Virizion Duo Guide
Virizion's Base 192 Attack is below-average by PvE standards. Paired with an awful movepool in Quick Attack, Zen Headbutt, Close Combat, Leaf Blade, and Stone Edge, Virizion is...not good, to say the least. It lacks a STAB Fast Move, and Close Combat is an underwhelming Fighting-type Charge Move; on the Grass front, Virizion has to compete with Roserade and the Frenzy Plant starters when it doesn't have a Grass-type Fast Move. Anything that you would want to use Virizion for, Breloom does better.
The good news is, Virizion's Grass/Fighting typing means that it has a 4x weakness to Flying. While its bulk is actually very respectable, this Flying weakness means that Virizion is easily duoable with an assortment of budget Flying-types.
- Neither Quick Attack nor Zen Headbutt are particularly threatening, but Quick Attack has better neutral coverage than Zen Headbutt.
- Leaf Blade is boosted by STAB and comes out very frequently due to being a 3-Bar move. However, Flying-types naturally resist Grass, and Moltres, who is by far the single best Pokemon for this fight, sports a 4x resistance to Grass.
- Close Combat is boosted by STAB, but it comes out infrequently due to being a 1-Bar move. While Flying-types also naturally resist Fighting, Close Combat hits Honchkrow and Unfezant for neutral damage, due to their Dark and Normal subtypings.
- Stone Edge is not boosted by STAB, but it is very difficult to dodge and hits Flying-types hard, especially Moltres; as such, it's the hardest moveset to face.
- Windy boosts the power of your Flying- and Psychic-type attacks. With Windy, Virizion can be duoed in just over 180 seconds.
- Sun boosts the power of your Fire-type attacks. With Sun, duoing against non-Stone Edge sets with Level 40 Fire types is possible, but Flying-types are still much better.
- Cloudy boosts the power of your Fairy-type attacks; however, even with Cloudy, Fairy-types aren't capable of outputting enough DPS to duo.
- Snow boosts the power of your Ice-type attacks; however, even with Snow, Ice-types aren't capable of outputting enough DPS to duo.
Viable Counters
Minimum viable levels assume Best Friends, no Weather, no Dodging.
Italics indicate a Legacy move.
Leaf Blade is extremely easy to duo. Assuming you're using Level 30 Honchkrows, you will win with around 40 seconds left on the timer, even accounting for relobby time.
Close Combat is slightly harder than Leaf Blade, requiring slightly more powered-up counters. However, the overall difficult is still very easy; Level 30 Honchkrows will be able to win with around 20-30 seconds left on the timer, accounting for relobby time.
Stone Edge is much harder to duo, and relobbying twice is a real concern. While you should still have plenty of time even with 2 relobbies, it can be taxing on your Revive/Potion stash. If you can consistently dodge Stone Edges, you may be able to avoid a 2nd relobby, or avoid relobbying at all with Level 35+ counters, while only losing ~20 seconds compared to a No-Dodge strategy.
