>>48584468Arcanine has always been shit. In game it's not very good, usually due to lack of good moves. Due to being a stone evolution, it learns nothing after evolving, so you have to raise a Growlithe to an obnoxiously high level to get anything good on it. In Gen 1, its only notable move is Dig, and is otherwise completely outclassed by CHARIZAAAARD. In Gen 2 it can naturally learn Flamethrower... at level 50. In Gen 4 it finally gets a physical STAB move in Flare Blitz, which it gets at level 48, which gets knocked down to 45 in B2W2 for Gen 5. In Gen 7 it finally gets more reasonable moves early, but it's completely outclassed by Incineroar, both in game and competitively.
Competitively it sucks. The highest tier it's ever reached was UUBL in Gen 3, but that tier is larger than most actual Smogon tiers. Even that is a dishonor, since it shares the tier with absolute monsters like Jumpluff, Regice, and Swellow. For VGC, it's a sad story of being completely mogged by Incineroar in later gens, and having no niche in the earlier gens. Its one time to shine was in early Gen 8 before Incineroar came back. If VGC had tiers, it would be a solid UU Pokemon though.
