Boasting 10 resistances, 6 of which being double resistances, Heatran is poised to serve many different roles in the meta. As a raider, Heatran won’t have nearly the same DPS as Moltres but is far tankier. Fire-types have pretty limited roles as raiders, however, so you may want to hold off on powering up a Heatran until there’s a raid you want/need a powerful Fire-type for; unless of course, you have aims to use it in the Master League.

High PvP Potential

In the Master League, Heatran is surprisingly good. You’d think Heatran’s specialty would be melting Steel-type Pokemon, but it’s actually in taking out Flying-types. With its set of unique resistances and Stone Edge, Heatran has a positive match up against Dragonite, Rayquaza, Salamence, Lugia, and Gyarados. You’d think some of these Pokemon could overcome Heatran with Hydro Pump, but the energy cost and damage output is too low to really threaten Heatran.

Ironically enough, Heatran’s tougher matchups come from Steel-type Pokemon. The troubles Heatran has as a Fire-type lie in the massive 80 energy cost of Fire Blast. Metagross has faster energy gains and Earthquake, and Melmetal has the deadly Thunder Shock + Thunderbolt combo. If using even shields, Heatran has the potential to beat them out with its Fire Spin damage and Stone Edge, but the KO won’t be coming from Fire Blast. Because of Fire Blast’s low utility, it may be better to run Fire Spin + Stone Edge and Iron Head for Heatran’s set. Or you could save some dust and just roll with Stone Edge alone (although this will cause you to lose to Tyranitar).

Lower Leagues

In the Ultra League Heatran performs similarly to how it does in the Master League, functioning more as a “Rock-type” Pokemon than a Fire-type one. However, Heatran does take on more risk in this league as more optimized attackers carry effective attacks such as Counter, Earthquake, and Surf. If you’re using Heatran in your Ultra League core, try to feature Dragon, Flying, or Grass-types that can counter Heatran’s weaknesses and take advantage of Heatran being able to easily take out Flying, Fairy, and Ice-type threats (and Steel-types, if circumstances allow).

As for the Great League, Heatran is currently ineligible, unless you make a level 14 account and trade Heatran to it for the sole purpose of using Heatran in the Great League. If you put forth the effort to do that, do know that the Great League is filled with even more Pokemon that eat Heatran for breakfast. Ever think you’d lose to a Whiscash? Welcome to the Great League, fool.