Better coverage?
Togekiss and Tyrantrum are both weak to Steel :o
On one side, Dragon Claw has better neutral coverage than Ice Fang, being resisted by one type, immune to one type, and hitting the rest either neutrally or super effectively. So if you are looking for neutral coverage, then feel free to go Dragon Claw. However Ice Fang has better super effective coverage(Drag, Flying, Ground, Grass) while being resisted by four (Steel, Fire, Ice, Water). So if you want better super effective coverage, Ice Fang wins out. It is worth noting that Ice Fang can hit more things for 4x super effective damage while it is impossible for Dragon Claw to exceed 2x super effective and that's just on one type. That makes both in the end equally viable depending on what you need. One thing I think people have not mentioned is that it was not uncommon for Garchomp to run Yache Berry in Gen 5. If this remains true this Gen, then Dragon Claw is the superior option for coverage against Garchomp who resists Tyrantrum's rock STAB.
I am actually seeing the combination of Tyrantrum, Togekiss, and Skarmory for a decent core. Tyrantrum fears both strong physical attackers such as Scizor and Terrakion as well as faster Dragon types. Togekiss is able to wall and beat out Dragons, while Skarmory can successfully wall out many Physical attackers. On top of that Togekiss has access to Paralysis via Thunder-wave and Body Slam which can help Tyrantrum in cases where grabing a DD or RockPolish boost isnt possible.
Hence why I said it was a decent core and that Skarmory walls many and not all physical attackers. I was a big user of Lucario gen 5 and I know the power he has after a Swords Dance being able to OHKO Skarmory after Stealth Rocks. If you want to end up rounding up the core, physically defensive Hippowdon can both beat Lucario(I think, he was able to beat the regular, not sure about the mega) as well as provide Sand which Tyrantrum can get a boost in special defense from. It may have one counter, but after he is eliminated, I feel the core can handle itself decently well.
Right now with Strong Jaw I believe Tyrantrum is decent. I do not think it will be OU with it being weak fighting and dragon which were common attack types last gen and weak to fairy types which seem like they will be common this gen. That being said I think this thing will have its niche in OU either as a Head Smashing scarfer or as a set up cleaner abusing coverage with the elemental fangs. Tyrantrum will really be able to shine once it gets his hidden ability, Rock Head. Although only seen in game on opposing Tyrantrum's, the fact that they have Rock Head leads me to believe that he will eventually be released for us to use. On top of that with the tutors that usually come in the third game installments, Tyrantrum has a good chance of getting Outrage. With these additions, Tyrantrum can get strong reliable STAB options that will allow him to sweep more efficiently without depending on Fangs for coverage. Will he be OU? I still dont think so. Mega Tyranitar basically does his job better, having the same speed and running Rock Polish and Dragon Dance sets. On top of that he has superior bulk especially by summoning sandstorm. However since one mega is allowed per team, I think Tyrantrum will come to play when you want something like Mega Tyranitar but want to use another mega. Even with this Tyrantrum may have trouble getting that turn of set up. Almost every offensive Pokemon last gen in OU will not allow him the turn of set up that he desperately wants. If this gen diversifies the metagame like people hope with the addition of new Pokemon and Fairy type, then maybe Tyrantrum may find a few Pokemon where he can be granted this set up. One example I can think of is Talonflame. Although he is a powerful Pokemon with a unique ability to grant priority to flying type moves, if his remains popular in the new metagame he can be completely walled by Tyrantrum. This will give him that turn of set up he desperately wants, and once that happens(assuming you have eliminated his checks and counters) he can really shine. As I explained in an earlier post, Tyrantrum holds a niche of the only Dragon apart from Kyurem-B to reliably beat both Togekiss and Skarmory after a boost. However this is all assuming he does eventually get Rock Head and to a lesser extent Outrage and even then, I could be completely wrong, no one can really tell. But it does certainly look like there is potential in him, more so than Rampardos.
Nice team (although I'm disappointed with the lack of Pangoro lol). I use all newbies too so that's fine.
The only thing that could really negate recoil damage is rock head or sitrus berry. I see your point though, but I'm just not sure how far one could go at +1 with no moves exceeding 100 base BP. Perhaps a bulky RP set with leftovers to help him live longer
Rock head negates recoil. Easy as pie.
Yea I completely agree with you, I posted some calcs here earlier of how even with full defensive investment he is still taking heavy damage from super effective hits, enough to 2HKO him most of the time. In UU Heracross and Mienshao can easily beat a defensive set. I think although his defenses on the physical side seem good, his typing give him too many weaknesses to abuse it. His seems to primarily be a Choiced user or set up sweeper, maybe even a Focus Sash lead, but with Defog that doesn't seem likely. Even though ground will remain a common attack type, I think it is too early to say if Fighting will be as common as it was last gen with the buffs to Ghost type and the intro of Fairy type. Of course it will still be used but I some teams may not run multiple Fighting types anymore and maybe will Fighting type will fall a little as an effective coverage option on some Pokemon. This is all assumption though, I think its too early to tell what type or type attacks will dominate Gen 6 metagame.
I wasn't suggesting that it would replace Skarmory in OU, I'm saying that it could be decent at performing Skarmory's role in lower tiers. Set up and shuffle.
I appreciate the creativity. If this were Tyrantrum's best set, he would probably end up ru. I think with his sweeping options he will be uu, they r more of his niche. Nice set though
