VGC 2017 Pokémon Spotlight #7: Tapu Lele

Welcome back to another VGC 2017 Spotlight, where the goal is to look at a Pokemon that's doing well in the 2017 metagame and tell you everything you need to know about it. Last time, we looked at Muk so today, we'll be looking at Tapu Lele, a Pokemon that has been doing really well this season, so its time to look at it and see why its doing well and hopefully give some ideas on how to use Tapu Lele. Hope you enjoy and let's begin.

Base Stats

Looking at its base stats, Tapu Lele has some strong stats for an offensive Pokemon. A 130 base Sp. Attack is fantastic as it allows Tapu Lele to use very strong Special attacking moves, which means that it's certainly gonna show up in the damage department. A 95 speed stat means that while it won't be the fastest Pokemon, it will be fast enough to where it can outspeed many Pokemon in a slower format like this one. Defense wise, 70/75/115 is pretty decent overall as its not frail enough to where it must carry a Focus Sash, but it also isn't bulky enough to where it can just sit on the field and take a ton of hits before going down, so it can take a few neutral hits and still have enough HP to survive the turn pretty comfortably.

Notable Moves

 Here's some moves that can prove useful for Tapu Lele

• Nature's Madness - Useful to cut a target's HP stat in half
• Moonblast - Strong Fairy type move for Pokemon like Garchomp and Salamence
• Hidden Power [Fire] - Useful for Pokemon like Kartana
• Taunt - Useful to stop status moves like Trick Room
• Protect - Block attacks and weaken the power of Z-Moves
• Thunderbolt - Useful for water types
• Psychic - Strong Psychic type move
• Shadow Ball - Useful for Pokemon like Alolan Marowak
• Energy Ball - Strong move for water types like Gastrodon
• Substitute - Useful to block attacks and set up a shield to protect it
• Dazzling Gleam - Strong spread Fairy move

Now its time to go into a few sample sets that I have for Tapu Lele.

Tapu Lele @ Psychium Z

Ability: Psychic Surge

EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 116 SpA / 4 SpD / 100 Spe

Modest Nature

- Psychic

- Moonblast

- Substitute / Dazzling Gleam / Taunt

- Protect

This is a pretty simple and straightforward Tapu Lele set that focuses on mainly using powerful damaging moves to take out threats. Because Tapu Lele isn't as bulky, I felt that increasing its bulk would be a great idea. The EV Spread allows it to survive Poison Jab from both Garchomp and Pheromosa, then KO them back with Psychic and Mooblast respectively. The 100 Speed allows it to outspeed neutral base 75 Pokemon like Smeargle and Tapu Bulu. The moveset is pretty standard. Psychic and Moonblast are your main damage moves with the 3rd slot being team dependent. Substitute can make Tapu Lele bulkier and stay on the field longer, Dazzling Gleam is a great spread move if need be and Taunt is great to stop status moves and Trick Room from being used.

Tapu Lele @ Choice Scarf

Ability: Psychic Surge

EVs: 12 HP / 4 Def / 236 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe

Modest Nature

- Psychic

- Moonblast

- Dazzling Gleam 

- Thunderbolt / Energy Ball / Shadow Ball / Hidden Power [Fire]

In VGC 2014, Gardevoir, a very popular Pokemon, was commonly holding a Choice Scarf. This season, Tapu Lele is taking that role and is doing it very well. This set takes advantage of the Choice Scarf so that Tapu Lele can be as fast as possible and hit as hard as possible. The moveset is designed to hit as many different Pokemon as possible. The dual-Fairy moves in Moonblast and Dazzling Gleam so that you can get a strong spread move and a strong single target Fairy move for various situations. Psychic is standard and the last slot is completely team dependent. If you want to a strong electric move, Thunderbolt is useful, Energy Ball is good to hit Gastrodon, Shadow Ball is good for Alolan Marowak, and Hidden Power [Fire] is good for Kartana and Celesteela so it depends on personal preference.

Notable Items

Here's some items that Tapu Lele can appreciate

• Psychium Z - Turns Psychic into the Z-Move Shatter Psyche
• Life Orb - Powers up its moves at the cost of 10% of its HP
• Choice Scarf - Gives Tapu Lele a major Speed increase while locking it into 1 move
• Psychic Seed - Gives Tapu Lele a Sp. Defense increase inside of its terrain
• Choice Specs - Gives Tapu Lele a major Sp. Attack increase while locking it into 1 move

Partners

Here's some Pokemon that work well with Tapu Lele

 - Metagross can take advantage of the Psychic Terrain and use a more powerful Zen Headbutt
 - While holding the Psychic Seed, Mandibuzz can get a Sp. Defense increase to increase its survivability
 - Garchomp can handle the Poison and Steel types that may prove to be troublesome for Tapu Lele

How to beat Tapu Lele?

• Steel Types: Celesteela, Kartana, and Metagross can threaten Kartana with strong Steel moves like Smart Strike, Heavy Slam, and Meteor Mash
• Poison Types: Nihilego, Muk, and Gengar can threaten Tapu Lele with strong Poison moves like Sludge Bomb and Poison Jab and Muk can switch in on its Psychic moves.
• Trick Room: Since Tapu Lele is a very fast Pokemon, Trick Room can be very useful to turn its speed into a disadvantage

Overall, Tapu Lele is a very strong Pokemon that relies on its high Sp. Attack stat and good Speed to overpower opponents and take them down. I hope you enjoyed this and if you can balance out its strong stats and mediocre bulk, then Tapu Lele can become a major threat. Check out my older content and I'll see you guys next time. Bye!