What are some examples of Pokemon that can viably run a Dragon move as coverage in competitive battling?

Question

I recall seeing a question much like this one that Volt Striker asked wondering about the viability of running both Dark and Ghost moves on a set, so I decided to ask a similar question. Dragon moves are usually avoided as coverage due to only being super effective against Dragon types, so its much more beneficial to run a Fairy or Ice move as coverage over Dragon moves. Additionally, high tiered Dragon types often have a secondary typing as well, which results in them having other weaknesses besides Dragon, Fairy, or Ice types. If I need to specify a format, they're Single Battle formats like Ubers, AG, OU-PU etc, primarily for Gen 8.

To specify what I mean by "coverage", I mean that if a Pokemon uses a set including a Physical or Special Dragon move that the Pokemon doesn't get STAB from, with the Dragon move being used in order to fulfill a certain purpose, such as countering a common Pokemon in the metagame.

Comments

I'm not really sure but maybe Sceptile runs it due to lack of special moves?

---

Charizard in ADV(Gen 3) OU used Dragon Claw for coverage.

---

Lemme think of current gen examples.

---

I decided to do some searching myself, here's what I found:

Defensive Groudon in Ubers uses Dragon Tail in order to force out foes and force them into switching, allowing them to take hazard damage, as well as to punish Zygarde. Steelix also uses Dragon Tail in RU in order to force out setup sweepers like Curse Gastrodon, Reuniclus, and Suicune, but as it has low priority, it isn't used often.

That's all I could really find so far.

---

Oh, right I forgot about dragon Tail. I'll add that to the answer.

Answer 1

With very few Dragon type moves with secondary effects, by scouring through Pokémon analyses and other such things, it became evident that many Pokémon would rather run Hidden Power/Tera Blast or any other utility move than dare to run a Dragon move that they don't get STAB on. Regardless, here's the main three that I kept running across:

1. Pokémon running Dragon Tail, both for phasing (pseudo-hazing) and to force opponents to take damage from entry hazards. This is found with Stall Arceus in Ubers, Specially Defensive Lugia in Ubers UU, Physically Defensive Gyarados on Flying Monotype teams, Defensive Milotic in NU and RU, Defensive Pivot Eelektross in ZU, and Coil Dudunsparce in NU and PU.
2. Pokémon that run Dragon moves as coverage against common Dragon types in their tier, while avoiding the use of Tera for it. The primary example of this is Glare Serperior, which runs Dragon Pulse to damage Latios and Hydrapple meaningfully.
3. Pokémon without better coverage moves that run Dragon type moves as a result, such as Choice Scarf Hisuian Arcanine on Fire Monotype teams, Choice Scarf Heatran on Steel Monotype teams, and Choice Specs Clawitzer and Sceptile in ZU.

Answer 2

I did a quick search, and only three instances of dragon being used for coverage were found: Salazzlein Gen 8 NU, Groudon in Gen 8 Ubers, and sometimes Steelix in Gen 8 RU. It runs Dragon Pulse on its Nasty Plot set to hit Dragalgae and Guzzlord. Dragon Tail is used by Groudon to take advantage of entry hazards and punish Zygarde. Steelix uses it to force out setup sweepers.
In Monotype, Heatran uses Dragon Pulse on it's choice scarf set on steel teams.
Source
Source 2
Source 3
Source 4

Comments

Heatran never runs Dragon Pulse, and Clawitzer has no analysis. It's very niche in NU, only  seen on Terrain Teams, and better off running Ice Beam/Water move/Terrain Pulse/U-Turn or Toxic. It's not even ranked on VR.

---

Heatran runs Dragon Pulse on its Choice Scarf variant for its Monotype Steel set, and Heatran uses Dragon Pulse as a niche option on its OU sets to fight off the Dragon types that threaten it, such as defensive Garchomp, Hydreigon, and Dragonite.

---

I didn't realize this question included monotype. My bad. I'll edit it in if that's the case.  In OU, however, you can just Toxic the Dragon Types on the switch instead of using Dragon Pulse.

---

The question asks for competitive battling and not any tier as a whole. The answer is still incomplete, you're better off if you comment until you get a complete list.

---

Alright, I'll go scour analyses some more and complete the answer.