Quality Control Focus Sash Dragapult [QC 1/2] [GP 0/1]

veti

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[SET]
Focus Sash (Dragapult) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost / Dragon / Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe or 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty / Timid Nature
- Dragon Darts / Draco Meteor
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder Wave

[SET COMMENTS]
Focus Sash Dragapult is an excellent status spreader and emergency check to various threats in the tier due to its excellent speed, outspeeding every unboosted pokemon except Deoxys Speed, and Hex to both reward status spreading further and hit status absorbers like Gliscor, Gholdengo, and Hatterene hard. Dragon Darts makes Dragapult a potent mixed wallbreaker, with Dragon Darts slicing through special walls like Clodsire anf Blissey, and Special Defense boosting Pokemon like Volcarona and Raging Bolt. Draco Meteor is an alternative option to OHKO Offensive Gouging Fire and Walking Wake and OHKO Bulky Gouging Fire and Raging Bolt after Stealth Rock, however its imperfect accuracy, special attack drops, and inability to hit most special walls for good damage compromises Dragapults offensive capabilities. Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave combine to allow Dragapult to cripple nearly the entire metagame, with the exceptions of Tera Fairy Gholdengo and Garganacl, as well as Blissey if running Draco Meteor over Dragon Darts. Will-O-Wisp is primarily good against physical attackers and ground types like Kingambit, Ogerpon-W, Great Tusk, and Ting Lu, while Thunder Wave is primarily good for special attackers, fast Pokemon, and burn-immune targets like Iron Valiant, Gouging Fire, Volcarona, Deoxys-S, and Tera Fire Zamazenta. Dragapult should run a Hasty nature when using Dragon Darts to not weaken it and it is chosen over Naive to usually avoid being 2HKOd by Volcarona's Bug Buzz, however with Draco Meteor, Dragapult can run timid, allowing it to avoid a 2HKO from attacks like Gliscor's Earthquake. Infiltrator is Dragapult's ability of choice, allowing it to status or revenge kill Substitute users like Zamazenta, Serperior, and Iron Moth. Tera Ghost boosts the power of Hex, having enough power to nearly always OHKO Skeledirge with a status boosted Hex and 2HKO specially defensive Gliscor after Protect. Tera Dragon boosts either Dragon Darts or Draco Meteor, allowing Dragon Darts to 2HKO most Bulky Volcarona, Galarian Slowking, and Blissey and allowing Draco Meteor to OHKO Pokemon like Meowscarada, Raging Bolt without hazard chip, and Samurott Hisui. Tera Fairy provides a Dragon immunity and Dark resistance, which can allow it to survive hits from Pokemon like Tera Dragon Volcarona, opposing Dragapult, and Scarf Darkrai, esepcially if its Focus Sash is no longer intact.

Dragapult fits on offensive teams that appreciate its emergency checking of many of the tiers scariest threats with its paralysis and burn while still being offensively threatening. Dragapults excellent of crippling offensive threats is beneficial to many offensive Pokemon, letting it work well with many wallbreakers and sweepers like Ogerpon-W, Raging Bolt, Kingambit, and Volcarona that are commonly found in these structures by giving them setup opportunities on burnt physical attackers and fully paralyzed Pokemon in general and preventing the team from being overwhelmed by fast opposing Pokemon with Paralysis. Powerful wallbreakers like Ogerpon-W, Kingambit, and Choice Specs Kyurem appreciate Dragapult paralyzing various faster Pokemon to gain the jump on them, while Dragapult appreciates their ability to come in on Pokemon such as Ting-Lu and Terastallized Clodsire that wall Dragapult to force them out and wallbreak. Zamazenta and Kingambit appreciate Dragapult burning opposing Zamazenta, while Kingambit additionally appreciates opposing Kingambit being burnt to win the mirror matchup. Raging Bolt has a much easier time breaking through Ting-Lu after Leftovers are neutralized while being able to take an Earthquake easier. Additionally, the aforementioned special attackers highly appreciate Dragon Darts variant of Dragapult to wear down shared walls like Clodsire, Blissey, specially defensive Gliscor, and Ting Lu. Dragapult's Focus Sash is broken by entry hazards, so Pokemon that can keep hazards off the field like Great Tusk, Iron Treads, Taunt Deoxys-S, and Taunt Landorus-T are excellent partners. Dragapult struggles to make meaningful progress against Pokemon like Garganacl which can be alleviated with Pokemon like Raging Bolt, Encore Iron Valiant, and Rillaboom. Rillaboom's Grassy Terrain can additionally heal Dragapult back any chip damage to potentially restore it's Focus Sash. Dragapult is not foolproof as entry hazards can often be hard to keep off the field long enough, and Dragapult only has one one activation of Focus Sash. Because of this, Dragapult often needs teammates that can serve as secondary checks to the sweepers Dragapult tries to cripple. Bulky variants of Volcarona can check Iron Valiant while being able to fish for burn against Roaring Moon and Rillaboom in a pinch. Zamazenta can check Pokemon like Booster Energy Great Tusk, Weavile, and Kingambit and doubles up on speed control. Gholdengo can help overwhelm Dark-types or even lure them with Dazzling Gleam or Focus Blast while also checking Iron Valiant and Enamorus. Priority users like Kingambit, Raging Bolt, and especially Dragonite and Rillaboom due to their more consistent priority moves can revenge kill Pokemon that Dragapult fails to status, most notably a boosted Kyurem as it completely bypasses Focus Sash with Icicle Spear and Scale Shot and Choice Scarf Meowscarada that can OHKO it with Triple Axel, and also Pokemon like Iron Valiant, boosted Roaring Moon, and Deoxys Speed if Dragapult's Focus Sash is not maintained.

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Marnie

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[SET]
Focus Sash (Dragapult) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost / Dragon / Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe or 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty / Timid Nature
- Dragon Darts / Draco Meteor
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder Wave

[SET COMMENTS]
Focus Sash Dragapult is an excellent status spreader and emergency check to various threats in the tier. (its speed tier definitely needs to be emphasized here, which makes pult more adept at statusing the opposing mon before getting hit. also the fact that pult naturally threatens common wisp+twave switchins like physdef gliscor, dengo, and hatterene with a decently strong STAB hex, letting it have more freedom to spread status. basically these are things that makes it stand out from other mons with access to twave+wisp) Dragon Darts makes Dragapult a potent mixed wallbreaker, with Dragon Darts slicing through specially bulky Pokemon like Clodsire, Blissey, and Volcarona. (minor but i'd separate this into 'spdef mons [like clod & bliss] and spdef-boosting mons [like volc]', so you can include CM raging bolt as well, which is otherwise an offensive threat that dont really care about either status) Draco Meteor is an alternative option to OHKO Offensive Gouging Fire and OHKO Bulky Gouging Fire and Raging Bolt after Stealth Rock, (ohkoing wake in sun is pretty good too, cause speed boosting is otherwise faster than you and you can emergency check it if sash is still intact) however its imperfect accuracy, special attack drops, and inability to hit most special walls for good damage compromises Dragapults offensive capabilities. Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave combine to allow Dragapult to cripple nearly the entire metagame, with the exceptions of Gholdengo, (gets 2hkoed by hex so dont wanna switch into your status, refer to the first comment of this check) Garganacl, and Blissey. (dented by darts + unless it's shadow ball it cant really touch you anyways. can prob cover this in the dragon darts line instead, like "...hits blissey, which otherwise can absorb pult's status thanks to natural cure") Will-O-Wisp is primarily good against physical attackers and ground types like Kingambit, Great Tusk, and Ting Lu, (add waterpon) while Thunder Wave is primarily good for walls not immune to paralysis, special attackers, and fast Pokemon, (ac) and burn-immune targets like Galarian Slowking, (i think glowking getting wisped is still annoying that specifically mentioning it as a twave target in here is pretty whatever tbh, especially cause it wants to be as slow as possible. i'd rather include better examples that REALLY hate twave and/or dont care about burns at all) terastallized Clodsire, (way too specific, i think clefable is prob better) Iron Valiant, and Zamazenta. (wouldnt wisping zama be better? if you want to keep it i think specifically say tera fire zama is fine) (other examples u can include are darkrai, deoxys-S, gouging fire, and volcarona--more offensive targets are better cause slowing them down in the offense mirror helps your teammates a lot, especally cause they are mons that dont care about/unaffected entirely by wisp) Dragapult should run a Hasty nature when using Dragon Darts to not weaken it, however with Draco Meteor, Dragapult can run timid, allowing it to avoid a 2HKO from attacks like Gliscor's Earthquake. Tera Ghost boosts the power of Hex, allowing Dragapult to 2HKO Offensive Gholdengo switching in even if it terastalizes on the second turn, (this interaction is way too specific imo--i doubt one will want to click tera next turn on the hail mary prediction) while having enough power to nearly always OHKO Skeledirge with a status boosted Hex. (if you want to add more benchmarks then having significant odds to OHKO enamorus & rillaboom and 2HKO spdef gliscor after protect are notable mentions) Tera Dragon boosts either Dragon Darts or Draco Meteor, allowing Dragon Darts to 2HKO Bulky Volcarona, Galarian Slowking, and Blissey and allowing Draco Meteor to OHKO Pokemon like Meowscarada, Raging Bolt without hazard chip, and Samurott Hisui. Tera Fairy provides a Dragon immunity and Dark resistance, which can allow it to survive hits from Pokemon like Tera Dragon Volcarona, opposing Dragapult, and Scarf Darkrai. (mention why infiltrator is the chosen ability before the tera sentences)

Dragapult fits on offensive teams that appreciate its emergency checking of many of the tiers scariest threats with its paralysis and burn while still being offensively threatening. When using Dragon Darts, Dragapult pairs excellently with a plethora of strong special attackers like Darkrai, Raging Bolt, and Volcarona due to it forcing terastalization on Clodsire to Paralyze it, giving the other Pokemon great odds to break through eventually, breaking Blissey outright, and wearing down Ting-Lu quickly. When using Draco Meteor Dragapult cannot beat special walls, so wallbreakers like Ogerpon-W and Kyurem can give Dragapult's team a better matchup into the balances and stalls that Dragapult struggles with. (these interactions arent wrong perse, but they're mostly just an afterthought or additional things they do with sash pult--there're more (and more relevant) reasons as to why you wanna pair these mons with sash pult that you can cover here. if you want to you can elaborate later on instead, something like 'pokemon abc appreciates daragapult doing efg; in return, they can handle mons like xyz that pult cant threaten if it's not running darts/draco'. the first section on this paragraph should just be standard offensive mons that appreciate pult's ability to spread status + check opposing offense since it's the main role for why you wanna use sash pult on the team) Dragapult's Focus Sash is broken by entry hazards, so Pokemon that can keep hazards off the field like Great Tusk, Iron Treads, Taunt Deoxys-S, and Glimmora (are double sash with glimm + pult common? mostly seen taunt landot and hatterene to help the hazard issue) are excellent partners. Dragapult struggles to make meaningful progress against Garganacl, the matchup against Garganacl can be alleviated with Pokemon like Raging Bolt, Encore Iron Valiant, and Rillaboom. (mention the terrain recovery, like lets you heal off chip damage to put u back into sash) (can prob consider other mons that pult struggles with too, like spdef gliscor) Dragapult is not foolproof as Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave both have a good chance to miss, (i wouldnt include this because technically any good moves have a chance to miss and it's generally not a strong enough argument [you dont run other spikes users cause hamurott's ceaseless edge can miss or you run other toxic users to compensate for gliscor's toxic missing] unless it's egregiously inaccurate like having to rely on focus blasts, and so having teammates to overwhelm the targets is good so you dont have to rely on it hitting etc) entry hazards can often be hard to keep off the field long enough, and Dragapult only has one one activation of Focus Sash. Because of this, Dragapult often needs teammates that can serve as secondary checks to the sweepers Dragapult tries to cripple. Bulky variants of Volcarona can check Kingambit, (volc takes a lot from kowtow and you mostly rely on flame body in this interaction) Iron Valiant, and Zamazenta (slower than pult regardless so you can still status it in a pinch) while being able to fish for burn against Roaring Moon and Dragonite (still slower than pult even if it's +1 ada and you're espeed immune) in a pinch. (can prob include other mons too aside from volc, like zama for booster tusk, weavile, and gambit or dengo for fast fairies like valiant and scarf enam) Priority users like Kingambit, Raging Bolt, and especially Dragonite and Rillaboom due to their more consistent priority moves can revenge kill Pokemon that Dragapult fails to status. (like?)


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ping me once implemented and i'll take a look at it again
 

Marnie

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[SET]
Focus Sash (Dragapult) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost / Dragon / Fairy
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe or 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty / Timid Nature
- Dragon Darts / Draco Meteor
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- Thunder Wave

[SET COMMENTS]
Focus Sash Dragapult is an excellent status spreader and emergency check to various threats in the tier due to its excellent speed, outspeeding every unboosted pokemon except Deoxys Speed, and Hex to both reward status spreading further and hit status absorbers like Gliscor, Gholdengo, and Hatterene hard. Dragon Darts makes Dragapult a potent mixed wallbreaker, with Dragon Darts slicing through special walls like Clodsire anf Blissey, and Special Defense boosting Pokemon like Volcarona and Raging Bolt. Draco Meteor is an alternative option to OHKO Offensive Gouging Fire and Walking Wake and OHKO Bulky Gouging Fire and Raging Bolt after Stealth Rock, (this is a bit messy imo, if you can fix it then great but i'm not too fussed about it, will leave it for 2nd QC) however its imperfect accuracy, special attack drops, and inability to hit most special walls for good damage compromises Dragapults offensive capabilities. Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave combine to allow Dragapult to cripple nearly the entire metagame, with the exceptions of Tera Fairy Gholdengo and Garganacl, as well as Blissey if running Draco Meteor over Dragon Darts. Will-O-Wisp is primarily good against physical attackers and ground types like Kingambit, Ogerpon-W, Great Tusk, and Ting Lu, while Thunder Wave is primarily good for special attackers, fast Pokemon, and burn-immune targets like Iron Valiant, Gouging Fire, Volcarona, Deoxys-S, and Tera Fire Zamazenta. Dragapult should run a Hasty nature when using Dragon Darts to not weaken it (mention that it's chosen over naive so you have very good odds to avoid the 2hko from offensive volc's +1 bug buzz), however with Draco Meteor, Dragapult can run timid, allowing it to avoid a 2HKO from attacks like Gliscor's Earthquake. Infiltrator is Dragapult's ability of choice, allowing it to status or revenge kill Substitute users like Zamazenta, Enamorus, (not too common of a sub user, i'd replace with either prim or serp) and Iron Moth. Tera Ghost boosts the power of Hex, while having enough power to nearly always OHKO Skeledirge with a status boosted Hex and 2HKO specially defensive Gliscor after Protect. Tera Dragon boosts either Dragon Darts or Draco Meteor, allowing Dragon Darts to 2HKO most Bulky Volcarona, (since it's not calcing against a max/max spread) Galarian Slowking, and Blissey and allowing Draco Meteor to OHKO Pokemon like Meowscarada, Raging Bolt without hazard chip, and Samurott Hisui. Tera Fairy provides a Dragon immunity and Dark resistance, which can allow it to survive hits from Pokemon like Tera Dragon Volcarona, opposing Dragapult, and Scarf Darkrai, (ac) esepcially if its Focus Sash is no longer intact.

Dragapult fits on offensive teams that appreciate its emergency checking of many of the tiers scariest threats with its paralysis and burn while still being offensively threatening. Other special attackers like Darkrai and Raging Bolt appreciate Dragapult paralyzing Pokemon like Iron Valiant, while Volcarona appreciates Dragapult burning Pokemon like Roaring Moon, Kingambit, and Ting Lu, as it alleviates the bad matchups into these Pokemon. (pult paralyzing these threats is beneficial to not just the special attackers, while pult burning these other threats isnt specific to volc either that mentioning them near the first sentence feels out of place. I'd just mention something like "pult's ability to neutralize offensive threats is beneficial to any offensive teammates, letting it work well with a myriad of Pokemon like [examples] that are commonly found in these structures by giving them multiple setup opportunities and preventing the team from being overwhelmed by the opposition." instead, or something very wide-reaching and encompassing like this. from here, you can then be specific by moving on to the para sentence right away, making the paragraph flow better in general) All of them highly appreciate Dragapult, especially Dragon Darts variants, wearing down shared walls like Clodsire, Blissey, specially defensive Gliscor, and Ting Lu. (moved this sentence later so your point about status-spreading flows better) Powerful wallbreakers (can probably just generalize to mid-speed offensive mons in general) like Ogerpon-W and Choice Specs Kyurem (+ any of kingambit, raging bolt, gouging, etc) appreciate Dragapult paralyzing various faster Pokemon to gain the jump on them, while Dragapult appreciates their ability to come in on Pokemon such as Ting-Lu and Terastallized Clodsire that wall Dragapult to force them out and wallbreak. (add another sentence here that covers wisp, like the above twave section; like how other mons such as zama, kingambit, and raging bolt that appreciates you burning tinglu, opposing physical attackers, and opposing zama so they can set up much more easily, etc etc) Additionally, the aforementioned special attackers highly appreciate Dragon Darts variant of Dragapult to wear down shared walls like Clodsire, Blissey, specially defensive Gliscor, and Ting Lu. Dragapult's Focus Sash is broken by entry hazards, so Pokemon that can keep hazards off the field like Great Tusk, Iron Treads, Taunt Deoxys-S, and Taunt Landorus-T are excellent partners. Dragapult struggles to make meaningful progress against Pokemon like Garganacl and specially defensive Gliscor. (i think hex still stings quite a bit that including spdef gliscor as a target where pult is 'struggling to make meaningful progress' is not too fitting, so i'd take it back and just remove it) The matchup against Garganacl which can be alleviated with Pokemon like Raging Bolt, Encore Iron Valiant, and Rillaboom. Rillaboom's Grassy Terrain can additionally heal Dragapult back to full health any chip damage to potentially restore it's Focus Sash. Dragapult is not foolproof as entry hazards can often be hard to keep off the field long enough, and Dragapult only has one one activation of Focus Sash. Because of this, Dragapult often needs teammates that can serve as secondary checks to the sweepers Dragapult tries to cripple. Bulky variants of Volcarona can check Iron Valiant while being able to fish for burn against Roaring Moon and Rillaboom in a pinch. Zamazenta can check Pokemon like Booster Energy Great Tusk, Weavile, and Kingambit and doubles up on speed control. Gholdengo can help overwhelm Dark-types or even lure them with Dazzling Gleam or Focus Blast while also checking Iron Valiant and Enamorus. Priority users like Kingambit, Raging Bolt, and especially Dragonite and Rillaboom due to their more consistent priority moves can revenge kill Pokemon that Dragapult fails to status, most notably Dragon Dance a boosted Kyurem (since not all icicle spear kyurem is DD, there's the boots AoA set too) as it completely bypasses Focus Sash with Icicle Spear and Scale Shot, (can prob add scarf meow with triple axel too) and also Pokemon like Iron Valiant, boosted Roaring Moon, and Deoxys Speed if Dragapult's Focus Sash is not maintained.

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Written by:
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try re-reading this again carefully cause there are minor spelling issues in some places. also some minor additions since my last check but overall the analysis is much cleaner now, good job. let me know if you need any clarifications
QC 1/2
royalfluxh_qc.gif
 

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