[overview]
**Draft order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price range**: 11-12 points
**Overview**: Tyranitar is primarily drafted for its Sand Stream ability alongside premier sand sweeper Excadrill. It can enable its teammates with the weather and a great set of supporting moves. Its bulk and high Attack allow it to take a plethora of hits and dish out a lot of damage in return. Tyranitar's typing and Special Defense boost from sand also allow it to take a lot of special attacks well. However, it often lends itself to very one-dimensional drafts, since sand is the biggest reason to draft Tyranitar over other options. This often deters drafting teammates that struggle in sand and forces teammates that cover Tyranitar's myriad of weaknesses.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Utility**: With its ability to set sand and access to key utility moves such as Stealth Rock, Knock Off, and Thunder Wave, Tyranitar is often used to support and enable its teammates. It can force progress with its support moves with little need to predict or outplay. Its bulk allows it to pivot in on many neutral or resisted hits and force progress. Smooth Rock is a great option to enable a partner such as Excadrill to sweep by giving it more turns in sand. Even with a utility set, Tyranitar can still do solid damage with its high base Attack, and its Special Defense allows it to switch in on key special threats such as Chi-Yu and Iron Moth to force progress.
**Wallbreaker**: Tyranitar can use a Choice Band to effectively break through opposing defensive cores. Knock Off and Stone Edge are strong STAB moves, and it has a plethora of coverage including Earthquake, elemental punches, Heavy Slam, and even special moves for certain foes.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Knock Off, Stone Edge, Rock Slide
**Setup moves**: Iron Defense, Curse
**Utility moves**: Stealth Rocks, Thunder Wave, Taunt, Roar, Dragon Tail, Foul Play
**Coverage**: Earthquake, High Horsepower, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Heavy Slam, Iron Head, Aerial Ace, Body Press
Niche Moves
========
**Dragon Dance**: Tyranitar's access to Dragon Dance allows it to threaten a potential late-game sweep. Its considerable bulk and wide coverage options allow Tyranitar to break through many defensive cores. However, due to Tyranitar's low base Speed, this set may struggle against fast Pokemon and Encore users.
**Rock Tomb**: This move is primarily useful to support teammates, allowing Tyranitar to get a little chip damage and make certain pivots easier the following turn. Other stat-lowering moves include Bulldoze, Snarl, Breaking Swipe, and Icy Wind, which can be used to similar effect.
**Rest**: When paired with a Chesto Berry, this is a pivotal one-time heal for Tyranitar in matchups where its bulk is extremely important. RestTalk can also work, but it should only be used against more passive teams where more turns can be spent asleep safely. The big issue is wasting either an item and moveslot or two moveslots on this strategy, but it is quite handy if Tyranitar can afford it.
**Special Coverage**: Tyranitar boasts a usable Special Attack stat and a wide array of special coverage moves, such as Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt, which can be useful against targets with low Special Defense, such as Great Tusk and Skarmory.
Common Items
========
**Smooth Rock**: Extending sand is very useful for teammates benefiting from it, such as Excadrill. This item highlights Tyranitar's key niche as the premier sand setter in the format.
**Assault Vest**: This item couples well with Tyranitar's Special Defense boost as a Rock-type in Sandstorm and its considerable natural bulk, allowing it to take many powerful special attacks with ease.
**Choice Band**: Knock Off is a very strong move that consistently forces progress, making Choice Band an easy item to run. Tyranitar also has a high base Attack, access to STAB Stone Edge, and many coverage options for a Choice Band set.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Heavy-Duty Boots is useful if entry hazard removal is difficult in a given matchup. Weather setting also becomes easier without the threat of being KOed by hazards.
Niche Items
========
**Choice Scarf**: Tyranitar isn't a traditionally good Choice Scarf user due to its low Speed and lack of a pivoting move. This means that a Choice Scarf set can potentially catch foes off guard in a matchup where Tyranitar is otherwise slower than everything and could be KOed quickly without forcing much progress. For example, Pokemon such as Enamorus and Ogerpon-H can OHKO Tyranitar and would otherwise outspeed it, but are also KOed by its Rock-type STAB moves.
**Resistance Berries**: Resistance Berries can be quite useful in catching foes off guard. The only issue is that it is difficult for Tyranitar to KO Fighting-types on the same turn the Berry is activated, so it needs to rely on just using Thunder Wave that turn to stop most threats.
**Leftovers**: Passive HP recovery complements Tyranitar's bulk nicely. It also punishes opponents that might opt to stall out the sand, giving Tyranitar more turns of Leftovers.
Tera
========
Tyranitar is often not the best choice for a Tera Captain. Most Tyranitar teams will be paired with Excadrill, which benefits much more from Terastallization. Also, unless it is Tera Rock, Tyranitar will take damage from sand and lose its Special Defense boost. If it is a Tera user, a Tera type such as Tera Fairy, Flying, or Ghost would be ideal to resist Fighting, or any Tera type that provides a key resistance in a given matchup could be used to leverage Tyranitar's bulk.
Draft Strategy
========
Sand is the best reason to draft Tyranitar by far. Almost every good Tyranitar team should feature Excadrill due to the value Sand Rush Excadrill gains from its presence. In return, Tyranitar provides some valuable traits to its team, such as its Dark typing, great Special Defense, and strong offensive profile, but these are secondary to the value provided by Sand Stream.
**Strong Defensive Synergy**: Tyranitar and Excadrill share several weaknesses such as Fighting, Ground, and Water, so it is important to cover these weaknesses with strong, bulky Pokemon that will regularly come to games. Pokemon that come to mind to fill this role include Latias, Rotom-W, Uxie, and even lower-price Pokemon such as Weezing and Sinistcha.
**Strong Special Attackers**: Tyranitar and Excadrill are both physically offensive threats, so having strong special attackers forces opponents to invest into Special Defense on their defensive Pokemon and applies needed pressure to physically defensive Pokemon. Some examples include Latios, Keldeo, and Serperior.
**Speed**: Even though Excadrill is extremely fast in sand, it is still important to draft other fast Pokemon to handle the metagame effectively and to function outside of sand or in case the weather gets reset. Some examples include Greninja, Sneasler, and Tornadus-T.
**Teammates That Don't Mind the Sand**: Any Pokemon that can mitigate sand damage, such as Pokemon that are immune, Regenerator Pokemon, and glass cannon sweepers that don't care about the damage very much are good to have. It is also best to avoid drafting Pokemon significantly harmed by sand, such as Pokemon reliant on Synthesis and Moonlight for healing.
Checks and Counters
========
**Fighting-types**: Fighting-type foes resist Tyranitar's STAB combination and threaten it super effectively, and Tyranitar doesn't get much to hit Fighting-types super effectively.
**Strong Physical Attackers**: Tyranitar is slow, allowing many physically offensive Pokemon such as Great Tusk, Palafin, Garchomp, and Meowscarada to threaten a KO with their strong physical STAB moves. Since Tyranitar has a plethora of weaknesses, many physical attackers can serve as checks.
**Opposing Weather**: Many drafts with Tyranitar will rely on sand being active to enable Excadrill and to rack up chip damage. Opposing weather setters such as Pelipper and Torkoal can set weather on switching in and punish an incoming Tyranitar with super effective coverage moves. Some teams may run weather-setting moves such as Sunny Day and Rain Dance with fast Pokemon or Prankster users to overwrite the weather as well.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/streetcredcookie.304744/
Quality checked by:
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https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
Grammar checked by:
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**Draft order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price range**: 11-12 points
**Overview**: Tyranitar is primarily drafted for its Sand Stream ability alongside premier sand sweeper Excadrill. It can enable its teammates with the weather and a great set of supporting moves. Its bulk and high Attack allow it to take a plethora of hits and dish out a lot of damage in return. Tyranitar's typing and Special Defense boost from sand also allow it to take a lot of special attacks well. However, it often lends itself to very one-dimensional drafts, since sand is the biggest reason to draft Tyranitar over other options. This often deters drafting teammates that struggle in sand and forces teammates that cover Tyranitar's myriad of weaknesses.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Utility**: With its ability to set sand and access to key utility moves such as Stealth Rock, Knock Off, and Thunder Wave, Tyranitar is often used to support and enable its teammates. It can force progress with its support moves with little need to predict or outplay. Its bulk allows it to pivot in on many neutral or resisted hits and force progress. Smooth Rock is a great option to enable a partner such as Excadrill to sweep by giving it more turns in sand. Even with a utility set, Tyranitar can still do solid damage with its high base Attack, and its Special Defense allows it to switch in on key special threats such as Chi-Yu and Iron Moth to force progress.
**Wallbreaker**: Tyranitar can use a Choice Band to effectively break through opposing defensive cores. Knock Off and Stone Edge are strong STAB moves, and it has a plethora of coverage including Earthquake, elemental punches, Heavy Slam, and even special moves for certain foes.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Knock Off, Stone Edge, Rock Slide
**Setup moves**: Iron Defense, Curse
**Utility moves**: Stealth Rocks, Thunder Wave, Taunt, Roar, Dragon Tail, Foul Play
**Coverage**: Earthquake, High Horsepower, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Heavy Slam, Iron Head, Aerial Ace, Body Press
Niche Moves
========
**Dragon Dance**: Tyranitar's access to Dragon Dance allows it to threaten a potential late-game sweep. Its considerable bulk and wide coverage options allow Tyranitar to break through many defensive cores. However, due to Tyranitar's low base Speed, this set may struggle against fast Pokemon and Encore users.
**Rock Tomb**: This move is primarily useful to support teammates, allowing Tyranitar to get a little chip damage and make certain pivots easier the following turn. Other stat-lowering moves include Bulldoze, Snarl, Breaking Swipe, and Icy Wind, which can be used to similar effect.
**Rest**: When paired with a Chesto Berry, this is a pivotal one-time heal for Tyranitar in matchups where its bulk is extremely important. RestTalk can also work, but it should only be used against more passive teams where more turns can be spent asleep safely. The big issue is wasting either an item and moveslot or two moveslots on this strategy, but it is quite handy if Tyranitar can afford it.
**Special Coverage**: Tyranitar boasts a usable Special Attack stat and a wide array of special coverage moves, such as Flamethrower, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt, which can be useful against targets with low Special Defense, such as Great Tusk and Skarmory.
Common Items
========
**Smooth Rock**: Extending sand is very useful for teammates benefiting from it, such as Excadrill. This item highlights Tyranitar's key niche as the premier sand setter in the format.
**Assault Vest**: This item couples well with Tyranitar's Special Defense boost as a Rock-type in Sandstorm and its considerable natural bulk, allowing it to take many powerful special attacks with ease.
**Choice Band**: Knock Off is a very strong move that consistently forces progress, making Choice Band an easy item to run. Tyranitar also has a high base Attack, access to STAB Stone Edge, and many coverage options for a Choice Band set.
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Heavy-Duty Boots is useful if entry hazard removal is difficult in a given matchup. Weather setting also becomes easier without the threat of being KOed by hazards.
Niche Items
========
**Choice Scarf**: Tyranitar isn't a traditionally good Choice Scarf user due to its low Speed and lack of a pivoting move. This means that a Choice Scarf set can potentially catch foes off guard in a matchup where Tyranitar is otherwise slower than everything and could be KOed quickly without forcing much progress. For example, Pokemon such as Enamorus and Ogerpon-H can OHKO Tyranitar and would otherwise outspeed it, but are also KOed by its Rock-type STAB moves.
**Resistance Berries**: Resistance Berries can be quite useful in catching foes off guard. The only issue is that it is difficult for Tyranitar to KO Fighting-types on the same turn the Berry is activated, so it needs to rely on just using Thunder Wave that turn to stop most threats.
**Leftovers**: Passive HP recovery complements Tyranitar's bulk nicely. It also punishes opponents that might opt to stall out the sand, giving Tyranitar more turns of Leftovers.
Tera
========
Tyranitar is often not the best choice for a Tera Captain. Most Tyranitar teams will be paired with Excadrill, which benefits much more from Terastallization. Also, unless it is Tera Rock, Tyranitar will take damage from sand and lose its Special Defense boost. If it is a Tera user, a Tera type such as Tera Fairy, Flying, or Ghost would be ideal to resist Fighting, or any Tera type that provides a key resistance in a given matchup could be used to leverage Tyranitar's bulk.
Draft Strategy
========
Sand is the best reason to draft Tyranitar by far. Almost every good Tyranitar team should feature Excadrill due to the value Sand Rush Excadrill gains from its presence. In return, Tyranitar provides some valuable traits to its team, such as its Dark typing, great Special Defense, and strong offensive profile, but these are secondary to the value provided by Sand Stream.
**Strong Defensive Synergy**: Tyranitar and Excadrill share several weaknesses such as Fighting, Ground, and Water, so it is important to cover these weaknesses with strong, bulky Pokemon that will regularly come to games. Pokemon that come to mind to fill this role include Latias, Rotom-W, Uxie, and even lower-price Pokemon such as Weezing and Sinistcha.
**Strong Special Attackers**: Tyranitar and Excadrill are both physically offensive threats, so having strong special attackers forces opponents to invest into Special Defense on their defensive Pokemon and applies needed pressure to physically defensive Pokemon. Some examples include Latios, Keldeo, and Serperior.
**Speed**: Even though Excadrill is extremely fast in sand, it is still important to draft other fast Pokemon to handle the metagame effectively and to function outside of sand or in case the weather gets reset. Some examples include Greninja, Sneasler, and Tornadus-T.
**Teammates That Don't Mind the Sand**: Any Pokemon that can mitigate sand damage, such as Pokemon that are immune, Regenerator Pokemon, and glass cannon sweepers that don't care about the damage very much are good to have. It is also best to avoid drafting Pokemon significantly harmed by sand, such as Pokemon reliant on Synthesis and Moonlight for healing.
Checks and Counters
========
**Fighting-types**: Fighting-type foes resist Tyranitar's STAB combination and threaten it super effectively, and Tyranitar doesn't get much to hit Fighting-types super effectively.
**Strong Physical Attackers**: Tyranitar is slow, allowing many physically offensive Pokemon such as Great Tusk, Palafin, Garchomp, and Meowscarada to threaten a KO with their strong physical STAB moves. Since Tyranitar has a plethora of weaknesses, many physical attackers can serve as checks.
**Opposing Weather**: Many drafts with Tyranitar will rely on sand being active to enable Excadrill and to rack up chip damage. Opposing weather setters such as Pelipper and Torkoal can set weather on switching in and punish an incoming Tyranitar with super effective coverage moves. Some teams may run weather-setting moves such as Sunny Day and Rain Dance with fast Pokemon or Prankster users to overwrite the weather as well.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/streetcredcookie.304744/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/hacker.387847/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Last edited:
