[overview]
**Draft order**: Round 3 onwards
**Price range**: 14-15 points
**Overview**: Dragonite is a strong, versatile physical attacker that can serve well as a setup sweeper or wallbreaker. Its Multiscale ability provides it with easy setup opportunities and can serve as a roadblock to opposing Pokemon, and its wide variety of coverage moves, including strong priority in Extreme Speed, can break holes in an opponent's team. However, Dragonite is harmed by its poor access to STAB moves, mediocre base Speed, reliance on Heavy-Duty Boots to stay at full health, and an unfortunate case of four-moveslot syndrome.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Setup sweeper**: Using Multiscale, Dragonite usually gets at least one free opportunity to set up with Dragon Dance. The main decision when building Dragonite for this role is whether to use three attacks, sacrificing recovery and possible additional chances at using Multiscale to set up further, or use two attacks and Roost, gaining that recovery but sacrificing coverage, a STAB move, or priority with Extreme Speed. It can also sometimes use Encore instead of Roost to punish foes and give itself more setup opportunities.
**Wallbreaker**: In this role, Dragonite uses a Choice Band—or occasionally a special set with Choice Specs—to break the opposing team. Its powerful attacks like Outrage and Earthquake can heavily damage foes, and it can revenge kill or clean up a weakened team with a boosted Extreme Speed.
**Offensive utility**: Dragonite can use its already-substantial Attack to wear down foes without needing a boost. Its bulk is also solid, and it can stop many Pokemon in their tracks with Multiscale when it is at full health. When acting in this role, it usually uses Roost to restore Multiscale and often takes advantage of utility moves like Thunder Wave and Dragon Tail.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Dragon Claw, Outrage, Scale Shot, Hurricane, Draco Meteor, Air Slash, Dragon Pulse
**Setup moves**: Dragon Dance, Agility
**Utility moves**: Roost, Substitute, Thunder Wave, Encore, Dragon Tail, Roar, Haze
**Coverage**: Extreme Speed, Earthquake, Iron Head, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Ice Spinner, Aqua Tail, Waterfall, Low Kick, Blizzard, Ice Beam, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Focus Blast, Hydro Pump, Surf, Thunderbolt, Thunder
Niche Moves
========
**Brick Break**: Against teams with strong dual screens setters, Dragonite can use Brick Break to remove Reflect, Light Screen, and Aurora Veil.
**Aerial Ace**: Although normally too weak to be worth running, Aerial Ace is Dragonite's best physical Flying-type STAB move. In matchups where the opposing team is weak to Flying-type moves, Aerial Ace can be adequate once Dragonite is set up with a Dragon Dance or two.
**Fire Spin**: Using Fire Spin, Dragonite can trap an overly passive foe and set up on it with Dragon Dance or force a switch-in to stay in while it switches to an ally.
**Rain Dance**: Uncommonly, Dragonite can use Rain Dance to boost the accuracy of Hurricane, get rid of opposing sun, and support teammates.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: On Dragonite sets that rely on Multiscale, Heavy-Duty Boots is often essential to prevent Stealth Rock from damaging Dragonite and bringing it below full HP. Even on less Multiscale-reliant sets, Dragonite appreciates Heavy-Duty Boots removing its weakness to Stealth Rock.
**Choice Band**: A Choice Band can enhance Dragonite's wallbreaking power. Teams lacking a Dragon immunity can be severely threatened by a Choice Band-boosted Outrage, and Dragonite can revenge kill with an empowered Extreme Speed or clean up weakened teams late-game once any Normal-resistant foes have been KOed or sufficiently damaged.
**Leftovers**: When its teammates support it with reliable entry hazard removal or the opponent has non-threatening Stealth Rock setters, Leftovers can be used on bulkier Dragonite sets alongside Roost to consistently restore Multiscale.
**Lum Berry**: As a setup sweeper, Dragonite greatly suffers from status effects. A Lum Berry can cure any status it receives from foes, as well as being able to remove confusion if it runs Outrage.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: While Multiscale is active, Dragonite is not particularly threatened by most super effective moves, so holding a Weakness Policy can exploit this to boost its stats.
**Choice Specs**: Dragonite is viable as a special wallbreaker when the opponent has physical walls that stop it in its tracks, with access to strong special STAB moves like Draco Meteor and Hurricane and coverage options like Fire Blast and Thunderbolt.
**Damage-boosting items**: Dragonite's wide variety of coverage makes running damage-boosting items tempting. Silk Scarf is especially good, as it boosts Extreme Speed. However, Dragonite normally prefers not to run Life Orb because it breaks Multiscale.
**Loaded Dice**: If using Scale Shot, Loaded Dice can make it a more powerful Dragon-type STAB move than Dragon Claw.
**Ability Shield**: Ability Shield can preserve Multiscale against foes with Mold Breaker or other ability-ignoring options.
**Mental Herb**: Against foes with Taunt or Encore, Mental Herb can help Dragonite set up without getting disrupted.
**Eject Pack**: When running Draco Meteor, Eject Pack can allow Dragonite to pivot out once, maintaining momentum after using a powerful attack.
Tera
========
Dragonite is normally Tera-banned. If it is allowed to Terastallize, it can be an extremely strong and versatile option and likely should be your primary Tera Captain. Tera Normal can boost Dragonite's Extreme Speed to game-winning levels, especially when strengthened by a Dragon Dance or Choice Band, while Tera Flying can give it a stronger physical Flying-type STAB move than Aerial Ace. Other Tera types can boost Dragonite's many coverage moves, such as Tera Ground to boost its already-powerful Earthquake, flip its weaknesses to enable it to set up, such as Tera Steel to resist all its weaknesses, and help it avoid status, such as Tera Fire to gain an immunity to burn.
Draft Strategy
========
Dragonite can be a solid wincon with the right support, using Multiscale to be nearly guaranteed a turn of setup with Dragon Dance. Drafts are not often built around it, as it is somewhat flawed in terms of base Speed and access to STAB moves compared to other top-tier wincons, but it can fit onto many rosters looking for a secondary threat. It can also function as an effective wallbreaker with access to a good priority move in Extreme Speed.
**Entry hazard removal**: Partners that can reliably remove entry hazards, such as Iron Treads and Cyclizar, can help with Dragonite's weakness to Stealth Rock and make it less reliant on running Heavy-Duty Boots to preserve Multiscale.
**Pivots**: Dragonite prefers not to directly switch into attacks, as taking even a little damage breaks Multiscale. Offensive pivots that scare foes out and then use a pivoting move, such as Meowscarada and Iron Bundle, and defensive pivots that can take a hit and then switch, such as Galarian Slowking and Corviknight, can synergize well with Dragonite.
**Steel-types**: Steel-type Pokemon are excellent partners for Dragonite, as they resist all of its weaknesses and threaten three of them—Ice, Fairy, and Rock—offensively. Scizor, Tinkaton, and Heatran are all very solid in this regard.
**Entry hazard setting**: As a primarily offensive Pokemon, Dragonite appreciates entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes, which make netting KOs easier for it. Hazard setters that pair well with Dragonite include Iron Treads and Skarmory.
**Shed Tail**: Dragonite is one of the best partners for Shed Tail users like Cyclizar and Orthworm. Being passed a Substitute at full health means that Multiscale reduces damage to both the Substitute and Dragonite itself, giving it an easy opportunity to set up and sweep the opposing team.
Checks and Counters
========
**Physical walls**: Physical walls can often deal with Dragonite, especially ones that resist its Dragon-type STAB moves or aren't threatened by Earthquake. Pokemon like Galarian Weezing, Dondozo, and Rotom-W can wall Dragonite and stop its sweep until they are dealt with. Dragonite can sometimes run special attacks to play around these Pokemon, but its special attacker sets often perform worse than physical sets once the surprise factor is lost.
**Ice-type moves**: Ice Beam and Ice Spinner are widely distributed coverage moves that Dragonite has a quadruple weakness to. Pokemon with access to these moves that can outspeed Dragonite or survive its attacks after setting up can spell doom for it. Iron Bundle is a particular terror, often using Booster Energy or Choice Scarf to outspeed Dragonite even after a Dragon Dance, forcing it out with the threat of an Ice Beam, and then using the opportunity to pivot out with Flip Turn to keep momentum. Additionally, Pokemon with access to Triple Axel like Weavile threaten Dragonite even more, as Triple Axel breaks Multiscale with its first hit and normally KOes Dragonite with the next two.
**Stealth Rock**: If Dragonite isn't running Heavy-Duty Boots or its item gets removed with Knock Off, its weakness to Stealth Rock can substantially worsen its performance. Taking damage from Stealth Rock upon entering the field will break Multiscale and thus remove one of its core strengths.
**Status effects**: Being inflicted with status is very bad for Dragonite. It can function around paralysis by increasing its Speed with Dragon Dance and also by using Extreme Speed, but poison breaks Multiscale every turn even if Dragonite recovers with Roost, and burn does the same along with hindering its Attack.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scionicle.599989/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno6377.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ken.594478/
**Draft order**: Round 3 onwards
**Price range**: 14-15 points
**Overview**: Dragonite is a strong, versatile physical attacker that can serve well as a setup sweeper or wallbreaker. Its Multiscale ability provides it with easy setup opportunities and can serve as a roadblock to opposing Pokemon, and its wide variety of coverage moves, including strong priority in Extreme Speed, can break holes in an opponent's team. However, Dragonite is harmed by its poor access to STAB moves, mediocre base Speed, reliance on Heavy-Duty Boots to stay at full health, and an unfortunate case of four-moveslot syndrome.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Setup sweeper**: Using Multiscale, Dragonite usually gets at least one free opportunity to set up with Dragon Dance. The main decision when building Dragonite for this role is whether to use three attacks, sacrificing recovery and possible additional chances at using Multiscale to set up further, or use two attacks and Roost, gaining that recovery but sacrificing coverage, a STAB move, or priority with Extreme Speed. It can also sometimes use Encore instead of Roost to punish foes and give itself more setup opportunities.
**Wallbreaker**: In this role, Dragonite uses a Choice Band—or occasionally a special set with Choice Specs—to break the opposing team. Its powerful attacks like Outrage and Earthquake can heavily damage foes, and it can revenge kill or clean up a weakened team with a boosted Extreme Speed.
**Offensive utility**: Dragonite can use its already-substantial Attack to wear down foes without needing a boost. Its bulk is also solid, and it can stop many Pokemon in their tracks with Multiscale when it is at full health. When acting in this role, it usually uses Roost to restore Multiscale and often takes advantage of utility moves like Thunder Wave and Dragon Tail.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB moves**: Dragon Claw, Outrage, Scale Shot, Hurricane, Draco Meteor, Air Slash, Dragon Pulse
**Setup moves**: Dragon Dance, Agility
**Utility moves**: Roost, Substitute, Thunder Wave, Encore, Dragon Tail, Roar, Haze
**Coverage**: Extreme Speed, Earthquake, Iron Head, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Ice Spinner, Aqua Tail, Waterfall, Low Kick, Blizzard, Ice Beam, Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Focus Blast, Hydro Pump, Surf, Thunderbolt, Thunder
Niche Moves
========
**Brick Break**: Against teams with strong dual screens setters, Dragonite can use Brick Break to remove Reflect, Light Screen, and Aurora Veil.
**Aerial Ace**: Although normally too weak to be worth running, Aerial Ace is Dragonite's best physical Flying-type STAB move. In matchups where the opposing team is weak to Flying-type moves, Aerial Ace can be adequate once Dragonite is set up with a Dragon Dance or two.
**Fire Spin**: Using Fire Spin, Dragonite can trap an overly passive foe and set up on it with Dragon Dance or force a switch-in to stay in while it switches to an ally.
**Rain Dance**: Uncommonly, Dragonite can use Rain Dance to boost the accuracy of Hurricane, get rid of opposing sun, and support teammates.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: On Dragonite sets that rely on Multiscale, Heavy-Duty Boots is often essential to prevent Stealth Rock from damaging Dragonite and bringing it below full HP. Even on less Multiscale-reliant sets, Dragonite appreciates Heavy-Duty Boots removing its weakness to Stealth Rock.
**Choice Band**: A Choice Band can enhance Dragonite's wallbreaking power. Teams lacking a Dragon immunity can be severely threatened by a Choice Band-boosted Outrage, and Dragonite can revenge kill with an empowered Extreme Speed or clean up weakened teams late-game once any Normal-resistant foes have been KOed or sufficiently damaged.
**Leftovers**: When its teammates support it with reliable entry hazard removal or the opponent has non-threatening Stealth Rock setters, Leftovers can be used on bulkier Dragonite sets alongside Roost to consistently restore Multiscale.
**Lum Berry**: As a setup sweeper, Dragonite greatly suffers from status effects. A Lum Berry can cure any status it receives from foes, as well as being able to remove confusion if it runs Outrage.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: While Multiscale is active, Dragonite is not particularly threatened by most super effective moves, so holding a Weakness Policy can exploit this to boost its stats.
**Choice Specs**: Dragonite is viable as a special wallbreaker when the opponent has physical walls that stop it in its tracks, with access to strong special STAB moves like Draco Meteor and Hurricane and coverage options like Fire Blast and Thunderbolt.
**Damage-boosting items**: Dragonite's wide variety of coverage makes running damage-boosting items tempting. Silk Scarf is especially good, as it boosts Extreme Speed. However, Dragonite normally prefers not to run Life Orb because it breaks Multiscale.
**Loaded Dice**: If using Scale Shot, Loaded Dice can make it a more powerful Dragon-type STAB move than Dragon Claw.
**Ability Shield**: Ability Shield can preserve Multiscale against foes with Mold Breaker or other ability-ignoring options.
**Mental Herb**: Against foes with Taunt or Encore, Mental Herb can help Dragonite set up without getting disrupted.
**Eject Pack**: When running Draco Meteor, Eject Pack can allow Dragonite to pivot out once, maintaining momentum after using a powerful attack.
Tera
========
Dragonite is normally Tera-banned. If it is allowed to Terastallize, it can be an extremely strong and versatile option and likely should be your primary Tera Captain. Tera Normal can boost Dragonite's Extreme Speed to game-winning levels, especially when strengthened by a Dragon Dance or Choice Band, while Tera Flying can give it a stronger physical Flying-type STAB move than Aerial Ace. Other Tera types can boost Dragonite's many coverage moves, such as Tera Ground to boost its already-powerful Earthquake, flip its weaknesses to enable it to set up, such as Tera Steel to resist all its weaknesses, and help it avoid status, such as Tera Fire to gain an immunity to burn.
Draft Strategy
========
Dragonite can be a solid wincon with the right support, using Multiscale to be nearly guaranteed a turn of setup with Dragon Dance. Drafts are not often built around it, as it is somewhat flawed in terms of base Speed and access to STAB moves compared to other top-tier wincons, but it can fit onto many rosters looking for a secondary threat. It can also function as an effective wallbreaker with access to a good priority move in Extreme Speed.
**Entry hazard removal**: Partners that can reliably remove entry hazards, such as Iron Treads and Cyclizar, can help with Dragonite's weakness to Stealth Rock and make it less reliant on running Heavy-Duty Boots to preserve Multiscale.
**Pivots**: Dragonite prefers not to directly switch into attacks, as taking even a little damage breaks Multiscale. Offensive pivots that scare foes out and then use a pivoting move, such as Meowscarada and Iron Bundle, and defensive pivots that can take a hit and then switch, such as Galarian Slowking and Corviknight, can synergize well with Dragonite.
**Steel-types**: Steel-type Pokemon are excellent partners for Dragonite, as they resist all of its weaknesses and threaten three of them—Ice, Fairy, and Rock—offensively. Scizor, Tinkaton, and Heatran are all very solid in this regard.
**Entry hazard setting**: As a primarily offensive Pokemon, Dragonite appreciates entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes, which make netting KOs easier for it. Hazard setters that pair well with Dragonite include Iron Treads and Skarmory.
**Shed Tail**: Dragonite is one of the best partners for Shed Tail users like Cyclizar and Orthworm. Being passed a Substitute at full health means that Multiscale reduces damage to both the Substitute and Dragonite itself, giving it an easy opportunity to set up and sweep the opposing team.
Checks and Counters
========
**Physical walls**: Physical walls can often deal with Dragonite, especially ones that resist its Dragon-type STAB moves or aren't threatened by Earthquake. Pokemon like Galarian Weezing, Dondozo, and Rotom-W can wall Dragonite and stop its sweep until they are dealt with. Dragonite can sometimes run special attacks to play around these Pokemon, but its special attacker sets often perform worse than physical sets once the surprise factor is lost.
**Ice-type moves**: Ice Beam and Ice Spinner are widely distributed coverage moves that Dragonite has a quadruple weakness to. Pokemon with access to these moves that can outspeed Dragonite or survive its attacks after setting up can spell doom for it. Iron Bundle is a particular terror, often using Booster Energy or Choice Scarf to outspeed Dragonite even after a Dragon Dance, forcing it out with the threat of an Ice Beam, and then using the opportunity to pivot out with Flip Turn to keep momentum. Additionally, Pokemon with access to Triple Axel like Weavile threaten Dragonite even more, as Triple Axel breaks Multiscale with its first hit and normally KOes Dragonite with the next two.
**Stealth Rock**: If Dragonite isn't running Heavy-Duty Boots or its item gets removed with Knock Off, its weakness to Stealth Rock can substantially worsen its performance. Taking damage from Stealth Rock upon entering the field will break Multiscale and thus remove one of its core strengths.
**Status effects**: Being inflicted with status is very bad for Dragonite. It can function around paralysis by increasing its Speed with Dragon Dance and also by using Extreme Speed, but poison breaks Multiscale every turn even if Dragonite recovers with Roost, and burn does the same along with hindering its Attack.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scionicle.599989/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno6377.527276/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/ken.594478/
Last edited:
