Salamence

Dragon/Flying · Intimidate · A tier · base 95/135/80/110/80/100 · the format’s premier “open a hole” Pokemon — a 135/110 mixed attacker that overloads SkarmBliss in a single switch, or a Dragon Dance sweeper that outspeeds the entire unboosted field at +1. No other OU mon attacks from both sides this hard while threatening to set up.

Format role

Salamence is the most flexible wallbreaker in ADV OU, and the reason is its stat line: 135 Attack and 110 Special Attack on the same Pokemon. That means it does not have to pick a side. MixMence fires Fire Blast off 110 SpA and Brick Break/Earthquake off 135 Atk in the same four moves, so the standard SkarmBliss backbone — a physical wall (Skarmory) plus a special wall (Blissey) — gets split in half by one switch-in. Skarmory walls the physical moves but folds to Fire Blast; Blissey eats the special side but is 2× to Brick Break. There is no single switch-in that covers both, which is exactly the overload aggressive offense is built to create.

The second job is sweeping. Dragon Dance turns base 100 Speed into a number nothing unboosted touches, and +1 on a 135 Attack body is a clean win condition once the relevant Ice/Rock coverage is gone. The two roles share a chassis and a typing, so the opponent rarely knows which Salamence they are facing until it has already clicked — DD or mixed, the answer set is different, and that ambiguity is itself a weapon.

Intimidate is the quiet glue that ties it all together: every time Salamence switches in it drops the opposing Attack a stage, so it pivots repeatedly into physical attackers, eats less on the way in, and buys the free turns a wallbreaker needs. Dragon/Flying is also a superb offensive defensive type — it resists Grass 4×, and Fire, Water, Fighting, and Bug at 0.5× each, and is immune to Ground (Flying), so it walks into a huge slice of the tier’s coverage for free. For where it sits in the pecking order, see the viability tiers.

The site embeds a TypeProfile widget above this section showing the full Dragon/Flying resist/weakness spread.

Sets

Salamence runs three distinct aggressive jobs off one base: a mixed wallbreaker (MixMence), a setup sweeper (DD), and an immediate Choice Band breaker. Intimidate is the only ability worth running on all three.

Mixed (MixMence) — the SkarmBliss overload

Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Naive Nature
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power Grass
- Brick Break
- Dragon Claw

This is the set that breaks the format. The spread is the standard MixMence allocation — 252 SpA / 252 Spe with the 4 leftover EVs in Attack, maxing the special breaks and full Speed at the same time, with Naive keeping Speed unhindered so the special drop never costs a Speed tie. Fire Blast off 110 SpA is the Skarmory/Forretress remover — 2× on Skarmory (Steel/Flying) and a brutal 4× on Forretress (Bug/Steel) — and it roasts Metagross and Jirachi (both 2×) on the switch. Hidden Power Grass is the genuinely clever slot: it hits Swampert for 4× (Grass vs Water/Ground), turning the one bulky Ground that laughs at the physical side into a 2HKO. Brick Break is the Blissey/Snorlax button (2× Fighting on Normal) and a 4× nuke on Tyranitar (Rock/Dark) — it punishes the special wall that would otherwise sponge Fire Blast all day. Dragon Claw is the reliable STAB that hits the neutral field and other Dragons (2× on Salamence) without the recoil or lock of Double-Edge; Rock Slide is the alternative in that slot, but Dragon Claw is the cleaner aggressive STAB here. This set fits the trapper + breaker plan perfectly.

Dragon Dance — the late-game sweeper

Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
EVs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spe
IVs: 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Hidden Power Flying
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

The all-physical setup variant, and the canonical bulky-DD spread: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spe, Adamant. The 140 Speed is enough to hit the relevant base-100 benchmark after one Dragon Dance while the 116 HP buys the bulk to grab a boost behind Intimidate; max Attack does the rest. At +1, base 100 Speed clears the entire unboosted tier and the already-massive 135 Attack becomes a 1.5× monster. Hidden Power Flying is the chosen STAB here — Dragon Claw would be redundant coverage, and HP Flying smashes the Fighting/Bug threats that revenge it (4× on Heracross, 4× on Breloom) while staying STAB. Rock Slide handles the Flyers and opposing Salamence (2×), Zapdos (2×), Aerodactyl (2×), and is a 4× kill on Charizard (Fire/Flying). Earthquake nukes the Steels (Metagross 2×, Magneton 4×, Jirachi 2×) and Tyranitar (2×). The HP Flying IVs (the 30/30/30 SpA/SpD/Spe line above) are the standard Gen-3 Hidden Power tax — worth it for the STAB that hits the revenge-killer pool super effectively.

Choice Band — the no-setup breaker

Salamence @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Adamant Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Hidden Power Flying
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Brick Break

No setup turn needed — bring it in on a forced switch (Intimidate softening the entry) and immediately threaten a kill off a Band-boosted 135 Attack. Every slot is correctly physical-typed (Flying, Ground, Rock, Fighting), so the Band boost applies to all four. Brick Break over Dragon Claw here is the wallbreaking pick: 4× on Tyranitar, 2× on Blissey/Snorlax, the moves that would otherwise switch in for free. EdgeQuake (Earthquake + Rock Slide) plus HP Flying gives near-perfect physical coverage. Because there is no Choice Scarf in Gen 3, CB Salamence’s base 100 Speed means it gets revenge-killed if it stays in against a faster Ice/Rock attacker — use it as a hit-and-run breaker, not a cleaner. This is the DragMag sweeper of choice once Magneton has pried Skarmory off the field.

What it does for aggressive offense

Salamence’s whole game is overload. The mixed set is the canonical SkarmBliss-cracker: you bring it in, the opponent has to guess whether it’s the physical or special side, and whatever they bring in is wrong for one of its four moves. Fire Blast deletes Skarmory and Forretress; HP Grass deletes Swampert; Brick Break punishes Blissey and Tyranitar. After Salamence has forced a wall down or chipped two of them, a teammate cleans. That is the engine of aggressive offense — break the defensive backbone with one switch-in, then convert with the sweeper you held in the back.

The cleanest aggressive engine is trapper-enabled DD/CB Salamence. Salamence’s most reliable answers are bulky Waters/Ice coverage and Skarmory. Skarmory is removed by Magneton (Magnet Pull traps it, HP Fire or Fire Blast deletes it), which is the entire premise of DragMag: trap the bird, then a +1 or Banded Salamence has no physical switch-in. Salamence also pairs as a second setup threat alongside DD Tyranitar — the Double Dragon Dance core forces the opponent into defensive-allocation hell, because the answers to a +1 Tyranitar (bulky Water, Skarmory) are exactly what Salamence’s HP Grass / Fire Blast / Brick Break punish. Keeping checks alive for both is nearly impossible.

Crucially, Salamence is immune to Earthquake (Ground vs Flying = 0×) and cannot be trapped by Dugtrio — Arena Trap only catches grounded Pokemon. That makes it a clean answer to the trappers your opponent runs, and a safe pivot into Ground-heavy offense. Combined with Intimidate, it switches into physical attackers, drops their Attack, and threatens back; few breakers get to do defensive work and offensive work in the same slot.

When you are building around it, Salamence wants its Ice/Rock checks pressured before it commits. A Magneton to delete Skarmory, a strong special breaker like Suicune or Jolteon to overload the bulky Waters that carry Ice Beam, and Tyranitar sand to chip the Water/Ice answers each turn. Sand is genuinely friendly to a Salamence offense: Salamence is not Rock/Ground/Steel, so it does take 1/16 chip itself, but it speeds up the math on the recovery-spamming Waters and Blisseys it is trying to grind down — and on a fast-paced offense Salamence is usually clicking, not sitting. See building aggressive offense.

Load-bearing type matchups

Salamence’s coverage is the reason it overloads everything. The numbers below drive every prediction you make with it — and the SkarmBliss split that defines its role lives in this table.

Two interactions are worth burning in. Earthquake is useless on Skarmory — Flying grants a Ground immunity, so the physical DD/CB sets cannot touch the bird with EQ at all; that is the entire reason Magneton support exists for physical Salamence, and why the mixed set carries Fire Blast instead. And Salamence’s Flying and Dragon STABs both bounce off Skarmory — HP Flying on the physical sets and Dragon Claw on the mixed set are each 0.5×, so on a physical Salamence, Skarmory is a hard wall unless it is trapped or chipped — only the mixed set’s Fire Blast breaks it.

What threatens Salamence

Salamence’s offense costs it a fragile defensive profile on the relevant axes: Dragon/Flying is 4× weak to Ice (Ice vs Dragon 2× × Flying 2×) and 2× weak to Rock (Rock vs Flying), plus a 2× Dragon weakness. Because there is no Choice Scarf in Gen 3, almost every answer to Salamence is “be faster, or carry Ice/Rock.”

• Bulky Waters with Ice Beam — Suicune, Milotic — the mandatory team glue against Salamence. Ice Beam is 4× (Ice vs Dragon/Flying) and OHKOs or near-OHKOs even after Intimidate, and they recover off the chip.
• Swampert — handles the physical sets: it tanks Earthquake (just neutral on Water/Ground) and HP Flying, and Roars or Ice Beams back. The catch is the mixed set’s HP Grass deletes it 4×, so Swampert is a check to physical Salamence only — it loses to MixMence.
• Aerodactyl — base 130 Speed (394) outruns Salamence at +0 and Rock Slides it 2× for a clean revenge — but once Salamence is +1 (~448) it outruns even Aerodactyl, so you must revenge it before it banks the Dragon Dance. The premier fast Rock answer; Salamence cannot switch in repeatedly against it.
• Faster Ice/Rock revenge in general — anything that lands a 4× Ice Beam or a 2× Rock Slide before Salamence moves (or after it’s chipped) revenges it. Starmie Ice Beam, opposing Aerodactyl/Tyranitar Rock Slide, Jolteon Hidden Power Ice — all trade into it.
• Skarmory — walls the physical sets completely: Earthquake is a Ground immunity, HP Flying is resisted (0.5×) and Rock Slide is only neutral. It Roars the DD set out before it snowballs — but it is deleted by the mixed set’s Fire Blast (2×) and by Magneton, the standard way aggressive teams pry it off Salamence.
• What it is NOT weak to — note Salamence is immune to Ground (Earthquake does nothing) and cannot be trapped by Dugtrio; it takes Electric neutrally and Fire at 0.5×, so don’t expect Thunderbolt or Fire-type coverage to revenge it. The answer is always Ice or Rock or raw Speed.

The throughline for aggressive play: you cannot wall Salamence long-term, because the mixed set has an answer for every wall — you race it with faster Ice/Rock, or you trade your bulky Water into it and accept the chip. Keep a healthy Ice Beam user, keep Aerodactyl honest as a fast revenge, and never let a DD set get a free turn behind Intimidate.

See also

• Tyranitar — the Double Dragon Dance partner; their checks barely overlap.
• Magneton — traps and deletes the Skarmory that walls physical Salamence (the DragMag engine).
• Suicune / Swampert — the bulky-Water and Ground checks you must respect and overload.
• Aerodactyl — the fast Rock revenge that keeps Salamence honest.
• Building aggressive offense · Common cores · Sample teams · Mechanics & calc reference