Deoxys - D: Uber?

Deoxys – D: Uber?


http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/deoxys-d
Note: Deoxys – D is programmed as Deoxys L in Shoddy Battle

Deoxys – D
Ability: Pressure
HP: 50
Atk: 70
Def: 160
SpA:70
SpD:160
Spe: 90


After Latias got banned, I took a gander at the Ubers tier list http://www.smogon.com/dp/tiers/uber and
Jumpman's thread about the definition of what makes a Pokemon Uber http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1731477.
With this in mind, I began to question the validity of keeping Deoxys - D in Uber. I searched Smogon for discussions of what makes him (I use the masuline pronoun to maintain gender neutrality) Uber. The only thread I could find that actually talks about Deoxys – D's tiering was this thread posted in 2007: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25779.
I can't really find much evidence that Deoxys – D has been thoroughly tested in the OU metagame or that there's any significant reasoning for his tier placement besides the fact that his name has the word “Deoxys” in it (Recover doesn't hurt, though).


Naturally, when looking at Deoxys – D's stats, one may wish to compare him to Cresselia: http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/cresselia. I warn you, however, that although they are both bulky Psychic types, Deoxys – D and Cresselia play entirely differently. Deoxys – D's Pressure, 50% instant recovery in Recover (no matter what the weather), and access to Taunt allow him to PP stall more effectively than Cresselia, while Cresselia's Levitate grants him invulnerability to the Toxic Spikes and Spikes that can prove very dangerous to Deoxys – D. Deoxys – D's movepool is considerably better than Cresselia's, with such moves as Taunt, Recover, Mirror Coat, Counter, Cosmic Power, Agility, Amnesia, Spikes, Stealth Rock, Knock Off, and Torment in the Support/Defensive category and such offensive moves (coming off of a mediocre base seventy Attack and Special Attack) as Night Shade, Focus Punch, Low Kick, Superpower, Aerial Ace,Rock Slide, Facade, Focus Blast, Flash Cannon, Psycho Boost, Thunderbolt, Extremespeed, and Elemental Punches.
This arguably better movepool allows Deoxys – D to fill a far greater number of roles in the OU environment than Cresselia, such as entry hazard supporter, dual screener, physical or special wall, stall-breaker, Toxic staller, Gravity, Torment, Cosmic Power, or Trick Room abuser, Sleep Talker, Countercoater, excellent lead, or possibly even a set-up sweeper with Amnesia, Calm Mind, or Agility. The only Pokemon with equal or greater utility in OU that I can think of may be Jirachi.

A Pokémon is uber if, in common battle conditions, it is capable of sweeping through a significant portion of teams in the metagame with little effort.

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Despite Deoxys – D's large movepool, his base seventy Attack and Special Attack mean he probably won't be doing much sweeping anytime soon.

A Pokémon is uber if, in common battle conditions, it is able to wall and stall out a significant portion of the metagame.

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I use 228 Defense EVs here because Deoxys – D would probably not usually run 252 HP/ 252 Def or 252 HP/ 252 SDef and instead invest in at least 28 Speed EVs to outrun 186 Speed EV Taunt Skarmory. Another benchmark investment would be 56 Speed EVs to outspeed 252 Speed EV Adamant Life Orb Scizor (at the cost of some bulk). For these numbers, I used a Bold Deoxys – D with max HP, enough Speed to outrun the standard Taunt Skarmory by one point, and dumped everything else into Defense (seeing that OU is more of a physically-based metagame and more of his threats are physical, anyway).
I picked common super-effective attacks that I feel would be some of the most problematic attacks for Deoxys – D to face.

Bold Deoxys – D 252 HP/ 228 Def/ 28 Spe:




I used Psypoke's Damage Calculator for most of these calcs http://www.psypokes.com/dex/damage.php.
Feel free to correct them if you believe them to be off. I rounded to the hundredths place, but I believe the damage formula would round everything down to the nearest whole number.


In comparison to Cresselia's most common set (Bold 252 HP/252 Def/ 4 SpA):


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Notice that Cresselia's higher HP allows it to take hits more effectively.

A Pokémon is uber if, in common battle conditions, it can consistently set up a situation in which it makes it substantially easier for other pokemon to sweep.

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Most Gliscor (base 95 Speed) run at least 216 Speed EVs and a Jolly nature, which will outspeed any Deoxys – D that doesn't have a significant investment in Speed and a + Speed nature and Taunt any supportive Deoxy – D set into effective uselessness. Also of note is that Deoxys – D without a Choice Scarf will fail to outrun Azelf, Aerodactyl, Crobat, Gengar, Infernape, Alakazam, Mismagius, Weavile, or +1 Tyranitar or Gyarados, who all outspeed him and have access to Taunt.
This third condition for Uberness was made for Wobbufet and Wynaut, anyway.


Deoxys – D hates (Suggestions here would be great!):

• Faster Taunt users

• Trick users

• Entry hazards

• Sandstorm/Hail

• LO Scizor

• Heracross

• Blissey (when not running Taunt)...

Potential effects on the metagame (Help!):

• An increase in stall usage (at least for the first few weeks, like after Latias got banned) and anti-stall usage

• One more usable lead

• More Spike-stacking teams

• Obviously, an increase in Deoxys – D usage...

The purpose of this thread is to open discussion on the potential effects of Deoxys – D on the OU metagame. I believe that while Deoxys – D's impact on the metagame would certainly be huge, things would probably balance out after a while, and there may be hope of it dropping into OU if given a proper chance via extensive playtesting and not just pages and pages of theorymonning. At worst, such discussion may boost his popularity in the Ubers environment. I want to point out once again that Deoxys – D is not doomed to usage only in stall teams and that he may, in fact, thrive outside of them (meaning that Deoxy – D would NOT mean the death of offense in OU). I whole-heartedly support posts regarding all thoughts and suggestions on this and even potential OU sets in this thread. Please make all comments as objective and fact oriented as possible.
Thanks for reading!

I feel that Deoxys – D deserves to be tested in the Suspect ladder after Salamence gets banned.

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There's absolutely no way this thread can be taken seriously when you make presumptions like this.

Here's an older thread that discussed Deoxys-D quite a bit, might be worth going over. Most users felt it would do more harm than good to the metagame because of Deoxys' sheer versatility, and everything you list in the OP points towards the same conclusion.

What Veedrock said. Let's focus on Salamence for the time being then, if need be, we'll discuss about testing Deoxys-D.