Ludicolo
Attack
Defense
Stamina
Best Movesets
Analysis
Where Groudon is the lord of the land and Kyogre the lord of the sea, Ludicolo is the lord of the dance! Put him in a gym and watch him go! Defending? Attacking? Let’s not worry about such trivial matters and watch this pineapple-duck shake it!
Despite having the stellar type combination of Water and Grass, allowing it to doubly resist Water-type attacks and hit with STAB super effective damage, these advantages are lost on its base 173 attack stat. Its unique set of resistances and okay bulk can make it a nuisance to fight. Perhaps Ludicolo’s place really is just dancing it up in gyms.
Offense
- Razor Leaf should be paired with Solar Beam. This set is better than the Water-type set, allowing Ludicolo to excel in its niche as a Water-type counter.
- Bubble and Weather Ball Water is a great Water Type moveset, though Ludicolo's typing makes it better as a Grass attacker rather than a Water attacker.
- Astonish is nothing special.
- Leaf Storm and Solar Beam are almost identical in performance.
- Energy Ball is quite slow and falls behind on paper. However, being a 2-bar move means it's more consistent.
- Blizzard, Scald, Hydro Pump, and Ice Beam have no uses on an offensive Ludicolo.
Defense
- Bubble is preferred over Razor Leaf, offering greater energy gains and better coverage at a similar base power.
- Ice Beam is Ludicolo's best defensive charge move, featuring all of Blizzard's perks while costing half the energy.
- Weather Ball Water is a great defensive move, though pairing it with Bubble leaves Ludicolo easily walled by anything that resists Water.
- Scald is weaker and has less useful coverage, but it's still not a bad move on defense.
- Blizzard is generally better than Hydro Pump. While it is easier to dodge, it has significantly better coverage. Still, Ludicolo will only get to throw either of these moves out once at most against most players, so they're pretty risky in practice.
- Solar Beam is too slow and has too poor coverage to rate on defense.
- Energy Ball is even easier to dodge, despite being a 2-bar move. Still, it has value as a multi-bar Grass Type move.
- Leaf Storm is faster and generally better for defense, but being a 1-bar move is bad for defense.
- Skip Astonish.
Astonish is the Fast Move of choice thanks to its high damage output and energy generation, to the point where it's literally Bubble but better, even when factoring in STAB. Razor Leaf takes advantage of STAB to deal large amounts of damage without worrying about being shielded. Unfortunately it also has poor energy generation.
Weather Ball Water has one of the lowest energy costs in the game, and a lot of raw power despite that fact, making it outstanding for spammy DPS and shield baiting alike. Leaf Storm is a great secondary option here for its ability to outright nuke opposing Water or Ground Types with ease, though Energy Ball can also be chosen due to its lack of a self-debuffing effect. Ice Beam can come in and hit several would-be counters that are Flying or Dragon Type hard, though the loss of a Grass Type Charged Move definitely hurts. Hydro Pump, Blizzard, and Solar Beam all demand incredible amounts of energy for their usage, which may be unrealistic due to Ludicolo's lack of significant energy gains. Any of these options could be viable (though Blizzard is somewhat redundant due to Ice Beam), but don't expect to use them often, if at all.
Ludicolo is as interesting in PvP as his dance moves are, featuring well-rounded stats, a strong moveset, and most importantly a Grass/Water typing. This unique typing is quite synergistic, eliminating Water's weakness to Electric and Grass, while removing Grass's weakness to Ice and Fire. With many key wins, this is definitely a strong counter-pick that can shore up specific weaknesses on some teams very well.
