[Pros]
<ul>
<li>Great offensive coverage between its Fire / Psychic typing.</li>
<li>A pretty fun and interesting ability in Magician, allowing for unexpected gameplay and for messing up the opponent's strategy.</li>
<li>Very good Sp. Attack combined with a nice Speed stat.</li>
</ul>
[Cons]
<ul>
<li>Weakness to Stealth Rock.</li>
<li>Weakness to Water, Ghost, Dark and Ground, all very common in OU.</li>
<li>Weak to several priority attacks such as Aqua jet, Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch.</li>
</ul>
[Set Recommendations]
Offensive Calm Mind
Delphox @ Life Orb / Leftovers
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Grass Knot
- Psychic / Psyshock
- Calm Mind is what can really set apart Delphox from other fire types. After a Calm Mind it can take a hit from either Timid Starmie or Modest Rotom-W and hit them back hard.
- Fire Blast as STAB move for the extra power or Flamethrower to land every hit.
- Psyshock to cover the physical side with STAB or Psychic if that isn't a concern.
- Life Orb to ensure OHKO's instead of Leftovers passive healing, since it is too frail to make a good use of it.
- Grass Knot as the prefered coverage move to handle Starmie and Tyranitar among others, although Solarbeam can be an option if used on a Sun team.
- +1 252 SpAtk (Timid) Delphox w/Life Orb Psychic vs. 248 HP / 8 SpDef (Bold) Rotom-W: (81.1 - 95.7%) - 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock
- +1 252 SpAtk (Timid) Delphox w/Life Orb Psyshock vs. 232 HP / 0 SpDef (Modest) Rotom-W w/Assault Vest: (73.5 - 86.6%) - Guaranteed 2HKO
- +1 252 SpAtk (Timid) Delphox Grass Knot vs. 4 HP / 0 SpDef Starmie: 272-322 (103.8 - 122.9%) (Guaranteed OHKO) (without Life Orb)
Delphox @ Choice Scarf / Choice Specs
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest / Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Switcheroo
- Fire Blast / Flamethrower
- Grass Knot
- Psychic / Psyshock
- Fire Blast as STAB move for the extra power or Flamethrower to land every hit.
- Psyshock to cover the physical side with STAB or Psychic if that isn't a concern.
- Modest Nature since she can outspeed base 130s with Choice Scarf without a positive nature in speed.
- Switcheroo to mess-up common mons that set up Spikes or SR and are not susceptible to Delphox's STAB moves, such as Shuckle.
- 0 Atk IV's for the now more common Foul Play.
- Starmie, Greninja and Gengar are all faster mons that can OHKO Delphox depending on their set, and if not they leave this witch with less than 10% health without the +1 that Calm Mind brings to her Special Defense.
- Weakness to common priority moves like Sucker Punch, Aqua Jet and Shadow Sneak (meaning MegaKangaskhan, Azumarill and Aegislash among others).
- With the buff to Knock-Off, being it super-effective against Delphox, it's probable it'll be used against her. It's worth to consider Magician as the ability on any set because of this.
- Hydreigon resists all of its usable moves.
- Azumarill is a great partner due to coverage and physical bulkness.
- Special walls such as Blissey and Goodra are good counters since the only thing they could fear is Psyshock, which Tyranitar is immune to.
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