What is a good moveset for Lugia?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Lugia, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for any of its pre-evolutions can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some detail, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Lugia Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Gen 8 Doubles Ubers

Lugia @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 52 HP / 252 SpA / 204 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hurricane / Aeroblast
- Earth Power
- Calm Mind
- Protect

Dynamax attacker. Hurricane and Aeroblast are options for Flying STAB. The former is stronger and has perfect accuracy in rain (which is often up due to how common Kyogre is), but unnacurate if not, while the latter is slightly weaker but has much better accuracy. Don't use Hurricane if you have Groudon on your team, though. Both of them also boost your speed one stage as well as your ally's when you're Dynamaxed. Earth Power hits the many Steel types in the metagame for super effective damage and boosts special defence while Dynamaxed. Calm Mind boosts your special attack and special defence both by one stage, which is nice since Lugia's special attack isn't very good (only base 90). Protect allows you to scout for attacks while staying almost completely safe from attacks. In case you're wondering why I didn't put a Psychic attack on this set, there are so many Psychic resists in the metagame, and most viable Pokémon that take super effective damage from Psychic (e.g. Amoonguss) are also weak to Flying (the rare Eternatus is the only exception to this). The Weakness Policy increases Lugia's special attack by two stages when hit by a super effective attack, and Lugia has the bulk (further increased by Dynamax and Multiscale) to take a such an attack. 204 speed EVs allow Lugia to outspeed variants of Kyogre that aren't running a Choice Scarf.

Comments

Protect is more of a niche option and could be replaced with Roost

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Protect is easily one of the most important moves in doubles. I probably should've mentioned this in my answer but after Dynamax ends, the opponent might try to take out Lugia as fast as possible and constantly try to double team it. Protect can stop those attempts at doing so while your ally can take out an opposing Pokémon, and it can stall out Trick Room if it's up (I can't be bothered to edit this in rn since it'll need to be approved again). You can run Roost if you want since you can still use Max Guard.

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Ouch doubles I didn’t notice sorry

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It's alright lol

Answer 2

Gen 8 AG Dynamax Sweeper
Lugia @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Roost
- Ice Beam / Calm Mind
- Aeroblast
Earth Power is coverage, lowers special defense sometimes in regular form, and boosts special defense in dynamax form, Roost is to recover off damage, Ice Beam is coverage that can freeze in regular form and set Hail in dynamax(not really wanted), and Aeroblast is STAB that has a high crit rate in regular form and boosts speed in dynamax. Also you could replace Ice Beam with Calm Mind if you have trouble breaking walls and tanking special hits. The strategy is that Lugia gets hit by a super effective move but survives due to Multiscale, heals the damage with Roost, and starts sweeping once it gets a speed boost from Max Airstream.

Answer 3

Lugia @ Leftovers
Ability: Multiscale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold / Calm Nature
- Toxic
- Roost / Recover
- Whirlwind / Dragon Tail
- [offensive move filler]

This is one of those toxic-stall builds, you want to use Toxic on the enemy and then attack/recover. I prefer to replace recover with Roost, as it makes Lugia lose a few weaknesses for a while. As for switching the enemy out, I use Whirlwind just because Dragon Tail barely does any damage and also has that 10% chance to miss. Finally, you can choose your own offensive move to use while the enemy is poisoned.

Answer 4

Lugia @ Leftovers / Wide Lens
Ability: Pressure / Multiscale
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Extrasensory
- Calm Mind
- Air Cutter / Aeroblast
- Weather Ball / Earth Power

Moveset
Extrasensory -
I was debating between giving him psychic but at the end of the day I chose extrasensory due to it having a 48 cap on uses as compared to 16 cap by psychic. Yea you lose 10 base power but there's a reason I decided to afford the slight loss

Calm mind-
Yes, we went bold nature for defense, but calm mind will be there to juice the special defense. And special attack as well since we are sacrificing attack.

Air cutter/aeroblast-
If your doing a playthrough, go with air cutter. Get in a few calm minds and air cutter will be stronger and have more uses than aeroblast. And not just a few extra either. You potentially won't need to visit pokecenter for a while. Could be useful in competitive matches assuming you get the calm minds in. Not to mention the higher crit rate.
Obviously if your doing a link battle or just fighting one person, aeroblast is the answer. Id alter between the 2 via the move tutor so youve always got the right one for the situation. But if your doing doubles use air cutter

Weather ball/earth power-
If doubles is your thing, where changing the terrain and building teams off weather is key, weather ball is the obvious choice.
If your doing singles, and can't exactly rely on other Pokemon for support, go with earth power. Which can give you coverage against rock and electric weakness. Your stab fly attack should be strong enough to handle dark types with a calm mind boost.

When making a build you have to consider if it's for doubles or singles. So I tried to at least give a description for each situation. Hope it helps. I'm a 10x underground Pokemon battle champion. Just because I haven't competed in the regional and nationals doesn't mean I don't know my stuff. I've actually beat some of the proclaimed champions with ease.

Comments

What is your format, ability, and exact EVs? Answering in Showdown-importable format (like the other answers on this thread) also would make this answer much easier to read.