Dracovish Movesets & Competitive Sets

Fishious Rend is the primary source of Dracovish's power and OHKOes common defensive Pokemon such as specially defensive Necrozma-DM with Choice Band. Choice Band-boosted Outrage OHKOes specially defensive Eternatus, which can switch into Fishous Rend. Dracovish can choose to run Dragon Rush over Outrage on the Choice Band set, giving it a favorable chance to OHKO specially defensive Eternatus without locking it into Outrage. Psychic Fangs serves as a solid mid-ground attack, dealing heavy damage to Eternatus without fear of being locked into a move or missing. Crunch outdamages Roost on defensive Lunala, which Fishious Rend is unable to do, and prevents Shedinja from walling Dracovish. Strong Jaw gives a 1.5x damage boost to Fishious Rend, Crunch, and Psychic Fangs. Choice Band allows Dracovish to crush bulky teams and gives it OHKO potential against many threats, while Choice Scarf lets it outspeed defensive Pokemon such as Yveltal and defensive Eternatus, maintain Fishious Rend's power, and gain more opportunities to clean faster teams. An Adamant nature is crucial for certain damage rolls against its common checks such as Eternatus. On the other hand, a Jolly nature allows Dracovish to outspeed certain threats such as fast Eternatus and Jolly Marshadow with Choice Scarf or Sticky Web support. Dracovish fits on teams that appreciate its wallbreaking abilities and can offer the necessary support for it to thrive. Kyogre's rain boosts Dracovish's power and reduces the need to predict, as even switch-ins like Eternatus cannot safely take Fishous Rend in rain; in return, Kyogre appreciates Dracovish taking advantage of Blissey and helping to overwhelm Water-resistant foes such as Eternatus and Ferrothorn. Pivot support is crucial for Dracovish; while it has decent bulk and a defensive typing, its lack of recovery and weakness to status make pivot support crucial to give Dracovish opportunities to wallbreak. As such, pivots like Teleport Blissey, U-turn Yveltal, and U-turn Landorus-T are great teammates for Dracovish. Clerics such as Calyrex-S, defensive Xerneas, and Blissey give Dracovish more leeway in absorbing status. Choice Band Dracovish should be used as a wallbreaker, specializing in defeating slower, bulkier teams. Therefore, a team with Choice Band Dracovish should be built to allow it multiple opportunities to break down defensive cores, and the player must use smart double switches and pivots to get in Dracovish against a Pokemon it is able to threaten. Due to Choice Band Dracovish's poor defensive profile and low Speed, it finds itself struggling to keep pace with faster, more offensive teams. As such, it appreciates fast teammates that can outspeed and beat offense teams, such as Choice Scarf Calyrex-S. Meanwhile, Choice Scarf Dracovish is better utilized as a strong cleaner. Lacking Choice Band's OHKO potential against bulkier teams, Choice Scarf Dracovish in particular appreciates other offensive teammates like Marshadow, Dragon Dance Zygarde, and Choice Specs Calyrex-S to break down defensive cores and entry hazard support, such as Spikes from Ferrothorn, to compensate the lack of power.

Fishious Rend is Dracovish's best move and hits extremely hard as long as Dracovish moves first, even 2HKOing Pokemon that resist it like Dragapult and Urshifu-R. Psychic Fangs allows Dracovish to hit Amoonguss and Naganadel, but Dracovish having to lock into it and its unimpressive coverage make it extremely exploitable. Dragon Rush lets Dracovish potentially break through Kyurem-B and Volcanion, although it suffers from the same issues as Psychic Fangs in addition to its subpar accuracy. All of Dracovish's other attacks are even more mediocre than the prior two, making Sleep Talk a good utility choice. Sand Rush makes it exponentially easier for Dracovish to use the full potential of Fishious Rend, since it outspeeds the entire metagame under sand. Choice Band is an especially good item because Dracovish should be using one move, Fishious Rend, most of the time anyway. Adamant is chosen because Dracovish doesn't need Jolly to outspeed the entire tier under sand.

Thanks to its ability and Fishious Rend, Choice Band Dracovish has jaw-dropping power capable of rending many common defensive pokemon to pieces, including Ho-Oh, Necrozma-DM, specially defensive Yveltal, Groudon, and Tyranitar. This power also makes it difficult for almost anything to switch into it, giving Dracovish a niche over faster wallbreakers such as Zacian-C and Marshadow. Notably, rain-boosted Fishious Rend is capable of OHKOing a slightly chipped defensive Eternatus or Lunala on the switch while also OHKOing defensive Zygarde-C and Ferrothorn. While Fishious Rend is generally the safe option to spam, Dragon Rush targets Dragon-types that resist Fishious Rend, OHKOing Eternatus, Kyurem-W, and Palkia after little to no chip damage. Crunch severely damages Lunala and hits Shedinja, and it can be used in an emergency to Dynamax and KO Calyrex-S. Psychic Fangs heavily damages Eternatus and has perfect accuracy, unlike Dragon Rush. Any of the aforementioned coverage moves 2HKO Gastrodon, preventing it from safely switching in. Dracovish performs best in rain, as this boosts Fishious Rend to the strongest possible levels. As such, it should almost always be paired with Kyogre. Calm Mind bulky Kyogre particularly complements Dracovish, as it easily switches into Eternatus and Lunala, while Thunder Wave variants can cripple Dracovish switch-ins and let it outspeed many faster foes. In return, Dracovish can punch holes in the opposing team, OHKOing Blissey, Ferrothorn, and Eternatus with a well-timed Fishious Rend, enabling Kyogre to then break through the opposing team much more easily. However, Dracovish cannot handle faster threats such as Calyrex-S, Xerneas, Zacian-C, and Zekrom. As such, teammates such as Yveltal, Necrozma-DM, Ho-Oh, and Lunala are appreciated. Dracovish is a powerful but slow wallbreaker, so fast pokemon such as Calyrex-S, Zacian-C, and Ditto are appreciated teammates too.

With a boost from Strong Jaw and moving first, Fishous Rend turns Dracovish into a good wallbreaker that hits major threats hard, such as Hippowdon and Landorus-T. Most of the other attacks are filler. Outrage hits Dragon-types hard, Psychic Fangs breaks Reflect and Light Screen, and Low Kick does good damage to Ferrothorn and grants Dracovish access to Max Knuckle if it's forced to Dynamax. Ice Fang hits Landorus-T, Rillaboom, and Dragonite harder than any of Dracovish's other moves if it's forced to Dynamax. Sleep Talk deserves special mention for letting Dracovish absorb the Sleep status, letting it effectively take Yawn from the likes of Swampert and Hippowdon. Optionally, Dracovish can run Fishous Rend and Sleep Talk as its only two moves to increase its sleep absorption capability. Sand Rush is an option for Choice Band Dracovish to outspeed foes it normally wouldn't, such as Dragapult and Choice Scarf Landorus-T. Just note that this requires more support and reduces Dracovish's wallbreaking power. Items With a Choice Scarf and a Jolly nature, Dracovish outspeeds up to base 130 Speed threats, such as Tapu Koko. This allows Dracovish to do decently well against offensive teams, though note that Dracovish still fails to outspeed Dragapult. With a Choice Band and an Adamant nature, Dracovish becomes a powerful wallbreaker, with Fishous Rend 2HKOing even defensive Tapu Fini.