Monday, December 10, 2012

A useless event... but not for Pikachu!

Japan woke up this morning to the announcement of a new event, namely a Deoxys with Dark Pulse and Nasty Plot. So for a change, instead of giving moves it doesn't need to a Pokémon that direly needs some moves, they give moves to a Pokémon that has so many to begin with that they're useless already!

Of course, Nasty Plot may sound appealing on something with the offense of Deoxys-FR, but how exactly are you going to set it up? Dying from a Caterpie's Tackle isn't a good sign. Deoxys-E hardly has the best defenses ever, either, and since it's uber it hurts even more. It could allow Deoxys-LG to attack in OU, but the key to its success is spreading entry hazards like nobody's business. Even with +2 SA, it won't scare too many people, especially when its best offensive move (which is still found on less than 10% of Deoxys-LGs) lowers SA by two levels. Now watch as I'm completely wrong and it becomes bog standard on one form or the other.

As for Dark Pulse... well, it already has Shadow Ball, and these moves are as redundant as it gets. So I'm pretty sure this is not going to change a thing to how Deoxys is played.

8 comments:

  1. I could see Dark Pulse being used actually. It has better neutral coverage than Shadow ball so if Deoxya-Attack does run Dark Pulse to deal with Psychics, it doesn't need to worry about Normal Arceus switching in for free.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A lot of people run focus sash on Deoxys-Attack as an anti-lead set so it can immediately start tearing through teams without being ruined by hazards. Now that Nasty Plot is released, I imagine people would burn a turn setting up and possibly getting their sash broken, and then start sweeping with double the force. Granted, this doesn't save it from the fact that priority destroys it (life orb Pidgey doing 74% still makes me laugh), which is why it would have been WAY better if Deoxys got Swords Dance, because at least then it has Extremespeed. Even then, though, stuff like Scizor and Terrakion that resist Extremespeed and have their own priority still aren't even 2HKO'ed by it at +2.

    ReplyDelete
  3. While pretty useless on the other forms, is R/S Deoxys so far gone that this wouldn't help it even in the slightest?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It still dies in one hit from just about everything, and for some reason Smogon refuses to even suspect test the damn thing. So it might as well not exist.

      Delete
    2. With Black Kyurem dropping to OU, maybe that will change after Christmas? Though I have my doubts.

      Delete
  4. True, I was thinking maybe if it could get a sub up, then I realized 50/50 defenses...never mind.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Avid Ubers player here. Deoxys-Attack has no use for Nasty Plot at all. Its job is to hit things hard until it dies, or occasionally to force switches and set up Stealth Rock or screens. Deoxys-Speed may just be able to pull off a late-game cleaner role, but otherwise its offensive stats are unimpressive. Then again, it is slightly faster than everything up to ScarfChomp and has a hint of bulk to take a single hit (with 4 Defense EVs, it is never OHKOed by 248+ Atk Giratina-O's Shadow Sneak after Stealth Rock). Deoxys-Normal should not be used due to Species Clause. Deoxys-Defense has better things to do than boost is base 70 SpA. It can't do anything but set up a couple layers of Spikes, maybe Taunt something, and die. Otherwise, it is outclassed by Mew or Deoxys-S.

    In other news, Double Team and Minimize are practically nonexistant from the Ubers ladder, even though there's a suspect test going on. Seriously, I have seen Bug Arceus being used more than either of these moves. I saw one Minimize Blissey and one Minimize Drifblim, and I won both of these battles. I'm not sure whether people just don't want to adapt a totally new playstyle to use them, or whether they are indeed useless competitively. Either way, OHKO moves were there in ~5% of the battles when OHKO Clause was being tested, and I made reqs with a Sheer Cold Kyogre. OHKO moves had a looming presence over the metagame. However, this current ladder feels exactly the same as the regular Ubers ladder, but with significantly fewer people with 5 UU Pokemon and an Uber.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And now we have Imprison Gothitelle with Shadow Tag. Yay... I guess this could have some extremely, extremely situational utility at least?

    ReplyDelete