|
-
Hustle
- Physical moves do 50% more damage at the cost of 20% Accuracy. Increases wild encounter rate with higher level Pokémon.
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Vital Spirit
- Prevents Sleep. Increases wild encounters with higher level Pokémon.
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Statistics
|
Min- |
Min |
Max |
Max+ |
| HP |
45
|
- |
231 |
294 |
- |
| Atk |
55
|
131 |
146 |
209 |
229 |
| Def |
45
|
113 |
126 |
189 |
207 |
| SpA |
65
|
149 |
166 |
229 |
251 |
| SpD |
45
|
113 |
126 |
189 |
207 |
| Spe |
75
|
167 |
186 |
249 |
273 |
Delibird has terrible stats and its Attack is no exception. However, the Santa bird has a little trick in its bag in the form of Hustle. With this ability, the power of its physical attacks are boosted at the cost of its accuracy. By using Aerial Ace, you get to enjoy the Attack boost while still retaining the ability to always hit your opponent. Focus Punch hits the Rocks and Steels who are resistant to Flying attacks. Ice Shard is useful against opponents that try to use Flail, Reversal, or Endeavor sets. Ice Punch hits harder than Ice Shard and is basically there for the lack of a better move, but Sleep Talk can also be used in the last slot to absorb Sleep attacks from foes like Parasect.
Its special movepool is even worse than its physical, but at least it has a higher Special Attack than Attack. Ice will obviously be your main mode of attacking. Choose Ice Beam for consistency or Blizzard for power. Water Pulse hits Magcargo and Flareon, Hidden Power Electric is effective against Water-types and Focus Punch can 2HKO the likes of Mawile and Glalie.
Using Counter with Focus Sash attached is a fairly effective strategy for Pokémon that can't take a physical hit. Predict a powerful physical attack coming from your opponent, survive it with Focus Sash, and Counter it back for the KO. If the next opponent that shows up is slower than you, try to steal its item before you go down. If the enemy is faster, hit it with a Quick Attack (note that Counter and Ice Shard on the same set is illegal). Seismic Toss is just there for basic damage.
Other Options
Some Pokémon with bad stats have good movepools, but this isn't the case with Delibird. It can learn Rapid Spin but it happens to be the worst spinner out there since it loses 50% of its health from Stealth Rock simply by switching in. Brick Break requires less prediction than Focus Punch, but it also has only half the power. Toxic is a generic option and can be used on any of the sets to inflict some status.
EVs
Delibird can't take a hit at all, so simply max out its Attack or Special Attack and Speed. The Counter set needs enough EVs for 273 HP which can OHKO a max HP Wailord. Give it max Speed so it can still do something after using Counter. Make sure Delibird's HP is odd so it can survive two switch-ins into Stealth Rock.
Opinion
It has bad stats, a poor movepool and a type combo that gives it many weaknesses to common attacks. A 4x weakness to Stealth Rock makes matters even worse. Even in NU, there are better Flying Pokémon to choose from.
Counters
As far as NU Pokémon go, Magcargo makes a great Delibird counter since it resists both Flying and Ice attacks and the only real moves it has to worry about are Focus Punch and Water Pulse. It is also special based, so it can bypass Delibird's attempts to use Counter by defeating it with Power Gem or Fire attacks. Corsola resists Ice and Flying too and can also learn Power Gem. Mawile also resists its STABed moves and can lower its Attack with Intimidate.
Other than that, Delibird has bad defenses and many weaknesses, so even an attack that isn't super effective can take it down without a problem.