Diancie, the Jewel Pokémon. A sudden transformation of Carbink, its pink, glimmering body is said to be the loveliest sight in the whole world. It can instantly create many diamonds by compressing the carbon in the air between its hands.

Overview

Diancie is in many ways is a relic lost to time. Designed with its Mega Evolution in mind, the removal of that system as left it clouded with age. Base 100 offenses, which were once good, now only qualify as usable at best. Its Rock subtyping does it no favors either, giving it a plethora of weaknesses that ensures every team has one or two answers for it despite its good defense which are further belied by poor HP. The loss of Mystic Fire hurts as well, leaving Diancie little recourse against the many popular Steel types not weak to Ground or Fighting.

Diancie still has some luster left to it, however. Its movepool is quite fantastic, having numerous Physical and Special coverage options that can make the most out of its balanced offenses. Rock Fairy is rather potent offensively too, having superb coverage including the incredible Diamond Storm and Diancie has viable Ground and Fighting coverage for several Steel types that otherwise would block the combination. And that is far from all, as Diancie’s support movepool is quite potent as well. Spikes, Stealth Rock, Encore and Trick Room are all amazing tools in enabling Diancie’s team as well as Diancie itself. Checking immensely powerful threats like Galarian Moltres, Tornadus, Iron Jugulis, Noivern and more gives Diancie defensive merit as well. While the crown jewels may have been tarnished with age, they still shine with Potential.
Positives
Rock Fairy STAB is potent offensively, hitting a large array of popular types for Super Effective damage.
Base 150 defenses is quite good, enabling Diancie to tank several hits with ease.
Diamond Storm is a ludicrous STAB move, enabling Diancie to scale defensively while still attacking and synergizes incredibly well with Body Press.
Incredible movepool, with coverage options for both offenses, potent support with Trick Room, entry hazards, Encore and even boosting in Calm Mind.

Negatives
Base 50 HP is quite poor out of Trick Room and with several common weaknesses and no reliable recovery outside of the weak Draining Kiss, Diancie is prone to being worn down quickly.
Base 50 Speed is poor outside of Trick Room, making Diancie’s bulk woes even more apparent.
Base 100 offenses are usable, but lacking without exploiting weaknesses or explosive boosting which Diancie does not natively have.

Movesets

Jeweler’s Room

-Trick Room
-Diamond Storm
-Body Press
-Play Rough
Ability: Clear Body
Item: Weakness Policy
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Brave Nature

Trick Room Diancie turns its poor speed to its advantage, enabling it to outspeed the many Pokémon that naturally outstrip it and turning what would normally be fierce offensive sweepers and revenge killers like Meowscarada and Greninja into sitting ducks for both Diancie and its team. Diamond Storm is as mentioned an amazing STAB move, making Diancie harder to revenge kill the more often its used and hitting many popular Flying and Fire types for super effective damage. Body Press pairs well with Diamond Storm and Diancie, using its incredible Defense to brutal effect and offers great coverage hitting most Steel types that Resist Diancie’s STABs like Goodra and Magnezone. Play Rough rounds out the set as secondary STAB, hitting the plethora of popular Dark and Dragon types like Galarian Moltres and Roaring Moon as well as the Fighting types that resist Diancie’s Diamond Storm. This Diancie fits best on Bulky offense teams aiming to abuse Trick Room.

Tera Types:
Tera Fighting is recommended here, for both wiping away Diancie’s many weaknesses while maintaining a valuable resistance to Dark (with Flying types unable to switch in freely because of Diamond Storm) and bolstering Body Press from coverage to a third STAB that runs off Diancie’s much higher Defense. Tera Fairy is a good backup option, buffing Play Rough while removing the Grass, Water and Ground weaknesses its Rock subtyping saddles it with.

EVs and Items:
Max HP and Attack are recommended to patch Diancie’s poor HP and usuable attack to levels expected of a Trick Room attacker. If going for a more supportive Trick Room setter, investment into Defense to both increase the power of Body Press and making Diancie more reliable at setting up is worth consideration. Weakness Policy is recommended as the item, buffing Diancie’s usable attack to actually threatening levels which its good bulk and HP investment helping Diancie survive blows from all but the strongest STAB users. Otherwise, Leftovers or Heavy-Duty Boots are good alternatives giving Diancie more staying power and to potentially setup Trick Room multiple times.

Partners:
Torkoal and Skeledirge greatly enjoy Diancie’s support as slow Trick Room attackers. Their Fire typings ward off Grass and Steel attacks that can give Diancie pause as well as melt attackers like Scizor that can stop a Trick Room sweep short, and value Diancie for taking out Tyrannitar as well as opposing Rock and Dragon types as well. Torkoal’s sun additionally reduces Diancie’s own Water weakness as well while Skeledirge enjoys Diancie checking Dark types as well. Magnezone is another incredible partner, enjoying Diancie picking off Fire and Fighting types while it traps the Steel types that can crush Diancie in turn, while being slow enough to abuse Trick Room as well. Slowbro and Slowking are additional Trick Room abusers, able to check Steel and Water attacks while valuing Diancie for checking opposing Dark types in turn. Future Sight also pairs well, forcing otherwise healthy foes out and enabling Diancie to setup freely. Hazard setters like Hisuian Samurott, Great Tusk, Forretress, and Overquill are good partners -opponents will often try to pivot repeatedly to stall out Trick Room and the hazards these Pokémon set punish such attempts as stalling.

Other Options:
Stealth Rock/Spikes -as noted, Entry Hazards are invaluable for Trick Room teams, and Diancie setting up Trick Room often forces switches as well, which, with Diancie’s good defenses are great for accruing layers of Hazards. Encore -if going full support, Encore can be fantastic in ensuring setup sweepers get in safely or enable Diancie to setup on its own.

Calming Gem

-Calm Mind
-Moonblast
-Earth Power
-Body Press
Ability: Clear Body
Item: Leftovers
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature

Calm Mind Diancie leverages its good defensive profile and superb coverage for a terrifying game ending sweep once its checks have been removed. Calm Mind is vital for this set, pushing Diancie’s Special Attack to respectable levels and increasing its bulk the more it sets up. Moonblast is Fairy STAB, having incredible coverage and power once setup. Earth Power is fantastic coverage hitting all of Fairy’s resists (Fire, Steel and Poison) for super effective, giving Diancie incredible neutral and super effective coverage with only a few able to resist it. Body Press rounds out the set, being powerful without setup thanks to Diancie’s high Defense and covering many dedicated sponges that can otherwise wall Diancie like Blissey, and Hisuian Goodra.

Tera Types:
Tera Fairy is again preferred for wiping away the many weaknesses granted by Diancie’s sub Rock typing and bolstering Moonblast to scary levels of power. Tera Fire is a good backup option, giving resistances to Grass and Steel as well as super effective coverage against them, enabling Diancie to turn the tables

EVs and Items:
Max HP and Special Attack are recommended to make Diancie as bulky and powerful as possible. With Diancie’s speed so low it is hard to justify any speed investment. Alternatively, one could go full HP and Defense to make Diancie as bulky as possible ensuring more Calm Minds, but the drop in power is significant and Diancie’s middling power already struggles without investment. Leftovers is all but mandatory, ensuring Diancie sticks around while setting up.

Partners:
Landorus Therian makes for an excellent partner to Diancie, the combination of Intimidate and U-Turn over easy opportunities for Diancie to setup while wiping out opposing Steel types thanks to STAB Earthquake and setting up Stealth Rocks to help enable the sweep. Talonflame also makes for an excellent pivot, Melting Scizor, Breloom, Lucario and Meowscarada, thanks to its STABs, and getting Diancie in safely with a combination of U-Turn and Will-o-Wisp. Slowking also deserves mention for its Future Sight offering much of the same utility – a nice safe pivot with extra damage to force an opponent out. Meowscarada ironically enough also provides good support, being a pivot with U-Turn, eliminating opposing Water and Ground types with its Grass STAB and potentially throwing down spikes to enable Diancie’s Sweep.

Other Options:
Power Gem -Special Rock STAB option. Though weak, hits Corviknight hard with needing to Terastalize as well as being slightly stronger against Ground neutral Steel and Poison types like Scizor and Amoongus.
Iron Defense + Stored Power -Diancie can make for a terrifying Stored Power Sweeper, capable of boosting both of its defenses and having STAB Moonblast for Dark types, but its low speed makes this a sticking point.
Draining Kiss -incredibly weak, but gives Diancie some badly needed recovery while setting up.

Countering Diancie

Steel types make for great checks to Diancie, able to easily exploit its Quadruple weakness and their natural resistance to both STABs for an easy switch and Knock Out. What complicates this is that outside of dedicated support sets, Diancie will always be running Fighting and/or Ground coverage for opposing Steel types, at which point it comes down to the set. Gholdengo and Corviknight are straight walls to physical sets who if Diancie doesn’t have a boost, cannot break through. On Calm Mind sets lacking Body Press, Assault Vest Hisuian Goodra is a straight wall, able to stomach even boosted Earth Powers and Moonblasts. Scizor also excels, always able to OHKO with Bullet Punch lest a few Diamond Storm/Iron Defense boosts have been accrued.

After Steel types, Diancie’s answers get more nuanced. While there is no shortage of Pokémon that can outspeed Diancie, Diancie’s defenses are good enough that only STAB Choice attackers preying on its weakness can reliably get the OHKO, like Azumarill, Breloom, Great Tusk, Greninja, Floatzel, Basculegion, Aqua Breed Tauros, and Volcanion. However, Trick Room turns this on its head leaving faster attackers exposed to Diancie and its team.

Quagsire and Toxapex excel against physical sets due to natural physical bulk and lack of Earth Power respectively and able to place Diancie on a quick clock with their STABs and Toxic.

Diancie also struggles to pick up KOs without significant setup or type advantage, and can’t easily recover damage accrued, so keeping the pressure on so it does not setup is vital for taking Diancie down before it deals too much damage.

Anime Appearences

Diancie has made an appearance in the anime. In it, one was on a quest to help make a large diamond # -English Episode Name- -Jp. Episode Name- Pics S36 Diancie Princess of the Diamond Domain Diancie, Princess of the Ore Country Pics M17 Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction The Cocoon of Destruction and Diancie Pics S38 Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Mega Special Animation Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Mega Special Animation Pics