Delphox
Delphox The Good Witch of Kalos
Delphox has been quite irrelevant ever since its introduction into VGC in 2014, offering up stats that are good, but nothing that made it exceptional compared to the other options. It has struggled to find success in the 3DS era, and wasn’t even allowed in the SW/SH era. However, due to the most recent format, Regulation H, which banned several powerful options and enabled some others, it has finally found a niche.
Thanks to Rain’s surgance in usage, people are looking just about anywhere to calm the storm, even to things like manual Sunny Day with some Prankster Pokemon like Whimsicott. While most pair this Pokemon with Hisuian Typhlosion for its powerful Eruption, I would argue Delphox is just as relevant in this role, and in some cases even surpasses it.
I would like to take a look in this Pokemon’s strengths, weaknesses, and niche in this format to showcase how it isn’t just “worse Armarouge”.
Pokémon Spotlight: Delphox
Screenshot from Smogon
If I could describe Delphox’s stats in a simple sentence, it would be “Imagine Primarina but faster than base 100-speed Pokemon.” Its stats mirror the Soloist Pokemon’s in several ways, with high special attack and special defense with below average attack, defense, and HP.
The key here is that Speed stat, Delphox is genuinely one of the fastest things in the format now that several oppressive speedsters like FlutterMane are not around, and being able to be faster enables its “glass cannon” sweeper playstyle.
Its biggest enabler has to be that it now has access to the incredibly powerful move, Expanding Force. Going first with this move has been a popular strategy ever since its inception, and while most users of the move are quite slow, Delphox being as fast as it is, abuses this move without the risky, dedicated setup of Trick Room.
Not to mention this Pokemon, thanks to its high speed, gets to be incredibly efficient at handling Pokemon that give Armarouge trouble, being Gholdengo and Glimmora. Being able to consistently outspeed them and one shot either (bar Tera) is such an incredibly nice feeling, making matchups that rely on these Pokemon much easier for Delphox, as you aren’t as reliant on redirection to handle them.
Additionally, being faster and resisting Eruption from Hisuian-Typhlosion helps immensely with helping against that matchup, as your Expanding Force KOs or near KOs the opposing Typhlosion, which even if it survives its Eruption will be incredibly weak. This allows you to have the Leg-Up in the matchup of “fast-fire starters who want to click a very powerful spread move”.
This Pokemon’s biggest downside, however, is very similar to Typhlosion, in that its ability options aren’t very impactful. Its frail nature will leave few instances of Blaze being active, but most of the time Magician will not be doing a thing, which leaves it by default the best choice. This lack of ability options is why some people prefer Armarouge even for tailwind Psyspam teams, thanks to Weak Armor shenanigans allowing it to go incredibly fast, or the much more generically useful Flash Fire.
Not to mention, its speed is unfortunately perfect at getting outpaced by certain Pokemon, namely Pawmot, and Adamant/Modest max Speed Pokemon like Sneasler and Lilligant, all of which hit 172 speed. But, even so, its Speed is incredibly high for the format and is faster than just about everything else.
Modern-Day Uses in VGC:
Example Sets
Set 1: The Psyspamer
Move 1: Expanding Force
Move 2: Flamethrower
Move 3: Protect
Move 4: Nasty Plot/Tera Blast/Heat Wave
Item: Life orb
Ability: Blaze
Nature: Timid
Tera Type: Psychic/Fighting
EV Spread: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IV Spread: 29 HP / 0 Atk
I personally think this is the best set, where you utilize the most potent move in Delphox’s moveset: Expanding Force. It should go without saying, but this move hits like a truck with Indeedee setting that Terrain, especially with a Helping Hand. The moves and Tera can be shifted around a bit, but I think you NEED Flamethrower, as Delphox can occasionally run into cases where it can’t get the one shot with Heat Wave, especially without Sun thanks to double targeting. Flamethrower also can’t miss, something really important for a Pokemon that can go down easy. You can run Heat Wave as your flex move if you really want to run the spread Fire-type attack.
Note: You may have noticed this Delphox set is imperfect, which is because being 29 HP IVs hits 149 HP, instead of the 150 HP from 31 HP IVs. Why is this better? It is due to Life Orb, which deals recoil damage based on 10% of your HP, but that value ignores all decimals, so if you are 149 HP you take only 14 damage in recoil as opposed to 15 normally. You may never ever see this come up in your games, but it is a small, counterintuitive optimization since often Delphox will be moving first and being at 135 HP after its first hit anyway. Every little bit counts! But I wouldn’t blame you for going for 31 HP IVs.
Set 2: The Magician
Move 1: Flamethrower/Heat Wave
Move 2: Stored Power
Move 3: Protect
Move 4: Calm Mind
Item: Grassy Seed/Psychic Seed
Ability: Magician
Nature: Timid
Tera Type: Fighting/Dragon/Fairy/Grass
EV Spread: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Now, this set is MUCH more experimental, and one that I wouldn’t recommend to just anyone, but it gets to use a very unique ability Delphox has, Magician. This ability works by taking the opponent’s item after hitting it with an attack, and while this can be quite powerful, it can also backfire if you steal something like an Assault Vest which prevents use of your status moves, or even the worst case being a Choice Band. The dream is obviously stealing something like Leftovers or Safety Goggles, but most of the time I feel like a useless item will be taken. Nevertheless, it certainly is fun to hit those highs, so if that’s your style, go for it!
Note: The ability is also quite complicated when it comes to hitting double target moves, like heat wave, as from some testing the item stolen will ALWAYS be the pokemon on the left (the opponent’s right/slot 2) and if the pokemon faints from the move, no item is stolen. This includes if the move double hit and the pokemon in the opponent’s slot 1 lives and has an item to steal. Similarly, if the leftmost slot does not have an item and the pokemon on the right does, nothing is stolen either. This is regardless of the slot Delphox is in.
Example Teams:
Team 1: https://pokepast.es/81448186698b07f4
Pokémon 1: Delphox
Pokémon 2: Indeedee-F
Pokémon 3: Sylveon
Pokémon 4: Samurott-Hisui
Pokémon 5: Kingambit
Pokémon 6: Whimsicott
This variant of Delphox Psyspam was my first trek into the archetype, where the concept was to utilize the idea in a Trick Wind (or Tailroom) strategy, where you could utilize either speed control with your oppressive Pokemon. Sylveon is an excellent Fairy-type damage dealer similar to Primarina, Samurott is great for handling troublesome Dark Pokemon and even Archaludon with its incredible Tera-Fighting Sacred Sword damage or 50/50 critical hits with either of the other moves.
Kingambit is an excellent piece for sweeping in Trick Room or once the terrain ends with Sucker Punch after a single Swords Dance. Lastly, Indeedee-Female and Whimsicott are the glue here, where Indeedee-F sets up the all-important terrain with the occasional attempt at Trick Room and Whimsicott has the Tailwind and Sunny Day to bolster Delphox further.
I like this team a lot, but I can see it being a tad outdated, as there could be other pokemon that could be here to be a bit more direct, like Sneasler/Gallade over Samurott and Primarina over Sylveon, so by all means if you wish to go that direction, do not be afraid to make those changes!
Team 2: https://pokepast.es/85a33661c79ba7f5
Pokémon 1: Delphox
Pokémon 2: Indeedee-F
Pokémon 3: Sneasler
Pokémon 4: Umbreon
Pokémon 5: Dragapult
Pokémon 6: Umbreon
This is one of my recent attempts at rebuilding the archetype, where I moved past the need for Trick Room to abuse Delphox as much as possible, with Life Orb Tera Psychic to mow down teams that aren’t prepared to deal with them. Whimsicott and Indeedee-Female are here for the same reasons as before, support, while the other three are here to be very aggressive and handle the pokemon Delphox has a hard time with.
Sneasler helps with some pesky Kingambits, Rillabooms, and Incineroars while Dragapult is here for oppressive Dragon-Type damage. Umbreon was a bit of a selfish pick because I love the Pokemon and how it plays, but Yawn is unironically really good disruption, and forcing your opponent to switch or sleep is excellent for this team that wants good positioning, and is nice into Hard Trick room with its Tera Water.
While I do like the team, I could see some weaknesses to team strategies like Dondozo or Hard Trick room, as the two aren’t unbeatable, you just don’t have the most tools in the world to handle either. I could definitely see Murkrow replacing the Whimsicott with the use of Haze and giving Indeedee-Female, Imprison, for sure. Additionally, I didn’t go Unburden Sneasler here out of personal preference to Focus Sash, so if you want to go with that instead, by all means, make any changes you want!
Conclusion:
All in all, I think Delphox is an excellent Pokemon in the Psyspam archetype that gets to turn it towards being a fast one. While it may suffer from frail defense and less-than-ideal abilities, it makes up for that by dominating the battlefield when positioned properly. Heck, I myself have several games where Delphox has taken all 4 KOs to win me the game! And most importantly, it’s very fun too!
Whether you wanted to get some ideas on what to expect from playing this Pokemon or just wanted to learn more about it, I hope this spotlight has shown what this forgotten fire starter can do!
Disclaimer: The opinions/stories expressed in the blog post are those of the author's and not necessarily reflective of the platform or its affiliates.
Author Bio:
Hey, I am JagSamurott, a bit of a ladder hero who loves to play underused Pokemon and strategies! Been playing since 2015 and haven’t looked past this teambuilding style at all. You can follow me at https://x.com/JagSamurott and reach out to me on Discord under the same name. If you have any more questions about Delphox, feel free to reach out!