B- -> B+
I know that's not the first time I ask a rise for Lurantis, I'm not the only one either who asked that moreover. If I come always with this nomination, it's simply because I feel like Lurantis is severly underranked. The reason why Lurantis is ranked so low is mostly the comparaison people did between it and Servine, a lot of people thought Lurantis was just a bad Servine (just look at the page 5 when Lurantis was ranked). In this post, I'm going to try to explain why that's not as simple as it looks like and why Lurantis is better than Servine. I'm going to talk first about the others Lurantis set and then focus on the defog set.
Lurantis sets
RestTalk
Lurantis @ Leftovers
Ability: Contrary
EVs: 248 HP / 168 Atk / 24 Def / 16 SpD / 52 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Leaf Blade
- Superpower
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
That's my favorite set of Lurantis, the spread allows to handle torterra Z-Wood Hammer at +2/Lycanroc Z-Stone edge, avoid the 2HKO of Jolly golem Stone edge, an ice beam of Regice Modest and outspeed Licki and Mawile with 8 Ev in speed. Raw Melon posted a variant with koff which is also playable and make some match-up against stall easier even if you lose your stab and you cannot kill pyuku.
This is relevant because Servine cannot do the same job. Servine doesn't have superpower, either other good offensive coverage move and Servine has pitiful offensive stats (60 bst). That's the first point, you cannot say Servine outclasses Lurantis if one of the best Lurantis set is totally different than what Servine does.
This set was underplayed when Lurantis dropped to ZU and wasn't very considered when it was ranked (even now, this set doesn't appear on the list of lurantis sets), this explains maybe the absurd level of comparaison there is today between lurantis and servine. I'm going to explain why this set works so well. The first thing there is to notice is there are only two counters to Lurantis Rank S to A- (Gourgeist and Muk), except if you run one of these two mons, you don't have any real switch-in. Mons like Frosttom, Bouffalant, Rapidash, Pinsir, etc cannot come on Lurantis (but could on Servine) and for mons who hit on the physical side, they cannot RK it. That's a second point for Lurantis, it's a mon really difficult to RK. I will take an example, just imagine you want to revenge kill a lurantis which set up just one superpower with one of the strongest fire attacker, a Rapidash LO.
252 Atk Life Orb Rapidash Flare Blitz vs. +1 248 HP / 88 Def Lurantis: 283-335 (82.5 - 97.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+1 104+ Atk Lurantis Superpower vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Rapidash: 218-257 (80.4 - 94.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
You lose your rapidash on it. And I took a powerful mon hitting with one of the strongest fire move in the game and SE damages. According to that, that's not difficult to build a team around lurantis. You just need something to pressure the two mons listed above, and something to come on strong special SE moves such as blizzard of frosttom or hurricane of oricorio. A good probopass set is generally enough. Lurantis has a nice match up against bulky teams, can get rid of some of its answers (Rapidash, Pinsir, Ninjask in switching few times), has a nice match up against sticky, is useful against rain, strong in TR teams and very customisable according to your team. Only for this set it is B+ worthy.
I anticipe an answer "Yeah but it's a grass types and we have already plenty of grass types to play". None of grass types has the same role than Lurantis gets. You don't add a mon according to its type but according to what it does in your team (except if you wanna play FWG core). If you're looking for a mon which has a good offensive presence (and servine doesn't have it, I already explained that a bit earlier but I will focus on that in the end of my post), which is decent against rain, which allows you to not be 6-0 by sticky, which is terrific against bulky build, you don't have a lot of choices, even if you have already a grass type in your team. Have some mons with the same typing in your team isn't bad if you're able to balance the weaknesses of your team. To simplify, 5 mons weak to ice but with the last member able to handle all users of ice moves in the tier doesn't make your team weak to ice. In the opposite, if you have a team with no ice weakness but no mon able to handle a blizzard of frosttom, your team is weak to ice.
Others
I will be short on the other lurantis sets, you can play exactly the same set than the one I posted above but with Knock off and Z-Aromatherapy instead of Rest and Sleep talk. It allows you to get rid of annoying ghost types and weaken the opposite team easier. It's globally a more offensive version of the precedent set which is more useful in more specific teams but with the conterpart to lose in staying power.
Some AV variants exist too with Leech Life in last move to restore the health. I don't like it much but I recognize that's not only a low ladder set, the main difference is you don't use lurantis here to weaken the team but more like a finisher, this set is more effective in late game than in the beginning of the battle. I saw some AV sets with leaf storm instead of leaf blade and sometimes hp too, it allows to break easier gourgeist and other physical tanks. This set performs mostly in TR.
Other sets exist such as Synthesis/Leaf Storm/Superpower/hp fire which has is own utility in wallbreaking stuff and certainly others than I forget to mention here. I just wanted to show than Lurantis had other sets than the defog one, there were all viable and unrivaled, customisable and Servine cannot do that because doesn't get superpower, has bad offensive stats, grass isn't good offensively and servine doesn't have good coverage moves to compensate that, etc. By themselves, these Lurantis sets deserve a B+ rank because they are threaten, unique, unpredictable, doesn't have a lot of answers, are modifiable according to your team and able to get rid of their own answers.
Lurantis vs Servine in defogger
I want to break the misconception about the two grass contrary defoggers. Lurantis has always been considered like a bad Servine to be short, however, I've observed the exact opposite for different reasons that I'm going to explain right now. Lurantis is more viable than Servine, even in defogger.
Why could you play Lurantis or Servine in defogger ?
That's the first question we have to answer and it's not an easy one. It's however very important to determine that because without, you cannot make a proper comparaison. You have to know what role Lurantis/Servine have exactly to compare them.
There are plenty of defoggers in ZU, Vallys are the best one, why do you use Lurantis/Servine instead of other defoggers ? That's not because they are more reliable, stuff like Togetic/Silvally-Water/Vullaby are far more reliable than them. That's not either because they are fast defoggers, all Vallys outspeed them. That's not because they have good coverage moves, Vallys are again better for that. Vallys get too the momentum than neither Lurantis nor Servine have. That's not even to have solid defoggers fast able to RK, Silvally-Dragon is better for this role. They are better defoggers make the teambuild easier, Rotom-Fan stops Torterra SD or Silvally-Fighting get rid of Vigo and can take a hit of Lycanroc for example. That's finally not to have a grass defoger, Grassy-vally exists and it is faster, has momentum, has coverage moves. A pure offensive presence is also given by defoggers such as Combusken or Frosttom.*
So why could we add Lurantis or Servine in a team ? There are actually two reasons :
1) They are the only defoggers to win the 1vs1 against every stealth rock setters
2) They are the only bulky* defoggers with an offensive presence able to pressure the opposite team
There aren't other relevant reasons (or do you see an other one ?). If you play Lurantis or Servine for other reasons (speed, Momentum, reliable, etc), you can switch it for better mons. So it's with this two propositions we will determine what mon is better than the other.
Why Lurantis is better ?
If we look at the reason number one, it's approximately a tie. Lurantis is able to get rid of things better thanks to Superpower (one shot Probopass), can as well run other coverage moves instead of leaf storm to break easier stuff (koff against bronzor/metang for example) or take advantage of Intimidate of Mawile. On the other hand, Taunt of Servine is fine to avoid a toxic on few mons or block sr setter if the opponent decides to let his mon dying. Lurantis is maybe a bit either on this point but that's not fully convincing. Lets take a look on the reason two.
Yeah, that's terrible for servine. To have played it many times in several teams, Servine isn't able at all to pressure the opponent. Well, Leaf storm spam looks very cool but not on a mon which has 60 bst Spa (aka 156). Speed isn't relevant here except maybe for grumpig because your duty is to pressure the opposite team and almost every offensive mon is faster than you and almost defensive mon is slower than servine, bulk isn't either relevant for the same reasons. The only reason to play Servine over Lurantis (because Lurantis has a decent SpA to spam Leaf Storm what Servine doesn't have) is to play taunt. It means if your only offensive move is Leaf Storm and... How to say this ? It sucks. Grass is one of the worse offensive typing if not the worst one just after steel. You are totally wall by Bouffalant and Zebstrika, frail mons such as Combusken/Ninetales can switch on you, you struggle to break bronzor/metang, Leafeon/Shiftry can switch to koff you, Pinsir and Rapidash are almost free switch, same for chatot. It won't be a problem if Servine had a good offensive stat but remember it has only 60 SpA... So it gives stupid calcs like this
+6 0 SpA Servine Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pinsir: 247-291 (91.1 - 107.3%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO
+6 0 SpA Servine Leaf Storm vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Rapidash: 222-261 (81.9 - 96.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
To compare with Lurantis, both cannot switch into at +0 because they lose the 1vs1 if they did. Servine is just disappointed and bad, that's what you notice when you play it seriously against a good player. Don't forget either, Leaf Storm has only 8 PP. You have to pressure the opposite team with a mon which isn't able to one shot a Rapidash at +6 with a move of 130 base power and which is limited to 8 attacks in a battle (if you dont miss)... In needing spamming move to set up. Rotom-Frost which is the best mon in ZU can switch twice on Servine, cannot one time on Lurantis. So except if your opponent is very very very bad, Servine is just a joke offensively. It's a bad offensive mon and it's a pity because that's why we play it. It's also the reason why it's a bad contrary user and it's the reason why it is C- in PU in the same time than Lurantis is B.
Now, lets take a look on Lurantis and it's immediatly bright. I said earlier but except muk and gourgeist, there is not a lot of mons able to switch into lurantis without risk. If the opponent does the wrong anticipation between defog or superpower/leaf storm, it can easily lose one mon. Lurantis is also far more difficult to revenge kill than Servine, which also an advantage to pressure the opposite team (physical attacker cannot get rid of lurantis at +1 except Z-Move SE damages). I don't even talk about teams which are just unprepared to Lurantis, plenty of them cannot deal with once Frosttom/Combusken are out. It's also far more effective in defoger against webs teams because Pawniard/Purugly cannot switch into, Lurantis isn't walled either by the mons listed above, Bouffalant/Zebstrika cannot switch into, all offensive mons mentionned struggle against, none mon in bulky teams except muk can the combo of leaf storm + superpower, etc. Lurantis is just perfect in this role, it's a defoger which get rid of all stealth rock setter and which is able to pressure the opponent team. Servine is just a bad Lurantis
Why did people think Servine was better ?
Because on the paper, Servine is bulkier, has taunt and is faster. That's of course not a reason to proclaim Servine was better because we saw Servine have a lot of handicaping flaws which make Lurantis far better. But even if it's not necessary, I want to qualify these affirmations to break definitly the myth around servine.
1) Bulk
The belief about the bad bulk of Lurantis compared to Servine comes with these calcs :
252 SpA Mr. Mime Psychic vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Lurantis: 135-159 (39.3 - 46.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252 SpA Mr. Mime Psychic vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Servine: 105-124 (32.5 - 38.3%) -- 98.2% chance to 3HKO
I don't show a calc on the physical side because Lurantis and Servine have both the same bulk on the special and on the physical side. It's very simple to conclude Servine is far bulkier than Lurantis in seeing these calcs. But it's more difficult than it looks like.
First of all, that's a calc without item on Lurantis. With leftovers, Lurantis has approximately between 33~and 40% at the end of the turn which isn't a big difference with what Servine handles. That's obviously not the same thing (in terms of switch for example), but you don't have to forget the item when you're talking about the bulk of a mon. A Psychic of Mr.Mime wont never let Lurantis at 54% at the end of the turn but at 60% minimum, that's an important thing to notice.
Secondly, Lurantis doesn't have to run a lot of speed/power unlike Servine. It means you can give a bulkier spread to Lurantis, something you cannot do to Servine without sacrifie speed or power (and Servine really needs an offensive spread to work). It gives you something like that (spread of the VR) :
252 SpA Mr. Mime Psychic vs. 248 HP / 84+ SpD Lurantis: 111-132 (32.3 - 38.4%) -- 97.7% chance to 3HKO
Again the same calc versus Servine (it's the spread of the VR)
252 SpA Mr. Mime Psychic vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Eviolite Servine: 105-124 (32.5 - 38.3%) -- 98.2% chance to 3HKO
Yeah, you see what I mean. Lurantis is bulkier than Servine because Lurantis can spend EVs in Def or SpD and Servine cannot do that without sacrifie the advantage it gets over Lurantis. Also, it's obvious but Lurantis runs leftovers so with the item, it is far bulkier than Servine. Again a point to Lurantis.
You don't have to forget either Lurantis has Superpower in its movepool. Lurantis has in a battle opportunities to increase its natural bulk. Superpower allows to handle hits than normally it cannot such as Flare Blitz LO of Rapidash, Flare Blitz of Monferno, 2 X-Scizzor of Pinsir, etc. Servine is unable to handle this, in whatever situations.
To finish on this, Knock off is one of the best moves in the game and is common. If Servine is koffed (against a tang for example), there is no doubt it's more handicapping than if Lurantis loses its leftovers.
2) Taunt
Taunt is the reason why Servine has a niche to be played over Lurantis. Otherwise, there is no reason to play it. So I won't deny it's a good move and a nice choice on Servine, but it's not either the Holy Grail which allows Servine to obscure its alterego.
If I have to give a definition of taunt Servine, it would be a bad friend. You feel that it's a good choice to hang over with it but you will be disappointed very soon. When you realize your team lack of a defoger, isn't bulky enough, cannot bypass stall, lack of speed control, lack of offensive presence, is 6-0 by webs, you're tempted to play Servine to compensate all these issues. The problem is your team and Servine wont solve that because Servine is good in nothing. Servine doesn't get a correct offensive presence because with 60 SpA and grass type, you cannot do wonders, you cannot bypass stall with as only attacking move a move of 8 PP, Servine hasn't the greatest bulk ever (and still less if you decide it should have an offensive presence) and isn't either the more reliable defoger. Taunt Servine looks like a good mon but never fully accomplishes its role.
I want to add also that's not the best user of taunt in the tier. I will just take the example of toxic. A part of the toxic users are one shot by Lurantis (probopass), on the decline (mawile and taunt > toxic) or Servine cannot stop it. Licki for example is a toxic user which is used to toxic Taunt Viggy which otherwise destroys bulky build, same for Z-toxic Pyuku. I also mention Vallys are the more commons mon running toxic and they are often played with enough speed to outspeed Frosttom... So to outspeed Servine. Toxic is just an example, I could talk about SR or heal move as well and the problems are exactly the same, Servine fails to correctly use taunt in battles, and that's not uncommon.
To finish this, Taunt users are generally useful to beat stalls, that's a common reason to play them. Servine isn't able to stallbreak. It's totally walled by Muk, PP stall otherwise or even revenge kill with combusken variants. If your only answer to stall in a team is Servine, you can forfeit turn one, it cannot bypass stall.
3) Speed
Okay I will try to be short here, 83 Speed isn't good. I mean, if you say Speed is an advantage of Servine compared to Lurantis, you have to use it to be coherent. With 83 speed, you are outspeed by Frosttom which is the best mon in ZU... And Frosttom isn't fast. Servine is one of the slowest offensive mons (if we can call Servine "offensive"). That's just a shame because it's easy to RK it, Lurantis which is a slower mon is far more difficult to RK than the grass snake. Lurantis is slow but is able to outspeed what it has to outspeed, Servine isn't slow but isn't able to outspeed what it has to outspeed. There are just few mons you're glad to outspeed with Servine and that's not mandatory either. It's cool to outspeed Grumpig but that's not a duty either, same with Missy. There aren't plenty others. Speed is useful mostly with the combinaison of taunt, otherwise that's not relevant.
Conclusion
The post is longer than I expected. I will mention a last thing, I'm aware I didn't mention the variation of viability of lurantis between March and now. That's coherent with what I think. In my opinion, Lurantis deserves the B+ rank since the beginning and was ranked lower due to a large comparaison with Servine. I don't say it is the only reason but that was the main one. These arguments were inaccurate, they lacked of an analysis between what Lurantis and Servine concretly do, a mention about the things Lurantis does over Servine (I've never seen someone mentions Superpower which is the most played move on Lurantis) and an outlook detailled about the Bulk/Taunt/Speed argument which would show the major flaws of the classical analysis. I hope to have convinced and even if not thank you to have read this post.
(PS : There is certainly a ton of grammatical mistakes, it's late in my country, I'll correct it tomorrow)
* : stuff like after reading the Diagnostic's post