Gen 9 NU Bulky Swords Dance
Incineroar @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Ghost / Fairy / Fighting
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Atk / 196 SpD / 48 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off / Darkest Lariat
- Earthquake / U-turn / Drain Punch
The Swords Dance set Incineroar uses in Gen 9 NU, but with a bulky EV spread. With Swords Dance to boost its Attack, Incineroar can become a scary breaker that can punch holes in teams for your teammates to take advantage of late game. Flare Blitz is Incineroar's strongest (physical) Fire STAB, dealing out quite a bit of damage against Pokemon who don't resist Fire moves. Knock Off is the standard Dark STAB, allowing Incineroar to remove items from opposing Pokemon and being useful against Pokemon who resist Flare Blitz such as Talonflame, Flygon, Chandelure, and Swampert. Darkest Lariat can be used as an alternative Dark STAB to beat down Cresselia harder and is useful if you use Brambleghast on the same team as Incineroar to prevent the awkwardness of having a Knock Off user and a Poltergeist user on the same team. Earthquake provides coverage against Iron Thorns, Diancie, and opposing Incineroar. U-turn can be used instead so Incineroar can pivot out of bad matchups while dealing some chip damage to opposing Pokemon. Drain Punch is even an option on the Bulky Swords Dance set to let Incineroar have some source of HP recovery while still being able to hit opposing Incineroar super effectively. Heavy-Duty Boots is used to prevent Incineroar taking damage from hazards. Tera Ghost allows Incineroar to have a Fighting immunity, which is useful against Fighting-types. Tera Fairy can be used to resist Fighting moves and is useful to have a Dragon immunity, which is useful against Flygon. Tera Fighting is used if you use Drain Punch so Drain Punch can have some extra power.
248 HP EVs are used for bulk. 16 Attack EVs with an Adamant Nature is used to hit a jump point for Incineroar's attack stat. 48 Speed EVs allow Incineroar to outspeed Vaporeon as well as Pokemon having enough speed EVs to reach 167 speed to outspeed Vaporeon. The rest of the EVs are used in Special Defense to give Incineroar some special bulk since Incineroar has Intimidate to lower that attack stat of opposinf Pokemon.