Since the strongest (and only) Dragon-type move is Dragon Rage, a set-amount-of-damage attack, and Dragonite learns no Flying moves, it has no true STAB moves. However, Dragonite still packs a punch because of its nice offensive stats and large movepool. Blizzard is listed in this set because it handles Ground and Grass-types, not to mention other Dragonite. Hyper Beam is the strongest physical move in the game, so there is no reason not to have it on something with an Attack stat as immense as Dragonite. Between Body Slam and Thunderbolt, it's up to you to decide whether you want to deal damage with a higher chance of paralyzing a Pokémon that supports Dragonite's Attack or a move that deals damage that can be helpful against Pokémon who can easily take down Dragonite. Finally, if you decided to use Thunderbolt over Body Slam, you have the choice once more to either have Body Slam again or if you want a guaranteed paralysis move.
This set is based mostly from Wrap and Agility. In RBY, Wrap, Fire Spin, and Clamp disables a Pokémon from attacking for 2-5 turns. This becomes annoying very fast, especially since Wrap does not run out of PP. Using Agility and Wrap, Dragonite can effectively harness this strategy since after one Agility, it will become faster than any Pokémon naturally. So, start off with Dragonite and use Agility. Once you've set up your Agility successfully, start using Wrap. Assuming Wrap doesn't miss (84.4% accuracy), Dragonite can completely disable an opponent's team, especially if your opponent doesn't run a Ghost-type Pokémon (it can immobilize a Ghost-type, but deals no damage to it). Finishing off your opponent using this strategy will take some time. When you feel that Hyper Beam or Blizzard (for Rock-types) is in KO range, use the appropriate move. Other OptionsYou could run a Horn Drill set if OHKOs aren't banned. Be sure to run Agility and/or Thunder Wave along with an attack move of your choice. If you want to deal more damage, you can use Thunder over Thunderbolt. Inversely, if you are worried about accuracy, you can use Ice Beam over Blizzard. You can use Fire Blast along with Blizzard/Ice Beam and Thunder/Thunderbolt to turn the Mixed Sweeper Dragonite set into one that sways more towards special attacks than physical attacks. Finally, there's the option of using Double-Edge over Body Slam to do more damage, but then of course you've got recoil damage to deal with. OpinionThe 4x weakness to Ice-type moves is really the only reason Dragonite isn't used a lot. Ice attacks are used on nearly every team - maybe even on all teams. You'd need good prediction skills to send Dragonite into battle, either when a Pokémon uses Earthquake, or a turn into a Grass-type Pokémon. CountersIf it learns Ice Beam or Blizzard and has a Speed faster than 258, then consider Dragonite dead meat—Starmie and Lapras are two very common counters to Dragonite. Although, Cloyster should be a bit apprehensive if Dragonite is carrying Thunderbolt. If you don't predict correctly, there is a very slim chance that Rhydon or Golem could be a pain, but more often than not, they won't dare switch into Dragonite for fear of its special attacking potential. Snorlax isn't really afraid of Dragonite, since it has no devastating STAB attack and Snorlax's Body Slams are a force to be reckoned with. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
