Competitive Pokémon History - Tauros Quiz

Answer: Hyper Beam + Body Slam

In generation one, Hyper Beam will not force the user into a recharge turn if the moves KOs its target. Critical hit rates were also heavily influenced by a Pokémon's base speed, and Tauros' base 110 was incredibly high for its time. A critically hitting, STAB Hyper Beam would leave a serious mark on pretty much anything not named Gengar. Body Slam was a good idea for Pokémon who could survive a non-critical hit Hyper Beam, as it would not only typically do enough damage for a non-critical Hyper Beam to finish them off, but it would also potentially paralyze them, giving Hyper Beam a naturally higher critical rate and ensuring Tauros would move first to deliver the blow in the next turn. Body Slam was crucial in Tauros dittos, as well as sniping Starmie switch ins and rendering them useless for the rest of the game.

Simply put, nothing could safely switch in to this two move combo without taking a ton of damage, possibly getting KOed, or at the very least suffering from debilitating paralysis.

Answer: Slowbro

Alakazam and it's paltry physical bulk will get destroyed if it switches in to Hyper Beam, despite the fact that Alakazam's higher speed reduces the chance of Tauros critically hitting. It would also get immensely crippled by Body Slam paralysis. Alakazam can kind of check Tauros, but even an evenly matched one-on-one has a strong chance to end poorly for it, meaning it definitely is not a counter.

Exeggutor can survive Hyper Beam, but it has no recovery, cannot survive Body Slam + critical hit Hyper Beam, and cannot actually outslug Tauros. However, it can cripple Tauros with Stun Spore or Sleep Powder, can survive a non-critical Hyper Beam, and is therefore a Pokémon to be careful of. It still can't actually counter Tauros, though.

Gengar gets destroyed should Tauros have Earthquake. It is the only Pokémon in the game who can actually freely switch in against both Hyper Beam and Body Slam, but because Earthquake was a common coverage move that nailed Gengar hard, it cannot counter Tauros.

Slowbro was one of the only Pokémon in the game who can actually survive both a single critical hit Hyper Beam and the combo of Body Slam + non critical Hyper Beam. It can then stay in, cripple Tauros with Thunder Wave, use Rest to heal itself, and effectively trade blows with its respectably strong Surf or Psychics. Therefore, it's viability was very much heightened because it was the only Tauros counter in the game.

Answer: UnderUsed's banned list

Speed no longer influenced critical hit chances, Hyper Beam was nerfed to the point of uselessness, and many other new counters to Tauros appeared that could stop it cold. Finally, Snorlax ascended to greatness as the new king of the tier, causing any Normal type to generally pale in comparison to it and struggle to justify its usage on the team due to redundant synergy.

Tauros was overall much too strong for UnderUsed, resulting in its ban from the tier. It did not see enough usage to be natively standard play due to the aforementioned issue of being paired with the best Pokémon in the tier. As a stand-alone Pokémon, it wasn't absolutely horrible, but it had severe issues which stopped it from being a common sight, namely common counters and large competition for a team slot.

Answer: Intimidate

Intimidate lowers the Attack stat of the opposing Pokémon by one stage as Tauros enters play. This was a pretty solid ability that gave Tauros an edge against opposing physical attackers, provided Tauros would be able to actually use it against them.

Answer: 110

110 was good enough to outspeed prominent threats such as Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross and Zapdos. It also tied with Gengar, allowing Tauros place Gengar users into an uncomfortable 50/50 situation. Tauros' simplicity and potency let it find places on offensive teams, as it's usable attack stat and high speed let it equip a Choice Band and simply fire-and-forget with its strong attacks.

This made it relatively rare but definitely effective in the overall metagame.

Answer: Regirock

Charizard and Jynx wanted absolutely no part of directly switching in to a strong Tauros attack, especially if the hindering Stealth Rock was up on their end of the field. They could potentially win the one-on-one from full health, but even this was a bit shaky.

Haunter could be annoying as a potential switch in, but if it comes in and the Tauros user predicts the switch, Haunter will get annihilated by a super effective Zen Headbutt. Additionally, Tauros can actually switch in to Haunter and use Pursuit to trap and destroy it that way, meaning Tauros generally countered Haunter rather than the other way around.

Regirock's extreme physical bulk let it avoid the 2HKO from even a super effective Choice Banded Earthquake. Conveniently, Intimidate failed to work on it due to its Clear Body ability as well. It could cripple Tauros with Thunder Wave, use Drain Punch to recuperate lost HP to Earthquake, or simply trade blows using Stone Edge to win. Therefore, Regirock could counter Tauros here.

Answer: Sheer Force

Sheer Force removes the secondary effects of damaging moves in exchange for increasing their power by 30%. With Tauros' base 100 attack looking fairly mediocre without a boosting move in the face of power creep, Sheer Force gave it a bit more behind its attacks to keep them threatening.

Answer: Rock Climb

Rock Climb is a quirky pick that no other Pokémon used to success at the time, certainly not to Tauros' extent. It gains the Sheer Force boost, it is stronger than Body Slam which also does this, and it does not pack the nasty recoil that Double Edge saddles Tauros with. Because of this, it became Tauros' best general offensive option.

Answer: Palossand

Palossand, a generation seven newcomer, was immune to Normal and had the bulk and recovery to take Tauros' coverage moves all day long. Other Pokémon who countered Tauros were Regirock, Rhydon, Steelix and Vaporeon. These were all very common Pokémon whose frequency greatly hindered Tauros.

Answer: Close Combat

Close Combat finally gave Tauros the coverage and power needed to break past Regirock, Steelix and Rhydon. It synergized well with another new toy to play with, Throat Chop, that let it threaten Ghost types much more effectively than ever before either. Now, Tauros only had one true counter- Mudsdale - and it could handle everything else at least in terms of not getting countered by them reliably.

It thereby returned to being the excellent wall breaker it had been in the tier from generations 4-6.