OU Spotlight: Tapu Lele

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Introduction

Introduced in Sun and Moon, Tapu Lele is one of the four Tapus, and it guards Akala Island with its Psychic powers. Tapu Lele has a fairly good Psychic and Fairy typing, base 95 Speed to outspeed a good portion of the tier, including Pokémon such as Tapu Bulu and Landorus-T, and base 130 Special Attack to further take advantage of its offensive movepool. It also boasts Psychic Surge, which summons Psychic Terrain on the field for five turns, increasing the power of Psychic-type attacks for grounded Pokémon as well as making grounded Pokémon immune to priority attacks. Taking neutral damage from moves such as Pursuit is helpful, as it increases Tapu Lele's chances of survival if it stays in and attacks opposing Weavile or Tyranitar. Tapu Lele has a plethora of sets to choose from, ranging from Choice Scarf to outspeed and revenge kill dangerous foes such as Mega Pinsir and Ash-Greninja, Z-Crystal to lure in and eliminate threats, Shed Shell to overcome variants of stall more easily, and Choice Specs to break walls.

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Hot Sets

• Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf
• Ability: Psychic Surge
• EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
• Timid Nature
• - Psychic
• - Moonblast
• - Hidden Power Fire
• - Thunderbolt / Focus Blast

This set was the most common set in the very early days of Sun and Moon OU tier, and it isn't hard to see why. Psychic Terrain blocking priority attacks as well as boosting one of Tapu Lele's STAB moves made Tapu Lele rather respectable for a Choice Scarf user. Nowadays, it is still great to use alongside Volcarona checks such as Heatran, Zygarde, Tyranitar, Latios, and Mantine. Psychic is the STAB attack of choice to allow Tapu Lele to hit as hard as possible, letting it achieve feats such as a guaranteed OHKO on Toxapex and an OHKO on Landorus-T after Stealth Rock. Moonblast catches Dark-types, including Weavile and Greninja, off guard. Hidden Power Fire is a consistent means for catching Magearna, Ferrothorn, and Mega Scizor on the switch. Thunderbolt is a good choice in the final slot if only to catch Celesteela on the switch, but Focus Blast is also a good option if Heatran and Assault Vest Magnezone are major concerns for the team as well.

Currently, Choice Scarf remains Tapu Lele's best set. Its ability helps promote Tapu Lele as a strong partner to a multitude of teams looking for a Choice Scarf user that is immune to priority while packing decent offensive potential.

• / Tapu Lele @ Fightinium Z / Shed Shell
• Ability: Psychic Surge
• EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
• Timid Nature
• - Psyshock
• - Moonblast
• - Taunt
• - Focus Blast / Hidden Power Fire

This set capitalizes on how many Tapu Lele use either Choice Specs or Choice Scarf, working as a great lure or stallbreaker with either Fightinium Z or Shed Shell. Psyshock is the primary Psychic-type attack to use in this set, as it is Tapu Lele's best option to overcome Chansey and still does respectable damage under Psychic Terrain. Moonblast targets Dark-types and catches them off guard when they think it is safe to switch into Tapu Lele. Taunt is important in this set, since it helps Tapu Lele stallbreak more effectively by preventing both recovery and the use of Protect to stall out turns of Psychic Terrain or weaken All-Out Pummeling. Focus Blast is the recommended move alongside Fightinium Z—All-Out Pummeling does tremendous damage to the majority of Steel-types in OU, including Heatran, Magnezone, and offensive Magearna. Hidden Power Fire can be used instead, as it is a safer option to use, especially against Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor, though it does make Heatran a lot harder for Tapu Lele to deal with.

The set is rather versatile in the Z-Crystals it can use. Electrium Z with Thunder is an option to electrocute Celesteela and still do respectable damage to the majority of Steel-types in the OU tier. Psychium Z is also an option and can be used alongside Calm Mind; +1 Psyshock 2HKOes Chansey, and Shattered Psyche's high power makes it harder for Unaware Clefable to switch into Tapu Lele.

• Tapu Lele @ Choice Specs
• Ability: Psychic Surge
• EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
• Timid Nature
• - Psychic
• - Moonblast
• - Psyshock
• - Hidden Power Fire

Choice Specs takes advantage of Psychic Terrain boosting Psychic and Psyshock to overwhelm defensive threats. Psychic is the best move to spam with Tapu Lele so long as no specially defensive threats or Dark-types remain on the field. Even Pokémon that resist Psychic such as Heatran can take quite a bit of damage from the attack—enough to 2HKO non-Calm variants after Stealth Rock. Moonblast targets the Dark-types that otherwise resist Tapu Lele's Psychic assault like Weavile and Tyranitar and does neutral damage to Bisharp and Alolan Muk. Psyshock is mostly for specially defensive Pokémon such as Chansey, Celesteela, and Gastrodon. Hidden Power Fire is the final move, dedicated to taking out Ferrothorn and Mega Scizor, doing respectable damage to offensive Magearna, and being Tapu Lele's strongest move against Assault Vest Magnezone.

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Good Cores

Mega Alakazam + Tapu Lele is a fairly common core to use the famous "Psychic Spam" combination. Choice Specs Tapu Lele is used as a wallbreaker for taking on many defensive threats that Mega Alakazam struggles against otherwise or has to use unfavorable attacks such as Focus Blast to overcome. Psyshock Tapu Lele will wear out specially defensive threats such as Chansey, Heatran, Celesteela, and Assault Vest Magearna as they switch into it repeatedly. Afterwards, Mega Alakazam takes advantage of its great Speed tier and Psychic Terrain to fire off boosted Psychics while fearing nothing from priority so long as the Terrain remains on the field.

Mega Alakazam can also consider other moves in its fourth slot—Grass Knot can be used if your team feels rather weak to rain archetypes, while Knock Off can support Tapu Lele as well by removing Assault Vest from Magnezone and Magearna while removing Leftovers from Heatran and Celesteela. Alternatively, Tapu Lele can opt for a Choice Scarf set if keeping faster threats in check is more necessary and threats such as Volcarona and Celesteela are handled by other Pokémon.

Though the two certainly are not an immaculate core, Tapu Lele has the benefit of overpowering some of Volcarona's checks and luring in Tyranitar and Heatran to take them out with All-Out Pummeling. Against Chansey, Tapu Lele can use Taunt and Psyshock to wear it down while having Moonblast in the event that Mega Sableye thinks it is free to switch in. When facing Tyranitar and Heatran, Tapu Lele should attempt to bluff a Choice set to give the opponent a false sense of security or use All-Out Pummeling if predicting that one of the Pokémon is going to switch in. While All-Out Pummeling doesn't necessarily do a lot of damage to Assault Vest Magearna and specially defensive Celesteela, this doesn't negatively affect Volcarona's opportunities to set up and sweep; in fact, it's beneficial that those Pokémon may remain on the opponent's team, as they can be used to freely set up Quiver Dance and sweep. Since a Z-Move is used on Tapu Lele, Charti Berry is the preferred item choice for Volcarona. Hidden Power Ice helps bypass Dragon-types, while Psychic can be used to overcome Toxapex and receives a boost in Psychic Terrain. Volcarona also appreciates Psychic Terrain blocking priority moves such as Water Shuriken from Ash-Greninja, Extreme Speed from Choice Band Zygarde, and Aerilate Quick Attack from Mega Pinsir.

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Conclusion

Tapu Lele is a powerful yet supportive Psychic-type Pokémon that benefits a variety of teams that look for its toolkit. Though it can be seen as a fairly standalone Pokémon, it appreciates the support it can receive from teammates while being able to assist others with Psychic Terrain, by punishing bulkier teams, or by luring in threats such as Heatran and Tyranitar. Tapu Lele may not be the most powerful Tapu in the tier, but it certainly carves its place as a threat in the Sun and Moon OverUsed tier.

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