When revealed before the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon, Oranguru became almost the mascot of VGC 17; its signature move Instruct – which allows the targeted Pokémon to use the same move a second time in the same turn – decent bulk, a solid typing and access to Trick Room made it appear that Oranguru was specifically designed for use in the competitive circuit.
Initially, at the beginning of the format, Oranguru’s usage was vast. Now however, it’s outshone as a Trick Room setter by Porygon2 and even Mimikyu has started to catch up in terms of viability. Despite the drop off in usage, Oranguru remains one of the best options to set your Trick Room throughout this season.
A reason for Oranguru’s drop in usage is mainly down to how ‘one dimensional’ a Pokémon it is; Mimikyu can run an offensive or more bulky spread, Porygon2 has a deep enough movepool and the correct stat distribution to either be incredibly bulky, an offensive presence or even disrupt with Toxic. The role of almost every Oranguru spread is the same: set Trick Room and spam Instruct so your partner can fire off two powerful attacks a turn.
As we can see, Oranguru has wonderful stat distribution for a Trick Room setter; unlike a few other options such as Trevenant, Exeggutor or Comfey, Oranguru doesn’t have a glaring weakness among its stats or typing. 90/80/110 is extremely solid in terms of bulk, 90 Special Attack isn’t particularly awful, especially when the main goal of attacking with Oranguru is to add a bit of chip damage to opposing Pokémon, whilst the normal/psychic typing offers an immunity to ghost moves. The speed stat of 60 is slow enough to fall into Trick Room user range but also high enough to under speed many of the best slow attackers inside Trick Room so your instruct goes off second.
Each of these spreads will give you the choice between Oranguru’s two abilities; Telepathy or Inner Focus. This choice is completely dependent on Oranguru’s partners. If you want to be instructing moves like Surf, Earthquake or any attacks which also causes damage to the attackers partner, Telepathy is your ability of choice. If not, however, Inner Focus combined with Mental Herb means the only way to prevent Oranguru from setting Trick Room is to knock it out before it can twist the dimensions. Inner Focus is my personal favourite but it all comes down to personal preference.
So with all this in mind, let’s get into some sets!
Set 1: Trainer Tower Oranguru
Oranguru @ Sitrus Berry/Mental Herb
Ability: Inner Focus/Telepathy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 140 Def / 20 SpA / 92 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
– Psychic
– Instruct
– Trick Room
– Protect
This is Trainer Tower’s base spread for Oranguru – the EVs are designed to balance bulk between both defences and allows Oranguru to take a Flare Blitz from max attack A-Marowak:
252+ Atk Thick Club Alolan Marowak Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 140 Def Oranguru: 166-196 (84.2 – 99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
I won’t go into much detail here, if you want more info follow the link to Trainer Tower by clicking the title (or picture) of the spread!
The following two spreads will look at specially and physically defensive variants of Oranguru. Obviously, you’ll want to trial the set that counteracts the opposing Pokémon your team will be more concerned with:
Set 2: Specially Defensive
Oranguru @ Mental Herb
Ability: Inner Focus / Telepathy
Level: 50
EVs: 244 HP / 52 Def / 212 SpD
Calm / Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk (0 Spe optional)
– Psychic
– Instruct
– Trick Room
– Protect / Reflect / Light Screen
As suggested, this spread is designed to maximise special bulk whilst also allowing us to take a few physical hits along the way. The important thing to note with this spread is the nature/speed IV – again, this is dependent on your partner Pokémon; calm nature with a perfect IV gives Oranguru a speed stat of 80 which is enough to underspeed base 73 speed Pokémon under Trick Room by 1 point. Play around with the speed stat to ensure Oranguru isn’t quicker or slower than it needs to be.
The moves are completely standard but I’ve provided the option of using a screen over Protect in case you want to support your team Defensively too.
The EV’s allow for the following damage calcs:
252 SpA Life Orb Tapu Koko Thunderbolt vs. 244 HP / 212+ SpD Oranguru in Electric Terrain: 86-101 (43.8 – 51.5%) — 6.3% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Tapu Lele Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 244 HP / 212+ SpD Oranguru in Psychic Terrain: 86-102 (43.8 – 52%) — 11.7% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Arcanine Inferno Overdrive (195 BP) vs. 244 HP / 212+ SpD Oranguru: 108-127 (55.1 – 64.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Golduck Hydro Vortex (185 BP) vs. 244 HP / 212+ SpD Oranguru in Rain: 148-175 (75.5 – 89.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ SpA Torkoal Eruption (150 BP) vs. 244 HP / 212+ SpD Oranguru in Sun: 84-99 (42.8 – 50.5%) — 1.2% chance to 2HKO
252+ SpA Salamence Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 244 HP / 212+ SpD Oranguru: 114-135 (58.1 – 68.8%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Garchomp Tectonic Rage (180 BP) vs. 244 HP / 52 Def Oranguru: 172-204 (87.7 – 104%) — 25% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 244 HP / 52 Def Oranguru: 145-172 (73.9 – 87.7%) — guaranteed 2HKO
If, however, you want more physical defence:
Set 3: Physically Defensive
Oranguru @ Mental Herb
Ability: Inner Focus / Telepathy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold / Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / (0 Spe optional)
– Psychic
– Instruct
– Trick Room
– Protect / Reflect / Light Screen
See what I mean about Oranguru being one dimensional? Same moves as above simply because this is what Oranguru is designed to do. This spread would perhaps be my personal preference – yes, it’s a boring 252/252 but sometimes simple spreads are the best option; this spread in particular is necessary to compensate for Oranguru’s lowest defensive stat. Obviously, this spread won’t be turning Thunderbolt from a life orb Tapu Koko into a 3hko but we can survive some of the strongest physical attacks in the game:
252 Atk Life Orb Pheromosa Lunge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Oranguru: 151-182 (76.6 – 92.3%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Arcanine Inferno Overdrive (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Oranguru: 132-156 (67 – 79.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Meadow Plate Tapu Bulu Wood Hammer vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Oranguru in Grassy Terrain: 169-199 (85.7 – 101%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Oranguru: 135-160 (68.5 – 81.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Muk-Alola Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Oranguru: 132-156 (67 – 79.1%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Krookodile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Oranguru: 140-168 (71 – 85.2%) — guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Water Bubble Araquanid Hydro Vortex (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Oranguru: 168-198 (85.2 – 100.5%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Nihilego Power Gem vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Oranguru: 82-97 (41.6 – 49.2%) — guaranteed 3HKO
So there you have it. Three solid defensive spreads designed to extend Oranguru’s longevity and sufficiently support its team mates. But what’s that? You don’t care about solid spreads? You want to meme? Then, my friends, let us meme.
Set 4: Harambe Z
Bulletproof :] (Oranguru) (M) @ Psychium Z / Ghostium Z
Ability: Inner Focus
Level: 50
Happiness: 69
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest / Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / (0 Spe optional)
– Psychic
– Instruct
– Trick Room
– Shadow Ball
Well, we couldn’t do an article on Oranguru without mentioning Harambe could we?
Okay, perhaps we could. However, this spread channels Oranguru’s inner meme power; like all Oranguru spreads we have the ability to twist dimensions and instruct our partner’s attacks. Unlike all typical Oranguru, this one can do some serious damage to opposing Pokémon. Naturally, your choice of Z move depends on what your team is weak to, but the Z moves provide some interesting calcs…
252+ SpA Oranguru Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Koko: 162-192 (110.9 – 131.5%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Oranguru Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 68 SpD Marowak-Alola: 142-168 (85 – 100.5%) — 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Oranguru Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Nihilego: 204-242 (110.2 – 130.8%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Oranguru Shattered Psyche (175 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Torkoal: 169-201 (95.4 – 113.5%) — 75% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Oranguru Never-Ending Nightmare (160 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Tapu Lele: 140-166 (95.8 – 113.6%) — 81.3% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Oranguru Never-Ending Nightmare (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 68 SpD Marowak-Alola: 172-204 (102.9 – 122.1%) — guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Oranguru Never-Ending Nightmare (160 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Metagross: 170-202 (90.9 – 108%) — 43.8% chance to OHKO
Well, there we have it. Oranguru officially dissected. Despite its drop off in usage, Oranguru remains a solid option to set your Trick Room whilst fulfilling its niche of the only Pokémon (barring Smeargle of course) with access to instruct. The combination Mental Herb and Inner Focus (and the optional fake out user) all but guarantees Trick Room to be set, whilst – thanks to its wonderful bulk – having the necessary tools to be useful outside of Trick Room should the situation merit!
GoldenrodPress 
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