Leafeon was always pretty bad in the regions before, often because of bad movepool and have pretty bad matchups against the OU's. But we have a new game, new pokemons and a new meta. In this analysis i will show two sets which is used for Singles and Doubles so ladies and gentelmens without further said, i present you the gen 8 Leafeon analysis:
Overview
Leafeon is a in his core a sun sweeper that with the abillty Chlorophyll, which double his speed stat in sunny weather and A physical attack of 110 which is pretty good for sweeper, and with Leaf blade as a STAB which raises the critical hit ratio, he can sweep decently Water and Ground types. But with not a lot of Coverage Moves Against His biggest weaknesses: Steel types and Physical tanks, which mostly come together, with Galarian-Darmanitan, Bisharp and Corviknight being in OU and with Hidden Power is not a move that is obtainable in Sword and Shield, which his biggest weakness, making him unable to cover matchup which before he could had a bit of chance (for example: Leafeon with HP Ice against landorus-therian), making his MU against most of OU and Some of UU really bad.
1st Leafeon Set: UU (and Potentially OU) Chlorophyll Sweeper
Leafeon @ Life Orb
Abillty: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Nature: Jolly/adamant
IVs: 0 SpA
- Leaf Blade
- X Scissor
- Sword Dance
- Synthesis
Moves
As stated before, Leaf Blade is Leafeon's STAB attack, which covers against Water, Ground, Rock Types Like Dugtrio and Seismitoad, X Scissor is for coverage against Dark and Psychic, Examples Like Hatterne and hydregon, Sword Dance is his setup move which raises Atk by 2 stages , it can be really good if you predict your enemy gonna setup something instead of attack, making you safely use sword dance and not get hit or potentially die, and Synthesis is Leafeon's recovery move, this move work well with a Sun weather, making the move recover more in sun and less in weather.
Set Details
252 EV on Atk and SpD is for getting the most offense possible Leafeon can get without sword dance, while getting the most defensive on special defense it can tank some special moves, because his SpD base is 65 and he need this max EV on SpD to maybe survive things like +1 252 SpA Hatterene Psychic (From the damage calculator), Jolly is for Getting that little 10% + for Spe while lowering SpA by 10% to maximise his Speed with only 4 Speed EV's, Life Orb is to simply just do more damage in the cost of losing some HP, but its worth it in the end.
Usage tips
Leafeon In gen 8 singles is a sweeper in heart, his job is to get as much sword dances as possible without dying (which is mostly around 1-2) and to kill pokemon with generally medium to low Def base stat, it can also help to wallbreak opponets with sword dances against some of UU walls like bellosom and Appeltun (Dont Try him in OU unless you are crazy), also keep in mind he MUST use this pokemon with sunny weather, he will get the speed boost which can make him outspeed almost Every OU
Team Options
There is two pokemon roles that Leafeon appriciate and love: Special Walls, which Leafeon can pivot into them to survive SpA specialist like Hatterne, Clefable and Rotom Heat, Special Wall Breakers Like Toxepex, Ferrothorn and Togekiss, And Sun setters, which can make use of his chlorphyll abillty to outspeed Most OU Sweepers (I Swear, get a max EV Speed Leafeon with Sunny day and you can speed stat of around 600+), Pokemons Like G-max Charizard, Rotom-Heat And Arcenine, Keep in Mind they need to G-max to get The Sun weather activated.
Other Options
one Other option you can use instead of the normal set is to use max EV on speed to really outspeed every OU in the game but will have to sacrifice surviving SpD, which do i need to remind is 65 base stat? yeah, its a risky choice but you do have the Special walls pivot, and you still have the fact that you outspeed everyone on the meta with Sunny weather, another option instead of using life orb is using Assault Vest and using only attacking movesets like Knock off and Dig, Knock off for knocking the opponet item and Dig/Iron tail can be used with Max Quake/Max Steelspike to raise his SpD/Def, but it will not be able to get speed raised to outspeed everyone.
2nd Leafeon Set: VGC Sun Support
Leafeon (M) @ Yache Berry
Ability: Leaf Guard
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 160
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD /
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Swords Dance/Wish
- Protect
- Leaf Blade
- Baton Pass
Moves
Sword Dance Is for setuping the +2 Atk Stages, this move is best used when you have a way of protecting yourself with a teammate or when you get sun boosted, cause if not you can pretty much die easily While wish is for Semi stalling with leafeon and getting pokemon which is not on front on the battle. Protect is Protect and in VGC Protect is Always Important, Leaf Blade is For the STAB move, but without the 252 Atk EV he wont deal a lot of damage, but Leafeon in VGC is not about damaging, he is more of a support character, and Baton Pass is for passing safely the Wish/Sword Dance boost to the other pokemon, be aware who you swap into because you still to keep in mind Matchups
Set Details
252 EV's on HP And SpD is for Surviving the most he can while the 4 in Atk is for the little attack boost, the Careful nature is for tanking a bit more of SpA users while losing a bit of SpA cause Leafeon have a higher Atk base stat then SpA base stat, 0 IV SpA because he dont need SpA at all, the Yache Berry is for Surviving a bit more against Ice Type moves, but a STAB Galar-Darmanitan with Ice Punch with +1 on Atk because of Max Knuckle can still OHKO Leafeon easily.
Usage Tips
In VGC, Leafeon main role in this set is sun support and you have one goal: Get sun boosted by your fire G-max Pokemon and get Wish or Sword dance (depent on what you chose) and pass it to your teammate ASAP, if you dont get attacked you can easily set up a Sun Support Leafeon and Baton pass in 2-3 Turns, which is really fast
Team Options
Becaus he dont need to switch to sun because its doubles, he can be teaming with two roles: SpD Walls, because as much as we gave him 252 EV's in SpD, he still has low SpD
Overview
Leafeon is a in his core a sun sweeper that with the abillty Chlorophyll, which double his speed stat in sunny weather and A physical attack of 110 which is pretty good for sweeper, and with Leaf blade as a STAB which raises the critical hit ratio, he can sweep decently Water and Ground types. But with not a lot of Coverage Moves Against His biggest weaknesses: Steel types and Physical tanks, which mostly come together, with Galarian-Darmanitan, Bisharp and Corviknight being in OU and with Hidden Power is not a move that is obtainable in Sword and Shield, which his biggest weakness, making him unable to cover matchup which before he could had a bit of chance (for example: Leafeon with HP Ice against landorus-therian), making his MU against most of OU and Some of UU really bad.
1st Leafeon Set: UU (and Potentially OU) Chlorophyll Sweeper
Leafeon @ Life Orb
Abillty: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Nature: Jolly/adamant
IVs: 0 SpA
- Leaf Blade
- X Scissor
- Sword Dance
- Synthesis
Moves
As stated before, Leaf Blade is Leafeon's STAB attack, which covers against Water, Ground, Rock Types Like Dugtrio and Seismitoad, X Scissor is for coverage against Dark and Psychic, Examples Like Hatterne and hydregon, Sword Dance is his setup move which raises Atk by 2 stages , it can be really good if you predict your enemy gonna setup something instead of attack, making you safely use sword dance and not get hit or potentially die, and Synthesis is Leafeon's recovery move, this move work well with a Sun weather, making the move recover more in sun and less in weather.
Set Details
252 EV on Atk and SpD is for getting the most offense possible Leafeon can get without sword dance, while getting the most defensive on special defense it can tank some special moves, because his SpD base is 65 and he need this max EV on SpD to maybe survive things like +1 252 SpA Hatterene Psychic (From the damage calculator), Jolly is for Getting that little 10% + for Spe while lowering SpA by 10% to maximise his Speed with only 4 Speed EV's, Life Orb is to simply just do more damage in the cost of losing some HP, but its worth it in the end.
Usage tips
Leafeon In gen 8 singles is a sweeper in heart, his job is to get as much sword dances as possible without dying (which is mostly around 1-2) and to kill pokemon with generally medium to low Def base stat, it can also help to wallbreak opponets with sword dances against some of UU walls like bellosom and Appeltun (Dont Try him in OU unless you are crazy), also keep in mind he MUST use this pokemon with sunny weather, he will get the speed boost which can make him outspeed almost Every OU
Team Options
There is two pokemon roles that Leafeon appriciate and love: Special Walls, which Leafeon can pivot into them to survive SpA specialist like Hatterne, Clefable and Rotom Heat, Special Wall Breakers Like Toxepex, Ferrothorn and Togekiss, And Sun setters, which can make use of his chlorphyll abillty to outspeed Most OU Sweepers (I Swear, get a max EV Speed Leafeon with Sunny day and you can speed stat of around 600+), Pokemons Like G-max Charizard, Rotom-Heat And Arcenine, Keep in Mind they need to G-max to get The Sun weather activated.
Other Options
one Other option you can use instead of the normal set is to use max EV on speed to really outspeed every OU in the game but will have to sacrifice surviving SpD, which do i need to remind is 65 base stat? yeah, its a risky choice but you do have the Special walls pivot, and you still have the fact that you outspeed everyone on the meta with Sunny weather, another option instead of using life orb is using Assault Vest and using only attacking movesets like Knock off and Dig, Knock off for knocking the opponet item and Dig/Iron tail can be used with Max Quake/Max Steelspike to raise his SpD/Def, but it will not be able to get speed raised to outspeed everyone.
2nd Leafeon Set: VGC Sun Support
Leafeon (M) @ Yache Berry
Ability: Leaf Guard
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 160
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD /
Careful Nature
IVs: 0 SpA
- Swords Dance/Wish
- Protect
- Leaf Blade
- Baton Pass
Moves
Sword Dance Is for setuping the +2 Atk Stages, this move is best used when you have a way of protecting yourself with a teammate or when you get sun boosted, cause if not you can pretty much die easily While wish is for Semi stalling with leafeon and getting pokemon which is not on front on the battle. Protect is Protect and in VGC Protect is Always Important, Leaf Blade is For the STAB move, but without the 252 Atk EV he wont deal a lot of damage, but Leafeon in VGC is not about damaging, he is more of a support character, and Baton Pass is for passing safely the Wish/Sword Dance boost to the other pokemon, be aware who you swap into because you still to keep in mind Matchups
Set Details
252 EV's on HP And SpD is for Surviving the most he can while the 4 in Atk is for the little attack boost, the Careful nature is for tanking a bit more of SpA users while losing a bit of SpA cause Leafeon have a higher Atk base stat then SpA base stat, 0 IV SpA because he dont need SpA at all, the Yache Berry is for Surviving a bit more against Ice Type moves, but a STAB Galar-Darmanitan with Ice Punch with +1 on Atk because of Max Knuckle can still OHKO Leafeon easily.
Usage Tips
In VGC, Leafeon main role in this set is sun support and you have one goal: Get sun boosted by your fire G-max Pokemon and get Wish or Sword dance (depent on what you chose) and pass it to your teammate ASAP, if you dont get attacked you can easily set up a Sun Support Leafeon and Baton pass in 2-3 Turns, which is really fast
Team Options
Becaus he dont need to switch to sun because its doubles, he can be teaming with two roles: SpD Walls, because as much as we gave him 252 EV's in SpD, he still has low SpD