Fraxure (analysis)

Fraxure
[Overview]

<p> While most Steel-types are stuck in OU to help check the overpowering Dragon-types there, Dragon-types in UU can often run through teams with their virtually unresisted Dragon-type STAB. Fraxure is a great offensive Dragon Dancer with base 117 Attack, just enough Speed to outspeed key threats such as Azelf and Weavile after a boost, and decent bulk with an Eviolite. Despite the greater versatility and coverage of other Dragon-types, such as Kingdra and Altaria, the sheer power of Fraxure's Outrage makes up for its lesser movepool.</p>

[SET]
name: Dragon Dance
move 1: Dragon Dance
move 2: Outrage
move 3: Dragon Claw
move 4: Taunt / Swords Dance
item: Eviolite / Life Orb
ability: Mold Breaker
nature: Jolly / Adamant
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Dragon Dance is a great set up move for Fraxure, boosting its above average Attack to huge levels in an attempt at a sweep. Outrage is the main and only move Fraxure will commonly need to sweep, being a 120 Base Power STAB attack with practically perfect neutral coverage. Dragon Claw is a secondary STAB option that does not lock Fraxure into the move and will not cause confusion. Taunt is usable in the last slot, allowing Fraxure to set up on Pokemon such as Chansey, but Swords Dance is also viable, as it gives Fraxure the ability to smash through almost any Pokemon, and whole teams if it can grab both boosts.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Although Fraxure relies on its Eviolite to set up easily, a Life Orb is usable to give Fraxure a noticeable increase in power. With a Life Orb, Fraxure cleanly 2HKOes both Tangrowth and Slowbro after Stealth Rock damage. If outspeeding Weavile is unnecessary, an EV spread of 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe with a Jolly nature is viable to still outspeed Pokemon with 115 Base Speed such as Azelf, while giving Fraxure more bulk. Because Steel-types such as Escavalier completely wall this set, a steel trapper such as Magneton or Dugtrio is a great teammate to dispose of them with Hidden Power Fire or Earthquake respectively. Fire- and Fighting-types are also great partners for Fraxure, damaging Steel-types as well as Weavile, Mamoswine, and Abomasnow.</p>

[Other Options]

<p>Fraxure has a few other options, but all have very situational usage, making them generally useless. Substitute can be used over Taunt to ease prediction while also protecting against status, while Dual Chop may be used over Dragon Claw to break Substitutes from Pokemon like Mismagius. Reversal can be used to hit Steel-types for super effective damage, but it is very weak unless Fraxure is low on health. Aerial Ace is usable to ensure an OHKO on Choice Scarf Heracross that come in to revenge, while X-Scissor can OHKO Celebi and get a super effective hit on Weavile without locking yourself into Outrage. Dig, although it takes two turns, hits Steel-type Pokemon hard, and with Mold Breaker, levitating Pokemon such as Mismagius are not immune to the move.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Steel-type Pokemon are the greatest counters to Fraxure, being able to sponge its STAB attacks with ease. Registeel, Empoleon, Durant, Cobalion, and Escavalier can all easily take an Outrage, and either status, phaze, set up on, or outright kill Fraxure respectively. Outside of Steel-types, physically bulky Pokemon such as Slowbro and Tangrowth can avoid the 2HKO from +1 Eviolite Outrage and status Fraxure in return, rendering it useless. Hail is a massive threat to Fraxure, limiting its ability to switch in while Pokemon spam perfectly accurate Blizzards. Mamoswine and Weavile are great threats to Fraxure as well, with their STAB priority Ice Shard, although both fail to OHKO a full health Fraxure even with a Choice Band.</p>

[Dream World]

<p>Fraxure gets Unnerve as its Dream World ability. This can be effective at times, as it renders resist berries useless, but Mold Breaker and Rivalry are better options, as virtually no UU Pokemon carry Haban berries bar the extremely rare Haban berry Flygon.</p>

DD/SD in the same set? How very interesting.

Taunt is probably a bit better of an option in the last slot, IMO. You can Taunt Tangrowth and set up another Dragon Dance in their face, or just switch to a counter.

Why does this thing have no moves apart from Dragon-type o_0. They could at least have given it Brick Break...

lol i have no idea why they decided to troll its movepool 9.9

anyway i can slash taunt but i found double dance more fun anyway. +3/+1 is always fun to have.

In set comments, you should mention that Dual Chop doesn't lock you in.

It gets Reversal, which could get a mention for hitting Steel-types for 160 base power if you have 35% HP or less. From 36 - 70% HP, it hits for 80 base power, which whilst is slightly less than Outrage, it does not lock you in. It might actually deserve a slash in the last slot (Dig is slashed of all things!), but OO might be more appropriate.

Rock Smash could also get an OO mention for Steel-types (yes, it is almost always outdamaged by Outrage, but no locking in + defense drop makes it viable against Steel-types). Dragon Tail as well deserves a mention in OO.

mentions of dtail reversal and dual chop not locking were mentioned. rock smash will never be put on a serious analysis. ever

edit: gdi that thing has an even worse move pool than fraxure. lets not count that 9.9

prem said:

rock smash will never be put on a serious analysis. ever

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http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3450015

I just had to post this link ^__^

What about Return, Shadow Claw, Night Slash, Aerial Ace and X-Scissor? They don't hit Steel-types, but if you don't want 2 dragon moves, I'd consider some of those moves in my arsenal

Santuga said:

What about Return, Shadow Claw, Night Slash, Aerial Ace and X-Scissor? They don't hit Steel-types, but if you don't want 2 dragon moves, I'd consider some of those moves in my arsenal

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Neutral Outrage is more powerful than any of these attacks (unless they hit a 4x weakness.)

edit: Even a resisted Outrage is more powerful than these moves against Steel-types. And without adding coverage against the only type that resists Dragon, there wouldn't really be a point in using them.

Of coure it is, as all the mentioned moves hit Steel-types for 0.5x damage, like Outrage does.

I am not saying it should be used over Dig / Rock Smash. I am just saying that I'd use one of those moves over Dual Chop.

For example, Adamant X-Scissor has a very high chance of OHKO'ing Celebi after Rocks whereas +1 Adamant Outrage does not even KO after Rocks (Both with Life Orb). I am not saying they are top choices, but I think they should be mentioned somewhere.

ok i added mentions of those. i made this at 3 am.... i kinda ignored stuff that really just didnt matter much. celebi doesnt really hurt fraxure back anyway

X-Scissor and Aerial Ace make sense in certain scenarios, scoring quadruple damage, but Return really makes no sense at all. It's outdamaged by Outrage and Double Chop, and doesn't hit anything (ANYTHING) at all harder than his Dragon STABs do. I don't think it should be mentioned anywhere in the analysis.

needs a mention of dragonair and flygon. Dragonair has a far better movepool with waterfall and extremespeed and flygon has better dual typing and jolly flygon is only slightly slower than +1 fraxure and stab eq is just great

i will mention flygon, but i dont see the need to mention dragonair who outside of a movepool has no reason to be used.

Is DoubleDance really that viable on this thing? Seems like it would be better to slash the two moves together and let the player choose which to go with.

i personally found it fun, because people tend to bring slowbro into this thing, and if you bet your luck and dont get burned by scald you can get to +3/+1 which will literally ohko anything not steel typed. obviously if QC wants it moved i can but ive always like double dance sets

I'm really not sure about this pokemon, but anyway:

Why exactly are you using max speed? Is it in case you run into another Fraxure? Seriously just lower it to outrun base 115s by two points after a DD. Yes, this is speed creep, but IMO Speed creep on rare pokemon is fine - it is hardly as if you would add more speed to weavile's analysis for fraxure. The points in HP may be relevant as you are focusing on bulk.

edit: oh I didn't realise it outran by one point. Sorry.

I can't believe you're actually doing this -______-

To be honest Taunt seems like it should be slashed with Dual Chop as Taunt + DD is a neat niche that allows it to overcome Will-o-Wispers such as Weezing and Dusclops. I mean, you already have it slashed over Dig, but monodragon coverage doesn't cut it with Fraxure.

jc104 said:

I'm really not sure about this pokemon, but anyway:

Why exactly are you using max speed? Is it in case you run into another Fraxure? Seriously just lower it to outrun base 115s by two points after a DD. Yes, this is speed creep, but IMO Speed creep on rare pokemon is fine - it is hardly as if you would add more speed to weavile's analysis for fraxure. The points in HP may be relevant as you are focusing on bulk.

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fraxure outspeeds max speed weavile by only 1 point, which means it cannot ice punch fraxure, and since ice shard from band weavile cannot OHKO i found it more useful. but i can add an ev spread of 56 HP / 252 Atk / 200 Spe to outspeed base 115s.

and woodchuck. why doesnt mono-dragon coverage work. there are practically no steels, and the bulky ones (emp and registeel) dont get OHKOed.

I still think you should remove any mentions of Return in the analysis, even in OO. It serves no purpose whatsoever.

So any reason to actually use Dig? Eviolite Outrage already 2HKOs 252/0 Empoleon at +1, and Dig is... dig. Just AC it, Taunt and SD are much more useful for breaking dedicated walls like Dusclops.

when i think about it dig isnt as useful as i kept thinking it was. but thats probably because its a very good move to troll people with and the fact that its freaking hilarious to actually use dig.

anyway changes made.

Sure



QC 3/3