The Wrath of Tyranitar
Hi. I'm Dark Paladin7 and this is my first post. I have been into competitive battling for about six months and I thought it was time to join smogon. This is the most successful team that I have made so far. It revolves around a dragon dance tyranitar sweep. I have been playing with it quite a bit and overall I have been impressed with the results. However, I know that this team has the potential to do better than it is already. I have always wanted to try out using a dragon dance tyranitar, but I have been too lazy to make a team. I was finally inspired to make a team when I saw a rmt by darkartisan called a tyranitar for christmas. Since it's my first post, I may have made a few mistakes so bear with me.
The Team
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Azelf @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 184 Atk/72 SAtk/252 Spd
Naive nature (+Spd -SDef)
Fire Blast
Explosion
Taunt
Stealth Rock
Azelf is easily one of the best leads I have ever used. The thing that I love about it most is how effectively it can use taunt. You may notice the lack of stab on it, and that is because I don't believe it is neccesary for it to have Psychic. I originally ran it, but I found myself never using it. The Evs make it so Azelf will always be able to 2ko a max Hp occa berry metagross lead. It's fairly standard so there's not much else to say about it.
Latias @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP/252 SAtk/184 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd -Atk)
Dragon Pulse
Hidden Power Fire
Recover
Grass Knot
Latias is my lure for scizor. I tried other pokemon for this position such as gengar and celebi, but latias worked out the best. Dragon Pulse is for stab and Grass Knot is to hit tyranitar and swampert, as well as other bulky waters. I usually try to bring her out early so I can eliminate it quickly. This is the best latias set I have used, and it works great with the team. The Evs are so that I can outrun base 100's and the pokemon that try to outrun them. I don't run max speed because with HP Fire lowering my speed, I don't see much point in running max speed.
Gyarados @ Leftovers/Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP/132 Def/128 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def -SAtk)
Waterfall
Dragon Dance
Rest
Sleep Talk
Gyarados functions as my second set up sweeper while simultainiously being my check to many threats such as lucario, scizor, and heatran. I chose the rest talking set for two reasons, 1 it has always been one of my favorite sets of gyarados, and 2 when stealth rock is up it normally dies very quickly, so a rest talking gyrados can easily recover off the damage. I normally use leftovers, but there have been a couple times where its lack of power has killed me. I tried some attack Evs, but unless you put in quite a bit, they don't really do anything and I have also died due to lack of bulk.
Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP/176 Atk/72 SDef/8 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk -SAtk)
Meteor Mash
Earthquake
Pursuit/Explosion
Thunderpunch
I used to have scizor in this spot, but I decided that this would work so much better. The only thing I miss is U-turn and stab technition bullet punch. This helps me with my gyarados weakness so much. In fact, that was the main reason I switched in the first place. I found the Evs from one of the metagross on one of my older teams so I can't remember exactly what they do. Max HP is obvious, and the 176 Atk gets a bonus point from Adamant, but I can't remember exactly what it kills. Meteor Mash for stab, Earthquake for coverage, thunderpunch for gyarados, and I am unsure whether to use pursuit or explosion, both work good. If someone has a better Ev spread, please tell me.
Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner focus
EVs: 28 Atk/252 Atk/228 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd -SDef)
Close Combat
Extremespeed
Hidden Power Ice
Dark Pulse
Not what you were expecting right? This right here is my MVP. Mixcario is such an underrated threat. I found this set in the creative moveset forum. I used to run Thunderpunch, but Extremespeed was way to good to pass up. This set is a major surprise and is great to get rid of his, and tyranitar's counters. In all honesty, this thing has made more sweeps that tyranitar, though his speed has held him back at times. Close Combat is just an amazing attack, especially with stab, extremespeed for priority, and HP Ice and Dark Pulse are great against its counter's. It can 2ko celebi,rotom, and hippowdon, and it Ohko's gliscor. Sometimes I run HP Grass for Swampert though. If anyone has a better Ev spread feel free to post it.
Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 48 HP/208 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd -SAtk)
Stone Edge
Crunch
Dragon Dance
Earthquake
This is the tyranitar set that Crunchatize Me suggested. It helps me out with stall a lot using taunt to stop status and recovery. It is an extremely capable sweeper, easily getting a dragon dance or two, and sweeping their team. It works especially well with lucario to beat stall, as I usually use lucario's physical attacks to lure out rotoms, letting tyranitar set up. It is also the best version of ddtar I have ever used.
Team Building
First, I needed a sweeper that can easily tear through teams and set up. Tyranitar was the natural choice, as I had wanting to make a team based on him for a while.
To support tyranitar, I needed something to get rid of scizor. I thought that a lure was the most effective way to do this, so I had three choices, latias, gengar, and celebi. From past experiance, I knew that gengar and latias work best. Out of the two I chose latias, as it could get rid of swampert and other tyranitar, and had more chances to switch in.
From there, I wanted another sweeper that works well with tyranitar, checks many different pokemon, including scizor in case latias failed, and could sweep on its own. Gyarados seemed like the best option, as gyarados and tyranitar beat eachother's counters, and because it could be used as a check to many threats.
After that, I always like to have a mixed sweeper, as it helps so much against stall. I also wanted a steel type as I had a lot of weaknesses i needed to cover. After brousing through the creative moveset thread, I found a mixcario set. I instantly loved it.
Since lucario is very frail, I needed another steel-type on my team. It didn't take me to long just to slap a banded scizor on the team and call it good. Its U-Turn was extremely helpful, as was its bullet punch. It also provided a counter to many threats, such as salamence.
Lastly,I needed a lead. I tried a few out untill I tried out azelf. It was amazing. It was almost garantied to get out rocks and it could taunt other leads. It had explosion to use on leads and later in the game, if it survives. Basically, I use it because it is very good at its role.
After playing with the team a lot, scizor was doing good, but not amazing. It made me even more gyarados weak than I already was and overall it just fit in. Overall, it was very good at what it did, but I needed something different. I chose metagross because it checked everything that scizor did, but it fit better with the team, with thunderpunch and non-choiced pursuit and a rock resist, it just worked better.
Other Facts about the team
The title says it all, other random aspects of the team.
The title says it all, other random aspects of the team.
First, I resist every type twice, except electric.
Only one pokemon on the team is weak to stealth rocks, three take normal damage from them, and two pokemon resist stealth rocks, one of them a 4x resist. Only three pokemon are affected by spikes, and only one pokemon is affected by toxic spikes, and he has a lum berry.
Threats
Due to time constraints, I don't have the time to make a comprehensive threat list, so I will just list off the pokemon that give this team trouble.
I apoligise that I don't have the time to make a complete threat list, if I have time, I will post one later. No promises though.
Red is when it gives me a lot of trouble
Green if they are just a nuisance.
-Gyarados:
This thing can sweep my whole team with little resistance. I can sometimes play around it, and metagross helps a lot, but once it gets a dd or two, there is not much I can do to stop it.
-Zapdos:
Although it can't sweep my team, it is annoying to deal with. It can easily beat gyarados, metagross, and lucario. If latias is gone, I use tyranitar, but I prefer not to if i can avoid it.
-Vaporeon:
It walls most of my team. Metagross helps beat it with thunderpunch, but other than that, there is little that i can do to stop it. Its base 110 SAtk doesn't help much either.
-Metagross:
Other than latias, nothing can really stop it. If latias is down, it usually falls to gyarados to stop it. Although half the time they have thunderpunch and kill me.
-Salamence:
DD ones are the only ones that give me trouble, I can play around the other ones, but if it gets a dd, unless metagross has most of his health, I usually get swept. Lucario's extremespeed helps too, as well as stone edge from tyranitar, but it usually dies to salamence.
I apoligise that I don't have the time to make a complete threat list, if I have time, I will post one later. No promises though.
Red is when it gives me a lot of trouble
Green if they are just a nuisance.
-Gyarados:
This thing can sweep my whole team with little resistance. I can sometimes play around it, and metagross helps a lot, but once it gets a dd or two, there is not much I can do to stop it.
-Zapdos:
Although it can't sweep my team, it is annoying to deal with. It can easily beat gyarados, metagross, and lucario. If latias is gone, I use tyranitar, but I prefer not to if i can avoid it.
-Vaporeon:
It walls most of my team. Metagross helps beat it with thunderpunch, but other than that, there is little that i can do to stop it. Its base 110 SAtk doesn't help much either.
-Metagross:
Other than latias, nothing can really stop it. If latias is down, it usually falls to gyarados to stop it. Although half the time they have thunderpunch and kill me.
-Salamence:
DD ones are the only ones that give me trouble, I can play around the other ones, but if it gets a dd, unless metagross has most of his health, I usually get swept. Lucario's extremespeed helps too, as well as stone edge from tyranitar, but it usually dies to salamence.
Conclusion
This team is the most successful and fun team I have ever made, and I am asking you to make it better. Rate it, hate it, or steal it (preferably rate it
). I thank you in advance.
This team is the most successful and fun team I have ever made, and I am asking you to make it better. Rate it, hate it, or steal it (preferably rate it
). I thank you in advance. 
