dammit, penguin said dont write a novel. seriously though the info is good here so 99% of these come down to please write less. I know writing is your thing and I can respect that, but there's a time and place for everything and a full paragraph is not needed for explaining why Lugia runs substitute
Overview
- The Great Wall, and arguably the best general wall in the entire game, due to the sheer number of offensive threats it is capable of countering, combined with its ability to counter such threats multiple times throughout a single battle thanks to its access to reliable recovery.
- Has a very high Speed stat for a wall, which enables it to do things such as Roosting to full health (and thus activating Multiscale), setting up a Substitute or using Reflect before it is attacked.
this just isn't overly relevant to lugia's place in the meta. if you want to quickly mention how its speed is solid that's fine, but a whole bullet for a not all /that/ fast roost or reflect isn't really necessary
- The best counter to Mega Rayquaza - Choice Band is the only Mega Rayquaza set Lugia cannot switch into when Stealth Rock is off the field.
- Lugia loves having damaging entry hazards on the opponent's side of the field, since its immense bulk combined with its access to Whirlwind allows it to heavily damage opposing teams, especially highly offensive ones whose members lack recovery, using entry hazard damage alone.
this sounds more like a usage tip and is completely unnecessary with the below bullet, remove
- This Pokémon strongly dislikes having Stealth Rock on its own side of the field, since this entry hazard destroys its Multiscale, on top of removing 25% of its HP.
- Lugia greatly dislikes facing Taunt users, and some of its sets can do absolutely nothing but Struggle once it is Taunted.
- The Psychic/Flying-type Pokémon is greatly crippled by status conditions, especially Toxic.
- Lugia works best on stall and balance teams, but finds little use on offensive teams.
- The Diving Pokémon's usefulness on a team varies a lot depending on the type of team it faces. While the defensive utility it provides is completely unparalleled when facing an offensive team, it is often nothing more than deadweight when facing a stall team.
the only thing this is missing is a bullet about how, despite walling a ton of stuff, lugia really has issues with certain common mons like yveltal, gengar, lunala, steelceus with a status move? idt that's really a thing but u get the point, at least some mention of gengar trapping being a huge issue for this is necessary
Great Wall
Lugia @ Leftovers
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 160 Def / 96 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Roost
- Whirlwind
- Toxic
- Substitute / Thunder Wave / Reflect I'm not sold on twave, every threat u mentioned is something I'd probably want to toxic. You can nail gengar and steelceus, and not all that much else? Plus toxic is your only way of dealing damage other than whirlwind+hazards. I really think Ice Beam should go here instead (and heavily needs a place on this set), but u can talk to qc if u dont like the swap and work something out
Set Comments
Moves
this comes up a lot but PLEASE DO NOT BOLD WHERE THERE SHOULDN'T BE BOLD. Check the skeleton to see how that should work
- Roost is for healing, something whose purpose is self-explanatory for a wall. It is also the primary method by which Lugia reactivates its Multiscale Ability. If used against a slower attacker, Roost also eliminates Lugia's weakness to Electric, Ice and Rock-type attacks on that turn.
very good example of too much writing, mentioning removing weakness before taking something like pogre ice beam is good but the second sentence just doesnt need to exist
- Whirlwind serves two primary purposes. again, there's a whole paragraph in this bullet and you have an entire sentence with no real content The first of which being to eliminate the stat boosts of set-up sweepers, such as Dragon Dance Mega Rayquaza, Extreme Killer Arceus and Geomancy Xerneas. And the second of which being to rack up entry hazard damage on the opponent's team. When used with Toxic Spikes support, Whirlwind also has the chance of poisoning a Pokémon which the opponent would otherwise not allow to be poisoned. For example, say the opponent has a Taunt Mewtwo, and never switches it into a Toxic, or sends it out when Toxic Spikes are on their side of the field. In such a scenario, using Whirlwind when Toxic Spikes are on the opponent's side of the field would be the only way to poison that Mewtwo.
way too much info, cut it down please, the example isn't needed
- Toxic allows Lugia to badly poison opposing Pokémon, and wear them down while the Diving Pokémon stalls it out with its massive bulk combined with Roost.
- Substitute is Lugia's best option for the final slot, for numerous reasons. Firstly, it protects the Psychic/Flying-type Pokémon from status effects and Leech Seed. Secondly, it allows Lugia to stall for a significantly longer amount of time than it would be able to without this move. This is because with Multiscale, Lugia can often take a powerful attack from a faster Pokémon before making a Substitute, and then Roosting back to full health on the next turn. Alternatively, it can make two Substitutes in a row against a slower attacker, before Roosting back to full health, making a Substitute, Roosting to full health again, and repeating. This is in stark contrast with a Lugia without Substitute, as it would need to Roost repeatedly while stalling out its foes, resulting in it easily consuming all 16 of its Roost PPs much more quickly. Thirdly, Substitute renders many luck-based factors such as Sacred Fire or Lava Plume burns, Dark Pulse flinches, and critical hits irrelevant, resulting in Lugia, and by extension the team it finds itself on being significantly more hax-resilient. This is extremely important, since being resistant to hax is one of the most important qualities in a truly excellent Pokémon team, since it allows the team to win consistently over countless battles. And finally, Substitute comes with various other advantages, such as allowing Lugia to stay in on a Knock Off Yveltal and Toxic it without losing its Leftovers, and allowing the Diving Pokémon to handle Shadow Force Swords Dance Arceus-Ghost extremely easily (provided it either does not have or has already used up its Never-Ending Nightmare technique).
IF YOU CANNOT TWEET A BULLET POINT, IT'S TOO LONG
cut it down to the actually important things like "you can get a free sub on the switch to yveltal and toxic it! And avoid status! And PP stall groudon stone edge", dont worry about a whole separate thing for dark pulse and sacred fire
- Thunder Wave allows Lugia to spread paralysis. While Lugia, especially the Substitute set should mostly find itself on stall teams, Thunder Wave Lugia should only ever be used on balance teams featuring extremely powerful, but not necessarily fast attackers, such as Life Orb/Choice Band Ho-Oh, Life Orb mixed or Choice Band Mega Rayquaza, and Primal Kyogre. The idea behind Thunder Wave Lugia is to paralyze the opponent's fast Pokémon, before running over them with the aforementioned heavy hitters.
Like I said, I'm not convinced this needs a slot at all. If it ends up staying, mention targets that you wouldn't rather toxic than twave because idk why you'd twave a hooh or pogre
- Reflect enables Lugia to better deal with extremely powerful physical attackers, such as Mega Rayquaza and Swords Dance Primal Groudon.
this bullet is really good. if they all were like this then I'd be happy
Set Details
- Aside from maximizing Lugia's HP, the 252 EVs in this Pokémon's HP stat serves one other extremely important purpose. Imagine a situation in which a full-health Lugia uses Substitute on a turn on which the opponent switches to a faster attacker. At this point, the Psychic/Flying-type Pokémon can make two more Substitutes consectively, before ending up at 43% HP, factoring in Leftovers recovery. After that, it can use Roost on the very next turn, and then end up at 100% health after that turn's Leftovers recovery. However, with 248 HP, Lugia would end up at 99% HP after that, meaning its Multiscale would not be active.
nonononono way too much extraneous info. bullets dont need hypothetical situations, they're quick explanations. the ubers analysis just says "252 HP EVs give Lugia maximum mixed bulk while also giving Lugia an HP value that is divisible by 16, which increases Leftovers recovery.", this is all that's needed (altho dont plagiarize, if I really need to say that)
- Lugia is given enough Speed to outrun Pokémon with base 90 Speed provided they do not run a Speed-raising Nature, and the rest of the EVs are thrown into Defense alongside a Bold Nature to give it the best possible mixed bulk.
specifically what pokemon does 96 speed help against?
- Alternatively, Lugia can be given 204 Speed EVs at the expense of its Defense stat in order to outrun positive-Natured Pokémon with base 90 Speed. However, the drop in Defense is generally not worth it, as such would give the Diving Pokémon a significantly harder time against Mega Rayquaza.
yeah that's way too much out of bulk, dont bother keeping this bullet
Usage Tips
- As a Pokémon, Lugia serves two main purposes. The first is to counter offensive threats, while wearing them down with poison, either from Lugia's own Toxic, or the Toxic Spikes set up by another Pokémon such as Tentacruel or Scolipede. It can repeatedly use Roost and possibly Substitute in order to stall them out, while using Whirlwind if they use a move such as Dragon Dance, Swords Dance or Geomancy to boost their offensive stats.
"toxic stall things to wear them down"
- Lugia's second main purpose is to take advantage of its immense bulk and reliable recovery in order to take hits while spamming Whirlwind, in order to rack up damage on the opponent's team using entry hazards.
"wall opposing threats like megaray"
- Before switching Lugia out, it is extremely important to ensure that the Psychic/Flying-type Pokémon is at full health, or at the very least, that its HP is high enough such that it reaches full health after just a single extra round of Leftovers recovery (in other words, ensuring that Lugia's HP is at 94% or more). This is to ensure that the opponent does not simply send in a setup sweeper such as Mega Rayquaza, Xerneas or Arceus-Normal when Lugia is not out, boost on the turn when one sends in their Lugia which isn't at full health, and then KO Lugia or deal more than 50% damage to it on the next turn.
"try to keep lugia at full health to abuse multiscale"
also unnecessary bolt
- The above rule is not set in stone though, and in certain situations, switching Lugia out when it is not at full health may be more beneficial. For example, say Lugia which is not behind a Substitute has just taken a +1 Dragon Ascent from a Mega Rayquaza, before Whirlwinding it out, and then a Life Orb Yveltal is dragged out. At that point, switching Lugia out despite the fact that it is not at full health would be the logical thing to do, in order to prevent it from being knocked out by a Dark Pulse (situations like this serve as an additional reason why Substitute is such a good move on Lugia). Alternatively, a Lugia without Substitute may want to switch out when it is not at full health, if it is facing a Pokémon which could potentially cripple it with a Toxic on that turn. And of course, switching Lugia out when it is not at full health is absolutely fine when facing a team with little offensive presence.
this bullet isn't needed, obviously you won't always be able to switch out at full health, situations change from game to game
- When using the Thunder Wave set, one strategy to ensure that Lugia is at full health before it is switched out is to paralyze the opponent's Pokémon, before using Roost repeatedly, until a turn comes on which the opponent's Pokémon is fully paralyzed.
if thunder wave is being removed, take this bullet out. even if it isn't I dont think people need to be told to fish for full paras
- Entry hazard control is extremely important when using Lugia - both in ensuring that the Diving Pokémon's Multiscale is not ruined by Stealth Rock when it switches in, as well as in making sure that the opponent has at least one layer of damaging entry hazards on their side of the field. This is to make sure that the opponent cannot just freely switch their Poison-immune Pokémon endlessly into Lugia.
this sounds more like a team option now, maybe rephrase to "try to remove rocks/set rocks before lugia comes in for maximum effectiveness"?
Also would like bullets about when to set up a sub (frequently), and double switching/whirlwinding on a predicted gengar to keep lugia alive
Team Options
- Entry hazard setters are important for previously-mentioned reasons, but Toxic Spikes get a special mention as it allows Lugia to wear down opposing Pokémon without having to waste a turn poisoning them manually with Toxic. Not having to spend such a turn can make quite a significant difference when dealing with Pokémon with huge offensive presence, especially given Toxic's ability to miss. Having Toxic Spikes on the field also means the difference between having to use Toxic (and risk its 10% chance of missing) twice in order to poison a Lum Berry Arceus, and being able to achieve the same thing by using Whirlwind once, possibly for the purpose of eliminating the Alpha Pokémon's Swords Dance boosts at the same time.
way too much info for something that's true but obvious. also you need to mention things that set toxic spikes, specific teammates
- Defog, Rapid Spin and/or Mega Sableye are important for keeping Stealth Rock off the field. A team containing Lugia should ideally have Defog in addition to either Rapid Spin or Mega Sableye. Tentacruel gets a special mention due to its ability to use both Rapid Spin and Toxic Spikes.
you can just say removal is 100% necessary on any lugia team rather than the completely unnecessary second sentence. also give specific examples of defoggers. Alternately you could just say "hazard removal options like defog users, tentacruel, and mega sableye" because there's only 1 good spinner that's not a suicide lead (tenta) and saying rapid spinners sorta implies there's more options
- If Lugia does not have Substitute, having Pokémon capable of absorbing Toxic and burns, such as Steel-type Pokémon, Poison-type Pokémon, Fire-type Pokémon and Mega Sableye is important.
I wouldnt include the first part, a status absorber is always good even if you have sub. also give specific examples rather than types because all you're getting is pokemon immune to one of the statuses that cripple lugia. also give some specific examples
- Aromatherapy/Heal Bell users such as Clefable, Chansey, Blissey and Xerneas make great partners for Lugia, due to their ability to remove any status effects that may happen to cripple the Psychic/Flying-type Pokémon.
the last 3 are also good status absorbers you could honestly just combine these 2 bullets
- Pursuit-trappers such as Alolan Muk can trap and eliminate two Pokémon which are generally extremely troublesome for Lugia to deal with. These two Pokémon are Mega Gengar, which is generally very annoying for Lugia, especially if it has Taunt, and Lunala, due to this Pokémon's ability to hit the Diving Pokémon with a super effective, Multiscale-piercing Moongeist Beam.
you could just delete the last sentence and include gengar/lugia in the first one and it wouldnt be so unnecessarily long. also maybe mention ttar as well for a second example
- Alternatively, Arceus-Dark can also deal with Lunala.
why not take the above and below bullet points and turn them into a bullet saying something like "checks to ghost and dark types xyz, such as prospective lugia teammates acb, are useful" rather than 1 too short and 1 too flowery one
- A solid switch-in to Yveltal, such as Arceus-Fairy and physically-defensive Ho-Oh is necessary when using Lugia, since the Dark/Flying-type Pokémon possesses many techniques that are deadly to Lugia, such as super effective Dark-type attacks, Taunt and Toxic.
oh and there are more dark types that check lugia than just yveltal and u want to be able to check those. also phys def hooh is garb imo, but either way not rly a standard set I'd recommend a beginner try out using. it's not even a great yveltal switchin, just give a diff example
- Arceus-Steel, Arceus-Rock or Arceus-Electric makes a great teammate for Lugia, since they can switch into Choice Band Mega Rayquaza's Dragon Ascent, one of the few attacks Lugia cannot switch into. One can switch a full-health Lugia into Choice Band Mega Rayquaza in order to scout its move initially. If it uses Dragon Ascent, one should switch to Arceus-Steel, Arceus-Rock or Arceus-Electric. If Mega Rayquaza uses any other move, Lugia can stay in. Arceus-Rock also counters Ho-Oh, a powerful offensive threat which, despite being countered by Lugia, is a Pokémon Lugia would generally prefer not switching into, since it would not want its Multiscale ruined by a Sacred Fire burn, in case it needs to be used to counter a different offensive threat on the opponent's team. Arceus-Rock and Arceus-Electric also somewhat deal with Yveltal, a Pokémon which troubles Lugia greatly.
way too long. just say "flying resists like arc steel/arc rock are good for cb ray". dont mention arc elec, it's so shit
- Fire-type Pokémon such as Ho-Oh and Primal Groudon can take advantage of Steel-type Pokémon, since they often switch into Lugia.
steel type pokemon such as who?
Strategy Comments
Other Options
- Ice Beam can be used for numerous purposes, such as dealing damage to Mega Rayquaza (especially after it has used Dragon Ascent and/or V-create), knocking out the rare Mega Salamence (which can beat Lugia with a combination of Roost and Refresh if it is the opponent's last Pokémon), dealing damage to Zygarde, and not being complete Taunt bait. I'd rather see this on the set etc etc
- Dragon Tail can be used to pseudo-Haze out Taunt users.
- Psychic can be used to deal heavy damage to Mega Gengar. but is inferior to ice beam overall because xyz
- All of the aforementioned Other Options should go over either Substitute, Thunder Wave or Reflect. because the first 3 moves are vital to lugia being useful
Checks and Counters
Toxic: This status effect ruins Lugia's Multiscale, while at the same time greatly threatening its staying power. I'd change this bullet to status, burn and para are also bad for it and it cant hurt to mention them
Stealth Rock: This entry hazard slices off a quarter of Lugia's HP, while at the same time nullifying its Multiscale. and leaving u unable to switch into threats
Taunt: Unless it knows an attacking move, Lugia is complete Taunt bait. As a Taunt user, Mega Gengar gets a special mention, due to its ability to prevent Lugia from switching out. This results in Lugia being easily eliminated unless it knows Dragon Tail or Psychic. give more taunt users and also dont mention the weird OO options in c&c
Yveltal: On top of being able to use Taunt and sometimes carrying Toxic, Yveltal can hit Lugia with very powerful, Dark Aura-boosted, and possibly Life Orb-boosted Dark-type attacks. this could just be expanded to "dark types", darkceus and muk also check this
Steel-type Pokémon and Mega Sableye: These Pokémon are immune to Toxic, which is Lugia's most direct source of offense. Note that Steel-type Pokémon's immunity to Toxic doesn't prevent Lugia from making progress in tearing down the opposing team if damaging entry hazards are on that team's side of the field though, as Lugia can still use Whirlwind against the Steel-type Pokémon and force its teammates to take damage. This is especially notable if the Steel-type Pokémon is unable to break Lugia's Substitute in one hit, and therefore cannot cripple it with moves such as Toxic and Leech Seed.
this gets a little long and unnecessary, it just has to say that lugia cant damage them as well. I'd also change the name to "toxic immunities", then specifically mention mega sableye and steel type examples as well as poison types (muk-a, poisonceus, toxapex, tenta all sorta fit this even if they cant do much back)
Calm Mind Arceus-Steel: Lugia cannot stop Calm Mind Arceus-Steel from sweeping if it is the last Pokémon. remove, this is already covered in the above section
Choice Band Mega Rayquaza: While Lugia is normally Mega Rayquaza's #1 counter, it cannot switch into a Choice Band Dragon Ascent, since it deals more than 32% damage to Lugia after factoring in Multiscale. Since Mega Rayquaza is faster than Lugia, this means that it can repeatedly fire Dragon Ascents at Lugia on the following turns, dealing more than 64% damage each time, which is more damage than Lugia can recover with Roost and Leftovers.
this just isn't written right for c&c, all it has to say is ray can wallbreak straight through lugia's face
Multiscale-piercing super effective attacks: Lunala, Kyurem-W and Zekrom can bypass Lugia's Multiscale with a super effective Moongeist Beam, Ice Beam or Bolt Strike/Fusion Bolt, respectively, dealing massive damage to it if not knocking it out.
I really think mega gengar needs its own section, it can completely nullify lugia if you arent extremely careful. Also c&c is ordered by threat level, this is slightly off. You have more experience with it so you can change it slightly but I'd go with something like status/rocks/gengar/toxic immunities/taunt/multiscale piercing/CB ray