Project Next Best Thing

[Heatranator]

Bulk Up + Special Move Lucario

Lucario @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
Tera Type: Normal
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
- Extreme Speed
- Psychic/Shadow Ball
Decided to change this up a bit, but this is a set I've being loving on Lucario. Bulk Up Lucario is in my eyes a very dangerous mon. It can leverage its good enough speed and typing to sweep endgames by switching into many common attacks and winning the game from their. However, one of its weaknesses is that it can sometimes struggle with some physically defensive mons such as Ghost types and Slowbro (for reference, I was using this in RU and amoonguss was being amoonguss and annoying the hell out of me). This set takes advantage of these physical mons by destroying them with a coverage move. Bulk up is of course the setup move of choice to make sure that lucario can take many hits (which also offsets the hasty nature defense decrease) while drain punch keeps lucario healthy alongside leftovers so it can attempt to sweep multiple times a game. Extreme speed with tera normal allows it to clean up games against faster teams. Psychic can deal with poison types such as dragalge by 3hit ko'ing them at worst, while shadow ball can deal with ghost types such as basculegion and chandelure.

 

[PKQ]

Alright, people, I don't know how good this set can be, but whatever. The only downfall I wish I could use is the Justified ability.

Lucario (M) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Dragon
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Swords Dance
- Counter
- Bullet Punch
- Copycat

My goal was to use counter strategies because I thought it was fun, and its weak defense makes it usable. I chose SD and BP because I just wanted STAB priority, and for a setup move other than SD, I thought it would be a waste of time because BP can hit every type. I thought about Psych Up, but I didn't think people would set up on Lucario like that. Copycat is for the people who want to set up on you so you can copy them and make moves that you can use against them to hit neutral. This is also why I chose Tera Dragon, so you can try to mix up the moves for Copycat to hit neutral.

Edit: I forgot to add, but it is kinda predictable that I went with Hasty Nature because Counter should be stronger, and I won't hurt the Special Attack for Copycat.

 

[LessThanThreeMan]

Mixed Agility Lucario

Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 188 Atk / 144 SpA / 176 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge / Meteor Mash
- Shadow Ball
- Agility

We all know and love the standard E-Killer lucario variants. It sets up an SD and tries to clean your team mostly with extreme speed and tera normal. Offensive teams typically check lucario with a fast natural or tera resist/immunity... but what if I told you that wasn't enough? This set aims to outspeed the opposing team and clean with Lucario's unique coverage options!

Unlike most things that boost speed in NU, (venusaur, feraligatr, cloyster, etc.) Lucario sits above the base 80 speed tier and can outspeed the relevant scarfers (infernape being the fastest) at +2 without the need for a speed increasing nature. This frees up more EVs to invest in either bulk or offenses. I went with a mixed offensive spread here. I think a lot of people have caught on to mixed lucario with shadow ball at this point (credits to Lucario for showing me this idea!) to primarily target slowbro. With this investment and LO Tera Ghost Luke can OHKO slowbro after rocks! The remaining EVs and positive nature were invest into attack to otherwise maximize the damage. Talonflame is commonly used to check lucario, it can eat a hit, burn with wisp or flame body, and outspeeds. Some even check it further with tera ghost.This set has the added bonus of luring talonflame with stone edge (noticeably not contact) opening up other physical attackers like mienshao. Typically talonflame has nothing to fear from offensively unboosted lucario, so they shouldn't feel the need to tera here. Stone edge also hits the other flying types (thundurus and noivern) and covers chandelure and typhlosion-hisui. On top of boosting shadow ball, Tera Ghost allows lucario to set up on the common choice locked fighting moves, and be immune to normal/fighting priority moves which are fairly common in this meta. Pre-tera lucario naturally resists lycanroc's acceleroc and sucker punch as well.

Team: https://pokepast.es/9c2749d2ef38aa11

Replays: (There are some fun ones in here!)

Hide

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/battle-gen9nu-2102369606-3hcdl4r2ihosb92ib8vvna7an6bgbqqpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nu-2102367089?p2
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nu-2102349248?p2

 

[nameless90]

Shuffler Lucario

Lucario @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Final Gambit
- Circle Throw
- Iron Defense
- Life Dew


This is a totally unexpected, yet effective, set that focuses its attention mainly on Final Gambit in order to get surgically rid of pokemons up to base 80 hp uninvested (343 hit points, the same of this Lucario). Also, Final Gambit allows us to keep the momentum.
Circle Throw is here in order to make good use of the hazards your teammate(s) were able to lay down on the field. Iron Defense + Life Dew + Leftovers is here to keep the hp of Lucario as high as possible, while using its natural resistances and immunities in order to stall some threats. Life Dew is superior here to Drain Punch because it doesn't rely on hitting supereffectively to recharge a good amount of hp and because in this set we can't use Atk EVs. Also, using Life Dew makes you totally immune to burn since Circle Throw is not used to have damage output, but only for utility.
Tera Flying in order to stay in on an incoming Earthquake.
The ability chosen is Inner Focus because is the most solid one.

The EVs spread is a fast bulky one, with 248 HP EVs in order to reach an odd hp number.

 

[Lucario]

Submissions closed for Week 4. You may vote for up to two sets that you deem worthy of calling the Next Best Thing! Remember, even if you did not submit a set you are still allowed to vote for your favorites.

Ballot:
Diamonds_Realm's Mixed Work Up
Heatranator's Bulk Up + Special Move
PKQ's Focus Sash + Counter + Copycat
LessThanThreeMan's Agility + 3A
Nameless90's Shuffler Set

Please submit your votes Friday, April 19th by 1pm (EST).

 

[Shengineer]

I'll just vote for LTTM

 

[Rabia]

LTTM fs

 

[Diamonds_realm]

LTTMs

 

[nameless90]

Diamonds_Realm's Mixed Work Up

 

[PKQ]

LTTM

 

[Heatranator]

LLTM and Diamonds_Realm

 

[LessThanThreeMan]

Diamonds and Heatranator

 

[Kiyo]

Diamonds

 

[Lucario]

Congratulations to LessThanThreeMan on winning Week 4 of NBT! The people have chosen Mixed Agility as the best set! Shengineer will be back sometime soon with Week 5. Later yall


Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
Tera Type: Ghost
EVs: 188 Atk / 144 SpA / 176 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge / Meteor Mash
- Shadow Ball
- Agility

 

[Shengineer]

Let's keep things moving along with our next installment... now!

Week 5: Chandelure


This spooky chandelier has a lot to offer in NU, and I'm excited to see what sets you all will discover for this week of NBT!

Submissions will close around 7:00pm GMT-4 on Monday, April 22.

Banned Sets

Specs/Scarf: 4 Attacks or 3 Attacks + Trick
Boots + Calm Mind + 3 Attacks

 

[Rabia]

Chandelure @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball
- Memento

I've been experimenting a lot with Sticky Web this generation, and part of that includes figuring out the best supportive options. Memento is a pretty cool tool for such teams, and on one of my builds I went with Chandelure to provide it. Chandelure's great on these teams for spinblocking too, and it even pretty solid at wallbreaking still with a more supportive set. Air Balloon is probably not needed all the time, but on the build I used this set on, I wanted a Ground immunity. Frankly, it's been a really solid item for bothering opposing Flygon/Krookodile/boosted Torterra, so it must be good :]

In this video (shameless plug I know), you can see Chandelure do useful things:

 

[Lucario]

Chandelure @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Flame Charge
- Calm Mind

Chandelure loves running Specs and Scarf, but it obviously can't run both at the same time. This set is a combination of the two sets. Calm Mind boosts its SpA while Flame Charge boosts its Spe. Taking a +1 Shadow Ball from Chandelure is tough, but can be easily revenged thanks to its low speed. Flame Charge ensures it is much harder to revenge. It's worth more to use Flame Charge before Calm Mind since your moves are already hitting hard, so having that Speed ready is nice.

 

[Diamonds_realm]

Chandelure just so happens to be my favorite mon, so you know I had to get cooking with this one, this set aims to be more supportive by spreading burns and being a more reliable spin blocker than its offensive counterpart. This is defensive chandelure.



Chandelure @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
- Hex
- Energy Ball

This set is walls 3 of our 4 main spinners, tsareena can only 2 hit ko with knock off if it is max attack adamant and even then the roll is heavily in chandelure's favor and that isn't mentioning the multiple chances to burn, most tentacruel aren't running surf so they only have knock off and flip turn to hit you also risking a burn, and avalugg even if they have EQ your only taking 128-152 (39.5 - 46.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO so no fear of even crit knocking you out on switch in, and you can freely spread burns or pain split back up after coming in. You also naturally lure many physical attacker attempting to switch in on a resisted stab they expect to come in and burn them instead. Hex is a classic pairing allowing for chandelure to still put out solid damage uninvested and energy ball hits the waters + krookodile.

I paired this set on a team centered around stacking hazards and multiple knock offs for those pesky boots, I would consider changing oricorio's tera though as I never found the situations to click it that I had thought I may run into.
NBT Defensive Chandy (pokepast.es)

Also I have a few replays:

Opponent FFs after tanking a +2 jet from gatr: Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)

Chandy makes curse muk switch: Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)

Definitely not a replay of beating Kiyo on ladder: Replays - Pokémon Showdown! (pokemonshowdown.com)

 

[Heatranator]

Blunder Policy Chandelure

Chandelure @ Blunder Policy
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Ghost/Dark/Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Inferno
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind/Energy Ball
I changed my mind, Imma do this gimmicky set. Blunder Policy Chandelure is the ultimate end game sweeper. By using inferno, Chandelure is either using a really powerful stab move that always burns or getting a +2 speed boost. The speed means that you speed tier chlorophyll Venusaur in sun, which is good. Flamethrower and Shadow Ball are just good stab moves, so you don't rely on 50% accuracy move for stab. Calm mind can mean you snowball even faster while energy ball gives up on raw damage for the ability to super effectively hit water types. Tera ghost boosts the power of shadow ball to get through bulky targets, tera dark gives you a resistance to both dark and ghost moves and tera grass can be used defensively alongside flash fire and offensively with energy ball.

 

[PKQ]

I think I have a weird obsession with Pokemon that can lead, but here is the set I will put. I wasn't even going to do this because this Pokemon somehow seems harder than Lucario, but aye.

Chandelure (F) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Flame Body
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Curse
- Memento
- Trick
- Dark Pulse

The goal of this set is to go out with a bang. With Curse or Memento, you are almost guaranteed a switch out, so whatever Pokemon you want to set up, you should be all right. I have Choice Scarf so that you can almost outspeed everything that isn't Choice Scarf. Trick is there to get Pokemon like Slowbro so you can punish them. Dark Pulse with tera Dark for the damage.

 

[Wadley]

Chandelure @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Pain Split
- Fire Spin
- Acid Armor
Just posting this set to reserve it will make a full post tomorrow

 

[LessThanThreeMan]

Reserving Eject Pack + Overheat Reservation Retracted. I spent as much time as I'd like to trying to get some games that showcase this set and wasn't successful. It might have some use on the right structure, I think this may just be worse than Rabia's air balloon memento set. That set supports your teammates with a setup opportunity (more of a HO context) and eject overheat helps you get chip + momentum on things like amuk (more of a balance context.) It just wasn't working out in practice though. I've seen things like duralodon and eggy-alola use this type of set successfully but I think the difference here is that those provide more of a defensive niche than chandy does and can come in on some hits, get their big hit off, and get you momentum/positioning.

 

[nameless90]

Offensive Pain Split Chandelure with Infiltrator

Chandelure @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Infiltrator
Tera Type: Ghost/Fire/Grass
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Pain Split
- Flamethrower
- Shadow Ball
- Energy Ball

This is a pretty standard offensive set that uses a basic EVs spread + HDB in order to lower as much as possible the damage from entry hazards since you want to be free to switch-out if needed. Also, we have the bulk to check some threats even thanks to the set of resistances/immunities we have.
Flamethrower (picked over Fire Blast for accuracy) + Shadow Ball is the dual STAB combination, and Energy Ball is for coverage. Pain Split is the key of the set because we don't have HP EVs investment and we can use this move as a way to circumvent some hard checks while regaining some health in the process.
The Tera choice is base on what move your team needs to be as powerful as possible. One key point of this set is that you don't really need to use the Tera...but it can be a nice plus if needed.
The ability Infiltrator is just perfect because it allows us to get past Substitutes, and also to ignore screens: this way you are free to spam offensive move as you wish. Also, you can bluff to have the ability Flame Body since it activates 30% of the time not at will. Flash Fire is really useful alongside a Tera weak to Fire, but I think that here Infiltrator is just too good.

 

[Shengineer]

Submissions Closed for the Week! As usual you may vote for up to two of your favorites. I won’t bother with making a ballot, y’all can scroll up :)

Voting will close around 5:00pm Thursday GMT-4

 

[Lucario]

wadley's bulky chandy