Like with Choice Band Salamence and Medicham, nothing can safely switch in without taking a huge chunk of damage. Tyranitar has the advantage of outspeeding most of its counters: Water Pokémon like Milotic and Vaporeon, and some slow Heracross. Its moves compliment each other really well—Skarmory does not like boosted Rock Slides or Focus Punches, and Claydol is owned by Hidden Power Bug, which also OHKOs Celebi. While this Tyranitar is a monster at dealing damage, be wary that without Leftovers, Tyranitar might fall to Normal or Flying hits sooner or later. Alternately, you can EV your Tyranitar to be slow but bulky, with the theory that you may be able to outspeed those Water-types with more Speed, but you will still be slower than most other Pokémon, and a max HP Tyranitar can survive a Choice Band Earthquake from Salamence, Metagross, or enemy Tyranitar, and OHKO them back if they aren't using a similarly bulky spread (Salamence doesn't stand a chance to survive).
You need to predict well to know when to switch this in, preferably on a Skarmory that's trying to Spike, or a low health Blissey that you know is going to heal and not status you. Then, if it's early in the battle, you should probably just attack, since if you straight-up Dragon Dance, Claydol or Swampert can come out and wall you. You should only Dragon Dance when you're sure your opponent doesn't have one of these counters, but when you find this out, you're ready to do some serious sweeping, by Taunting away attempts to Haze, Leech Seed, or status you in general. Other than the standard Taunt, there's Substitute which is arguably better against Weezing and Venusaur, while still easy to set up against Blissey. The fact that you do not own Skarmory as much isn't a huge concern, a Dragon Danced Rock Slide will still screw it up and Skarmory cannot do much back. Aerial Ace completely decimates Breloom, Hariyama, Heracross, Machamp, and Medicham, who can all survive most of Tyranitar's assaults and OHKO him, so that's an option, as well.
Crunch 2HKOs Celebi and Claydol, OHKOs Starmie and Gengar and nearly 2HKOs Donphan (Spikes and / or Special Defense down means it loses). With paralysis support, it's easy to Thunderbolt Waters into oblivion as it will do in the ~43% range. Any sort of special wall will be met with a swift Focus Punch and death.
The type combinations of its attack mean that only Nidoking and Nidoqueen resist the moveset. Not as powerful as the other sets, but if used right will take at least one Pokémon down with it. Swampert is going to hate taking max Attack Focus Punches. Other OptionsCurse is novelty at best, but it's a decent move and Tyranitar learns it. Pursuit can put the pain on Alakazam and other Psychic retards. Flamethrower is nice for Forretress, Heracross, Metagross, and Steelix, in addition to hitting Skarmory. Ice Beam is a better idea than you'd think—go ahead and stay out, Salamence—it can make Donphan less of a counter, too, as well as hit Pokémon like Breloom and Flygon if they feel like switching in. Roar is only if you need some kind of normal resisting Roarer; Tyranitar can take a hit really well. Hidden Power Grass is Tyranitar's only way to defeat Swampert by itself if you don't want to wear it down slowly, but note that it will not OHKO anyway. Counter is a nasty, nasty surprise for Earthquakes if you can survive them. Tyranitar can 2HKO virtually any counter after a Screech. EVsTyraniboah should be Quiet, with EVs as such: 252 HP, 68 Speed, 188 Special Attack. Boah should be neither Mild nor Rash. You want it to be somewhat able to take a Surf from, for example, a Suicune that's at 44% or lower, because if it decides to stay in and Surf you, you will have killed it with the help of Sand Stream. From a 300 Special Attack Tyraniboah, Thunderbolt does a minimum of 38% damage to a 266 Special Defense Suicune—hardly anyone gives Suicune initial Special Defense so it's going to die to Thunderbolt...unless you're Rash, in which case, after your Substitute is broken, you stand a good chance of getting OHKOed by Surf depending on how much Special Attack Suicune has, since you're not at full HP after the Substitute. Further, if you're Mild, then crap like Aerodactyl's Double-Edge can break your Substitute if it does max damage, and a 300 attack Snorlax will break your Substitute every single time with Return / Frustration. Moreover, Metagross has a great chance to OHKO with non-Choice Band Meteor Mash, whereas with Quiet it needs absolute maximum damage (same for Choice Band Salamence / Metagross / Tyranitar Earthquake and Adamant Dugtrio). Dragon Dance Tyranitar should run 200 (Adamant), 221 (Adamant and max Speed) or 243 Speed (Jolly and max Speed). This is to ensure you outspeed everything after Dragon Dancing twice. 200 Speed beats any 100 base speed Pokémon that do not use a +Speed nature after one Dragon Dance. 221 Speed beats all 100 base Speed Pokémon, regardless of their nature. 243 Speed helps to beat Adamant Dugtrio and any Starmie and Raikou. If you're using Substitute, you will want max HP, as that gives you a 101 HP Substitute, which doesn't break from Seismic Toss / Night Shade. Choice Band Tyranitar can run max Speed and Attack with either Jolly or Adamant, or you can go for a more defensive shift. A fast version helps to win against Metagross, Suicune and Milotic, for example. Like with Boah and Substitute / Dragon Dance Tyranitar, the all-out attacker should have max HP. A little Speed is welcome to beat Weezing (no need to use more than 20 EVs, Weezing is usually around 158 Speed), and the rest should be in Attack. OpinionTyranitar is the most feared Pokémon today, as well it should be. All sets are capable of sweeping your opponent, in completely different styles as well. If you haven't created your team with Tyranitar in mind, you are asking to get beaten down severely. It can beat you with either physical or special moves easier than any other non-uber Pokémon, and that alone should open your eyes to its destructive power. CountersThe key to countering Tyranitar is finding out his set, then sending the appropriate Pokémon. This can be hard, because Tyranitar's movepool is massive and he has the ability to hurt his would-be counters pretty badly. Swampert comes in easily on all versions of Tyranitar except Hidden Power Grass ones, and is your best bet for a counter. Flygon can beat up most Tyranitar with his STAB Earthquake and type advantage to Thunderbolt, Rock Slide and Earthquake, but he'll be hard-pressed to take Focus Punches and Crunches from Tyraniboah. Donphan can take on Dragon Dance Tyranitar, provided it does not carry Ice Beam. The same goes for Breloom, except Breloom fears Tyraniboah a little less—he's only afraid of Focus Punch. If you want a specific counter for Tyraniboah, use Light Screen Zapdos. Try to come in on Focus Punch, Thunderbolt or Substitute since Crunch will still hurt. Throw up a Light Screen and it won't be able to do much damage at all to Zapdos. Alternately, Rest Talk Zapdos will also wall Tyraniboah with some defensive-oriented EVs. Some people have used Double Kick on Blaziken to break Tyranitar's Substitute and kill him, but experience shows that Tyranitar will end up predicting Blaziken and Focus Punching him into submission. Hitmontop with Triple Kick is a more reliable bet since it's resistant to Crunch, it Intimidates on the switch-in to prevent Focus Punch from killing it, and Thunderbolt doesn't do much to his massive Special Defense. Heracross is a risky bet for countering Tyranitar. A Sleep Talking version will easily defeat Tyraniboah (thanks to Crunch and Focus Punch resistance), but you'll be hard-pressed to stay alive against the Dragon Dancer, and Rock Slide could still flinch you in a pinch. Dugtrio sometimes OHKOs Tyranitar if he's Adamant, but you should never switch it in unless you're sure you can survive its onslaught and take it out before Tyranitar takes out Dugtrio (this means you do not switch it into a Jolly Tyranitar using Dragon Dance, or when Tyranitar uses Substitute). It's not really a counter, but it's better coverage than nothing. In short, if it's a Dragon Dancer, Flygon, Swampert, Donphan, Claydol, or Suicune. If it's a Boah, Zapdos, Swampert, Jirachi. If there is any doubt, just go to Swampert, although Suicune can still take on Boah fairly well. Choice Band Tyranitar can hurt all of these guys, so you really want to try and predict what move it's using and switch in a resistant Pokémon. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
