I'd like to bring up Dragapult. When I last covered Dragapult
here, it was before the bans, so I'd like to cover its status in the metagame post-Flutter Mane and Post-Houndstone bans, since the former warped the meta around it a lot, while the latter did to some degree.
Question 1: How much did Dragapult gain from the bans?
Dragapult, IMO, got one of the biggest Ws out of the bans, especially Flutter Mane. First of all, two of its most important rivals in the best Ghost-type race have been removed, putting in it prime position to become a top option once more of being a useful Ghost-type for teams. Second, Dragapult also lost one of its most important checks, since Flutter Mane was able to outspeed and force it out. Lastly, Dragapult now has probably the best Speed tier in the metagame, being able to outspeed base Roaring Moon and Cyclizar, and outspeeding the former was something that base Speed Flutter Mane couldn't do.
Question 2: How is Dragapult important in the current metagame?
I'd say Dragapult's main importance is being able to counter the Cyclizar Shed Tail trend. Thanks to Infiltrator, Dragapult is able to do either one of two things (I'll be using the DD set since it's the best set for Dragapult so far.): It can either Dragon Dance on a predicted Shed Tail to refute it and later sweep, or it can just Dragon Darts on Cyclizar to end the Shed Tail gameplan before it begins. Dragon Dance Dragapult is scary for a sweeper given its Speed and Attack stats, its STAB combination being almost unresisted, and it's even scarier thanks to its Tera potential. Dragapult can also serve as a good option as a spinblocker, given how Rapid Spin is more common than Defog in this generation, and that Dragapult is one of the few actually OU-level Ghost-types.
Question 3: The Verdict?
I'd say Dragapult is currently a very important anti-meta meta option. Heck, by playing Gen 9 OU, I can also say it's quite underrated, which is quite a hot take considering how well Dragapult performed last generation. However, by looking at Dragapult's place in a post-first wave ban metagame, you get my point.