Frenzy Plant Decidueye in Pokémon GO’s Trainer Battles

A comprehensive PvP Analysis of Community Day Decidueye, including best moveset comps for PvP, and a decisive battle between Decidueye and Trevenant. Let’s just get right to it!

The first Community Day of 2024 is here, and by popular demand (many messages and DMs on it… sorry for the delay!), it’s past time to check out Community Day Decidueye in PvP, starting with our customary Bottom Line Up Front!

B.L.U.F.

• No doubt about it: Decidueye is definitely better than ever before with Community Day move Frenzy Plant. Any Decidueye you use in PvP from here forward WILL want it.
• New (but not exclusive) move Spirit Shackle is more situational, with it and existing Brave Bird vying for play alongside Frenzy. As it’s not exclusive, you CAN just plan to TM between them as needed, but there’s enough good going for both it and BB that evolving two (one with BB, one with SS) isn’t a bad idea if you’re flush with candy and dust to do so.
• While Decidueye is notably better, it does still have the problem of getting past Trevenant, which is better in many ways even after the Seed Bomb nerf a little while back. More Ghost damage (Trevenant’s specialty) is just generally better than the higher Grass damage Decidueye puts out.
• In the article I spend some time comparing Decidueye’s various viable movesets and compare it to Trevenant more closely. If that interests you, read on!

DECIDUEYE Stats and Moves

Decidueye GrassGhost

Great League Stats

Ultra League Stats

In the first of what will be many comparisons in this article, Decidueye has the same typing and very similar stats to established PvP star Trevenant. Same Attack, Deci with higher Defense, and Trev with higher HP. (The stats are also very close to things like Hawlucha, Samurott, Beedrill, and Ampharos.) Those stats are… not great.

The type combination is a mixed bag too. Grass and Ghost overlap in only two ways: Bug and Poison are resisted by Ghost, but super effective versus Grass, leaving Decidueye taking neutral from each. In the end, that leaves Decidueye doubly resistant to Normal and Fighting (on its Ghost side), with a single resistance to Grass, Ground, Water, and Electric (on its Grass side), and vulnerable to Ghost and Dark (Ghost side) and Fire, Flying, and Ice (Grass side).

But you likely know a good amount of that from Trevenant already. So let’s see what more clearly separates them: the moves.

FAST MOVES

• Leafage – Grass type, 3.0 DPT, 3.5 EPT, 1.0 CoolDown
• Magical Leaf – Grass type, 3.33 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CD
• Astonish – Ghost type, 3.0 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CD
• Razor Leaf – Grass type, 5.0 DPT, 2.0 EPT, 1.0 CD

Way back when Decidueye was first released in GO, I led off my analysis on the first major Gen7 wave lamenting the moves Niantic chose to give it at the time:

“…it got literally the WORST Ghost and Grass moves in its entire MLG repertoire, and its only halfway decent PvP move lacks STAB, comes with a severe drawback, and costs 55 energy with a fast move that generates only 2.0 Energy Per Turn (tied for worst EPT in the game, by the way).”

“Did Decidueye stuff poor John Hanke in a locker as childen?! This moveset is so bad it seriously seems like a professional hit job or something.”

At the time, Astonish was completely unusable, Razor Leaf was (and still is) very non-synergistic with the charge moves (seeing as how it has literally the lowest EPT in the game), and that was all it had. Then it got Leafage last June, and Magical Leaf last September for good measure, and I guess that problem has been mostly addressed. Of course, Shadow Claw (which it can learn in MSG) would still be a major boon, but that’s Trevenant territory that is unlikely to be trod by Decidueye (or future releases like Dhelmise). So we’ll take what we’ve got, as Leafage in particular works fine.

Along with finally some new charge moves….

ᴱ – Exclusive (Community Day) Move

CHARGE MOVES

• Spirit Shackle – Ghost type, 50 damage, 40 energy, 33% Chance: Reduce Opponent Defense -1 Stage
• Frenzy Plantᴱ – Grass type, 100 damage, 45 energy
• Shadow Sneak – Ghost type, 50 damage, 45 energy
• Energy Ball – Grass type, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance: Reduce Opponent Defense -1 Stage
• Brave Bird – Flying type, 130 damage, 55 energy, Reduces User Defense -3 Stages

For the longest time, Decidueye has had only the last three of those moves, leaving it a risky fringe option (though at least one that could flex two closing moves if it wanted to). While it was still able to overcome most major Water, Ground, Rock, Fighting, Grass, and even Psychic types, it was clearly inferior to (here we go with the comparisons again) Trevenant, who could beat some BIG names that Deci couldn’t like Bastiodon, Carbink (situational win, at best), Registeel, Galarian Stunfisk, Pelipper, or Shadow Alolan Ninetales.

So how much is Decidueye improved with not just one, but TWO new charge moves? Let’s bring Community Day move Frenzy Plant and for-now exclusive move Spirit Shackle into the equation and see!

GREAT LEAGUE

Well let’s start by just throwing up the numbers. With Leafage as the fast move, we now have either Frenzy Plant/Brave Bird or BOTH new moves with Frenzy Plant/Spirit Shackle. First off, it’s nice to see that you can now run without the drastically self-nerfing Brave Bird and still achieve high results, so big positive right there. It’s also encouraging to see the huge improvement that Frenzy Plant brings in general. While not up to the same level as Trevenant, Decidueye can now beat Bastiodon, Pelipper, Toxicroak as Trevenant can, as well as Dewgong which is NOT something Trevenant can consistently beat. That last one is a sign of perhaps the biggest pro AND con of Decidueye’s moveset as compared to Trevor: a much greater emphasis on Grass damage instead of the steady Ghost damage Trev puts out with Shadow Claw and closer Shadow Ball. The only Ghost damage Deci is typically going to do is the low-powered new Spirit Shackle (which is at least strictly better than the Shadow Sneak is was stuck with before), making it basically an inverse of Trevenant (which deals all that Ghost damage and has Grass damage only with the relatively low-powered Seed Bomb). Anyway, this dooms things like Dewgong, but leaves Deci at a disadvantage versus things like Registeel, Grasses, and other things that resist Grass but not Ghost damage. (Ghost is generally a widely unresisted damage type, much moreso than Grass.)

There are a number of differences between FP/Brave Bird and FP/Spirit Shackle to pay attention to as well, though I can somewhat simplify them. Brave Bird is needed to guarantee wins over a number of Grass types (Venusaur, Serperior, Shadow Victreebel, etc.), not surprisingly. Spirit Shackle, on the other hand, overcomes Ghost types Jellicent and Froslass, and Cresselia. Put simply: each move beats things it’s super effective against (BB against Grass, Shackle against Ghosts and Psychics). Frenzy Plant really does the rest.

This holds up in other shielding scenarios too. In 2v2 shielding, Spirit Shackle is slightly better than is Brave Bird, with extra wins over Toxicroak and Jellicent, but even then it still doesn’t really measure up as compared to Trevenant, who goes on to add unique wins versus Registeel, Froslass, the big Grasses, and even Skarmory (all thanks to that steady Ghost damage). But I’d be remiss to not point out that Decidueye still has it own silver lining, beating Carbink and Azumarill where Trevor falls short.

And there is one other place where Decidueye pulls up alongside (or perhaps even surpasses) Trevenant: with shields down. While Spirit Shackle/FP is still better than what Deci’s former best, Shackle isn’t a great move with shields down. Not as compared to Brave Bird/FP, which can blow away Venusaur, Victreebel, and Serperior in addition to what Shackle can beat. For the record, that win against Serperior is particularly special, as Trevenant can’t do that. Nor can it beat Dewgong or Lickitung as Decidueye can with Leafage/Frenzy Plant. The only win Trevenant can get that Deci cannot in 0shield is — surprise, surprise — Registeel. Stupid big dumb doorknob.

So overall… yes, Trevenant is better. BUT… situationally, Decidueye can be a bit better, particularly versus a number of notable Water types (and certain Grounds, like Ghost-resistant Diggersby), or certainly in metas where Trevenant is excluded, such as Great League Remix.

ULTRA LEAGUE

Unfortunately, Trevenant pulls further away from Decidueye in Ultra League. There ARE two relatively equal versions of Deci you can run, this time with Astonish being one of them. But both versions (Leafage/Brave Bird and Astonish/Spirit Shackle) fail to beat things Trevor has locked up like the Giratinas, Toxicroak, Tentacruel, and — of course — Registeel. (shakes fist) The Ghost-heavy version of Deci does beat Trevenant head-to-head and also manages to take down Skeledirge (Trev usually cannot), but otherwise it’s fully advantage: Trevenant. Just to complete the comparison, though… Astonish gets those Skele and Trev wins, as well as Cresselia, while Leafage instead beats Venusaur, Gyarados, and Golisopod.

The results ARE a bit tighter between Decidueye and Trevenant in 2v2 shielding (Trev vs Astonish Deci) and 0v0 shielding [Trev vs Leafage Deci), but those 1v1 shielding results AND the fact that you basically have to choose which kind of success to have (Leafage or Astonish) definitely puts a damper on Decidueye at the Ultra level overall. It’s cheap enough to build (no XL required, even with #1 rank IVs!) that I’d say to go ahead and do so if able, but barring an unexpected move upgrade or weird Cup/Limited meta where Trevenant is banned {Ultra League Remix again when, Niantic?!), I don’t see the same chances of it making an impact here as it maybe kinda sorta has in Great League.

OTHER TIPS AND TRICKS

While I unfortunately have not had the time to dive in deep on IV comparisons and such, my good buddy PvPoke has highlghted a brief IV analysis from PvP veteran Inadequence that I recommend checking out (some breakpoints and bulkpoints versus things like Toxicroak, Medicham, Bastiodon, Lickitung, Cresselia, Walrein and more) for a further competitive edge.

Rowlet GrassFlying

Dartrix GrassFlying

I also want to emphasize that this is a good time to look for a good ROWLET for Little League (a very above average Razor Leafer thanks to being part Flying) and DARTRIX for Great League (who is spicy in its own right and can sneak into certain metas where Decidueye may not be able thanks to being half-Flying instead of half-Ghost). Neither are super high priority targets, but I WOULD recommend at least finding a solid LL Rowlet if you can. It’s worth it.

IN SUMMATION….

As a quick summary, if I had to rank your priorities during this Community Day hunt, I’d say it goes Great League Decidueye > Ultra League Decidueye > Little League Rowlet, and I might even swap those last two depending on which Leagues you do and don’t prioritize (and whether or not you already have an UL Trevenant ready to go). Overall, with Trevenant already kind of owning the same role Deci wants to occupy, this is a low stress event. But at least evolve an existing Rowlet/Dartrix up to get Frenzy Plant while you can, because any Decidueye you DO use moving forward is going to want that for sure. Good luck!

Gonna wrap it up right here, as Community Day is basically upon us! (And I still have Great League Remix analysis to try and finish up. Doh! Not enough hours in the day…. 🥴) Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets or Patreon.

Good hunting, folks! Be safe out there, stay warm, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!