Pokémon Alolan Raichu

[Martin]

Approved by based user: Celticpride

Alolan Raichu
Pokedex Number - 26
Type(s) - Electric / Psychic
Base Stats* - 60 HP / 85 Atk / 50 Def / 95 SAtk / 85 SDef / 110 Spe

Abilities
Ability 1 - Surge Surfer: Doubles the user's speed when Electric Terrain is active

Learnset
Level Up
Pichu
- Thunder Shock
- Charm
5 Tail Whip
10 Sweet Kiss
13 Nasty Plot
18 Thunder Wave
Pikachu
- Tail Whip
- Thunder Shock
5 Growl
7 Play Nice
10 Quick Attack
13 Electro Ball
18 Thunder Wave
21 Feint
23 Double Team
26 Spark
29 Nuzzle
34 Discharge
37 Slam
42 Thunderbolt
45 Agility
50 Wild Charge
53 Light Screen
58 Thunder

Alolan Raichu
- Psychic
- Speed Swap
- Thunder Shock
- Tail Whip
- Quick Attack
- Thunderbolt

By TM
TM03 Psyshock
TM04 Calm Mind
TM06 Toxic
TM10 Hidden Power
TM15 Hyper Beam
TM16 Light Screen
TM17 Protect
TM18 Rain Dance
TM20 Safeguard
TM21 Frustration
TM24 Thunderbolt
TM25 Thunder
TM27 Return
TM29 Psychic
TM31 Brick Break
TM32 Double Team
TM33 Reflect
TM42 Facade
TM44 Rest
TM45 Attract
TM46 Thief
TM48 Round
TM49 Echoed Voice
TM52 Focus Blast
TM56 Fling
TM57 Charge Beam
TM68 Giga Impact
TM72 Volt Switch
TM73 Thunder Wave
TM86 Grass Knot
TM87 Swagger
TM88 Sleep Talk
TM90 Substitute
TM93 Wild Charge
TM100 Confide

Egg Moves
Reversal
Bide
Present
Encore
Double Slap
Wish
Charge
Fake Out
Thunder Punch
Tickle
Flail
Endure
Lucky Chant
Bestow
Disarming Voice
Electric Terrain

Transfer Only
Generations 3-6
Dig
Flash
Rock Smash
Secret Power
Strength
Covet
Electroweb
Focus Punch
Helping Hand
Iron Tail
Knock Off
Magnet Rise
Shock Wave
Signal Beam
Snore
Captivate
Natural Gift
Swift
Mud Slap
Rollout
Headbutt
Mega Punch
Mega Kick
Body Slam
Double-edge
Counter
Seismic Toss
Mimic
Dynamic Punch
Defense Curl
Surf
Fly
Extreme Speed
Celebrate

Generation 1
Take Down
Pay Day
Submission
Rage
Reflect
Skull Bash

IF I HAVE MISSED ANY EVENT-EXCLUSIVE MOVES FROM GENERATIONS 3-6 PLEASE TELL ME AND I WILL UPDATE THE OP

Usable Offensive Z Moves:
Breakneck Blitz (Normalium Z)
All-Out Pummeling (Fightinium Z)
Hydro Vortex (Waterium Z)
Bloom Doom (Grassium Z)
Gigavolt Havoc (Electrium Z)
Shattered Psyche (Psychinium Z)
Black Hole Eclipse (Darkinium Z)
Twinkle Tackle (Fairium Z)
Supersonic Skystrike (Flyinium Z)
Stoked Sparksurfer (Aloraichium Z)

General Analysis
Surge Surfer on it's own is a very useful ability, but when you have a metagame conditions like the current ones it is able to carve out a very solid niche in the metagame. It shuts down Tapu Koko rain, taking advantage of the fact that it's the second fastest "FieldSpeed" Pokémon (just edged out by Lycanroc) and is also a very powerful rain attacker in its own right. In addition, it's great dual typing offensively allows it to take advantage of opposing Psychic Terrain once anything faster than it is eliminated to boost it's Psychic and give it a nice immunity to priority--which is really helpful vs. slower teams. It is somewhat anti-meta as a result, and the ability to hit harder than Mewtwo on it's Electric-type STAB.

Potential Movesets
Listed from best to worst:

Rain Attacker
Raichu-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
- Surf

Other options: Grass Knot>Surf; Timid

Really solid 'mon on rain+Tapu Koko teams. Thunder nukes stuff, Focus Blast nails stuff like Ferrothorn, Psychic is a nice neutral hit vs. stuff. Surf is boosted by rain (it's effectively STAB under rain) and hits stuff like Lando hard, among other things. Grass Knot is an option if Gastro is an auto-win vs. your team, but beyond that it's kinda iffy. Modest is better almost all of the time 'cause you should always be under electric terrain with this anyway and the power increase is really big on non-Electric-type moves for something with 95 SpA, although Timid allows you to revenge kill Pheromosa after Beat Boost if you're having a really hard time with it. You can go for a speed benchmark if you want a fatter spread but you'll have to work it out yourself 'cause I cba to do it now.

Nasty Plot
Raichu-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Psychic

Other Options: Grass Knot>Psychic/Focus Blast; Timid

NP boosts on forced switches. Coverage deals with the same kind of stuff as standard. Grass Knot is an option if you hate Quagsire and SpD Hippo, but it doesn't do much else 'cause its other targets get OHKOed by +2 modest Psychic anyway. Timid is a little better on this one than other sets 'cause it means that you can set up near the end of the terrain's duration and still be able to sweep vs. more offensive builds.

Non-Rain Attacker
Raichu-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
- Electro Ball / Grass Knot / Thunder / Surf / Hidden Power Ice / Volt Switch

Other options: Timid

Thunderbolt is important for consistent damage. Focus Blast and Psychic do the samethings as the rain set. Electro Ball nukes slowmons, most notably OHKOing Aegislash. Grass Knot helps vs. stuff like Hippo and Gastro/Quagsire. Thunder is anti-rain. Surf hits Hippo and Lando in one slot at the cost of missing the OHKO on PhysDef variants of the former. HP Ice also OHKOs Lando (like Surf does) but it exchanges the Hippo hit for the ability to OHKO Garchomp and not be cockblocked by SpD Gliscor. ESpeed plays mindgames with Bisharp but not really much else. Volt Switch can be used on the last turn that your terrain is active to prevent the momentum drop that comes from switching out once the terrain has worn off. Once again, Timid is only really to RK +1 Pheromosa.

Niche sets that might work somewhat OK which I've not tested

• Physical attacker (Volt Tackle+Zen Headbutt+Knock Off+Extreme Speed/NG Ice/something idk)
  
• Specially-based mixed attacker (Thunderbolt+Focus Blast+Psychic+Knock Off)
  
• Physically-based mixed attacker (Volt Tackle+Zen Heabutt+Knock Off+Focus Blast)
  
• Electric Terrain+3 attacks
• Encore

Personal Opinion
Alolan Raichu is good. It's strong, it's fast and it's movepool has enough in it to make it very threatening under electric terrain. The buff to rain has also helped it too, as that is where it shines the most. It feels like it's kind of an anti-meta pick, manhandling opposing rain while also really shining on it's own rain builds.

 

[readytolose]

You should mention Psyshock on the Nasty Plot set at the very least, as it has the ability to 2hko Chansey at +2, which is always a great quality for a special sweeper.

Besides that, maybe a self-Electric Terrain setter? It's gimmicky and inferior to its other sets but maybe it's worth using if you choose not to use Tapu Koko for some reason (eg: you're using Raichu in a tier where Koko is banned). It's basically Agility and a +1 to Electric moves all in one, so that sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Martin]

You should mention Psyshock on the Nasty Plot set at the very least, as it has the ability to 2hko Chansey at +2, which is always a great quality for a special sweeper.

Besides that, maybe a self-Electric Terrain setter? It's gimmicky and inferior to its other sets but maybe it's worth using if you choose not to use Tapu Koko for some reason (eg: you're using Raichu in a tier where Koko is banned). It's basically Agility and a +1 to Electric moves all in one, so that sounds pretty good to me.

I meant to put Psyshock onto NP and forgot so thanks for reminding me.

The electric terrain set kinda sounds like that Grassy Terrain Sceptile that was put in UU creative/underrated sets a while ago. ATM I don't think it's worth listing but if Tapu gets banned that'll probably become the closest thing this shitmon has as a niche so maybe I'll add it then (but even then it'd be E rank at best). In the meantime though the only way I'll ever consider adding it to the OP will be if I get good replays showing off it's effectiveness, as atm it sounds like a gimmick at best.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

Alolan-Raichu is a real threat that I don't think is getting a lot of attention.

Just some key points:
-its weather setter partner (Tapu Koko) is, in itself, an amazing pokemon
-Electric/Psychic is neutral or better on everything except (of note) Lati@s, Magnezone, Ferrothorn, Excadrill, Hydreigon, Kartana, and Guzzlord. Of these, only Lati@s, Hydreigon, and Guzzlord can take HP Fire, but Electric Terrain Boosted Thunderbolts still chunk them really hard
-In electric Terrain, it can't be outsped, period. Outside of electric terrain, it's still respectably fast, a distinction from most other weather sweepers (the fastest of which is Kingdra, at only 85 base.) So even if another Tapu comes in and tries to end your sweep (like in the same way Y-zard can end a Mega Swampert Sweep,) you could still outspeed and KO them. It might be worth it to run max speed with timid, just so it can be used outside of electric terrain reliably.

I think, with Alolan-Raichu, Electric Terrain teams will be a real threat. An amazingly fast setter, a disgustingly fast sweeper in Raichu, and a pool of fast electric types to choose for a backup (e.g. Mega Manec, Raikou, Thund-I.) These electrics also mesh perfectly into a VoltTurn team. I think it's gonna be great.

 

[Zé Capáu]

Raichu-Alola @ Life Orb / Focus Sash
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

- Nuzzle / Nasty Plot / Electric Terrain
- Thunderbolt / Electro Ball (but consider it only on Electric Terrain)
- Psyshock / Psychic
- Focus Blast / Grass Knot


Why Nuzzle?
With its new Psychic STAB, players may eventually switch-in Dark-types or something that resists it (eg: bulky Psychic-types are good checks).
So, with Nuzzle, you can punish them upon switch in, by crippling them with paralysis.

Why Electro Ball?
...New slow mons... everywhere... so if you're expecting annoying bulky things like Wishiwashi, Toxapex, Golisopod, etc, then feel free to OHKO them with this if you're under Electric Terrain.

 

[Sergeant Spooky]

Reference for people who want to use electro ball. This is the best explanation for how it works that I've found, and this is a little spreadsheet I made to easily find the power of Electroball. It almost definitely contains errors in the part where I try to calculate the target's base speed, so +/- 1 on some of them most likely.

Timid max invested Alola-Raichu at +2 reaches 700 speed.

60 BP: fully invested base 111's and over and scarfed 57's and over, uninvested 158's.
80 BP: fully invested base 58's and over and scarfed 22's and over, uninvested 100's.
120 BP: fully invested base 31's, uninvested 70's.
150 BP: fully invested base 30's uninvested 69's, and under.

Modest max invested Alola-Raichu at +2 reaches 638 speed.

60 BP: fully invested base 96's and over and scarfed 48's and over, uninvested 142's.
80 BP: fully invested base 48's, uninvested 89's.
120 BP: uninvested 62's.
150 BP: uninvested 61's, and under.

Against offensive teams, where most things are generally going to be heavily invested in speed, electro ball obviously does not do as much damage as Thunderbolt. Something needs to be REALLY slow to get even the 120 BP. However, against the majority of pokemon it will only have 10 BP less than Thunderbolt, which isn't too bad.

But looking at more bulky and stall reams, electro ball may actually serve a purpose, as 150 BP terrain boosted moved are really, really hard to take, especially when combined with NP.

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu Electro Ball (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Chansey in Electric Terrain: 430-508 (67 - 79.2%)
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Raichu Electro Ball (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Ferrothorn: 237-278 (67.3 - 78.9%)

Yeah, no non-grounds are gonna take it.

Furthermore, it allows Timid Raichu to have a chance to OHKO Aegislash after SR
252 SpA Life Orb Raichu Electro Ball (150 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Aegislash-Shield in Electric Terrain: 273-321 (84.2 - 99%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Whereas Modest doesn't always OHKO, but usually does. I wouldn't stay in on Aegis though, unless you know it does not have Shadow Sneak.

It has a lot of competition for the moveslot but it might have its place. I wouldn't call it amazing, though, and I would be really hesitant to use it as my main electric STAB, especially since Raichu-A has the capability to be a threat outside of its terrain.

 

[Stallion]

I can honestly see Alolan Raichu + Tapu Koko being the new Ttar + Excadrill

 

[BearBait]

The Tapu Koko+Pelliper+A-Raichu core has very strong potential. A-Raichu with Electric Terrain and Rain up is incredibly powerful since it out-speeds basically everything and OHKOs or 2HKO's almost everything with it's 100% accurate Thunders. Raichu also gets the a rain boosted Surf which can help him deal with ground types. They also form a strong VoltTurn Core that's even better because VoltSwitch gets boosted.

 

[XSylpheonX]

Can Alolan Raichu pack lightning-rod if Pikachu had it?

 

[dhelmise]

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[Ash Borer]

This thing is like a better version of Kingdra if you can manage to get in the rain and under electric terrain at the same time. Triple STAB, light speed, and fully accurate overcharged Thunder. No real way to get past Chansey unless you run Focus Punch + Psyshock and it switches into rocks though.

 

[PShine]

Unlike Kingdra, A-Raichu seems to suffer from a heavy 4-MSS. Thunder/Bolt is alwaus in, but whether you want a Hidden Power, Psychic STAB, Volt Switch, Surf, etc, there are several different checks and counters.
But that should also make A-Raichu get great Lure Sets.

 

[Ash Borer]

Unlike Kingdra, A-Raichu seems to suffer from a heavy 4-MSS. Thunder/Bolt is alwaus in, but whether you want a Hidden Power, Psychic STAB, Volt Switch, Surf, etc, there are several different checks and counters.
But that should also make A-Raichu get great Lure Sets.

I don't think so. Thunder / Surf / Psychic / Focus Blast is pretty much all you need.

 

[PShine]

I don't think so. Thunder / Surf / Psychic / Focus Blast is pretty much all you need.

Well, the All-Out Attacker Set can make use of Volt Switch, especially because, lets face it, you'll use it alongside Tapu Koko. Meanwhile, Nasty Plot adds similar restrictions to the set.

 

[Ash Borer]

Well, the All-Out Attacker Set can make use of Volt Switch, especially because, lets face it, you'll use it alongside Tapu Koko. Meanwhile, Nasty Plot adds similar restrictions to the set.

You don't want to be switching if you enter the field with both Rain and Electric terrain active. Just click on attacks and watch things die. I can see the validity of Nasty Plot if you're just running electric terrain, afterall that's a staple of sand sweeper Excadrill, but I would advise against Volt Switch. You don't want to be wasting your precious E-terrain turns, Raichu-A is more of a sweeper than a pivot.

 

[PShine]

Calm Mind and SubPlot should be listed as other options. Not exactly a set of their own, but still.
Anyway, even if not OU, he'll always have a niche in Lower Tiers as a fast E-Terrain setter

 

[Martin]

Updated OP to include Electro Ball mentions 'cause that shit's disgusting

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Alolan Raichu Electro Ball (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 252 SpD Eviolite Chansey in Electric Terrain: 430-508 (67 - 79.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Alolan Raichu Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 398-469 (62 - 73.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Removed Psyshock from NP 'cause it's p. much directly outclassed now that I know EBall does more to it and Raichu should be under terrain all the time anyway.

 

[PK Gaming]

Psychic should be slashed over Grass Knot on the main set. The fact that you can punch through things like like Venusaur and Amoongus is extremely handy on its own, but Psychic also does good damage on common Electric-type switches in. Hidden Power Ice is barely counts a coverage move; it's literally only there to smash Landorus-T/I and Garchomp because they're top tier threats. Conversely, Grass Knot is only useful against Seismistoed (irrelevant), Gastrodon (rare), Quagsire (gets wrecked by rain). Focus Blast and Thunderbolt are non-negotiable for obvious reasons. I mean it's still worth using if your team is vulnerable to these Pokemon, but it's generally inferior to Psychic imo.

Alolan Raichu seems decent from what I've seen. Electric/Psychic is much easier to deal with than Ground/Steel, so I doubt it'll absolutely dominate like Excadrill + Sand. It's also way too damn frail too, so it's only getting maybe one shot in before getting clipped. A good choice on Electric Terrain + Rain teams though.

EDIT: Okay, Valentine's rain sweeper definitely needs to be on there because it's the best one.

Raichu-Alola @ Life Orb
Ability: Surge Surfer
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 140 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder
- Surf
- Psychic
- Focus Blast

Alolan-Raichu is actually beast on Rain+Electric Terrain teams, lol. No clue what the spread achieves though

Valentine Mind filling us in?

 

[Martin]

Yeah I've played more since yesterday and I've p. much revamped the entire competitive section. Agreeing with pretty much everything PK Gaming has said, and I've separated out AOA into rain and non-rain attacker to highlight how it's better on rain teams than it is off of them after testing it a lot today. The fourth moveslot on the non-rain attacker set is very much filler, which is why it's got so many slashes, and none are really noticeably better than the others to the point where I think I can bump any of them down to OO.

Anyway yeah this thing is legitimately good and is a lot of fun to use, but I do wonder just how dominant it will be once all of the blatantly broken stuff currently running around is banned.

 

[ExXIII]

A set with Z-Celebrate and Electro Ball could be good paired with Tapu Koko.

 

[PK Gaming]

A set with Z-Celebrate and Electro Ball could be good paired with Tapu Koko.

Oh shit, Pikachu gets Celebrate vian an event

Raichu has benefited from Pikachu in the past but this has got to be one of the biggest boons its received from it thus far

 

[Karxrida]

Oh shit, Pikachu gets Celebrate vian an event

Raichu has benefited from Pikachu in the past but this has got to be one of the biggest boons its received from it thus far

Do we even know if transfered Pikachu can evolve into Raichu-A?

 

[PK Gaming]

Do we even know if transfered Pikachu can evolve into Raichu-A?

That's the million dollar question.

Doesn't seem likely but I hope so.

 

[Ema Skye]

Do we even know if transfered Pikachu can evolve into Raichu-A?

According to Serebii, the only way you can get a regular Raichu is to trade the Raichu over. Transferred Pikachus evolve into Alolan Raichu.

 

[Karxrida]

According to Serebii, the only way you can get a regular Raichu is to trade the Raichu over. Transferred Pikachus evolve into Alolan Raichu.

I know hacking is a thing but I'm not trusting that because Bank isn't even out yet, and that might function differently when it's released.

It just sounds too stupid even for Game Freak to force you to transfer the old Mons already evolved.