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Needs more Aerodactyl!

Ninjarabian

So I'm not gonna come here a moan at you guys about "Use Aerodactyl more he's cool!" I'm not even going to tell you guys that Aerodactyl is a "more dominate" sweeper than the other common physicals. I'm going to present you with facts about how an Aerodactyl may improve your team.

Nature useage:
Compared to non-scarfed Weavile and Garchomp, Aerodactyl should be the only one going adamant. Weavile with an adamant nature drops it below Gengar speed, not a good place to find yourself. Garchomp with an Adamant nature finds itself way down the list, under the 90 basers. Aerodactyl, however, can use an Adamant nature and still be faster than that massive threat that is Gengar.

Power:
Everyone is expecting Garchomp here by a landslide, and that might hold true. With the nature argument above, Weavile is at a dead tie with Aerodactyl, at 339. Garchomp is a mere 20 points stronger than either of them.

Abilities:
Garchomp of course wins this by a vast margin. While Pressure is not a bad ability for Aerodactyl or Weavile, Sand Veil is so useful it's sickening.

Typing:
Garchomp's Ground/Dragon Typing gives him a 4x weakness, but a single other weakness in dragon. Ground/Dragon also provides great STAB and is nearly unresisted.
Weavile's Ice/Dark typing is horribly defensively, racking up 4 weaknesses and a double weak to a measly 3 resists. Offensively though, Dark Ice is decent typing, as everyone knows Ice attacks are always welcome.
Aerodactyl's Rock/Flying typing gives him slightly better defensive capabilities than Weavile, with 5 weaknesses and 5 resists. Rock STAB is welcome, and although it can often be useful, flying type moves are short in Aerodactyl's arsenal.

Move Sets:
Garchomp has many notable moves, including Outrage, Earthquake, Fire Fang, Stone Edge, Crunch and mostly SWORDS DANCE.
Weavile has access to Ice Shard, Ice Punch, Night Slash, Brick Break (complementing Night Slash) and SWORDS DANCE
Aerodactyl has access to Stone Edge, Earthquake, Thunder Fang, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Crunch and.... NO swords dance.

As you can see here, Aerodactyl fills a different sweeper role than Weavile and Garchomp, with the potential of great type coverage, but without a good stat up move.

Conclusion:
Somewhat outshadowed by the other two mainstream sweepers, Aerodactyl could potentially fit into a team if it needed a strong Reliable STAB (Aerodactyl's Stone Edge vs. Weavile's Ice Punch), a pokemon with a good set of type coverage, or if you're team needs that EQ support, but just can't deal with the 4x ice weak for whatever reason. Or perhaps you wanted a physical sweeper to complement your SpecsMence, and already have enough ice attacks.

This was my first attempt at sounding intelligent, I hope you enjoyed it.
 
You have made some good points here, but at the end of the day, it's shitty defences do not help. No swords dance is a downer as well.
 
aerodactyl's a good poke actually, i did think about making an aerodactyl team just 2 days ago. there are plenty of frail pokes running around. weavile, gengar, ape etc. they do pretty well.
 
Aipom said:
You have made some good points here, but at the end of the day, it's shitty defences and 4x weakeness to ice do not help. No swords dance is a downer as well.
Click to expand...
Lawman already mentioned that Aerodactyl doesn't have a 4x weakness to Ice, but Aero's defenses also are not that terrible. In a Sandstorm, it gets the 1.5x Sp Def boost, which neither Weavile or Garchomp get, which means that in Sandstorm conditions, it can actually take Special hits pretty well compared to the other two.
 
animenagai said:
aerodactyl's a good poke actually, i did think about making an aerodactyl team just 2 days ago. there are plenty of frail pokes running around. weavile, gengar, ape etc. they do pretty well.
Click to expand...
you could try the set that I use, and I only use this because of the sandstorm immunity

Aerodactyl @ Liechi Berry
Adamant
252 Atk/220 Spe/36 SpD
Pressure
~Stone Edge
~Earthquake
~(Whatever fits your team best)
~Endure
Same power as choice band, but I like it more.
 
Endure + pinch berry + Sandstorm boost might not work reliably if they attack you with a special attack, since the boost could possibly reduce damage enough that it won't put you into Liechi range.

Anyway, I liked the OP a lot. Unlike other threads, you presented the facts straight up; kudos for that.
 
I actually once wanted to use a Natural Gift Aerodactyl with a Leichi Berry. 80 BP Grass move for Swampert and the like, then later on Substitute down for the berry to set off an attack boost.

...then I found out Natural Gift uses up the Berry completely the first time you use it...
 
The problrm with Aerodactyl is that it's just too easy to wall. If something resists Stone Edge Aerodactyl has trouble hurting it, even if it has a supereffective move against it. The Water/Grounds block it quite nicely, Hippowdon can take a lot of Ice Fangs before going down, Bronzong is only afraid of Fire Fang etc. Really most teams probably stop Aerodactyl without really trying.

And the issue is that if you go Adamant you lose speed compared to Jolly weavile and Garchomp, which sort of defeats the purpose of choosing Aerodactyl in the first place. The other advantages other pokes have outweigh what Aerodactyl has to offer in most situations. Also note that unlike Garchomp Aerodactyl learns Pursuit, but obviously things with STAB on Pursuit do this better. And SR weak doesn't do it any favors(Rock really should resist itself..)

Aerodactyl isn't a bad poke by any means, but it's tough to find many places where it would fit over something better. It's very stoppable and also must almost always carry CB to deal threatening damage, making it predictable.
 
Ninjarabian said:
you could try the set that I use, and I only use this because of the sandstorm immunity

Aerodactyl @ Liechi Berry
Adamant
252 Atk/220 Spe/36 SpD
Pressure
~Stone Edge
~Earthquake
~(Whatever fits your team best)
~Endure
Same power as choice band, but I like it more.
Click to expand...

that will be a decent set but i'll use sub over endure. it's more useful in general game and you'll have more control over the liechi berry activating.
 
Aerodactly is actaully being considered to go down to the UU environment (check the UU/BL discussion thread), so it can't be that good =/.
 
yeah substitute/liechi berry is a good combo to block status, scout, and later raise power, and aerodactyl is a cool pokemon. but it's the controversial Speed Deoxys that takes Aerodactyl's job, not anything else
 
An old but still somewhat viable tactic is either Swords Dance or Curse Baton Passing to Aerodactyl, the latter meaning you hold a White Herb to remove the Speed loss from Curse. Aerodactyl has a great physical movepool, just lacks any stat-up moves.
 
Garchomp gets +1 evasion in Sandstorm. Aerodactyl gets +1 SDef in Sandstorm.

One cool thing about Aero is that you can still use Rock Head with CB Double Edge and rack up plenty of damage at no cost to you.

Hacked Head Smash/Brave Bird Aero would be beast >_>
 
ChouToshio said:
. . . a poke's OU viability has nothing to do with its UU viability. See Tentacruel. >.>
Click to expand...

But not all pokemon fill as useful as niche as Tentacruel does.

Aerodactly is an attacking pokemon by nature. The OP calls it a sweeper. To have a successful attacking pokemon, it must mount an impressive offence (see Garchomp, Yanmeaga) combined with either speed ( Infernape, Raikou) or pure Bulk (snorlax, Machamp).

Aerodactyl certainly is very speedy but it lacks any stat up moves to increase its power. Unfortunaly, its base attack does not compensate for this.

Now, let's take a look at UU. The walls in UU are of course under used. This is because they lack features which make a wall truly great, such a s good defensive typings, lack of a reliable recovery move, not good enough defensive base stats and just being outclassed in general. Not to say every UU wall is bad of course but apart from the general niche pokemon, most are just inferior to the OU walls.

My main point is -If the walls in UU can effectivly handle him, he will indeed be a very iffy choice in OU for a sweeper.

Sure, he has his niches with Taunt and Focus sash but in OU, there are much more effective sweepers than him. He just simply lacks the power to compete in today's metagame.
 
^There, now that's a much more intelligent (read: BETTER) post than this:

puggy said:
Aerodactly is actaully being considered to go down to the UU environment (check the UU/BL discussion thread), so it can't be that good =/.
Click to expand...

No one cares about Aero in UU/BL if we're talking about Aero in OU. Stick to facts and intelligent arguments (like you proved you can in your last post), and you'll sound a lot cooler. :/
 
ChouToshio said:
^There, now that's a much more intelligent (read: BETTER) post than this:



No one cares about Aero in UU/BL if we're talking about Aero in OU. Stick to facts and intelligent arguments (like you proved you can in your last post), and you'll sound a lot cooler. :/
Click to expand...

Actaully that was just my other post explained in full. And yes, the move is relevant. If Aerodactly is such a good sweeper, then why the hell is it being moved to an environment where the walls are generally weaker than the OU walls?

BTW, since you're so generous in giving out advice, he is my repayment - People usually dislike it when you constantly belittle them.:pirate:
 
^In this case, there's reason for the belittling. If you must know, it's because we are in the midst of a kind of tier shuffling unsettled period where there is a lot of discussion not only of OU, but also ubers, BL, and UU.

In this case, you brought up the comment about the UU discussion which means you've obviously been following it. If you have, than you ought to know how many times those involved with the discussion have been forced to repeatedly respond to posters who thoughtlessly made comments like "x pokemon can do y in OU, it's obviously too good for UU."

Why? Because these comments have nothing to do with the discussion of UU. Similarly in recent threads about Uber pokemon, we've had to constantly correct users who posted "But Darkrai can do z in Ubers, it's obviously too good for OU."

These types of comments, like yours concerning Aero in UU/BL, have nothing to add to discussion, and we are trying to get that through the heads of idiots who keep cluttering up discussion this way. You're not helping, and that's why I posted. If you've been reading through any of the intelligent discussion on the tierings (which you obviously have), you should have noticed this by now, and realized what my post was about.


BTW-- Seaking can rape in Ubers with Swift Swim Megahorn. It's obviously too good for OU.

See how stupid these types of comments are? Swift Swim Megahorn may be perfectly viable in Ubers, but that has no connection to OU, just as Aero's UU consideration has nothing to do with OU.

What does have to do with OU is it's lack of swords dance, lack of base ATK power, etc.

Post that instead please.
 
I once used a team that had Relaxed Celebi @ Occa Berry BP'ing Swords Dances to Aerodactyl w/ Earthquake/Stone Edge/Ice Fang/filler. For the most part it was quite effective and did very well against offensive teams but he just lacked the ability to get past Bulky Grounds like Hippowdon and Swampert. I was playing around with the idea of taking advantage of his secondary STAB by using Sky Attack and equipping him with Power Herb. Sure, you only get one shot but it could help in remove the opponent's main wall and open up the sweep. With the SD, it's dealing 71% max to Hippo and 88% max to Swampert. Novelty I guess, but I wasn't doing a great deal with the final moveslot (Aerial Ace/Crunch) or the item slot (Muscle Band) so it's something I'd like to play around with if Power Herb is ever programmed on Shoddy.
 
I often use Aero as a lead with Stone Edge/Taunt/Pursuit/EQ,Stealth Rock. Areo has one of the fastest, if not the fastests taunts in OU. Any Bulky set up leads cant do anything and you get a free pursuit as they switch out.
 
In Pablo's Starly tournament, I always used a lead Aerodactyl with Stealth Rock, Earthquake, Stone Edge, and Fire Fang holding Focus Sash. It was pretty decent, because it always got Stealth Rock on the field straightaway (which is kind of hard to get rid of when playing under item clause because all the Rapid Spinners need Leftovers), 3HKO'd enemy Bronzong with Fire Fang, and whenever it fainted, my Dugtrio could always go in to kill the partially weakened pokemon.

My point is, support Aero can work well when teamed up with a revenge killer.
 
I really used to like Aerodactyl, since it had the combination of great speed and decent attack with decent coverage. However, there were a few things about it that made me put it off:
1: It has to have choice band to mount a decent offensive threat. Aerodactyl has no stat-up moves, so it can't make that attack of his hurt any more than it already does. While a 307 (I think) attack stat is nothing to scoff at, it really falls short of truly hard hitters. Adamant Nature Aerodactyl, while still fast, is beaten by things with higher base speed than 110.
2: It's stealth rock weak. Tell me how that is supposed to make sense, a rock type not resisting rock type attacks? Either way Aerodactyl gets at most 4 switch ins (3 if you have life orb), and it will have a very limited number of times to attack with life orb as well.
3. Its easily walled. Pokemon like Skarmory, Bronzong, Hippowdon, Swampert, insert good physical wall here can all wall this guy. Although this guy can pack the fangs to hit these pokemon, it does not hit them nearly hard enough. Then these guys can force Aerodactyl to switch or die (Swampert with Waterfall, Skamory with Whirlwind, Bronzong with Gyro ball).
 
Heh, well Aerodactyl's not that bad, I've given him a try before. I've already mentioned that his defenses aren't as bad as he lets on, but let's see what else he can do (that I actually care about posting):

- In a sandstorm, his Special Defense gets a boost of 1.5x, however, Aerodactyl does learn Curse as an egg move, and with White Herb, he can not only raise his attack 1.5x, but he can also raise his defense 1.5x. This not only makes him a fearsome sweeper, but it also makes him really hard to kill, especially when he can use his super-quick Roost. With minor HP investment and a +speed nature, this is a tough dino.

- The AeroDug combo. This is one that I've used before, and it still works great even in DP. With Aerodactyl's new and improved movepool, he's actually able to work with Dugtrio to revenge-kill even more, especially with Pursuit backing him up. It's a bit harder to pull off now that there's Choice Scarfers, but it still works well. Basically, Aerodactyl lands a huge hit on something, sacrificing itself, and Duggy comes in to finish it off. Aerodactyl also revenge-kills what Dugtrio can't.

Those are the two that I think are actually pretty cool. I think Curse/Roost/Stone Edge/Earthquake @White Herb is actually pretty deadly with Aerodactyl's huge speed.
 
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