Burn, Baby, Burn

OK, this is a new bi-weekly feature (because I've done the maths and that lets me do a fairy-type post three days after the new games come out (because the day after is my birthday and this stuff takes me two days even when I'm not busy) and an ice-type post the day before Christmas), where for want of a better way of putting things I take the types apart to see how they work. Since it is as hot as hell here in the UK and my xz and zx keys have melted together, the only type I could possibly start with is fire.
Fire, in battle, is one of the most clear-cut pokemon, with clear stat trends, clear strengths and weaknesses and clear strategies to use with them. See, fire is nearly unmatched in one thing: hitting hard. It can hit four types for super-effective damage (even if the only totally useful one is steel and possibly ice) and only dragon can outdo it for  average special attack stats when fully evolved. But dragon doesn't count, because half of all fully-evolved dragon types are legendaries. Half! 50% 1 in 2! 9 of the 18! Exzpress it how you choose. It's too many and it skews the stats. So strike that, fire types have the best special attack stats of any type. Combine that with a nice range of moves, over 60% having 80 base power or higher, an immunity to pesky burns, and moderate to good speed, with several sitting in the 100-110 region (although I will admit the fastest fire type is Infernape with 108 base speed, and 44 pokemon have at least one faster forme, but 108 is not half bad, outspeeding loads of great pokemon such as Hydreigon, Scizxor, Garchomp and of course Mew and Celebi) fire types often make perfect special sweepers. Basically, with fire types, you want to hit hard and get the hell out of there, because very few of them can take a hit with generally awful defenses and 3 nasty weaknesses, and it suddenly occured to me when writing this post that the biggest thing the fire type needs is a variation on Volt Tackle/U-Turn, which means even when you can't get an OHKO (which you need a lot of with fire types) your pokemon doesn't crumple like burnt paper. So yeah, except in a few very special cases, this is the fire type's only decent use, and I don't recommend using the special cases until you're sure of it (he said, patronisingly). But if you know how to use fire types, they can be a huge asset. And come on, how fun is it to burn stuff?