Tyranitar

[Matt]

This is a discussion thread for all things Tyranitar-related. Some potential topics of discussion:

• How do you play around opposing weather while using Tyranitar?
• What attacks should you EV your Tyranitar to survive?
• Who are the best teammates for Tyranitar?
• Anything else you want to say about Tyranitar.

The Tyranitar analysis is here.

Tyranitar is one of the most versatile Pokémon in the game; it's been at least A rank in every single generation it's been available, and is probably the definition of "mixed attacker". Here are some of my favorite sets:

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Spd / 4 SDef / 252 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Rock Slide
- Stone Edge
- Crunch
- Low Kick

Choice Scarf + Rock Slide is absolutely maddening to face. It not only does a ton of damage coming from TTar's attack, but 30% flinch on *both* opponents can make it in to a support set of sorts as well. As in, you can get intimidated and burned and stay in anyway because you're still flinching things and attacks just bounce off of TTar's bulk. This set has both Rock Slide and Stone Edge to get around Wide Guard, or when you want to lock in to a higher damage attack.

Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Spd / 4 SDef / 252 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Protect
- Dragon Dance
- Rock Slide
- Crunch

Tyranitar has a ton of weaknesses but great defenses, so you can just DD while they hit you with something dumb like Earth Power and then start sweeping. A pretty straightforward set.

Tyranitar @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 Atk / 252 HP
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam

Landorus-Therian and Garchomp are two of Tyranitar's best counters, so Shuca + Ice Beam is a nice way to lure and kill them for the rest of your team. Going special isn't a bad idea due to all the Intimidate and Will-o-Wisp present, but you'll still want Rock Slide since lots of Pokémon are frail and weak to Rock.

 

[Mizuhime]

I like how it's belly changes color :3

but in all seriousness, Tyranitar is, and always will be one of the best Pokemon in a Doubles environment. It's ability paired with it's unique typing, natural bulk and monstrous offensive capability make it an extremely threatening Pokemon. My personal favorite set is the choice scarf set as listed above, but another set i've been giving a lot of attention to is the Modest Special attacker. Once thought of as a dumb set, it has come to be one of Tyranitar's best sets in my opinion. Dark Pulse, Fire blast, and Ice beam give it coverage that allows it to pick apart the meta game and easily take care of a lot of Pokemon that Tyranitar has always had problems dealing with such as Ferrothorn and Scizor. Overall Tyranitar is an extremely versatile Pokemon and it always has been since it's debut back in GSC. The addition of Mega Tyranitar came this gen, and tho it's a popular Mega Evolution in the OU environment, I would go out on a limb and say it's one of the weaker Mega Pokemon in Doubles. There is usually a better slot for the Mega evolution such as Mawile, Khanga, or Manectric to name a few.

 

[koolkranny]

I have been running a Tyranitar on my sand team to great success. I have tried many sets to see which one works best, but my favorite has to be this one.

Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Rock Slide
- Dragon Dance
- Protect

The dragon dance is of course what makes it scary. If you pull off a single dragon dance he has the power to sweep an entire team into dust. A +1 crunch will OHKO almost anything that is weak to dark, for example Jellicent. It will 2HKO a max HP max DEF Politoed after sandstorm damage.

It ends up pairing very well with Mega Garchomp as it can take great advantage of the Sandstorm with sand force. Other potential teammates include Togekiss to take care of the fighting types that would ruin Tyranitars day using air slash or follow me, and Talonflame to take care of threats like Mega venusaur.

 

[whissp]

Larvitar has to eat WHOLE MOUNTAIN to become Tyranitar. For every TTar used in a team, there is one mountain less. Have respect for nature and don't use Tyranitar.

 

[Electrolyte]

Tyranitar is a great Pokemon, but recently it has been overshadowed by a gradual increase in the use of competing field effects, primarily Rain and Trick Room. Its long list of weaknesses certainly doesn't help its cause; Steel-, Fighting-, and Ground-types are all too common in the metagame, and it is relatively easy to check standard Tyranitar (Ice Beam variants can surprise Lando-T I guess but that still requires a fair amount of prediction, and revealing your coverage pretty much loses you your ability to surprise the opponent) A lot of new up and coming threats also threaten Tyranitar's usage; Amoonguss and Bisharp are two prime examples. Another problem is that Tyranitar's abilities are becoming less and less necessary; Char Y is a lot rarer than it used to be and is now often paired with Hitmontop, and Talonflame is now played a lot more conservatively due to the fact that its match impacts can be lengthened with Will-o-Wisp.

Most of the recent metagame shifts have not been in Tyranitar's favor, and while it might have once been a powerful threat, I believe that it is much less so now.

 

[Stratos]

I have to agree with Electro in just being underwhelmed by tyranitar this gen. The offensive presence it carried last generation simply doesnt really show itself in the XY metagame, and it's obviously not going to bring home the bacon defensively (esp now that wowtalon is its most common set, it cant even wall THAT anymore).

The best sets for ttar this gen are the offensive ones that can still dent after an intimidate (lets face it, scarf cant) these being DD WP and LO Mix. They at least can dish out legitimate damage, more or less regardless of what the opponent tries to do to stop it. Slower, bulkier tyranitar just end up dying to some fighting or ground type coverage before doing much of anything, and scarf tar just hits a little too weakly

which brings me to my question: koolkranny, have you tried using a more offensive (i.e. weakness policy 252 spe jolly) DDTar? What made you choose a defensive DDTar instead? Does it bring any perks to the table that i'm overlooking?

 

[Pocket]

With koolkranny's spread, Curse > Dragon Dance with Trick Room support sounds much more conducive. I had used Curse Mega DDTar, and it wrecks under Trick Room. The buff in Dark-type coverage really helps Tyranitar in XY imo (pair it up with something that can deal with Bisharp / Fighting-Types). Mega DDTar hits so fucking hard after a Curse boost, and with sand special defense boost combined with Mega TTar's amazing 100 HP / 150 Def further boosted by Curse, it's a fucking killer in Trick Room. If you're already using Mega stone on Garchomp, though, you can stick with Tyranitar, which does have lower Speed that works better in Trick Room.

 

[Qazoo306]

I love mega dragon dance ttar, but that is a common set and not very noteworthy. What is though is unnerve tar. What does everyone think of that?

 

[koolkranny]

I have tried the exact build Pwnemon suggeted (on XY wifi) and the biggest problem I have with it on Tyranitar is that anything that is going to be used against Tyranitar, which is super effective, will not be gentle. Most of the time when Tyranitar is targeted with super-effective they will take 50% or more of it's health. A Hydro pump from a Rotom-W with no SPA investment will take 49.2%-58% of Tyranitars health.

Once Weakness policy is activated you absolutely have to stay in with Ttar or the item and the health lost has gone to waste. So if, let's say a Genesect, uses U-turn and activates the weakness policy, it will also take 72.1-85% of Ttar's health. That leaves it open to getting taken out by a faster mon, which at base speed 61, even with 252spe and jolly, isn't going to out speed many attackers. All it would take is a Thundurus T-bolt to KO Ttar after all that.

If you were running a weakness policy with jolly on Ttar, I believe the best move would be rock polish. That way a correctly predicted weakness policy activation will also allow you to double your speed if you survive the hit. So the set would look more like this:

Tyranitar @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Rock Polish
- Rock Slide
- Crunch
- Protect

The reasons weakness policy works so well on Dragonite is because of the ability Multiscale, a higher base speed, and access to a reliable recovery and priority move. The amount of damage Dragonite takes from a super-effective move is cut by so much that he will be able to survive a neural attacking move afterwards. That way a Dragonite can sweep, or recover the damage lost and still function as a bulky attacker. Tyranitar has none of these

All in all I use the Bulky version with leftovers because it will survive at least one hit, take out its target, and survive to fight another turn as long as it is supported correctly. I pull it out when it is in trouble, and toss it back in when it is needed. Any mon with a X4 weakness to anything needs to be able to switch in and out or it dies too quickly. Which means if you are using it as a set-up attacker it needs a way to renew its build up after you pull it out of the fight.

As an example: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogondoubles-115101223

And Qazoo, unnerve takes away Sand stream, which is 50% of why I use it. Unnerve will help maybe once every 3 matches. If you want to be able to hit the Landorus-T for full damage through the yache berry sure, but I find berrys don't usually slow me down that much.

 

[realiti]

I love mega dragon dance ttar, but that is a common set and not very noteworthy. What is though is unnerve tar. What does everyone think of that?

This is quite interesting. Once you remove berry pokemon, then MEvolve and you have sand stream