Pokémon Kyurem-Black

[Salt]

No thread for this guy yet?

Kyurem-Black

Dex #: 646
Type: Dragon/Ice
Stats: 125 HP/170 Atk/100 Def/120 SpA/90 SpD/95 Spe

Ability: Teravolt- Abilities that hinder attacks are nullified i.e. hitting Levitate wielders with Ground-type moves, etc.

Notable Moves
Outrage
Dragon Claw
Ice Beam
Fusion Bolt
Earth Power
Roost
Substitute
Dragon Tail
Stone Edge
Draco Meteor
Focus Blast

Kyurem-B is a very real threat, holding fantastic mixed offensive stats including a jaw-dropping 170 Attack, and a very good 120 Special Attack. He also boasts very good bulk with 125/100/95 defenses, and an interesting ability in Teravolt. He is often overlooked because of his typing, which leaves him weak to Stealth Rock and common priority like Bullet Punch and Mach Punch. Kyurem-B would also appreciate more Speed; 95 Speed doesn't get you very far in the current metagame. However, Kyurem-B should not be underestimated; his Uber-like BST is enough to make him look like a threat.

Potential Sets:

Substitute Attacker

Kyurem-Black @ Leftovers
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 56 HP / 216 SpA / 236 Spe
Mild/Rash Nature
- Substitute
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt

Finding yourself facing a Kyurem-B behind a substitute is scary business. It is extremely easy for Kyurem-B to set up a substitute with it's great bulk and interesting set of resistances. Once behind a sub, Kyurem becomes incredibly dangerous with his great mixed coverage. Ice Beam is the primary STAB and Earth Power provides excellent coverage alongside it, especially with Teravolt allowing it to use Earth Power on Levitators like Rotom-W. Fusion Bolt works off that giant 170 Attack. Even without investment, it still significantly hurts things without significant physical bulk or a resistance. The HP EVs give it enough HP to avoid having its Substitute being broken by a single Night Shade or Seismic Toss, which allows it to set up on things like Deoxys-D and Chansey/Blissey.



All-out Attacker

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 100 Atk / 180 SpA / 228 Spe
Hasty/Naive Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Fusion Bolt
- Roost/Iron Head

Kyurem can run an all out Life Orb set with success as well. The Attack EVs allow it to OHKO 252 HP Azumarill after SR, and the Speed is for outspeeding max base 90s, with the rest into Special Attack to strengthen his main moves. Since Kyurem-B gets solid coverage with those 3 moves, it can run Roost in the fourth slot, which lets it recover from Life Orb recoil and hazard damage. Iron Head is also an option to 2HKO certain Fairies and Tyranitar upon switch in.


Choice Band

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Band
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
Adamant/Naughty Nature
- Outrage
- Dragon Claw
- Fusion Bolt
- Stone Edge/Iron Head/Ice Beam

Though spamming Dragon-type moves is far less potent with the introduction of Fairies, Choice Band Kyurem-B is still insanely powerful. With the strongest Outrage in the game, anything that doesn't resist it, and even some things that do, will take a significant amount of damage, if not outright get KO'd.
________________________________________________________________________

What do you guys think about Kyurem-B this gen? I believe he is very underrated; Dragons in general are dropping in popularity, and with Kyurem-B with it (it's UU according to this month's stats) but I don't think he should be treated as a typical Dragon. He is a fantastic mixed attacker and doesn't even use a Dragon-type move on his main sets, as his coverage with Ice Beam/Teravolt Earth Power/Fusion Bolt is already excellent. Discuss.

 

[Ryolain]

He is certainly a terror against teams without a heavy special wall or Mach Punch/Bullet Punch. I will say that the rise in AV Conk usage is only going to make Kyu-B's numbers worse or will require him to run a mixed set more often, since Fusion Bolt is a guaranteed 3HKO against 252 HP / 0 SDef AV Conk without even factoring in the damage recovered via Drain Punch.

 

[Rotosect]

I'm going to shamelessly copy-paste my post from the usage stats thread:

Kyurem-B's low usage is a crime. What's more shocking is that the metagame has shifted in its favor, not against...
1. It can destroy Megasaur with Ice Beam and Rotom-W with Earth Power thanks to Teravolt bypassing their abilities, while outspeeding both of them and possibly setting up a Substitute in their faces as they pathetically try to Leech Seed/Status/hit back with resisted STABs. It also destroys many, many common defensive pokemon such as Gliscor and Heatran. There is a reason Kyurem-B is the bane of all stall teams.
2. Kyurem-B is easily the dragon who got hurt the least by the introduction of fairy types. It was general consensus at the end of Gen 5 that Kyurem-B's best sets (LO mixed attacker and Sub+3 attacks) didn't even rely on its Dragon STAB that much, if not at all and the most common fairies in OU have a secondary type that makes them weak to its main offensive moves (Ice Beam/Fusion Bolt/Earth Power). The ones that don't are slow and have pathetic physical bulk so they lose anyways.
3. With Defog support its worst weakness from Gen 5 is neutered so it has plenty of opportunities to switch in and wreck havoc.
4. Aegislash resists everything Kyurem-B is weak to, so it's an excellent partner. It helps that Aegislash is an excellent pokemon in its own right.
5. Kyurem-B is faster than Lucario before mega evolving, and a Bullet Punch from Mega Lucario fails to OHKO after SR damage with a -defense nature, so as long as Kyurem-B is out Lucario will never get a chance to set up.

tl;dr Kyurem-B is an incredible anti-meta pokemon right now. Please use it more often.

He is certainly a terror against teams without a heavy special wall or Mach Punch/Bullet Punch. I will say that the rise in AV Conk usage is only going to make Kyu-B's numbers worse or will require him to run a mixed set more often, since Fusion Bolt is a guaranteed 3HKO against 252 HP / 0 SDef AV Conk without even factoring in the damage recovered via Drain Punch.

100 Atk Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-B Outrage vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Conkeldurr: 298-351 (84.6 - 99.7%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Outrage might be worth running on the LO set for this reason.
It also gets Zen Headbutt if you're really paranoid about Conk and don't want to lock Kyu-B into Outrage.

 

[TKGriffiths]

Focus Blast, Stone Edge, Dragon Tail and Draco Meteor aren't notable moves? Maybe Rock Tomb as well though that's a bit more gimmicky.

 

[ShadowMarioGalaxy64]

it's UU according to this month's stats

The last thing we need is for this thing to be UU. It may not be entirely Ubers material (unless it were to get Ice Shard or Icicle Crash in the next game or something) but it's FAR too good for UU. Dragonite and Kyurem-B were barely touched with the Fairy-Types and honestly gained from the new meta. This thing needs to be looked at more.

Stone Edge

...oh boy...Choice Band/Choice Scarf sets are going to have a field day...

 

[Salt]

Focus Blast, Stone Edge, Dragon Tail and Draco Meteor aren't notable moves? Maybe Rock Tomb as well though that's a bit more gimmicky.

The moves I listed are the most common and appear on all the standard sets. The moves you listed, except maybe Dragon Tail, don't really have much use on Kyurem-B right now. Earth Power hits pretty everything Focus Blast does and Fusion Bolt hits everything Stone Edge hits. I suppose Stone Edge and Draco Meteor have some use on Choice sets (though I'm not entirely sold on Choiced Kyu-B right now) and Dragon Tail could be used on a bulky set.

Speaking of these sets, does anyone have any good Choice or bulky Dragon Tail sets I could add to the OP? I've only been using the mixed sets on my own Kyurems.

 

[sidakarya]

>Kyurem-B
>UU
WHY.jpg

Agreeing that Kyurem-B is severely underrated and underused. It gets a lot of dismissal for having a poor physical movepool, but looking back in Gen 5, its mixed sets were what made it into the best wallbreaker in the metagame. It's no less true here. It's one of the few dragons, for whom the introduction of faeries meant nothing to it - most of them are destroyed by a STAB and Fusion Bolt alone, which means it still has no safe switch-ins. Then you have to consider that absurd to the point of surreality 125/100/90 bulk, meaning that things that should rightfully one-shot it, like CB Scizor's Bullet Punch, can't. Facing a Kyurem-B and knowing it can set up a Substitute gives that same sort of psychological "trap" that M-Lucario does - you feel compelled to not switch out, instead hoping to catch it off-guard as it sets up - and as it does, it creates 50/50 situations just by being present.

tl;dr: Use Kyurem-B more. Seriously.

 

[SmashBrosBrawl]

Iron head needs a mention somewhere on the life orb set. 2hkoing clefable, sylveon and tyranitar on the switch is priceless and makes kyurem much harder for stall to deal with and it doesnt really need roost tbh. Choice band should definitely be a set. It might not be sweeping teams anytime soon (unless you setup a sticky web) but the sheer power+bulk it has is enough to pratically guarante a kill against anything not called ferrothorn. Outrage / Dragon Claw / Fusion Bolt / Filler with max attack and the rest is mostly up to you, but i recommend investing heavily in hp. Not sure whether the old sub+hone claws is still good but its something to be noted as it fits perfectly in this bulky offensive metagame. Overall kyurem is just an outright monster, extremely diverse and unpredictable with one of the most devastating offensive combos ou has ever seen (mixed bolt beam), it really deserves a lot more usage.

 

[Salt]

Added a Choice Band set (I don't really know if the EV spread is the best) and mentioned Iron Head on the Attacker set.

 

[effyouzion]

I would do without the HP EVs on the mixed set and put them in attack or speed. 404 HP subs are pointless when you can't do more than 33% to 0/252 Chansey with your fusion bolt. I would also slash outrage over fusion bolt on that set because it gives you a good chance to 2hko said Chansey, who otherwise walls you and prevents you from breaking stall.

That said, I still think that mixed set with sub is the best set. It murders defensive teams and sets up easily on Rotom-W, who is everywhere.

 

[Zebstrika]

When this thing is a baton pass recipient, I have to say this is one of the stupidest things I have seen in OU. Scolipede as a partner anyone? Pass the speed to Kyurem-B, with a Choice Band/Life Orb, check for fairies, and click outrage. Watch as you trade your Kyurem for like 3 of the opponents.

Just for the hell of it, I laddered to ~1550 using a team of just smash-pass smeargle and White Herb Kyurem-B with roost+3 attacks, the other 4 pokemon spots empty. It actually works pretty well considering that it's just 2 predictable pokemon (yeah otherwise 1550 isn't really an accomplishment), since Kyurem has the bulk after white herb to survive any priority in the game and return fire.

 

[Cobalt314]

Not sure if this is viable, but could a Power Herb set work?

Kyurem-Black @ Power Herb
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spd
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Outrage/Dragon Claw
- Freeze Shock
- Fusion Bolt
- Iron Head

Outrage or Dragon Claw are the primary STABs, hitting large as always. Freeze Shock+Power Herb is essentially a 140 BP attack with no drawbacks and a relatively high chance to paralyze the opponent. Fusion Bolt is great for hitting Water and Flying types, and Iron Head provides coverage against Fairies and Rock types. I don't have much experience with this set in the XY metagame, though, so I'm not entirely sure if this could still work.

 

[Rotosect]

With rain not being omnipresent in OU anymore HP Fire is now a more practical option for dealing with Ferrothorn and Scizor, though I doubt Kyu-B can afford running it.
The LO set already has a shot at 2HKOing physically defensive variants of Ferrothorn with Ice Beam anyway, and Scizor is 2HKO'd by Earth Power.
If you want to secure an OHKO though, it's still an option.

 

[zachmac]

Not sure if this is viable, but could a Power Herb set work?

This big problem with Power Herb is that you only get to use it once. Once you use Freeze Shock, you will essentially be fighting with only three moves and no item.

 

[TKGriffiths]

I don't think Power Herb is viable, though if you want something to hit Ferrothorn on the switch you could perhapss use Freeze Shock on the choice band set. Pretty sure it would OHKO specially defensive versions. You'd pretty much only want to use it like Focus Punch on forced switches or perhaps predicted protects.

 

[Jojobobo]

Freeze Shock also has only 90% accuracy, if it was 100% then using a Power Herb might be worth talking about but missing on that Power Herb turn would be catastrophic.

No mention of a Scarf set in the OP? It more than makes up for its fairly average speed tier, then again maybe it's not needed so much with the amount of bulky priority using attackers this gen.

 

[Rotosect]

A Scarf set can be useful to revenge kill things like Garchomp, Mega Charizard Y, Mega Pinsir and Greninja so it's definitely worth considering.

Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: / 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spd
Hasty/Rash Nature
- Outrage
- Fusion Bolt
- Dragon Claw/Iron Head
- Ice Beam/Earth Power

 

[Hidious]

I haven't tested this set so this is all just a hypothesis, but how about a mixed set kind of inspired by Aegislash's wallbreaker set.

Kyurem-Black @ Life Orb

Lonely/Naughty

252 ATT / 252 SpA / 4 HP 4 SpD or Def

Outrage
Fusion Bolt
Earth Power
Ice Beam

Some calcs:

252 SpA Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-B Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 172-203 (53 - 62.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-B Fusion Bolt vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 458-541 (113.3 - 133.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-B Outrage vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 452-534 (64.2 - 75.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252 SpA Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-B Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Clefable: 199-234 (50.5 - 59.3%) -- 79.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (Guaranteed w/ stealth rock if Clefable runs Unaware)

252 SpA Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-B Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Ferrothorn: 160-188 (45.4 - 53.4%) -- 41% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

252+ Atk Life Orb Teravolt Kyurem-B Fusion Bolt vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Sylveon: 270-318 (68.5 - 80.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

I don't know of anything that would want to switch into this set. However, the set has a few obvious drawbacks:

1.) It relies heavily on prediction.
2.) No priority
3.) It cannot do much other than be used as a wallbreaker
4.) So much bulk and speed is sacrificed leaving it even more weak to priority and lower speed tiers, respectively.

Keep in mind that this is just an idea and not something that has been tested at all.

 

[Farpafraf]

I will never get how on earth was this thing allowed to stay OU in the last gen and why nearly no one used him.In my opinion the mixed set is still the way:

Kyurem-Black Item:Life Orb
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 Spd / 252 SAtk
Nature:Naive/Hasty
- Ice Beam
- Outrage
- Fusion bolt/Hidden Power [Fire]
- Earth Power

or

Kyurem-Black Item:Assault Vest
EVs: 58 Spd (Outspeeds neutral 252 Vel Breelom and Neutral Scizor)/200HP/252 SAtk
Nature:Mild
- Ice Beam
- Outrage
- Fusion bolt
- Earth Power

I did the second one now so it suc*s(it was only to say tha he could become a great assault vest user).

 

[Rotosect]

Unfortunately AV Kyu-B doesn't cut it for a few reasons:
-vulnerability to passive damage and status
-no recovery
-doesn't hit quite as hard as you'd think
-Kyu-B's checks are mostly physically-based

 

[mertyville]

Actually Kyurem has recovery in Roost.
And most of the points can be considered on Reshiram, which is very disappointing Uber considering its excellent Typing Dragon/Fire. Yet, it is in Uber. Not trying to say, that Reshiram should be OU or something.
I believe people aren't able to use Kyurem to its potencial because of pokemon like Terrakion and Scizor, that are, or at least were, running around everywhere. While Terrakion is even a good addition in Ubers.

 

[Rotosect]

Actually Kyurem has recovery in Roost.

What I meant is AV Kyu-B has no form of recovery, unlike Conkeldurr (Drain Punch) and Tangrowth (Giga Drain and Regenerator).

 

[mertyville]

What I meant is AV Kyu-B has no form of recovery, unlike Conkeldurr (Drain Punch) and Tangrowth (Giga Drain and Regenerator).

Sry, I missread Assault West somehow and was thinking you were talking about Kyurem-B overall ._.

 

[skies]

What I meant is AV Kyu-B has no form of recovery, unlike Conkeldurr (Drain Punch) and Tangrowth (Giga Drain and Regenerator).

Yeah, but you don't NEED recovery imo, Kyurem-B is a nuke and it is just going to be blasting stuff, it doesn't even need Roost, it never ran it last Gen. Besides, stuff like Assault Vest Rotom-W and Assault Vest Tyranitar are things, but they don't have Recovery, yet they're still common. I am a supporter of AV Kyurem-B, it's worked very well in all my uses with it.

 

[aVocado]

I've been using the Sub+3 Attacks (BeamBolt/Earth Power) set mentioned in the OP with the EV spread of 56 HP/216 SpA/236 Spe Rash for a while now on an HO team, and it's fucking amazing. It's just so useful in this meta. It could perhaps only be stopped and checked hard by AV Conk. I love the fact that it bypasses Sturdy, Levitate, and Thick Fat. Helps so much.

Perhaps a better EV spread could be used, as I didn't really think the one I used over, I just took 5th gen's EV spread, but I switched Atk EVs for SpA EVs (it was 216 Atk Lonely, I made it 216 SpA Rash). Having a strong Ice Beam is much better than having a strong Fusion Bolt IMO. And with a base atk stat of 170, I wouldn't think it affects it much.