Approved by: ausma
Hydreigon
Type: Dark / Dragon
Stats: 92 / 105 / 90 / 125 / 90 / 98 (600 BST)
Abilities: Levitate
Notable Moves
Pros
I think people are sleeping on this mons Tera potential, both defensively and offensively. Below are some summaries of the Tera typings I envision, and have tested. If you have more for consideration, please discuss and I will edit the post acccordingly.
Tera Steel was the first option I considered, as it basically flips Hydreigon’s defensive profile. Fairy / Bug / Dragon / Ice all are suddenly ineffective, while due to levitate you are now only weak to Fire and Fighting. You do however lose key resistances to ghost and dark.
Tera Poison was the second option I considered, as a specific counter to one of this mon’s biggest problems, Iron Valiant. When running Terablast, you catch it by surprise, resisting Fairy, and Fighting moves Hydreigon is otherwise vulnerable to. It is also only weak to Psychic type moves.
Of its two already present typings, I find that Tera Dark is better than Tera Dragon. While Adaptability Draco Meteor is stupid strong, being locked into Draco is less than ideal. Strong dark pulse spam tera is quite solid, even if it fairly prepped for in the meta currently.
Tera Electric, while funny as it has literally no weaknesses, has pretty garbage resistances, and is hard to justify offensively.
Bread and Butter Sets
Other Options
Hydreigon, in my opinion, is an overlooked option. With the specific niche of being a slower, specially oriented Roaring Moon, with an in-built ground immunity. It has a surprising range of coverage and set options, allowing it to be act as a hard to predict option for muscling or manoeuvring around opponents. I advocate for you, dear reader, giving it a go, you'll be surprised what it can do.
Note:
As Hydreigon's usage changes, I will try to keep this post updated. This includes a potential Tera Ban, the addition of Home, and DLC. If you have anything you want added into this post, please message me and I will try to include it. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy using this cool Pokemon.
Hydreigon
Type: Dark / Dragon
Stats: 92 / 105 / 90 / 125 / 90 / 98 (600 BST)
Abilities: Levitate
Notable Moves
Dark Pulse
Draco Meteor
Earth Power
Fire Blast
Flamethrower
Flash Cannon
Focus Blast
Hydro Pump
Tera Blast*
Draco Meteor
Earth Power
Fire Blast
Flamethrower
Flash Cannon
Focus Blast
Hydro Pump
Tera Blast*
Crunch
Earthquake
Head Smash
Ice Fang
Outrage
Rock Slide
U-Turn
Zen Headbutt
Tera Blast*
Earthquake
Head Smash
Ice Fang
Outrage
Rock Slide
U-Turn
Zen Headbutt
Tera Blast*
Dragon Dance
Nasty Plot
Stealth Rock
Substitute
Taunt
Thunder Wave
Nasty Plot
Stealth Rock
Substitute
Taunt
Thunder Wave
Pros
- Solid base 125 special attack backed by strong STAB, Nasty Plot, and wide coverage make Hydreigon a hard to wall special threat.
- Base 98 Speed is a decent speed tier, allowing Hydreigon to outspeed the slower portion of the metagame, including Baxcalibur, Great Tusk, and Rotom.
- Due to its well rounded stats, access to u-turn, and decent speed, it can act as a solid choice scarf user, outspeeding everything up to neutral 110s at +1 such as Adamant Maushold (just as a reference).
- Now has access to Stealth Rock, so it can act as an offensive setter.
- 2 immunities to ground and psychic type moves. Key resists to ghost, dark, and fire among others.
- Having lost its most reliable form of recovery (roost), Hydreigon now relies solely on leftovers as a form of recovery (if it even runs lefties).
- 4x weak to fairy, and weak to other common offensive types, namely Bug, Fighting, and Ice.
- Outsped by a large chunk of threats that force you out. Everything running +speed at base 100 up like Garchomp and even neutral Iron Valiant.
- Crowded out by the plethora of solid dark types in the tier, especially Chien-Pao, Kingambit, and Roaring Moon.
I think people are sleeping on this mons Tera potential, both defensively and offensively. Below are some summaries of the Tera typings I envision, and have tested. If you have more for consideration, please discuss and I will edit the post acccordingly.
Tera Steel was the first option I considered, as it basically flips Hydreigon’s defensive profile. Fairy / Bug / Dragon / Ice all are suddenly ineffective, while due to levitate you are now only weak to Fire and Fighting. You do however lose key resistances to ghost and dark.
Tera Poison was the second option I considered, as a specific counter to one of this mon’s biggest problems, Iron Valiant. When running Terablast, you catch it by surprise, resisting Fairy, and Fighting moves Hydreigon is otherwise vulnerable to. It is also only weak to Psychic type moves.
Of its two already present typings, I find that Tera Dark is better than Tera Dragon. While Adaptability Draco Meteor is stupid strong, being locked into Draco is less than ideal. Strong dark pulse spam tera is quite solid, even if it fairly prepped for in the meta currently.
Tera Electric, while funny as it has literally no weaknesses, has pretty garbage resistances, and is hard to justify offensively.
Bread and Butter Sets
Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel / Poison
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Earth Power / Flash Cannon
- Flash Cannon / Flamethrower / Tera Blast
This set takes advantage of Nasty Plot to turn Hydreigon from a decently strong hitter into a destroyer of defensive options. Pick and choose your moves depending on what you want Hydra to be able to kill. Steel / Poison Tera chosen depending on how weak your team is to Iron Valiant. Run Flash Cannon if Steel tera > Tera Blast. Life Orb is chosen over Leftovers for the extra oomph to muscle past specially defensive counterplay, and net more OHKOs.
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Steel / Poison
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Dark Pulse
- Earth Power / Flash Cannon
- Flash Cannon / Flamethrower / Tera Blast
This set takes advantage of Nasty Plot to turn Hydreigon from a decently strong hitter into a destroyer of defensive options. Pick and choose your moves depending on what you want Hydra to be able to kill. Steel / Poison Tera chosen depending on how weak your team is to Iron Valiant. Run Flash Cannon if Steel tera > Tera Blast. Life Orb is chosen over Leftovers for the extra oomph to muscle past specially defensive counterplay, and net more OHKOs.
Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Dark / Dragon
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower / Flash Cannon
Scarf Hydreigon had a resurgence in the late days of Sword and Shield OU, and returns with a vengeance in this fast paced metagame. The combination of Hydras strong stab, coverage options and speed tier mean that it slots as a decent option for many of the naturally faster answers in the game. U-turn and Dark Pulse are the two core moves, with some variance in the last two slots as needed. Draco is an obvious option as it is Hydreigon's strongest possible move, Flamethrower lets you hit things like specially defensive corviknight and the ever present steel type tera. Flash Cannon might be a better option for the various fairy type tera pokemon, and for Iron Valiant.
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Dark / Dragon
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower / Flash Cannon
Scarf Hydreigon had a resurgence in the late days of Sword and Shield OU, and returns with a vengeance in this fast paced metagame. The combination of Hydras strong stab, coverage options and speed tier mean that it slots as a decent option for many of the naturally faster answers in the game. U-turn and Dark Pulse are the two core moves, with some variance in the last two slots as needed. Draco is an obvious option as it is Hydreigon's strongest possible move, Flamethrower lets you hit things like specially defensive corviknight and the ever present steel type tera. Flash Cannon might be a better option for the various fairy type tera pokemon, and for Iron Valiant.
Other Options
- If in need of a special ghost / dark resist, you could do much worse than specially defensive Hydreigon. This can be with leftovers, or an assault vest.
- Other utility options not included in the sets above of note are taunt and stealth rock. An anti-lead sash set of Taunt / Stealth Rock / Dark Pulse / Surf could be interesting to take advantage of things like Glimmora and Great Tusk.
- Dragon Dance with Tera Dragon/Fairy and Physical Tera Blast is an interesting option. Like Dragapult, but a fair bit slower. It is however outclassed by other Dragon Dancing mons.
Hydreigon, in my opinion, is an overlooked option. With the specific niche of being a slower, specially oriented Roaring Moon, with an in-built ground immunity. It has a surprising range of coverage and set options, allowing it to be act as a hard to predict option for muscling or manoeuvring around opponents. I advocate for you, dear reader, giving it a go, you'll be surprised what it can do.
Note:
As Hydreigon's usage changes, I will try to keep this post updated. This includes a potential Tera Ban, the addition of Home, and DLC. If you have anything you want added into this post, please message me and I will try to include it. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy using this cool Pokemon.
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