Competitive Pokemon History- Deoxys-S Quiz

Answer: Deoxys-S' niche was not yet useful

Deoxys-S would end up becoming the best suicide lead, bar none, in all of Ubers later down the road. However, suicide leads were not useful in third generation Ubers. Hyper offense as a whole was incredibly gimmicky, and teams who need a hazard setting lead tended to defer to Deoxys-D, Skarmory or Forretress for this type of support. Deoxys-S' bulk isn't necessarily horrible, but it pales in comparison to the competition, namely being totally outclassed as a general hazard setter by Deoxys-D, whose superior bulk let it stick around to continually set hazards, wall threats, and disrupt the opposing team.

Answer: 180

At base 180, Deoxys-S was by far the fastest Pokemon in the game. This designation would actually go totally unchallenged throughout the rest of its existence, which is ultimately why Deoxys-S was able to eventually blossom into a viable niche in Ubers.

Answer: Pressure

In its role as a lead, Pressure is simply not useful for Deoxys-S, as it ideally will end up fainting in 2-3 turns the vast majority of the time. This means it really cannot PP stall with this ability, though sapping up 2 PP (4 if they use the move twice) of Extremespeeds from the likes of Rayquaza and Deoxys-A, only letting them use the move six or four more times, can at least be mildly situationally useful.

Answer: Lum Berry

Lum Berry had one purpose- to prevent Choice Scarf Darkrai, who was very common, from outspeeding Deoxys-S and rendering it useless with Dark Void. Lum Berry would immediately wake Deoxys-S up and enable it to act. It could turn the tables on Darkrai by Taunting it, forcing it to switch out lest it have to use Struggle on the next turn. Alternatively, it could simply set an entry hazard and switch out.

Deoxys-S also commonly ran a Focus Sash and, if dual screens were desired, Light Clay. The former let Deoxys-S almost assuredly lay at least two entry hazards, as it could survive the first attack, generally outspeed the offender unless they were Choice Scarved, then set the second layer of entry hazards afterward.

Answer: Forretress + Arceus-Ghost

The idea was that Forretress would lead against Deoxys-S, and stop it from accomplishing mostly anything. Taunt cannot block Rapid Spin, nor will Pressure be able to eat up its 64 PP in a timely enough manner. So, Forretress can simply spam this move and ensure Deoxys-S can never get up any entry hazards.

However, Forretress cannot stop Deoxys-S from setting dual screens effortlessly against it; this is where Arceus-Ghost comes in. It can switch in and use Brick Break to remove the screens Deoxys-S put up. Bailing out to a Ghost type to block Brick Break is an insufficient countermeasure, as Arceus-Ghost would simply be able to force them right back out with the threat of a super effective Shadow Force, a move which incidentally bypasses the protection of dual screens.

This core was popular in Ubers, as Forretress would set entry hazards and could switch into Dark and Ghost type moves for Arceus-Ghost, while Arceus-Ghost blocked Rapin Spin to ensure Forretress' entry hazards could stay up, while also often threatening a sweep off the heels of Forretress' entry hazards.

The existence of this core on the opposing team would ensure Deoxys-S could achieve literally nothing, and it would need team support to overcome them.

Answer: The Prankster ability

The other three options were not actually new to the fifth generation, though they were ways one could bypass Deoxys-S' staggering Speed. Prankster was distributed to numerous Pokemon who would become Uber viable, Sableye and Tornadus-I to name a couple. Prankster gives priority to status moves, such as Taunt, meaning they can outspeed Deoxys-S and stop it from setting entry hazards or dual screens, barring the use of the Mental Herb item.

Answer: Skill Swap

Skill Swap, as the name suggests, trades Deoxys-S' ability away for the ability of the opposing Pokemon. With this move, Deoxys-S can steal Magic Bounce away from the opponent, saddle them with the useless Pressure ability, then freely set entry hazards in their face until Deoxys-S faints.

Answer: Rocky Helmet

Rocky Helmet damages the opponent for 1/6th of their max HP every time the opponent makes contact with the holder. In the past, Rapid Spinners like Excadrill or Forretress could simply spam Rapid Spin to prevent Deoxys-S from ever accomplishing anything, and Rocky Helmet turned the tables on that idea completely. Rapid Spin fails to threaten Deoxys-S itself, and as Rocky Helmet would eventually KO a Rapid Spinner before KOing Deoxys-S, it could now reliably get hazards up against Rapid Spinners.

Answer: 50/90/90

Sharing the same base HP of its other formes, Deoxys-S's bulk is fairly decent compared to the non-Defense formes. This allows it to not always have to use a Focus Sash, letting it more viably wield other useful items, like a Mental Herb or Rocky Helmet. A Focus Sash is still viable, as Deoxys-S still cannot survive strong super effective attacks, like Darkrai's Dark Pulse, without one.

Answer: Giratina-O

Giratina-O can 2HKO Deoxys-S with Shadow Sneak, and it easily Defog away its hazards as well. Deoxys-S has to win two 50-50s to even get a single layer of hazards up on Giratina-O; it has to predict when Giratina-O will Defog, and Taunt to block this, and it has to predict when Giratina-O will use the first Shadow Sneak; this is the only window of opportunity to lay Stealth Rock.

These 50-50s will usually occur after the first turn. During the first turn, Giratina-O users would generally Shadow Sneak turn one to force the Deoxys-S player's hand on the next turn.

There are too many ways for Giratina-O to come out on top, and the absolute worst case scenario for Giratina-O only involves Deoxys-S getting a meager single layer of hazards. Therefore, Giratina-O was definitely a counter.