Two for the price of one!
Ever since Cottonnee left Petilil behind in the Galar region, Petilil had not been version exclusive in its recent appearances and is readily available in the wild for two consecutive regions. Petilil is a great candidate for a team slot if you have not picked up other Grass-type Pokemon yet, and Petilil can be found in some early areas. Petilil is not easy to hunt down though, as it appears in South Province Area Four and West Province Are One, where flower patches are not commonly seen and are at places where resetting is not easy. At that point, you might’ve already beaten Brassius or at least come really close to doing so, which would open up the Sunflora Hide-and-Seek for getting a free Sun Stone guaranteed. Petilil should not wait to evolve into Lilligant, as it would not need to worry about missing moves in these games. There are thus no reasons to use Petilil in battles, though it will do fine with its great Special Attack and the plethora of Grass-type moves it learns. Alternatively, you can wait until you reach the northmost region to find wild Petilil and Lilligant at a higher level, which honestly might be a little too late to recruit this family since it will miss out on many important fights.
Being a traditionally special attacking type, the Grass-type does not lack special attackers. However, this type isn’t well known for its Speed and mostly sees bulkier attackers. Lilligant stands out, in the Paldea region, as one of the few fast Grass-type special attackers, the others being Rotom-Mow and, if you like, Toedscruel. Lilligant’s best stat is its base 110 Special Attack, higher than every Grass-type not named Arboliva or Cacturne. Lilligant’s base 90 Speed may not look as impressive, but it is more than fast enough for single-player purposes, being able to outspeed many fast targets if given good nature and investments. Lilligant can even further boost its power and speed with different tools. Chlorophyll allows for a sun sweeper set, while Own Tempo can be useful at certain situations and its self-induced confusions. Both are great abilities that fit different playstyles, with Own Tempo being more generally helpful if it isn’t specifically used on sun teams and Chlorophyll’s speed boost isn’t too necessary. While having status immunities is nice, Leaf Guard is not as good as Chlorophyll given Lilligant’s fast attacking role. That’s pretty much all the good sides of Lilligant, unfortunately. The pure Grass-typing isn’t the worst, but Lilligant has no way to cover for Grass resists, making its offense wasted against the many birds and dragons flying around. Lilligant also has five glaring weaknesses, backed up by an unamazing 70/75/75 bulk. It can often take at least one hits, but it can be worn down easily, especially on the physical side. Lilligant has different ways to work around these flaws, but it struggles against certain targets. The Starmobiles, being speedy powerhouses, often make sure Lilligant has no time dancing around, while the Elite Four features three members who can take its hits well. Lilligant’s attributes are not great but also not that bad as far as being a Grass-type goes. Things certainly look better when we go to its moves though.
Aside of its promising stats, Lilligant’s biggest appeal is its access to one of the best setup moves ever in Quiver Dance. Quiver Dance is of course a wonderful way to power up Lilligant’s firepower and speed, as well as giving it workable special bulk. But the best thing is, Lilligant can remember this move right off the bat, which means that Lilligant at any levels can learn this move. If Lilligant’s raw stats are not good enough, then they certainly will be after a Quiver Dance boost. Not only that, but Lilligant also has access to pretty much every move it needs right after evolution. Having all of Giga Drain, Energy Ball, Leaf Storm and Petal Dance before you even hit the twenties is amazing, and Lilligant can crush almost every opponent early-game without even needing a single boost. Petal Dance synergizes with Lilligant the most, since it has Own Tempo to prevent the confusion, which allows it to stay in battle for as long as possible to maintain its stat boosts. Giga Drain can be pretty helpful for longevity and can be used alongside Petal Dance without needing to worry about wasted moveslots. Energy Ball is the most reliable option if you are not going for Own Tempo, while Leaf Storm is more of a one-time nuke, something that Lilligant doesn’t usually go with. Solar Beam is available later on as a TM, if you are going for a sun sweeper set. Lilligant mostly uses its STAB moves for offenses, which makes it a great user of Tera-Gras to further power up its moves, though that might be an overkill sometimes. Lilligant also has a good selection of status moves, and it makes great uses of them thanks to its high Speed. Lilligant is a fast user of Sleep Powder, which creates more opportunities for it to set up or acts as an annoying tactic for foes that can take Grass-type moves well. Synthesis and Leech Seed mitigates Lilligant’s average bulk, and the latter also serves as a residual damage for bulkier foes. Charm, Teeter Dance and Stun Spore are all some ways to slow down opposing foes, particularly fast physical attackers, something that Lilligant doesn’t like facing. These moves are great in helping Lilligant set up but also allow Lilligant to provide support for the team. Entrainment can be useful removing strong abilities, but there aren’t really too many notable uses, and it might be more handy checking abilities of wild Pokemon you want to check. Lilligant isn’t the best sun setter around, but slapping Sunny Day on won’t hurt for Chlorophyll users. In terms of level-up moveset, Lilligant has an alright selection, albeit with an obvious lack of variety. This problem will not be solved its TM moves and Egg moves, unfortunately. Pollen Puff is pretty much the only coverage, and it is offensively pretty useless when it is still resisted by Fire, Poison, Flying and Steel. Lilligant doesn’t even learn good Normal-type moves as the only special Normal-type moves it gets are Hyper Beam and Tera Blast. Tera Blast is too weak and redundant for Tera-Grass, while Hyper Beam does not fit sweeper sets at all. Lilligant has absolutely nothing outside of these three moves for coverage, and its effectiveness in sweeping largely depends on the matchups. At least most Fire and Steel-types cannot stand boosted Petal Dance, but Flying-types are usually big problems with their high Speed. Lilligant at least gets some support options, with Light Screen protecting the team in the special spectrum and Encore locking opponents into undesirable moves potentially. For Egg moves, you may consider Healing Wish for itemless runs and Ingrain for a better sweeping potential. Lilligant simply does not have enough offensive moves to be an effective sweeper, but its Grass-type moves are still very strong when given time to do the dance. It is pretty much forced to run some random moves on its move slots, which at least opens up for some interesting strategies for support and giving up on Quiver Dance just to run more supportive moves might not be the worst decision after all.
Kitakami is the land that hates Grass-types and Lilligant is nothing more than just a Grass-type. Lilligant offers nothing against Kieran’s Flying-type assault or the Loyal Three’s brutal toxicity, since its only coverage of Pollen Puff wouldn’t do anything to these foes either. Lilligant does gain an additional coverage in Weather Ball, which is a perfect fit for Chlorophyll sets. Kieran might be a little easier to handle since Yanmega and Gligar can still be broken with brute force. The Loyal Three, however, is so bulky that Weather Ball won’t help too much either. The big boss at the end of this DLC wave also proves to be a major counter to Lilligant, as a fast physical attacker that resists many of Lilligant’s moves, but that isn’t the biggest problem since not many Pokemon has a good matchup with thing anyways. Lilligant overall would rather skip over Kitakami, with the unfortunate type matchups and increasing power level harming its effectiveness severely.
Lilligant hit the lowest low in Kitakami, and it can only get better from there. In the Indigo Disk, Weather teams are better than ever, and Lilligant is a great Chlorophyll-abuser. Under sun, Lilligant can make good use of Sleep Powder and put its foes to sleep before they can even move. Lilligant also forms an even better strategy with Torkoal, as Lilligant’s access of After You can help Torkoal move before their opponents as well, allowing the fire turtle to destroy everything with its Drought-boosted attacks. Entrainment can be used to a similar effect, allowing Lilligant to turn its allies to Chlorophyll users as well. Other than these, Lilligant is mostly still doing the same thing, finding good timing to use Quiver Dance. Though the problem is, setting up can be difficult in doubles, when there are two dangerous foes around potentially double targeting Lilligant, and Lilligant might not be immediately powerful enough to go without boosts. Own Tempo is not going to be as effective, since Lilligant cannot choose which target to hit with Petal Dance. The good thing is, Lilligant finally gets a more interesting coverage in Alluring Voice, which still does not fix Steel or Fire matchups, but can be helpful against Drayton. I do not usually consider changing Tera-Types when writing these thoughts, but with Tera Shards being much more accessible in the BBA, Lilligant can really use a type change to help out certain type matchups and pretty much any types other than Grass/Bug/Normal would be better. Amarys and Crispin are going to be big problems though, since Crispin also doesn’t mind using sun to his advantage. Even outside of these important fights, Lilligant also just isn’t as good as staying on the field with its average bulk. However, remember that even if Lilligant has no good moves to use, it can always be effective with After You, Entrainment or even just Helping Hand. Lilligant loves going back to single battles in the expedition trip, since it is faster enough to threaten the big boss, who does not run types that resist Grass, making Lilligant an even better choice for Tera in that particular battle. After that, the Kitakami revisit is not going to better than your first visit, since there are still so many Poison-types around. Lilligant overall is still pretty usable, though it requires more tricks to work around its flaws. The Blueberry Academy also introduces some more Chlorophyll users, each with more interesting attacking options, bringing in some competitions. Lilligant has some merits, but it might not be your first choice when picking up suitable team members.
Coverage moves are everything in Monotype runs and Lilligant is not well known for those. Lilligant offers next to nothing for a Grass-type team both offensively and defensively, since Lilligant is helpless against common issues like Flying-types and Fire-types. Lilligant is good at using Grass-type moves and they are of low demand since everything on the team can use Grass-type moves. Quiver Dance is a neat trick, but Lilligant won’t be able to set up against Grass resists and the team won’t need a Quiver Dance sweeper against Grass-weak foes. Without the power of confusion-free Petal Dance, Lilligant is mostly limited to using powder moves and Sunny Day, which is mostly done better by Jumpluff. Lilligant has a great power under sun, which can be useful with a team full of Chlorophyll users. However, Scovillain and maybe even Sunflora would be able to pull off the strategy better with their selection of moves. Lilligant can of course stay true to itself and function as the main Grass-type attacker on the team, but there would be multiple Pokemon more suitable in doing so. If you really want to use Lilligant for its Chlorophyll potentials, there might just be a better alternative way to do so.
The sunlight in Hisui shines more brightly than any other region, and Petilil evolves into a different form of Lilligant as a result. Lilligant-H is exclusively available to those who have access to Legends Arceus, as it currently can only be evolved from Petilil in that game. If the connectivity isn’t an issue to you, then you have just gained access to yet another fast physical attacker. Lilligant-H shifts to using a base 105 Attack and receives a faster base 105 Speed as well that will outspeed pretty much anything not above its level. It also takes on an additional Fighting-type with its new physical-oriented battle style. Just like Breloom before it, Lilligant-H finds common super effective targets as its STABs are strong against seven different types. Of course, the combination of Grass and Fighting is not too effective against opposing Poison, Bug and Flying, which are quite a lot, especially if Lilligant-H takes on a setup approach. Lilligant-H of course has ways to deal with this glaring issue, as unlike Breloom, Lilligant-H actually has a great Speed. Grass/Fighting is less appealing in the defensive side, since Lilligant-H has a total of six weaknesses, including a quadruple weakness to Flying. Combining with its 70/75/75 bulk, Lilligant-H may struggle to face certain strong targets. With access to status moves and coverage, Lilligant-H often still finds great opportunities to save a bad matchup and strikes before its opponents do. That being said, Lilligant-H still finds most trouble with Atticus and Ortega, as their Starmobiles are too tough for it to handle. Larry might be a challenge on his second fight, while Hassel is just a general rough battle. All things considered, Lilligant-H still finds more favourable fights than not, which is already a great reason to recruit it on the team. Lilligant-H even has two great abilities to cement its strengths. Just like Unovan Lilligant, Lilligant-H has access to Chlorophyll, which allows it to get more speed under strong sunlight. Though Lilligant-H is naturally faster than Lilligant-U and has even less use of a speed doubling effect. Alternatively, Lilligant-H can have the Hustle ability, which gives it a further boost on its power, but the lowered accuracy can be risky to use. Both abilities are great, but Lilligant-H can function well without them as well, so just make sure it doesn’t have Leaf Guard. By looking at stats and abilities, Lilligant-H is already looking good.
Lilligant-H has its movepool mirroring its Unovan counterpart, and the two of them share many great attributes in terms of moves. Just like Lilligant-U, Lilligant-H can remember all of its moves as long as it is above Level 5. Considering Lilligant-H can just be obtainable around the low Level 18, its options are extremely powerful. Lilligant-H’s signature move, Victory Dance, is basically a physical version of the fantastic Quiver Dance. Bulk Up is already a great setup move, and Victory Dance is just Bulk Up that also provides Speed boost. Thanks to Lilligant-H’s high natural speed, it can safely dance in front of physical attackers and take their upcoming hit. 70/75 physical bulk is good enough to take on strong enemies after a +1 boost, and of course the 105 Attack and Speed are just amazing after the boosts as well. Lilligant-H also has great attacking options to go with Victory Dance. Gaining access to Petal Blizzard and Leaf Blade immediately is great, as these moves have consistent power and accuracy. Leaf Blade is mostly the better option with a higher chance of critical hit. Speaking of blades, Lilligant-H even has the rare Solar Blade, which is a great fit for Chlorophyll sets, but it is the strongest option even without Chlorophyll. Lilligant-H also gets a brand-new Fighting-type move to go with its newfound STAB. Axe Kick is a base 120 power move that may also confuse targets, though Lilligant-H risks damaging itself if the move misses. Its other Fighting-type attacks come from TMs, with Close Combat being the only one that rivals Axe Kick’s power. Close Combat has a relatively minor drawback considering Lilligant-H is not meant to be bulky anyways, though the fewer PPs can be quite annoying. It should be noted that Lillligant-H can only naturally come with Tera-Grass, and not Tera-Fighting. Tera-Grass does allow boosted Grass damage, but it isn’t too defensively useful. Lilligant-H’s STABs are strong, but they might not be too useful against certain targets. Just like its Unovan counterpart, Lilligant-H doesn’t get too many coverage options, but it has just enough to make things work. The first accessible TMs include Acrobatics and Aerial Ace, which hit most of the Grass resists for neutral damage outside of a few specific ones. Acrobatics will basically mean Lilligant-H needs to run itemless, but that is a small price to pay for such a strong move. Poison Jab is mostly used to handle Fairy-type but doesn’t offer too much neutral hits otherwise. Ice Spinner after you beat the eighth Gym serves as a fantastic option to hit Flying-type as well as Dragon-type. Ice Spinner offers great type matchups, but using it against Flying-type can be a little risky and some Flying-types might be able to take an Ice Spinner as well. Lilligant-H already needs to run Victory Dance and its dual STABs, so there is only one slot left which cannot perfectly covers everything regardless which move to use. This also applies to status moves as well, since Lilligant-H cannot open up a moveslot for the plethora of choices it has. Sleep Powder and Stun Spore can effectively buy time for Lilligant-H to set up, as Lilligant-H would cast these status effects before most of its foes. Leech Seed, Ingrain and Synthesis are useful tools for longevity, as Lilligant-H does not have the luxury of running draining moves. Charm and Encore still function well to nerf its opponents, while Swords Dance provide an alternate setup option if Lilligant-H wants to go for more power at once. Sunny Day lets Lilligant-H set up the weather, but it isn’t too necessary as it does not benefit that much from sun. Defog isn’t too useful when hazards are not common, but it does make Axe Kick more reliable. Lilligant-H still has the mixed attacking and support movepool like Lilligant-U, but Lilligant-H just has a tad bit more options that allow it to be much more usable than its Unovan friend.
The Kitakami region is a testament of how well a Pokemon faces against Flying-type and Poison-type. Lilligant-H does not like Pokemon of these types and thus does not enjoy the Teal Mask expansion. Kieran’s Flying-types are still manageable since Lilligant-H can still outspeed Yanmega and Gliscor and hope to threaten them with Ice Spinner. The Loyal Three, however, are way too bulky for Lilligant-H’s weak coverage. They also have super effective STAB moves that likely will KO Lillligant-H in one shot. Firepon of course is a big problem as well, since Ogerpon is just naturally powerful and fast. Lilligant-H did not even gain any new tools for the TM expansion. Even in the Hisuian form, Lilligant would much rather not visit the Kitakami region.
Lilligant-H’s useful tools are not limited to single battles, as evident in the Indigo Disk expansion. Petal Blizzard gains new uses as STAB if Lilligant-H is paired with something that doesn’t mind taking friendly fire. Sun-based teams are always great in doubles, and Lilligant-H can make better use of Chlorophyll since Pokemon around are getting much faster. Lilligant-H’s access of After You and Entrainment with Chlorophyll provide interesting support options for slower allies, similar to Lilligant-U. Lilligant-H will find it difficult to setup though, facing two foes at once, but Victory Dance is always a worthwhile gamble and is likely why you want to use Lilligant-H in the first place. Lilligant-H can even give its allies a Bulk Up boost by its new access of Coaching, but it may not be the best use of this Pokemon. Speaking of new TM moves, Lilligant-H gains a new Ice-type move, Triple Axel, which is 50% stronger than Ice Spinner when connecting all three hits. Lilligant-H can use Wide Lens to boost up the probabilities and the item will help out Axe Kick as well. Unfortunately, Lilligant-H would need to give up on Acrobatics as a strong Flying-type coverage. However, Lilligant-H still has more than enough to handle most foes despite the increasing power level and can leave things for its allies to handle during difficult matchups. Lilligant-H struggles to battle Lacey and Crispin, while other trainers can bring in Pokemon that it doesn’t want to fight as well. Kieran’s battle isn’t going to be a cakewalk, but Lilligant-H’s STAB combination allows it to target a few Pokemon specifically as well. After that, the big boss in expedition trip actually won’t be too big of a problem, since Lilligant-H is faster and can make good use of Tera to break barriers. The Epilogue won’t be too nice though, as there are so many Poison-type running around. Lilligant-H is still an overall great Pokemon, as its Attack and Speed are so good they can handle all sorts of situations.
The Fighting-type does not go too well with Grass-type and Lilligant-H does not help out Grass-type teams too much in terms of type matchups. Flying-type is big problem and Lilligant-H can’t do much against them. It also does not fare well against other issues like Scizor. However, Lilligant-H at least has a good Speed to work with its offenses and its attacking options can be really helpful at times. Lilligant-H is at least faster than most Ice-type and makes sure Ice-type Pokemon are in control, as other anti-Ice options like Breloom and Scovillain need to compete to go first. Lilligant-H is also the faster Grass-type option with Ice-type moves available, at least before the Indigo Disk dropped, which makes it a fast answer to opposing Dragon-types. Lilligant-H also offers synergy with fellow Grass-type simply because it has Chlorophyll for sun teams, which makes it especially helpful during the Blueberry Academy trip for Double battles strategies. Lilligant-H is not the best member for a mono-Grass team, but it can always be a safe backup. While it has a lack of utilities to contribute to the team, it is very good at doing what it does and that makes for a good enough reason for some considerations.
Ever since Cottonnee left Petilil behind in the Galar region, Petilil had not been version exclusive in its recent appearances and is readily available in the wild for two consecutive regions. Petilil is a great candidate for a team slot if you have not picked up other Grass-type Pokemon yet, and Petilil can be found in some early areas. Petilil is not easy to hunt down though, as it appears in South Province Area Four and West Province Are One, where flower patches are not commonly seen and are at places where resetting is not easy. At that point, you might’ve already beaten Brassius or at least come really close to doing so, which would open up the Sunflora Hide-and-Seek for getting a free Sun Stone guaranteed. Petilil should not wait to evolve into Lilligant, as it would not need to worry about missing moves in these games. There are thus no reasons to use Petilil in battles, though it will do fine with its great Special Attack and the plethora of Grass-type moves it learns. Alternatively, you can wait until you reach the northmost region to find wild Petilil and Lilligant at a higher level, which honestly might be a little too late to recruit this family since it will miss out on many important fights.
Being a traditionally special attacking type, the Grass-type does not lack special attackers. However, this type isn’t well known for its Speed and mostly sees bulkier attackers. Lilligant stands out, in the Paldea region, as one of the few fast Grass-type special attackers, the others being Rotom-Mow and, if you like, Toedscruel. Lilligant’s best stat is its base 110 Special Attack, higher than every Grass-type not named Arboliva or Cacturne. Lilligant’s base 90 Speed may not look as impressive, but it is more than fast enough for single-player purposes, being able to outspeed many fast targets if given good nature and investments. Lilligant can even further boost its power and speed with different tools. Chlorophyll allows for a sun sweeper set, while Own Tempo can be useful at certain situations and its self-induced confusions. Both are great abilities that fit different playstyles, with Own Tempo being more generally helpful if it isn’t specifically used on sun teams and Chlorophyll’s speed boost isn’t too necessary. While having status immunities is nice, Leaf Guard is not as good as Chlorophyll given Lilligant’s fast attacking role. That’s pretty much all the good sides of Lilligant, unfortunately. The pure Grass-typing isn’t the worst, but Lilligant has no way to cover for Grass resists, making its offense wasted against the many birds and dragons flying around. Lilligant also has five glaring weaknesses, backed up by an unamazing 70/75/75 bulk. It can often take at least one hits, but it can be worn down easily, especially on the physical side. Lilligant has different ways to work around these flaws, but it struggles against certain targets. The Starmobiles, being speedy powerhouses, often make sure Lilligant has no time dancing around, while the Elite Four features three members who can take its hits well. Lilligant’s attributes are not great but also not that bad as far as being a Grass-type goes. Things certainly look better when we go to its moves though.
Aside of its promising stats, Lilligant’s biggest appeal is its access to one of the best setup moves ever in Quiver Dance. Quiver Dance is of course a wonderful way to power up Lilligant’s firepower and speed, as well as giving it workable special bulk. But the best thing is, Lilligant can remember this move right off the bat, which means that Lilligant at any levels can learn this move. If Lilligant’s raw stats are not good enough, then they certainly will be after a Quiver Dance boost. Not only that, but Lilligant also has access to pretty much every move it needs right after evolution. Having all of Giga Drain, Energy Ball, Leaf Storm and Petal Dance before you even hit the twenties is amazing, and Lilligant can crush almost every opponent early-game without even needing a single boost. Petal Dance synergizes with Lilligant the most, since it has Own Tempo to prevent the confusion, which allows it to stay in battle for as long as possible to maintain its stat boosts. Giga Drain can be pretty helpful for longevity and can be used alongside Petal Dance without needing to worry about wasted moveslots. Energy Ball is the most reliable option if you are not going for Own Tempo, while Leaf Storm is more of a one-time nuke, something that Lilligant doesn’t usually go with. Solar Beam is available later on as a TM, if you are going for a sun sweeper set. Lilligant mostly uses its STAB moves for offenses, which makes it a great user of Tera-Gras to further power up its moves, though that might be an overkill sometimes. Lilligant also has a good selection of status moves, and it makes great uses of them thanks to its high Speed. Lilligant is a fast user of Sleep Powder, which creates more opportunities for it to set up or acts as an annoying tactic for foes that can take Grass-type moves well. Synthesis and Leech Seed mitigates Lilligant’s average bulk, and the latter also serves as a residual damage for bulkier foes. Charm, Teeter Dance and Stun Spore are all some ways to slow down opposing foes, particularly fast physical attackers, something that Lilligant doesn’t like facing. These moves are great in helping Lilligant set up but also allow Lilligant to provide support for the team. Entrainment can be useful removing strong abilities, but there aren’t really too many notable uses, and it might be more handy checking abilities of wild Pokemon you want to check. Lilligant isn’t the best sun setter around, but slapping Sunny Day on won’t hurt for Chlorophyll users. In terms of level-up moveset, Lilligant has an alright selection, albeit with an obvious lack of variety. This problem will not be solved its TM moves and Egg moves, unfortunately. Pollen Puff is pretty much the only coverage, and it is offensively pretty useless when it is still resisted by Fire, Poison, Flying and Steel. Lilligant doesn’t even learn good Normal-type moves as the only special Normal-type moves it gets are Hyper Beam and Tera Blast. Tera Blast is too weak and redundant for Tera-Grass, while Hyper Beam does not fit sweeper sets at all. Lilligant has absolutely nothing outside of these three moves for coverage, and its effectiveness in sweeping largely depends on the matchups. At least most Fire and Steel-types cannot stand boosted Petal Dance, but Flying-types are usually big problems with their high Speed. Lilligant at least gets some support options, with Light Screen protecting the team in the special spectrum and Encore locking opponents into undesirable moves potentially. For Egg moves, you may consider Healing Wish for itemless runs and Ingrain for a better sweeping potential. Lilligant simply does not have enough offensive moves to be an effective sweeper, but its Grass-type moves are still very strong when given time to do the dance. It is pretty much forced to run some random moves on its move slots, which at least opens up for some interesting strategies for support and giving up on Quiver Dance just to run more supportive moves might not be the worst decision after all.
Kitakami is the land that hates Grass-types and Lilligant is nothing more than just a Grass-type. Lilligant offers nothing against Kieran’s Flying-type assault or the Loyal Three’s brutal toxicity, since its only coverage of Pollen Puff wouldn’t do anything to these foes either. Lilligant does gain an additional coverage in Weather Ball, which is a perfect fit for Chlorophyll sets. Kieran might be a little easier to handle since Yanmega and Gligar can still be broken with brute force. The Loyal Three, however, is so bulky that Weather Ball won’t help too much either. The big boss at the end of this DLC wave also proves to be a major counter to Lilligant, as a fast physical attacker that resists many of Lilligant’s moves, but that isn’t the biggest problem since not many Pokemon has a good matchup with thing anyways. Lilligant overall would rather skip over Kitakami, with the unfortunate type matchups and increasing power level harming its effectiveness severely.
Lilligant hit the lowest low in Kitakami, and it can only get better from there. In the Indigo Disk, Weather teams are better than ever, and Lilligant is a great Chlorophyll-abuser. Under sun, Lilligant can make good use of Sleep Powder and put its foes to sleep before they can even move. Lilligant also forms an even better strategy with Torkoal, as Lilligant’s access of After You can help Torkoal move before their opponents as well, allowing the fire turtle to destroy everything with its Drought-boosted attacks. Entrainment can be used to a similar effect, allowing Lilligant to turn its allies to Chlorophyll users as well. Other than these, Lilligant is mostly still doing the same thing, finding good timing to use Quiver Dance. Though the problem is, setting up can be difficult in doubles, when there are two dangerous foes around potentially double targeting Lilligant, and Lilligant might not be immediately powerful enough to go without boosts. Own Tempo is not going to be as effective, since Lilligant cannot choose which target to hit with Petal Dance. The good thing is, Lilligant finally gets a more interesting coverage in Alluring Voice, which still does not fix Steel or Fire matchups, but can be helpful against Drayton. I do not usually consider changing Tera-Types when writing these thoughts, but with Tera Shards being much more accessible in the BBA, Lilligant can really use a type change to help out certain type matchups and pretty much any types other than Grass/Bug/Normal would be better. Amarys and Crispin are going to be big problems though, since Crispin also doesn’t mind using sun to his advantage. Even outside of these important fights, Lilligant also just isn’t as good as staying on the field with its average bulk. However, remember that even if Lilligant has no good moves to use, it can always be effective with After You, Entrainment or even just Helping Hand. Lilligant loves going back to single battles in the expedition trip, since it is faster enough to threaten the big boss, who does not run types that resist Grass, making Lilligant an even better choice for Tera in that particular battle. After that, the Kitakami revisit is not going to better than your first visit, since there are still so many Poison-types around. Lilligant overall is still pretty usable, though it requires more tricks to work around its flaws. The Blueberry Academy also introduces some more Chlorophyll users, each with more interesting attacking options, bringing in some competitions. Lilligant has some merits, but it might not be your first choice when picking up suitable team members.
Coverage moves are everything in Monotype runs and Lilligant is not well known for those. Lilligant offers next to nothing for a Grass-type team both offensively and defensively, since Lilligant is helpless against common issues like Flying-types and Fire-types. Lilligant is good at using Grass-type moves and they are of low demand since everything on the team can use Grass-type moves. Quiver Dance is a neat trick, but Lilligant won’t be able to set up against Grass resists and the team won’t need a Quiver Dance sweeper against Grass-weak foes. Without the power of confusion-free Petal Dance, Lilligant is mostly limited to using powder moves and Sunny Day, which is mostly done better by Jumpluff. Lilligant has a great power under sun, which can be useful with a team full of Chlorophyll users. However, Scovillain and maybe even Sunflora would be able to pull off the strategy better with their selection of moves. Lilligant can of course stay true to itself and function as the main Grass-type attacker on the team, but there would be multiple Pokemon more suitable in doing so. If you really want to use Lilligant for its Chlorophyll potentials, there might just be a better alternative way to do so.
The sunlight in Hisui shines more brightly than any other region, and Petilil evolves into a different form of Lilligant as a result. Lilligant-H is exclusively available to those who have access to Legends Arceus, as it currently can only be evolved from Petilil in that game. If the connectivity isn’t an issue to you, then you have just gained access to yet another fast physical attacker. Lilligant-H shifts to using a base 105 Attack and receives a faster base 105 Speed as well that will outspeed pretty much anything not above its level. It also takes on an additional Fighting-type with its new physical-oriented battle style. Just like Breloom before it, Lilligant-H finds common super effective targets as its STABs are strong against seven different types. Of course, the combination of Grass and Fighting is not too effective against opposing Poison, Bug and Flying, which are quite a lot, especially if Lilligant-H takes on a setup approach. Lilligant-H of course has ways to deal with this glaring issue, as unlike Breloom, Lilligant-H actually has a great Speed. Grass/Fighting is less appealing in the defensive side, since Lilligant-H has a total of six weaknesses, including a quadruple weakness to Flying. Combining with its 70/75/75 bulk, Lilligant-H may struggle to face certain strong targets. With access to status moves and coverage, Lilligant-H often still finds great opportunities to save a bad matchup and strikes before its opponents do. That being said, Lilligant-H still finds most trouble with Atticus and Ortega, as their Starmobiles are too tough for it to handle. Larry might be a challenge on his second fight, while Hassel is just a general rough battle. All things considered, Lilligant-H still finds more favourable fights than not, which is already a great reason to recruit it on the team. Lilligant-H even has two great abilities to cement its strengths. Just like Unovan Lilligant, Lilligant-H has access to Chlorophyll, which allows it to get more speed under strong sunlight. Though Lilligant-H is naturally faster than Lilligant-U and has even less use of a speed doubling effect. Alternatively, Lilligant-H can have the Hustle ability, which gives it a further boost on its power, but the lowered accuracy can be risky to use. Both abilities are great, but Lilligant-H can function well without them as well, so just make sure it doesn’t have Leaf Guard. By looking at stats and abilities, Lilligant-H is already looking good.
Lilligant-H has its movepool mirroring its Unovan counterpart, and the two of them share many great attributes in terms of moves. Just like Lilligant-U, Lilligant-H can remember all of its moves as long as it is above Level 5. Considering Lilligant-H can just be obtainable around the low Level 18, its options are extremely powerful. Lilligant-H’s signature move, Victory Dance, is basically a physical version of the fantastic Quiver Dance. Bulk Up is already a great setup move, and Victory Dance is just Bulk Up that also provides Speed boost. Thanks to Lilligant-H’s high natural speed, it can safely dance in front of physical attackers and take their upcoming hit. 70/75 physical bulk is good enough to take on strong enemies after a +1 boost, and of course the 105 Attack and Speed are just amazing after the boosts as well. Lilligant-H also has great attacking options to go with Victory Dance. Gaining access to Petal Blizzard and Leaf Blade immediately is great, as these moves have consistent power and accuracy. Leaf Blade is mostly the better option with a higher chance of critical hit. Speaking of blades, Lilligant-H even has the rare Solar Blade, which is a great fit for Chlorophyll sets, but it is the strongest option even without Chlorophyll. Lilligant-H also gets a brand-new Fighting-type move to go with its newfound STAB. Axe Kick is a base 120 power move that may also confuse targets, though Lilligant-H risks damaging itself if the move misses. Its other Fighting-type attacks come from TMs, with Close Combat being the only one that rivals Axe Kick’s power. Close Combat has a relatively minor drawback considering Lilligant-H is not meant to be bulky anyways, though the fewer PPs can be quite annoying. It should be noted that Lillligant-H can only naturally come with Tera-Grass, and not Tera-Fighting. Tera-Grass does allow boosted Grass damage, but it isn’t too defensively useful. Lilligant-H’s STABs are strong, but they might not be too useful against certain targets. Just like its Unovan counterpart, Lilligant-H doesn’t get too many coverage options, but it has just enough to make things work. The first accessible TMs include Acrobatics and Aerial Ace, which hit most of the Grass resists for neutral damage outside of a few specific ones. Acrobatics will basically mean Lilligant-H needs to run itemless, but that is a small price to pay for such a strong move. Poison Jab is mostly used to handle Fairy-type but doesn’t offer too much neutral hits otherwise. Ice Spinner after you beat the eighth Gym serves as a fantastic option to hit Flying-type as well as Dragon-type. Ice Spinner offers great type matchups, but using it against Flying-type can be a little risky and some Flying-types might be able to take an Ice Spinner as well. Lilligant-H already needs to run Victory Dance and its dual STABs, so there is only one slot left which cannot perfectly covers everything regardless which move to use. This also applies to status moves as well, since Lilligant-H cannot open up a moveslot for the plethora of choices it has. Sleep Powder and Stun Spore can effectively buy time for Lilligant-H to set up, as Lilligant-H would cast these status effects before most of its foes. Leech Seed, Ingrain and Synthesis are useful tools for longevity, as Lilligant-H does not have the luxury of running draining moves. Charm and Encore still function well to nerf its opponents, while Swords Dance provide an alternate setup option if Lilligant-H wants to go for more power at once. Sunny Day lets Lilligant-H set up the weather, but it isn’t too necessary as it does not benefit that much from sun. Defog isn’t too useful when hazards are not common, but it does make Axe Kick more reliable. Lilligant-H still has the mixed attacking and support movepool like Lilligant-U, but Lilligant-H just has a tad bit more options that allow it to be much more usable than its Unovan friend.
The Kitakami region is a testament of how well a Pokemon faces against Flying-type and Poison-type. Lilligant-H does not like Pokemon of these types and thus does not enjoy the Teal Mask expansion. Kieran’s Flying-types are still manageable since Lilligant-H can still outspeed Yanmega and Gliscor and hope to threaten them with Ice Spinner. The Loyal Three, however, are way too bulky for Lilligant-H’s weak coverage. They also have super effective STAB moves that likely will KO Lillligant-H in one shot. Firepon of course is a big problem as well, since Ogerpon is just naturally powerful and fast. Lilligant-H did not even gain any new tools for the TM expansion. Even in the Hisuian form, Lilligant would much rather not visit the Kitakami region.
Lilligant-H’s useful tools are not limited to single battles, as evident in the Indigo Disk expansion. Petal Blizzard gains new uses as STAB if Lilligant-H is paired with something that doesn’t mind taking friendly fire. Sun-based teams are always great in doubles, and Lilligant-H can make better use of Chlorophyll since Pokemon around are getting much faster. Lilligant-H’s access of After You and Entrainment with Chlorophyll provide interesting support options for slower allies, similar to Lilligant-U. Lilligant-H will find it difficult to setup though, facing two foes at once, but Victory Dance is always a worthwhile gamble and is likely why you want to use Lilligant-H in the first place. Lilligant-H can even give its allies a Bulk Up boost by its new access of Coaching, but it may not be the best use of this Pokemon. Speaking of new TM moves, Lilligant-H gains a new Ice-type move, Triple Axel, which is 50% stronger than Ice Spinner when connecting all three hits. Lilligant-H can use Wide Lens to boost up the probabilities and the item will help out Axe Kick as well. Unfortunately, Lilligant-H would need to give up on Acrobatics as a strong Flying-type coverage. However, Lilligant-H still has more than enough to handle most foes despite the increasing power level and can leave things for its allies to handle during difficult matchups. Lilligant-H struggles to battle Lacey and Crispin, while other trainers can bring in Pokemon that it doesn’t want to fight as well. Kieran’s battle isn’t going to be a cakewalk, but Lilligant-H’s STAB combination allows it to target a few Pokemon specifically as well. After that, the big boss in expedition trip actually won’t be too big of a problem, since Lilligant-H is faster and can make good use of Tera to break barriers. The Epilogue won’t be too nice though, as there are so many Poison-type running around. Lilligant-H is still an overall great Pokemon, as its Attack and Speed are so good they can handle all sorts of situations.
The Fighting-type does not go too well with Grass-type and Lilligant-H does not help out Grass-type teams too much in terms of type matchups. Flying-type is big problem and Lilligant-H can’t do much against them. It also does not fare well against other issues like Scizor. However, Lilligant-H at least has a good Speed to work with its offenses and its attacking options can be really helpful at times. Lilligant-H is at least faster than most Ice-type and makes sure Ice-type Pokemon are in control, as other anti-Ice options like Breloom and Scovillain need to compete to go first. Lilligant-H is also the faster Grass-type option with Ice-type moves available, at least before the Indigo Disk dropped, which makes it a fast answer to opposing Dragon-types. Lilligant-H also offers synergy with fellow Grass-type simply because it has Chlorophyll for sun teams, which makes it especially helpful during the Blueberry Academy trip for Double battles strategies. Lilligant-H is not the best member for a mono-Grass team, but it can always be a safe backup. While it has a lack of utilities to contribute to the team, it is very good at doing what it does and that makes for a good enough reason for some considerations.