Raichu

Mega Raichu Y holds a 6.27% usage rate at rank 32 in singles. No Guard is locked in 100% of the time, removing accuracy concerns from Focus Blast and Zap Cannon, but it also lets opposing status moves like sleep and Toxic always land. Focus Blast hits the steel- and rock-type core, Zap Cannon plugs the electric-type blind spot, and the ground weakness has to be covered by teammates.

Playstyle：Focus Blast and Zap Cannon each clear 20% of the moveset, the former hammering steel and rock, the latter blasting through electric-type checks. Grass Knot patches the psychic and ground matchup gaps, Volt Switch pivots out. Nasty Plot and Alluring Voice are fringe picks below 10%, so the sweeper role is the default rather than a setup game. The leading 64.3% spread is Timid 2/0/0/32/0/32, pushing the 80 SpD to take most special hits and keeping 110 Speed to move first.

✅ Favorable matchups2

ArchaludonHippowdon

⚠️ Unfavorable matchups1

Garchomp

Mega Raichu Y sits at 11.01% usage in doubles, ranked 14th, and is the most common special Mega on No-Guard Zap Cannon squads. Protect at 24% and Fake Out at 23.8% enter the common moveset, turning the singles sweeper profile into a control-plus-breaking package. No Guard remains locked at 100%.

Playstyle：The doubles core is Zap Cannon, Focus Blast, Fake Out, and Protect, each clearing 20%. Zap Cannon chunks ground-type resists, Focus Blast cracks steel and rock, Fake Out baits Protects and stalls setup, and Protect guards the Mega slot and enables pivots. The leading 11.5% spread is Timid 30/0/13/0/0/23, trading some Speed for a touch of physical defense to survive common double-blasts.

Mega Raichu X sits at 0.09 percent usage, ranked 172 in singles, a fast special-leaning Mega that struggles to justify its slot. Electric Surge plus Volt Tackle and Rising Volume amplify electric STAB, yet the Ground weakness and modest bulk undercut the speed advantage. Devoting a Mega slot to electric-type compression rarely moves the needle for the rest of the team.

Playstyle：Singles builds lock in Raichunite X and Electric Surge with no alternatives. Volt Tackle at 22.2 percent and Drain Punch at 21.5 percent form the core, electric STAB with recoil traded for raw damage, fighting coverage that also restores HP. Play Rough at 19.2 percent handles dragons and darks. Encore and Trailblaze tie at 7.5 percent, the former to punish prediction losses, the latter to climb one speed tier and break ties. Jolly 32 attack 32 speed at 73.9 percent reflects the whole premise, outspeed the field and strike first.

Doubles lands at 0.66 percent usage, ranked 82, a modest but defined electric support attacker. One hundred ten speed plus the Surge field enable both Volt Tackle at 20.6 percent and Rising Voltage at 3.7 percent, while Fake Out at 24.3 percent is the format-standard disruption tool. Protect at 20.3 percent and Volt Switch at 19.4 percent coexist, one to survive the turn, the other to pivot out and hand the field to a partner. The Ground weakness still demands team support.

Playstyle：Doubles move slots lean functional. Fake Out at 24.3 percent staggers a single target on switch-in, Volt Tackle at 20.6 percent slams Ground-blind foes inside the Surge field, Volt Switch at 19.4 percent retreats with damage intact, Protect at 20.3 percent eats the dangerous turn. Those four pin down the first-turn action. Rising Voltage, Play Rough, Knock Off and Encore sit on the margins. Jolly 32 speed at 44.1 percent coexists with Jolly 10 speed at 12.2 percent, the team does not require a uniform speed tier. Partners cluster around Sinistcha at 9.5 percent, Mega Staraptor at 8.8 percent and Grimmsnarl at 8 percent, a rotation built on field control and Fake Out pressure.

Raichu shows no recorded usage in the format. The metagame contains threats such as Feraligatr, Dragonite, and Mega Raichu itself that it cannot handle, and Focus Sash Meowscarada sits outside its comfort range.

In doubles, Raichu sits at 0.18% usage (rank 148) as a utility piece rather than a damage dealer. Fake Out, Encore, and Volt Switch together account for nearly half of recorded moves, with all three revolving around getting a free turn, locking opponents in place, and pivoting out on demand. Lightning Rod at 98.9% defines its team role.

Playstyle：The standard build is a Focus Sash support pivot. Fake Out secures a free switch or scout, Encore punishes over-extension by locking key moves, and Volt Switch pivots out while drawing in Electric immunity answers for the rest of the team. Thunderbolt covers holes that those three cannot, Shuca Berry patches the Ground weakness, and the 9.7% Life Orb minority build trades the sash for raw power.

Alolan Raichu holds a single-format usage rate of 0.03% at position 219, making it a fringe pick rather than a regular option. Surge Surfer pushes its 110 base Speed to 220 under Electric Terrain, which is the entire reason it sees any play at all. The defensive profile is forgiving: only Ground hits super effectively, while Electric, Flying, and Steel damage is halved. With so few recorded appearances, it can only carve out a role as a specialist answer to specific metagame gaps.

Playstyle：In singles, the dominant pattern is Focus Sash at 97.7%, with Wise Glasses a marginal 2.2% alternative. The role is to set Electric Terrain and then threaten with high-Speed STAB. Thunderbolt and Psychic each sit at 25%, building a dual-STAB core, while Surf patches the Ground weakness. The Timid spread at 52.9% and Modest spread at 44.8% are nearly even: Timid wins the speed tie and Modest pushes harder damage, with no clear winner between them. Nuzzle at 13.2% and Volt Switch at 13.2% offer paralysis and pivoting, but their low base power keeps them as situational options rather than core moves.

In doubles, Alolan Raichu sits at 0.01% usage and rank 272, essentially absent from competitive play. The Surge Surfer gimmick loses much of its value when Electric Terrain becomes a team-wide resource rather than something Alolan Raichu controls. Among the few recorded sets, Leftovers at 29.3% and Focus Sash at 29% are tied for first, followed by Choice Scarf at 19%, Magnet at 9.4%, and Life Orb at 9.3%, showing a much wider item spread than in singles. There is no niche it clearly owns.

Playstyle：The doubles pattern leads with Fake Out at 19.3% paired with Protect at 11.8%, forming a first-turn disruption plus safety core. Rising Voltage at 9.6% and Thunderbolt at 6.1% split between Electric Terrain-boosted and unconditional STAB applications. Psychic Terrain at 7.5% appears occasionally to boost Psychic at 7.9% and block priority. Timid and Modest spreads together account for over 78% of recorded sets, with Speed remaining the central optimization.