Gen 1 Dragonite [QC 0/2]

gastlies

running up that hill
is a Pre-Contributor
[OVERVIEW]

Dragonite is one of the most infamous Pokemon in RBY OU, thanks to its access to Wrap, which gives Dragonite a niche in OU as a mid-game wallbreaker and pivot, as well as a late-game cleaner. As a sweeper, Dragonite wears down opposing Pokemon with Wrap, then finishes them off with a strong attack, such as Hyper Beam or Blizzard. Its high attacking stats and wide movepool provide plenty of offensive power, more than making up for its lack of good STAB moves. Wrap also makes Dragonite an excellent pivot. If Dragonite uses Wrap on a Pokemon, then switches out, the opposing Pokemon won't be able to attack on the turn Dragonite switches, allowing teammates such as Tauros to switch in for free. Dragonite's base 80 speed is quite fast for the tier, outspeeding metagame staples such as Chansey, Snorlax, and Exeggutor. Speed is crucial for Dragonite because Wrap can prevent the opponent from attacking as long as Dragonite is faster. Although a good potion of the tier still outspeeds Dragonite, this can me remedied by Dragonite's two forms of speed control: Agility and Thunder Wave. Agility makes Dragonite faster than every unboosted Pokemon, allowing it to chain together Wraps until it runs out of PP or misses. Thunder Wave on the other hand, can allow Dragonite to threaten faster Pokemon, such as Alakazam and Starmie, with Paralysis, crippling them for the rest of the game. Dragonite is also great at forcing Paralysis on foes that run away from other Thunder Wave users, since they might stay in and attack Dragonite in fear of Agility. Dragonite is not frail either. Even with a 4x weakness to Ice, it survives Tauros's Blizzard, even having the chance to survive it after taking Body Slam. Dragonite also has a 61.5% chance to survive Starmie's Blizzard. Dragonite's typing also gives it a nice immunity to Ground, letting it switch into Rhydon and scaring it with Blizzard.

Despite these positive traits, Dragonite is held back by a mediocre typing and reliance on luck. Dragonite's typing makes it 4x weak to Ice-type moves, which are everywhere in OU. Dragonite is also deathly afraid of paralysis, since it prevents Dragonite from outspeeding naturally-slower Pokemon while also decreasing Wrap’s already-mediocre accuracy. This forces Dragonite to run away from Body Slam, a move that it would otherwise be able to take thanks to its high bulk. These traits mean Dragonite has a lot of trouble getting on the field, let alone trying to find a free turn to set up. Likewise, Wrap only has 84.4% accuracy, and a miss leaves it open to a potential Thunder Wave or Blizzard. Although Dragonite is fast relative to the OU tier, Jynx and Starmie outspeed it and OHKO it with Blizzard, though the latter is not guaranteed. One the offensive side, although Dragonite is strong, lack of STAB means Dragonite can't use its high attacking stats to its fullest potential. Due to these flaws, Dragonite. requires heavy team support in order to take advantage of the offensive traits it offers. Additionally, since Wrap is a very weak move, it is the perfect move for sleeping Pokemon such as Alakazam and Starmie to burn sleep turns on.

[SET]
name: Wrap
move 1: Wrap
move 2: Hyper Beam
move 3: Blizzard
move 4: Thunder Wave / Agility

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Wrap is mandatory on Dragonite, as it lets Dragonite pivot against foes, as well as tear down weakened and paralyzed teams. Hyper Beam is Dragonite's strongest move, dealing a minimum of 51.4% to Chansey and a minimum of 45.5% to Starmie. If the opposing Pokemon is out of Hyper Beam's KO range, Dragonite can chip its HP with Wrap in order to get it to the desired HP. Blizzard is used for dealing with Rhydon and the rare Golem, who resist Wrap and Hyper Beam, while also helping against Gengar, Zapdos, and Exeggutor. Since Wrap relies heavily on outspeeding your opponent, the fourth move is a form of speed control, either Thunder Wave or Agility.

Thunder Wave is used to incapacitate foes with paralysis, making it easier for Dragonite and its teammates to break through the opposing team. What makes Dragonite unique compared to other Thunder Wave users is that the threat of Agility generally forces an opponent to stay in and attack it, giving Dragonite an opportunity to get a crucial paralysis on a foe that would run away from other Thunder Wave users, such as Tauros or Starmie. However, this exchange typically means Dragonite either trades paralysis with an opponent or loses a significant chunk of its HP, although trading damage on Dragonite for paralysis on Tauros is almost always a favorable trade.

Agility is Dragonite's more notorious option. If Dragonite finds a chance to switch in on a resting Pokemon, it can find the free turn necessary to set up Agility, and proceed chain together Wraps. Although this sequence is hard to stop once started, it is not unstoppable. Wrap only has 32 PP, and constant switching will drain it quickly. In addition, physically-bulky Pokemon such as Cloyster and Lapras can stay in on Dragonite and wait for Wrap to miss before OHKOing with Blizzard. Dragonite also has to make sure Gengar is accounted for before attempting a sweep, since Gengar is immune to Wrap, although it is still immobilized, so you can safely switch to something else that forces it out.

Due to the abundance of ice moves and paralysis in RBY, Dragonite struggles to find oppurtunities to get it in safely. As mentioned before, this is typically done against a resting Pokemon or with an aggressive prediction. Alternatively, you can utilize other partial trapping moves to get Dragonite in safely. This makes Pokemon such as Victreebel and Cloyster good teammates. Victreebel can also force out Reflect Snorlax which could otherwise stay in and stall out Dragonite's Wrap PP. In addition to partial trapping support, Cloyster has a 4x resistance to Ice and an immunity to Freeze, meaning it complements Dragonite defensively quite well. Starmie and Chansey can also switch into Ice-type moves from opposing Starmie, Chansey, Jynx, and Articuno, as well as providing Dragonite with paralysis support, which it greatly appreciates to outspeed otherwise-faster Pokemon. Alakazam, Zapdos, and Jolteon also provide paralysis support to Dragonite, as well being good teamamtes for Dragonite to Pivot in to, making them good teammates. Alakazam also has a great matchup against Gengar, one of Dragonite's also hardest counters.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
===================

Although Dragonite has a wide variety of options, almost all of them are hard to fit on a set, as Wrap and your speed control move are undroppable, while Hyper Beam and Blizzard are both powerful options. Despite this, Surf can be used over Blizzard to guarantee a KO on Rhydon and Golem from full health, while Blizzard's maximum damage against Rhydon is 77.4%. However, Blizzard is generally preferred due to the extra damage on Zapdos and Exeggutor. All other options apart from Surf are either sacrificing the power of Hyper Beam or the anti-ground coverage of Blizzard, so they should be treated more carefully. Thunderbolt can be used by Dragonite in order to do increased damage on Cloyster, Slowbro, Lapras. and Starmie. Alternatively, Thunder could be used for a guaranteed 2HKO on Starmie and Slowbro, which Thunderbolt almost never does. Body Slam can be used over Hyper Beam to deal damage on opposing Pokemon while also threatening paralysis, as well as not requiring recharge if you fail to KO, and Fire Blast can be used to Burn opposing Pokemon, most notably Gengar, in order to put them on a timer with Wrap.

Checks and Counters
===================

**PP Stalling:** Once Dragonite sets up Agility, the primary way to deal with it is PP Stalling. Wrap's 32 PP can easily be stalled out by constant switching, and once Dragonite runs out of Wrap PP it becomes much less threatening. Wrap resists such as Gengar, Rhydon, or Golem, as well as physically bulky Pokemon such as Cloyster and Slowbro, should be accounted for because of this. Gengar is particularly pressing due to taking minimal damage from any of Dragonite's coverage moves as well as a Wrap Immunity, forcing Dragonite out immediately. However, Gengar remains immoblized from Wrap, giving partners that can contest it, such as Alakazam, a safe switch-in. When PP Stalling, it is very important to count how many times Dragonite has used Wrap. If Dragonite uses its final wrap, and you switch out while it is still locked in to Wrap, then Dragonite will be forced to Wrap again, causing its PP will underflow to 63, making it near impossible to stall at that point. Once Dragonite uses its final Wrap, make sure you stay in until it is completed.

**Paralysis:** Paralysis is essentially a death sentence for Dragonite. If it's not running Agility, it no longer outspeeds Pokemon such as Cloyster, Lapras, and Chansey. Although Agility will allow Dragonite to ignore its Speed drop, Wrap's accuracy will be an effective 63.6% after accounting for full paralysis, making the strategy even more inconsistent than it already is. This means Thunder Wave users such as Alakazam and Starmie, Body Slam users such as Tauros and Snorlax, and Stun Spore Exeggutor are all able to force out Dragonite.

**Faster Pokemon:** Every Viable Pokemon faster than Dragonite except Persian can either threaten it with status, such as Alakazam and Jolteon, or with Ice-type moves, such as Jynx and Articuno. Some Pokemon such as Tauros and Starmie threaten Dragonite with both. In addition, since Dragonite will attack second against these Pokemon, they will always be able to get off an attack before Dragonite can use Wrap, meaning Dragonite has to either paralyze these faster threats or use Agility to outspeed them.

**Ice-Type Attacks:** Since Dragonite is 4x weak to Ice, most Pokemon with Ice-Type attacks force it out. However, Dragonite can use Wrap on slower Pokemon such as Cloyster and Lapras to safely switch into something that can deal with them. However, Dragonite is capable of taking a non-STAB Ice-type move from Pokemon like Tauros and Chansey to set up Agility, so it is important to damage it beforehand.

**Bulky Water Types:** Because of their strong physical bulk, Cloyster, Lapras, and Slowbro are capable of staying in against non-Thunderbolt Dragonite to fish for a Blizzard, or in Slowbro's case, Thunder Wave, during a Wrap sequence, usually forcing it out. However, what they force in, such as Starmie or Zapdos, can often put severe pressure on them thereafter.

**Burn and Poison:** Although both of these status effects are rare in OU, they severely cripple Dragonite. The passive damage from these status effects puts Dragonite's Wrap chain on a timer. Burn is especially detrimental since it halves the damage from Wrap and Hyper Beam, and can often be inflicted when attempting to switch into Pokemon like Moltres.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Gastlies, 540559]]
- Quality checked by: [[May, 236353], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
 
Last edited:

Plague von Karma

Banned deucer.
Gonna give some feedback here. Not 100% on a few things so I'll wait before giving a QC to make sure everything is accurate.
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This analysis is a good start but needs a lot of work. There's quite a bit of info lost compared to Jorgen's on-site analysis and that's not something we want to have occur. We obviously don't want to plagiarise his work, but we should make sure we're not actually losing the facts here. This is a very complex Pokemon on RBY standards and we want to make sure this is the definitive work that frames it in an unbiased fashion.

Drop a line if you have any questions, you know where to find me.

[OVERVIEW]
Dragonite is one of the few Pokemon with access to Wrap, and it is the only wrapper that also has access to Agility. (misleading: its pre-evos do, and we could technically argue agilispin users too, best to just not say at all) As a result, Dragonite has a niche in OU as a mid-game wallbreaker and a late-game cleaner. Dragonite wears down opposing Pokemon with Wrap, then finishes them off with a strong attack, such as Hyper Beam or Blizzard. Its high attacking stats and access to strong physical and special moves wide movepool provide plenty of offensive power, more than making up for its lack of good STAB moves. Dragonite's base 80 Speed is middling for the tier, outspeeding common Pokemon such as Chansey, Snorlax, and Exeggutor, while being outsped by pokemon like Tauros, Starmie, and Jynx. (I went over this in the last draft someone tried to do: this is a misleading framing of Dragonite's Speed. Look at the Pokemon commonly used on teams: Chansey, Snorlax, and Exeggutor...relative to the OU environment, Dragonite is actually quite quick. Hell, we talk about Victreebel and Cloyster positively BECAUSE of their high Speed relative to a conventional team.) Speed is crucial for Dragonite because Wrap can prevent the opponent from attacking provided that Dragonite is faster. Additionally, Dragonite is able to utilize Thunder Wave and Agility to outspeed naturally faster Pokemon, making it easier to chain together Wraps.

I feel like the points provided could be compressed more effectively, and we're actually missing quite a bit. In fact, I think we may be missing the forest for the trees and actually could be making this worse than the on-site analysis. The problem with the current one is it bets all its chips on AgiliWrap which isn't quite right. You've nailed down the basics: Wrap prevents Pokemon from attacking and makes Dragonite into an effective pivot, it's got a great attacking movepool, etc. However, you haven't mentioned Thunder Wave as one of its crucial components to success outside of the end. Thunder Wave Dragonite is effective because it makes it one of very few Wrappers you cannot switch into reliably. You could be switching out thinking it's all over, and suddenly...your Zam gets hit.

I feel as though we should structure this as follows;
  • Dragonite is among the best wrappers in the game and this should be your opener.
  • Wrap makes it a good pivot or cheese mon depending on the sets used.
  • This is backed by its base 80 Speed, which is fast relative to conventional OU teams, meaning it pins slower Pokemon down nicely
  • Agility and Thunder Wave give Dragonite surprisingly good control of the game state, allowing it to set up and potentially deal significant damage or incapacitate switch-ins like Starmie that think Wrap has ended. Dragonite is formidable at forcing catch-22s.
  • Strong attacking movepool with moves like Hyper Beam, Blizzard, Surf, Body Slam, etc mean it's not just a throwaway wrapper either
    • Cite a Hyper Beam calc if you bring up the Attack stat (you should but I wouldn't stab you for not I don't think)
  • Could chuck in the Ground immunity I guess
  • This thing is absurdly bulky to the point it can sometimes survive a Body Slam -> Blizzard from Tauros and paralyse it. It's got a formidable defensive presence against anything that isn't Ice-type. The problem is that Ice is everywhere, which makes it difficult to utilise.

However, Dragonite is heavily reliant on luck (mmmm the twave sets are a lot less reliant...) and, because of its Ice weakness and fear of paralysis, has trouble getting on the field. Likewise, Wrap only has 84.4% accuracy and, due to these flaws, one miss could be fatal for Dragonite due to its several defensive flaws. (This is an attempt at compression, but the latter sentences are correct in respect to threats and how paralysis affects it...you may wanna try reworking them a bit) It has a brutal 4x weakness to Ice-type moves, meaning Pokemon such as Jynx and Starmie threaten it. Dragonite is also deathly afraid of paralysis, since it prevents Dragonite from outspeeding naturally-slower Pokemon while also decreasing Wrap’s already-mediocre accuracy. Dragonite struggles to switch into some of the most common moves in the metagame, such as Body Slam and the aforementioned Ice-Type moves. As a result, it requires heavy team support in order to take advantage of the offensive traits it offers.

This could be expanded on.
  • "While it is fast relative to OU, x mons outspeed it and KO with Blizzard" would be a better way to frame the Ice weakness
  • You were right about the Body Slam thing, but re-framing the sentences to something like "Due to its deathly fear of paralysis, Dragonite has to run from moves like Body Slam and Thunder Wave frequently", which would then be coherent with my sentence compression.
  • Due to its lack of STAB, Dragonite's damage output is a bit lower than one would expect. It actually hits about as hard as Clefable on the physical side;
    • Clefable Body Slam vs. Mew: 74-87 (18.3 - 21.5%) -- possible 5HKO
    • Dragonite Body Slam vs. Mew: 75-89 (18.6 - 22%) -- possible 5HKO
  • So while its Attack is absolutely nuclear, it will never see its full potential. Treat its Attack like it's ~72.
  • It's also often forced out when a faster Pokemon switches in on Wrap, and some of these are often sleep sacks like lead Alakazam, which can complicate your game plan. Dragonite needs a very deliberate strategy.

[SET]
name: Wrap
move 1: Wrap
move 2: Agility / Thunder Wave
move 3: Hyper Beam
move 4: Blizzard

[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========

Wrap is mandatory on Dragonite, as it lets Dragonite tear down weakened and paralyzed teams. (find a way to work pivoting into this as it's a very important part of what makes Dragonite frustrating to contest mid-game) Hyper Beam is used to finish off weakened Pokemon that have been chipped by Wrap. Dragonite's high Attack stat makes up for Hyper Beam's lack of STAB moves, dealing a minimum of 51.4% to Chansey and a minimum of 45.5% to Starmie. Blizzard is used for dealing with Rhydon and the rare Golem, who resist Wrap and Hyper Beam, while also helping against Gengar, Zapdos, (AC) and Exeggutor.

Wrap relies heavily on outspeeding your opponent, and as a result Dragonite needs some form of speed control. Its two options are Agility and Thunder Wave. Thunder Wave is often used on dedicated Wrap teams (mmm, I've seen it used elsewhere? at least, I tend to use it outside of these. Consider expanding.) as a means to cripple opponents incapacitate foes with paralysis, making it easier for Dragonite and its other wrapping teammates to do their job. Thunder Wave can also be used to paralyze Pokemon (what Pokemon?) that are pressured to attack Dragonite in fear of Agility. (You should note the catch-22 between switching a faster Pokemon in on Wrap and the potential to take Thunder Wave, and staying in while slower and bleeding damage every turn. It's a very important part of why this set works and has seen higher usage in the past few years.) Agility, Dragonite's other form of speed control, is often used to enable a late-game sweep with the dreaded AgiliWrap combo. It's also capable of ignoring the Speed drop from paralysis after use, giving Dragonite some contingency when paralyzed. The sweep isn't easy to pull off though. You have to find a turn to switch in safely, typically with an agressive prediction or against a resting Pokemon, then you need to spend another turn setting up Agility, which can typically be done against Pokemon who don't have a move to OHKO or paralyze Dragonite. Since Agility Dragonite is best against weakened teams, it's best to reserve it for the late-game when most of the fast, threatening Pokemon, such as Jynx, Starmie, and Tauros, are either paralyzed or KOed. (You've framed this oddly. AgiliWrap can sweep, yes, but failed sweeps usually leave enough damage for your Tauros to come in and finish the job. In my opinion, this is the best way to use AgiliWrap Dragonite: it's unreliable, so you should treat it as something expendable and use it to supplement your end-game strategy instead. You've also not written in your usual set-up fodder: Tauros if you're at full, non-Stun Spore Exeggutor, sleeping Pokemon, even Snorlax or Rhydon if you're desperate. The problem is nothing else is available and Reflect Snorlax/Chansey can usually wait for a Reflect opportunity and ruin the sweep, or the opponent just so happens to have a certain Pokemon that's in your profile picture. It may be worth noting that you CAN switch Dragonite out during an AgiliWrap situation to try and score a KO earlier; for example, rather than wait for Chansey to be at half, you could kill it 10% earlier using Tauros's Hyper Beam instead. There's a LOT of missing info here and we need to make it clear for this analysis to be a better product than Jorgen's.)

Consider splitting Thunder Wave and Agility into separate paragraphs, and moving your Wrap segment somewhere. Not sure if this is actually wise though, do some tinkering and see what you like.


Due to the abundance of Ice-type moves and paralysis in RBY, Dragonite struggles to find oppurtunities to get it in safely. As mentioned before, this is typically done against a resting sleeping Pokemon or with an aggressive prediction. Alternatively, you can utilize other partial trapping moves to get Dragonite in safely. This makes Pokemon such as Victreebel and Cloyster good teammates. Victreebel in particular is an especially good teammate because it forces out Reflect Snorlax which could otherwise stay in and stall out Dragonite's Wrap PP. In addition to partial trapping support, Cloyster has a 4x resistance to Ice and an immunity to Freeze, meaning it complements Dragonite defensively quite well. Starmie and Chansey can also switch into Ice-type moves from opposing Starmie, Chansey, Jynx, and Articuno, as well as provide Dragonite with paralysis support, which it greatly appreciates to outspeed otherwise-faster Pokemon. Zapdos and Jolteon also provide paralysis support to Dragonite, making them good teammates that also profit from the damage inflicted with a successful AgiliWrap sequence.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
===================
Surf can be used over Blizzard to guarantee a KO on Rhydon and Golem from full health, while Blizzard's maximum damage against Rhydon is 77.4%. However, Blizzard is generally preferred due to the extra damage on Zapdos and Exeggutor. Surf can be used to guarantee a KO against Rhydon and Golem, which commonly switch in to resist Wrap, but Blizzard is preferred for the super effective damage against Zapdos and Exeggutor. (improved wording) Thunderbolt can be used by Dragonite in order to do increased damage on Cloyster, Slowbro, Lapras, and Starmie, however but (very different uses. If you must use "however", have it succeed a semicolon) this results in Dragonite either being walled by Rhydon from dropping Blizzard or losing power from dropping Hyper Beam. Body Slam can be used over Hyper Beam to deal damage on opposing Pokemon while also threatening paralysis while dealing consistent damage, but said damage is decidedly mediocre due to Dragonite's lack of STAB.

Open this section by saying it's customisable, but has difficulty fitting any new moves because of what it demands: Wrap, anti-Ground coverage, and its speed control of choice. It can always drop Hyper Beam or Blizzard but it comes with massive caveats as you've framed, so maybe we could reword this accordingly to fit with this different opener. Let me know what you think.

Some "people" use Thunder Wave and Agility together, dropping Hyper Beam. It's not bad as it bluffs some sets nicely, exchanging sweeping potential to bet all their chips on some mid-game mayhem. Buuut it also means you're not gonna be killing much in practice.

Other moves: Fire Blast was used to burn Gengar back in the day, I think Thunder has some better calcs but I can't be arsed checking,


Checks and Counters
===================

**PP Stalling:** Once Dragonite sets up Agility, the primary way to deal with it is PP Stalling. Wrap's 32 PP can easily be stalled out by constant switching, and once Dragonite runs out of Wrap PP it becomes much less threatening. Wrap resists such as Gengar, Rhydon, or Golem should be accounted for because of this. Gengar is particularly pressing due to taking minimal damage from any of Dragonite's coverage moves, forcing it out immediately. However, it remains immoblized from Wrap, giving partners that can contest it, such as Alakazam, a safe switch-in. Note that players need to ensure they count to 32 so to not cause a rollover. Jorgen explained this very well and we should make sure we don't lose this sort of information.

**Paralysis:** Paralysis is essentially a death sentence for Dragonite. If it's not running Agility, it no longer outspeeds Pokemon such as Cloyster, Lapras, and Chansey. Even though Agility will allow Dragonite to ignore its Speed drop, Wrap's accuracy will be an effective 63.75% after accounting for full paralysis. (expand with details on the moves and users; stun spore, twave, bslam, etc)

**Burn and Poison:** Although both of these status effects are rare in OU, they severely cripple Dragonite. The passive damage from these status effects puts Dragonite's Wrap chain on a timer. Burn is especially detrimental since it halves the damage from Wrap and Hyper Beam, and can often be inflicted when attempting to switch into Pokemon like Moltres. (move this to the bottom, they're rare and should be treated as such)

**Faster Pokemon:** Most Pokemon faster than Dragonite either threaten it with paralysis, such as Alakazam and Jolteon, or with Ice-type moves, such as Jynx and Articuno. Some Pokemon such as Tauros and Starmie threaten Dragonite with both. Dragonite is also unable to chain together Wraps against these foes without paralyzing them or using Agility. (could use with expansion)

**Ice-Type Attacks:** Since Dragonite is 4x weak to Ice, most Pokemon with Ice-Type attacks force it out. However, Dragonite can use Wrap on slower Pokemon such as Cloyster and Lapras to safely switch into something that can deal with them. Dragonite is capable of taking a non-STAB Ice-type move from Pokemon like Tauros and Chansey to set up Agility though, so if it's taken some damage prior, this problem is significantly exacerbated.

**Slowbro:** Because of its strong physical bulk, Slowbro is capable of staying in against non-Thunderbolt Dragonite in simplified game states to fish for a Thunder Wave during a Wrap sequence, usually forcing it out. However, what it forces in, such as Starmie, can often put severe pressure on Slowbro thereafter.


**Gengar:** Gengar is immune to Dragonite's Wrap and Hyper Beam, and its Blizzard does a maximum of 26%, meaning it walls Dragonite and can PP stall it effectively.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Gastlies, 540559]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
 
Last edited:

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