Description
Dusknoir carves out a niche for itself as a bulky, offensive spinblocker, with its Ghost typing giving it an immunity to Normal and Fighting-type attacks. However, Dusknoir faces competition from other Ghost-types such as Cofagrigus and Gourgeist. Its speed is relatively low, making it the perfect candidate for a Trick Room team. What's more is that Dusknoir is one of the very few Ghosts that is a physical attacker as a majority of them are special. That being said, Dusknoi sadly lacks a strong, reliable, physical Ghost-type STAB attack despite having a very wide range of coverage moves (sucks that it couldn't get Phantom Force) and has no reliable recovery to help it stay around longer. It does set itself apart from most other Ghost-types with a priority move in Shadow Sneak (which it can hit foes harder with than others due to it being physical) and Trick to cripple opposing foes.
Here’s my Dusknoir's summary.
Nature: Adamant
Held Item: Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
-Trick Room
-Will-O-Wisp
-Ice Punch / Thunder Punch
-Earthquake
Trick Room is an absolute must on Dusknoir as it needs the twisted dimensions to utilize its attack power. Will-O-Wisp cripples physical attackers, particularly physical Dark-types, that would otherwise hurt Dusknoir the most. Ice Punch hits Ground-types such as Garchomp, as well as hitting Flying-types that are neutral to Electric like Jumpluff and Altaria harder. Though Thunder Punch can hit Water and Flying-types such as Azumarill, Vaporeon, Skarmory, and Mandibuzz. Earthquake is your straightforward attack on a physical Pokemon, hits everything that doesn't either resist or is immune to it for heavy damage.
Leftovers increase Dusknoir's longevity and it seriously needs it too given its low HP stat (which also why so many EV's are put into its HP stat). The rest of its EV's go into its Attack in order to make Dusknoir hit as hard as possible. The remaining EV's should be put into its Def, it's not much but still helps Dusknoir tank physical hits until it can cripple its opponent with Will-O-Wisp.
Of course Dusknoir can run a variety of other moves. Here are some suggestions:
-Sucker Punch helps give Dusknoir some priority, especially against other Ghost-type Pokemon (most of which have relatively low physical Defense).
-Shadow Punch is Dusknoir's strongest Physical STAB move. Unfortunately, it has a base power of 60 so it really won't be leaving dents into anything.
-Shadow Sneak is another priority move Dusknoir can utilize that it even gets STAB from. But it just doesn't do as much damage as Shadow Punch does.
-Pain Split gives Dusknoir a form of recovery.
-Gravity can enable Dusknoir to hit Flying and Levitate Pokemon with Earthquake.
-Helping Hand can allow Dusknoir to help out its partner Pokemon in Double battles. But this move is generally better for an Eviolite Dusclops support moveset.
-Spite can help whittle down an opponent's PP, this move works great with Dusknoir's ability Pressure, which forces the opponent to use up 2 PP whenever they use a move rather than 1.
-Destiny Bond can be used as a last resort effort to bring your opponents Pokemon down with Dusknoir.
-Grudge can also be a good move that drains all the PP from whatever move your opponent uses to KO Dusknoir. This is especially useful if they're holding a Choice item as it then forces them to switch out their Pokemon too.
-Disable is always a good option for Dusknoir, especially against Pokemon that are holding Choice Items as it forces them to resort to using Struggle.
-The advent of Z-Moves gives Dusknoir a lot of interesting Z-Move options, especially in terms of support moves.
-Running both Shadow Punch and Ghostium-Z gives Dusknoir access to the powerful Never-Ending Nightmare Z-Move!
-Z-Memento is another good support option, as while it does end up KOing Dusknoir it still harshly lowers your opponent's offensive stats, then the Pokémon that sent out to replace the Dusknoir then has its HP fully restored! So that's a nice bonus!
-Z-Destiny Bond or Z-Grudge essentially become Follow Me, enabling Dusknoir to redirect attacks in Double Battles onto itself. I'd really only recommend running this move only if your Dusknoir is about to die, at least then it can redirect a potential super effective move away from its ally for a turn.
-Running Icium-Z and Haze gives Dusknoir a reliable form of recovery.
Notes:
I chose to nickname my Dusknoir "Mr. Abadeer" after Marceline's father, Hunson Abadeer, from Adventure Time. Primarily because both Hunson and Dusknoir have the ability to suck up and steal peoples' souls.
Another great nickname for Dusknoir is after the infamous alien Ghostfreak from the Ben 10 series. Ghostfreak always creeped me out as a kid, which pretty much cemented when Ghostfreak escaped from the Omnitrix and revealed his true twisted form. While Dusknoir doesn't really resemble Ghostfreak's true form, it looks very much like the second skin that Ghostfreak's true form was underneath. Both have only one eye, ghostly bodies and are able to rip open their chest cavities (which usually reveal something terrifying). So I think Dusknoir looks enough like Ghostfreak to get away with being nicknamed after him.
Do you have your own Dusknoir moveset and strategy? Comment below with your moveset!
To see my Competitive summary on Dusclops, click here: strikerprime.deviantart.com/ar…