Tapu Lele

Psychic

Tapu Lele is one of Psychic's most essential Pokemon due to its ability Psychic Surge, sky-high Special Attack, and excellent STAB combination that targets troublesome Dark- and Dragon-type Pokemon such as Mandibuzz, Dragonite, and Latios. Psychic Terrain boosts the power of Psychic-type STAB moves, especially teammates' Expanding Force, while invalidating priority moves like Sucker Punch, Shadow Sneak, and Aqua Jet from users such as Bisharp, Aegislash, Mimikyu, and Azumarill. This greatly benefits Tapu Lele's faster teammates and lets it beat Azumarill. Tapu Lele has a few great coverage options to deal with its typical checks, such as Thunderbolt for Celesteela and Corviknight, Focus Blast for Steel- and Dark-types such as Heatran, Ferrothorn, Melmetal, and Tyranitar, and Shadow Ball for Ghost-types like Aegislash. However, even with Psychic Terrain's protection, Tapu Lele's average Speed tier leaves it vulnerable to being revenge killed by numerous naturally faster Pokemon such as Zeraora, Volcarona, Gengar, and Nihilego that it would desire to outspeed. Tapu Lele's poor physical bulk also makes it difficult for it to consistently switch into attacks and set up Psychic Terrain for its teammates.

Fairy

Tapu Lele serves as a unique wallbreaker for Fairy teams thanks to its ability Psychic Surge, which strengthens its Psychic-type moves while also blocking priority moves from foes like Scizor, Weavile, and Dragonite. Moreover, Tapu Lele's STAB combination is very good against many matchups, and, with the help of wallbreaker teammates like Azumarill and Tapu Bulu, it can easily clean late-game. Coverage options such as Focus Blast and Thunderbolt can help Tapu Lele against Pokemon that it cannot beat normally, such as Heatran, Celesteela, and Mantine. However, its Speed tier is middling; even with a Choice Scarf, Tapu Lele is slower than other common Choice Scarf users such as Gengar, Blacephalon, and Weavile. This Speed, combined with its bad defenses, means Tapu Lele cannot reliably switch into threats and is oftentimes limited to revenge killing or accepting heavy hits. This also leaves Tapu Lele weak to the aforementioned Choice Scarf users. Lastly, Psychic Terrain also blocks teammate priority moves, such as Azumarill's Aqua Jet and Mimikyu's Shadow Sneak.