by After the launch of Armor Island, we have Pokémon that were previously quite present in competition, an example of which would be, for example , Volcarona ; today we are going to see one of them, an ancient legend who returns to give it his all and this time, in my opinion, he comes back much stronger… beware that Kingdra returns stronger than ever.
And it is that Kingdra is a Pokémon that frankly has a lot to offer, already in its day it stood out for how good it is in Rainy Weather (a tremendous candidate for a Rain Team ), something that now comes even better given how easy it is introduce climates through Dinamax, and badly we will always have our good friend Pelipper or Politoed.
But you’ll see that this Pokémon comes this time with a little surprise that fits like a glove, to the mess!
? KINGDRA STATS
His stats add up to a total of 540 points , so we’re off to a good start, but… what about his cast? well, you see…
- Health: 75.
- Attack: 95.
- Defense: 95.
- Special Attack: 95.
- Special Defense: 95.
- Speed: 85.
A horrible cast for being excessively balanced, but don’t fear, the good will come next… this is the bad part of Kingdra. Offensively well (without going crazy either, it would be cool to have more Special Attack, really), only those points in Attack are quite wasted…
Speed is fine but it will be outmatched by a lot of Pokemon that can put it in a pinch like Dragapult (which somehow makes it so it gets named in every damn post lol) or Hydreigon . The good thing is that he has an ace up his sleeve to overcome them, but let’s not anticipate things.
Defensively, the truth is quite good, the health would be the lowest (75 is a bit meh) but the defenses are not bad with 95 in each one; As usual, it’s not a tank, but it’s not made of paper either.
TYPE: ? WATER ? DRAGON
The Dragon Water Type is amazing:
- It is very resistant to Water and Fire.
- It is resistant to Steel.
- It is weak to Dragon and Fairy.
Two very interesting x4 resistances, whether you want it or not, it will be rare that you don’t get some Water Pokémon ( Gyarados , Fluid Urshifu ) or Fire Pokémon ( Cinderace , Arcanine ) in Competitive. Steel resistance is a bit meh, but we won’t complain either right?
The good is the weaknesses. Right from the start having two is pretty cool and you don’t usually see much, but on top of that they are weaknesses that don’t bother us that much. Against the Dragons we will not have problems since we will have Ice and Dragon attacks and incredible speed with the ability that you will see later. Against the Fairies… there we will have problems, but Kingdra has to have some weak point, I say. Hatterene in Rare Space cracks us up, but a lot hahaha.
SKILLS
Let’s see all his abilities, although we will clearly stay with the first:
FAST SWIM
One of the best Pokémon abilities without a doubt since it will double the Speed of our Pokémon if we are in Rainy Weather. In Rain we will be almost 100% the fastest Pokémon on the field and that is always a huge advantage, but do not forget that priority attacks will continue to pass us; watch out for that.
SNIPER
A brutal ability but one that is not used well on Kingdra. Basically critical hits will multiply the damage by 2.25 instead of 1.5 (insane). The problem is that Kingdra doesn’t have good attacks to take advantage of this ( Inteleon for example does have them and takes better advantage of Sniper); we have Energy Focus… but relying on rain first and then on top of a boost seems too risky to me.
HUMIDITY
Moisture causes attacks like Explosion and Self Destruct to miss, which is quite situational and not bad either, but nothing to do with the above.
KINGDRA STRATEGY
We will seek to hit hard and be very fast:
- IVs: All perfect.
- EVs: All in Special Attack and Speed, the rest in Defense.
- Nature: Modest (Raises Special Attack and lowers Attack).
- Ability: Fast Swim.
- Object: Choice Glasses.
The Choice Glasses will increase the damage caused by our Special Attacks by 50% with the drawback that when using a movement we will be forced to continue using it until we remove the Pokémon from the field (by returning it to the Poké Ball); This will make us hit some brutal blows, but we will have to be careful with the glue we have and remove it when it touches.
In the rain we will be very fast , but be careful because Pokémon like Barraskewda (also has Fast Swim) could take advantage of it to hit us and will outspeed us. For the rest… we will have few more rivals in Rain in terms of Speed, but remember that priority attacks will continue to be a problem and that in 8th gen it is very easy to change the weather and they can bother us a lot with that.
BEST MOVES
Best moves for Kingdra:
- Surf : STAB Water, Special, 90 power, 100% accuracy and deals double damage to those who dive (which doesn’t matter a bit hahaha). Water is very good against Fire, Earth and Rock.
- Draco Kite: STAB Dragon, Special, 140 power, 90% accuracy and will lower our Special Attack by 2 levels. A tremendous hit to destroy other Dragons or as a good neutral damage option against many Pokémon. After using it, it is better to withdraw since we will hit much less, but if we return to the Poké Ball we will recover our Special Attack.
- Hurricane : Flying, Physical, 110 power, 70% accuracy, 30% chance of confusing the opponent and the good thing is that it can’t fail in the rain, so it’s a luxury (this was Kingdra’s novelty). Volador will also cover us against Plant, Fight and Bicho.
- Ice Beam : Ice, Special, 90 power, 100% accuracy, and a 10% chance to freeze the target. To cover ourselves against Volador.
Optional Moves:
- Blaze Focus : Steel, Special, 80 power, 100% accuracy, and a 10% chance to lower the target’s Special Defense. Good move also for coverage, in this case for Fairies (which suits us a lot) and Ice.
We have very good coverage, we have Speed on our side in Rain, and we have a very strong offense with this set; so you know, bursting.
KINGDRA DYNAMAX
Kingdra on Dynamax is a true beast and now you will see why. The set for Dinamax will be basically the same as the previous one but with the following changes:
- As an object we will better carry Weakness Insurance (It will increase our Special Attack by two levels if we are hit with an effective blow) or Lifesphere (+30% damage but we lose 10% of the total health when attacking); remember that Choice objects are useless in Dynamax.
- This will be the moveset:
- Hydro Pump (Water, 110 power, 80% accuracy).
- Draco comet.
- Hurricane.
- Glow Focus.
Not only will we get the brutal Dynamax attacks (which hit very hard), but on top of that, their effects will benefit us a lot:
- With Maxijet we will introduce the Rain, which you already know that with Fast Swim comes in handy and on top of that it will also make us cause more damage with Water attacks, with which we also have STAB. Anyway, it’s better to secure the shot and Dynamax while already in Rain and not rely on this move, which could kill us before we start dealing and that’s not cool.
- Maxidraco will be a very hard move resisted by very few Pokémon and that will destroy Dragons. It will also lower the opponent’s Attack, which can contribute to our survival (and more being almost certainly the first to hit)
- Maxicyclone will increase our Speed to be faster if possible, and hey, you’ll still appreciate it if they take away the Rain.
- Blaze Focus will destroy the Fairies and the Ice Types (although that’s not that interesting) and incidentally it will increase our Defense to better withstand the physical side, which is not bad.
Obviously we will not carry Ice Attack, because it does not work for us to change the weather at all… keep in mind that with Maxifrost we would put Hail and then we would lose the precious rain.
