Nog Blog Post #3: Dragapult :dragapult:
My opponent
3MoreMinutes is johning me in the tour right now so I wanted to write a short piece on Dragapult before I get 2-0d in round 2 of my own metagame. There has also been discussion on whether or not Dragapult should be banned since the tier first began just over a year ago. Going from a mon that council member
R8 once ranked at B- to the undisputed best Pokemon in the tier deserves some analysis. This will be somewhat of a long post discussing its general viability, movesets, checks/counters, and my thoughts on the ban discussion.
Why is Dragapult so good?
There's quite a few reasons why Dragapult is so dominant. Its an incredibly threatening mixed attacker with 120atk and 100spa with an incredibly difficult to switch into STABs. Its 142 speed stat makes it the fastest ranked Pokemon in the tier after the C rank electrics Zeraora and Regieleki (Dragapult resists their electric STABs). It has access to Will-o-Wisp, U-Turn, and lots of coverage moves. With maxed EVs, it even has respectable bulky making it a solid spinblocking option on many teams with its ghost typing, and can even switch into powerful water and fire attacks which it resists through its dragon typing. In current generations, Dragapult shadow ball is already difficult to switch into, but with shadow ball being physical in mg2 it draws from the stronger 120atk stat from Dragapult, hitting even harder. With pult as a mixed attacker, physical walls that can comfortably eat shadow ball can struggle to switch into shadow ball + draco with hazards up.
The Standard Dragapult Set
For the vast majority of mg2, Dragapult has run essentially the same set every single game with marginal changes. Other sets are experimented with, but this set is by far the most common and I've easily put this set in builder a hundred times.
Dragapult @ Air Balloon
Ability: No Ability
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- U-turn
- Will-O-Wisp
Each and every aspect of this set provides a very valuable purpose.
Draco Meteor is the bread and butter move that you'll be clicking multiple times against opposing offense. Not only are there other opposing top tier dragons in the tier, but its also your strongest move you can click on a given turn and is usually your move used to revenge chipped opponents. While a 140bp (old gen Draco Meteor) STAB is powerful, the max bulk EVs does allow a good number of Pokemon to tank this from full. Even Kyurem only takes around 70% from a pult draco.
Shadow Ball is a great 2HKO move you can click against unprepared or already broken teams. A neutral shadow ball will 2HKO most chipped Pokemon in the tier and can sweep heavily chipped teams with hazards up late game.
U-Turn is probably the most frequently clicked move on Dragapult just because of how many times it can come in during a game. Naturally, as Dragapult is the best Pokemon in the game, teams have at least one if not more heavy pult checks that it cannot break through alone. Gaining momentum with hazards up, like in GSC or any other metagame (if you say RBY I will kill you), is the best way to make progress. U-Turn lets you chip walls, scout, and honestly serve as a genuine breaking tool against Blissey (it does 20% !!!).
Will-o-Wisp is the most dropped move from this set, though it is again a very potent weapon in Dragapult's arsenal. Though the 75% accuracy can unfortunate, the extra burn damage in mg2 makes wisp far more powerful than current gen. Though a good number of Pokemon can and do use rest, and bulkier teams occasionally bring heal bell/aromatherapy, wisp is great for helping to break through bulkier teams and check physical attackers. Some offensive teams rely on pult's wisp to check opposing swords dance Terrakion.
Air Balloon helps secure Dragapult's position as a viable spinblocker, while also keeping it immune to spikes. Although stealth rock is slightly more common, immunity to both spikes and toxic spikes urges builders to bring balloon over boots to begin with. When you consider that two of the three most viable spinners in the tier (Great Tusk and Iron Treads) enjoy clicking STAB ground moves, requiring them to knock your balloon off before even having the chance to start breaking through is invaluable. That being said, Treads can easily tank both STABs from Dragapult and Tusk has access to Play Rough. However, Dragapult can threaten both of them with wisp, so they both have some form of deterrent.
No Ability is arguably the most important aspect of this build because it lets you bring Dragapult. (cringe)
Alternative Dragapult Sets
A set that originated near the beginning of the meta before Will-o-Wisp Dragapult was the standard was Fire Blast Dragapult. The idea was simple: steel types are the only type that resist BOTH ghost and dragon types (steel resists ghost in gen 2 mechanics), so why not hit steel types with a 120bp super effective move. The most common check for Dragapult was Melmetal who could eat both STABs and use sleep talk to ignore wisp pult sets.
252 SpA Dragapult Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Melmetal: 226-266 (47.6 - 56.1%) -- 82.4% chance to 2HKO
Getting to 2HKO one of your most common checks was GREAT for pult, though wisp still was used more. Fast forward several months of nearly exclusive wisp > fire blast pult usage and using a bulky steel as your pult check was standardized once again. Recently, within the past month or so, fire blast pult has grown in popularity again to counter the bulky steel check trend. What was once a tech to "gimmick" a win against teams unprepared for fire blast sets has now become a regular threat in the metagame, and something that teambuilders need to consider. No longer can teams just throw on a Melmetal to deal with pult long term.
The third set that gets used is hex pult sets which seek to capitalize on the damage boost from hitting burned targets. Though hex in mg2 is only 50bp that gets doubled to 100, this is still a usable set and has been brought as a replacement for shadow ball. It has also been used in sub + wisp + hex sets that try to tear through fatter teams.
How Do You Check Dragapult?
Well if it were easy then I wouldn't be making this post about how good Dragapult is. Any good team NEEDS to have some sort of gameplan for dealing with Dragapult. Offensive teams can bring bulkier checks for it, most notably Heatran which also gives rocks access, or they can try to just limit the effectiveness it can do to your team by bringing a large number of Pokemon not weak to pult. Bulkier teams need to have a more long term solution to pult like sleep talk Tapu Fini, though Heatran also works (a large reason Heatran is #4 in usage).
Reliable Dragapult checks need to accomplish all of the following:
1. Have some form of recovery to weather checking Dragapult multiple times
2. Not be 3HKOd by any combination of Draco Meteor + Shadow Ball + Fire Blast. With fire blast pult increasing in popularity, this has dramatically shrunk the amount of reliable Dragapult checks that fulfill this criteria.
3. Provide at least some value when switching into pult, i.e. opposing pult cannot be encouraged to stay in and keep attacking. Heatran can get up rocks, Fini can pressure with moonblast/scald...
4. Be able to consistently switch in with hazards/burn. Many Dragapult checks bring rest to negate the effects of wisp over the course of a long game, bringing me to my next question...
Is rest required in a Dragapult check? Is sleep talk?
I don't really have an answer for it. The instinctual answer is to say no because there are SOME Pokemon that can technically check Dragapult and fulfill all the above criteria but aren't necessarily used as dragapult checks (see Blissey). Blissey's susceptibility comes from taking 20% on U-Turn and not being able to heal regularly. However, the two most commonly used pult checks are Fini which runs sleep talk and Heatran which frequently runs rest on bulkier teams.
Is Dragapult Broken? Should Dragapult Be Banned?
A very topical question and something that council will certainly be discussing throughout/after the tour. I've also heard that pult might be getting Poltergeist with the new update which makes it very easy to ban pult as solid checks melt to STAB poltergeist.
252 Atk Dragapult Shadow Ball vs. 248 HP / 252 Def Tapu Fini: 90-106 (26.2 - 30.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252 Atk Dragapult Poltergeist vs. 248 HP / 252 Def Tapu Fini: 123-145 (35.8 - 42.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
Is Dragapult the best mon in the tier? Absolutely. Is it overpowered? Yeah. Is it "broken?" Yeah probably. However, I actively separated the "is pult broken" and "should pult be banned" into two separate questions because I do not believe they are the same. Replace Dragapult with the GSC equivalent of Snorlax. Just by reading the first line of the GSC Snorlax smogon competitive guide you get the idea: "Behold, the single most dominant Pokemon in any OU tier in history." There is no doubt that Snorlax is "overpowered," or "broken" but it provides in instrumental role in keeping the tier together. Without Snorlax, the tier would obviously look incredibly different as certain are mainly used for the ability to check Snorlax, but Snorlax also has the ability to check powerful special attackers which would tear the tier apart without its presence. Is Snorlax/should Snorlax be used as the sole check for special attackers in GSC? Of course not. Teams that only rely exclusively on Snorlax to check Zapdos/Raikou are awful teams and one thunder crit away from losing. Though I've strayed from Dragapult in mg2, the point still stands. I've used this example so many times in the council chat when talking about pult that I'm sure "snorlax" has more mentions as my dragapult comparison than it actually does for its viability/usage in mg2.
Without Dragapult in the tier, I think certain Pokemon would become much more difficult to deal with regularly. Iron Bundle is the first one that comes to mind just because Dragapult is one of the few Pokemon that can outspeed it in the tier, and it already has few checks as it is (Iron Bundle is also on the council watchlist so this point might become irrelevant in the coming weeks/months). Earlier I mentioned how wisp pult is regularly used as a semi-check for terrakion on more offensive teams. Without pult in the tier, there becomes dramatically less options for reliably checking +2 terrakion.
The common argument for banning Dragapult outside of the fact that it is incredibly threatening and difficult to deal with is that by banning it, team diversity would increase. This is also the argument regularly used for Iron Bundle. I certainly think this is a valid point. Teams would be less pressed to bring Fini/Heatran on every balance team, but I would say that the opposite could also be considered. I keep coming back to the terrak point but I do think it is a valid point (I also hate terrak). Teams as of now can afford to be terrak weak BECAUSE they have Dragapult. Because you can throw Dragapult on as the 6th mon on nearly every team, it allows you to be more flexible with the other 5 slots on your team. With Dragapult banned, I'm now essentially shepherded into bringing more dedicated terrak checks, and now I need to bring reliable ways to break through Mew and Latias, and now you're having to deal with the mass role compression that Dragapult was able to absorb. Sure, new Pokemon might gain viability and usage in the tier which I don't think anyone would say is a bad thing, but I think by banning Dragapult it forces council to certainly ban bundle and most likely several other things down the road.
I keep using the Snorlax in GSC example, but I think perhaps a better comparison is Tyranitar in ADV. Both sit around 50% usage and both are the best Pokemon in their respective tiers. Of course Tyranitar can be "limiting" in that it forces teams to bring a designated rock resist which is usually narrowed down to Metagross and Swampert (the Heatran/Fini equivalent of ADV I guess) but it plays such an integral part of the metagame that I don't support banning it, especially when I think that the metagame is fun, balanced, and very enjoyable as it is. Without sand in ADV, the tier would be dramatically different, albeit to a much greater extent than if mg2 banned Dragapult. Keep in mind, there will always be a "best" Pokemon in the tier.
The last point I'll make is that Dragapult is certainly the least "broken" thing that was banned in mg2. Previously we've banned "broken" Pokemon because they were uncheckable/heavily limiting in a very negative way. I like to say that Dragapult has me running Heatran and Tapu Fini but things like Bundle have me running Empoleon and Cresselia.
Conclusion
I've tagged the other council members in this post hoping they might share their thoughts on the matter publicly as well, although I've already heard them. I'd also love to hear other peoples thoughts on banning/keeping Dragapult, or just general thoughts to the meta. But I'm sure that instead I'll get two word messages like anique saying "ban pult" or teamo saying ":noglastica:"
I'll to break this down into multiple sections if there's parts you're interested in reading/parts you are not. VR thoughts are pretty long but the other sections are shorter. Sometime next week I'll have another post focusing on the hazards metagame.
