WORK UP VICTINI
Victini @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Work Up
- Blue Flare
- Bolt Strike
- Glaciate / Expanding Force
WHY
So I looked at victini's movepool and I thought "man this thing can't boost its stats outside of flame charge and charge beam" and, even though I had considered flame charge, tini doesn't have enough power to break common offensive pokemon that are hard to chip down like zera, koko or pult without boosts and v-create can't be used with flame charge for obvious reasons. charge beam can have some use alongside a substitute set, but I don't really like sub in a meta with pult and shifu and vic is weak to both and +1 charge beam is hella weak.
Then I realised that victini is a gen 5 pokèmon, the generation that introduced the best boosting move in the game,
shell smash quiver dance work up. scrolling down the list of moves I found work up at the bottom and I though that this would be a good way to use victini. in a true gen 5 themed fashion, the moveset is composed of signature moves for the three unova dragons.
SET
blue flare is the most powerful stab attack that fits a work up set and deals a good amount of damage to switch ins and comes with a nasty 20% burn chance. bolt strike is good complementary coverage against bulky water types that resist blue flare. this set doesn't pack the most powerful bolt strike, but victini can use it to soften up early game for itself or boost in front of them thanks to its great bulk and weaken a bulky water for a teammate. glaciate rounds out the set thanks to its ability to just drop certain ground and dragonite. for reference, standard spdef lando (252/160+/96) gets dropped at +1 after stealth rock and gets put into +1 blue flare range by an unboosted blue flare. glaciate also deals with faster mons on the switch like pult and bring them into ko range and is also the strongest hit against garchomp.
OTHER OPTIONS
expanding force is a fantastic move when used with lele, which is a great idea since victini is weak to aqua jets and sucker punches + expanding force is an ohko on every pex at +1 and every urshifu-r. other than these two cases, it acts as a powerful neutral coverage move that can overpower sturdier defensive walls. energy ball is another potential move with very specific targets in gastrodon and quagsire, but expanding force can drop them with proper chip.
the item choice is up to preference. hdb makes victini less support reliant but makes it so that you can't run power-boosting or longevity items. life orb, wise glasses, expert belt (only with glaciate), leftovers etc. other fun options include kasib berry with some minor ev tweaking to bait and smash pult and blacephalon, colbur berry for weavile, or shuca berry with glaciate to ruin ground types like lando and chomp.
THOUGHTS ON VICTINI
In general, if you want some heat with victini, I would try some expanding force shenaninganry alongside lele or a beautiful ground lure alongside things like bu zeraora with an all-out-attacking shuca berry (or expert belt, but shuca is a lot more reliable) set with both energy ball/gknot (gastrodon and quag / hippo) and glaciate for lando, chomp and dnite. cb in sun is always broken. I can also see some sub-taunt-wisp with 101 hp sub stuff to toy with fatter teams or just a bulky-ish protox/wisp mystical fire scorching sands set since victini has decent resistances and bulk.