Pokemon of the Week - Week #1 - Tyranitar

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Chillarmy

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248Tyranitar_Dream.png

Welcome to the first ever Pokemon of the Week!

This week's Pokemon is going to be Tyranitar

If you've had any experience in competitive play, you'll have faced a Sandstorm team. Sandstorm comes courtesy of Tyranitar. With Excadrill just recently being banned, many expected Tyranitar's usage to go down. However, he still stands strong at #1 in Smogon's usage stats, and leaves a mark pretty much everywhere. Many have said Sand Stream is broken, and therefore Tyranitar should be banned. However, others argue that powerful Fighting types like Conkeldurr and Scrafty somewhat neutralize Tyranitar's usefulness

In this thread discuss Tyranitar. Post new and creative, yet effective sets. Discuss the possiblty of a banning. Is he overcentralizing the metagame? It it a bunch of haters speaking out? Is Teapot going to lock this thread the minute he sees it? Discuss!

There are two extremely important rules:

1. Please only speak in competitive terms. No lol Golem sooo outclasses Tyranitar cuz he haz Rapid Spinz.
2. No flaming!! Everyone's friends here!​
 
Nice idea Chill. :)

Tyranitar is one of the top forces in the metagame, and its pretty easy to see why. Out of all 5 weather starters in OU, it boasts the highest stats. Tyranitar's presence alone is enough to keep former ubers Latias and Latios firm OUs this generation. The special defense boost bestowed upon him from the sandstorm, when combined with the 100 base HP, ensures that Tyranitar can take a special attack or two (unless its a fighting type). Meanwhile, its solid attacking stats, both physically and specially, let Tyranitar be a mixed attacker. Alternately, you can throw Dragon Dance into the mix and watch a powerful and underrated attacker sweep through the opposition. His ability alone is what make Excadrill such a powerful Pokemon, and Tyranitar continues to buff Terrakion and Landorus as sand sweepers.

On the downside, Tyranitar's typing grants it a large pool of weaknesses, 6 to be exact. With Drizzle Politoed out and rampaging in the metagame, the water weakness makes a Rain battle an uphill battle for any Tyranitar. The fighting weakness is the worst of the bunch, as Tyranitar is forced out by things like Scizor, Meinshao, Conkeldurr and Scrafty all the time.
 
One of Tyranitar's best qualities is that he can run a multitude of different sets all very well. Besides his standard set, there a bunch of powerful sets to look out for. A CB makes his whopping base 134 attack even higher, a scarf boosts his only mediocre stat so he can outspeed a few counters he can't normally take, access to Dragon Dance can make him a frightening sweeper, his attack stats are both high enough and his movepool is wide enough to support a mixed set, and sandstorm's increase to his Special Defense really helps him wall a lot of threats and send some pain their way. When you see Tyranitar on your opponents side of the field there really is a lot to look out for.

In addition, Tyranitar's movepool can be quite frightening and challenging to deal with. He can trap your ghosts and psychics with pursuit, knock down gliscor and landorus with ice beam, beat opposing ttar and maybe even terrakion (depending on what item you carry), cover ferro with fire blast and flamethrower, t-wave faster threats, and many more. Tyranitar's versatility is what really has let him excel in every generation since he was introduced.
 
I don't believe Sand Stream should be banned. While it may provide a 1.5 boost to Rock-Types Special Defense and activate certain abilities, it isn't ban worthy. Sand Rush on Excadrill was probably one of the most broken things that existed. It was recognized that Excadrill really is too powerful for OU to remain balanced. It could outpace anything in the sand and had a very large Attack to go with it; this could be further boosted by Swords Dance. It then proceeded to crush everything in the metagame.

Without Excadrill or Garchomp, sand loses a lot of its power. Landorus may not be a pushover, but it is still at least managable under the sandstorm. It has the Sand Force ability which increases the damage ground, rock, and steel moves do in the sand by 30%. True it's Earthquake may be more powerful than Groudon's, but only when the weather is sand. It also has a 4x weakness to ice. Many Pokemon still run HP Ice to get rid of dragon's already. It also has weakness to water. Rain teams are still quite popular which can certainly keep it in check. Landorus also doesn't have Sand Rush so it can actually be outpaced by some offensive threats such as Starmie and KO'd in a flash.

The next major Pokemon that gets a Sandstorm boost is Terrakion. Terrakion is a powerful threat; I will not deny that. It does, however, have its share of Pokemon it loses to. Starmie will deal large damage to it. It also can defeat it if Terrakion doesn't have X-Scissor or isn't boosted. Politoed not only can change the weather to decrease Terrakion's Special Defense, it can then threaten back with Hydro Pump, Surf, or Scald. It also is weak to both steel and fighting moves. This means Scizor and Conkeldurr's priority moves can hit it quite hard before it can even retaliate.


Tyranitar is certainly a powerful threat in the metagame today. Entire teams are built around its Sand Stream ability. While it may have high stats, it also loses to some of the more used Pokemon. Infernape crushes any Tyranitar that does not have Choice Scarf. Terrakion also destroys Tyranitar quite easily. We also have Landorus that can deal very large damage with its Earthquake to Tyranitar. If Tyranitar does not have Ice Beam, it also loses to Gliscor. Politoed certainly can get rid of it, though it is better to use it to react to Tyranitar since Politoed outpaces Tyranitar. Jellicent will take large damage from Crunch, but afterwards it can cripple Tyranitar with a burn from Will-o-wisp. Rotom-W not only can hit it hard with Hydro Pump, it also can burn it before Tyranitar gets to attack. Ferrothorn can wall any Tyranitar that doesn't have a Fire-Type move. It hits back hard with Gyro Ball or Power Whip. It also could paralyze Tyranitar if needed. Jirachi also can use Iron Head to defeat it. It even has a 60% chance of making Tyranitar flinch. Scizor hits Tyranitar very hard with Bullet Punch before Tyranitar even gets a chance to attack it.
 
dragonexpert said:
I don't believe Sand Stream should be banned. While it may provide a 1.5 boost to Rock-Types Special Defense and activate certain abilities, it isn't ban worthy. Sand Rush on Excadrill was probably one of the most broken things that existed. It was recognized that Excadrill really is too powerful for OU to remain balanced. It could outpace anything in the sand and had a very large Attack to go with it; this could be further boosted by Swords Dance. It then proceeded to crush everything in the metagame.

Without Excadrill or Garchomp, sand loses a lot of its power. Landorus may not be a pushover, but it is still at least managable under the sandstorm. It has the Sand Force ability which increases the damage ground, rock, and steel moves do in the sand by 30%. True it's Earthquake may be more powerful than Groudon's, but only when the weather is sand. It also has a 4x weakness to ice. Many Pokemon still run HP Ice to get rid of dragon's already. It also has weakness to water. Rain teams are still quite popular which can certainly keep it in check. Landorus also doesn't have Sand Rush so it can actually be outpaced by some offensive threats such as Starmie and KO'd in a flash.

The next major Pokemon that gets a Sandstorm boost is Terrakion. Terrakion is a powerful threat; I will not deny that. It does, however, have its share of Pokemon it loses to. Starmie will deal large damage to it. It also can defeat it if Terrakion doesn't have X-Scissor or isn't boosted. Politoed not only can change the weather to decrease Terrakion's Special Defense, it can then threaten back with Hydro Pump, Surf, or Scald. It also is weak to both steel and fighting moves. This means Scizor and Conkeldurr's priority moves can hit it quite hard before it can even retaliate.


Tyranitar is certainly a powerful threat in the metagame today. Entire teams are built around its Sand Stream ability. While it may have high stats, it also loses to some of the more used Pokemon. Infernape crushes any Tyranitar that does not have Choice Scarf. Terrakion also destroys Tyranitar quite easily. We also have Landorus that can deal very large damage with its Earthquake to Tyranitar. If Tyranitar does not have Ice Beam, it also loses to Gliscor. Politoed certainly can get rid of it, though it is better to use it to react to Tyranitar since Politoed outpaces Tyranitar. Jellicent will take large damage from Crunch, but afterwards it can cripple Tyranitar with a burn from Will-o-wisp. Rotom-W not only can hit it hard with Hydro Pump, it also can burn it before Tyranitar gets to attack. Ferrothorn can wall any Tyranitar that doesn't have a Fire-Type move. It hits back hard with Gyro Ball or Power Whip. It also could paralyze Tyranitar if needed. Jirachi also can use Iron Head to defeat it. It even has a 60% chance of making Tyranitar flinch. Scizor hits Tyranitar very hard with Bullet Punch before Tyranitar even gets a chance to attack it.
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I am in agreement with DE. Tyraintar can beaten by a large ammount of pokemon in OU. Most noteble are Machamp, Conkeldurr, Infernape and Lucario who all have a wide range of sets including Physical bulk for Machamp and Conkeldurr, Physical, Special and Mix for Infernape and Physical/Special base for Lucario which mostly runs Choice items. Scizors Bullet Punch after a +2 Swords Dance Technician Life Orb boost can OHKO TTar with ease.

Tyranitar is getting long in the tooth as of late since it still holds the number one slot for most powerful physical Dark-types. The only pokemon that come close to its base 134 ATK are Krookodile and Bisharp who all have a base of over 115 but is lower then 130. Physical bulk sets like CroCune can Rest off damage from Tyranitar then Calm Mind it to death. Ferrothorn also can handle TTar with little effort with Gyro Ball and Power Whip.

It is easy to see why Tyranitar can be banned. A base 134 ATK, 120 DEF,100 Sp. Atk, 100 Sp. Def, 68 Spe and 100 HP are nothing to laugh at. But you also need to review past suspect testing for gen 4. Tyranitar was out classed by a ton of Ubers and wouldn't do well in that slot, but in OU it has a lot of checks and counters. And now in gen 5 it has even more checks and counters making it a unworthy banner.
 
AlphaNinja said:
Tyranitar was out classed by a ton of Ubers and wouldn't do well in that slot, but in OU it has a lot of checks and counters.
Click to expand...

Pokemons position in Ubers is earned by being to powerfull for OU not on how does it do in Ubers.

On the subject TTar is for sure a force in the current metagame. Not only does it have the ability Sand Storm it is also quite unpredictable. The standard mixTar fell in usage any many people started using Scarf/Band sets which can take you by surprise. With his ability it gives boosts to Pokemon like Landorus or Terrakion but also damaging opponents Pokemon.
 
A lot of points were made already, but Tyranitar was #1 on the usage stats as of September 2011 (not sure about months earlier than that, but I'm sure he was somewhere in the top 3). With the banning of Excadrill, the top abuser used alongside Tyranitar, there is definitely going to be a drop in usage. I don't think it will be that big, but it may drop him 5 or 6 spots. He is still effective for the purpose of just having weather, in order to get rid of rain or sun (or hail) that may be in play. He also has many different possible sets, like shadow_scyther pointed it, which makes him very unpredictable.

As for banning his ability, I don't think it is ban worthy. Excadrill was really the only big abuser. Banning Excadrill seems much more fitting than banning the ability as a whole. While there is still Landorus who can take advantage of Sand Stream, it is definitely not a big threat. Like dragonexpert said, with Rain and HP Ice being very common in the metagame, Landorus is not as big of a threat as it could be.

Terrakion is definitely a major player in the metagame which can benefit from Tyranitar's ability. Without repeating what dragonexpert said, he still has some big threats that can control it. Terrakion with a Sp. DEF boost is not something that should be taken lightly, but it definitely is not as powerful as Excadrill in a sandstorm.

My final opinion on if Tyranitar is centralizing the metagame is no, it is not. While he may be a force to reckon with, he still has a lot of threats to him. Gliscor is one of the most obvious ones that can check most Tyranitar, but Tyranitar can be unpredictable and carry Ice Beam for that. dragonexpert posted a lot of the major threats to Tyranitar and those are all viable checks to it. Rotom-W was #2 in the usage statistics of September, reason being is that it could effectively control the #1 most used Pokemon. With options like Will-o-wisp to cut its attack and Hydro Pump to actually inflict direct, super-effective STAB damage, while still having above average defenses on both ends. It can even utilize Pain Split which can keep it alive for even longer. Of course Rotom-W is not only used to check T-Tar, it is an all-around good Pokemon. But I think bringing up one of, if not it's biggest, counter is important when analyzing it.

I personally find the Special Defense oriented Tyranitar to work best for me. Now that Sand is a smaller threat, Sun teams are rising in usage slightly. Volcarona is a big threat to most of my teams and I find that Tyranitar can handle it very effectively. Specially Defensive Tyranitar can not only survive a +1 boosted Bug Buzz, but it can counter-kill with a 1HKO Stone Edge (provided that it actually hits, of course). If you prefer running something safer in terms of accuracy, Rock Slide also provides that 1HKO.

The set I'm talking about is:

248.png


Tyranitar @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 4 ATK / 252 SP. DEF
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock / Pursuit
- Crunch
- Stone Edge / Rock Slide
- Superpower

While this may not exactly be a creative or new set, I feel like it's overlooked. Stealth Rock is not a must, if you have another Stealth Rock set-up on your team that you prefer. In that case, you can use Pursuit over it. Superpower is for handling mostly other Tyranitars, but in most cases it won't be outspeeding them so it would need to be crippled or on a switch-in. Superpower can also hit Terrakion on a switch-in or if Terrakion is paralyzed or crippled in some way, and can hit Ferrothorn for a FAIR amount of damage. In general, Superpower is to cover against the Steel types that Rock + Dark fails to cover. And like I said before, it is able to take out Volcarona very effectively.

I like this idea and I think it can bring some good activity to the competitive forums. :)
 
I really like that set, Lenny. Almost as much as your banner ;) Movesets are more than welcome guys, especially creative ones!

Before Excadrill was banned, Sand was broken. Excadrill overcentralized the metagame, making everyone need a Skarmory, Bronzong, Rotom W, or Gliscor on their team. At the time, I thought Sand Stream was broken. However, with Excadrill banned Sand is now managable. Landorus, while hitting like a tank with boosted Earthquake and Stone Edge, isn't at all a problem. Things like ScarfToed, Rotom W, and any bulky water can deal with him. Terrakion also is very hard to beat, but is again beaten by ScarfToed, Rotom W, and bulky waters. And Ttar has the 6 weaknesses already mentioned, slightly crippling his monstrous stats and movepool. All in all, Tyranitar isn't broken, but still a huge force to reckon with.
 
I also agree with many of DE's points. Tyranitar has always been a threat and popular Pokemon, but not to the point where he overcentralizes. He just has too many common weaknesses to become overcentralizing. His fight-weak is definitely a huge drawback, especially since fighting is an extremely effective move type. His speed is also not the best. Base 61 speed will only get you so far, and even many defensive Pokemon can outspeed that. He also has many viable sets.

His ability is not ban worthy. With the low speed and weaknesses, that makes him easier to KO. On top of that, there aren't really as many sand abusers as there are rain abusers. Sand is really limited not just with the Pokemon, but sometimes with the movepool as well since that category of Pokemon aren't exactly the most diverse ones out there. The ability doesn't do anything overpowering and it's something we've grown accustomed to for many generations. I'd be surprised if it were banned, it's really not that huge of a threat (while it is still useful, though.)
 
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