Defensive Donphan

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Nenloth

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Donphan

[SET]
Name: Knock Off
Move 1: Knock Off
Move 2: Toxic/Stealth Rocks
Move 3: Rapid Spin/Protect
Move 4: Earthquake

Nature: Careful
EVs: 252 HP/252 SpD/4 Def
Item: Leftovers

Why this should be on-site:

  • This Donphan can work as an annoying Toxic Stall, Knocking Off Leftovers and then kill it with Toxic
  • Optional Rapid Spin provides getting rid of Spikes and so on
  • Donphan has decent bulk, although his Special Defense is pathetic
  • Knock Off allows you to take Choice Band, Scarf, Leftovers, and so on from severe Pokemon
  • Optional Stealth Rocks can create some havoc in mid-game
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
If your team really needs a Rapid Spinner choose this option. When you choose Protect, it really works as a little Blastoise. Obviously he does it better thanks to the better defenses, but Donphan should fill this role nicely.
Earthquake is only for doing some damage in critical moments.

[TEAMMATES AND COUNTERS]
Grass Pokemon nearly wall his resistances, especially these with high Special Defense. Ludicolo, for example.

Counters are quick sweepers, who doesn't care even if there's Sandstorm. These are Specs Alakazam with Grass Knot, Feraligatr, Mismagius with HP Ice, Torterra and others.
 
Sandstorm does not raise the Special Defense of Ground-types, only Rock-types. Tyranitar and Hippowdon are OU so they can't be teammates when this is in UU or it at least looks like this was intended for UU.
 
I don't see this set working. STAB Water / Grass / Ice attacks still hit you quite hard, and you can't do much but Toxic or knock off whatever item they're holding.

Most attackers aren't worried too much about an Earthquake with no investment, or any of your other moves.
 
I already have alot of doubts regarding the effectiveness of this set+Ev spread. Please don't give misleading headings, call this 'Specially defensive Donphan' yes?

1)This Donphan cannot Toxic stall whatsoever. You don't have any Defense EVs to be able to take several hits from hard hitting physical sweepers anymore. Furthermore you wasted 252 EVs by pouring it into a stat that even with maximum investment accomplishes little. Yes, maybe you might live a Surf from Milotic but you still get 2HKO'd and what can you do in return...Toxic it?

2)Donphan has a set purpose to set up entry hazards most of the time and spin them away also. Knock Off can easily be added to optional changes as it wastes a valuable moveslot which otherwise could be filled with Ice Shard or Head Smash.

3)Have you tested this set? Seriously you cannot keep posting sets that look 'dodgey' at a glance without having tested them and getting positive results, yes. To be honest, there is no point to show any calcs since even without doing any it is easy to tell that Donphan wil still get 2HKO'd by the majority of UU special sweepers (Moltres, Grass Knot, Milotic, Alakazam).

4)Donphan perhaps can switch in without too much trouble on physical sweepers and proceed to Toxic but think about this. Giving it the role of setting up Hazards+Spinning away hazards+Toxic stalling is too much and unfortunately I doubt it would be able to do all 3.

Finally last but not least, expand on your counters section.

Counters are quick sweepers, who doesn't care even if there's Sandstorm. These are Specs Alakazam with Grass Knot, Feraligatr, Mismagius with HP Ice, Torterra and others.
Click to expand...

Remove sandstorm mention and add Water-type Pokemon such as Milotic and Azumarill. Also add that Venusaur is immune to Toxic and can OHKO with Leaf Storm. Alakazam in general can destroy Donphan (LO variants, sub-encore variants).
 
I fail to see why Knock Off deserves its own set... it's just not THAT useful, especially against set-up sweepers.. also who are you trying to Toxic stall without recovery? Any Flying type will plow through you before it dies to Poison! Other than these two not so useful moves, this is your standard Donphan.

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71292 heysup proposed a specially defensive spread of donphan but the final verdict was

eric the espeon said:
You've got two stamps and the most of the rest of the UU QCers seem happy with a mention (whistle and eo both mentioned it), so writing this into the current spinner (or into OC) seems like the best option.
Click to expand...

BUT it hasn't been written into AC/OC of the Donphan analysis online yet...
 
SOMALIA already listed the problems with this set, and I have to agree with all of them. Just because Donphan has a high Defense stat doesn't mean you have to ignore investment into it. Also, while the Special Defense EVs and the nature might allow it to survive some special SE hits, it shouldn't even risk a single SE hit in the first place. Just because a Pokemon has good defensive stats and Toxic does not mean that it should bother trying to stall with Toxic. If Donphan does attempt to run some sort of defensive set, it would be better off running a physically defensive set with Rest and Sleep Talk. However, the "physically defensive tank" idea is already mentioned in OC, along with the problems with it. Toxic is also mentioned in OC, as well as why it's better off to attack instead of inflicting status. Basically, this is a bad and seemingly untested combination of the Specially Defensive spread with OC ideas that have problems. I'm sorry, but I believe that everyone is going to agree about this set.
 
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