It's Electric! PU Edition

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Introduction

There are Electric-types in PU, who knew? Yeah, I know, it's shocking. PU's meta has a variety of both offensive and defensive Electric-types. While some are (much) better than others, their overall diversity allows them to serve as checks for various Pokémon and fulfill a multitude of roles ranging from Choice Scarf users to setup sweepers to bulky walls. This all makes it extremely difficult for teams to have reliable checks for every single one of them. So, which Electric-types have stood tall throughout all of PU's Generation 7 meta so far, and which others have risen through the ranks, whether it be through being undiscovered threats or getting buffs in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon?

Sets

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Despite not getting any notable buffs throughout Generation 7, Oricorio-E has risen to become a great Pokémon in the PU meta. In the beginning of Sun and Moon it was an alright bird option but was majorly outclassed by its fellow bird, Oricorio-G, which had a debatably better typing both offensively and defensively and the ability to serve as a spinblocker. This lasted for a while, with Oricorio-E sitting in the back, its main sets being as a decent stallbreaker or a mediocre Choice Scarf user. Although its Choice Scarf set never really picked up steam, its stallbreaker set and eventual Calm Mind set eventually ended up surpassing Oricorio-G. A large reason for this was the fact that offensive Flying-types rose in usage, with another bird in Dodrio dropping from NU and other Flying-types such as Scyther, Swanna, and other Oricorio-G still flying around, all of which Oricorio-E could uniquely check. It also helped that Oricorio-E was not weak to coverage moves like Gurdurr's Knock Off and Hitmonchan's Thunder Punch and could use Revelation Dance and Hidden Power to get around checks. Oricorio-E is currently a large part of the PU meta with its high Speed, great ability that allows it to check the likes of Lilligant, good defensive typing, solid support moves, and flexibility to choose between breaking through balance with Calm Mind or breaking through stall with Taunt. Its Choice Scarf set still exists and can serve as a pivot with U-turn and provide Tailwind support, but it's still not the best option for your bird. No matter what set it runs, this bird can be difficult not to cheer for.

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Lanturn has always been a top defensive option, with its great typing, versatility, and two light bulbs coming out of its head. Its typing allows Lanturn to switch in against a plethora of Pokémon including Aurorus, Jellicent, and Oricorio-E. Its versatility gives it two solid sets between Assault Vest and bulky variants and makes it somewhat unpredictable at Team Preview. There was also a Choice Specs set, but it's not common anymore. Assault Vest allows Lanturn to serve as both an offensive and defensive threat that can still spread status via Scald and Discharge and serve as a pivot. It has a fun specific EV spread, with the Speed EVs creeping Jellicent and Special Attack EVs letting it OHKO Aggron with Scald. The one major letdown of this set is how easily it gets tired, with no form of recovery and the need to constantly switch in to take attacks, but it's otherwise a great pick. Next up is its bulky set, and while it may not have the same offensive capabilities as its other set, the notable difference from the Assault Vest set is its recovery with Leftovers. This set, while also serving as a pivot and potentially burning with Scald, can also provide a cleric for its teammates. It also has more specific and fun EVs! The 40 HP EVs let it gobble up its Leftovers for maximum recovery each turn, and the Defense investment lets it take an Alolan Dugtrio's Earthquake and +2 Alolan Raichu's Psyshock. Then, the rest of the EVs are dumped into Special Attack. Overall, Lanturn has managed to remain a solid option in PU all of Generation 7. Hmm, I haven't made a fish pun yet. That's surprising. Yep, surprising. Or should I say FISHY? Gottem.

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Eelektross, undiscovered at first, has vastly improved. It was quickly realized to be a great check for one of the top-tier threats in Archeops, and its great coverage was just a bonus. That being said, Eelektross did suffer from 4MSS, having to choose which Pokémon it could hit, such as needing Flamethrower to hit Lilligant, Knock Off to cripple Clefairy, Giga Drain to hit Piloswine, and so on. This did improve a little bit with Pokémon rising to NU, such as Guzzlord's departure meaning it didn't have to worry about running Superpower anymore. Over time, it continued to rise, with people utilizing its wallbreaking abilities and coverage to both check many special attackers offensively and, notably, check Ground-types thanks to its great ability in Levitate. It could also serve as a slow pivot and had an alright source of recovery in Giga Drain, which also let it hit Ground-types that wanted to try to block Volt Switch. It continues to do all this in the current meta while picking up other relevant advantages its immunity to Spikes and Toxic Spikes. Because of all this, Eelektross currently stands as a momentum grabber that many balance teams need protection from, since it can be a struggle to dEel with.

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Out of all these Electric-types, Alolan Raichu's viability has varied the most. It started off in Sun and Moon as one of PU's biggest offensive threats as a setup sweeper, with its access to Nasty Plot, dual STAB, ability to utilize Z-Moves, and great Speed and solid Special Attack. This all made it a very difficult Pokémon to defensively check. However, it started dropping because of its low defensive stats, which gave it a hard time setting up and left it easily revenge killed by faster Pokémon such as Lycanroc and Choice Scarf Togedemaru and priority move users such as Skuntank and Spiritomb. There was also a rise in usage of Mudsdale, which also gave Alolan Raichu a lot of trouble. Because of these reasons it eventually fell to being only a decent setup sweeper, but since then it has risen back up to being a simply good option. Its main flaw in the current meta is 4MSS, as it has only one slot to choose between hitting Pokémon like Mudsdale with Grass Knot and playing around Sucker Punch with Substitute. Still, if you're looking for a special setup sweeper for your team, you might see Alolan Raichu waving hello. OMG, IT'S WAVING HELLO?!? THAT'S SO ADORABLE!!!

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This fridge sure knows how to terminate things. Rotom-F is another Pokémon that has greatly improved since the start of Sun and Moon. It began as a mediocre offensive threat, since even with its near-unresisted STAB combination, it found itself facing a lot of competition from both Ice- and Electric-types alike, such as Abomasnow and Alolan Raichu. It also didn't help that Lanturn was swimming around a lot. One buff Rotom-F did get from Sun and Moon was the introduction of Z-Moves, which allowed it to utilize Icium Z to get a powerful one-time Ice-type attack that didn't have just 70% accuracy like Blizzard. However, it got an even better buff in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, as it got Defog via move tutor. Despite its weakness to Stealth Rock and lack of reliable recovery, the relevance of Spikes and Toxic Spikes, which it is immune to, has given it a niche over the other Ice- and Electric-types and allowed it to slowly rise up the ranks. So, it currently stands as a solid Defogger, a nice pivot with Volt Switch, a decent offensive threat, and America's #1 choice for a refrigerator.

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Bark bark bark. Despite its two sets being completely identical besides their items, Manectric performs different roles between them. Choice Scarf allows Manectric to be a solid offensive check to otherwise faster threats like Dodrio and Floatzel, while its Choice Specs set utilizes its alright Special Attack in order to be a decent wallbreaker. Both can also serve as pivots through Volt Switch, Electric switch-ins with Lightning Rod, ways to cripple bulky Pokémon like Audino and Clefairy with Switcheroo, and solid revenge killers due to Manectric's great Speed tier. However, at the beginning of the generation, Manectric was another Pokémon that was seen as a mediocre choice. It got a lot of competition from Zebstrika, majorly because the latter was able to naturally outspeed Archeops without needing to lock itself into a single move with Choice Scarf and additionally had the ability to choose between an immunity to Electric and an immunity to Grass. Manectric did have various uses over Zebstrika though, with its much better Special Attack that allowed it to hit even neutral foes for solid damage and its access to the previously mentioned Switcheroo that let it cripple bulky foes. Even after Archeops was banned from PU and Zebstrika was deemed unviable, Manectric was still seen by many as a mediocre option. However, soon, more people started to use it and realized that it was a decent offensive threat, especially, as stated before, with its Choice Scarf set being able to outspeed threats like Dodrio and Lilligant after one Quiver Dance. Not to mention it could also plow through teams without an Electric immunity. This is one Pokémon with which you do not want to bark up the wrong tree.

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Yeah, that's right, Stunfisk is somewhat viable. That being said, this snazzy pancake fish has spent all of Generation 7 being simply a mediocre Stealth Rock setter with only a couple of niches. Its decent defensive typing gives it resistances to various physical offensive threats such as Skuntank, Lycanroc, and Dodrio. It can potentially paralyze foes upon contact thanks to Static, as well as being able to cripple offensive threats with Discharge or defensive threats with Toxic. Despite this, its lack of reliable recovery limits the number of times it can switch in and take hits. While its bulk is decent, it still doesn't save Stunfisk from being worn down. Finally, it faces a lot of competition from other Stealth Rock setters like Mudsdale and Regirock with their respective better bulk and offensive presence, which does contribute to Stunfisk's mediocrity. Still, if you are able to fully utilize Stunfisk's niches successfully, why not celebrate with some pancakes?

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Common Checks

While I did say Electric-types are very difficult to all check, because they are, there are some common answers for them. Mudsdale and Gastrodon are huge problems for Electric-types, as are other Ground-types like Golurk. Alolan Dugtrio is a notable Ground-type, as it outspeeds a lot of these Electric-types bar Alolan Raichu, which it Speed ties with, and Choice Scarf users. Ground-types in general are especially troublesome for Electric-types, as they stop them from freely spamming Volt Switch. Lanturn is another Pokémon that can do this, and other specially defensive Pokémon like Audino, Type: Null, and Clefairy can also give offensive Electric-types trouble, although they do have to watch out for utility moves like Eelektross's Knock Off and Manectric's Switcheroo. Offensive Electric-types like Alolan Raichu also fear faster threats like Lycanroc and Choice Scarf Primeape and priority users like Skuntank and Kangaskhan. As for bulkier Pokémon like Lanturn and Eelektross, they do not appreciate powerful physical wallbreakers like the big dog Stoutland and the big mouse Alolan Raticate. If your team is weak to Electric-types, these are various Pokémon to check out.

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PU Oldgens

While PU was created in Generation 5 and not made an official tier until Generation 6, Akir alongside other users have managed to develop unofficial PU metas all the way down to Generation 2. Some of these Generations are so old the Electric-types might as well be called Candle-types.

Gold, Silver, and Crystal

While being the least developed Generation, GSC does have Electric-types. That being said, only one of them is notably viable. Elekid is a top-tier threat, with its decent Special Attack, amazing coverage, and high Speed that make it a solid lead and a check to another top-tier threat in Poliwhirl. Poliwhirl also happens to be broken, so that's a useful niche. Others like Voltorb and Chinchou aren't very notable, as they are pretty outclassed.

Advanced

ADV is another Generation that has an Electric-type top-tier threat in Minun. Minun's Electric typing allows it to check many defensive threats like Sealeo and Corsola, and its great Speed tier gives it a good matchup against offensive threats like Doduo and Charmeleon, which is notable in a Generation where the Choice Scarf does not exist. It also has some nice support moves like Encore, although has the one downside of having to choose between Hidden Power Ice to hit Dragonair and Hidden Power Grass to hit Marshtomp. Chinchou also exists in ADV, and can serve as an alright specially defensive wall or go more offensive with support moves like Thunder Wave. However, other than that, most other Electric-types like Elekid are majorly outclassed. As far as Electric-types go, it's a pretty simple meta, not too Advanced.

Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum

I don't know if you've heard the buzz, but Electabuzz is seen as borderline broken by some people, and for good reason. It has great Speed, solid Special Attack, and coverage that leads to virtually nothing being able to switch into it. This coverage includes Hidden Power Grass for Rhydon and Gastrodon, Psychic for Muk, and Cross Chop for Lickilicky and Probopass. That Speed also makes it difficult to offensively check. Otherwise, there are some other decent Electric-types, with Raichu being a Nasty Plot user with its similarly solid Speed, Special Attack, and coverage. Ampharos makes for a nice Choice Specs user with its great Special Attack or a special wall with its alright defensive stats.

Black and White

The most notable fact about this meta is that Rotom-F was recently banned. It had great versatility that allowed it to exterminate many Pokémon, with its most threatening set being Choice Specs, which took advantage of its near-unresisted Electric / Ice offensive typing to hit those many Pokémon very hard. Volt Switch also came in handy to constantly wear down the opposing team if it lacked a Pokémon immune to Electric. One of the main checks for this set was Chinchou, which even still feared Trick. Since then, Chinchou has dropped a little in usage, although it still makes for a solid check for Water-types, as well as a good slow pivot. The other major Electric-type in BW is Zebstrika, with its great Speed, two great abilities, and pivoting. It also is able to run a mixed attacking set with Double-Edge to hit Chinchou.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Electric-types play a major role in ORAS's meta, and teams without an Electric immunity to stop Volt Switch are exterminated. Rotom-F is an amazing Pokémon in this meta, and is also seen as borderline broken by many. It again has its great STAB coverage, solid stats all-around, and amazing versatility between Choice Scarf, SubSplit, and SubWisp sets. Its Choice Specs set has fallen in viability though since it makes Rotom-F more easy to revenge kill. There are various other options for Electric-types including Chinchou, Zebstrika, Raichu, Electrode, and Stunfisk. Chinchou and Zebstrika do essentially the same thing as they did in BW, Raichu is again a solid Nasty Plot sweeper, Electrode is a nice special attacker with its high Speed, and Stunfisk is still a decent wall, a good Stealth Rock setter, and a snazzy pancake fish.

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Closing Words

I just realized every single Generation has a top-tier Electric-type, huh. This just shows what a great type it is, both offensively and defensively. Electric is one of the most diverse types in PU's metas, and it doesn't seem to be leaving that title any time soon. So, whether you're an old-time PU player or a newcomer, try out some Electric-types and when you see their capabilities for yourself it'll really charge you up! Play me out, Marcia Griffiths!

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