What is a good moveset for Iron Thorns?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Iron Thorns, post an answer below and upvote the best ones.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some explanation, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Iron Thorns Pokedex & learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Gen 9 Monotype Dragon Dance + Loaded Dice (Electric)

Iron Thorns @ Loaded Dice
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Rock Blast
- Pin Missile
- Earthquake

A Dragon Dance + Loaded Dice set for Electric teams in Gen 9 Monotype. This set helps with Electric's Dark and Fire matchups. Dragon Dance boosts Iron Thorns' attack and speed, allowing it to clean teams. Rock Blast is used for Rock STAB and is essentially a 100/120 BP move due to Loaded Dice making it always hit 4-5 times. Pin Missile is also essentially a 100/120 BP move due to Loaded Dice and is useful vs Pokemon such as Ting-Lu, Meowscarada, Roaring Moon, and Slowking. Earthquake provides coverage against Pokemon such as Clodsire, Toxapex, Gholdengo, Iron Hands, and opposing Iron Thorns.

Answer 2

Gen 9 UU (DDance Iron Thorns)
Iron Thorns @ Booster Energy/Air Balloon
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Tera Blast

Iron Thorns lacks the speed to take down a majority of the tier, with a trash typing that makes it bad in face of all of the EQ and CC users, I would say that it is incredibly outclassed by other DDance sweepers, such as Gyarados and Baxcalibur, who can do the job much better than Iron Thorns. However, there is one thing that puts Iron Thorns above the others, access to Quark Drive.
Booster Energy makes Iron Thorns' ATK 1.3x the normal amount, which makes Iron Thorns have a whopping 524 ATK. After one ddance, Iron Thorns outspeeds even Timid Gengar, and also outspeeds a majority of the Pokemon who have ground type moves, or fighting type moves.
Grass Tera is for ground resist and fighting normal effectiveness, plus Grass type Tera blast kills many of Iron Thorns' supposed checks.
Stone Edge and EQ are self explanatory, Stone edge is (somewhat) reliable stab that hits hard, EQ is great coverage.
Air Balloon is if you don't want to waste your Tera, however I strongly recommend Terastallizing the instant you get one ddance in.

Gen 9 UU (Banded Iron Thorns)
Iron Thorns @ Choice Band
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Ice Punch

Ah yes, I could write a banded version of every physical attacker.
Wild Charge and Stone Edge are self explanatory.
Earthquake was mentioned above on the ddance iron thorns.
Ice punch is to punish ground types.
Tera Ground is Stab for Earthquake, a much more reliable attack in my definition, and it also gives it normal effectiveness for ground and fighting.

I feel like I should write a scarf version but that seems too dumb to exist.

Answer 3

Gen 9 OU doubles physical tank set
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ice (chose it because it counters Iron Thorns’ Ground and Grass weaknesses)
EVs: 252 Atk, 252 Def, 6 HP
Nature: Impish (lowers SpA, boosts Def)
Doubles Partner: Pincurchin with Electric Surge, Terrain Extender, and Self-Destruct
- Rock Slide
- Thunder Punch
- Ice Punch
- Body Press

Rock Slide and Thunder Punch are STAB. Ice Punch is for Iron Thorns’ Ice Tera Type. Body Press is for Rock and Steel coverage while Terastalized.

Answer 4

Gen 9 UU D-Dance Tera Wallbreaker

Iron Thorns @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stone Edge
- Wild Charge
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

Basically, lure in an EQ user such as opposing Iron Thorns or Sandy Shocks, Tera and D-Dance, and proceed to obliterate. Wild Charge over Thunder Punch for that sweet 15 BP (recoil is not that big of a deal, considering a lack of Life Orb), Stone Edge for STAB, EQ for coverage. Adamant over Jolly to take out some non-defensive counters. Some quick calcs:

252+ Atk Quark Drive Tera Flying Iron Thorns Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Sandy Shocks: 328-386 (105.4 - 124.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Quark Drive Tera Flying Iron Thorns Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tablets of Ruin Wo-Chien: 357-420 (95.4 - 112.2%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Quark Drive Tera Flying Iron Thorns Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Gastrodon: 433-510 (101.6 - 119.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Answer 5

Gen 9 NU Hyper Offense Lead

Iron Thorns @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 23 Atk
- Spikes / Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Supercell Slam / Stealth Rock
- Ice Punch

Iron Thorns is in NU, so here is a set it can use as a dedicated lead on Hyper Offense teams. This is essentially the RU lead set, but with some moves that are suited for NU. Spikes is used to setup a hazard that chips grounded Pokemon switching in. Taunt is used to stop opposing Pokemon from setting up hazards or trying to setup and sweep. Supercell Slam is used for the Electric STAB since it is powerful. While Supercell Slam causes 50% recoil if it misses, gets blocked by Protect, or used on a Ground-type is not a good thing, it is actually useful on this set to generate momentum to stop a potential Rapid Spin or Defog. Ice Punch is used to hit Tsareena and Toedscruel super effectively, as these two Pokemon can easily use Rapid Spin against Iron Thorns. Stealth Rock can be used for a hazard that chips Pokemon switching in and can replace either Spikes or Supercell Slam to slot in Stealth Rock. Tera Flying can be used to turn Iron Throns 4x Ground weakness into an immunity. Tera Ghost can be an option if you want to block Rapid Spin.

The EV spread, IVs, and Nature seem wierd on this set, but it is necessary to achieve something. This set has Booster Energy to boost Iron Thorns' speed to make it faster than lead Lycanroc. Iron Thorns' speed with max Speed EVs with a +Speed Nature is 267. In order to get Booster Energy to boost the speed stat, you MUST have a Timid Nature, no Attack EVs, and lower its Attack IVs to 23 so it can be one point lower than its speed stat. That way, Iron Thorns can have its speed boosted by Booster Energy. 252 HP EVs are used for bulk, though in reality, you have no choice but to use 252 HP if you want to have Booster Energy boost speed on Iron Thorns.

Answer 6

Gen 9 NU Dragon Dance

Iron Thorns @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Flying / Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Supercell Slam
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake / High Horsepower

Iron Thorns is in NU, so here is a Dragon Dance set it can use. Dragon Dance is used to boost Iron Thorns' Attack and Speed stats. With Iron Thorns' typing and bulk, it should be able to get off at least 1 or 2 Dragon Dances, making it a scary sweeper. DLC 2 gifted Iron Thorns with a strong STAB in Supercell Slam, which is an Electric-type version of Jump Kick. Make sure you be careful of Ground-types or Pokemon who use Protect. Ice Punch is a nice coverage move that hits Ground-, Dragon-, and Grass-types such as Flygon, Gligar, Palossand, Tsareena, Goodra, Altaria, and Brute Bonnet super effectively. Earthquake is used for to hit Pokemon such as Duraludon, opposing Iron Thorns, Copperajah, Klefki, Galarian Slowbro, and Arcanine super effectively. If you use this in Grassy Terrain, Earthquake can be swapped with High Horsepower since High Horsepower's power isn't halved in Grassy Terrain. Booster Energy is used to give Iron Thorns a free attack boost when it first comes out.

Tera Flying is used to turn Iron Thorns' 4x weakness to Ground into an immunity. Tera Fairy can be used if you use this on Grassy Terrain teams since Earthquake's power gets weakened, allowing it to use a Tera Type such as Fairy to turn Iron Thorns Fighting weakness into a resist and still get the Grassy Terrain benefits.

Answer 7

Gen 9 NU Dual Dance

Iron Thorns @ Booster Energy
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Dragon Dance
- Supercell Slam
- Ice Punch

I made this set as a submission for NU's Next Best Thing. I wanted to do Swords Dance + Trailblaze, but Iron Thorns can't learn Trailblaze, so I decided to go for a Dual Dance set. This Dual Dance set is basically attack boost overload. The idea of this dual dance set is to allow Iron Thorns to rack up more attack boosts to break down bulkier teams via Swords Dance. Dragon Dance also helps Iron Thorns get more attack boosts and boost its speed to outspeed faster threats. You can use this on Sticky Web teams for more speed control. Supercell is used for a powerful Electric STAB. Ice Punch is the chosen coverage move to form a BoltBeam combo that deals with most things in the tier that resist or are immune to Supercell Slam. You can try Lum Berry to heal off a status condition since this Thorns set has both Swords Dance and Dragon Dance. I chose Tera Ghost so Iron Thorns can become immune to Fighting moves, being useful against Mienshao if you don't have enough Dragon Dance boosts to outspeed Scarf Shao.