Community POTW #86

[Flippd]

Drapion is a cool one. Not only a cool design, but a great movepool too. It gained some handy moves in BW2 like Aqua Tail, Knock off, that stuff. It has a very special typing of Posion and Dark, giving resistance against Ghost, and a immunity to Psychic. However, it still has a bad weakness thanks to Poison against the Ground type, so Drapion can be very easily beaten with Eartquake or Earth Power. But we can find a way out of it.

Drapion also has some decent abilities so he can play as well offensive and defensive:
Battle Armor: Prevents Critical Hits. Acceptable. The chance of a Critical Hit at all is not as big, but its cool to prevent it. Also gives immunity to the annoying Fake Out. That is a good step to prepare if youre about to use a Swords Dance set.

Sniper: A critical hit from Drapion is not doubled, but tripled. An amazing ability. Also good in combination with Night Slash, Slash, and Cross Poison. I suggest this ability.

Keen Eye: Drapion's accuracy cannot be lowered. Although it's Drapion's DW ability, it's not really handy. There are not really much people who use accuracy-lowering moves. Double Team and Minimize are better options.

Okay, here's mah moveset:
Oops! Almost stepped in the crapion!
-Aqua Tail
-Cross Posion
-Night Slash
-Earthquake
Item: Air Balloon / Choice Band
Ability: Sniper
EVs and Nature:
Evs: 220 HP / 228 Atk / 60 Spd
Nature: Adamant (+Atk, -SpA)

[Ilan]

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

Well it might have no weaknesses but like spiritomb sableye and eelektross cases having no weaknesses doesn't mean you are perfect.
I would go for black sludge/leftovers/life orb/choice items/lum berry, it brings more utility, to a bulky pokemon like drapion but it is sure an option for some switch in, anyway ground attacks aren't as common as they used to be once. since there are too many levitators and flying types, people prefer a fighting, or a fire move to deal with steel types.
From experience using air balloon magnezone it doesn't worth it since you end wasting an important item slot for some uncommon situations..

countering: a good way countering drapion is reisting his main attacks crunch anc earthquake also aqua tail taunt shut down the toxic spiker, strong special attacks specially nidoking's earthpower annilate drapion having a grounded poison type or a spinner will prevent toxic spikes ruining your team, skarmory can take everything drapion can throw at him and spike/phaze him. virizion resists drapion main attacks and he have justified to punich drapion for using crunch but he need to beware of cross poison, battle armor pokemons can avoid drapions deadly crits. gliscor is another good counter with access to earthquake and good bulk, drapion can't really do too much damage to him.

[SwiftGrovyle]

Yay, Drapion! One of my Favs! From RU to even OU, he is awesome.

Battle armour, one of the best defensive abilities, and combine that with only one weakness, with Defences to take even super hard hits. In other words, this guy is a cockroach of a bug.
Sniper, is a good offensive ability, especially with moves like Night slash with a higher crit ratio. It is also my gamble that Drapion will get Storm Throw from Pinser. I can hear Ilan saying 'that wouldn't do much' but hey, it's a fun thought. (although I agree it wouldn't do much...)
Keen eye- Total uselessness. Who's going to use flash? Parasect? Electrode? A weird but hilarious Pikachu set?

Sorry I haven't been on lately. My hg game went buzerk and I had to restart EVERYTHING! I still got a lot to do but I'll try to post some more later in the week.

[Ilan]

Yay, Drapion! One of my Favs! From RU to even OU, he is awesome.

Battle armour, one of the best defensive abilities, and combine that with only one weakness, with Defences to take even super hard hits. In other words, this guy is a cockroach of a bug.
Sniper, is a good offensive ability, especially with moves like Night slash with a higher crit ratio. It is also my gamble that Drapion will get Storm Throw from Pinser. I can hear Ilan saying 'that wouldn't do much' but hey, it's a fun thought. (although I agree it wouldn't do much...)
Keen eye- Total uselessness. Who's going to use flash? Parasect? Electrode? A weird but hilarious Pikachu set?

Sorry I haven't been on lately. My hg game went buzerk and I had to restart EVERYTHING! I still got a lot to do but I'll try to post some more later in the week.

Actually drapion doesn't learn storm throw it actually would be very useful a good 120 BP move (better than earthquake), but he doesn't get it nor kingdra gets frost breath which is really a shame.
Actually I think I mentioned that drapion should get the move to be better.
Battle armor is better for defensive sniper for offensive, scope lent is an option kinda gimmick but 25% chance to crit is quite high and thanks to sniper it would do massive damage which few will survive. a neutral crit on night slash : 210 with sniper 315! (70*1.5*3= 315)

[doofinc]

A little humor in the overview:If you were a new player who started off in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, this Drapion probably screwed you over with its bug-like appearance yet not being a bug type.

[doofinc]

Special Drapion? (Please someone think of a better name)

Moves:
Toxic
Venoshock
Dark Pulse
Hidden Power Fire/Grass/Ground

Item Attached: Life Orb/Air Balloon
Ability: Sniper
Nature and EVs: Modest Nature (+SpAtt. -Att.)
EVs: 252 SAtk/196 Spd/62 SpDef

With those gigantic pincers, you wouldn't expect the ogre of a scorpion to use its brain much for offence. Drapion can pull a bit of special-ness to surprise opponents. Life Orb boosts the well needed strength for your special attacks while the Air Balloon gets rid of your only weakness temporarily. Sniper will boost your critical hits which helps. For your attacks, Toxic cripples any Pokemon besides Poison and Steel types. Then Venoshock deals 130 damage with the Toxic. Don't go for Toxic Spikes as they can be gone in an instant from spinners or Poison Pokemon. Dark Pulse gets stab and flinch. You can also have Hidden Power. Fire kills those Steels who you can't touch who aren't named Heatran. Ground kills the Poison types and other types, including Heatran. Grass kills off Bulky Grass types. For EVs you NEED Max Special Attack to actually do something. You need more speed to outspeed and get something Poisoned. You can also put some into Special Defense for those who have Earth Power.

[Rotom-F]

Leading Drapion


Item: Black Sludge
Ability: Sniper
EVs: 96 Speed / 248 HP / 164 Def
Nature: Jolly
- Toxic Spikes
- Crunch
- Aqua Tail
- Taunt

This version of drapion is very versatile and good to counter some pokemons in RU. Jolly nature with 96 speed outspeeds Smeargle, and taunt it. 248 HP & 160 def can take bulky versions of rhydon earthquake, and hit hard with aqua tail, and 2hko it. Toxic Spikes its a good hazard move to put on battleground. Crunch its it main stab move, and taunt is for the surprise fact. This drapion is a good pokemon if you want the surprise fact, and should not be underestimated.

[Chidori__O]

Although it's true that Air Balloon doesn't make him perfect, at least it can stay away from Earth Power.

So here's a Air Balloon Doubles Set.

CypherDrapion would like to battle (take this pun if you want though I doubt you will)
-Toxic Spikes
-Protect
-Roar/Whirlwind/Taunt
-Crunch
Item: Air Balloon
Ability: Sniper
EVs and Nature:
Evs: 220 HP / 68 Def / 220 Spe
Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -SAtk)

Toxic Spikes is a pretty good move, setting up entry hazards in Doubles and Triples is always useful because you can also spam Protect too. Roar and Whirlwind send the opponent back allowing Toxic Spikes to do its magic. Taunt is another option preventing the opponent from setting up entry hazards and other crippling moves. Crunch is a STAB move that lets you deal some damage to weakened pokemon (especially poison types).

[Jacobthepokemonfreak]

Possible Puns:

A Bug or not a bug? that is the question
pretty much all the puns are critical!
It's curtains for you! (Drapion, drapes are curtains.)
In the Head! (sniper set)

[Kraleck]

Hone Claws gets a somewhat honorable mention due to Drap's endurance, Attack, and the access to the Elemental Fangs, Aqua Tail, Iron Tail, and Rock Slide. The imperfect Accuracy of those Moves may be a selling point for Hone Claws's Attack + Accuracy Buff, but otherwise, it's not worth the Moveslot.

I've been playing too much Team Fortress 2 lately and came up with this...

"A Little of the Ol' 'Chop-Chop'!"
Stats: Careful, Max Attack & Sp.Def, rest Speed
Ability: Sniper
Item: Scope Lens/Black Sludge
Moves: Slash, Cross Poison, Night Slash, X-Scissor/Aqua Tail

Basically Critical Abuse. Not much else. X-Scissor/Aqua Tail to aid coverage. Theme-based note, the Stats and Items reflect a Sniper's area-camping nature in their line of work.

"Here's Some Advice: Next Time, Shoot First."
Stats: Jolly, Max Attack & Speed, rest Sp.Def or HP
Ability: Sniper
Item: Choice Scarf
Moves: Cross Poison, Night Slash, and 2 of the following: Slash, Ice Fang, Aqua Tail, Rock Tomb/Rock Slide, Bulldoze, Brick Break, Iron Tail

Basically, you're going for as much Speed, Critical Abuse, and Type-Coverage as you can get. Rock Tomb and Bulldoze are options due to the greater-Speed aspect of the set.

[Phoenix_85x]

My first POTW post, yay!

Drapion can work as both an offensive and defensive pokemon, thanks to its wide movepool. If only it got baton pass to pass the acupressure boosts.

Drapion@Black sludge
Battle armor
Impish (+Def -SpAtk)
252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Spe.
-Toxic spikes
-Whirlwind
-taunt
-Confuse ray/Protect/Snarl/Crunch

Haven't tried this set yet, but i guess it would work as a good toxic spikes user as drapion has both taunt and phazing moves.
Toxic spikes is the only hazard drapion can use, but it works as good as always.
Whirlwind lets you phaze set up sweepers and rack up hazard damage. roar can be used as well, but whirlwind is cooler (But how does Drapion whirlwind them away?).
Taunt is there for obvious reasons. Stops taunt, hazards, set up moves, and lots of other things. It works well with drapions good speed as well.
The last slot is a filler but every move has its own reasons to use.
Confuse ray is a gimmick move that lets the opponent either switch out and take toxic spikes and other hazards, or get annoyed with confusion damage.
Protect lets you recover health with black sludge, as drapion doesn't have any reliable recovery move.
Snarl lowers opponents special attack, which hits drapion's weaker defense. It also forces switches!
Crunch is for preventing drapion from being taunt bait or to foes weak to it (or that have low health).

The EV spread is just randomly selected for physical bulk, and i suggest that you change it to be faster than some opponents or to take some damage easier (but snarl already provides weaker special attack). The speed EVs should definitely be increased to outspeed other taunt users, but as i haven't used drapion at all, i have no idea what he needs to outspeed.

Other alternatives could be knock off, pursuit, rain dance and sunny day, but in my opinion, they are all outclassed by other moves and are used better by other pokemons.

For double and triple battles, drapion works quite good as an offensive pokemon and can even be a sweeper with a bit of luck.

Drapion@scope lens
Sniper
Jolly (+Spe -SpAtk)
252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 HP.
-Night slash
-Swords dance/Cross poison
-Earthquake/Rock slide/Cross poison
-Earthquake/Rock slide/Cross poison

This is an extremely gimmick set that i once lost against (CPUs are really lucky) but can be very strong if successful .
Night slash is the obvious choice, as it hits several things super effective and has an increased chance of a critical hit.
Swords dance is in case you don't want to solely relay on your luck (but this set is just for testing your luck anyway).
Cross poison is for secondary stab and has increased critical hit rate as well.
The last two moves are only coverage. I didn't add brick break as it won't hit both opponents nor does it have an increased chance of a crit.

A good partner would have to be fast and be able to fling a lansat berry.
Azelf, gengar and mew fit good for this role, as they have fling, are fats and can explode when their job is done (do note that you need protect for this, and it is often not recommended).

After getting flung a lansat berry, drapion will have a 33% chance to get a crit with night slash/cross poiton and 25% chance to get a crit with quake and slide.
This set is only for testing your luck or if you really want to go gimmick. Pokemons with focus energy or super luck are a lot better at doing this job as they can reach stage 5 for crits (50% chance of crit with high crit moves). This set isn't good but i decided to post it since it is an interesting (but i repeat, gimmick) strategy

[Vandslaux]

Drapion is the only Toxic Spiker in RU not ****ed up by Psychics.

Drapion @ Black Sludge
Jolly
Battle Armor
252 HP/4 Atk/252 Spe
Toxic Spikes
Taunt
Crunch
Swords Dance/EQ/Cross Poison

[Domdozer]

Drapion @ Scope Lens
Impish(+Def, - SpAtk)
Sniper
188 HP/64 Atak/252 Spe
-Night Slash (STAB)
-Cross Poison
-Swords Dance
-Toxic Spikes

[Neon Squirtle]

A little humor in the overview:If you were a new player who started off in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, this Drapion probably screwed you over with its bug-like appearance yet not being a bug type.

OMG I started out in DP and spammed my Infernape's Flamethrower screaming "WHY IS IT NOT SAYING ITS SUPER EFFECTIVE IT IS CLEARLY A BUG TYPE!!!" battling Aaron then found out it was Poison Dark and double facepalmed. I still hate that Drapion... I always crush it with EQuake now.

Possible Puns:

A Bug or not a bug? that is the question
pretty much all the puns are critical!
It's curtains for you! (Drapion, drapes are curtains.)
In the Head! (sniper set)

Lol yeah or the one I used for the set I posted "THINGS ARE GETTING CRITICAL HERE."

[Chidori__O]

I don't really understand why you'd use Iron Tail, the move isn't amazing. It has shaky accuracy and I'd only recommend it for story mode. But Drapion does have high defenses to go for another hit...

[your boss]

I can't think of anymore Pions!

Yeah, making Scorpion puns is really hard for me:/ but yeah, Storm Throw would be nice, adding it to its Sniper moveset.

[philzone]

Scream killer
Jolly
Evs 252 att 252 spd 4 hp
Screech
Night slash
Earthquake
Aqua tail/ice fang.
Item life orb
Ability sniper

Simple. Screech lowers foe def, then destroy with your moves

[Patri25]

"Hear me Roar"
Drapion@Black Sludge
Nature:-Sp.Attack+Def.
Ability:Battle Armor
Ev´s:4HP/252SpDef/252Speed
Moves:
-Roar
-Toxic Spikes
-Protect
-Crunch/Earthquake
This lead start setting Toxic Spikes, and then ROAR.The pokemon is poisoned, so i ROAR again for poison all his pokemon or if i have a superefective move i use it or if he has got a ground move i go for the switch.The protect is for dameging the opponent.

[Chidori__O]

This is an original LC set.

Skorupi@Black Sludge
Nature: Jolly/Adamant
Ability:Battle Armor
Ev´s:36HP/220Atk/252Spe
Moves:
-X-Scissor/Bug Bite
-Toxic Spikes/Toxic
-Protect/Poison Jab/Whirlwind
-Poison Jab/Confuse Ray/Swords Dance

Skorupi is a powerful pokemon in LC. It has amazing defense and decent attack and speed. It has an average move pool filled with powerful attacks such as X-Scissor and Swords Dance. It can also be used as a wall with it's good defenses.

Any who, let's get to the set. X-Scissor is a good STAB move which can get rid of a chunk of an opponents HP. Bug Bite is a pretty useful move as well which allows you to steal an opponents berry, which is pretty common for an opponent to have in LC. Toxic Spikes allows you to set up a decent hazard and with Skorupi's good defenses you can easily set them up. Toxic is for those who don't need a spiker. Protect can be used for stalling a poisoned foe. Poison Jab is another STAB attack which isn't as useful as you think though it can take down weakened fire and flying types though I don't recommend. Whirlwind is an egg move so it can be a pain to get but it is pretty useful. Sending pokemon back so Toxic Spikes can do it's magic is good. Confuse Ray is kinda gimmicky so I don't recommend using it though it is a possibility if you wish. And last but now least, Swords Dance is an option which allows Skorupi's attack allowing you to set up a sweep.

[Kraleck]

I don't really understand why you'd use Iron Tail, the move isn't amazing. It has shaky accuracy and I'd only recommend it for story mode. But Drapion does have high defenses to go for another hit...

Raw Power Move for Rock Types and a chance for Defense debuffs. Other than that, not much use. Why people use Stone Edge with an identically shaky accuracy, huge Type coverage, and identical Base Power is also beyond me...oh, wait...

Justification in a Move choice comes down to coverage, power, utility, and reliability. Iron Tail has poor coverage and reliability, but it definitely has usefulness from power and random-chance utility. I don't recommend it either, but it's still something to consider when Rock Types wall Poison and Steel/Rock Types also wall Dark. The high Defenses they have also means a few lucky Defense debuffs from Iron Tail will make their Trainer think twice about staying in.