Pokémon Dracovish

[Marigold]

Dracovish

Typing:

Base Stats: 90 HP | 90 Atk | 100 Def | 70 SpA | 80 SpD | 75 Spe

Abilities: Water Absorb | Strong Jaw | Sand Rush (H)

Full Learnset

Level Up Moves:
- [01] Tackle
- [01] Water Gun
- [07] Protect
- [14] Brutal Swing
- [21] Ancient Power
- [28] Bite
- [35] Dragon Breath
- [42] Stomp
- [49] Super Fang
- [56] Crunch
- [63] Fishious Rend
- [70] Dragon Pulse
- [77] Dragon Rush
TMs:
- [TM01] Mega Kick
- [TM08] Hyper Beam
- [TM09] Giga Impact
- [TM21] Rest
- [TM22] Rock Slide
- [TM24] Snore
- [TM25] Protect
- [TM33] Rain Dance
- [TM36] Whirlpool
- [TM39] Facade
- [TM45] Dive
- [TM48] Rock Tomb
- [TM54] Rock Blast
- [TM55] Brine
- [TM67] Ice Fang
- [TM76] Round
- [TM81] Bulldoze
- [TM97] Brutal Swing
- [TM98] Stomping Tantrum
TRs:
- [TR01] Body Slam
- [TR03] Hydro Pump
- [TR04] Surf
- [TR07] Low Kick
- [TR10] Earthquake
- [TR16] Waterfall
- [TR18] Leech Life
- [TR20] Substitute
- [TR24] Outrage
- [TR26] Endure
- [TR27] Sleep Talk
- [TR32] Crunch
- [TR62] Dragon Pulse
- [TR67] Earth Power
- [TR69] Zen Headbutt
- [TR74] Iron Head
- [TR75] Stone Edge
- [TR84] Scald
- [TR97] Psychic Fangs
- [TR98] Liquidation

Notable Moves

- Fishious Rend
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Low Kick
- Stone Edge
- Iron Head
- Leech Life
- Crunch
- Psychic Fangs
- Ice Fang

New Move
Fishious Rend: Water, Physical, 85 BP, 100 accuracy. Considered a bite move. If the user attacks before the target or the opponent switches out, the power of this move is doubled.

Pros

- Dracovish has access to, by far, strongest water-type attack in the entire game.
- Dracovish also boasts great coverage options that can break down conventional water/dragon resists.
- Its water/dragon typing is very useful defensively to find more opportunities to wallbreak.
- Base 75 speed allows Dracovish to outspeed most defensive threats, making it a threat to defensive teams.
- All of its abilities provide great utility, defensively or offensively.

Cons

- Its middling speed stat of 75 combined with a lack of priority will make Dracovish struggle to accomplish much in offensive matchups.
- Despite having good defensive typing and 90/100/80 bulk, Dracovish is prone to getting worn down due to a lack of good recovery options.
- Outside of Fishious Rend, Dracovish does not hit that hard courtesy of a base 90 attack stat.

Potential Movesets and Viability

"Powerful legs and jaws made it the apex predator of its time. Its own overhunting of its prey was what drove it to extinction."

First, let's just take the time to appreciate how metal Dracovish's dex entry is. It drove itself into extinction just by being too powerful of a predator, let that sink in. Fun lore aside, Dracovish carves an extremely polarizing yet powerful niche in OU with its unique attack in Fishious Rend. When backed up by a Choice Band, Strong Jaw boost, and rain boosts, the strongest of conventional water resists like Ferrothorn and Toxapex can find themselves getting 2hko'd or even ohko'd by the sheer power of this attack. Combine this with coverage for some water immunities like Mantine or Jellicent, and Dracovish gains the potential to annihilate stall and balance alike as a dedicated wallbreaker on competitive teams.

While Dracovish faces extreme competition with other OU wallbreakers, Fishious Rend is such an insanely powerful tool that it even outdoes the damage output of breakers like Araquanid and Crawdaunt by a large margin. Additionally, its good typing in water/dragon as well as usable 90/100/80 bulk makes Dracovish easier to bring onto the battlefield safely. The newly discovered raw power of Fishious Rend backed up by its decent base 75 speed also opens up the viability of Choice Scarf sets to overcome the Choice Band's poor offensive matchups. Overall, Dracovish has high potential to shine in OU as an insanely strong wallbreaker, and may force metagame trends such as an increased usage of water immunities such as Seismitoad on teams.

In terms of Dynamax potential, Dracovish is a poor abuser of the mechanic. Fishious Rend loses its power-doubling ability and Strong Jaw boost, and it is too slow to clean up with repeated G-Max attacks even if gaining stat boosts. It should only be Dynamaxed if there is no other option but to abuse the extra bulk and revenge kill an extremely dangerous setup sweeper.

Banded Wallbreaker
Dracovish @ Choice Band
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Crunch
- Psychic Fangs
- Low Kick

A potentially viable set for Dracovish. This set aims to make the most use of its powerful STAB especially when used alongside rain support. If Strong Jaw is being used, Crunch should be selected to have an option vs Jellicent and Psychic Fangs should be brought to hit Toxapex harder. Finally, Low Kick is Dracovish's best option for immediate damage against Ferrothorn. Keep in mind that Fishious Rend is so brutally powerful that it can 2hko or even ohko most resists outright.

Anti-Offense Cleaner
Dracovish @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Crunch
- Psychic Fangs
- Low Kick

This set aims to remedy Banded Dracovish's poor offensive matchup by outspeeding the metagame except for Dragapult. This set may be more viable on rain teams, but it might be mostly outclassed by other fast offensive water types like Barraskewda. A fast Fishious Rend is always worthwhile to consider, however, and such a set may shine in Hyper Offensive matchups.

Other Notes

Dracovish's hidden ability, Sand Rush, is currently unreleased. If/when obtainable, this may be a great boon to Sand Rush cores as Dracovish offers good type synergy with typical Sandstorm teammates. However, the raw damage output of Strong Jaw-boosted Fishious Rend is so high that sand teams may reconsider the speed boost at all.

 

[Dreadfury]

This mon is the textbook definition of mediocrity in its current state. It's really hard to justify slapping on rain teams because it has such a bad matchup against offense and feels almost strictly outclassed by Barraskewda.

When and if it ever gets Sand Rush this thing is going to be an absolute THREAT under Sand, though. Water/Dragon STABs with the means of at least hoping to dent Ferro+Pex are quite nice and Dracovish's typing provides a huge amount of defensive utility for Sand teams.

EDIT: Holy fuck I was so, so wrong about this beautiful fucking thing. Praise our new prehistoric wallbreaker overlord!

 

[RaysGoat]

This mon is the textbook definition of mediocrity in its current state. It's really hard to justify slapping on rain teams because it has such a bad matchup against offense and feels almost strictly outclassed by Barraskewda.

When and if it ever gets Sand Rush this thing is going to be an absolute THREAT under Sand, though. Water/Dragon STABs with the means of at least hoping to dent Ferro+Pex are quite nice and Dracovish's typing provides a huge amount of defensive utility for Sand teams.

I'm new to SW/SH but is there a way to get hidden abilities yet? I remember Sun and Moon I think you could get them via the chain battle thing

 

[GaileOxstain]

I've been giving these FrankenFossils a hard look, and I think the new item "Blunder Policy" may have been made with them in mind to mitigate the speed issues with their signature moves Beak Bolt and Fishious Rend. Blunder Policy increases the holder's speed two stages when one of its attacks miss. With that factored in, we might still have something to work with.

Ability: Strong Jaw
Item: Blunder Policy
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
EV's: (HP 4) (Attack 252) (Speed 252)
Fishious Rend
Dragon Rush
Psychic Fangs
Crunch

Fishious Rend for general use. If you run across a faster opponent then switch to Dragon Rush. If it hits, good for you, you just hit for strong damage. If it misses, Blunder Policy activates and you can go back to spamming Fishious Rend with twice the speed. With Strong Jaws as your ability you give Psychic Fangs and Crunch the equivalent of an STAB boost and act as more accurate coverage once Dragon Rush misses.

 

[Talpr0ne]

Apparently the name of Fishious Rend in Japanese (Gill Bite) and several other languages implies that it is a jaw move. If that were to be confirmed then that would make Strong Jaw sets a lot more viable and a realistic alternative to Sand Rush even after it's released.

 

[Marigold]

Apparently the name of Fishious Rend in Japanese (Gill Bite) and several other languages implies that it is a jaw move. If that were to be confirmed then that would make Strong Jaw sets a lot more viable and a realistic alternative to Sand Rush even after it's released.

I had my friends help with testing, and here are our findings. It would appear that, unless we're missing something, that Fishious Rend is Strong Jaw-Boosted. This is a legitimately terrifying find and if this gets verified and updated on Showdown, I will fix the original post to reflect this potential discovery.

 

[earl]

I had my friends help with testing, and here are our findings. It would appear that, unless we're missing something, that Fishious Rend is Strong Jaw-Boosted. This is a legitimately terrifying find and if this gets verified and updated on Showdown, I will fix the original post to reflect this potential discovery.

Our fish boy still can’t breath but at least he can 2HKO bulky resists now

 

[readytolose]

Dracovish already could 2HKO bulky resists thanks to the power of Fishious Rend, but with Strong Jaw boosting it too, it reaches all new levels of nutty. It hits almost the same raw damage numbers that Hustle Dracozolt does, but with no accuracy drop and a more spammable STAB type. Even if Fishious Rend doesn't get the boost, Choice Band Strong Jaw Dracovish's Fishious Rend still hits with a similar powerlevel as something like Jolly Life Orb Crawdaunt's Crabhammer, which is hefty and tough to switch into. Edit: it’s actually way stronger than that lol

252+ Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Dracovish Fishious Rend (85 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 144-171 (44.3 - 52.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
252+ Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Dracovish Fishious Rend (85 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dragapult: 168-198 (52.9 - 62.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Common offensive resists now aren't switching in more than once. And against defensive teams...

252+ Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Dracovish Fishious Rend (170 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Corsola-Galar: 255-301 (78.7 - 92.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Dracovish Fishious Rend (170 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Ferrothorn: 158-186 (44.8 - 52.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Dracovish Fishious Rend (170 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Toxapex: 141-167 (46.3 - 54.9%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

Even the most physically bulky resists possible take about 50% from a boosted Fishious Rend. Dracovish does get coverage for Ferrothorn and Toxapex, but with a bit of prior damage you might not even need to click anything but Fishious Rend. And of course if this was under Rain too, you could literally 2HKO anything that isn't either immune to Water or a bulky quad resistance. I think you get the idea. This mon will be fun as hell.

 

[Siggu]

A reference on how RIDICULOUS a boosted Strong Jaw Fishious Rend's damage is:

252+ Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Dracovish Fishious Rend (170 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 552-649 (161.8 - 190.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Dracovish Outrage vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mew: 259-306 (75.9 - 89.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

And keep in mind this - Outrage is the second strongest STAB move it has (okay, technically the third, as unboosted Strong Jaw Fishious Rend is in second) yet its damage range does not even reach half of Fishious Rend's. So how does it fare against the strongest coverage it has?

252+ Atk Choice Band Strong Jaw Dracovish Fishious Rend (170 BP) vs. 252 HP / 24 Def Ferrothorn: 213-252 (60.5 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Choice Band Dracovish Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 24 Def Ferrothorn: 226-266 (64.2 - 75.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

The matter is not that it can 2HKO Ferrothorn with a resisted move, but that a super-effective coverage move barely outdamages a boosted RESISTED Strong Jaw Fishious Rend. Unless it's looking for faster Pokémon, 4x super-effective damage or double water resists (or immunities), there is practically no reason to use anything that isn't Fishious Rend (which means that for a Scarf set, the moves would be Fishious Rend + whatever beats what is faster).

Hide

Dracovish @ Choice Band
Ability: Strong Jaw
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fishious Rend
- Psychic Fangs
- Ice Fang
- ?????

99% of the time you're going to click Fishious Rend because a neutral hit deals barely less damage as a doubly super effective move on slower targets. The only reasonable exceptions are Psychic Fangs (for Pex) and Ice Fang (for Dragons and Grass-types) as they also get a Strong Jaw boost which means around 20% more damage.

Of course, once you get to put this thing on rain, the pool of Pokémon that can take a rain-boosted 170 BP Strong Jaw Choice Band Adamant Fishious Rend is reduced to... Pokémon that are immune to Water. We're talking about things like being able to OHKO Slowbro.

Interestingly, Dracovish actually does not need Outrage. Fishious Rend will deal more damage even without the boost (and against the slow walls, Outrage needs super-effective damage to outdamage), and Ice Fang deals more damage to Grass and Dragon-types. So it's your pick...

PS: A single Rain-boosted, first-turn boosted, Strong Jaw Fishious Rend has more BP than three Outrages.

THREE. Outrages.

 

[zferolie]

So strong jaw boosts rend. That is absolutely terrifying. Those numbers i am seeing are insane. And it seems to have some solid coverage with ice fangs and psychic fangs to cover bulky grass and bulky water types. Plus psychic fangs removing screens is a bug plus. Rounding out with a crunch and a life orb or heck i bet you could even get away with a muscle band. You dont have a dragon stab move but do you really even need it?

 

[Magcargo]

So in addition to Fishious Rend being boosted by Strong Jaws, its also been discovered that the move's power is still doubled when the opponent switches out.

This mon is seriously looking better and better every moment.

 

[lydian]

So in addition to Fishious Rend being boosted by Strong Jaws, its also been discovered that the move's power is still doubled when the opponent switches out.

This mon is seriously looking better and better every moment.

that's really really good news!! cant wait to try this boy in ps once the mechanic is implemented!!

thanks for sharing the info ofc :)

 

[TURBODERP]

So in addition to Fishious Rend being boosted by Strong Jaws, its also been discovered that the move's power is still doubled when the opponent switches out.

This mon is seriously looking better and better every moment.

Wait, so it's different from Bolt Beak in that regard, or Bolt Beak also works like that and needs to be changed?

This thing also wrecks on Trick Room I bet. Even outside of Trick Room and Sand, pairing it with Glare support is good enough. Hell, I bet a fat Water Absorb set that runs this along with some Glare/T-wave support will have solid defensive utility, even as a check to the Banded Strong Jaw Dracovish.

 

[Magcargo]

Wait, so it's different from Bolt Beak in that regard, or Bolt Beak also works like that and needs to be changed?

This thing also wrecks on Trick Room I bet. Even outside of Trick Room and Sand, pairing it with Glare support is good enough. Hell, I bet a fat Water Absorb set that runs this along with some Glare/T-wave support will have solid defensive utility, even as a check to the Banded Strong Jaw Dracovish.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1197686299995471877

To clarify, its been discovered that Bolt Beak doubles in base power when the opponent switches out. Its very likely that this still applies to Fishious Rend, though confirmation required, of course.

 

[sudzoof]

So in addition to Fishious Rend being boosted by Strong Jaws, its also been discovered that the move's power is still doubled when the opponent switches out.

This mon is seriously looking better and better every moment.

If this is true
there's pretty much no wall other than ferrothorn that can reliably switch in and tank 2 hits of fishious rend
this mon is going to be a stupidly good wallbreaker
add rain to the equation and stall is going to have no answers to this mon

 

[MrHands]

add rain to the equation and stall is going to have no answers to this mon

Water Absorb Quagsire is back baby

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Water Absorb Quagsire is back baby

Alternatively, Freeze Dry Lapras.

 

[Siggu]

The huge amount of boosts Fishious Rend gets interestingly means that Dynamaxing will make Dracovish weaker.

 

[furyofyuriy]

I'm new to SW/SH but is there a way to get hidden abilities yet? I remember Sun and Moon I think you could get them via the chain battle thing

You can acquire Hidden Abilities through Max Raid Battles, although you can just as easily get the regular abilities from there as well. However, legendaries, Starters, and Fossils cannot he obtained as of yet.

 

[GaileOxstain]

The huge amount of boosts Fishious Rend gets interestingly means that Dynamaxing will make Dracovish weaker.

Agreed. Dracozolt at least gets D-Max Flying and Fighting (And even Electric for Electric Terrain), so there's at least some strategic gain from D-Maxing even if Beak Bolt's power is compromised temporarily. Dracovish on the other hand gets no such options, and is better of just wrecking everything with its monstrous maw.

 

[MrHands]

Fishious Rend has 255 base power and that isn't even including STAB or Band rofl, and it can be further boosted with rain.

That's so insane that I could feasibly see this just running Choice Scarf on Rain teams to violently clean up late game. Or band if you want to strip 100% off a Ferrothorn with a +0 resisted move.

Of course if sand rush is released that also will be crazy. This pokemon has so much wall breaking potential. It's bulky too so even against offense it should easily tank a hit or two.

 

[earl]

Fishious Rend has 255 base power and that isn't even including STAB or Band rofl, and it can be further boosted with rain.

That's so insane that I could feasibly see this just running Choice Scarf on Rain teams to violently clean up late game. Or band if you want to strip 100% off a Ferrothorn with a +0 resisted move.

Of course if sand rush is released that also will be crazy. This pokemon has so much wall breaking potential. It's bulky too so even against offense it should easily tank a hit or two.

I feel like Strong Jaw is the better ability even when sand rush is released- while Dracovish will admittedly decimate offense under sand and offer some rain counterplay, it will probably lack the power to break defensive cores. It comes down to preference I guess, but the nuclear potential of strong jaw is just too damn appealing

 

[Colonel M]

Just for those wondering, Strong Jaw now boosts Fishous Rend on Showdown! We're just waiting for our boy to get the boost when opponents switch into it.

Love reacts only if you relate to Dracovish and loved it Day 1.

 

[GMars]

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8ou-1014824202

Switching is live folks (252 HP Ferrothorn, 252 HP and 252+ Speed Silvally-Grass to check if switch boost against faster mons also applies on showdown)

Here comes the Vish

 

[lydian]

SS OU Viability Rankings

S Rank

- Dracovish

F Rank

Literally anything else

Thanks for coming to my TED talk