VGC Xerneas+Lunala Sun Series

[Feesh Squad]

> Xerneas+Lunala Sun Series <

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Introduction

Hey everyone, Feesh Squad here with a VGC 2019 team for Sun Series. I never played VGC 16 so I'm excited to be building in a GS-style format. With the introduction of gen 7, one mon that I've been rather interested in is Lunala. I asked around for some teams that included Lunala (also Xerneas because that deer is :sogood:) and someone shared c9lifeorb's winning GS Cup team, which features Lunala and Xerneas. While I think it is a great team, there were a couple of issues with playing it in Sun Series. Firstly he decided to omit ev spreads (which is totally reasonable it just made team building a bit more of a hassle) and secondly Sun Series has different rules than reguler GS Cup/Ultra Series, being no z-moves, megas, or primals. Really as far as mons go, the only one I replaced was Salamence, all the other mons stayed the same bar nature/item/moveset changes.

The Team

Lunala @ Spooky Plate
Ability: Shadow Shield
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moongeist Beam
- Psyshock
- Wide Guard
- Protect

This mon is pretty much the same as lifeorb's Lunala except it runs Spooky Plate over Lunalium Z since it's banned. Moongeist Beam is such a great move for dealing with mons that rely on their abilities for survival and Psyshock is great for bopping Xerneas, even after Geomancy. Wide Guard is probably my favorite part, absolutely mishing Scarf Kyogres, Xerns, and Groudons that think they can just win with their spread moves. The evs are pretty standard and don't do much special.

Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
Level: 50
EVs: 92 HP / 124 Def / 244 SpA / 12 SpD / 36 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Geomancy
- Protect

Man does this deer hit hard. Geomancy Xerneas is a pain to deal with once it sets up and getting it up can just be an instant win. While the moves are pretty standard with dual STAB, Geo, and Protect, the ev spread is the best part. Bulky Xerneas is one of the coolest things I've been running except for the last mon. The spread is fairly simple: 92 HP / 124 Def / 12 SpD allow Xerneas to live Modest Scarf Kyogre Water Spout in the rain without Geomancy boosts and it also lives max Attack Adamant Solgaleo's Sunsteel Strike (I know that Dusk Mane is used more, but Solgaleo is immune to Intimidate while Dusk Mane isn't). 36 Spe reaches 124 Speed, which, after Geomancy, outspeeds opposing +2 Xerns that speedcreep Modest Ludicolo. The rest was dumped into SpA with a Modest nature for extra firepower.

252+ Atk Solgaleo Sunsteel Strike vs. 92 HP / 124 Def Xerneas: 180-212 (84.5 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Kyogre Water Spout (150 BP) vs. 92 HP / 12 SpD Xerneas in Rain: 177-208 (83 - 97.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Incineroar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 220 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 12 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Fake Out
- Snarl

This mon is a fantastic support option and is still powerful as an attacker. Intimidate helps so much in weakening opposing mons and having Fake Out support with a good defensive typing is so helpful. Other than the usual STAB moves I also added Snarl to weaken opposing Kyogres, Lunalas, Xerns, and other special attackers while being a nice spread move. Tbh I pulled this AV spread off of the VGC Damage Calc so I will need some help figuring out what it does/make a better spread but it has been working rather well. Outspeeding Incineroar and getting the Fake Out first is always helpful and having max Attack is really good against bulkier mons like Dusk Mane Necrozma.

Tapu Lele @ Life Orb
Ability: Psychic Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Moonblast
- Taunt
- Protect

Tapu Lele fits rather well in this team, boosting Lunala's Psyshock, benefiting from Fairy Aura, Preventing Fake Out's and other priority, and all-around being a pretty good damage dealer. I decided to go with a Life Orb set because this team is kinda lacking in speed control so I wanted something with Taunt to help with Tailwind/Trick Room. Probably the least complex member of the team though I feel I could do better with the ev spread.

Amoonguss @ Red Card
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 212 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Clear Smog
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Grass Knot

Amoonguss is a pretty clutch support mon. I gave it two ways of dealing with Geomancy Xerneas/CM Lunala in Red Card and Clear Smog, Spore is great at shutting down offensive threats while outspeeding plenty of threats in Trick Room lets it shut down mons rather confidently, and Grass Knot helps with the surge (lol puns) of Kyogres that run the meta. As far as evs go, 252 HP / 212 SpD with a Sassy nature makes fast Geomancy Xern's +2 Moonblast a 3hko, which is rather helpful considering this set doesn't have a berry. Rest of the evs were dumped into Defense.
+2 252 SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 212+ SpD Amoonguss: 93-110 (42 - 49.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

Ludicolo @ Absorb Bulb
Ability: Swift Swim
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 36 Def / 164 SpA / 172 SpD / 132 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Grass Knot
- Fake Out
- Protect

This...is an odd one. I found Kyogre to still be a really big threat to the team, so I thought the salsa duck himself, Quackamole would help. As far as the spread goes, 4 HP / 36 Def / 172 SpD lets Ludicolo live max Attack Incineroar's Flare Blitz on the physical side and it makes Modest Kyogre's Thunder a 3HKO on the special side. 132 Spe Outspeeds Modest Scarf Kyogre under rain and the rest was dumped into Special Attack. While it may not do much damage on it's own, what really makes it the ultimate Kyogre counter is its item: Absorb Bulb. This item boosts Ludicolo's SpA by +1 when hit with a Water-type move, which is just enough to bring Grass Knot from a 2HKO into an OHKO. Surprisingly, even when neither team had Kyogre, Ludicolo still worked rather well as Fake Out support while being able to severely dent mons like Incineroar and Groudon with Hydro Pump and Grass Knot, respectively.
+1 164+ SpA Ludicolo Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Kyogre: 186-218 (105.6 - 123.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Conclusion

While this team has been rather solid so far, this is still my first VGC team I've made since my hail team in mid-VGC 17 season. I find myself sometimes having issues with opposing Dusk Mane Necrozmas (Moongeist Beam doesn't ignore Prism Armor) and Incineroar (not much to hit super-effectively), but I think it shows promise and I've been having lots of fun with Sun Season. Finally, to whoever reads this, thanks for spending time checking out this rmt and making suggestions. I really appreciate that. If you wanna check it out, maybe playtest it some, click here for the full team. Later!​

 

[Level 51]

Hey there Feesh Squad! I've also been running Lunala / Xerneas in the format, so just popped by to suggest some stuff and see what you'd think about it.

Firstly, the team's pretty weak to a well-played Yveltal, which can wreak havoc against any of the 5 members of the team except Xerneas, and can often outspeed and pick off weakened Xerneas too, especially with Tailwind, or can simply hamper their damage output tremendously with Snarl. Have you considered using Choice Scarf Lele to guarantee that you outrun Yveltal? This also gives you some extra room for moves, such as Nature's Madness to better chip at Ferrothorn, and even Choice Scarf Magic Room, which is a cool tech I've been looking into—gets rid of Power Herb on Xerneas, Sash on Smeargle, AV on Incineroar, etc. you're not even locked into it because your own Choice Scarf is gone the next turn! Just a thought; you could also look into stuff like Thunder to better hit Kyogre, Focus Blast as a tech to chunk Ferrothorn, etc.

Apart from that, I think Tailwind or Roar over Wide Guard on Lunala could go a fair distance as well. Currently, your team's Xerneas matchup is pretty much limited to Amoonguss, and you can Snarl it somewhat with Incineroar but not much. On the other hand, you have a number of ways to beat Kyogre, with Ludicolo, Amoonguss, and also some pseudo-bulk afforded to Lunala courtesy of Shadow Shield, letting it hit back for significant damage on Kyogre. With Kyogre as the main threat to Wide Guard against, I can't imagine that it'd find much use on your team, whereas having a consistent way to boost your team's speed to match opposing Xerneas, Ludicolo, Yveltal, etc. could be pretty useful (not to mention it helps your team avoid getting shredded by opposing Tailwinds). Roar could also help with opposing Xerneas—I understand that the majority of your Xerneas matchup lies in Amoonguss, but surely it's somewhat troublesome being forced to bring Amoonguss every single time you see an opposing Xerneas? I'm not exactly sure how Red Card Amoonguss plays outside of the specific Xerneas matchup, so I'm not sure how much of a burden it is to bring it, but having Tailwind or Roar could help to give this matchup a little more flexibility. (As an aside, perhaps consider running Psyshock on either Lunala or Tapu Lele to hit through Xerneas' boosted SpDef.)

That's all I have, sorry if the rate was a little bit rambling; admittedly, I'm personally not extremely familiar with the ins and outs of the format, and everything I've said here has been from my own (limited) experience running Lunala / Xerneas. Would love to hear what you think of the suggestions!

 

[RebornFX]

Hey, sorry for this being fairly late (a month late), just have some slight changes I would suggest (I think Level 51 did a great job covering any set changes). Just spread optimisations really.

Ludicolo

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So firstly, your Ludicolo spread. Since you have both physical and special efensive benchmarks, you save roughly 50 EVs hitting your defensive benchmark by investing in HP over physical defense. Like so:

252+ Atk Incineroar Flare Blitz vs. 60 HP / 4 Def Ludicolo: 136-162 (83.4 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Now to hit your special defensive benchmark, with the HP above you need a sp.def stat of 133 (this is to make Thunder a 3HKO 98.8% of the time, which is basically 100%). The way you want to go about it kind of depends on what you want to put your saved EVs in to. You could run a Calm nature, as your base sp.def is higher than your sp.atk. This would be efficient if you would want to put the remaining EVs in a stat other than sp.atk. With a Calm nature, the maximum sp.atk you can hit is a stat of 142, 2 stat points lower than the sp.atk on your current set, but this still hits the offensive benchmark you gave:

+1 252 SpA Ludicolo Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Kyogre: 182-216 (103.4 - 122.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

So the EVs in this case would be as follows, with the remaining EVs to be added where you please:
EVs: 60 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 132 Spe
Calm Nature

Alternatively, if you would like to put the saved EVs in to sp.atk, it would be efficient to have a Modest nature. In this case the following spread would be applicable (the remaining EVs have already been sumped in to sp.atk)
EVs: 60 HP / 4 Def / 212 SpA / 100 SpD / 132 Spe
Modest Nature

The difference between the remaining EVs between the two natures is quite literally 8 EVs, practically nothing but hey it's free stats. But yeah investing in HP instead of defense saved you 48 EVs at least and 56 at most, fairly considerable.

Xerneas

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Not nearly as much to say here. I just think if the sp.atk doesn't really hit any important benchmarks it would be worth taking 72 EVs out of sp.atk and put them in speed to outspeed Modest Venusaur (probably more relevant now than it was when this team was made). If they lead Venusaur without Groudon it would be nice to get your boost before they have the chance to sludge bomb you (assuming they don't sleep powder assuming you would outspeed anyway), and just to outspeed them in the Sun after your boost.

Here would be the set:
Xerneas @ Power Herb
Ability: Fairy Aura
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 124 Def / 172 SpA / 4 SpD / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Dazzling Gleam
- Geomancy
- Protect

Incineroar:

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Considering your spread was made for a completely different format I thought I'd give it a go making a quick AV Incineroar spread. Practically nobody is running so much attack on Incineroar right now considering it's not really needed and being able to survive hits from the big legendaries is more important than damage for Incineroar. I also replaced Snarl with U-turn, but that's my personal preference

Incineroar @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 148 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def / 76 SpD / 28 Spe
Careful Nature
- Fake Out
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- U-turn

So the spread survives a neutral P Blades from Adamant Groudon and hits the sp.def bump (8 EVs give 2 stat points instead of one between 68 and 76 EVs with a Careful nature), while hitting some fairly important benchmarks along the way.

252+ Atk Groudon Precipice Blades vs. 148 HP / 252 Def Incineroar: 158-188 (83.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Life Orb Solgaleo Superpower vs. 148 HP / 252 Def Incineroar: 172-203 (91 - 107.4%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO (So Enosh's Misty Seed Solgaleo never OHKOs from full)
-1 252 Atk Kartana Sacred Sword vs. 148 HP / 252 Def Incineroar: 76-90 (40.2 - 47.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

+2 252+ SpA Fairy Aura Xerneas Moonblast vs. 148 HP / 76+ SpD Assault Vest Incineroar: 144-171 (76.1 - 90.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Kyogre Origin Pulse vs. 148 HP / 76+ SpD Assault Vest Incineroar in Rain: 158-188 (83.5 - 99.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Dialga Earth Power vs. 148 HP / 76+ SpD Assault Vest Incineroar: 78-92 (41.2 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
252+ SpA Lustrous Orb Palkia Hydro Pump vs. 148 HP / 76+ SpD Assault Vest Incineroar: 168-200 (88.8 - 105.8%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO (Most run Timid to make use of its fantastic speed tier for a restricted, so you can expect to live this)
252+ SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 148 HP / 76+ SpD Assault Vest Incineroar in Electric Terrain: 83-99 (43.9 - 52.3%) -- 15.6% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Tapu Lele Moonblast vs. 148 HP / 76+ SpD Assault Vest Incineroar: 55-66 (29.1 - 34.9%) -- 7.2% chance to 3HKO

I'm not saying this is the best spread, I'm just saying it's a start. Feel free to move some EVs from Defence in to HP and/or Sp.Def to live what you need to live.

And finally, for Lunala you might as well run this spread:
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 244 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature

Just squeezes an extra stat point assuming the max sp.atk wasn't needed to hit any important benchmarks.