Pokémon Dragapult

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talah

talah

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Dragapult
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Base Stats: 88 HP | 120 Atk | 75 Def | 100 SpA | 75 SpD | 142 Spe

Abilities: Clear Body | Infiltrator | Cursed Body (H)

Level Up Moves:
- [00] Dragon Darts
- [01] Dragon Darts
- [01] Dragon Breath
- [01] Sucker Punch
- [01] Astonish
- [01] Infestation
- [01] Quick Attack
- [01] Bite
- [06] Lock-On
- [12] Assurance
- [18] Hex
- [24] Agility
- [30] Double Hit
- [36] U-turn
- [42] Dragon Dance
- [48] Phantom Force
- [54] Take Down
- [63] Dragon Rush
- [70] Double-Edge
- [78] Last Resort

TMs:
- [TM06] Fly
- [TM08] Hyper Beam
- [TM09] Giga Impact
- [TM11] Solar Beam
- [TM14] Thunder Wave
- [TM17] Light Screen
- [TM18] Reflect
- [TM21] Rest
- [TM23] Thief
- [TM24] Snore
- [TM25] Protect
- [TM30] Steel Wing
- [TM31] Attract
- [TM37] Beat Up
- [TM38] Will-O-Wisp
- [TM39] Facade
- [TM40] Swift
- [TM41] Helping Hand
- [TM45] Dive
- [TM55] Brine
- [TM56] U-turn
- [TM58] Assurance
- [TM76] Round
- [TM77] Hex
- [TM78] Acrobatics
- [TM86] Phantom Force
- [TM99] Breaking Swipe

TRs:
- [TM01] Body Slam
- [TM02] Flamethrower
- [TM03] Hydro Pump
- [TM04] Surf
- [TM08] Thunderbolt
- [TM09] Thunder
- [TM12] Agility
- [TM15] Fire Blast
- [TM19] Tri Attack
- [TM20] Substitute
- [TM24] Outrage
- [TM26] Endure
- [TM27] Sleep Talk
- [TM29] Baton Pass
- [TM33] Shadow Ball
- [TM47] Dragon Claw
- [TM51] Dragon Dance
- [TM62] Dragon Pulse
- [TM83] Ally Switch
- [TM84] Scald
- [TM97] Psychic Fangs

Egg Moves:
- Curse
- Grudge
- Confuse Ray
- Double Team
- Disable
- Dragon Tail
- Sucker Punch

By tutor:
- Draco Meteor

Notable Moves:
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Darts
- Outrage
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Shadow Ball
- Hex
- Phantom Force
- U-turn
- Fire Blast
- Flamethrower
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Disable
- Thunder Wave
- Tri Attack
- Psychic Fangs
- Reflect
- Light Screen

New Moves:

Dragon Darts
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50(100 effective) BP
100% Accuracy
16 PP

The user attacks twice using Dreepy. If there are two targets, this move hits each target once.

Each attack has 50 BP, so a total of 100.

No added effects.

Pros:

- An expansive movepool, particularly on the special side, but usable enough on the physical side; with some utility and setup on top.
- Great offensive typing with good STABs to back it up.
- One of the naturally fastest Pokemon available in the Galar Dex.
- The best physical Dragon move in the game, and it's signature!

Cons:

- Its offensive stats, while by no means bad, are still unimpressive and leave something to be desired.
- Its physical movepool is pretty shallow outside of STAB moves.
- The above means that it might have to rely on its weaker SpA stat of 100 in order to make proper use of its movepool.
- No reliable recovery, which means it can't set up freely if running such a set.

Dynamaxing Potential:

- With access to Dragon Dance and its ability to force switches, Dragapult makes an overall decent candidate for Dynamaxing after a boost.
- Particularly, since its main physical ghost STAB on setup sets will be Phantom Force, Dynamaxing makes it faster at breaking/sweeping and harder to outplay.
- Despite this, there's probably going to be better candidates for the Dynamax in most battles; don't write it off completely though.

Potential Movesets:


Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Infiltrator / Cursed Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Shadow Ball
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- U-turn / Thunderbolt (/ Hydro Pump / Will-O-Wisp)

I believe this will be the best set for it in SwSh OU; with Dragapult's blazing Speed stat, it is able to afford a Modest nature, making the set a lot more potent than otherwise. The first 2 slots are definite locks, for obvious reasons. Draco Meteor is Dragapult's best special Dragon STAB by a decent margin, and can be used to do some serious damage to a lot of teams. This gen had a reduction in good Fairy types and Dragapult has coverage options for Steel types, making its Dragon STAB easier to click than most. Shadow Ball is Dragapult's bread and butter, being spammable, accurate, and decently strong. Fire coverage on the third slot is nigh mandatory for the bulkier Steel types that resist Draco Meteor or for OHKOing purposes, such as vs Ferrothorn or Excadrill. The last slot is, in my opinion, a toss-up between U-turn and Tbolt. U-turn is a nice catch all for stuff that you'd rather scout than click a move against, or maybe slightly wear a check down to the range of your other moves. Thunderbolt on the other hand could be useful for blowing through defensive checks that you otherwise don't do exactly great against, ie Toxapex and SpDef Mandibuzz. Any other option is significantly inferior and very niche; I included Hydro Pump and Wisp as examples of what you could use and technically they have a niche, but, meh. Infiltrator is probably the better ability, so you can snipe opponents through Substitutes and up your efficiency against Veil/Screens, although Cursed Body is actually an OK ability, so it will mainly come down to preference.

Dragapult @ Draco Plate / Spooky Plate / maybe Life Orb?
Ability: Cursed Body / Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Dragon Darts
- Phantom Force
- Disable / Substitute / Will-O-Wisp (/Psychic Fangs)

Dragapult is the first Dragon to have an actually really good Dragon STAB, which makes physical sets appealing. Unfortunately, as shown here, the lack of coverage and equally good Ghost STAB drags them down. Dance, Darts and Phantom Force are self explanatory; set-up, STAB, (sadly only) STAB. Phantom Force is...suboptimal, but also your only option. The last slot is kind of hard to pin down and will probably depend on preference. Disable could be good vs something that walls you due to healing moves, or maybe you wanna fuck over a Choice user; Sub makes you a better sweeper and ups setup opportunities; Wisp can make for some cool plays to open said opportunities up, or neutralize a threat. Lastly, Psychic Fangs should probably just never be used, but it can OHKO Toxapex with Life Orb after Rocks, so I guess it could happen? Highly don't recommend, though. As far as items go, Draco Plate makes Dragon Darts actually quite threatening, doing 70 min(!!) to Toxapex at +1(that's quite a bit). Spooky Plate is the same, more damage on Phantom Force. Orb could have some potential to make it a better cleaner but idk, I don't like the idea of recoil at all, especially on a mon like this. Cursed Body is probably the way to go here, can cheese some extra DDs or attacks out, though Infiltrator is still usable, I suppose.

Overall, I'm a big fan of this mon. I've had most fun and effectiveness with the Specs set and I consider it very much superior to the DD set, however the meta is still young, so who knows. It has the options to support itself, it'll be nice to see it evolve along with the tier.
 
Been using this and even topped the ladder at some point with it in conjunction with other broken set up sweepers
Dragapult @ Light Clay
Ability: Cursed Body
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Darts
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- U-turn

Edit: Just realized Cursed Body is a HA, Infiltrator is still decent if you wanna hit stuff behind subs or screens with Dragon Darts.
 
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I think mixed DD will be a very potent option as well. DD+Dragon Darts can sweep if steels and fairies are gone. Shadow Ball is a good STAB but "oomph" is lacking. I'm going to guess moving IVs from Atk and/or Spe to SpA will do the trick. Fire Blast deals out some great damage to quite a few steels. Psychic Fang is cool against sometihng like Toxapex but other than that I don't really like it.

Dragapult @ Life Orb
IVs: sometihng better can be used here but I've been using 252Atk/252Spd/4SpA
Naughty
-Dragon Dance
-Dragon Darts
-Shadow Ball
-Fire Blast

This thing would've been an utter broken beast if BP + DD was allowed. Unfortunately (but fortunately), it's banned.
 
Olijolly said:
I think mixed DD will be a very potent option as well. DD+Dragon Darts can sweep if steels and fairies are gone. Shadow Ball is a good STAB but "oomph" is lacking. I'm going to guess moving IVs from Atk and/or Spe to SpA will do the trick. Fire Blast deals out some great damage to quite a few steels. Psychic Fang is cool against sometihng like Toxapex but other than that I don't really like it.

Dragapult @ Life Orb
IVs: sometihng better can be used here but I've been using 252Atk/252Spd/4SpA
Naughty
-Dragon Dance
-Dragon Darts
-Shadow Ball
-Fire Blast

This thing would've been an utter broken beast if BP + DD was allowed. Unfortunately (but fortunately), it's banned.
Click to expand...

Would it be better to have 252 Sp. Atk because your Atk is getting boosted by Dragon Dance? Just to make the most out of your 2 special moves.
 
Revelation said:
Would it be better to have 252 Sp. Atk because your Atk is getting boosted by Dragon Dance? Just to make the most out of your 2 special moves.
Click to expand...

Could be. At this point, the meta is still very new and I'm having difficulty to find the "benchmark" pokemons to go up against to optimize EVs. I wouldn't be surprised though but I certainly felt like mixed DDPult (is this a thing? lmao) would've appreciated some SpA EV investment.

Mixed Lo Dragapult could be interesting with Dynamax in play. I was just thinking it could be similar to how MixMence was back in gen 4 even though completely different metas.
 
I think Clear Body has some merit, not that Intimidate is prominent in the meta or anything, but I faced some Sticky Web teams and Clear Body helped me against them a lot. Depends on how popular Sticky Web becomes.
 
I'm a big fan of this mon so far, as I'd hoped I would be. I've been using a specially oriented LO set as a late game cleaner in a bulky offense team with Aegislash and lots of hazards to weaken ghost resists/special walls. This thing's speed tier and typing makes cleaning/revenge killing a breeze and it's Dmax hard to stop. Feels a lot like Tapu Koko or Greninja, though without the nonsense those guys had.

I don't think Dragapult is going to rule the meta, but it's adaptable and effective with a niche that's somewhat hard to fill without a Choice Scarf, so I expect it to have a strong place in OU.
 
I wouldn't classify 120/100/142 offenses as unimpressive. If anything, they're overwhelming, since its Speed puts it at the very top of the Speed bracker and its Attack is more than acceptable for OHKOs/2HKOs. Not to mention that reliable, effectively 100BP physical Dragon-type move.

It's definitely an unusual Pokemon though. Phantom Force is kind of unreliable as a coverage STAB move, so Steel-types and Fairy-types won't have too much trouble checking its physical sets. Special and Mixed sets will be trickier to deal with though, but because it's running off that weaker 100 SpA so it won't be too scary. Still, I definitely wouldn't underestimate this Pokemon. Its versatility can cost people games because letting this set up in the late-game or mispredicting and having it wallbreak a key Pokemon will let it clean up. Its durability is notably nowhere near as bad as other super fast Pokemon.
 
Dragapult @ Life Orb
Hasty / Naive Nature
Ability: Infiltrator / Clear Body
EVs: 48 Atk / 204 SpA / 252 Spe
- U-turn / Shadow Ball
- Dragon Darts
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Blast

This set acts as a pretty solid wallbreaker. Dragapult's Speed tier is absolutely fantastic and Dragon Darts is an amazing move. Its mixed movepool is excellent and it can clean up pretty solidly lategame.

EDIT: I changed the set ever so slightly so it can balance break a little better. 204 SpA lets it always OHKO Ferrothorn after Stealth Rock damage and gives it a very high chance of OHKOing it outright while guaranteeing the 2HKO on PhysDef Toxapex after Rocks. Korea/JP have allegedly been using this set a whole bunch and its ability to hit as hard as it does really shows. Shadow Ball can be run over U-turn to break the unholy trifecta of Galarian Corsola+Toxapex+Ferrothorn.
 
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This is imo the best way to run a physical draga:

Dragapult @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Substitute
- Phantom Force

It kinda works like a Z-bounce Gyara would in that it can Dynamax so it doesn't have the drawback from Outrage and Phantom Force.
Heavy-Duy Boots prevent it from being too worn down.
 
Shmirko said:
This is imo the best way to run a physical draga:

Dragapult @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Substitute
- Phantom Force

It kinda works like a Z-bounce Gyara would in that it can Dynamax so it doesn't have the drawback from Outrage and Phantom Force.
Heavy-Duy Boots prevent it from being too worn down.
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Boots seems like a strange choice for a max wallbreaker. I'd personally run LO. I'd only consider Boots for a pivot set.
 
Man Dragapult is looking to be a super fun Pokemon. It's definitely one of the coolest pseudo-legendaries out there and I love this thing's stat spread and movepool, it's looking to be a great and versatile Pokemon to use.

I've tried a DD set with Darts, Phantom Force, and Psychic Fangs with Dynamax and it works really well. With a boost then Dmax it straight up nukes Toxapex and Hippowdon (the latter is cleanly 2HKOed by Max Phantom Force) and it sweeps really nicely late game. It also functions very well as a revenge killer thanks to its stupidly high speed to pick some Pokemon off with Dragon Darts (which hits really hard from Dragapult) and it's super neat.

Its Special set looks great, and it can function fantastically as a revenge killer thanks to its awesome coverage on that front and luring in Ferrothorn and Bisharp. Banded Dragapult as Cherub mentioned above me has great potential to be a strong wallbreaker and rker with a strong Dragon Darts and a fast and strong U-turn to keep momentum.

Not to mention its Ghost typing gives it the ability to spin block which helps it against Excadrill who try to spin hazards away. Clear Body is a neat ability too.

This mon is just so fun to use. Maybe it won't be broken, but it's definitely gonna be a great Pokemon in standard and it has a hell of a lot going for it.
 
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I'd like to say dragapult's DD is underrated. Hell, I'd like to say dragapult, as a whole, is underrated at this point. It's not like some sweeper (i.e. Gyarados) that's going to be a DD sweeper with some variation. Dragapult is insanely versatile with great sets, ranging from DD, mixed DD, mixed LO, specs, band, etc. In particular, Id like to say that due to its amazing offensive stats, mainly its ridiculous speed, every set can be a revenge killer and a spin blocker lol. I'd also like to say phantom force is highly underrated and can be really useful especially late game. I've mainly been using the DD sets, mostly mixed, with dragon darts, fire blast, and shadow ball or phantom force and this is a amazing. Dragon Darts is such an amazing move. I've not used the DD set with darts, phantom force, and psychic fangs with Dynamax though as scrafty mentioned. I should try that.

update: Holy hell specs, mixed DD, and mixed LO are amazing. Just these alone can really mess up enemy team as it can clean late-game and revenge kill really well. These are also some of the absolute best offensive pivot in the game. This thing is absolutely absurd. It somewhat reminds me of gen-4 mence. It's sheer versatility is amazing. Physical is alright and phantom force is far better than I expected with such high speed. But I think specs and mixed set especially are the true winners here. dragon dart on mixed LO or mixed DD is stupidly good for late-game sweep also. The thing is so goddamn spammable on such a splash able mon.
 
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I'm honestly liking AM pult the most right now. It is quite unexpected since they all seem to be either DD or specs. It works along side balance and semi-stall quite well. I changed the EVs and Nature, Timid Nature with 160 Speed is faster than Timid Gengar, which I believe will be a huge threat this gen (Modest 252 Speed hits 383, which results in a speed tie with Weavile), 76 140 HP EVs give make health a lefties number, the rest is in Special Defense because why not. You could run more speed for Adamant Gyarados and Drill at +1 (run Jolly) And as AM said, the set is at its best with T-spikes from Toxapex.
Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 140 HP / 244 SpA / 124 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn
- Draco Meteor

Specs is quite decent as well. Again, I prefer Timid for Gengar and shit like that. I have yet to try out DD or band, but I don't think they will be as good as specs and utility. Mixed sets seem ok. ban d-max

EDIT: Thank you jfowls for correcting me!
 
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TheDraugr said:
I'm honestly liking AM pult the most right now. It is quite unexpected since they all seem to be either DD or specs. It works along side balance and semi-stall quite well. I changed the EVs and Nature, Timid Nature with 160 Speed is faster than Timid Gengar, which I believe will be a huge threat this gen (Modest 252 Speed hits 383, which results in a speed tie with Weavile), 76 HP EVs give make health a lefties number, the rest is in Special Defense because why not. You could run more speed for Adamant Gyarados and Drill at +1 (run Jolly) And as AM said, the set is at its best with T-spikes from Toxapex.
Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 76 HP / 252 SpA / 20 SpD / 160 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn
- Draco Meteor

Specs is quite decent as well. Again, I prefer Timid for Gengar and shit like that. I have yet to try out DD or band, but I don't think they will be as good as specs and utility. Mixed sets seem ok. ban d-max
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Just pointing out that a Timid Dragapult outspeeds Gengar without any investment at level 100, so if that’s all you’re trying to creep you don’t need that much invested in speed. You could even run a Modest nature with 124 speed evs, which increases damage output, still outspeeds Gengar, and allows you to invest more in HP/SpD
 
jfowls said:
Just pointing out that a Timid Dragapult outspeeds Gengar without any investment at level 100, so if that’s all you’re trying to creep you don’t need that much invested in speed. You could even run a
Modest nature with 124 speed evs, which increases damage output, still outspeeds Gengar, and allows you to invest more in HP/SpD
Click to expand...

For some reason I thought Gengar had base 130 speed lmao. Though you still ought to run enough speed for Weavile imo if you don't have solid switch-ins. Thank you for correcting me!
Dragapult @ Leftovers
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 140 HP / 244 SpA / 124 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hex
- Will-O-Wisp
- U-turn
- Draco Meteor
If anyone can find a better spread please let us know :) You could run 208 Speed with 76 HP for both lefties for adamant Barraskewda (great mon btw) outside of rain
 
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TheDraugr said:
For some reason I thought Gengar had base 130 speed lmao. Though you still ought to run enough speed for Weavile imo if you don't have solid switch-ins. Thank you for correcting me:)
Click to expand...
Yeah after I was playing around with it some more, I realized you were probably just thinking of Mega Gengar haha. I agree on the Weavile point, it would be nice to get a wisp off on it as a last resort or be able to U-turn on it even though you’ll need to watch out for ice shard. Thanks for bringing this set to my attention, I would’ve missed it otherwise and I’m excited to play around with it!
 
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