shrang
General Kenobi
[OVERVIEW]
- Cool mon with a bunch of applications
- Misty Terrain prevents status for 5-8 turns depending on item, which is a huge boon to a bunch of set up sweepers
- Outside of terrain, Tapu Fini is also a decent Dark-type check, easily checking Yveltal, as well as a good Primal Kyogre pivot for Primal Groudon, as well as disrupting Psychic Terrain
- Weak to Mega Gengar unfortunately, so you need to be quite careful with it around
- Also lacks ways to hurt Primal Groudon outside of Nature's Madness, which is quite debilitating
- Also has no options for recovery outside of Leftovers, which is kind of annoying since you really want Terrain Extender to boost time for Misty Terrain
[SET]
name: Misty Terrain
move 1: Nature's Madness
move 2: Defog
move 3: Moonblast
move 4: Hydro Pump / Taunt
item: Leftovers / Terrain Extender
ability: Misty Surge
nature: Calm
evs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
- Nature's Madness is your catch all "hurt every switch-in" move that wipes out 1/2 HP to anything that switches in, which is really cool
- Defog - well Tapu Fini learns it, so you may as well use it over a Pokemon you could probably do a lot more with, like an Arc forme
- Moonblast is consistent STAB to hit things Tapu Fini are supposed to check - namely Darks
- Hydro Pump hits Gengar relatively hard
- Taunt stops CM Darkceus from getting too many boosts (although you will lose and end up trading with it), it also stops hazard users like Ferrothorn from taking advantage of Tapu Fini's lack of offenses
Set Details
========
- Status immunity is an awesome boon to give to its allies, especially those that are commonly stopped by status - see Ekiller, GeoXern, setup Primal Groudons and a bunch of others
- On top of that Tapu Fini is also good for switching into Dark-types, switching into Water attacks from Primal Kyogre so Primal Groudon can come back in, and disrupting Psychic Terrain teams
- Problems: Mega Gengar weak (never good), no reliable recovery, has trouble hitting Primal Groudon outside of Nature's Madness
- Another thing to note as a problem: Tapu Fini is inherently a defensive Pokemon but the Pokemon that it gives support to are offensive Pokemon, which means you lose a ton of momentum as soon as you're in, kind of like what Lugia does if you land it in an HO team
- Leftovers is ideal because unlike other Tapus, Tapu Fini is primarily a defensive Pokemon and needs to switch into Pokemon multiple times, but Terrain Extender is also valuable for extending Misty Terrain to 8 turns
Usage Tips
========
- Don't throw this thing away willy-nilly - it does more than just provide terrain
- Early game you should probably just spam Nature's Madness and catch switch-ins while setting up terrain and switch out whenever possible to your sweeper
- Be careful around Mega Gengar - while you can live a Sludge Wave, you can only beat it if you hit it with Nature's Madness or Hydro Pump on the switch-in, switch out as it's Mega evolving and kill it after it comes back in later (Hydro Pump does ~45%)
- As mentioned above, Tapu Fini is a huge momentum sapper, as such you should limit its time in battle as much as possible. Once you've switched into like Yveltal or something, try to double to your sweeper straight away so you can take advantage of whatever they switch into Tapu Fini rather than passive switching out of their counter - while you should not play recklessly, you do need to be quite aggressive when using this
Team Options
========
- Setup sweepers - lots of them
- Extreme Killer Arceus - loves the fact it can't be burned or Toxiced so it can set up a couple of times and go to town
- (Z-)Geomancy Xerneas - Thunder Wave, while nerfed, is still annoying to GeoXern. Z-Geomancy is a completely different beast with Misty Terrain; with Ingrain and Misty Terrain, you take out any chance for it getting stopped passively
- Double/Swords Dance Primal Groudon - stuff like Waterceus can now do absolutely zero to Primal Groudon under Misty Terrain
- Calm Mind Lunala - Misty Terrain lets it Calm Mind and Roost more freely without having to worry about status for a few turns, and Tapu Fini switches beautifully into Dark-types that counter Lunala
- Other Calm Mind users - Primal Kyogre, Arceus-Fairy (a bit redundant on typing)
- Obviously don't just pile Tapu Fini + 5 sweepers, you still need stuff like entry hazards, a defensive core and what not
- Primal Groudon itself can be used as the most reliable Stealth Rock user (aside from probably Dialga)
- Defensively things that go well with Tapu Fini - Giratina-O, Dark-types (particularly Tyranitar, see next entry), Steel-types like Solgaleo, Ho-oh
- Tyranitar: While Sand Stream messes with Tapu Fini's longevity (especially if you're holding Terrain Extender), it goes a long way in removing Gengar from the picture (although Pursuiting Gengar is still tricky, even with Tyranitar)
- Other Pursuit users: Deoxys-A will pretty much guarantee a Gengar switch-out for an easy Pursuit - defensively it doesn't do much for Tapu Fini, but it's a great fit onto offensive teams and probably the most reliable Pokemon to Pursuit Gengar with at this stage
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
- Haze
- Calm Mind - pretty interesting, as you can beat CM Refresh Dark Arceus with this, while if you Calm Mind on a Gengar switch, you can Calm Mind again and then OHKOing the thing with Hydro Pump, while Tapu Fini avoids getting 2HKOed by Sludge Wave
- Dual Screens
- Soak
- Psych Up
- Whirlpool
Checks and Counters
===================
- Note: None of the following Pokemon will enjoy taking Nature's Madness, unless they have reliable recovery
- Primal Groudon
- Mega Gengar
- Primal Kyogre
- Skarmory
- Ferrothorn
- Solgaleo
- Ho-oh
- Toxapex/Tentacruel/Arceus-Poison
Last edited: