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Wednesday 28 December 2016

Smeargle Used Spotlight 2 : Sap Loving Dragons!

Hi guys today I am back with the second installment of my blog series known as smeargle used spotlight, where we discussed never before used or slightly used mons and talk their potential, today I have chosen two pokemons some of you may know have a lot of potential but due to the usual ‘tapu’ domination their selection is often overlooked. Also because of the polished garchomp, they are compressed even more. They are indeed the ‘other’ dragons of this format, goodra and drampa; yes this post will discuss both lets first talk out about drampa and then move on to goodra:

Drampa’s brief introduction:
Drampa is a new pokemon released in the seventh generation games pokemon sun and moon, it gets the never before seen dragon and normal typing as well as the new ability called berserk. Drampa often was called as the possible evolution to dunsparce but the rumor collapsed as drampa is a pokemon that neither can or does evolve from something. Now lets discuss its competitive aspects:

Stats:
When we have a look at drampa’s base stats we can see some of them not being very impressive but as soon as we set our eyes upon that sky high base 135 special attack stat, we are indeed impressed. Getting the reputation of being a slow generation and then moving to drampa we see it only gets that base 36 speed stat which makes it even slower than most around it; but knowing that we are looking at this pokemon from a more competitive outlook, and seeing the state of VGC 17 in which trick room sure does dominate, we can make indeed great use of it. Using drampa as an offensive pressure around trick room can prove very much beneficial and counts as in its little usage’s importance.

Typing:
If we have a look at drampa’s typing we can’t call it as something super impressive especially with more tapu fini, special tapu koko and tapu lele being all around as well as fighting types and other dragon types rising in population we can never in this state consider drampa as a defensive typing, on the other hand drampa being able to get the normal typing in front of all popular marowak is a bad call for itself, with that some nihilego and the gigalith that are rising in population are going to sure prove troublesome for it. In conclusion sadly I would say that drampa’s typing is not impressive at all.

Abilities:
If we have a look upon the abilities of drampa we will notice that they are extremely all very good in their own respect each:

Berserk: berserk is one of the new and the signature abilities of drampa, basically what it does is when the hp of drampa turns below half, it raises its already threatening and sky high special attack stat by one stage which sure does seem to be intimidating for their opponents. In attempt to take drampa down being a bit to passive or slow will surely cost loads to their opponents.

Sap Sipper: this ability is basically what made the second half of this post’s title. Sap sipper is a very good ability and why shouldn’t it be. Consider the 2 biggest powerhouses of this format; one being celesteela the biggest staller ever and the other being tapu bulu, gaining an immunity to both their main abusive attacks as in leech seed celesteela and wood hammer as well as some horn leech from bulu is sure a big one.

Cloud Nine: cloud nine being the anti-weather ability, which means its effects dissipate that of weathers. With VGC 17 being the season where all four weathers as in hail, rain, sun and sand being viable and in use, having the cloud nine ability can help your teams in a lot of defensive aspects whether it is to nullify their offensive output or chip damage effects, taking out special defense from that gigalith is sure a discomforting factor for your opponents.

Competitive Abilities:
The competitive traits of drampa and goodra will be discussed under the same headings but I will love to present them separately to avoid confusion also both these pokemons have these traits but each their own way as you will see:

Coverage: coverage has to be the most major aspect of both of these dragons’ viability. Knowing a lot of different kinds of types of moves that can include shadow ball, thunderbolt, hyper voice, hyper beam, draco meteor, hurricane, ice beam, blizzard, thunder, flamethrower fire blast, energy ball, surf and snarl, keep it in the combination you desire and be pleased with the outcome. It can even get supportive speed control moves like thunder wave and glare as well as bulldoze. This allows drampa to be able to hit a lot of pokemons for tons of damage in this format which only means one step towards victory.

Weather counter: another amazing thing about drampa is that it can counter weather as well and yes being lazy just gonna copy and paste some from above :P sorry but its really what I can say about this aspect of drampa cloud nine being the anti-weather ability, which means its effects dissipate that of weathers. With VGC 17 being the season where all four weathers as in hail, rain, sun and sand being viable and in use, having the cloud nine ability can help your teams in a lot of defensive aspects whether it is to nullify their offensive output or chip damage effects, taking out special defense from that gigalith is sure a discomforting factor for your opponents.

Attackers: Although drampa is never known as a supportive pokemon as you may get a glimpse of its supportive side from reading the movepool I explained for it up there you will hear it from the specially offensive spectrum especially with the one that does a lot of damage to the ones that don’t resist its attacks. Again in combination with its coverage and base 135 special attack stat drampa is an offensive monster.
Sap sipper and importance in format: forgive me once again and yes I had to put it here, because it is really n important ability atleast in my eyes: Sap sipper is a very good ability and why shouldn’t it be. Consider the 2 biggest powerhouses of this format; one being celesteela the biggest staller ever and the other being tapu bulu, gaining an immunity to both their main abusive attacks as in leech seed celesteela and wood hammer as well as some horn leech from bulu is sure a big one.

Shortcomings of Drampa: drampa has a typing that wasn’t discussed in the most defensive of manners from the offensive spectrum drampa cannot take great advantage of its stab attacks. Even thought dragon is a typing that nothing can resist but the problem is the immunities of it to fairy type. Especially as all the tapu pokemon being in good usage drampa is sure to struggle land its strong dragon type attacks in this format and its tricky to maneuver them. also its second typing being normal does not allow it to hit any pokemons with stab and super effective damage. Also drampa is one f those pokemons that do need trick room support around them to function as its bulk isn’t sufficient enough to make it survive loads of turns before it can go for launching an attack.

Sample sets:
Following are some sample sets that I made for Drampa and expect some to be common around too.

Drampa @ Assault Vest 
Ability: Sap Sipper 
Level: 50 
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 
Modest Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk 
- Draco Meteor 
- Shadow Ball 
- Hyper Voice 
- Thunderbolt

This is an assault vested drampa set you won’t see this flying around everywhere but when you see it its considerable of an option for some teams that want drampa to be bulky and provide them with coverage more than offense, that Is why I see this set as a good choice for drampa. We have also seen leftovers and sitrus berry variants on this pokemon.

Drampa @ Life Orb 
Ability: Berserk 
Level: 50 
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 
Modest Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk 
- Draco Meteor 
- Hyper Voice 
- Protect 
- Flamethrower 

This has to be one of the more common drampa sets running around from the start. Drampa’s one an only job is to dish out some offense during the trick room turns hence protect with three attacking moves is for it, with the added offense of life orb drampa can do even more damage to its opponents

Drampa @ Leftovers / Sitrus berry
Ability: Sap Sipper 
Level: 50 
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 
Modest Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk 
- Draco Meteor 
- Flamethrower 
- Protect 
- Hyper voice

So these are the other bulkier drampa sets that I talked about up there, the role these teams require is wanting drampa to linger and last longer in a battle such a drampa with abilities like cloud nine or sap sipper may seem to make a promising item choice with sitrus berry or leftovers then providing the side role of offense during battle.

Drampa @ Dragonium Z 
Ability: Berserk 
Level: 50 
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 
Modest Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk 
- Draco Meteor 
- Flamethrower 
- Protect 
- Hyper Beam 

I have no idea and sorry for that on how common is this drampa set but I personally put it on a team of mine. You guys might as well see a salamence around with devastating drake as its main strong attack, this drampa like a salamence is also build to do loads of offense throught its offensive z-move, combine it with the power of berserk you can dish out even more damage on opposing pokemosnas you can use your base 195 power z-move with no spa drop and then go for a draco meteor of full power, if utilized correctly as I have personally tested this drampa can dish out loads of damage, since I was testing out its offensive power following are some calcs ran for it:
252+ SpA Drampa Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 188 HP / 20 SpD Muk-Alola: 184-217 (90.1 - 106.3%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Drampa Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Celesteela: 84-100 (41.1 - 49%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Drampa Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Bulu: 122-144 (68.9 - 81.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery
252+ SpA Drampa Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Goodra: 176-210 (89.3 - 106.5%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
With that following are some defensive calculations for the standard (bulk invested) drampa:
36 Atk Celesteela Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Drampa: 81-96 (43.7 - 51.8%) -- 9.4% chance to 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Dazzling Gleam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Drampa: 117-140 (63.2 - 75.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Tapu Lele Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Drampa: 194-230 (104.8 - 124.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
With these sample sets being discussed we move onto our second half of the post, discussion of goodra:

Goodra’s brief introduction:
Goodra is the considered and sure could be the pseudo legendary for the sixth generation, the one in which it was revealed. Goodra surprisingly turned out to be a gooey and cute mono dragon type pokemon as many thought it could have a possible water or poison typing. With having some new traits that it gets goodra became a one of a kind dragon type pokemon and now lets have a look why:

Stats:
If we have a look at goodra’s stats we see that they are all pretty good ones, with the attack stat being a base 100 even and the spa being 110 and when we have a look at that base 150 special defense stat it is sure to amaze us. Also its other stats as in its defense, hit points as well as its speed are not near to be considered bad and can be used well. Its stats look like that of a tanky pokemon that can take loads of hits as well as dish out some offensive damage which forms its roles as a tank for the team

Type:
Goodra gaining that pure dragon typing makes it weak in the format, one of the main reason being its lesser stabs than drampa even. also with the tapu pokemons and mimikyu being around that an hit it for super effective damage (except the poor bulu) and them being immune to its attacks is really bad for the dragon type health of goodra.

Abilities:

Goodra gains three abilities in the previous vgc formats like 2014 mainly we saw some goodra usage with all three of its abilities being somewhat in use, however moving on to the 2017 season we will see it having only one most viable and  usable ability on the most:

Sap sipper: it has to be the most important ability for goodra, once again copy and paste from above as I really don’t have much other reason and more important stuff to discuss on these two; Sap sipper is a very good ability and why shouldn’t it be. Consider the 2 biggest powerhouses of this format; one being celesteela the biggest staller ever and the other being tapu bulu, gaining an immunity to both their main abusive attacks as in leech seed celesteela and wood hammer as well as some horn leech from bulu is sure a big one.

Gooey: gooey in this format is apparently the less viable of abilities as in currently the sudden 
decrease in the population of the physical tapu koko variants as well as most contact attackers like muk and marowak as well as some mudsdale all take advantage of trick room and are a part of those trick room teams, which you really don’t ant to slow down. The only pokemon I can see this trick working on it is the dragon claw garchomps which you can then take some good advantage of.

Hydration: hydration + rest as a rain countering tactic or supported with pelipper teams can be viable however there are much better variations of the goodra that are very much slightly more viable such as a goodra with four attacks  or having as much type coverage as possible.

Competitive Factors:
Coverage: coverage is one of the best traits of goodra, it can learn moves of different types like muddy water, draco meteor, dragon pulse (unfortunately only dragon moves are stab), thunderbolt, thunder, sludge bomb, Fire blast, flamethrower against the ever popular celesteela and kartana can be very much useful and good. Whereas on the not used physically offensive spectrum moves like feint which is an amazing utility move in any doubles format as well as power whip for the all popular gastrodon in this format has seen some use.

Weather counter: goodra just like drampa can have some weather countering traits, drampa can take out weather combinations due to its cloud nine ability whereas goodra can do that due tp its wide variety of move coverage, stats and abilities. Goodra’s sap sipper allows it to block of the lilligant sleep powder as well as resist the all popular torcoal fire type attacks in combination with its good special defense. It can counter rain with possible hydration as well as with its electric type coverage and high special defense, it can muddy water in the face of gigalith to potentially lower its accuracy from the offensive rock slides that it gets. Hail can give goodra some real trouble but it might be able to get away with 1 or 2 fire type attacks on its opponents to deal great damage to them if invested in defenses correctly.

Attacker: goodra’s main importance is to attack on the specially offensive spectrum. It getting loads of coverage as well as goo defensive attacks allow it to be a tank that can do damage to a lot of opponents as it stands on the field. Although goodra is not used as a specifically physically offensive pokemon, it may carry as I said up there soe moves like feint and power whip to fill the gaps that the team may have.

Sap sipper importance in Format: once again and yes I had to put it here, because it is really n important ability atleast in my eyes: Sap sipper is a very good ability and why shouldn’t it be. Consider the 2 biggest powerhouses of this format; one being celesteela the biggest staller ever and the other being tapu bulu, gaining an immunity to both their main abusive attacks as in leech seed celesteela and wood hammer as well as some horn leech from bulu is sure a big one.

Shortcomings of Goodra: even though goodra is a good pokemon goodra cannot can any useful stab options off on its opponents especially in the presence of 5 faries and all of them being very viable make goodra less of a pokemon, two pokemons that can really offensively threaten goodra are garchomp which has been really popular since the start of the format as well as the rising trend of that mimikyu. With them being in the format goodra can be a tough one to keep up on the field.

Sample Sets:
Following are some of the standards of the goodra running following sets:

Goodra @ Assault Vest 
Ability: Sap Sipper 
Level: 50 
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 
Modest Nature 
- Power Whip 
- Sludge Bomb 
- Thunderbolt 
- Draco Meteor 

This is the most common one by far. Assault vest allows it to take loads of attacks whereas four attacks allow it to do alot of damage to a lot of pokemons in this format which makes it really efficient.

Goodra @ Dragonium Z 
Ability: Sap Sipper 
Level: 50 
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 
Modest Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk 
- Draco Meteor 
- Fire Blast 
- Protect 
- Optional

We saw something ;like this in the internationals, buffing up even more the power of its dragon type attacks it runs a dragonium z to do great damage to many pokemons that don’t resist its attacks, I felt like pairing up this set with a fire blast as the main job of this goodra felt like doing more damage.

Goodra @ Life Orb 
Ability: Sap Sipper 
Level: 50 
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA 
Modest Nature 
IVs: 0 Atk 
- Draco Meteor 
- Flamethrower 
- Protect 
- Sludge Bomb 


Lastly the life orb goodra which has the somewhat surprise of protect and can do in general more damage than a assault vest goodra; I haven’t seen a life orb goodra before but this one sure does seem a little bit viable, maybe for some team specific reasons.

Conclusion:
Hope you guys enjoyed this post, i really had some fun writting up this post hopefully you guys really liked it, watch out for more smeargle used spotlight posts in the future.

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