Competitive Pokemon History - Tyranitar Quiz

Answer: Its Pursuits were reasonably strong while Tyranitar itself was reasonably bulky

Tyranitar's base 95 Special Attack was reasonable, and its 100/110/100 bulk was excellent for the time, allowing it to be a formidable Pursuit trapper. It was significantly stronger and about as bulky as Umbreon, while being far bulkier than Houndoom and hitting roughly as hard with its Pursuit.

In practice, this meant Tyranitar was many notches above them as a Pursuit trapper, giving it a valuable, near-exclusive offensive niche in its debut generation.

Answer: Roar

Stealth Rock and Stone Edge didn't exist at the time, leaving Roar as the correct answer. Tyranitar was one of the best Roar users in the game, as it had the bulk to take a hit and force the threat out with the move. It could do this to Snorlax quite well if the latter didn't have Earthquake for a coverage move. What distanced Tyranitar from Steelix and Suicune as Roar users was the fact that Tyranitar had both excellent bulk and an excellent immediate offensive presence, while also having access to Curse to amplify these advantages.

This meant that Tyranitar could consistently check non-Earthquake Snorlax at all stages of the game, Roaring it out and stopping its mid-game sweeping efforts, while being able to Curse alongside it as the feared last-Pokemon Curselax and come out on top.

Answer: Suicune

While Fighting types in general might seem to be the correct answer, considering Tyranitar's 4x weakness to Fighting and inability to hit Fighting neutrally with its STAB, Fighting types were often slow and rather frail, meaning they were generally 2HKOed by a coverage move Tyranitar had. For example, Machamp was generally 2HKOed by Earthquake, which became guaranteed after taking Spikes damage.

Steelix countered Tyranitar that did not have Earthquake or Fire Blast. These moves were fairly standard fare for Tyranitar, though, meaning Steelix was not a consistent counter.

Suicune, on the other hand, walled Tyranitar regardless of its move choice. Even if it packed Thunderbolt, Tyranitar would never prevail against Suicune, even hitting it with the suboptimal move on the switch. This meant that Suicune was a hard Tyranitar counter.

Answer: Automatically summon a sandstorm whenever Tyranitar enters battle

Sand was good for getting helpful chip damage on the opposing team, which could make OHKOs, 2HKOs and 3HKOs easier to record. Conveniently, many Pokemon that were good paired with Tyranitar, like Metagross, Skarmory and Swampert, were immune to its damaging effects, meaning there was generally not a drawback to this ability for well built teams.

Answer: Dragon Dance

Dragon Dance boosts the user's Attack and Speed by one stage each when used. This made Tyranitar's gargantuan 134 Attack stat inflate even higher, while elevating its low 61 Speed to more respectable and significantly more threatening heights. With its excellent bulk and ability to force switches, Tyranitar was arguably the best - and most profitable - user of the move in the game.

Answer: Tyraniboah

Tyraniboah was generally Focus Punch/Substitute/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam or Fire Blast. The idea was to bring Tyranitar on a Pokemon it forced out, like Gengar or Alakazam. Use the switch to put up a Substitute, and hit the switch in with the appropriate move. Focus Punch would destroy Blissey, do heavy damage to Snorlax and, in general, most things which did not resist the move thanks to Tyranitar's massive Attack stat. Thunderbolt targeted Starmie, Milotic and, to an extent, Suicune, while Ice Beam punished Ground types who thought they'd get a free switch in on a Rock move. Notably, this set let Tyranitar get around many of its checks, such as Dugtrio, Flygon and Fighting types after a small amount of chip damage to the latter and former one.

The set's effectiveness declined as the generation's meta developed, but it made such an enormous impact in the early-going that it ultimately went down as Tyranitar's most memorable set of the generation, even if it wasn't at all its most effective.

Answer: Sand now boosted Rock types' Special Defense by one stage

With this new buff, Tyranitar got way, way better. It could now do extraordinary things, such as survive Focus Blasts from extremely strong sources that were hitting Tyranitar for 4x super effective damage, like Gengar and Alakazam. Tyranitar could now better check Celebi, Starmie, wasn't anywhere near as easily thwarted by Water types, and now had titanic special bulk to pair with excellent offenses.

Because of how valuable Tyranitar was, offensively and defensively, it became a staple for pretty much any teambuild conceivable. It offered so much utility to just about any teambuild that the list of reasons to not use Tyranitar in some capacity is extremely short. These advantages made Tyranitar doubtlessly the strongest Pokemon in fourth generation standard play after Garchomp was ultimately banned from the tier.

Answer: Unnerve

While this new ability was... a shiny new toy of sorts, the thinking that Tyranitar should drop Sand Stream for it would be flat out ridiculous. Sand Stream elevates Tyranitar from a genuinely good Pokemon to a flat out amazing one, while Unnerve really doesn't do a whole lot for Tyranitar.

It would negate Colbur Berries from Pokemon Tyranitar is attempting to Pursuit trap, but Tyranitar's long list of victims consist of Pokemon who have little reason to run Colbur Berry in the first place. This means that Unnerve was outright inferior and should never see use on an optimal Tyranitar.

Answer: The only psuedo-legendary to be viable in Ubers every generation it has been in

Garchomp is probably the only real competition for "best psuedo-legendary", and it has a much less overall body of work than Tyranitar does, being introduced two generations and eight years later than Tyranitar was. Tyranitar has notably been viable in Ubers in every generation it has ever been in. Garchomp was so overpowered in fourth generation standard play that it actually got banned to Ubers, though it would be back in standard play for good for the fifth generation. Garchomp's viability in Ubers fell off a cliff in the sixth generation, while Tyranitar's undoubtedly persisted.

Apart from Garchomp, there really isn't a psuedo-legendary with the impeccable resume Tyranitar has. It has consistently been immensely useful both offensively and defensively, able to support its team by breaking down walls, laying entry hazards, spreading status, checking monstrous threats and stopping them from ravaging its team, and even being the end game sweeper itself at times. Simply put, Tyranitar has left its mark on the standard play, and Ubers, scenes in just about every way imaginable. For these reasons, it is awfully hard to find a good debate against the notion that Tyranitar has been the best psuedo-legendary through seven generations and twenty years of competitive play.

Answer: Yes

If something genuinely tried to stop Tyranitar from crossing the Galar region border, it probably would've just been Crunched or Stone Edged to death. Indeed, Tyranitar did advance towards the Galar region, leaving many of its old friends and foes behind in the process.