Gyarados

Gyarados is a fearsome sweeper in OU thanks to its access to Dragon Dance, solid offensive and defensive stats, good typing, and two amazing abilities in Moxie and Intimidate, which allow it to snowball and soften physical hits, respectively. Its defensive typing and decent bulk let it find setup opportunities against common Pokemon such as Heatran, defensive Landorus-T, and Gliscor. However, Gyarados is held back by its subpar Speed tier, with Pokemon like Kyurem-B outspeeding it before a boost, and it is outpaced by Mega Alakazam and most Choice Scarf users after a boost. Even at +1, Gyarados lacks the power to OHKO relevant walls without committing to using its Z-Move. Gyarados's vulnerability to Stealth Rock is also annoying because it needs to keep as much HP as possible to set up and sweep. Regular and Mega Gyarados struggle against common offensive types such as Electric, Grass, Rock, Fighting, and Fairy without the necessary moves. As a result, Gyarados requires plenty of support, especially entry hazard removal, to bring out its full potential.