I was looking through a bunch of movesets for pokemon typically considered bad, and I had a realization about volbeat and illumise.
They're built to be doubles partners, similarly to plusle and minun. And if you get them set up, they're actually pretty solid!
Please bear in mind that I have yet to play test the following hypothetical strategy, as I want to find a shiny illumise to pair with the shiny volbeat I found yesterday.
Let's start off with volbeat, due to its once signature move being the first thing anyone thinks about it. Volbeat has access to the move Tail glow, which boosts its special attack stat by 3 stages, or 2.5x. This sounds impressive in theory, but volbeat has a measly base 47 special attack that gets boosted to base 117 after one tail glow. For context, lycanroc dusk has base 117 attack without any boosts. Even boosting it to 6 stages makes it only reach 188, which some pokemon can reach after using calm mind once. That's... Oof.
Fortunately for volbeat, it was gifted with the prankster ability to capitalize on a fairly good supportive movepool. Illumise also got prankster, but we'll get back to her later. Volbeat has access to support moves (as of scarlet and violet) like tailwind, sunny day, rain dance, swagger, encore, helping hand, trick, and thunder wave. It's obvious that volbeat makes for a decent prankster pokemon, but not the best.
Again, illumise also got prankster, but she also has tinted lens, which is far more interesting to me. Illumise has a far better, though still not stellar, special attack stat of 73. But... She doesn't learn tail glow, due to not having a tail that glows. There's still growth, but relying on the sun to get a plus two boost is asking for trouble as a fire weak bug type. Fortunately, she has, and has always had access to, psych up. Psych up copies the target's stat changes, even through protect. And volbeat has a move that boosts his special attack to plus 3 that is guaranteed to go off first if illumise runs tinted lens. This boost illumise's special attack to base 182 in one turn, which is just shy of volbeat at plus 6. Volbeat has tail glow because volbeat acts as illumise's set up move before she tears into the enemy. He exists to make his girlfriend the star of the show. That's kind of adorable!
With tinted lens, plus 3 is more than adequate. In fact, if you have volbeat use helping hand while you use bug buzz or tera fairy draining kiss, either of which is guaranteed to hit for at least neutral damage thanks to tinted lens, you can one shot pokemon like calyrex on either horse, koraidon, miraidon, raging bolt, amoongus, assault vest iron hands has an 87.5% chance to one shot if you use a timid nature and aren't running stealth rocks but is a one shot if you use a modest nature, all forms of ogerpon, the list goes on and on. And that's just at plus 3, it takes two turns to achieve plus 6 for a base 292 special attack. And illumise gets the much stronger dazzling gleam, which hits both opponents for more damage than the single target draining kiss! And several of these pokemon can't one shot you back without boosting first! Calyrex? It needs a high roll to KO. Terastilized ogerpon? Only cornerstone has a one shot regardless of whether you're terastalized or not, with hearthflame being dropped down to a two shot by using rain dance. Koraidon under sun can one shot illumise with flare blitz, but again, volbeat can learn rain dance! And draining kiss one shots koraidon while restoring 101% of your health back!
And speaking of weather, illumise has access to thunder and solar beam for massive single target damage if you set up sunny day or rain dance. Volbeat has to run tail glow, tailwind, and helping hand to make illumise a threat, but the final move slot can go to whatever.
Of course this isn't to say that this tag team is undefeatable. They are both slow at base 85 speed, but tailwind and other speed control options can make this manageable. With volbeat stuck as a bug type, it's probably going to go down fast. You can run an additional helping hand pokemon for the same effect, perhaps friend guard clefairy to improve illumise's longevity. Furthermore, moves like haze and clear smog exist, and illumise hits like a wet noodle without a boost. Trick room is also a problem, as you need a minimum of one turn to set up and illumise is much faster than any trick room viable pokemon. Priority moves are an issue as well, although most cannot one shot illumise unless both enemies attack at once.
Still, this is much better than what I was expecting from these two fairly forgettable bugs! Of course, any specially offensive pokemon that knows psych up can accomplish the same or better results than illumise, but it's just really neat how well volbeat and illumise synergise with one another. And seeing how potent they both can be after being led to believe they were worthless for all these years is a very pleasant surprise! It makes me wonder what other seemingly bad pokemon were perhaps dismissed too hastily. Is tropius secretly a diamond in the rough? Likely not, but the potential that someone missed something is there, and that's exciting to think about! As a pokemon nerd who loves the lower tier pokemon, it's always fun to see an actually viable strategy pop up every now and again.
I'm not sure if anyone else has had a similar moveset idea for these two together, but hopefully I'm not the only one who noticed these two synergistic lovebugs.
