Fabled Fairytale: Fairy-types in OU
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Art by Iyarito.
Introduction
Ever since the introduction of Fairy-types in Gen 6 to combat Dragon-types, they've had a major influence on every tier, and OU is no exception. The Fairy type has had a major impact on the metagame, as it has practically forced a Steel-type on every team to check Fairy-type Pokémon. What makes the Fairy type so great is that it has few weaknesses, only being weak to Steel and Poison, and the latter is hardly relevant in the metagame. It also sports a few great resistances, namely Fighting and Dark, which are very significant in the tier.
Premier Fairy-types in OU
- HP70
- ATK115
- DEF85
- SPA95
- SPD75
- SPE130
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Tapu Koko is a stellar offensive pivot due to its access to both U-turn and a very potent Terrain-boosted Volt Switch. It can also act as a fearsome wallbreaker by utilizing a Z-Crystal, use a lure set for Ground-types to take a Ground-type move with Shuca Berry and deal heavy damage in return with Hidden Power Ice, and even take on the role of a bulky hazard remover thanks to its passable bulk and access to Roost and Defog. More recently, some have even been opting to use Tapu Koko as a dual screens setter due to its great utility moves in Taunt and U-turn and an impressive Speed stat that allows it to outspeed the majority of the unboosted metagame.
- HP70
- ATK130
- DEF115
- SPA85
- SPD95
- SPE75
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Tapu Bulu is one of the most versatile Fairy-types in the tier. It can take on a multitude of different roles, such as a sweeper with Swords Dance and a terrifying wallbreaker with Choice Band. Tapu Bulu can fulfill all these different roles because it possesses amazing stats, a good defensive typing, and a great ability in Grassy Surge to provide it with passive recovery and a 1.5x boost to its Grass-type attacks. Thanks to Tapu Bulu's defensive typing and bulk, it can act as a sufficient check to a myriad of top-tier Pokémon in the tier, such as Ash-Greninja, Tapu Koko, and Zygarde.
- HP95
- ATK70
- DEF73
- SPA95
- SPD90
- SPE60
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Clefable is one of the best Fairy-types in the OU metagame thanks to its decent bulk, great typing, very customizable utility options, and two amazing abilities in Magic Guard and Unaware. Clefable mainly functions as a defensive Stealth Rock setter, and it is capable of pressuring most Defog users and can set up Stealth Rock against Mega Sableye as well thanks to its STAB Moonblast and access to Calm Mind. Its typing, abilities, and bulk allow it to check Pokémon such as Zygarde, Hawlucha, and Mega Lopunny. It can even offer support for its team with a myriad of different moves such as Wish, Thunder Wave, and Knock Off. For these traits, Clefable often finds itself a spot on balanced and stall builds.
- HP80
- ATK95
- DEF115
- SPA130
- SPD115
- SPE65
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Magearna is quite a flexible Pokémon, as it can viably run numerous offensive sweeping sets, mainly utilizing Shift Gear and in some cases Calm Mind, but on some teams it can even opt for a Trick Room set or a specially defensive set with an Assault Vest. Defensively speaking, Magearna has a fantastic typing and insane special bulk, meaning it can blanket check most special attackers, in particular Ash-Greninja, Tapu Lele, and Mega Diancie. Magearna's typing is decent offensively, but Magearna's main offensive merit is the coverage it has under its belt—Focus Blast for Heatran, Ferrothorn, and Magnezone, Thunderbolt for Toxapex and Celesteela, Ice Beam to hit Tangrowth and Amoonguss, and finally Hidden Power Fire for Mega Scizor and to more reliably hit Ferrothorn. Another boon for Magearna is its ability Soul-Heart. Getting a boost to Special Attack after every KO is great for Magearna, as it allows Magearna to snowball.
- HP70
- ATK85
- DEF75
- SPA130
- SPD115
- SPE95
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Tapu Lele is widely considered one of the best offensive Fairy-types in the tier, and for good reason. For one, Tapu Lele has a decent offensive typing in Psychic / Fairy, which allows it to hit a majority of the tier for at least neutral damage and means it can easily break down most walls. On top of that, its ability, Psychic Surge, boosts the power of its Psychic-type attacks to very high levels. Its access to Focus Blast allows it to bypass the most classic Fairy- and Psychic-type switch-ins, Steel-types. Tapu Lele has a number of viable sets, such as Fightinium Z, Psychium Z, Choice Specs, and Choice Scarf, which ultimately makes Tapu Lele decently versatile and lets it fit on a variety of teams. Back in the early stages of USM OU, Tapu Lele used to run Choice items a lot, but these have fallen off in favor of Z-Move sets.
- HP50
- ATK105
- DEF125
- SPA55
- SPD95
- SPE50
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Mega Mawile is an incredibly threatening wallbreaker that tears through the majority of popular fat teams thanks to its fantastic ability in Huge Power doubling its Attack, and Mega Mawile can even clean up against offense thanks to Sucker Punch. With Swords Dance, it can take advantage of the switches it forces, raising its Attack to gargantuan levels and making it all the more threatening. It can also opt for a four attacks set, which relies more on coverage to break through the opposing team. This is a totally viable option thanks to the sheer number of good coverage moves Mega Mawile has access to. Mega Mawile's Speed stat does leave a lot to be desired, though it makes up for this by having powerful priority in Sucker Punch and the ability to take a hit or two thanks to its decent bulk and Intimidate, if opting to run it. The other pre-Mega ability Mawile has access to is Hyper Cutter, which is useful to ignore Intimidate from Pokémon that like to switch into Mawile, predominantly Landorus-T.
Niche Fairy-types in OU
- HP50
- ATK160
- DEF110
- SPA160
- SPD110
- SPE110
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Mega Diancie was one of the most hyped Mega Pokémon upon its release in SM, but it's been rather underwhelming ever since. Mega Diancie finds its niche in its raw power and access to good utility moves in Stealth Rock and Endeavor, which ultimately lets it break through most bulky teams. Endeavor lets Mega Diancie beat some of its usual checks, such as Gastrodon and Mega Venusaur, at the cost of a majority of Mega Diancie's health. Mega Diancie's typing is very good offensively but lacking defensively, as it's weak to some of the most common types in the tier in Steel, Ground, and Grass.
- HP70
- ATK75
- DEF115
- SPA95
- SPD130
- SPE85
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Tapu Fini, while considered the worst of the Guardian Deities, is still a solid pick on a number of teams. It is a great check to threats such as Ash-Greninja, Keldeo, and Heatran if carrying Scald, can remove any hazards from the field with Defog, and can annoy a lot of Pokémon trying to switch into it with Taunt + Nature's Madness. It has a few different options; it can use a bulkier spread to more reliably switch into the aforementioned Pokémon, a pinch Berry over Leftovers for the quick burst of HP, or Calm Mind, although the latter struggles with Grass-types. That's about where the positives end—Tapu Fini lacks any reliable Recovery and is vulnerable to every type of hazard, meaning it is difficult to keep healthy throughout the game and making it an inconsistent Defogger and stop to the Pokémon it is supposed to check.
- HP55
- ATK90
- DEF80
- SPA50
- SPD105
- SPE96
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Mimikyu may seem like a very appealing Fairy-type for its unresisted STAB combination, but in reality it is very underwhelming. Its Attack stat is rather poor, and it is forced to run an Adamant nature to do any kinds of damage, which leaves it outsped by Pokémon such as Kyurem-B and Tapu Lele. With the omnipresence of bulky Steel-types this generation, Mimikyu finds it very hard to successfully sweep, as most bulky Steel-types can easily take a +2 hit from Mimikyu and retaliate with a STAB Steel-type move. Even if it has gotten past the opposing team's bulky Steel-type, it may very well find itself revenge killed due to its mediocre Speed tier, and Shadow Sneak doesn't really mitigate this because it is relatively weak. But, despite all that, Mimikyu still often finds its way onto hyper offensive teams for its ability Disguise, which lets it blanket check Pokémon hyper offensive teams tend to struggle with, as it can take at least one hit guaranteed. It simultaneously acts as a spinblocker for the archetype as well.
- HP100
- ATK50
- DEF80
- SPA60
- SPD80
- SPE50
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A lot of Azumarill's merit comes from its unpredictability, as it has the ability to run an offensive Belly Drum set with Huge Power or a defensive PerishTrap set with Sap Sipper. This unpredictability can lead to you being heavily punished if you incorrectly guess its set. For example, if you go out to your Grass-type expecting the Belly Drum set and they're actually the PerishTrap set, you could well lose your Ferrothorn / Tapu Bulu / Kartana due to Azumarill's immunity to Grass provided by Sap Sipper. However, the Belly Drum set has not seen much notable usage for a long time, as Grass-types are so common in the tier; this alongside the fact that the sets usually fit on completely different team archetypes means the unpredictability factor might not be as potent as one might expect.
- HP73
- ATK67
- DEF75
- SPA81
- SPD100
- SPE109
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Alolan Ninetales's niche in the OU tier is essentially as a dual screens setter thanks to it being the only Pokémon with access to both Aurora Veil and Snow Warning, and it also has some utility with Hypnosis. However, it is mostly outclassed in the current meta by the previously mentioned dual screens Tapu Koko set due to Ninetales having a worse Speed tier and Tapu Koko having better utility thanks to Taunt and U-turn.
- HP75
- ATK110
- DEF110
- SPA110
- SPD105
- SPE80
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Mega Altaria finds itself a tiny niche in the OU tier as a Defogger that can spread paralysis and check Pokémon such as Heatran, Ash-Greninja, Tapu Koko, and Hawlucha. However, it is mostly outclassed in this role, as it is a rather unreliable Defogger, and it can struggle to check these Pokémon if hazards are up.
Closing Thoughts
As you can see from this breakdown, Fairy is a very potent typing in the OU tier. Go give Fairy-types a try!
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