I'd like to bring attention to a pokemon that has had discussion, but has fell more to the wayside as the more pressing Mimikyu suspect occured. However, now that Mimikyu is gone, I'd like to bring to attention a Pokemon that I believe to be ban/suspect worthy. The Pokemon that I'm talking about is everyone favorite (and only) legal Deoxys
Deoxys-Speed
Now, what makes this Pokemon worthy of a ban, in my opinion? It's not consistent, not broken, not even very good, with it being at C+ on the viability rankings as of this post. But for what it lacks in viability, it makes up for in spades with being uncompetitive.
For reference, here is the definition of uncompetitive:
"Uncompetitive game aspects (or strategies) are those that take away autonomy (control of the game's events), take it out of the hand's of player's decisions--and do so to a degree that can be considered uncompetitive."
So what make's Deoxys-Speed Uncompetitive?
In my opinion, 2 of Deoxy's sets harm the general health of the metagame, so lets go over each of them, shall we?
Deoxys-Speed @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SpD
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Recover
- Iron Defense
- Amnesia
- Taunt
(ev's can be subject to change)
This set is very straightforward. boost the defense which blocks the damage of the Pokemon your facing, using recovery when necessary, and taunting to block opposing setup. pp stall your opponent down with pressure and win. However, this strategy is weak to one fundamental mechanic: crits. This makes this set very luck based, as facing it without some of the few counter's for it have to roll the odd's on if you will crit it, which reduces the game's outcome to each person waiting for if the person facing Deo-s will crit before losing all of it's attacks pp. This makes this set severely uncompetitive, as it brings the set down to luck.
Deoxys-Speed @ Fightinium Z
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Detect
- Substitute
- Recover
- Night Shade
This set is also very rng reliant. it is quite inconsistent, but soft check's everything on the vr by the way of boosting it's evasiveness to dodge incoming attacks, and wearing your Pokemon down. This also factors into Deo-s being uncompetitive by the way of basing it's wins on hax. While not very good, it still provides a way to use rng to win your games
Deoxys-Speed @ Choice Specs
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psycho Boost
- Ice Beam / Hidden Power [Fire] / Hidden Power [Rock] / Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast / Hidden Power [Fire] / Hidden Power [Rock] / Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball / Hidden Power [Fire] / Hidden Power [Rock] / Thunderbolt
This is entirely not luck based and not broken or uncompetitive in the slightest, but it is notable in that it can beat many of the Pokemon that consistently beats the pp stall set. This helps Deo-s in playing mind games with the opponent, and the 50/50's it creates furthers the uncompetitiveness of the Pokemon.
Why should it be suspected?
When Deo-s is used, it takes the game out of the players hands, and hands it over to the random number generator that determines if a player crits or not. This fits the very definition of taking the game out of the player's hands. This is considered uncompetitive, and therefore, is damaging to the metagame and should be suspected.
Counterpoint's and rebuttal's (I'll add more too include more counterpoint's people bring up more counterpoints that I could think of initially coming up with this thread)
Counterpoint 1:
Deoxys-Speed isn't a good pokemon in 1v1, so it shouldn't be banned.
While Deo-S isn't very good, what it does do is make it's fight's luck based. this makes it uncompetitive, which isn't the same as being broken. This also held true for Jirachi, which wasn't top tier when it was banned for being uncompetitive. (It was B- when it was banned, correct me if I'm wrong)
Counterpoint 2:
Isn't bringing coverage move's like focus blast luck based?
Bringing those move's are not the same as Deoxys-speed. When bringing move's with low accuracy, you bring them because you need to patch a weakness in your team, the accuracy is just a negative side effect. When using Deo-s, your are basing your entire strategy for the Pokemon on luck, which is much more uncompetitive.
If Suspecting Deoxys is out of the question for you, then I hope you consider the merits of a detect ban, as when powered into a z-move it raises the user's evasiveness, which makes 1. violates evasion clause 2. protects the user while boosting evasion and 3. wouldn't negatively effect any Pokemon's viability,as all of the Pokemon with detect get protect.
Hopefully this post showed you why I believe Deo-S is ban worthy. Well, I hoped you enjoyed reading, and I look forward to further discussion on this topic.