Suspect Reasoning:
Since Day 1, Mega Gyarados has made a case for itself as being among the most threatening presences to have ever dropped into the tier, owing to its immense offensive potency as a setup sweeper. its superb defensive capabilities and bulk have lended it to a significant number of opportunities, making it difficult to revenge kill from full with commonly used offensive threats such as Serperior and Mega Aerodactyl, and allowing for setup opportunities against a number of Pokemon in various metagames, including the likes of Gliscor, Excadrill, Weavile, Aegislash, and Slowbro, even being able to utilize its Mold Breaker ability to defeat common Unaware Pokemon that would otherwise deter most physical sweepers like it, such as Dondozo and Skeledirge.
Mega Gyarados’s premier set additionally remains no different from previous iterations, featuring Dragon Dance and 3 attacks in the form of Waterfall, Crunch, and Power Whip, Mega Gyarados is easily able to threaten a significant most teams in the mid-to late game, being fast enough to outrun the majority of the unboosted metagame, barring Mega Aerodactyl after a single boost, while Waterfall and Crunch alone both have the neutral coverage to 2HKO or OHKO, with a single flinch from the former being easily game-changing against defensive Pokemon that would otherwise be able to take a hit or two and strike back, like with Clefable and Iron Hands, access to Power Whip also ensures that Mega Gyarados has the upper hand against several would-be answers to its STAB combination, such as Tapu Fini and Keldeo. Although the standard variant is already extremely threatening to most teams on its own, this too is not the only way to utilize its offensive potential to the fullest -- Taunt and Substitute are both valuable options that allow Mega Gyarados to deny any attempts to force status or stack defensive boosts against it, like with Skarmory. Base forme Gyarados also gives the Mega variant an extra layer of surprise factor to pull these techs off more succesfully, notably through a Fighting-resistance and Ground-immunity, ability to threaten most fighting and grass-type checks with Flying STAB of its own, on top of an ability equivalent to a one-time defensive boost or more in Intimidate -- this last aspect in particular makes Mega Gyarados much more dangerous in practice, limiting the window to deal with it tremendously when having to account for said factors.
However, even disregarding this, Mega Gyarados also comes with its own share of issues. The fairly one-dimensional nature of its role in the metagame on its own can be easily exploited by a number of common defensive Pokemon that Mega Gyarados does not have the means to reliably break past, including common physically defensive Pokemon such as Tera Water Buzzwole, Skarmory, and Tangrowth, while inevitably struggling against certain threats that can naturally adapt to its main attacking combination seeing more usage than before, including the likes of Hydreigon and Tapu Bulu, both also remaining effective outside of dealing with Mega Gyarados. Base 81 speed in conjunction with its pre-mega Stealth Rock weakness also severely cuts into the number of opportunities where Mega Gyarados may be given sufficient conditions to force progress in practice, leaving it more vulnerable to being picked off by faster Pokemon such as Meowscarada and Latios in the process, especially if they opt to run Choice Scarf to outspeed it after a boost, which has since become more prevalent. On top of this, forcing Gyarados to reveal its set in order to try and break through common pivots such as the aforementioned Clefable and Amoonguss, may prove valuable in allowing said revenge killer or check to respond appropriately. That said, as we believe regular Gyarados is fine due to lacking most of the offensive potential of its Mega counterpart by itself, this serves as the primary reason behind us choosing to test the item Gyaradosite instead.
Suspect Test Information
- Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 79 with at least 40 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 79 GXE, down to a minimum of 20 games at a GXE of 83. Also, needing more than 40 games to reach 79 GXE will suffice.
GXE | minimum games |
79 | 40 |
79.2 | 39 |
79.4 | 38 |
79.6 | 37 |
79.8 | 36 |
80 | 35 |
80.2 | 34 |
80.4 | 33 |
80.6 | 32 |
80.8 | 31 |
81 | 30 |
81.2 | 29 |
81.4 | 28 |
81.6 | 27 |
81.8 | 26 |
82 | 25 |
82.2 | 24 |
82.4 | 23 |
82.6 | 22 |
82.8 | 21 |
83 | 20 |
You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NDUU9GYRA. For example, I could signup and qualify with the name NDUU9GYRA Arishem.
- You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
- If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
- The aspect that's being suspect tested, Gyaradosite, will be allowed on the National Dex UU ladder so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.