Current Events > What happened to Garchomp?

(+) Yeah! (+)

He apparently sucks now.
What exactly happened to him?
Better ice types? Fairy types? That tera thing? Something does what he does but way better?
All of the above?

Garchomp hasn't ever quite been the same since it started snowing and put him into a coma.

Got busted for indecent exposure
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4f5879d5.jpg

Fairy is a pretty big factor. I destroyed many a Mega Garchomp with my Azumarrill in gen 6.

Was Garch at least at peace and surrounded by loved ones when he dropped to UU?
I hope Skarmory, Blissey and all his other original gen 4 friends are doing okay.

I would like Garchomp so much more if the fan base wasn't as crazy as they are over it. It's like how in love Game Freak is with Charizard.

Great Tusk is also completely eating its lunch as a Ground type in this meta. Even Landorus-Therian is BARELY above the cutoff for UU because of it.

Tauros: What the hell are you doing?

Garchomp: It's called sweeping. You wouldn't understand, you're not OU!

Tauros: I used to be OU. Then they changed what OU was. Now what tier I'm in isn't OU, and what is in OU seems weird and power creeps me.

Tauros: It will happen to YOU!

(I have no idea what the actual Pokemon meta is or why)

Garchomp has great stats, movepool and typing. When you can change the typing of any Pokmon to be good then there's going to be better alternatives

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Metagross is awesome and unique. My favorite is Tyranitar. Too bad its typing sucks.

-Fairy type being introduced in Gen 6 was the start
-Power Creep going wild
-Ice types getting a Pseudo legend and huge buffs also really didn't help.

Tyranitar, Metagross, and Salamence are big favorites of mine. A shame the first two are post-game exclusive mons in their debut.

Metagross is a perfect ace for Steven. One final "WTF is that?!" Mon standing in the way of becoming champion. Wallace was far more disappointing with his water team in a region overstuffed with water types. Nothing you haven't taken down before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rLQbEf1VFY

He doesn't suck, he's still great. There's just a ton of other more busted Pokemon around. Many of them Ground types.

Lando-T is also nearly out of OU, it's just powercreep being ridiculous.

Calinator posted...

Metagross is awesome and unique. My favorite is Tyranitar. Too bad its typing sucks.

TTar's typing doesn't suck though? Its used both typings to great effect throughout its career.

IceCreamOnStero posted...

TTar's typing doesn't suck though? Its used both typings to great effect throughout its career.

It has weaknesses to 7 types. It has some bulk but has meh speed to last and continually use its great Attack. and will be killed in 2 hits by many things. Being slow and having a lot of weaknesses is very bad.
Edit: It learns dragon dance. That changes a lot.....

I'm going to show my lack of the current metagame ATM but I don't get why Baxcalibur is an Uber but Garchomp is down to UU?

Why can't something like Sword Dance, Earthquake, Scale Shot and Fire Fang with loaded dice work well in OU? With Tera Fire to resist Fairies or Tera Ground to nuke Fairies with a super charge Earthquake

Garchomp always sucked. Just some lanky ass Sharpedo wannabe with legs. Fuck 'em.

MrFingers07 posted...

I'm going to show my lack of the current metagame ATM but I don't get why Baxcalibur is an Uber but Garchomp is down to UU?

Why can't something like Sword Dance, Earthquake, Scale Shot and Fire Fang with loaded dice work well in OU? With Tera Fire to resist Fairies or Tera Ground to nuke Fairies with a super charge Earthquake

It's just outdone by so much in both types. Checked again and Gliscor is absolute top dog in OU rn, with Great Tusk and Ting-Lu also being much better Ground types while Dragonite, Dragapult and Walking Wake both are handling the Dragon role better, with other mons using your one Tera to better effect.

Roaring Moon was also invalidating it, but that was shipped off to Ubers

I'm wondering why electric and normal types aren't more popular. They only have one weakness.

Fairy types
Power creep
Garchomp's speed being irrelevant.

Terastalization does help it. Also, give Garchomp access to Sand Rush, Sand Force, Intimidate and Dragon Dance. Will bounce right back to OU or Uber.

MrFingers07 posted...

I'm going to show my lack of the current metagame ATM but I don't get why Baxcalibur is an Uber but Garchomp is down to UU?

I don't follow the gen 9 meta at all, but I assume their abilities are one of the big reasons why. Garchomp has always had mediocre abilities, what with 1 requiring sand to be up while the other is really only valuable on a defensive build. Baxcalibur on the other hand has a good one, what with it being immune to burn (which is huge for a physical attacker like Baxcalibur) + being able to get an ATK up when hit by a fire move (which makes it a decent switch in option if you're predicting a fire move to be used against you).

Of course I'm sure there's more reasons, but that's one that sticks out to me the most from glancing at their kits.

MrFingers07 posted...

I'm going to show my lack of the current metagame ATM but I don't get why Baxcalibur is an Uber but Garchomp is down to UU?

Powercreep for Chomp and Bax has ice stab which helps a lot in the current metagame, benefits better from Dice, had no more competition from other banned things, a nice ability and Icetales came back so Aurora Veil support.

nocturnal_traveler posted...

I'm wondering why electric and normal types aren't more popular. They only have one weakness.

Well, their weakness is quite a common type for either one, and their resistances are usually not great, if any.

I mean, sure, 1 weakness is great. You don't wanna be a Grass/Ice type for sure, but having resistances is also needed in the event you need to have a Pokmon switch in, more so if the Pokmon going out doesn't have the greatest bulk but can kill an important target.

Baxcalibur also has that physical dragon move that does like what 100 to 120 damage and then doubles the power of the next move it uses. Also snow support is great, and have somebody else already said burn immunity.

a good part of it yes that Gen 9 has absolutely ridiculous power creep. if you look at OU and Ubers, you'll notice a fuck ton of Paldea Pokemon. this is no accident.

Garchomp was still very good in all prior gens with Fairy in them, though that once-trollish speed stat now kind of just exists nowadays.

Tyranitar is in the weird spot where its typing is objectively terrible, but it also heavily reliant on it. That STAB combo played a huge part of why it was so threatening for so long, not to mention it has a pretty good incentive to either not use Tera or Tera into Rock (you can do it, but are you really going to Tera it into something that takes damage from sand?)

dioxxys posted...

Baxcalibur also has that physical dragon move that does like what 100 to 120 damage and then doubles the power of the next move it uses. Also snow support is great, and have somebody else already said burn immunity.

Hold on. Are you talking about the move Glaive Rush? That move has a negative effect of the opponents move causing double damage and their move never misses. Doesn't double Baxcalibur's next move. Scale Shot with Loaded Dice is so much better.

Also thanks to Teal Mask, Baxcalibur also has a new best friend in Alolan Ninetales thanks to Snow Warning and Aurora Veil.

rideshort posted...

Hold on. Are you talking about the move Glaive Rush? That move has a negative effect of the opponents move causing double damage and their move never misses. Doesn't double Baxcalibur's next move. Scale Shot with Loaded Dice is so much better.

Also thanks to Teal Mask, Baxcalibur also has a new best friend in Alolan Ninetales thanks to Snow Warning and Aurora Veil.

Omg I can't believe I've been using it wrong this entire time . That's nuts.

Calinator posted...

Metagross is awesome and unique. My favorite is Tyranitar. Too bad its typing sucks.

One time I saw a Tae Kwon Do yellow belt straight up kill a TTar.

Kid was like 8, just beat it to death with her bare hands.

nocturnal_traveler posted...

I'm wondering why electric and normal types aren't more popular. They only have one weakness.

Earthquake is ubiquitous, and there are a lot of good Fighting-type moves. Normal also isn't effective against anything.

As someone who quit playing competitively after Gen 4, reading Garchomp is in UU is absolutely wild.

Garchomp was pretty much the staple of Gen 4 OU. Even if you didn't use him, every team had to have a counter strategy against him. He even got banned to Ubers at some point.

Eh, people complain when the same Pokmon are top tier gen after gen.

And they also complain when previously powerful Pokmon drop down the tiers.

Garchomp will be back in future formats.

Calinator posted...

It has weaknesses to 7 types. It has some bulk but has meh speed to last and continually use its great Attack. and will be killed in 2 hits by many things. Being slow and having a lot of weaknesses is very bad.
Edit: It learns dragon dance. That changes a lot.....

Its got a lot of weaknesses but also has a lot of pretty useful resists. Being rock has made it a very flexible special check ever since the Sandstorm buff and STAB Pursuit is enough to warrant a niche all on its own

DrizztLink posted...

One time I saw a Tae Kwon Do yellow belt straight up kill a TTar.

Kid was like 8, just beat it to death with her bare hands.

To be fair, she was also seen walking through snow barefoot with zero issue. That kid is some kind of crazy.