Had any issues taking out Dragons before the Fairies became a thing?

What the title says.

I don't really remember having recurring issues fighting Dragon types pre-Gen 6, and I get the feeling that whatever times I may have had problems probably had more to do with other factors.

Not really, but I did usually have an ice type mon/move on my team by the time I needed to fight them. Easily to overlevel in main games so I tended not to have many problems regardless. Last time I struggled enough to a dragon type was probably Cynthia's Garchomp in DPPt? And even then it wasn't awful, her Spiritomb gave me more problems most of the time.

not always, i usually made it a point to have something with ice beam on the team if possible. i still have that so heavily ingrained in me that i have to give SOMEONE ice beam even if there isn't a threat in the E4 that requires it lol. sometimes i'll give it to like half the party and then i'm like why did i do this i don't even Need it that bad

From Gen 1 to 4, all fully evolved Dragon types (that weren't legendaries) were 4x weak to Ice, except Kingdra. So even if the Fairy type existed, any Pokémon with decent Special Attack (and either high speed or decent bulk to take one or two hits) that could learn the Ice Beam TM is still a better option in those games anyway. Basically just don't go into the E4 without one or two of your Pokémon knowing a good Ice type move in those games and you should be fine.

Fairy type just added another option to compensate that newer games introduced more Dragons that can't be just one-shot so easily with Ice. But I don't think it would have made a huge difference in pre-gen 6 games except for Hydreigon. In my Omega Ruby playthrough, I had a Mega Mawile for the Dark and Dragon E4s, and I didn't even use it against Drake because Dusknoir with Trick Room+Ice Punch, Masquerain with Ice Beam, and Donphan just wrecked him.

Back in RBY, my over leveled Tauros just murdered them all with Blizzard. Good times. 🙂

One of the good things about Water Type starters is that they can usually learn Ice Type moves. Getting TMs for Ice Beam or Ice Punch was also fairly easy.

But even with just regular Normal Type moves (well, any neutral hitting moves, really) they were always manageable.

Clair's Kingdra Generation 2 rings a bell. It was a handful to deal with at the time as we all know dragons are weak to ice and dragon. Since Kingdra is dual water/dragon it's weakness to ice is gone and dragon moves and types are few and far between. Also, her paralyze and evasion tactics didn't help matters.

Seliph said:

One of the good things about Water Type starters is that they can usually learn Ice Type moves.

Click to expand...

Well, not just starters, but basically every Water type that can learn TMs. Starmie with Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and Psychic could one-shot the entire Lance's team (and pretty much solo the entire adventure) in the early gen games.

never played in WiFi battles so i don't know about that scene, but i was able to prepare for all Dragon type specialists in the game story modes. just a matter of teaching my Water type Ice Beam or Blizzard, then make sure they're faster so they can spam it lol.

defensively, dragons were kind of annoying to deal with because i wasn't a huge fan of steel as a type and it felt kinda mandatory to carry one ever. otherwise, they weren't too difficult to take out.

Nope, I either had ice beam, my own dragon, or could just take em out after paralysis or whatever, its not like it was difficult they were just good.
Plus the only real standouts were dragonite and salamence, other pokemon that happened to be dragon types weren't ever really that hard to overcome, and if they weren't pure dragon that just makes them easier to take out.

Personally I feel they went too far with the fairy type.

No, because I always had a Water starter which I gave an Ice type move, and that took care of the Dragons lol. I do really like Fairy Pokemon, though and that's now my go-to type to take care of dragons. I usually still have an ice type move on my Water starter.

Nah, I always have an ice type. Not just Ice Beam on a Water type, AN ICE TYPE. I had Ollie the Walrein in Sapphire, the in game trade Jynx named ZYNX and Blubbly the Walrein in Pokémon Unbound. ( highly recommend playing it ). If I had to have a counter to Dragons, then I would get Alolan Ninetales.
Oh, Dracovish shows up? Moonblast! Oh, Garchomp/Salamence/any Dragon/Flying and Dragon/Ground? Ice Beam!