I am thinking similarly. At the end of Ho-oh's visit, I'm going to power my best one up and give it steel wing and solar beam. I think it may make a pretty good gym clearer, that way; what it is weak to, it will hit back hard, and its neutral damage is good against what it isn't weak to. It is also hella tanky.
Ho-Oh as a Tyranitar counter
Just thinking out loud here, what about the possibility of using Ho-Oh as a Tyranitar counter? The obvious moveset is Steel Wing and Solar Beam, and it resists both Iron Tail and Fire Blast. Clearly not the best choice against Stone Edge, but otherwise, could be a good way to do some damage to a Ttar. We've all seen how fast Ttar goes down when fighting Ho-Oh, it's usually a one Solar Beam kill, even if Ttar is bringing Stone Edge, it doesn't get but one off at best, and none at worst.
For PvP (someday) barring a new moveset (which could happen really soon), one would expect to fight either Bite/Crunch or Bite/Stone Edge. B/C is neutral, and SW/SolB both hit Ttar where he's (or she's) weak. I'd argue at least comparable to Alakazam or Gengar with Focus Blast.
Sure, there are better Ttar counters. But this one is tanky. Comments?
Answers
Machamp is an ideal counter to Tyranitar, since Ttar is doubly weak to fight. But Machamp has a lower CP, and personally, I've had the worst luck getting them - no wild ones, it was one of the last useful gen3 mon I got, and with raids, I seem to get decent ones with CC or HS, or bottom of the barrel IVs with DP. I've raided maybe 30 and have one strong one with DP (that I had to QTM to Counter). I'll keep trying to raid them, but I fear they will go away soon for Gen3, and I'll be left weak on Tyranitar counters. Give me 3 Machamps with DP and good IVs, and I'm using them a lot, but I ain't there yet.
True, but a level 40 Vaporeon with max stats has a CP of 3157. A level 30 Ho-Oh with all stats 12 has CP 3253, per the CP calculator here. I think that gives Ho-Oh more than a bit of an edge, especially since a lot of that extra CP is in attack and defense, while the difference in stamina makes Ho-Oh more potion efficient. So I'd argue that Ho-Oh defeats a Tyranitar (gym defending or raid boss) a fair bit faster than a Vaporeon, unless the Tyranitar has Stone Edge.