Is Dragon Pulse necessary on Kyurem in Gen 5 OU?

Question

I had a previous question about Ice moves on my Kyurem and decide to put Ice Beam. But should I still put Dragon Pulse on it since Ice Beam is super-effective on most (or all, I'm not sure) OU Dragon types?

Answer 1

In Generation V OU, Kyurem does not run Dragon Pulse. This is for a few reasons:

• Dragon is a poor offensive type
• Dragon Pulse has relatively low BP
• Kyurem has other moves it needs to perform effectively

Helpfully, Kyurem also learns Earth Power, which provides excellent coverage in conjunction with Ice Beam, thus rendering Dragon Pulse irrelevant.

This isn't to say Kyurem can't use its Dragon STAB effectively — indeed, it frequently runs Draco Meteor to muscle past bulkier threats. But this is even more damning for Dragon Pulse: why use a mediocre STAB move when you can use a nuke instead?

If you're asking about Kyurem-Black, the answer is much the same, plus the obvious caveat of having to forgo an impressive base 170 Attack.

Answer 2

Ah, but it isn't super-effective against Kyurem. And besides, it is there for the neutral hits, for Pokemon that resist Ice Beam.

Comments

Good point :D Thank you!

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Actually, Ice doesn't resist Ice, but with Ice Beam's 90 power and 100 accuracy with a (rare) freezing status compared to Dragon Pulse's 85 power, 100 accuracy but no added effects, Ice Beam would normally be the best way to go. But with more Pokémon resisting Ice than Dragon it's not really certain which is best.