ultimatedra
New Member
[GAL=53248] "The heads on their arms do not have brains. They use all three heads to consume and destroy everything."[/GAL]
By: Regis_NeoWell that's a bit...disturbing...and yet, awesome at the same time. Nevertheless, our Trainer's Choice this week will be looking at the three-headed monstrosity himself, Hydreigon. Blessed with great stats and an immense move pool, Hydreigon has no shortage of options in terms of how to run it.
Base Stats:
HP: 92
Attack: 105
Defense: 90
Special Attack: 125
Special Defense: 90
Speed: 98
One of the new exciting Dragon types to come out of the 5th Gen games, Hydreigon is quite a force to be reckoned with. Blessed with high Attack and Special Attack, as well as decent defenses and Speed, Hydreigon really has no glaring weakness in terms of stats. However, in typing, Hydreigon has 3 notable weaknesses, which are also 3 of the most common attacking types out there: Dragon, Ice, and Fighting. Base 98 Speed is both a curse and a blessing as well, being able to out speed Base 95s and Haxorus, but forever being beat out by Pokemon with a base Speed stat of 100 or greater.
Hydreigon works best as a special sweeper due to its immense Special Attack and diverse movepool. For any format, you'll want to use something similar to this moveset:
[GAL=52908]Hydreigon[/GAL]
Item: Varies, see below
Timid, 6 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed
-Dark Pulse
-Draco Meteor / Dragon Pulse
-Fire Blast
-Varies, see below
For starters, it should be noted that Dark Pulse is an egg move for Hydreigon, and it's a bit annoying to breed onto as well. You need to teach the Dark Pulse TM to a male Ekans, Arbok, Gyarados, or Seviper from a Gen 4 game (Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum), transfer it over to your Black/White cart, and then breed it with a female from the Hydreigon line to have it. Ultimately it is worth it, as Hydreigon has no better option for a STAB special Dark type attack. From there you have your choice of Draco Meteor or Dragon Pulse as your secondary STAB attack: Draco Meteor is preferred due to its immense power, but it comes with the cost of lowering Hydreigon's Special Attack by -2, so optionally Dragon Pulse is weaker, but won't cause a drop in Special Attack. Fire Blast offers nice coverage by hitting Steel types hard, which normally resist Hydreigon's other 2 attacks. Finally, your last move will depend on what format you're playing; for VGC, your last moveslot will usually go to Protect, which is needed to avoid many of the deadly attacks to Hydreigon due to its weakness to some of the most popular attacking moves out there. For singles, you can opt for another attacking move (more on this below).
As mentioned before, Hydreigon has an immense Special Attack movepool to choose attacks from. Some of the unlisted special attacks of your choice include Focus Blast, Earth Power (sadly illegal with Dark Pulse due to egg move incompatibility), Surf, and more. Focus Blast in particular is great for hitting Pokemon like Tyranitar, who laughs off all of Hydreigon's other 3 primary attacks, and together with Dark Pulse ensures you will hit any Pokemon in the game for at least neutral damage due to the coverage offered by both types. Surf is a lot of fun on Rain teams despite not getting STAB with it, and can take out pesky Fire types easily as well. For Singles specifically, U-Turn is another popular choice as it lets Hydreigon scout out opponents and offers a quick getaway if an unfavorable target switches in. Substitute is a great option in the same vein, setting up a dummy while your opponent tries to get in a better Pokemon, thus gaining a free turn to attack unhindered.
In terms of items, your three main choices will be Life Orb, Choice Scarf, and Choice Specs. Life Orb will give Hydreigon great attacking ability without being locked into any particular attack unlike a Choice item. If you're already using a Pokemon with Life Orb, Expert Belt is a decent alternative, or even a damage reducing berry; for this you're looking at Haban to live through opposing Dragon type attacks, Chople for Fighting type attacks, or Yache for Ice type attacks. Choice items are more useful on Hydreigon in Singles over Doubles (due to the ease of switching out), but both are still perfectly feasible still when used correctly in Doubles. Choice Scarf in particular compensates for Hydreigon's inability to outspeed faster targets while Choice Specs guarantees it will punch holes in any target. It's worth mentioning you can opt for Modest instead on Choice sets (particularly if you decide to put a Choice Scarf on Hydreigon), but this comes at the cost of Speed when using Choice Specs, which in a format dominated by who outspeeds who, can be dangerous.
Overall, much like its Pokedex entry suggests, Hydreigon is meant to destroy: simply give it a target and it'll go at it all heads in.
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