Drapion - is this thing workable?

Medi Guy

Drapion #452



Abilities
Battle Armor: Negate critical hits.
Sniper: Critical hits deal 4x damage.

Stats
HP 70
Atk 90
Def 110
Spd 95
SpA 60
SpD 75

So it's somewhat quick (faster than Heracross!) and has good defense, but meh everything else. Its stats total to 500, which is hardly bad, although 60 of them are sunk into its worthless SpA.

Notable Physical Attacks (STAB in bold)
Aerial Ace
Brick Break
Cross Poison
Crunch
Earthquake
Fire Fang
Ice Fang
Iron Tail
Night Slash
Payback
Poison Jab
Pursuit
Rock Slide
Thunder Fang
X-Scissor

Big movepool, with decent options from Poison, Dark, Ground, and Bug. Notably missing Close Combat and Stone Edge, but at least it has Brick Break! =/

Notable Special Attacks
Nothing to really justify using its base 60 special attack here.

Notable Support Moves
Acupressure
Agility
Confuse Ray
Knock Off
Poison Spikes
Substitute
Swords Dance
Taunt
Whirlwind

Acupressure looks interesting, but when it has both Swords Dance and Agility I'm not sure why you would need it. Knock Off is a cool move, and it's one of the few Pokemon to get Poison Spikes.

Weaknesses and Resistances
x2 Ground
x.5 Grass, Poison, Ghost, Dark
x0 Psychic

So, it trades a weakness to a common physical type for a boatload of resistances to uncommon types.

Sets

Poison Spiker
Drapion @ Toxic Sludge
Impish (+Def, -SpA) 176 HP / 156 Def / 176 Spd
-Poison Spikes
-Knock Off
-Poison Stab/Cross Poison
-Whirlwind

Shamelessly stolen from ADH, this set outspeeds Adamant Heracross and Knocks Off its Choice Band, allowing it to be more manageable to Poison Spikes teams. Poison Jab has 10 more base power than Cross Poison, but Cross Poison has a high critical hit ratio, which could be helpful with Sniper.

CBer
Drapion @ Choice Band
-Night Slash
-Earthquake
-Aerial Ace
-Pursuit
Whee, Choice Band! We've all seen it before, folks. STAB Night Slash can hurt things, especially with a Sniper Critical Hit (33%!) Aerial Ace has the disadvantage of being a crappy move, but the advantage of hitting pretty much everything SE that both Night Slash and EQ hit NVE. It also OHKOes Heracross and Breloom. Unfortunately, 90/95 attack/speed aren't really enough to do it. Drapion fills the niche of a quick CBer who can take physical hits, but it's a pretty small niche to fill.

An SD set would also be possible, but it isn't really worthwhile, as 90 attack/95 speed really isn't good enough to do something like that.

So, what do you think? Does Drapion have a place in OU?
 
Aerial Ace over Poison Stab on the Poison Spiker. If you outspeed Heracross, why not just kill it? Okay, it's impossible for it to have a guarenteed OHKO, but even from min Atk, Aerial Ace is a 2HKO. If you're knocking off CB, why not just kill it? Knock Off is still just useful, so that's why I choose to remove Poison Stab.
 
It's a shame that with it's extremely good defensive typing and moves, it's defensive stats aren't that great. I like the toxic spiker set-- knock off is cool when offensive pokemon rely so much on choice band/specs and defensive ones rely on lefties.

It might not make OU because there are too many pokemon that can simply sweep it with nuetral attacks or have EQ.
 
Aerial Ace leaves you with no STAB move at all. Drapion's sole job isn't to kill Heracross, Knock Offing it is just a bonus.
 
Seeing as how its the only decently good toxic spiker, I'll expect him to be used as that (or maybe Tentacruel?).
Knock off and Taunt really help out too.

A point about the defense, its amazing. With only one obvious weakness (EQ) he can take at least two physical hits from pretty much anything and has enough speed to outrun and knock off. And should you feel the EQ, it's just too easy to pass off to a flier or levitator (and he's done his job with the spikes).
 
For the first set, I'd rely on a Stealth Rocker for Roar/Whirlwind and replace that move with Aerial Ace. That's what my Drapion will have. Toxic Spikes should lure Heracross in for the kill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top