Deoxys Attack Forme : A Raid Guide

Attack Forme

Source: Bulbapedia

Deoxys is a Pokemon of extremes. Its 4 formes excel in one or two stats while being terrible in the rest. The Normal Forme of Deoxys was the defintion of a glass cannon, having extremely high attack at the expense of its abysmal defence. Attack Forme Deoxys goes one step further by increasing its attack for even less defence! As a result it has the highest attack in the game and is in the bottom 5 for defence. I’m not even sure if it is viable. Its defence is less than that of a Caterpie and it doesn’t have the stamina of a Snorlax to make up for it. If you do decide to use it, its going to be fun.

Deoxys has 414 attack, the highest in the game. Its 137 stamina is below average but its 46 defence is near the bottom and makes it a literal glass cannon. Its possible for Deoxys to be knocked out before it even fires off a charge move.


Resists Weak To Normal Damage
Psychic Ghost Grass
Fighting Dark Poison
Bug Steel

Standard pure Psychic typing so the same strategy as the likes of Cresselia and Mewtwo. Hit it with Ghost and Dark moves. Bug if you have a good one but try to use the other two more.


Fast Move Type Power
Poison Jab Poison 10
Zen Headbutt Psychic 12

Zen Headbutt is the stronger of the moves, benefitting from STAB. Poison Jab will have limited use against the Pokemon you deploy against it, unless you use Gardevoir or basically any Fairy other than Mawile.

Charge Move Type Power Bars
Dark Pulse Dark 80 2
Psycho Boost Psychic 70 2
Zap Cannon Electric 140 1

Dark Pulse is actually the best charge move for Deoxys here, even better than Psycho Boost. If you do intend to use Deoxys, go with Dark Pulse over Psycho Boost which doesn’t work as well. A pure Psychic moveset wouldn’t really set Deoxys apart from the other Psychic types. Zap Cannon isn’t the worst of the 3 charge moves, that actually goes to Psycho Boost but you it doesn’t really help Deoxys much.

Assembling The Team

Whatever worked on Deoxys Normal Forme is definitely going to be of use here as well. In fact, it will probably work even better thanks to its lower defence than Normal Forme.

1: Tyranitar



You must be sick of seeing it pop up over and over in the recommended list but Tyranitar is one of the best counters to Deoxys. It resists both fast moves and resists 2 out of 3 charge moves. Only Zap Cannon deals neutral damage to it, its nothing short of an amazing counter to Deoxys. Use Bite and Crunch to hit it hard. It resists every move Deoxys can throw at it save for Zap Cannon, adding bulk to an already bulky Pokemon. If you have enough players and a sufficiently powered up Tyranitar, you might not even need more than 1.




Another old friend from previous guides. Weavile’s Dark typing allows it to resist Dexoys’ Psychic and Ghost moves while hitting back with STAB supereffective Dark moves. Feint Attack and Foul Play are the moves of choice.

3: Gengar



Glass cannon vs glass cannon. Gengar is actually less frail than Deoxys Attack Forme, ironic given how Gengar is the face of the glass cannons. Its possible you could down Deoxys before it gets through to your second Gengar. For Gengar, it has many movesets using Ghost or Dark moves so you have a lot of choices to choose from.

The best would be Lick and Shadowball but to get Lick you’d have to done the raids on Gengar day so failing that, Hex and Shadowball. If you have a Gengar who can use the legacy move Shadow Claw then use that instead of Hex. Sucker Punch and/or the charge move Dark Pulse are decent choices but they dont’ get STAB.

Gengar fares best against a Deoxys using Poison Jab as its fast move, having a double resistance to it. It doesn’t have resistances to any of the charge moves so don’t expect it to hold up very well.

Honorable Mention 



I didn’t want to put Darkrai on this list for now because Deoxys Attack Forme has been released before Darkrai. The other times it featured was when we didn’t know if it would arrive before Darkrai or after it. It was harder to find a viable alternative but Honchkrow is a decent choice if you’re struggling to get your team of 6.

It has solid bulk but needs to watch out for Zap Cannon although that is the only move it is weak to. The rest are either neutral or resisted. The only moveset I would suggest is Snarl and Dark Pulse.


If Deoxys Attack Forme weren’t an EX raid, I think it would probably be overlooked. Fantastic attack but it lacks the defence to really hold up as anything. You’d need to fight a truly offensively poor raid boss for it to be viable.

Its worth catching and if you’re feeling adventurous , powering up to use in your battles. Because who knows if Deoxys Attack Forme will even survive one fight in a gym. Probably not, but it could be fun to try.


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