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

> Ninetales 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/ninetales.md |
| Human page | https://suckerpunch.gg/pokemon/ninetales/ |

## Summary

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Id | `ninetales` |
| Types | Fire |
| Usage rank | #114 |
| Usage | 0.3% |
| Teams | 29 |
| Win rate | 46.5% |
| Decided matches | 227 |

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, Flamethrower, Heat Wave, Protect |
| Item | Life Orb |
| Ability | Drought |
| Nature | Modest |
| Share of lists | 17.2% |
| Win rate | 37.1% |
| Decided matches | 21 |

## Builds

### Moves

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Protect | 72.4% | 40.2% |
| Heat Wave | 58.6% | 40.2% |
| Solar Beam | 44.8% | 43.2% |
| Flamethrower | 31.0% | 43.4% |
| Dark Pulse | 27.6% | 43.6% |
| Encore | 17.2% | 45.8% |

### Items

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choice Scarf | 24.1% | 42.2% |
| Life Orb | 17.2% | 38.1% |
| Focus Sash | 13.8% | 33.4% |

### Abilities

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Drought | 86.2% | 40.5% |
| Snow Warning | 13.8% | 35.1% |

### Natures

| Option | Share | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Timid | 48.3% | 45.5% |
| Modest | 41.4% | 45.5% |

## Teammates

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

| Teammate | Share | Teams | Win rate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rillaboom | 34.5% | 10 | 42.8% |
| Whimsicott | 31.0% | 9 | 45.6% |
| Sneasler | 24.1% | 7 | 42.2% |
| Dragonite | 20.7% | 6 | 42.9% |
| Basculegion | 17.2% | 5 | 46.6% |

## 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=ninetales

## 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.