(On an irrelevant side note,anyone notice the new profile picture? I made it myself! No? Okay,i'll shut up now.)

So..I think we can all agree that Gyarados has aged pretty freaking well.

Gyarados first gained its popularity in the original Pokemon games due to its massive attack that basically beat all but the most powerful Pokemon in terms of stats.The only thing that could overpower it was Dragonite,Zapdos,or Mewtwo.Other than that,you were pretty much screwed.Although,i do recall Venasaur being decently effective against Gyarados,by using a Leech Seed stall tactic.

Unfortunately for Gyarados,it started to lose a bit of its edge in gen 2 because its special attack got heavily nerfed,which stopped it from being the ultimate All-Out-Attacker.And with the inclusion of more counters to it,Gyarados began to falter.But that would not last long.

Gen 3 is were Gyarados began to dominate everything.And Gyarados has been able to consistently be in the OU (Overused) tier,eversince Gen 3.Being able to perform well in many areas.

You can use Gyarados as a Choice Band attacker.(Although that way of playing Gyrados is a bit outdated now,due to having much better options.)

A steady Dragon Dancer.

A Defensive Tank.

And a variety of other options.

And guess what? It has a mega evolution now! Making it even more powerful stat wise! There's just so many ways to play it.Which is why it is one of my favorites in the Pokemon series.And i suppose its time for me to take a crack at it.

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to Pokemon reviews,and this week: Gyarados.

Lets get started.

Moveset & Levling Experiences.
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...So..Lets talk about the Elephant in the room.If any of you have read the Reuniclus review,you would most likely know that when i cover a Pokemon with an evolution,i talk about the "baby" Pokemon first.So now would be the part where i talk about Magikarp..I'm not.

And i'm quite sure you know why,it sucks.Its nothing but a stupid stall for you to get something powerful.It is literally pointless.A time consuming grind.So,i don't feel the need to talk about it.Maybe at the end of this review.So lets just move onto the moveset.

Immediatly after Magikarp evolves at level 20,it will learn Thrash.Which is basically just a normal type version of outrage,that deals less damage.In this case,it will deal 120.Which is absolutely perfect for in game battling.But there is quite a downside.After about 3-4 times of using it,you will be confused.Which in my opinion,is worth the risk.So i recommend you take it.And to be honest,you didn't really have a choice.Magikarp will learn it automatically.
Gyarados will also be able to learn bite a level 20.So pick that up as well.Its decent damaging move to use against ghost types.

Level 23 gives you dragon rage.A dragon type move that will always deal 40 damage.No matter what.Well,unless the opponent is immune to dragon types moves.(I'm looking at you fairy..) Anyhow,at this point in the game,40 damage should still deal a decent amount to most targets.And i'm guessing that at this point,you would have had something along the lines of this moveset.

Splash
Tackle
Thrash
Bite

I say just get rid of splash,and pick this move up.

At level 26 you will be able to learn leer.Don't.It just lowers the targets by one stage.There is no point in doing that.Chances are you will OHKO them anyway.

Level 29 gives you the ability to learn Twister.A decent dragon type move that deals 40 base damage,and has 100% accuracy.And to top it all off,it has a 20% chance to make the target flinch.This is mathmatically better than Dragon rage.I say take it.

Level 32 actually gives you something good,Ice Fang.This move will deal 65 base damage,and has 95% accuracy.Along with a 10% chance to make the target freeze.If you would like to,this move can easily replace bite.It far better than it.And it only has a 5% chance of missing.Not much of a risk if you ask me.

At level 35,you can learn Aqua Tail.A very powerful water type move,that will deal 90 base damage,and has a 90% chance of missing.While this offers a slightly higher chance of missing,its still very powerful.I would really recommend this move.Just don't get to stressed if it ends up missing."Such is life." I suppose.

Level 38 gives you the option to learn Rain Dance.This move will make rain fall for about 5 turns.It will also increase water type moves damage by 50%.While this is a powerful move on its own,it really depends on the Pokemon to determine if the move will be effective or not.And in this case,i don't believe Gyarados will work best with rain dance.Gyarados is either extremely quick and powerful,or defensive while perhaps using leftovers.I have found no way to incorporate it into my Gyrados set,but it just doesn't work well.I've tried every combination i can think of,but to no avail.Gyarados is just not built to use it on its own.I would instead recommend using Rain Dance on Politoed.
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At level 41 you can get Crunch a very powerful Physical dark type move,that will deal a base damage of 80,and has 100% accuracy.This move also has a 20% chance of lowering the targets defense stat by one stage.This is a move i would recommend getting rid of Ice Fang for.Especially if you are planning to use a mega stone on Gyarados.
Level 44 gives you Hydro Pump.A water type move that will deal a base damage of 110,and has 80% accuracy.While this move is very powerful,there are two major downsides.

1.It will not hit all the time.And if you miss in a serious fight,you can count on taking a major loss.
2.It just does not work all to well with Gyarados.Gyarados's lowest stat is special attack.Even if you EV train it to focus in special attack,you will only be at the minimum power that other special attackers have already surpassed.Making Gyarados mediocre in that area.I instead recommend that you focus in something Gyarados is already good at.Such as: Attack!

I'm sorry,but i just can't recommend this move.

Level 47 gives you something that is actually fairy useful in competitive play.Dragon Dance.This move will increase your speed and attack by one stage.This is so,so useful.I highly recommend it if you are planning to play Gyarados by using Dragon Dance.It is absolutely mandatory.

At level 50 we get our final move from leveling.Hyper beam.This move will deal 150 base damage,and has 90% accuracy.After using it,you will need to take one turn to recover.Do i recommend it? Nope.While it is powerful,it once agains suffers from Gyarados's very lower special attack.Making it less powerful then you may believe.

Well the most boring part the review (For me at least) is over,onto the stats.

Stats Weaknesses & Abilities.
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You know what,i'll just cut straight to the chase.I have no articulate introduction.Lets just get this over with.

HP:95
Attack:125
Defense:79
Sp. Atk:60
Sp. Def:100
Speed:81

The health is wonderful.This gives Gyarados a fair bit of bulk,and does not sacrifice much.

The attack is obviously Gyarados's trademark.You know,the powerful berserker.Anyhow,as you may have guessed,it is obviously the best and most helpful stat Gyarados has.Making it capable of OHKO-ing a glass cannon target with ease in just a few hits.

Gyarados's defense is..Rather mediocre.Which is not something i would expect.I know Gyarados is basically supposed to be the "blind berserker" type of Pokemon,but it is by no means a glass cannon,such as Gengar.It can take hits,but can be taken down by one hit by something super effective.I think this stat is okay,but a few more things could have been put into this.

It's special attack is awful,and for good reason: Gyarados does not have many special attack moves.Therefore,there is no point of having many assets put into this stat.Its the simple process of natural selection.I have no problem with it.Its actually a good thing that it is so bad.

Special Defense is where Gyarados shines.Now i understand why the defense is so bad.The developers knew that Gyarados has such a bad weakness to electricity,so they put this in in order to compinsate.Smart move,this is excellent.

Speed is kept at a rather healthy,and balanced 81.Making it fairly fast,and able to outrun unsuspecting a opponents,that underestimate Gyarados's speed.

Lets move onto weaknesses.

You will fortunately only have to worry about 2 things.Although,some could argue that those two things are very,very bad.Gyarados only has to worry about electricity,and rock type attacks.Both of these deal 4x damage against it.So please,please try your hardest not to get hit by these.As for countering them,there are a few options.
The easiet one to deal with will be rock.While Gyarados does possess waterfall,a powerful physical water type move.Lets not forget 3 things.

1.Gyarados is very weak to rock type moves.
2.Most rock type moves are physical.You are weak defense wise.
3.Rock types are known for there defense,it is very likely that you will not take them down in one hit.

Try having a sturdy water type Pokemon,such as Slowbro,to take on rock type Pokemon.Don't misunderstand,while you are powerful..Well,i believe the phrase "Even the strongest armor has gaps." Is best here.No matter how powerful you are,you have gaps.

Electricity will be a bit more tricky.While you can survive at least one thunderbolt,especially if you put some Ev's into special defense,you will most likely need something else to take down an electric type.I would recommend a few things in order to help take down those pesky electric types.

1.Breloom
2.Diancie
3.Excadrill
4.Ferrothorn
5.Garchomp
6.Gliscor
7.Mamoswine

Anyone of these on your team should help you.Onto abilities.

The first one we have avalible is Intimidate: This will lower the attack of the opponents current Pokemon out on the field,by one stage.While this is very basic,it is very helpful.

The second Ability is we have is Moxie: Let me try to explain this to you as basic as possible.If Gyarados causes your opponents Pokemon to faint,its attack will increase by one stage.There..That's it.

I suppose i should cover Mega Gyarados's ability,which is Mold Breaker: And..you know what,to be honest,i do know how this ability works,but its a bit difficult to explain.And i'm not sure i know how to properly articulate what i want to say about this move.So i'll just put a link to it down below.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mold_Breaker_(Ability) Ugh,i am lazy..

What do i recommend? Well,the most popular choice is Moxie.As it can really help some Pokemon that are made to be physical glass cannons.I have won many battles by capping the attack on some pokemon,such as Conkeldurr.So i would go with that.While Moxie can be powerful,you would need to make sure Gyarados can take out most things in 1 or 2 hits.And to be honest,i don't really see that happening much.

Competitive Play.
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Ugh,the things i do for people.Before i begin,let me try to give some insight on how i make these reviews.When i make a review,when i write the dialogue,and when i give my thoughts.I try to picture myself as the reader.I write as much information as i can give the readers.And when i do the competitive section of these reviews,some people can get the impression that there is only one way to play a Pokemon.When there is not.

And if you read the competitive section of my previous reviews,you may have gotten the impression that there are very few ways to play a Pokemon,that is not true.So from now on,i am going to work extra hard to tell people multiple ways they can use a Pokemon.In this case,i have 3 sets that i would recommend.Lets get started.

1-Rest
2-Sleep Talk
3-Waterfall
4-Dragon Tail

Item:Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Impish

Evs
248-Hp
252-SPD
8-Spe

This is the traditional Rest talk set that does not utilize a Mega Stone.This is mainly the way i play Gyarados,as i am not much of a Dragon Dancer myself.So i made an alternitive that made use of Rest and Sleep talk.

Rest will put you right back at max health if you are damaged to much.Sleep talk will allow you to use a random move while you are asleep.And there is a 2 out of 3 chance it will trigger waterfall,or dragon tail.

Waterfall is here to be our basic STAB.And Dragon Tail is there to be our annoying move.If you are able to outrun your opponents Pokemon,you can put them in a sort of purgatory state,by having them switch forever.Its pure heaven when it works.

Leftovers is here to keep us alive as long as possible.

Intimidate is here to make sure those pesky physical attackers don't K.O us in one hit.

And our nature is impish,to raise our defense,and lower our special attack.

Evs are put into health and special defense to keep us alive longer,and a few points are put into speed to give us some hope of outrunning our opponents.Which is basically essential if you want to use Dragon Tail to its full potential.
This is the set i personally use.Try it,you may be able to have some fun with it.But since i'm basically an amatuer,i suppose you may want to run something more "Official." So lets try some competitive sets from Smogon.

Onto our next set.
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1-Waterfall
2-Thunderwave
3-Earthquake
4-Protect

Item:Leftovers
Ability:Intimidate
Nature:Adament

Evs
100-Hp
252-Atk
84-Def
4-Spd
68-Spe

This set is so off the walls!..But it is surprisingly effective.This set is used in double battles.It makes Gyarados a sort of support/Attack hybrid.With alot of bulk.

Waterfall is a basic STAB.

Thunderwave can cap so many Pokemon's speed,and just demoralize the entire opponents team.Its rather funny when they quit on you after doing this. XD

Earthquake is a powerful ground type  move that can effect the opponents team in a major way,and only has one downside,which is that will effect your own team.Although if you have levitate,yeah,this is basically perfect.

Protect is here to stall,and check an opponents team for possible super effective moves.Taunt is also an option.
I'm just going to skip the purpose of the item and ability,because well..I already talked about it.
The nature is adament to maximize our damage.

Now are EV's are admittedly,kind of insane.And if any of you have been reading my reviews,you know that i often say something along the lines of "You cannot be the best at everything.Just be the best at what you're good at."
And this goes directly against that quote.However,this set is meant for being bulky and defensive,and these EV's achieve that.They try to cover as many things that Gyarados can be as good at,as much as possible.Therefore i am going to give it a pass.

Also,i am once again not explaining the purpose of the Ev's,you can most likely guess them.Besides,i just explained most of them in the previous set.

Onto the final set.
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This set will make use of the Gyaradosite.

1-Dragon Dance
2-Waterfall
3-Earthquake
4-Substitute

Item:Gyaradosite (Did you really think it was something else..?)
Ability: Mold Breaker (At least it is now.)
Nature: Adament

Evs
252-Atk
4-Def
252-Spe

This set is..Well,its not something i play often,but i suppose i do enjoy it.I was never really a fan of the Calm mind/Dragon Dance way of playing Pokemon competitively.As taunt can easily shut down the entire team.But i gave this a shot,and i really enjoy it.

Dragon Dance is essential.It increases damage and speed to an extreme degree.Just get 2-3 of these in,and you can take down almost anything.

Waterfall is..Its a STAB.I have explained this so many times now!

Earthquake can take down rock types,as well as electric types.

Substitute is here to be our annoying little stall.To be honest though,i would much rather take taunt over this.But its your choice,just see what you find most effective.

Ours Ev's are put into attack and speed to maximize our damage as much as possible.And just in case something gets past us,those 4 points in defense should help out.At the very least,it will make sure we don't get taken out in one hit.
At this point my arms are getting tired,so lets wrap this up.

Final Thoughts.
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Gyarados is in all honesty,a Pokemon that will remain one of my favorites for a long,long time.It has remained so powerful,for so long,that its almost hard to believe.And it shows no sign of going away soon.

While it is very annoying to level,it is very rewarding in the end.It has a rather hit and miss moveset,with some previous moves in the set being outright useless later on.

Its stats are very,very focused in the right areas.Gyarados is a Pokemon that knows it can cover multiple roles in a team.And it trys its best to fufill those rolls as much as possible.

And competitively..Well,its one of the best right now.I'm actually having a very hard time trying to find problem with this Pokemon.I could say that it has two major weaknesses,but guess what? It has a way to counter them without switching out!

Unlike another Pokemon i reviewed..(Heracross) I could say that its annoying to level,but hey,so is Dragonite.And Dragonite still remains one of the best.In all honesty,most of the problems i can find with Gyarados are just nitpicks.But it is still not perfect.

If you're looking for a bulky water type,that can deal alot of damage,and take a few hits on its own,Gyarados is one of the best options for you right now.

This leads me to giving Gyarados a final score of-4.3/5

Pros
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Very quick and powerful with Dragon Dance,almost creating an artificial glass cannon that does not go down in one hit!

So much health!

It can fulfill a variety of rolls.

It can counter its major weaknesses.

One of the best Restalk users currently out there.

Its stats are close to perfect.

Cons
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Annoying to level..Ugh.

A bit of a hit and miss moveset.

And..That's literally all i can think of.I'm trying my hardest not to be biased,but i just cannot think of anything!

For alternate Pokemon recommendations,let me point you towards-

1.Dragonite-Dragonite is one of my favorite Dragon Dancers,when i acutally feel the urge to use that set.I prefer Gyarados,but this can suffice.Although some may prefer Tyranitar.But i'll pass on that,to many weaknesses for me.

2.Vensaur-(Specifically Mega) Due to Venasaurs new Mega Evoltion,i have been able to counter act all types of Gyarados's i have come across.Using a leech seed set.My defensive Mega Venasaur has yet to be countered by any Gyarados.

3.Togekiss-Tokegiss with Airslash and Wish is so insanely powerful.Its like an even more annoying version of when Waterfall actually causes the opponent to flinch.


And that is it for me.Thanks for reading this far.If you have any request for a specific Pokemon you want to se reviewed,just place a comment,or send my a private message.And see yah next time!
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Now if you excuse me,i gotta get back to MKX.FATALITY BABY!

This is a very good review for gyarados. I think you made a lot of great points about Gyarados' strengths and weaknesses. The review is extremely detailed and I can tell that you put in a lot of time and effort into this review. I think you did a fantastic job. Keep up the good work.

Great review. I recommend you post more reviews sometime. Is this your first one?

gamer29475 : Nope.Not even close.Here is a list of every Pokemon i have reviewed in chronological order.

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=85281

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=85841

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=85463

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=86335

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=87159

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=87335

Thanks for being interested! Also,a new review is made every 10 days.

relinquish022 : Thanks for telling me!

Nice job on this review as well. Gyarados is a pretty capable pokemon. It's annoying to start off as a magikarp, but for the huge transformation in power, it is totally worth it. Not to mention how easy it is to level grind in the new games. It was already ridiculously strong to start with, but it only got better with a mega evolution. Now all they need is to make a mega Milotic.

I have an adamant competitive Gyarados with Dragon dance, waterfall, ice fang, and crunch. It has put some major holes in opposing teams. Altogether, it has a lot of offensive presence and I'm glad you decided to review it.