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

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 2

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 3

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 4

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 5

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 6

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 7

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 8

Gen 9 RU Strong Jaw + Shell Smash

Drednaw @ White Herb
Ability: Strong Jaw
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly / Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Crunch
- Liquidation
- Stone Edge

A Shell Smash + Strong Jaw set for Gen 9 RU. Drednaw has access to Shell Smash in Ge 9, meaning it can use it to boost its Attak and Speed stats so it can proceed to wallbreak. Crunch is a great coverage move boosted by Strong Jaw that allows Drednaw to deal super effective damage to non-Tera Slowbro. Crunch also can become Drednaw's STAB due to Dark Tera on the occasions Drednaw needs to use its Tera Type. Liquidation and Stone Edge are used for powerful STAB moves. Jolly Nature is used to give Drednaw more speed, while Adamant Nature gives Drednaw more breaking power.