Pokemon Of The Point In Time - Gyarados!:

I've decided to suggest movesets for random-ish pokemon every period in time! this time, its gyarados.

gyrados has been modified drastically with every new generation of games.

in RBY:
gyarados
surf
ice beam
thunderbolt/substitute
double-edge/hyper beam

in RBY, it rocked. base 100 special (which was both special attack and special defense in those days) and acess to many many special attack AND some awesome attack strength as well all made that magikarp (or 'magicrap') you got a while ago all worth the time it took to level up to level 20.

surf is standard. its probably the best water move out there, receives STAB (a 50% same type attack bonus) on gyarados, and feeds off that godly special stat. not much of an explanation needed here.

ice beam is standard for pretty much any special attacking water pokemon, and thunderbolt combos with it since in those days you could be sure of at least a neutral hit on anything.

double-edge makes use of gyarados's even more incredible attack by being a normal type attack. it combos with substitute because the sub takes the recoil damage for you, so you can replace one of its special attack with substitute (preferably thunderbolt, since it doesn't cover any of gyarados's weaknesses). Hyper beam was actually not so bad in RBY; back then it didn’t require recharge if you killed with it, and so wasn’t such a poorly-hidden plea of “kill me now while I’m open!”.

its a shame gyarados's only physical attacks in this game are normal attacks.

in GSC:

gyrados @miracleberry
endure
flail
???
???

gyrados has been mutilated! mutilated in the most horrifying way! suddenly that wicked base 100 special becomes base 100 special defense and BASE 60 SPECIAL ATTACK! from this point on, gyarados will never truly hold any special attacks (snivel). as a magikarp, it will learn flail, and though you need to have agility passed to him beforehand (or else something will attack first and wipe off that 1HP left), it should work reasonably well. flail at its max is base 200. not too shabby, but.

miracle berry, obtained when you mystery gift, cures any status affliction. Its good for this gyarados since if you get poisoned/burned you die after that turn since you only have 1HP for most of the time, and if you get paralyzed your speed falls, and there’s the ¼ chance of total paralysis. And if you are put to sleep or frozen, you can’t attack at all.

You could also try:

Gyarados @leftovers
Curse
Rest
Return
Hidden power flying/roar/attract

It’d be wonderful if you can get hidden power flying; that way this particular gyarados can actually TOUCH a ghost pokémon and it receives STAB on the move, boosting its power up to a very decent 105. curse is because gyarados still has its godly base 100 special defense at least, so you can work on boosting the other stat while you can. Roar and attract are just fillers.

If all else fails, you can use it as an HM/TM slave as it learns surf, strength, waterfall, whirlpool, (dive in newer versions), rock smash, and Headbutt I think…

R/S/FR/LG:

Here is where the physical attacking gyarados truly shines.

Gyarados @leftovers
“tauntridos”
Taunt
Dragon dance
Earthquake
Return/Aerial ace/Hidden power flying/hidden power rock

Awesome tauntridos. With taunt, the opponent will be unable to whirlwind/roar/haze/yawn/perish song/what have you away all those stat ups. And stat upping bites when that happens. Don’t worry about the fact that the opponent will be pounding numerous hits at you – it still has the godly base 100 special defense it has always had, and now it gets intimidate! For the first time, gyarados has been given access to earthquake. Took ya long enough, Nintendo! The earthquake TM has been around since the beginning! As for the last move, I _think_ it can learn aerial ace, but if you’re playing on netbattle or are comfortable with doing extensive breeding you can go for hidden power flying for its higher power or hidden power rock to use against anything that resists earthquake, except for flygon and claydol. Return is as powerful and boring as ever, but its there coz its more powerful than STABed aerial ace. You wont be able to so much as touch gengar with it, so keep that in mind.

Gyarados can do a raindance + thunder + surf/hydro pump combo, but its special attack is still too low for it to make as much use for it as something like lantun or lapras. Plus, its already 4x weak to electric, now all it needs is to make the most powerful electric attack 100% accurate…

It can also experiment with sunny day + solar beam + flamethrower, but like I said before its stats restrict that strategy’s usefulness.

If anyone knows any _working and intelligent_ gyarados movesets not already mentioned above, then feel free to add a comment below.