• Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.

    However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.

    We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure.
  • Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
  • If you're still waiting for the e-mail, be sure to check your junk/spam e-mail folders

The Dragonslayer

3

3.14kachu

2.72pic √(-1)nventor
Dragons are a huge part of OU nowadays, with the newly powerful Multiscale Dragonite, as well as Haxorus and the now-OU-not-Ubers-for-some-reason Latios. So I have to ask, how do you deal with them? If a team has even the slightest of Dragon weaknesses, they will tear it apart.

What are the best pokemon and movesets to deal with Dragon-types?
Heatran? Skarmory? Magnezone? Ice-shard Donphan?
 
B

Blue Harvest

Banned
Cresselia is probably the best overall, though its garbage in OU due to sand and tons of things that setup on it. Well, I guess Hydreigon beats it.

Bronzong can take down most dragons barring Mold Breaker Haxorus. In rain he hard counters all dragons besides Specs Latios Surf and Mold Breaker Haxorus Earthquake, something very few others can do.

Balloon Heatran can sort of check them but isn't very reliable.

Skarmory takes Outrages and counters Haxorus like its nothing. He can survive a few Fire Fang / Punches but just barely.

Scizor can switch in on most of them and *kind of* win. He hits all common OU dragons for at least 65% which is easy to achieve with Stealth Rocks / Sandstorm / whatever.

Specially Defensive Jirachi can take everything Specially based dragons can dish out and annihilate them with Paralysis and repeated Iron Heads.

Mamoswine deserves mention because he can easily strip 80% off all but the most defensive dragons with Choice Band Ice Shard. He also has decent bulk, enough to switch in on an Earthquake or Dragon Claw ONCE.

Ferrothorn in rain laughs at all dragons barring LO Fire Blasts and +2 Haxorus Brick Break / Earthquakes. However it can't really kill them without Gyro Ball (which is a bad move most of the time).
 
A

asterat

Banned
How is gyro ball bad, blue harvest? Mixit with curse, you absorb outrage like lefties damage, hit like... 300 power and kill stuff in general
 
K

kaiser soze

Reading ADWD
max speed + shell smash cloyster from experience works well. icicle spear can rip through multiscale too. the trick is to get a chance to set up. most dragons lack priority too
 
I

irock245

She wants it
damnit, i just realize di need an ice type move on my team...

but regardless, just slap a decent steel type and your are pretty much set with all but earthquakes and brick breaks (yes haxorus i am looking at you.) Heatran in my experience works super well, was gliscor to stop other coverage attacks aimed at your face. Not to be off topic, but if you read ALL my posts, you will find like 5 refrences to heatran in them. I have a heatran addiction. WTF?
 
E

Eaglehawk

Banned
Blue Harvest said:
Cresselia is probably the best overall, though its garbage in OU due to sand and tons of things that setup on it. Well, I guess Hydreigon beats it.

Bronzong can take down most dragons barring Mold Breaker Haxorus. In rain he hard counters all dragons besides Specs Latios Surf and Mold Breaker Haxorus Earthquake, something very few others can do.

Balloon Heatran can sort of check them but isn't very reliable.

Skarmory takes Outrages and counters Haxorus like its nothing. He can survive a few Fire Fang / Punches but just barely.

Scizor can switch in on most of them and *kind of* win. He hits all common OU dragons for at least 65% which is easy to achieve with Stealth Rocks / Sandstorm / whatever.

Specially Defensive Jirachi can take everything Specially based dragons can dish out and annihilate them with Paralysis and repeated Iron Heads.

Mamoswine deserves mention because he can easily strip 80% off all but the most defensive dragons with Choice Band Ice Shard. He also has decent bulk, enough to switch in on an Earthquake or Dragon Claw ONCE.

Ferrothorn in rain laughs at all dragons barring LO Fire Blasts and +2 Haxorus Brick Break / Earthquakes. However it can't really kill them without Gyro Ball (which is a bad move most of the time).
Click to expand...
Specially defensive Heatran can take Specs Draco Meteor from a large number of things, as well as some Outrages, but that's pretty much all it can do.

I've seen teams that rely on Snorlax as a Special Dragon counter. Choice banded versions use Pursuit on a DMed Latios to get rid of it while sponging a Specs Boosted DM.

Basically, anything that is Steel-type or has an insane amount of (Sp.) Defense should be able to counter Dragons pretty well. As for offensively, Terrakion can revenge kill most to all of them with CC/SE/XS movepool.
 
K

Karzon

The Noobish Breeder
If you can afford the fighting weakness, Expert belt Weavile is as good as it gets.

Barring that, I've found Ice Punch Ddance Scrafty to work nicely.
 
J

JRCxyz

Hi
Tucan9999 said:
My Electivire with Ice Punch works pretty well.
Click to expand...

Well, it depends. Electivire isn't really a counter; it's only a revenge killer. Even then, to be able to revenge kill dragons you'll need Choice Scarf and that's to outspeed the ones that are unboosted. Vire can't catch up with +1 Salamence, Latios, Haxorus (I believe) or Kingdra in rain. So yeah. I wouldn't recommend you to count on Vire to solve any potential dragon issues.
 
DrasticPhase

DrasticPhase

Half ded
I like how my magnzone can survive Latios's attack and annoy them with sub :3
And ferrothorn is pretty good
Basically steels can counter dragons
 
Cosmic Fury

Cosmic Fury

Evil Overlord
Weavile with an Ice-type attack, while it's holding either a Life Orb, Expert Belt, Icicle Plate, or Ice Gem will bring almost any dragon down in one, if not two hits. Those things simply tear through anything in their way--if you not only train them properly, but also know what you're doing.

If I could get Ice Punch on my Shiny Weavile, I'd be a REALLY happy camper.

252 EV's in Attack and Speed will give them both the speed and the power to deal some real punishment to almost anything that sits (or stands, or floats...) in front of them.
 
S

SaturnCoffee

FIVE MORE MINUTES!
I usually revenge kill with an ice beam from scarfed Nidoking, if that doesn't work I can use counter on my max defense Meganium to handle most of the physical dragons.
 
R

RifleAvenger

See you starside
asterat said:
How is gyro ball bad, blue harvest? Mixit with curse, you absorb outrage like lefties damage, hit like... 300 power and kill stuff in general
Click to expand...

Most Ferrothorn are meant to spread paralysis, leech seeds, and hazards as well as kill water types. Gyro ball, while potentially highly damaging, has only 8 PP max, and it and curse take up move slots that Ferrothorn could be using for support purposes.

Not "bad" perhaps, but it's also not the optimal use for a Ferrothorn either.
 
B

Blue Cobra

Bug Trainer
I would say the best counter for Dragon types is Heatran with Air Balloon.
It can resist their STAB moves and can't be taken down with Earthquake in the first round.

It can hit dragons Hard with STAB steel moves, and it can even run Dragon Pulse.
It has a nice special attack too, which can really hurt.
 
J

JRCxyz

Hi
Kingdra lols at Heatran.
 
J

jesusfreak94

_
Lol Blue Harvest, you took all the fun out of this. XD

Blue Cobra said:
I would say the best counter for Dragon types is Heatran with Air Balloon.
It can resist their STAB moves and can't be taken down with Earthquake in the first round.

It can hit dragons Hard with STAB steel moves, and it can even run Dragon Pulse.
It has a nice special attack too, which can really hurt.
Click to expand...

Heatran can make a good check, but not always. Lati@s, Kingdra, and Hydreigon can kill it with Surf (or another Water move in Kingdra's case) if it's not careful. It can do well against many forms of Salamence, Dragonite, and Hydreigon lacking any Water moves, but it falls to Earthquake when its Balloon is popped. I suppose it could also handle most Lati@s variants not carrying Surf, but its such a common move that Heatran can't ensure a safe switch-in.

I'd say that Bronzong is the best general switch-in to Dragon attacks (especially in the Rain) because of its great typing, Levitate, and its great overall defenses. Cresselia would be much better as a Dragon counter if the rest of the OU metagame didn't hate it so much. Ferrothorn makes a nice check to Dragons lacking a Fire move, and sometimes those that do while in the Rain. Jirachi and Skarmory also do fantastic in handling special and physical onslaughts from Dragons, respectively. Well, those are my top picks.
 
3

3.14kachu

2.72pic √(-1)nventor
Okay, so here's my question. In light of all of this, should Skarmory, Bronzong, and Air Balloon Heatran alone justify a dragon using Brick Break instead of Earthquake for coverage?
 
B

Blue Harvest

Banned
No, because Outrage hits all of them except Heatran harder and you can usually trick Heatran to lose its Balloon somehow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top