[RBY OU] Tauros (QC: 0/1)

[Rei]

Tauros
- Body Slam
- Hyper Beam
- Blizzard
- Earthquake / FIre Blast

Tauros is one of the most dangerous physical attackers in RBY OU because of its great Attack and Speed stat that outpaces most of the metagame, making it mandatory on all teams. Its high Speed stat means a high critical hit rate with its attacks, this goes well with Hyper Beam because if it OHKOs a Pokemon, it does not have to recharge the next turn. Body Slam is its go to Attack, because it is hard for most Pokemon to switch into it as Pokemon that outpace Tauros, such as Alakazam and Jolteon, and Starmie hate getting paralyzed and has trouble taking Body Slam, while Rhydon and Golem cannot take Blizzard, and Tauros can also take on the rare Gengar with Earthquake. The only Pokemon that can switch in has to be healthy and have a great physical stat like Snorlax, Exeggutor, Cloyster and Lapras. Fire Blast is another option to help against opposing Tauros with a burn chance. Tauros has decent bulk that allows it to take Rhydon's Earthquake twice, live Snorlax's Selfdestruct, and almost always live two attacks from Alazakam's Psychic and Zapdos' Thunderbolt. It is hard to deal with Tauros late-game with a weakened team, which means that very often both teams will have to rely on the 50/50 with a healthy Tauros facing opposing healthy Tauros.

 

[BKC]

I'm sorry but this completely fails to illustrate what makes tauros the most dangerous pokemon in rby, mandatory on all serious teams, and in my opinion should be completely rewritten. here are some key points that must be mentioned.

tauros is so difficult to deal with due to a number of factors:
- it's one of the fastest pokemon around. this means that anything switching in has to take two hits from it. the only pokemon faster than it are starmie and alakazam; starmie is ruined by body slam paralysis and alakazam is too frail to take tauros' attacks (while also being ruined by bslam para). (edit: forgot jolteon, but see alakazam.)
- as a result of its high base speed, it has a critical hit rate of 21%, making it even tougher to take attacks from. this is especially devastating with stab hyper beam, which does not recharge if it kos something.
- speaking of normal stab, it is also difficult to switch into tauros' body slam because the only things that resist it, rhydon/golem and gengar (who is rare), get plowed by blizzard and earthquake respectively. this means only pokemon with immense physical bulk at high hp can safely switch in, like healthy snorlax, exeggutor, cloyster and lapras.
- switching into tauros and its normal stab is immensely difficult because the switchin doesn't just have to be in good enough shape to take body slam, it has to be able to take body slam and the far more powerful hyper beam.
- tauros is no glass cannon, either. on the physical side, it easily withstands 2 rhydon earthquakes and is overwhelmingly favored to survive snorlax selfdestruct, while on the special side it nearly always survives 2 alakazam psychics and zapdos thunderbolts.
- dealing with tauros, especially with a weakened team, is so difficult that very often teams are forced to resort into what's known as the tauros war, in which they hope they win the 50/50 that is 2 full health tauros facing off.

 

[ErPeris]

Sorry if I intervene, but I would like to do it since it is about RBY OU.
I completely agree with BKC and I would like to add something more too.
I understand that we can avoid mentioning Thunderbolt Tauros (since it is used little and only to hit Cloyster, whose use has significantly increased in the last year), but I think it is really important at least to mention Fire Blast as a possible alternative to Earthquake. Fire Blast can be very useful in the 1v1 against other Tauros thanks to its 30% burn chance.
Forgive me if I intruded, but I could not resist.

 

[lydian]

given the above comments, gonna reassign this then!