I'd say having a ghost and steel pokemon on your team is mandatory for your Hydreigon to put in work. Gengar and Mega Metagross would be awesome partners in crime for this once great dragon. Also a pokemon with sticky web could help that rather mediocre speed go to the max.
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Pokémon Hydreigon
- Thread starter Dr Ciel
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Honestly, people keep talking about Sticky Web to help speed issues but I've never seen an effective Sticky Web team or even an effective team that so much as features Sticky Web. It really isn't needed. I'm sure the teams that use Kyurem-B prominently don't use this. We don't need it either.
I do agree that steels are great with our hydra (I use Heatran myself) but they're great for any team anyway lol.
Why do you advocate ghosts specifically? Gengar's a great mon but once again, I fail to see any really special synergy (aside from his poison typing killing fairies I guess).
I do agree that steels are great with our hydra (I use Heatran myself) but they're great for any team anyway lol.
Why do you advocate ghosts specifically? Gengar's a great mon but once again, I fail to see any really special synergy (aside from his poison typing killing fairies I guess).
Don't I know it :( That combo ruined lives. I don't think that was the "steel and ghosts" Dovah had in mind ;P
I don't think sticky web is the best way of going about alleviating Hydreigons speed. The choice scarf set is perfectly fine for the greater matchup against offense, but something else to try is pairing Hydreigon up with a tailwind user such as Latios, which was shown in a dragonspam team made by AM for the teambuilding shop.
I've played with the team before and the tailwind has been incredibly helpful for hydreigon :)
I've played with the team before and the tailwind has been incredibly helpful for hydreigon :)
Again for me, while it's offensive coverage is good, it's really outclassed by Latios and KyuB for offensive dragons. Latios' important 110 speed tier, mixed offensive STAB combination, and Defog allow it to perform as a better offensive Dragon while also offering hazard removal, and can arguably handle Stall reasonably well with a Trick set. Meanwhile Kyurem-B's offensive stats and ability just render Hydreigon obsolete in this role. Who cares that you have a SR weakness when their SpA stats have only a 5 point difference but Kyu-B has a whopping 65 point advantage in attack? Their speed is roughly the same too, both between important milestones and Kyu-B can run Leftovers while Hydreigon runs LO and hit far harder on average on both spectrums. This also means its a much better scarf user too.
But again, that's why I like capitalizing on its niche in defensive typing, good support movepool, and ability to recover and use U-Turn. Dark has great neutral coverage as a mono-STAB, and a second coverage move is all you need to take out the threats you want for the rest of your team. It's a good pair with Mega Manectric as a Voltturn duo for example.
But again, that's why I like capitalizing on its niche in defensive typing, good support movepool, and ability to recover and use U-Turn. Dark has great neutral coverage as a mono-STAB, and a second coverage move is all you need to take out the threats you want for the rest of your team. It's a good pair with Mega Manectric as a Voltturn duo for example.
Again, I'm not seeing Hydreigon as being entirely outclassed by any of the above dragons. Otherwise it would be "D" rank rather than "B-". Furthermore it rose because of its life orb set which means that it must have some merit over Kyurem-B (I won't discuss Hydreigon's pros over KuB as I did that on the first page). I've found leftovers KuB to be a little too weak and while sub helps prediction I found it missed out on some 2/1HKOs (most noteably a clean 1HKO on Azumarril which is why I'd pick KuB over Hydra in the first place most of the time).
Latios is much faster but does anyone use it as a true wallbreaker? It's actually fast and its access to defog is something Hydreigon will never have which is great. I've never found dragon/psychic a great STAB combo (it's fine just not great) and it has this annoying pursuit weakness. It has plenty of other upsides but its inability to beat Heatran without surf makes me leery of treating Latios as a wallbreaker. I don't think you can compare Latios to Hydreigon as they have very different rolls. As boltsandbombers said though tailwind Latios is awesome, underrated in any offensive team, and a great partner for Hydreigon :)
Again, Hydreigon's main competition as a wallbreaker is KuB and I think Hydreigon has enough unique attributes to justify its use over the ice dragon. As Jaroda alluded to last page, Dark Pulse has awesome neutral coverage and I find it to be a better main attack than anything KuB offers. This comparison does lead to interesting discussion though.
Jaroda, your set is interesting but have you ever wanted more power? Why not just kill what you switch into?
Edit: forgot about Latios' EQ which is for Heatran and pretty much nothing else
Latios is much faster but does anyone use it as a true wallbreaker? It's actually fast and its access to defog is something Hydreigon will never have which is great. I've never found dragon/psychic a great STAB combo (it's fine just not great) and it has this annoying pursuit weakness. It has plenty of other upsides but its inability to beat Heatran without surf makes me leery of treating Latios as a wallbreaker. I don't think you can compare Latios to Hydreigon as they have very different rolls. As boltsandbombers said though tailwind Latios is awesome, underrated in any offensive team, and a great partner for Hydreigon :)
Again, Hydreigon's main competition as a wallbreaker is KuB and I think Hydreigon has enough unique attributes to justify its use over the ice dragon. As Jaroda alluded to last page, Dark Pulse has awesome neutral coverage and I find it to be a better main attack than anything KuB offers. This comparison does lead to interesting discussion though.
Jaroda, your set is interesting but have you ever wanted more power? Why not just kill what you switch into?
Edit: forgot about Latios' EQ which is for Heatran and pretty much nothing else
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You can put a lot of that speed into SpA if need be if you don't care about fast defensive Mew/Celebi, but that was sort of a big draw to me. Expert Belt is also an option over Leftovers as it does help secure a few OHKOs. But as a bulky pivot, failing to one shot something isn't as horrible compared to something with a role of a wall breaker for example. It's customizable for certain, and there's probably some optimizing that can be done. But what I see in Hydreigon's niche is it's defensive typing and ability, which I'm trying to capitalize on.
Jaroda is my favourite Smogoner but I miss his old avatar xD
I'd just like to add that a similar bulky Hydreigon set with Fire Blast instead of Earth Power has done work for me as well. I run it with physically defensive Mega Scizor (Defog/U-turn/Roost/Bullet Punch), Sylveon, and Gengar.
I'd just like to add that a similar bulky Hydreigon set with Fire Blast instead of Earth Power has done work for me as well. I run it with physically defensive Mega Scizor (Defog/U-turn/Roost/Bullet Punch), Sylveon, and Gengar.
I tend to run hydra with a moveset more like this:
Hydreigon@Focus Sash/Life orb
Levitate
- Dark Pulse
- Draco meteor
- Surf
- Flamethrower/Fire Blast
Surf hits Heatran hard with his high special attack, and Scizor and Ferro are devastated by flamethrower/fire blast. This pretty much allows Hyda to easily eliminate any resisters to Draco Meteor, besides maybe Empoleon. So I suppose you could swap in earth power for surf and it would also be effective, the only issues is if Mega Altaria came out. That would be a near impossible wall for hydreigon unless you had flash cannon
Hydreigon@Focus Sash/Life orb
Levitate
- Dark Pulse
- Draco meteor
- Surf
- Flamethrower/Fire Blast
Surf hits Heatran hard with his high special attack, and Scizor and Ferro are devastated by flamethrower/fire blast. This pretty much allows Hyda to easily eliminate any resisters to Draco Meteor, besides maybe Empoleon. So I suppose you could swap in earth power for surf and it would also be effective, the only issues is if Mega Altaria came out. That would be a near impossible wall for hydreigon unless you had flash cannon
You don't need Surf as it's only target (Heatran) is hit hard by Superpower (which also hits Ttar and Bisharp). Alternatively, you can replace Surf / Fire Blast with Flash Cannon to hit Fairies hard as Steels are hit neutrally by Dark Pulse for around 40% (for Ferro) and 60% (for Scizor).
True, but often I just prefer to not have Hydreigon near fairies at all XD
True, but since Hydreigon outspeeds a decent number of defensive Fairies, the ability to deter Fairy Switch ins with a 2HKO adds to Hydreigon's presence in breaking defensive cores.
252+ SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 96+ SpD Clefable: 218-257 (55.3 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Altaria: 234-276 (66.1 - 77.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
And if you insist on running Surf for Heatran, I'd recommend Earth Power, which nails him harder while also giving you a decent coverage move to smack Steel or Electric types, which also might free up the Fire Blast slot. Also helps against Tyranitar and Bisharp if you don't run Superpower.
252+ SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Earth Power vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Tyranitar in Sand: 182-216 (45.1 - 53.5%) -- 89.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 52 SpD Bisharp: 341-403 (125.8 - 148.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
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