Tyranitar (DOU Revamp) (QC 1/2) Writing

[talkingtree]

[OVERVIEW]

• Provides one of the best answers to many popular threats like Incineroar, Mega Charizard Y, Kyurem-B, and Cresselia
• Offers decent utility in weather resetting and Stealth Rock, also fairly strong offensively
• Can also set up in various situations, opening up the possibility for it to clean
• Low speed forces it to take hits before it can attack, but great bulk and the SpD boost from sand allow it to do that well
• Prevalence of Intimidate exacerbates issue with being unable to really hit some threats like Kartana and Zygarde
  • this can be circumvented with niche coverage options, but Tyranitar is unable to carry all the moves it needs to get around every check

[SET]
name: Offensive Utility
move 1: Stone Edge / Rock Slide
move 2: Crunch / Assurance
move 3: Stealth Rock
move 4: Protect
item: Tyranitarite
ability: Sand Stream
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 HP / 104 Atk / 28 Def / 8 SpD / 116 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

• Stone Edge hits considerably harder, but Rock Slide is more reliable and gives more value with spread damage
• Crunch offers a perfectly accurate STAB move
• Stealth Rock does Stealth Rock things, Protect does Protect things but also stalls for chip damage from sand
• Assurance is a viable option over Crunch, especially as its power even doubles on foes that take Stealth Rock damage upon switchin

Set Details
========

• 2HKOes standard Mew with -1 Crunch, OHKOes Zapdos with Stone Edge
• Takes two -1 Mega Metagross Iron Heads
• Outspeeds 0 Spe Tapu Fini, dump in SpD
• Slower variants for semiroom teams also viable
• If another Mega Evolution is wanted on the team, Tyranitar can instead use a Figy Berry
  • With this set, a spread of 248 HP / 224 Atk / 36 Spe is recommended
  • Takes Mega Metagross Iron Head, outspeeds uninvested Gothitelle, dump in Atk
  • With TW support, take from Atk and use 76 Spe to outspeed Tornadus

Usage Tips
========

• Delaying Mega Evolution can be useful in matchups with weather setters for a second chance to remove their advantages
• However, keep in mind that Mega Tyranitar gets a significant boost to both its bulk and Attack, so doing this isn't always possible
• Setting Stealth Rock isn't essential in every matchup, so focusing on getting damage is sometimes the better move
  • Rock-weak pivots like Incineroar and Assault Vest Kyurem-B are solid reasons to set Stealth Rock, as are obvious threats like Mega Charizard Y and Volcarona
• Use Mega Tyranitar's bulk to your advantage, pivoting it in on resisted attacks like Mega Salamence's Hyper Voice or Incineroar's Knock Off gives it an easy chance to get off an attack, even if it's not likely to move first the next turn

Team Options
========

• Speed control to help mitigate the awkward speed tier
  • usually Trick Room, Cress in particular sets reliably / beats Lando-T / likes Incin being taken care of
  • A Tailwind setter like Kart can also work
• Fire-types like Volcanion take out Steel-types, though they exacerbate Ttar's Ground weakness
• Answers to Water-types are crucial, since they can take hits fairly easily and threaten Scald burns / Muddy Water acc drops etc
  • Koko, Bulu, Kart (latter two also help with Ground-types)

[SET]
name: Dragon Dance
move 1: Rock Slide / Stone Edge
move 2: Crunch
move 3: Dragon Dance
move 4: Protect
item: Tyranitarite
ability: Sand Stream
nature: Adamant
evs: 240 HP / 24 Atk / 12 SpD / 232 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

• Rock Slide is better for cleaning once boosted since it deals spread damage, but Stone Edge offers much more power when unboosted
• Crunch offers solid damage on a lot of the meta, only failing to hit Fighting-types like Kommo-o and Scrafty at least neutrally
• Dragon Dance does Dragon Dance things, easy to set up in many situations
• Protect does Protect things and get sand chip to put something in range of a boosted attack

Set Details
========

• Outspeeds Torn at +1
• 2HKOes Incin with -1 Rock Slide after SR, OHKOes it with +0 Stone Edge
• Takes -1 CB Zygarde Superpower, dump in SpD
  • Not super set on any of these benchmarks, other suggestions are welcome
• simple max/max with Jolly to outspeed Tapu Koko at +1 is also effective

Usage Tips
========

• Can set up for a few reasons, all of them valid and important:
  • to apply pressure early on
  • to counteract Intimidate and retain damage output
  • to clean up late-game
• Still fills most roles of non-Dragon Dance Tyranitar sets, checking Fire-types / Kyurem-B and generally offering a bulky pivot that can chip down the opposition
  • this means you don't always have to set up to be effective; sometimes it's better to just attack
• Always Mega Evolve before attacking, but if a secondary activation of Sand Stream may be valuable, you don't have to Mega Evolve right away. This mainly comes into play against Zard, though in a pinch it can also remove rain boosts.

Team Options
========

• Answers to Ground-types are crucial, as all take hits pretty well and threaten Ttar
  • Tapu Fini offers Heal Pulse support, Genesect pivots around and threatens most Steel-types, Tapu Bulu passively heals and takes on rain teams
• Specifically, Ttar needs Landorus-T counters, since its Intimidate pivoting make it very difficult to thrive as a DD user
• Redirection eases setup, but often isn't needed for Ttar to succeed
  • Volcarona also takes down Steel-types and offers Tailwind support

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
(listing more than I probably need just to make sure I'm not forgetting anything)

• Curse
• Rockium Z
• Shuca Berry + Ice Beam
• Flamethrower
• Choice Band
  • Superpower / Low Kick
  • Pursuit?
  • Ice Punch

Checks and Counters
===================

**Fighting-types**: Kommo-o and Scrafty, Fighting coverage from Kartana / Bulu / Deoxys-A

**Ground-types**: Zygarde, Mega Swampert, Gastrodon, Tec Rage Lando-T

**Water-types**: Tapu Fini, Politoed, Waterium Volcanion

**Steel-types**: Mega Metagross, Genesect, Mega Scizor

**Intimidate**: Scrafty, Lando-T. Incin and Mence too, but Ttar still beats both

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[talkingtree, 232101]]
- Earlier versions by: [[marilli, 70760], [GenOne, 306383]]
- Quality checked by: [[name, ID], [name, ID]]
- Grammar checked by: [[name, ID], [name, ID]]

 

[MajorBowman]

Offensive Utility Set

• [Moves] I might go so far as to slash Assurance with Crunch, bulky tyranitar will be slower than most of its teammates and boosted Assurance is super strong
• [Team Options] Answers to waters are important, Koko, Kart, and Bulu do this well. Kart and Bulu also both help cover grounds, while Bulu gives Tyranitar passive recovery

DD Set

• [Team Options] I'd probably emphasize that you really need landorus-t checks with DD tar because lando can basically pivot in and out on dd tar without fear and neutralize your attack boosts. I know you mentioned ground checks and lando falls under that category, but lando is of increased importance imo

Strategy Comments

• [OO] On CB, don't bother mentioning dragon tail, but fighting move/pursuit/ice punch all should be mentioned
• [OO] Don't bother with Taunt or WP
• [OO] Shuca + Ice Beam in conjunction specifically, no point in shuca if you aren't nailing the ground types you're using shuca to beat
• [Checks and Counters] I'm not sure that opposing weather is really a check to tyranitar, it doesn't rely on its weather in the same way that rain teams do

Otherwise good, I liked how you handled the DD set. Putting as much emphasis on the bulky offense set as possible while still mentioning that DD is ok in some fringe scenarios is the right approach imo

QC 1/2

 

[Stratos]

i dont know if its even worth having a dd set. it's been utter shite every time ive tried to use it. the way to use ttar is to accept you'll be hitting at -1 and just smack the switchin rather than dd

 

[talkingtree]

When I started writing this it was better, it had just won milk an SPL semis tiebreak match. I'm fine relegating that to high OO though, especially since I need to just get this done and having less to write means I'll do it sooner