gyara-vire

[animenagai]

first thread for me. i want to ask smogon what they thought about the gyarados - electivire combination. the positives are obvious. they cover each other's weaknesses (to some extent) and both can single handedly sweep teams.

having said that, i find it quite hard to fit them both on the same time. without their respective boosts, they are quite mediocre. everyone has their own gyarados counter. that's why you see all those bulky waters running around. on top of that, they are both physical sweepers. i know e-vire can be run as special-vire or mix-vire, but the type coverage isn't anywhere as impressive (physical vire covers all but 2 types i believe). you can throw a life orb on there but teams can always out predict and react with a poke that's not covered. life orb does damage too. both of them strive on being late game sweepers too, which is quite a bit of baggage.

my question to everyone is how they like to fit them on to a team.
imo there are too many things wrong with the typical tauntrados - physi-vire combination.

 

[Pneuma]

It's mostly expected and people will throw Stone Edges at Dos all day just to avoid a 'Vire scenario.

Additionally, people figured out that 'Vire doesn't hit hard enough to take out the physical walls that sit in front of him. Hippo is the hardest for him to get around most of the time, Cress and Suicune also rank up there. So it doesn't matter if he gets a boost or not, he's going to get walled. Even max sp.atk HPGrass 'Vire can't kill Hippo.

 

[animenagai]

It's mostly expected and people will throw Stone Edges at Dos all day just to avoid a 'Vire scenario.

Additionally, people figured out that 'Vire doesn't hit hard enough to take out the physical walls that sit in front of him. Hippo is the hardest for him to get around most of the time, Cress and Suicune also rank up there. So it doesn't matter if he gets a boost or not, he's going to get walled. Even max sp.atk HPGrass 'Vire can't kill Hippo.

hey i agree. suicine and cress are moderately ok for e-vire since their damage output isn't too overwhelming (you can also electrocute suicine). hippo on the other hand has earthquake. that's why i call them late gamers. situational game breakers if you will. there must be some way to fit them in though. i did have both of them on my ninjask team and that worked fairly well, but they failed once ninjask died :(.

 

[Slice n Dice]

gyravire sucks. very predictable, and electivire has no powerful moves to do shit with.

 

[Firestorm]

Electivire was seriously overrated and I'm not sure how the situation is right now, but I didn't like him before. Gyarados on its own is amazing and I can't see how you'd think it's bad when it's not bait for Electivire. Bulky Waters aren't that common and even then they can't do anything to you.

<3 Bulky Gyarados

 

[Pneuma]

Heatgrowth is much better than Gyaravire anyway. :*

 

[Slice n Dice]

Heatgrowth is much better than Gyaravire anyway. :*

Mixape would like to have a word with you :p

 

[animenagai]

Heatgrowth is much better than Gyaravire anyway. :*

heatgrowth huh? just for flash fire? anyways, i like both of these guys in separation, just not together in the standard way. i hate how people throw in e-vire as their starter. that's just saying 'look at me! i've got an e-vire so don't use electricity on me'. e-vire really needs motor drive. i never throw him out until late game, not even if i correctly predict electric. they'll stop me with whatever physical wall they have anyways.

 

[sa17dk]

At least in my experience, the popularity of Gyaravire has died down somewhat. I still wouldn't T-Bolt a Gyarados randomly, not because of Electivire, but so that a ground type doesnt get a free switchin.

 

[cornflake]

I still use Gyaravire. And I'm disappointed with the results. So it's died down, and people just don't use Tbolt on Gyara nowadays. Even if he gets a Motor Drive, he really isn't strong enough to kill whatever hit first.

 

[Surgo]

Gyarados/Electivire was a great social experiment, but not such a great pokemon combination.

 

[Jenigmat]

Gyaravire has its benefits, but now whenever I've suspected it, and it's not a hard strategy to suspect, I lob an Earthquake over at Gyarados. Hit the Electivire every time.

 

[daksunt]

Well don't expect to sweep teams with one little combo, however it is pretty great if you want to play mind games. I mean how many times you were angry because you couldn't let your gengar thunderbolt gyarados because of fear of electivire. I mean can be used as a good stall tactic and with predictions fitting your deeds you can make your opponent have a hard time.

 

[Slice n Dice]

you are better off with Gyrados alone IMO. Gyrados can easily sweep teams with his Taunt+ DD combo :D

 

[teekay]

I usually just ensure that I have a solid Vire counter and freely tbolt away at Gyara. On the rare occasions when somebody tries that trick it's pretty easy to deal with it. In addition to the Pokemon listed already he can easily be walled using Dusknoir or Bronzong.

 

[Slice n Dice]

seriously, Bronzong spells the end for vire and gives you a chance to set up on him. however, you might want to consider a mixed vire set.

 

[cornflake]

seriously, Bronzong spells the end for vire and gives you a chance to set up on him. however, you might want to consider a mixed vire set.

Flamethrower Vire works well to bone bronzong.

 

[astrohawke]

Try the new gyarados-steelix combo lol. Steelix is immune to electric and 4x resistant to rock. Gyarados resists water, fire and fighting and is immune to ground. Switch back and forth between them all day long while predicting attacks as your opponent dies to toxic spikes.

 

[Saturn]

I use special sweeper Electivire most of the time. It works quite well with my Scarfdos. He isn't the god we thought it would be, but the physical one sucks anyway.

 

[Syberia]

Floatzel-vire is a much better combination. Floatzel bulks up until something is in position to hit it with an electric attack, then Baton Passes away to Electivire for the speed boost, who then proceeds to sweep with all those Bulk Ups. If the Floatzel user predicts wrong, Electivire probably still lives because of all the Bulk Ups it has.

 

[Lawman]

Gyarados switches in on Pokemon

Oh noez

Pokemon used Earthquake. Super Effective! Electivire fainted.

Gyaravire IMO is just so predictable nowadays.

 

[Saturn]

Gyarados switches in on Pokemon

Oh noez

Pokemon used Earthquake. Super Effective! Electivire fainted.

Gyaravire IMO is just so predictable nowadays.

Pokemon used Earthquake! It missed!
Gyarados DDs and sweeps the team 6-0! Grilled.

 

[Lawman]

Well excuse me. I was just emphasizing the point that the combo can easily be taken down with good prediction nowadays. Of course the Gyarados user could predict as well, but you should have been able to get my point.

 

[Slice n Dice]

electivire is mediocre... but mixed sets are nice

 

[Lawman]

That is true as well. I have actually seen decreased usage of 'vire lately.