Delcatty

Delcatty, The Prim Pokémon. It is highly popular among female Trainers for its sublime fur. It does not keep a nest. It dislikes dirty places. It often searches for a comfortable place in which to groom itself. If other Pokémon approach it as it sleeps, this Pokémon will never fight - it will just move away somewhere else. Rather than keeping a permanent lair, it habitually seeks comfortable spots and sleeps there. It is nocturnal and becomes active at dusk.

Overview

One of the worst Pokémon in the game, without a doubt. Although sort of cute, Delcatty is pathetic, awful, and incredibly weak. It has limited options, and it can't even use those properly. Awful stats, not ideal abilities, a lackluster movepool and a common typing that makes it outclassed by everything all adds up to a seriously bad choice.

Ability

Cute Charm: when Delcatty is hit by a direct contact move, it may infatuate the opponent with its cuteness, Yeah, not too good, but it can help if you get lucky.
Normalize: it's interesting at least. All moves Delcatty uses become Normal type.

Move Sets

A normal cat would be more effective

- Heal Bell / Wish / Baton Pass
- Sing
- Return / Double-edge
- Thunder Wave
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Normalize
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Atk / 176 SDef
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

Okay, here we go. Delcatty has a few support options, and I really do mean a few. Heal Bell, Wish or Baton Pass are Delcatty's options for team support. Heal Bell removes all status ailments from the team, Wish heals 50% HP after a one turn delay, and Baton Pass allows for scouting. Sing is a way of disabling an opponent so that Delcatty doesn't die. Return and Double-edge give Delcatty some form of offence... if you can really call it that. Delcatty is like a playful kitten... just without teeth, claws, pointy objects in general. Thunder Wave is the only reason to use this set, and that is because Thunder Wave now lays the paralysis down on Ground types.

Get out of there Delcatty!

- Baton Pass
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Wish / Return
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Cute Charm
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 80 Def / 176 SDef
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

Delcatty does what it does best here. It runs and passes the game onto another Pokémon so it doesn't die. Baton Pass is the key move of the set, making it possible to pass the boosts from Calm Mind. Substitute gives Delcatty something else to Baton Pass as well as something to hide behind when trying to boost. The last slot depends on whether you want potential healing with Wish, or an actual attack with Return.

EVs and Nature:

A normal cat would be more effective
Max HP gives Delcatty some chance to survive. The Speed gets a jump point and allows Delcatty to outspeed all neutral base 70s and positive base 60s. The reminder goes into Attack, for some reason. Why are you using Delcatty?

Get out of there Delcatty!
If you are using Return, put the 80 Defence EVs into Attack.

Other Options

Choice Band, Special set, Assist, Charge Beam, Fake Out, Fake Tears, Grass Knot, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Sing, Sucker Punch, Thunderbolt, Water Pulse
Choice Band would give Delcatty some bite, with physical moves like Return, Fake Out, Sucker Punch, Zen Headbutt, Wake-up Slap and so on.
A special set is technically more viable due to the great special movepool Delcatty has, but that base 55 Special Attack blows that idea to pieces.
Assist is cool because it is a move that really captures the spirit of Delcatty. Rely on your team members to do anything at all before death, sums it up perfectly.
Charge Beam is an alternative to Calm Mind as a way of boosting Special Attack.
Fake Out can be used as a guaranteed way for Delcatty to deal damage and flinch.
Fake Tears is a sort of alternative to boosting Special Attack, although it'd be used on an offensive set, not a Baton Pass set.
Grass Knot is a special move option.
Ice Beam is another choice for a good special move.
Shadow Ball covers Ghost types for a special set
Sing can be used on other sets as a way of surviving, luck haxxing and... it puts the foe to sleep, it's a cool move.
Sucker Punch is a priority move that with Normalize gets a nice 120 base power, including STAB. Aside from that, still a good move on a Choice Band set.
Thunderbolt is a great special move. My God, this is so repetitive.
Water Pulse is an acceptable move with a cool confusion chance.

Countering Delcatty

Do I really need to write anything? Delcatty counters itself with its pathetic... patheticness. It is so bad it forces everything to beat it. I guess... every Rock, Steel, Dark, Ghost, Water, Normal, Grass, Fire, Psychic, Electric, Flying, Bug, Poison, Ice, Ground, Dragon, and Fighting type in NU, UU, OU and Ubers counters Delcatty. If you see one in a competitive match, just laugh and forfeit. Your opponent deserves to win, they have to have major balls to use Delcatty. Just watch out for a sneaky Normalize Thunder Wave I guess, that is all Delcatty will be doing.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald

Evolve Skitty

Colosseum/XD

Snagged from Cipher Admin Lovrina in Cipher Lab (XD) Trade from RSE (Col)

Fire Red/Leaf Green

Trade from RSE

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

Evolve Skitty

HeartGold/SoulSilver

Evolve Skitty

Animé Appearences

Delcatty has had a few Animé Appearences. Its appearances have mostly been cameo, but it has been used by two key co-ordinators in Hoenn and Sinnoh; Dr. Abby and Lila

Jirachi - Wish Maker
Episode 336: Delcatty Got Your Tongue!
A Date With Delcatty
Episode 399: Deceit And Assist!
Episode 538: Bells Are Singing!
Episode 559: One Team, Two Team, Red Team, Blue Team!
Episode 563: Battling the Generation Gap
Episode 564: Losing Its Lustrous