I am intrigued. I am thinking that Reflect Type is to protect Latias from Scizor / Escavalier / Tyranitar? Losing its otherwise awesome typing and Dragon STAB stinks, though, and without SE moves, the 3 Pursuiters can still set up on you / hit you hard, unless they are choiced and locked to Pursuit / Crunch / U-turn.
This is true, however that is what the magnezone support is for (well, it's mainly for jirachi, but still). Since you'll be losing your dragon STAB, running surf over dragon pulse isn't exactly a bad idea, as it has a higher base power and isn't resisted by any of the pokemon who would normally switch into latias.
Alright guys. I really hate to do this, but I want to put Deoxys-N on the table. I never really agreed with his ban, as it seemed to be a casualty of deoxys-A being so dangerous. The 30 point difference in attack power is a big deal, and his movepool doesn't exactly lead me to believe that he is the most broken pokemon out there.
Without a speed boosting nature, deoxys-N reaches 399 speed with max EVs and IVs. Aside from some choice scarf pokemon, there aren't many things that he needs to outspeed. Therefore, the calcs I've done were all done with a +atk/+spA nature.
LO +Atk Zen headbutt vs. 0/0 mamoswine:
69% - 81.4%
LO + atk fire punch vs. 0/0 mamoswine:
86.4% - 101.9% (not even good chance to ohko)
Meanwhile...
CB Mamoswine Ice shard vs. 0/0 nuetral deoxys-N:
70.1% - 82.6%
LO Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. 0/0 nuetral nature deo-N:
61.4% - 72.6%
No boost Mamoswine Ice Shard vs. 0/0 nuetral nature deo-N:
47.3% - 56%
So deoxys-N is losing to mamoswine most of the time even if he isn't using a life orb or choice band (though LO mamoswine will kill itself off of recoil). But let's move on.
+ SpA natured LO deoxys-N thunderbolt vs. 252/252 calm politoed:
62% - 72.9%
Not bad, right? But then...
0/0 nuetral natured politoed rain boosted SCALD vs. nuetral natured 0/0 Deo-N:
84.6% - 100%
So Deoxys-N has killed one pokemon and then died off of life orb damage. Or if he's taken even an ounce of prior damage, he dies without accomplishing anything at all. Meanwhile, an electivire or rotom-A with the same offensive EV spread is dealing more damage than deoxys-N...and both of them can secure a guarenteed ohko without any risk of being ohko'd back. Rain boosted scald from defensive politoed does about 55% to electivire...
LO +atk deoxys-N pursuit vs. 252/252 bold reuniclus switching out:
56.1% - 66.5%
Worse than both scizor and defensive tyranitar. Moving on.
LO +sPA deoxys-N shadow ball vs. 252/0 reuniclus:
74.5% - 88.2%
Reuniclus sets up trick room on you and then ohko's with shadow ball. Or he just ohko's with shadow ball to avoid any extreme speed shenanigans. Actually, seeing as how psychic from trick room reuniclus deals,
81.7% - 96.3% to deoxys-N, he can just use that too after some prior damage.
LO +SpA deoxys-N hp fire vs. standard 252/208 nuetral ferrothorn:
89.8% - 105.7%
Not a guarenteed ohko. Ferrothorn ohkos you with gyro ball.
Fire punch from the +atk LO deoxys to the same ferrothorn:
102.3% - 120.5%
So we finally have a 100% chance of ohko. Deoxys-N needs these things because his opponents will all kill him if he doesn't do it to them. He loses to bulk up scrafty at +1 for instance, as superpower fails to ko...at all.
LO +sPA 252 deoxys vs. 240/252 careful bulk up gallade:
46.5% - 55.3%
So an RU pokemon uses you as setup fodder and can get in 2 bulk ups with leftovers, barring a crit or special defense drop.
+1 gallade shadow sneak vs. 0/0 deoxys-N:
74.7% - 88.8%
So after deoxys-N fails to 2HKO, Gallade kills him with shadow sneak after life orb damage.
LO +SpA deoxys-N hp fire vs. 252/224 careful jirachi:
49% - 57.9%
LO +atk adamant deoxys-N Zen headbutt vs. 248/252 bold volcorona:
82% - 96.5%
I give deoxys-N too little credit though. With his movepool, he can score some needed kills on pokemon such as heatran, latios, tyranitar, gliscor, etc. But that doesn't necessarily make him broken. He hits hard enough to perform decently against some of the bulky boosters out there, and with team support, he can effectively sweep a weakened team without any priority (in the same manner as LO deoxys-S can with hazard support). But does that make him broken? I say no.
Another thing I failed to mention about Deo-N was the sheer power behind psycho boost. Using a choice specs, deoxys-S can deal a ton of damage with psycho boost to the majority of the metagame. Unfortunately for him, he's got his hands full with counters, such as...
Tyranitar
Scizor
Escavelier
Blissey/Chansey
Ferrothorn
Metagross
Deoxys
Bronzong
And much more!
Hmm...this list of counters looks...somewhat familiar. They look like a bunch of perfectly viable pokemon who have roles outside of countering what they're meant to counter. Where have I seen this list of pokemon before? Do they counter some other threatening pokemon in OU?
Not only can they all take a psycho boost from deoxys in the same way they can take a draco meteor from deoxys, but they actually give deoxys-N more trouble than they do latios, due to his worse defenses and the fact that psychic will never be as good an attacking type as dragon. The list of pokemon who can tank a psycho boost or use deo-N as setup fodder after he uses psycho boost, is actually much longer than the list of pokemon who can do that to latios.
When all this suspect stuff is over, deoxys-N should be given a fair chance in OU. I'm sure he would do nothing but good for the tier.
