Gyarados (QC 0/3)

[trickroom]

Overview
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+ Mega Fish / Brutal Sea Monster / Franken Fish
+ Unique typing (Pre- and Post Mega) and fairly bulky
+ Crunch crushes Latias, Giratina, Ghost Arceus and friends. Earthquake 2HKOes Dialga and some Primal Groudon
+ 95/109/130 defenses combined with Intimidate allows it to survive certain powerful hits such as Draco Meteor from Latios. Immunity to Psychic, can play mind games with Mewtwo/Deoxys-A/Groudon
+ Defog support helps alleviate SR weakness before Mega Evo.
+ Taunt annoys passive Pokemon like Lugia, walks over the uncommon Mega Sableye. Beats stuff like Dialga, Latias one vs one.
- Awful weaknesses to Electric, lost Ground immunity and gained a weakness to Fairy upon Mega Evo.
- Weak STABs. Base 155 Attack does not solve this issue. Useless ability besides owning Multiscale Lugia and lol Clefable
- Competition from other powerful Megas, Mewtwo, Blaziken, Gengar, Salamence, Diance.
- Defensive set looks pretty bad now with Mega Salamence taking over as the best Blaziken check
- Slow


Dragon Dance
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name: MegaFish Dance
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Taunt
move 3: Crunch
move 4: Earthquake / Waterfall / Stone Edge
ability: Intimidate
item: Gyaradosite
evs: 128 HP / 176 Atk / 204 Spe
nature: Adamant

Moves
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• Dragon Dance gives you an edge over Yveltal in trying to sweep. Gives a much needed boost to poor STAB base power.
• Crunch crushes Ghost- and Psychic-types Giratina, Latias, Lugia etc. Is a pretty spammable move, 2HKOes Primal Kyogre
• Earthquake breaks Dialga, Mega Diance, some Arceus formes and most importantly is your best move vs Primal Groudon
• Waterfall hits Yveltal, Xerneas, Darkrai, Ho-Oh and Rock/Ground Arceus harder
• Taunt stops recovery, status moves, and makes it a pest to passive Pokemon.
• Substitute eases prediction and it can survive Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire with Intimidate. Easily survives Dragon Tail from Groudon
• Stone Edge one shots Ho-Oh, 2HKOes Yveltal, Mega Salamence and Rayquaza
• Avalanche/Ice Fang OHKOes Mega Salamence and Rayquaza but sucks otherwise
• Iron Head smacks Xerneas hard and OHKOes Diance

Set Details
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• Spe EVs outrun every Arceus and Mega Salamence; Lati@s after one Dragon Dance, also outruns uninvested Yveltal and Xerneas.
• 176 Attack EVs hits a jump point.Gyarados is weak enough already, useless ability and no item to boost.
• HP EVs for some bulk. Survives a lot of random attacks, such as Aura Sphere from Life Orb Mewtwo, Superpower Deoxys-A ( With Intimidate ), Thunder from random users, Draco Meteors
• Max Atk/Spe with Jolly is an option to get the jump on Mega Mewtwo Y at +1. Also outruns Defensive Yveltal and Lugia without any boost, useful for Taunting them
• Can invest Attack EVs for more bulk but is rather pointless because no recovery
• Takes up a Mega slot which blows

Usage Tips
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• Can hold off Mega Evolve. Intimidate is pretty useful at times, such as vs Blaziken and Mega Mewtwo X
• Bring Gyarados in when you get the chance, stuff like No Stone Edge Groudon, Lucario, Ground Arceus, Scarf Kyurem-W, some Ghost Arceus and Lati@s. You can bring it in on Ho-Oh if you are manly enough to risk a burn on the switch
• Crunch can be used to weaken stuff first before you can even attempt a sweep. 2HKOes stuff like Palkia, Kyogre, Kyurem and Lugia. Defensive Arceus is hard to beat, you need to catch it on the switch or they outrun and phaze/status you
• Hates prediction, enemy Mewtwo using Aura Sphere instead of Psytrike, Darkrai using Focus Blast on the turn you Mega.
• Pair it with powerful attackers such as Rayquaza
• Dark-type has less resist this gen, and enemy Yveltal's Dark Aura boosts it. Foul Play Yveltal will still KO you before you can kill it, unless you have Stone Edge.
• Taunt wrecks Mega Sableye, support Arceus and Lugia. Also owns Skarmory and things who rely on Toxic to deal damage such as Aegislash.
• Roar can be used over Taunt to stop other sweepers from boosting alongside Gyarados such as bulky Kyogre or Calm Mind Arceus.

Team Options
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• Defog support is a must. Latias, Giratina-O share good typing synergy. Enjoys Gyarados to crush Lugia, other Latias and Ghost Arceus
• Magic Bounce from Mega Diancie is useful because Gyarados is SR weak and lacks recovery. Gyarados resists Water, Steel and Ground, sets up on them. Wish Support is great
• Groudon-Primal is a fantastic partner and checks Xerneas and Zekrom. Gyarados can annoy Lugia, Latias and beats Landorus-T should Groudon lack a Fire-move
• Ho-Oh roasts Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor both who can be a pest to Gyarados post Mega Evolve for the latter case.
• Kyogre stacks unfortunate weaknesses and attracts Primal Groudon even more so it is inadvisable.
• Klefki and other Thunder Wave users can help slow down threats for Gyarados to actually outrun and Taunt them without any boost
• Sticky Web can be used but sucks in ORAS due to all the Defog users

Other Options
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• Defensive set
• Primal Kyogre makes SpD Resttalk Gyarados sad, and doesn't take up a Mega Slot

Checks & Counters
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• Xerneas
• Primal Groudon
• Ferrothorn, Grass Arceus
• Mega Scizor
• Defensive Yveltal
• Mega Salamence
• Arceus-Fairy

 

[shrang]

I think Taunt is compulsory if you want to differentiate Mega Gyarados from stuff like Mega Salamence and better sweepers. It's the one thing Gyarados can do but others can't. Even then, it's hard to justify using Gyarados these days, although the ability to take out Lugia is something a lot of the other sweepers can't do.

 

[Thugly Duckling]

When did Gyara get crunch o.o

 

[boltsandbombers]

When did Gyara get crunch o.o

It now learns it by level up in ORAS :o

 

[shrang]

Man I don't know if it's just my own bias or something but I'm loving Gyarados. It looks so underwhelming yet there are so many things it does well.

Pros:
- Taunt (Like seriously DD + Taunt is so good) - I seriously cannot overstate how good this move is on a bulky sweeper like Gyarados
- Intimidate
- Dark typing is actually really useful - lets you beat Lugia (which a lot of the current sweepers have trouble with) as well as checking things like Darkrai and Darkceus
- You can check Primal Don if they lack Stone Edge (non-Mega form is actually useful, unlike PoS Altaria)
- Shreks Baton Pass

Cons:
- Takes up a Mega slot and therefore raises opportunity cost by a crapload
- Has quite a number of checks
- Weak STABs

Things about the analysis itself:
- EVs: I think this could potentially be tweaked. IMO running 204 Spe is better since it lets you outspeed 120s (support Arcs, Mega Salamence). In terms of Attack, I don't know if 252 Atk gets you any specific KOs so it might be better if we took some out of Attack and invested in bulk since Taunt + DD lets you set up on a lot of defensive mons. That's just my thoughts at the moment on that though.
- Put Stone Edge somewhere. Killing Yveltal is nice, especially when you resist Foul Play.
- Put Arceus-Fairy in checks/counters.

 

[PISTOLERO]

Gyarados is weak enough already, useless ability and no item to boost.

I think you are forgetting that Mold Breaker lets you laugh at Lugia as it completely ignores Multiscale, letting you easily 2HKO it through Multiscale

252+ Atk Mold Breaker Mega Gyarados Crunch vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Lugia: 198-234 (47.7 - 56.3%) -- 28.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

although you need at least 236 EVs in Speed to outspeed 0 Speed Lugia, and odds are it will run slight creep. The long and short of it is that Mold Breaker Crunch lets you break Lugia, and also lets you Waterfall your way through Unaware Clefable for what it's worth.

Also, hooray for Trickroom having returned :]

 

[Sweep]

QC reject 1/3

Gyarados is still a strong fish, but fairies are incredibly rude to it and stronger megas like Salamence and Lucario are almost always better. One of Mega Gyarados's best perks in XY was its ability to check Blaziken before mega evolving, but with Blaziken much less common AND far more likely to carry Stone Edge to hit Salamence, it kinda lost that niche. Taunt is nice, especially on Sticky Web teams but even then, those teams like megas that can be more immediately threatening than Gyarados is. Gyarados also is outsped by all relevant scarfers (Xerneas, Genesect sort of, etc) even after a DD and setting up multiple Dragon Dances is very difficult without reliable recovery.

 

[shrang]

:(

EDIT: Also Lucario is a piece of shit. #Gyara4lyf

 

[Fireburn]

I unfortunately must agree with Sweep, sorry buddy. :[

QC Rejected 2/3

 

[Thugly Duckling]

:(

 

[Edgar]

I agree with Sweep

QC Reject 6/3 :[