Welcome back to the weekly series that dissects different Pokémon from Sun and Moon and assesses their fighting prowess and potential by coming up with battle sets to try out against other trainers.
This week for Pokémon Sun and Moon we’ll be covering Primarina, the last of the Alola Starter Pokémon. If you want to check out movesets for Incineroar or Decidueye, be sure to take a look. We will mainly be discussing Single Battles, but there will be talk of some strategies that can help in Double Battles as well.
Of course, there are a ton of other options and we want to hear yours in the comments section below.
OVERVIEW
Primarina is the bulkiest of the three starter Pokémon in Sun and Moon with a very impressive 116 base Special Defense stat and an excellent 126 base Special Attack. Primarina’s Water and Fairy typing gives it an excellent typing to resist many different types of attacks and only three weaknesses (Electric, Grass and Poison).
Primarina also benefits from having a vast movepool to deal with all sorts of threats including Psychic, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball and more.
SPECIAL WALL
Hold Item: Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 SpDef 252 HP 4 SpAtk
Moveset: Scald / Hydro Pump
Moonblast
Protect
Toxic / Aqua Ring
This set lets Primarina take the most hits from Special Attacks and gives it the most staying power in battle. STAB Scald and Moonblast will hit very hard against other Pokémon that are weak to Water and Fairy-type attacks.
Scald will also give a chance to inflict Burn, which will reduce the Attack stat of opposing Pokémon and allow Primarina to take more physical attacks.
If you want to deal more damage, you can switch Scald out for Hydro Pump to deal maximum Water damage. You can also run both Scald and Hydro Pump and change it up on a case-by-case basis.
Toxic can be used if you wish to stall out other bulky Water types or Pokémon immune to Burn, while Aqua Ring allows for more healing on top of Leftovers each turn.
ENCORE SUPPORT
Hold Item: Leftovers / Light Clay
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 SpDef 252 HP 4 SpAtk
Moveset: Scald / Hydro Pump
Moonblast
Encore
Misty Terrain / Reflect / Light Screen
This sort of set we’ve seen a lot in early Sun and Moon VGC, especially in the Battle of Alola competition. This set revolves around the move Encore to trap opposing Pokémon into not very effective moves or status moves.
The core aspects of this set still favor Primarina’s monstrous Special Defense and Special Attack stats, but instead of going for a Wall / Stall tactic, this is more of a support set for you to switch into other Pokémon on you team.
Correctly predict an Encore and then start setting up Reflects and / or Light Screens to support the rest of your team. If you wish to equip the Light Clay, those screens will last even longer.
Again, Scald can cripple physical attackers while Moonblast is just a great move to run against almost everything.
Misty Terrain could also be run on this set to prevent status effects from being afflicted that can ruin your strategy but it’s probably better served for Doubles and having Tapu Fini in your party to activate Misty Surge and do it for you.
