Lilligant (F) @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Sleep Powder
- Quiver Dance
- Giga Drain
- Hidden Power [Rock] / Hidden Power Fire
This Lilligant set is easily one of the most threatening Pokemon in my opinion, and its usually one of the first Pokemon i try to prepare for when building a team of any kind, if my finished team doesn't have a reliable way to deal with Lilligant, whether its via a good Sleep Absorber, Pokemon with Sap Sipper, a bulky Grass- or Dragon-type such as Amoonguss, Roselia, or Druddigon, or even simply a way to revenge kill her with powerful Priority such as ExtremeSpeed or Ice Shard. You really do need a way to reliably take her out in my opinion, otherwise, you're bound to have a pretty hard time. Luckily, there are many Pokemon that can ensure you can stop Lilligant before it can do too much damage, some of which will be covered below.
Choice Scarf Emboar makes an exceptionally good check to Lilligant imo, its relatively bulky, and isn't weak to either of her two common Hidden Powers (it resists Fire and only takes neutral damage from Rock). Furthermore, Emboar can still pose a threat even if Lilligant happens to put it to Sleep because of Sleep Talk, preventing her from simply hitting Emboar with Sleep Powder on the switch, then tearing through the rest of the Emboar user's team without anything to stand in her way.
Aside from Emboar, other offensive Sleep Talk users such as Entei and Escavalier make good checks to Lilligant as well, although the two mentioned are slightly shakier than Emboar due to their weakness to one of the Hidden Powers Lilligant can run, with Entei being weak to Rock and Escavalier being weak to Fire. Nonetheless, these two Pokemon are still good at keeping Lilligant in check, and can mean the difference between victory and defeat if you play well.
Druddigon resists Giga Drain, resists Hidden Power Fire, and only takes neutral damage from Hidden Power Rock, making it a good way to stop Lilligant if Sleep Powder is used up (or if you can find a moveslot for Sleep Talk, but thats somewhat hard), be careful who you sleep fodder, though.
Sap Sippers such as Bouffalant, Sawsbuck, and Miltank are some of the best Lilligant counters out there, not just do they possess an immunity to Lilligant's STAB as well as Sleep Powder, but they get an immediate benefit from them, and with the exception of Sawsbuck, who's weak to Hidden Power Fire, they dont really care about Lilligant's Hidden Power for the most part either. From there these Pokemon can simply OHKO Lilligant with their STAB moves with no resistance at all, or in some cases even go for a countersweep with their newly boosted Attack stat.
Roselia and Amoonguss are probably the best defensive counters to Lilligant in RU, they 4x resist Lilligant's Grass STAB, have the special bulk to take even boosted Hidden Power Fires, and can threaten Lilligant with a STAB Sludge Bomb in return (or in Amoonguss's case, use Clear Smog to erase Lilligant's boosts with Clear Smog). Roselia even has Natural Cure to make Sleep less of a problem! definitely options to consider if your defensive balance/stall team is struggling against Lilligant.
Vital Spirit Magmortar is the last Lilligant check i'm going to be covering for now, its completely immune to Sleep thanks to Vital Spirit and can OHKO Lilligant in return with a powerful Fire Blast, +1 Life Orb Hidden Power Rock can OHKO Magmortar after Stealth Rock, though, so Magmortar is sort of shaky as checks go.