I saw some Arcanine Leads playing Gen1 OU, and it turn out to be a good Lead, believe it or not. And I think it can have a niche in OU. I don't believe in that, I'll show you with math.
Just before diving in, there's a high prob that I mispelled something. English is not my first language... ^^'
-Movesets
Jynx
-Psychic
-Blizzard
-Lovely Kiss
-Rest/Body Slam/Seismic Toss
(Critical Hit Rate: 18.55%)
Arcanine
-Fire Blast/Leer
-Body Slam
-Agility
-Hyper Beam
(Critical Hit Rate: 18.55%)
Arcanine BSTs:
HP: 90 (383)
Atk: 110 (318)
Def: 80 (258)
Spec: 80 (258)
Spd: 95 (288)
Obs.: This thing is surprisingly bulky.
-Calcs on Turn 1:
(Jynx's side)
Jynx Blizzard vs. Arcanine: 146-172 (38.1 - 44.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Jynx Psychic vs. Arcanine: 110-130 (28.7 - 33.9%) -- 0.6% chance to 3HKO
Jynx Body Slam vs. Arcanine: 47-56 (12.2 - 14.6%) -- possible 7HKO
Jynx Seismic Toss vs. Arcanine: 100-100 (26.1 - 26.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
(Arcanine's side)
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Jynx: 115-136 (34.5 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Jynx: 231-272 (69.3 - 81.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Arcanine Hyper Beam vs. Jynx: 203-239 (60.9 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-Speed Tie
Arcanine clearly receives much less risk in this speed tie. If it loses, it goes to sleep sack and have 5 others members to still fight and can return in end-game. Not mentioning that Jynx must switch to cause more pressure, because Psychic only 3HKO 0.6% of the time (without factoring Spec falls).
Jynx in the other hand, have much more risk involved. If she wins the tie, it can:
(1) put a lesser significant Poké to sleep;
(2) I researched in Bulbapedia and did not find anything saying that Fire-types can't be frozen solid, but even if it can, trying to freeze it is not optimal;
(3) tries to paralyze it with Body Slam (Body Slam don't even shows in Smogon Stats in Gen1 OU 1500 as part of Jynx's main movesets used).
To put it to sleep is good, don't get me wrong. But I feel that putting Arcanine to sleep and let the entire team awake creates me a big discomfort.
What Arcanine can do?
(1) go for 2HKO with Fire Blast (30% chance to Burn, remember that) and having 18.55% Crit Rate (18.55% chance to OHKO Jynx basically);
(2) go for paralyze with Body Slam doing 34.5% minimum;
-Switching Jynx
It usually isn't the best move, but you can switch Jynx because that Arcanine simply loses all its attractiveness (at least cause something to Jynx or simply being put to sleep). Here some interesting more calcs using common Leads/common choices in OU:
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Chansey: 178-210 (25.3 - 29.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Arcanine Hyper Beam vs. Chansey: 314-370 (44.6 - 52.6%) -- 22.7% chance to 2HKO
(Chansey receiving a Body Slam + Hyper Beam will take at MINIMUM 69.9% HP. That's huge early game, not factoring the Crit Rate)
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Snorlax: 85-100 (16.2 - 19.1%) -- possible 6HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Snorlax: 146-172 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Tauros: 68-80 (19.2 - 22.6%) -- possible 5HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Tauros: 141-166 (39.9 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Exeggutor: 73-86 (18.5 - 21.8%) -- possible 5HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Exeggutor: 194-228 (49.3 - 58%) -- 98.3% chance to 2HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Starmie: 73-86 (22.6 - 26.6%) -- 20.6% chance to 4HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Starmie: 56-66 (17.3 - 20.4%) -- possible 5HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Alakazam: 103-122 (32.9 - 38.9%) -- 99.9% chance to 3HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Alakazam: 91-108 (29 - 34.5%) -- 4.7% chance to 3HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Jolteon: 90-106 (27 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Jolteon: 105-124 (31.5 - 37.2%) -- 85% chance to 3HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Gengar: 94-111 (29.1 - 34.3%) -- 3.2% chance to 3HKO
Let's take Tauros out because switching in the bull so early in the game and having 30% of transforming him into a dead slot appears to be a bad move.
Chansey is risky to switch in, because receiving 69.9% minimum damage in Turn 2 is not ideal, not even mentioning the Crit Rate of Arcanine. But that csn easily be nullified with her Soft-Boiled after the doggy is paralyzed.
Snorlax and Starmie seems to be the best answers, but even they have some trouble. Not that Arcanine can KO them, no. The prejudice is a long term one.
Switching Snorlax in to receive a Body Slam + Fire Blast can expose the chubby bear too early to become a good check to anything later on. The Burn chance for him is not so deadly because of Rest, but still let him begging for the Arcanine player to switch in Alakazam/Starmie/Exeggutor when it goes to sleep. And Arcanine can go back without much prejudice.
Random calc at your face:
Snorlax Body Slam vs. Arcanine: 114-135 (29.7 - 35.2%) -- 19.8% chance to 3HKO
If the sleepy monster get Burn, the Attack stat will only be back after switching in again. If it paralyze the legendary dog is amazing, but that only works 30% of the time. Can there be a better odds?
Starmie can get paralyzed in Turn 1 and be at 77.4% ~ 73.4% HP (56.4% ~ 48.7% HP if it Crits). Only to 2HKO Arcanine with Surf, or try to have a Spec fall doing 29.5 - 34.7% damage... That's not good either.
With that, we already ruled out Tauros, Chansey, Starmie and Snorlax. Just to say, they all still are solid threats to Arcanine, but in the early game they just hate to pass through all this.
Let's see our friend Houdini, also known as Alakazam.
It receives a whoping 32.9 - 38.9% damage from Nine's Body Slam and can be paralyzed, not factoring Crits.
I always thought that Alakazam, Starmie and Jynx were the only leads focused in offense early game that can spread status too (Gengar cannot deliver the same power because it lacks STAB, and being good vs Snorlax/Tauros later is more important). But Arcanine is the extreme offense with 30% of paralyzing and burning.
-Agility
This is essencially what differentiates Arc from Ninetales. Arcanine can Agility Turn 1 predicting a Thunder Wave from Starmie/Alakazam and suffer little prejudice to it if the opposing player use it or not.
If Arc is paralyzed turn 1 and use Agility, can use Body Slam without caring if he will survive the next attack or not (specially Starmie's Surf) and try to paralyze her. The same with Zam, and with him the legendary dog's Crot chance can even KO him with Hyper Beam (even using this on Turn 2 being laughable).
-Leer > Fire Blast?
Yes. Because Fire Blast is a very complicated move to use early game. Alakazam just throws himself against its trainer's orders and prays to Arceus for a Burn. Starmie do the same! Chansey just don't mind being Burned, even if she craves for a paralyze. So, what's the use of Fire Blast? To threaten Jynx and Exeggutor, no? Well...
If we don't create this Arcanine moveset mentioning that Arc can throw FB away, Jynx and Exeggutor will never appear in front of him. So, what's better than creating a viable second option to Fire Blast and screw these people away?
Leer let Starmie and Alakazam trembling just like they would be if they were facing a Tauros with +1 Special and Speed. Again, not that Arc will KO it, but can cripple it really bad.
Arcanine Body Slam vs. -1 Starmie: 110-130 (34 - 40.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. -1 Alakazam: 155-183 (49.5 - 58.4%) -- 99.5% chance to 2HKO
Not mentioning the fact that th legendary puppy can use Hyper Beam, too.
But Leer makes Arcanine with its four paws chained against Gengar. Fire Blast can at least Burn it sometimes, incapacitating the ghost's Explosion capabilities (without Crit).
Ok, so now what are the downsides of the big puppy?
-Arcanine's Negatives
In the early game, Starmie, Slowbro and (Reflect) Alakazam are the best options I see.
Starmie have to take the risk of being paralyzed and/or CH'ed to paralyze it back and force him out, more efficiently with Surf. But Surf in her moveset is very costly. This let you know very early what you can check her with.
Slowbro is a late-game creature. Period.
And Reflect Alakazam, I think, is the best answer. The downsides of the oldman with spoons are the obvious lack of PPs and diverse offense without Seismic Toss plus having to waste Psychic's precious PPs on Arcanine.
Arcanine cannot switch in into any move from these 3. Maybe at Starmie's Psychic, but that only if all other plenty of options are not available for you AND if you know that she doesn't like to surf.
In the early game, the enormous tiger have surprisingly few downsides. It can go to sleep sack/be frozen/be paralyzed without crippling the team too much; it can't receive much pressure from common attacks of the typical Leads (Psychic, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Night Shade/Seismic Toss, Double-Edge).
But... Its status spreading capability is bad. Trusting these 30% chances to cripple something is not good.
His reliance on Fire Blast PP and Accuracy makes him not so good in the long-term probability roller coaster. And sticking with Body Slam without STAB and 70% chance of doing nothing aren't good either.
Despite his bulk, it still receives good amount of damage from non-STABs super effective moves* and GolDon's main move. Examples below:
(*Notice how the only viable options to fit this criteria is Earthquake? Surf Snorlax is very rare and niched, and no one uses Rock Slide on anything besides GolDon that can slide the own move sometimes.)
Tauros Earthquake vs. Arcanine: 168-198 (43.8 - 51.6%) -- 9.7% chance to 2HKO
Snorlax Earthquake vs. Arcanine: 178-210 (46.4 - 54.8%) -- 65% chance to 2HKO
Rhydon Earthquake vs. Arcanine: 301-354 (78.5 - 92.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Golem Earthquake vs. Arcanine: 267-314 (69.7 - 81.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Persian Slash vs. Arcanine on a critical hit: 136-160 (35.5 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
OBS.: Persian's Bubblebeam is only used to GolDon. It only does 22.1 - 26.1% to Arcanine.
Snorlax Surf vs. Arcanine: 124-146 (32.3 - 38.1%) -- 97.3% chance to 3HKO
And, last but not least, being a Fire-type is complicated on Gen1 OU. You can neglect it, but the chance od thawing out something will ever exist having Fire Blast with you.
-Other options and hypotheses
Seeing Arcanine in a Lead position made me question if others Fire-types could do it too. Mainly Moltres and Flareon.
Moltres is a late-game creature. Period.
Flareon has the Body Slam + Fire Blast + Hyper Beam combo just as the intimidating doggy, but it lacks the bulk of it. Looking without making much effort, Flareon appears to be a poor man Arcanine.
Charizard, Ninetales and Rapidash have much more problems than good traits.
-General Options to both players
For Jynx player, there are mainly two moves: kiss the legend or switch.
Putting it to sleep still is good, but don't ever forget that turn 1 wake up and having to facing the Speed Tie again. And the chance of Nine waking up while the blondy is psyching him is not to be neglected.
Switching is complicated too. You can bring Chansey and follow the ideal scenario showed above (turn 1 switch, pray not to crit, receive Body Slam, pray not to crit, receive an Hyper Beam/Body Slam, paralyze the tiger, and finally boil the egg). This makes Starmie and Snorlax switch in more comfortably.
Switching Slowbro in will make Arcanine run with the tail between the legs, but the cost of showing the oblivious pig so early is very high.
Switching Gengar in is good overall, because it likes to be burned better than paralyzed. Its exploding capabilities go down a little, but his Crit Rate can help. It absorbs Body Slam and can retaliate with Hypnosis or force Nine out with Thunderbolt/Night Shade, but having Gengar alongside Jynx is something I saw very few times. I can be very wrong in that.
Switching GolDon in to receive the Body Slam can be good to become paralyzed and so, blocking the burn, but be aware of the predicted Fire Blast.
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Golem: 79-94 (21.7 - 25.8%) -- 2.3% chance to 4HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Rhydon: 88-104 (21.3 - 25.1%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO
Both can pressure Nine out, but if I managed to let my striped dog in front of opposing GolDon, I seriously consider trying to burn it and sacrifice him. He is a lead anyway, there's 5 big guys with it to help later and/or threat GolDon. This would specially happen if my team had Zapdos/Jolteon.
Switching Snorlax in is to cripple the chubby bear before he can help with Tauros/opposing Snorlax/everything.
Switching Alakazam in is good overall too. If it has Reflect, the better. If it doesn't, it is risky. Arcanine's Body Slam + paralysis + Hyper Beam can KO Alakazam, be careful.
-Conclusion
Arcanine is surprisingly difficult to deal in early game. I want to have missed something big to not be right. Maybe if I sticked with the fact that he is badass since my youth, today I could laugh and say "See? I always knew he is good!!!". Lol
Jokes aside, he manages to have a average response to every Lead nowadays and create a situation in which every possible good check to him have to deal with big risks too early. And I think that is amazing.
To sum up, the more logical openings moves that can happen is Jynx use Lovely Kiss or switch. Arcanine click Body Slam blindly. If Jynx switches, the best scenario I see is to bring Chansey, Reflect Alakazam, GolDon and Starmie, but they all have very importants downsides, while Arcanine can risk being KOed because his entire team is waiting to come in too.
I really hope receiving more feedback from everyone that plays Gen1 OU! And don't be shy; tell me every mistake I can probably have made or things I missed.
Edit: erased everything about Fire Spin. Melanie pointed out the striped puppy doesn't learn it.
Edit 2: Added the "Agility" and "Leer > Fire Blast?" and "Ninetales vs Arcanine" just below, after discussing with Cooljam Jr in the comments.
-Ninetales vs Arcanine
(See my comment below for everything I said)
Ninetales can do everything that Arcanine can and better, but Nine can't learn Agility. This is a very important detail.
>Ninetales outspeeds Jynx;
>Ninetales can parafuse with Body Slam and Confuse Ray;
>Ninetales can learn Fire Spin;
>Ninetales has a stronger Fire Blast.
But after used Ninetales for a while, it seems that Arcanine can do better just because of a stronger Body Slam and Agility. Just to counter-argument, Ninetales can still do better because vs Jynx Arcanine is either asleep or damaged and not have time to use Agility.
Just before diving in, there's a high prob that I mispelled something. English is not my first language... ^^'
-Movesets
Jynx
-Psychic
-Blizzard
-Lovely Kiss
-Rest/Body Slam/Seismic Toss
(Critical Hit Rate: 18.55%)
Arcanine
-Fire Blast/Leer
-Body Slam
-Agility
-Hyper Beam
(Critical Hit Rate: 18.55%)
Arcanine BSTs:
HP: 90 (383)
Atk: 110 (318)
Def: 80 (258)
Spec: 80 (258)
Spd: 95 (288)
Obs.: This thing is surprisingly bulky.
-Calcs on Turn 1:
(Jynx's side)
Jynx Blizzard vs. Arcanine: 146-172 (38.1 - 44.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Jynx Psychic vs. Arcanine: 110-130 (28.7 - 33.9%) -- 0.6% chance to 3HKO
Jynx Body Slam vs. Arcanine: 47-56 (12.2 - 14.6%) -- possible 7HKO
Jynx Seismic Toss vs. Arcanine: 100-100 (26.1 - 26.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
(Arcanine's side)
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Jynx: 115-136 (34.5 - 40.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Jynx: 231-272 (69.3 - 81.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Arcanine Hyper Beam vs. Jynx: 203-239 (60.9 - 71.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
-Speed Tie
Arcanine clearly receives much less risk in this speed tie. If it loses, it goes to sleep sack and have 5 others members to still fight and can return in end-game. Not mentioning that Jynx must switch to cause more pressure, because Psychic only 3HKO 0.6% of the time (without factoring Spec falls).
Jynx in the other hand, have much more risk involved. If she wins the tie, it can:
(1) put a lesser significant Poké to sleep;
(2) I researched in Bulbapedia and did not find anything saying that Fire-types can't be frozen solid, but even if it can, trying to freeze it is not optimal;
(3) tries to paralyze it with Body Slam (Body Slam don't even shows in Smogon Stats in Gen1 OU 1500 as part of Jynx's main movesets used).
To put it to sleep is good, don't get me wrong. But I feel that putting Arcanine to sleep and let the entire team awake creates me a big discomfort.
What Arcanine can do?
(1) go for 2HKO with Fire Blast (30% chance to Burn, remember that) and having 18.55% Crit Rate (18.55% chance to OHKO Jynx basically);
(2) go for paralyze with Body Slam doing 34.5% minimum;
-Switching Jynx
It usually isn't the best move, but you can switch Jynx because that Arcanine simply loses all its attractiveness (at least cause something to Jynx or simply being put to sleep). Here some interesting more calcs using common Leads/common choices in OU:
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Chansey: 178-210 (25.3 - 29.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Arcanine Hyper Beam vs. Chansey: 314-370 (44.6 - 52.6%) -- 22.7% chance to 2HKO
(Chansey receiving a Body Slam + Hyper Beam will take at MINIMUM 69.9% HP. That's huge early game, not factoring the Crit Rate)
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Snorlax: 85-100 (16.2 - 19.1%) -- possible 6HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Snorlax: 146-172 (27.9 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Tauros: 68-80 (19.2 - 22.6%) -- possible 5HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Tauros: 141-166 (39.9 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Exeggutor: 73-86 (18.5 - 21.8%) -- possible 5HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Exeggutor: 194-228 (49.3 - 58%) -- 98.3% chance to 2HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Starmie: 73-86 (22.6 - 26.6%) -- 20.6% chance to 4HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Starmie: 56-66 (17.3 - 20.4%) -- possible 5HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Alakazam: 103-122 (32.9 - 38.9%) -- 99.9% chance to 3HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Alakazam: 91-108 (29 - 34.5%) -- 4.7% chance to 3HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. Jolteon: 90-106 (27 - 31.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Jolteon: 105-124 (31.5 - 37.2%) -- 85% chance to 3HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Gengar: 94-111 (29.1 - 34.3%) -- 3.2% chance to 3HKO
Let's take Tauros out because switching in the bull so early in the game and having 30% of transforming him into a dead slot appears to be a bad move.
Chansey is risky to switch in, because receiving 69.9% minimum damage in Turn 2 is not ideal, not even mentioning the Crit Rate of Arcanine. But that csn easily be nullified with her Soft-Boiled after the doggy is paralyzed.
Snorlax and Starmie seems to be the best answers, but even they have some trouble. Not that Arcanine can KO them, no. The prejudice is a long term one.
Switching Snorlax in to receive a Body Slam + Fire Blast can expose the chubby bear too early to become a good check to anything later on. The Burn chance for him is not so deadly because of Rest, but still let him begging for the Arcanine player to switch in Alakazam/Starmie/Exeggutor when it goes to sleep. And Arcanine can go back without much prejudice.
Random calc at your face:
Snorlax Body Slam vs. Arcanine: 114-135 (29.7 - 35.2%) -- 19.8% chance to 3HKO
If the sleepy monster get Burn, the Attack stat will only be back after switching in again. If it paralyze the legendary dog is amazing, but that only works 30% of the time. Can there be a better odds?
Starmie can get paralyzed in Turn 1 and be at 77.4% ~ 73.4% HP (56.4% ~ 48.7% HP if it Crits). Only to 2HKO Arcanine with Surf, or try to have a Spec fall doing 29.5 - 34.7% damage... That's not good either.
With that, we already ruled out Tauros, Chansey, Starmie and Snorlax. Just to say, they all still are solid threats to Arcanine, but in the early game they just hate to pass through all this.
Let's see our friend Houdini, also known as Alakazam.
It receives a whoping 32.9 - 38.9% damage from Nine's Body Slam and can be paralyzed, not factoring Crits.
I always thought that Alakazam, Starmie and Jynx were the only leads focused in offense early game that can spread status too (Gengar cannot deliver the same power because it lacks STAB, and being good vs Snorlax/Tauros later is more important). But Arcanine is the extreme offense with 30% of paralyzing and burning.
-Agility
This is essencially what differentiates Arc from Ninetales. Arcanine can Agility Turn 1 predicting a Thunder Wave from Starmie/Alakazam and suffer little prejudice to it if the opposing player use it or not.
If Arc is paralyzed turn 1 and use Agility, can use Body Slam without caring if he will survive the next attack or not (specially Starmie's Surf) and try to paralyze her. The same with Zam, and with him the legendary dog's Crot chance can even KO him with Hyper Beam (even using this on Turn 2 being laughable).
-Leer > Fire Blast?
Yes. Because Fire Blast is a very complicated move to use early game. Alakazam just throws himself against its trainer's orders and prays to Arceus for a Burn. Starmie do the same! Chansey just don't mind being Burned, even if she craves for a paralyze. So, what's the use of Fire Blast? To threaten Jynx and Exeggutor, no? Well...
If we don't create this Arcanine moveset mentioning that Arc can throw FB away, Jynx and Exeggutor will never appear in front of him. So, what's better than creating a viable second option to Fire Blast and screw these people away?
Leer let Starmie and Alakazam trembling just like they would be if they were facing a Tauros with +1 Special and Speed. Again, not that Arc will KO it, but can cripple it really bad.
Arcanine Body Slam vs. -1 Starmie: 110-130 (34 - 40.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Arcanine Body Slam vs. -1 Alakazam: 155-183 (49.5 - 58.4%) -- 99.5% chance to 2HKO
Not mentioning the fact that th legendary puppy can use Hyper Beam, too.
But Leer makes Arcanine with its four paws chained against Gengar. Fire Blast can at least Burn it sometimes, incapacitating the ghost's Explosion capabilities (without Crit).
Ok, so now what are the downsides of the big puppy?
-Arcanine's Negatives
In the early game, Starmie, Slowbro and (Reflect) Alakazam are the best options I see.
Starmie have to take the risk of being paralyzed and/or CH'ed to paralyze it back and force him out, more efficiently with Surf. But Surf in her moveset is very costly. This let you know very early what you can check her with.
Slowbro is a late-game creature. Period.
And Reflect Alakazam, I think, is the best answer. The downsides of the oldman with spoons are the obvious lack of PPs and diverse offense without Seismic Toss plus having to waste Psychic's precious PPs on Arcanine.
Arcanine cannot switch in into any move from these 3. Maybe at Starmie's Psychic, but that only if all other plenty of options are not available for you AND if you know that she doesn't like to surf.
In the early game, the enormous tiger have surprisingly few downsides. It can go to sleep sack/be frozen/be paralyzed without crippling the team too much; it can't receive much pressure from common attacks of the typical Leads (Psychic, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Thunderbolt, Night Shade/Seismic Toss, Double-Edge).
But... Its status spreading capability is bad. Trusting these 30% chances to cripple something is not good.
His reliance on Fire Blast PP and Accuracy makes him not so good in the long-term probability roller coaster. And sticking with Body Slam without STAB and 70% chance of doing nothing aren't good either.
Despite his bulk, it still receives good amount of damage from non-STABs super effective moves* and GolDon's main move. Examples below:
(*Notice how the only viable options to fit this criteria is Earthquake? Surf Snorlax is very rare and niched, and no one uses Rock Slide on anything besides GolDon that can slide the own move sometimes.)
Tauros Earthquake vs. Arcanine: 168-198 (43.8 - 51.6%) -- 9.7% chance to 2HKO
Snorlax Earthquake vs. Arcanine: 178-210 (46.4 - 54.8%) -- 65% chance to 2HKO
Rhydon Earthquake vs. Arcanine: 301-354 (78.5 - 92.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Golem Earthquake vs. Arcanine: 267-314 (69.7 - 81.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Persian Slash vs. Arcanine on a critical hit: 136-160 (35.5 - 41.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
OBS.: Persian's Bubblebeam is only used to GolDon. It only does 22.1 - 26.1% to Arcanine.
Snorlax Surf vs. Arcanine: 124-146 (32.3 - 38.1%) -- 97.3% chance to 3HKO
And, last but not least, being a Fire-type is complicated on Gen1 OU. You can neglect it, but the chance od thawing out something will ever exist having Fire Blast with you.
-Other options and hypotheses
Seeing Arcanine in a Lead position made me question if others Fire-types could do it too. Mainly Moltres and Flareon.
Moltres is a late-game creature. Period.
Flareon has the Body Slam + Fire Blast + Hyper Beam combo just as the intimidating doggy, but it lacks the bulk of it. Looking without making much effort, Flareon appears to be a poor man Arcanine.
Charizard, Ninetales and Rapidash have much more problems than good traits.
-General Options to both players
For Jynx player, there are mainly two moves: kiss the legend or switch.
Putting it to sleep still is good, but don't ever forget that turn 1 wake up and having to facing the Speed Tie again. And the chance of Nine waking up while the blondy is psyching him is not to be neglected.
Switching is complicated too. You can bring Chansey and follow the ideal scenario showed above (turn 1 switch, pray not to crit, receive Body Slam, pray not to crit, receive an Hyper Beam/Body Slam, paralyze the tiger, and finally boil the egg). This makes Starmie and Snorlax switch in more comfortably.
Switching Slowbro in will make Arcanine run with the tail between the legs, but the cost of showing the oblivious pig so early is very high.
Switching Gengar in is good overall, because it likes to be burned better than paralyzed. Its exploding capabilities go down a little, but his Crit Rate can help. It absorbs Body Slam and can retaliate with Hypnosis or force Nine out with Thunderbolt/Night Shade, but having Gengar alongside Jynx is something I saw very few times. I can be very wrong in that.
Switching GolDon in to receive the Body Slam can be good to become paralyzed and so, blocking the burn, but be aware of the predicted Fire Blast.
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Golem: 79-94 (21.7 - 25.8%) -- 2.3% chance to 4HKO
Arcanine Fire Blast vs. Rhydon: 88-104 (21.3 - 25.1%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO
Both can pressure Nine out, but if I managed to let my striped dog in front of opposing GolDon, I seriously consider trying to burn it and sacrifice him. He is a lead anyway, there's 5 big guys with it to help later and/or threat GolDon. This would specially happen if my team had Zapdos/Jolteon.
Switching Snorlax in is to cripple the chubby bear before he can help with Tauros/opposing Snorlax/everything.
Switching Alakazam in is good overall too. If it has Reflect, the better. If it doesn't, it is risky. Arcanine's Body Slam + paralysis + Hyper Beam can KO Alakazam, be careful.
-Conclusion
Arcanine is surprisingly difficult to deal in early game. I want to have missed something big to not be right. Maybe if I sticked with the fact that he is badass since my youth, today I could laugh and say "See? I always knew he is good!!!". Lol
Jokes aside, he manages to have a average response to every Lead nowadays and create a situation in which every possible good check to him have to deal with big risks too early. And I think that is amazing.
To sum up, the more logical openings moves that can happen is Jynx use Lovely Kiss or switch. Arcanine click Body Slam blindly. If Jynx switches, the best scenario I see is to bring Chansey, Reflect Alakazam, GolDon and Starmie, but they all have very importants downsides, while Arcanine can risk being KOed because his entire team is waiting to come in too.
I really hope receiving more feedback from everyone that plays Gen1 OU! And don't be shy; tell me every mistake I can probably have made or things I missed.
Edit: erased everything about Fire Spin. Melanie pointed out the striped puppy doesn't learn it.
Edit 2: Added the "Agility" and "Leer > Fire Blast?" and "Ninetales vs Arcanine" just below, after discussing with Cooljam Jr in the comments.
-Ninetales vs Arcanine
(See my comment below for everything I said)
Ninetales can do everything that Arcanine can and better, but Nine can't learn Agility. This is a very important detail.
>Ninetales outspeeds Jynx;
>Ninetales can parafuse with Body Slam and Confuse Ray;
>Ninetales can learn Fire Spin;
>Ninetales has a stronger Fire Blast.
But after used Ninetales for a while, it seems that Arcanine can do better just because of a stronger Body Slam and Agility. Just to counter-argument, Ninetales can still do better because vs Jynx Arcanine is either asleep or damaged and not have time to use Agility.
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