The Dragapult Theorem: How OMs keep breaking Dragapult

By Gimmickyasitgets and UT. Released:2023/09/29
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The Dragapult Theorem: How OMs keep breaking Dragapult Art

Art by Kiwi.

Dragapult: No Introduction Needed

Dragapult has been an OU staple since its introduction in Sword and Shield, and it's not hard to see why. As a pseudo-legendary with outstanding Speed, great typing both offensively and defensively, and a wide offensive and utility movepool, it has the tools to consistently be a top performer in the top usage tier, acting as any of a wallbreaker, setup sweeper, offensive pivot, cleaner, and status spreader. However, it is saddled with some key limitations, namely a mediocre selection of abilities, a lack of a reliable physical Ghost move, no way to boost its Special Attack, and good-but-not-great attacking stats.

Other Metagames, a collection of metagames that modify standard play in one way or another, have a habit of turning Dragapult into a hellacious monster that is usually banned in short order. Perhaps no OU Pokémon is better at getting banned from OMs than Dragapult; it has been banned or restricted in five of the six permanent singles-based OMs this generation, only fully escaping the banhammer in Balanced Hackmons where it's outright bad due to poor relative stats and typing. While many Pokémon are broken in one OM or another, even fairly innocuous presences like Noivern in Almost Any Ability and Komala in STABmons, Dragapult is notable for finding a way to be overpowered in virtually every permanent OM.

How does Dragapult keep getting banned? What made it too good in so many different metagames? Let's find out!

Almost Any Ability

Dragapult was banned twice in SS AAA, but when the AAA council lost their minds and freed Fur Coat and Ice Scales to start SV, it gained a new lease on life to terrorize the metagame once again. The fastest relevant Pokémon in the pre-Pokémon HOME metagame, Dragapult could use a wide range of abilities like Sheer Force, Magic Guard, and Dazzling to either blow through, outlast, or frustrate the opposing team (all of which are very nice upgrades to Clear Body, Cursed Body, and Infiltrator).

Dragapult was a day one threat, especially as its mixed sets could punish even Ice Scales users, and without the use of Speed boosts it was usually the fastest Pokémon on the field. This allowed it to force out virtually every other offensive Pokémon, even the dangerous new Flutter Mane, Iron Bundle, and Iron Valiant while still doing credible damage to opposing defensive cores. It competed heavily with the much-stronger Flutter Mane, which also has the needlessly powerful Moonblast and ability to boost its Special Attack with Calm Mind, but still stood apart with its superior Speed tier, mixed sets, and pivoting abilities.

The early AAA meta was held together with Fur Coat, Ice Scales, and duct tape; once Fur Coat and Ice Scales were banned by suspect test, Dragapult was part of a large quickban slate just a few days later, putting an end to its reign of terror. Given its history, it's unlikely to get another chance this generation, but some of its best sets are highlighted below:

  • Dragapult @ Life Orb
  • Ability: Sheer Force
  • EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
  • Hasty Nature
  • - Shadow Ball
  • - Dragon Rush
  • - Fire Blast
  • - Thunderbolt
  • Dragapult @ Choice Specs
  • Ability: Hadron Engine
  • EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
  • Timid Nature
  • - Shadow Ball
  • - Draco Meteor
  • - Thunderbolt
  • - U-turn

Dragapult often opted for damage amplification abilities, taking its average Special Attack and gaining a 30% or more boost to its damage. Sheer Force + Life Orb was probably its most unwallable set, as Shadow Ball had tremendous power, Fire Blast and Thunderbolt frustrated some of its few switch-ins like Ice Scales Corviknight, and Dragon Rush blew up any specially defensive wall that thought it could switch in 75% of the time. This set also benefited tremendously from absence of the Choice Item, as Shadow Ball + the appropriate follow-up move was usually enough to get the KO while still chasing out whatever was in front of it. Choice Specs + Hadron Engine eschewed flexibility for raw power; while it had a few hard counters, it could also just click Shadow Ball for days.

Dragapult could also provide more team utility while still tearing up the opposing team with a Magic Guard + Life Orb + Hex set. With the status move of its choice, Dragapult could spread status, pivot, and wear down opposing teams over time. Dragon Darts and Hex, especially once status was everywhere, provided consistent damage and helped Dragapult win in the longer game. Magic Guard also allowed it to pivot freely even with entry hazards up and not fear status from the now Knock Off-less Toxapex. The Speed EVs gave it the jump on Iron Bundle.

In a metagame where Speed kills, Dragapult also had its famed "screw you I'm faster" set. With base 142 Speed, Choice Scarf, and an immunity to opposing priority moves, Dragapult was virtually always the fastest Pokémon on the field and could revenge kill... just about everything. This set was a huge roadblock to opposing offense teams, as it still had enough power to knock out offensive threats and was a hard stop to the dreaded Aerilate Dragonite while also turning Triage Hatterene into free momentum.

Godly Gift

Dragapult's amazing Speed, already one of its best traits in standard play, is an even bigger boon in Godly Gift. Fast Ubers like Koraidon, Eternatus, and Arceus not only are prominent in the metagame, but they donate their base 120+ Speed tiers to a receiver as well. Dragapult is a cheat code to still outspeed even the fastest receivers and every viable Uber short of Zacian-C, benefitting from the fact that Zacian-C only donates base Zacian's stats.

At the same time, Dragapult benefits tremendously as a receiver, as its pedestrian base 100 Special Attack could be replaced with an Ubers Pokémon's Special Attack; even Arceus's base 120 Special Attack is a nice boost, to say nothing of Eternatus's 145 or Rayquaza's 150. Shadow Ball's amazing neutral coverage allows Choice Specs sets to mindlessly spam it against any team lacking a bulky Dark-type (which still hated U-turn) or Arceus (...which was admittedly a problem), and it still has the utility options to annoy even its best checks thanks to Will-O-Wisp.

Dragapult was oppressive against offensive and even balance teams, as it was difficult to revenge kill, switch into, and play around, since Shadow Ball just... melts things. It was banned shortly after Pokémon HOME release when it gained a wider range of gods to pair with, namely Eternatus and Rayquaza, but has recently been unbanned (along with everything else) to re-test in the post-DLC metagame. If history is any indication, it will be a top receiver... unless it gets banned again.

Nothing fancy here, but this is far and away Dragapult's best set. Pivot in against an offensive Pokmon, click Shadow Ball (or occasionally U-turn or Draco Meteor if you saw a Ting-Lu or Arceus), profit. Infiltrator also has the important niche of often invalidating dual screens hyper offense teams, which normally cannot outspeed Dragapult and just fold to it. When paired with Rayquaza, Eternatus, or even Arceus, Dragapult puts the opposition in a world of hurt.

While clicking Shadow Ball is fun, it does have some fairly consistent switch-ins like Ting-Lu that don't fear any one attack. This set aims to outlast the opposing team, inflicting status, pivoting freely thanks to Heavy-Duty Boots, and still putting out serious damage with god-boosted Draco Meteor and Hex. Will-O-Wisp is the preferred status option to hit Ting-Lu, ruin Extreme Killer Arceus, and provide extra chip damage, but Thunder Wave is still an option to steal turns against passive pivots.

STABmons

Coming into Gen 9 with a suspect ban in SS under its belt, Dragapult was perfectly situated to tear the tier to shreds. Early STABmons was a tier dominated by hyper offense, with Shed Tail Chansey and Cyclizar able to give threats like Victory Dance Iron Valiant and Ceaseless Edge Chien-Pao a chance to win games on the spot, and Dragapult was one of the most notorious examples of a Pokémon that could shred through teams it had no right to. Dragapult's fantastic Speed and phenomenal neutral coverage are only enhanced in STABmons, where it gets access to incredibly high BP moves, the most notable being Last Respects and Glaive Rush, which make a solid 120 Attack stat look nuclear.

Last Respects is infamous for enabling ridiculous reverse sweeps, able to quickly garner a base power in the hundreds before factoring in the boosts from STAB and Tera, meaning that even mid-game, Dragapult is often handed a STAB move with a Base Power of 100 and no drawbacks-- minus a fainted teammate-- to wreak havoc with. Even foes resistant to Ghost weren't safe, with Glaive Rush being a ludicrously strong secondary STAB move, sitting at a whopping 120 Base Power before any boosts. While Glaive Rush had the side effect of doubling the damage of any hits directed at the user before its next action, Dragapult was so fast and so strong that it was essentially guaranteed to completely bypass the side effect after KOing something with Glaive Rush.

Dragapult also retained the same great coverage and utility moves it has access to normally, allowing it to customize its moveset to whatever the team needed. The most popular third move was Tera Blast Fighting in order to turn Kingambit, which threatened to OHKO Dragapult with Sucker Punch, into a helpless target. Its last move was insanely versatile, with options such as Dragon Dance turning Life Orb sets into phenomenal wallbreakers and cleaners, U-turn to turn Dragapult into one of the best offensive pivots in the tier, and any selection of Will-O-Wisp, Hex, Thunder Wave, Sucker Punch, Flamethrower, Draco Meteor, and more to completely turn the usual Dragapult counterplay on its head.

Dragapult was universally agreed upon to be problematic for the STABmons metagame and was among the first Pokémon in the tier to be banned. Even with Last Respects restricted, Dragapult keeps access to the powerful Poltergeist, which still overpowers teams in a similar fashion. As long as Dragapult gets a reliable and powerful physical Ghost-type move, it is unlikely to see any re-testing in the near future.

Nothing outlandish here; this was Dragapult's standard set, with the goal of wearing down the opponent's team alongside the rest of its party, until Dragapult was the only team member left standing. This gave Last Respects a whopping 450 Base Power after STAB. Tera Blast Fighting gave Dragapult a super effective hit on Kingambit and Chansey while surviving a super effective Sucker Punch or Shadow Sneak. Dragon Dance, combined with Life Orb, amplified Dragapult's cleaning potential to a terrifying degree, making it nigh impossible to switch anything in against.

Another standard Dragapult set, exchanging the sweeping power of Dragon Dance for the absurd breaking power of a Choice Band. U-turn turned Dragapult into a terrifying offensive pivot, able to 2HKO much of the tier and pivot out of the few things it couldn't with U-turn. Fighting and Fire were both viable Tera options, with one completely countering Kingambit and the other checking Iron Valiant while also dodging Will-O-Wisp. Infiltrator was notable for completely bypassing the Shed Tail and dual screens that commandeered the tier, allowing Dragapult to make progress mid-game and give the role of cleaner over to a teammate such as Palafin or Iron Valiant.

Inheritance

Leveraging its fantastic offensive typing, solid mixed attacking stats, and fantastic Speed, Dragapult quickly proved problematic. Inheriting from Dragalge allowed Dragapult to maintain access to powerful STAB moves, with Adaptability bringing its power to an absurd level. Adaptability-boosted Choice Specs Draco Meteor had no switch-ins barring Fairy-types and Blissey, which Dragapult could nuke with Gunk Shot or Outrage. If dropping Choice Specs for a Life Orb, Toxic Spikes allowed Dragapult to provide great utility to a team, wearing down its checks over time before blasting them away with a nigh unwallable STAB move combination. Inheriting from Dragalge also allowed Dragapult to use niche options like Toxic, Thunderbolt, Hydro Pump, and Play Rough. Though rare, Dragapult could fit any of these into its fourth moveslot and turn otherwise consistent counters into just more targets for Dragapult to either annoy or outright break.

Dragapult would soon come to prefer a Sheer Force + Life Orb set by inheriting from Tauros, maintaining STAB-boosted Shadow Ball while receiving Close Combat and Outrage as powerful physical options, alongside fantastic Sheer Force-boosted coverage in its choice of Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Thunderbolt. Close Combat turned RegenVest Hisiuan Goodra, an otherwise perfect counter, into just another KO target. With the power of Sheer Force, Shadow Ball was nigh impossible to switch into beyond Normal- and Dark-types, which hardly appreciated Close Combat. BoltBeam coverage gave Dragapult the sheer versatility to threaten almost anything in front of it.

Dragapult outsped everything bar Choice Scarf users, 2HKOed the majority of the tier, and had high set versatility with few reliable counters, all of which could easily be dealt with with small movepool tweaks. Dragapult was therefore banned from Inheritance!

Inheriting from Tauros gave Dragapult access to the coveted Sheer Force ability, turning its Shadow Ball into one of the most dangerous moves in the metagame. Combined with Close Combat to threaten the Normal- and Dark-types that switched in on Shadow Ball, Dragapult had near unresisted neutral coverage. With its remaining two moveslots, it had a bevy of coverage to pick from. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt were standard, giving Dragapult even better coverage and the ability to snipe a majority of the relevant Pokémon in the tier. Flamethrower could be slotted in over either of these, providing coverage to hit Steel-types that didn't mind Close Combat, such as Magearna.

With an Adaptability set, Dragapult was able to repeatedly spam powerful STAB moves to its heart's content. Shadow Ball and Draco Meteor threatened the majority of the tier, being nearly impossible to switch into outside of immunities, Blissey, and RegenVest users. For its physical options, Dragapult could either opt for Outrage for STAB or Gunk Shot to break through the special walls that otherwise stuffed it. In its last moveslot, Thunderbolt could hit Water-types super effectively, while Sludge Bomb nuked Fairy-types hoping to switch in on a Draco Meteor.

Mix and Mega

After a solid but unspectacular Gen 8, Dragapult seemed like it would repeat the same pattern of being great in SV. When the Mix and Mega council revealed that Pidgeotite would be freed upon the start of the generation, though, Dragapult revealed itself as a monster. Initially flying under the radar thanks to threats like Miraidon taking the role of offensive Dragon-type, and Iron Bundle and Kilowattrel absorbing Pidgeotite, Dragapult grew in popularity quickly once its competition was eliminated.

Pidgeotite sets were deadly, boasting a whopping base 165 Special Attack and a similarly ludicrous base 162 Speed, along with No Guard removing the accuracy checks on Draco Meteor and coverage moves such as Thunder, Hydro Pump, and Fire Blast. Dragapult had options to deal with the few special walls in the tier, such as Dragon Darts for Blissey and U-turn to escape any situation it couldn't handle. Lucarionite also emerged as a potent anti-meta set, luring in typical counters such as Garganacl and Dudunsparce and blowing them away with Adaptability-boosted STAB moves, as well as outspeeding other common Dragapult sets. Manecite also saw relevant usage, trading off some power for Speed and defensive utility with Intimidate.

Thanks to its exceptional Speed tiers, unmatched ability to gain momentum against its momentum-draining checks, and ability to completely turn its counters on their heads and outright win a game, Dragapult was restricted from holding a Mega Stone.

When donning the Pidgeotite, Dragapult became an explosive special attacker, outpacing most of the relevant Pokémon in the metagame and firing off fully accurate Draco Meteors and Thunders off of a terrifying base 165 Special Attack. Thunder struck down almost anything that its STAB moves couldn't, as well as spreading paralysis, giving Dragapult and its teammates even more momentum. Hydro Pump was useful for a guaranteed hit on Garganacl, while U-turn capitalized on the switches that Dragapult forced, keeping momentum in its favor.

Lucarionite gave Dragapult an even more blistering Speed tier and higher damage on its STAB moves at the cost of versatility. Dragon Darts was an amazing addition, heavily threatening special walls like Blissey and Dudunsparce, which otherwise didn't mind taking a Draco Meteor. With Adaptability, Dragapult could achieve stupefying damage rolls on its STAB moves alone, with U-turn to switch out of problematic matchups.

Other OMs

The same logic that applies to the permanent singles-based OMs, and Dragapult's reputation for being banworthy, also tends to apply to Other Metagames without permanent ladders. In The Card Game, an OM where the type chart is condensed down into the ten types currently present in the TCG, Dragapult was banned for its combination of blistering 142 Speed, a powerful Dragon/Psychic typing with a reliable physical STAB move in Psychic Fangs, and the same excellent movepool it's known for. In Full Potential, an OM where Pokémon attack using their highest stat barring HP, Dragapult was banned for having an effective Attack and Special Attack of 142, completely offsetting the lack of a physical Ghost-type STAB while also having Agility to boost its ludicrous Speed and damage even further, and Draco Meteor, which effectively has no drawbacks thanks to lowering Dragapult's unused Special Attack.

This is not universal, though. Dragapult finds itself as a perfectly balanced, and often not particularly great, part of several OMs. In Camomons, an OM where Pokémon take the typing of their first two moves, Dragapult has many different type combinations it can adorn itself with, such as Water/Ghost, Dragon/Water, Water/Electric, and even its standard Ghost/Dragon. Here, Dragapult finds itself as a fantastic Pokémon, but is not considered overbearing. In Re-Evolution, where the stat gains upon evolution are doubled, Dragapult is generally considered mediocre, as it fails to find a significant niche over the fantastic 825 BST Noivern. In Balanced Hackmons, one of the current permanent OMs, Dragapult can technically use Normalize + Entrainment to be annoying, but this strategy is the worst it's ever been and Dragapult is completely awful otherwise.

Final Thoughts

It's clear that Dragapult is a fundamentally amazing Pokémon; good stats including a blistering base 142 Speed, amazing offensive typing and coverage, and good utility options make it a versatile and dangerous threat. It's very clear that Game Freak intended to balance it through key movepool omissions like physical Ghost moves, mediocre abilities, and only average attacking stats. However, OMs remove these limitations and let it break various metagames wide open.

Want to see what other Pokémon get buffed wildly in OMs? Check out the OM forum or ask around in the PS! room! There are plenty of resources to help you get started using your favorite Pokémon in new and improved ways... unless your favorite Pokémon is Dragapult...

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