can still outspeed its checks even if its not at full HP anymore.

Vaporeon is a great partner for Talonflame and serves as this team's defensive pivot. More importantly, it can use and pass Wish back to Talonflame to heal it and restore its Gale Wings Ability.

Nidoking rounds off this team by providing strong special move coverage as well as immunity to Electric-types that both Talonflame and Vaporeon are weak to.

How to Build a Defensive Team

Counters for Talonflame

Weakness

Hit 4x effectively with Stealth Rock and Rock-type moves

As Talonflame is a Fire/Flying type, it suffers from a 4x weakness to Rock-type moves. If you set up Stealth Rock, it will take out half of Talonflame's health as soon as it switches in, and on top of that it will prevent it from utilizing the effects of Gale Wings.

Best Pokemon to Use

Pokemon	Description
Tyranitar	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Can use Stealth Rock ・Can use Rock-type moves with STAB Tyranitar Moveset & Best Build for Ranked Battle
Hippowdon	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Can use Stealth Rock ・Can use Sandstorm to nullify Gale Wings Hippowdon Moveset & Best Build for Ranked Battle
Uxie	Ranking: ★★★★ ・Can use Stealth Rock ・Can reduce attack damage by using Reflect Uxie - Evolution and Learnset | The Crown Tundra DLC

Related Links

All Competitive Builds for Ranked Battle

Competitive Guides for Pokemon Sword and Shield

Competitive Pokemon Battle Guides
Tier List		Best Builds		Series 10 List of Contenders
Doubles Tier List		Team Building		Rental Teams

Best Builds for The Isle of Armor Pokemon

Movesets & Best Builds for The Isle of Armor Pokemon
Scizor	Kingdra	Magnezone
Volcarona	Chansey	Blissey
Talonflame	Azumarill	Galarian Slowbro
Porygon2	Urshifu Single-Strike Style	Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style
Slowbro	Alolan Marowak	Dragalge
Klefki	Lycanroc	Amoonguss
Poliwrath	Palossand	Mienshao
Starmie	Heracross	Comfey
Porygon-Z	Alakazam	Politoed