Dragonair
We all know that dragonite lives up to its name as a pseudo-legendary pokemon, but what about its pre-evolution?
Fortunately, Dragonair does pretty well on its own.
Most of the moveset will be borrowed from Milotic's standard moveset (because they have the same abilities)
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Nature: Relaxed or Sassy
Ability: Marvel Scale
Item: Eviolite
Moves:
Rest
Sleep Talk
Flamethrower / Fire Blast / Ice Beam / Dragonbreath / Toxic
Dragon Tail / other
At level 100, dragonair with relaxed nature has 326 HP, 183 Def, and 239 SpD.
At first glance, these stats look terrible/mediocre.
However, If you didn't know, eviolite increases the pokemons Def and SpD by 50% if the pokemon can still evolve.
That means that dragonair really has 1.5x the listed Def and SpD (274 Def and 358 SpD).
Furthermore, the ability Marvel Scale grants Dragonair 1.5x the Def if it is afflicted by a non-volatile status (burn, paralysis, sleep, poisoned, badly poisoned).
That means the Def can be a total of 411 (183*1.5 from eviolite * 1.5 from marvel scale).
What this basically all means is that dragonair has the potential to be very bulky (ignoring its mediocre HP).
Usage:
You might be wondering that this build might be very situational, requiring a status in order to get Marvel Scale to work.
Rest assured, since the move "Rest" takes care of this problem.
Not only does rest restore HP, but it grants Dragonair the Sleep status, so he/she gets the Def boost.
After taking a hit or multiple hits, use rest to restore HP.
After that, always follow up with using Sleep Talk for 2 turns (2 turns because rest causes the pokemon to sleep for exactly 2 turns).
Sleep Talk will randomly select between the 3 remaining moves (meaning you have a 66.7% chance of attacking).
Tips:
With the rest/sleep talk build, you never need to worry about statuses, as dragonair can simply rest.
Feel free to mix and match the 2 moves (aside from rest and sleep talk) to your liking.
Personally, the move dragon tail is very useful in preventing other pokemon from setting up.
It also has great synergy with entry hazards (spikes, toxic spikes, and stealth rock).
Dragontail forces the pokemon to switch, so the pokemon looses all its buff. Also, the incoming pokemon receives damage from entry hazards.
Fire blast allows dragonair to get rid of pesky pokemon that set up entry hazards ( many of which are weak to fire)
Negatives:
Unfortunately, Milotic is usually a better choice with greater HP and leftovers recovery.
The benefits of using dragonair over milotic is due to the resistances granted by Dragon typing. Also, it has a greater movepool, allowing it to be more versatile and counter more pokemon.
Unlike Milotic, dragonair doesn't have scald, so it cannot burn any pokemon.
In general, dragonair does not deal that much damage, and is overly reliant on entry hazards for damage dealing.
(This can be fixed by using toxic and/or wrap to deal damage per turn)
Since dragonair will usually be outsped by almost everything, it requires careful planning and prediction to execute succesfully.
Butterfree
Remember when we all thought that beginner pokemon (especially the 2 bug pokemon archetypes) always suck? Well, guess we're wrong.
At first glance, butterfree appears to be a terrible pokemon. However this can easily annoy and sweep an entire team if done correctly.
4HP / 252SpA / 252Spe
Nature: Timid
Ability: Compound Eyes
Item: Focus Sash
Moves:
Sleep Powder
Quiver Dance
Bug Buzz
Giga Drain (Preferred) / Dream Eater / Psychic / Shadow Ball
The premise of this moveset is to use sleep powder first, causing the pokemon to go to sleep.
Compound eyes increases the accuracy of sleep powder from 75 to 97. The means that instead of missing once every 4 times (75 accuracy), it will now miss only 3 times out of 100 times (97 accuracy).
After the pokemon sleeps, follow up with quiver dance, which gives +1 to SpA, SpD, and Spe (meaning the following 3 stats are multiplied by 1.5).
With a Timid nature, 1 quiver dance will allow butterfree to outspeed even crobat.
2 quiver dances will allow butterfree to outspeed most scarfed pokemon.
Focus sash allows butter free to survive at least 1 hit (to allow for sleep powder or quiver dance)
Tips:
Butterfree will outspeed most stealth rocks and spikes setter (forretress, ect).
Since many pokemon teams start off will a trap setter, this basically guarantees a free sleep powder.
After that, you're basically guaranteed a quiver dance (since the pokemon will either sleep or switch out).
Depending on whether the other player switches out or continue to use the sleeping pokemon, decide to attack or use another quiver dance (much riskier).
Regardless, you can take at least one hit due to focus sash.
Negatives
For the 4th move, I listed alternatives to giga drain because butterfree is weak to fire. Both giga drain and bug buzz will only do 1/2 damage. Psychic and shadow ball can be used to neutral damage instead (at the expense of no HP recovery)
Also, beware of grass pokemon! Sleep powder will not work on grass pokemon.
Butterfree to extremely susceptible to priority moves (bullet punch, ice shard, sucker punch, ect).
If the other player manages to bring you down to 1 hp (due to focus sash), they can take you out with a priority move without you being able to attack.
A lot of pokemon, such as galvantula (with sticky web) will outspeed butterfree and set up stick web.
Also, be weary of rest/sleep talk builds.
Putting those pokemon to sleep is practically pointless, as they have 67% chance of attack anyways (if they have 2 attacking moves).
Finally, only 1 pokemon on the other team can be put to sleep according to smogon rules (required on pokemon showdown). If you don't adhere to smogon rules and play on battlespot, then feel free to ignore.
Edited by SuperDuperPuppu, 15 July 2014 - 04:25 AM.