Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style - Moveset & Best Build for Ranked Battle

This is a strategy guide for using Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style in competitive play for the games Pokemon Sword and Shield. Read on for tips on the best Nature, EV spreads, Movesets, and Held Items to use with Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style, as well as its strengths and weak points.

Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style - Related Guides
Evolution and Learnset	Build for Ranked Battle	Gigantamax Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style

Basic Information for Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style

Types and Abilities

Pokemon	Type 1	Type 2
Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style
Abilities
Unseen Fist	Allows the Pokemon to bypass moves like Protect when it uses attacks which make direct contact.

Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style Weaknesses and Resistances

	Type
Takes 4x damage	-
Takes 2x damage
Takes 0.5x damage
Takes 1/4x damage	-
Takes 0x damage	-

What is Type Effectiveness?

Base Stats

HP	Attack	Defense	Sp. Atk	Sp. Def	Speed
100	130	100	63	60	97

Best Nature for Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style

Best Natures
Jolly (+Spd, -Sp.Atk)	Adamant (+Atk, -Sp.Atk)

What are Natures?

Singles Movesets for Rapid-Strike Style

Standard Attacker Moveset & Best Build

Nature	Jolly (+Spd, -Sp.Atk)
EV Spread	Atk 252 / Def 4 / Spd 252
Final Stat Values	HP 175 / Atk 182 / Def 121 / Sp.Def 80 / Spd 163
Ability	Unseen Fist
Held Item	Choice Band Choice Scarf Focus Sash
Moveset	・Surging Strikes ・Close Combat ・Thunder Punch ・Aqua Jet

This build seeks to enhance Urshifu's already incredibly high base attack of 130 even more by giving it a Choice Band. With a whopping 7 resistances and a large pool of moves to choose from, Urshifu makes for a great counter to many Pokemon in the meta.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's Moves

To take full advantage of Unseen Fist, all of Urshifu's moves should ideally be contact moves. Surging Strikes and Close Combat will be your main STAB moves that deal tremendous amounts of damage.

Thunder Punch will be a coverage move against bulky water types and Aqua Jet can be a useful priority move to finish off low-health enemies.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's EV Spread

This set utilizes a standard physical attacking spread with maximum investment in Attack and Speed. The remaining EVs can be placed in Defense.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's Ability

Unseen Fist allows Urshifu to make sure that contact moves will always hit, even when the opponent uses Protect.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's Held Item

A Choice Band gives a 50% boost to the user's attack stat, further strengthening its physical prowess, whilea a Choice Scarf gives a 50% boost to the user's speed stat, allowing it to outspeed certain Pokemon it couldn't before.

Focus Sash allows Urshifu to survive a killing blow at 1 HP, provided that it was at full HP.

Other Viable Moves

Aerial Ace	A lower power Flying-type coverage move but gives Urshifu access to Max Airstream to raise its Speed.
Iron Head	Alternate coverage moves used for hitting Fairy-types.
Ice Punch	A coverage move used for hitting Dragon-types and Grass-types.
Poison Jab	Alternate coverage moves used for hitting Fairy-types.
U-Turn	U-Turn can be used to switch out of unfavorable matchups, while also dealing chip damage before it leaves the field.
Counter	Counter has great synergy with Focus Sash variants of these attacking sets.

Weakness Policy Moveset & Best Build

Nature	Adamant (+Atk, -SpAtk)
EV Spread	HP 188 / Atk 252 / Spd 68
Final Stat Values	HP 199 / Atk 200 / Def 120 / SpDef 80 / Spd 126
Ability	Unseen Fist
Held Item	Weakness Policy
Moveset	・Surging Strikes ・Close Combat ・Acrobatics ・Thunder Punch

This build allows Urshifu to take hits while Dynamaxed, get an attack boost when hit by its weaknesses, and increase its speed with Max Airstream. With 5 type-weaknesses, outfitting it with a Weakness Policy has a high chance of activating and its high durability helps protect it from being KO'd by move it's weak to.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's Moves

To take full advantage of Unseen Fist, all of Urshifu's moves should ideally be contact moves. Surging Strikes and Close Combat will be your main STAB moves that deal tremendous amounts of damage.

Thunder Punch will be a coverage move against bulky water types and
Acrobatics deals increased damage once Weakness Policy has been consumed.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's EV Spread

This build uses a modified distribution of the standard physical attacking set. Since we expect Urshifu to receive some damage, we will want a bit more bulk on it. We leave just enough speed to make sure that one use of Max Airstream will boost its speed just enough to surpass the incredibly fast Cinderace as well as many others.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's Held Item

We're relying on a Weakness Policy to turn Urshifu's weakness into a boon. When hit by a super effective move, the Weakness Policy will be consumed and give Urshifu boosts to its offensive stats. Once consumed, it also ups the power of Acrobatics.

Other Viable Moves

Iron Head	Best used when coming up against Fairy-types which Urshifu is weak to. Can also be used to boost its Defense while Gigantamaxed.
Aqua Jet	A STAB move that can guarantee a KO on a Pokemon with low HP with its +1 priority.

Doubles Movesets for Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style

Lead Dynamax Doubles Moveset & Best Build

Nature	Jolly (+Spd, -Sp.Atk)
EV Spread	HP 4 / Atk 252 / Spd 252
Final Stat Values	HP 175 / Atk 182 / Def 120 / Sp.Def 80 / Spd 163
Ability	Unseen Fist
Held Item	Focus Sash Life Orb
Moveset	・Surging Strikes ・Aqua Jet ・Close Combat ・Aerial Ace

Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style is a great option for lead Dynamax user in Doubles thanks to its great dual Water/Fighting STAB, as well as the offensive utility of its moves.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's Moves

Surging Strikes is Urshifu's main STAB move and is a multi-hit move that always hit three times, with each individual hit always dealing a critical hit.

This makes Urshifu a great anti-lead Pokemon since it easily breaks the Substitute, Sturdy, or Focus Sash of opposing sweepers, and also allows it to directly take on Landorus (Therian Forme) since critical hits bypass Attack drops from Intimidate.

Aqua Jet is a secondary Water-type STAB with increased priorty, allowing Urshifu to hit faster opponents without losing offensive momentum. Close Combat deals great damage and boasts excellent coverage but also lowers Urshifu's Defense and Sp.Defense by 1 stage.

It's last move is Aerial Ace which allows Urshifu to take on Grass-types and opposing Fighting-types. This move also becomes Max Airstream during Dynamax, allowing Urshifu to boost it and its partner's Speed by 1 stage.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's EV Spread

This set utilizes a standard physically offensive spread with maximum investment in Attack and Speed, with the remaining 4 EVs placed in HP to give it some bulk.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's Ability

Unseen Fist is Urshifu's only Ability and allows it to bypass protection moves such as Protect and Detect, as well as the held item Protective Pads.

About Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style's Held Item

Urshifu has two options for held items. Focus Sash allows Urshifu to survive a killing blow at 1 HP, provided that it was at full HP.

Life Orb, on the other hand, boosts the power of its moves at the cost of some residual damage.

Other Viable Moves

Detect	Detect can replace Aqua Jet and allows Urshifu to scout moves from opposing Pokemon, and becomes Max Guard during Dynamax.
Thunder Punch	Can replace either Aqua Jet or Aerial Ace and allows Urshifu to threaten bulky Water-types such as Toxapex, Slowbro, and Jellicent.
Iron Head	A good alternative to Aerial Ace that allows Urshifu to threaten Fairy-types.

How to Use Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style Effectively

Is Faster Than Mimikyu

Urshifu's speed stat is a single point higher than the often used Mimikyu, and when given a Choice Band, can one shot Mimikyu with Surging Strikes that can break through Mimikyu's Disguise.

G-Max Rapid Flow is Powerful

When Gigantamaxed, Urshifu gains access to G-Max Rapid Flow which ignores moves like Max Guard or Protect and hits its target directly, which is incredibly useful.

How to Build a Team with Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style

Physical Attacker in an Offensive Team

Example Offensive Team

Physical Attacker	Special Attacker / Utility	Secondary Physical Attacker
Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style	Lapras	Mimikyu

This core relies on dealing a lot of damage while also protecting its sweepers. Lapras' access to G-Max Resonance can provide unparalleled utility for the team.

Access to Freeze-Dry also allows Lapras to take care of Fairy-type threats like Primarina or Tapu Fini. On the other hand, its Water-type moves can take care of Fire-types that Mimikyu may have trouble with.

The support Mimikyu will receive from Aurora Veil should help with its survivability and lets it fill the role of a secondary Physical Attacker for the team.

Urshifu Rapid-Strike can easily cover the Steel-type weaknesses of its teammates, while blowing away most other threats with its guaranteed Critical Hits.

How to Build an Offensive Team

Lead Attacker in a Doubles Team

Example Doubles Team

Lead Dynamax	Lead Support
Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style	Indeedee (Female)
Special Attacker	Redirection Support
Lunala	Clefairy

Urshifu's main role is to Gigantamax and deal as much damage as possible with its moves, while also providing utility with Max Airstream. Indeedee functions as both lead, setting up Psychic Terrain to block priority moves such as Grassy Glide and redirecting attacks with Follow Me.

Lunala is the team's backup sweeper and benefits from Indeedee's Psychic Terrain to power up its Expanding Force. Clefairy fills the role of both backup support and cleric, boosting its partner's bulky with its Friend Guard Ability while healing it with Life Dew.

How to Build a Doubles Team

Counters for Urshifu Rapid-Strike Style

Weakness

Counter With Pokemon With Good Resistances

Urshifu's Water/Fighting typing is actually quite easy to resist. It's likely that Urshifu with a water and fighting type move, a non-STAB move, and Aerial Ace will become fairly common in the meta so as long as you can resist the STAB moves Urshifu uses, you should be able to take it down.

Best Pokemon to Use

Pokemon	Description
Zapdos	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Resists Urshifu's Fighting-type attacks ・Can paralyze Urshifu with Static since Urshifu relies on contact moves ・Can deal super effective damage and set up using Max Airstream Moveset & Best Build for Zapdos
Tapu Fini	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Resists both of Urshifu's STAB moves ・Has access to super effective Fairy-type moves Moveset & Best Build for Tapu Fini
Cinderace	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Can deal super effective damage and set up using Max Airstream ・Cinderace's versatility makes it an easy fit for most teams Moveset & Best Build for Cinderace
Salamence	Ranking: ★★★★ ・Resists both of Urshifu's STAB moves ・Can lower Urshifu's attack with Intimidate Moveset & Best Build for Salamence
Dragonite	Ranking: ★★★★ ・Resists both of Urshifu's STAB moves. ・Can break through Focus Sash with Dual Wingbeat. Moveset & Best Build for Dragonite
Venusaur	Ranking：★★★★ ・Is Gigantamaxable and works well in many teams ・Has high physical defense so even Aerial Ace won't take it down easily Venusaur - Moveset & Best Build for Ranked Battle
Amoonguss	Ranking：★★★ ・Has access to Spore, a move that puts its target to sleep with 100 accuracy ・Its hidden ability, Regenerator, allows it to scope out enemies and withdraw to recover
Toxapex	Ranking：★★★ ・Is incredibly durable so even Thunder Punch is no threat ・Its hidden ability, Regenerator, allows it to scope out enemies and withdraw to recover Toxapex - Moveset & Best Build for Ranked Battle

Counter With Damage Dealt by Making Contact

As Urshifu's signature move, Surging Strikes, hits its target 3 times and makes contact, abilities like Iron Barbs or held items like the Rocky Helmet can help to cripple it. Even with Pokemon that have no type advantages against Urshifu, with the right timing, you can switch Pokemon in with either of these to take it down.

Best Pokemon to Use

Pokemon	Description
Ferrothorn	Ranking：★★★★ ・May not have many type advantages over Urshifu, but its Iron Barbs ability paired with a Rocky Helmet can inflict a lot of damage. Moveset & Best Build for Ferrothorn
Corviknight	Ranking：★★★★ ・Is good at taking damage and pairs up well with a Rocky Helmet. ・Can hit Urshifu's weakness with its Flying-type attacks. Moveset & Best Build for Corviknight
Druddigon	Ranking：★★★ ・A mix of Rough Skin and a Rocky Helmet allows Druddigon to deal plenty of damage when hit. ・Its typing isn't the worst against Urshifu but it lacks utility on its own.

Related Links

All Competitive Builds for Ranked Battle

Competitive Guides for Pokemon Sword and Shield

Competitive Pokemon Battle Guides
Tier List		Best Builds		Series 10 List of Contenders
Doubles Tier List		Team Building		Rental Teams

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