Eeveelution Spotlight: Making Waves With Vaporeon!

[Kris]

Type

• Water
  

Resists:

• Fire
  
• Ice
  
• Steel
  
• Water
  

Weak to:

• Electric
  
• Grass
  

Abilities

 

• Hydration [Heals status effects in rain.]
  
• Water Absorb [Heals 25% HP when hit by a Water-type attack.]
  

Tier{s}

• UU
  
• NU [Gen 7]
  

HP:130 Attack:65 Defense:60 Sp. Atk:110 Sp. Def:95 Speed:65

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Overview: UU
Vaporeon's good HP stat and access to Water Absorb allows it to survive fairly well, howver it is outclassed in the UU metagame. Specifically, Alomomola, with much greater physical bulk and access to Regenerator, it almost completely invalidates any niche Vaporeon has. Milotic also acts as a more effective bulky pure Water-types, with better self sustainability in Recover, it has much higher physical bulk, and can comfortable run Haze to deter setup sweepers without giving up too much. Wish passing and cleric duties can also be done better by Sylveon, Florges, Umbreon, and Blissey, all of which have better bulk or typing to do their jobs. Consider using one of these Pokemon instead of Vaporeon when making a UU team.

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Wish it would Burn already

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 204 HP / 248 Def / 56 SpD
Bold Nature
- Wish
- Scald
- Protect
- Heal Bell - Roar - Baton Pass

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Moves
Scald has a high chance to Burn an opponent and at 95 Base Power, it will do decent damage because of Vaporeon's high Sp. Atk stat. You can safely spam it because gettting a burn off will definitely help Vaporeon against physical attackers. Wish gives Vaporeon and teammates access to healing. You can get a free switch into a damaged ally and get it healed or stay in and heal yourself. Protect allows Vaporeon to check an opponents moves, recover from Leftovers, get crash damage on Mienshao from HJK, and get a free Wish turn. In addition, it also allows you to scout Choice-locked Pokemon and switch in to the appropriate teammate after seeing their move. Heal Bell gets rid of any and all status conditions on the team, while Roar may be used to phaze foes and prevents Vaporeon from being used for setup. Baton Pass can gain momentum, and if Vaporeon used Wish the previous turn and moves last the turn it Baton Passes, team members can be healed up at no cost. 

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Set Details
The EV spread maximizes Vaporeon's overall bulk. A Bold nature lets it take hits from Darmanitan, Mienshao, Krookodile, and other physical attackers better, while Calm can be used for surviving against Pokemon such as Nidoqueen, Hydreigon, Nidoking, and Mega Blastoise. Leftovers is used for extra recovery.

Usage Tips
Vaporeon relies on Wish to keep it healthy against the many physical foes that it's supposed to check. Vaporeon can be sent in on a wall or weak Pokemon so it can recover its health or help teammates heal up. When facing an offensive Pokemon at a good amount of health, Scald should be used because of its high burn chance and decent damage output. Heal Bell should be used to help Vaporeon's teammates when they are crippled with status, though if you have a Guts user with a status condition, you may have to make a choice between weakening it or healing teammates.

Team Options
Vaporeon works extremely well on teams where it's weaknesses are covered by it's allies. Teams with a Grass / Fire / Electric core are a good example. You can use Infernape, Entei, Shaymin, Celebi, Raikou, Rotom-Wash or Mega Manectric. Lanturn is another option, although not as reliable as say, Rotom-Wash, it does get access to Volt Absorb.

Checks and Counters

Bulky Water-types: Most other Water-types stall Vaporeon out. Suicune can PP stall Vaporeon thanks to Rest and Pressure, Slowking can set up all over Vaporeon with Calm Mind, Jellicent can Taunt Vaporeon and completely shut it down, and Alomomola and Milotic commonly run Toxic which can outlast Vaporeon's Heal Bell PP.
Powerful Physical Attackers: Vaporeon lacks the physical bulk to deal with physical threats such as Choice Band Krookodile, Choice Band Entei, and Mega Swampert.
Setup Sweepers: Many Pokemon can use non-Roar Vaporeon variants as setup bait and proceed from there to sweep your team. Toxicroak can set up on it easily thanks to its Water immunity, and Calm Mind users take Vaporeon's attacks very well and can deal huge damage back to it after boosts. Even when fully invested, Vaporeon doesn't have the physical bulk to stand up to physical sweepers such as Dragon Dance Feraligatr, Swords Dance Cobalion, and Dragon Dance Haxorus.
Grass-types: Celebi switches in for free on Vaporeon and can set up easily on it. Roserade can also switch in easily and proceed to set up Spikes or cripple a switchin with Sleep Powder while forcing Vaporeon out. Whimsicott can use Encore to shut Vaporeon down, though it's rather hampered by Scald burns. Mega Abomasnow and Shaymin can also switch in and proceed to fire off powerful attacks against Vaporeon's team.
Electric-types: Rotom-C, Heliolisk, Raikou and Mega Ampharos can come in on Vaporeon and threaten it with their powerful STAB moves.

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