Xerneas
Attack
Defense
Stamina
Best Movesets
Analysis
Thanks to, Xerneas finally got the Fairy-type Fast Attack it craved for two years. Fitting for a Legendary signature move, Geomancy is one of the best Fast Attacks in the game, and it catapulted Xerneas to being a top Fairy attacker. Despite this, Xerneas has two things that are holding it back: the relative mediocrity of the Fairy attacking role, and Moonblast's awful PvE parameters. Dragon and Fighting attackers tend to hit much harder against Xerneas's primary targets, thus making Xerneas a fairly niche pick.
Offense
- Geomancy has excellent PvE parameters and finally makes Xerneas a strong Fairy attacker when paired with Moonblast.
- Zen Headbutt is.... pretty bad. At least it can deal Super Effective damage, and has synergy with Moonblast against Fighting Types.
- Tackle... exists?
- Close Combat, Megahorn, Thunder, Giga Impact... they're all water under this sad, sad bridge.
Xerneas's signature move Geomancy provides it with incredible energy generation and is the optimal move choice. Tackle was previously Xerneas's Fast Attack of choice, a decent move that gives it just enough energy gain to fuel its somewhat expensive Charged Attacks. Zen Headbutt is terrible.
Moonblast is a very powerful STAB attack and what helps set Xerneas apart from the similar Zacian. However, due to its cost, Xerneas may find using its other Charged Attack more often. Close Combat offers a moderate cost move with excellent coverage, but requires some finesse to work around its self debuffs. These two moves are Xerneas's best Charged Attack options.
For those looking to utilize unconventional coverage, Xerneas has a few other options, but sacrificing either Moonblast or Close Combat comes with severe power or speed costs. Thunder can be used to surprise Ho-Oh, defeating it in the 0 shield as long as Xerneas has a slight energy advantage. Megahorn similarly has niche coverage - it can allow Xerneas to flip the Mewtwo matchup, but that's about all it does. Giga Impact is expensive and offers no coverage.
Xerneas currently cannot compete in this league due to its CP being too high. If Xerneas can be obtained in the future through Research or other means, then it would more likely have a shot at Great League.
