Dracozolt (QC 0/2)

[Ika Ika Musume]

[SET]
name: Assault Vest
move 1: Bolt Beak
move 2: Outrage / Dragon Claw
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Fire Fang / Low Kick
item: Assault Vest
ability: Volt Absorb / Hustle
nature: Adamant
evs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 76 SpD / 100 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Dracozolt's unique defensive typing and decent bulk allows it to become a decent Assault Vest user, specialising in taking on the Rotom-formes whilst still pressuring Corviknight and Gyarados. Bolt Beak, unique to Dracozolt and Arctozolt, hits Corviknight and slower pokemon very hard, compensating for Dracozolt's lack of offensive pressure without Hustle. Dragon Claw and Outrage hit Hydreigon and Dragapult whilst Earthquake can be used against Aegislash, Excadrill and Arcanine. The last move tends to be a toss up between Fire Fang and Low Kick, the former hitting Ferrothorn whilst the latter hitting a faster Tyranitar and giving attack boosts when Dynamaxed. The EV spread allows Dracozolt to live a scarf Draco Meteor from Dragapult most of the time and the speed investment outspeeds 4 speed Rotom-Formes.

Dracozolt works very well with pokemon that can take advantage of opposing ground types. Corviknight is Dracozolt's most prominent teammate as the two cover each others weaknesses well, becoming a strong defensive core. Rotom-Wash and Rotom-Cut also provide a decent check to Hippowdon, so also work well. Lastly, Dracozolt can cover up the electric weakness of Gyarados so the two pair well.


[SET]
name: Offensive Hustle
move 1: Bolt Beak
move 2: Dragon Claw / Outrage
move 3: Aerial Ace / Earthquake
move 4: Earthquake / Low Kick / Fire Fang
item: Life Orb / Choice Scarf / Choice Band
ability: Hustle
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

This set is a more offensive take on Dracozolt, using the Hustle ability to boost up Dracozolt's Bolt Beak power to absurd levels. The main difference with this set is the addition of Aerial Ace, which turns into Max Airstream when Dynamaxed, giving Dracozolt the speed boosts needed to power through after Dynamax with Hustle boosted Bolt Beaks. All the items mentioned help Dracozolt's sweeping potential by either increasing power or speed. Jolly nature with max speed is preferred to make Bolt Beak hit with doubled power versus the most possible targets. Make sure with this set to have a check to Hippowdon and other bulky Ground types which take on this set easily such as Rotom-Wash, Rotom-Cut and Corviknight. As well as this, Dracozolt works well with Excadrill and Gyarados who both appreciate its ability to threaten and break through bulky waters and Corviknight.

[SET]
name: Weakness policy
move 1: Bolt Beak
move 2: Dragon Claw / Outrage
move 3: Aerial Ace
move 4: Earthquake / Fire Fang / Flamethrower
item: Weakness Policy
ability: Hustle
nature: Adamant
evs: 252 HP / 84 Atk / 36 Def / 4 SpD / 132 Spe

This set takes advantage of the boosts provided by Weakness Policy when hit by a super effective move in order to sweep. The EVs allow you to live a Play Rough from Life Orb Jolly Mimikyu and activate Weakness Policy. Aerial Ace is mandatory on this set as the speed EVs will allow Dracozolt to outspeed Base 100s after a Max Airstream boost. The rest of the EVs are placed into attack. Generally the coverage on this set is pretty similar to other sets, but because of the weakness policy, Dracozolt can utilise some special options such as Flamethrower which at +2 still OHKOs Max HP Ferrothorn but is less likely to miss and does not active Iron Barbs.

 

[Theorymon]

Since you're back, no better time than now for me to check this!

So for the AV set, I'd rearange the moves a bit to something like this:

[SET]
name: Assault Vest
move 1: Bolt Beak
move 2: Outrage / Dragon Claw
move 3: Earthquake
move 4: Fire Fang / Low Kick
item: Assault Vest
ability: Volt Absorb
nature: Adamant
evs: 76 HP / 252 Atk / 76 SpD / 100 Spe

Basically, the reason why I think Earthquake should be alone is because it hits Excadrill MUCH harder than your other options, and its something people like to switch into Dracozolt quite a bit. I put Fire Fang as the option over Ferrothorn because of the extra damage to Ferrothorn and because it isn't ruined by Dynamax like Low Kick is, but Low Kick isn't bad, especially if you have to do an emergency Dynamax. I'm also not really sure you should mention Snorlax as a reason to use Low Kick, since Bolt Beak actually out damages it!

I think you need to go more indepth for the teammates too. Corviknight is probably the best teammate, but in general bulky Ground-types (mainly Hippowdon) and Excadrill are problems. Rotom-C and Rotom-W are pretty good responses to Hippowdon, and I think Gyarados offers good typing synergy with this Dracozolt as well, even if I wouldn't call it a surefire check to Excadrill lol.

Now for the offensive set! I think this also needs some rearranging.

[SET]
name: Offensive Hustle
move 1: Bolt Beak
move 2: Dragon Claw / Outrage
move 3: Pluck / Earthquake
move 4: Earthquake / Low Kick / Fire Fang
item: Life Orb / Choice Scarf / Choice Band
ability: Hustle
nature: Jolly
evs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

So I put Dragon Claw before Outrage because Dragon Claw is still a 130 BP Max Wyrmstorm, and is generally less risky than locking yourself in. I put Pluck over Aerial Ace because as situational as it is, you're much more likely to eat a berry with Pluck than get around evasion with Aerial Ace. I made Earthquake the primary last slash in to blast Excadrill, but Low Kick is damn good for getting offensive momentum vs slower mons via Attack boosts, and Fire Fang is of course your best option against Ferrothorn.

I think you also need to go into more detail for the teammates, with Hippowdon being the biggest focus on dealing with. Most of the teammates that worked for the above set will work here, so you can mention them again, despite the lack of Volt Absorb getting you better momentum vs Rotom formes.

Finally, since we're laxing the stricter amount of movesets on previews, feel free to split the choice sets if you want. You don't have to do this right now (in fact, someone else can if you want to), but I do think in the future the Life Orb set with a focus on Max Airstream and choice sets probably need to be seperate.

 

[Ika Ika Musume]

Yea at the time Dracozolt was less of a thing so it was very much skimmed over, Ive updated this with some of what you have said, added a bit onto the offensive set beyond what you have mentioned. Ill probably split the LO/Choice sets later in that case.

 

[1_TrickPhony]

Assault Vest can and does also use Hustle, I would slash that in. You already arent taking anything even from specs Rotom, and Hustle allows you to gain more generalized breaking power.

 

[Ika Ika Musume]

Added, Volt Absorb is still the main slash due to it sapping momentum from Volt Switch

 

[1_TrickPhony]

Weakness Policy is a must have now. You can use the S2 #2 team as a baseline (also the spread I found for my other WP dracozolt team)

Also Aerial Ace > Pluck is really important, having a guaranteed hit, particularly on WP but also on the other offensive sets, is way more efficacious than sometimes hitting a berry off.

 

[Ika Ika Musume]

I'm unsure whether weakness policy is worth its own set, but I have written a preliminary one anyways.