[OVERVIEW]
Umbreon's high special bulk and defensive typing make it a great check for common special threats such as Necrozma, Chandelure, and Polteageist. Wish and Heal Bell enable it to stay healthy over the course of the battle and support its teammates. Foul Play allows Umbreon to better deal with various threats such as Golurk, Darmanitan, and Nasty Plot Celebi, while its ability Synchronize makes it difficult for Pokemon such as Raikou, Volcanion, and Milotic to weaken it with status moves. However, Umbreon's weaknesses to Fighting and Fairy leave it vulnerable to common threats such as Cobalion, Heracross, and Togekiss. In addition, its passive nature, increased by its two-turn recovery, makes it easy for many Pokemon such as Reuniclus, and the aforementioned Cobalion and Togekiss, to take advantage of it.
[SET]
name: Defensive
move 1: Foul Play
move 2: Wish
move 3: Protect
move 4: Heal Bell
item: Heavy-Duty Boots / Leftovers
ability: Synchronize
nature: Calm
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Foul Play hits many physical attackers that try to take advantage of Umbreon such as Metagross, Golurk, and Flygon. Protect enables Umbreon to heal from Wish safely and scout Choice-locked Pokemon such as Gardevoir, Chandelure, and Heracross. If the team already has a cleric, Toxic is a good option over Heal Bell to punish common counters such as Togekiss, Incineroar, and Suicune. Since Umbreon is affected by every entry hazard, Heavy-Duty Boots gives it more switch-in opportunities and makes it less dependent on entry hazard control. Alternatively, Leftovers is a good choice for some passive recovery if the team has reliable entry hazard control.
Balance, semi-stall, and stall teams appreciate Umbreon's defensive qualities to check threatening Pokemon such as Polteageist, Chandelure, and Nidoqueen. Defensive Pokemon without reliable recovery such as Registeel, Stakataka, Bronzong, and Diancie appreciate Umbreon's Wish support. In return, they check Togekiss and either check troublesome Fairy-types or take the role of cleric to relieve Umbreon. Since Fighting-types such as Cobalion, Heracross, and Bewear heavily pressure Umbreon, checks to them such as Crobat, Galarian Weezing, and Dhelmise are very important. These Pokemon also give reliable entry hazard control if Umbreon runs Leftovers. On more defensive teams, Quagsire is a good choice to keep setup sweepers such as Reuniclus, Cobalion, and Suicune in check, while Choice Scarf Ditto is a reliable offensive check to them. Reuniclus and Necrozma are great setup sweepers on more semi-stalling teams and appreciate Umbreon's ability to check Ghost-types and keep them healthy with Heal Bell and Wish. Physical walls such as Gastrodon, Vileplume, and Tangela check troublesome physical threats such as Barraskewda, Stakataka, and Sharpedo, which can overwhelm Umbreon.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Moonlight instead of either Protect, Wish, or Heal Bell gives Umbreon a one-turn recovery, but it does not have many PP and supporting teammates is one of the main reasons to use Umbreon. A physically defensive set can better check threats such as physical Necrozma, Flygon, and Golisopod. However, many teams prefer the specially defensive variant, since it counters more important Pokemon. 180 EVs can be invested into Speed to outspeed Adamant Golurk. However, this makes Umbreon worse against special attackers such Nidoqueen and Chandelure. Inner Focus with Toxic is an option to better deal with Togekiss, but it has less use outside of this matchup.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Fighting-types and Fighting-type Coverage**: Cobalion is a huge threat to Umbreon, since it gets an Attack boost from Foul Play, is immune to Toxic, and OHKOes Umbreon with Close Combat. Bewear also takes huge advantage of Umbreon, but it dislikes Toxic. Heracross, Lucario, and Toxicroak take good damage from Foul Play but pressure Umbreon with their Fighting-type moves. Stakataka, Barraskewda, and Sharpedo often run Fighting-type coverage to break through Umbreon.
**Fairy-types**: Barring sets with Toxic, Togekiss and Diancie easily set up on Umbreon. Klefki has nothing to fear from Umbreon, can set up Spikes freely, and pressures it with Toxic. Mimikyu can safely set up once due to Disguise and OHKO Umbreon with Play Rough. Although Gardevoir takes good damage from Foul Play, it 2HKOes Umbreon with Moonblast.
**Bulky Setup Sweepers**: Calm Mind Suicune, Reuniclus, and Curse Snorlax easily use Umbreon as setup fodder, since they take little from Foul Play and negate Toxic through Magic Guard, Rest, or Substitute.
**Physical Attackers**: Strong physical attackers such as Obstagoon and Darmanitan overwhelm or break through Umbreon, but most of them take a lot from Foul Play.
**Taunt and Trick**: Taunt and Trick users such as Noivern, Crobat, Gardevoir, and Chandelure restrict Umbreon to one move, allowing them to better deal with it.
**Toxic-immune Pokemon**: Pokemon that are immune to Toxic such as Registeel, Nidoqueen, and Steelix cripple Umbreon with their own Toxic and cannot be statused in return.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Holy-Darky, 464737]]
- Quality checked by: [[Expulso, 202058], [zizalith, 410251]]
- Grammar checked by: [[Finland, 517429], [DC, 449990]]
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