Ginger Princess
Girl moding so hard rn
[OVERVIEW]
Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in 1v1, being able to obliterate several prominent threats without even investing EVs in Special Attack, such as Dragonite, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Gyarados. Thanks to its Psychic Surge ability, Tapu Lele is able to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack, letting it instead choose to invest in its defenses and use helpful utility options. Psychic Terrain also blocks priority moves coming from offensive powerhouses such as Extreme Speed from Dragonite and Fake Out from Mega Lopunny as well as Prankster-boosted status moves like Leech Seed from Pokemon such as Whimsicott. Tapu Lele gets access to several helpful utility tools such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt, allowing it to beat threats such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem. Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average base 95 Speed, leaving it vulnerable to only slightly faster threats such as Mega Charizard Y, Groundium Z Garchomp, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Pinsir. Tapu Lele also cannot deal with many Steel-type Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves. Although Tapu Lele has moves available to beat certain forms of stall, it still struggles against Pokemon that resist Psychic-type attacks and can work around its Taunt, such Mega Slowbro and stall Mew.
[SET]
name: Speedy Bulky
move 1: Psychic / Psyshock
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Reflect / Taunt
move 4: Calm Mind / Taunt
item: Psychium Z
ability: Psychic Surge
nature: Timid
evs: 96 HP / 188 Def / 224 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Psychium Z-boosted Psychic is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option, and, boosted with the help of Psychic Terrain, it is able to obliterate swaths of metagame threats such as offensive Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T, and non-Choice Scarf Porygon-Z. Psyshock can be run in order to hit specially defensive Pokemon that are physically frail, such as Chansey, as well as outdamaging threats that can raise their Special Defense, such as opposing Tapu Lele and Clefable, in exchange for a slightly weaker Shattered Psyche. Moonblast is Tapu Lele's secondary STAB option, able to hit pesky Dark-types such as Mega Gyarados, Mega Sableye, and Krookodile, which are immune to Shattered Psyche, as well as Psychic-types that resist Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche, such as offensive Mew and Choice Specs Necrozma. Reflect, when boosted with Psychium Z, allows Tapu Lele to easily take attacks from some of the heavier physical hitters in the game, such as Mega Gyarados, specially defensive Mega Charizard X, Donphan, Golem, and Zygarde as well as Flail Mega Lopunny. Calm Mind is paramount in beating bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Primarina, and slow Mega Charizard Y, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful attacks and OHKO them back. Taunt shuts down other setup or stall Pokemon, such as Jumpluff, Stored Power Necrozma, and Type: Null.
Set Details
========
96 HP and 188 Defense EVs allow Tapu Lele to tank Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny and Flare Blitz from Mega Charizard X as well as take special attacks more reliably, such as tanking bulky Tapunium Z Tapu Fini's Guardian of Alola followed by Brine after two Special Defense boosts from Calm Mind as well as Flyinium Z-boosted Hurricane from Dragonite. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both Fake Out followed by Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, this is unnecessary. 224 Speed EVs allow Tapu Lele to outspeed Landorus-T as well as Pokemon such as Normalium Z Porygon-Z and Adamant Mega Charizard X.
Usage Tips
========
Tapu Lele is a very powerful force in 1v1 and should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally, such as Mega Charizard X and Landorus-T, unless the foe can knock out Tapu Lele first or has sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z-Move, such as Mega Charizard Y or Electrium Z Togekiss. Against slow, bulky physical Pokemon such as Donphan, Golem, and physical Dragonite, use Z-Reflect immediately. This will severely reduce the damage output from these foes, allowing Tapu Lele to spam Psychic or Moonblast until the Pokemon has fallen. Against bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, offensive Mew, and special Dragonite, set up Calm Mind immediately, as not only will this assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele to retaliate against the Pokemon with a boosted Shattered Psyche and Moonblast. Mega Charizard X normally runs two different spreads: offensive and specially defensive. Against offensive Mega Charizard X, use Shattered Psyche immediately, as you will be able to easily take any attack from Jolly Mega Charizard X and outspeed and OHKO anything slower. Against specially defensive Mega Charizard X, the correct play is to use Z-Reflect turn one, as they will be able to naturally tank an uninvested Shattered Psyche but can neither outspeed nor overpower a speedy Tapu Lele. This will allow Tapu Lele to avoid being knocked out by Mega Charizard X while still 2HKOing back with Psychic thanks to Flare Blitz recoil. Tapu Lele should also shut down stall Pokemon such as Jumpluff, Mega Audino, and Kyurem with Taunt, as they will waste no time in taking away Tapu Lele's ability to damage them and stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche. Do not send out Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, and Celesteela or faster Pokemon that can hit it super effectively, such as Naganadel, Mega Gengar, and Choice Specs Nihilego.
Team Options
========
Tapu Lele is naturally weak to Steel- and Poison-type Pokemon, and due to this, moderately fast Ground-types such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele for their ability to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. In return, Tapu Lele can threaten bulky Water- and Flying-type Pokemon such as Primarina, Tapu Fini, Dragonite, and opposing Landorus-T, which all give Ground-type Pokemon trouble. Tapu Lele also appreciates Pokemon that can offensively threaten opposing Steel-types and shrug off the damage done by Poison-type Pokemon, meaning that Steel-, Fire-, and Fighting-type Pokemon can all work well as teammates. Magearna, Aegislash, Mega Metagross, both Mega Charizard formes, Mega Blaziken, and Kommo-o can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while crushing Poison-types like Naganadel and Nihilego. In return, Tapu Lele can beat Mega Charizard X, bulky Water-type Pokemon such as Mega Gyarados, Primarina, and Tapu Fini, and most Ground-type Pokemon such as Donphan, Golem, Landorus-T, and Zygarde. Tapu Lele also has issues with highly specially defensive Pokemon such as Meloetta, Chansey, Kee Berry Mew, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss. Thus, Pokemon such as Aegislash, Magnezone, and Celesteela, which can all utilize Metal Sound to beat such Pokemon, all serve well as partners for Tapu Lele. In exchange, Tapu Lele can beat the Ground- and Fire-type Pokemon that threaten these Pokemon, namely Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T, and Donphan.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Tapu Lele can run a specially defensive spread of 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 SpD and a Calm nature in order to take a Blast Burn from Mega Charizard Y as well as other special attacks from fast threats, such as a Hyper Beam from Choice Scarf Porygon-Z and a Hydro Cannon from Choice Specs Greninja. However, this set will be outsped by threats that Tapu Lele can normally easily deal with, such as Landorus-T, Normalium Z Porygon-Z, Vivillon, and Smeargle, as well as sacrifice consistency against physical threats such as Mega Lopunny and Mega Charizard X. Tapu Lele can also choose to invest any amount of EVs into its Special Attack, letting it beat several specially defensive checks such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku. Skill Swap can turn the opposing Pokemon's abilities against them in a few matchups, such as against certain Sturdy users such as Magnezone, Mirror Coat Avalugg, and mixed Carracosta; Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora; and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. Skill Swap also turns riskier matchups against Pokemon like Crustle into guaranteed wins as opposed to Taunt, which relies on proper prediction. Choice Scarf can be used to lure in and take out faster threats that traditionally have excellent matchups against Tapu Lele, such as Greninja, Choice Scarf Porygon-Z, and Genesect, using coverage moves such as Hidden Power Fire, Focus Blast, and Energy Ball alongside STAB Psychic and Moonblast. However, the lack of power and utility compared to a traditional Psychium Z set can be dissuading, and foes that can set up or recover off damage will give Tapu Lele problems. A Choice Specs set is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed to reliably beat Pokemon such as Mega Slowbro and Heatran; however, the lack of utility options such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt really hurts when fighting against top-tier threats such as Mega Gyarados and Mega Charizard X.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and can usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of their own, giving it very few options when facing off against virtually every one of them.
**Specially Defensive Setup Pokemon**: Even though Tapu Lele can use setup options such as Calm Mind and Taunt to hinder most forms of setup, it won't mean much if the Pokemon in question can still do more damage to Tapu Lele than it can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyche and Moonblast.
**Fast Heavy Hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed hinders it, as it can do little when faced against threats that have the power to OHKO it on the first turn. Some of the hardest-hitting Pokemon in the metagame, such as Mega Gardevoir, Tectonic Rage Garchomp, Mega Pinsir, Choice Scarf Hoopa-U, and Choice Band Haxorus, all have the power to annihilate Tapu Lele before it can attack.
**Fast Poison-type Pokemon**: While Tapu Lele can OHKO any Poison-type it can lay a hit on, Poison-types that easily outspeed Tapu Lele can swiftly OHKO it first, such as Naganadel and Nihilego.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Alakazam, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[Osra, 239997], [Shyom, 469945], [Chickenpie2, 305552]]
- Grammar checked by: [[The Dutch Plumberjack, 232216], [Rabia, 336073]]
Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in 1v1, being able to obliterate several prominent threats without even investing EVs in Special Attack, such as Dragonite, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Gyarados. Thanks to its Psychic Surge ability, Tapu Lele is able to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack, letting it instead choose to invest in its defenses and use helpful utility options. Psychic Terrain also blocks priority moves coming from offensive powerhouses such as Extreme Speed from Dragonite and Fake Out from Mega Lopunny as well as Prankster-boosted status moves like Leech Seed from Pokemon such as Whimsicott. Tapu Lele gets access to several helpful utility tools such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt, allowing it to beat threats such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem. Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average base 95 Speed, leaving it vulnerable to only slightly faster threats such as Mega Charizard Y, Groundium Z Garchomp, Mega Gardevoir, and Mega Pinsir. Tapu Lele also cannot deal with many Steel-type Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves. Although Tapu Lele has moves available to beat certain forms of stall, it still struggles against Pokemon that resist Psychic-type attacks and can work around its Taunt, such Mega Slowbro and stall Mew.
[SET]
name: Speedy Bulky
move 1: Psychic / Psyshock
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Reflect / Taunt
move 4: Calm Mind / Taunt
item: Psychium Z
ability: Psychic Surge
nature: Timid
evs: 96 HP / 188 Def / 224 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Psychium Z-boosted Psychic is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option, and, boosted with the help of Psychic Terrain, it is able to obliterate swaths of metagame threats such as offensive Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T, and non-Choice Scarf Porygon-Z. Psyshock can be run in order to hit specially defensive Pokemon that are physically frail, such as Chansey, as well as outdamaging threats that can raise their Special Defense, such as opposing Tapu Lele and Clefable, in exchange for a slightly weaker Shattered Psyche. Moonblast is Tapu Lele's secondary STAB option, able to hit pesky Dark-types such as Mega Gyarados, Mega Sableye, and Krookodile, which are immune to Shattered Psyche, as well as Psychic-types that resist Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche, such as offensive Mew and Choice Specs Necrozma. Reflect, when boosted with Psychium Z, allows Tapu Lele to easily take attacks from some of the heavier physical hitters in the game, such as Mega Gyarados, specially defensive Mega Charizard X, Donphan, Golem, and Zygarde as well as Flail Mega Lopunny. Calm Mind is paramount in beating bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Primarina, and slow Mega Charizard Y, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful attacks and OHKO them back. Taunt shuts down other setup or stall Pokemon, such as Jumpluff, Stored Power Necrozma, and Type: Null.
Set Details
========
96 HP and 188 Defense EVs allow Tapu Lele to tank Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny and Flare Blitz from Mega Charizard X as well as take special attacks more reliably, such as tanking bulky Tapunium Z Tapu Fini's Guardian of Alola followed by Brine after two Special Defense boosts from Calm Mind as well as Flyinium Z-boosted Hurricane from Dragonite. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both Fake Out followed by Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, this is unnecessary. 224 Speed EVs allow Tapu Lele to outspeed Landorus-T as well as Pokemon such as Normalium Z Porygon-Z and Adamant Mega Charizard X.
Usage Tips
========
Tapu Lele is a very powerful force in 1v1 and should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally, such as Mega Charizard X and Landorus-T, unless the foe can knock out Tapu Lele first or has sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z-Move, such as Mega Charizard Y or Electrium Z Togekiss. Against slow, bulky physical Pokemon such as Donphan, Golem, and physical Dragonite, use Z-Reflect immediately. This will severely reduce the damage output from these foes, allowing Tapu Lele to spam Psychic or Moonblast until the Pokemon has fallen. Against bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, offensive Mew, and special Dragonite, set up Calm Mind immediately, as not only will this assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele to retaliate against the Pokemon with a boosted Shattered Psyche and Moonblast. Mega Charizard X normally runs two different spreads: offensive and specially defensive. Against offensive Mega Charizard X, use Shattered Psyche immediately, as you will be able to easily take any attack from Jolly Mega Charizard X and outspeed and OHKO anything slower. Against specially defensive Mega Charizard X, the correct play is to use Z-Reflect turn one, as they will be able to naturally tank an uninvested Shattered Psyche but can neither outspeed nor overpower a speedy Tapu Lele. This will allow Tapu Lele to avoid being knocked out by Mega Charizard X while still 2HKOing back with Psychic thanks to Flare Blitz recoil. Tapu Lele should also shut down stall Pokemon such as Jumpluff, Mega Audino, and Kyurem with Taunt, as they will waste no time in taking away Tapu Lele's ability to damage them and stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche. Do not send out Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, and Celesteela or faster Pokemon that can hit it super effectively, such as Naganadel, Mega Gengar, and Choice Specs Nihilego.
Team Options
========
Tapu Lele is naturally weak to Steel- and Poison-type Pokemon, and due to this, moderately fast Ground-types such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele for their ability to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. In return, Tapu Lele can threaten bulky Water- and Flying-type Pokemon such as Primarina, Tapu Fini, Dragonite, and opposing Landorus-T, which all give Ground-type Pokemon trouble. Tapu Lele also appreciates Pokemon that can offensively threaten opposing Steel-types and shrug off the damage done by Poison-type Pokemon, meaning that Steel-, Fire-, and Fighting-type Pokemon can all work well as teammates. Magearna, Aegislash, Mega Metagross, both Mega Charizard formes, Mega Blaziken, and Kommo-o can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while crushing Poison-types like Naganadel and Nihilego. In return, Tapu Lele can beat Mega Charizard X, bulky Water-type Pokemon such as Mega Gyarados, Primarina, and Tapu Fini, and most Ground-type Pokemon such as Donphan, Golem, Landorus-T, and Zygarde. Tapu Lele also has issues with highly specially defensive Pokemon such as Meloetta, Chansey, Kee Berry Mew, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss. Thus, Pokemon such as Aegislash, Magnezone, and Celesteela, which can all utilize Metal Sound to beat such Pokemon, all serve well as partners for Tapu Lele. In exchange, Tapu Lele can beat the Ground- and Fire-type Pokemon that threaten these Pokemon, namely Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T, and Donphan.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Tapu Lele can run a specially defensive spread of 252 HP / 60 Def / 196 SpD and a Calm nature in order to take a Blast Burn from Mega Charizard Y as well as other special attacks from fast threats, such as a Hyper Beam from Choice Scarf Porygon-Z and a Hydro Cannon from Choice Specs Greninja. However, this set will be outsped by threats that Tapu Lele can normally easily deal with, such as Landorus-T, Normalium Z Porygon-Z, Vivillon, and Smeargle, as well as sacrifice consistency against physical threats such as Mega Lopunny and Mega Charizard X. Tapu Lele can also choose to invest any amount of EVs into its Special Attack, letting it beat several specially defensive checks such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku. Skill Swap can turn the opposing Pokemon's abilities against them in a few matchups, such as against certain Sturdy users such as Magnezone, Mirror Coat Avalugg, and mixed Carracosta; Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora; and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. Skill Swap also turns riskier matchups against Pokemon like Crustle into guaranteed wins as opposed to Taunt, which relies on proper prediction. Choice Scarf can be used to lure in and take out faster threats that traditionally have excellent matchups against Tapu Lele, such as Greninja, Choice Scarf Porygon-Z, and Genesect, using coverage moves such as Hidden Power Fire, Focus Blast, and Energy Ball alongside STAB Psychic and Moonblast. However, the lack of power and utility compared to a traditional Psychium Z set can be dissuading, and foes that can set up or recover off damage will give Tapu Lele problems. A Choice Specs set is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed to reliably beat Pokemon such as Mega Slowbro and Heatran; however, the lack of utility options such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt really hurts when fighting against top-tier threats such as Mega Gyarados and Mega Charizard X.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and can usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of their own, giving it very few options when facing off against virtually every one of them.
**Specially Defensive Setup Pokemon**: Even though Tapu Lele can use setup options such as Calm Mind and Taunt to hinder most forms of setup, it won't mean much if the Pokemon in question can still do more damage to Tapu Lele than it can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyche and Moonblast.
**Fast Heavy Hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed hinders it, as it can do little when faced against threats that have the power to OHKO it on the first turn. Some of the hardest-hitting Pokemon in the metagame, such as Mega Gardevoir, Tectonic Rage Garchomp, Mega Pinsir, Choice Scarf Hoopa-U, and Choice Band Haxorus, all have the power to annihilate Tapu Lele before it can attack.
**Fast Poison-type Pokemon**: While Tapu Lele can OHKO any Poison-type it can lay a hit on, Poison-types that easily outspeed Tapu Lele can swiftly OHKO it first, such as Naganadel and Nihilego.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Alakazam, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[Osra, 239997], [Shyom, 469945], [Chickenpie2, 305552]]
- Grammar checked by: [[The Dutch Plumberjack, 232216], [Rabia, 336073]]
Last edited: