Gyarados

From the very beginning I thought Gyarados should have been Water/Dragon, but I think Nintendo didn't want to have a weakness-less (At the time) Pokemon. It belongs to that selection of Pokemon like Rhyperior that have a great special movepool and terrible SpA. With a limited physical movepool it has only a few sets, based around similar ideas:


Gyarados -> Single Battles


Gyarados @ Lum Berry
ADAMANT
+Intimidate+
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 Hp
Dragon Dance
Aqua Tail
Stone Edge
Earthquake

As submitted by Tenodera:

I've taken to using Lum Berry on offensive DD Gyarados. It allows you to set up multiple DDs on many bulky Waters, since most of them stay in to try and get a burn with Scald. Really only useful in Singles though.
Gyarados -> Double Battles


->Standard<-




Gyarados @ Wacan Berry / Life Orb / Leftovers / Eject Button
ADAMANT
+Intimidate+
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
-Waterfall
-Earthquake / Stone Edge / Avalanche
-Thunder Wave / Taunt
-Protect / Taunt

Gyarados' base 81 Spe stat suggests that it will try to troll base 80s and KO things with it, but Gyarados finds itself in a surprising supporting role in GBU Doubles. If your partner is unable to outspeed a foe that it could otherwise KO, have it Protect while Gyarados T-Waves, then beat it up Turn 2. Waterfall is obvious, and its flinch rate can combine with paralysis to stop the foe from moving about 40% of the time, but the auxiliary non-STAB move is up to the user. Earthquake is potent, but very ally-dependent; Stone Edge is powerful, and inaccurate; Avalanche (Or Ice Fang) hits 4x weak Dragon-types and leaves Gyarados resisted only by Water-types, but also suffers from (normally) low base attack power.

The item is another matter for debate. Wacan Berry almost guarantees Gyarados will survive an Electric-type attack short of the use of an Electric Gem, but if the Electric move was weak and was only going to do about 85% or so to Gyarados sans Wacan, it will be a 2HKO one way or the other. At the far end of ordinary viability, the Eject Button gives Gyarados the opportunity to renew its Intimidate, but can backfire if he's hit first turn before he fires off a Thunder Wave or Taunt.

->Defensive<-



Gyarados (F) @ Wacan Berry
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Atk / 140 Def / 20 SDef / 44 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Thunder Wave
- Waterfall
- Taunt
- Protect

As submitted by Human:

44 Speed to outspeed Cresselia. 20 SDef to always survive Zapdos/Thundurus thunderbolt assuming Modest. Max HP obvious bulk. 140 for physical defense and 4HKOd by Terrakion Rock Slide 50% of the time, generally useful to have physical bulk when attack EVs aren't too important. 52 attack EVs just obligatory offense. This is for Doubles.
 
I've taken to using Lum Berry on offensive DD Gyarados. It allows you to set up multiple DDs on many bulky Waters, since most of them stay in to try and get a burn with Scald. Really only useful in Singles though.
 
It's perfectly fine to post sets of any format in these threads. If you post a full set and give some info behind it I'll add it when I edit in the movesets, under the header "Singles."
 
Ok. I just use:

Gyara @ Lum Berry
Adamant
252 Atk/252 Spe/4 Hp
Dragon Dance
Aqua Tail
Stone Edge
Earthquake

Of course, Waterfall is much more desirable than Aqua Tail for most people, but I prefer the little extra power.
 

muffinhead

b202 wifi vgc
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
@ defensive set - only 36 Speed EVs are required to outspeed neutral cresselia with no EV investment, not 44.

and it was a c/p from a PO teambuilder, so the abbreviations are wrong
also it's female xD
 
@ defensive set - only 36 Speed EVs are required to outspeed neutral cresselia with no EV investment, not 44.

and it was a c/p from a PO teambuilder, so the abbreviations are wrong
also it's female xD
I know that but if people want to invest EVs in Def SpA SpD and HP they will have 4 leftover and that normally goes into speed making 44 Speed EVs better.
 
I used to use Gyarados a lot when I first started on the wifi, but then stopped.

I've recently been using it more though because I need a deterrent for Volcarona, which I seem to have problems with. This is the set I have on him:

Adamant / Lum Berry
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 6 HP
-Waterfall
-Earthquake
-Ice Fang
-Dragon Dance

I was thinking about the possibility of maybe squeezing Taunt on there in place of Ice Fang - because I can not deal with the Hippowdon lead that Stealth Rock/Yawn/Roar... maybe it would be a bit weird having Taunt on an offensive one though...
 

cosmicexplorer

pewpewpew
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Stone Edge is better than Ice Fang because Waterfall and Stone Edge together KO everything that Ice Fang is meant to hit, and Stone Edge hits opposing Gyarados for super effective damage. However, if you want to use Taunt (which is by no means an unusable option on an offensive Gyarados), I'd use that over Stone Edge, and maybe try Bounce over Earthquake; Bounce hits Ferrothorn harder than Earthquake and has a useful chance to paralyze, as well as stalling for Leftovers recovery. In conjunction with Taunt (especially when holding Leftovers), Gyarados can get past Ferrothorn rather easily. Finally, if you're going to use Taunt, Lum Berry is about useless except against Prankster TWave Thundurus, since Taunt stops status anyway, so Leftovers or Sitrus Berry make better item choices.
 
I think most Thundurus would go for Thunderbolt, knowing that Gyarados would either Thunder Wave to cripple them, or Taunt to do the same. Gyarados is often slow enough that Thundurus would prefer to T-Wave its partner anyway, as Gyarados is often in there to cripple something so that another team member can sweep.
 
After training a Moxie Gyarados and deciding that Intimidate is way better, I changed my original Gyarados' moves around a bit and it's probably the most successful Pokémon I have on the team now.

It's still Adamant with 252 Attack & Speed, but these are it's moves now:

-Waterfall
-Stone Edge
-Taunt
-Dragon Dance

Even without investment, it is bulky enough to shut walls down with Taunt, and the Stone Edge in place of Earthquake enables it to hit things like Dragonite now. Quite often it can Taunt something and use that opportunity to get a Dragon Dance and sweep away - it's so good. Still use the Lum Berry to take a Yawn on the switch too, for example.
 

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