Pokemon of the Week #14 - Kyurem

[Professor Palutena]

If you've played Pride, you know how annoying this thing is.

Let's go back in time. A time before the BW1 metagame developed. We'd been given this dragon, this thing named Kyurem. It had that Dragon/Ice typing that we all wanted. With things like DrizzleToed, DroughtTales and Excadrill, Kyurem here seemed to be the thing that would make hail teams very good.

But we were wrong.

What happened? Turns out Kyurem's typing is not quite as good as we thought. Dragon+Ice is redundant offensively (Dragon hits everything, bar Steel, for neutral damage, and Ice doesn't help it against Steels), and terrible defensively (nice resistances, but terrible, terrible weaknesses). Boasting the highest mixed attacking stats in OU (130 a piece), Kyurem did have potential. But that potential wasn't motivating anyone. And so, Kyurem fell into the depths of the BL banlist for what we thought to be eternity.

Then BW2 happened, and BW2 decided "Let's make Kyurem not suck anymore". So what did they give it? The first buff is Earth Power. It finally got something to hit Steel-types with! The second is Roost (I don't see any wings anywhere), which really helped it defensively. Between these two tools, Kyurem suddenly became viable, and threatening! It's safe switchins in the form of Jirachi and Heatran couldn't come in anymore, and the SubRoost set is about as annoying as SubToxic Gliscor.

So let's talk Kyurem for a week. How have you guys been using this dragon? What counters have you been using? Has Kyurem tempted you to use Hail?

 

[GymLeaderSean]

Ahhh yes.... my faithful draconian friend...
Kyurem is my favourite of all 649 pokemon, simply because of the type, and effectivness of the moves it can use. As of B/W2 fusing it with Reshiram and Zekrom (Zek being another favourite) allows me to unleash hell upon the few who challenge me anymore. But Kyurem does have weaknesses, and my own icy steed has fallen to them, Magneton and Flash Cannon being the prominent one, but on the rare instance I don't end up fighting a steel type, I fight either Reshiram and Zekrom, both being easy pray.... Though the only counter I ever needed for Kyurem was either my event Darkrai, (Dark Void, Nightmare, Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball) to stall it and wittle away the HP and Sp. Def. or Samurott, hit hard with Megahorn if Darkrai goes down. I can say it is a lot more satisfying to utilise Kyurem (and Haxorus in a tag team is heavenly) than to beat one down. And I'll be saving Hail for Vanilluxe, for obvious reasons.

 

[Shadow Scyther]

I reworked my old Hail team with new BW2 stuff (thanks gameFreak for Poison Heal Roost Gliscor) and Kyurem was one of the Pokemon that got a boost. I like the SubRoost set but I kind of liked the coverage of Sub + 3 Attacks. It is still a beast when it gets a Sub up. One thing I must say that Earth Power sucks. Focus Blast hits most Steels harder except Jirachi (Magnezone and Heatran still get destroyed by Focus Blast especially if Heatran trolls you with an Air Balloon) and makes more damage to stuff that resist Blizzard with Tentacruel being the only exception that I can think of. Stuff like Scizor won't like taking 2 Focus Blasts so if Kyurem get multiple chances to set up a Sub, which isn't hard as it has good bulk) it can remove its counter and proceed to sweep the team.

 

[The Yoshi]

I've always used Choice Scarf Kyurem, whether it be Hail or not, because 420 Speed is just great in the OU meta game. I agree that Focus Blast is better than Earth Power, but the extra PP and possible lowering of SpD is tempting. Also, a 100% accurate Blizzard is fun to abuse in Hail because few can switch in on it. Unfortunately Kyurem has a lot of glaring weaknesses in Rock and Fighting (which are arguably the most common offensive types in the meta game). But whatever, Kyurem still rocks, and I used it before it got Roost and Earth Power. : )

 

[NidoJosh]

I've been using the Mixed Kyurem set, consisting of Draco Meteor, Outrage, Earth Power and Blizzard on my hail team.
I think it works quite well.
After seeing a Draco Meteor or two, my opponents would try and switch in something to set up on the switch, only to be smashed by a STAB boosted Outrage.
It's weaknesses and less than stellar speed are the main hindrances that come with using the mixed set