VGC 2017 Pokémon Spotlight #10: Tapu Fini

Welcome back to another Pokémon Spotlight, where the goal is to look at a Pokémon that's doing well in the VGC 2017 format and give you the necessary info to both use and beat it. Today, we're going to talk about the Tapu Fini. What's started out as what was decided to be a pretty bad Pokémon before by many players, to now a metagame mainstay, let's dive in and see why Tapu Fini is doing so well. Let's begin.

Base Stats

Looking at its stats, Tapu Fini has the stats of a decent defensive tank. 70/115/130 is great because it allows it to take hits from a lot of prevalent threats, making it harder to KO, which allows you to use your base 95 Sp. Attack stat to to cause a lot of damage. Base 85 Speed means Tapu Fini is the 2nd slowest Tapu Pokemon, only 10 points faster than Tapu Bulu's base 75 speed stat. Overall, Tapu Fini has great stats for a defensive Pokemon and stats just strong enough for a viable offensive attacker,

Notable Moves

(Here's some moves you can expect to see on Tapu Fini)

1. Moonblast - Strong & consistent single-target Fairy type move
2. Heal Pulse - Useful to heal up the partner to keep it on the field longer
3. Haze - Useful for stopping status moves 
4. Nature's Madness - Cuts a Pokemon's HP by 50% if even HP stat. 51% if odd HP stat
5. Muddy Water - Alternative water spread move to Scald due to Misty Terrain's status preventing effects
6. Hydro Pump - High-powered single-target Water move to chunk threats.
7. Calm Mind - Increases Tapu Fini's Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense stat by 1 stage each.
8. Taunt - Useful for stopping status moves and potential set-up
9. Ice Beam - Strong move to hit Pokemon like Garchomp and Salamence harder than Moonblast
10. Protect - Useful for blocking moves and weakening the power of Z-Moves
11. Scald - Strong, single target Water move to hit targets harder than with Muddy Water
12. Grass Knot - Useful for primarily hitting Gastrodon
13. Dazzling Gleam - Useful, spread Fairy type move 

Now it's time for some sample sets to use on Tapu Fini.

Tapu Fini @ Leftovers

Ability: Misty Surge

EVs: 252 HP / 44 Def / 196 SpA / 4 SpD / 12 Spe

Calm Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Muddy Water

- Moonblast

- Calm Mind

- Protect

The most standard Tapu Fini set, this one focuses on at the right times, using Calm Mind to boost your stats to increase your damage output to pick up KOs on major threats. The defense EVs allows for -1 252+ Attack Poison Jab from Muk to be a 3HKO afters Leftovers recovery,  252+ Attack from Celesteela to 2HKO after Leftovers, and 252+ SpA Choice Specs Thunderbolt from Tapu Koko to 2HKO after Leftovers, but only if its not in the Electric Terrain. The offensive EVs allows for 4 HP / 0 SpD Krookodile to be OHKO'd by Moonblast 87.5% of the time, while Muddy Water is a guaranteed OHKO at +1. Also, +1 Muddy Water is a guaranteed OHKO on 252 HP / 0 SpD Marowak 81.3% of the time. The 12 speed EVs is to speed creep 4 speed invested Tapu Fini. Personally, I found that by taking 8 EVs out of Sp. Attack and putting them in speed, which turns the new EV Spread into: 252 HP / 44 Def / 188 SpA / 4 SpD / 20 Spe and dropping Calm Mind for Taunt, you can outspeed the spread listed above and Taunt it to stop it from using Calm Mind. I've even seen 28 Speed EVs Tapu Fini to make it even faster, but the next set shows that, which is pretty cool.

Tapu Fini @ Choice Specs

Ability: Misty Surge

EVs: 252 HP / 20 Def / 164 SpA / 44 SpD / 28 Spe

Modest Nature

IVs: 0 Atk

- Muddy Water

- Hydro Pump

- Moonblast

- Dazzling Gleam

The goal of this set is to turn a generally defensive Pokemon that wants to sit on the field for a longer time into a much more offensive Pokemon. The moves of both a strong single-target Water and Fairy type move in Hydro Pump and Moonblast, as well strong spread Water and Fairy moves in Muddy Water and Dazzling Gleam. This means if your opponent has Wide Guard to block your spread moves, you have a very powerful single-target move of the same type. Remember that Choice Specs will lock you into the first move you use while on the field until you switch out. The defense investment allows Tapu Fini to survive 252 SpA Choice Specs Thunderbolt from Tapu Koko in Misty Terrain, 4 Atk Kartana Leaf Blade and -1 252+ Atk Muk Poison Jab. The offense investment KOs 4 HP / 0 SpD Krookodile Moonblast, 252 HP / 0 SpD Marowak with Muddy Water, and 0 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko with Hydro Pump.

Notable Items

• Tapunium Z - Turns Nature's Madness into Guardian of Alola
• Choice Specs - Boost the power of its Sp. Attack moves, but locking it into 1 move
• Healing Berries - Gives it extra recovery. Works great with more supportive sets 
• Leftovers - Heals 1/16 of Tapu Fini's HP at the end of each turn.
• Waterium Z - Turns water moves into their Z-Move equivalent, Hydro Vortex
• Fairium Z - Turns fairy moves into their Z-Move equivalent, Twinkle Tackle

Notable Partners

•  - Gives Tapu Fini Intimidate support to help it take physical hits better
•  - Fast grass/steel type to help threaten a lot of Pokemon that gives Tapu Fini trouble
•  - Can give Misty Seed so after its used, activates Drifblim's Unburden ability to double its speed
•  - Same as Drifblim, but much bulkier and can give it some great supportive options
• Offensive Pokemon - Pokemon like Tapu Koko and Garchomp can help provide much needed to offense to help Tapu Fini do its job.

How to beat Tapu Fini?

•  - Threatens Leaf Blade, which can easily threaten a KO
•  - Threatens Thunberbolt, which KOs in Electric Terrain and easily 2HKOs in other terrains
• Poison types - Muk and Nihilego are the 2 notable poison types and can do an insane amount of damage to it
•  - Threatens grass moves like Horn Leech and Wood Hammer to do a massive amount of damage to Fini, as well as being slower to overwrite its terrain
• Opposing terrains - If you can overwrite the Misty Terrain, Tapu Fini may encounter the risk of status moves like sleep and burn

Overall, Tapu Fini is a very strong Pokémon. Through its use of both offensive and supportive moves, as well as its great bulk, it can really mess with the opponent. If you can manage the terrain control, it can really work in your favor. I hope you enjoyed this article. Check out my older content and I'll see you guys next time. Bye!