Dracovish

About

Dracovish is a Water/Dragon type Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Sword and Shield. The Pokémon is one of four "Fossil" Pokémon that can be made in the game when a player gives found fossils to an NPC. The Pokémon's design has led to fan art and memes, while its typing and its Strong Jaw ability made it one of the most competitively viable Pokémon.

Origin

Dracovish debuted in Pokémon Sword and Shield, released November 15th, 2019, though the Pokémon had leaked along with the rest of the Galar Pokédex two weeks prior.^[1] The Pokémon can be created with a Fossilized Drake and a Fossilized Fish.^[2]

Spread

The Pokémon's design, which seems to be a juxtaposition of a fish head on a dragon tail, was quickly mocked by the Pokémon fandom after its release. On December 3rd, Twitter user @LawsOfSacae tweeted a picture of Dracovish saying, "It was not by my hand that I am given flesh. I was called here by HUMANS," gaining over 2,500 retweets and 7,700 likes (shown below, left). The picture comes from a parody image of the Pokémon "meta."^[3] On November 30th, 2019, a /vp/ user posted a picture of Dracovish with various quotes from the autopsy of Charles II on it^[4] (shown below, right).

Competitive Viability

As the game's competitive scene developed, Dracovish became one of the most popular Pokémon due to its typing and Strong Jaw ability. As a Water/Dragon-type Pokémon, Dracovish is only weak to Dragon and Fairy attacks. Additionally, the Pokémon's "Strong Jaw" ability makes its biting attacks 50% stronger. Its signature move, Fishious Rend, is a biting attack that has 85 base attack power, which is doubled when the move goes first.^[5] All of this combined with giving the Pokémon items that boost its attack and various battlefield conditions can give Fishious Rend a base attack power of around 570 (for context, Z-moves in Pokémon Sun and Moon have a base attack of 180). The move was discovered by competitive gamer WolfeyVGC, who posted a video about it on November 30th, 2019 (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References