Pokemon of the Week 2/6/10

Dracofly: The Dragonfly Pokemon. Dracofly's wings flap at supersonic speeds to getits body airborne. If it spots it prey, it drops down from the sky like a bomb, scorching the land around it and crushing its prey.

Dracofly is the first Dragon/Bug type and obviously earns it the tag: Dragonfly Pokemon. That said, Dracofly is a pretty good pokemon. It doesn't shine as a Dragon type, pulling Dragon, Ice, Flying, and Rock weaknesses or it's generally more borderline stats. However, it's probably the best Bug type in the game. It has solid stats just not really comparable to the likes of Salamence, Garchomp, or Flygon. Plus, there's a fresh batch of Dragons coming in Black and White that blow it out of the water. It also has two lackluster abilities. Overall, Dracofly is WAY too powerful for the Underused Tier but just doesn't shine like its fellow Dragons. While it easily outshines the likes of certain bugs (Specifically Scizor and Heracross). It slots comfortably into the Borderline tier but can be used to some extent in OU occasionally.

HP 100
Attack 78
Defense 54
Sp Atk 136
Sp Def 77
Speed 101

Traits
Swarm: While this ability IS preferable, it still isn't too impressive. Aside from Bug Buzz, there aren't that many excellent Bug moves in its arsenal.
Shed Skin: Is only less preferable because the odds are so low to recover from status and if you manage to Poison of Paralyze Dracofly, it's over.

Movesets

Special Anchor
-Flamethrower
-DracoInferno
-Giga Drain
-Bug Buzz
Item Attatched: Leftovers/Choice Scarf

This set is all about that meaty Special Attack stat. Dracofly has the speed to be a Special Sweeper but not the Speed to sweep certain pokemon. It's mocked by the likes of Garchomp and despite being 1 Point higher than Flygon and Salamence, they can still ruin it if the EV and IV's jack them past it. This set is meant for Dracofly to "Recieve the Baton". Using a good Baton Passer, boost its speed then send it out and sweep like no tomorrow. Its defenses aren't impressive at all so one clean hit from Garchomp or Salamence and it's done. DracoInferno ruins all OU dragons but Latias and Special Wall dragons like Dragonite and Altaria can suck it up as well so this is mainly for the dragons that just mock it, I.E Flygon, Garchomp, and Salamence. Flamethrower is for taking Steel Types (specifically Metagross and Scizor) Down a peg. Giga Drain puts Bulky Waters like Swampert and Vaporeon to rest as well as saves you from monsters like Tyranitar. Bug Buzz crumbles every Dark Type except for Wall monster, Umbreon and also ruins most Psychic types as well as Grass types that try to be sneaky. This whole set is most likely the only one you'll have to worry about. Only use the Choice Scarf as the item if you know what you're doing. It'll stop you from needing to Baton Pass but if there's more than one possible threat on the field such as Frosslass and Flygon, you're pretty much done for with it.

Countering Dracofly

This is pretty easy thanks to its Glass Cannon defenses. One very good pokemon for this is Garchomp. It's a point faster and has more attack power to boot. A well timed Dragon Claw can put Dracofly down. Also, Frosslass is very good at this, being a fair amount faster than Garchomp, it can outspeed Dracofly, no problem. IceBeam would be a major ruination factor to it.

Double Battle Use

You're better off using this guy in a single battle, honestly. A double battle can be a doom spell if the opponent has Frosslass, which is just plain unfair against this guy considering the speed issue.

Tiers
Single Battle: BL - OU
Double Battle: UU - BL