[OVERVIEW]
While Kingdra does stand out as the best Swift Swim attacker in SS DOU, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Its Speed in rain gives it a notable amount of utility, as it can pin down faster, frailer foes while it breaks the opposing team with strong rain-boosted Muddy Waters. In particular, Kingdra excels in using its offensive presence to give its teammates space and clean up weakened teams. However, it has multiple awkward matchups in the metagame, including against DOU's top threats in Rillaboom, Tapu Fini, and Kyurem-B, and its average Special Attack stat can at times feel lacking, which is a major downside, as it offers no utility outside of purely attacking. Kingdra, in particular, faces stiff competition as a Water-type attacker in rain from Urshifu-R, which boasts noticeably better power output and coverage, an improved matchup against Trick Room, more relevant utility in the ability to force trades with Unseen Fist, and most importantly a non-reliance on rain to be effective; while Kingdra does offer blazing Speed and a better match-up against fast Dragon-types in Dragapult and Naganadel, its Speed is also easily compensated for by the rain archetype's many Tailwind-setting Flying-type options in Tornadus and Zapdos, and its need for Speed also leaves it much more vulnerable in the face of opposing speed control. Kingdra's reliance on keeping its rain setter available, as it is very lacking as an attacker without it, on top of its other flaws, ultimately makes it quite awkward to run on rain teams.
[SET]
name: Swift Swim Attacker
move 1: Muddy Water
move 2: Hurricane / Hydro Pump
move 3: Draco Meteor / Hydro Pump
move 4: Protect
item: Life Orb
ability: Swift Swim
nature: Modest
evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
* Muddy Water is Kingdra's primary attacking option, as it hits both foes with significant rain-boosted damage.
* Hurricane is Kingdra's best option to hit Grass-type switch-ins such as Rillaboom and Amoonguss for super effective damage, and it is also nifty for sniping Urshifu-R.
* Draco Meteor is used to decimate Dragon-types that may otherwise be able to stomach a rain-boosted Water-type attack and hit back hard such as Kyurem-B, Dragapult, and Naganadel, though be wary, as it also weakens Kingdra considerably, squandering the already limited turns of rain.
* Hydro Pump is an option over either coverage move to decimate neutral targets such as Zeraora, Necrozma, and Metagross, which otherwise easily survive a Muddy Water, at the cost of being worse against either Grass-types and Rillaboom or Dragon-types.
* Protect lets Kingdra be safe for a turn, which is handy for giving teammates time to position around it and stalling out threatening field conditions such as opposing Tailwind and Trick Room.
* Life Orb in conjunction with the given EV investment and Modest nature is geared towards maximizing Kingdra's offensive presence, with Swift Swim letting it outrun practically the entire metagame under rain, getting the jump on Zeraora and Dragapult as well as Choice Scarf users such as Genesect and Galarian Zapdos.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Choice Specs is an option in order to amplify Kingdra's damage output even further, taking advantage of the fact that it only really needs its Water-type STAB moves to do its job while also niftily avoiding Life Orb's recoi. However, the set's inability to switch moves and run Protect viably can also leave it quite punishable, especially with Fake Out and other priority moves being particularly awkward to play against. Substitute is an option over one of Kingdra's coverage moves in order to block Fake Outs and Grassy Glide from Rillaboom, though losing one of its coverage moves can also make breaking through teams more difficult.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Memoric, 215000]]
- Quality checked by: [[zeefable, 501951], [emma, 294304 ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Kris, 241023]]
Last edited:
