History: In Generation I, Fire-types weren't special in any exact way. There were a total amount of twelve in that Generation, much more than any other Generation, and their moves were only effective to Bug, Grass, and Ice. However, Fire-type moves were pretty powerful back then. Fire Spin was used to trap Pokemon as they couldn't escape or use an attack, and Fire Blast was powerful and had a 30% chance of burning. Ground, Water, and Rock were pretty common in Generation I Competitive Battling, so they didn't survive very long, and Chansey could take any Fire-type move with ease and Softboiled to restore.

Generation II wasn't really an improvement. They introduced more Pokemon, but they only included three extra Fire-type moves: Sacred Fire, Sunny Day, and Flame Wheel, but that wasn't helpful at all. Sacred Fire was only for Ho-Oh, Flame Wheel could only be learned by Growlithe and the Typhlosion family, and Sunny Day just boosted Fire attacks and made Solarbeam lose the extra turn. Overall, it was an okay Generation for Fire-types.

Then Generation III came and only six Pokemon were introduced. None of the Pokemon, except Blaziken, were any good in Competitive. Although this may be sad, they did introduce six new Fire-type moves as well. Will-O-Wisp made burning easier if it hit while Overheat was extremely powerful if used correctly. Heat Wave was good for Double Battles and Eruption was awesome if the user had max HP. Fire-type Pokemon back then seemed like they were going to come back until...

Generation IV came and wrecked them. They introduced three new Fire-type moves and five new Fire-type Pokemon. Although Heatran was powerful, you could only use the Infernape family and Rapidash family in Diamond/Pearl main plot, and you could only catch Ponyta and Rapidash. Magmortar could only be obtained if you traded a Magmar holding a Magmarizer. Just when you thought Fire-types were going to be good, they just went down in this Generation.

Statistics: Fire-types are very useful. Not only are they fast, but they're powerful as well. Eleven out of sixteen of their moves have less than 80 base power and most of their attacks have 10-50% chance of burning, with Will-O-Wisp being 100% chance of burning. However, 10/18 of their moves do not have 100% chance of hitting and Fire-types generally have poor Defense and Special Defense. They are generally classified as "glass cannons", so you must hit hard and fast to make sure that they survive.

Offensively, not only are they able to damage many Steel-types that generally have low Special Defense, but they were introduced Flare Blitz, a Physical Fire-type attack, to hit Blissey hard as it has poor Defense. Defensively, they are alright. Not only are they immune to burns, but they resist Grass and Ice moves, so keeping them with Pokemon like Swampert or Dragonite would be prefered. They are weak to Ground, Rock, and Water like in the first Generation, but with the introduction of Sunny Day and its secondary ability to reduce Solarbeam's turn charge, it counters all three of their weaknesses.

Using them in a Beauty Contest would be recommended as their moves are typically Beauty moves, but some may be Tough or Smart moves as well.

Conclusion: Fire-type Pokemon are pretty good when used against Steel-types, but for quantity-wise, there aren't that many. Fire-types have high Speed and Attack stats, but below average Defense stats, making most of them "glass cannons". Fire-type moves are powerful as half have 100 or more power and eleven have 80 or more. Their moves are typically Beauty moves, but some are Smart or Tough ones as well.

Trivia: Here's some Trivia containing information about Fire-types:
In Generation III, all moves were Beauty moves.
Houndour and Houndoom are the only Pokemon with Fire as a secondary type.
Fire's weaknesses (Ground, Rock, Water) share a weakness to Grass.
Torkoal is the only one without a pre-evolution and an evolution.
Every Fire-type Pokemon so far is weak to Water. All other types have at least one Pokemon with a secondary type that nullifies each of their weaknesses

Write up by: MBlaze aka Paradox