Pokémon Decidueye

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Jaguar360

Jaguar360

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#724 - Decidueye
Type(s) - Grass / Ghost
Base Stats - 78 HP / 107 Atk / 75 Def / 100 SAtk / 100 SDef / 70 Spe

Ability - Overgrow: When HP is below 1/3rd its maximum, power of Grass-type moves is increased by 50%.
Hidden Ability (Not yet available) - Long Reach: The Pokémon uses its moves without making contact with the target.
[Lv 0] Spirit Shackle
[Lv 1] Spirit Shackle, U-Turn, Tackle, Leafage, Growl, Peck
[Lv 4] Growl
[Lv 8] Peck
[Lv 11] Astonish
[Lv 15] Razor Leaf
[Lv 19] Foresight
[Lv 24] Pluck
[Lv 28] Synthesis
[Lv 33] Fury Attack
[Lv 38] Sucker Punch
[Lv 44] Leaf Blade
[Lv 49] Feather Dance
[Lv 55] Brave Bird
[Lv 60] Nasty Plot
Work Up
Toxic
Hidden Power
Sunny Day
Light Screen
Protect
Roost
Safeguard
Fustration
Solar Beam
Smack Down
Return
Shadow Ball
Double Team
Facade
Rest
Attract
Low Sweep
Round
Echoed Voice
Steel Wing
Energy Ball
False Swipe
Acrobatics
Shadow Claw
Giga Impact
Swords Dance
Grass Knot
Swagger
Sleep Talk
U-turn
Substitute
Nature Power
Confide
Curse
Confuse Ray
Ominous Wind
Haze
Baton Pass
Defog
Spirit Shackle - The user attacks while simultaneously stitching the targets shadow to the ground to prevent them from escaping. 100% Accuracy [Ghost] 80 BP, Physical. (Works like Mean Look, but does damage)
Leafage - The user attacks by pelting the target with leaves. 100% Accuracy [Grass] 40 BP, Physical.
Sinister Arrow Raid - The user, Decidueye, creates countless arrows using its Z-Power and shoots the target with full force. 101% Accuracy [Ghost] 180 BP, Physical. (Only Accessible through Spirit Shackle and using the Decidium Z item)

Analysis
With its balanced stat distribution and wide movepool, Decidueye has a lot of versatility and can act as a jack of all trades. In OU, however, it is outclassed in some of its roles, limiting its versatility. With its moderately high Special Defense, passable HP and Defense, interesting defensive typing and reliable recovery, it has a strong defensive niche and, while not as effective, it can also work offensively with its just average speed tier and solid Attack and Special Attack stats. Its trapping signature Ghost move, Spirit Shackle, alongside U-turn and Baton Pass allows it to give its teammates valuable opportunities to come in or give it an opportunity to set up itself with Swords Dance, Nasty Plot or Substitute. Its other utility moves in Defog, Haze, Feather Dance and Curse could grant it other valuable niches.

Potential Movesets
Defensive
Decidueye @ Leftovers / Colbur Berry
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD (252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD)
Careful / Impish Nature
- Roost
- U-turn
- Spirit Shackle
- Defog / Leaf Blade / Toxic

Decidueye's defensive set makes the most of its spinblocking and pivoting abilities, allowing it to check a good portion of Pokemon. It is also the best way to use Decidueye as a Defogger, making it important for hazard control all around. The specially defensive EV spread (first) is targeted towards checking Starmie (a prominent Rapid Spin user), Serperior, Landorus-I, and Keldeo. A physically defensive spread targets Excadrill in particular and can also check Landorus-T, Gliscor, Garchomp, and Breloom. Leftovers helps avoid many 2HKOs with its passive recovery, but Colbur Berry can be useful to reduce the power of Pursuit and Knock Off. Lum Berry is a great option on the specially defensive EV spread to prevent burns from Keldeo, Rotom-Wash, Toxapex and other Water types.

Baton Pass
Decidueye @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SpD (252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD)
Careful / Impish Nature
- Roost
- Substitute / Swords Dance
- Spirit Shackle
- Baton Pass

This set allows Decidueye to take advantage of more passive Pokemon and set up Substitutes to either stall with or Baton Pass to teammates. This set is better suited to bulky offense teams than the above is and still works well on Stall and Balance. Baton Pass can give its teammates momentum and help them to set up, particularly if Decidueye still has a healthy substitute doll. Toxic can be run over Baton Pass with Substitute to help to wear down walls and gives Decidueye another way to damage opponents.

Another option for this set is to run a Relaxed nature with the latter EV spread and 8 Speed IVs or lower to prevent Ferrothorn from breaking Substitute without a Critical hit. Like on the Defensive set, Lum Berry and Colbur Berry are other options, especially good when running Swords Dance over Substitute.

Offensive Swords Dance
Decidueye @ Life Orb / Decidium Z / Lum Berry
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Leaf Blade / Low Sweep / Baton Pass / Roost
- Spirit Shackle
- Sucker Punch

While Decidueye's strongest niche is on its defensive sets, the owl does have the tools and just good enough stats to run offensive sets. Swords Dance takes advantage of its access to Sucker Punch and moderately strong STAB moves. If it gets lucky, Decidueye can Spirit Shackle an unsuspecting threat like Amoongus that can't hurt it much and start to set up.

Life Orb is best on this set so that it can sweep with a stronger Sucker Punch, but Lum Berry helps a lot with longevity and Decidium Z can nail particularly bulky opponents that are more difficult to break like weakened Toxapex, Ferrothorn, Mega Scizor and Clefable.

The EV spread depends on the team and player's goals. Max HP can be run for more longevity, while higher benchmarks of speed can be ran to outpace defensive Landorus-T, Specially Defensive Excadrill, some variants of Rotom-W, and others.

Other Options
Decidueye's movepool is perfect for running a Choice Band or Choice Scarf set as a wallreabker or scout/revenge killer respectively, but it's a bit weak for the role. Decidueye's moderately high Special Attack can allow it to run sets using Choice Specs or Nasty Plot, but the lack of special coverage and Spirit Shackle and U-turn being physical moves hurts those sets. Decidueye can run Curse on the SubRoost set to wear down walls on Stall teams and take advantage of Spirit Shackle, but the lack of Taunt hurts that set and it's pretty passive. Running Hidden Power Fire on an offensive set can be a good way to lure Scizor and Ferrothorn as well.

Conclusion
Decidueye is versatile, but excels in few roles in OU. It hates Pursuit trappers and burns from Scald and Will-o-Wisp users the most, but it has the tools to deal with those Pokemon including Low Sweep and Colbur Berry to target the Dark types it hates in particular. With its utility in Defog, U-turn and Baton Pass, spinblocking, and bit of offensive potential, it could have an impact on the OU metagame.
 
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It's a real shame that it suddenly turns into Grass/Ghost in last evolution as we already have those and Tropius as the only fully evolved Grass/Flying is REALLY underwhelming. Well I guess Eviolite Dartrix may have some uses in future lower tiers with Bulky Nasty Plot or some unique wall set ?

EDIT: Yeah, forgot Jumpluff ;). But point pretty much standards, true :D.
 
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Yeah such a shame this thing has such a godly typing.

I've been running it as a mixed wall (basically vs Chillarmy and some people who aren't using Phermosa, Kartana, Aegi+some other things we're assuming won't be here in a month or two) and the thing's pretty decent. Like it has defog, which is really nice (but slightly redundant when you run skarm and mantine), roost which is absolutely perfect, a trap move and u-turn. Mainly U-turn and typing.

Decidueye @ Leftovers
Ability: Long Reach
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Roost
- Spirit Shackle
- U-turn
- Brave Bird

Like I'm sure I can find a better EV spread but I'm only a few hours with this thing. Particularly, if I wasn't running ZardX in his Spdef form, I'd probably go pretty hard to that side with Decidueye. It's hard to know what I want to and can cover. Excadrill is normally fine, amoongus/ferro are nice. A pure spdef set can beat keldeo, which is cool. Beats Starmie and wins vs Dheageo which means all spinners in tier are handled one way or another. Also unless I'm misreading something, decidueye takes on Tapu Koko fairly well?

252 SpA Tapu Koko Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Decidueye: 126-148 (35 - 41.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Tapu Koko Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Decidueye: 187-222 (51.9 - 61.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

However Decidueye catches 0 defoggers. Zapdos, Mantine, Skarmory, Latios all get by and the last beats him in a 1v1 really well (though still has to be scared).

It's a weird place to be. Like his bulky line is near Zap's. (90/85/90 Zap vs 78/75/100 Decidueye). I think we're slightly underestimating this guy as an acceptable stall mon. Like with so many waters and flyings on stall, electric resists with recovery can be absolutely huge. At the end of the day, how well Decidueye does vs electric mons is kinda my determining factor on how good he is. So far, it's not bad.
 
Defog + Spirit Shackle is one of this thing's best qualities, and the niche it should capitalize on, in the higher tiers at least. As a Baton Passer it's outclassed by stuff like Celebi, and as a sweeper it's outclassed by something like Shiftry. But even as a trapper or a hazard remover it gets competition from Dhelmise who can do basically the same thing! Decidueye has Roost but still, it confuses me why there's two similar Grass/Ghost types this generation. I mean, that's kind of true of last generation as well, but just why?
 
You could probably include a special alternative to your second set with Nasty Plot instead.

Also, the fact that Decidueye can trap a mon like non Ice Beam Tapu Fini, Tapu Bulu or Breloom and proceed to set up is quite a scary thought.
 
Is Trap passing back? If so, I daresay Decidueye would be broken, but if not, I think U-Turn could be replaced with Leaf Blade for dual STABs.
I'm assuming trap passing hasn't returned, so I've been experimenting with this set:

Reaper (Decidueye) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Long Reach
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 SpD
Careful Nature
- Spirit Shackle
- Leaf Blade
- Roost
- Defog
 
HotFuzzBall said:
I think you should change the abilities to Overgrow for now since Long Reach is unavailable c:
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Eh, it's best to keep both for knowledge purposes. I already put a "(not yet available)" indication anyway.

Btw, the other set descriptions should be up...in the next few days or so I think? I'm aiming for earlier but I don't think I'll be able to get all of them up very soon.
 
joejones6 said:
On a special set, would Overgrow be a more beneficial ability?
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Totally, just changed the Nasty Plot set for that.

In practice so far, I'm feeling a little underwhelmed by Decidueye. The defensive sets are pretty passive and vulnerable to Pokemon like Toxapex while the Swords Dance set needs either a little more bulk, power or speed to be effective. Sucker Punch is a must on Swords Dance and Life Orb probably is as well. It still has its niches, especially defensively, but it will probably fair a lot better in UU. It's still a super good spinblocker and can, on occasion give its teammates opportunities to set up. I'd like to test more to get a better opinion though. I might not be battling with it correctly or have the right team structure for it to succeed.

Because of bulky little nuisances like Toxapex, I'm thinking that SubPass might be the best set. Haven't tested that quite yet.
 
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When I first saw this thing's terrible stats, I thought I was going to hate it and never use it. Yet thanks to it's amazing Typing, decent speed tier, and decent bulk, it's been one of the most fun mons to use so far. Also, while I agree some of the sets should be Overgrow, I feel like people are underestimating the effectiveness of Long Reach on Physical sets, allowing it to deal with Rocky Helmet mons and dodge certain abilities more easily.
 
Jaguar360 said:
Totally, just changed the Nasty Plot set for that.

In practice so far, I'm feeling a little underwhelmed by Decidueye. The defensive sets are pretty passive and vulnerable to Pokemon like Toxapex while the Swords Dance set needs either a little more bulk, power or speed to be effective. Sucker Punch is a must on Swords Dance and Life Orb probably is as well. It still has its niches, especially defensively, but it will probably fair a lot better in UU. It's still a super good spinblocker and can, on occasion give its teammates opportunities to set up. I'd like to test more to get a better opinion though. I might not be battling with it correctly or have the right team structure for it to succeed.

Because of bulky little nuisances like Toxapex, I'm thinking that SubPass might be the best set. Haven't tested that quite yet.
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I'm feeling the opposite. Decidueye has been great for my team, and I think that once the metagame settles and all the broken 'Mons are removed, Decidueye will become a good OU Pokemon.
 
I'm liking Defensive Decidueye a lot with Toxic Spike support. Spirit Shackle ensures that they can't reset the counter and switch in a Poison/Steel and the Ghost typing means Defog is the only way to remove Spikes

Bear in mind I'm playing pre-bank though...
 
Honestly, Just use this thing on Balance and Stall. I've been playing with this mon since the second it got released on PS and it's been an absolute wonder. The utility it brings to the table is actually quite nice, being a spinblocker, hazard remover, and psuedo-trapper all in one. Also, something I've been spitballing but not using, is a bulky SD set. Anyways, try this thing on slower paced teams and even stall, and you'll see the magic it can pull. It can beat Aegislash in a 1v1, which is absolutely phenomenal right now. It also proves to be a great ground check, forcing things like Lando and Garchomp to think twice about just spamming EQ. Right now, I'd pair this thing with a mon like Magearna, Tyranitar, or Hoopa Unbound. Magearna, because the two form a very solid slow volt-turn core while also covering each others weaknesses for the most part (Watch out for Fire types for sure), Tyranitar because the defensive synergy is really nice alongside rocks and duo-trapping, and Hoopa Unbound because when Decidueye traps the right mon and brings Hoopa U in, it can be catastrophic for balance teams.

P.S. for beating Aegislash, I recommend a full HP/SpDef build to take as little from Shadow Ball as possible, since you're guaranteed an OHKO with Spirit Shackle after rocks. Plus, you can spam Spirit Shackle if you really want to since Long Reach negates King Shield's passive of lowering attack. If he plays safe just spam Roost to stay healthy. Sucker Punch is also really nice to prevent the potential threat of Shadow Sneak.
 
Day 2: Opinion of Decidueye has changed after using different sets and teams.

SubPass is really good. Much less passive than the first defensive set in the OP since Baton Pass allows it to escape from problematic walls without reducing momentum and give its teammates good opportunities to switch in. Spirit Shackle works really nicely with it and Substitute helps a lot against slow mons relying on Toxic/Wisp. Passing the Substitute doll is also pretty feasible in practice.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-479186823 - Shows the utility of Sub against Amoongus. If it didn't get those two crit Sludge Bombs, I probably could have trapped it earlier and healed all the way up before passing another sub.

Life Orb Swords Dance also surprised me when I put in on another team. It really puts in work with its Sucker Punch and pretty strong STAB moves. I think that Decidium Z will probably be outclassed by Lum Berry on this set simply because it needs that strong Sucker Punch to be at its best. I need to try Swords Dance pass, but because of Decidueye's mediocre speed, I think it will work best as a slash on the SubPass set (which I should honestly just rename to Baton Pass). I also think that Nasty Plot probably won't work for the same reasons, but again, it must be tested.

Here are a couple replays of offensive Decidueye in action:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-479223885
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ou-479227152

Decidueye + Bewear is a pretty godlike core offensively and Defensively btw.

TheNegativeOne said:
Honestly, Just use this thing on Balance and Stall. I've been playing with this mon since the second it got released on PS and it's been an absolute wonder. The utility it brings to the table is actually quite nice, being a spinblocker, hazard remover, and psuedo-trapper all in one. Also, something I've been spitballing but not using, is a bulky SD set. Anyways, try this thing on slower paced teams and even stall, and you'll see the magic it can pull. It can beat Aegislash in a 1v1, which is absolutely phenomenal right now. It also proves to be a great ground check, forcing things like Lando and Garchomp to think twice about just spamming EQ. Right now, I'd pair this thing with a mon like Magearna, Tyranitar, or Hoopa Unbound. Magearna, because the two form a very solid slow volt-turn core while also covering each others weaknesses for the most part (Watch out for Fire types for sure), Tyranitar because the defensive synergy is really nice alongside rocks and duo-trapping, and Hoopa Unbound because when Decidueye traps the right mon and brings Hoopa U in, it can be catastrophic for balance teams.

P.S. for beating Aegislash, I recommend a full HP/SpDef build to take as little from Shadow Ball as possible, since you're guaranteed an OHKO with Spirit Shackle after rocks. Plus, you can spam Spirit Shackle if you really want to since Long Reach negates King Shield's passive of lowering attack. If he plays safe just spam Roost to stay healthy. Sucker Punch is also really nice to prevent the potential threat of Shadow Sneak.
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Yeah, I think defensive Decidueye wasn't working well for me when I tried it because I was playing on more bulky offense style teams rather than Balance or Stall. I simply don't have the time or patience to play a Stall team, but I thought it would work really well on a defensive team. It's really a great utility mon.
 
Haven't used it yet, but it looks like he's too much of a jack-of-all-stats to point in some specific direction. The offenses are good, but not great, speed doesn't let revenge kill, Sp.Def is practical but NOT a special wall and Long Reach seems impractical, given that most pokémon with contact abilities are too tanky for Dartrix to break trough. I seem to be pleasantly wrong, if the above comments are anything to look at.
 
PShine said:
Haven't used it yet, but it looks like he's too much of a jack-of-all-stats to point in some specific direction. The offenses are good, but not great, speed doesn't let revenge kill, Sp.Def is practical but NOT a special wall and Long Reach seems impractical, given that most pokémon with contact abilities are too tanky for Dartrix to break trough. I seem to be pleasantly wrong, if the above comments are anything to look at.
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Stats fooled me at first too. Until I found out how good of a move Spirit Shackle is. And Grass/Ghost is just a good defensive typing.
 
Found something interesting when I was refining the SubPass set...

Decidueye @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 8 Spe
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Spirit Shackle
- Roost

0 Atk Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (85 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Decidueye: 76-90 (21.1 - 25%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Ferrothorn Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Decidueye: 114-136 (31.6 - 37.7%) -- 0.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Ferrothorn Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gourgeist-Super: 78-92 (21.6 - 25.5%) -- 0.5% chance to 4HKO

The lowered IVs allow you to set up Substitute for free against Ferrothorn! This means that you can trap it, get a Sub up and pass it onto a dangerous setup sweeper on one of the most common glues in the game. Toxapex and Amoongus also quite vulnerable:

0 SpA Toxapex Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Decidueye: 58-70 (16.1 - 19.4%) -- possible 8HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 Atk Toxapex Poison Jab vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Decidueye: 51-61 (14.1 - 16.9%) -- possible 9HKO after Leftovers recovery

0 SpA Amoonguss Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Decidueye: 84-100 (23.3 - 27.7%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery
0 SpA Amoonguss Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Gourgeist-Super: 76-90 (21.1 - 25%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery

Also at this speed, you still outpace Pokemon w/ uninvested base 50 speed and below, such as Chansey. The slower speed can also let Decidueye sponge some attacks for teammates before Baton Passing.
 
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Drag0nPuls3 said:
Would this work out:

Decidueye @ Decidium Z
Ability: Overgrow / Long Reach
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Spirit Shackle
- Brave Bird
- Swords Dance / U-turn / Roost
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I've been having success with it tbh. I uturn until I think a switch is coming I want to trap and shackle it, then fire off the z-move to kill or cripple it. I particularly like it for Toxapex, because it seems to be a pretty common awitch in for my good friend Hootenshoot.
 
When I saw the base stat total of this thing a while back I thought this thing would be some hot garbage. However, using it for a while proved to be successful with certain movesets. Decidueye isn't what I wanted to be at all and I'm still upset about that, but I'm glad it can do something
 
I have been testing out the Defensive defog set out alongside dugtrio, magnezone, Zard-X, clefable, and toxapex. Defensive defog has been putting in some great work. It takes hits like a champ and can U-turn or shackle back and set the stage for a sweep with clefable or zard. The mon certainly has the 4 move set syndrome where I'd want a grass type attack and defog without losing the other features of the mon, but its still a very viable mon in OU. After Phermosa gets the hammer, this will see plenty of play
 
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