Dragon Types: Why did DTC shorten his name from Dragon Tamer Chris?

[Steamroll]

Forever the strongest offensive pokemon type, sadly there's not that many in NU and they face stiff competition from a multitude of mons that can reliably check them even after a boost. Here's an in-depth look at the inner workings of the second rarest type in the NU tier.

Altaria
STATS:
HP -- 75
ATK -- 70
DEF -- 90
SPATK -- 70
SPDEF -- 105
SPEED -- 80

Don't let the stats fool you, Altaria has plenty of bulk to brunt hits and keep on with its business. Altaria is the most diverse Dragon in the tier being able to hit both physically and defensively, Set up via DDance, Cotton Guard, or both, support the team via Heal Bell and Toxic. Altaria can easily accrue a boost by switching in on a mon that poses little harm to it, like Probopass for example, and proceed to either sweep the team immediately or slowly boost up to a dangerous bulky tank that will be hard to stop at +1/+3/+1 from Dragon Dance and Cotton Guard. Roost helps Altaria stay in the battle by easily being able to recover off most neutral hits and continuing its rampage. Heal Bell can help a stall or balanced team recover off status and Toxic can widdle away at annoying walls that Altaria can otherwise not break through easily (aka Regirock and other physically defensive mons). Altaria loves spin support from the likes of Tentacool, Armaldo and Cryogonal to keep rocks off the field so Altaria can have the best chance at entering the battle multiple times. Mons that can soften up or clean out the opponents that otherwise wall Altaria (or outright kill it) are also greatly appreciated.

Dragonair
STATS:
HP -- 64
ATK -- 84
DEF -- 65
SPATK -- 70
SPDEF -- 70
SPEED -- 70

With an Eviolite those Defensive stats are lying at how bulky Dragonair is, essentially sporting 64 / 105 / 116 defenses without any defensive stat investment. Dragonair also has Marvel Scale, allowing it to pseudo-bulk defenses when statused; allowing Dragonair to run an effective DDrest set. Dragonair also has access to Thunder Wave and Dragon Tail, and with proper hazard support and its Goliath bulk behind a sub it will be able to paralyze and shuffle opponents with ease. Dragonair doesn't really have the Special Attack to be a threat but it has the movepool to atleast run a mix coverage move for that stray threat that comes along. Dragonair also enjoys not having to deal with hazards and is greatly booned by spinners and a wisher, just to keep its health up in order to safely set up atleast once.

Fraxure
STATS:
HP -- 66
ATK -- 117
DEF -- 70
SPATK -- 40
SPDEF -- 50
SPEED -- 67

For a NFE pokemon Fraxure has a very good Attack stat, in fact top 15 for NU. That Attack stat is also boosted by either Dragon Dance or Swords Dance and is also booned greatly by Mold Breaker, which disables key abilities like Sturdy and Levitate. Sadly, there's quite a few things holding Fraxure back from being a top usage mon in NU, one being its below average defenses, not allowing it to take many hits from priority attackers like Absol and Golem. The second is the severely lacking coverage movepool that Fraxure has; beyond DDance, Swords Dance, Substitute, Taunt Outrage and Dragon Claw, Fraxure can only run Night Slash, Shadow Claw, X-Scissor (these three all providing similar coverage), Aerial Ace and Dig. With all these moves Fraxure is still hard walled by Rock and Steel types, while Dig allows the opponent to switch to a Flyer to avoid taking damage and play on a free switch (Scarf Braviary and Swellow still outspeed Frax at +1). For Teammates, Fraxure really enjoys mons that can assist it in an eventual sweep (Or a damn close one if LO damage kills Fraxure first), so wall breakers like Jynx, Magmortar and Torterra all pair beautifully with Fraxure and are each just as deadly by themselves.
Gabite
STATS:
HP -- 68
ATK -- 90
DEF -- 65
SPATK -- 50
SPDEF -- 55
SPEED -- 82

Garchomp's Prevolution has quite an odd standing in terms of stats and movepool. Gabite has good Offenses in Base 90 Attack and Base 82 Speed, and a nice attacking movepool with Earthquake, Stone Edge, Outrage and Dragon Claw. Gabite is primarily encountered with a Choice Band in order to capitalize on its 90 Base Attack, but gets walled very easily by Steel-types when locked in Outrage, so caution must be used before Outrage locking. Gabite also has access to Hone Claws to boost attack and accuracy, making less accurate moves like Stone Edge and Dragon Rush more accurate. Sadly, Gabite's speed is bad enough to where its primary checks (Jynx, Sawk, etc.) can easily outspeed and KO, especially with Gabite's lackluster defenses. Those defenses can be slightly remedied by an Eviolite, but with how strong most of its checks are maximum bulk investment would be needed, severely hindering Gabite's Offenses in the process. Gabite is subject to all hazards so spin support is very beneficial. Gabite also enjoys allies that can eliminate Steel-types who would wall Gabite when locked in Outrage. A check for Tangela is also good since Tangela's nearly God-like Physical Defense walls Gabite's Outrages cold.
Shelgon
STATS:
HP -- 65
ATK -- 95
DEF -- 100
SPATK -- 60
SPDEF -- 50
SPEED -- 50

Thank god this fucker doesn't get Shell Smash... Beyond the theorymoning about it somehow getting a move that would obviously break this mon into high hell, it's really not that bad anyways. With the intro of Eviolite, Shelgon's defenses are actually pretty good, making it quite the tank. Couple this with DDance and you have a pretty potent threat on your hands, being able to brunt nearly every unboosted hit atleast once and DDance into a sweeping tank. Shelgon also has the bulk to play as a wall and provide wish support to its teammates.
Zweilous
STATS:
HP -- 72
ATK -- 85
DEF -- 70
SPATK -- 65
SPDEF -- 70
SPEED -- 58

If there's anything this thing needs to be known for it is definitely the fact that it is a monster with it's ability Hustle, essentially giving Zweilous access to a double STAB Outrage at the cost of some accuracy; this huge boost makes Zwe the holder of the most powerful Outrage in the game of Pokemon. Zweilous has two viable options to abuse with its average defenses, Great attack with Hustle and mediocre speed. Zweilous has pretty decent defenses when equipped with an Eviolite, making a tank set really potent. Double STABs Crunch and Outrage hit anything hard that doesn't resist the combo, which is really just Steel-types. Zweilous can also forgo its horribad speed with a scarf, and still hit like a truck while surprising most of its checks with the aforementioned Double STAB attacks in Outrage and Crunch. Just be careful of Outrage locking when there's still opponents that check Zwe around.

[shrang]

Dragonair doesn't have Multiscale, it has Marvel Scale instead.

[Steamroll]

Originally Posted by Fat shrang

Dragonair doesn't have Multiscale, it has Marvel Scale instead.

oh? edited.

[TropiOUs]

Gabite better have a mention of his sub hone claws set,he has flawless coverage with his stabs alone...okay almost because shedinja,but who uses that anyways.

[Lady Shinki]

A set that I'd really want to toy around with just for fun:

Shelgon @ Eviolite
252 HP/252 SpDef/4 Def
Careful / Rock Head

Dragon Dance
Dragon Claw
Wish/Rest
Protect/Sleep Talk

Mono-attacking setup sounds nice on paper with so few Ice-type attacks running around (Fire/Electric/Grass is the coverage of choice for most special attackers to avoid being walled by Quaggy). I don't know whether this is bulky enough to set up or strong enough to muscle through threats after boosts. Sadly, Dragon Rush and Hone Claws are illegal together, otherwise that would be loads of fun to test out since Shelgon is slow as balls. I guess offensive DD could work too, but Fraxure would be better at doing that sort of thing.

[shrang]

Wish and DD are illegal together on Shelgon.

[morph3us]

Altaria also gets Natural Cure which should be mentioned and Cloud Nine lets it be a weather counter.
Wartortle sucks. If you're going to spin go with something with at least good support options.
Dragonair gets Shed Skin which should be noted.
Mold Breaker does not disable Intimidate and Tauros is basically the only notable Pokemon that gets it. Its only real use is on Shedinja since most of the Pokemon with sturdy are intensely physical defensive mons who you're unlikely to OHKO them anyway.
You should mention that running a mono-attacking dragon is a very viable option in this metagame. Of course there's only really Altaria who has better things to run. But its a start right?

[Zebraiken*]

man id use multiscale dragonair so much if it existed

also gabite is easily the worst of all dragon-types in NU imo, whereas altaria is probably the best simply because of diversity (though dragonair is next best because the dd set is cute). you'd imagine that dragons would be able to run all over nu thanks to lack of viable steels (probopass, metang@, bastiodon are the only notable ones), but really that's not the case, imo. have any of you had a lot of success using dragons at all? because i haven't!!

[Amarillo]

Altaria's actually pretty good--I've gotten some ok teams that I just threw on Altaria at the end and it worked out fine along with Band Sawk and stuff.

Also, SubHoneClaws Gabite sounds really good in theory: you kill Rocks by setting up on them and hitting with EQ. But it's either an utter piece of shit or I really suck at using it, because I haven't been able to win with it at all (well, I've won games, but it's just that I woulda won those with only 5 mons anyways) It has a really bad speed tier, and I think EQ still breaks its subs or something.

[Zebraiken*]

if gabite was like base 87 speed to outrun rotom-a it'd be somewhat better off but really i think it's the stat spread that kills it. meh attack, meh speed, and meh defenses doesn't make for a good pokemon sadly, even with a cool set.

specially defensive altaria is a really underrated set imo, especially since some common threats like magmortar don't bother to run hp ice. the prevalence of jynx + cryogonal sucks pretty hard for it though. :I

[Steamroll]

sad thing is they all (Altaria) get shut down by Jynx, Gorebyss and the Steel-types...

From my experience Altaria has been the best just because of the diversity it offers, like you said. The bad thing is once Gorebyss or Jynx come in while you're unboosted you're in a check mate, Jynx can Lovely Kiss as much as she wants since if you switch out something else will just fall asleep and Gorebyss pretty much OHKO's anyways (83.6% - 99.4% on 252/228 Altaria without a Life Orb). Seriously people who are saying that Cloud Nine Altaria is good need to check themselves, it's not really worth brunting status and wasting Heal Bell PP so you can stop weather for two or three turns just so they can set it back up in your face again.

[Barbeller]

I ran Fraxure for a while, and I was dissapointed. I probably just played it wrong, or gave it a bad set, but it rarely ever set up, and when it did things always seemed to kill it without it doing much of a job.

Altaria is probably my favourite Dragon in NU. I've not had enough time to do a wall yet, but I ran a Dragon Dance set for quite a while, and it worked well as a late game sweeper. I ran Earthquake/Dragon Claw/Dragon Dance/Roost, and this set would often let me set up on pokemon and sweep if I got it's counters out of the way early game. Roost also helped it take some Rock and Ice attacks, but only occasionaly.

I ran a Parashuffler Dragonair for a while, just as a joke. I found it worked well with Mesprit, and if you had numerous hazards up, it became a good pokemon for wearing down walls so your sweepers could break through them. I want to try it's Dragon Dance set at some point.

[DestinyUnknown]

I have tried SpDef Altaria (though in November), MonoAttacker Shelgon, Zweilous and Fraxure.

The one I have liked most of all them has been Fraxure, it has a really nice bulk with eviolite, sky high attack and so few steel types just scream outrage spam ^^

SpDef altaria would be better if it wasn't beaten by 2/3 of the most common special sweepers (gorebyss, jynx, you wall mag)

[Ewil]

Shelgon is an awesome physical wall and healer with WishProtect.
Paired with something that resist ice, can be very threating, needs more love ;D

[elchupo]

I ran an Eviolite DD/ Rest Dragonair back when Klinklang was still in the tier and even then I found it to be really quite amazing. Outrage/Waterfall was all the coverage it needed and with Shed Skin Dragonair could come in on status and proceed to set up, Rest, and wreck stuff. Very rarely did Shed Skin fail when I needed it.

Hell, with Klinklang gone you can forgoe Waterfall and just use Outrage/ExtremeSpeed (One of Dragonair's biggest assets that should be mentioned in the OP).

[NatGeo]

I've used DD Altaria extensively and I've gotta say that it's actually kinda cool to set up and outrage everything into oblivion. Roost is really cool as well since you can either mess with any absol trying to revenge you or give you a resist to whatever the opponent is throwing at you - the only common attack you are weak to is HP Ice / Ice Beam, and the only real threatening user of those is gonna be Scarf Magmortar if you have a DD under your belt. I kinda use Altaria defensively before setting up DD anyways. Personally I don't find a lot of opponents expecting, since SpDef Altaria is what everybody seems to think it is - not that it's a bad set!

[Vintage Books]

you should mention Altaria can also run a roar/roost/toxic+filler set which works very well alongside hazards.

+ you should mention the DD + Rest + eviolite + Shed Skin dragonair, as it works very well, as its bulk is pretty decent with evio.

[Raikaria]

Originally Posted by Fat Vintage Books

you should mention Altaria can also run a roar/roost/toxic+filler set which works very well alongside hazards.

+ you should mention the DD + Rest + eviolite + Shed Skin dragonair, as it works very well, as its bulk is pretty decent with evio.

Specially Defensive Altaria with Cotton Guard as the 4th move.

Basically the only thing it falls to is Ice attacks after a Cotton Guard.