Pokémon Xurkitree

[Marzbar]

I really loved the Z-Hypnosis idea to force a switch and get a free Tail Glow.

But then I actually tried using it and all I found was Electric Train and Misty Terrain blocking Hypnosis and ruining my day :'(

 

[Lolrider]

It appears you did your calcs wrong, and used Jolly (which reduces special attack/raises speed) instead of Timid (which reduces attack/raises speed). I redid this one and got
252 SpA Xurkitree Breakneck Blitz vs. 248 HP / 92 SpD Amoonguss: 291-343 (67.5 - 79.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
So Breakneck Blitz does even more damage than you originally thought.

You're right, I was afraid I had done something like that. It's also worth mentioning a Modest variant, although I'm not sure how that messes with speed tiers, if at all.

Also, HP Water checks some pokes that might resist a lot of Xurkitree's other coverage moves, like A-Marowak

 

[Camara]

Holy Pidgeot the power creep. And we were shocked with Haxorus and its 147 base attack lol

Tail Glow is insane, this guy can break pretty much everything slower than it (83 base speed isn't THAT bad, and confortably outspeeds most of the walls/bulky pokémon). It even has Energy Ball to scare the grounds types from switching in.
As referred Mega Dugtrio however is deadly.

 

[Taser]

I'm pretty new to building my own sets, but I've seen some people play with the idea of Z-Hypnosis on Xurkitree because of the speed boost, but others have complained about Electric Terrain and Misty Terrain blocking the sleep. If sleep doesn't work, would this be any better?
Electrilium Z
252 HP/4 Sp. Atk/252 Spe
Timid nature
Thunderbolt
HP Ice/Dazzling Gleam
Grass Knot
Electric Terrain

With perfect IVs in Sp. Atk, it still has a fairly high 383 Sp. Atk to play with. The HP gives it a bit more bulk for its setup, which is Z-Electric Terrain. It gets a 1 stage speed boost (boosting it to 436/437 depending on how the 0.5 is rounded), and will setup Electric Terrain, boosting Thunderbolt's power. This allows for the EVs to go to HP instead, giving you some extra bulk, as you can power yourself with Beast Boost.

The main issue I can see with my EV spread is its poor defences. Would that bulk be enough to stop it getting OHKOd whilst setting up for the speed boost? If I could get some feedback on this set, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[Finnuck]

I've been running Z-Hypnosis + TG with Decidueye as a partner. Spirit shackle a poke that doesn't damage Xurkitree and then U-Turn into him. Z-Hypnosis/Tag on the switch and proceed to wreck havoc.

Decidueye @ Leftovers
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 248 HP / 64 Def / 196 SpD
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Roost
- U-turn
- Spirit Shackle

Xurkitree @ Psychium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hypnosis
- Tail Glow
- Thunderbolt
- Energy Ball


EVS probably aren't optimized, but it's been working well for me, especially paired up with Oursuit Support for A-Marowak who dominates xurkitree.

 

[Kutscher]

Yeah, nah, I would have agreed with you on HP Fire + Energy Ball in pre-release discussion, but that shit's not gonna work on ladder. You lose momentum on a Landorus-I switch-in and even if you're +3 Zygarde still gets a DD on you. Run HP Ice 100% if you're not trying to lose to current meta trends.

zygarde 100% is banned now, what about energy bal + hp fire coverage right now?

 

[Steel With It]

I've been dicking around with various Z-Speed sets, and I think Z-Electric Terrain is definitely the way to go with this thing. Z-Hypnosis has never hit for me and Z-Rain Dance is too reliant on Thunder to do much if the rain runs out, but Z-Electric Terrain is just beastly (lolpuns).

Xurkitree @ Electrium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- HP Ice
- Grass Knot / Energy Ball
- Electric Terrain

You'll want to pair it with a SubPasser or screens setter to guarantee the setup turn, but otherwise, this bastard eats whole teams for breakfast even before Beast Boost kicks in - and thanks to Beast Boost, it doesn't care if its terrain runs out, unlike Tapu Koko. Also, if you're against a slow team and don't need the Speed boost, you can nuke something with Gigavolt Havoc instead, which can't be said about Z-Hypnosis sets.

 

[RayStrikeAbius]

Good Lord, Christmas lights have never been this threatening before.

^Agreed with the above set. Z-Hypnosis was a nice idea, but it fails in repeated practice. Z-Eleterrain provides the same speed boost that made Hypnosis attractive in the first place, while also providing an immediate power boost without the need to spend another turn setting up. Needing a bit more defensive team support is a very fair trade-off for more reliability, methinks.

Of course, the point does stand that Tapu Koko is a better mon for getting up Electric Terrain, but running Hypnosis would be a moot point in that case regardless, so I think running Electric Terrain on Xurkitree is all around more useful... unless you REALLY want to run Tail Glow.

 

[Siggu]

I've been dicking around with various Z-Speed sets, and I think Z-Electric Terrain is definitely the way to go with this thing. Z-Hypnosis has never hit for me and Z-Rain Dance is too reliant on Thunder to do much if the rain runs out, but Z-Electric Terrain is just beastly (lolpuns).

Xurkitree @ Electrium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- HP Ice
- Grass Knot / Energy Ball
- Electric Terrain

You'll want to pair it with a SubPasser or screens setter to guarantee the setup turn, but otherwise, this bastard eats whole teams for breakfast even before Beast Boost kicks in - and thanks to Beast Boost, it doesn't care if its terrain runs out, unlike Tapu Koko. Also, if you're against a slow team and don't need the Speed boost, you can nuke something with Gigavolt Havoc instead, which can't be said about Z-Hypnosis sets.

Now I'm liking that Z-Move more than Hypnosis. No need to gamble for a positive effect.

Basically, to avoid that set from snowballing your team faster than Moxie Mence in Gen V, you need to switch one of these things in ASAP:
- A bulky Electric-resist that is not weak to Xurkitree's coverage moves (AKA Alola Marowak, or Tapu Bulu if you don't switch into HP Ice)
- A Pokemon that is faster than +1 Xurkitree and can OHKO it (e.g. Excadrill on sand or some Scarfed Ground-type)
- Chansey

 

[The Pseudo Legendary]

Here is a scary thing about Xurkitree: it has access to Tail Glow and Beast Boost. A T-bolt from this thing could down so many Pokémon in 1-2 turns. It has the 6th highest Sp Atk, behind Mega Mewtwo Y, Primal Kyogre, Mega-Rayquaza, Deoxys-Attack and Mega Alakazam. Gigavolt havoc on this beast when combined with Zap Cannon is a nightmare. It has too many options and needs to be banned to Ubers! That Sp Atk is too damn high and Xurkitree has too many options.

Yeah I agree with this to a great degree. I just wanted to add that the main role for this mon on a team is a stallbreaker if running a Tail Glow set. If running Choice Scarf, then it is different. However, I think that the Tail Glow set gets more done. Also, I completely dissagree with this needing to be banned to ubers. There are at least three better Electric types in OU with Thundurus-I, Tapu Koko, and Magnezone.

 

[Mikael]

Yeah I agree with this to a great degree. I just wanted to add that the main role for this mon on a team is a stallbreaker if running a Tail Glow set. If running Choice Scarf, then it is different. However, I think that the Tail Glow set gets more done. Also, I completely dissagree with this needing to be banned to ubers. There are at least three better Electric types in OU with Thundurus-I, Tapu Koko, and Magnezone.

better? they all do completely different jobs than xurkitree. no fair to compare them. still disagree on banning it

 

[SeraviEdalborez]

Here is a scary thing about Xurkitree: it has access to Tail Glow and Beast Boost. A T-bolt from this thing could down so many Pokémon in 1-2 turns. It has the 6th highest Sp Atk, behind Mega Mewtwo Y, Primal Kyogre, Mega-Rayquaza, Deoxys-Attack and Mega Alakazam. Gigavolt havoc on this beast when combined with Zap Cannon is a nightmare. It has too many options and needs to be banned to Ubers! That Sp Atk is too damn high and Xurkitree has too many options.

Doesn't have nearly the coverage as any of those, isn't exactly sturdy, and is almost required to run Scarf or have setup into Z-somethingboostingspeed. It's far from Ubers material.

Running Zap Cannon for the sole purpose of Z-ing it also isn't wise since you now limit your coverage even more by running 2 electric moves. If you wanted to Z a one-off coverage option Solarbeam or Hyper Beam are better options. Or the previously mentioned Electrium-Z with Electric Terrain and Tbolt is plenty fine because you have options.

 

[JoJoX200]

Xurkitree doesn't have any more coverage than most Electric types, thus is completely walled by Electric resists that also resist Grass and walled even harder by A-Marowak. Also, it's slower than those other Electric types I was talking about, which takes a lot of threat out of it, and if it runs scarf, it gets trapped by Electric immunities. Of all the UBs, this is the one I least expect to be banned, because while it IS powerful, there's still a lot holding it back from using that power.

 

[Seamus Eso]

Any set other than the TG+3 Attack set is pointless on this. Beast Boost makes Scarf set look cool but there's too many electric immunities and more often than not, makes it a liability. Z-Hypnosis or Z Electric Terrain sets are cool and all but it can't sweep shit being slower than every relevant scarf user and shitty defenses to tank priority hits. Not to mention if you plan on using any sort of speed boosting sweeper set, you're just better of running Z-Conversion Porygon-Z.

 

[Der Twist]

Agreed very much with the above. I think people seem to be having gripe with this thing because it's not well equipped to handle offence due to mediocre, if not outright bad speed and poor defences, but that's completely missing the point of this thing, it's a through-and-through wallbreaker designed to square off against defensive fat-mons and crack them. Of course fancy Z-Move variants and Scarf sets have their viability but as far as I can tell that puts it on the same plate as Hoopa in that yeah now it hits fast and hard as well and it's all very nice, but it's the most mediocre set it can have since it doesn't make the fullest use of its best qualities (being its monstrous offences) and also falls short to other potential Scarfers you could be running. It's disappointing that it doesn't have a base 110 speed to match with its SpA, but if it did it would've gotten the hammer by now. So what I'm puking out in this massive paragraph is that Tail Glow + 3 attacks is pretty much the best way to go with this thing, giving you the best of its available coverage and make the most of its raw power. It's also not a bad idea to run a Tapu Koko or a Thundy alongside it if you really do want an offence-breaking Electric type. I've heard people say, and I can agree, that Tapu Koko makes a great partner for Xurk, being able to manage faster things and also setting up terrain for Xurk as well to boost a strong hit for a while, of course that's not a long-term benefit to Xurk but it is really effective for helping to break something you need broken. Thundy can also pair well having immunity to Ground so you don't have to worry about shared weakness, and T-Wave support against some threats could make Xurk's job easier against some speedier mons without having to rely on on a Z-move and sacrifice your coverage or TG.
A set like this is what's been helping me out:

Xurkitree @ Electrium Z
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Thunderbolt
- Energy Ball
- Hidden Power [Ground]
- Tail Glow

Standard TG with a few differences. Since I'm going with the above and have a Koko with me with HP Ice coverage to support me against Landos, Gliscs, Chomps and such, I'm running HP Ground since Alolan Marowak is a very common switch-in for Xurk, more so than the aforementioned Grounds who fear the HP Ice, it can also hit Heatrans for what it's worth. Gigavolt Havoc also adds a boost to muscle through some other fat fucks that would otherwise be a pain to deal with like Mega Venu, Ferro, Chansey, and such, after a TG with that pulled on them it's pretty much a wall down. I also don't see the need for Timid since even Modest outspeeds any defensive sets I can think of off the top of my head and Modest does give you the edge in some cases (example being a +3 Gigavolt Havoc is a guaranteed OHKO against standard defensive Mega Venu from Modest), it even outspeeds tank-Chomp at modest by a touch unless they've started running more speed now. Maybe I'm being too tunnel-vision with this thing but from the perspective of wall-breaking alone Modest makes the cut.

I'll cap this shit off because it's long and boring, but I'll also disagree with the statement that this thing needs a ban. No. This thing's movepool is ok, but far from having masses of options that make it impossible to predict or counter. It's primary niche is wall-breaking and sure you can slap a Scarf on it but even then it's outsped by a lot of fast-mons and being locked into an Electric move really has its obvious drawbacks, particularly with Duggy being a thing. Even as a wallbreaker it lacks the options Hoopa-U has which pretty much broke the back of any defensive team with its available options of breaking sets and coverage. It's good, but let's not get carried away.

 

[Noventia]

The problem with Xurk is that it has monstrous spatk and that's it; it has to be a wallbreaker like mentioned above.
Unless you run scarf.

I've been loving the scarf set mentioned by OP. All you need to do is to eliminate xurk's counters, then revenge kill something. If they switch to stop you getting the boost, you can usually 2hko it with thunderbolt, and if you can't you shouldn't be trying the sweep yet. Get one kill and it's gg.

EDIT: And oh yeah, although the z-hypnosis set is easily countered (see: elec/misty terrain) it can fuck you if you don't know how to deal with it.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7pokebankou-493954403

 

[noobcubed]

Scarf is terrible while there are so many electric immunities and resists. It's never going to sweep teams (it might clean up the last two or three I suppose) and it's not quite fast enough to be an effective revenge killer (not even faster than MegaZam).

Has anyone tried Specs? Probably Thunderbolt/Volt Switch/HP Ice/Grass Knot or something like that. That sounds fun...

 

[JoJoX200]

From my experience playing against it, Specs faces the same troubles as scarf with the immunities. It does do the stall breaking job better than the scarf set, while the scarf set potentially utilizes beast boost better. The trouble with immunities is something that needs to be accounted for, but that's on the same level as making sure Minior doesn't face priority.

 

[ObeliskTD]

I agree on the don't-ban opinion above. Xurkitree is too squishy and slow to be banned to Ubers. However, I've noticed that Timid Xurkitree has the ability to outspeed some of its major checks.

My set:
Xurkitree @ Electrium-Z
252 SpA/252 Spd/4 HP
-Tail Glow
-Thunderbolt
-Energy Ball
-Signal Beam

What I've been doing is using Tail Glow only when I'm confident that it won't get squished by something. Alternatively, I just go on the offensive. Gigavolt Havoc is a great wall-breaker move, and I fire it off on Pokemon that are trying to tank or set up. if I'm not mistaken, GH does a bit over 50% on a bulky Blissey.

 

[Poultry Lord]

Is HP Rock a viable substitute for HP Ice? I feel as if because Alola-Marowak can just wall you if you run Thunderbolt/HP Ice/Energy Ball, it's perhaps more beneficial to run something that can get him into a bit of trouble. Unless you really struggle with Dragon-types and Grass-types, I don't see a reason why HP Rock shouldn't be considered.

 

[Samoyed]

HP Water/Ground is generally better as it can hit things Xurkitree has trouble with (other electrics, Ground-types)

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

Nature power in misty terrain turns into moonblast, it hits dragons hard letting You need hp ice less

 

[Samoyed]

Nature power in misty terrain turns into moonblast, it hits dragons hard letting You need hp ice less

If Xurkitree wanted to run something to counter dragons, it would run Dazzling Gleam.

 

[Unyubaby]

I reluctantly agree about not banning Xurkitree despite some gripes I've had with it. It's just a raw power Pokemon, nothing more. Unless you're completely unprepared it could wreck teams on its own, but the lack of coverage really makes it that much easier to block. As for Hidden Power, there are two/three VERY good reasons as to why to use HP Ice over Dazzling Gleam and HP Rock/Water/Ground: Garchomp and Landorus (Both Forms). Also anything else that's weak to Ice and would wall Xurkitree like Grass types. To be perfectly frank, without HP Ice (and Choice Scarf if you don't use any Speed boosting moves), Xurkitree isn't going to have any chance of defeating Garchomp or Landorus. Dazzling Gleam can't even OHKO Garchomp.

252+ SpA Xurkitree Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 272-322 (76.1 - 90.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Xurkitree Hidden Power Ice vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 408-484 (114.2 - 135.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

And on that note, best ways to counter Xurkitree are the land shark and land geniemantiger. Xurkitree may be insanely powerful in one stat, but it's not getting you a free ride if you're fighting one of those two.

 

[onlyheretocomplain]

Two teams with Xurkitree hit #1 on the OU and Pokebank OU ladders, respectively. Both use some method of increasing Xurkitree's speed (boosts from Scolipede in robopoke's team, Sticky Web in SuperTK's), run Tail Glow, and hold items that help its Ground weakness.

I've played around with them, and in both cases Xurkitree put in the most work. Between Tail Glow and Beast Boost, it gets out of control really quickly.