# Houndoom: usage, win rate, builds, partners and matchups

> Houndoom in Pokemon Champions VGC, measured from tournament match records: usage, win rate under a fitted prior, the most played build, teammates and head to head.

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Corpus | Reg M-C |
| Data published | 2026-09-28 |
| This document | https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/pokemon/houndoom.md |
| Human page | https://suckerpunch.gg/pokemon/houndoom/ |

## Summary

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Id | `houndoom` |
| Types | Dark / Fire |
| Usage rank | #118 |
| Usage | 0.2% |
| Teams | 27 |
| Win rate | 48.1% |
| Decided matches | 232 |

Win rate is a posterior mean under a prior fitted to the field, credited to every species on
the team rather than to this one alone. Build shares below are of the teams carrying this
species **that published a list**, which at most events is the cut and not the field.

## Most played build

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Moves | Dark Pulse, Heat Wave, Overheat, Protect |
| Item | Houndoominite |
| Ability | Flash Fire |
| Nature | Timid |
| Share of lists | 33.3% |
| Win rate | 44.9% |
| Decided matches | 60 |

## Builds

### Moves

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Dark Pulse | 96.3% | 44.7% |
| Protect | 92.6% | 45.9% |
| Heat Wave | 88.9% | 46.3% |
| Overheat | 33.3% | 47.1% |
| Destiny Bond | 25.9% | 43.5% |
| Snarl | 18.5% | 49.9% |

### Items

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Houndoominite | 92.6% | 47.7% |
| Charcoal | 7.4% | 48.0% |

### Abilities

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Flash Fire | 88.9% | 47.7% |
| Unnerve | 11.1% | 48.0% |

### Natures

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Timid | 96.3% | 41.7% |
| Modest | 3.7% | 56.1% |

## Teammates

Share is of this species' own rosters: how often, when someone runs this, they run that.

| Teammate | Share | Teams | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Torkoal | 59.3% | 16 | 49.0% |
| Venusaur | 40.7% | 11 | 48.1% |
| Annihilape | 37.0% | 10 | 37.1% |
| Indeedee ♀ | 33.3% | 9 | 49.4% |
| Whimsicott | 29.6% | 8 | 47.1% |

## Related

- Every species: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/pokemon.md
- Archetypes this could belong to: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/teams.md
- The same species on the ladder: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/ladder.md
- Live JSON for this species: https://us-central1-sucker-punch-71328.cloudfunctions.net/api/pokemon/builds?name=houndoom

## Freshness and provenance

- Rendered at deploy time from the published snapshots. Snapshot stamp: 2026-09-28.
- The boards behind them republish daily, so a figure here can trail the live data by a deploy.
- The read that is never behind is the JSON API: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/api.md.
- Tournament data and ladder data are separate populations and are never blended.
- Estimator, denominators and floors: https://suckerpunch.gg/ai/method.md.
- Attribution: Sucker Punch, https://suckerpunch.gg.