Toxapex, the Brutal Star Pokémon. This Pokémon lives within a dome made by its own legs. Toxapex monitors its surroundings by sensing the flow of the tide through its spikes. Toxapex gets into fierce battles with Bruxish over areas where warm ocean currents flow, but the odds are always against it.

Overview

The generational shift has been brutal for Toxapex. The loss of Scald is a heavy blow for Toxapex, who enjoyed punishing physical attackers on the switch with a burn that crippled them for the rest of the match, as opposed to the temporary impact of Chilling Water. Recover’s PP being reduced to 5 also greatly impacts Toxapex’s walling capabilities, leaving faltering more quickly in longer battles. Terastalization hurts far more than it helps, as Toxapex’s base typing is rather good and enabling opponents to have surprise Super Effective STAB makes the Pex far easier to lure than ever before. The current metagame has never been more offensive than it has been right now, a playstyle Toxapex is wholly incompatible with and leaves it prone to being overwhelmed by the sheer number of attackers it must check in a single bout.

And yet, Toxapex persists. Titanic defenses alongside both Recover and Regenerator make Toxapex as nightmarish to take down as in previous generations. Access to the now rare Toxic and Toxic Spikes is another selling point and enables Toxapex to slot nicely on entry hazard spamming balance teams. Toxapex’s subversive moveset does not end there, with gems like Haze and Infestation, Toxapex is no less capable of wearing the opposition down, leaving them easy prey to Toxapex’s teammates.
Positives
152 Defense/142 Special Defense is just plain nuts. Toxapex can tank incredibly powerful blows without much issue with Regenerator and Recover ensuring Toxapex can do so repeatedly.
Water Poison is rather good defensively, resisting a large amount of popular offensive types (Fairy, Fighting, Water, Fire, Ice), increasing the number of attacks Toxapex can safely wall.
Great subversive movepool with Toxic, Toxic Spikes, Haze, Infestation, Chilling Water and Acid Spray that leave a team weakened for Toxapex’s teammates.

Negatives
Loss of Scald and Recover’s PP reduction mean that Toxapex’s walling capabilities have taken a serious hit.
Poor Base 35 Speed means Toxapex will almost always tank a hit before striking back.
Poor offenses leave Toxapex rather passive, with only Toxic and Haze preventing it from being general setup fodder.

Movesets

The Pex

-Toxic Spikes
-Recover
-Haze
-Chilling Water
Ability: Regenerator
Item: Black Sludge
EVs and Nature:
248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature

The Classic Toxapex walling set returns for another go around in generation 9, fitting into balance teams as a defensive core that repeatedly pivots into attacks such as Palafin's Jet Punch, Volcarona's Fiery Dance, Azumarill's Play Rough, Greninja's Dark Pulse, etc. over a battle. Toxic Spikes works wonders with Toxapex's playstyle since Toxapex often pivots into something it can wall, forcing a switch and easy Toxic Spikes setup, spreading Poison very quickly. Recover is part of the reason why Toxapex is so bulky, able to recover off devastating blows and buying more time for Poison damage and Black Sludge recovery to rack up. Haze prevents Toxapex from being setup fodder, wiping away boosts as fast as they can accrue them. Chilling Water rounds out the set as Scald-lite. The Attack drop is good for punishing Physical Attackers who think they can break through Toxapex. Regenerator does wonders in enabling this set, as Toxapex healing when it switches out enables Toxapex to be used aggressively as a scouting tool, and if the situation is too dicey, it can pivot out from the unexpected attack and heal off most of the damage.

Tera Types:
Toxapex does not like Terastalizing. It is far too passive to take advantage of any offensive applications and generally likes its typing for defense. If running Black Sludge, forget about Terastalizing, as your own item will start tearing you apart if Toxapex is anything except Poison. If you must, Tera Water does well, eliminating Toxapex's painful Ground and Psychic weaknesses in exchange for a Grass weakness. Tera Steel does provide a valuable resistance to Psychic and Neutrality to Electric while maintaining Poison immunity, but shares the same Ground weakness as before. Tera Fairy gives valuable Dark and Dragon resistance and immunity while not sharing any weaknesses with Toxapex's base typing.

EVs and Items:
Max out on HP and Special Defense is recommended. Chilling Water and Toxapex's higher base Defense can help compensate for the lower investment, though going all in on Defense is certainly an option if you have a dedicated special tank. Black Sludge is for recovery, leaving a slot open for Leftovers. Leftovers is generally better if you plan on Terastalizing Toxapex and helps provide passive recovery to offset the chip from entry hazards and repeated attacks. Covert Cloak is also an option -Garganacl's Salt Cure is ruinous for Toxapax, so being able to stop that along with aggravating riders such as the defense drop from Liquidation, Crunch Shadow Ball, flinches from Rock Slide, etc.

Partners:
Toxapex often functions as part of balance team's defensive cores, able to pivot repeatedly to garner advantage while getting in chip and laying down entry hazards. Ting-Lu stands out thanks to its Ground-Dark typing no selling Electric and Psychic moves and having Stealth Rock and Whirlwind to quickly rack up damage with Toxic Spikes. Ting-Lu in turn enjoys Toxapex absorbing Water, non-Freeze Dry Ice, Fighting and Fairy moves alongside opposing Toxic Spikes.
Corviknight is also a common partner in crime for Toxapex, as keeping hazards off your own side of the field helps win the hazard wars (entry hazards do mitigate Regenerator to an extent) and Corviknight is a solid pivot into Psychic and Ground moves, though the shared Electric weakness stings, while Toxapex is an answer to the Fire moves that melt Corviknight.
Great Tusk is also worth mention. While it does share a Psychic weakness unlike Ting-Lu, Great Tusk is far from passive which is important when dealing with the plethora of physical sweepers that attempt to overwhelm Toxapex and its one sided removal in Rapid Spin, is even more valuable than Corviknight's Defog as that maintains your own hazards.
Dragapult and Skeledirge are natural partners to Toxapex thanks to the natural combination of Toxic Spikes + Hex, allowing them to pile on a lot of damage quickly to close out battles.

Other Options:
Toxic -guarantees a Badly Poison regardless of Flying or Heavy Duty Boots
Merciless + Venoshock -the guaranteed Crit on top of the damage boost for Venoshock is rather noticeable damage, even without investment, often 2-3HKOing neutral targets which helps with Toxapex's passivity.
Surf -more damaging than chilling Water and a better option for Garganacl and Armarouge.

Urchin Vestment

-Acid Spray
-Infestation
-Surf
-Sludge Bomb
Ability: Regenerator
Item: Assault Vest
EVs and Nature:
248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature

Assault Vest is Toxapex’s answer for a more offensive team. Acting as a reliable bulky pivot. Assault Vest ratchets Toxapex’s special bulk through the roof, enabling it to tank hits from the likes of Volcarona, Walking Wake, Dragapult, Iron Valiant ,etc. while applying consistent offensive pressure and punishing trainers who expect a Toxapex they can setup on. Acid Spray ruins a target’s Special Defense, leaving them prey not only to Toxapex, but any other Special Attackers on Toxapex’s team. Infestation is equally important, providing valuable chip damage and preventing them from wiping away the Acid Spray drops. Surf and Sludge Bomb round out the set. As STAB attacks, they provide adequate power after Acid Spray and help Toxapex directly knock targets out. Regenerator is vital for this set, as it is Toxapex’s only way to heal and take repeated hits.

Tera Types:
Tera Fairy is worthwhile for the valuable Dark and Fighting resistances it provides on top of the Dragon immunity and synergizes well with removing all of Toxapex’s existing weaknesses. Tera Fighting can be considered as an option to lure and eliminate Kingambit, but the lack of resistances after really hurts.

EVs and Items:
ax HP and Special Attack for a balance of power and bulk, since Toxapex’s speed is unsalvageable, and we want extra power for this more offensive Toxapex. Assault Vest is mandatory for how this functions, maintaining the bulk lost from investment.

Partners:
Skeledirge is rather synergistic with Toxapex, having great Defense to compliment Assault Vest Toxapex’s Special Defense, threatens opposing Psychic types and has Unaware to stymie setup sweepers that Assault Vest Toxapex can’t handle. Iron Valiant enjoys Assault Vest Toxapex for pivoting into Poison and Steel moves, absorbing Toxic Spikes, answering opposing Fire types like Skeledirge, Iron Moth and Volcarona as well as Acid Spray support. Toxapex in turn enjoys Iron Valiant answering Kingambit, Great Tusk, Iron Treads and the like. Meowscarada also works well with Toxapex, enjoying it answer many threatening Fire, Fairy and Poison types while Toxapex likes Meowscarada answering Ground and Psychic types and providing valuable Item disruption.

Other Options:
Ice Beam -gives valuable coverage against Dragon types.

Countering Toxapex

Water Absorb Clodsire is a huge wall for Toxapex, negating everything short of Infestation and even wiping away Toxapex's Toxic Spikes and would win a slugfest with Toxapex, but lacks OHKO power. Gholdengo is also problematic, ignoring Toxic and either blasting Toxapex with Thunderbolt or crippling it with Trick. Rotom-Wash doesn't like getting hit with Toxic, but otherwise ignores Toxic Spikes, shrugs off water moves and threatens with Trick and Electric STAB. Garagancl doesn't like Water moves without Terastalizing and Acid Spray can sting, but Salt Cure is so ruinous that some Toxapex will run Covert Cloak just to ignore it. Iron Treads doesn't like Water STAB, but otherwise ignores and clears Toxic Spikes and has STAB Earthquake for putting the Pex in its place, as does Heavy Duty Boots Great Tusk.

The best way to deal with the Pex is to have a lure for it. Get something that Toxapex normally walls, like Breloom, or Volcarona Terastalize to Electric, Ground or Psychic and eliminate Toxapex before it can get away. Otherwise like most defensive Pokémon, Toxapex only comes out when it thinks it is safe, and with Regenerator Toxapex is not losing momentum by switching out.

Anime Appearences

Toxapex has made an appearance in the anime. In this, it was the old partner for James' Mareanie # -English Episode Name- -Jp. Episode Name- Pics 1001 Fighting Back The Tears! Don't Cry-de, Mareanie! Pics