[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 2-3 Points
**Overview**: Drednaw can work as a surprise offensive threat on teams that need a cheap wallbreaker and potential wincon. Drednaw can be a setup sweeper with Shell Smash, a wallbreaker with its decent coverage and Strong Jaw, and even a cleaner on rain teams thanks to Swift Swim. However, Drednaw is held back by its mediocre Speed and terrible offensive and defensive typing. It can easily be taken advantage of by the many physically defensive Pokemon that wall it, even after a Shell Smash boost, and it struggles taking any hits from revenge killers. On rain teams, it is heavily outclassed by many other more powerful Water-types.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
=========
**Setup Sweeper**: With its decent coverage, Drednaw can be used as a Shell Smash sweeper to clean weakened teams and break through specific foes early-game to enable its teammates. However, Shell Smash is extremely hard to set up due to Drednaw's bad defensive typing and average defensive stats.
**Wallbreaker**: Drednaw can use a Choice Band to serve as a decently strong wallbreaker that can be difficult to switch into. Alternatively, Drednaw can use a Choice Scarf to boost its middling Speed and gain surprise KOs. Mystic Water, Expert Belt, and Life Orb can also be useful.
**Rain Sweeper**: Thanks to Swift Swim and rain-boosted attacks, Drednaw can serve as an additional rain sweeper. With the Speed boost, Drednaw can opt to use Swords Dance over Shell Smash to set up more easily.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Liquidation, Stone Edge, Rock Blast, Head Smash
**Setup Moves**: Shell Smash, Iron Defense
**Utility Moves:** Stealth Rock, Dragon Tail, Substitute
**Coverage**: Crunch, Body Press, Earthquake, Ice Spinner, Ice Fang, Poison Jab, Smart Strike, Skitter Smack, Tera Blast
Niche Moves
========
**Super Fang**. Super Fang can be used to weaken threats that wall Drednaw.
Common Items
========
**White Herb**: White Herb removes the drawbacks of Shell Smash, making it more difficult for opposing Pokemon to revenge-kill Drednaw.
**Choice Band**: Choice Band allows Drednaw to provide its team some helpful wallbreaking power. This is especially good on rain teams.
**Choice Scarf**: Choice Scarf provides Speed for Drednaw, allowing it suprise some threats.
Niche Items
========
**Focus Sash**: Focus Sash can be used on lead sets to set Stealth Rocks. It also is useful on Shell Smash sets, providing a free turn to set up.
**Damage-boosting Items**: Items such as Mystic Water, Expert Belt, and Life Orb can boost Drednaw's wallbreaking powers. These items work best on rain team since Speed is not as large of an issue.
**Mental Herb**: Mental Herb can prevent faster Pokemon from using Taunt on Drednaw to deny the use of status moves including Shell Smash.
**Lum Berry**: Since burn and paralysis cripple Drednaw's ability to sweep, Lum Berry is useful to enable Shell Smash.
Tera
========
Drednaw can be a nice secondary user of Tera, although this can be costly due to its hit or miss sweeping potential. Tera Flying allows Drednaw to dodge Ground-type attacks while providing Tera Blast Flying coverage for Grass-type threats. Tera Water can be used to boost Drednaw's Water-type attacks. This is especially potent on rain team sets. Drednaw can also use Tera Dark, Ice, and Ground to boost coverage such as Crunch, Ice Fang, and Earthquake. Tera Fairy can be used with Tera Blast to provide Drednaw coverage too.
Draft Strategy
========
Drednaw can be a decent addition for teams needing an additional offensive threat with Stealth Rock utility, but it is heavily outclassed by many other Pokemon that can do its roles better, some being similarly-priced.
**Entry-hazard Setters**: Drednaw appreciates entry-hazards in order to break past bulkier threats, so teammates such as Metagross, Landorus-T, and Iron Treads are useful.
**Pivots:** Drednaw struggles taking hits, so slow pivots that provide it a free switch-in such as Galarian Slowking, Corviknight, and Alomomola and fast pivots that force switches such as Meowscarada and Cinderace are appreciated.
**Special Sweepers:** Physically bulky walls are near impossible for Drednaw to break past. Thus, special sweepers that can beat its checks such as Raging Bolt and Gholdengo are valued.
Checks and Counters
========
**Physically Bulky Walls**: Due to its just above average Attack, Drednaw gets easily walled by many physical walls, even after a Shell Smash. Many foes, even ones that aren't necessarily physically bulky like Zarude and Urshifu-R, can safely switch in and KO it, while slow pivots like Alomomola and Corviknight can tank a hit and pivot to an appropriate answer.
**Revenge Killers / Priority**: Drednaw is prone to being revenge killed by priority due to its lack of recovery and Shell Smash Defense drops, especially from Rillaboom's Grassy Glide and Iron Valiant and Keldeo's Vacuum Wave. Even after a Shell Smash, fast threats such as Booster Energy Iron Valiant and Choice Scarf Meowscarada outspeed and KO Drednaw.
**Taunt / Encore:** Drednaw is an underwhelming Pokemon without a Shell Smash boost, so any Pokemon that can prevent Shell Smash with Taunt or Encore greatly limit Drednaw.
**Status:** Status conditions such as burn and paralysis easily stop Drednaw in its tracks and render a Shell Smash boost useless.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/anchor9.652323/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/e-man.617175/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
**Draft Order**: Round 8
**Price Range**: 2-3 Points
**Overview**: Drednaw can work as a surprise offensive threat on teams that need a cheap wallbreaker and potential wincon. Drednaw can be a setup sweeper with Shell Smash, a wallbreaker with its decent coverage and Strong Jaw, and even a cleaner on rain teams thanks to Swift Swim. However, Drednaw is held back by its mediocre Speed and terrible offensive and defensive typing. It can easily be taken advantage of by the many physically defensive Pokemon that wall it, even after a Shell Smash boost, and it struggles taking any hits from revenge killers. On rain teams, it is heavily outclassed by many other more powerful Water-types.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
=========
**Setup Sweeper**: With its decent coverage, Drednaw can be used as a Shell Smash sweeper to clean weakened teams and break through specific foes early-game to enable its teammates. However, Shell Smash is extremely hard to set up due to Drednaw's bad defensive typing and average defensive stats.
**Wallbreaker**: Drednaw can use a Choice Band to serve as a decently strong wallbreaker that can be difficult to switch into. Alternatively, Drednaw can use a Choice Scarf to boost its middling Speed and gain surprise KOs. Mystic Water, Expert Belt, and Life Orb can also be useful.
**Rain Sweeper**: Thanks to Swift Swim and rain-boosted attacks, Drednaw can serve as an additional rain sweeper. With the Speed boost, Drednaw can opt to use Swords Dance over Shell Smash to set up more easily.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Liquidation, Stone Edge, Rock Blast, Head Smash
**Setup Moves**: Shell Smash, Iron Defense
**Utility Moves:** Stealth Rock, Dragon Tail, Substitute
**Coverage**: Crunch, Body Press, Earthquake, Ice Spinner, Ice Fang, Poison Jab, Smart Strike, Skitter Smack, Tera Blast
Niche Moves
========
**Super Fang**. Super Fang can be used to weaken threats that wall Drednaw.
Common Items
========
**White Herb**: White Herb removes the drawbacks of Shell Smash, making it more difficult for opposing Pokemon to revenge-kill Drednaw.
**Choice Band**: Choice Band allows Drednaw to provide its team some helpful wallbreaking power. This is especially good on rain teams.
**Choice Scarf**: Choice Scarf provides Speed for Drednaw, allowing it suprise some threats.
Niche Items
========
**Focus Sash**: Focus Sash can be used on lead sets to set Stealth Rocks. It also is useful on Shell Smash sets, providing a free turn to set up.
**Damage-boosting Items**: Items such as Mystic Water, Expert Belt, and Life Orb can boost Drednaw's wallbreaking powers. These items work best on rain team since Speed is not as large of an issue.
**Mental Herb**: Mental Herb can prevent faster Pokemon from using Taunt on Drednaw to deny the use of status moves including Shell Smash.
**Lum Berry**: Since burn and paralysis cripple Drednaw's ability to sweep, Lum Berry is useful to enable Shell Smash.
Tera
========
Drednaw can be a nice secondary user of Tera, although this can be costly due to its hit or miss sweeping potential. Tera Flying allows Drednaw to dodge Ground-type attacks while providing Tera Blast Flying coverage for Grass-type threats. Tera Water can be used to boost Drednaw's Water-type attacks. This is especially potent on rain team sets. Drednaw can also use Tera Dark, Ice, and Ground to boost coverage such as Crunch, Ice Fang, and Earthquake. Tera Fairy can be used with Tera Blast to provide Drednaw coverage too.
Draft Strategy
========
Drednaw can be a decent addition for teams needing an additional offensive threat with Stealth Rock utility, but it is heavily outclassed by many other Pokemon that can do its roles better, some being similarly-priced.
**Entry-hazard Setters**: Drednaw appreciates entry-hazards in order to break past bulkier threats, so teammates such as Metagross, Landorus-T, and Iron Treads are useful.
**Pivots:** Drednaw struggles taking hits, so slow pivots that provide it a free switch-in such as Galarian Slowking, Corviknight, and Alomomola and fast pivots that force switches such as Meowscarada and Cinderace are appreciated.
**Special Sweepers:** Physically bulky walls are near impossible for Drednaw to break past. Thus, special sweepers that can beat its checks such as Raging Bolt and Gholdengo are valued.
Checks and Counters
========
**Physically Bulky Walls**: Due to its just above average Attack, Drednaw gets easily walled by many physical walls, even after a Shell Smash. Many foes, even ones that aren't necessarily physically bulky like Zarude and Urshifu-R, can safely switch in and KO it, while slow pivots like Alomomola and Corviknight can tank a hit and pivot to an appropriate answer.
**Revenge Killers / Priority**: Drednaw is prone to being revenge killed by priority due to its lack of recovery and Shell Smash Defense drops, especially from Rillaboom's Grassy Glide and Iron Valiant and Keldeo's Vacuum Wave. Even after a Shell Smash, fast threats such as Booster Energy Iron Valiant and Choice Scarf Meowscarada outspeed and KO Drednaw.
**Taunt / Encore:** Drednaw is an underwhelming Pokemon without a Shell Smash boost, so any Pokemon that can prevent Shell Smash with Taunt or Encore greatly limit Drednaw.
**Status:** Status conditions such as burn and paralysis easily stop Drednaw in its tracks and render a Shell Smash boost useless.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/anchor9.652323/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/e-man.617175/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Grammar checked by:
Last edited:
