Type: Grass / Dragon
Abilities: Supersweet Syrup / Regenerator | Sticky Hold (HA)
Stats
HP: 106
Attack: 80
Defense: 110
Special Attack: 120
Special Defense: 80
Speed: 44
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Notable STAB moves:
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Pulse
- Energy Ball
- Fickle Beam
- Giga Drain
- Grass Knot
- Leaf Storm
- Solar Beam
Notable coverage moves:
- Body Press
- Earth Power
- Earthquake
- Gyro Ball
- Heavy Slam
- Hydro Pump
Notable utility moves:
- Dragon Tail
- Infestation
- Recover
- Reflect
Notable setup moves:
- Nasty Plot
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Pros and Cons:
+ Super Tanky: Well-rounded bulk, a bevy of resistances, and Regenerator help Hydrapple fire off its strong attacks even after it takes them itself.
+ Great Longevity: Between Regenerator, Giga Drain, and even access to Recover, Hydrapple is more difficult than most Pokemon to wear down, especially in a format without Heavy-Duty Boots.
+ Useful Type Resistances: Hydrapple's defensive typing helps it switch in against threats like Excadrill, Rotom-Wash, and Samurott-Hisui before threatening them out.
+ Solid Offensive Coverage: Hydrapple's STAB moves and Earth Power hit most of the tier for neutral damage, and its STAB combination enhances it as a wallbreaker against defensive Pokemon like Tyranitar, Hippowdon, and Mega Slowbro.
- Terrible Speed: Hydrapple will be moving second against most Pokemon in the metagame, and it even requires Speed investment just to outspeed slow Pokemon like Azumarill.
- Major Type Weaknesses: A painful 4x weakness to Ice is just one of Hydrapple's many type weaknesses, and it possesses some very challenging ones to Dragon, Fairy, and Flying.
- Item Cuts: Hydrapple relied on Heavy-Duty Boots to bolster its longevity or Choice Specs to uplift its power, and losing access to both reduced its capabilities as a defensive pivot and wallbreaker, respectively.
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Potential Sets
Nasty Plot
Hydrapple @ Leftovers / Haban Berry / Roseli Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD OR 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Modest / Bold Nature
- Nasty Plot
- Fickle Beam / Draco Meteor
- Giga Drain
- Earth Power
Without Choice Specs as an option, Hydrapple is pretty much free to go all-in on its Nasty Plot set. Although there's two variations of such a set between a bulkier one and a more offensive one, they're generally running the same moves and doing the same thing. Fickle Beam's lack of drawback compared to Draco Meteor can be especially good for blowing through Grass-resistant targets and slower teams, but the extra power of Draco Meteor matches Hydrapple's wallbreaking prowess, and the Special Attack debuffs are often mitigated in Hydrapple's role as a hit-and-run defensive pivot. Earth Power is critical coverage for Hydrapple to hit Steel-types. With Item Clause in this format and a limited number of viable items available, Hydrapple can tap into its recovery to give up on Leftovers and run a type-resist Berry instead.
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Potential teammates
Galarian Slowking: The duo of Hydrapple and Galarian Slowking can form a Regenerator core. Hydrapple intercepts Ground-types for Galarian Slowking, while Galarian Slowking returns the favor by pressuring Fairy-types.
Steel-types: Hydrapple is great at switching into Ground-type moves directed at Excadrill and other Steel-types. Their abilities to answer threats to Hydrapple, such as Galarian Slowking and Unaware Clefable, is much appreciated.
Fire-types: Aside from their ability to threaten Ice-types for Hydrapple, most Fire-types can pair nicely with it thanks to Hydrapple's aptitude for answering Rotom-Wash, pressuring steel birds and Scizor formes, and switching into Ground-type attacks.
Other Pivots: Thanks to Hydrapple's solid role as a defensive pivot, it pairs readily into cores with other pivots.
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Checks and Counters
Fairy-types: Clefable has Unaware to ignore Hydrapple's Nasty Plot boosts, and its Mega Evolution's secondary typing grants it a resistance to Hydrapple's other STAB type and immunity to its common coverage move, Earth Power. Both Mega Altaria and Mega Meganium can also comfortably wall Hydrapple, though they'd prefer to Mega Evolve before switching into its attacks. Gardevoir can use Trace to pivot into Hydrapple more comfortably and proceed to use Psychic Noise to shut down Giga Drain. Primarina and Hatterene can be similarly disruptive with Psychic Noise, but the former fears Grass-type attacks generally and the latter doesn't outspeed Hydrapple.
Scizor Formes: Renewed access to Roost already makes Scizor even more of a pain for Hydrapple to beat on its own, but now its Mega returns to give Hydrapple an even worse time. Scizor's formes can turn Hydrapple into a free opportunity to switch in and gain momentum with U-turn.
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Flying-types: Corvisquire and Skarmory resist all of Hydrapple's relevant attacking moves, although they have to be careful of Earth Power hitting them as they use Roost. Offensive Flying-types like Mega Aerodactyl can threaten to deal major damage to Hydrapple, but they generally don't switch into all of its attacks that safely.
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Ice-type Attacks: Ice-types like Mamoswine, Weavile, and Mega Froslass can blow through Hydrapple's bulk with their 4x effective STAB moves, but most won't be switching in very safely against its powerful attacks. The same applies to most Pokemon that carry Ice-type coverage moves.
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Dragon-types: Although they take neutral damage from Dragon-type moves and are weak to Earth Power, Hisuian Goodra and Archaludon both have the bulk to tank a strong attack from Hydrapple and hit it back harder. Frailer Dragon-types like Dragapult don't really want to switch into Hydrapple themselves, but they can threaten it with their STAB attacks and superior speed tiers.
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Hydrapple has yet to worm its way into SV OU, but the more restricted dex of Champions looks like it will be a lot sweeter to it. Being a secure defensive pivot against classically OU Pokemon like Excadrill and Rotom-W is going to help make Hydrapple more of a monster in this format.