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Community POTW #131

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Serebii

And, as if by magic, the webmaster appeared...
Staff member
Admin
Time for the next Pokémon of the Week and this week we have another classic Johto Pokémon.

The only Dragon-type in Johto (Mega Evolutions notwithstanding)

230.png


It's Kingdra!

https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sm/230.shtml

Go nuts
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
Kingdra @ Scope Lens
Ability: Sniper
Timid nature
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Sp.Atk, 252 Speed
- Focus Energy
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump
- Agility

Critical hit Kingdra. With Focus Energy and a Scope Lens, Kingdra will always score a critical hit, which will do a lot of damage with Sniper. Spam Draco Meteor. It tanks your Sp.Atk, but because critical hits ignore drops in offensive stats it doesn't matter. Agility is there to boost your speed as you are somewhat frail, although it's hard to set up both Focus Energy and Agility. Hydro Pump is the other STAB move. This Kingdra can hit very hard. Critical hit Draco Meteor OHKOs a lot of things that do not resist it, even bulkier targets like Mega Kangaskhan go down in a single hit. Ideally you do get passed some kind of speed boost, something like Blaziken can Baton Pass speed quite well.
 

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
097j6Lm.png
CauSrVD.png
oCCel3v.png


Kingdra, the feared Pokemon of Clair & Juan
Kingdra is quite the popular and memorable Pokemon due to how tough it's defenses and offenses are late in the game that I'm actually surprised that Kingdra hasn't had any major appearances in the anime since Clair from Gen 2, like literally not even Gen 5 where Clair makes a reappearance and Gen 3 where Kingdra is the signature Pokemon of Juan. Really weird but outside of Clair & Juan, there's another Kingdra user that Pokemon Adventure fans know about and that's none other than Silver who you may know from the games as Gen 2's rival character. What's interesting about Silver's Kingdra is that it was originally a Horsea given to him by a very close friend and has since then grown up to become one of Silver's most powerful Pokemon.

Well-Known Trainers who caught or befriended the Kingdra evolution line.
Kingdra - Clair (Games, Adventures manga, Anime)
Kingdra - Juan (Games, Adventures manga)
Seadra - Lance (Games)
Kingdra - Silver (Adventures manga)
Horsea (Given) - Green/Blue (Fem Protag, Adventures Manga)
Horsea - Misty (Anime)
Kingdra (Imaginary) - Molly (Movie)
Seadra - Fergus (Movie)
Seadra - Cissy (Anime)

Swift Swim Kingdra
Kingdra
Item: Leftovers/Damp Rock/Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Modest Nature (+ Sp. Atk, - Atk)
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk/252 HP
Rain Dance/Flash Cannon (Assault Vest)
Hydro Pump/Scald
Draco Meteor/Dragon Pulse
Ice Beam

Kingdra is quite the monster on rain-dance teams. Even with the introducing of fairy-types and the much better bulkier hard hitting Mega Swampert, Kingdra's water-dragon typing bulk with decent offenses and the ability Swift Swim is still something to be feared. In fact, with no investment in it's speed with a non-speed nature, Kingdra can still outspeed almost every non-legendary unboosted Pokemon under Rain Dance that some players might think it's better to invest it in Kingdra's bulk and even further with Assault Vest if you have another Pokemon that activated Rain Dance.

Juan's Dragon Dance Kingdra
Kingdra
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim or Sniper
Nature: Adamant Nature (+ Atk, - Sp. Atk)
EVs: 252 Atk/252 HP or 252 Atk/252 Spe
Dragon Dance
Waterfall
Outrage
Iron Head

Juan is acknowledged by many fans as Wallace's mentor and is the reason why Wallace uses so many stylish battle tactics as the "Contest Master", a title first introduced in Pokemon Adventures long before it was adapted as main series canon in ORAS. So even though it never happened in the games, it makes a lot of sense that a "Stylish" Kingdra under Juan has dragon dance don't you think? For this set, Dragon Dance is key to making Adamant Kingdra work and one could risk using it twice for extra bulk investment but one is enough for those who want to play it save with speed investment.
 
Last edited:

Alita54

Well-Known Member
097j6Lm.png
CauSrVD.png
oCCel3v.png


Kingdra, the feared Pokemon of Clair & Juan
Kingdra is quite the popular and memorable Pokemon due to how tough it's defenses and offenses are late in the game that I'm actually surprised that Kingdra hasn't had any major appearances in the anime since Clair from Gen 2, like literally not even Gen 5 where Clair makes a reappearance and Gen 3 where Kingdra is the signature Pokemon of Juan. Really weird but outside of Clair & Juan, there's another Kingdra user that Pokemon Adventure fans know about and that's none other than Silver who you may know from the games as Gen 2's rival character. What's interesting about Silver's Kingdra is that it was originally a Horsea given to him by a very close friend and has since then grown up to become one of Silver's most powerful Pokemon.

Well-Known Trainers who caught or befriended the Kingdra evolution line.
Kingdra - Clair (Games, Adventures manga, Anime)
Kingdra - Juan (Games, Adventures manga)
Seadra - Lance (Games)
Kingdra - Silver (Adventures manga)
Horsea (Given) - Green/Blue (Fem Protag, Adventures Manga)
Horsea - Misty (Anime)
Kingdra (Imaginary) - Molly (Movie)
Seadra - Fergus (Movie)
Seadra - Cissy (Anime)

Swift Swim Kingdra
Kingdra
Item: Leftovers/Damp Rock/Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Modest Nature (+ Sp. Atk, - Atk)
EVs: 252 Sp. Atk/252 HP
Rain Dance/Hidden Power Poison (Assault Vest)/Hidden Power Grass (Assault Vest)
Hydro Pump/Scald
Draco Meteor/Dragon Pulse
Ice Beam

Kingdra is quite the monster on rain-dance teams. Even with the introducing of fairy-types and the much better bulkier hard hitting Mega Swampert, Kingdra's water-dragon typing bulk with decent offenses and the ability Swift Swim is still something to be feared. In fact, with no investment in it's speed with a non-speed nature, Kingdra can still outspeed almost every non-legendary unboosted Pokemon under Rain Dance that some players might think it's better to invest it in Kingdra's bulk and even further with Assault Vest if you have another Pokemon that activated Rain Dance.

Juan's Dragon Dance Kingdra
Kingdra
Item: Leftovers
Ability: Swift Swim or Sniper
Nature: Adamant Nature (+ Atk, - Sp. Atk)
EVs: 252 Atk/252 HP or 252 Atk/252 Spe
Dragon Dance
Waterfall
Outrage
Iron Head

Juan is acknowledged by many fans as Wallace's mentor and is the reason why Wallace uses so many stylish battle tactics as the "Contest Master", a title first introduced in Pokemon Adventures long before it was adapted as main series canon in ORAS. So even though it never happened in the games, it makes a lot of sense that a "Stylish" Kingdra under Juan has dragon dance don't you think? For this set, Dragon Dance is key to making Adamant Kingdra work and one could risk using it twice for extra bulk investment but one is enough for those who want to play it save with speed investment.

For your first set why not replace hidden power poison for flash cannon? That also hits fairy types for super effective damage and has a higher base power than hidden power and also has the chance to lower special defense.
 

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
For your first set why not replace hidden power poison for flash cannon? That also hits fairy types for super effective damage and has a higher base power than hidden power and also has the chance to lower special defense.
I forgot Kingdra can learn Flash Cannon.
 

BillyBobJoe

Well-Known Member
Kingdra @ Scope Lens
Ability: Sniper
Timid nature
EVs: 4 HP, 252 Sp.Atk, 252 Speed
- Focus Energy
- Draco Meteor
- Hydro Pump
- Agility

Critical hit Kingdra. With Focus Energy and a Scope Lens, Kingdra will always score a critical hit, which will do a lot of damage with Sniper. Spam Draco Meteor. It tanks your Sp.Atk, but because critical hits ignore drops in offensive stats it doesn't matter. Agility is there to boost your speed as you are somewhat frail, although it's hard to set up both Focus Energy and Agility. Hydro Pump is the other STAB move. This Kingdra can hit very hard. Critical hit Draco Meteor OHKOs a lot of things that do not resist it, even bulkier targets like Mega Kangaskhan go down in a single hit. Ideally you do get passed some kind of speed boost, something like Blaziken can Baton Pass speed quite well.

Laser Focus is arguably a better option than Focus Energy. Since Laser Focus guarantees a critical hit, you can forgo the Scope Lens for a different item.
 

XaelOstigian

Competitive...kinda
45d38e5a743d74582d1b204ede4b33086fba7b06c5b87c6313397bbd9f0f4d5e.jpg

Ah, Kingdra. A much needed evolution to the cool but still rather weak Seadra. I still remember trying to figure out what weaknesses Kingdra had after getting bashed by Clair hard, only to realize that literally the only moves that could get a Super Effective hit on it were Twister, Dragonbreath, and Outrage (At the time only Dragon type attacks could be Super Effective against it). Because of that and its well balanced stats, young me thought Kingdra was OP as hecc:
Facebook-When-this-happens-a7c874.png

Hence why I put one on my team for Silver on my second playthrough (Dragon Scale trade restrictions and all) and on my HeartGold playthrough. It wasn't until I really starting playing competitively that I realized my younger self was a little too much in awe of this Water Dragon. It was balanced yes, but not an expert in any of those stats as the power creep took over the metagame, and now even its delinquent cousin Dragalge seems to get more attention than it does. I love Dragalge too of course, but I still have a soft spot for the Dragon King and he is still very usable in the upper tiers. Heck, back when Drizzle Politoed was released this thing had found its ideal partner that could bring out the best with its Swift Swim ability:
d46n8a5-ff4acc7c-0a51-4c32-900e-f42bc10798c4.png

But then Drizzle + Swift Swim teams got banned from the competitive scene. Nice job ruining the ship metagame rule-makers (Slow clap)
I think Kindra's been through enough abuse already and really needs to be treated with the same level of fear and respect the younger me had for it. It deserves better than this:
9e6fd2c187c168e68a2dd15b7ed7ee126e05711f4920b447be11a81462f343e4_1.gif

Maybe they can give it a new regional variant come generation 8?
5d9dba1263511e4e383e477c3bd8c91e.jpg
 

Divine Retribution

Conquistador de pan
Suppose I'll go ahead and put this here. It's not exactly anything innovative or creative, but nobody's posted it yet.

Despite having no base stats above 95, Kingdra is actually quite a potent threat on certain teams, specifically rain teams. It's completely reliant on rain to function as without it, it's too slow and not powerful enough to do much, but with it, it becomes one of the fastest threats in the metagame capable of punching big holes in the opposing team with powerful rain-boosted Hydro Pumps.

It does face slight competition, however, from Pokemon such as Kabutops, Omastar, and even Qwilfish (yes, you read that right, Qwilfish), but it's generally agreed to be the best Swift Swim user besides Mega Swampert, who you're probably going to be using on your Rain teams as well anyways. It also faces some competition from Ash-Greninja who, despite lacking Swift Swim, is much stronger, has access to the ever-important Spikes, and can make up for the lack of Swift Swim with Water Shuriken.

kingdra.gif

Kingdra @
Bag_Choice_Specs_Sprite.png
Choice Specs
Modest - Swift Swim
4 Defence, 252 Sp. Atk, 252 Speed
-Hydro Pump
-Scald
-Draco Meteor
-Ice Beam

This is really about as straight-forward as it gets. Hydro Pump is the move you're going to be clicking 90% of the time as it's by far his strongest move in the rain, and does massive damage to anything that doesn't resist it. Scald or Surf are often used as a secondary STAB for scenarios where you can't afford to miss a Hydro Pump, as they boast perfect accuracy while still maintaining decent power in the rain. Draco Meteor is his strongest Dragon STAB and can be used to blow away some things that resist his Water STAB, such as opposing Dragon types. It's also his strongest move if he finds himself in a situation without the rain boosting his Water STABs. Ice Beam is mostly filler, but it's his strongest option against opponents such as Tapu Bulu and Tangrowth.

There aren't a whole lot of other options to consider. Flash Cannon sounds tempting, but a Rain-boosted Hydro Pump hits most things much harder, and Tapu Bulu, the most common thing Flash Cannon would theoretically hit, is already hit harder by Ice Beam. Hidden Power Fire has the niche of blowing away Ferrothorn if rain isn't up, but considering Kingdra is choice locked and massively reliant on rain being up, this isn't nearly as valuable as it sounds. Hidden Power Electric can be considered as a way of dealing with Mantine and Gyarados, but Mantine isn't really common enough to justify the moveslot and Gyarados actually gets 2HKO'd by rain-boosted Hydro Pumps anyways. Finally, Toxic can annoy things such as Gastrodon and Mantine as well as Tangrowth and Tapu Bulu, but applies no immediate pressure unlike other options, which offensive rain teams (where Kingdra sees the most use) usually prefer.

As for teammates, rain is an extremely formulaic playstyle with relatively little variation. There are 3 teammates you're pretty much always going to see alongside Kingdra; Pelipper, Mega Swampert, and Ferrothorn. These Pokemon are practically mandatory when building an offensive rain team. Pelipper sets the rain, Swampert is your primary wincon as well as an Electric immunity, and Ferrothorn glues most rain teams together by acting as a defensive pivot, setting up hazards, and checking powerful Electric and Grass types that can threaten your sweepers. After that, teammates you might use to fill the last two slots with include Tornadus-Therian, Tapu Koko, Hawlucha (in conjunction with Tapu Koko), Zapdos, Ash-Greninja, and Thundurus-Therian.​
 
Last edited:

BillyBobJoe

Well-Known Member
The Definition of Insanity
-Smokescreen/Octazooka
-Scald/Hydro Pump
-Dragon Breath/Dragon Pulse
-Yawn/Toxic
Item: Scope Lens
Ability: Sniper

This is a troll set. It takes the worst parts about fighting Clair’s Kingdra, and makes it even worse.

Lowered accuracy paired with a possible paralysis from DB makes it so your opponent will almost never hit you. If you want to do damage yet still get the accuracy drop most of the time, Octazooka is an alternative.

Scald makes it even harder for physical attackers to damage you. If you want a high damage option while your opponent struggles, Hydro Pump and Dragon Pulse have you covered.

The last slot is for even more trolling. If you want to force a switch (since the opponent will probably do that than let a team member fall asleep), Yawn is for you. Toxic is just Toxic. To top it all off, you use the Sniper-Scope Lens combo; nothing infuriates people more than their strategy being destroyed by a random critical hit.
 

Mestorn

Wandering Battler
Would Brine be any good as a Option for Kingdra? Base 130 Power when target's HP < 50% stings a lot (Hydro Pump is base 110). Or is it too easy to play around once your opponent knows you have it?
 

Divine Retribution

Conquistador de pan
In OU and Battle Spot, Kingdra is almost always choice locked. It needs every bit of power it can get to secure OHKOs as it's not really bulky enough to take many hits, and Brine isn't a very good move to lock yourself into considering its measly 65 base power if your opponent isn't below 50% HP. Even outside of being a bad move on choice locked sets, it's kind of a wasted moveslot in general as most threats are 1-2HKO'd by Hydro Pump anyways, meaning Brine isn't even necessary. Furthermore, if you do happen to run into an opponent who isn't 2HKO'd by a Specs Hydro Pump and you manage to chip them down enough to where Brine gets its power boosted, odds are they're still going to survive it as the extra 20 base power is unlikely to secure the KO (and few threats are that bulky anyways). It could be useful in some very specific circumstances where Hydro Pump is doing around 30% to an opponent who can't just recover the damage off as you could in theory Hydro Pump twice and then Brine to finish them off, but that's a super niche circumstance to dedicate a moveslot to. If Hydro Pump is at least 3HKOing then it's kind of pointless to carry Brine at all.
 
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