Analysis of Types: Chapter 15: Dragon-type: Part 2: The Design Philosophies and Archetypes

So, what are Dragon-types?

The Purpose of the Dragon Type:

The original Dragon-type was supposed to be the ultimate elemental type, having resistances to all primary elemental types, Grass, Electric, Fire and Water, and being weak to a single late-game type, Ice and itself. In the original games Dragon-type was supposed to be cleaning early game easily, but struggling at mid-game and requiring coverage moves late-game. The original idea was that Dragon-type would be just a final boss type which would require the player to change up their team structure. As the franchise grew however, the type shifted from the ultimate type to one of the strongest types in the game alongside Steel, but in somewhat of an inverse situation, with great moves and coverage but no species that would be weak against. Perfect for STAB, terrible for coverage.

But that all changed with Fairy-types. Nowadays Dragon-type serves as the late-game replacement for Fire-types, and serves the same role as them, wallbreaking. The difference is that rather than having a large coverage, Dragon-types accomplish this with large coverage moves and self stat boosting, using their defensive capabilities alongside their offensive capabilities. Dragon-types also serve as a generic descriptive type for reptiles and lizards and whatnot.

The Aesthetic Archetypes of Dragon Types:

Classically Dragon-type was represented with bright pale blue and red, but TCG represents the type with Yellow, and the games now represent the type in a light violet color. The type is generally blue with the occasional white and grey species. Aesthetically the type consists of such:

Amphibian:

"Amphibian" covers salamanders and sea horses in this type. Generally aquatic, these species are generally partially in a Water 1 or Water 2 Egg Group. Conventional aquatic dragons can also be considered here.

Lizard:

"Lizard" covers reptiles and dinosaurs in this type. They are generally in Monster Egg Group. Conventional dragons that are not aquatic dragons can also be considered here.

Mythical:

"Mythical" covers species that are based off odd dragon myths real or imagined. They tend to be punny.

The In-game Archetypes of Dragon Types:

Mid-game Dragon-type: The rarest and earliest of Dragon-types, these are the weak Dragon-types around 485-520 range. They are generally not powerful, but have a bit more moves than their later counterparts.

Late-game Dragon-type: The most common common group, these are species you encounter in the end-game or near. They tend to be in 520-540 range.

Pseudo-legendary: Because Dragon-type has been basis of pseudos for a long time, this generational archetype became an archetype for the type itself.

The Stat Archetypes for Dragon Types:

Balanced: Standard balanced without much type specialty. They tend to be slow to compensate for high stats elsewhere.

Bulky Offense: A variant of balanced, they generally sacrifice one of their offenses for a bit more speed.

Dual Offense: Conventional dual offense, they either sacrifice defense for Speed, or sacrifice Speed for defenses.

Beatstick: Conventional beatstick, they are species with tremendous offense power and little much else.

There is also one Speeder, Noivern, but that's only species, so it is not an archetype.