Iron Bundle

I've started to feel that this Pokémon is, at its core, really all about landing Hydro Pumps.
In Pokémon battles, offensive moves are sometimes categorized into main weapons and sub-weapons. Needless to say, this is based on STAB and coverage, but I've recently realized that even among main weapons, there is a clear distinction in roles between the primary and secondary options.
A good example is Flutter Mane. For this Pokémon, the essence is how to maximize the number of times you can click Moonblast. When you list the conditions—about 1.2 times the power of Shadow Ball, a 30% chance to lower Sp. Atk, and no immunities—it feels like Shadow Ball barely has a role to play. Therefore, when using Flutter Mane, you'll likely find yourself using Moonblast against anything that takes neutral damage, and only bringing out Shadow Ball when you encounter something that resists Fairy.
Now, let's apply this logic to Iron Bundle. Hydro Pump is a Water-type move, which already has excellent coverage on its own, but by adding Freeze-Dry, the coverage perfectly complements the Water type against Dragon, Grass, and Water types that would otherwise resist it. In this case, the relationship between the two moves is as follows:
・Hydro Pump → The move you want to use as your primary attack
・Freeze-Dry → The move used to complement the primary attack
Furthermore, looking at the move power makes this relationship feel even more solid. Iron Bundle, when not holding a Choice item, is often Water-Tera, and in this state, the following equation holds:
・Water-Tera Hydro Pump ≒ Super-effective Freeze-Dry
In other words, to summarize what I've said so far, the greatest strength of Iron Bundle is that it can "force a Water-Tera Hydro Pump onto every opponent" (though this isn't strictly true when considering dual types, I'll omit that for simplicity here).
Now, you might ask what I'm trying to say after writing all this. What I wanted to convey is that the popular sentiment that "a team is strong if it can function without Iron Bundle using Hydro Pump" might actually be a abandonment of Iron Bundle's inherent strength. As I mentioned earlier, Iron Bundle's strength is its ability to "force a Water-Tera Hydro Pump onto every opponent," and if you build a strategy by working backward from that, it is natural to consider the win condition for Iron Bundle to be "getting the opponent's three Pokémon into Water-Tera Hydro Pump range." If you don't use Hydro Pump, you simply need to deal twice as much chip damage. Of course, I think most Iron Bundle users would feel that using it once per match is acceptable, so saying the number of Hydro Pump uses should be zero might be an extreme take. However, what I wanted to say is that "being too afraid of the accuracy risk carries the danger of losing the Pokémon's true strength." This is something I can easily fall into if I get too narrow-minded, and I felt I needed to be careful about it.
That's all from Ohori, who wrote this article in the heat of the moment after being swept by a Choice Specs Iron Bundle.