NationalDex
thievul
#828

Thievul

Fox Pokémon

Dark

It secretly marks potential targets with a scent. By following the scent, it stalks its targets and steals from them when they least expect it.

Base Stats

HP 70
Attack 58
Defense 58
Sp. Atk 87
Sp. Def 92
Speed 90
Total 455

Type Effectiveness

Abilities

Evolution Chain

thievul Thievul Lv. 18

Moves

Details

Category Fox Pokémon
Height 1.2 m
Weight 19.9 kg
Base Exp 159
Growth Rate Fast
Capture Rate 127
Base Happiness 50
Gender 50% ♂ / 50% ♀
Habitat
Egg Groups Ground

Sprites

thievul Front Front
thievul Back Back
thievul Front Shiny Front Shiny
thievul Back Shiny Back Shiny
thievul Official Art Official Art
thievul Official Art (Shiny) Official Art (Shiny)

Competitive

pu Usage: 4.0%
Unburden Sweeper
Item
Grassy Seed
Ability
Unburden
Nature
Modest
EVs
Def 24
SpA 252
SpD 124
Spe 108
Stakeout
Item
Choice Specs
Ability
Stakeout
Nature
Modest
EVs
SpA 252
SpD 4
Spe 252

Strategy Overview

Thievul's main niche stems from its ability, Unburden, which, in combination with Nasty Plot, makes it a powerful Terrain sweeper that teams can struggle to revenge kill. On top of naturally exploiting defensive Ghost-types like Doublade and Jellicent, Thievul also has coverage for Steel-types and Gigalith, both of which tend to annoy other special attackers. Thievul can also use Choice Specs to become a dangerous wallbreaker that, with proper positioning, can force many switches and capitalize on them thanks to the 2x boost Stakeout gives. However, Thievul's Speed, while decent for an offensive Pokemon, often leaves it forced out by a myriad of faster threats like Archeops and Whimsicott. Its pure-Dark typing leaves it with little switch-in opportunities due to weaknesses to common Bug-, Fighting-, and Fairy-type moves, and its poor overall bulk gives it no favors. Thievul is also heavily reliant on prediction and boosts from either Nasty Plot or Stakeout to succeed, as its Special Attack is middling and Dark Pulse has mediocre Base Power. Finally, Thievul can be blanked by special walls such as Articuno and Aromatisse, which take little from all of Thievul's common moves.

Most Used Moves

Psychic
68.5%
U-turn
41.4%

Most Used Items

Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc