What is a good moveset for Drednaw?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Drednaw, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for any of its pre-evolutions can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some detail, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Drednaw Pokedex & learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Gen 9 NU STABless Shell Smash

Drednaw @ White Herb
Ability: Strong Jaw
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shell Smash
- Crunch
- Ice Fang
- High Horsepower

A STABless set Drednaw has been recently using in Gen 9 NU. There are a couple of reasons as to why STABless Shell Smash sets have been recently getting used in Gen 9 NU. 1. Forgoing STABs free up extra room to fit in coverage that actually hits most of the Meta for super effective or neutral damage, especially with the moves I have listed on this set. 2. Strong Jaw Crunch essentially acts as your STAB move, plus Tera Dark makes Strong Jaw Crunch an actual STAB for Drednaw. There's also the fact Drednaw is good on HO teams as a Pokemon that can setup on a Choice locked Flamigo locked into Brave Bird.

Shell Smash boosting Drednaw's Attack and Speed stats allow it to become a potent wincon. Strong Jaw Crunch is standard Drednaw stuff, being useful to hit Pokemon such as Bronzong, Basculegion, Munkidori, Galarian Articuno, and Houndstone super effectively, as well as being a good neutral move to use against Pokemon such as Vaporeon. Ice Fang provides coverage against Pokemon such as Flamigo, Gligar, Altaria, Tsareena, Brute Bonnet, Amoonguss, and Wo-Chien, with Strong Jaw allowing Ice Fang to 2HKO physically defensive variants of Wo-Chien.

+2 252 Atk Strong Jaw Drednaw Ice Fang vs. 252 HP / 240+ Def Tablets of Ruin Wo-Chien: 212-250 (56.6 - 66.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

High Horsepower allows Drednaw to hit Copperajah, Incineroar, Klefki, Overqwil, and Duraludon super effectively, as well as being useful to 2HKO Bellibolt. High Horsepower is chosen over Earthquake for the case you use this set on Grassy Terrain teams (wheter you're using Grookey or a manual setter like Arboliva), as well as being useful against opposing Grasst Terrain teams. Earthquake is nice to be able to avoid making contact with Bellibolt to avoid Static. White Herb is the item to get rid of the defense drops after using Shell Smash. Tera Dark is used to make Drednaw have a STAB move in Strong Jaw Crunch, as well as being able to have an emergency Psychic immunity that can let it setup on something like Choice locked Munkidori locked into a psychic move after using your Tera.

Answer 2

My initial thoughts on Drednaw are that this thing has weaknesses to some really common attacks and it isn't going to last very long in the tier it's in (UU) without support from Rain.

Nonetheless, I am attempting to make a set for it that does not involve rain.

MORE POWER (Drednaw) @ Life Orb
Ability: Shell Armor
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Stone Edge
- Megahorn
- Liquidation

I really have a thing for setup so don't @ me. Alternatively, you could run Swift Swim in case someone does pull out the rain and you'll be prepared for it. This should be powerful enough to do some serious damage all by itself. I know it's not built to last very long, but such is Drednaw. I don't think it'll last very long where it is.

Answer 3

Drednaw @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Stone Edge
- Poison Jab
- Earthquake / Rain Dance

• Liquidation (good Water type physical move)
• Stone Edge (other STAB)
• Poison Jab (helps against Grass type Pokemon)
• Earthquake (for Electric type Pokemon) / Rain Dance (if you're running Swift Swim, this could be useful)

Honestly? Drednaw looks way cooler than its stats. Water-Ground would have been a much better typing than Water-Rock, as Ground gives it the immunity to Electric and makes it no longer weak to Fighting and Ground. This is the best moveset I could come up with for this guy.

Comments

Definitely one of your better sets. I'm not sure if poison jab is good on this, but it probably isn't. Also, don't run strong jaw of shell armour. You have no jaw moves to be powered up, and shell armour is situational. Swift Swim is superior, especially if you dynamax.

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Personally, I'd go Megahorn instead of Poison Jab since it does significantly more damage, 85% accuracy isn't really much of an issue either.

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Agree with DancingDarkdrail

Answer 4

Drednaw @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Liquidation
- Crunch / Earthquake / Megahorn / Superpower
- Stone Edge

• Swords Dance- In the rain you’re already really fast, so Rock Polish isn’t needed
• Liquidation- STAB, super strong in the rain
• Crunch / Earthquake / Megahorn / Superpower- Coverage, coverage, unreliable coverage, or stronger coverage with recoil
• Stone Edge- STAB

It’s pretty simple. All you gotta do is live a turn to dance with swords, then sweep with sharp rocks and your teeth. Though first you need a rain setter like Pelipper with a Damp Rock. Switch into this thing as soon as possible. Swords Dance so you get to +2. With Swift Swim, you’ll be out speeding a lot without the boost from Jolly. Liquidation is boosted by the rain and STAB while Stone Miss is more STAB. The other slot is your choice, really.

Answer 5

Drednaw @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Swords Dance
- Poison Jab
- Stone Edge

• Liquidation(Powerful STAB)
• Swords Dance(Set Up)
• Poison Jab(Coverage over Grass Weakness)
• Stone Edge(Powerful STAB)

Answer 6

Drednaw (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Jolly Nature
- Liquidation
- Stone Edge
- Ice Fang / Jaw Lock
- Earthquake / Swords Dance

Liquidation is obvious stab and comes with the very good 20% to drop the defense of the opponent's defense. If you're more of a flinch guy though you're gonna want to use Waterfall. Stone Edge is of course Very powerfull and has that amazing high critical hit ratio. But if you wanna flinch use Rock Slide. It's also more accurate. Ice fang I chose instead of Ice Beam because it can flinch and freeze. (You may be noticing a lot of flinching here) Jaw Lock covers Pokemon like Gardevoir, Gengar and Eviolite Dusclops. Earthquake covers it's electric weakness and is one of the best moves in the game of course. Finally is Swords Dance to boost that incredible base 115 attack. I hope I helped with this moveset and Drednaw is just such a good physical attacker. It deserves some love for that

-Cawos11

Answer 7

Doubles Ubers

Drednaw-Gmax @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Head Smash
- Superpower
- Protect

Under Kyogre's rain, Drednaw outspeeds every unboosted, non-scarfed, Pokémon in the metagame except Regieleki. Liquidation is STAB further boosted by rain and becomes G-Max Stonesurge when Gigantamaxed, which sets Stealth Rock. Head Smash is absurdly strong Rock STAB but changes the weather if you're Gigantamaxed, so you would have to swap out your rain setter (Kyogre) and swap them back in the following turn. Superpower is for the attack boosted when Gigantamaxed. Protect keeps Drednaw safe for a turn while it's ally on the field can take out or weaken a threat to Drednaw.

Answer 8

Drednaw now has Shell Smash, so I'm posting a Shell Smash set.

Gen 9 Monotype Shell Smash (Rock)

Drednaw @ Air Balloon
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shell Smash
- Liquidation
- Stone Edge
- Ice Spinner

This is a Shell Smash Drednaw set, as Drednaw gets Shell Smash in Gen 9. I have the format as Monotype on Rock teams because Drednaw isn't going to be an OU mon, but you can feel free to use this in lower tiers when they develop.

Air Balloon is used over White Herb in Monotype to let Drednaw take advantage of Choiced Pokemon being locked into a Ground move. Shell Smash is used to boost both of your attack and speed by 2 stages in one move. Liquidation is used for a powerful Water STAB. Stone Edge is used for a powerful Rock STAB. Ice Spinner is used to target Grass- and Dragon- types such as Dragapult, Dragonite, Cyclizar, Dragalge, Brambleghast, Amoonguss and Garchomp. Ice Spinner is also useful vs Clodsire, who uses Water Absorb as its Ability. You could use Earthquake for coverage if you can manage to slot it in.

Swift Swim is used because Shell Armor is pointless on this set, and you don't have any STABs that are boosted by Strong Jaw since you can't use Terastal in Monotype since it's banned. Even if Terastal was allowed, Drednaw's Tera Type would have to be Rock since the Tera Type would have to be the same type as the team you use Drednaw on(which in this case, is rock). If lower tiers allow Tera Types, you could probably get away with a Shell Smash Strong Jaw set, but that's assuming lower tiers allow Tera Types, so yeah. :P

Answer 9

Gen 9 NU Shell Smash

Drednaw @ White Herb / Loaded Dice / Air Balloon / Clear Amulet
Ability: Strong Jaw
Tera Type: Dark / Flying / Ground / Fairy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Shell Smash
- Liquidation
- Crunch
- Stone Edge / Rock Blast / Tera Blast / Earthquake

Drednaw has been seeing use as the best Shell Smash sweeper in Gen 9 NU thanks to its bulk to help it setup, as well as its flexibility in items, moves and Tera Type. With Shell Smash, Drednaw becomes a potent sweeper that outspeeds boosted Pokemon such as Choice Scarf Munkidori and +1 Speed Cinccino. Liquidation provides Drednaw with a consistent Water STAB that hits most Pokemon in the metagame for neutral or super effective damage. Crunch is used for a useful coverage move boosted by Strong Jaw that allows Drednaw to hit Bronzong, Brambleghast, Basculegion, and Decidueye super effectively, and is useful to hit Water immunities such as Vaporeon and Gastrodon. Stone Edge provides Drednaw with a powerful STAB move that allows Drednaw to avoid damage from Rocky Helmet. Alternatively, you can use Rock Blast with Loaded Dice to have essentially Stone Edge than can be a bit more powerful with better accuracy. Loaded Dice Rock Blast is neat to deal with the occasional Focus Sash Pokemon. Tera Blast is an option when used with Tera Blast to be able to OHKO Aqua Tauros, Toxicroak, and Amoonguss, Pokemon that would otherwise check Drednaw. Earthquake is an option to be able to hit Bellibolt super effectively.

White Herb allows Drednaw to restore its lowered defenses after using Shell Smash to prevent it from being revenge killed easily. Loaded Dice is used if you use Rock Blast to allow it to hit 4-5 times. Air Balloon lets Drednaw have a temporary Ground immunity, which is particularly useful against Flygon, especially if you use Tera Fairy to become immune to both of Flygon's STABs should you still have your Air Balloon. Clear Amulet can be used to prevent Intimidate from working against Drednaw, which is nice if you use Tera Blast Flying so you can take out Aqua Tauros. Tera Dark allows Drednaw to gain a STAB move in Crunch. Tera Flying is used with Tera Blast, and is useful to allow Drednaw to flip its weaknesses of Grass, Fighting, and Ground moves. Tera Fairy lets you resist Fighting moves, though it is mainly used with Air Balloon to temporarily become immune to both of Flygon's STABs. Tera Ground is used if you use Earthquake, which allows Drednaw to OHKO Bellibolt at +2:

+2 252 Atk Tera Ground Drednaw Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Bellibolt: 458-540 (108.5 - 127.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

This is useful since +2 Earthquake without Tera Ground would otherwise be a 2HKO against Bellibolt.

Comments

crunch allows to hit drednaw with super-effectiveness?

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meant Decidueye lol (though technically it could if you face an opposing Drednaw that has Tera Ghost)