[W.I.P] Dragalage

PDC

street spirit fade out
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion


[Pros]
<ul>
<li>Adaptability gives its STAB attacks amazing power with Choice Specs .</li>
<li>Part Poison typing gives it a good way to fight Fairy types, OHKOing the majority of them.</li>
<li>Solid defensive typing and great special defense allow it to beat most bulky waters.</li>
<li>In general out-speeds a majority of the slower defensive Mons that think they can take a hit from him.</li>
</ul>

[Cons]

<ul>
<li>Very slow, is outrun by most offensive Pokemon.</li>
<li>Depsite rather solid typing common Ground / Ice / Dragon moves can consistently force him out.</li>
<li>Low HP stat doesn't help him too much defensively and can often be a let down when tanking stronger repeated hits</li>
</ul>

[Set Recommendations]

<p>Dragalage @ Choice Specs<br />
Ability: Adaptability<br />
EVs: 120 HP / 252 SAtk / 136 Spe<br />
Modest Nature<br />
- Draco Meteor<br />
- Dragon Pulse<br />
- Sludge Bomb<br />
- Hidden Power Fire </p>

<p>The strongest and most effective set Dragalage can run, Choice Specs in addition with Adaptability gives Dragalage immensely strong Draco Meteors which can terrorize teams lacking a strong defensive Steel, Fairy, or special wall. Dragalage's interesting typing gives it a very reliable way to defeat Fairies with a STAB Sludge Bomb which beats even the bulkiest of Fairies. Adaptability was the saving grace of Dragalage, by giving it the power needed to wall break and get important KOs. An excellent tool against bulky offense and stall teams, Dragalage breaks apart defensive cores peace by peace. The speed EVs are mainly for aiding in this by out-speeding Skarmory, Jellicent, and Scizor alike. .</p>

<p>Draco Meteor and Dragon Pulse are you main tools needed to break apart teams. With Choice Specs you can 2HKO a very large amount of switches that try to come in on Dragalage. Draco Meteor does a 71% minimum to CB Scizor, which puts a lot of pressure on it to safely switch in. Sludge Bomb is very useful for Fairy type Pokemon that think they can come in for free such as Togekiss. Togekiss gets destroyed by Sludge Bomb, making it think twice about coming in on a predicted Draco Meteor. Hidden Power Fire is for bulkier steels like Ferrothorn who can come in on a Draco Meteor safely without the risk of being 2HKOd.

opinions on bulkier set maybe, but idt it would work that well

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Dragalage doesn't have too many switches as of yet, but its Draco Meteors and Sludge Bombs can be switched into by Blissey all day without it having to worry unless it is substantially weakened. Ferrothorn can also come in on Draco Meteors repeatedly, but must watch out for Hidden Power Fire. Bulky variants of Excadrill can take a Draco Meteor and follow up to KO with Earthquake.</p>

<p>Dragalage suffers far worse from more strong offensive threats of any kind than those that outright wall it do to its slow speed. Faster offensive threats can dismantle and wear down Dragalage quickly, especially with hazards due to the amount it will probably be switching. Being weak to Ground,Fairy, Dragon, and Ice Types moves don't help it very much, despite its other large amount of resistances. Faster threats like Protean Greninja, Dragonite, Mamoswine, and Noivern. While they can't switch into it safely, they can all offer a revenge kill, as offense in general should be able to pressure Dragalage to the point where it can't safely switch in repeatedly.</p>
 

AccidentalGreed

Sweet and bitter as chocolate.
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
As much as i would hate saying this, it is not confirmed whether Dragalge has Adaptability as its Hidden ability or not. The research thread has not confirmed its existence, and not has Serebii. I'd take Dragalge having Adaptibility with a grain of salt like current Recover on Florges; it sounds great, but ultimately we lack solid proof.
 

PDC

street spirit fade out
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion
well then

i'll probably change this up to some more defensive set, as specs now just doesn't quite fit it. maybe a lo, but i guess i'll have to revamp this then.
 

Arcticblast

Trans rights are human rights
is a Forum Moderatoris a Tiering Contributoris a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion
It's spelled Dragalge and you might want to mention Toxic Spikes, which is a confirmed egg move.
 
Might be worth mentioning Sludge Wave since not every team is going to want the 30% poison and it is a little stronger? Not necessarily as a slash but I think it at least deserves a mention, the extra power is kinda neat since you can now always OHKO Keldeo after SR with your secondary STAB without having to resort to Draco Meteor. Given how well you match up against it (nothing it does aside from specs rain Hydro Pump is gonna 2HKO) that seems like a useful thing to be able to do.

Also Focus Blast is really much better than HP Fire I mean it's the same strength on anything but Scizor, who is already getting completely wrecked by Draco Meteor (and is easily 2HKOd by Focus Blast) and it lets you OHKO support Tyranitar 75% of the time after SR, something your main competitior, Latios, cannot do. I really think Dragalge needs to differentiate itself from Latios as much as possible since other than a 9% stronger Draco Meteor you're quite a bit weaker and wayyy slower, which gives you less utility despite the superior movepool and typing. Being able to beat many of the Pokemon Latios struggles with, especially inside of rain, is a unique selling point.
 
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/dragalge.3489686/page-2

Penultimate post, it's just been confirmed in my thread :D
Something to add to this post. Though it is confirmed to exist through the Battle Mansion, Adaptability Dragalge doesn't seem to be obtainable by any normal means at the moment, akin to unreleased DW abilities from last generation. Out of the thousands exchanging friend codes for friend safari, we have not gotten word of a soul with an Adaptability Dragalge in their safari.

As super awesome as Adapatability Draco Meteors are, it looks like we'll have to wait on them until Nintendo releases it later on.
 

PDC

street spirit fade out
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion
Didn't know it had Focus Blast, will probably add that over it. Also, should I keep Adapt set up their or shelve it for now? I will probably make a more defensive set for the time being.
 

AccidentalGreed

Sweet and bitter as chocolate.
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
Guys I think I need to reliterate TheMantyke's point one more time: just because Dragalge is revealed to have Adaptability in the Battle Mansion doesn't mean it's actually available outside of it. Therefore we can't actually use it until there's solid proof we can get it in or outside the Friend Safari. So PDC I'm sorry, but for now you'll have to do with some defensive sets and get around this somehow.
 
I second Blue Cobra's suggestion. the point of adapatability isn't to be locked into one move. It's to allow you to switch between multiple powerful ones.
Also a toxic spikes setting, bulky Dragalge might be worth considering?
 

ginganinja

It's all coming back to me now
is a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
I gave LO a test without Adaptability, and it was pretty underwhelming. Maybe a bulky set is all its good for :(
 

PDC

street spirit fade out
is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Four-Time Past WCoP Champion
yeah idt this guy needs a set for specs anymore, i'll shelve it for now. i will instead create a bulky tspikes set.
 
A defensive set is entirely possible for Dragalge and it makes a pretty good defensive Pokemon with a huge amount of handy resists and movepool.
[/IMG]

Anyway this is the set I have been running. Ignore the EV's since they don't do anything in particular:

Dragalge @ Leftovers
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SDef
Sassy Nature
- Dragon Tail
- Sludge Bomb
- Toxic Spikes
- Protect

On Dragalge's defensive set I opted to use Poison Touch instead of Adaptability. With Poison Touch, Dragalge's Dragon Tail has a nifty 30% chance to poison the target. It becomes really spamable with one layer of Toxic Spikes on the field, since an opponent will be unable to avoid poison by switching into a Flying-type or Levitating Pokemon. Sludge Bomb also has a neato 30% chance to Poison the opponent and hits opponents that try to switch into Fairy-types to avoid the Dragon Tail hard. Toxic Spikes can passively inflict poison on a Pokemon that Dragalge might force on to the field with Dragon Tail.

I find Protect really key because with all the Poison Dragalge spreads around, picking up 12% every other turn is extremely helpful. It also doesn't have any reliable recovery so Protect helps with Leftovers recovery too. Basically Dragalge makes an excellent tool for spreading status around the opposing team since all of its moves in one way or another have a good chance of Poisoning an opponent.

Obligatory mention of Skarmory as a partner. The two cover eachother's weaknesses very well and can Spike-stack / phaze in tandem.
 
Can we make use of the breedable move Acid Armor? Like start by switching into a special attacker, use Acid Armor once or twice, then Chesto Rest and attack? It's really hard to think of sets with this pokemon, especially with adaptability but we got to work with what we have. I guess we can also consider a Rain Special Wall set with Poison Point, with H-Pump, Toxic, Draco Meteor and Protect/T-Spikes?
 
Can we make use of the breedable move Acid Armor? Like start by switching into a special attacker, use Acid Armor once or twice, then Chesto Rest and attack? It's really hard to think of sets with this pokemon, especially with adaptability but we got to work with what we have. I guess we can also consider a Rain Special Wall set with Poison Point, with H-Pump, Toxic, Draco Meteor and Protect/T-Spikes?
I'm not all too sure what Dragalage has to gain from using Acid Armor, aside from perhaps allowing it to phaze out a few more incoming physical attackers; not only does this mean dedicating two moveslots and an item to this task (which is awful, since Dragalage has 4MSS as is, and while it's bulk is decent enough, it can't really afford to forgo passive recovery), but there aren't too many scenarios it's particularly necessary imo. Like, why buffer out its defenses further when it can just phaze out the predicted physically-inclined switch-in, then pack something like Skarm to accommodate its mediocre physical bulk?

Anywho, definitely seconding Doughboy's set, it's a pretty solid TSpiker / TSpike absorber and utility check for stall. Honestly, once Adaptability is released, it will almost certainly be better (harder to "play around" DTail with sub 'mons, nicer chip damage, you regulate what / how you status 'mons a little better), but Poison Touch is ok atm. Anywho, aside from moving TSpikes to the first slash, I'd really consider mentioning Rest in the final slot, as Dragalage retains really solid natural synergy with both Florges and Blissey / Chansey, making it fairly easy to provide Heal Bell support for. Investing in Defense is a possibility (I ran something to the effect of 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 SpD+Sassy) to allow it to soft-check Fighting-types and so forth, but it's still only doing so well (adamant megaluke still has a 8.2% chance to 2hko w/cc after sr damage :[ ), so max SpDef is probably fine for a main spread.
 

alexwolf

lurks in the shadows
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
col49 is right, Acid Armor is not worth it. Put the set that the DoughBoy mentioned and slash Rest after Protect as col49 suggested. Then i will stamp it.
 

Trainer Au

Insert custom title here
I'm not QC, but do you think it would be worth it to speed creep to 137 speed? This lets you outspeed min speed Hippo before it kills you, Donphan before it kills you, Azumarill, Tangrowth, Chansey, and Conkeldurr. This could let you get up another tspike or kill a low HP Donphan or something, especially if it gets adaptability. Maybe it's too many evs to give up idk.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top