Strategy & Metagame NU Spotlight: Feraligatr

[Lord Alphose]

The idea is that this will be similar to the RU, OU, or LC spotlights. It will follow the same format, spotlighting Pokemon new to NU that have really helped shape the XY metagame.

History: Feraligatr dropped from RU to NU this generation. Once here, it did a lot of shaping in the metagame. It has been able to overcome its counters without much struggle. For example, Ice Punch to get Vileplume and other bulky Grass-types that were a problem to Gatr at first.

Feraligatr's Qualities: Bulky af. Waterfall, a solid STAB move. Aqua Jet allows it to bypass its somewhat subpar Speed. Swords Dance and Dragon Dance provide it with the ability to fun different sets that perform different functions and have different counters, giving it an element of surprise. Its biggest problem is Ferroseed. Feraligatr has no real way to get around it, bar Superpower, which isn't that good otherwise.

Playing with Feraligatr:
Teammates: Entry hazards. Everywhere. You need them. Clerics or Healing Wish Pokemon. Keeping Gatr healthy, ready, and raring to go. Something that can take on Ferroseed is cool; Hidden Power Fire Lilligant can switch in on Leech Seed and take it out. Probopass can Magnet Pull trap it and HP Fire it. Any Fire-type would do the job quite nicely.
Items: Lum Berry, Life Orb, Mystic Water, Splash Plate.
How to use it: Swords Dance/Dragon Dance. Pick appropriate attack.

Playing Against Feraligatr:
Counters: Seismitoad. Special attackers, especially Electric- and Grass-types.
Burns. Paralysis.

Conclusion: Gatr does a good job and can serve as a powerful wallbreaker, a setup sweeper, or a bulky sweeper. yada yada, use Gatr on your team.

 

[Bummer]

Zebraiken Raseri

Gatr is an S ranked threat, so I suppose the article would do well to focus on how to handle it rather than using it.

 

[Raseri]

Does it have to focus more on one than the other? Gatr is an S-rank threat, but the ways to check it are pretty simple (fast Grass-types being the best ones). Seismitoad is a really bad counter (loses to SD Return unless it runs Grass Knot). The quality of this is decent, but its not thorough enough for me to know if you know enough about Feraligatr in order to write such an important piece

 

[Lord Alphose]

Bummer, I was mostly just following the format of previous Spotlight articles. Plus, what Raseri said is pretty much it. It's dangerous if it gets a chance to take over, but there are Pokemon that stop it in its tracks without much of a problem, Lilligant, Rotom and Rotom-S, Sceptile, stuff like that.

Raseri, yeah, this is mostly just an outline. I can type a more thorough article that you can look over to approve or deny if you would like.

 

[Bummer]

You're free to flesh out a segment so that Raseri may judge your knowledge a bit closer, but if you're still declined, then that's that I'm afraid.

 

[Bummer]

Gonna lock this thread, but if Lord Alphose is still interested in this topic, feel free to PM me a sample of your writing skills and then Raseri may make another judgement. Do keep in mind that ORAS will be out by the next release, so things may have been shaken up since then. :V