Pokémon Tapu Fini - Mist-busters

Professor Palutena

Professor Palutena

The Queen
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Type: Water/Fairy
Ability: Misty Surge
Stats: 70 HP / 75 Atk / 115 Def / 95 SpA / 130 Def / 85 Spe

Notable Moves: Moonblast, Haze, Defog, Nature's Madness, Aqua Ring, Calm Mind, Taunt, Scald, Surf

Oh boy, this one is fun. While her Tapu cousins opt for raw offensive approaches, Tapu Fini takes a defensive approach and the results are awesome! With a stat spread that is reminiscence of Suicune, Tapu Fini lives up to the name of bulky Water. In fact, it might just be the best bulky Water in OU.

Fini's moveset is designed to annoy. With a decent speed stat and access to Taunt and Defog, she can shut down pretty much every entry hazard user in the game. Haze and Taunt keep her from being setup bait, and her 95 SpA means she's hardly passive. Coupled with her Misty Terrain, Fini is capable of singlehandedly shutting down large portions of stall teams, as her Taunt forces their offensively weak Pokemon like Toxapex to attack her, and they can't status her either. Additionally, her stallbreaking power is also evident through her Nature's Madness move, which Fini is, by far, the best user of. Clipping off 50% of a Pokemon like Chansey or Toxapex' HP, and preventing them from recovering with Taunt, is severely crippling.

If Fini doesn't want to break stall over her knee, she is a decent user of Calm Mind, again, due to her inability to be statused. Taunt and Defog appear on the set, as Fini's coverage between her Water move and Moonblast is enough.

Fini's biggest weakness is a lack of recovery, as Aqua Ring is her only form of recovery, which isn't much. Thankfully, her bulk makes it difficult to take her down, though people do try Protect+Aqua Ring sets if they are concerned about Fini's longevity.

What are your thoughts on Tapu Fini?
 
She's such an interesting Pokemon! Her typing allows her to totally be okay with Steel-types AND has the bulk to back herself up against even some of the most strongest of Flash Cannons. One of the few things I don't like about her is that she has no form of recovery outside of Leftovers, as well as not being able to cripple things with Scald that she would like to (when her ability is in play), but overall she's probably one of, if not, the best stall breakers in the game.
 
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She's weak to Grass, Electric and Steel. Her only frequently appearing problem could be Tapu Koko. That's it. She's really interesting, and how it has Taunt to keep it from becoming setup bait, which we all hate, Nature's Madness is stallbreaking, and an incredibly useful move it used correctly, which is the beauty of Taunt, stopping things like Toxapex's Recover, or Chansey's Softboiled, basically considering itself a stall breaker. It works well, and will do well in Singles. I expect quite a lot of good results from it, since it's pretty much the best all around hard hitting stall breaker in the game right now.

I'd prefer a Nature's Madness, Scald, Moonblast, Taunt moveset, and all around looks like it would do well at more than just getting rid of stall Pokémon.

Question: In Doubles, couldn't moves like Ribombee's Pollen Puff get around that, or since it's being used a status move, it can't? I don't really know.
 
Equinox said:
not being able to cripple things with Scald that she would like to (when her ability is in play)
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Scald still hits flying targets, so it's perfect to thwart Celesteela, for example. It's also a nice deterrent against Tapu Bulu wanting to come in and switch the terrain.

@Lord o da rings Ribombee would work. Misty Terrain only blocks status as in like burn, posion, confusion, etc. Actual status moves are not affected by Misty Terrain.

And Pollen Puff wouldn't be affected by Misty Terrain as it's technically a damaging move in all circumstances.
 
Lord o da rings said:
She's weak to Grass, Electric and Steel.

Question: In Doubles, couldn't moves like Ribombee's Pollen Puff get around that, or since it's being used a status move, it can't? I don't really know.
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Her Water-typing gets rid of her Steel-type weakness and Pollen Puff doesn't inflict status, when it say status it mean burns / paralysis / poison / freeze / sleep / confusion

Professor Palutena said:
Scald still hits flying targets, so it's perfect to thwart Celesteela, for example. It's also a nice deterrent against Tapu Bulu wanting to come in and switch the terrain.
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Oh, Misty Terrain prevents status conditions on grounded Pokemon only eh?
 
Professor Palutena said:
Yeah. It also halves damage that Dragon-moves deal to grounded Pokemon.

It's pointless for Fini herself, but it's something to take into consideration when teambuilding.
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Actually, the only Pokémon weak to Dragon are other Dragons... who in turn are debuffed by your own Misty Terrain.
 
Lord o da rings said:
It works well, and will do well in Singles. I expect quite a lot of good results from it, since it's pretty much the best all around hard hitting stall breaker in the game right now.
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Well, to be honest, I haven't seen that much of it in Singles Battle Spott at all. The problem in singles is that misty terrain hardly does it any favours, because it's already immune to dragon type moves, and 5 turns really isn't that long in singles. It's more useful in double battles I guess.

Also, you forgot about the nasty Poison weakness which is becoming increasingly more problematic as poison moves are getting more populair. It lacks the big offensive threat that Koko, Lele and Bulu represent (misty terrain doesn't boost it's moves), and it isn't as good in defensive roles as you would think by looking at it's stats. It gets worn down pretty quickly with only leftovers as it's recovery.

Obviously it's still a good Pokemon for having high base stats and a pretty good typing, but I would say out of the Tapu's it's the worst.
 
Nah, it's probably the second best Tapu after Lele. Koko is very one dimensional and it didn't live up to the hype. It's also very limited in support. I could see the case being made for Bulu being better than Fini, but setup sweepers love Tapu Fini with the status immunity and I think that outweighs the free Leftovers that Bulu gives. It's so underrated.

Also, for those concerned about recovery, Z-Haze can be used as a one-time full recover while still keeping Fini from being setup bait. See turn 24 of this battle. I might have to try it out.

This Poke keeps getting better and better and I love it!
 
Hm, interesting about the Z-Haze! didn't know about that.. I see your point, and misty terrain definitely has it's uses, but in singles (don't know about doubles) I think it's hard to abuse for a set up sweeper. I haven't seen anyone use it so far in about 50 battles, and I'm somewhere near the 1700's on the ranking (battle spott). You would have to almost instantly switch Fini out and send your sweeper in safe. You'd have to use an eject button on Fini (no leftovers/Z-haze then), otherwise your sweeper probably takes a big hit because no one tries to status Fini. In doubles I think it would be much more efficiënt.

Like you said, it's definitely a good Pokemon, but a free +1 on your stabs is just really insane. It's a shame misty terrain doesn't boost it's moonblasts, because then it would be a different story. Anyway, just my opinion!
 
Another downside in using Tapu-Fini is that you need to be careful with your own status moves. In general, this mon alongside the other Tapus sure brings a lot to the competitive scene.
 
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