Aerodactyl Discussion

[t3h Icy]

Lately I've used one of the lesser Pokemon, Aerodactyl in hopes of figuring out some cool techniques and setups he has. I've tried this before with other Pokemon, and decided to do this again.

Anyway, Aerodactyl has a few unique, shining qualities. One of the main things is Aerodactyl is the only Physical Pokemon with massive Speed. Jolteon, Mewtwo and Electrode are all Specialists, while the next Physicals are Dugtrio, Persian and Tauros, all who have no real resistances (except Electric for Dugtrio). This allows Aerodactyl to be part of chain-switching unlike the others.

Aerodactyl also has massive attack at 308, and when coupled with the 358 Speed, you'll be doing moves the equivalent of having 616 Attack every four turns. This can be dangerous when setup properly with a little luck on the side.

Now the problems are Aerodactyl does not take Special attacks at all, being weak to Electric, Ice, Water, neutral to Grass, and even Fire can pierce through (Moltres's Fire Blast 3-4HKOs). Aerodactyl also has a fairly bad movepool, lacing Drill Peck, Rock moves, Body Slam, Earthquake and other common Physical moves. However, I believe it's possible to have the pros stand out if played properly.

First off, the moveset I used was Sky Attack, Fly, Hyper Beam and Double-Edge. I haven't found myself wanting to use Double-Edge most of the time, so that can probably be replaced with something else, but it is nice if you rather use that in combination with Hyper Beam, than Sky Attack. Fire Blast is interesting, but I'd only use it for Articuno, or for attempting to Burn a Physical. Mimic is also interesting, but Aerodactyl doesn't last long or have the time to play with it, not to mention due to the odd moveset that you can't rely on getting a particular move all the time.

So let's do some damage calculations with Sky Attack:

Sky Attack vs Alakazam - 301-256 (96%-82%)
Sky Attack vs Chansey - 522-444 (74%-63%)
Sky Attack vs Tauros - 191-163 (54%-46%)

Roughly, Sky Attack does Snorlax's Hyper Beam. However, Aerodactyl has enough Speed to follow-up directly after with a finishing move, has about 5x the chance to CH and the turn loss is beforehand, so it doesn't matter what gets hit. Dodrio could do this similarly, but Dodrio doesn't have as much Speed.

So just how do we use Sky Attack? Well, one of the main ways is giving Snorlax hell by switching in. Physical Snorlax is more common than Amnesia Snorlax, and often, they won't be able to attack well. The only thing is Body Slam may paralyze, so I suggest chain-switching from Gengar first if you want to be safe. After that, Snorlax will switch out almost certainly, where you can then charge up Sky Attack or use Double-Edge and then Hyper Beam. While the opponent will attack after, Sky Attack may CH, and it takes two turns to take out Aerodactyl in most cases, so you can follow-up after.

Aerodactyl also works like Golem, where you can switch into Hyper Beams. If desired, you can also charge Sky Attack from this. Another common setup that works is if you predict the opponent is about to switch to something you feel Aerodactyl is safe against, you can switch Aerodactyl into their own switch. Again, you can charge up Sky Attack or do the Double-Edge + Hyper Beam combo.

So with Aerodactyl we get a Hyper Beam absorber, a Snorlax wall (lol), an excellent revenge killer, a powerhouse with Sky Attack and a scary CH rate, which may force opponents to be cautious about.

But, I've started finding a few problems. For one, when you use Sky Attack on Chansey or Alakazam and you don't CH, they can use Thunder Wave, and in the following turn hit Aerodactyl for some heavy permanent damage. Aerodactyl can often finish them off, but Fly allows them to heal, forcing you to use Double-Edge, which can result in heavy recoil damage, or use Hyper Beam, which can be abused by the opponent by using a Rock or something with Counter. Since the main finishing move is Hyper Beam, this takes away some control as a revenge killer. One resolution though is setting up Alakazam and Chansey at damage range. Since Alakazam won't often spend a turn using Recover at 82%, if you can force a switch, Alakazam will die if he switches in against the Sky Attack. If you keep Alakazam at 82% before Aerodactyl shows up, the opponent can't go back to Alakazam. Chansey is more difficult since Chansey often heals at the Sky Attack range percentages, and it can be awkward forcing Chansey to switch out at that amount.
Paralysis beforehand can help in these cases, or you can just rely on the luck of Sky Attack getting a CH.

The other problem is Aerodactyl has hard counters, being Golem, Rhydon and Zapdos. Jolteon can be fought with using Hyper Beam, but matches in Speed, which is sketchy. Zapdos, Golem and Rhydon don't allow much of anything from Aerodactyl and you're usually forced to switch, which can be difficult against any of them. If Golem doesn't have Rock Slide (Body Slam, Substitute, Earthquake, Explosion), you could spam Fly for some moderate damage, and wall each other out for awhile. This is fine so long as Golem doesn't win having a Substitute up. To deal with this though, having a Golem on your team takes care of them, and I find it's uncommon for an opponent to have two of the three; perhaps Golem + Zapdos. However, this takes a slot on your team which you may not want used.

Overall, Aerodactyl is a lot of fun to use, requires a unique playstyle and can actually run your opponent's team down if you get a CH or two. If you're interested in using Aerodactyl, I strongly recommend having Gengar, Golem or even both if you can fit them in.

So what are your thoughts on Aerodactyl?

[Consumptus]

After reading your post, I feel Aerodactyl can really shine as a Hit & Run poke. Of course this usually applies to a lot of the faster physicals, but like you said, his Sky Attack is really the main reason to use him.

[posthuman]

Tough to use, but possible... but I feel using the pterodactyl is kind of gimmicky. Sure he's decent when people don't know what to do vs. him, but once opponents figure it out, you'll want to use a better pokemon again.

[Inf]

Yeah, you can still use it with success, but sometimes it might do nothing, and with the charging turn, you have to be really carefull (if the opponent predicts Fly or SkyAttack it can just switch to something and paralyze you, or to Golem/Rhydon). The real good point is imo the high CH rate, but other than that, I don't like it.

[Crystal_]

needs moar EQ. And RS. I think it is below Kingler in the sexy-for-OU UU/NU pokes. Maybe one day I write a story about, all the 5743029640395x sets I came up for Snorlax. lol
As you mentioned it is walled by random Golem/electrics which is not a good thing. And after all, most of the matchups with areodactyl are still desfavorable for him albeit having a chance of succeding in most. Starmie, Chansey, Lapras, Golem, Jolteon, Zapdos, Gengar, Jynx, Articuno, Tauros, Fish/AmnLax... vs PhLax, Egg (not that clear tho), Venusaur / Victreebel (congrats, u have a favorable matchup agaisnt Subsmoke lol)

[Crystal_]

Rest Aerodatyl?

[t3h Icy]

I don't see anyway of pulling that off, except multiple switches the same turn Snorlax goes in. That also means you have to switch out though, so other Pokemon take hits (and likely a second vs Tauros/Alakazam, etc).

[Crystal_]

How do you plan to beat Snorlax then? D-Eing?

[WaterWizard]

I guess burn Lax with Fire Blast or run Reflect/Rest or try Bite/Supersonic for some flinchfusion.

Surprise him by using Fly the turn he BOOMs.

Interesting @ Reflect, Toxic, Fly, and Substitute/Rest/Double-Edge.

[t3h Icy]

You just hit Snorlax over and over with Fly until he dies and charge Sky Attack on switches.

And WaterWizard, that set would never work. Aerodactyl has to get the job done fast.

[WaterWizard]

I've succeeded with zanier sets.

[Crystal_]

-Fly +Sky Attack. It's the same against Snorlax bar Acc and PPs (70*2=140). It gives you a 25% chance of scoring a kill in the switch-out (provided there's no Golem/Zapdos/Jolteon, where it is 0%), though still a 75% chance of not doing anything interesting when you compare it with the TW or +60% hit (Starmie/Chansey/Lapras/Artcuno) you eat instead. And don't forget that every time you come into Snorlax you take a 20% BS with 30% chances of para, making you nearly worthless against 80% of the metagame.

However, Aerodactyl looks cool.

[pocket]

Sorry for reviving this old thread, but Aerodactyl is one of those mons where Mimic actually works, because there is nothing else it can really do (Fly is useless when you have sky attack). Since Aerodactyl is pretty hopeless, I also gave it Supersonic, since Confusion could buy some time to Sky Attack / Mimic something good. I had Supersonic > D-Edge. It was great for shits and giggles.

Very nice analysis icy; you actually made Aerodactyl look competent!

[t3h Icy]

Fly is definitely not useless since you can hit opponents for some damage, without recoil or needing to recharge. I don't really see Mimic working well since Aerodactyl has almost all uniquely used moves, and it's a total gamble. It's best to abuse what Aerodactyl does well. Supersonic is an option, but I'm personally not crazy for it since it's 55% to hit, and 50% for it to do something per turn.

And Aerodactyl can be competent, but you need to be ready for Electrics and Rocks. I've been confident enough to use him a couple times in tournament, and I've succeeded each time so far.

[Nitro]

I don't see any use for it without using rest. You'd just need to use it with a decent switch into tauros (lax/bro/cloyster). Fblast is really cool and could land a critical burn on something like lax/ros/golem or even just a gengar that wants to explode.

DE fblast sky attack rest.

[t3h Icy]

I don't really see Rest working since every Pokemon except most Snorlaxs can 2HKO. Fire Blast is fun and per use has a higher chance of Burning than CHing (by 0.2%). It's nice for Tauros and other Physicals, though I've used Aerodactyl mostly as a Specialist killer. Two Flys, with a fair chance of one being a CH is pretty decent vs Tauros, but it's strongly against you to KO that way. Fire Blast is definitely the best choice.

[Nitro]

No offense, but I don't think you really understand how rest works if you're worrying about what KOs aerodactyl.

It's not about what KOs it it's about what it allows in and how much crossover damage can be done while you're resting. Universally Tauros is the biggest problem with rest on anything, but at least aerodactyl forces Tauros to blizzard in order to hurt it, which allows for something like Cloyster to switch in easier than it already does. Basically, it is irrelevant if starmie 2HKOs aerodactyl because if starmie comes in on a sleeping aero you have an easy switch for that, as you do against most things on the special side of the game.

Cloyster is not up to the task of walling both lax and tauros but if aerodactyl relieves cloy of facing snorlax, Cloyster is pretty solid at handling Tauros alone (at least for a couple of rounds of rest).

The biggest threats to let in completely freely that force you out are zapdos/jolteon, rhydon/golem, and Tauros. So basically if you use cloyster for Tauros, Egg for the grounds, and I guess a mix of chansey/lax for the electrics you should be ok.

I just used this a couple of times on the fly after thinking about it a bit and it worked just as I expected.

[t3h Icy]

The problem is Tauros's Body Slam followed by Blizzard leaves Aerodactyl with very little left, so it's possible to mix up the order in which you attack. If the opponent doesn't switch on Rest though, they only have one chance to attack which is nice. The other problem is that Aerodactyl is so fast and will Rest before the opponent attacks, and as said, most Pokemon will 2HKO him (unless you Rest on Reflect, Recover, FP, etc). If the opponent figures out your switching habits, and predicts you correctly, you could lose quite a bit, such as going to Starmie on Tauros's Body Slam instead of Blizzard, or predicting that, leaving in Aerodactyl on Blizzard. However, I do the same thing with Sky Attack but I still get something out of it if I make a mistake (so long as Aerodactyl isn't finished off or misses). Many of the Pokemon that do well against Aerodactyl are also fast such as Zapdos, Jolteon, Tauros, Starmie, etc, so even if you predict right, you could get CH'd on your switch.

I personally use Golem to support Aerodactyl's problems, but Cloyster pairs nicely too for forcing switches as you said. If you try to cover all areas though, you eat a lot of slots in your team, so you have to hope Aerodactyl works well, or the counters work together nicely as well. I would definitely play without Rest, but that's also because of my playstyle. I'm sure Nerd and Spies, etc could make it work, but again, if you make a bad prediction, it could cost you severely.

I'd like to play your Rest Aerodactyl with my standard team, and likewise show you my use with him.

[LucasBM]

Aerocloyster combo just kicked my ass =[

[t3h Icy]

Use Electrics and Lapras. ;>

[Nitro]

aero + cloy is so good lol

[t3h Icy]

I still think you should try out offensive Aerodactyl with Cloyster.

[Nitro]

so yea upon further testing I think my set is set in stone. DE Fblast Sky Attack Rest.

It'd be nice to fit hyper beam somewhere but it's not worth giving up any of the other moves. Fblast has proven incredibly useful for me. I've burned everything from tauros to golem to lax, even gengar and exeggutor. I don't honestly even end up resting that often but it's necessary to have it in case I take an explosion or par slam early in the game.

I really like aerodactyl. Rock and Flying are both incredibly useful types, and with the insane crit rate and speed there's a lot of potential offensively as well. Good find Icy, cool pokemon.

Even though rest seems so defensive, it actually allows me to play aero MORE aggressively. IE, more vigilant about trying to catch explosions or hbeams. If I don't have rest, explosion is doing 50% to me anyway and is barely even worth trying to predict. With rest there is the potential that I can recover (some of) that damage and still put aero to great use.

[t3h Icy]

I definitely like how you've taken Aerodactyl to a different route. He and Cloyster pair superbly well and block the super Physicals just by walling them, as opposed to WaterWizard switching around them with Gengar and Articuno.

Still, I like my offensive set of Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Fly, Sky Attack. If I were to drop something for Fire Blast, it'd be Fly, but I'm not too keen on using Fire Blast against Tauros and Snorlax, and rather get some damage in:

Fire Blast vs Tauros: 94-80
Double-Edge vs Tauros: 91-78
Hyper Beam vs Tauros: 136-116

While the damage is close, the Normal moves are a lot more consistent against Tauros, though Burns are nice. I may actually just replace Fly for Fire Blast come to think of it. Fly is mostly for some damage whereas using Double-Edge puts Aerodactyl in death range, and it's also nice for Exeggutor. Besides, Sky Attack on switch-ins that will kill you like Zapdos is nicer than Fly. So I think I will actually start using Fire Blast instead.

Ideally, Aerodactyl goes for a chance to charge Sky Attack, and kills a Pokemon, or if that fails, Hyper Beam to finish. I can usually go one for one, but sometimes if I CH, I'll do one and a half or more, but occasionally I'll miss or read wrong and Aero fails utterly. I also use Golem with Aerodactyl to cover all the main Pokemon that counter, while you use Cloyster. Both are fine, but used for much different reasons (Golem covers, Cloyster complements).

I still prefer my own set since I like using Aerodactyl as a mid-game sweeper, but it's really neat to see success with a very different playstyle. The only thing is Electrics have a field day on your team, and if Snorlax and Tauros can't handle Jolteon and Zapdos, you'll be having some trouble.

[pocket]

Until I came to rby2k, I always thought burn was crap status and Fire Blast was a bad move (because of defrosts and Blizzard hits Grass and more for SE than Fire Blast). However, now after reading nitro's FB Aerodactyl and WW's FB Chansey, I'm like... 30% burn is insanely good. I never thought of nerfing the power of Tauros and Explosions with burn! Although I probably wont replace Fire Blast for Blizzards / Ice Beams, for Aerodactyl that has nothing better, it is a very innovative choice.

I like nitro's moveset - although lacking Hyper Beam may hinder Aerodactyl's ability to finish things, having Rest to better absorb Explosions and Hyper Beams and counter Lax is a unique approach, as icy mentioned. Definitely more practical and consistent than Supersonic and Mimic, :x

[Nitro]

If I wasn't using Cloyster in conjunction I would almost definitely be using Hyper over rest, which is Icy's set with Fblast.

Fblast is too good, and it's critical imo for threatening golem/rhydon in some way. Obviously it doesn't do a ton of damage (though 25% on a crit isn't bad) but a burn COMPLETELY ruins them, and the sheer threat of that will stop them from coming in for free on you and throwing out prediction moves all day. The fact that Fblast aerodactyl actually forces golem to rock slide makes even something like CHANSEY a decent switch into golem. That's pretty good.

And yea once I noticed that Fblast and DE do really similar damages to Tauros, I realized Fblast pretty much needs to be my main move unless I know aero is going to be fighting a starmie/zam/chansey.

[t3h Icy]

Hmm. I think Fire Blast's Burn chance per attack is at a really tricky percentage to say what's best. It's inaccurate and unlikely enough where the user may not want to use turns for it, but its existence is enough to scare away Physicals. Sometimes you'll get the Burn as planned and ruin the opponent's Physicals, and others you won't even hit them. But I think it's nice to have over Fly regardless.

I wonder if the opponent throwing in Frozen Pokemon would become a problem, especially since Cloyster's main moves are Ice, but I'm sure you could work around it with a different mode of prediction.

[hipmonlee]

I am guessing flys interaction with paralysis is not programmed into netbattle since this hasnt been mentioned in this thread yet. Aero is probably the best thing at using it.

Have a nice day.

[pocket]

What is this fly paralysis glitch? Is it where Aerodactyl turns invincible if it is fully paralyzed in mid-air?

Just fought an Aerodactyl + Cloyster team... unless its a blizzbolt or fish amnesia lax, Snorlax is stopped cold man. Aerodactyl usually ends up being paralyzed though, so it's not that scary... it can still throw off Fire Blasts though, and surprising amount of monsters do not want to switch into a Fire Blast.

[WaterWizard]

In-game, any pokemon who uses Dig or Fly and gets Fully Paralyzed is immune for the rest of the game (or until they get KO'd from recoil or poison/burn/leechseed.

It doesn't happen on NBS.