GSC Analysis - Dragonite

[flameout]

Thought I'd start off the analyses with a very cool poke, that being Dragonite.

HP: 385
Atk: 366
Def: 288
Speed: 258
Sp. Atk: 298
Sp. Def: 298

Standard Dragonite:
Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers
- Dynamicpunch / Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Hidden Power [Flying] / Wing Attack
- Ice Beam
- Thunder

~Obviously the two HPs can't and won't be together. Anyways, this set works off of Nite's monster attack and great sp. attack. BoltBeam is resisted by nothing, DP smacks Snorlax, Blissey, and T-Tar around nicely, and HP Flying lets you beat Hera and Machamp. Seriously, don't use HP Fighting if you plan on winning, ok? Raikou still can wall this set all day.

Special Sweeping Dragonite:
Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers
- Thunder/Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
- Surf

~Infinitely inferior to the standard set, since it's walled all day by Snorlax/Blissey which are on pretty much every team. Purely novelty.

Support Nite:
Dragonite (M) @ Leftovers
- Thunder Wave
- Reflect
- Double-Edge
- Surf/Ice Beam/Haze

~Dragonite's defenses are pretty nice so it could afford to run Reflect. DE is dependable damage on things not resistant, TWave will catch people off guard, and the final move gives you something to do to Rhydon since he'd otherwise wall this. FYI, If you're running Reflect+Haze Nite, you've already failed .

Additional options:

Agility, Curse, Rest, Hidden Power [Ground], Horn Drill, Hydro Pump, Iron Tail, Light Screen, Safeguard, Zap Cannon.

Alot of options here. At 258 speed, Nite's still slower than a few standard pokes that can beat it (IB Nido, IB Cune come to mind), so Agility can give you the advantage. Curse can be useful if you can clear out the IBers. Rest can and should be used with a possible Curser, or on a Restbell team, though it can limit Nite's type coverage. HP Ground is good mainly for Amphy and Raikou (generally a 3hko on both, who otherwise wall Nite). Horn Drill is for faggots, don't use it ok? Hydro Pump is the alternative to Surf, and Iron Tail is an alternative physical attack, but it's only good against rocks, which you're better off using Surf/IB against anyway. Light Screen and Safeguard can help the team, and Zap Cannon can be good for paralyzing Starmie on the switch, and it should be noted that a para'd starmie is a worthless Starmie.

Opinion:

One of the best non-setup pokes in GSC. This is one of the very few pokemon you'll see that won't use stat up, and it doesn't need to. Very large and useable movepool, great stats all around. The 4x Ice Weakness can hurt at times since Ice Beam is pretty common, but Light Screen can help that a bit. I have no idea why no one used Dragonite much until I started to recently, but a few well-aimed Dynamicpunches later, and suddenly everyone sees the greatness that is Dragonite. If you need a hole in your team filled, Dragonite can do so nicely.

Counters:

Largely depends on Nite's moveset, but Raikou/Ampharos can counter any Nite that isn't packing HP Ground. Snorlax can beat up on non-DP Nites. Really, it just depends on Nite's set, but Raikou/Amphy are the most dependable, even moreso with Reflect.

[Slayer]

Nice job. I might start to play GSC thanks to you.

[GGFan]

Cool, thanks for contributing. Hopefully you'll be able to do quite a few of these.

[Dragon Champion]

Why use Dynamic Punch? It's too weak for its accuracy! If you're gonna use an inaccurate move, atleast use Dragonite's Ultimate Move, which gives it the ability to destroy just about anything (it's a general move, yet does an even better job at destroying the Pokémon which Dynamic Punch is there specifically to destroy).

[Slayer]

dragonchampion said:

Why use Dynamic Punch? It's too weak for its accuracy! If you're gonna use an inaccurate move, atleast use Dragonite's Ultimate Move, which gives it the ability to destroy just about anything (it's a general move, yet does an even better job at destroying the Pokémon which Dynamic Punch is there specifically to destroy).

WTF? DP, while inaccurate, is not weak. If one hit snorlax, it would knock down its health by at least 50%, not counting CH in which it would be KOd, and lets not forget that it causes instant confusing. It would hit it self 50% of the time. The benefits out weigh the the bad stuff by two fold.

[Dragon Champion]

Actually, Dynamic Punch does 44-52% damage to Snorlax. Even if it critical hits, it'll OHKO Snorlax less than 50% of the time. And with Leftovers, it'll take three consecutive non-critical hit Dynamic Punches to take down Snorlax (well actually, it only takes two and one Double-Edge or something). For a move with 50% accuracy which is super effective, I'd expect it should do atleast 75% damage to Snorlax. But 44-52% is just not good enough to make Dynamic Punch worthy of taking up a moveslot in my opinion.

[Slayer]

Yeh using moves that don't even exist is a great way to battle. *sarcasm oozing form mouth*
You forgot about the confuse effect! There is a 50-50 chance that The confused pokemon will hit it self. Not to meanching the fact that no one in there right mind would think of using DP twice, risking that the opponant switchs into a ghost or other resistant pokemon. That is why thunder and ice beam are there for. If DP hits but dosen't get the CH, those two moves will clean it up. And no it WILL KO snorlax if its a CH.

[Dragon Champion]

slayer5 said:

Yeh using moves that don't even exist is a great way to battle. *sarcasm oozing form mouth*

There is one move for Dragonite which is better than Dynamic Punch, and that move indeed exists. It's just that the move itself is assumed to be forbidden by so many people that many trainers tend to forget about its existance.

slayer5 said:

You forgot about the confuse effect! There is a 50-50 chance that The confused pokemon will hit it self.

I didn't forget about the confusion effect. But even so, 44-52% damage is not good enough.

slayer5 said:

Not to meanching the fact that no one in there right mind would think of using DP twice, risking that the opponant switchs into a ghost or other resistant pokemon. That is why thunder and ice beam are there for. If DP hits but dosen't get the CH, those two moves will clean it up.

Ice Beam and Thunder barely does anything to Snorlax. I wouldn't waste my time using them against Snorlax.

slayer5 said:

And no it WILL KO snorlax if its a CH.

Critical hit itself does not happen very often. And even when it does happen, it'll only OHKO Snorlax one third of the time.

[Slayer]

Alright, I double checked and getting a CH on snorlax does not instantly kill it. But it wouldn't survive for very long. Also confusion is a bitch. It hits its self 50% of the time. Couple that with ice beam or thunder(which is inaccurate as well; might want thunderbolt on that) and you got a dead snorlax. Also Blissy would have even less of a chance to survive.

[Dragon Champion]

Still, there's a better option for Dragonite...

[ragnaar]

Without dynamic punch, you cannot kill a Snorlax using Dragonite with even a vague level of reliability (I say this because dynamic punch is by no means a guarantee).