1v1 Tapu Lele

Ginger Princess

Girl moding so hard rn
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[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]]
 
Last edited:

The Official Glyx

Banned deucer.
red text = change
red crossout = remove

blue text = my commentary
[OVERVIEW]
  • Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in the 1v1 metagame, able to obliterate several prominent threats without even investing in Special Attack, such as Dragonite, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Gyarados.
  • Thanks to Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge ability, which activates a Psychic Terrain on switch in, Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche gets boosted by 1.5, allowing Tapu Lele to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack EVs, letting Tapu Lele instead choose to invest in its defenses and use helpful utility options. Psychic Terrain also blocks priority moves coming from offensive powerhouses such as Dragonite and Mega Lopunny, as well as Prankster-boosted status ailments from Pokemon such as Whimsicott.
  • Tapu Lele gets access to several helpful utility tools, such as Calm Mind, Reflect, Taunt, and Skill Swap Is this worth keeping in the Overview if it's never mentioned in Moves?, allowing Tapu Lele to beat back opponents such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, Golem, and Zeraora to be removed if Skill Swap is dropped from the Overview.
  • Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average Speed, which falls at base 95, leaving it vulnerable to only slightly faster threats such as Groundium Garchomp, Mega Gardevoir and Mega Pinsir. Charizard-Y and Kee Berry Mew can also be used here. They're considerably more viable/relevant mons and aren't really mentioned anywhere.
  • Tapu Lele also cannot deal with many Steel-type Pokemon, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves, leaving Tapu Lele to struggle against Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash
[SET]
name: Speedy Bulky
move 1: Psychic / Psyshock? Upon looking into Lele vs Spdef zardx, I found that zardx can actually quite reliably survive a Z-Psychic from 0 spa Lele. That said, since the zardx has to be spdef in order to survive Z-Psychic, that also means it's going to be slower, which means a win is still guaranteed, so long as you know the zard is slow and use Reflect in anticipation of such. That said, since Z-Psychic doesn't reliably KO, which is the main reason we have it here over Psyshock to begin with, it may be worthwhile to look into adding Psyshock as a slash for your main Psychic-type move, since it helps you bust through miscellaneous SpD boosters like Clefable, Audino, other Lele, Togekiss, Fini, etc. highkey typed this out before seeing it in Moves below.
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
========

  • Shattered Psyche through Psychic is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option, able to obliterate swarths of metagame threats such as Mega Charizard X Perhaps clarify this to "Offensive Mega Charizard-X", due to the reasons stated above. May even want to add a Usage tip for the scenario, since it is just a bit more complex than nuking with Z-Psychic turn 1, Landorus-T, and non-Choice Scarf Porygon Z, enjoying the boost given by Tapu Lele's Psychic Terrain.
  • 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 hit Psychic-types who resist Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche, such as Mew and Choice Specs Necrozma. It also has the ability to lower an opponents Special Attack by one stage 30% of the time, which can be useful in otherwise un-winnable situations against Pokemon such as Mega Gardevoir. Gardevoir wins this regardless of drops with Psyshock into Hyper Beam. Even if they get a drop turn 1, a 2nd Psyshock will do enough for Hyper Beam to finish them, while they can't finish you with Z-Psychic.
  • Reflect, when boosted with Psychium Z you don't need z-reflect for any of the issues you mention besides a possible banded Donphan, allows Tapu Lele to easily live attacks from some the slowest heavy hitters in the game, such as Tectonic Rage Donphan, Golem, and Zygarde, as well as Flail Mega Lopunny and Mega Pinsir this kills you before you can kill it, in addition to the fact that SubFlail also gets a free SD whenever you use Reflect, which means you still die.
  • Calm Mind boosts Tapu Lele's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage on each usage. This is paramount in beating Pokemon bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini and Mega Blastoise and Primarina, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful respective attacks and OHKO them back.
  • Taunt shuts down other setup or stall Pokemon, such as Jumpluff, Stored Power Necrozma, and Type: Null.
  • Psyshock can be run in order to hit specially defensive Pokemon such as Chansey, as well as out-damaging threats who can raise their Special Defense, such as opposing Tapu Lele and Clefable. However, the loss of power with Shattered Psyche counterbalances the benefits of running Psyshock, especially considering Tapu Lele's lack of investment in Special Attack.
Set Details
========

  • 96 HP EVs and 188 Def EVs allows Tapu Lele to tank a Giga Impact from a Mega Lopunny, as well as a Flare Blitz from a Mega Charizard X. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both a Fake Out and a Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, such as Fake Out, this is unnecessary.
  • Make it clear that the HP is for surviving a Ninja cannon as reliably as possible without sacrificing Speed, else people will wonder why you aren't just running 252 Def
  • 224 Spe EVs allows 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 the 1v1 metagame, and, as such, should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally, assuming the opponent cannot either knock out Tapu Lele first or they do not have sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z Move.
  • 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 opponents, allowing Tapu Lele to spam Psychic or Moonblast until the Pokemon has fallen.
  • Against bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Mew, and special Dragonite, Calm Mind immediately, as this will not only assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele to beat back the Pokemon in return, by utilizing Shattered Psyche and Moonblast.
  • Tapu Lele should also taunt stall Pokemon such as Jumpluff, Mega Audino, and Kyurem, as they will waste no time in taking away Tapu Lele's ability to damage them, as well as stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche.
  • perhaps add a bullet right here about how Taunt + CM can 50/50 Magearna? and another bullet about the Spdef zardx matchup mentioned above
  • Do not send Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon, such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, or Celesteela, or against faster Pokemon that can hit Tapu Lele 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 serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele, able to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. Therefore, Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp all serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele. 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 who 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 for Magearna Aegislash, Mega Metagross, both Mega Charizards, Kommo-o and Mega Blaziken can all threaten several of their Steel-type brethren while also crushing Poison-types like Mega Venusaur not a Lele threat, Naganadel, or Nihilego. In return, Tapu Lele can beat Mega Charizard X and most Ground-type Pokemon, which are always threatening to any Steel-type Pokemon. This could probably afford to be broken up into more than one bullet.
[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 live 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 Choice Specs Hydro Cannon from Greninja. However, this set will be outsped by threats that Tapu Lele can normally easily deal with, such as Landorus-T, Normalium 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 into its Special Attack, essentially overkilling several common threats to Tapu Lele, but in exchange beating several specially defensive checks to speedy bulky Tapu Lele, such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku.
  • Skill Swap can be run in order to turn your opponent's abilities against them in a few matchups, such as against certain Sturdy users such as Magnezone, Mirror Coat Avalugg, and mixed Carracosta, bulky Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora, and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. This turns a lot of 50/50s granted by Taunt into guaranteed matchups.
  • Choice Scarf can be used to lure in faster threats who traditionally have excellent matchups against Tapu Lele, such as Greninja, Choice Scarf Porygon Z, and Choiced Genesect, using coverage moves such as Thunderbolt, 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 opponents who can set up or recover off damage will give you problems.
  • Choice Specs is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed in order to reliably beat Pokemon such as Mega Slowbro and Heatran.
Checks and Counters
===================

**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon can resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of there own, giving Tapu Lele very little options when facing off against virtually every Steel-type. Beware of Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant.

**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 Tapu Lele can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, Electrium Z Togekiss, and Hoopa-U Hoopa threatens you moreso with physical sets rather than boosting spdef, more fitting of the bullet below can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyches and Moonblasts.

**Fast, heavy hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed serves to betray it, as Tapu Lele 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 and Choice Band Haxorus all have the power to annihilate Tapu Lele before they can use their attack. Add Charizard-Y here, lest you make Lele seem like a definitive zard answer.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[TDA, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[Osra, 239997], [, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
A good analysis on the surface, though I feel that there are a few micro-issues that kinda muddy the point.
lmk when everything's updated and I'll give it another looksie for 1/3
 

Ginger Princess

Girl moding so hard rn
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
red text = change
red crossout = remove

blue text = my commentary

A good analysis on the surface, though I feel that there are a few micro-issues that kinda muddy the point.
lmk when everything's updated and I'll give it another looksie for 1/3
Gardevoir wins this regardless of drops with Psyshock into Hyper Beam. Even if they get a drop turn 1, a 2nd Psyshock will do enough for Hyper Beam to finish them, while they can't finish you with Z-Psychic.

against offensive Mega Gardevoir, yeah, but against bulky, its a roll
8 SpA Pixilate Gardevoir-Mega Psyshock vs. 96 HP / 188 Def Tapu Lele in Psychic Terrain: 102-121 (33.4 - 39.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
8 SpA Pixilate Gardevoir-Mega Hyper Beam vs. +1 96 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele: 178-211 (58.3 - 69.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

But even so, this particular Tapu Lele couldn't do enough damage in time for any spa drop to matter, I didn't calc it correctly, so I'll remove


you don't need z-reflect for any of the issues you mention besides a possible banded Donphan

not vs bandphan, but i did add spdef char x and mgyara, which should have been there in the first place xd \


Make it clear that the HP is for surviving a Ninja cannon as reliably as possible without sacrificing Speed, else people will wonder why you aren't just running 252 Def

It's not rlly for greninja, but i'll mention its optimized to live general special attacks more reliably.


Decided against describing the Magearna matchup, considering that against a skilled magearna it would really be multiple 50/50s in a row, not just one, ones that Lele has to get right every single time.

reworded the second bullet point of Team Options to make it flow more smoothly, i don't think it needs to be separated bc it covers the archetype of mons besides ground types that can threaten steel and poison. I did, however, add a section on specially defensive mons, which generally counter Lele, even with Psyshock.

But generally I did everything mentioned. Osra lmk if you see anything else, or disagree with my sentiments
 
Wooloowooloowooloo
QC Time
Blue - additions, Red - comments, Underline - elaborate, Superstrike - remove
[OVERVIEW]
  • Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in the 1v1 metagame, able to obliterate several prominent threats without even investing EVs in Special Attack, such as Dragonite, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Gyarados.
  • Thanks to Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge ability, which activates a Psychic Terrain on switch in upon entering using the term "switch in" in 1v1 feels weird, Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche gets boosted by 1.5, allowing Tapu Lele to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack EVs, letting Tapu Lele 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 ailments like Leech Seed from Pokemon such as Whimsicott. Specifying these priority moves helps new players know what they're dealing with
  • Tapu Lele gets access to several helpful utility tools, such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt, allowing Tapu Lele to beat back opponents such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem.
  • Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average Speed, which falls at base 95, leaving it vulnerable to only slightly faster threats such as Mega Charizard Y, Groundium Garchomp, Mega Gardevoir and Mega Pinsir.
  • Tapu Lele also cannot deal with many Steel-type Pokemon, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves, leaving Tapu Lele to struggle against Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash.
  • Lele has tools it can use to beat certain forms of stall, but it still struggles beating all of them, add it here. A few examples would be Slowbro and Kee Berry 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
========

  • Shattered Psyche through Psychic can be worded better is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option boosted further with the help of Psychic Terrain is able to obliterate swarths of metagame threats such as offensive Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T, and non-Choice Scarf Porygon Z, enjoying the boost given by Tapu Lele's Psychic Terrain. You make it sound as if Zard, Lando, and Pz are the ones enjoying the boost from Psychic Terrain
  • Psyshock can be run in order to hit specially defensive Pokemon that are physically weak such as Chansey, as well as out-damaging threats who 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 hit Psychic-types who 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 live attacks from some of the heavier 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 boosts Tapu Lele's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage on each usage. This is paramount in beating Pokemon bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Primarina, and slow Mega Charizard Y, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful respective 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 EVs and 188 Def EVs allows Tapu Lele to tank Giga Impact from a Mega Lopunny, as well as a Flare Blitz from a Mega Charizard X, as well as always live special attacks more reliably, like bulky Tapunium Tapu Fini's Brine after Guardian of Alola and after two of Tapu Lele's Calm Mind's, as well as Z-Hurricane Dragonite. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both a Fake Out and a Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, such as Fake Out, this is unnecessary.
  • 224 Spe EVs allows 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 the 1v1 metagame, and, as such, should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally such as?, assuming the opponent cannot either knock out Tapu Lele first or they do not have sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z Move avoiding Pokemon such as add Pokemon here.
  • 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 opponents, 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, Calm Mind immediately, as this will not only assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele to beat back the Pokemon in return, by utilizing 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 cleanly and easily live 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 you to avoid being knocked out by Mega Charizard X while still 2HKOing them with Psychic, thanks to Flare Blitz recoil.
  • Tapu Lele should also taunt stall Pokemon such as Jumpluff, Mega Audino, and Kyurem, as they will waste no time in taking away Tapu Lele's ability to damage them, as well as stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche.
  • Do not send Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon, such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, or Celesteela, or against faster Pokemon that can hit Tapu Lele 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 serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele, able to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. Therefore, Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp all serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele. 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 who 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 Charizards, Kommo-o and Mega Blaziken can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while also 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, which are always threatening to the aforementioned Pokemon.
  • Tapu Lele also has issues with overly specially defensive Pokemon, such as Meloetta, Chansey, Kee Berry Mew, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss. As such, Pokemon such as Aegislash, Magnezone, and Celesteela, who can all utilize Metal Sound to lower a Pokemon's Special Defense, 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 live 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 Choice Specs Hydro Cannon from Greninja. However, this set will be outsped by threats that Tapu Lele can normally easily deal with, such as Landorus-T, Normalium 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 into its Special Attack, essentially overkilling several common threats to Tapu Lele, but in exchange beating several specially defensive checks to speedy bulky Tapu Lele, such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku.
  • Skill Swap can be run in order to turn your opponent's abilities against them in a few matchups, such as against certain Sturdy users such as Magnezone, Mirror Coat Avalugg, and mixed Carracosta, bulky Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora, and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. This turns a lot of 50/50s granted by Taunt into guaranteed matchups.
  • Choice Scarf can be used to lure in faster threats who traditionally have excellent matchups against Tapu Lele, such as Greninja, Choice Scarf Porygon Z, and Choiced Genesect, using coverage moves such as Thunderbolt, 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 opponents who can set up or recover off damage will give you problems.
  • Choice Specs is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed in order to reliably beat Pokemon such as Mega Slowbro and Heatran, however what's the negatives of this set?
Checks and Counters
===================

**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon can resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of there own, giving Tapu Lele very little options when facing off against virtually every Steel-type. Beware of Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant.

**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 Tapu Lele can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyches and Moonblasts.

**Fast, heavy hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed serves to betray it, as Tapu Lele 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, Hoopa-U, and Choice Band Haxorus all have the power to annihilate Tapu Lele before they can use their attack. Fast Poison-types should be here as well.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Alakazam, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[Osra, 239997], [, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
I was definitely not scared at QCing this, definitely not.
Didn't have that much changes, especially in team options, great analysis
 
Last edited:

Ginger Princess

Girl moding so hard rn
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
Wooloowooloowooloo
QC Time
Blue - additions, Red - comments, Underline - elaborate, Superstrike - remove
[OVERVIEW]
  • Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in the 1v1 metagame, able to obliterate several prominent threats without even investing EVs in Special Attack, such as Dragonite, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Gyarados.
  • Thanks to Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge ability, which activates a Psychic Terrain on switch in upon entering using the term "switch in" in 1v1 feels weird, Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche gets boosted by 1.5, allowing Tapu Lele to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack EVs, letting Tapu Lele 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 ailments like Leech Seed from Pokemon such as Whimsicott. Specifying these priority moves helps new players know what they're dealing with
  • Tapu Lele gets access to several helpful utility tools, such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt, allowing Tapu Lele to beat back opponents such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem.
  • Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average Speed, which falls at base 95, leaving it vulnerable to only slightly faster threats such as Mega Charizard Y, Groundium Garchomp, Mega Gardevoir and Mega Pinsir.
  • Tapu Lele also cannot deal with many Steel-type Pokemon, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves, leaving Tapu Lele to struggle against Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash.
  • Lele has tools it can use to beat certain forms of stall, but it still struggles beating all of them, add it here. A few examples would be Slowbro and Kee Berry 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
========

  • Shattered Psyche through Psychic can be worded better is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option boosted further with the help of Psychic Terrain is able to obliterate swarths of metagame threats such as offensive Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T, and non-Choice Scarf Porygon Z, enjoying the boost given by Tapu Lele's Psychic Terrain. You make it sound as if Zard, Lando, and Pz are the ones enjoying the boost from Psychic Terrain
  • Psyshock can be run in order to hit specially defensive Pokemon that are physically weak such as Chansey, as well as out-damaging threats who 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 hit Psychic-types who 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 live attacks from some of the heavier 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 boosts Tapu Lele's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage on each usage. This is paramount in beating Pokemon bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Primarina, and slow Mega Charizard Y, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful respective 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 EVs and 188 Def EVs allows Tapu Lele to tank Giga Impact from a Mega Lopunny, as well as a Flare Blitz from a Mega Charizard X, as well as always live special attacks more reliably, like bulky Tapunium Tapu Fini's Brine after Guardian of Alola and after two of Tapu Lele's Calm Mind's, as well as Z-Hurricane Dragonite. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both a Fake Out and a Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, such as Fake Out, this is unnecessary.
  • 224 Spe EVs allows 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 the 1v1 metagame, and, as such, should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally such as?, assuming the opponent cannot either knock out Tapu Lele first or they do not have sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z Move avoiding Pokemon such as add Pokemon here.
  • 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 opponents, 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, Calm Mind immediately, as this will not only assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele to beat back the Pokemon in return, by utilizing 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 cleanly and easily live 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 you to avoid being knocked out by Mega Charizard X while still 2HKOing them with Psychic, thanks to Flare Blitz recoil.
  • Tapu Lele should also taunt stall Pokemon such as Jumpluff, Mega Audino, and Kyurem, as they will waste no time in taking away Tapu Lele's ability to damage them, as well as stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche.
  • Do not send Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon, such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, or Celesteela, or against faster Pokemon that can hit Tapu Lele 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 serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele, able to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. Therefore, Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp all serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele. 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 who 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 Charizards, Kommo-o and Mega Blaziken can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while also 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, which are always threatening to the aforementioned Pokemon.
  • Tapu Lele also has issues with overly specially defensive Pokemon, such as Meloetta, Chansey, Kee Berry Mew, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss. As such, Pokemon such as Aegislash, Magnezone, and Celesteela, who can all utilize Metal Sound to lower a Pokemon's Special Defense, 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 live 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 Choice Specs Hydro Cannon from Greninja. However, this set will be outsped by threats that Tapu Lele can normally easily deal with, such as Landorus-T, Normalium 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 into its Special Attack, essentially overkilling several common threats to Tapu Lele, but in exchange beating several specially defensive checks to speedy bulky Tapu Lele, such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku.
  • Skill Swap can be run in order to turn your opponent's abilities against them in a few matchups, such as against certain Sturdy users such as Magnezone, Mirror Coat Avalugg, and mixed Carracosta, bulky Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora, and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. This turns a lot of 50/50s granted by Taunt into guaranteed matchups.
  • Choice Scarf can be used to lure in faster threats who traditionally have excellent matchups against Tapu Lele, such as Greninja, Choice Scarf Porygon Z, and Choiced Genesect, using coverage moves such as Thunderbolt, 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 opponents who can set up or recover off damage will give you problems.
  • Choice Specs is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed in order to reliably beat Pokemon such as Mega Slowbro and Heatran, however what's the negatives of this set?
Checks and Counters
===================

**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon can resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of there own, giving Tapu Lele very little options when facing off against virtually every Steel-type. Beware of Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant.

**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 Tapu Lele can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyches and Moonblasts.

**Fast, heavy hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed serves to betray it, as Tapu Lele 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, Hoopa-U, and Choice Band Haxorus all have the power to annihilate Tapu Lele before they can use their attack. Fast Poison-types should be here as well.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Alakazam, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[Osra, 239997], [, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
I was definitely not scared at QCing this, definitely not.
Didn't have that much changes, especially in team options, great analysis
implemented, changed to qc 2/3
 

Chickenpie2

red:active
is a Contributor Alumnus
well written, just a few questionable examples. let me know when implemented or if there are any other issues, before final check.

add remove comments about

[OVERVIEW]

Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in the 1v1 metagame, able to obliterate several prominent threats without even investing EVs in Special Attack, such as Dragonite, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Gyarados. Thanks to Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge ability, which activates a Psychic Terrain upon entering, Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche Psychic-type moves (it's better to mention all psychic moves rather than just shattered psyche as it is relevant in longer matchups or after you use Z reflect) gets boosted by 1.5, allowing Tapu Lele to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack EVs, letting Tapu Lele 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 ailments like Leech Seed from Pokemon such as Whimsicott. Tapu Lele gets access to several helpful utility tools, such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt (order this according to the mons, eg Taunt for Fini and Reflect for Golphan), allowing Tapu Lele to beat back opponents such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem. Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average Speed, which falls at base 95, 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, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves, leaving Tapu Lele to struggle against Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash. Although Tapu Lele has moves available to beat certain forms of stall, it still struggles against Pokemon that can resist Tapu Lele's Psychic-type attacks and neutralize 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
========

Z-Psychic is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option, and, boosted with the help of Psychic Terrain, is able to obliterate swarths 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 weak, such as Chansey, as well as out-damaging threats who 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 hit Psychic-types who 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 live 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 boosts Tapu Lele's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage on each usage. This is paramount in beating Pokemon bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Primarina, and slow Mega Charizard Y, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful respective 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 EVs and 188 Def EVs allows Tapu Lele to tank Giga Impact from a Mega Lopunny, as well as a Flare Blitz from a Mega Charizard X, as well as always live special attacks more reliably, like bulky Tapunium Tapu Fini's Brine after Guardian of Alola after two of Tapu Lele's Calm Mind's, as well as Z-Hurricane Dragonite. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both a Fake Out and a Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, such as Fake Out, this is unnecessary. 224 Spe EVs allows 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 the 1v1 metagame, and, as such, should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally, such as Mega Charizard X and Landorus-T, assuming the opponent cannot either knock out Tapu Lele first or they do not have sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z Move, making sure to avoid Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y and Meloetta. 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 opponents, 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, Calm Mind immediately, as this will not only assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele to beat back the Pokemon in return, by utilizing 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 cleanly and easily live 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 you to avoid being knocked out by Mega Charizard X while still 2HKOing them with Psychic, thanks to Flare Blitz recoil. Tapu Lele should also taunt stall Pokemon such as Jumpluff, Mega Audino, and Kyurem, as they will waste no time in taking away Tapu Lele's ability to damage them, as well as stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche. Do not send Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon, such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, or Celesteela, or against faster Pokemon that can hit Tapu Lele 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 serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele, able to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. Therefore, Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp all serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele. 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 who 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 Charizards, Kommo-o and Mega Blaziken can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while also 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, which are always threatening to the aforementioned Pokemon. Tapu Lele also has issues with overly specially defensive Pokemon, such as Meloetta, Chansey, Kee Berry Mew, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss. As such, Pokemon such as Aegislash, Magnezone, and Celesteela, who can all utilize Metal Sound to lower a Pokemon's Special Defense, 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 live 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 Choice Specs Hydro Cannon from Greninja. However, this set will be outsped by threats that Tapu Lele can normally easily deal with, such as Landorus-T, Normalium 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 into its Special Attack, essentially overkilling several common threats to Tapu Lele, but in exchange beating several specially defensive checks to speedy bulky Tapu Lele, such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku. Skill Swap can be run in order to turn your opponent's abilities against them in a few matchups, such as against certain Sturdy users such as Magnezone (i don't see how skill swap would be useful in this matchup.), Mirror Coat Avalugg, and mixed Carracosta, bulky (do you mean bulky as in non offensive?) Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora, and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. This turns a lot of 50/50s granted by Taunt into guaranteed matchups, such as against Crustle. Choice Scarf can be used to lure in faster threats who traditionally have excellent matchups against Tapu Lele, such as Greninja, Choice Scarf Porygon Z, and Choiced Genesect, using coverage moves such as Thunderbolt (moonblast would better against greninja. Is there another pokemon that tbolt is more relevant and hits for better damage?), 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 opponents who can set up or recover off damage will give you problems. Choice Specs is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed in order 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 can resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of there own, giving Tapu Lele very little options when facing off against virtually every Steel-type. Beware of Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant.

**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 Tapu Lele can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyches and Moonblasts.

**Fast, heavy hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed serves to betray it, as Tapu Lele 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 they can use their it can attack.

**Fast Poison-type Pokemon**: While Tapu Lele can certainly OHKO any Poison-type it can lay a hit on, Poison-types that can easily outspeed Tapu Lele will be able to swiftly OHKO it first, such as Naganadel and Nihilego.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Alakazam, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[Osra, 239997], [Shyom, 469945], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
 

Ginger Princess

Girl moding so hard rn
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
well written, just a few questionable examples. let me know when implemented or if there are any other issues, before final check.

add remove comments about

[OVERVIEW]

Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in the 1v1 metagame, able to obliterate several prominent threats without even investing EVs in Special Attack, such as Dragonite, Mega Charizard X, and Mega Gyarados. Thanks to Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge ability, which activates a Psychic Terrain upon entering, Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche Psychic-type moves (it's better to mention all psychic moves rather than just shattered psyche as it is relevant in longer matchups or after you use Z reflect) gets boosted by 1.5, allowing Tapu Lele to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack EVs, letting Tapu Lele 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 ailments like Leech Seed from Pokemon such as Whimsicott. Tapu Lele gets access to several helpful utility tools, such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt (order this according to the mons, eg Taunt for Fini and Reflect for Golphan), allowing Tapu Lele to beat back opponents such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem. Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average Speed, which falls at base 95, 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, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves, leaving Tapu Lele to struggle against Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash. Although Tapu Lele has moves available to beat certain forms of stall, it still struggles against Pokemon that can resist Tapu Lele's Psychic-type attacks and neutralize 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
========

Z-Psychic is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option, and, boosted with the help of Psychic Terrain, is able to obliterate swarths 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 weak, such as Chansey, as well as out-damaging threats who 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 hit Psychic-types who 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 live 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 boosts Tapu Lele's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage on each usage. This is paramount in beating Pokemon bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Primarina, and slow Mega Charizard Y, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful respective 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 EVs and 188 Def EVs allows Tapu Lele to tank Giga Impact from a Mega Lopunny, as well as a Flare Blitz from a Mega Charizard X, as well as always live special attacks more reliably, like bulky Tapunium Tapu Fini's Brine after Guardian of Alola after two of Tapu Lele's Calm Mind's, as well as Z-Hurricane Dragonite. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both a Fake Out and a Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, such as Fake Out, this is unnecessary. 224 Spe EVs allows 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 the 1v1 metagame, and, as such, should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally, such as Mega Charizard X and Landorus-T, assuming the opponent cannot either knock out Tapu Lele first or they do not have sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z Move, making sure to avoid Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y and Meloetta. 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 opponents, 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, Calm Mind immediately, as this will not only assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele to beat back the Pokemon in return, by utilizing 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 cleanly and easily live 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 you to avoid being knocked out by Mega Charizard X while still 2HKOing them with Psychic, thanks to Flare Blitz recoil. Tapu Lele should also taunt stall Pokemon such as Jumpluff, Mega Audino, and Kyurem, as they will waste no time in taking away Tapu Lele's ability to damage them, as well as stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche. Do not send Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon, such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, or Celesteela, or against faster Pokemon that can hit Tapu Lele 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 serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele, able to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. Therefore, Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp all serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele. 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 who 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 Charizards, Kommo-o and Mega Blaziken can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while also 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, which are always threatening to the aforementioned Pokemon. Tapu Lele also has issues with overly specially defensive Pokemon, such as Meloetta, Chansey, Kee Berry Mew, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss. As such, Pokemon such as Aegislash, Magnezone, and Celesteela, who can all utilize Metal Sound to lower a Pokemon's Special Defense, 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 live 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 Choice Specs Hydro Cannon from Greninja. However, this set will be outsped by threats that Tapu Lele can normally easily deal with, such as Landorus-T, Normalium 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 into its Special Attack, essentially overkilling several common threats to Tapu Lele, but in exchange beating several specially defensive checks to speedy bulky Tapu Lele, such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku. Skill Swap can be run in order to turn your opponent's abilities against them in a few matchups, such as against certain Sturdy users such as Magnezone, Mirror Coat Avalugg, and mixed Carracosta, non-offensive Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora, and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. This turns a lot of 50/50s granted by Taunt into guaranteed matchups, such as against Crustle. Choice Scarf can be used to lure in faster threats who 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 opponents who can set up or recover off damage will give you problems. Choice Specs is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed in order 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 can resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of there own, giving Tapu Lele very little options when facing off against virtually every Steel-type. Beware of Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant.

**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 Tapu Lele can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyches and Moonblasts.

**Fast, heavy hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed serves to betray it, as Tapu Lele 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 certainly OHKO any Poison-type it can lay a hit on, Poison-types that can easily outspeed Tapu Lele will be able to swiftly OHKO it first, such as Naganadel and Nihilego.

[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[Alakazam, 276708]]
- Quality checked by: [[Osra, 239997], [Shyom, 469945], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
implemented.

Magnezone (i don't see how skill swap would be useful in this matchup.),

Z-Skill Swap into hp ground/focus blast, as z skill boosts speed by 1. Zap Cannon screws with you but its an OO so w/ever.

implemented everything else, removed tbolt as coverage on the scarf oo
 

Lumari

empty spaces
is a Site Content Manageris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris an Administrator Alumnus
TFP Leader
remove add / fix (comments); (AC=add comma; RC=remove comma; SC=semicolon)
GP 1/2
[OVERVIEW]

Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in the 1v1 metagame, 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 Tapu Lele's its Psychic Surge ability, which activates a Psychic Terrain upon entering, Tapu Lele's and the resulting boost to its Psychic-type moves, (AC) gets boosted by 1.5, allowing Tapu Lele to is able to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack EVs, letting Tapu Lele 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 ailments 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 Tapu Lele it to beat back opponents threats such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem. Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average Speed, which falls at base 95, 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, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves, leaving Tapu Lele to struggle against Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash. Although Tapu Lele has moves available to beat certain forms of stall, it still struggles against Pokemon that can resist Tapu Lele's Psychic-type attacks and neutralize 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
========

Z-Psychic Psychium Z-boosted Psychic is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option, and, boosted with the help of Psychic Terrain, it is able to obliterate swarths of metagame threats such as offensive Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T, and non-Choice Scarf Porygon-Z. (AH) Psyshock can be run in order to hit specially defensive Pokemon that are physically weak frail, such as Chansey, as well as out-damaging outdamaging threats who 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 hit Psychic-types who 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 live 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 boosts Tapu Lele's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage on each usage. This is paramount in beating Pokemon bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Primarina, and slow Mega Charizard Y, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful respective 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 EVs and 188 Defense EVs allows allow Tapu Lele to tank Giga Impact from a Mega Lopunny, as well as a Flare Blitz from a Mega Charizard X, as well as always live special attacks more reliably, like being able to tank bulky Tapunium Z Tapu Fini's Brine after Guardian of Alola followed by Brine after two of Tapu Lele's Special Defense boosts from Calm Mind's, (ambiguity) as well as Z-Hurricane Flyinium Z-boosted Hurricane from Dragonite. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both a Fake Out and a Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, such as Fake Out, this is unnecessary. 224 Speed EVs allows Tapu Lele to outspeed Landorus-T, as well as Pokemon such as Normalium Z Porygon-Z (AH) and Adamant Mega Charizard X.

Usage Tips
========

Tapu Lele is a very powerful force in the 1v1 metagame (RC) and, as such, should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally, such as Mega Charizard X and Landorus-T, assuming unless the opponent foe cannot either knock out Tapu Lele first or they do does not have sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z-Move, (AH) making sure to avoid Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y and or Meloetta. 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 opponents 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 this will not only will this assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele it to beat back the Pokemon in return, by utilizing 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 cleanly and easily live 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 (RC) but can neither outspeed nor overpower a speedy Tapu Lele. This will allow you Tapu Lele to avoid being knocked out by Mega Charizard X while still 2HKOing them back with Psychic, thanks to Flare Blitz recoil. Tapu Lele should also taunt 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, as well as stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche. Do not send out Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon, such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, or and Celesteela, or against faster Pokemon that can hit Tapu Lele 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 serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele, able for their ability to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. Therefore, Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp all serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele. 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 who 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, Kommo-o, (AC) and Mega Blaziken can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while also 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, which are always threatening to the aforementioned Pokemon. Tapu Lele also has issues with overly highly (weird word choice) specially defensive Pokemon, such as Meloetta, Chansey, Kee Berry Mew, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss. As such, Thus, Pokemon such as Aegislash, Magnezone, and Celesteela, who which can all utilize Metal Sound to lower a Pokemon's Special Defense, 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 live 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 Choice Specs 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, essentially overkilling several common threats to Tapu Lele, it but in exchange beating several specially defensive checks to speedy bulky Tapu Lele, such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku. Skill Swap can be run in order to turn your opponent's 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, non-offensive Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora, and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. This turns a lot of 50/50s mind games granted by Taunt into guaranteed matchups, such as against Crustle. Choice Scarf can be used to lure in and take out faster threats who that traditionally have excellent matchups against Tapu Lele, such as Greninja, Choice Scarf Porygon-Z, (AH) 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 opponents who foes that can set up or recover off damage will give you Tapu Lele problems. A Choice Specs set is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed in order 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 (AH) threats such as Mega Gyarados and Mega Charizard X.

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

**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon can resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and can usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of there their own, giving Tapu Lele very little few options when facing off against virtually every Steel-type one of them. Beware of Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant.

**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 Tapu Lele can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyches and Moonblasts.

**Fast (RC) Heavy Hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed serves to betray it, as Tapu Lele can do little when faced against threats that have the power to OHKO it on the first turn. Some of the hardest-hitting (AH) 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 certainly OHKO any Poison-type it can lay a hit on, Poison-types that can easily outspeed Tapu Lele will be able to 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: [[, ], [, ]]
 

Ginger Princess

Girl moding so hard rn
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
remove add / fix (comments); (AC=add comma; RC=remove comma; SC=semicolon)
GP 1/2
[OVERVIEW]

Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in the 1v1 metagame, 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 Tapu Lele's its Psychic Surge ability, which activates a Psychic Terrain upon entering, Tapu Lele's and the resulting boost to its Psychic-type moves, (AC) gets boosted by 1.5, allowing Tapu Lele to is able to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack EVs, letting Tapu Lele 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 ailments 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 Tapu Lele it to beat back opponents threats such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem. Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average Speed, which falls at base 95, 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, as they resist both Psychic- and Fairy-type moves, leaving Tapu Lele to struggle against Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash. Although Tapu Lele has moves available to beat certain forms of stall, it still struggles against Pokemon that can resist Tapu Lele's Psychic-type attacks and neutralize 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
========

Z-Psychic Psychium Z-boosted Psychic is Tapu Lele's primary STAB option, and, boosted with the help of Psychic Terrain, it is able to obliterate swarths of metagame threats such as offensive Mega Charizard X, Landorus-T, and non-Choice Scarf Porygon-Z. (AH) Psyshock can be run in order to hit specially defensive Pokemon that are physically weak frail, such as Chansey, as well as out-damaging outdamaging threats who 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 hit Psychic-types who 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 live 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 boosts Tapu Lele's Special Attack and Special Defense by one stage on each usage. This is paramount in beating Pokemon bulky special attackers such as Tapu Fini, Primarina, and slow Mega Charizard Y, allowing Tapu Lele to tank their powerful respective 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 EVs and 188 Defense EVs allows allow Tapu Lele to tank Giga Impact from a Mega Lopunny, as well as a Flare Blitz from a Mega Charizard X, as well as always live special attacks more reliably, like being able to tank bulky Tapunium Z Tapu Fini's Brine after Guardian of Alola followed by Brine after two of Tapu Lele's Special Defense boosts from Calm Mind's, (ambiguity) as well as Z-Hurricane Flyinium Z-boosted Hurricane from Dragonite. Normally, Pokemon have to prepare for both a Fake Out and a Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, such as Fake Out, this is unnecessary. 224 Speed EVs allows Tapu Lele to outspeed Landorus-T, as well as Pokemon such as Normalium Z Porygon-Z (AH) and Adamant Mega Charizard X.

Usage Tips
========

Tapu Lele is a very powerful force in the 1v1 metagame (RC) and, as such, should really be sent out against anything that Shattered Psyche hits at least neutrally, such as Mega Charizard X and Landorus-T, assuming unless the opponent foe cannot either knock out Tapu Lele first or they do does not have sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z-Move, (AH) making sure to avoid Pokemon such as Mega Charizard Y and or Meloetta. 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 opponents 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 this will not only will this assist Tapu Lele in tanking the hits taken from these Pokemon, it will also allow Tapu Lele it to beat back the Pokemon in return, by utilizing 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 cleanly and easily live 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 (RC) but can neither outspeed nor overpower a speedy Tapu Lele. This will allow you Tapu Lele to avoid being knocked out by Mega Charizard X while still 2HKOing them back with Psychic, thanks to Flare Blitz recoil. Tapu Lele should also taunt 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, as well as stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche. Do not send out Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon, such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, or and Celesteela, or against faster Pokemon that can hit Tapu Lele 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 serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele, able for their ability to hit these Pokemon super effectively and tank their attacks. Therefore, Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp all serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele. 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 who 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, Kommo-o, (AC) and Mega Blaziken can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while also 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, which are always threatening to the aforementioned Pokemon. Tapu Lele also has issues with overly highly (weird word choice) specially defensive Pokemon, such as Meloetta, Chansey, Kee Berry Mew, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss. As such, Thus, Pokemon such as Aegislash, Magnezone, and Celesteela, who which can all utilize Metal Sound to lower a Pokemon's Special Defense, 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 live 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 Choice Specs 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, essentially overkilling several common threats to Tapu Lele, it but in exchange beating several specially defensive checks to speedy bulky Tapu Lele, such as Electrium Z Togekiss, Clefable, Charge Zeraora, and Pyukumuku. Skill Swap can be run in order to turn your opponent's 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, non-offensive Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora, and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. This turns a lot of 50/50s mind games granted by Taunt into guaranteed matchups, such as against Crustle. Choice Scarf can be used to lure in and take out faster threats who that traditionally have excellent matchups against Tapu Lele, such as Greninja, Choice Scarf Porygon-Z, (AH) 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 opponents who foes that can set up or recover off damage will give you Tapu Lele problems. A Choice Specs set is also possible, giving Tapu Lele's coverage options the extra boost needed in order 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 (AH) threats such as Mega Gyarados and Mega Charizard X.

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

**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon can resist both of Tapu Lele's STAB options and can usually fire back with super effective STAB moves of there their own, giving Tapu Lele very little few options when facing off against virtually every Steel-type one of them. Beware of Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant.

**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 Tapu Lele can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyches and Moonblasts.

**Fast (RC) Heavy Hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed serves to betray it, as Tapu Lele can do little when faced against threats that have the power to OHKO it on the first turn. Some of the hardest-hitting (AH) 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 certainly OHKO any Poison-type it can lay a hit on, Poison-types that can easily outspeed Tapu Lele will be able to 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: [[, ], [, ]]
implemented
 

Rabia

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[OVERVIEW]

Tapu Lele is one of the most powerful threats in the 1v1 metagame, 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 and the resulting boost to its Psychic-type moves, Tapu Lele is able to forgo coverage moves and investment in Special Attack EVs, 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,(RC) as well as Prankster-boosted status moves like Leech Seed from Pokemon such as Whimsicott. Tapu Lele gets access to several helpful utility tools,(RC) such as Calm Mind, Reflect, and Taunt, allowing it to beat back threats such as Tapu Fini, Jumpluff, Donphan, and Golem. Tapu Lele is unfortunately marred by its only average base 95 Speed, which falls at base 95,(RC) leaving it vulnerable to only slightly faster threats such as Mega Charizard Y, Groundium Z Garchomp, Mega Gardevoir,(AC) 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,(RC) leaving Tapu Lele to struggle against Pokemon such as Magearna, Genesect, Mega Metagross, and Aegislash. Although Tapu Lele has moves available to beat certain forms of stall, it still struggles against Pokemon that resist Psychic-type attacks and neutralize its Taunt (I have no idea what "neutralize its Taunt" means. pls be more clear), such Mega Slowbro and stall Mew.

[SET]
name: Speedy Bulky (i hate this name)
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 swarths 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,(RC) 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 a Mega Lopunny,(RC) as well as a and Flare Blitz from a Mega Charizard X,(RC) as well as always live take special attacks more reliably, like being able to tank 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 a Fake Out and a Giga Impact Fake Out followed by Giga Impact (is this what you mean) from Mega Lopunny; however, as Psychic Terrain blocks priority moves, such as Fake Out,(RC, imo this is common sense enough) this is unnecessary. 224 Speed EVs allows allow Tapu Lele to outspeed Landorus-T,(RC) 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 the 1v1 metagame and,(RC) as such,(RC) 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 does have has sufficient Special Defense to tank Tapu Lele's Z-Move, such as Mega Charizard Y or Meloetta (why is Meloetta mentioned when you're talking about Pokemon that Shattered Psyche hits neutrally?). 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 it Tapu Lele to beat back retaliate against the Pokemon in return with a boosted Shattered Psyche and Moonblast. Mega Charizard X normally runs two different spreads:(change comma to colon) offensive and specially defensive. Against offensive Mega Charizard X, use Shattered Psyche immediately, as you will be able to cleanly and 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,(RC) 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,(RC) as well as and stall out Psychic Terrain turns, potentially weakening Shattered Psyche. Do not send out Tapu Lele against Steel-type Pokemon,(RC) such as Mega Mawile, Ferrothorn, and Celesteela,(RC) or against 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. Therefore, Pokemon such as Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Garchomp all serve as excellent partners for Tapu Lele. 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,(RC) and Mega Blaziken can all threaten several prominent Steel-types while also crushing Poison-types like Naganadel,(RC) 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,(RC) such as Donphan, Golem, Landorus-T, and Zygarde,(RC) which are always threatening to the aforementioned Pokemon (eh, it's more or less implied that these Pokemon are issues given you're saying that in return Tapu Lele handles them). Tapu Lele also has issues with highly specially defensive Pokemon,(RC) 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 lower a Pokemon's Special Defense beat such Pokemon, all serve well as partners for Tapu Lele.(I feel like this sentence sort of reads like Tapu Lele benefits from Metal Sound, which isn't the case. it's that these Pokemon themselves benefit from Tapu Lele luring out specially defensive Pokemon, since they can beat them themselves.) 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,(RC) as well as other special attacks from fast threats, such as a Hyper Beam from Choice Scarf Porygon-Z(AH) 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(AH), 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, essentially overkilling several common threats to it but in exchange beating letting it beat several specially defensive checks to speedy bulky Tapu Lele,(RC) 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;(replaced comma with semicolon) non-offensive Volt Absorb Pokemon such as Charge Zeraora;(replaced comma with semicolon) and Unaware Pokemon such as Clefable and Quagsire. This turns a lot of mind games granted by Taunt into guaranteed matchups, such as against Crustle. Skill Swap also turns riskier matchups against Pokemon like Crustle into guaranteed wins as opposed to Taunt, which relies on proper prediction.(original wording was confusing; I think this keeps all the meaning you were trying to convey. lmk if not) 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 in order 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 Tapu Lele it very few options when facing off against virtually every one of them. Beware of Pokemon such as Mega Metagross, Kartana, Aegislash, and Durant.

**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 Tapu Lele it can do to them. Meloetta, Mega Slowbro, and Electrium Z Togekiss can all find ways to outdamage Tapu Lele while tanking Shattered Psyches Psyche and Moonblasts Moonblast.

**Fast Heavy Hitters**: Tapu Lele's middling Speed serves to betray hinders it, as Tapu Lele 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,(AC) all have the power to annihilate Tapu Lele before it can attack.

**Fast Poison-type Pokemon**: While Tapu Lele can certainly OHKO any Poison-type it can lay a hit on, Poison-types that can easily outspeed Tapu Lele will be able to 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]]

gp 2/2 once done
 

Ginger Princess

Girl moding so hard rn
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(I feel like this sentence sort of reads like Tapu Lele benefits from Metal Sound, which isn't the case. it's that these Pokemon themselves benefit from Tapu Lele luring out specially defensive Pokemon, since they can beat them themselves.)

Rabia I would say that the first point is true, Lele benefits from them carrying Metal Sound, but not necessarily the second, as its common metagame knowledge that Metal Sound users beat SpDef walls.

Also, I don't know any better term to describe it than Speedy Bulky, as that is literally what it is. Saying its bulky is kinda misleading, as its speedy, as both by themselves imply slow and frail, respectively. Maybe Fast Bulky? or Fast PhysDef?
 

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