Aerodactyl was used almost exclusively as a Choice Bander in the Advance era, and enough has stayed the same for the Flying fossil that this is still his most common strategy. Aerodactyl gained Stone Edge to use as its Rock STAB attack, but Rock Slide is still a good option as Aerodactyl is certainly fast enough to make use of the flinch rate. Earthquake covers Steel-types like Metagross and is Aerodactyl's most powerful attack against the likes of Tyranitar and Rhyperior. Ice Fang offers coverage against Ground-types, but don't expect to do much to the highly defensive Grounds such as Donphan and Hippowdon. However, Ice Fang is devastating when used against Garchomp and Flygon. Fire Fang is your only chance against Bronzong, and it 2HKOs Forretress, which Stone Edge fails to do. Pursuit is another excellent option, allowing it to hit slower defensively inept Pokémon such as Gengar and Azelf for what in many cases is a one hit knockout as they try to switch. It also allows Aerodactyl to do some damage to Pokémon like Blissey as they switch out. If you have other methods of dealing with Bronzong and Forretress (hint: Magnezone), then Pursuit is the superior option in the last slot.
Given how terrible Aerodactyl's defenses are and the fact that it is weak to Stealth Rock, Aerodactyl is very likely not going to survive any attacks, so it is a natural candidate for the recoil-inducing Life Orb. This recoil is not blocked by Rock Head, so stick with Pressure on this moveset since at least it sort of does something. Fire Blast becomes a better option than Fire Fang when you have Life Orb, as it will guarantee a OHKO on Forretress, a 2HKO on Skarmory and generally does a little more damage to Bronzong, who usually focuses more on Defense over Special Defense. The other major change, of course, is that without the Choice Band you can potentially use Aerodactyl to sweep a lot easier since you can switch moves for different opponents. Aerodactyl can attack a wide variety of types for super effective hits and his Rock attacks will do considerable damage to most things that don't resist them, allowing him to do very good all around damage. This combined with the fact that he will outrun nearly every Pokémon that doesn't have some sort of Speed boost allows him to clean up late game if he is at high enough health to take a few hits from the Life Orb. Other OptionsAerial Ace is Aerodactyl's best Flying STAB move. At a paltry 60 base power, it is a rather poor option and when neutral, it does less damage than Earthquake, but it's useful for Heracross. Crunch offers a slightly more powerful—and more accurate—attack against Dusknoir, Cresselia (160 BP vs. Stone Edge's 150) and Claydol (160 vs. Ice Fang's 130). Similarly, if for whatever reason you don't feel comfortable with Rock Slide, Earthquake, and potentially Ice Fang to deal with your Water and Flying adversaries, Aerodactyl is able to learn Thunder Fang. It should be pointed out that Stone Edge has more power against most Water-types, so Thunder Fang is only worth considering if you opt for Rock Slide as your STAB move. PP stalling with Fly and Roost while abusing Pressure is an option, though not a very good one. Double-Edge may seem tempting with Rock Head, but the type coverage is poor. Taunt can stop something like Gliscor or Swampert from setting up Stealth Rock. Finally, Aerodactyl can use Stealth Rock, but it is better left to more defensive minded Pokémon. EVsAerodactyl's Speed is its greatest asset, so in general it will normally want to be Jolly with anywhere from 216 to 252 Speed EVs. 216 Speed EVs gets it to 385 Speed, allowing it to outrun Jolly Weavile. If you really want to boost your HP or defenses you can get by with a little less Speed since neither of the 125 base Speed Pokémon (Weavile and Swellow) are likely to want to stay in with you, with the next tiers at 372 Speed (Jolly Dugtrio, Timid Alakazam, +Speed Sceptile) and 361 (+Speed Raikou, Azelf, Starmie, Ambipom, Persian, and Floatzel). 363 Speed, the next Speed Jolly Aerodactyl can reach after 361, requires 136 Speed EVs, and 176 Speed EVs does the same for 374. It should be noted that should you desire to run Adamant Aerodactyl for the additional power, its max Speed now becomes 359, which can be lowered to 351 (220 Speed EVs) in order to outrun +Speed nature base Speed 110 Pokémon at 350 (Gengar, Tauros, Espeon, Jumpluff, and Froslass), while still outrunning Adamant Weavile and Swellow at 349. You should definitely throw 252 EVs into your Attack score with either nature on the offensive sets since you really need the bulk of your EVs there in order to allow Aerodactyl to cause substantial damage to his opponents. The remaining EVs could go into either HP for general coverage, or Special Defense in order to increase the effect that Sand Stream has on you, as it boosts the Special Defense of Rock-type Pokémon by 1.5. OpinionWhen it comes to a fast, fairly hard-hitting Pokémon, Aerodactyl is one of the better options. With an amazing 130 base Speed, Aerodactyl is able to outrun nearly every Pokémon in the game, although this Speed is not nearly as reliable as it has been in past generations. Users of Aerodactyl need to be extremely cautious of enemy Pokémon who could potentially be carrying Choice Scarf, as the Speed boost it provides is more than enough for many Pokémon to become faster than Aerodactyl and turn the tables on it, allowing them to attack Aerodactyl's weak defenses. Another new move that Aerodactyl needs to combat with care is Stealth Rock, which does an obnoxious 25% to Aerodactyl thanks to the fact it is weak to Rock (in spite of its being a Rock Pokémon itself...). Even with many of the 4th generation's changes adversely affecting it, Aerodactyl did gain much better type coverage with Ice Fang, as well as a valuable weapon in Pursuit. Base 105 Attack is still good, even though it isn't as superb as it has been in previous generations with so many new high Attack Pokémon thrown into the fray. Aerodactyl is an excellent Choice Bander and potentially very dangerous even without it thanks to the addition of Life Orb. CountersFor the Choice Band variant, good prediction is your best defense. While its 105 base Attack combined with the boost from the Choice Band is powerful, careful switching can allow you to both minimize damage and force it to switch out, enabling you to get a free attack, a safe switch, or a set-up move in. Depending on its moveset, Aerodactyl is walled by a number of Pokémon, most commonly Bronzong and Claydol. Due to its high HP and Defense, as well as Solid Rock to reduce the damage of potential Earthquakes, Rhyperior is a fairly safe switch in, but it definitely doesn't want to take repeated abuse from Aerodactyl's Earthquake in spite of these qualities. Donphan and Hippowdon take little from even Ice Fang, and the latter boasts an instant recovery move in Slack Off. Gliscor can take most of Aerodactyl's moves, but needs to avoid Ice Fang. Aerodactyl can also do almost nothing to Weezing, who can burn Aerodactyl with Will-O-Wisp, stall it out with Pain Split, or use an attack such as Thunderbolt. Additionally, many bulky Water-type Pokémon counter Aerodactyl well with the help of various recovery moves, such as Swampert and Suicune using Rest, Slowbro with Slack Off, and Milotic using Recover. While they are often a dangerous switch, many Pokémon using Choice Scarf, such as Medicham and Heracross, can go before Aerodactyl and knock him out in one shot if Aerodactyl suspects that they are holding another item. |
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