Feraligatr

[KrazyGlue]

#160 Feraligatr
Type- Water
Ability-Torrent: When the pokemon's health is below 1/3, its water attacks become 1.5 times stronger.
Base stats- 85 HP/105 ATK/100 DEF/79 SP.ATK/83 SP.DEF/78 Speed


Choice Gatr
Feraligatr @ Choice Band/Choice Scarf
Torrent: Adamant
4 HP/252 attack/252 speed
Superpower/Waterfall/Aqua Tail/Crunch
Ice Punch
Crunch/Waterfall/Aqua Tail/Superpower
Earthquake

Feraligatr has a great physical moveset to work with. With choice band and adamant nature, you will have 508 attack and tons of super effective coverage. Plus, unlike blaziken, Feraligatr can take a hit and does not need an OHKO to survive. Choice scarf would mainly be used to take out faster foes that have a super effective move. It is not as popular due to the fact that Feraligatr is not usually OHKO'd. Its water stab moves can do some nice neutral damage. They will often be boosted by torrent because, from what I've seen, Feraligatr's health is often in that low range.


Dragon Dancer
Feraligatr @ Focus sash/Expert Belt/Lum Berry
Torrent: Adamant
28 HP/252 attack/228 speed
Dragon Dance
Ice Punch
Crunch/Waterfall/Aqua Tail
Earthquake

Dragon Dance sets Feraligatr up as a dangerous sweeper who not only has tons of super effective moves, but can also take a hit. 228 speed and a DD outspeeds pokemon with 120 or less base speed. Focus sash guarantees a safe dragon dance, or you can use expert belt to rack up extra damage. This is a viable option due to Feraligatr's relative bulkiness and can be put to good use with a well timed switch in. Lum berry prevents (once) this set's main weaknesses: paralyze and burn. Torrent can be put to good use here if you go with one of his water moves.


Salac Sweeper
Feraligatr @ Salac Berry
Torrent: Adamant
28 HP/252 attack/228 speed
Substitute
Swords Dance
Waterfall/Aqua Tail
Focus Punch/Ice Punch/Earthquake/Crunch

This guy is really scary if he gets in that low health range. With a swords dance and torrent, neutral waterfall and aqua tail suddenly become OHKOs against most opposition. Just for an example, if Feraligatr is able to set this up, his aqua tail OHKOs a defensively unboosted metagross. If gatr manages 2 or 3 swords dances, he's very well set up for a sweep.


Extra options:

Avalanche can be used on slower sets to rack up extra damage.

Brick Break is an option instead of superpower/focus punch, but it's not generally as useful.

Agility gives Feraligatr a tremendous speed boost, making it a decent option for an Adamant physical sweeper. However, dragon dance or swords dance are generally more helpful.

Outrage and Dragon Claw give dragon coverage and can hit most pokemon for neutral damage, but dragons aren't as common in UU and neutral damage isn't really that helpful.

Metal Claw can boost attack, but really doesn't help type coverage, and since the chance for its effect is 10%, it's really not a very useful option.

Roar is somewhat viable if your team needs it or if you see a bad matchup coming.


EVs:
These should go into attack and speed, with leftovers in HP. If you're running a choice band set, you could consider full HP EVs, since you're pretty much ignoring speed anyway. He has the stats to be a somewhat bulky water, but not the moves. If using choice scarf, change the EVs to: 28 HP/252 ATK/228 Speed.


Troublesome Pokemon:

Status conditions really hurt gatr. If he is burned or paralyzed, his usefulness is limited. Spiritomb has no super effective weaknesses and is happy to burn Feraligatr. Slowbro could probably absorb a crunch (although not at low health) and TWave Feraligatr, severely limiting his capabilities. Substitute and lum berry can help avoid the above two problems.

Fast pokemon with grass or electric moves may be able to score a quick OHKO. An example could be Espeon w/Grass Knot. Rotom can score a quick thunderbolt. If crunch isn't used, you've got an uphill battle against these two. Fast electric and grass types are tough, but can be countered with ice punch and earthquake.

Shaymin can usually overpower Feraligatr, as stab Seed Flare/Energy Ball>Ice punch. Roserade at full health with no EVs in health or defense has only about a 20% chance to survive an unboosted Ice punch, but if it does, it gets two stab hit. Venasuar can take an ice punch and can take Feraligatr with stab hits. In other words, bulkier grasses can beat Feraligatr.

Azumarill can generally overpower Feraligatr just due to its huge power ability. However, Feraligatr is always one step ahead, due to its superior speed. Feraligatr's matchup against ludicolo is pretty bad. His only hope is throwing up a sub while ludicolo rain dances, and then using swords dance and hope for a 2HKO. Lanturn is somewhat similar to the ludicolo situation, but at least you might have earthquake.

Zapdos, Jolteon, Raikou, etc. are all counters but are not in UU, rendering them unimportant.