SUICUNE
100 / 75 / 115 / 90 / 115 / 85
WATER
Abilities: Pressure / Inner Focus
NOTABLE MOVES:
Special: Scald / Ice Beam / Surf / Hydro Pump / Tera Blast
Physical: Trailblaze
Status: Rest / Sleep Talk / Protect / Substitute / Roar / Calm Mind / Agility / Tailwind
Suicune is one of the bulkiest Pokémon in the game, with incredible stats in all 3 defensive stats, making it incredible at taking neutral attacks from all kinds of foes. In spite of this, between it's lack of recovery and vulnerability to all forms of passive damage, Suicune is quite ineffective as a pure wall. What Suicune is good at is using it's incredible mixed bulk as an opportunity to set up with Calm Mind and completely take over games. With moves like Substitute, Protect, Rest, it can use its Ability Pressure in addition to its stellar bulk and resistances to stall out the PP of traditional Water-Type defensive answers like Dondozo, Toxapex, Alomomola, and Blissey. Furthermore, with the sought-after Scald, even Physical attackers cannot freely abuse Suicune's unimpressive strength and inability to boost Physical Defense. However, it can still take advantage of its few coverage options. Ice Beam gives it a way to threaten Amoonguss, Walking Wake, Ogerpon-Wellspring, and the newly added Hydrapple, each to various extents. It can also make use of Tera Blast with Tera Types like Electric, Grass, or Fairy to really ruin whatever switchins it may want to. Suicune's access to phazing can pair up beautifully with hazard support, letting it force damage on the opposing team even if there's no way it can directly damage the opposing team. Finally, Suicune can use it's great natural bulk to bolster it's offensive capabilities, possibly even making use of the various speed boosting moves it gets, and using stronger Water STAB, however these often function in formats with lower power levels and will likely be unviable in OU.
POSSIBLE SETS
VINCUNE (Substitute/Calm Mind)
Scald
Substitute
Protect / Roar
Calm Mind
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Speed OR 252 HP / 64 Def / 192 Speed
NATURE: Timid / Bold
ITEMS: Leftovers
POSSIBLE TERA TYPES: Fairy / Steel
This set aims to make use of Suicune's great bulk and access to Pressure to PP stall opponents, set up Calm Minds, and sweep against weakened teams. For this set, PP is a valuable resource, so plan things out carefully. For example, Dondozo can actually PP stall this set through using Rest and not actually doing anything, making its PP reserves much larger than what is clear. This set also struggles against phazing - as weird as it may sound, Ting-Lu can actually kinda mess this Pokémon up, and lower-tier Pokémon with phazing like Hippowdon, Goodra-Hisui, and the upcoming Skarmory can do the same thing. Since it's initially quite weak as well, it's not a bad idea to chuck Electric-Typr Pokémon who can initially threaten Suicune well like Zapdos or either Thundurus Forme, despite their lack of a Scald resistance. And for Pokémon who do resist Scald, like Ogerpon-Wellspring and Walking Wake, they're perfect answers to Suicune. Defensive Pokémon with good matchups against Water-Types, like the aforementioned Dondozo, as well as more defensive Water-immune Pokémon like Gastrodon and Clodsire can completely stuff this set. This is where Roar comes into play. While you're less capable of perfecting your recovery from Leftovers, it allows you to make guaranteed progress against teams, even those with perfect counters, with hazard support wearing down your foes. The 2 EV spreads either aim to make Suicune as fast as possible, or just fast enough to outspeed Modest Heatran, however, Suicune can honestly be as fast or as slow as your team needs. Bold with max HP / max Defense, while likely outclassed, is likely completely usable, and in-between there's an incredible array of options for any sort of speed tier. Tera Steel can help you gain a Poison immunity, turn your matchup on Pokémon like Hatterene, Ogerpon-C, Amoonguss, and Slowking-Galar, and is a generally solid defensive type as well. Fairy doesn't explicitly help completely turn the tides on any particularly difficult matchups (besides Zamazenta-C), however it gives Suicune great neutrality against most Types, including it's 2 previous weaknesses. This Suicune will most likely fit on more offensive structures, ranging from Hyper to Bulky Offense. This set really appreciates Toxic Spikes support, so help from the likes of Glimmora, Greninja, Toxapex, Clodsire, and Meowscarada will help its Substitute spam hurt that much more. Standard Spikes/Stealth Rock support, from Ting-Lu, Ogerpon, Heatran and Clefable also helps. From here, Suicune likely wants some strong checks to Zapdos, like Ting-Lu or Heatran, in addition to good hazard control, like Great Tusk, Hatterene, or Excadrill. It's also nice to pressure Zapdos through the help of another team member, such as Iron Boulder, Weavile, or Triple Axel Meowscerada. Other things you may want to prepare for are Grass Types, like Rillaboom and Ogerpon-Wellspring, so prepare for those cautiously. An exceptional partner to Suicune would be Lunar Dance Cresselia, who can completely restore Suicune's HP and PP, meaning that if an opponents Suicune gameplan is to wear it out of its PP, they'll be put into a very awkward position.
CROCUNE (RestTalk)
Rest
Sleep Talk
Calm Mind
Scald
EVs: 248 HP / 248 Def / 12 Spe
NATURE: Bold
ITEMS: Leftovers / Grassy Seed
POSSIBLE TERA TYPES: Fairy / Steel
While Vincune is a more offensively-inclined method of making use of Suicune's bulk, Crocune is more focused on finding use as a wall, fighting passive damage with it's recovery and status resistance through Rest. Now able to PP stall even Dondozo, this Suicune becomes even more obnoxious for its ability to completely sit on weaker Pokémon like Deoxys-Speed, Glimmora, and Clefable, who, in spite of their unimpressive power, would normally be quite threatening to Vincune. However, Crocune must lose a lot to make this work. It can no longer fit Roar, meaning it is much more passive against Water immunities. While phazing can be used by other Pokémon, they also need to manage entry hazards, or using their STAB moves to check threats. Because of this passivity and need for so much more setup to properly sweep, Suicune fits best on more defensive teams, from balance to semi-stall. The EVs here allow you to outspeed 0 Speed Rotom-Wash, as well as take minimal damage from Stealth Rocks. Tera Fairy and Steel are great for reasons mentioned above. Grassy Seed is an interesting item option for being able to give Suicune a +1 Defense boost, allowing it to become extremely powerful physically, as it sets up specially. However, this adds even more setup to sweep to an already very demanding Pokémon, and makes 2 Pokémon extremely reliant on staying healthy the entire game, which is extremely difficult to pull off. Besides Rillaboom, other good allies include similar ones to Vincune (good Electric, Grass checks, solid hazard control) as well as maybe an additional bulky water to alleviate as much pressure from it as possible.
2 ATTACKS VINCUNE
Calm Mind
Substitute
Scald
Ice Beam / Tera Blast
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
NATURE: Timid
ITEMS: Leftovers
POSSIBLE TERA TYPES: Fairy / Electric / Grass / Steel
A set like this uses coverage to more immediately threaten your checks, as opposed to using Roar, which slowly wears them down. This set is more Tera (if running Tera Blast) and matchup-dependent than normal Vincune. For example, even Tera Grass won't help you defeat Kyurem or the Lati twins, and Ice Beam doesn't help breaking through Dondozo. Even still, this Pokémon still benefits from the help of previously mentioned good Vincune teammates. Ogerpon-W could be really interesting to help with Scald + Ice Beam Suicune, as a lot of its checks use Tera Grass, like Dondozo, which can help out Suicune tremendously. Tera Fairy and Steel are the best options for Ice Beam sets, and Tera Fairy, Grass, and Electric are the best for Tera Blast sets. Tera Fairy lets you hit Dragon Types like Hydrapple, Dragapult and Kyurem exceptionally hard, as well as gain the previously mentioned great neutralities to common attacking types. Tera Grass and Tera Electric, on the other hand, hit Water resistances harder, while Tera Grass hits the likes of Rotom-Wash and Gastrodon, and Tera Electric smacks around most other Water types, but thuds into Hydrapple, Water Absorb Clodsire, and the previously mentioned Gastrodon.
There is an imposter among us...
OFFENSIVE 3 ATTACKS
Calm Mind
Surf / Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Tera Blast
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
NATURE: Timid / Modest
ITEMS: Leftovers / Grassy Seed / Electric Seed
POSSIBLE TERA TYPES: Fairy / Electric / Grass
This set will almost certainly be unviable in OU, due to the high amount of better offensive Water types there are to choose from, like Ogerpon, Keldeo and Walking Wake. However, this set could prove powerful in lower tiers. The idea behind this set is to utilize Suicune's great natural bulk to bolster its offensive capabilities, setting up and trading with all kinds of Pokémon. I put both Seeds on the set, in case Suicune ends up being seen with other terrain setters, like Arboliva, Thwackey, or Pinchurchin. The various Tera Types can be used to defeat similar targets to those mentioned above. Timid can be used to outspeed various targets, like Jolly Mamoswine or + Speed Hoopa-Unbound, but Suicune likes all the power it can get in the form of Modest. This set will most likely be used on Screens Hyper Offense teams, where Suicune's great natural bulk turns it into an unkillable monster, capable of setting up against almost anything and trading damage superbly. However, this can also feasibly work on Hazard stacking Hyper Offense teams, or even bulkier Offenses. The choice between Surf and Hydro Pump is ultimately a matter of personal preference, as Surf is more accurate, but again, Suicune is always wanting for more power, so it can be a lose/lose scenario in some cases. Tera Blast hits all the previously mentioned targets, depending on your Tera Type.
OFFENSIVE SPEED BOOSTER
Calm Mind
Agility / Tailwind / Trailblaze
Surf / Hydro Pump
Tera Blast / Ice Beam
EVS: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
NATURE: Modest / Timid
ITEMS: Leftovers / Weakness Policy / Grassy Seed / Electric Seed
POSSIBLE TERA TYPES: Fairy / Electric / Grass / Steel
If this set brings Suicune any viability in this tier, I will gift you a free $10 or less Steam game of your choice if you're the first to reach out to me about it (preferably seeing it win an important tournament game, or getting ranked on the VR for it.) Agility, Tailwind, and Trailblaze all have their own applications. Agility is the most straightforward, just boost your speed. Tailwind is temporary unlike Agility, but if Suicune is to die soon, it can go down supporting its teammates. Finally, Trailblaze boosts the least of the 3, but also gives Suicune something to actually damage Gastrodon with, something the Scald / Tera Electric Tera Blast sets would appreciate. However, Trailblaze will only actually 2HKO Gastrodon after it's received a significant amount of chip, so even if you run that coverage, you may want to deal with Gastrodon through other means anyways. Modest is the most likely choice, as you'll be boosting your speed, and Suicune is yet again hampered by its poor speed, but there may be certain exceptionally fast Choice Scarfers you want to outspeed after a boost, or you may just not want to always be clicking the move to outspeed certain benchmarks. Weakness Policy is an interesting item choice, as especially behind screens, Suicune can handle even some STAB Super Effective moves, and helping it with its aforementioned power issues. Once again, dual Screens support is appreciated, even more with this set since it's so much more all-in. Besides that, teammates to lure or overwhelm Suicunes common checks are usually what are needed for this set to be at its most potent.
In conclusion, Suicune is a very metagame-dependent Pokémon. It went from OU Pokémon to completely unviable in Gen 5 OU, and yet, despite receiving zero buffs since, managed to find a niche for itself in the next 3 generations of OU, and even Generation 8 Ubers of all places. With Generation 9's immense powercreep and high amount of viable Water immunities, theres a chance Suicune may have to sit this one out. But its defensive stats are so great and will simply never be "bad," to the point where I can't ever count it out completely from the OU equation. Most of these sets aren't what will net Suicune viability, there's a good chance Vincune will be considered the only one that matters if it matters at all, and the offensive sets will surely not find a place. Still, Suicune will surely find itself succeeding in whatever lower tier it ends up in, that I can almost guarantee.
