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.
