RU Type Analysis: Psychic

Introduction

Of all the common types in RU, the Psychic-type is one of the most prominent. Psychic-types are everywhere in RU, and quite a few teams will come packed with at least one of them. RU's Psychic-types are well known for their offensive potential, many of them equipped with very high offensive stats, incredible coverage all around, and ways to boost their stats through moves such as Calm Mind, Nasty Plot, and Swords Dance. Needless to say, RU's offensive Psychic-types are some of the most threatening Pokémon in the tier, and can easily tear through teams if left unchecked. On the defensive side, the Psychic-type is a bit of a double-edged sword. Many Psychic-types are incredibly bulky, and they often have valuable moves such as Reflect, Light Screen, Thunder Wave, Stealth Rock, and Recover to help support their team. However, they also happen to be quite vulnerable to what's possibly the most common coverage move in the whole tier: Knock Off. They are also quite prone to being put in a checkmate position by Pursuit users such as Spiritomb, Drapion, Skuntank, and Escavalier. Overall, Psychic-types are important in the current metagame, and any serious RU player needs to keep them in mind while teambuilding. Now, let's take a look at the Pokémon themselves, shall we?

The Pokémon

Bronzong (Rank: B)

Bronzong is a very solid defensive Pokémon in RU with quite a bit going for it. Because of its solid base 67 / 116 / 116 bulk, cool Steel / Psychic typing, and an amazing ability in the form of Levitate that grants it an immunity to Earthquake, Bronzong is quite resilient and can tank multiple hits from all kinds of common threats, such as Mega Abomasnow, Braviary, Rhyperior, Exploud, Fletchinder, and Virizion, with ease. Bronzong doesn't just sit there and take hits like a punching bag, though, as it has a large amount of support options that it can use to benefit its team, including Stealth Rock, Trick Room, and dual screens, and it has more than enough bulk to use them multiple times per game.

Dealing with Bronzong isn't too hard. Water-types such as Slowking make for solid initial answers, as they can come in on Bronzong quite easily while not fearing much from it except a Toxic, and can wear it down with repeated hits and possibly even a Scald burn. Clawitzer gets special mention because of its extremely powerful Mega Launcher Dark Pulse, which dents Bronzong quite heavily, if not outright OHKOing it. Moltres is another great answer to Bronzong, as it's not really threatened by anything Bronzong can throw at it and easily KOes it with Fire Blast. Other Fire-types such as Delphox and Emboar make for decent answers as well, but they need to be wary of being hit by an Earthquake on the switch. As a slow, bulky Psychic-type, Bronzong is quite vulnerable to Knock Off from threats such as Shiftry, Drapion, and Mega Banette, which doesn't just break through it with ease, but removes its only form of recovery in the process. As Bronzong, while decently strong, doesn't really hit that hard, physically bulky Pokémon that are immune to Toxic, such as Calm Mind Magic Guard Reuniclus, Swords Dance Doublade, and Swords Dance Cobalion can render it setup bait. Lastly, Taunt from Pokémon such as Drapion and Cobalion completely shuts down Bronzong and prevents it from using any of its handy support moves for a short period.

Cresselia (Rank: A+)

With some of the best mixed defensive stats in the whole game, Cresselia is a force to be reckoned with. Needless to say, Cresselia is one of the toughest Pokémon to take out in the entire tier, and it can sponge hits from the vast majority of the metagame quite easily. Moonlight lets Cresselia recover off damage as needed as well, further increasing the moon duck's already solid longevity. Furthermore, its access to Calm Mind turns it into a deadly sweeper as well as a great defensive Pokémon. Calm Mind makes Cresselia practically impenetrable to special attacks, while also slowly boosting its own Special Attack from poor to acceptable levels. Plus, because of Cresselia's incredible bulk, setting up multiple Calm Minds over the course of the game is a piece of cake. Outside of Calm Mind, Cresselia also has a solid support movepool with great support options such as Thunder Wave, dual screens, and Lunar Dance that it can use to benefit its team.

Although Cresselia is definitely a tough nut to crack, there are certainly some ways to take it out. Escavalier is possibly the best answer to Cresselia overall, as it can can easily take any Psyshock or Moonblast thrown at it thanks to its bulk and typing, and can either remove Cresselia's Leftovers recovery with Knock Off or simply knock it out with Megahorn. It can even hit it for some solid damage when it switches out with Pursuit! Doublade and Durant are similar to Escavalier in this regard, as both of them can take any one hit from Cresselia decently well (+6 Moonblast can't OHKO Durant), and can use it as a free opportunity to set up Swords Dance or Hone Claws, respectively. Drapion and Skuntank make for fine responses to Cresselia too, as they don't really care about anything Cresselia can throw at them, can use Taunt to stop them from setting up further, and can beat Cresselia 1v1 quite easily from there. Other Dark-types such as Shiftry, Sharpedo, and Spiritomb are helpful against Cresselia too, with the latter even ignoring a possible Substitute thanks to Infiltrator, but they all have to be wary of a boosted Moonblast. Last of all, Toxic and Trick can be used to cripple Cresselia, although Substitute blocks both of these.

Delphox (Rank: A-)

Delphox is one of the most threatening Pokémon in the RU tier, and it's not hard to see why. Coming equipped with a great base 114 Special Attack stat and amazing coverage between its STAB moves and Grass Knot, Delphox is one of the hardest Pokémon to safely switch into in the entire tier. Because of its solid base 104 Speed stat, it can outrun a significant portion of the metagame too, including common threats such as Moltres, Hitmonlee, and Meloetta! On top of all this, Delphox even has access to Calm Mind, which boosts its already great Special Attack stat to astounding levels, ensuring anything that tries to stand up to the mage will end up in a world of pain. Calm Mind also increases Delphox's ability to take special attacks from threats such as Rotom-Mow, Eelektross, and other Delphox as a bonus.

When trying to deal with Delphox, it's hard to find anything better for the job than Slowking. Slowking resists both of Delphox's STAB moves, has more than enough special bulk to take even a boosted Grass Knot, and can either smack Delphox with Scald, phaze it out with Dragon Tail, or cripple it for the rest of the game with Thunder Wave! It also has Regenerator recover health by just switching out if it takes too much damage. Other bulky Water-types such as Alomomola are also solid answers to Delphox, but none of them deal with it quite as well as Slowking can. Druddigon is another solid answer to Delphox, as it resists both Fire Blast and Grass Knot and can take Delphox's Psychic-type moves somewhat well because of its great bulk. It can easily KO Delphox with Outrage or Sucker Punch in return. Outside of these answers, the best way to get rid of Delphox is to outspeed it, whether via natural Speed, a Choice Scarf, or priority moves ; some good examples of Pokémon that can do this include Dugtrio, Choice Scarf Braviary, Fletchinder, Sucker Punch Spiritomb, Jolteon, and Speed Boost Sharpedo. Lastly, Delphox happens to be quite vulnerable to residual damage, and can be worn down quickly throughout the match by things such as Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic, and its own Life Orb recoil.

Gallade (Rank: B-)

Gallade is an interesting Pokémon in RU, especially for a Psychic-type. Unlike all of the other Psychic-types RU has to offer, Gallade hits physically as opposed to specially. This can prove to be troublesome for many opponents, as many Psychic-type checks are specially defensive by nature. To complicate matters more, Gallade has a secondary Fighting-typing to punish the Steel-types that commonly come in to check Psychic-types. Gallade is capable of running a Substitute + Bulk Up set, Choice Band set, Swords Dance set, and even an Assault Vest set. All of them can prove troublesome for different types of teams, especially when you consider it has great STAB moves in Close Combat, Drain Punch, Psycho Cut, and Zen Headbutt. Add onto this the coverage it has between Knock Off and Ice Punch, and possible priority in Shadow Sneak and Gallade becomes really difficult to deal with.

Gallade's biggest issue lies with its competition from the likes of Hitmonlee, Cobalion, and Virizion. Although Gallade is a Psychic-type, its strongest STAB move is Close Combat, a Fighting-type move, which means it will inevitably face competition from other Fighting-types. There's also plenty of other Psychic-types in the tier that can cause issues when it comes to defensive synergy, which makes it even harder to fit Gallade onto teams. Handling Gallade is easier said than done, but Spiritomb still does a good job of dealing with it despite Gallade's physical nature as a Psychic-type. Infiltrator ensures Substitute sets won't be an issue for Spiritomb, and Gallade's lackluster Defense means Foul Play will do quite a number to it. Plenty of faster Pokémon can make life difficult for Gallade as well: Moltres, Delphox, Durant, Dugtrio, and Jolteon can all revenge kill Gallade quite easily. Gligar is able to handle any Gallade set that forgoes Ice Punch and Aromatisse only fears Choice Band-boosted Zen Headbutt or the rare Poison Jab. Bulky Pokémon capable of surviving a hit and striking back will also typically fare well against Gallade: Escavalier, Druddigon, Doublade, and Psyshock Slowking only fear select Choice Band-boosted attacks and are able to hit Gallade hard on the physical side with their STAB moves.

Meloetta (Rank: S)

Meloetta is one of the the most versatile Pokémon in RU. It can run all kinds of sets, including but not limited to Choice Specs, Substitute + Calm Mind, and a specially defensive set. This is all thanks to Meloetta's wonderful stat distribution and unique Normal / Psychic typing. Thanks to that secondary Normal typing, Meloetta is immune to Ghost-type moves, which is something most Psychic-types tend to struggle with. Meloetta's movepool is also a huge asset to it. Within its movepool is just about everything Meloetta could ever ask for. Great STAB moves in Hyper Voice, Psychic, and Psyshock; reliable coverage in Shadow Ball and Focus Blast; utility moves in Heal Bell, Perish Song, and Knock Off; and finally, U-turn, which allows its Choice Specs set to easily lure in and wear down its checks and counters.

Meloetta is far from unbeatable, though. Spiritomb has seen a recent rise in usage and it stops every Meloetta set thanks to Sucker Punch, Pursuit, and Infiltrator. Sturdy Steel-type Pokémon, such as Escavalier and Registeel, also make for fine responses to most Meloetta sets. Faster Pokémon, such as Jolteon, Delphox, Durant, and Virizion may struggle to switch into Meloetta, but they have a very easy time revenge killing it once it has been worn down a little bit.

Reuniclus (Rank: A+)

Reuniclus's excellent combination of both stats and movepool make it one of the scariest Pokémon to face in RU. First and foremost, Calm Mind Reuniclus is one of the biggest threats to defensive teams in the entire metagame thanks to Reuniclus's excellent ability, Magic Guard, which makes it completely immune to all forms of passive damage from things such as Stealth Rock, Toxic, and Will-O-Wisp. This makes setting up all over defensive Pokémon such as Alomomola quite easy, as their conventional methods of wearing down offensive threats won't work and Reuniclus has more than enough bulk to take their weak attacks, recovering off damage all taken when needed. On the flip side, Reuniclus can also use Trick Room along with its solid coverage and exceptionally low Speed stat to become a huge headache for fast, frail, offensive teams. Magic Guard comes in handy once again here, keeping Reuniclus from taking any damage from Life Orb.

While Reuniclus is very threatening, it's not unstoppable. Spiritomb is probably the best counter to it out there. It's completely immune to both Psyshock and Focus Blast, only takes neutral damage from Shadow Ball, and can either checkmate Reuniclus with a combination of Pursuit, Taunt, and Sucker Punch or set up on it with its own Calm Mind. Escavalier, Drapion, and Skuntank come in a close second, as they aren't weak to any of Reuniclus's common coverage moves and can pose a direct threat to Reuniclus in return. In general, Dark-types all make for pretty good answers to Reuniclus, although they have to be wary of getting hit by a stray Focus Blast on the switch. Meloetta also makes for a pretty good answer to Reuniclus, and pretty much every variant of Meloetta can take on Trick Room Reuniclus thanks to its typing and great special bulk, while defensive variants of Meloetta with Perish Song stop Calm Mind Reuniclus in its tracks. Lastly, it should be noted that Calm Mind Reuniclus runs into some minor four-moveslot syndrome that makes it a bit easier to handle: if it runs Focus Blast as its coverage move, Doublade and Spiritomb pretty much completely wall it, and if it runs Shadow Ball, any Dark-type is going to be a major issue.

Sigilyph (Rank: B)

Just like its appearance would suggest, Sigilyph is a strange case on the battlefield. This is even evident in its stats, notably its odd base 97 Speed. Its base 97 Speed is good in RU however, letting Sigilyph outspeed dangerous threats such as Moltres, Meloetta, and Hitmonlee easily. Sigilyph's best set in RU is a simple Roost + 3 attacks Life Orb set. Although this may seem to face competition from Moltres, Sigilyph's Psychic typing and Magic Guard ability, which negates all passive damage, including Stealth Rock and Life Orb recoil, helps to set Sigilyph apart from the fire bird. Calm Mind is another approach with Sigilyph that can take two different paths. Sigilyph can either go offensive with Calm Mind or choose to utilize a Flame Orb in conjunction with Psycho Shift to ruin some of its typical responses while setting up. While the latter is completely unique to Sigilyph, the offensive approach seems totally outclassed by Delphox. Again, Sigilyph's Magic Guard ability helps to set it apart from Delphox, as it will not require the same hazard control support Calm Mind Delphox needs.

Like most Psychic-types, Sigilyph has issues with Dark-type Pokémon. Spiritomb is the worst, as it can checkmate Sigilyph with Pursuit and Sucker Punch. However, the Flame Orb variant of the Calm Mind set can easily cripple Spiritomb. Slowking can phaze out Calm Mind sets with Dragon Tail and only fears Dark Pulse and Energy Ball from the offensive Roost set. Although it may be tempting to use a Steel-type to sponge hits from Sigilyph, each set has a way around them. Offensive sets commonly use Heat Wave for coverage while the Flame Orb set can cripple Steel-types with a burn. Faster Pokémon like Jolteon, Stone Edge Virizion and Cobalion, and Durant can revenge kill Sigilyph fairly easily, but have issues switching into it. Assault Vest Druddigon and Eelektross can take multiple hits from Sigilyph and hit back with super effective attacks. However, Druddigon will fall to the Flame Orb set, while Eelektross hates the passive damage from burns since it lacks any reliable recovery. Most Fire-types can break through the Flame Orb set without much difficulty. Delphox is particularly dangerous, as it can simply set up Calm Minds alongside Sigilyph and eventually hit back with Psyshock.

Slowking (Rank: A+)

Slowking is one of the best pivots in the RU metagame. With a great Water / Psychic typing, solid mixed defenses, Regenerator, and a good base 100 Special Attack, Slowking is arguably the best Assault Vest user in RU. However, this isn't all Slowking can do. It can go full-on defensive, focus more on offense with Choice Specs, be a reliable win condition for more balanced teams with Calm Mind, or even set up Trick Room for its team. Because of this versatility and utility, Slowking is one of the easiest Pokémon to just slap on a team, as it will likely have a set that works for your team.

Dealing with Slowking can be difficult because Regenerator can keep it healthy for a much longer period of time than most other defensive Pokémon. Keeping up entry hazards is very helpful to negate the damage Regenerator heals. Knock Off can really mess with Slowking's strategies, as it heavily relies on its item with most sets. Specially defensive Meloetta is possibly the most dangerous Knock Off user for Slowking, though Assault Vest and fully defensive variants of Slowking can sponge hits from most Meloetta sets. However, specially defensive Meloetta wields Perish Song to doom Calm Mind Slowking and Heal Bell to cure itself of burns caused by Scald. A U-turn or Volt Switch user that is paired with Pursuit support can really cause Slowking grief. These moves are best used by Pokémon that Slowking normally handles well: Choice Scarf Moltres and support Cobalion are the two best examples of this, as Slowking normally checks Moltres really well and typically hard counters any offensive variant of Cobalion.

Honorable Mentions

These Pokémon aren't RU by usage but still have small niches in the tier that make them worth mentioning.

Jynx (Rank: C)

Jynx is an odd case of a Pokémon. Its Ice / Psychic typing is absolutely horrible defensively, but thankfully, Jynx focuses on offense. Jynx has a great base 115 Special Attack and solid base 95 Speed, making it deceptively dangerous. With access to Nasty Plot, Lovely Kiss, and Substitute, it can be difficult to figure out how to deal with Jynx. Lovely Kiss has the potential to turn any would-be counter into setup fodder, while Substitute can really put would-be revenge killers on thin ice. Nasty Plot pumps up Jynx's Special Attack to very threatening levels to take out many foes. Jynx may be frail and unable to use all three of these options in one set while retaining good coverage, but it can be surprisingly effective when supported and played properly.

Meowstic-Male (Rank: C)

Meowstic-Male is a strong user of dual screens for hyper offensive teams. This is thanks to his ability, Prankster, which allows him to set up the screens before such moves as Taunt and Knock Off. He also has Prankster Thunder Wave, which is a great way to instantly neuter an opposing sweeper that could otherwise finish off your team. While Meowstic-Male doesn't seem to have good bulk, Prankster allows him to completely focus on his defenses, as he doesn't have to worry about Speed, unlike other dual screens users like Uxie or Cresselia.

Mesprit (Rank: B)

Mesprit is a sad case of a Pokémon that just seems to get more and more obscure with the power creep of every generation. However, not all is lost for Mesprit in RU. It is arguably the best user of Healing Wish in the tier, a move that fully restores a teammates status and HP. This allows you to force the opponent to endure a certain Pokémon not once, but twice in one battle. Mesprit is also a solid user of Stealth Rock, using its decent bulk to set it up reliably and its power and coverage to threaten almost much every user of Defog and Rapid Spin quite handily, even being able to run a combination of a Colbur Berry and Ice Beam to lure in Shiftry! While the Knock Off buff gives Mesprit serious issues and many Psychic-types fill its role better, it is certainly a reliable offensive support Pokémon capable of flipping the momentum of a match with just one well-timed move.

Uxie (Rank: C+)

Uxie is an unusually fast defensive Pokémon in RU with a couple of niches. It's a reliable dual screens user thanks to its Speed and bulk, and it can also use a fully defensive support set thanks to moves such as Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, Yawn, and U-turn. Uxie also has Memento, which is a huge selling point for it as a dual screens user. It struggles a lot with Knock Off , but it's one of the most reliable dual screens users in RU, and it still has great bulk to work with.

Xatu (Rank: B-)

Xatu originally made a name for itself with an offensive set that utilized its Magic Bounce ability on offensive teams. However, Xatu recently made a comeback with the rise of Combusken Baton Pass teams, which were originally popularized in NU before it got banned from the tier. The playstyle is very similar in RU with Combusken and Xatu being surrounded by a hazard user or two, and a few other Pokémon that can utilize Combusken's Baton Pass boosts. Xatu's job is to not only to ensure the boosts see use with Magic Bounce, but to also make use of them with its powerful Stored Power and access to Calm Mind to boost further, using the Defense and Speed boosts passed to it by Combusken to set up that much more easily. However, Dragon Tail and multi-hit moves, especially Rock Blast can ruin this strategy.

Conclusion

There are plenty of different Psychic-types to choose from in the RU tier. Special attackers, walls, bulky sweepers, and even physical attackers are Psychic-types. Thanks to this variety, you will likely find yourself using one or more of the aforementioned Psychic-types on many of your RU battles. Now that you know how to deal with them and use them, give these Psychic-types a try in your future RU battles! And may the force of powerful minds be with you when you use them. If you happen to face them in battle, you know what must be done to overcome the challenge each one presents.

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