How useful is "Fairy-proofing" your Dragon-types?

by **Derpinator** Thu Dec 19, 2013 5:18 pm

I have seen quite a few people now who have been trying to "Fairy-proof" their Dragon-types, specifically Dragonite and Garchomp, by squeezing a Steel- or Poison-type attack onto their set, which would be Iron Head and Poison Jab, respectively. So, I decided to do all the calcs and compile them to see just how useful the addition of these two SE moves would be when it comes to hitting common Fairy-types.

Earthquake and Stone Edge vs Iron Head and Poison Jab

Spoiler:

Sylveon: Earthquake vs Iron Head/Poison Jab

Spoiler:

Conclusion: No point cutting your coverage by dropping Stone Edge/Fire Fang/Aqua Tail just to hit Sylveon for SE damage because you won't be KOing it any faster.

Togekiss: Stone Edge vs Iron Head/Poison Jab

Spoiler:

Conclusion: Stone Edge KOs bulkier sets faster than Iron Head/Poison Jab while KOing the less bulky sets in the same number of hits.

Azumarill: Earthquake vs Poison Jab

Spoiler:

Conclusion: Will 2HKO no matter what, so why drop your coverage?

Gardevoir: Earthquake vs Iron Head/Poison Jab

Spoiler:

Conclusion: Gardevoir does make one debate on whether to use Iron Head/Poison Jab or whether to test your luck with Earthquake. On physically defensive Gardevoir, Garchomp has a .4% chance to not KO in the same number of hits as the competition while the competition has a 37.5% chance to KO in one less hit when against Mega Gardevoir.

Klefki and Mawile take neutral damage from Iron Head and are immune to Poison Jab, so Earthquake is the obvious choice.

Conclusion: Poison Jab and Iron Head fail to outshine Earthquake and/or Stone Edge, only having a slight possibility to KO in fewer hits against one Fairy-Type, Gardevoir, while KOing in either the same number or less in every other case.

Earthquake and ExtremeSpeed vs Iron Head
All calculations for Dragonite are done with +1 Attack seeing how Multiscale can and should be used to allow Dragonite to DD, so we assume that Dragonite has taken a hit and survived while having used DD once.

Spoiler:

Sylveon: Earthquake vs Iron Head

Spoiler:

Conclusion: Dragonite really feels the difference between an SE attack and a neutral attack seeing how it doesn't receive STAB on Earthquake.

Togekiss: ExtremeSpeed vs Iron Head

Spoiler:

Conclusion: Dragonite once again will feel the difference between SE and neutral, 2HKOing most sets with Iron Head while 3HKOing with ExtremeSpeed.

Azumarill: Earthquake and ExtremeSpeed vs Iron Head

Spoiler:

Conclusion: Seeing how all these moves hit Azumarill for neutral damage, Earthquake obviously comes out on top because of its higher Base Power.

Gardevoir: Earthquake vs Iron Head

Spoiler:

Conclusion: The gap between Earthquake and Iron Head is narrower in this, with Iron Head pulling ahead a little bit more than a third of time.

Klefki and Mawile take neutral damage from Iron Head, so Earthquake is the obvious choice.

Conclusion: Dragonite really feels the difference between a non-STAB Earthquake and an SE Iron Head. For the most part, Iron Head guarantees 2HKOs while Earthquake usually 3HKOs or has a chance to 2HKO. However, this doesn't mean that Iron Head should be used because we need to keep in mind that all these calcs were done with a +1 Attack, meaning that your Multiscale is broken. So, Dragonite will be unable to 2HKO things seeing how they will do so first. This means that not only should Dragonite not be "Fairy-proofed," it also shouldn't be left in on a Fairy-type without at least +2 Attack.

That takes care of the physical attackers. The competition is close in that case so it is understandable why you would think it was a good idea. Special Dragon-types, Hydreigon to be specific, shouldn't even attempt to consider such things simply because Fairy-types are more Specially bulky than Physically bulky on average.

Flash Cannon

Spoiler:

Conclusion: Flash Cannon 2HKOs the majority of Fairy-types while Azumarill with Huge Power and no Attack EVs easily OHKOs Hydreigon with Play Rough.
0 Atk Huge Power Azumarill Play Rough vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Hydreigon: 348-412 (106.7 - 126.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

If you felt that you already knew this and everything said here was common sense, that is great, don't tell me about it because, as I said before, this thread is for people who thought about trying to "Fairy-proof" their Dragon-types.
To sum up what was found:

Garchomp doesn't gain much benefit from Iron Head/Poison Jab except very rarely against Gardevoir.
Dragonite hits much harder with Iron Head but will not survive long enough to KO a Fairy-type.
Hydreigon shouldn't think about sticking around.
Fairy-proofing doesn't work.
Dragon-types without multiple boosts shouldn't try pushing through Fairy-types.

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