Tapu Bulu

Fairy

Tapu Bulu's excellent Attack stat in conjunction with its Grassy Terrain-boosted STAB attacks makes it a great physical wallbreaker on Fairy teams. It is also able to serve as a revenge killer with Choice Scarf. Its Grass typing allows it to take on Ground, Rock, and Water teams and relieve some of the pressure on Azumarill and Tapu Koko, and it is able to sweep these teams easily with Choice Scarf. Furthermore, Tapu Bulu's access to decent coverage moves such as Superpower, Stone Edge, and Zen Headbutt allows it to check several types in the metagame. With access to Swords Dance and Substitute, Tapu Bulu can put great pressure on defensive Pokemon and cores, easily breaking past types like Normal, Ground, Poison, and Water. Swords Dance-boosted Zen Headbutt notably allows Tapu Bulu to take out many key Poison-type threats to Fairy teams such as Mega Venusaur. Tapu Bulu can utilize Fightinium Z or Rockium Z in conjunction with Swords Dance to break certain Pokemon that would normally check it, such as Ferrothorn for the former and Mandibuzz for the latter. Grassy Surge provides immense support for Fairy teams, giving passive recovery and reducing damage dealt by Earthquake. However, it also recovers the health of the opposing team, which can be disadvantageous. Also, Tapu Bulu has trouble KOing certain physically defensive Pokemon, such as Skarmory, even with its amazing wallbreaking power, and it is even more easily walled by them when using Choice Scarf. Tapu Bulu's Grassy / Fairy typing leaves it with a huge weakness to Poison-type attacks, meaning users of such attacks force Tapu Bulu to switch out to Klefki. Finally, Tapu Bulu's subpar Speed stat leaves it outsped by positive-natured base 80 Speed Pokemon and Choice Scarf users, meaning it usually has to take damage before dishing it out, though with a Choice Scarf, it is able to outspeed some of them.

Grass

Tapu Bulu is the greatest offensive Pokemon available to Grass teams. Its unmatched combination of offensive wallbreaking power and a great ability makes it a crucial option for any Grass team. Grassy Surge brings massive support to itself and the entire team alike by boosting the power of Grass-type moves and providing passive recovery for all grounded Pokemon. It also weakens the power of Ground-type moves. This allows Grass's defensive core, which is entirely neutral to Ground, to have a much easier time checking wallbreakers like Choice Band Excadrill. Because of Tapu Bulu's above-average Attack stat in tandem with its strong Terrain-boosted moves like Wood Hammer, it is able to function as a fearsome wallbreaker and revenge killer for Grass teams. Additionally, Tapu Bulu's decent bulk, passive Grassy Surge recovery, and access to Horn Leech often make it hard to take down. To emphasize this, Tapu Bulu is usually supported by bulky teammates that can give it safe opportunities to come in on the field. However, while its Fairy typing gives Tapu Bulu defensive utility against Dark-, Fighting-, and Dragon-types, it stacks a common weakness to Poison that can be exploited by revenge killers such as Dugtrio. Additionally, Tapu Bulu lacks access to any physical Fairy STAB move, making it often rely on its coverage moves in order to hit threats that resist its Grass STAB moves such as Dragonite. Furthermore, Grass is a bad offensive typing, and this means that Tapu Bulu often finds itself overly reliant on coverage options like Superpower and Stone Edge in order to hit the many threats that resist its STAB attacks. Although it commonly holds a Choice Scarf, Tapu Bulu's below-average Speed and numerous weaknesses allow many of the metagame's common Choice Scarf users such as Greninja and Victini to easily revenge kill it.