Matame
New Rules
[OVERVIEW]
Diancie is a very solid Mega right now due to its effectiveness as a mixed attacker. Not only does it boast a great offensive typing that allows it to deal with many relevant threats such as Charizard Y and Latios but it also possess a great ability in Magic Bounce which prevents status moves like Will-O-Wisp, Spore and Thunder Wave shutting down Diancie. It also has a great speed tier that outpaces a large portion of the meta. Additionally Diancie also has a great spread move in Diamond Storm that has great sweeping potential combined with the defense boosts provided. However after Mega evolution Diancie is very prone to intimidate. This is because the attack drop limits its offensive pressure. However this can be prevented before Mega Evolution with its ability Clear Body. A terrible speed tier before Mega Evolution combined with its poor defensive typing that offers many weaknesses often forces a protect turn 1. Due to Mega Diancie having to run maximum speed, it has fewer EVs to split between its attacking stats, causing both of them to fall slightly short of their potential. Diancie is also very frail considering its 50HP which often finds it hard to take non-resisted hits. Unfortunately Diancie also loses to currently the most popular Pokemon, Landorus, and its most popular set, choice scarf.
[SET]
name: Mixed Attacker
move 1: Diamond Storm
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Earth Power
move 4: Protect
item: Diancite
ability: Clear Body
nature: Hasty
evs: 208 Atk / 48 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
===========
Diamond storm is a powerful spread move which can easily threaten Fire-types and Flying-types such as Talonflame and Thundurus, as well as being able to boost its Defense stat for every pokemon it hits on the field, which helps it stay alive. This can make it more difficult to revenge kill. Even after 1 Defense boost Diancie is able to survive an Earthquake from Landorus-Therian. Moonblast threatens Dragon-types such as Hydreigon and Latios that normally wouldn't take as much as damage from Diamond Storm or Earth Power. It also hits fighting types for super effective damage, such as Keldeo and Scrafty. Earth Power allows Diancie to be able to beat Steel-types such as Heatran which it normally wouldn't do with Diamond Storm. It also helps it beat opposing rock types, such as other Diancie. Protect is a staple move in Doubles, allowing it to protect itself while your partner deals with the threat, to stall out field conditions, or to outspeed threats upon Mega Evolution, like Keldeo or Hydreigon.
Set Details
=============
Possessing Clear Body as its pre-mega ability allows Diancie to ignore Intimidate users such as Landorus-T and Gyarados, as well as the secondary effects from moves like Snarl and Icy Wind. 48 Special attack allows it to score a KO on Bisharp with Earth Power, 252 speed outspeeds Keldeo and Hydreigon and speed ties Latios, leftover EVs put in attack to deal as much damage as possible with its main move, Diamond Storm. Hasty is selected over Naive to allow Mega Diancie to survive an Earth Power from Heatran, Kyurem-B, or opposing Mega Diancie.
Usage Tips
==============
Mega Diancie can be used as a late game cleaner because of its offensive capabilities and its speed once all its checks are gone. Normally Diancie is forced to protect turn of lead to gain its speed advantage the next turn. Mega Diancie is also an effective lead to allow it to Mega Evolve so it can reflect status moves later on in the game. Mega Diancie should be using Diamond storm whenever possible unless Moonblast or Earth Power will do more as it allows it to gain defense boosts, damage the other target and punish switch-ins. Postponing Mega evolution can be helpful in some situations to able it to switch into Icy winds or Snarls later on in the game.
Team Options
================
Jirachi offers redirection with Follow Me and synergizes well with Diancie's weaknesses. It can also allow it to mega evolve with out using protect. Amoonguss is a different redirector with Rage Powder, which takes little damage from Azumarill, which in combination with Jirachi can give Diancie a bad time. However rage powder does not redirect grass type moves, which Diancie is weak to. Therefore Jirachi is usually preffered. Defiant and Competitive users, such as Bisharp and Milotic , have the ability to discourage Landorus or any Intimidate switch ins. Fire-types, like Heatran, Talonflame and Blaziken, are almost necessary parters due to their ability to threaten Grass types, like Ferrothorn, Amoonguss, and Steel-types, like Jirachi and Aegislash, which easily take hits from Diancie and can KO back with Stab attacks. Volcarona is also useful as it offers grass coverage to hit waters for super effective damage and outspeeds Landorus after one boost from Quiver Dance. Dark-types, such as Hydreigon, Hoopa and Darkrai, can also act as secondary checks to many common steels that threaten Diancie. Ice, and Water-type Pokemon such as Choice Scarf Kyurem-Black and Keldeo can deal with Landorus-Therian, which threatens Diancie and hinder it's sweeping potential with Intimidate. Grass, or Electric-types such as Ferrothorn, Serperior, Virizion, Rotom-Wash and Thundurus are good partners because they can beat bulky Water-types such as Suicune and Rotom-Wash, which would normally annoy Diancie due to its inability to deal sufficient damage and fearing a KO back.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS}
Other Options
==================
Diancie prefers keeping its coverage moves as it now can hit basically every threat. Substitute is an option to become extremely threatening and difficult to break, however that does drop a much needed coverage move. Always drop Moonblast or Earth Power as Diamond Storm is a crucial move on Diancie. Diancie can be run with Weakness Policy or Life Orb as an offensive Trick Room setter to take advantage of its low base 50 Speed. This set runs Trick Room / Diamond Storm / Moonblast / Protect, but is usually outclassed by many other Trick Room setters since it isn't immune to Taunt, Spore, or Fake Out - all common stops to setting Trick Room.
Checks and Counters
==================
**Typing Advantage**: Steel-types such as Jirachi, Aegislash and Mega Metagross and Water-types that are not weak to Diancie's vast coverage such as Suicune and Jellicent can be annoying to Mega Diancie as Diancie has trouble KOing them. Diancie also finds it hard to beat Grass types and often gets KOed back. Landorus-Therian can KO or deal a large amount of damage to Diancie with Earthquake, depending on how many defense boosts Diancie has.
**Speed Control**: When Mega Diancie does not have the advantage of going first due to Trick Room or an opposing Tailwind, its frailty is exacerbated due to having to take hits before it can attack. Due to this, it can struggle to perform as effectively as it normally would should the opponent set some form of speed control.
**Speed**: Choice Scarf users such as Kyurem-Black Landorus-Therian and Genesect have teh ability to outspeed and KO Diancie. Deoxys- Attack also has the ability to outspeed Diancie and Ko with its stab attack, Psycho Boost. Mega Aerodactyl also outspeeds and KOes with Aqua Tail if no defense boosts are present.
**Intimidate**: After Mega evolution, Intimidate users such as Landorus-T and Scrafty can annoy Mega Diancie by lowering its Attack.
Diancie is a very solid Mega right now due to its effectiveness as a mixed attacker. Not only does it boast a great offensive typing that allows it to deal with many relevant threats such as Charizard Y and Latios but it also possess a great ability in Magic Bounce which prevents status moves like Will-O-Wisp, Spore and Thunder Wave shutting down Diancie. It also has a great speed tier that outpaces a large portion of the meta. Additionally Diancie also has a great spread move in Diamond Storm that has great sweeping potential combined with the defense boosts provided. However after Mega evolution Diancie is very prone to intimidate. This is because the attack drop limits its offensive pressure. However this can be prevented before Mega Evolution with its ability Clear Body. A terrible speed tier before Mega Evolution combined with its poor defensive typing that offers many weaknesses often forces a protect turn 1. Due to Mega Diancie having to run maximum speed, it has fewer EVs to split between its attacking stats, causing both of them to fall slightly short of their potential. Diancie is also very frail considering its 50HP which often finds it hard to take non-resisted hits. Unfortunately Diancie also loses to currently the most popular Pokemon, Landorus, and its most popular set, choice scarf.
[SET]
name: Mixed Attacker
move 1: Diamond Storm
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Earth Power
move 4: Protect
item: Diancite
ability: Clear Body
nature: Hasty
evs: 208 Atk / 48 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
===========
Diamond storm is a powerful spread move which can easily threaten Fire-types and Flying-types such as Talonflame and Thundurus, as well as being able to boost its Defense stat for every pokemon it hits on the field, which helps it stay alive. This can make it more difficult to revenge kill. Even after 1 Defense boost Diancie is able to survive an Earthquake from Landorus-Therian. Moonblast threatens Dragon-types such as Hydreigon and Latios that normally wouldn't take as much as damage from Diamond Storm or Earth Power. It also hits fighting types for super effective damage, such as Keldeo and Scrafty. Earth Power allows Diancie to be able to beat Steel-types such as Heatran which it normally wouldn't do with Diamond Storm. It also helps it beat opposing rock types, such as other Diancie. Protect is a staple move in Doubles, allowing it to protect itself while your partner deals with the threat, to stall out field conditions, or to outspeed threats upon Mega Evolution, like Keldeo or Hydreigon.
Set Details
=============
Possessing Clear Body as its pre-mega ability allows Diancie to ignore Intimidate users such as Landorus-T and Gyarados, as well as the secondary effects from moves like Snarl and Icy Wind. 48 Special attack allows it to score a KO on Bisharp with Earth Power, 252 speed outspeeds Keldeo and Hydreigon and speed ties Latios, leftover EVs put in attack to deal as much damage as possible with its main move, Diamond Storm. Hasty is selected over Naive to allow Mega Diancie to survive an Earth Power from Heatran, Kyurem-B, or opposing Mega Diancie.
Usage Tips
==============
Mega Diancie can be used as a late game cleaner because of its offensive capabilities and its speed once all its checks are gone. Normally Diancie is forced to protect turn of lead to gain its speed advantage the next turn. Mega Diancie is also an effective lead to allow it to Mega Evolve so it can reflect status moves later on in the game. Mega Diancie should be using Diamond storm whenever possible unless Moonblast or Earth Power will do more as it allows it to gain defense boosts, damage the other target and punish switch-ins. Postponing Mega evolution can be helpful in some situations to able it to switch into Icy winds or Snarls later on in the game.
Team Options
================
Jirachi offers redirection with Follow Me and synergizes well with Diancie's weaknesses. It can also allow it to mega evolve with out using protect. Amoonguss is a different redirector with Rage Powder, which takes little damage from Azumarill, which in combination with Jirachi can give Diancie a bad time. However rage powder does not redirect grass type moves, which Diancie is weak to. Therefore Jirachi is usually preffered. Defiant and Competitive users, such as Bisharp and Milotic , have the ability to discourage Landorus or any Intimidate switch ins. Fire-types, like Heatran, Talonflame and Blaziken, are almost necessary parters due to their ability to threaten Grass types, like Ferrothorn, Amoonguss, and Steel-types, like Jirachi and Aegislash, which easily take hits from Diancie and can KO back with Stab attacks. Volcarona is also useful as it offers grass coverage to hit waters for super effective damage and outspeeds Landorus after one boost from Quiver Dance. Dark-types, such as Hydreigon, Hoopa and Darkrai, can also act as secondary checks to many common steels that threaten Diancie. Ice, and Water-type Pokemon such as Choice Scarf Kyurem-Black and Keldeo can deal with Landorus-Therian, which threatens Diancie and hinder it's sweeping potential with Intimidate. Grass, or Electric-types such as Ferrothorn, Serperior, Virizion, Rotom-Wash and Thundurus are good partners because they can beat bulky Water-types such as Suicune and Rotom-Wash, which would normally annoy Diancie due to its inability to deal sufficient damage and fearing a KO back.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS}
Other Options
==================
Diancie prefers keeping its coverage moves as it now can hit basically every threat. Substitute is an option to become extremely threatening and difficult to break, however that does drop a much needed coverage move. Always drop Moonblast or Earth Power as Diamond Storm is a crucial move on Diancie. Diancie can be run with Weakness Policy or Life Orb as an offensive Trick Room setter to take advantage of its low base 50 Speed. This set runs Trick Room / Diamond Storm / Moonblast / Protect, but is usually outclassed by many other Trick Room setters since it isn't immune to Taunt, Spore, or Fake Out - all common stops to setting Trick Room.
Checks and Counters
==================
**Typing Advantage**: Steel-types such as Jirachi, Aegislash and Mega Metagross and Water-types that are not weak to Diancie's vast coverage such as Suicune and Jellicent can be annoying to Mega Diancie as Diancie has trouble KOing them. Diancie also finds it hard to beat Grass types and often gets KOed back. Landorus-Therian can KO or deal a large amount of damage to Diancie with Earthquake, depending on how many defense boosts Diancie has.
**Speed Control**: When Mega Diancie does not have the advantage of going first due to Trick Room or an opposing Tailwind, its frailty is exacerbated due to having to take hits before it can attack. Due to this, it can struggle to perform as effectively as it normally would should the opponent set some form of speed control.
**Speed**: Choice Scarf users such as Kyurem-Black Landorus-Therian and Genesect have teh ability to outspeed and KO Diancie. Deoxys- Attack also has the ability to outspeed Diancie and Ko with its stab attack, Psycho Boost. Mega Aerodactyl also outspeeds and KOes with Aqua Tail if no defense boosts are present.
**Intimidate**: After Mega evolution, Intimidate users such as Landorus-T and Scrafty can annoy Mega Diancie by lowering its Attack.
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