Haruno
Skadi :)
[OVERVIEW]
- Incredibly fast in addition to being very powerful makes it an immediate threat the moment it gets onto the field.
- Glass cannon, Absolutely cannot take any hits whatsoever before being reduced to focus sash.
- Has a stellar movepool to help fully take advantage of its incredible attacking stats.
- One of its biggest weaknesses in previous generations was being incredibly vulnerable to priority moves but thanks to tapu lele's psychic terrain nullifying priority moves, deoxys-a lost one of its main checks.
name: All out attacker
move 1: Psycho Boost
move 2: Superpower
move 3: Knock Off / Shadow Ball / Ice Beam
move 4: Detect
item: Focus Sash
ability: Pressure
nature: Rash / Mild
evs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
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- Psycho Boost is your primary stab, ohko'ing pretty much everything that doesn't resist it and even to resisted targets, it still hits for ridiculous damage. If under psychic terrain, Psycho Boost gets a 1.5x multiplier and thus making sure even resists are heavily dented.
- Superpower is used to hit steels/darks such as heatran or ferrothorn which would wall you otherwise due to resisting Psycho Boost and it can also be used to hit kanga for good damage without lowering your special attack.
- Knock Off is the most reliable way of hitting psychics that resist both superpower and psycho boost and also causes disruptions by removing your opponent's item such as choice scarf from tapu lele or landorus-therian which would otherwise threaten and ohko you otherwise. Also not weakened after using psycho boost.
- Shadow Ball is a viable alternative due to hitting harder because of your full special attack investment and also hits some common steels that don't take SE damage from superpower such as jirachi, aegislash, and it also hits tapu lele for SE damage. Much weaker however after psycho boost.
- Ice Beam is to hit common Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Shaymin-Sky, and Salamence without reducing your special attack with psycho boost while also outspeeding those pokemon under ordinary circumstances.
- Detect is necessary on Deoxys-a since due to its poor (understatement) defenses, it's a common target for your opponent's attacks. It also allows you to stall out troublesome effects for Deoxys-A such as tailwind, trick room, etc. Detect is used over protect in the off chance your opponent has imprison + protect.
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- Focus Sash is to ensure that Deoxys-A actually manages to take a hit before getting ko'd and is incredibly useful since otherwise Deoxys-A will get one hit ko'd by anything.
- Rash and Mild natures are essentially identical in utility since losing points in either defense doesn't bother Deoxys-A since it is getting one shotted regardless of investment while allowing Deoxys-A to hit even harder with Psycho Boost.
- Max Special Attack is to maximize the power of your stab and Shadow Ball or Ice Beam should they choose to be run.
- Max Speed investment is to allow Deoxys-A to outspeed nearly the entirety of the non boosted/scarfed metagame.
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- Due to Deoxys-A inability to switch in, it must be a lead or switch in after an ally pokemon gets ko'd.
- If your opponent has some form of speed control such as tailwind or trick room, it is better to switch deoxys out in most cases because if it doesn't go first, it will die.
- Focus Sash allows you to play more aggressively since it gives Deoxys some security by being able to live a hit.
- Use Detect to scout for scarf users which greatly threaten Deoxys by outspeeding and ohko'ing it before Deoxys can do anything in return.
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- Tapu Lele is almost an essential partner to Deoxys-A since it helps remove one of deoxys main weaknesses in priority, in addition to making Deoxys do more damage with psycho boost. Struggles with steel types however due to resisting both of their stab moves while also being bulky and not taking much. Notable examples include celesteela and aegislash which tapu lele + deo-a are hard pressed to ko.
- Redirectors are very good partners (such as togekiss, amoonguss, jirachi, etc) for Deoxys since they force your opponent to target themselves as opposed to the very frail deoxys which helps Deoxys have longer time in battle.
- Strong, fast offensive pokemon such as Kangaskhan are good partners because they can pressure with fake out while allowing you to continually overwhelm your opponent with all out offense.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
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- Life Orb is usable however you no longer are able to take any hits and the extra power isn't needed in most situations but has some usage if you're willing to take the risk.
- Extremespeed is a viable option if psychic terrain isn't active since it allows Deoxys-A to ko scarf users or pokemon in trickroom before getting hit itself.
- Psychic is usable over a coverage move for deoxys-a since it helps you hit ridiculously hard while not lowering your special attack in addition to not having a miss chance.
- Hasty or Naive nature is usable if you want to outspeed common scarfers such as Tapu Lele or Landorus-T assuming they do not run a +spe nature, loses out on necessary power for Deoxys in return, allows you to speed tie with other +spe deo-a or outspeed neutral ones.
Checks and Counters
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**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel types that resist psychic and fighting such as Jirachi, aegislash and celesteela greatly threaten Deoxys since it forces it to rely on much weaker moves to damage them which often will not ohko them.
**Psychic-type Pokemon**: Similar to steel types in the sense that they force you to rely on your weaker moves and can often live a hit while ohko'ing you in return. Notable examples are lele itself, jirachi, and necrozma.
**Speed Control**: Any form of speed control whether it be thunder wave, tailwind, or trick room all greatly keep Deoxys-a in check since it allows your opponent to attack before you get to attack which often means a dead Deoxys.
**Faster Pokemon**: Outspeeds and ohko you before you can do anything such as scarf landorus-therian or scarf tapu lele or setup sweepers that acquires speed boosts such as dragon dance mega salamence or quiver dance volcarona to name a few.
**Priority Attackers**: Less of an issue now than in ORAS due to the existence of tapu lele, but in the off chance that your opponent has a different Tapu or psychic terrain isn't up, Deoxys-a is threatened immensely by omnipresent priority moves such as Fake Out.
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