Drapion Discussion

[ebeast]

Cowritten with Molk
GP'd by Jellicent

DRAPION​

~Typing:

/

~Base Stats: 70 HP / 90 Atk / 110 Def / 60 SpA / 75 SpD / 95 Spe
~Abilities: Battle Armor / Sniper / Keen Eye (DW)​

Overview

With an amazing typing and a great overall stat spread and movepool, Drapion stands proud in RU as possibly the most versatile and dangerous pokemon in the tier. Thanks to its great movepool, Drapion can pull off a myriad of sets ranging from a defensive stallbreaker to an offensive sweeper with Swords Dance. It can even utilize Pursuit effectively to trap and remove Pokemon such as Slowking and Mesprit from the match! It can effortlessly take own the vast amount of powerful Ghost- and Psychic-type Pokemon in the tier, ranging from the mighty Nasty Plot Cofagrigus, which almost every team needs to watch out for, to defensive walls such as Dusknoir, Mesprit, and Uxie.


~Notable Moves:

• Taunt
• Swords Dance
• Crunch
• Earthquake
• Ice Fang
• Toxic Spikes
• Whirlwind
• Night Slash
• Poison Jab
• Aqua Tail
• Pursuit
• Knock Off

~Example Sets:

Swords Dance
~ Swords Dance
~ Taunt / Ice Fang
~ Crunch
~ Earthquake / Aqua Tail
~Item: Leftovers / Life Orb
~Ability: Sniper
~Nature: Jolly
~EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe OR 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe

Drapion is an excellent candidate for a Swords Dance sweeper. Its Poison-typing grants it a Toxic Spikes immunity, while it also possesses high Speed and Attack, and access to Taunt. Swords Dance raises Drapion's Attack stat to intimidating levels, and with its great resistances and good bulk, it has no problem finding an oppritunity to set up. Taunt gives opposing Pokemon that wish to cripple or set up on Drapion something to think about before going for their support options; as a bonus, it stops moves such as Roar and Haze from working, making sure Drapion doesnt get phazed out. Ice Fang has lost a lot of utility when Gligar said its goodbyes to RU for bigger and better things (read: UU Sand Veil Hax), but it is still an option if you need a reliable way to defeat Mandibuzz without having to resort to stalling it out. Crunch is Drapion's strongest STAB move, and allows Drapion to smash through Slowking, Cofagrigus, and Uxie with relative ease. Earthquake rounds off Drapion's coverage with a reliable way to hit things such as Aggron and Steelix, but Aqua Tail cripples Rhydon, which threatens our little scorpion otherwise. The first EV spread gives Drapion the highest possible Attack and Speed it can have, while the other spread allows Drapion to reliably set up on weaker threats, making it that much more threatening to stall.



Specially Defensive
~ Toxic Spikes
~ Taunt
~ Whirlwind
~ Crunch
~Item: Leftovers
~Ability: Battle Armor
~Nature: Careful
~EVs: 244 HP / 244 SpD / 16 Spe

Even with Drapion's deceptively low Special Defense stat, it can still make an extremely effective support Pokemon in RU. Its coveted Poison- and Dark-typing grants it superb resistances and immunities to common special attacking types such as Psychic, Ghost, Grass, and Dark. Not only that, but its Poison-type neutralizes common coverage moves used against Dark-type Pokemon such as Bug- and Fighting-type attacks. Drapion's ability of choice, Battle Armor, allows Drapion to constantly check the Pokemon it needs to without the fear of a crit and helps Drapion last longer in the match. Drapion does not only have the excellent bulk and speed to stallbreak with Taunt and Toxic Spikes, but it also has access to the best phazing move in the game, Whirlwind. By waving its arms and unleashing rampaging poisonous winds, Drapion can force Pokemon such as Gallade, Cofagrigus, Lilligant, Uxie, Mesprit, or Spiritomb out of the battle and away from coming near its teammates.



All-Out Attacker
~ Pursuit
~ Crunch
~ Earthquake
~ Aqua Tail / Ice Fang
~Item: Life Orb / Choice Band
~Ability: Sniper
~Nature: Jolly
~EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe

While Drapion's other offensive set revolves around setting up to do damage, this one uses a combination of Drapion's high initial offense and Pursuit to do as much damage to the opponent's team as possible. Thanks to its great typing, it can come in on multiple Pokemon such as Rotom and threaten them out. Thanks to Pursuit, it can get rid of these threats without worry. Drapion's large movepool grants it useful coverage moves in Earthquake, Aqua Tail, and Ice Fang. Crunch and Earthquake provide excellent coverage in the RU tier, only missing out on the rare Mandibuzz. Aqua Tail and Ice Fang give Drapion a way to hit Ground-type Pokemon such as Sandslash and Rhydon that would normally threaten it out, and Ice Fang hits Drapion's number one enemy: Mandibuzz. Life Orb is usually the preferred item, but Choice Band is still an option if you dont like Life Orb recoil or desire more power. Sniper is the preferred ability, as if Drapion is lucky enough to land a critical hit, its power is tripled.



~A few general questions for discussion:

• What sorts of Drapion sets do you run?
• What do you feel Drapion is best at doing?
• What kind of support does Drapion require most?
• How does Drapion support your team?
• What threatens Drapion? how do you deal with opposing Drapion?

 

[complete legitimacy]

I think that Drapion is one of the best Pokemon in RU. I usually expect the Taunt + SD set now, but then again I'm a little slow to change my actions based on metagame trends. Now I see a lot more of the Choice Band set, which is good for trapping Cryogonal. I've used Cryogonal a lot this month, and Drapion would always come in on it even if it was an SD set. I always switch Cryogonal out to Rhydon, and if it's a CB set then it can trap Cryogonal. However, I don't like CB Drapion in comparison to Spiritomb, since Spiritomb hits harder which is really important when trapping Slowking, since Drapion can't OHKO with Crunch or Pursuit while Spiritomb has a good chance to OHKO with Pursuit on the switch or Sucker Punch.

And then of course there's the specially defensive set, which is good but personally I think it's a waste of Drapion's potential. It usually just sets up Toxic Spikes and then dies, since a lot of players play it as a suicide spiker. Yeah it counters Cofagrigus, but all of Drapion's other sets are good Cofagrigus checks already. However, once again it does catch me off guard since it's not a Swords Dance set. Really, I just assume every Drapion is a Swords Dance set because it's easily the most dangerous Drapion set. Drapion is top-tier for sure.

 

[Bigblue]

Drapion has always been my favorite pokemon since DP were released and I am so glad that drapion plays such an essential role in RU. Personally I run the specially defensive set as it counters Cofagrigus and Spiritomb, two of the most common and powerful pokes in RU at the moment. It does not only act as a counter to those two but also is good wall counter with access to taunt and toxic spikes and whirlwind. Personally I feel that drapion must always have a cleric with it because of Will-o-wisp from Tomb or something to take the burn. Also as it works very well as a counter to many walls it is a real help to have Spikes support as many pokes will switch out on it and if you whirlwind on their switch you can get loads of extra damage.

I personally see the taunt SD set the most as it can still counter cofag and tomb but I feel it really lacks the power (Until it gets up a SD) or speed to sweep whole teams and serves a better purpose defensively.

In terms of threats, drapion hates sandslash and rhydon leads in general. Because if they have a ferroseed or accelgor I will often lead with drapion to prevent spikes being set up but then if sandslash leads or comes in later drapion will always need a solid switch or counter to sandslash. Personally I find Rotom-C is a great switch in for sandslash. Also if you are running the offensive drapion you will have a really hard time sweeping until the opposing faster sweepers and scarfers are gone.