In-battle formes
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| HP: | 70 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Attack: | 130 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense: | 115 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sp. Atk: | 85 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sp. Def: | 95 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Speed: | 75 |
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Overview
Tapu Bulu has passable bulk to go with its Grass / Fairy typing, a decent movepool, and, most importantly, an excellent ability in Grassy Surge. It is able to tank some powerful hits, such as an Fake Out followed by Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny and Shattered Psyche from Tapu Lele, under Grassy Terrain. Tapu Bulu's Grass typing matches it up very well against Mega Gyarados, a very formidable and prevalent threat. It is also the slowest of all the Guardian Deities, which means that its Terrain activates the latest on the field and prevails for the first five turns of the battle. However, the absence of a good physical Fairy-type STAB move and a weakness to commonly used types like Fire, Flying, and Steel present major drawbacks to its usage. Its typing causes it to be easily KOed by Pokemon like Mega Charizard X, Flyinium Z Dragonite, and Mega Metagross. It also has a subpar Speed stat and just decent Special Defense. This leaves Tapu Bulu vulnerable to powerful special attacks like Porygon-Z's Hyper Beam and Choice Specs Greninja's Ice Beam before it gets the chance to land a hit on these Pokemon.
Grassium Z
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Moves
Wood Hammer helps Tapu Bulu defeat Water-type Pokemon like Mega Gyarados and Primarina. It also turns into a 190-Base Power Bloom Doom with Grassium Z, which enables Tapu Bulu to OHKO bulky Pokemon like Mega Slowbro, Blissey, and Clefable. Substitute is used in order to avoid taking fatal damage from Pokemon such as Magearna, Magnezone, and Choice Specs Necrozma. Leech Seed lets Tapu Bulu drain the health from Pokemon such as Magearna and Tapu Lele. Rock Tomb is used for speed control against Pokemon like Tapu Lele and to break through Sturdy on Pokemon like Donphan and Golem while avoiding Counter. Taunt lets it beat setup Pokemon like Scrafty, and Shell Smash Crustle and Carracosta, and also temporarily disables Aegislash's King's Shield. Disable can be used in order to neutralize slower Choice item users, such as Choice Specs Magearna and Necrozma, as well as make the Aegislash matchup more consistent, forcing them to win four mind games in a row. Bulk Up can be run in order for Tapu Bulu to fare better against Pokemon like maximum Defense Mega Sableye and Porygon2.
Set Details
Running 180 HP and 60 SpD EVs helps Tapu Bulu tank a Tapu Lele's Shattered Psyche in Grassy Terrain, as well as survive a Fake Out followed by Giga Impact from Mega Lopunny. Using 176 Speed EVs lets Tapu Bulu outspeed Modest Magearna as well as maximum Speed Tapu Lele after a Rock Tomb. The remaining EVs are dumped into Attack, which, when coupled with an Adamant nature, allows it to OHKO slow bulky Tapu Lele in Psychic Terrain. Grassium Z turns Wood Hammer into a 190-Base Power Bloom Doom, which OHKOes nearly everything that does not resist Grass.
Usage Tips
Tapu Bulu can be sent in against Tapu Lele and Magearna; against Tapu Lele, you should either use Bloom Doom against slow variants, which are telegraphed by Psychic Terrain activating after Grassy Terrain, or use Rock Tomb against faster sets, which covers either Shattered Psyche or Z-Reflect. If Tapu Lele sets up Z-Reflect, use Leech Seed the following turn, stall with Substitute until Reflect has worn off, and then finish it off with Bloom Doom. Against Magearna, you should use Substitute immediately, followed by either Leech Seed or Substitute, depending on whether or not the Magearna attacks Tapu Bulu. After two Fleur Cannons, Magearna will no longer be able to break Tapu Bulu Substitute, allowing Tapu Bulu to stall out Magearna, which will not be able to use Pain Split nor damage Tapu Bulu fast enough. Don't send Tapu Bulu against Landorus-T if you think Landorus-T is holding Flyinium Z.
Team Options
Since Tapu Bulu is weak to Fire-, Steel-, and Poison-type moves, Ground-type Pokemon like Landorus-T, Zygarde, and Golem can serve as good teammates. Tapu Bulu helps them in return by covering their Water-type weakness. Since Tapu Bulu cannot hit Flying-type Pokemon like Mega Charizard Y and Celesteela very hard, Electric-type Pokemon like Zeraora and Magnezone are also good teammates for Tapu Bulu, and Tapu Bulu helps in return by covering their Ground- and Rock-type weakness, respectively. Since Tapu Bulu has a disadvantage against Ice-type Pokemon like Kyurem, Avalugg, and Weavile, Rock- and Fighting-type Pokemon like Mega Tyranitar and Terrakion can also serve as good teammates. Tapu Bulu also helps in covering any Rock-type teammate's weakness to Ground- and Water-type moves. Since Tapu Bulu does not have naturally high Special Defense, some specially defensive Pokemon like Chansey or Meloetta can serve as teammates for Tapu Bulu.
Choice Scarf
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Moves
Grassy Terrain-boosted Wood Hammer helps Tapu Bulu in defeating Water-type Pokemon like Mega Gyarados, Choice Specs Greninja, and Primarina. Rock Slide is run in order to OHKO Mega Charizard Y and Volcarona. Fling is used to break the Sturdy of Pokemon like Donphan without running the risk of falling to Counter or Endeavor. Hidden Power Fire is used to net KOs on Kartana and Durant. Dazzling Gleam can be run in order to beat certain Pokemon severely weak to Fairy-type moves, such as Kommo-o, Hydreigon, and Scrafty. Superpower is used to beat Magneton, which cannot OHKO Tapu Bulu back with Flash Cannon. Taunt can be used after using Fling to shut down stall Pokemon such as Mega Audino.
Set Details
Running 84 HP allows Tapu Bulu to survive Gigavolt Havoc from Jolly Zeraora after Fake Out and Bulk Up, as well as a Flash Cannon from Magneton. If Tapu Bulu is running Hidden Power Fire or Dazzling Gleam, it should run 52 Special Attack EVs in order to guarantee the OHKO on Durant with Hidden Power Fire, as well as have an 80% chance to OHKO Hydreigon with Dazzling Gleam. Tapu Bulu runs 244 Speed EVs with a Jolly nature in order to outspeed Pokemon such as Mega Lopunny, Greninja, and Adamant Zeraora. The remaining EVs are invested in its Attack stat to increase its offensive abilities as much as possible.
Usage Tips
Actively avoid sending Tapu Bulu in against Pokemon it cannot hit super effectively, since this set is a lure set for Pokemon like Greninja, Mega Charizard Y, and Mega Lopunny, and it lacks the firepower or the moveset to KO averagely bulky Pokemon hit neutrally.
Team Options
Ground-type Pokemon like Donphan and Golem can cover Tapu Bulu's Fire-, Steel-, and Poison-type weaknesses while appreciating Tapu Bulu's ability to defeat Water-types. Since Tapu Bulu can hit Flying-type Pokemon like Mega Charizard Y and Vivillon with this set, some Pokemon that lure in these like Mega Heracross and Volcarona can be paired with it. Magnezone can draw in Ground-type Pokemon for Tapu Bulu and make up for its mediocre Special Defense by defeating special attackers such as Choice Scarf Porygon-Z and Genesect with Mirror Coat.
Other Options
A Choice Band set with Superpower, Stone Edge, and Megahorn can be utilized, where Stone Edge can be used against slower Fire-type Pokemon like Alolan Marowak, and Megahorn helps against Psychic-types like Latios and Mega Latias. It is worth mentioning that with appropriate Speed investment, Tapu Bulu can also outspeed and KO Modest Heatran with Superpower. An Assault Vest can be run in order to lure in and take out usual checks such as Choice Scarf Porygon-Z, Greninja, Magnezone, and Meloetta.
Checks and Counters
Grass-resistant Pokemon: Fire-, Steel-, Flying-, and Poison-type Pokemon like Mega Charizard X, Mega Metagross, Heatran, Naganadel, and Mega Venusaur can counter Tapu Bulu because of their type advantages.
Poison-type Coverage Moves: Poison-type moves are common as coverage moves for many Pokemon that outspeed Tapu Bulu like Garchomp, Sawk, Pheromosa, and Landorus, so these Pokemon OHKO Tapu Bulu before it gets a chance to attack.
Strong STAB Attackers: Strong attackers such as Meteor Mash Mega Lucario, Choice Specs Greninja, and Hyper Beam Porygon-Z outspeed Tapu Bulu and OHKO it because of their high Special Attack stats and powerful attacks.
Credits
- Written by edudittA
- Quality checked by Felucia, Nalei, and charizard8888
- Grammar checked by Electrolyte and lotiasite
