Competitive Pokémon History - Flygon Quiz

Answer: 100

While Flygon didn't bowl over defensive teams, outrun everything in sight, or take hits endlessly, it could accomplish any of those three to at least acceptable extents, making it out to be a very average Pokémon. With a Choice Band, it could hit reasonably hard, while giving it Leftovers and a defensive spread made it acceptably tanky.

This made it very malleable and gave it the capability to fit on many different types of teams, boasting a nice degree of unpredictability as well.

Answer: Levitate

As the only Pokémon with wings to not actually be a Flying type, Levitate thereby made plenty of sense, at least from a game mechanic standpoint. Being immune to two major, very common forms of passive damage made Flygon very consistent at doing whatever its trainer wanted it to do.

Answer: Tyranitar

In particular, Pursuit variants of Tyranitar paired best with Flygon, but any variant of T Tar would also prove an effective partner. The eternal sandstorm Tyranitar brought with it worked very well with Flygon, who would not take damage from this weather due to its Ground typing. Flygon's offensive sets appreciated the extra chip damage sandstorm would supplement its attacks with, while Flygon's defensive sets would benefit from its opponent being worn down a bit more quickly. Tyranitar, as previously mentioned, conveniently boasted a great matchup against pretty much all of the Pokémon who Flygon struggled against, Gengar, Celebi, Blissey and Zapdos to name a few.

In return, Flygon's Levitate ability let it switch in to Earthquakes which hit Tyranitar super effectively at no cost. Flygon also had a decent matchup against Metagross and other Tyranitar, relieving the need for an allied Tyranitar to have to take them on and lose tons of health in the process.

Answer: Resistance to Stealth Rock

Apart from speed, Dragonite was statistically superior to Flygon, hitting much harder and having noticeably better bulk, with only a minor disadvantage in speed. On paper, this would be why Flygon seemed destined to be overshadowed by it. While Dragonite was indeed more frequently used, Flygon's resistance to Stealth Rock compared to Dragonite's weakness to it was a huge deal.

This made Flygon have an easier time switching in when needed, and also made it more consistent, albeit less spectacular, at doing what it's trainer needed it to do.

This kept Flygon very much afloat and viable in the fourth generation of standard play.

Answer: No

Flygon's wide movepool and decent all around stats meant nothing could reliably accomplish this. Skarmory, Bronzong and Scizor were probably the most consistent at achieving this. However, because they were common presences in the metagame, no experienced Flygon user would include Flygon on their team without either equipping Flygon with a move to deal with them, or having multiple teammates who could do so. Flygon could either hit them very hard with Fire Blast, or use U-Turn to bring in an appropriate teammate for free as they switched into it.

Beyond those three, nothing came particularly close to countering Flygon. This was largely because anything that wasn't a Steel type was getting hit very hard by a Draco Meteor or an Outrage, potentially followed up by a strong Earthquake, as they came onto the field.

Answer: Gligar

Gligar had the bulk and self healing to never be 2HKOed by anything Flygon could throw at it, where it could then effortlessly hit it with Toxic and then stall it straight to death with little to no brainpower needed to pull it off. Slowbro and Dusclops could counter most Flygon sets, but could encounter problems against Choice Band Flygon, as Slowbro would get hit very hard by a super effective U Turn, which would also bring in a more appropriate teammate to face it, while Dusclops risked getting 2HKOed by Choice Band Outrage and did not possess the offenses to immediately threaten a KO on a healthy Flygon in return.

Answer: Defog

Flygon was without question the best entry hazard remover in all of sixth generation RU. Pair that with acceptable defenses and potent offenses, and it would be really hard to argue that another Pokémon in RU was as great as Flygon was here.

Answer: Primal Groudon

Primal Groudon was easily the best Pokémon in all of Ubers, and its dominating, centralizing presence caused trainers to search far and wide for answers to it. This led to the discovery of a niche for Flygon. Flygon's Levitate ability made it immune to Precipice Blades, while acceptable bulk and a Dragon/Ground typing made it resistant to Primal Groudon's Fire attacks, as well as a complementary Stone Edge or Rock Slide which were common for it to use. While Flygon seems outclassed by a support form of Arceus in the role of using Defog to check entry hazard setting Primal Groudon, the advantage Flygon had was allowing Arceus to perform another useful function; Flygon would handle entry hazard removing duties, allowing Arceus to do something else, such as being the entry hazard setter or performing more of a direct offensive niche, namely sweeping or wall breaking.

Breaking in to Ubers, even in a niche role, was very difficult for most Pokémon without something clearly and obviously immensely strong to do. Thus, this was easily Flygon's most successful generation yet due to it finding viability up there with the big boys.

Answer: Zygarde-10%

Zygardes Base and Complete were very much banned from RU, making the 10% variant the culprit here. Zygarde-10% had a much better offensive movepool, physically, and was also much faster than Flygon, making Flygon an entirely inferior choice for a Dragon Dance sweeper or wallbreaker.

This was unfortunate, as the player base had been clamoring for Flygon to receive this move for sometime, only for it to come a day late and a dollar short. To be fair, Flygon was not by any means a bad Dragon Dance sweeper.

The fact that it was entirely inferior, however, meant that nobody whose main interest was winning would actually use Flygon in such a role.

Answer: Yes

This allowed Flygon to get right down to it as it was immediately available for use upon the beginning of the eighth generation. Here, it sadly did not gain a tier based promotion and remained in RU, doing virtually the same exact things it had been doing since the sixth generation. That said, the 'glass half full' Pokémon fan might view this as a good thing- would Flygon have dropped to NU, or maybe further, if it had to wait to come to the competitive scene instead of being immediately available? The world will never know.