Hopefully for the final time, I am here to argue for Celebi's place on the VR again (i.e. I am nominating it for C rank). But I'm not just here to rehash the same old sets (i.e. the Stealth Rock user, although it is still viable!) - I have two new ones I would like everyone to consider, plus another one I believe has potential:
Thunder Wave
Celebi is among the best Pokemon available for spreading Thunder Wave, mainly because almost nothing immune to Thunder Wave (i.e. Ground-types and Thundurus-Therian) can switch into Celebi safely due to its powerful STAB Psychic- and Grass-type moves. The exception to this is
, who is not immune to Thunder Wave, but easily shrugs it off with Jungle Healing and threatens Celebi out. This makes a Rocky Helmet user or bulky Steel-type a necessary partner for Celebi to function, as these are able to switch into U-Turns for Celebi. Fortunately,
and
are two of the best Pokemon in the tier and do this job excellently while also appreciating Celebi soaking up Ground-, Electric-, and Water-type attacks for them. Once an opposing team is slowed down with paralysis, there are several abusers that can capitalize, but perhaps no Pokemon is scarier to take a hit from than
, which happens to have great synergy with Celebi type-wise and can easily be brought in on the common
, especially with U-Turn support. I elected to do exactly that on the paraspam team I built with Celebi:
Replays
Light Screen
Celebi also makes an excellent user of Light Screen. In this case, Light Screen patches up Celebi's defensive profile and allows its offensive teammates to stay in on hits that would normally force them out. In particular, I found that Swords Dance
makes a great recipient of Light Screen, allowing it to tank hits like
's Flamethrower and
's Focus Blast to set up a Swords Dance and begin to sweep. Other Pokemon that are mainly forced out by special attacks could benefit from Light Screen, too. These might include:
,
,
,
,
,
,
, and
. The team I used for this went through a few variations, so I'll provide both:
Replays
Other Sets?
In a similar vein to Light Screen, I believe
Reflect also has potential as a great last move for Celebi. Many dangerous offensive Pokemon fear strong physical hits, and Reflect grants them extra turns to set up or dish out attacks, enabling them to take out Pokemon they would not normally be able to. In particular,
appreciates Reflect support greatly, allowing it to stay in on Knock Offs and U-Turns that would normally force it out in order to set up a Nasty Plot or simply attack. Some other Pokemon that might benefit from Reflect support (due to their weaknesses/checks being primarily [to] physical attackers) include
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
, and
but this is theory at this point. Making a functional team with Reflect Celebi has proven more difficult than making one with Light Screen (partially due to the overlap in weaknesses between Celebi and Pokemon that benefit from Reflect), but I plan to keep working at it.
Other Replays
These replays don't focus on the sets I mentioned above (though they do use some of the same teams), but reiterate Celebi's value as a member of a team. I feel it's important to include these since it tends to be forgotten just how valuable a team member Celebi can be and how many Pokemon it actually has a great matchup against.