Monotype Tapu Bulu (Grass)

[OVERVIEW]

Grass
========

* Tapu Bulu is an outstanding physical attacker for Grass teams that offers tremendous offensive presence and invaluable support to the entire team with its ability, Grassy Surge.
* Grassy Terrain offers great offensive utility by boosting the strength of Grass-type attacks by 1.5x for the entire team, which empowers Grass's offensive threats such as Serperior, Celebi, and Breloom.
* Grassy Terrain also gives great defensive utility by offering grounded Pokemon passive health recovery equivalent to Leftovers, which helps sustain Grass's defensive core throughout a match. It also halves the damage dealt by Earthquake, helping to cover the defensive core of Cradily, Ferrothorn, and Mega Venusaur, which all take Ground-type moves neutrally.
* Tapu Bulu makes use of Grassy Terrain to spam excellent Grass-type STAB moves such as Wood Hammer and Horn Leech for massive damage, even against resistant foes.
* Tapu Bulu sports strong coverage options in Stone Edge and Superpower that allow it to manage dangerous threats to Grass teams such as Fire-, Flying-, Steel-, and Bug-types.
* Unfortunately, Tapu Bulu struggles against types that resist Grass-type attacks such as Steel-, Poison-, and Dragon-types.
* Tapu Bulu also has a mediocre defensive typing that leaves it with exploitable weaknesses to Poison-, Fire-, Ice-, and Flying-type attacks. However, it can switch in on Fighting- and Dark-type attacks easily.
* Tapu Bulu has only average Speed unboosted and can be outsped by countless common offensive threats such as Greninja, Nihilego, Nidoking, and Heatran.

[SET]
name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Wood Hammer
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Superpower
move 4: Horn Leech
item: Choice Scarf
ability: Grassy Surge
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

* Wood Hammer is a powerful Grass-type STAB move and Tapu Bulu's strongest attack, capable of hitting even resistant foes hard due to its 120-Base Power that is boosted by Grassy Terrain.
* Stone Edge is valuable Rock-type coverage to hit Bug-, Fire-, and Flying-types that resist Wood Hammer such as Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Volcarona.
* Superpower is Fighting-type coverage that threatens Steel-types such as Heatran, Ferrothorn, Magnezone.
* Horn Leech is a safe Grass-type STAB move that deals moderate damage and recovers health. Horn Leech is used when Wood Hammer's power is unnecessary and would result in unnecessary recoil
* Zen Headbutt is a Psychic-type move that is an option over Horn Leech for hitting Poison-types such as Mega Venusaur.

Set Details
========

* Maximum Attack investment allows Tapu Bulu to hit as hard as possible.
* Maximum Speed investment along with Jolly Nature allows Tapu Bulu to be as fast as possible.
* Choice Scarf allows Tapu Bulu to outspeed and check huge threats to Grass such as Mega Charizard Y, Landorus, Nidoking, and unboosted Volcarona and Mega Pinsir.

Usage Tips
========

* Use Tapu Bulu as a blanket offensive check and revenge killer for threats such as Nidoking, Landorus, Alolan Raichu, and Mega Charizard Y.
* Tapu Bulu's Grass-type STAB attacks are very spammable in Grassy Terrain and should be used liberally.
* Maintain Grassy Terrain as much as possible without unnecessarily risking Tapu Bulu. Take every opportunity to send Tapu Bulu in safely against passive Pokemon so that the team can enjoy the benefits of boosted Grass-type STAB moves and passive recovery.
* Take advantage of Grassy Surge to disrupt Electric Terrain to force out Alolan Raichu or disrupt Psychic Terrain to mitigate Double Dance Mew. Be wary of using Tapu Bulu to disrupt Misty Terrain, however, as it risks being burned by Tapu Fini's Scald.
* Switch Tapu Bulu into predicted Earthquakes directed against Ferrothorn, Cradily, or Mega Venusaur to make use of Grassy Terrain halving its damage, which can keep Choice Band Excadrill, Choice Band Diggersby, or Swords Dance Landorus-T from breaking the defensive core.
* Keep Tapu Bulu away from status, as burn and paralysis completely undermine its ability to revenge kill. Sacrifice a weakened or statused Tapu Bulu to set up Grass-type sweepers such as Serperior, Celebi, or Breloom to sweep.
* Make use of Grassy Terrain to reactivate Breloom's Focus Sash after Stealth Rock damage.

Team Options
========

* Mega Venusaur is the heart of Grass's defensive backbone that Tapu Bulu falls back on when faced with Pokemon it cannot beat. Mega Venusaur's high bulk, typing and ability provide valuable neutralities to Bug-, Poison-, Fire-, and Ice-type attacks.
* Ferrothorn helps support Tapu Bulu by making up part of the amazing defensive core Tapu Bulu relies upon to wear opposing teams down, by its excellent Grass / Steel typing with neutralities to Flying-, Bug-, Ice-, and Poison-type attacks. Ferrothorn's Spikes are invaluable and can be stacked to wear down checks to Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu.
* Cradily is Grass's second best Fire sponge and also an excellent Stealth Rock setter. Cradily is capable of checking several threats that Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu can't, such as Quiver Dance Volcarona. In return, Tapu Bulu acts as a Fighting-type switch-in and offers Cradily passive recovery and weakened Earthquakes with Grassy Terrain.
* Serperior is an excellent teammate for an offensive core with Tapu Bulu, as it benefits greatly from Grassy Terrain's buff to Leaf Storm, its strongest attack.
* Celebi is another strong special attacker that benefits from Grassy Terrain and offers valuable Psychic-type STAB moves to manage Poison threats such as Nidoking, Toxapex, and Mega Venusaur as well as Earth Power to hit troublesome Steel-types. Tapu Bulu helps cover Celebi in return with its resistance to Dark-type attacks.
* Breloom pairs well with Tapu Bulu, as Grassy Terrain makes Bullet Seed a much more potent option for breaking defensive cores. Spore utility is irreplaceable, and Technician Mach Punch is great for cleaning teams worn down from entry hazard stacking and Leech Seed. Grassy Terrain also allows Breloom to reactivate its Focus Sash if broken by Stealth Rock.
* Gourgeist-XL is a decent teammate that offers a bulky Bug- and Poison-type neutrality, a Fighting- and Normal-type immunity, and Will-O-Wisp and spinblocking utility. Gourgeist-XL takes a lot of pressure off of teammates like Ferrothorn and Mega Venusaur to manage physical threats such as Swords Dance Excadrill and Mega Scizor.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

* Choice Band Tapu Bulu is a frightening wallbreaker capable of shattering defensive threats with Wood Hammer. Choice Band Zen Headbutt also helps Grass deal with Mega Venusaur, and has no safe switch-ins on Poison teams. However, Tapu Bulu's low speed makes Choice Band sets easy to take advantage of, and such a potent wallbreaker meshes poorly with Grass's more balanced builds.
* Rockium Z Tapu Bulu with Swords Dance is strong for breaking bulky defensive threats such as Mega Venusaur and Celesteela. However, Tapu Bulu's low Speed makes it difficult to sweep with and easy to take advantage of.
* SubSeed is an option for a bulkier Tapu Bulu set to make use of its resistances and bulk. However. the opportunity cost of Tapu Bulu's other, more broadly effective sets make this suboptimal.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Steel-types**: Steel-types such as Celesteela, Skarmory, Magearna, and Mega Scizor are all excellent switch-ins due to their resistance to Tapu Bulu's Grass-type STAB moves and their natural bulk letting them shrug off Superpower. Even Ferrothorn is not 2HKOed by Choice Scarf Superpower. Mega Scizor in particular is troublesome because it uses Tapu Bulu as setup bait.

**Dragon-types**: Dragon-types resist Tapu Bulu's boosted Grass-type STAB moves, but unlike other Grass-resistant Pokemon such as Poison-, Fire-, Flying-, or Bug- types, Dragon-types are almost always bulky enough to shrug off Tapu Bulu's coverage moves. As such, Tapu Bulu will struggle to manage threats such as Dragonite and Kyurem-B.

**Poison-types**: Tapu Bulu's inability to threaten bulky Poison-types with its STAB moves makes threats such as Crobat and Mega Venusaur difficult to manage.

**Fire-types**: Fire-types such as Torkoal and Heatran resist Tapu Bulu's boosted Grass-type STAB moves, forcing it to rely on coverage to threaten them such as Stone Edge or Superpower, which can easily be taken advantage of. Additionally, most offensive Fire-types such as Victini are capable of OHKOing Tapu Bulu with STAB.

**Skarmory**: Skarmory walls Tapu Bulu and can take advantage of the turn to set up hazards, use Whirlwind to rack up hazard damage, or use Brave Bird for respectable damage against the Grass team.

**Mega Venusaur**: Mega Venusaur will hard wall Tapu Bulu, and it can switch in safely almost all of the time. Grass teams must rely on their own Mega Venusaur or Celebi to manage opposing Mega Venusaur.

**Revenge Killers**: While Tapu Bulu is capable of checking a wide range of unboosted offensive threats, its low Speed means it will be outrun and forced out by almost all common Choice Scarf users such as Victini, Nihilego, and Excadrill and speedy threats such as Mega Alakazam.

**Status**: Status conditions undermine Tapu Bulu's ability to maintain an offensive presence throughout a battle. Tapu Bulu, like most physical attackers, is crippled if burned, paralysis nullifies the speed control Choice Scarf offers and makes it impossible to revenge kill threats, and poison negates the passive health recovery offered by Grassy Terrain. While Tapu Bulu can still offer utility while burned by setting Grassy Terrain, it completely undermines its capacity to manage threats.
 
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Overview:
- Focus on main ideas. This talks too much about Grassy Terrain here. Halving the damage of Earthquake and healing teammates is great but not something that needs to be separated. If you must, I think it's okay to have one line about offensive utility and one about defensive utility, but certainly do not need this much.
- Explain the reason why Tapu Bulu struggles with Pokemon that resist Grass-type moves. Most of why it's so strong is because it has that 1.5x damage boost.

Moves:
- I feel like Zen Headbutt is at least somewhat legitimate for Poison-types.

Usage Tips:
- Talk about how spammable its Grass-type STAB moves are and how it should almost always just use them.
- When talking about disrupting Terrain, do also note that Tapu Fini is a very risky switch due to Scald.
- Talk about revenge killing more specifically.

Team Options:
- For Cradily: "such as Quiver Dance Volcarona."
- Gourgeist-XL is probably worth a mention here as another good defensive switch-in to Poison-type moves and physical attackers.

Other Options:
- Remove Zen Headbutt.
- Remove Megahorn. Unviable in my opinion.
- SubSeed option.

Checks and Counters:
- Skarmory should have its own section.
- Fire-types
- Poison-types
- Not necessarily Choice Scarf users, but even revenge killers are good against Tapu Bulu. This may be Mega Alakazam or an Ice Shard user for example. So, change that.

Nice job. QC 1/3
 

Zar

What a time
is a Contributor Alumnus
comments

[OVERVIEW]

Grass
========

* Tapu Bulu is an outstanding physical attacker for Grass Monotypes that offers tremendous offensive presence and invaluable support to the entire team with its ability, Grassy Surge, which summons Grassy Terrain for 5 turns.
* Grassy Terrain's offers great offensive utility by boosting the strength of Grass-type attacks by 1.5x for the entire team, which empowers Grass's offensive threats such as Serperior, Celebi, and Breloom.
* Grassy Terrain also offers great defensive utility by offering grounded pokemon passive health recovery equivalent to Leftovers, which helps sustain Grass's defensive core throughout a match. It also halves the damage dealt by Earthquake which helps cover the defensive core of Cradily, Ferrothorn, and Mega-Venusaur who all take Ground-type moves neutrally.
* Tapu Bulu is a strong attacker as well and benefits from Grassy Terrain to deal heavy damage with Grass-type attacks. I'd mention its Grass-type STAB attacks like Wood Hammer and Horn Leech. The former is a fantastic move that beats most Pokemon that don't resist it while the latter allows Tapu Bulu to regain a bit of health. Maybe even mention how the recoil from Wood Hammer is less of a problem because of Grassy Terrain's health regeneration.
* Tapu Bulu sports strong coverage options in Stone Edge and Superpower that allow it to manage dangerous threats to Grass teams such as Fire-, Flying-, Steel-, and Bug-types.
* Tapu Bulu struggles against types that resist Grass-type attacks, as that is where most of it's power comes from, such as Steel-, Poison-, and Dragon-types.
* Tapu Bulu has mediocre defensive typing that leaves it with exploitable weaknesses to Poison-, Fire-, Ice-, and Flying-type attacks. However, it can switch in on Fighting- and Dark-type attacks easily.
* Tapu Bulu has average speed unboosted, and can be outsped by countless common offensive threats such as Greninja, Nihilego, Nidoking, and Heatran.

[SET]
name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Wood Hammer
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Superpower
move 4: Horn Leech
item: Choice Scarf
ability: Grassy Surge
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

* Wood Hammer is a powerful Grass-type STAB, capable of hitting even resists hard with a base 120 BP boosted by Grassy Terrain.
* Stone Edge is valuable Rock-type coverage to hit Bug-, Fire-, and Flying-types that resist Wood Hammer such as Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Volcarona.
* Superpower is Fighting-type coverage to threaten Steel-types such as Heatran, Ferrothorn, Magnezone.
* Horn Leech is a safe Grass-type STAB that is used when Wood Hammer's power is unnecessary and would result in unnecessary recoil. Mention that it lets Tapu Bulu regain HP.
* Zen Headbutt is a Psychic-type move that is an option over Horn Leech for hitting Poison-types such as Mega-Venusaur.

Set Details
========

* Maximum Attack investment allows Tapu Bulu to hit as hard as possible.
* Maximum Speed investment along with Jolly Nature allows Tapu Bulu to be as fast as possible.
* Choice Scarf grants Tapu Bulu the speed to blanket check as many offensive threats as possible, and allows Bulu to outspeed and check huge threats to Grass such as Mega Charizard Y, Landorus-Incarnate, Nidoking, and unboosted Volcarona and Mega-Pinsir.

Usage Tips
========

* Use Tapu Bulu as an blanket offensive check and revenge killer for threats such as Nidoking, Landorus-I, Alolan Raichu, and Mega Charizard Y.
* Tapu Bulu's Grass-type STABs are very spammable in Grassy Terrain and should be used liberally.
* Maintain as high an uptime on Grassy Terrain as possible without unnecessarily risking Tapu Bulu. Take every opportunity to send Tapu Bulu in safely against passive Pokemon so that the team can enjoy the benefits of boosted Grass-type STAB and passive recovery.
* Take advantage of Grassy Surge to disrupt Electric Terrain to force out Alolan Raichu or disrupt Psychic Terrain to mitigate Double Dance Mew. Be wary of using Tapu Bulu to disrupt Misty Terrain, however, as you risk being burnt by Tapu Fini's Scald.
* Switch Tapu Bulu into predicted Earthquakes directed against Ferrothorn, Cradily, or Mega-Venusaur to make use of Grassy Terrain halving its damage, which can keep Band Excadrill, Band Diggersby, or Swords Dance Landorus-T from breaking the defensive core.
* Sack a weakened or statused Tapu Bulu to set up Grass-type sweepers such as Serperior, Celebi, or Breloom to sweep.
* Make use of Grassy Terrain to re-activate Breloom's sash after Stealth Rock damage.

Team Options
========

* Mega Venusaur is the heart of Grass's defensive backbone that Tapu Bulu falls back on when faced with Pokemon it cannot beat. Venusaur's has high bulk and its typing and post-mega ability provide valuable neutralities to Bug-, Poison-, Fire-, and Ice-type attacks.
* Ferrothorn helps support Tapu Bulu by making up part of the amazing defensive core Bulu relies upon to wear opposing teams down with its excellent Grass/Steel typing and neutralities to Flying-, Bug-, Ice-, and Poison-type attacks. Ferrothorn's Spikes are invaluable and can be stacked to wear down checks to Scarf Tapu Bulu.
* Cradily is Grass's second best Fire sponge and also an excellent Stealth Rock setter. Cradily is capable of checking several threats that Scarf Bulu can't, such as Quiver Dance Volcarona. Mention that Tapu Bulu provides a Fighting-resist in return for Cradily.
* Serperior is an excellent teammate for an offensive core with Tapu Bulu as it benefits greatly from Grassy Terrain's buff to Leafstorm, it's strongest attack.
* Celebi is another strong special attacker who benefits from Grassy Terrain and offers valuable Psychic-type STAB to manage Poison threats such as Nidoking, Toxapex, and Mega-Venusaur as well as Earth Power to hit troublesome Steel-types. Mention how Tapu Bulu can switch into Dark-type attacks if needed for Celebi.
* Breloom pairs well with Tapu Bulu, whose Terrain makes Bullet Seed a much more potent option for breaking defensive cores. Spore utility is irreplaceable and Technician Mach Punch is great for cleaning teams worn down from hazard stack and Leech Seed. Mention that Grassy Terrain allows Breloom to re-activate it's Focus Sash.
* Gourgeist-XL is a decent teammate that offers a bulky Bug- and Poison-type neutrality, a Fighting- and Normal-type immunity, and Will-o-Wisp and Spinblocking utility. Gourgeist takes a lot of pressure off of teammates like Ferrothorn and Mega Venusaur to manage physical threats such as Swords Dance Excadrill or Mega Scizor.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

* Choice Band Tapu Bulu is a frightening wallbreaker capable of shattering defensive threats with Wood Hammer. Banded Zen Headbutt also helps Grass deal with Mega-Venusaur, and has no safe switch ins on Poison teams. However, Bulu's low speed makes Banded sets easy to take advantage of, and such a potent wallbreaker meshes poorly with Grass's more balanced builds.
* Rockium Z Tapu Bulu with Swords Dance is strong tech for breaking bulky defensive threats such as Mega-Venusaur and Celesteela. However, Bulu's low speed makes it difficult to sweep with and easy to take advantage of to gain momentum on Grass.
* SubSeed is an option for a bulkier Tapu Bulu set to make use of it's resistances and bulk. However the opportunity cost of Bulu's other, more broadly effective sets make this suboptimal.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Steel-types**: Steel-types such as Celesteela, Skarmory, Magearna and Mega Scizor are all excellent switch-ins due to their resistance to Tapu Bulu's Grass-type STAB and their natural bulk letting them shrug off Superpower. Even Ferrothorn is not 2HKOd by scarf Superpower. Mega Scizor in particular is troublesome because it uses Tapu Bulu as setup bait.

**Dragon-types**: Dragon-types resist Tapu Bulu's boosted Grass-type STABs, but unlike other Grass resists such as Poison-, Fire-, Flying-, or Bug- types, Dragons are almost always bulky enough to shrug off Bulu's coverage options. As such, Bulu will struggle to manage threats such as Dragonite and Kyurem-Black.

**Poison-types**: Tapu Bulu's 4x weakness to Poison-type attacks and inability to threaten many of them with STAB makes them difficult to manage. Give examples.

**Fire-types**: Fire-types resist Tapu Bulu's boosted Grass-type STABs, forcing Bulu to rely on coverage to threaten them such as Stone Edge or Superpower, which can easily be taken advantage of. Additionally most offensive Fire-types are capable of OHKOing Tapu Bulu with STAB. Give examples.

**Skarmory**: Skarmory walls Tapu Bulu and can take advantage of the turn to set up hazards, Whirlwind to rack up hazard damage, or Brave Bird for respectable damage against your Grass team.

**Mega Venusaur**: Mega Venusaur will hard wall Tapu Bulu, and can switch in safely almost all of the time. Making good use of hazards can whittle it down enough to where Zen Headbutt Bulu can KO, but Grass teams are better off relying on their own Mega Venusaur or Celebi to manage opposing Mega Venusaurs.

**Revenge Killers**: While Tapu Bulu is capable of checking a wide breadth of unboosted offensive threats, it's low speed means it will be outrun and forced out by almost common Choice Scarfs such as Victini, Nihilego, or Excadrill and speedy threats such as Mega-Alakazam.

**Burns**: Tapu Bulu, like most physical attackers, is crippled if burnt. While Bulu can still offer utility while burnt by setting Grassy Terrain, it completely undermines its capacity to manage threats. I'd honestly expand this into "Status" and have paralysis in there as well. Paralysis halves Tapu Bulu's Speed while burns limit its offensive capabilities. Poison on the other hand negates the passive health received from Grassy-Terrain.
qc 2/3 n_n good job
 

Vid

Our life is what our thoughts make it
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[OVERVIEW]

Grass
========

* Tapu Bulu is an outstanding physical attacker for Grass Monotypes that offers tremendous offensive presence and invaluable support to the entire team with its ability, Grassy Surge, which summons Grassy Terrain for 5 turns.
* Grassy Terrain offers great offensive utility by boosting the strength of Grass-type attacks by 1.5x for the entire team, which empowers Grass's offensive threats such as Serperior, Celebi, and Breloom.
* Grassy Terrain also offers great defensive utility by offering grounded pokemon passive health recovery equivalent to Leftovers, which helps sustain Grass's defensive core throughout a match. It also halves the damage dealt by Earthquake which helps cover the defensive core of Cradily, Ferrothorn, and Mega-Venusaur who all take Ground-type moves neutrally.
* Tapu Bulu is a strong attacker as well and makes use of Grassy Terrain to spam excellent Grass-type STABs such as Wood Hammer and Horn Leech for massive damage, even against resists.
* Tapu Bulu sports strong coverage options in Stone Edge and Superpower that allow it to manage dangerous threats to Grass teams such as Fire-, Flying-, Steel-, and Bug-types.
* Tapu Bulu struggles against types that resist Grass-type attacks, as that is where most of it's power comes from, such as Steel-, Poison-, and Dragon-types.
* Tapu Bulu has mediocre defensive typing that leaves it with exploitable weaknesses to Poison-, Fire-, Ice-, and Flying-type attacks. However, it can switch in on Fighting- and Dark-type attacks easily.
* Tapu Bulu has average speed unboosted, and can be outsped by countless common offensive threats such as Greninja, Nihilego, Nidoking, and Heatran.

Every Sentence starts with Tapu Bulu fix that before GP
[SET]
name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Wood Hammer
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Superpower
move 4: Horn Leech
item: Choice Scarf
ability: Grassy Surge
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

* Wood Hammer is a powerful Grass-type STAB and Tapu Bulu's strongest attack, capable of hitting even resists hard with a base 120 BP boosted by Grassy Terrain. The recoil is mitigated somewhat by Grassy Terrain's passive recovery. This seems unnecessary
* Stone Edge is valuable Rock-type coverage to hit Bug-, Fire-, and Flying-types that resist Wood Hammer such as Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Volcarona.
* Superpower is Fighting-type coverage to threaten Steel-types such as Heatran, Ferrothorn, Magnezone.
* Horn Leech is a safe Grass-type STAB that deals moderate damage and recovers health. Horn Leech is used when Wood Hammer's power is unnecessary and would result in unnecessary recoil
* Zen Headbutt is a Psychic-type move that is an option over Horn Leech for hitting Poison-types such as Mega-Venusaur.

Set Details
========

* Maximum Attack investment allows Tapu Bulu to hit as hard as possible.
* Maximum Speed investment along with Jolly Nature allows Tapu Bulu to be as fast as possible.
* Choice Scarf grants Tapu Bulu the speed to blanket check as many offensive threats as possible, and allows Bulu to outspeed and check huge threats to Grass such as Mega Charizard Y, Landorus-Incarnate, Nidoking, and unboosted Volcarona and Mega-Pinsir.

Usage Tips
========

* Use Tapu Bulu as an blanket offensive check and revenge killer for threats such as Nidoking, Landorus-I, Alolan Raichu, and Mega Charizard Y. why should it be used as blanket check for these Pokemon
* Tapu Bulu's Grass-type STABs are very spammable in Grassy Terrain and should be used liberally.
* Maintain as high an uptime on Grassy Terrain as possible without unnecessarily risking Tapu Bulu. Take every opportunity to send Tapu Bulu in safely against passive Pokemon so that the team can enjoy the benefits of boosted Grass-type STAB and passive recovery.
* Take advantage of Grassy Surge to disrupt Electric Terrain to force out Alolan Raichu or disrupt Psychic Terrain to mitigate Double Dance Mew. Be wary of using Tapu Bulu to disrupt Misty Terrain, however, as Bulu risks being burnt by Tapu Fini's Scald.
* Switch Tapu Bulu into predicted Earthquakes directed against Ferrothorn, Cradily, or Mega-Venusaur to make use of Grassy Terrain halving its damage, which can keep Band Excadrill, Band Diggersby, or Swords Dance Landorus-T from breaking the defensive core.
* Sack a weakened or statused Tapu Bulu to set up Grass-type sweepers such as Serperior, Celebi, or Breloom to sweep. There should be a status bullet if this has a bullet
* Make use of Grassy Terrain to re-activate Breloom's sash after Stealth Rock damage.

Team Options
========

* Mega Venusaur is the heart of Grass's defensive backbone that Tapu Bulu falls back on when faced with Pokemon it cannot beat. Venusaur's has high bulk and its typing and post-mega ability provide valuable neutralities to Bug-, Poison-, Fire-, and Ice-type attacks.
* Ferrothorn helps support Tapu Bulu by making up part of the amazing defensive core Bulu relies upon to wear opposing teams down with its excellent Grass/Steel typing and neutralities to Flying-, Bug-, Ice-, and Poison-type attacks. Ferrothorn's Spikes are invaluable and can be stacked to wear down checks to Scarf Tapu Bulu.
* Cradily is Grass's second best Fire sponge and also an excellent Stealth Rock setter. Cradily is capable of checking several threats that Scarf Bulu can't, such as Quiver Dance Volcarona. In return, Tapu Bulu acts as a Fighting-type switch in and offers Cradily passive recovery and weakened EQs with Grassy Terrain.
* Serperior is an excellent teammate for an offensive core with Tapu Bulu as it benefits greatly from Grassy Terrain's buff to Leafstorm, it's strongest attack.
* Celebi is another strong special attacker who benefits from Grassy Terrain and offers valuable Psychic-type STAB to manage Poison threats such as Nidoking, Toxapex, and Mega-Venusaur as well as Earth Power to hit troublesome Steel-types. Tapu Bulu helps cover it in return with its resistance to Dark-type attacks that threaten Celebi.
* Breloom pairs well with Tapu Bulu, whose Terrain makes Bullet Seed a much more potent option for breaking defensive cores. Spore utility is irreplaceable and Technician Mach Punch is great for cleaning teams worn down from hazard stack and Leech Seed. Grassy Terrain also allows Breloom to reactivate its Focus Sash if broken by Stealth Rock.
* Gourgeist-XL is a decent teammate that offers a bulky Bug- and Poison-type neutrality, a Fighting- and Normal-type immunity, and Will-o-Wisp and Spinblocking utility. Gourgeist takes a lot of pressure off of teammates like Ferrothorn and Mega Venusaur to manage physical threats such as Swords Dance Excadrill or Mega Scizor.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

* Choice Band Tapu Bulu is a frightening wallbreaker capable of shattering defensive threats with Wood Hammer. Banded Zen Headbutt also helps Grass deal with Mega-Venusaur, and has no safe switch ins on Poison teams. However, Bulu's low speed makes Banded sets easy to take advantage of, and such a potent wallbreaker meshes poorly with Grass's more balanced builds.
* Rockium Z Tapu Bulu with Swords Dance is strong tech for breaking bulky defensive threats such as Mega-Venusaur and Celesteela. However, Bulu's low speed makes it difficult to sweep with and easy to take advantage of to gain momentum on Grass.
* SubSeed is an option for a bulkier Tapu Bulu set to make use of it's resistances and bulk. However the opportunity cost of Bulu's other, more broadly effective sets make this suboptimal.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Steel-types**: Steel-types such as Celesteela, Skarmory, Magearna and Mega Scizor are all excellent switch-ins due to their resistance to Tapu Bulu's Grass-type STAB and their natural bulk letting them shrug off Superpower. Even Ferrothorn is not 2HKOd by scarf Superpower. Mega Scizor in particular is troublesome because it uses Tapu Bulu as setup bait.

**Dragon-types**: Dragon-types resist Tapu Bulu's boosted Grass-type STABs, but unlike other Grass resists such as Poison-, Fire-, Flying-, or Bug- types, Dragons are almost always bulky enough to shrug off Bulu's coverage options. As such, Bulu will struggle to manage threats such as Dragonite and Kyurem-Black.

**Poison-types**: Tapu Bulu's 4x weakness to Poison-type attacks and inability to threaten many of them with STAB make bulky Poison-types such as Crobat and Mega Venusaur difficult to manage. Crobat doesn't run Poison-type attacks

**Fire-types**: Fire-types, such as Torkoal and Heatran, resist Tapu Bulu's boosted Grass-type STABs, forcing Bulu to rely on coverage to threaten them such as Stone Edge or Superpower, which can easily be taken advantage of. Additionally most offensive Fire-types such as Victini are capable of OHKOing Tapu Bulu with STAB.

**Skarmory**: Skarmory walls Tapu Bulu and can take advantage of the turn to set up hazards, Whirlwind to rack up hazard damage, or Brave Bird for respectable damage against the Grass team.

**Mega Venusaur**: Mega Venusaur will hard wall Tapu Bulu, and can switch in safely almost all of the time. Making good use of hazards can whittle it down enough to where Zen Headbutt Bulu can KO, but Grass teams are better off relying on their own Mega Venusaur or Celebi to manage opposing Mega Venusaurs. This seems unnecessary

**Revenge Killers**: While Tapu Bulu is capable of checking a wide breadth of unboosted offensive threats, it's low speed means it will be outrun and forced out by almost common Choice Scarfs such as Victini, Nihilego, or Excadrill and speedy threats such as Mega-Alakazam.

**Status**: Status conditions undermine Tapu Bulu's ability to maintain an offensive presence throughout in a battle. Tapu Bulu, like most physical attackers, is crippled if burnt, Paralysis nullifies the speed control Choice Scarf offers and makes it impossible to revenge kill threats, and Poison negates the passive health recovery offered by Grassy Terrain. While Bulu can still offer utility while burnt by setting Grassy Terrain, it completely undermines its capacity to manage threats.
QC 3/3
 

Fireflame

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[OVERVIEW]

Grass
========

* Tapu Bulu is an outstanding physical attacker for Grass Monotypes teams that offers tremendous offensive presence and invaluable support to the entire team with its ability, Grassy Surge,(RC) which summons Grassy Terrain for 5 turns. (readers can check what the ability does; the next line also follows up on this anyway)
* Grassy Terrain offers great offensive utility by boosting the strength of Grass-type attacks by 1.5x for the entire team, which empowers Grass's offensive threats such as Serperior, Celebi, and Breloom.
* Grassy Terrain also offers gives (repetition) great defensive utility by offering grounded Pokemon passive health recovery equivalent to Leftovers, which helps sustain Grass's defensive core throughout a match. It also halves the damage dealt by Earthquake,(AC) helping to which helps cover the defensive core of Cradily, Ferrothorn, and Mega-(RH)Venusaur,(AC) which who all take Ground-type moves neutrally.
* Tapu Bulu is a strong attacker as well and (this was mentioned in the first sentence) makes use of Grassy Terrain to spam excellent Grass-type STABs STAB moves such as Wood Hammer and Horn Leech for massive damage, even against resists resistant foes.
* It Tapu Bulu sports strong coverage options in Stone Edge and Superpower that allow it to manage dangerous threats to Grass teams such as Fire-, Flying-, Steel-, and Bug-types.
* Unfortunately, Tapu Bulu struggles against types that resist Grass-type attacks,(RC) as that is where most of it's power comes from,(RC) (this is obvious) such as Steel-, Poison-, and Dragon-types.
* It also has a mediocre defensive typing that leaves it with exploitable weaknesses to Poison-, Fire-, Ice-, and Flying-type attacks. However, it can switch in on Fighting- and Dark-type attacks easily.
* Tapu Bulu has only average Speed unboosted,(RC) and can be outsped by countless common offensive threats such as Greninja, Nihilego, Nidoking, and Heatran.


[SET]
name: Choice Scarf
move 1: Wood Hammer
move 2: Stone Edge
move 3: Superpower
move 4: Horn Leech
item: Choice Scarf
ability: Grassy Surge
nature: Jolly
evs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========

* Wood Hammer is a powerful Grass-type STAB move and Tapu Bulu's strongest attack, capable of hitting even resists resistant foes hard with a base due to its 120-(AH)Base Power that is BP boosted by Grassy Terrain.
* Stone Edge is valuable Rock-type coverage to hit Bug-, Fire-, and Flying-types that resist Wood Hammer such as Mega Charizard Y, Zapdos, and Volcarona.
* Superpower is Fighting-type coverage to that threatens Steel-types such as Heatran, Ferrothorn, Magnezone.
* Horn Leech is a safe Grass-type STAB move that deals moderate damage and recovers health. Horn Leech is used when Wood Hammer's power is unnecessary and would result in unnecessary recoil
* Zen Headbutt is a Psychic-type move that is an option over Horn Leech for hitting Poison-types such as Mega-(RH)Venusaur.

Set Details
========

* Maximum Attack investment allows Tapu Bulu to hit as hard as possible.
* Maximum Speed investment along with Jolly nature allows Tapu Bulu to be as fast as possible.
* Choice Scarf grants Tapu Bulu the speed to blanket check as many offensive threats as possible,(RC) and (this whole part was very redundant) allows Tapu Bulu to outspeed and check huge threats to Grass such as Mega Charizard Y, Landorus-Incarnate Landorus, Nidoking, and unboosted Volcarona and Mega-(RH)Pinsir.

Usage Tips
========

* Use Tapu Bulu as an a blanket offensive check and revenge killer for threats such as Nidoking, Landorus-I Landorus, Alolan Raichu, and Mega Charizard Y,(RC) by using Bulu's its spammable STABs STAB moves and coverage.
* Tapu Bulu's Grass-type STABs STAB attacks are very spammable in Grassy Terrain and should be used liberally.
* Maintain as high an uptime on Grassy Terrain as much as possible without unnecessarily risking Tapu Bulu. Take every opportunity to send Tapu Bulu in safely against passive Pokemon so that the team can enjoy the benefits of boosted Grass-type STAB moves and passive recovery.
* Take advantage of Grassy Surge to disrupt Electric Terrain to force out Alolan Raichu or disrupt Psychic Terrain to mitigate Double Dance Mew. Be wary of using Tapu Bulu to disrupt Misty Terrain, however, as Bulu it risks being burnt burned by Tapu Fini's Scald.
* Switch Tapu Bulu into predicted Earthquakes directed against Ferrothorn, Cradily, or Mega-(RH)Venusaur to make use of Grassy Terrain halving its damage, which can keep Choice Band Excadrill, Choice Band Diggersby, or Swords Dance Landorus-T from breaking the defensive core.
* Be careful to Keep Tapu Bulu away from getting status, as burn and paralysis completely undermine it's its ability to revenge kill. Sack Sacrifice a weakened or statused Tapu Bulu to set up Grass-type sweepers such as Serperior, Celebi, or Breloom to sweep.
* Make use of Grassy Terrain to re-(RH)activate Breloom's Focus Sash after Stealth Rock damage.

Team Options
========

* Mega Venusaur is the heart of Grass's defensive backbone that Tapu Bulu falls back on when faced with Pokemon it cannot beat. Mega Venusaur's has high bulk and its typing,(AC) and post-mega ability provide valuable neutralities to Bug-, Poison-, Fire-, and Ice-type attacks.
* Ferrothorn helps support Tapu Bulu by making up part of the amazing defensive core Tapu Bulu relies upon to wear opposing teams down,(AC) by with its excellent Grass / Steel typing and with neutralities to Flying-, Bug-, Ice-, and Poison-type attacks. Ferrothorn's Spikes are invaluable and can be stacked to wear down checks to Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu.
* Cradily is Grass's second best Fire sponge and also an excellent Stealth Rock setter. Cradily is capable of checking several threats that Choice Scarf Tapu Bulu can't, such as Quiver Dance Volcarona. In return, Tapu Bulu acts as a Fighting-type switch-(AH)in and offers Cradily passive recovery and weakened EQs Earthquakes with Grassy Terrain.
* Serperior is an excellent teammate for an offensive core with Tapu Bulu,(AC) as it benefits greatly from Grassy Terrain's buff to Leafstorm Leaf Storm, it's its strongest attack.
* Celebi is another strong special attacker who that benefits from Grassy Terrain and offers valuable Psychic-type STAB moves to manage Poison threats such as Nidoking, Toxapex, and Mega-(RH)Venusaur as well as Earth Power to hit troublesome Steel-types. Tapu Bulu helps cover it Celebi in return with its resistance to Dark-type attacks that threaten Celebi.
* Breloom pairs well with Tapu Bulu, whose as Grassy Terrain makes Bullet Seed a much more potent option for breaking defensive cores. Spore utility is irreplaceable,(AC) and Technician Mach Punch is great for cleaning teams worn down from entry hazard stack stacking and Leech Seed. Grassy Terrain also allows Breloom to reactivate its Focus Sash if broken by Stealth Rock.
* Gourgeist-XL is a decent teammate that offers a bulky Bug- and Poison-type neutrality, a Fighting- and Normal-type immunity, and Will-O-Wisp and spinblocking utility. Gourgeist-(AH)XL takes a lot of pressure off of teammates like Ferrothorn and Mega Venusaur to manage physical threats such as Swords Dance Excadrill or and Mega Scizor.


[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============

* Choice Band Tapu Bulu is a frightening wallbreaker capable of shattering defensive threats with Wood Hammer. Banded Choice Band Zen Headbutt also helps Grass deal with Mega-(RH)Venusaur, and it has no safe switch-(AH)ins on Poison teams. However, Tapu Bulu's low Speed makes Banded Choice Band sets easy to take advantage of, and such a potent wallbreaker meshes poorly with Grass's more balanced builds.
* Rockium Z Tapu Bulu with Swords Dance is strong tech for breaking bulky defensive threats such as Mega-(RH)Venusaur and Celesteela. However, Tapu Bulu's low Speed makes it difficult to sweep with and easy to take advantage of to gain momentum on Grass (not needed).
* SubSeed is an option for a bulkier Tapu Bulu set to make use of it's its resistances and bulk. However,(AC) the opportunity cost of Tapu Bulu's other, more broadly effective sets make this suboptimal.


Checks and Counters
===================

**Steel-types**: Steel-types such as Celesteela, Skarmory, Magearna,(AC) and Mega Scizor are all excellent switch-ins due to their resistance to Tapu Bulu's Grass-type STAB moves and their natural bulk letting them shrug off Superpower. Even Ferrothorn is not 2HKOd 2HKOed by Choice Scarf Superpower. Mega Scizor in particular is troublesome because it uses Tapu Bulu as setup bait.

**Dragon-types**: Dragon-types resist Tapu Bulu's boosted Grass-type STABs STAB moves, but unlike other Grass-(AH)resistant Pokemon resists such as Poison-, Fire-, Flying-, or Bug- types, Dragons Dragon-(AH)types are almost always bulky enough to shrug off Tapu Bulu's coverage options. As such, Tapu Bulu will struggle to manage threats such as Dragonite and Kyurem-Black Kyurem-B.

**Poison-types**: Tapu Bulu's inability to threaten bulky Poison-types with its STAB moves makes (inability = singular) threats such as Crobat and Mega Venusaur difficult to manage.

**Fire-types**: Fire-types,(RC) such as Torkoal and Heatran,(RC) resist Tapu Bulu's boosted Grass-type STABs STAB moves, forcing Bulu it to rely on coverage to threaten them such as Stone Edge or Superpower, which can easily be taken advantage of. Additionally,(AC) most offensive Fire-types such as Victini are capable of OHKOing Tapu Bulu with their STAB attacks.

**Skarmory**: Skarmory walls Tapu Bulu and can take advantage of the turn to set up hazards, use Whirlwind to rack up hazard damage, or use Brave Bird for respectable damage against the Grass team.

**Mega Venusaur**: Mega Venusaur will hard wall Tapu Bulu, and it can switch in safely almost all of the time. Grass teams must rely on their own Mega Venusaur or Celebi to manage opposing Mega Venusaurs Venusaur.

**Revenge Killers**: While Tapu Bulu is capable of checking a wide breadth range of unboosted offensive threats, it's its low Speed means it will be outrun and forced out by almost all common Choice Scarfs Scarf users such as Victini, Nihilego, or and Excadrill and speedy threats such as Mega-(RH)Alakazam.

**Status**: Status conditions undermine Tapu Bulu's ability to maintain an offensive presence throughout in a battle. Tapu Bulu, like most physical attackers, is crippled if burnt burned, paralysis nullifies the speed control Choice Scarf offers and makes it impossible to revenge kill threats, and poison negates the passive health recovery offered by Grassy Terrain. While Tapu Bulu can still offer utility while burnt burned by setting Grassy Terrain, it completely undermines its capacity to manage threats.
GP 1/1


Next time, please review the Spelling and Grammar Standards before sending your analysis to GP. There were many things wrong with this analyses that could have been fixed had you looked at the standards and proofread them. "EQs", "Bulu", "STABS", and "sash" is not acceptable.
 

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