Tapu Bulu Discussion

This thing is pretty bulky, I like:

Tapu-Bulu @ Leftovers
Grassy Surge
252 HP/ 252 Def / 4 Atk / Impish
~ Sub
~ Leech Seed
~ Nature's Madness
~ Toxic
 
A set I'd like to try:

Tapu Bulu @ Leftovers
Ability: Grassy Surge
EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Atk
Impish Nature
- Horn Leech
- Superpower
- Stone Edge
- Whirlwind/ Bulkup/ Taunt/ Swords dance

A check to a few OU threats. Without offensive investment, horn leech deals respectable damage even when resisted, and lets him play the stall wars with several offensive pokemon. The last move slot is to prevent Bulu from being set up fodder. Whirlwind and taunt prevent setup, while swords dance and bulk up allow him to ignore burn and bypass several walls.

I'd also like to see a substitute set, with all that hp regen.
 
Okay, so:

252+ Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham High Jump Kick vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Arceus-Electric: 331-391 (86.8 - 102.6%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO

252+ Atk Life Orb Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Arceus-Electric in Grassy Terrain: 359-422 (94.2 - 110.7%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO

Yeah, I don't think this one's gonna find itself outclassed
 
This and CM Raikou with Grassy Seed(the one that gives def+1) could be a good combo, Raikou still has pseudo lefties because of terrain, loses its only weakness, takes care of birds, and can become a good wincon since grassy seed lets it set up better.

Technically this mon is good to with anything that hates Ground, in doubles it being lower means it has an advatange when fighting Terrain wars in a sense.
 
Not as viable as the other alola guardians but still pretty good. It has some of the strongest grass moves in the game and can take a defensive approach with great fairy typing.
 
252+ Atk Choice Band Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Latios in Grassy Terrain: 290-342 (96.9 - 114.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO


I seriously wonder how long this will stay in the meta or will become a very long time mainstay to the game in a Volt Turn core
 
JSND said:
252+ Atk Choice Band Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Latios in Grassy Terrain: 290-342 (96.9 - 114.3%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO


I seriously wonder how long this will stay in the meta or will become a very long time mainstay to the game in a Volt Turn core
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lol yeah, just run Life Orb or Choice Band and it goes to town on pretty much everything. Aside from coverage (which isn't that much of an issue because literally just click Horn Leech or Wood Hammer on anything except Scizor) the only thing really limiting it is its subpar speed and average bulk without HP investment. So, it's either one or the other depending on the team; slightly fast for offense or balanced, and HP investment for defensive balanced. Nature's Madness is also looking good on this thing to deal with coverage issues, but again, set and role dependent.
 
AccidentalGreed said:
lol yeah, just run Life Orb or Choice Band and it goes to town on pretty much everything. Aside from coverage (which isn't that much of an issue because literally just click Horn Leech or Wood Hammer on anything except Scizor) the only thing really limiting it is its subpar speed and average bulk without HP investment. So, it's either one or the other depending on the team; slightly fast for offense or balanced, and HP investment for defensive balanced. Nature's Madness is also looking good on this thing to deal with coverage issues, but again, set and role dependent.
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I feel on Defensive Sets you'll want Nature's Madness because it nails things like Skarm and Scizor on the switch that you need offensive investment and coverage to have a shot at beating.

Defensive Sets probably will run some combo of Nature's Madness, Horn Leech, Superpower, Roar/Whirlwind, Leech Seed (so much HP regen good lord) or Toxic.

A Bulk Up set is probably viable on this thing too. You got Stone Edge/Rock Slide, Superpower/Brick Break, and Horn Leech, which is solid coverage.
 
The more I look at this, the more i see it just come in, resist something, click wood hammer and a mon die...

A bulky choice Band will defo be a viable set because it just breaks stuff, but at the same time I believe Av can find some niche as well. (some calcs need to be done)

Because of grassy terrain boosting the grass moves and free leftovers(including grounded opponents), you always want to attack with this guy no matter what. I thought Leech Seed and Nature's Madness would be what you go for most of the time but wood hammer is just monstrous(x2 resist isn't stopping wood hammer w/terrain from crushing) and horn Leech can be deceptively good, expecially with an AV set. Superpower coverage hits tran and ferro hard.

Leech seed is still good against fat mons that x4 resist wood hammer like skarmory and Nature's Madness + Taunt basically cripples it. Though of course you can't utilise Taunt and Leech seed with AV/Band.
 
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252+ Atk Choice Band Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 4 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey in Grassy Terrain: 642-756 (100 - 117.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band T'apu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 56+ Def Mega Steelix in Grassy Terrain: 205-243 (57.9 - 68.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

252+ Atk Choice Band Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Shuckle in Grassy Terrain: 187-222 (76.9 - 91.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

It hits like a wrecking ball, anything that doesn't resist Grass is going down.

252+ Atk Choice Band Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 248 HP / 232+ Def Torkoal in Grassy Terrain: 139-164 (40.5 - 47.8%) -- 98.5% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery and Grassy Terrain recovery

And even things that do resist Grass won't enjoy getting hit unless it's a 4x reisstance.
 
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Teostra. said:
I am SO glad that Tapu Bulu has a niche going for it as an absolute wallbreaker. However guys, don't forget that Wood Hammer does recoil. Yea, it will destroy Chansey (nerfed eviolite tho) but he will die for it lol.
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Of course, but you do also have the Grassy Terrain recovery and Horn Leech to get your HP back.
 
A banded set would probably make good use of both Wood Hammer and Horn Leech. A Horn Leech with that much power will essentially serve as a reliable form of recovery, especially considering you get the extra little grassy terrain recovery to go along with it. You could probably give up Wood Hammer to make room for all of the grass-resistances you want to cover: stone edge > fire/birds, superpower > steels, mega horn > grass, zen headbutt > poison. On the other hand, being able to OHKO resists like latios and torn with a single move sounds amazing.

Whether or not it's the best set, banded bulu will be a monster.
 
Man...even if this thing had Play Rough, it would still struggle in OU, due to its lackluster defensive and offensive typing. Seriously, this thing is slow and weak to very common attacking types, and many Pokemon resist Grass and Fairy.
 
toenails_sauce said:
Man...even if this thing had Play Rough, it would still struggle in OU, due to its lackluster defensive and offensive typing. Seriously, this thing is slow and weak to very common attacking types, and many Pokemon resist Grass and Fairy.
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Doesn't it also resist a lot of very common attacking types? I don't really see how this is a bad defensive typing.
 
A CB set can easily use both Wood Hammer and Horn Leech. CB Wood Hammer hits harder than a banded v-create from victini or a +1 hyper voice from a modest mega gardevoir on the special side. its really no joke and you're unlikely to be clicking anything else because it hits harder resisted than a neutral Superpower, for instance. Horn Leech also hits very hard, turning into the equivalent of a 110 BP healing move thanks to grassy terrain boost, and then that gets CB boosted also. I would use Wood Hammer, Horn Leech, Superpower, and Zen Headbutt. Megahorn might seem logical to hit grass types really hard, but a non-double grass resist from a grass typing is still going to turn into a 2hko in many cases

Tangrowth is basically the benchmark for avoiding a 2hko from wood hammer when it comes to defenses with a single grass resist rather than a double:
252+ Atk Choice Band Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Tangrowth in Grassy Terrain: 164-193 (45.5 - 53.6%) -- 93.4% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery

Other single resists get swept away. Then the most common 4x weaknesses will be covered by superpower, zen headbutt, or none of tapu bulu's coverage at all:

252+ Atk Choice Band Tapu Bulu Zen Headbutt vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Mega Venusaur: 180-212 (49.5 - 58.4%) -- 64.5% chance to 2HKO after Grassy Terrain recovery

Birds are scary i guess, but talonflame would get ohkod switching into rocks and wood hammer, and hasty tornadus-t would get ohkod without rocks. I know some of these mons arent available yet at the start of sun + moon but I am thinkin about what might happen in the meta in the future
 
I feel like protect will end up seeing a lot of use. with leftovers, it can play stallrein for 5 turns if it really wants to.

Ultimately idk how it'll go in the end, but imo it'll veer more towards bulky stally stuff (along the lines of protect / leech seed / STAB / filler) or leftovers + attacks (leftovers + protect + 3 attacks?) than CB.
 
TURBODERP said:
jesus christ it 2HKOs PhysDef TANGROWTH with Band

that's actually disgusting
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actually sorry i think thats the wrong calc- i wanted to point out that tangrowth is sort of the defense levels that AVOIDS the 2hko (was probably messing abt with the defense stat), but it does 2hko assault vest tang still:

252+ Atk Choice Band Whimsicott Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Tangrowth in Grassy Terrain: 199-234 (49.2 - 57.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery

this would be a physdef tangrowth calc:

252+ Atk Choice Band Whimsicott Wood Hammer vs. 244 HP / 216+ Def Tangrowth in Grassy Terrain: 153-180 (38 - 44.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock, Leftovers recovery, and Grassy Terrain recovery

with just 10-15% chip damage this quickly starts entering 2hko range, so its still pretty scary (you can check those ones yourself in the calculator lol)
 
@breh
Grassy terrain recovery would likely be more beneficial to tapu bulu's teammates than to itself, i.e. vincine (sub/protect/cm/scald suicine) would love breaking even with its HP while pressure sub/protect stalling for a few turns. The idea of a stallrein-esque strategy doesn't really work considering the opponent will be gaining HP rather than losing it lol. The best that set could do is PP stall, but that's probably better left to something else under the effects of grassy terrain. The cool thing is that, in theory, a CB set can heavily dent some resists with Horn Leech while recovering even more per turn than with other forms of recovery like lefties and leech seed.
 
252 Atk Choice Band Abomasnow Wood Hammer vs. 240 HP / 176+ Def Garchomp in Grassy Terrain: 351-414 (84.1 - 99.2%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Guaranteed ohko if adamant.

252 Atk Choice Band Abomasnow Horn Leech vs. 240 HP / 176+ Def Garchomp in Grassy Terrain: 220-261 (52.7 - 62.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Grassy Terrain recovery

Horn leech can 2hko tank chomp and heal back most of the damage taken from helmet+ skin
 
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Poison jab will OHKO most non-defensive distributions after rocks though. Granted, it does force Chomp into a less than optimal move but with it being the best reliable coverage Chomp has for 3 of the 4 Tapus I can see it being used more often.
 
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