Competitive Pokemon History - Dragonite Quiz

Answer: Wrap

In Generation One, constricting moves such as Wrap, Fire Spin and Bind worked totally differently than they would in generations after. Upon using and successfully hitting your target with the move, they become immobilized and cannot act until your successive use of the move misses, or you use a different move/switch your Pokemon out. Wrap was actually slightly different from Fire Spin and Bind; it actually continued to immobilize the target up until after the turn Dragonite used something else or switched out. This meant that, unlike Moltres with Fire Spin, Dragonite wasn't entirely bent on choking out a threat or two and calling it a day. It could Wrap a threatening Pokemon, such as Golem, then switch into a teammate while assuring Golem couldn't hit them on the switch due to Wrap holding them back. While Bind was ineffective against Ghost types, Wrap would not damage Gengar, but it would still immobilize Gengar just like anything else.

Because it was so easy to use this strategy to immobilize your opponent for so long (Wrap could be used 63 times, after all), this set is often viewed as being the single most annoying strategy in "Pokemon" history. That said, Dragonite itself was not terribly threatening, as its movepool was quite bland, it had a bad defensive typing for the time, and without Wrap, it would have been totally unusable garbage in standard play.

Answer: Specially based sweeper

Dragonite's typing resisted Fighting and Water while being immune to Ground. This, combined with its good 95/91/100 bulk allowed Dragonite to try out a decent walling set. The moveset for this was Haze/Reflect/Rest/Sleep Talk or Dragonbreath. Haze let Dragonite be the overall most consistent check to Belly Drum and most Curse variants of Snorlax, and its massive 64 PP allowed Dragonite to consistently switch in and remove Snorlax's boosts throughout the course of the battle. It could generally do this to slower boosting threats as a whole as well. Reflect let Dragonite become seriously physically bulky, to the point where even Rock Slides from Rhydon and Tyranitar would fail to 4HKO barring a critical hit despite hitting super effectively. Reflect was favored over Light Screen because Dragonite's typing was better suited for taking physical hits than special ones. Rest gave Dragonite the recovery it needed to keep the act up throughout a long game, while Sleep Talk let it at least do things for the two turns it was asleep. Dragonbreath could be run if the player required an attacking move, and its main use was to spread paralysis, as the move itself was extremely weak.

Dragonite's beefy base 134 Attack stat wasn't just for show, though. Dragonite's All-out Attacker set, which could also sweep, was something to be feared and respected. A simple set of Double-Edge/Ice Beam/Thunder/Dynamic Punch let Dragonite hit the entire meta for at least neutral damage, while giving it mixed attacking capabilities to threaten entire teams. Double-Edge profited off of its massive Attack stat to dish out great neutral damage, Dynamic Punch annihilated Tyranitar and did tons of damage to Rhydon, Umbreon and Snorlax. Thunder hit Skarmory and Suicune very hard, while Ice Beam let Dragonite take out opposing Dragonite, which could otherwise give the set issues, with ruthless efficiency.

Sadly, Dragonite's lack of good Dragon STAB moves and inferior Special Attack stat made it so a set dedicated to sweeping with special attacks was underwhelming.

Answer: Salamence

Salamence could do many of the same things Dragonite could, while having a much more useful ability in Intimidate and a higher series of attacking stats and speed to work with. Flygon also gave Dragonite a lot of competition, though it didn't debatably outclass it quite like Salamence did due to being a bit weaker than Dragonite, with much better moves and speed to compensate.

Answer: Dragon Dance

Dragon Dance boosts the user's Attack and Speed stat by one stage simultaneously. Dragonite's Speed was somewhat lacking for an offensive threat at 80, so it greatly appreciated this boost. A simple set of Dragon Dance/Hidden Power Flying/Earthquake/Thunder was definitely effective in the overall meta and did demand some degree of preparation on the opponent's end to keep it from winning games by itself. Still, Salamence did this set better as a whole, with better offensive stats, access to Rock Slide as a significantly better fourth move than Dragonite's Thunder and the Intimidate ability to making setting up easier and overall more profitable than Dragonite.

Answer: Six

In no particular order of effectiveness, Dragonite had a Mixed Attacking wallbreaking set, a standard Dragon Dance sweeping set, a bulky Dragon Dance set, a standard Choice Band wallbreaking set, an Agility based sweeper, and Dragonite could even make use of Heal Bell, a move exclusively gained from "Pokemon: XD Gale of Darkness" to create a stallbreaking set which doubled as being an offensive cleric. Simply put, Dragonite had a plethora of immensely threatening sets, and it became mandatory to pack at least a strong check, if not numerous checks, to Dragonite to protect oneself from being demolished by it. Due to its unparalleled versatility, it had no counters, and it could overcome checks based on its coverage moves.

It was a top level threat to the max.

Answer: Multiscale

Sadly, Salamence and Garchomp were firmly OverUsed, and would not be getting banned again this generation. Needing another series of divine intervention to become viable again, Arceus answered Dragonite's prayers by granting it the best defensive ability, hands down, in Multiscale. Dragonite was now essentially impossible to OHKO, even with strong Ice or Dragon attacks. This gave it a crucial niche of being the best offensive check to opposing Dragons, gave its bulky sweeping sets even more wings, and generally made Dragonite into a dominating force once again, that could finally separate itself from the otherwise superior Salamence and Garchomp.

Once again, Dragonite had no consistent counters due to its massive movepool, and it was now incredibly hard for hyper offensive teams, most notably ubiquitous rain teams, to deal with.

Answer: Flynite

This set was a mono attacker, where Fly was the only damaging move Dragonite ran. It was partnered with Dragon Dance, Substitute and Roost, with Leftovers as the item of choice. The idea was that Dragonite should come in, put up a Substitute against a weak enemy or on a forced switch. From there, its health would be at 82% and it would have a Substitute up. Depending on the switch in, Dragonite could either Dragon Dance if its Substitute could take a hit, or it could use Fly. Fly would enable it to completely avoid harm for the next turn if it was slower than the opponent, or if it maintained its Substitute against a slower one. Those invulnerable turns also brought Dragonite's health to 94% after Leftovers recovery; one more turn without taking damage would allow Dragonite to passively have repaired Multiscale while generating offensive momentum. Speaking of Multiscale, Dragonite's Substitutes would have the defensive properties of Multiscale if Dragonite used the move while at full health, so they were often incredibly difficult to destroy with a single attack.

This set operated effectively against both offense and stall alike, setting up on stall staples such as Mega Sableye or Chansey, and picking up turns on forced switches against strong offensive Pokemon like Heatran and Mega Scizor. Due to this, it was a highly effective, unusual set that kept Dragonite's viability quite high.

Answer: Dragon Claw

Fly was mandatory for Flynium Z to do anything at all for Dragonite, and with one time access to Supersonic Skystrike, you'd best get anything that isn't a very bulky Steel or Rock type out of the way when Dragonite uses this move. Earthquake was mandatory to hit the aforementioned Steel and Rock types, most notably Heatran, as well as Electric types such as Tapu Koko. Finally, Extreme Speed was mandatory as, without it, Dragonite was totally helpless against Weavile, Mamoswine, Choice Scarved Dragons and Fairies, and Greninja, who would otherwise show up and immediately cut Dragonite off right then and there. Because covering all of these threats was necessary, there was simply no room for Dragonite to run Dragon STAB.

While replacing Fly with a Dragon move and running Dragonium Z might seem tempting, Dragonite's best switch ins are Fairies, and it would be absolutely devastating for a Fairy to switch in and render your entire Z Moveslot absolutely worthless.

It would also render Dragonite itself largely useless, as it relied on this Z Move to find an opening so it could wallbreak or sweep like this set wanted.

Answer: No

This time around, Zapdos and Rotom-W were full counters to Dragonite in the seventh generation, capable of surviving Supersonic Skystrike, being immune to Earthquake, and taking a pittance from Extreme Speed. Zapdos would just beat the crap out of Dragonite with a few Hidden Power Ices, while Rotom could burn and neuter Dragonite with Will-o-Wisp, wear it down and stay healthy with Pain Split, then eventually deal the coup de grace with Volt Switch or even Hydro Pump.

Answer: Yes

Dragonite fell to UnderUsed and stayed there for less than a day, being quickbanned due to being disgustingly overpowered for the tier. Like its old rival Salamence, it lingers in an unfortunate purgatory where it's way too strong for UU but not strong enough to make a meaningful impact in OU.