Leavanny is not better than Lilligant. Especially the Trade one.
Lilligant's SpA is higher than Leavanny's Atk. A very significant number of Pokemon in Gen 5 have a noticeably higher SpD than Def. Lilligant learns Giga Drain 10 levels before Leavanny learns Leaf Blade. If we assume that the two Pokemon have equal IVs and natures against a foe with equal defenses, Leavanny's damage advantage comes to less than 13%. If you compare the Trade Lilligant to an average Leavanny, though, Lilligant wins by about 3%.
Bolded part: How the hell does that make Lilligant better? If more pokemon had higher SpD I would think that Lilligant would have it harder, considering it uses special attacks, and that Leavanny uses physical attacks.
The 2 of them should evolve at roughly the same time, which is somewhere around the late 20s in level when you reach Nimbasa City. Petilil is not that much stronger than Swadloon at that point, and has an extra bug stab to fling around.
Leavanny gets no setup/utility moves until directly before the Elite 4. Lilligant starts with Sleep Powder + Growth (Sleep Powder will give you plenty of time to set up, and is insanely useful all around), and picks up Quiver Dance (arguably the best setup move in the game) a couple levels after evolving.
Against the Elite 4, Lilligant will have Petal Dance, which after a Quiver Dance outdamages a Super Effective X-Scissor (Leavanny will have a harder time setting up Swords Dance because of a lack of Sleep Powder and more weaknesses).
Leavanny doesnt need to set up against the majority of the Elite 4 that it is useful against.
Caitlin's Reuniclus and Gothitelle die in 1 hit to X-Scissor, while Musharna is 2koed and cannot even do 50% to you in return in 1 hit. Sigilyph beats you, but can Lilligant stand up to it?
Grimsley's Liepard and Krookodile obviously dont stand a chance, while Scrafty cannot take out Leavanny in one hit, and you also have a fighting resistance to chew brick break up with thanks to that BUG TYPE. Bisharp is a problem, but again, use your team!
Chauntal's Jellicent and Golurk die to Leaf Blade.
Wont get in to detail with Marshal since neither Leavanny and Lilligant have the edge on him.
People seem to be forgetting that Leavanny's Bug typing does not come free. It gives him a weakness to Rock (one of the more common attacking types in-game), as well as turning the Flying weakness (another pretty common attacking type) from an annoyance to a huge threat.
Most rock type attack users are rock or ground types that Leavanny outspeeds and Leaf Blades to death. Not so much of a weakness after all. Flying types are a problem, yes, but they are just as much of a problem for Lilligant, since most are physical.
And let's face it, the extra coverage gained is of limited usefulness before the Elite 4. Most of the Dark, Psychic, and Grass types you commonly encounter are extremely lulzworthy anyways.
Fine, but its an extra stab to use when Grass is resisted and even neutral damage is better than a resisted Giga Drain right?
Also, I'm really, really not seeing how Petilil has "nothing to train against". Outside of targets who resist Grass, Petilil is perfectly capable of taking stuff out, even if it insn't the fastest thing on your team. Especially with Sleep Powder, Growth, and a free Miracle Seed around, Petilil is nothing difficult to train.
Wont comment on this since I do agree that its not as hard to train as some make it out to be, although by no means easy, just not hard.
