Pros
- Dragon Dance
- Strong moves in Outrage, Earthquake
- Moxie boosts Attack further
- Scarf + Moxie hurts
- Excellent late game sweeper
Cons
- Walled by Skarmory, Ferrothorn etc.
- Burn renders nearly useless (Same with Thunder Wave to a lesser extent)
- Stopped by Intimidate pretty well in a fast-paced VGC meta
- DD can take a bit of time to set up
- DD variants are debateably outclassed by DD Dragonite, who has Multiscale + Weakness Policy as well as Extremespeed to bypass things like Talonflame who can otherwise still revengekill Salamence.
Just remember, when teambuilding around Salamence;
If you're running a purely physical Salamence, remember to have Pokemon that can take down Ferrothorn and Skarmory. It is also advisable to have a Rapid Spinner or Defogger to get rid of Stealth Rocks which strips 25% of Salamence's health immediately. Watch out for fast scarfers like Garchomp who can still outspeed you when you're boosted to +1. If you run a Scarf Set, make sure you can get rid of Fairy types and also it is important to have a good wallbreaker, which can weaken the opponent's team enough so you can sweep through.