Analysis
Behold! One of the goats of competitive Pokémon, now in his retirement home to beat up children! Tyranitar plays the crucial role of keeping all the Psychic types in check, and alongside with amazing stats, great abilities and a movepool, Tyranitar is undoubtedly one of the best Pokémon in this meta… just be wary of Fighting types…
With access to Stealth Rock, Pursuit, and the strongest Knock Off in this meta, Tyranitar is an amazing support Pokémon, capitalizing its Special Defense boost from sand to ruin the likes of Espeon, Slowking and other Psychics. The given EV spread allows Tyranitar to outspeed uninvested base 80s, allowing it to get the jump on various Pokémon. Knock Off and Pursuit are extremely important to Tyranitar’s game, with the set being rounded out by Fire Blast to melt unsuspecting Escavalier as well as hurt Tangrowth. There is also an Offensive Utility set with Chople Berry, which allows Tyranitar to live a Low Kick from Arctozolt and kill it back with Low Kick. This set has Thunder Wave in it, but realistically you can put any other move here.
But maybe this set doesn’t satisfy your destructive desires, perhaps you need that already amazing base 134 Attack to hurt even more… enter the Choice Band. With the Choice Band, its already strong Stone Edges and Knock Off hits extremely high levels, with even resists taking a huge chunk. Pursuit ensures that nothing will be truly safe from Tyranitar, and with Unnerve, that Slowking will be too scared to eat the Colbur Berry he thought would protect him. Earthquake makes great complementary coverage with Stone Edge, slamming opposing Tyranitar and Klawf. But maybe, your Tyranitar is getting outsped left and right, so you may opt in to run a Choice Scarf set, getting the jump on many Pokémon such as Archeops and Bruxish, while still trapping Psychics with ease.
But maybe, you can’t decide between a Tyranitar that hits stronger, or hits faster? You should use a Dragon Dance set! With a Dragon Dance set, Tyranitar leverages its great bulk to grab some Dragon Dances and be an endgame menace. Knock Off is self-explanatory, and while Stone Edge is really nice to have as your second STAB option, Knock Off on its own is pretty strong so you can put Earthquake here instead. The last slot could be what you think you need. Fire Punch can crush Escavalier that can survive any attack, while Low Kick can be used to drop opposing Tyranitar as well as slamming Arctozolt without risking a Stone Edge miss. A Lum Berry is used here to make Tyranitar better versus Sleep Powder Tangrowth, as well as being able to set up safely versus Thunder Wave Uxie. No matter what you decide though, Tyranitar will be worth your valuable team slot.
Unfortunately, everything has its flaws, and Tyranitar is no exception. It’s typing, while amazing offensively and has defensive merit, there are some glaring issues, such as a 4x weakness to Fighting. Defensive Quaquaval is an amazing check to Tyranitar, resisting both STABs and not being weak to any of Tyranitar’s coverage options. This is why Slowking-Galar is a great partner for it, he provides a pivot into Quaquaval and in general any Fighting type moves, and Tyranitar pairs very well with Future Sight, as there is almost nothing that can take both a Tyranitar attack and Future Sight, especially if the Tyranitar in question is Banded. Mimikyu is a huge nuisance to Tyranitar, as it will either threaten it with a Play Rough or burn it via Will-O-Wisp, so having a Tangrowth or Klawf in the back is appreciated. Tyranitar’s Pursuit talents are appreciated by many Pokémon, such as Escavalier who enjoys the free move slot, to Mienshao who appreciates the ability to spam Close Combat a lot more. Finally, Dugtrio-Alola greatly enjoys Tyranitar as a teammate. Dugtrio-Alola utilizes a Choice Scarf in this meta, being one of the few Pokémon able to revenge kill Arctozolt with Slush Rush active. However this means that Dugtrio-Alola is often left wanting for power, and Sand Force usually suffices to fix this.
Written by Oceanicgamer