[Overview]
<p>Although by no means great in Little Cup, Deerling is salvageable due to its unique typing and stats. Deerling reaches 17 Speed and 16 Attack with an Adamant nature, more than enough to dent common Pokemon such as Staryu. Access to Baton Pass as well as Work Up, Agility, and Substitute make Deerling a potent user of Baton Pass, which is supplemented by its unique typing and surprising bulk. Sap Sipper is a cool ability for Deerling, as it allows it to switch in on Spore from Shroomish or Giga Drain from Lileep and get an Attack boost that it can immediately Baton Pass away or use for itself. Deerling also has a pretty good physical movepool, with coverage options such as Nature Power and Jump Kick, along with STAB Return and Seed Bomb. If Vulpix were not banned, Deerling would truly be a threat to be reckoned with, but as things stand now, Deerling is an average Pokemon with just enough of a niche to function in Little Cup.</p>
[SET]
name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Seed Bomb
move 2: Return / Double-Edge
move 3: Jump Kick
move 4: Nature Power / Wild Charge
item: Choice Scarf
ability: Sap Sipper
nature: Adamant / Jolly
evs: 36 Def / 196 Atk / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Deerling is able to run a good Choice Scarf set due to its solid coverage. Deerling reaches 25 Speed with an Adamant nature, enough to outrun every unboosted Pokemon in the metagame, as well as prominent Choice Scarf users, such as Snover and Chinchou. A resistance to Water-type attacks allows Deerling to take on Chinchou and Staryu quite well, as it only fears the rare Ice Beam or Scald burn. Return is capable of 2HKOing Mienfoo and Axew, and is also a good attack to throw around if the opponent's Ghost-type is defeated. Double-Edge is a stronger alternative that is capable of OHKOing Choice Scarf Mienfoo on the switch. Seed Bomb is a reliable STAB move that can hit Water- and Ground-types super effectively, giving Deerling a way to hurt Staryu, Frillish, and Drilbur. Jump Kick allows Deerling to hit Scraggy, Snover, and Ferroseed super effectively, as well as giving it an attack to hit other Normal-types hard. Nature Power is slightly more useful in the last moveslot in order to hit Croagunk super effectively, as well as Fire-types such as Ponyta and Houndour. Nature Power also has the unique ability of ignoring Sucker Punch, which allows Deerling to revenge kill boosted Pawniard easily. Wild Charge is also useful to hit Flying-types such as Murkrow and Drifloon super effectively. It is worth noting that without Wild Charge, Drifloon can switch in for free, as it will fear none of Deerling's attacks.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Adamant is the preferred nature in order to maximize Deerling's otherwise unimpressive Attack, reaching a moderately impressive 16, enough to harm most Pokemon. Sap Sipper is the ability of choice because it gives Deerling an Attack boost if it switches into a Grass-type move, as well as immunity to them. Water-types make great teammates for Deerling as they can absorb Fire-type attacks from the likes of Larvesta and Ponyta. Chinchou and Staryu are arguably the best at this, as they can offer supplementary support in Heal Bell and Rapid Spin, respectively. Stealth Rock support from Dwebble allows Deerling to easily muscle its way past counters such as the previously mentioned Larvesta, as its it is easily defeated on the switch-in thanks to the rocks stripping half of its health. Frillish is also a great teammate because its unique typing allows it to take on both Fire- and Fighting-types, something most other Pokemon cannot accomplish. Fighting-types such as Croagunk and Timburr are huge issues for Deerling, so Murkrow is a great teammate because it can defeat Fighting-types easily with Brave Bird.</p>
[SET]
name: Baton Pass
move 1: Work Up
move 2: Agility
move 3: Baton Pass
move 4: Seed Bomb / Substitute
item: Eviolite
ability: Sap Sipper
nature: Jolly
evs: 36 HP / 196 Def / 36 SpD / 236 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Access to Agility and Work Up allow Deerling to carve itself a niche with Baton Pass. Deerling's Grass typing allows it to set up on common Water-types such as Staryu and Chinchou easily. Agility is particularly easy to Baton Pass because Deerling hits an amazing 36 Speed after a boost, outspeeding every common Pokemon. Despite what would seem like a crippling weakness to Fighting-types, Deerling has enough bulk to survive three Mach Punches from Timburr, as well as Fake Out + Drain Punch from standard Mienfoo, allowing it to escape with ease. Seed Bomb is used in the last slot in order to get around Taunt, as well as hit Water-types. Substitute can be used if you want to focus purely on Baton Pass.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Deerling can run more Attack and Speed to strengthen the power of Seed Bomb, as it can reach 20 Attack after a Work Up if running a Jolly nature. Strong, slow sweepers such as Cranidos, Cubone, and Pawniard enjoy the Speed boost from Agility in order to let them outspeed many of their counters. Fast Pokemon such as Elekid enjoy having a Work Up boost, as they are fast but often lack the power to threaten teams. Timburr is a huge threat to this set, as Drain Punch does major damage to Deerling. In order to combat it, Pokemon that take very little from Fighting-type attacks, such as Natu and Frillish, are recommended as partners.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Deerling has access to Chlorophyll, and can sweep quite effectively when the sun is blazing. Deerling lacks Swords Dance, which is a key part of what makes its evolution effective. Instead, Deerling has access to Work Up to boost its Attack to respectable levels, often enough to sweep. However, the lack of a Drought user in Little Cup means that a sweeper set would need a lot of support to work. Deerling can act as a cleric due to its access to Aromatherapy, but is generally poor at this due to its only average bulk. A SubSeed set can be used well, but Deerling's weaknesses to Fighting-type attacks, as well as the presence of Snover, generally means that it will not accomplish much. Deerling has a wide support movepool, with attacks such as Thunder Wave, Sunny Day, and Reflect at its disposal. However, a support Pokemon weak to Fighting-type attacks is terrible in Little Cup. Cottonee has a wider support movepool, higher defenses, as well as Prankster, effectively outclassing Deerling at any kind of defensive role. A bulky set that uses Thunder Wave alongside offensive attacks is viable, but generally outclassed by Grass-types that aren't weak to Fighting types such as Shroomish and Foongus. They also have access to Spore, which leaves Deerling's Speed as its only advantage. Deerling could possibly run a set utilizing Work Up and Synthesis, but will not pull off a sweep very often due to its recovery being gimped by Hippopotas and Snover, as well as the presence of Mienfoo and Timburr as cornerstones in the metagame.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Fighting-types are far and away the best counters to Deerling. Eviolite Mienfoo can tank any move that Deerling has and retaliate with Drain Punch, recovering HP in the process. Timburr can set up on Deerling with ease, as well as outright defeat it with Mach Punch. Croagunk must be wary of Nature Power, but can use the combination of Fake Out and Vacuum Wave to defeat Deerling. Fire-types such as Larvesta and Ponyta can threaten Deerling with Flare Blitz and Will-O-Wisp, though Ponyta must look out for Nature Power. The Baton Pass set is easily defeated by Pokemon with Taunt. Murkrow and Cottonee both resist Seed Bomb and have Prankster Taunt to stop Deerling in its tracks. Ghost-types such as Misdreavus and Drifloon can switch in with ease and retaliate with Hidden Power Fighting and Acrobatics, respectively. Their presence also makes Jump Kick a very risky move for Deerling to use. Bronzor is a great counter because it resists every move Deerling carries except for Jump Kick and Wild Charge, and can weaken Deerling slowly with Psychic.</p>
- Deerling has decent offensive stats including a great base 75 speed and a passable 60 attack.
- Has acces to good set up moves to Baton Pass such as Work Up, Agility and Substitute.
- With no Drought pokemon in lc Deerling can not abuse Chlorophyl to its fullest which is a let down.
- Has a pretty good physical move pool including Faint Attack, Nature Power, Jump Kick, Return, Double Edge and Seed Bomb.
- Has a pretty good ability in Sap Sipper giving Deerling an attack boost when hit by a Grass-type move while also being immune to it. This lets Deerling switch into Shroomish and Foongus easily getting an attack boost when hit by Spore.
- Good coverage lets Deerling run an effective Choice Scarf set.
- With an Adamant nature Deerling reaches 25 speed and also outspeed all unboosted pokemon in the tier. Also the ability to outspeed and beat Choice Scarf Snover, and Choice Scarf Chinchou are quite nice.
- A good stop to the common Water-types in the tier Chinchou can Staryu being able to switch into majority of their moves and threaten with Seed Bomb.
- Jump Kick gives Deerling a way of helping it against Ferroseed and beats weakend Scraggy and beats Snover.
- This set has a good suprise factor and is often unexpected.
- Return is also quite powerful 2hko's Evolite Mienfoo and Dragon Dance Axew
- So good parnters for Deerling are pokemon who can take on Fire and Fighting-type attacks. Bulky Water-types like Frillish, Chinchou and Staryu are extremely good because not only can they take attacks aimed at Deerling but they can also lure in Grass-type moves giving Deerling a potential +1 attack due to Sap Sipper. They all have there benefits Frillish resists Fire and is immune to Fighting making him a great choice. He can also spin block and provide great support in Will-o-Wisp. Staryu can Rapid Spin hazards of the field and Chinchou can cure status with Heal Bell and Volt Switch on Grass-Types letting Deerling come in.
- Larvesta is a threat to Deerling being able to take a hit and threaten with a Will-o-Wisp or Flare Blitz.
- The big array of Fighting-types in the tier give Deerling some trouble because a lot of them carry Drain Punch letting them beat Deerling while regaining any HP lost. Timburr can also bypass Deerlings speed and hit it with Mach Punch or just set up Bulk Ups.
- Croagunk can also beat Deerling with Fake Out can Vaccum Wave although he has to be a bit wary of switching in to a Nature Power.
- Water-types in general make good team mates because they can take the Fire-type moves aimed at Deerling quite easily. While Staryu and Chinchou can also threaten Larvesta. They both also provide good supporting roles with Chinchou having Heal Bell to get rid of harmful status and Staryu can spin hazards away. They both also lure in Grass-type moves to give Deerling a potential Sap Sipper boost.
- Hazard support is also appreciated because it can turn potential 2hkos into ohkos while Larvesta will be less encouraged to switch in on Deerling with 50% of its health taken off from Stealth Rock.
- Has some good boosting moves (Agility, Work Up) which can be used with Baton Pass effectively.
- Deerlings Grass-typing lets him set up on common Water-types like Chinchou and Staryu.
- After an Agility Deerling reaches 36 speed making it very easy to Baton Pass
- Despite wielding a Fighting-type weakness Deerling has suprising bulk being able to live 3 Mach Punches from Timburr and an Evolite Mienfoos Fake Out+ Drain Punch combo
.Deerling can use a more offensive spread of 36 HP / 196 Atk / 36 SpD / 236 Spe to strengthen the power of either Seed Bomb or Return after a Work Up this spread reaches 20 Atk.
.Strong offensive pokemon like Cranidos, Cubone and Pawnaird really like getting passed an Agility to boost their middling speed, while fast frail pokemon like Elekid enjoy getting a Work Up boost.
.strong users of Fighting-type moves like Timburr can shut this set down very easily so pokemon that can take these kinds of attacks are great partners e.g Natu, Frillish.
- A Chlorophly sweeper set can be used with Work Up however it needs a lot of support for it to work with no Drought user in Lc.
- A SubSeed set can be used as well however with Deerlings weakness to the common Fighting-type moves not to mention Snover being a quite common pokemon who is immune to Leech Seed and can threaten with Blizzard.
- Deerling also has a few other support moves at its disposal like Thunder Wave, Light Screen and Sunny Day however with its Fighting-type weakness these moves are usually lesser options not to mention that Cottonee has acces to a wider range of support moves, has similar typing and Prankster.
- A bulkier Evolite set that uses some of those support options like Thunderwave can also be used, but is outclassed by bulkier Grass-types that arent weak to fighting like Foongus and Shroomish. These pokemon also have acces to a better utility move in Spore.
- A Work Up and Synthesis set can be used however with a lot of Fighting-types in the tier and users of Vacumm wave and Mach Punch Deerling will have a difficult time setting up. Also with Sandstorm and Hail being the only permanent weather effects which also half the amount of health Synthesis recovers.
- Any Fighting-type that can take one of Deerlings hits; Evolite Mienfoo can take a hit and Recover Hp with Drain Punch, Timburr can set up on Deerling or just beat it with Mach Punch, while Croagunk has to watch out for Nature Power he can pretty much come in on any other move and can threaten with Fake Out+ Vaccum Wave.
- Larvesta can switch in on Deerling and can threaten with Will-o-Wisp or Flare Blitz, the same goes for Ponyta although Ponyta has a harder time switching in having to watch out for Nature Power.
- The Baton Pass set is also completely shut down by fast Taunt users who can take one of its hits Murkrow and Cottonee both resist Seed Bomb and can use their Prankster Taunt to stop any boosting or Baton Passing attempts.
I got rid of the Chlorophly Sweeper and added it to OO only because i think the set is not to good and having it on site will fill the Lc ladder even more with Sunny Day team Scrubs.
Also the previous analysis had Deerlings Spring sprite as shown above is it alright if i can use the Summer sprite it just looks so much cuter!
awwwwwwwwwww look!
