Dragmag in UU

[Kadabrium]

Since UU is, well, UU, there are relatively few defensive pokemon who can fully cover multiple defensive functions, like ferrothorn, heatran and gliscor can in OU; this combined with the general lack of fairy, ice and steel types, UU seems like more of an ideal place to unleash a dragon onslaught. With the new drops Salamence and Klefki, the old-school deoxys+magnezone+dragon core can finally be replicated well ineough in UU.
Note that Magnezone here is just one possibility. It can reliably beat Florges, the only common fairy in UU; However, since there arent as many steel types this generation, one can change it to other pokemon that can beat florges as well as fulfill other defensive niches. Mega aggron seems like another choice, although it cant beat blastoise as easily.

I drafted a very simple team, but had to start testing from the base score of 1000.

Klefki @ Light Clay
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 130 Def / 122 SDef
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Reflect
- Light Screen

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Modest Nature
- Flash Cannon
- Volt Switch
- Thunder
- Sleep Talk

Zygarde @ Leftovers
Ability: Aura Break
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Substitute
- Coil
- Earthquake
- Dragon Tail

Salamence (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SAtk
Hasty Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Blast
- Dragon Claw

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- U-turn

Haxorus @ Lum Berry
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Dragon Claw


tldr:Lets spam these seemingly legit stuff before they get banned

 

[Taehl]

I don't really see the point of this thread. What exactly are you trying to do with it? If you want to post your team, go to the RMT section here.

 

[CoolStoryBrobat]

I don't really see the point of this thread. What exactly are you trying to do with it? If you want to post your team, go to the RMT section here.

I think he's just offering a discussion on the DragMag playstyle in UU. It's a little bit more obscure than in OU since the Steels in this format aren't as susceptible to Magnet Pull trapping (Cobalion punches Magnezone's face in, Jirachi has access to U-turn, Magnezone's got Volt Switch and kinda checks your own, Aggron's got Earthquake, etc.) and we got some new UU drops who can work in this playstyle so I guess it's reasonable to throw together a sample team with an explanation of the concept just as an example.

In this tier though it's kinda interesting since Dragons like Haxorus and Salamence have Poison Jab and the obscure Iron Tail to beat Fairies, while all of them have Earthquake and/or Fire Blast for Steel-types. It's almost like if you have enough dragons to overwhelm the defensive core you can still break through...but Magnezone never hurt much to have since it just blows up everything

 

[Patrick1088]

What steel types are therr to trap? Mega aggron? He takes super effective hp fire from mag ans ohko with earthquake.

Bronzong? Haxorus beats and steel nerf plus competition from metagross makes it tough to find a team slot

Empoleon is maimed by any other dragons coverage move in earthquake.

The only other threat to dragons are florges and its bandled easily by metagross and magnezone. In fact analytic is the way to go to just demolish everything.

Overall, dragmag may find more usage in ou due to better steels and in lower tiers like ru due to the chances of flygon and kingdra dropping since they have a lot of competition from the new dragons of uu...

 

[Kadabrium]

^I am indeed using analytic.

Im now at 1550 with this team, and the biggest threats to this I have found so far are Donphan, SpD hippowdon and enemy Klefki (lol just to show how b0rken this thing is). Other than these, it's pretty easy to setup imo

 

[Petrico94]

I think this is the wrong place for teams.

 

[Jellied Eels]

A couple of things to consider for this kind of team:

• you're probably better off running Analytic on Specs Magnezone because you use it far more for Florges and Klefki than to trap Steel-types, none of which except Empoleon are actually beaten by Mag anyway
• therefore as shitty as it may look Wynaut is a decent option to remove stuff like Donphan or Ice Fang Hippo from the game relatively easily, as well as being able to take on Scarfed rkillers pretty well (especially Scarf Hydreigon)
• I prefer to use SD Haxorus in this case because it has the most wall-breaking potential out of the four

RIP

 

[Explorer]

I think this is the wrong place for teams.

It's designed as a sample team to serve as the framework to show players how a DragMag team is formatted. I don't think this needs to go to the RMT forum, though it could certainly be re-posted there with descriptions.

 

[RowDog]

Could we please have replays of some of these, namely against well played defensive cores? I'd like to see a bit of this in action.

At this point I think Klefki would be a major check to Dragmag. Anyone thought of running Air Balloon Klefki to fight Dragons? Immunity to Dragon and if played well could probably keep the balloon up for a little while. Prankster T-Wave would also cripple a lot of these monsters, so perhaps a cleric might be fitting on it?

Anyway, I could see Magnezone being used to trap and dispose of Klefki if you want to use Magnet Pull, because it could be a major pain for the team otherwise, or at least I foresee that.

 

[CoolStoryBrobat]

I didn't wanna make a post talking more about the same thing as my last one but I was on my phone, and the ideas are kinda hitting me now...the more I thought about it, the more I realized, Dragon-types can just wallbreak for other Dragons since they have such useful coverage for the task...Like if you wanted a DD Haxorus sweep you could throw on a core something like:

Haxorus @ Lum Berry
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab

Salamence (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SAtk
Naive Nature
- Dragon Claw/Outrage
- Earthquake
- Hydro Pump/Fire Blast
- Draco Meteor

Magnezone @ Choice Specs
Ability: Analytic
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Modest Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power Grass/Ground
- Volt Switch

Not that that's the only core you could use, but just a simple concept. I think the biggest issue that the dragons have with wallbreaking for eachother, which is where the Steels come in, is just all the shared common weaknesses. As I think about it, you would probably be more accurate calling it "DragSteel" (Yes I know that's not an actual thing nor does it sound like it should be) based on how it goes...just like with Hyper Offense, if you overwhelm a team that had only one or two dedicated checks to your spectrum of attack, eventually you'd bust down the core to allow your sweeper to do its job more effectively. In a similar light with just a few tweaks to moves and EVs and making a core of Dragons along with a Steel-type to function as an offensive pivot makes it pretty easy to keep slapping things around. That concept would probably be the more central focus of DragSteelMag in UU rather than just trapping and eliminated the opposing Steel-types before going to town as it would be in OU.

Like the core I posted for instance, even though Magnezone bodies Florges by itself, Haxorus can still catch it (and the occasional Gardevoir) with a Poison Jab after a round of setup to go for a sweep uninterrupted. Mixed Salamence and Magnezone give most walls in the tier hell to deal with, especially the ones specifically geared at stopping Haxorus, such as Slowbro, Mega Aggron, and Hippowdon. Once those walls are out of the way, your opponent's going to have to rely mainly on checking your sweeper offensively, which in itself can still be a pain to do since your wallbreakers aren't exactly the easiest thing to switch in on.

tl;dr: "DragSteelMag" in UU would probably be more focused on having Dragons wallbreak for eachother with the appropriate coverage moves and items while using your Steel-type(s) as offensive pivots due to the useful resistances they have to cover the Dragon-types, rather than solely trapping and killing the opposing Steel-types. More emphasis on the Drag, than on the Mag, I guess you could say.

 

[dinotrek27]

Post RMTs in the RMT section on the forums. This area is for UU discussion, not RMTs.

It's not an RMT, it's a suggestion of a playstyle.

 

[DiscoDucky]

Post RMTs in the RMT section on the forums. This area is for UU discussion, not RMTs.

That's not an RMT...

Anyway, I agree with Brobat more or less. Some variation of this core is probably one of the strongest offensive cores out there. Throw in a Nidoking and nothing in the metagame even stops your team from tearing shit apart.

What I normally do is use Haxorus as an early game Sweeper/Wallbreaker. The coverage of Outrage/Earthquake/Poison Jab guarantees someone is going to die. 9/10 I sacrifice Haxorus (usually for a 2-1 trade-off). After pivoting around with Magnezone, I make sure Florges is dead, and then I whip out Salamence to clean-up.

The reason why DragMag is so toxic right now is the meta's lack of either

a) good scarfers
b) priority

The introduction of Salamence automatically raised the Speed tier to base 100 due to how metagame-defining it is. Salamence has no hard checks or counters, so the safest way to kill it is via Revenge kill; however, this is easier said than done. The only reliable Scarfer over base 100 is Mienshao, who is frail as shit and has to rely on either HP Ice (which iirc does not OHKO) or Stone Miss/Rock Miss to kill Salamence. The Weavile ban hurt Salamence pretty badly too since it was the only reliable priority Revenge Killer against Salamence. Outside of that, there is little to no Pokemon that have reliable Priority moves. Aqua Jet from Crawdaunt is resisted. Shadow Sneak from Doublade does next to nothing. Unboosted Zygarde Extremespeed fails to hit the 40% mark iirc. The only Pokemon that can probably shut down Salamence is Absol and its Mega-Evolution.

What I'm saying here is this: if you want free elo, use DragMag.

 

[HispanicPanic]

While it's true that most of the Dragons in UU can punch holes in teams for themselves, having Magnezone to get rid of Steel-types is still pretty helpful in easing prediction when using a choice set, usually on Salamence in this case.

Steel Trapper
Magnezone @ Leftovers / Air Balloon
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 168 HP / 252 SAtk / 88 Spe
Nature: Modest
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power Fire / Hidden Power Ground
- Magnet Rise / Volt Switch

I borrowed this set from the Magnezone thread, but it's the set I use on my DragMag team. To say that Zone only gets rid of Empoleon isn't really telling the truth. With this EV spread, you are outrunning min. Speed Metagross so that you can Magnet Rise before it hits you with EQ. Magnet Rise also ensures that you are safe from EQ and Drill from M-Aggron and Escavalier respectively. Leftovers keeps you healthy until you kill them because you're going to be resisting the rest of their moves, but Air Balloon can be used instead if you're using Volt Switch to at least keep you safe from Ground attacks until you're hit. It's true that both Haxorus and Salamence can take care of most these mons if they predict the switch in, but it's generally safer to have Magnezone trap them, so your dragons can clean up later without fear.

 

[heritage]

Lets just ignore the fact that this thread is in the wrong place and say how many Ice Shards and Earthquakes this team will be taking to the face. A.K.A, Jolly Mamoswine. Salamence or Hydregion MAY be able to live an Ice Shard. Maybe. I should think of a good dragon that counters Mamoswine. *Brain implodes*

 

[Hidious]

Lol, his whole sample team is now BL sans zygarde

 

[Mahmudkipz]

DragMag is kinda dead now that Mag is gone, but the main point of "Mag" in this gen isn't to trap Steels since the Dragons remaining in the tier can actually deal with them (i.e. Zygarde and Kingdra with Ground and Water coverage respectively) but rather, Fairies ( *coughcoughcoughwinkwink* Florges).

On Specially defensive Mega Aggron:
+1 252+ Atk Zygarde Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 162-190 (47 - 55.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock

252+ SpA Sniper Kingdra Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Mega Aggron on a critical hit: 298-352 (86.6 - 102.3%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Aggron can't do much back unless it Dragon Tails, which will fail to phaze Zygarde as it will be behind a sub, and Kingdra is more than likely to OHKO it after some piror damage.

However, on Physically defensive Florges:
+1 252+ Atk Zygarde Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Florges: 205-243 (56.9 - 67.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
4 SpA Florges Moonblast vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Zygarde: 236-282 (65.9 - 78.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Sniper Kingdra Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Florges on a critical hit: 247-292 (68.6 - 81.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
4 SpA Florges Moonblast vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Kingdra: 236-278 (81 - 95.5%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock




This means other offensive Steels, most notably the OU drop Metagross, can very well fulfil the role of Magnezone as a Fairy killer that hinders your Dragon from slaying the opposing team.

 

[Taehl]

DragMag is kinda dead now that Mag is gone

*Now all the dragons are gone

 

[TM13IceBeam]

There's always Magneton if you need a Steel trapper lol

Zygarde and Kyurem somehow survived the banhammer, and i can see them taking up the mantle of former giants such as Salamence and Haxorus. There's also CritDra, who's also a viable option for such teams.