Gyarados UU (hinges on sleep being freed) [QC 0/2]

[Tree69420]

[OVERVIEW]
Gyarados is one of the strongest wallbreakers in RBY UU. With a great coverage movepool and a massive well-distributed base stat total, Gyarados can eat attacks from and heavily threaten every single mon trying to come in. STAB Water moves can heavily damage Kangaskhan and OHKO Dugtrio, Body Slam dissuades any non-immunity from switching in, Blizzard hits Grass types and Dragonite, and Thunderbolt can do solid damage to the common waters, Dodrio, and Articuno.

Above all, it is one of the most effective Dugtrio and Kangaskhan checks in the tier. Gyarados easily switches into Dugtrio’s Earthquake thanks to its Flying typing, and even Slash and Rock Slide are merely 4HKOs. When paired with a Haunter or Golem, you can easily force Earthquakes for Gyarados's free entry into Kangaskhan.

However, Gyarados’s poor speed tier and lack of recovery leaves it easily worn down. Often, Gyarados will have to trade away a majority of its HP to eliminate a mon that it checks. This leaves it easily revenge killed. It can also struggle to get much damage on the board if the opponent pivots between different bulky resists/immunities. Above all, Haunter is the biggest opponent to Gyarados's success. It is only 3HKOed by any of Gyarados's moves, outspeeds, and can get sleep or 2HKO Gyarados with Thunderbolt.

[SET]
name: Wallbreaker
move 1: Surf/Hydro Pump
move 2: Body Slam
move 3: Blizzard
move 4: Thunderbolt

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=============

Gyarados’s water STAB is primarily used to hit Kangaskhan and Haunter, while getting kills on Dugtrio and damaging Omastar if lacking Thunderbolt. Hydro Pump can be used to get better rolls, notably always 2HKOing Kangaskhan before factoring in accuracy, when Surf never does. However, neither attack will 2HKO Haunter, and both 3HKO and put it into Kadabra's Psychic range, leaving Surf the better choice in this matchup. Body Slam can threaten many pokemon, notably 2HKOing Kadabra with its base 125 attack stat, and threatening paralysis on most pokemon. Blizzard hits the grass types, Dodrio, and often OHKOs Dragonite, and can be a more accurate click than Hydro Pump into a chipped Dugtrio. Thunderbolt does major damage to Water-types and Articuno, with 3HKOs on most and a 2HKO on opposing Gyarados and Dodrio.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
==============
Fire Blast can also cripple Tentacruel and Haunter with a burn limiting their offensive depth, while 3HKOing Articuno and Kangaskhan. Hyper Beam can be a niche option to OHKO a slightly chipped Kadabra, such as from Tentacruel Wrap chip, while killing Dewgong and Vaporeon from a slightly higher range. Bubblebeam can limit many mons with its speed drop, forcing Tentacruel to switch out lest it get Body Slammed to oblivion, and putting Haunter in range of 2 Hydro Pumps.


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

**Haunter**: Haunter takes little damage from Gyarados’s coverage moves, and can threaten it with a strong Thunderbolt while outspeeding.

**Electric-types**: Electric types can usually stomach a hit from Gyara, and often OHKO it back with their 4x STAB Thunderbolt. However, they can be susceptible to paralysis from Body Slam, and if fully paralyzed, will get killed by the combination of Body Slam into 2 Water-type moves.

**Tentacruel**: Tentacruel is a good switch-in to Gyarados’s Water STAB and Blizzard, and can either Wrap it down to low health or pivot to a different check.

**Articuno**: Articuno takes not much damage from Gyarados's attacks and can outspeed and threaten it with a Blizzard 3HKO.

 

[juoean]

[OVERVIEW]

Gyarados is one of the strongest wallbreakers in RBY UU. everything in RBY UU is a "strong wallbreaker", all things considered Gyarados is probably one of the worse "wallbreakers" in the tier. im guessing you took this from the old gyara analysis but that wasn't written in the context of top 7 haunter. With a great coverage movepool and a massive well-distributed base stat total, Gyarados can eat attacks from and heavily threaten every single mon trying to come in. STAB Water moves can heavily damage Kangaskhan and OHKO Dugtrio, Body Slam dissuades any non-immunity from switching in, Blizzard hits Grass types and Dragonite, Thunderbolt can do great damage to the common waters and Articuno, and Hyper Beam can nearly OHKO Kadabra from full.

Above all, it is one of the best (consider rewording, u presumably are not claiming that its one of the best by viability as obviously dodo kang gong are better mons, but that gyara is a bulkier dugtrio check compared to drio while also coming in free on eq unlike kanga) Dugtrio checks in the tier. Gyarados easily switches into Dugtrio’s Earthquake thanks to its Flying typing, and even Slash and Rock Slide are merely 4HKOs.

However, Gyarados’s poor speed tier and lack of recovery leaves it easily worn down. Often, Gyarados will have to trade away a majority of its HP to eliminate a mon that it checks. This leaves it easily revenge killed. It can also struggle to get much damage on the board if the opponent pivots between different bulky resists/immunities.

I think this overview needs to be reworked a lot, I don't really know what you are talking about in a lot of it and it lacks cohesion.
~what mons are dissuaded from switching in by Body Slam? personally Body Slam is more a move that you have to run because of Kadabra but it is a move you do not really want to click unless/until you have scouted for Haunter. other than maybe Kadabra theres nothing that switches into everything from gyara other than body slam and kadabra isnt a good switchin regardless.
~I don't think gyarados's "BST" is that remarkable, especially when the value of its one high stat is diminished by only applying to normal-type moves which it doesnt want to click due to its best and most important check being immune to them.
~ Gyarados vs Articuno is nothing like its matchup vs water types and idk that tbolt does "great damage" to articuno; you have left out the obviously most important target of Gyara's special coverage in Dodrio which is not 2HKOd by Gyarados's Surf due to Gyara's mediocre special stat; and again you omit the one Pokémon that it is terrible at threatening.
~ imo your second paragraph would be a better starting point for the analysis, as checking Dug is obviously the only reason for considering Gyarados on a UU team. (im not requiring this, but if you are unsure how to go about reorganizing you could try it this way and see if you like the result.) maybe compare gyarados to the other dugtrio checks available, both with its fellow eq resist/immunes (Dodo Dnite Aero Tang) and other bulky mons that can serve as dug checks like kanga and gong, both defensively and in the different options it has available if/when it gets in against dugtrio (and maybe how do its options compare to those of other dug checks).
~ for your current third paragraph, the first thing that needs to be mentioned as far as Gyarados's shortcomings is Haunter. Haunter both prevents Gyarados from freely clicking its Normal-type moves, while also avoiding a 2HKO from Hydro Pump or any other move Gyarados can use so it doesn't fear much anyway. This can be connected to its poor speed tier if you wish, as every Pokemon below 95 speed has issues with allowing Haunter to come in and get sleep, particularly those without Thunder Wave (clef/dnite) or STAB Earthquake (Golem). i dont know what it is you are counting as a "mon that it checks" in this context so that sentence is just very vague and idk what it means. the pivoting sentence i also rly dont know what u have in mind, mons that may switch into gyarados are things like haunter tentacruel and maybe articuno, none of these have any reason to switch out again afterward so ?

[SET]
name: Wallbreaker
move 1: Surf/Hydro Pump
move 2: Body Slam
move 3: Blizzard/Thunderbolt
move 4: Thunderbolt/Hyper Beam

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=============

Gyarados’s water STAB is primarily used to hit Kangaskhan and Haunter, while getting kills on Dugtrio and damaging Articuno and Omastar if lacking Thunderbolt (really dislike this, 1 body slam is better than surf/hydro vs articuno since your water-move damage is so poor and 2 not having a move to hit articuno super effectively is wild i mean even if u have dewgong which is an iffy structure to begin with, u dont want to have a mon that cant even do 25% to a cuno switching in, which ofc cuno will be glad to use its hp for against a dewgong team.). Hydro Pump can be used to get better rolls, notably always 2HKOing Kangaskhan before factoring in accuracy, when Surf never does. However, Hydro Pump still cannot 2HKO Haunter, and either STAB move leaves Haunter in KO range for Kadabra, so Surf's accuracy is generally preferred. Body Slam is generally a spammable move into the entire metagame it really isnt because Haunter exists / isnt spammable unless you have already scouted for Haunter, with its base 120 125 attack stat and chance of paralysis leaving even more bulky foes not wanting to switch in, especially 2HKOing Kadabra. Blizzard hits the grass types, Dodrio Thunderbolt also 2HKOs Dodrio and is often a better click than Blizz, so this is kind of misleading. if you want to claim Blizzard is for Dodrio, u could say that it guarantees putting Dodrio into Dug range i guess (Tbolt usually does but its a roll), and often OHKOs Dragonite, and can be a more accurate click than Hydro Pump into a chipped Dugtrio.can be used for its better accuracy compared to Hydro Pump against targets such as a 75% Dugtrio if you are not running Surf. edited since this can apply to various targets not just dug eg haunter kang & to acknowledge that hpump is second slash, but feel free to use your own wording/phrasing as long as u factor those two things. Thunderbolt does major damage to Water-types and Articuno, with 3HKOs on most and a 2HKO on opposing Gyarados. Hyper Beam can be a niche option to OHKO a slightly chipped Kadabra, such as from Tentacruel Wrap chip, while killing Thunderbolt targets from a slightly higher range. Dodrio takes less from hbeam than tbolt and the difference vs dewgong is smaller than the reduced accuracy. also obv oma resists hbeam tho i dont know if thats a real mon but you're the one who mentioned it earlier as a tbolt target. so just specify what you mean, tentacruel and unboosted vaporeon? articuno is okay to include too if u want (tho ofc fblast does more than hbeam there). i dont rly consider hbeam slash worthy in a metagame with top 7 haunter and hypno banned, its closer to an OO to me i think id consider fblast before hbeam (and def wouldnt drop tbolt for any of these moves, other than maybe for fblast i guess), not sure what others think of what moves should be slashed etc.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
==============
Bubblebeam can be used as a midground between Tentacruel and Haunter coming in, as both are crippled by lowering speed maybe reword, tentacruel loses all momentum from the speed drop, while haunter is mostly still fine but does die to 2 hydro pumps or a crit hydro pump after bubblebeam. Fire Blast can also cripple these two pokemon with a burn, while 3HKOing Articuno and Kangaskhan (relevant if you arent running hydro, u might go for the burn vs kanga since fblast damage is similar-ish to surf). probably reverse the order of these two as Fblast is almost slash-worthy since it covers cuno + non-dragonite blizzard targets + also being a spammable move due to almost everything in uu hating burn)


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

**Electric-types**: Electric types can usually stomach a hit from Gyara, and often OHKO it back with their 4x STAB Thunderbolt. However, they can be susceptible to paralysis from Body Slam, and if fully paralyzed, will get killed by the combination of Body Slam into 2 Water-type moves.

**Tentacruel**: Tentacruel is a good switch-in to Gyarados’s Water STAB and Blizzard, and can either Wrap it down to low health (that is pretty bad outside of a specific endgame scenario, i wouldnt even mention it as an option lol id just say tent can switch into stab/blizz and use wrap to pivot into a favorable matchup) or pivot to a different check.

**Haunter**: Haunter outspeeds, takes little damage from (maybe specify, avoids a 2HKO from?) Gyarados’s coverage moves, is immune to Body Slam, and can threaten to put a Pokemon to sleep with Hypnosis, or simply attack with a strong Thunderbolt if Gyarados tries to stay in to absorb sleep. while outspeeding. haunter needs to be the first in the list of C&C, all of gyarados's biggest issues revolve around haunter.

**Ice-types**: Dewgong and Articuno take little damage from Gyarados’s non-Thunderbolt attacks, and threaten it back with Blizzard 3HKOs. this is not really a workable category, dewgong and cuno mus are entirely different. gong is outsped and 3hkod by tbolt, even 2 tbolts puts it in cuno range, ofc sometimes its UU and u fight wants in front of you instead of switching but dewgong is very definitely not a gyarados check and should j not be here. articuno is fine to treat as a check, as cuno outspeeds and tbolt isnt even favorable to 3HKO it, but u might want to emphasize that if cuno uses its hp for switching into gyarados then it generally isnt going to be sweeping.

since the overview needs a lot of work, i will come back to do another check after you have made whatever changes you want to make.