What it does
Deals damage to the target based on its Defense instead of Special Defense.
At 80 base power it is the
28th strongest of the 39 damaging special
moves that appear in this format.
Who carrys it
6 of the 277 Pokémon measured on the
Regulation M-B ladder carry Psyshock.
The one that matters most is Mega Delphox,
which is on 12.8% of teams and carrys it on 48.4% of its sets.
The full list is above, ordered by how much of the format each one is.
What it hits
As a Psychic move it is super effective against Fighting and Poison, resisted by Psychic and Steel, and does nothing at all to Dark.
10 other Psychic moves appear in this format: Trick Room, Psychic, Light Screen, Calm Mind, Reflect, Psychic Fangs and others.
Who could and does not
37 Pokémon legal in this regulation can learn Psyshock at all,
against the 6 that actually bring it. The gap is the interesting number: it is
the set of Pokémon that have the option and decline it.
The most-played of those are Farigiraf, Sylveon, Gholdengo, Ninetales-Alola, Clefable and Gallade — each of them measured on the ladder, each of them leaving this move on the shelf.
How concentrated it is
Across the ladder, Psyshock accounts for an expected
0.07 of the six slots on an average team, which makes it the
62nd most-brought of the 121 moves this format runs.
85% of that comes from Mega Delphox alone, so it is really one Pokémon’s move rather than the format’s.
Its carriers are mostly Psychic (6), Fire (2) and Fairy (2).
Where these numbers come from
Usage is Smogon's published statistics for the Regulation M-B VGC ladder, and the description is
the one shipped in the Pokémon Showdown data set. Both are regenerated on every build rather than
written by hand, so this page follows the format instead of trailing it. Take any of it to the
team builder or the damage calculator.
Mega Delphox
12.8%
48.4%
Mega Gardevoir
3.0%
31.7%
Armarouge
0.81%
7.6%
Hatterene
0.46%
8.4%
Slowking-Galar
0.45%
5.1%
Espeon
0.05%
36.9%