Pokémon Gyarados

[ausma]

With Bounce and Power Whip not being as useful for the current Dynamax ban, what kind of sets are we looking into for Gyarados? Standard DDance with Earthquake/Waterfall/Dragon Dance/Filler?

Jolly/Adamant?

I still think Power Whip is amazing on Gyarados, as it almost completely removes a hard counter in Rotom-Wash, checks in Seismitoad/Gastrodon, and bulky waters as a whole that walled its sets in past generations.

However, on the contrary, given Dynamax's consequential removal, I personally believe Bounce is no longer worth running outright (its main niche was Airstream, after all), saving it from the 4MSS that plagued it while Dynamax was reigning over the tier.

Gyarados @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Power Whip
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance

I believe this will most likely become Gyarados's standard set, or some derivative of it. I think Intimidate will likely be run over Moxie for the most part due to the cap on snowballing and how having the ability to better take hits is valuable in of itself in this meta, even without Dynamax (I think Moxie is still a very good option against more defensive builds). Speaking of, that's why I believe Adamant at the current moment is more valuable. Adamant lets it better handle Toxapex and said defensive builds without giving up the defensive utility of Intimidate. However, once Zeraora is released, I'm pretty sure Jolly will become the way to go so it can outspeed it at +1. Otherwise, I can't really think of anything outside of Specs Dragapult to really check its Adamant build, though that in of itself may be a reason to run Jolly over Adamant at the current moment.

Overall? The fact Gyarados still has Power Whip, to me, still makes it pretty damn strong as a set-up sweeper without being utterly busted. Because of that, I personally believe Gyarados will be a balanced, yet great option for a set-up sweeper.

 

[malomyotismon]

I've mentioned this elsewhere but since is the gyarados thread it's worth a mention here too. With dynamax gone gyarados obviously has lost the ability to use max air stream and abuse it's speed boost to better exploit moxie attack boosts from fainting frailer now slower pokemon. With that said the dragon dance set is still a solid set but would intimidate now be a prefered ability over moxie to allow gyarados to set up on physical attackers more easily?

 

[ausma]

I've mentioned this elsewhere but since is the gyarados thread it's worth a mention here too. With dynamax gone gyarados obviously has lost the ability to use max air stream and abuse it's speed boost to better exploit moxie attack boosts from fainting frailer now slower pokemon. With that said the dragon dance set is still a solid set but would intimidate now be a prefered ability over moxie to allow gyarados to set up on physical attackers more easily?

Given how valuable Dynamax's health boost was for Gyarados and how offensively driven the meta is by physical attackers at the moment, I believe that Intimidate will serve much more utility for it going forward and will allow for it to more easily and efficiently set up. That being said, Moxie still has its notable share of value on certain builds, but Intimidate is overall just better and more versatile when Dynamax isn't in the equation.

 

[volx757]

Idk I'd have to disagree with those saying Intimidate is outright better. Moxie will probably be just as good, though it will probly also be build-dependent (intimidate on balance teams and moxie on offense).

When gyarados got moxie in gen 5, it was the standard ability on most sets, then gen 6 power creep pushed him out of ou and relevance, then moxie caught on again with z-fly in gen 7, and now we have a dexit meta where gyarados' offenses are once again top tier. And he has power whip which is the best coverage he could ask for. I'll bet snowball sets will remain relevant throughout the gen.

 

[MattL]

Updated the OP.

The reason I made this thread in the first place, despite Gyarados being the farthest thing from a new Pokemon as possible, is because Dynamax Gyarados was beyond ridiculous and an extremely common threat which more than deserved its own thread. Gyarados's base qualities still make it potent, but it lost a lot by no longer being able to Dynamax in Smogon OU. Even though this is the OU subforum, you can still Dynamax in other formats, making a lot of the information in the original post still relevant, so I kept it as a spoiler at the bottom because there is still informational value.