Tapu Lele is a devastating special attacker that can set Psychic Terrain, taking its attacks to the next level. Its on two fantastic types: Psychic and Fairy. Psychic teams obviously appreciate Psychic Surge increasing the power of their STAB attacks and making them immune to priority attacks such as Bisharp's Sucker Punch. While Fairy teams might not be able to take full advantage of Psychic Terrain, they still appreciate it stopping priority attacks like Mega Scizor's Bullet Punch.
Tapu Lele mainly runs sets such as Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, and Calm Mind. Choice Scarf Tapu Lele is a fantastic revenge killer, hitting with great power under Psychic Terrain, and is a great late-game cleaner. Choice Specs Tapu Lele can 2HKO the entire metagame between its STAB and coverage moves. Calm Mind sets tend to be Tapu Lele's most dangerous due to the level of flexibility they have: Ghostium Z targets usual checks like Aegislash; Electrium Z can electrify Skarmory, Celesteela, and Corviknight out of the game; Fightinium Z can take on Steel-types such as Ferrothorn, Melmetal, and Heatran; and Psychium Z can be used as a nuke. Additionally, Tapu Lele has Hidden Power Fire to target Mega Scizor as another means of breaking past its natural checks. After these specific threats are gone, Tapu Lele can freely spam its Psychic Terrain-boosted STAB attack.
While Tapu Lele does have all these positive traits, it also has an average Speed tier for an offensive Pokemon, allowing it to be revenge killed by faster threats such as Garchomp, Greninja, Cinderace, Mega Aerodactyl, and Zarude. In addition to this, Tapu Lele is reliant on its Terrain to be as successful as it is, and there are a ton of Terrain setters on a variety of different types, making it hard to keep Psychic Terrain up.
Overall, while Tapu Lele has a few downsides, they are heavily outweighed by its positive traits, and the National Dex Monotype council has decided to unanimously suspect it!
Suspect Test Information
- This suspect test will count towards the new tiering contributor badge!
- Reading this is mandatory to participate in the suspect test. The voting requirements are a minimum GXE of 78 with at least 50 games played. In addition, you may play 1 less game for every 0.2 GXE you have above 78 GXE, down to a minimum of 30 games at a GXE of 82. Also, doing more than 50 games to reach 78 GXE will suffice.
- Tapu Lele will require a 60% majority of voters in favor of banning it in order for it to be banned from National Dex Monotype.
GXE minimum games 78 50 78.2 49 78.4 48 78.6 47 78.8 46 79 45 79.2 44 79.4 43 79.6 42 79.8 41 80 40 80.2 39 80.4 38 80.6 37 80.8 36 81 35 81.2 34 81.4 33 81.6 32 81.8 31 82 30 - You must use a fresh account that begins with the given prefix for this suspect test. That prefix is NDMTL. For example, I could signup and qualify with the name NDMTL maroon.
- You may not impersonate or mock another user with your account name. If there is any slight hesitation, you're probably better off picking a different name. We reserve the right to null your voting requisites if you are found impersonating or mocking another user with your account name. Moderator discretion will be applied.
- If you are found trying to manipulate voting requisites in any way, you will be met with a harsh infraction. Manipulating voting requisites ranges from faking your screenshot to asking another user to forfeit.
- The Pokemon that's being suspect tested, Tapu Lele, will be allowed on the National Dex Monotype ladder for the next two weeks so that we can properly assess its position in the metagame.
- This suspect test will go on for two weeks. It will last until Thursday, September 9th @ 11:59 PM EST (GMT-4).