Community POTW #86

[Serebii]

This week, the RNG gave us another Poison-type, but this one works much differently to Crobat last week



It's Drapion, the awesome Poison/Dark-type Pokémon introduced in Diamond & Pearl. It can abuse Critical Hits brilliantly and has a wide movepool

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/452.shtml

Go nuts

[Lucario Fan]

Ability: Sniper
Held Item: Scope Lens
Moves: Cross Poison, Night Slash, Aqua Tail, Toxic Spikes

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

It gained Aqua Tail in BW2, which is useful to make ground types think twice about switching in. It still only has 1 weakness, Swords Dance, Agility, a good physical movepool, and respectable stats. It also looks awesome.

Drapion @ Life Orb / Scope Lens
Jolly nature
Sniper
-Swords Dance
-Cross Poison
-Night Slash
-Aqua Tail

[Ilan]

Drapion first thing that comes to mind: toxic spikes so that's what I will post about.

@black sludge
Jolly
64 HP, 188 speed, 252 attack
Battle armor
-Toxic Spikes
-Crunch
-Pursuit
-Earthquake/brick break

The Evs let him outrun neutral base 100 speed pokemons to lay toxic spikes before he get attacked the rest are put in the HP, 252 attack ensure his attacks are strong to be a treat, crunch is his strongest STAB, pursuit beats psychic types like mew or reuniculus so they don't have a chance to escape drapion, Earthquake is a strong option letting drapion hit some gounded steel types SE like hetran or jirachi but brck break have an overall good coverage.
If you are not interested outspeeding neutral base 100s you can run less speed and more bulk but the attack inversment is important.
As drapion can cause some switchs since he have a sole weakness and is immune to toxic he can set up the deadly toxic spikes effectively it can also absorb toxic spikes as well.

Fun fact: all of drapion's abilities are connected to hax XD

[muatt 88]

- crunch/night slash
- swords dance
- earthquake
- cross poison/X-scissor/ice fang
Item: life orb/expert belt
ability: sniper
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 204 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

[RealRaymon]

Super Scorpion hits effectively!

Drapion @ scope lens
Nature: Adamant(+Atk -SpAtk) Jolly(+Spe - SpAtk)
4HP/ 252Atk/ 252Spe
Ability: Sniper
-Night Slash
-Cross Poison
-Earthquake
-Fire Fang / Ice Fang

with Scope Lens Drapion boosts its chance to score a Critical Hit.
Night Slash and Cross Poison are STAB moves that have a high crit ratio and with scope lense they have a 25% for a crit + cross poison can poison the foe.
Earthquake is a great coverage move and hit steel types that resist both of Drapion's STAB moves
Fire fang or Ice fang for scizzor or gliscor, respectively and may flinch and burn, freeze as well as crit

[EarthquakeCroc]

Spikpion
Moves:
Toxic spikes
Earthquake
Crunch
Whirlwind or ice fang

Item : black sludge
Nature : careful
Ev: about 252 in HP and sp def the rest in speed

Drapion is a great poke and toxic spiker, crunch is for STAB, while eq strikes poison or steel type that resist toxic spikes, and whirlwind to poison the other team, otherwise ice fang to take out drapion 's only weakness ICE

[Aurath8]

Drapion. He has equal speed and slightly lower defences than Gliscor, yet lacks reliable recovery. Also he has a movepool just wide enough to make a threatening sweeper with Swords Dance, gets a few support options such as Toxic Spikes and Whirlwind and can even function as a great Pursuit trapper. All this makes for a very versatile pokemon filling roles from across the spectrum of support to sweeper.


Drapion@Choice Band
Adamant
Sniper
252 Atk/252 Spd
-Crunch
-Earthquake
-Aqua Tail
-Pursuit

With a Psychic immunity and Ghost resist, Drapion makes for an excellent Pursuit Trapper. Crunch is a back-up STAB, Earthquake handles Steels and Aqua Tail takes out Ground types.

Counters
Drapion is actually a pretty solid counter for itself. It resists its STABs, absorbs Toxic Spikes, offensive variants don't mind Taunt and can hit back hard with Earthquake. It's probably better to head for a Scarf Drapion for obvious reasons. Tangrowth can take on variants lacking Taunt and render them useless with Sleep Powder and can take even a +2 Crunch. Steelix can take +2 Earthquake(i think) and hit back with an Earthquake of it's own. Resttalk Poliwrath is probably the best counter to Drapion's massive variety of sets. Circle Throw phazes away any boosts, it resists Crunch and is immune to Aqua Tail and can get rid of Toxic Spikes' effects with Rest.
Unfortunately, thanks to Drapion's sickening versatility, it has very few solid counters. If all else fails, a fast special attacker can prey on its low Spdef: Manetric, Typhlosion, Galvantula etc.

[paipr_christian]

Don't worry, i wont drapion this match to long.

dr. a pion is here and he is destroying everything!!

[Meowmeow]

I personally like Scolipede better because of STAB bug, access to Spikes, and much higher speed. That is not to say Drapion is bad. With a sole weakness to ground, Drapion can use an Air Balloon pretty well, or opt not to use it to absorb Toxic Spikes.

Setting a hazardous minefield
Nature: Jolly
EVs: honestly, I'm not good at EVs for this kind of set
Ability: Battle Armor
@: Air Balloon/Black Sludge

Toxic Spikes
Earthquake
Crunch
Aqua Tail/Whirlwind

I am not a big fan of phazing because I'd rather straight-up slaughter my target with: Azelf, Terrakion, Gastrodon, Volcarona, or Metagross. Either way, your opponent is forced to "switch", right? Anyway, Toxic Spikes does what it does, Earthquake hits poison and steel, Crunch is a nice power move, and Aqua Tail will give you a solid hit on Gligar, Gliscor, Balloon Heatran, and stuff. I guess Whirlwind can go over Aqua Tail.

Scarf Drapion
Ability: Battle Armor/Sniper
Nature: Jolly/Adamant
EVs: 252 attack and speed, 4 hp
@: Choice Scarf

Crunch
Earthquake
Aqua Tail
Toxic Spikes

A speedy Choice set with Toxic Spikes, which is basically Drapion's reason to exist.

[Pokemon Power]

Say, I propose that starting with this one, all Pre-Evolution Corners should include the locations that you can catch them and their anime appearances along with their evolved forms.

[grantholomew]

Deadeye
Drapion w/ Life Orb
Sniper
4 HP/252 Atk/253 Spd
Jolly (+Spd, -SAtk)
-Cross Poison
-Night Slash
-Aqua Tail
-Swords Dance/Earthquake/Pursuit

[Star Champion AJ]

Looks like the RNG has some sort of fetish with Poison type Pokémon (First Crobatman, now the Scorpion King) and another decent one.

Ability:
Battle Armor: Opponent’s moves cannot Critical Hit.
An anti-hax ability and pretty useful in defensive minded sets and makes good use of Drapion's nice Defense stat (110) since most of those High Critical Hit moves are Physical. Protects Drapion mainly against Attack Order, Crabhammer, Cross Chop, DRILL RUN, Shadow Claw, Slash and Stone Edge. It also prevents Frost Breath and Storm Throw's effects (Seriously! Who's going to use these moves?)
Sniper: Power of critical-hit moves is tripled instead of doubled.
Another hax related ability (well, we can make puns around that) and useful when running Cross Poison and Night Slash (Slash is optional), add a Scope Lens to the fray and you can annoy your opponents after taking down Physical walls after a Critical Hit.
Keen Eye: Opponent cannot lower this Pokémon’s accuracy.
Guess what! Another anti-hax abilty, but who's going to use accuracy reducing moves besides Flash? At least Drapion can't have its accuracy lowered after taking a Mud-Slap or a Mud Bomb.

Pros:
Unlike every single Poison-type Pokémon (except Stunky and Skuntank), Psychic type moves won't touch Drapion (unless you are facing a Pokémon with Miracle Eye)
Four resistances to Grass, Poison, Ghost and Dark.
Only one weakness to Ground (unfortunately it's a common type considering the massive amount of Pokémon able to use Earthquake or Earth Power)
Decent Attack (90) and Speed (95) and nice Defense (115)
Immune to Toxic Spikes

Cons:
Doesn't take special moves very well (75)
Weak to a VERY common type, though it's Drapion's only weakness


The Scorpion King
Drapion@Scope Lens
Ability: Sniper
Nature: Adamant/Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spd
Cross Poison
Night Slash
Aqua Tail
Earthquake/Fire Fang/Ice Fang/Slash
Say hello to Critical Happy Drapion (Someone said that to my Scope Lens Gallade in Platinum)!
Cross Poison and Night Slash are your obvious STAB moves of choice, with the Critical Hit ratio boost provided by Scope Lens, while Aqua Tail covers Drapion's only weakness to Ground type moves.
The last move slot depends of what you want to cover.
Earthquake, DAT type, DAT power, DAT coverage.
Fire Fang, if you really hate those pesky Bug/Steel types.
Ice Fang, though redundant against most Ground types where Aqua Tail hits anyway, it has a chance against Dragons.
Slash gets a mention because of its high Critical Hit ratio.
Anyway, your opponent won't like taking a Sniper Critical Hit, even if it's from a not very effective move.

Prediction for next week: (I want to see the freaking three headed dragon of EVIL someday)

[sbktdreed]

Personal Moveset
Ability: Sniper
Item: Shuca Berry/Scope Lens
Gentle w/ 168 Sp Defense, 174 Attack, 168 Sp Attack
Cross Poison/Sludge Bomb
Crunch
Fire Fang
Earthquake/Bulldoze

All-Physical
Ablilty:Sniper
Item: Scope Lens
Adamant w/ 252 Attack, 84 Defense, 84 Sp Defense, 90 Speed
Cross Poison
Night Slash
Ice Fang
Earthquake/Bulldoze

Partners
Generally any pokemon that can take out Ground-types.

Countering
Earth Power/Mud Bomb/Mud Shot-users with high defense and Sp attack like Magcargo, Camerupt, Probopass, Omastar, Kabutops, Tyranitar, Swampert, Torkoal, Armaldo, Carracosta, Seimetoad, Whiscash, Golduck, Poliwrath, Politoad, Cloyster, Octillery, and Basculin
Miracle Eye-users and/or Ring Target-holders like Metagross or Medicham.

[Neon Squirtle]

THINGS ARE GETTING CRITICAL HERE.
~Cross Poison
~Night Slash
~Ice Fang
~Brick Break/Earthquake
Evs: 252 Attack, 212 Speed, 44 Defense
Ability: Sniper
Item: Scope Lens

Abuse crits and do it properly. Cross Poison is STAB, pretty powerful and can poison, which is cute. Night Slash is probably gonna be your main STAB move, and abuses Sniper and the Scope Lens to hit 3X damage 25% of the time. Ice Fang annihalates most Ground types which are your only weakness. In the last slot I would go with Brick Break so that Ferrothorn doesn't have to be repeatedly worn down with Ice fang, but Earthquake hits Heatran, Magnezone and Infernape harder.

[Missingno. Master]

Slashing Scorpion Sniper
Drapion@Scope Lens
Adamant nature
Sniper
252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
~Agility
~Night Slash
~Cross Poison
~Earthquake

Drapion is without question one of the more badass Poison-types. One of the few Pokemon with access to the Sniper ability, an immunity to Psychic moves, and, well, it just looks really, really cool! Anyway, this set takes advantage of Drapion's most amazing ability of Sniper. Agility boosts its Speed to sweeper levels, Night Slash and Cross Poison are for STAB, not to mention that their high critical hit ratios take advantage of Sniper, and Earthquake is so you can hit Steel-types. It's a shame Drapion didn't get Drill Run...

Item boosts the critical hit ratio even further. Ability is what this set is all about.


Scorpion of Choice
Drapion@Choice Scarf/Choice Band
Adamant nature
Sniper
252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
~Night Slash
~Cross Poison
~Earthquake
~Aqua Tail

Drapion has sufficient movepool options to run a choice set. Aqua Tail is the only newcomer here, for even more coverage, for when Earthquake just can't cut it.

Item is obvious. Ability too.


Other options:
*A more defensive Drapion is possible, between its decent Defense and access to such moves as Whirlwind and Toxic Spikes.

Abilities:
*Battle Armor: No move used against Drapion will score a critical hit. Meh. Decent enough, but only really useful on the odd defensive Drapion.
*Sniper: Any critical hit doled out by Drapion will have its damage multiplied by 3 instead of by 2. Easily the best possible ability for Drapion.
*Keen Eye: Drapion's Hidden Ability. Drapion's Accuracy can't be lowered. No. Just... no. Nothing uses any sort of accuracy lowering move, ever. Stick with Sniper.

Partners:
You can't go wrong with Smashpassing. Or really, any Baton Passer with a Speed-increasing move. Weezing makes a decent partner, as each covers the other's sole weakness.

Counters:
Anything sufficiently speedy and proficient in the usage of Earth Power gives Drapion something to worry about, as Ground is its sole weakness. It's no slouch in the defensive department, but Special Defense is still the worse of its two defensive stats.

Opinion:
Highly underrated. Drapion is the pinnacle of awesome.

Prediction for next week:
Mawile.

[matgonor]

Drapion is mostly a defensive pokemon, with a speed that can help.Being a fast toxic spiker its pretty good.It also has an usable attack.

The toxic tomb of the scorpion king
impish nature
252 hp, 152 defense, 100 atk
Battle armor
@leftovers/black sludge
-toxic spikes
-whirlwind
-pursuit/crunch
-earthquake

Pseudo-skarmory.Pair him with skarm to have a counter to ground attacks.Also can gain momentum by making them switch.
Pursuit for trapping, crunch for more raw power.
He has no other way of recovery other than its item, so wish passing would help.
Also, a ghost for blocking spin would help him.Jellicent if you want to sponge special hits, or gengar if you want more offensive presence.

Other options:
Acupressure for a pseudo-moody.Might work for the element of surprise.
swords dance as a way to boost its attack.
Taunt to stop other supporters, like blissey, skarmory, ferrothorn, etc.
Fire fang to deal with ferrothorn more easily.The same goes for foretress, who can spin your hazards away.
Ice fang for dragons and gliscor, mostly.

Counters:The one who comes right in my head is Ferrothorn, as it is immune to spikes,takes little damage from earthquake, and laughts at pursuit.The best you can do is whirlind him out.
Most steels also wall it, just watch out for earthquake.Skarmory can be a real problem.

[Chidori__O]

This was the standard DP set for Drapion but it can be used in BW too.

I'm gonna Drapion you. (It can be changed, the title)
Drapion@Life Orb
Jolly Nature
252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Sniper
-Swords Dance
-Crunch
-Earthquake
-Aqua Tail

The basic DP set which can also be used in BW metagame as well. Thanks to Drapions unique typing, the only type it's weak to is ground. And the fact it has high defenses allowing it to block physical attacks...it's great! Swords Dance allows Drapion to double its attack stat. Crunch is a decent STAB move which takes care of Ghost and Psychic. Earthquake is a powerful attack that can take down other Poison types as well as Steel and Electric types. Aqua Tail can take down the Ground types the opponent sends in as well as Fire and Rock types. Life Orb adds even more power as well.

[philzone]

Anyone yried an air balloon, so it has no weaknesses?

[Chidori__O]

Anyone yried an air balloon, so it has no weaknesses?

Hmmm, good idea. I'll try that out and post a set about it.