Competitive Pokémon History - Hydreigon Quiz

Answer: Typing

Hydreigon's Dark typing is an extremely important advantage it had over Latios that made it worth using. Latios has to be played very conservatively if the opponent has a Tyranitar. One bad move can allow Tyranitar to hit the field and Pursuit trap Latios into oblivion. Hydreigon's resistance to Pursuit meant this was not the case, so it could be used liberally and without particular caution in the presence of a Tyranitar.

Moreover, its resistance to Ghost juxtaposed to Latios' weakness to Ghost made Hydreigon a natural check to Ghost types such as Gengar, Chandelure and Jellicent.

As such, Hydreigon's typing gave it a vastly different defensive profile compared to Latios that it was worth using.

Answer: Head Smash

Head Smash delivered an immediate OHKO to Ho-Oh, who could handle special attackers in general for the most part.

Offensive Dragon types, even those you'd think could beat Ho-Oh easily enough like Palkia, tended to greatly struggle to handle Ho-Oh. Many of them need favorable weather and tip-top health to actually contend with it. Hydreigon's advantage over Ho-Oh in Speed and the lack of reliance on any particular weather made it out to be one of the better, more consistent checks to it, while also generally achieving what you'd want an offensive Dragon type to be able to do. Crucially, it barely outsped Zekrom, Reshiram, Rayquaza and Kyurem-W, so it could adequately revenge kill them. Having a good matchup against the Giratina forms and being difficult for Lugia to tackle made Hydreigon worth a try in Ubers.

Answer: Levitate

Levitate grants Hydreigon with a very helpful immunity to Ground type moves and Spikes. In standard play, this allowed it to check Landorus-T, contend with Gliscor and, in Ubers, check Groudon. In a nutshell, that made it out to be a decent ability for it.

Answer: Fairy

Fairy types are immune to Hydreigon's Dragon moves, resistant to its Dark ones, and can hit Hydreigon for 4x super effective damage with their STAB. As a result, the majority of them were capable of countering Hydreigon as long as they had decent bulk to handle Fire Blast or could handle being Taunted.

Answer: Porygon2

Hydreigon's access to Iron Tail tended to keep Fairies at bay; it was strong enough to 2HKO the majority of them, while Hydreigon had the speed advantage on the viable, legal Fairy types for the tier.

Porygon2 was a hopelessly sturdy wall Hydreigon had no hope of ever breaking. Even a super effective Focus Blast or Superpower barely tickled Porygon2. Porygon2's workable offenses and frequency of using Ice Beam meant it could offensively deal with Hydreigon as well. As such, a strong Fighting type partner such as Conkeldurr was highly advised for those looking to use Hydreigon here.

Answer: Defog

Hydreigon's ability to soft check most Ground and Steel types made it out to be a pretty good Defog user. It's access to Roost meant it could keep itself healthy and able to Defog frequently throughout the course of the battle. As such, Defog gave it a meaningful second dimension to its gameplay.

Answer: Dragonium-Z

Draco Meteor turned into Devastating Drake mopped the floor with pretty much anything that wasn't a Fairy type. It gave Hydreigon the burst of power it needed to reliably take out Gligar, Gliscor, Hippowdon and other generally tanky Pokémon.

Answer: Speed

At 98 Speed, Hydreigon was agonizingly slower than major threats such as Tapu Lele, Kyurem-B, Hawlucha and Keldeo. Instead of revenge killing these big names, Hydreigon would instead often find itself falling on their sword as a result.

Answer: Wallbreaker

On paper, Hydreigon seems grossly outclassed by Yveltal, the myriad of covers Dragons in the tier and Eternatus. What it has that none of them do, however, is access to Nasty Plot. When used with Draco Meteor, Hydreigon can do some absurd things- OHKO even defensive Kyogre, defensive Yveltal, while the rest of its moveset helps it deal with Necrozma-DM, Groudon and other big name threats. Finally, Hydreigon could check Calyrex-S, which was hugely important as Calyrex-S was the most frightening offensive Pokémon in the tier.

As such, Hydreigon was indeed viable for sure in Ubers here.

Answer: UnderUsed

In UU, Hydreigon was an amazing Pokémon, top five without a doubt. With Nasty Plot and Draco Meteor, Hydreigon could blow open holes in an opposing team more efficiently than almost anything else. It was still viable in standard play and even Ubers, but it really made a name for itself in UU.