The Snapdragon [DragMag Offense]

SnapDragon


Hi guys, this is my second RMT on these forums. Now, I'm not very experienced in competitive battling, most of my battles have been taking place in the 1300-1400 rating area, and with other competitive players I know from school or other. I wanted to make a fun, yet effective team using my favorite type - Dragon - so I utilized the infamous '4drag2mag' (Note: changed to standard DragMag) strategy. I took the name from my favorite League of Legends eSports team, TSM Snapdragon; perhaps some of you noticed the reference. Hope you enjoy, and whether you're telling me my nicknames suck or my team sucks, all feedback and criticism will be taken into consideration and is greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking! Without further ado... I present: The Snapdragon.

TeamBuilding


I started with Magneton and Magnezone, as I knew I was going to make a 4drag2mag team, and these two are necessary for this type of team. Their objective is to trap Steel-types and take them out for the dragons to freely sweep the rest of the opposition.



I then added Dragonite and Salamence, two powerful dragons that complement each other well. Dragonite serves as the first dragon I (usually) will send in, and my setup physical sweeper and is fantastic for weakening the enemy team for Cscarf-Moxie Salamence to clean house with the appropriate move.



Latias was then added into the Dragon offensive core as I lacked a powerful special sweeper outside of Magneton/Magnezone who usually sacrifice themselves for an easy sweep for Dnite+Mence. She serves as a backup setup-sweeper who I usually save for threats such as Terrakion, Lucario, Volcarona, and Heatran as they pose a huge threat to the rest of my team.



Finally, I added in Hydreigon as a special wallbreaker, and is almost exclusively used in that role. He handles the pesky Psychic types like the Lati@s duo, and other Pokemon that can threaten the DNite+Mence who are 4x weak to Ice, especially Mamoswine and Weavile. If Mamoswine is still around after Magnezone is taken out, I'll usually sacrifice Magneton to bring in Hydreigon who should OHKO Mamoswine with Fire Blast, and Weavile with Focus Blast.



At the suggestions given to me in the thread, I updated the team from a 4drag2mag strategy and shifted it to a standard DragMag strategy. EB Weavile was added in to help counter opposing Scarfed Garchomps and Landorus. Infernape was added in as well, to set up Stealth Rock as well has retain offensive power, as this team was designed around hyper-offense. Latios replaced Latias as I felt he is better suited with a Scarf set to be able to check Terrakions and Gengars better than Latias was able to.

TheTeam


343 Guilty Spark (Magnezone) @ Leftovers
Trait: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 40 Atk / 252 SAtk / 216 Spd
Naive Nature
- Explosion
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt

Magnezone is here as one of the two essential Magnet Pullers on the team, and is usually my go-to lead against other teams with dragons. 216 Speed EVs to outrun Adamant Breloom, with the rest of the EVs put into Attack to help with Explosion. Will be replacing Substitute on him though, as I don't feel like it serves its purpose well, which is to trap Steels and knock them out quickly. Thunderbolt is there for a perfect-accuracy, strong STAB to help with Skarmory and deals with Keldeos that are naturally baited in by Magnezone. Explosion helps with getting a Pokemon low for Dragonite to set up on or Salamence to revenge kill for a Moxie boost. Not really much else to say on this set.



1NiteStand (Dragonite) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Claw
- Roost
- ExtremeSpeed

Dragonite is my team's setup sweeper, who I usually bring in first once all the Steels on the other team have been taken down by Magneton/Magnezone. He's the opener of my offensive core, mainly used to wear the team down for Salamence to sweep late-game with Moxie and Scarf once the opposition has been weakened. Very basic DNite set, I opted for ExtremeSpeed over Fire Punch seeing as Hydreigon and Salamence both wield Fire Blast, and even after a DD, DNite can be outsped by Scarf Keldeo and Terrakion. Roost is to be able to sustain longer if a few DD's are achieved and he can try for a complete sweep, but that job is usually left to Salamence or Latias.



Domimence (Salamence) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast

Part two of my offensive core: Salamence is, as mentioned in the above descriptions, Snapdragon's late-game sweeper, equipped with a Choice Scarf for easy revenge killing and ensured Moxie boosts. I almost never send Salamence in until I can get a free switch-in, usually from Dragonite or a Magne- Explosion. Standard physical sweeper Evs with Adamant nature as he's running Scarf – in tandem with Moxie, turns into a very powerful threat once he gets going against a team with no counters. It's pretty much GG if I can get a clean revenge kill with no resistances from Outrage (which almost always happens thanks to Magnezone).



Notchoicedlmao (Latios) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Surf
- Trick

Part three of my offensive core, Latios is my second setup sweeper in case Dragonite is prematurely taken out before he is able to weaken the team enough for Salamence to come in and sweep. Standard Latios set, and I opted for Psyshock over Psychic due to it's defense-targeting aspect, despite the loss of 10 BP in the move. He has Surf over Dragon Pulse because I found that Volcarona, Terrakion, and Heatran give my team some problems, so I added that to her to help counter them and I'll usually keep him out of the battle unless an instance like that arises. I use Trick in case the opposition doesn't have very speedy threats like Terrakion or opposing Lati@s, and usually look for a swap for Leftovers on a wall to both cripple the wall and increase Latios' longevity.



Midna (Weavile) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 224 Spd / 32 HP / 252 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Ice Shard
- Pursuit
- Night Slash
- Low Kick

Weavile here is my standard go-to protection and check to opposing fast dragons, Garchomp and Salamence in particular. I went for an Expert Belt set due to its great coverage and speed, which, in tandem with priority Ice Shard and Pursuit, can chunk most every relevant threat to this team. It also helps with bluffing a Choice Band set, and after the opponent goes to its setup sweeper to set up on my “locked” Weavile, it can choose the correct move to chunk, if not OHKO, with Expert Belt. It has 224 Speed EVs, as it is in a unique speed tier and doesn't need 252 Speed to outrun anything that threatens it as long as it has Jolly, so the remaining EVs are put into HP to help its fraility on the field. Weavile is one of my potential leads, along with Infernape and Magnezone.



Wukong (Infernape) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Close Combat
- U-turn
- Stone Edge

Infernape is here as my Stealth Rock setter, who also retains good offensive potential – I opted for a physical set as I felt it better suited my team. Stone Edge is to take care of Volcaronas and Thundurus/Tornadus, but it is still a toss-up between this and HP Ice which can be used in case of opposing Landorus or dragons. U-turn is on his set to retain his offensive potential and keep offensive momentum in the game, while Close Combat is a powerful STAB to OHKO non-scarfed Terrakions in case Latios can't do the job himself. Jolly nature to speed tie with Keldeo/Terrakion and possibly KO them.

ThreatList
Volcarona can pose a huge threat to my team, as Latios is the only one with SE coverage in Surf, and is threatened by Volc's Bug Buzz (Note: After the addition of Infernape, it is no longer a prevalent threat). Because of this, Latios usually won't get the chance unless I predict its switch-in and get a Surf off. However, if Salamence or DNite are still around, it can be used as setup fodder, so it's only a minor threat.

Heatran is a major threat to this team, as if it has Stone Edge, it can kill DNite and Mence easily due to its resistances to both Fire and Dragon (only Pokemon that resists that combo), and is hard to trap due to its Fire STAB on the Magne duo. My only 2x moves on it are Latias' Surf and Infernape's Close Combat, so I will have trouble if either of them are out. (Note: After testing, it seems to not be a problem to the dragons unless it is running Stone Edge).

Major threat to my team, if it is running Scarf, then it can also easily take out DNite and Mence with STAB Stone Edge. Weavile helps check him, but if it isn't weakened beforehand, its either outrun and OHKO'd by Close Combat or it outruns Terrakion with Ice Shard, without OHKOing it. Latios is my only chance against him, if he can survive an X-Scissor and answer back with Psyshock after previous damage from Weavile.

They both pose a threat to any team with a Dragon-type based core, but Infernape is usually saved for taking these out easily with Close Combat, so they're a minor threat at best.

ClosingWords
In the end, this team was made to have fun as its primary objective with a side of kick-ass. I realize it isn't the most balanced team, but I'm okay with that. The strategy seems to have been working out well so far, but I feel like the sets I'm using on some of them are rather ineffective, so help in that area would be greatly appreciated. Also, I want to keep the team as a DragMag team, so keep that in mind when giving me advice. Thanks a lot for looking.

Importable

This a really cool DragMag team you have here, with great uuse of an underrated threat in Weavile, so I'd like to give you majour props on using both of them in your team. However, I find some huge threats to your team, along with some major flaws. With my rate, these flaws will not only be ironed out, they will help you combat the opposing threats against it. With all that said, let's get to my rate! First & foremost, the biggest threat to this team is easily Life Orb Mamoswine. Mamoswine can come in on a resisted hit, such as Magnezone's Thunderbolt, as well as come in on your revenge killers, Salamence after a revenge kill, or Latios weakened by a Draco Meteor & start doing some huge damage to your team. To help remedy this weakness, I would like to recommend using a Swords Dance Scizor over your current choice of Weavile. Swords Dance Scizor is an excellent addition to your team, as it provides solid resistances, as well as removing a nasty 3 Mon Rock weakness. Swords Dance Scizor alsocan revenge kill both Mamoswine, Terrakion, & Weavile, some of the threats that you have mentioned. Now, I'd like to do some nitpicking. First up, I would like to suggest running Outrage & Fire Punch on your Dragonite over your current choices of Dragon Claw & Roost. Outrage is Dragonite's most powerful STAB move, so there is no reason not to use it on his most devastating set. Meanwhile, Fire Punch helps Dragonite hit the Steel typed Pokemon that it has trouble with. My next & final suggestion would to run a Focus Sash set on your Infernape over your current set. Infernape isn't going to be doing much other than setting rocks & doing damage, so this set does exactly that. Well, that's all I have to say for now. I hope my advice helped. Have fun & good luck in your future endeavours!


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~Dr Ciel~​