Monotype Gyarados (Flying) [QC 2/2] [GP 0/1]

[SET]
name: Dragon Dance Sweeper (Flying)
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Waterfall
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Power Whip
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Intimidate
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Thanks to its Water typing and the combination of Power Whip and Earthquake, Gyarados sets itself apart from other Flying-types as the best option to tackle Fire and Water teams. After a Dragon Dance, Gyarados OHKOes almost every Water-type with Power Whip and can beat Toxapex one-on-one. Because Water teams are typically good at setting Stealth Rock against Flying, it is important to give Gyarados Heavy-Duty Boots in order to make sure it is as healthy as possible when attempting to sweep. While often used to handle Water, Gyarados is effective in other matchups too; for example, Ground teams have no defensive answer to the perfect Water + Grass coverage that Gyarados uses. While Gyarados is very powerful against Fire teams, keep in mind that sun halves Waterfall's damage output, it will find much more success if Torkoal is either removed or weakened before attempting to sweep. Intimidate is preferred in order to give Gyarados more opportunities to set up, as the matchups it is most effective in only require a single Attack boost, but Moxie is another option to make sweeping slightly easier if Gyarados can find a KO.

Gyarados is fairly self-sufficient in its particular matchups and doesn't rely on its teammates for too much. However, Xatu's dual screens make it much easier to set up. Gyarados fits best on teams that use one or two Pokemon to cover each matchup, so Pokemon like Corviknight that are extremely effective against types, such as Steel, that it struggles with are especially useful. While Gyarados does not require Defog support, Mandibuzz can still act as a support Pokemon with its slow U-turn to bring it in safely on setup fodder. Because Gyarados is almost entirely walled by Grass-types, it is essential to have a very solid answer that can counter them, such as Charizard or Togekiss.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Eien, 100418]]
- Flying analysis by: [[Eien, 100418]]
- Quality checked by: [[Decem, 362454], [Havens, 391540]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Kris, 241023]]
 
Last edited:

Moosical

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Maybe mention that power whip hits Seismitoad too. Since you talk about other teammates using Dynamax, touch very birefly on the fact that this set works fine even without dynamaxing. Also remove Swoobat since no Simple.

QC 1/2
 

deetah

Delicate as silk
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GP & SocMed Lead
Add Remove Comments

GP 1/1

garchompstamp.gif


[SET]
name: Dragon Dance Sweeper (Flying)
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Waterfall
move 3: Bounce
move 4: Power Whip / Earthquake
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
By using Dragon Dance to set up and snowball with Moxie, Gyarados proves itself to be one of the most reliable Dynamax setup sweepers on Flying. During Dynamax, Gyarados has access to two powerful options: Max Geyser, which boosts its own damage by setting rain, and Max Airstream, which allows Gyarados to boost its Speed during Dynamax. By combining Max Airstream and Moxie, it is able to very quickly boost its stats to unstoppable levels. Moxie is the preferred ability to enable this feedback loop, but Intimidate is also viable for giving Gyarados more opportunities to set up. Gyarados should often let its teammates chip away at the opposing team so that it can easily sweep through a weakened team late-game. Power Whip gives Gyarados great coverage in being able to hit most Water-types, particularly Rotom-W and Seismitoad, more powerfully, but Earthquake is a viable option for being more consistent against Toxapex.

Gyarados is fairly self-sufficient and doesn't rely on its teammates for too much. However, Xatu's dual screens makes make it much easier to set up. Although Gyarados can set up on and sweep Ice teams, it does fear Freeze-Dry users, so Charizard and Hawlucha are great teammates for taking on Ice-types. It also doesn't perform very well against Electric-types, so Hawlucha is especially useful because it can immediately activate Electric Seed using the opponent's Electric Terrain. All Dynamax sweepers, such as Corviknight, also have great synergy with Gyarados because either they can set up and break down the other's checks to enable a late-game sweep. Additionally, Gyarados is powerful even without Dynamax, allowing them to use its powerful boosts freeing up the slot for one of its teammates instead.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Eien, 100418]]
- Flying analysis by: [[Eien, 100418]]
- Quality checked by: [[Moosical, 215618], [<username2>, <userid2>]]
- Grammar checked by: [[<username1>, <userid1>]]
 

mushamu

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For Corviknight, name one or two matchups it can take on for Gyarados that Gyarados struggles in.

Otherwise, this is pretty well written. QC 1/2
 
Did. I reset the watch status on this thread because that’s the second check that I didn’t get an alert for.
 

dhelmise

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[SET]
name: Dragon Dance Sweeper (Flying)
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Waterfall
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Power Whip
item: Heavy-Duty Boots
ability: Intimidate
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Thanks to its Water typing and the combination of Power Whip and Earthquake, Gyarados sets itself apart from other Flying-types as the best option to tackle Fire and Water teams. After a Dragon Dance, Gyarados OHKOes almost every Water-type with Power Whip and can beat Toxapex one-on-one. Because Water teams are typically good at setting Stealth Rock against Flying, it is important to give Gyarados Heavy-Duty Boots in order to make sure it is as healthy as possible when attempting to sweep. While often used to handle Water, Gyarados is effective in other matchups too; for example, Ground teams have no defensive answer to the perfect Water + Grass coverage that it Gyarados uses. While Gyarados is very powerful against Fire teams, keep in mind that sun halves Waterfall's damage output, so ("While Gyarados is very powerful against Fire teams[...]it will find...") it will find much more success if Torkoal is either removed or weakened before it attempts attempting (using "its" here makes it sound like the target is Torkoal and changing "it" to gyarados makes the sentence sound clunky) to sweep. Intimidate is preferred in order to give it Gyarados more opportunities to set up, as the matchups it is most effective in only require a single Attack boost, but Moxie is another option to make sweeping slightly easier if it Gyarados can find a KO.

Gyarados is fairly self-sufficient in its particular matchups and doesn't rely on its teammates for too much. However, Xatu's dual screens make it much easier to set up. Gyarados fits best on teams that use one or two Pokemon to cover each matchup, so Pokemon like Corviknight (subjective) that are extremely effective against types, (AC) such as Steel, (AC) (not subjective it sounds really clunky without commas) that it struggles with, (AC) like Corviknight, (AC) (subjective) are especially useful. While Gyarados does not require Defog support, Mandibuzz can still act as a support it Pokemon with its slow U-turn to bring it Gyarados in safely on setup fodder. Because Gyarados is almost entirely walled by Grass-types, it is essential to have a very solid answer that can counter them, such as Charizard or Togekiss.
GP 1/1
 

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