July 28th 2008, Pokemon of the Week - Tyranitar

Tyranitar

Tyranitar, The Armor Pokémon. It is so overwhelmingly powerful, it can bring down a whole mountain to make its nest. It roams in mountains seeking new opponents to fight. Its body can't be harmed by any sort of attack, so it is very eager to make challenges against enemies. Extremely strong, it can change the landscape. It has an insolent nature that makes it not care about others. In just one of its mighty hands, it has the power to make the ground shake and mountains crumble.

Overview
Tyranitar is one of the most OU pokemon in competitive battling. Tyranitar had it's first game debut on the gameboy color. It's a freak of nature if you compared to other pokemon like Pikachu, or Arcanine.

The special and physical split is the main change that has favoured Tyranitar. It now has physical Dark typed STAB to use alongside the pre-existing Rock STAB, which also got a significant improvement with the addition of Stone Edge.

Still, even with old and new enemies Tyranitar is still likely to remain a staple of Competitive Battling, new opponents may look like they're going to threaten its position but at the end of the day, a well played Tyranitar is always going to be a threat to any team that hasn't come prepared for it.

In-Game Play
Type: Rock/Dark
Ability: Sandstream
Base Stats: 100 HP / 134 Atk / 110 Def / 95 SAtk / 100 SDef / 61 Spd
Pros: Amazing attack and great defenses, Sandstorm automatically boosts its
Sp. Defense by 50%, great physical movepool
Cons: 4x Fighting weakness, slow

Contrary Movesets

Tyranitar @Choice Band
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spd
Adamant Nature
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-Crunch
-Pursuit/Focus Punch

An almost unstoppable force. A STABed Choice Banded Stone Edge from over 400
Attack hits incredibly hard if you're not a Steel, Fighting, or Ground. Steel
and Fighting types get hit hard by Earthquake and Crunch does a nice chunk of
damage against Ground types. Only a few Pokemon with good Defense can switch in
on any of CB Tyranitar's moves. For the last slot, you can choose the bred-on
move Pursuit. With so many Pokemon afraid of Tyranitar, they will surely want
to switch out as soon as they see it. Pursuit gives opponents a "farewell
present" and can KO them before they even make it back into their PokeBalls.
Focus Punch is another option and if you're good at predicting, it hits
enemies even harder than a STABed Crunch.

Tyranitar @Leftovers
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
-Stone Edge
-Earthquake
-Dragon Dance
-Crunch/Taunt

It takes some set up like any Dragon Dancing set, but it can still hit hard
even without the stat-boosts. Raising Tyranitar's Speed along with its Attack
means almost nothing can stand in its way. Crunch is good for things like
Bronzong and Swampert who will try to stand in your way. Taunt helps against
opponents who try to cripple you with status effects and prevents foes with
Haze, Roar, or Whirlwind from removing your stats boosts.

Tyranitar @Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Spd / 188 SAtk
Quiet Nature
-Focus Punch
-Substitute
-Thunderbolt
-Dark Pulse

The mixed sweeping Tyraniboah from Advance. The only change to this set is that
Dark Pulse has replaced Crunch now that it became physical. Otherwise, this
still works the same as usual. Protect yourself with a sturdy Substitute while
hitting opponents with special attacks. Focus Punch for Blissey.

Tyranitar @Choice Specs
EVs: 60 HP / 252 SAtk / 196 Spd
Modest Nature
-Dark Pulse
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Focus Punch

Choice Specs Tyranitar can be a neat surprise for your opponent. Enemy Pokemon
who rely on Defense to counter you will be hit hard since they neglect their
Sp. Defense. Dark Pulse for STAB, Thunderbolt for Skarmory and Water types,
Ice Beam for Ground types, and Focus Punch for Blissey.

Other Attack Options
Rock Slide, Aerial Ace, Thunder Wave, Curse, Iron Defence, Thunder Fang, Fire Fang, Snow Slide, Screech, Rock Cart, Ancient Power, Hidden Power [Rock], Stealth Rock, Roar.

Rock Slide will always be an option over Stone Edge for the extra 10% accuracy, but when you factor in the power boost and the fact that the side effect is usually more helpful (mainly because it can crit opponents switching in whilst you can't flinch Pokémon switching in) you'll probably find yourself converted into using Stone Edge.

Aerial Ace wipes the floor with Breloom and Heracross, and both are major threats to Tyranitar, and it's generally helpful for hitting Grass, Bug and Fighting types anyway. It's a shame that its base power is so low though, a STAB Crunch will do around about the same damage as a super-effective Aerial Ace so its use will only come into play when it's either 4x effective or when Crunch is resisted.

Thunder Wave is just generally a good move but unfortunately a lot of Tyranitar's best counters are defensive Ground types who are immune to Thunder Wave.

Curse and Iron Defence would be okay choices if it wasn't for its fairly wide cross-section of weaknesses, Curse in particularly would've been interesting since it also boosts Tyranitar's attack. Unfortunately the aforementioned weaknesses will severely diminish the usefulness of any set attempting to use either of the two and in general Dragon Dance is a better use of your time if you want to stat boost.

Thunder Fang and Fire Fang are some more physical options that Tyranitar has access to. Over all I would say they aren't worth the move slot investment when compared to its other options, Ice Fang only creeps into usefulness because of the large number of Pokémon with a 4x weakness to it.

Snow Slide can be used over Ice Fang if you want to but in general the Pokémon that Snow Slide will hit are the kind of Pokémon Tyranitar doesn't want to be taking a hit from anyway.

Screech will scare a lot of Pokémon and force a fair few switches. Pokémon who are willing to take a hit from Tyranitar after having their defence halved are few and far between. Stack some Spikes or Stealth Rocks with it and you can get a bit of passive damage but over all Tyranitar's other options are better.

Rock Cart will make Tyranitar faster than just about every Pokémon available but Tyranitar has Dragon Dance anyway and for the most part that's the superior choice.

Ancient Power and Hidden Power [Rock] are special Rock STAB moves but Tyranitar's other special moves cover everything Rock hits and their power is comparable to both of those moves even after STAB (in fact: Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Surf and Thunderbolt are stronger than Ancient Power even after STAB).

Stealth Rock is a move Tyranitar has gotten but with it being spread to so many Pokémon it probably is better off to use it on something else. Tyranitar's primary job it to be a sweeper, leave supporting to other Pokémon.

Roar is a Pseudo-Hazing option, but the opponents who are likely to stat-boost usually have moves to hit Tyranitar with anyway so it isn't all that good at it. Once again as with Stealth Rock, it's probably better to leave support moves to other Pokémon.

Countering Tyranitar
Tyranitar is still as beastly and fearsome as it ever was, the fact that it has gotten Dark Typed STAB just makes it that much more scary. It'll essentially be a necessity for a team to have a reliable Dark and Rock resister if they don't want to see Tyranitar march through them.

In the 3rd generation the standard way to counter Tyranitar was with tough Pokémon of either the Ground or Water type. Good examples of these include: Donphan, Swampert, Suicune and Milotic. And from the new comers, there's a few others to add: Torterra, Hippowdon and Gliscor being the prominent ones.

Even though the "Bulky Ground or Water type" rule of thumb still holds true somewhat it isn't as simple as that with Crunch and Stone Edge added to the mix. Its going to become even more important to figure out what set the opposing Tyranitar is using and especially important to figure out if its using Choice Band or not. Choice Band Tyranitar is a scary sight, you can expect it rack up about 40-50% damage on most of those 'counters' if you end up walking into the wrong move and since it's likely to be faster than them Tyranitar won't have any issues staying in and finishing the job. If that didn't make it clear enough, you need to predict who you switch to wisely and your team should always have at least one reliable Dark, Rock and Ground resister, and preferably one who is capable of threatening Tyranitar.

As for the Dragon Dancer, that's slightly easier to deal with, of course the Dragon Dancer always shines when you've been worn down to the point where you are no longer prepared to handle it. In general, any one of those Bulky Ground or Water types mentioned previously can handle the Dragon Dancer and pose an immediate threat with a STAB Ground or Water move. If Tyranitar lacks Crunch: Bronzong, Claydol and Flygon can also join that list. Cresselia would also be a decent counter for Crunch-less Tar even with the lack of Stone Edge resistance, but still, those bulky defences are really useful.

The secondary counter to the DDer is a Pokémon who can KO it before they get KOed. With the addition of Adherence Scarf this has become even easier with Pokémon like Heracross easily reaching a 400+ speed stat. The new "Quick Attack" additions are also helpful: Aqua Jet, Palette Punch, and Vacuum Blade, alongside the pre-existing Mach Punch. The fighting typed ones will able to get an OHKO with a high enough attack stat but the other two will only be reliable for picking off an injured Tyranitar or grabbing a 2KO, of course that may be all you need anyway.

Most Tyranitars will use either Substitute or Taunt (obviously excluding the Choice Band Tar), which makes statusing it with either Paralysis or Burn that much harder, but if you can land either of those it will significantly cut Tyranitar's offensive abilities.

Tyranitar also has a somewhat broad collection of weaknesses. Water, Grass, Bug, Steel, Ground and Fight. It really isn't all that hard exposing one of Tyranitar's weaknesses for most Pokémon, prediction can be a significant difference maker. If you think Tyranitar is going to switch into your Alakazam's Psychic then throw a Focus Bomb its way, if you think it's going to wall your Salamence's Aerial Ace then throw an Earthquake in front of it.

There are also new moves added with D/P that are worthy of note:

Somersault is a wonderful move that will really be a help against Tyranitar, not only can the Pokémon get a super-effective hit but afterwards they can bounce off to a Tyranitar counter anyway.

A few more Fighting attacks have been added to the fray. I've mentioned Focus Bomb several times already but other new ones include: Arm Hammer, In Fight and Pulse Bomb, all of which are a positive step forward from Brick Break.

Grass, Steel and Bug also got some other toys, stuff like Scissor Cross and Energy Ball are going to make Tyranitar's life difficult and Iron Head is certainly a big help to all those Steel types who had to deal with Iron Tail as their STAB move (and even then many of those didn't bother with it).

Water has also gotten a boost. Aqua Jet was mentioned before but the physical/special split means the Water types more inclined to physical offence now have Waterfall and Aqua Tail whilst the special attackers still have Surf and Hydro Pump to rely on.

Ground hasn't changed all that much however. Earthquake is still going to be the staple physical attack but on the special side of things Land Power has been added as an extra worry for Tyranitar, although Tyranitar can breath a sigh of relief knowing that it hasn't been spread to many Pokémon (and many of the ones who got it had Earthquake before anyway).

D/P Database

Evolution Chain
--->------>

Larvitar----lvl.30->Pupitar-------lvl.55-->Tyranitar

In-Game Location
Evolve Pupitar (Diamond) Trade from Diamond/Transfer from GBA Games (Pearl)

So that's it for Tyranitar.
Hoped you liked it.

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