How to counter Deoxys Speed form in Pokemon GO

Deoxys and its different forms are finally making their rotations through Pokemon GO's 5-Star Raid Boss spot. Currently, Deoxys' Speed form is the variant players can challenge in Raids. With this being the case, many players are wondering which way they can counter the powerful Mythical Pokemon.

Deoxys debuted in the third generation of the franchise and remains, to this day, the Mythical Pokemon with the most alternative forms. Deoxys has a total of four different forms, with three of them prioritizing a specific stat. Attack form boosts attacking stats, Defense form boosts defense stats, and Speed form boosts speed.

Whether players want to challenge Deoxys to add it to their collection or simply want to use it on their Battle League team, players everywhere are excited at the opportunity to catch this Mythical Pokemon. However, to challenge and defeat such a powerful Pokemon, players will need a good strategy.

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Analyzing Deoxys in Pokemon GO: Potential Counters

Deoxys' standard form as it appears in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Deoxys is a pure Psychic-type Pokemon, granting it resistance to Fighting and other Psychic-type attacks while making it weak to Bug, Ghost, and Dark-type attacks. With Psychic-type attacks having the notorious power that they do, Deoxys' typing makes them even stronger thanks to the Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB).

Deoxys Speed's main gimmick directly contradicts Pokemon GO's battle system. While Deoxys Speed exists to double down on Deoxys' speed stat in the main series, there is no such stat in Niantic’s mobile game. To compensate for this, Deoxys Speed has an even spread between all of its stats.

While Deoxys is mostly a 'glass cannon' attacker in Pokemon GO, Deoxys Speed evens out its defenses at the cost of some attacking power. Deoxys Speed has an attack of 230 and a defense of 218. Funnily enough, Deoxys' stamina stat remains at a constant 137 between all of its forms.

The best way to counter Deoxys' Speed form is to use Pokemon powerful enough to cleave through its defenses and target its weak point, its low stamina. The best way to do this is by using Pokemon with high attack stats and access to supercharged attacks. with Dark, Bug, and Ghost-type Pokemon recommended for this task.

Pokemon like Mega Gengar, Chandelure, and Darkrai are ideal for this raid due to their type advantage, with the added bonus of Darkrai resisting Deoxys' Psychic type attacks. Defensively, Dusknoir and Umbreon are some of the best Pokemon to use as anchors to keep the raid from ending prematurely.

To summarize, the best way to counter Deoxys Speed in Pokemon GO is through a combination of Ghost-type offense and Dark-type defense. Though it is far from being as offensively potent as its standard or attack form counterparts, Deoxys Speed is more than capable of taking down most well-made teams.