Tapu Bulu [1/2] Writing

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[OVERVIEW]
  • Tapu Bulu is a threatening physical attacker in the Doubles OU metagame due to its excellent ability Grassy Surge.
  • Grassy Terrain boosted Wood Hammers coming off its high attack stat make it hit like a motherfucker.
  • Grassy Terrain has a number of other beneficial effects, such as reverting opposing terrains to ease hits from the likes of Tapu Lele or Tapu Koko, providing passive recovery for Grounded allies, and weakening the power of Earthquake. The latter is especially useful for Ground weak allies like Bronzong and Heatran, which Tapu Bulu partners very well with as a result.
  • Awkward speed tier means it's heavily reliant on speed control, yet it isn't quite slow enough to utilize Trick Room to its fullest extent.
  • Its unique typing gives it good resistances to Electric, Ground, and Water, but its also weak to common attacking types such as Fire and Flying.
  • Somewhat limited coverage options makes it reliant on its STAB, meaning Steel- and Grass-types give it a lot of trouble
  • Rather predictable because it only has one viable set
  • Overall it's held back by its middling speed tier and poor typing, but can shine if given proper team support
[SET]
name: Physical Attacker
move 1: Wood Hammer
move 2: Superpower
move 3: Stone Edge
move 4: Nature's Madness
item: Assault Vest
ability: Grassy Surge
nature: Brave
evs: 252 HP / 192 Atk / 64 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
  • Wood Hammer does heavy damage to most targets, capable of 2HKOing most anything that doesn't resist.
  • Horn Leech's recovery is pretty neat, but it's substantially weaker.
  • Superpower is used to hit targets such as Heatran and Ferrothorn, who are 4x resistant to Wood Hammer.
  • Superpower must be used sparingly, however, since it drops the users Attack and Defense.
  • Similarly, Stone Edge is used to hit the likes of Salamence and Charizard, both of which take little damage from Wood Hammer.
  • Nature's Madness allows Tapu Bulu to dent targets such as Celesteela, Aegislash, and Amoonguss, who take negligible damage from all of Tapu Bulu's other attacks.

Set Details
========
  • Assault Vest is used to let Tapu Bulu sponge special hits from the likes of Tapu Koko or Kingdra much more easily.
  • A Brave Nature and EV spread of 252 HP / 192 Atk / 64 SpD let Tapu Bulu live a spread Heat Wave from Mega Charizard Y and dumps the remaining EVs in Attack.
  • If used on a Trick Room team, Tapu Bulu's Speed IV should be set to 0.
  • If Tapu Bulu isn't being used on a Trick Room team, a spread of 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe can be used alongside an Adamant nature. This allows Tapu Bulu to outspeed slower variants of Heatran.
  • Alternatively, it can run a spread of x HP / x Atk / x SpD / x Spe with an Adamant nature, which hits the same defensive benchmark as the primary spread but lets it outspeed uninvested Milotic

Usage Tips
========
  • Use Wood Hammer all day ery day
  • Only use your other moves if you're facing a 4x resist or other Pokemon that walls you; resisted Terrain boosted Wood Hammer still hits harder than a super effective coverage move
  • Good switch in to resisted attacks
  • Use it to revert opposing terrains
  • Try to preserve it so you don't lose the Terrain war late game
Team Options
========
  • Speed control is pretty mandatory for Tapu Bulu to succeed. It's best paired with Trick Room setters such as Bronzong and Hoopa-U. Bronzong appreciates Tapu Bulu's Grassy Surge, which cancels opposing Misty and Electric Terrains, allowing Bronzong to spam Hypnosis freely. Bronzong also appreciates the damage reduction from Earthquake. Hoopa-U, on the other hand, handily beats Aegislash and Heatran, while in return Tapu Bulu beats Tapu Fini and Tyranitar, among others.
  • Tapu Bulu needs partners that can beat Steel-types. Fire-types such as Heatran and Mega Charizard Y are good allies since they have nice defensive synergy with Tapu Bulu, while Ground-types such as Landorus-T and Zygarde can also threaten out opposing Fire-types.
  • Switch-ins to Mega Salamence are appreciated as well. Steel-types such as Aegislash, Heatran, and Celesteela all work, as do Electric-types such as Tapu Koko and Zapdos.

[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
  • LO / Grassium Z
  • CB
  • Miracle Seed

Checks and Counters
===================
**Fire-Type Pokemon**: Heatran and Zard. Gotta watch out for Superpower and Stone Edge respectively, though.

**Steel-Type Pokemon**: Completely wall it. Aegislash, Celesteela, and Heatran. All of them can set a sub pretty freely.

**Flying-Type Pokemon**: They switch-in pretty easily and beat it 1v1. Gotta watch out for Stone Edge tho. Mega Salamence.

**Poison-Type Pokemon**: Posion Types, such as Mega Gengar and Alolan Muk, can switch in easily and cleanly OHKO it.

**Intimidate and Burns**: Mence and Lando; Gengar and...Rotom-W?
 
Last edited:

shaian

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[Overview]
- It's speed tier isn't middling, it's poor as hell. It's an awkward tier making it slightly too slow to be optimal on offensive builds and slightly too fast to be optimal on Trick Room builds (which I would argue is it's best archetype).
- Give more explanation on Grassy Surge and why it's good on the archetypes that Bulu is often found on.

[Set Details]
- Give a more bulky set to go along with your fast one as the viable alternate spreads

[Usage Tips]
- Rudimentary as hell but it covers what is needed so I'll just assume it'll be tightened up in the write up

[Team Options]
- Update this to reflect metagame changes

[Other Options]
- Miracle Seed has seen a bit of usage as a way to squeeze Protect on Tapu Bulu, so it merits at least a mention

[Checks and Counters]
- Update this to reflect metagame changes
- Intimidate and Burns should be here as well
- In **Flying-Types** Zapdos is an awkward thing to mention in terms of dealing with Bulu due to coverage -- HP Ice is at best a 4HKO in non-Grassy Terrain if we use MajorBowman's Zapdos spread against 252 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Bulu, and it becomes even worse if Tapu Bulu is running more SpD which isn't uncommon and is in Grassy Terrain. Not to mention, Stone Edge is a guaranteed 2HKO on Zapdos, and Wood Hammer as well does close to 40-50% on 252 HP / 116 Def Zapdos.

Due all that for QC 1/2
 

Pocket

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Here are some offensive benchmarks that you can mention:
20 Atk EVs - OHKO max HP Tapu Lele with Wood Hammer
56 Atk EVs - 2HKO min HP Mega Mence with Stone Edge
56 Atk EVs - OHKO min HP Kingdra with Wood Hammer
136 Atk EVs - OHKO 248 HP Charizard Y with Stone Edge after Intimidate
152 Atk EVs - 2HKO 4 HP Heatran Superpower after Atk drop and Grassy Terrain recovery

I usually like to give Tapu Bulu's Speed to hit 199 to be faster than min Spe Milotic before it can land a Scald burn / Hypnosis
 

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