Tyranitar

Monstrous, both competitively and aesthetically, Tyranitar is easily one of the most important Pokemon in the tier. Tyranitar's unique typing, ability to summon sand, fantastic stat spread, and diverse movepool give it incredible versatility; it can excel on nearly any type of team in whatever role needed. With a Choice Scarf, Tyranitar becomes the best Pursuit trapper in the tier while also providing important speed control for defensive teams. With Dragon Dance, it becomes one of the best sweepers in the tier due to its coverage and power; it additionally provides important defensive utility against special attackers such as Rotom-A and Zapdos to hyper offensive teams. Choice Band sets pack destructive power while mixed sets can combine Tyranitar's various advantages into one package, such as setting up Stealth Rock and being an important check to Latias, Heatran, and Rotom-A. Tyranitar also can focus fully on its defenses with an excellent stand-alone defensive set. Sand is a centralizing force in the metagame, as it helps residual damage stick on sand-vulnerable Pokemon such as Suicune, Machamp, Gyarados, Dragonite, and Infernape. It also helps to nullify rain sweepers such as Kingdra, Qwilfish, and Ludicolo, especially if Tyranitar is holding a Passho Berry. Tyranitar can be endlessly customized to any team's needs; its naturally fantastic defenses, resistances, and Special Defense boost in sand allow it to check most special attackers even without much investment.

Tyranitar's main issues come from its typing and relatively slow Speed. While its Rock / Dark typing gives Tyranitar excellent offensive prowess, it also has prominent weaknesses to common types such as Water, Ground, and especially Fighting. The popularity of Pokemon like Jirachi, Infernape, Breloom, Metagross, Lucario, Swampert, Flygon, and Bronzong can undermine its great bulk. Tyranitar is also rather slow even when boosted and has maximum investment; Choice Scarf versions typically need additional methods to handle sweepers that boost their Speed such as Dragon Dance Gyarados and Dragon Dance Dragonite, as they will outspeed Tyranitar. Bulkier sets often must choose between being outsped by the majority of the metagame or sacrificing some bulk to outspeed foes such as slower versions of Breloom, Metagross, and Rotom-A. Tyranitar also is quite vulnerable to status; it is weak to Toxic Spikes and can get crippled by a burn from Rotom-A or Heatran.