While most of his base stats aren't that impressive, Lanturn will be walling special attacks left and right, thanks in no small part to handy resists to Fire Blast, Ice Beam, Surf and immunity to Thunderbolt, some of the most common special attacks. Ice Beam punishes Grass-types and Dragons, like Altaria. Finally, you can have Lanturn provide status support. Thunder Wave cripples fast sweepers, but you may find Toxic more effective as it hinders Hypno, Grumpig, Gastrodon, and Quagsire, who all switch into Lanturn often.
The same idea as above, except Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave been merged into either Discharge or Thunder. Whether you want to take the gamble with Thunder's shaky accuracy or are satisfied with the lower power is up to you. An enemy that's confused and paralyzed will not attack five out of eight times on average, so if you're feeling lucky feel free to try and force your opponent to tear his or her hair out. Thunder Wave gives you a more reliable way to paralyze enemies, while Ice Beam helps to wear down Grass-types.
The most tankish form of Lanturn. Attack until your health gets low, start snoozing, rinse and repeat. Rest helps to get rid of problematic status conditions, like Toxic when switching into Blastoise, or Will-O-Wisp from a Torkoal. Grass-types with Sleep Powder make sleep absorbing somewhat risky, but Lanturn is a safe bet for absorbing Hypnosis from Noctowl. However, the likes of a Substitute/Calm Mind Jynx or can turn his peaceful slumber into a true nightmare.
Lanturn's attempt at bringing some offense to the table. Unlike many other Choice item users, Lanturn has a way to restore lost health: Volt Absorb. His offensive movepool is limited, barely enough to finish the set, but the variety is high enough. Probably serves you better in UU matches where you won't be met by fat pink blobs and such all the time. Brine gets 130 base power if your opponent's health is less than half. If you're not able to get Hidden Power Grass and aren't willing to use Hydro Pump, Thunder, Blizzard or Hyper Beam, it is kind of your only "decent" option. Other OptionsProtect can be used with Toxic, or alone to scout your enemy and regain Leftovers recovery. Attract can work in tandem with Confuse Ray and Thunder Wave for "paraconfatuation" if you will, but it will hurt your versatility too much. On its own, Attract is gender dependent and therefore a lot less reliable than Confuse Ray, but then again it doesn't wear off over time. Hydro Pump is a more powerful and less reliable alternative to Surf. Hidden Power Grass is great in UU matches to catch Quagsire and other Lanturn off-guard, and in standard you'll get to 2HKO Swampert with it. He can make Substitutes of 101 HP or more that survive one Seismic Toss or Night Shade, but the only common users of that are Blissey, who Lanturn isn't beating in a thousand years, and Noctowl who will usually flee from Lanturn anyway. Agility fixes up that terrible Speed stat, but the chances of sweeping with are low, as even with a Life Orb Lanturn can only manage to hit 358 Special Attack. EVsAs you might have noticed that the EVs suggested for most sets are the same. They simply suit Lanturn well: the little Speed helps outrun Nidoqueen and Claydol. Lanturn's HP is so high he gets more mileage from pouring EVs into his defenses, so you'll just want to go for a Leftovers threshold in 401 and put the rest into his Special Defense, with some small investment in Special Attack. His defense is poor and his Earthquake weakness will never let him function as anything close to a physical punching bag. You wouldn't want a cute, happy fish like this to take physical hits, would you? If you're using Lanturn in OU battles, you may want to use a slightly different EV spread. 40 HP / 36 Spe / 192 SpA / 240 SpD, Calm helps outspeed base 70 Pokemon like Skarmory, and the Special Attack is enough to OHKO most Salamence with Ice Beam. OpinionLanturn is one of these Pokémon that can function pretty well in both standard and underused matches. He is one of the best Starmie counters in the game as Grass Knot has only 40 base power on him (since he's so light...no pun intended) and he resists Surf, Ice Beam and Thunderbolt. Volt Absorb has been improved this generation, so he is now immune to Thunder Wave. In all kinds of play he will take on most Waters without Earthquake with no problems, and he Thunder Waves fast sweepers like Salamence for you if they dare to switch in. However, it is in the UU tier where Lanturn really shines. Handy resists to Surf, Ice Beam, Flamethrower and an immunity to Thunderbolt makes Lanturn a great option for absorbing hits from many of the most powerful special attackers there, such as Manectric, Omastar and assorted other Electric and Water-types. Lanturn brings some of that coolness and color into your team that helps you break free from the same old standards over and over again, but he is also worth his weight in gold. Nothing summarizes his abilities better than the good old catchphrase "real men use Lanturn". CountersThis is where the good news stops coming and the bad news begins: Lanturn is countered by a few of the most threatening and common Pokémon in the standard metagame. Garchomp has been noted before and is certainly nothing to shrug off: if you don't hit him twice with Ice Beam, he will take Thunder Waves and Thunderbolts without feeling a thing and Earthquake you into oblivion. Flygon does the same, except he is less threatening overall and you'll encounter him much less. Swampert will get into Lanturn's way: his immunity to electricity and STAB Earthquake gives him the win every single time. Grassers are a nuisance as well, especially Celebi who just Recovers off everything you throw at it, practically yawns every time you status it, sets up against you and Psychics, or even worse, Energy Balls Lanturn into a watery grave. They never got along very well. Other Grassers worthy of mention thanks to their high Special Defense are Ludicolo and Venusaur, but they're less common. Tangrowth's Special Defense isn't worthwhile enough to make him a counter, you can Ice Beam him. Torterra is actually immune to Lanturn's voltage assaults and gets STAB on Earthquake, but that is only a trade-off for his 4x Ice weakness and lack of Water resistance, both of which Lanturn can exploit. And yes, Lanturn is a special attacker. That means Blissey and Snorlax wall it all day long, neither of which caring about the little damage output or paralysis. Regice can wall Lanturn, but will engage into a stallwar because his main forms of attacking are resisted by Lanturn. Electivire can use Lanturn's shocks to get his Motor Drive going, which is bad news for the rest of the team. Come to think of it, Electivire is pretty bad news on its own as it packs a really powerful Earthquake which Lanturn does not enjoy. Raikou is untouched by Lanturn if it has a Substitute up, but it takes him ages to kill a Resting Lanturn if he has Hidden Power Ice or Water instead of Shadow Ball or Hidden Power Grass. Dugtrio can trap and kill Lanturn if he can get in without eating Surf. He will survive Ice Beam at full health most of the time unless Lanturn is running more than 247 Special Attack (which is close to his maximum without a Modest nature). Hypno will Wish or Rest off hits, and Grumpig can set up on Lanturn in a Raikou-esque manner. Both Pokemon are capable of setting up Light Screen, further hindering Lanturn's offensive capabilities. Besides the aforementioned Grassers you'll have Quagsire, Whiscash and Gastrodon to deal with. Quagsire is an even bigger block for Lanturn than Swampert is because of Water Absorb. A Lanturn vs Lanturn fight comes down to who has Hidden Power Grass and who hasn't. Meganium takes little damage from Ice Beam, has Aromatherapy to cure status and saps Lanturn's HP with Leech Seed, or can simply attack with Energy Ball. Besides all this, if you have half-decent Attack and Earthquake on your side, Lanturn usually doesn't want to fight you. |
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