[SET]
name: Psychic Terrain Setter
move 1: Taunt
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Psyshock / Psychic
move 4: Nature's Madness
item: Terrain Extender
ability: Psychic Surge
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
tera type: Normal / Steel / Fairy
[SET COMMENTS]
* Despite being relatively slow and having underwhelming stats compared to the rest of the tier, Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge can be incredibly useful to many powerful Psychic types in the tier, increasing their power while protecting them from otherwise-crippling priority such as Sucker Punch from Yveltal, Shadow Sneak from Marshadow and Giratina-O, and Extreme Speed from Arceus.
* Taunt prevents slower Pokemon such as Ho-Oh from using Defog against Tapu Lele and also allows it to prevent entry hazards from setters such as Primal Groudon, Necrozma-DM, and Glimmora. This can be particularly handy against Smeargle, as preventing it from setting webs prevents foes from outspeeding teammates such as Deoxys-A and Ultra Necrozma.
* Moonblast threatens Dark types such as Yveltal and Arceus-Dark, preventing them from aggressively switching into Tapu Lele or anti-leading it, and the move also hits Giratina-O for a good amount of damage to dissuade it from switching into Tapu Lele, especially if it has already been dealt chip damage from a teammate.
* Either Psyshock or Psychic can be used to threaten most switch-ins that don't really mind Moonblast, particularly Eternatus and Primal Groudon; Psychic hits harder and hits Pokemon like Primal Groudon hard, but Psyshock does more damage to specially defensive Pokemon like Ho-Oh, Chansey, and Calm Mind Arceus formes.
* Nature's Madness makes it unsafe for virtually any Pokemon, including Chansey and Ho-Oh, to sit on Tapu Lele in an attempt to stall out Psychic Terrain turns, allowing Tapu Lele to unconditionally weaken such foes if they are left in and possibly even put them into OHKO range for Tapu Lele's other moves.
* Terastallizing Tapu Lele should only be done if absolutely necessary, as many Psychic Terrain abusers strongly value Terastal. Tera Normal can allow Tapu Lele to defeat Marshadow 1v1 in a pinch while allowing it to blank Deoxys-A's Shadow Ball and Lunala's Moongeist Beam, which can be particularly handy when facing opposing Psychic Terrain and when facing Ditto. Tera Steel can work to block Mortal Spin from Glimmora, which can be particularly handy when running Sticky Web. Tera Fairy lets Tapu Lele's Moonblast OHKO offensive Yveltal while doing a strong amount of damage to defensive ones, and it lets Tapu Lele relatively easily handle Arceus-Dark by itself by creating a resistance to its STAB move and doing extremely heavy damage to it.
* While Tapu Lele has usable Special Attack and benefits from Psychic Terrain itself, its power pales in comparison to Pokemon such as Deoxys-A and Ultra Necrozma, so it should stay in for as few turns as possible to maximize the amount of turns teammates have to use Psychic Terrain. However, even though its bulk and typing are sufficient to let it switch into many attacks, Tapu Lele's lack of pivot moves and self-sacrifice moves along with the general fraility and common shared weaknesses of most potential teammates can turn this into a double-edged sword after it is sent in, as Tapu Lele can sometimes get stuck onto the field for multiple turns after coming in, consuming precious turns of Psychic Terrain without being able to able to meaningfully make progress on top of being usable as setup fodder for Dragon Dance Ultra Necrozma and Arceus-Ground. As such, achieving maximum turns of Psychic Terrain often involves risky play that leads to either sacrificing Tapu Lele or, because there is value to preserve Tapu Lele later to reset Psychic Terrain, a teammate. To minimize this, opportunities to save a suicide lead, if ran, after it has set hazards by switching into Tapu Lele on attacks that it can survive such as Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire, Marshadow's Low Kick, and Judgment from support Arceus formes and immediately switching back into the lead on the next attack can beneficial for this purpose.
* Preserving Tapu Lele in stall matchups can allow it to stallbreak with Nature's Madness and Taunt.
* When resetting Psychic Terrain, it can be appropriate to just use Tapu Lele as death fodder against offensive teams, as it only needs to survive entry hazard damage to set Psychic Terrain, allowing for teammates to use the maximum amount of Psychic Terrain turns. However, there is some merit in switching into priority moves, particuarly against common Choice Band users such as Rayquaza and Marshadow. This dynamic can also dissuade priority users from using priority moves even if Psychic Terrain is not active for fear of giving Tapu Lele a safe switch to reset the terrain for free yet again.
* It may be useful to keep Tapu Lele in if it can do something meaningful, such as using Taunt to prevent opposing entry hazards, Defog, or setup from slower Speed boosters such as Rock Polish Primal Groudon or Dragon Dance Necrozma-DM.
* Tapu Lele's influence comes from the Pokemon it enables. Meteor Beam Deoxys-A is the biggest beneficiary of Psychic Terrain, as it deeply appreciates priority protection of all sorts due to its nonexistent bulk while often taking out Pokemon such as Ho-Oh and Yveltal with its Meteor Beam, at which point it can spam an absurdly powerful Expanding Force that is sufficient to OHKO almost everything it hits neutrally at +1, including defensive Primal Groudon, offensive Arceus formes, offensive Primal Kyogre, and Terastallized Eternatus. Additionally due to the Psychic Terrain, Deoxys-A being less reliant on Tera to avoid priority makes it even easier to fit onto teams. Ultra Necrozma's bulk in base forme, powerful Light That Burns the Sky, and ability to set up with Dragon Dance complement the general fast, frail special attackers otherwise used as teammates, warding against counterplay in specially defensive Pokemon like Ho-Oh and Primal Kyogre while not being overly reliant on Psychic Terrain to sweep like Expanding Force users. Ultra Necrozma also particularly enjoys protection against Marshadow's Shadow Sneak and Yveltal's Sucker Punch and the potential of teammates and Tapu Lele itself to threaten Yveltal and Arceus-Dark.
* Glimmora can also be a good teammate, as it is very consistent at setting various entry hazards to put bulkier Pokemon such as Arceus formes into OHKO range for teammates while preventing opposing hazards and threatening Ho-Oh and Yveltal with its Power Gem. Alternatively, while they are less consistent at getting Stealth Rock up, Sticky Web from setters such as Smeargle and Shuckle may provide some added insurance against opposing opposing speedy or otherwise dangerous threats such as Deoxys-A, Ultra Necrozma, Zacian-C, and Booster Energy Flutter Mane, and can be particularly helpful in allowing for the freer use of potential teammates such as Lunala, Basculegion, and Mega Mewtwo Y while also potentially freeing up team members such as Deoxys-A to not run Speed-boosting natures for more power. Ditto may be appropriate to handle Speed boosters such as Arceus-Ground as well as Sticky Web sweepers.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/zrp200.327515/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/bobsican.434487/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/bumboclaat.523420/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/user4.104
name: Psychic Terrain Setter
move 1: Taunt
move 2: Moonblast
move 3: Psyshock / Psychic
move 4: Nature's Madness
item: Terrain Extender
ability: Psychic Surge
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
tera type: Normal / Steel / Fairy
[SET COMMENTS]
* Despite being relatively slow and having underwhelming stats compared to the rest of the tier, Tapu Lele's Psychic Surge can be incredibly useful to many powerful Psychic types in the tier, increasing their power while protecting them from otherwise-crippling priority such as Sucker Punch from Yveltal, Shadow Sneak from Marshadow and Giratina-O, and Extreme Speed from Arceus.
* Taunt prevents slower Pokemon such as Ho-Oh from using Defog against Tapu Lele and also allows it to prevent entry hazards from setters such as Primal Groudon, Necrozma-DM, and Glimmora. This can be particularly handy against Smeargle, as preventing it from setting webs prevents foes from outspeeding teammates such as Deoxys-A and Ultra Necrozma.
* Moonblast threatens Dark types such as Yveltal and Arceus-Dark, preventing them from aggressively switching into Tapu Lele or anti-leading it, and the move also hits Giratina-O for a good amount of damage to dissuade it from switching into Tapu Lele, especially if it has already been dealt chip damage from a teammate.
* Either Psyshock or Psychic can be used to threaten most switch-ins that don't really mind Moonblast, particularly Eternatus and Primal Groudon; Psychic hits harder and hits Pokemon like Primal Groudon hard, but Psyshock does more damage to specially defensive Pokemon like Ho-Oh, Chansey, and Calm Mind Arceus formes.
* Nature's Madness makes it unsafe for virtually any Pokemon, including Chansey and Ho-Oh, to sit on Tapu Lele in an attempt to stall out Psychic Terrain turns, allowing Tapu Lele to unconditionally weaken such foes if they are left in and possibly even put them into OHKO range for Tapu Lele's other moves.
* Terastallizing Tapu Lele should only be done if absolutely necessary, as many Psychic Terrain abusers strongly value Terastal. Tera Normal can allow Tapu Lele to defeat Marshadow 1v1 in a pinch while allowing it to blank Deoxys-A's Shadow Ball and Lunala's Moongeist Beam, which can be particularly handy when facing opposing Psychic Terrain and when facing Ditto. Tera Steel can work to block Mortal Spin from Glimmora, which can be particularly handy when running Sticky Web. Tera Fairy lets Tapu Lele's Moonblast OHKO offensive Yveltal while doing a strong amount of damage to defensive ones, and it lets Tapu Lele relatively easily handle Arceus-Dark by itself by creating a resistance to its STAB move and doing extremely heavy damage to it.
* While Tapu Lele has usable Special Attack and benefits from Psychic Terrain itself, its power pales in comparison to Pokemon such as Deoxys-A and Ultra Necrozma, so it should stay in for as few turns as possible to maximize the amount of turns teammates have to use Psychic Terrain. However, even though its bulk and typing are sufficient to let it switch into many attacks, Tapu Lele's lack of pivot moves and self-sacrifice moves along with the general fraility and common shared weaknesses of most potential teammates can turn this into a double-edged sword after it is sent in, as Tapu Lele can sometimes get stuck onto the field for multiple turns after coming in, consuming precious turns of Psychic Terrain without being able to able to meaningfully make progress on top of being usable as setup fodder for Dragon Dance Ultra Necrozma and Arceus-Ground. As such, achieving maximum turns of Psychic Terrain often involves risky play that leads to either sacrificing Tapu Lele or, because there is value to preserve Tapu Lele later to reset Psychic Terrain, a teammate. To minimize this, opportunities to save a suicide lead, if ran, after it has set hazards by switching into Tapu Lele on attacks that it can survive such as Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire, Marshadow's Low Kick, and Judgment from support Arceus formes and immediately switching back into the lead on the next attack can beneficial for this purpose.
* Preserving Tapu Lele in stall matchups can allow it to stallbreak with Nature's Madness and Taunt.
* When resetting Psychic Terrain, it can be appropriate to just use Tapu Lele as death fodder against offensive teams, as it only needs to survive entry hazard damage to set Psychic Terrain, allowing for teammates to use the maximum amount of Psychic Terrain turns. However, there is some merit in switching into priority moves, particuarly against common Choice Band users such as Rayquaza and Marshadow. This dynamic can also dissuade priority users from using priority moves even if Psychic Terrain is not active for fear of giving Tapu Lele a safe switch to reset the terrain for free yet again.
* It may be useful to keep Tapu Lele in if it can do something meaningful, such as using Taunt to prevent opposing entry hazards, Defog, or setup from slower Speed boosters such as Rock Polish Primal Groudon or Dragon Dance Necrozma-DM.
* Tapu Lele's influence comes from the Pokemon it enables. Meteor Beam Deoxys-A is the biggest beneficiary of Psychic Terrain, as it deeply appreciates priority protection of all sorts due to its nonexistent bulk while often taking out Pokemon such as Ho-Oh and Yveltal with its Meteor Beam, at which point it can spam an absurdly powerful Expanding Force that is sufficient to OHKO almost everything it hits neutrally at +1, including defensive Primal Groudon, offensive Arceus formes, offensive Primal Kyogre, and Terastallized Eternatus. Additionally due to the Psychic Terrain, Deoxys-A being less reliant on Tera to avoid priority makes it even easier to fit onto teams. Ultra Necrozma's bulk in base forme, powerful Light That Burns the Sky, and ability to set up with Dragon Dance complement the general fast, frail special attackers otherwise used as teammates, warding against counterplay in specially defensive Pokemon like Ho-Oh and Primal Kyogre while not being overly reliant on Psychic Terrain to sweep like Expanding Force users. Ultra Necrozma also particularly enjoys protection against Marshadow's Shadow Sneak and Yveltal's Sucker Punch and the potential of teammates and Tapu Lele itself to threaten Yveltal and Arceus-Dark.
* Glimmora can also be a good teammate, as it is very consistent at setting various entry hazards to put bulkier Pokemon such as Arceus formes into OHKO range for teammates while preventing opposing hazards and threatening Ho-Oh and Yveltal with its Power Gem. Alternatively, while they are less consistent at getting Stealth Rock up, Sticky Web from setters such as Smeargle and Shuckle may provide some added insurance against opposing opposing speedy or otherwise dangerous threats such as Deoxys-A, Ultra Necrozma, Zacian-C, and Booster Energy Flutter Mane, and can be particularly helpful in allowing for the freer use of potential teammates such as Lunala, Basculegion, and Mega Mewtwo Y while also potentially freeing up team members such as Deoxys-A to not run Speed-boosting natures for more power. Ditto may be appropriate to handle Speed boosters such as Arceus-Ground as well as Sticky Web sweepers.
[SET CREDITS]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/zrp200.327515/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/bobsican.434487/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/bumboclaat.523420/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/user4.104
Last edited:
