In preparation for the upcoming Pokémon Sword and Shield Series 5 Ranked Battles, I made a mono fire team on Pokémon Showdown. My inspiration was that I wanted to use Alolan Marowak and Talonflame.

The EV spreads of the team are just simple spreads of 252 in the key stats, the Arcanine spread came from Nekkra’s April 2020 International Challenge Team, and one modified version of a Torracat spread from Victory Road.

Version 1

The team and reasoning is as follows:

Alolan Marowak
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Poltergeist
- Throat Chop
- Detect

I chose Alolan Marowak since it was just released in Pokémon Sword and Shield. I chose the moves that I thought would do good damage and Poltergeist since it was one of the new tutor moves. And Lightning Rod was my choice for ability since it could protect my Talonflame and Charizard.

Talonflame
Talonflame @ Charti Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Brave Bird
- Tailwind
- Protect

I chose Talonflame since it was just released in Pokemon Sword and Shield, and since I used it during my Pokémon X playthrough. I chose Gale Wings as the ability since it gives priority for Tailwind at the start of the game.

Chandelure
Chandelure @ Focus Sash
Ability: Flash Fire
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Energy Ball
- Heat Wave
- Will-O-Wisp
- Protect

I was had originally put Chandelure since I was going to try to use Trick Room on it, but I am not good with Trick Room so I have it as my counter to Gastrodon and Will-O-Wisp user.

Gigantamax Charizard
Charizard-Gmax @ Life Orb
Ability: Solar Power
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Flamethrower
- Air Slash
- Dragon Pulse
- Protect

Charizard was added just because it is one of my favourite Pokémon. It is mostly as simple as that. Also I wanted to try the Solar Power ability.

Torkoal
Torkoal @ Assault Vest
Ability: Drought
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Eruption
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Body Press

Torkoal was added so that I wouldn’t totally lose against Trick Room, and so that I could setup sun for Charizard.

Arcanine
Arcanine @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 12 Def / 28 SpD / 220 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Snarl
- Will-O-Wisp
- Safeguard

I needed a last Pokémon for my team, and decided to use Arcanine for Intimidate. I originally was going to use a simple spread, but then I remembered about Nekkra’s Arcanine spread. I figured it would have been better since the spread would have been made for the meta at the time.

Version 2

While playing some games, I recognised that I wasn’t using the Arcanine well; I wasn’t using Safeguard on it. So I decided to change it, but I wanted to keep Intimidate and Snarl since it was my only way to lower my opponent’s stats. With this in mind, I changed it to Torracat. But since Torracat didn’t get Snarl, I switched Snarl to Parting Shot.

Torracat
Torracat @ Eviolite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 204 HP / 44 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 244 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Fake Out
- Parting Shot
- Will-O-Wisp

I copied a spread from Victory Road Sample Sets and made a few changes to it.

Further Notes

During some games with the next version of the team, I realised I don’t use Fake Out properly. I don’t use it when on the first turn that Torracat is on the field, and I try to use it against Dusclops. My next change would probably changing Fake Out for Taunt since I don’t use Fake Out for its intended purpose and it allows me to stop Trick Room.

The pokepaste for version 1 of the team is here: https://pokepast.es/5051b84a8c16c68d
The pokepaste for version 2 of the team is here: https://pokepast.es/3c5b06bcd6e8229d
The rental code for Nekkra’s Team where the Arcanine spread came from is here: Nekkra’s Team Tweet