What it does on the ladder
Lycanroc appears on 0.04% of Regulation M-B teams, which
is 236th of the 282 Pokémon with enough games to measure.
The move it almost always carries is Close Combat, on 94.6% of sets.
The item is usually Focus Sash at 78.4%.
The ability is split: Sand Rush on 93.4%, Keen Eye on 4.8% and Steadfast on 1.8%.
Those are Smogon's published usage figures, not anything measured here, and they describe what
the ladder plays rather than what is strongest. The full set is in the panel above.
The Pokémon itself
Lycanroc is number 745 in the National Dex, a Alola Pokémon, Rock
with a base stat total of 487 — 164th of the 234 Pokémon
legal in this regulation. Its best stat is Attack at 115, 48th
in the format; its weakest is Sp. Atk at 55, 193rd.
It can have Keen Eye, Sand Rush and Steadfast.
The Champions module tiers it UU.
It sits in a 2-stage line: Rockruff → Lycanroc.
Not all of that line is legal in this regulation — Rockruff is not.
What gets through
As Rock, 5 of the eighteen attacking types do extra damage to it. It
resists 4. The board above
has all of it. 4 other legal Pokémon share the same typing and the same board: Lycanroc-Dusk, Rampardos, Garganacl, Lycanroc-Midnight.
What threatens it
Smogon publishes no head-to-head checks-and-counters data for doubles formats, so this list is
computed, not measured: the most-played Regulation M-B Pokémon carrying a damaging
move of a type Lycanroc takes extra damage from.
- Kingambit — Iron Head (Steel, ×2), on 67.8% of its sets
- Garchomp — Earthquake (Ground, ×2), on 85.7% of its sets
- Charizard-Mega-Y — Solar Beam (Grass, ×2), on 82.2% of its sets
- Basculegion — Aqua Jet (Water, ×2), on 96.6% of its sets
- Sinistcha — Matcha Gotcha (Grass, ×2), on 97.9% of its sets
- Sneasler — Close Combat (Fighting, ×2), on 99.7% of its sets
Against its own formes
Lycanroc has 3 legal formes in this regulation and they share a
typing, so the only thing separating them is the stat line.
This one has the highest Speed at 112 of the 3.
It has the lowest HP at 75, Attack at 115, Defense at 65 and Sp. Def at 65.
The others are Lycanroc-Dusk and Lycanroc-Midnight.
Speed and weight
At level 50 with a boosting nature and full investment, Lycanroc reaches
180 Speed; left uninvested with a neutral nature it sits at
132. Invested, it outruns 16 of the 20
most-used Pokémon in the regulation when they are invested too — which is the comparison that
decides who moves first.
It weighs 25 kg, so Grass Knot and Low Kick hit it for 60 base
power. That is a real consideration in a format where both are common.
Its move pool
Lycanroc learns 77 moves in the Champions data.
46 of them do damage, across 11 of the eighteen
types, and 6 share a type with it and so get the same-type bonus.
Its hardest-hitting same-type move is Stone Edge at 100 base power, though the biggest number in the pool is Giga Impact at 150.
It also has priority: Sucker Punch at +1, Accelerock at +1 and Quick Attack at +1.
That pool is what the team builder reads from when you seat it, and the
damage calculator will take it as the attacker with
the form already chosen.
