Type: Water / Grass
Base Stats: 80 HP / 70 Atk / 70 Def / 90 SpA / 110 SpD / 70 Spe
Abilities: Rain Dish | Swift Swim | Own Tempo (H)
Notable Moves:
- Giga Drain
- Hydro Pump
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Leaf Storm
- Knock Off
- Weather Ball
Ludicolo didn't really gain much between generations, but it didn't lose much either. Its been more of a mid-tier option on Rain teams over the generations, but still managing to have some sort of mild niche thanks to its unique typing.
Pros:
- Ludicolo's niche is being a rain sweeper able to deal with certain Pokemon otherwise good into such builds, mainly bulky Water-types, thanks to its STAB Grass moves.
- Its Grass typing gives it a neutrality to Electric and Grass, and a Ground resistance as well. This makes it rather unique for a Rain sweeper, and unlike Walking Wake, it doesn't have to deal with a weakness to Fairy.
- Its Hydro Pumps are still decently hard hitting in Rain. Ludicolo is only 10 base Special Attack weaker than Basculegion-F.
- Gives your rain builds style points at least.
Cons:
- Its Water-type moves don't hit very hard outside of rain, and even in rain, its other moves (like its Grass STAB or Ice Beam) are rather weak.
- The Physical bulk is rather pitiful, and while its special bulk is decent, its still not THAT bulky.
- Its Grass typing brings it weaknesses to Flying (Zapdos), Poison (Amoonguss, Glowking, Iron Moth), and Bug (U-turn), and gives it a 4x weakness to Freeze-Dry from Alolan Ninetales, making Ludicolo especially poor into Snow teams.
- Also rather poor into Pokemon such as Water Absorb Clodsire or Toxapex.
- Generally outclassed by Female Basculegion, Manaphy, or Walking Wake as a Special Attacker on Rain builds. All of them are faster (in Rain AND outside of it in the case of Basculegion and only the latter in the case of the others) and much more powerful, while lacking the drawbacks of Ludicolo's partial Grass-typing.
Terrastilization Potential:
- Tera Water can boost the power of your Hydro Pumps even further, and gets rid of minor weaknesses like those to U-turn.
- Tera Fairy can be used to make you resist Sucker Punch and Mach Punch which are common forms of priority.
Potential Sets:
Rain Sweeper
Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Tera Type: Water / Fairy
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Surf / Weather Ball
Really the only set you should run if using Ludicolo, its a set that needs no real in-depth explanation. Hydro Pump and Giga Drain are your bread and butter STAB, Giga Drain is preferred over Leaf Storm due to the former lacking the Special Attack drop and having health recovery. Ice Beam is coverage into Pokemon that resist your STABs, such as Dragon-types or opposing Grass-types. The last slot is if you want a more consistent Water-type move in Surf or a slightly more powerful one that can be risky into other weather builds such as Sun in Weather Ball. Modest Nature is preferred to give Ludicolo's moves a bit more oomph that it'd lack otherwise, and Life Orb furthers onto that, giving it more flexibility than say Choice Specs. Swift Swim is the best ability on Ludicolo cause it makes it function on Rain to begin with, and Rain stall is a meme in a post-Gen 5 world so sadly no Rain Dish Leech Seed shenanigans.
Overall:
A niche pick on Rain teams and not much else sadly. That being said, it might find some use in lower tiers where rain might be available, but who knows if Drizzle will be actually broken this gen down there.
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