Trick Room setters in VGC 17 are something we’ve heavily explored during this analysis series, but what about Pokémon who thrive under the twisted dimensions? With the Tapus running rampant alonside high speed threats like Kartana & Pheromosa it’s essential, whilst teambuilding, to think of ways to combat these threats. What if we showed you a Trick Room sweeper, lurking in the ocean depths waiting to rise up and unleash it’s potential? Interested? You should be. Introducing Dhelmise!
On the Surface, Dhelmise looks like a fairly promising Pokémon; overall, its bulk is solid at 70/100/90 with the HP stat being the only potential red flag. A monstrous 131 base physical attack stat (only 8 points lower than Buzzwole’s) complimented nicely by a very low base speed contributes to making Dhelmise look like a very attractive sweeping option for your Trick Room teams.
Whilst defensively, with five weaknesses, its typing leaves a lot to be desired, offensively it creates another story; having access to Grass or Ghost STAB boosted attacks makes sure it can hit ALL of the current top ten most used Pokémon for at least neutral damage (with three being hit for super effective damage). The fun, however, doesn’t stop there. Far from it. With its signature ability Steelworker, Dhelmise is essentially granted a third STAB typing – Steel; combined with its signature move Anchor Shot (an 80 base power physical attack which also prevents the target from flinching) Dhelmise will be hitting very hard with three different typings.
Its moves are somewhat hit or miss. Being able to hit with 3 stab moves that are Grass, Ghost or Steel you would think that Dhelmise has a wide array that it may work to its favor. However, its movepool is less than desirable but still usable with moves such as Anchor Shot, Power Whip, Shadow Claw, Phantom Force and… well, that’s about it. You can attempt to mix it up but trust me, you’ll be left feeling slightly disappointed. These four moves are, more or less, Dhelmise’s bread and butter (or in this case Seaweed and Anchor) to victory.
The items for Dhelmise are also hard to work with. Assault Vest and Life Orb are probably your best bet to get the most out of Dhelmise’s bulk and offensive output respectively; you could of course experiment with a Z crystal for those surprise KO’s, but with the damage output you’ll see below, it would be a slight waste of a Z move.
Despite how one dimensional Dhelmise appears, these sets will have you scrambling to find a place for him on your 3DS!
Set 1: Meet your Dhelmise!
Dhelmise @ Life Orb
Ability: Steelworker
Level: 50
EVs: 200 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 36 SpD
Brave Nature
– Protect
– Power Whip
– Anchor Shot
– Shadow Claw/Phantom Force
When we said Dhelmise’s HP was a potential red flag… scrap the potential. Seriously, when it comes to both surviving a big hit whilst accounting for life orb damage, building an EV spread was incredibly challenging. However, the struggle is 100% worth it once you witness Dhelmise tearing through opposing teams like a… well… anchor through sand (insert groan here). The only real choice you have to make is deciding which Ghost STAB move you want to incorporate. Shadow Claw is the easy option but Phantom Force has some merit too; not only does it hit harder and through protect, you can use it on the last turn of Trick Room – essentially buying two full turns of invulnerability – before finally attacking. If you combine this with resetting Trick Room as well, Dhelmise will pop back out just in time to abuse four full turns of twisted dimensions.
There is one very important thing to note about a Dhelmise under Trick Room however… it straight up DESTROYS the four Guardians!
252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Anchor Shot vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tapu Bulu: 177-208 (100 – 117.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Power Whip vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tapu Koko: 169-200 (115.7 – 136.9%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Shadow Claw vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Tapu Lele: 195-229 (117.4 – 137.9%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Tapu Fini: 242-283 (136.7 – 159.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
And, to be fair, it doesn’t do too badly against over relevant threats either…
-1 252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Power Whip vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Gyarados: 121-142 (71.1 – 83.5%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Anchor Shot vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Nihilego: 354-416 (191.3 – 224.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Araquanid: 156-185 (89.1 – 105.7%) — 37.5% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Shadow Claw vs. 4 HP / 132 Def Drifblim: 257-304 (113.7 – 134.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Dhelmise Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 153-183 (83.6 – 100%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
Set 2: Anchors in Vests
Dhelmise @ Assault Vest
Ability: Steelworker
Level: 50
EVs: 180 HP / 212 Atk / 12 Def / 100 SpD / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Power Whip
– Anchor Shot
– Shadow Claw
– Phantom Force
Even Anchors need to remain fashionable, whilst wearing its snazzy new vest not only does Dhelmise look good, it plays brilliantly!
Now, whilst we’ll miss the opportunity to run Protect, do you remember what I said early about how to play optimally with Phantom Force? Well, it comes into play perfectly here by essentially giving Dhelmise a chance to protect whilst receiving all the benefits an Assault Vest has to offer! The other moves are self explanatory, I mean you could run Rock Slide or Earthquake for extra coverage but without the Life Orb boost neither move are going to be doing significant damage to justify dropping one of the other four attacks.
Even with the drop off in power from losing Life Orb, Dhelmise still reigns in terms of taking down those pesky Tapu guardians alongside a couple of other big hitters:
212+ Atk Dhelmise Power Whip vs. 252 HP / 100 Def Tapu Fini: 180-212 (101.6 – 119.7%) — guaranteed OHKO
212+ Atk Dhelmise Anchor Shot vs. 164 HP / 92 Def Tapu Lele: 166-196 (100 – 118%) — guaranteed OHKO
212+ Atk Dhelmise Phantom Force vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Kartana: 67-79 (49.6 – 58.5%) — 98.4% chance to 2HKO
-1 212+ Atk Dhelmise Power Whip vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Gyarados: 90-106 (52.9 – 62.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
And, with its newfound bulk, you can survive some strong hits whilst chipping away at your opponents:
252+ SpA Life Orb Tapu Lele Psychic vs. 180 HP / 100 SpD Assault Vest Dhelmise in Psychic Terrain: 109-130 (64.8 – 77.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Arcanine Flamethrower vs. 180 HP / 100 SpD Assault Vest Dhelmise: 92-110 (54.7 – 65.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Kartana Night Slash vs. 180 HP / 12 Def Dhelmise: 102-120 (60.7 – 71.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Ninetales-Alola Blizzard vs. 180 HP / 100 SpD Assault Vest Dhelmise: 66-80 (39.2 – 47.6%) — 2.7% chance to 2HKO after hail damage
204+ SpA Drifblim Shadow Ball vs. 180 HP / 100 SpD Assault Vest Dhelmise: 74-90 (44 – 53.5%) — 24.6% chance to 2HKO
So, there it is, our two trick anchor. Take it online, smash through a few opponents and rush back to thank us in a hurry!
GoldenrodPress 