[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price Range**: 12-14 points
**Overview**: Deoxys-D's incredible defenses, movepool, and good Speed tier for a defensive Pokemon allow it to serve as a versatile defensive utility Pokemon. It has access to valuable utility moves such as Stealth Rock, Spikes, and Teleport while also having longevity with Recover to stay healthy enough to wall offensive threats during battle. Alternatively, it can use its natural bulk to find setup opportunities and bolster its lacking offenses to dangerous levels in combination with Stored Power. However, Deoxys-D is held back by a poor defensive typing that lacks many resistances, which makes its bulk less effective in practice than it appears on paper. Terastallization can help it with this issue, but it still struggles to overcome its passivity.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Defensive Wall**: Deoxys-D leverages its immense bulk and longevity with Recover to wall offensive threats. These sets tend to lack significant damage output, but they try to make up for it by running moves that are uncomfortable to switch in on like Knock Off and Thunder Wave.
**Utility**: Deoxys-D can make for a great utility Pokemon. It can fairly reliably set entry hazards or dual screens due to its Speed letting it avoid Taunt from many slower foes and also survive multiple attacks due to its great natural bulk. After it sets up what it wants, it can use Teleport to safely bring in one of its teammates.
**Setup Sweeper**: Occasionally, Deoxys-D can become a wincon with some combination of its many setup moves. These sets have two main variants: the first focuses on boosting Stored Power as much as possible and usually holds Weakness Policy, while the second focuses on winning via attrition by increasing Deoxys-D's bulk as much as possible and attempts to become impossible to KO without a foe landing a critical hit.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Psychic Noise, Psycho Boost, Psychic, Stored Power, Psyshock
**Setup Moves**: Agility, Calm Mind, Cosmic Power, Iron Defense, Nasty Plot
**Utility Moves**: Stealth Rock, Spikes, Knock Off, Teleport, Taunt, Night Shade, Thunder Wave, Recover, Reflect, Light Screen, Trick, Protect
**Coverage**: Energy Ball, Focus Blast, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Superpower, Thunderbolt
Niche Moves
========
**Trick Room**: Deoxys-D is one of the only Pokemon with access to both Trick Room and Teleport, which means it can set Trick Room and then use Teleport to safely bring in a slow offensive threat while maximizing turns of Trick Room support.
**Future Sight**: Deoxys-D's bulk, ability to slow pivot, and Psychic STAB are all great traits to make Future Sight more useful; its low Special Attack makes Future Sight not as effective as it could be, but it can still be useful sometimes.
**Counter / Mirror Coat**: Deoxys-D almost always survives any kind of attack if it's healthy enough, so it can make use of Counter or Mirror Coat to surprise KO foes that attempt to break the defensive wall that is Deoxys-D.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Deoxys-D dislikes all forms of entry hazards, so it commonly uses Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid their residual damage.
**Leftovers**: When entry hazards aren't as much of a concern, Leftovers gives Deoxys-D passive recovery that all of its sets appreciate.
**Sitrus Berry**: Sitrus Berry is an alternative to Leftovers for a quick burst of healing, which can be better sometimes.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Weakness Policy is only used on offensive setup sweeper Deoxys-D variants, usually in combination with Stored Power.
**Mental Herb**: Mental Herb can be used on lead Deoxys-D sets to play around faster foes using Taunt.
**Light Clay**: Light Clay is useful when running dual screens.
**Resistance Berries**: Deoxys-D's bulk usually lets it survive unboosted super effective attacks, but a resistance Berry can be used to survive a boosted super effective attack or potentially turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO. While it doesn't have the offensive capabilities to take full advantage of this, it can sometimes be useful as an emergency stop to an opposing setup sweeper to hinder them with a move like Thunder Wave.
Tera
========
Deoxys-D can make great use of Tera, but it is relatively weaker than other potential Tera Captains within its price range. It mostly uses defensive Tera types like Tera Water, Fairy, Poison, and Steel to serve as a better defensive wall or enable its bulky setup sweeper sets. Alternatively, it can use Tera Ghost to spinblock on its entry hazard lead sets or Tera Psychic to boost Stored Power on offensive setup sweeper sets. With all that being said, Deoxys-D's offensive potential takes a lot of setup to get going, so in many matchups, it won't be effective. Tera definitely helps Deoxys-D a lot, but it's hard to justify over other Pokemon that make great defensive and offensive use of Tera more consistently than it does. However, if a team doesn't have better Tera Captain options, Deoxys-D can definitely be a good choice.
Draft Strategy
========
Deoxys-D is a strong support Pokemon, but its lack of resistances makes it difficult to fit onto teams. This doesn't mean it isn't worth drafting, but it usually won't be the first choice for its role on a team.
**Strong Wallbreakers**: Deoxys-D is a great pivot to safely bring wallbreakers like Chi-Yu, Urshifu-S, and Roaring Moon onto the field. It also provides entry hazards to support their wallbreaking capabilities.
**Spinblocker**: Deoxys-D appreciates a teammate such as Gholdengo, Hisuian Zoroark, or Annihilape spinblocking to keep its entry hazards on the field.
**Resistance Compression**: Deoxys-D's great bulk is undermined by its lack of resistances, so these resistances need to be compensated for in the rest of the draft.
**Dark-type Answers**: All Deoxys-D sets are threatened by Dark-types, but its offensive setup sweeper sets are most affected, so Pokemon that threaten Dark-types like Iron Valiant, Quaquaval, and Galarian Zapdos are appreciated to enable its set versatility.
Checks and Counters
========
**Disruption**: Deoxys-D's main flaw is its passivity, which can be exploited by moves like Taunt, Encore, and Trick. This is more notable against faster threats, as it can use Taunt against slower ones.
**Entry Hazards**: If Deoxys-D is not using Heavy-Duty Boots, it is left vulnerable to all types of entry hazards, limiting its ability to act as a defensive wall.
**Normal-types**: Deoxys-D will commonly only have Night Shade as a significant damaging move, so Normal-types can take advantage of this so long as they don't mind a Knock Off or Thunder Wave.
**Dark-types**: Deoxys-D's low offenses make its offensive setup sets reliant on Stored Power, so Dark-types can effectively shut them down.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scribble.356084/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
**Draft Order**: Round 4 onwards
**Price Range**: 12-14 points
**Overview**: Deoxys-D's incredible defenses, movepool, and good Speed tier for a defensive Pokemon allow it to serve as a versatile defensive utility Pokemon. It has access to valuable utility moves such as Stealth Rock, Spikes, and Teleport while also having longevity with Recover to stay healthy enough to wall offensive threats during battle. Alternatively, it can use its natural bulk to find setup opportunities and bolster its lacking offenses to dangerous levels in combination with Stored Power. However, Deoxys-D is held back by a poor defensive typing that lacks many resistances, which makes its bulk less effective in practice than it appears on paper. Terastallization can help it with this issue, but it still struggles to overcome its passivity.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Defensive Wall**: Deoxys-D leverages its immense bulk and longevity with Recover to wall offensive threats. These sets tend to lack significant damage output, but they try to make up for it by running moves that are uncomfortable to switch in on like Knock Off and Thunder Wave.
**Utility**: Deoxys-D can make for a great utility Pokemon. It can fairly reliably set entry hazards or dual screens due to its Speed letting it avoid Taunt from many slower foes and also survive multiple attacks due to its great natural bulk. After it sets up what it wants, it can use Teleport to safely bring in one of its teammates.
**Setup Sweeper**: Occasionally, Deoxys-D can become a wincon with some combination of its many setup moves. These sets have two main variants: the first focuses on boosting Stored Power as much as possible and usually holds Weakness Policy, while the second focuses on winning via attrition by increasing Deoxys-D's bulk as much as possible and attempts to become impossible to KO without a foe landing a critical hit.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Psychic Noise, Psycho Boost, Psychic, Stored Power, Psyshock
**Setup Moves**: Agility, Calm Mind, Cosmic Power, Iron Defense, Nasty Plot
**Utility Moves**: Stealth Rock, Spikes, Knock Off, Teleport, Taunt, Night Shade, Thunder Wave, Recover, Reflect, Light Screen, Trick, Protect
**Coverage**: Energy Ball, Focus Blast, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Superpower, Thunderbolt
Niche Moves
========
**Trick Room**: Deoxys-D is one of the only Pokemon with access to both Trick Room and Teleport, which means it can set Trick Room and then use Teleport to safely bring in a slow offensive threat while maximizing turns of Trick Room support.
**Future Sight**: Deoxys-D's bulk, ability to slow pivot, and Psychic STAB are all great traits to make Future Sight more useful; its low Special Attack makes Future Sight not as effective as it could be, but it can still be useful sometimes.
**Counter / Mirror Coat**: Deoxys-D almost always survives any kind of attack if it's healthy enough, so it can make use of Counter or Mirror Coat to surprise KO foes that attempt to break the defensive wall that is Deoxys-D.
Common Items
========
**Heavy-Duty Boots**: Deoxys-D dislikes all forms of entry hazards, so it commonly uses Heavy-Duty Boots to avoid their residual damage.
**Leftovers**: When entry hazards aren't as much of a concern, Leftovers gives Deoxys-D passive recovery that all of its sets appreciate.
**Sitrus Berry**: Sitrus Berry is an alternative to Leftovers for a quick burst of healing, which can be better sometimes.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Weakness Policy is only used on offensive setup sweeper Deoxys-D variants, usually in combination with Stored Power.
**Mental Herb**: Mental Herb can be used on lead Deoxys-D sets to play around faster foes using Taunt.
**Light Clay**: Light Clay is useful when running dual screens.
**Resistance Berries**: Deoxys-D's bulk usually lets it survive unboosted super effective attacks, but a resistance Berry can be used to survive a boosted super effective attack or potentially turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO. While it doesn't have the offensive capabilities to take full advantage of this, it can sometimes be useful as an emergency stop to an opposing setup sweeper to hinder them with a move like Thunder Wave.
Tera
========
Deoxys-D can make great use of Tera, but it is relatively weaker than other potential Tera Captains within its price range. It mostly uses defensive Tera types like Tera Water, Fairy, Poison, and Steel to serve as a better defensive wall or enable its bulky setup sweeper sets. Alternatively, it can use Tera Ghost to spinblock on its entry hazard lead sets or Tera Psychic to boost Stored Power on offensive setup sweeper sets. With all that being said, Deoxys-D's offensive potential takes a lot of setup to get going, so in many matchups, it won't be effective. Tera definitely helps Deoxys-D a lot, but it's hard to justify over other Pokemon that make great defensive and offensive use of Tera more consistently than it does. However, if a team doesn't have better Tera Captain options, Deoxys-D can definitely be a good choice.
Draft Strategy
========
Deoxys-D is a strong support Pokemon, but its lack of resistances makes it difficult to fit onto teams. This doesn't mean it isn't worth drafting, but it usually won't be the first choice for its role on a team.
**Strong Wallbreakers**: Deoxys-D is a great pivot to safely bring wallbreakers like Chi-Yu, Urshifu-S, and Roaring Moon onto the field. It also provides entry hazards to support their wallbreaking capabilities.
**Spinblocker**: Deoxys-D appreciates a teammate such as Gholdengo, Hisuian Zoroark, or Annihilape spinblocking to keep its entry hazards on the field.
**Resistance Compression**: Deoxys-D's great bulk is undermined by its lack of resistances, so these resistances need to be compensated for in the rest of the draft.
**Dark-type Answers**: All Deoxys-D sets are threatened by Dark-types, but its offensive setup sweeper sets are most affected, so Pokemon that threaten Dark-types like Iron Valiant, Quaquaval, and Galarian Zapdos are appreciated to enable its set versatility.
Checks and Counters
========
**Disruption**: Deoxys-D's main flaw is its passivity, which can be exploited by moves like Taunt, Encore, and Trick. This is more notable against faster threats, as it can use Taunt against slower ones.
**Entry Hazards**: If Deoxys-D is not using Heavy-Duty Boots, it is left vulnerable to all types of entry hazards, limiting its ability to act as a defensive wall.
**Normal-types**: Deoxys-D will commonly only have Night Shade as a significant damaging move, so Normal-types can take advantage of this so long as they don't mind a Knock Off or Thunder Wave.
**Dark-types**: Deoxys-D's low offenses make its offensive setup sets reliant on Stored Power, so Dark-types can effectively shut them down.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/scribble.356084/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/abriel.473082/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/nyx.564960/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/solarbeam.470115/
Last edited:
