Hydreigon

Scattered mind

Scattered mind

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Hydreigon: Dark/Dragon

hydreigon.gif


stats:
HP: 92
Atk: 105
Def: 90
Sp.Atk: 125
Sp.Def: 90
Spe: 98

Ability:
Levitate -Immune to Ground type moves.

Viable moves:

Dark Pulse - 80/100 20% chance of causing the target to flinch
Draco Meteor - 130/90 Lowers the user's Special Attack by two stages
Focus Blast - 120/70 10% chance to lower the target's Special Defense by one stage
Fire Blast - 110/85 10% chance to burn the target
Earth Power - 90/100 10% chance to lower the target's Special Defense by one stage.
Dragon Pulse - 85/100
Flamethrower - 90/100 10% chance to burn the target
Protect- -/-Prevents anything from working on the user that turn. Chance of failure increases if it, Protect, Endure, Wide Guard, Quick Guard, King's Shield, or Spiky Shield was used successfully the previous turn. Priority +4.
U-Turn - 70/100 User attacks, then switches

If you want to put a stop for Aegislash:
252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Hydreigon: 46-54 (27.3 - 32.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO
252+ SpA Aegislash-Blade Flash Cannon vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Hydreigon: 93-109 (55.3 - 64.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 125-148 (74.8 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Shield: 152-182 (91 - 108.9%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Hydreigon Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Blade: 224-266 (134.1 - 159.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Choose Hydreigon.

Hydreigon works as a great attacker in 2 main sets : Choice Scarf and Choice Specs. While the scarf set helps Hydreigon's low speed and turns him into a dangerous fast threat, the choice specs set makes Hydreigon's power so huge it can OHKO Mega Kangaskhan: 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mega Kangaskhan: 220-260 (103.7 - 122.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO.
92/90/90 bulk makes helps Hydreigon to keep the pressure on the opponent while being able to take a hit or 2 without fainting unlike many other offensive choices.
The main letdown is of course Sylveon which has a high Special Defense to take hits from Hydreigon even with Choice Specs: 252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Sylveon: 80-95 (39.6 - 47%) -- guaranteed 3HKO. Not to mention the fact that Hydreigon has a quad weakness to its most powerful move. In addition, the fact that Hydreigon is locked into one move can give your opponent a lot of momentum especially with almost any Pokemon running Protect to scout what item Hydreigon carries. This can be fixed by using U-Turn but it is a pretty rare move on Hydreigon which usually prefers another coverage move. If Sylveon is to much common and threats your team, Iron Head/Flash Cannon can be used to 2HKO it ( depends on the set) .
 
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Why are your calcs of surviving Aegislash's attacks in Shield Forme? I think that may have been an oversight.

I find the biggest problem with Hydreigon is its base speed of 98. Many things outpace that which commonly carry a dragon or ice move. Choice Scarf I don't feel is the answer to this because you lose so much raw power. I feel the best way to use Hydreigon is on a team that uses Tailwind because then you have the freedom to change moves while still moving before your opponent. In that type of set I'd recommend either Life Orb or Expert Belt to take full advantage of its power. This lets you use Protect the turn you set up Tailwind or scout.

Choice Specs is a viable set, but it isn't something you would want to lead with because you'd need speed control so you don't get blasted before hitting something with Dark Pulse or Meteor.

Aegislash is an excellent partner for Hydreigon because it resists all moves Hydreigon is weak to and provides an answer for Sylveon. Heatran is also a valuable partner due to taking only 1/4 damage from Sylveon's Hyper Voice and random Ice Beams.
 
Fixed. Thanks :)
I'll add Protect to the viable moves then.
Aegislah and Hydreigon makes a great core indeed. Heatran is a great partner against Sylveon. I think that is especially viable if using LO so Hydreigon can lure Fighting moves and use Protect while Heatran can use Sub.
 
Hm, Any reason why U-Turn isn't there? That's always great to have espically on the choiced sets.

Why not a physical attacking Hydreigon either? It's base is 105 which I don't think is grounds to be ignored it has viable moves like Crunch, Outrage, Superpower, Iron Tail and so on.
 
I have yet to encounter a Hydreigon that used U-Turn in my VGC experience. Hydreigon is used to overwhelm your opponent with power. Hydreigon is usually seen with special attacks in VGC because there are better Pokemon for using physical attacks that can get the same coverage such as Salamence and Tyranitar.
 
Thanks @DdogTheKing , I guess U-Turn can be decent for gaining momentum. I'll add it.
Iron Tail is a very interesting tool to hit Sylveon but the question is, what else?
I did some calcs and came to the conclusion that Iron Tail is better on Choice Scarf Hydreigon while Flash Cannon is better for Choice Specs Hydreigon:

252 SpA Hydreigon Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Sylveon: 72-86 (35.6 - 42.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Hydreigon Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Sylveon: 78-94 (38.6 - 46.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Sylveon: 118-140 (58.4 - 69.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
4- Atk Hydreigon Iron Tail vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Sylveon: 102-120 (50.4 - 59.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

At least against Sylveon.

Superpower can be interesting instead of Focus Blast for not missing but the question is what can it hit better than Focus Blast?
 
The trouble with Superpower is it lowers your defense which many priority moves are physical such as Mach Punch. It also lowers your attack. The reason Close Combat can work on a Pokemon like Lucario is that its mega is already faster than most of the meta and it isn't that bulky to begin with.
 
Yeah, you really want to keep Hydreigon bulky enough to take a hit. It might be good if it can hit something much harder than Focus Blast but I can't thing about any common threat in the metagame for that.
 
I am intrigued to see Hydreigon get a page here. There's a lot of nice moves I didn't see people use often and I kinda wanna see Hydreigon do better considering I've never actually struggled against it in Gen 6. It falls too easily to Sylveon or Gardevoir.
 
To answer the U-Turn question, back when I was still playing VGC (which, mind you, was during BW) Hydreigon was used as an all-out tool of destruction. You pretty much wanted to hit as many things as possible as hard as you could. U-Turn doesn't add much in the way of coverage, has low power and is weak on a specially oriented set (which Hydreigon should be running, since, as KA said, there are better things to use in its place if you want physical). As such, it doesn't add much to Hydreigon's playstyle. Its utility seems great to me personally, but that's my two cents over why I think it isn't used.
 
Hydreigon is actually very common in VGC right now. Sylveon is a great threat but Hydreigon commonly has good partners such as Heatran and Aegislash to handle Sylveon and Gardevoir. It can also run LO+Protect to block Hyper Voice and to let Aegislash to finish Sylveon/Gardevoir.
The fact that Gardevoir is not very common in the metagame iirc also helps.
 
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