Gyarados on a Rampage

[Saphi]

Welcome To


Gyarados on a Rampage

Introduction:

Gyarados has always been one of my favorite pokemons since Generation I. Although he is considered OU,
this poor little Seadrake hasn't seen much usage overall. So one sleepless night I decided to build a team around him.
This team has proven to be pretty successful on Pokemon Online so far, but it still has it's flaws that I hope you guys can help to remove.
I am not the kind that care about a Ranking too much, but I believe that this team could achieve a good place if I actually wanted to.
Anyway without further speeches, the team.

Team Building Process:

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Obviously, I started with Gyarados as he is the Pokemon this team is build around.
Gyarados has a terrible weakness to

and also

, so I partnered him with two pokemons who loves to take these.

While I got both an awesome special and physical wall that works pretty well with Gyarados, neither of them can take powerful

-Type moves too well.
In fact, OU is flooded with Dragons that are all so ridiculously powerful, that one absoltuely needs

-Types.

Now all I needed was a potent RevengeKiller. While I first glanced at Infernape as I just love this Ape so much,
the addition of another

wasn't necessary and his frailness is just terrible for a team without a Rapid Spinner. Scarf Mien Shao served the role way better.

While testing, I realized that without a Rapid Spinner, bulky

-Types proves to be a real nuisance. Also Jirachi wasn't too useful to this team,
so I decided to change him to a Magnezone.

Now just to put them in the correct orderas below:

Sets + Descriptions:

Dat Weasel (Mienshao) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- U-turn
- Hi Jump Kick
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Stone Edge

Please explain to us this set and what role he play in your team:

I believe the set is pretty much selfexplanatory, so I skip that part.
Mien Shao is this teams RevengeKiller as he outspeeds dangerous threats such as

at +1 easily and pack the right move to
kill them either with one hit or with some prior damage right of the bat. He is also part of the Voltturn-Strategy that also somehow found it's place in this team.
I found it very important to have a RevengerKiller that doesn't care too much about entry hazards.
Mien Shao is also my only pokemon that carries a

-Type move, which is still very important against

.

Dat Seadrake (Gyarados) (M) @ Leftovers

Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Substitute
- Bounce

Again, please explain:

Gyarados is what made me make this team and he is just as badass as he looks like.
I decided to use an offensive DD variant with 3 moves instead of a bulky one. While a lot of you must find it strange to use a Gyarados
without any form of selfprotection like bulk or Taunt/Substitute and even without a RapidSpinner
despite being weak to the common Stealth Rocks, you have to understand his role.
Gyarados is not a pokemon to be brought in constantly and be switched out. You bring him in once and sweep the enemy team.
Or at least do so much damage to them, that they can't avoid defeat. Therefore it is very important to know when you can actually bring him in.
I sound like an expert, but I often fail at this :p.

Are we allowed to make changes on your main pokemon?

You are very welcome to do so :D. Stone Edge is probably superior to Earthquake as a coverage move
but I really hate this move as I always seem to miss when it is crucial :S.
GameFreak, please tell me why does this thing don't get Crunch
despite having a mouth this big? o.O

Dat Lamp (Lanturn) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Volt Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Scald
- Toxic
- Heal Bell

This is some pretty low TIER pokemon!

Yeah, but it is the glue that my team needed. While it is not as tanky as

and not as hardhitting as

and also lacks a liable recover move,
it gets rid of certain threats that my team absolute don't want to face.
The biggest one is

who is probably the greatest counter to Gyarados.
Lanturn can take anything it throws at him and poison/T-Bolt it.
T-Bolt also cleanly 2HKO's bulky

who is another threat to Gyarados.
Heal Bell is absolutely crucial to get rid of status moves that Gyarados, Mien Shao hates like the pest.
And finally with the Toxic/Heal Bell combination, Lanturn wins stall wars.

Other options?

is definitely worth considering. They can also remove status, inflict status but packs a recover move.
The only issue I have is that Lanturn has pretty good STABs that often times gave me the edge to win games.

Dat Magnet (Magnezone) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Magnet Pull
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon


...

Where is that interviewer off to? Anyway, Magnezone is my answer to pesky Steel Types that are really annoying to deal with. Especially

fears nothing from my team and sets hazards and Leech Seed up like a boss.
Magnezone is only there for that purpose, therefore a Substitute set is not needed, so I opted to go for the Choice Scarf set to boost his terrible Speed stat and the Voltturn-Strategie.
Rain Dance is very questionable, but sometimes it is useful as it helps Gyarados hitting even harder.

Dat Tiger (Landorus-T) (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 200 HP / 64 Atk / 244 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

I'm back. Oh a Tiger!

And what an important one. Landorus-T is my physical wall and also Stealth Rock user. No team should play without Stealth Rocks!
He is my prime

counter. He also laughs in the face of

, who is a big threat to my team.
And he ease the match-up against sand teams by a lot.

Dat Vulcan (Heatran) (M) @ Air Balloon
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 232 HP / 252 SAtk / 24 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Lava Plume
- Toxic
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Earth Power


Finally the last one. Sorry if I am rude, but you talk way too much!

I appreciate the fact you made it until here :). Heatran is another good check to

, the scenario that usually occures is that I switch in Landy-T as an answer to Dragonite as he Dragon Dances. Now there could be 3 scenarios:

1. He switches out. Good for me.
2. He goes for another Dragon Dance as I go for the Stone Edge and hopefully don't miss. He goes for the Outrage which will 2HKO not Full HP Landy-T, which he usually isn't. Anyway I have the chance to get the 2nd Stone Edge off. If I missed one of them, Heatran comes in and Revenge, as he can easily take Outrages.
3. He goes directly for the Outrage. Well, just switch Heatran in.

For that purpose, I decided to use an Modest 252 SpA Heatran with the Bulk Invest in Health. HP Ice and Earthpower are pretty selfexplanatory, Lava Plume is in my personal opinion better than Fire Blast (hate the accuracy) or Flamethrower, simply because with Max SpA Heatran hits anything that he can hit with an Fire-Move hard enough and the 30% Burn is invaluable for crippling common switch-ins (

,

). I know I have Toxic for that purpose, but sometimes, you don't want to overpredict against Steel-types.


Heatran is also my Nr. 1 Sun Teams Counter. Without him, I would be complete fodder to Chlorophyll Sweepers.

Toxic is for

who can Taunt my Lanturn. Heatran can take at least 2 Scalds so the chance to poison Jellicent is pretty good.


So I hope you enjoyed my team! :) Please take part in the poll and thanks in advance for rating my team :).


​

 

[Garchomp for president]

First of all never, ever, run a mixed set. Especially on miensio. Two words physical based. Also instead of lanturn use Garchomp over lanturn as its speed is to reckon with. Try this set

Garchomp@Life orb
Trait:Rough skin
Sword dance
Outrage
earthquake
Stone edge/ rock slide
Nature :Adamant Evs : 252ATK/4DEF/252SpE

also this set pairs nicely with garados.

 

[Saphi]

@Garchomp for President: I wonder if you actually read through what I wrote. But anyway, I am going to reply. First of all, HP Ice is very important on Scarfed MienShao in order not to get completely walled by the likes of Gliscor and Landorus-T. Especially for People who lead with LandoT, they will take a huge chunk as they SetUp Stealth Rocks and from there you can easily predict a switch.

Secondly, while Garchomp sounds like a good partner for Gyarados, he is actually not. As I mentioned, Rotom-W is Gyarados greatest counter in OU and Garchomp can't take WoW or Hydro Pumps at all. Lanturn for walling Rotom-W, Starmie, Gengar etc.etc. + removing any status is too crucial. As I said the only ones worth to be considering as a replacement are Chansey and Blissey, but I like how Lanturn can hit pretty hard with his DUAL STABs.


Anyway thanks 4 the Rate.

 

[TransparentOpacity]

Your team looks really weak to ground. Dugtrio can trap and kill 3 of your pokemon. I would change Heatran for ferrothorn. I'd give ferrothorn stealth rocks so that landorus could run HP ice. If you don't like rain dance on magnezone, you can give it flash cannon and hit things like Mamoswine and dragons harder.

 

[Garchomp for president]

But what I'm asking is why even stay in on a gliscor? I would u turn out as soon as I would see him

 

[Saphi]

@TransparentOpacity: Ok, i feel like an idiot right now for realizing that Magnezone actually learns Flash Cannon^^. When I made Magnezone I actually looked for that move and couldnt find it, so I thought he couldn't learn it. I blame PO for not listing this move as avaible on the german client! Immediately changed.

Dugtrio is basically only a problem for Magnezone, but I am willing to take it, because Ferrothorn is one annoying bi***. He can't OHKO Lanturn at Full HP, while Lanturn can OHKO back with Scald after Stealth Rock damage. I could use an EV Spread of 248 HP, 108 SpA and 152 SpD to OHKO him even if Stealth Rocks are not up though, but probably not worth it.

I can't switch Heatran to Ferrothorn, because that would make my team losing automatically to every Sun team out there. And Ferrothorn is basically SetUp Fodder for DDance Nite while Heatran can easily take Outrages and check it with HP Ice.

But what I'm asking is why even stay in on a gliscor? I would u turn out as soon as I would see him

Yeah u won't stay in when he is 100% HP but you can KO him if he is at lower health. Oh, and HP Ice is also good at killing some Dragons out there, when you don't want to rely on that stupid 80% hit chance of Stone Edge. I really do always miss it when it is crucial -.-°. My Mien Shao isn't even Mixed, it just carries a Coverage Move because it's base SpA is not too shabby.

 

[soviet]

Hey, this is a pretty cool team and I like Gyarados a lot but I notice two really big weaknesses to your team that really need to be addressed and those are Rock Polish Landorus and Keldeo. You might thing Gyarados does a good enough job countering them but unfortunately that really isnt the case since you will be taking 25% every time you switch in as you don't have a spinner. To remedy this I suggest using Latias over Lanturn. This will help patch up the weakness to Landorus as well as give you the same resistances that lanturn did (mainly Water / Electric) as well as being a little more offensive.

Latias Set

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Recover

Another thing I noticed is that your Gyarados set isn't that optimal. Earthquake is rather redundant as anything hit by that is generally hit hard by Waterfall as well so you can drop that for Substitute. Some of the advantages sub brings on Gyarados is that you can block status, set up on weak attacks, and set up on Rotom-w as they generally only have Volt Switch as the electric move. I also find Intimidate to be a better option on Dragon Dance Gyarados as it lets you check physical attackers as well as weaken them to set up better, but if you are really in love with Moxie it can be used.

Gyarados Set

Gyarados (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 56 HP / 248 Atk / 204 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bounce
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall

After these changes your team looks slightly weak to a well played fire type pokemon such as Heatran, Volcarona, or sun teams in general (and even before it did) so I recommend changing your Scarf Mienshao to a Scarf Terrakion. This retains the ability to be an excellent revenge killer as well as hitting hard and checking sun teams better.

Terrakion Set

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide

 

[jpw234]

HP Ice is standard on Mienshao, don't listen to the other poster on that issue. My only nitpick would be if you're running an offensive Heatran you should run Fire Blast, not Lava Plume. You'll see a very notable damage increase which is more important than the burn chance. If you're really worried about accuracy, use Flamethrower.

 

[Saphi]

Hey, this is a pretty cool team and I like Gyarados a lot but I notice two really big weaknesses to your team that really need to be addressed and those are Rock Polish Landorus and Keldeo. You might thing Gyarados does a good enough job countering them but unfortunately that really isnt the case since you will be taking 25% every time you switch in as you don't have a spinner. To remedy this I suggest using Latias over Lanturn. This will help patch up the weakness to Landorus as well as give you the same resistances that lanturn did (mainly Water / Electric) as well as being a little more offensive.

Latias Set

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Surf
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Recover

Another thing I noticed is that your Gyarados set isn't that optimal. Earthquake is rather redundant as anything hit by that is generally hit hard by Waterfall as well so you can drop that for Substitute. Some of the advantages sub brings on Gyarados is that you can block status, set up on weak attacks, and set up on Rotom-w as they generally only have Volt Switch as the electric move. I also find Intimidate to be a better option on Dragon Dance Gyarados as it lets you check physical attackers as well as weaken them to set up better, but if you are really in love with Moxie it can be used.

Gyarados Set

Gyarados (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 56 HP / 248 Atk / 204 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Bounce
- Substitute
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall

After these changes your team looks slightly weak to a well played fire type pokemon such as Heatran, Volcarona, or sun teams in general (and even before it did) so I recommend changing your Scarf Mienshao to a Scarf Terrakion. This retains the ability to be an excellent revenge killer as well as hitting hard and checking sun teams better.

Terrakion Set

Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- X-Scissor
- Rock Slide

Hey Soviet, thanks for this awesome rate!
I actually tried the Substitute set and even though it sucks being at 56% health only after Stealth Rock dmg and a Sub, it works really well against Rotom-W, who was giving me headaches. I still prefer the Moxie variant, once you get it going you are just unstoppable :D

Until now I was kinda fortunate enough not having to face any Rock Polish Landorus, but thanks for addressing him as a threat. I still love my Lanturn for being able to cure any status ailments. I guess I have to try that out and experiment with it a bit.

The only thing I don't like is replacing Mien Shao with Terrakion :D. I just love how Mien Shao ignores entry hazards and provide my team with the U-Turn Strategie. Plus it's so fun to hit Landy-T, Gliscors on the switch with an HP Ice <3

@jpw234: I would never use Fire Blast, just hate the accuracy, I always miss D: I was kinda tired when I wrote this RMT yesterday, would have never thought that I would actually spend over 2 hours writing on this, so I will add some more details explaining this particular Heatrans' set, so you guys can understand my choice better.

Edit: Heatran Description updated!

 

[Saphi]

Bumping this up to get more Ratings!

 

[Okeado]

Running lanturn without volt switch is running lanturn as a suicide mission. Do the right thing man, give it volt switch.

 

[deadflame]

True

Running lanturn without volt switch is running lanturn as a suicide mission. Do the right thing man, give it volt switch.

He's a got a good point. Always have a way out.

 

[Saphi]

Running lanturn without volt switch is running lanturn as a suicide mission. Do the right thing man, give it volt switch.

He's a got a good point. Always have a way out.

I don't know if I should take that nonsense seriously. I guess I just ignore it...

 

[chimpact]

This is a pretty good team, and its definitely nice to see some uncommon pokemon like Gyara and lanturn.

I'm curious as to why you're not running Volt Switch on lanturn as well. It gives you a lot of momentum and you're running multiple u-turn/volt switching pokemon so it would only make sense. Thunderbolt might be stronger, but you don't really lose out on a turn from volt switching into a ground type. The only one that would probably switch in on lanturn would be gastro and that does not appreciate a toxic. I would definitely advise against replacing lanturn with pink blobs because they will not help you gain any momentum and are just asking to be set up on.

Additionally, Magnezone only has one purpose on the team and it seems like Forretress could also fit that role as well. It handles Skarm/Ferrothorn by being able to spin and actually set up on them. It also has volt switch and it's another answer to Terrakion to your team and an emergency answer to dragonite with sturdy intact. I'm not sure if you actually need spikes support on this team so if you do decide to put Forretress on your team, you can give it Stealth Rock. This frees up a slot on Landorus so you can give it Taunt or SD to make it more versatile.

Lastly, on Landorus-T, giving it 196 hp evs is the most efficient way to heal leftovers and the extra 4 can just go boost your defenses.

Good luck with your team!

 

[Saphi]

This is a pretty good team, and its definitely nice to see some uncommon pokemon like Gyara and lanturn.

I'm curious as to why you're not running Volt Switch on lanturn as well. It gives you a lot of momentum and you're running multiple u-turn/volt switching pokemon so it would only make sense. Thunderbolt might be stronger, but you don't really lose out on a turn from volt switching into a ground type. The only one that would probably switch in on lanturn would be gastro and that does not appreciate a toxic. I would definitely advise against replacing lanturn with pink blobs because they will not help you gain any momentum and are just asking to be set up on.

Additionally, Magnezone only has one purpose on the team and it seems like Forretress could also fit that role as well. It handles Skarm/Ferrothorn by being able to spin and actually set up on them. It also has volt switch and it's another answer to Terrakion to your team and an emergency answer to dragonite with sturdy intact. I'm not sure if you actually need spikes support on this team so if you do decide to put Forretress on your team, you can give it Stealth Rock. This frees up a slot on Landorus so you can give it Taunt or SD to make it more versatile.

Lastly, on Landorus-T, giving it 196 hp evs is the most efficient way to heal leftovers and the extra 4 can just go boost your defenses.

Good luck with your team!

Hi Chimpakt,

ok i should have explained about not running Volt Switch on Lanturn. It is nice to have an additional source of volturning and it does keep momentum against people switching out but Lanturn often times doesn't want to switch out. He is my only reliable stay-in to almost any special atacks and Thunderbolt is a clean 2HKO against Starmie, having 2 atacks makes SubDisable Gengar useless. Also I often times find it much more useful to status inflict the opposing switch in instead of switching out.

Thanks for the hint of the right EVs for Landorus, I shall change that immediately.

And lastly, Magnezone's role in this team is invaluable. While Ferrothorn deals with pesky SRs that Gyarados hates, he is absolutely not an answer to Dragonite, just setup fodder except for red card variants which you don't need because I have 3 answers to D-Nites already. Also Ferrothorn is a big threat to my team, because it is able to wall nearly my entire team except Heatran and Mien Shao who are so easy to predict.

Thanks for the Rating!