Tyranitar question
Just curious - do people prefer a Bite/Crunch or Bite/Stone Edge Tyranitar? If you had to choose one.
Answers
Stone Edge is good for a Tyranitar generalist and also is decent for Pokemon weak to rock. Golem performs this job better, though, and is itself a much cheaper investment.
Iron Tail/Stone Edge was great for Articuno. Nowadays, though, I would go with Crunch, since Tyranitar is better-suited as a Dark-type Specialist, and no one can fill this role quite like Tyranitar can.
3-bars also gives a little more consistency in damage, is better for demotivated gym sweeping, and is good for scenarios where Tyranitar would die quickly, such as when up against Focus Blast.
Tyranitar is MVP for Mewtwo Raids (Currently the only EX-Boss) and is also a standout in Alakazam and Gengar raids.
In general it seems that double bar moves are just way more desirable than single bar moves, almost regardless of type. When you're gym sweeping a low-motivated gym you can often finish each pokemon before they even get a single charge move off so long as you have double bar (or triple bar) attacks. So using this logic attacking gyms gives no reason to bring in a single bar attack.
Crunch by far, Tyranitar's role is a dark-type specialist first and foremost. I like Crunch more for gyms too because Crunch Tyranitar is my strongest generalist with a 3-bar attack, so I use it for sweeping low motivation gyms.
B/SE is acceptable as a rock attacker if lacking other options (against Entei it's actually better than Golem at L40 15a due to a breakpoint) and is ok for a gym generalist too, hits SE on Gary and Dnite and has better neutral DPS for motivated targets than B/C. I keep a few with SE just in case I need them.
Back in the bad old days, when every gym was a ten tall blissey stack, B/SE tyranitar was the bee's knees, because SE is very fast and more suitable for dodging than crunch. I still have a B/SE tyranitar on my gym clearance squad. Bite is dark power enough for the ghost and psychic glass cannons you'll sometimes find in gyms. B/SE is also the better generalist option for ttar.
I don't really need to optimize for demotivated gym clearance. It is not a hard job.
B/C is most useful for mewtwo, gengar and alakazam raids.MS/EQ groudon will paste gengar pretty well, as well. If I ever get another ex-raid pass, I can put up a squad of 3 B/C ttar, 2 B/C gyrados, and an E/AA lugia. In all but the most extreme cases, that will be good enough. So, I think B/SE ttar can still have a place on my gym clearance squad.
