Toxapex in the Pokemon meta-game is a powerful tank. If you want to play this incredibly strong Pokemon, our guide will help you understand the best EVs, Nature, and Movesets!
Why Play Toxapex?
We see a lot of walls that flex attacks and some of these walls have become notorious for haunting our dreams and making us seethe with utter hatred. Tell me, what Pokemon does this better than the "Brutal Star" Pokemon, Toxapex!?
Not many Pokemon, whether a special or physical attacker, can gloat that they can OHKO Toxapex. Well, at least not without any kind of boosts from moves or items. In fact, if you've noticed in a lot of my breakdowns, I will stress that an offensive Pokemon must have an answer to Toxapex. They are an extremely common, hard to deal with, and super annoying Pokemon. To add more fuel to the fire, Toxapex has the ability Regenerator, which restores health each time this Pokemon switches out.
With so many tools in its arsenal and its defensive/special defensive stats breaking 300, regardless of nature, its stats are boosted. Toxapex is nothing short of a paragon.
Best Competitive Build
Effort Values
- 252 HP
- 252 Defense
-
4 Special Attack
(Calm Nature)
Recover
The user restores half of its maximum HP, rounded half up.
Scald
Has a 30% chance to burn the target. The target thaws out if it is frozen.
Toxic Spikes
Sets up a hazard on the opposing side of the field, poisoning each opposing Pokemon that switches in.
Haze
Resets the stat stages of all active Pokemon to zero.
I'd like to note that the nature of this set can change if you want to go with more physical defense over special defense stats, due to Toxapex having solid defense stats already. If you're going to go that route, I'd suggest a Bold nature.
Recover keeps Toxapex healthy and allows them to flex more at oncoming attacks.
Scald helps against physical attackers and could apply a burn, which limits the pressure they can put on Toxapex while also making them generally useless for the remainder of the game.
Toxic Spikes is a solid entry hazard that poisons your opponents Pokemon and dwindles them down over time.
The beauty of this set is the move Haze, which removes all stat changes from all Pokemon on the field affected by it (Dragon Dance, Swords Dance, Bulk Up etc. are all nullified).
Other move possibilities for this set are: Knock Off, Baleful Bunker, Toxic, Stockpile, and Attract. This, of course, all depends on what your team is needing out of Toxapex and/or how you are wanting to utilize them.
Possible Moves
Held Items
For a held item, Black Sludge is the best way to go. As a poison type, Toxapex will recover HP each turn and possibly discourage a scarf user from hitting it with Trick or Switcharoo. If Toxapex is more defense based then Rocky Helmet is another decent selection to punish any physical attackers coming at them.
Black Sludge
Each turn, if holder is a Poison type, restores 1/16 max HP; loses 1/8 if not.
Rocky Helmet
If holder is hit by a contact move, the attacker loses 1/6 of its max HP.
Tips and Tricks
Toxapex doesn't like being taunted so be wary of Taunt users. Although very heavily defensive, you should avoid attacks that Toxapex is weak against to ensure his time on the field is long and stable. If you're needing to use Haze against a Dynamaxed/Gigantimaxed sweeper, try to hold off until they return to normal. Dynamaxing Toxapex to counter their momentum is a solid strategy to go with as they will double in health and gain access to Max Guard.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, Toxapex is a force to be reckoned with and deserves the name "Brutal Star." It will be in the meta for a long time to come, so you will need to learn how to deal with this power-house. If you have any other recommendations for items and moves then please engage in the comment section below! We love to see unique builds and strategies!