[Sword & Shield] Gardevoir Build

[Pokémon Trainer Marnie]

Hiiii! I hope you are all having a great day, I'm set on making Gardevoir my first team member and I so far my idea is to have her with a modest nature, special attack, special defence ev's maxed out and the spares in speed.

For moves so far I have calm mind, I figure the boost would be useful, I know she will have weak hp so I'm wondering if hp would be better to max. Other moves I think maybe psychic, future sight something like that? I don't really know hehe I'm pretty new to the new generation of games, the last I played was diamond.

 

[Devalue]

What do you plan to use Gardevoir for? Competitive? Max Raids? The Battle Tower? Nothing specific?

(Disclaimer: Not a competitive player in the slightest. Thought mainly in terms of Singles opponents here.)

Feels a bit leery about Gardevoir's stats for Calm Mind. Favors Pokemon with better Hitpoints and Defense for Calm Mind builds. Recommends a Bold nature (+Defense / -Attack) with Effort Values in Hitpoints and Defense in that case. For moves:
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast (damage)
- Wish (recovery)
- Psyshock (for special walls), Protect (pairs great with Wish and Leftovers), OR Hypnosis (a risky 40% miss chance, but good setup time on a success).

Builds up the Special Attack and Special Defense you did not invest in via more Calm Minds, ideally.

For something with more immediate damage, perhaps a Choice Scarf or Choice Specs build? Invests into Special Attack and Speed Effort Values for both. (Based these off Smogon's builds. Link, if you care to look. Suggests Timid there. Considers Modest perfectly fine too, personally.)

Choice Specs build (also okay with Life Orb):
- Moonblast (Same-type attack and generally amazing)
- Psychic (Same-type attack) OR Psyshock (Targets the enemy's Defense stat, rather than Special Defense. Excels versus Pokemon with stat spreads like Gardevoir.)
- Focus Blast OR Mystical Fire. Handles Steel types. Pays for Focus Blast's higher power (120 versus 75) with much worse accuracy (70% versus 100%). Notes a massive difference with Dynamaxing, however. Tanks Focus Blast's power to 95. Boosts Mystical Fire's to 130.
- Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt, or Energy Ball. Makes good arguments for any of these. Finds plenty of high Special Defense Psychic-types and overall bulky Water-types.

Fairly straightforward. Deals big damage now. Locks you into the first move you choose with Choice Specs in return for +50% Special Attack. Sidesteps that restriction while Dynamaxing, but at the cost of the damage boost. Retains the 25% Life Orb boost (plus recoil damage) while Dynamaxing, for the record.


Choice Scarf build:
- Moonblast
- Psychic/Psyshock
- Trick
- Something else. Recommends Healing Wish, Memento, Teleport, or Mystical Fire on Smogon. Sees nothing wrong with a status condition (Hypnosis, Will-o-Wisp, or Thunder Wave). Weakens the current opponent or one switching in.

Functions in two possible ways:
1. Revenge kill. (See: Knock out a Pokemon that just knocked out yours. Uses the Speed boost from Choice Scarf to hit first.)
2. Trick the Scarf onto a more passive Pokemon. Frees your Pokemon from the move restriction. Ruins the Pokemon hoping to set up on you. Blast away from there.


One additional interesting note: Do not put Effort Values into Special Defense (unless also investing in Hitpoints). Ran a calculation with Gardevoir. (Link to the calculator, if you wish to try it yourself.) Tried both Effort Values.
- With 252 Special Defense versus a Mixed Attacker Abomasnow's Blizzard: 40.4 to 48% damage.
- With 252 Hitpoints instead: 40.8% to 48.5% damage.

Barely makes a difference against a Special move. Becomes stronger against Physical attacks, essentially, with Hitpoints. Suffers 55.5% to 65.5% damage from a Wood Hammer with Hitpoint EVs versus 68.2 to 80.5% without them.

 

[Pokémon Trainer Marnie]

I would probably use my pokemon for fun, one on one battles and raids. I've never played competitive at all and I don't think I would do well hehe, moonblast is quite a common move used I think by many builds, would this be viable to use or would a more diverse moveset throw people off?

Some moves I took notice of in my pokedex book are draining kiss, psychic terrain and future sight.

I'm not sure if they are good, I really am thankful for the advice and huge information you sent ^-^ so maybe hp, special attack and the few leftover points in special defence or speed.

Another pokemon I want to use is vespiquen because I find it to be a nice flying bug type.

 

[Devalue]

Moonblast: Yes, definitely. Considers it the best Fairy move. Lowers the opponent's Special Attack 30% of the time too.

Draining Kiss: Views it as a bit too weak. Hits almost half as hard as Moonblast. Risks the opponent surviving and smashing Gardevoir on the physical side. Outweighs the heal.

Psychic Terrain: A good effect, but weak unless applied passively (such as through an ability or Psychic-type Dynamax attack). Can be overwritten by Grass and Fairy Dynamax moves. Effectively did nothing for one turn if this happens.

Furthermore, consider the opportunity cost. Pretend your Psychic-type attack normally hits for 100 damage. Reaches 130 damage in Psychic Terrain.
Turn 1: 100 versus 0
Turn 2: 100 versus 130
Turn 3: 100 versus 130
Turn 4: 100 versus 130
Turn 5: 100 versus 130

Comes out ahead in total damage on the final turn. Asks whether you plan to use Psychic attacks on all of those turns. Probably not. Gave your opponent a turn to do something in the meantime.

Acknowledges the other benefits, such as knocking out a second opponent in one attack that you might not have otherwise. (Questions why they brought in something weak to Psychic, though.) Guards against nasty priority attacks too. Could probably use the moveslot with something more regularly useful, though.

Future Sight: Sounds good on paper. Suffers for two reasons:
1. The wait time. Cannot rely on Gardevoir's defenses to hold until the end of Turn 3. Gains more from damage now as a glass cannon than damage later.
2. Not as spammable. Wanted to use a Psychic move once. Cannot use Future Sight until the first one hits. Means using a less damaging move, unless running a second Psychic-type attack. Loses either the extra damage or the coverage of another move (such as Thunderbolt).

Recommends Psychic. Learns it as a level-up move. Reacquires it for free at any Pokemon Center.

Notes one advantage for Future Sight: 140 power when Dynamaxed versus 130 for Psychic. Deals with none of the delay when Dynamaxed either.


Vespiquen
Did Vespiquen wrong this generation. Axed its good recovery options. Must transfer a Vespiquen from an earlier generation to get Roost. (Will not count that as an option.) Removed Heal Order completely.

Sees no clear build. Would probably split the difference between a defensive and offensive build, personally.

Relaxed nature (+Defense / -Speed). Will never outspeed anything. EVs in Hitpoints and Defense.
Held item: Assault Vest. (Boosts Special Defense. Forces you to use only attacking moves. Finds one at the Lake of Outrage and also Giant's Bed in Crown Tundra.)
Moves:
- Attack Order (Level up move. Good damage and critical chance.)
- Air Slash (Level up move. The best Flying option.)
- Sludge Bomb (TR move. +1 Special Attack when Dynamaxed.)
- Revenge (TM move. +1 Attack when Dynamaxed.)

General idea: Walks in with strong defenses. Should be quite beefy. Builds offensive presence by Dynamaxing. Fares okay in Max Raids. Cannot rely on boosts from Dynamax there, however.

Other options:
- Power Gem instead of Revenge. A great Rock move.
- Bug Buzz instead of Attack Order. Could lean fully into Special Attack, rather than mixed offenses. Pick Power Gem over Revenge if you do.
- Leftovers instead of Assault Vest. Advises choosing one defensive stat for Nature and the other for EV investment, rather than both in Defense.

An alternate, longevity-based build
Relaxed nature (+Defense / -Speed) or Sassy (+Special Defense / -Speed). EVs in Hitpoints and whichever defense you did not choose for nature.
Held item: Leftovers
Moves:
- Attack Order. Hates bringing a Pokemon without a damaging move.
- Toxic. Lacks great offenses. Relies on Toxic to do the heavy lifting.
- Defense Order. Become more of a tank while waiting for Toxic.
- Rest. Recovery. Clears any annoying status.

General idea: Bring it in against a favorable matchup. Hit the opponent with Toxic. Buff up and heal while you wait. Runs into huge problems versus Steel and Poison types, however. Struggles massively in Max Raid battles too.

Other move options:
- Hex instead of Attack Order. Helps against Steel and Bug types more. Pairs well with Toxic.
- Toxic Spikes over Toxic. Does nothing for the current opponent. Helps versus future ones. Would rather use Toxic Spikes in a build like the first one (but without Assault Vest), personally.
- Sleep Talk instead of Attack Order. Buff up while Resting. Becomes completely helpless against Pokemon immune to Toxic or Toxic damage. Fears Taunt too.


A more offensive build
Modest nature (+Special Attack / -Attack). EVs in Hitpoints and Special Attack.
Held item: Choice Specs.
Moves:
- Bug Buzz
- Air Slash
- Sludge Bomb
- Power Gem (Basically, all of its strongest Special moves.)

General idea: Functions much like the first build. Increase your Special Attack with a Dynamaxed Sludge Bomb. Choose your preferred move at the end of Dynamax. Picked a -Attack nature here for the option of potentially using Speed boosts from Dynamaxed Air Slash. (Good luck, though. Moves very slow.)

Other move option:
- Hex. Another Special move. Hits for less than Power Gem, both when Dynamaxed and not. Hits fewer Pokemon super-effectively too. Will not set up a Sandstorm, however.

_____________

Probably wrote way too much. Oh well. Mainly wanted to give directions for Vespiquen to go, rather than strict builds.

 

[Pokémon Trainer Marnie]

I'll take your advice and maybe consider a different Pokémon since they didn't attribute Vespiquen very well. I've been looking into the link you sent me and other information too, my main Pokémon I want is Gardevoir mainly because I like the look of it ^-^ I was thinking of maxing out the special attack and hp with the remainder in speed, modest nature and item odd incense for the extra psychic power. Psychic is more powerful than Psyshock but the benefit to Psyshock is it can get around troublesome situations like tanks because it uses the opponents defence and not special defence to calculate the damage while using your Pokémons special attack stat. I'm stuck for a slot 2 so probably fill it with moonblast like you suggested, for recovery moves I don't know, life dew, rest??? and final move shadow ball for ghost types.

Also massive thanki you for the help :)

 

[Devalue]

Ah. Does not mean to dissuade you from using a Pokemon. Finds better ones out there. Acknowledges that. Gave it decent defensive stats, though. Tanks all hits with the Assault Vest set better than special hits on the Gardevoir you have planned (ignoring type advantages). Retaliates for less damage, of course.

For Gardevoir's held item, consider the Expert Belt as well. Increases the damage of your super-effective moves by 20%. Equals Odd Incense's boost, except for all moves, provided they are super-effective. Appears in Turffield by solving the pillar riddle.

Forgot to mention another reason on why Moonblast is good: same-type attack bonus. Adds a 50% bonus to the move's power because of Gardevoir being a Fairy-type (in addition to Psychic). Effectively becomes a 142.5 power move. Beats a 70 base power super-effective move of a different type (assuming neutral damage Moonblast and no held items).

Recovery/damage mitigation move: Will probably take too much damage while asleep from Rest and doing nothing. Advises pairing it with Sleep Talk if you do. (Standard Sleep Talk build moveset: Rest, Sleep Talk, Calm Mind, and Moonblast.) Heals only 25% from Life Dew. Would say either:
- Draining Kiss (Still a weak move. Deals damage at the same time, at least. Works as a finishing move.)
- Light Screen (Halves special damage against your team for five turns. Persists if you switch out, unlike Calm Mind. Never needs to heal damage you never take.)
- Reflect (Halves physical damage against your team for five turns. Guards against physical surprises.)
- Mystical Fire (75 power Fire move (identical to Draining Kiss after its same-type attack bonus). Lowers the opponent's Special Attack by one stage. Effectively drops a 100 Special damage hit to 67 after the first Mystical Fire. Buys this from the Battle Tower for 100000 Pokedollars.)

 

[Pokémon Trainer Marnie]

Thank you, so moonblast, psyshock, shadow ball and reflect? I'm thinking since gardevoir has poor defence reflect would give it some much needed defence against physical attacks since its special defence is quite good already.

Hp, special attack and the remaining into defence or speed seems like the best way to make her last longer in a fight.

^-^ thank you for taking the time to send me all of this information.

 

[Devalue]

Sounds good. Do not be afraid to change moves if you find yourself never using something either.