Tapu Koko
Dex #: 785
Types:
Abilities: Electric Surge: Turns the ground into Electric Terrain when the Pokémon enters a battle.
Telepathy: Prevents damage from team-mates during Double and Triple battles
Level-Up Moves:
- Electric Terrain
- Brave Bird
- Power Swap
- Mean Look
- Quick Attack
- False Swipe
- Withdraw
- Thunder Shock
8 Spark
14 Shock Wave
20 Screech
26 Charge
32 Wild Charge
38 Mirror Move
43 Nature’s Madness
48 Discharge
53 Agility
58 Electro Ball
TM Moves:
TM01 Work Up
TM04 Calm Mind
TM05 Roar
TM06 Toxic
TM10 Hidden Power
TM12 Taunt
TM15 Hyper Beam
TM16 Light Screen
TM17 Protect
TM18 Rain Dance
TM19 Roost
TM20 Safeguard
TM21 Frustration
TM24 Thunderbolt
TM25 Thunder
TM27 Return
TM32 Double Team
TM33 Reflect
TM40 Aerial Ace
TM41 Torment
TM42 Facade
TM46 Thief
TM48 Round
TM49 Echoed Voice
TM51 Steel Wing
TM54 False Swipe
TM58 Sky Drop
TM62 Acrobatics
TM68 Giga Impact
TM72 Volt Switch
TM73 Thunder Wave
TM76 Fly
TM77 Psych Up
TM86 Grass Knot
TM87 Swagger
TM88 Sleep Talk
TM89 U-turn
TM90 Substitute
TM93 Wild Charge
TM96 Nature Power
TM99 Dazzling Gleam
TM100 Confide
Analysis:
tapu koko sports decent offensive stats with 115 atk and 95 spa, and it's very fast at base 130 speed, making it a difficult threat in SM OU. in addition to these solid stats, tapu koko has the electric surge ability: a unique ability that spawns electric terrain, boosting the power of tapu koko's electric attacks (1.5x). this makes already decently powerful thunderbolts even stronger. tapu koko doesn't just have the typing, stats, and ability to be solid in OU, however; it also has a solid movepool to take advantage of these things. with obvious STAB options like thunderbolt and dazzling gleam and excellent "filler" options (both physical and special) in calm mind, brave bird, u-turn, volt switch, grass knot, taunt, etc., tapu koko will probably prove itself as a key option in SM OU moving forward.
Potential Movesets:
name: Offensive Pivot
move 1: Thunderbolt
move 2: Hidden Power Ice
move 2: Volt Switch
move 3: U-turn
item: Life Orb / Magnet
ability: Electric Surge
nature: Timid
evs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
thunderbolt is your obligatory stab, and hidden power ice is an excellent coverage option for hitting annoying grounds and dragons. volt switch allows you to pivot out while also dishing out massive damage thanks to STAB, electric terrain, and your item. u-turn does less damage, but it allows you to switch out on dugtrio and other electric immune pokemon like excadrill and alolan marowak. other move options include dazzling gleam, hidden power fire, grass knot, brave bird, and/or taunt. hidden power fire hits ferrothorn, magnezone, and excadrill, grass knot hits fat grounds like hippowdon and gastrodon, and brave bird hits fat grasses like tangrowth and mega venusaur. dazzling gleam gets STAB, and it hits dragons harder than hidden power ice. using thunderbolt, dazzling gleam, and hidden power fire together provides excellent coverage if you don't want to run 2 pivot moves. taunt helps with wearing down fat walls like mega venusaur among other things.
name: Calm Mind
move 1: Calm Mind
move 2: Thunderbolt
move 3: Hidden Power Ice / Hidden Power Fire
move 4: Roost / Dazzling Gleam / Grass Knot
item: Life Orb / Leftovers
ability: Electric Surge
nature: Timid
evs: 252 SpA / 4 Def / 252 Spe
calm mind lets you boost and clean and/or destroy fatmons with ease, changing koko's role. thunderbolt is obligatory STAB, and hidden power fire, hidden power ice, dazzling gleam, and grass not serve the same coverage purposes as explained above. roost gives you more longevity, and it makes it easier to set up calm minds.
PLEASE NOTE: IVs & nature should be changed depending on coverage move for these sets.
edit: these are the sets from the analysis. i replaced the preliminary sets i had here to ensure people are using optimal sets n_n.
Personal Opinion:
tapu koko seems extremely fun. it's super fast and pretty strong, and it has an amazing ability. in ORAS we saw how great certain speedy electrics could be (thundurus-i and mega manectric), and i think that "trend" will continue with tapu koko. since the early trailers that featured this thing i've been extremely excited to see how it'll fare in OU, and now that it's here, i think it'll do really well. i think tapu koko will do well with pheromosa and greninja. it puts a lot of pressure on annoying checks to them like toxapex, mantine, and tapu fini, but it doesn't kill momentum when those inevitably switch out since it has access to volt switch and u-turn. furthermore, tapu koko can form excellent volt-turn cores with the two of them (and genesect).
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