ADV Vaporeon (Vaporeon for OU!)
[OVERVIEW]
Vaporeon has evolved into one of the more unique candidates in the tier for both its bulk and its access to Baton Pass. Vaporeon has one of the highest base HP stats in ADV and can easily make 101 HP Substitutes unbreakable by one Seismic Toss with little investment. With its Water typing, high base SpA, and solid coverage, Vaporeon can be an excellent enabler for offensive teams by leveraging its power to set up a 101 HP Substitute for a teammate on special walls such as Blissey and Jirachi lacking Electric-type coverage. As a lead, offensive Vaporeon can survive strong hits such as Choice Band Salamence’s HP Flying, Dragon Dance Tyranitar +1 Rock Slide, and Zapdos’s Thunderbolt easily and retaliate with a strong Hydro Pump or Ice Beam. Vaporeon with a Timid nature can even use these strong attacks to get a Salac Berry boost and outspeed everything except Aerodactyl and Jolteon. These qualities cement Vaporeon as a strong candidate on momentum-based offensive teams by passing a bulky Substitute to sweepers, such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar and Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi.
Vaporeon can run a defensive set to be a general check to threats like Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross, Aerodactyl, Moltres, Swampert, and especially Suicune. Vaporeon’s access to Wish, Haze, and its Water Absorb ability alongside its bulk give it some unique qualities—it notably is the only bulky Water-type with access to Wish, while its immunity to Water-type attacks neuters offensive Water-types such as Suicune and Swampert. Its other competition for that role—Milotic, Suicune, and Swampert—force other teammates to carry Wish and are less ironclad checks to Suicune. Vaporeon can also run bulkier Baton Pass sets focused on passing Wish or Acid Armor to enable larger Baton Pass chains or to provide physical backbone to the team.
Offensive Vaporeon main flaws lie in its propensity to get overwhelmed due to its low base defense stat, while defensive Vaporeon is extremely vulnerability to status and its two-turn recovery can be exploited. While offensive Vaporeon can live boosted attacks, it can often only do this once—using it often opens up the team to physical threats such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Dragon Dance Salamence, and Metagross even if it slightly weakened. Especially if it holds Salac Berry, Vaporeon will get worn down quite quickly and, due to its low Defense stat, can take large damage from even weaker physical attacks like Swampert’s Earthquake. Defensive Vaporeon's healing ability is highly unreliable compared to the other bulky Water-types. Vaporeon cannot heal from status effects as it is too defensively weak to run Rest. This flaw is compounded by Vaporeon's need to expend two turns to heal with Wish + Protect; unlike Milotic using Recover, it receives two turns of damage from burn, Toxic, and Leech Seed, and has a higher chance of failing from full paralysis. Unlike Swampert, Vaporeon's lack of sand immunity denies it recovery on Protect, giving the opponent a turn to switch at no cost. Vaporeon's defensive set is also passive; it is vulnerable to being set up on by Skarmory, Cloyster, or Forretress using Spikes.
[SET]
name: Offensive SubPass
move 1: Hydro Pump
move 2: Baton Pass
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Ice Beam / Roar
item: Leftovers / Salac Berry
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Timid / Modest
evs: 16 HP / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Offensive Vaporeon combination of power, ability to make 101 HP Substitutes, and decent speed tier allow it to be one of the only Pokemon to threaten the five common leads in ADV (Tyranitar, Zapdos if it carries a Salac Berry, Salamence, Metagross, and Skarmory) while also setting up a teammate if Vaporeon chooses to pass a Substitute.
Hydro Pump is the crux of this set, as Vaporeon has the highest SpA stat of Water-types in OU. Hydro Pump OHKOes bulkless Tyranitar and even threaten to OHKO a huge portion of Tyranitar that do invest in bulk, 2HKOes Metagross as well as Skarmory and Swampert with a Modest nature, and 3HKOes offensive Snorlax in sand. Ice Beam allows Vaporeon to handle Ice-weak Water-type responses, such as Salamence, Celebi, Zapdos, and Venusaur while also being a 100% accurate move. Vaporeon generally threatens at least a 2HKO on most of the metagame that doesn’t resist its coverage or is specially bulky, and as such, can set up a Substitute on their switch-out to alleviate prediction and possibly Baton Pass the Substitute. Substitute also partially alleviates Vaporeon’s weakness to status, Explosion, and Leech Seed, as well as takes advantage of Blissey and defensive Jirachi lacking Electric-type coverage. From here, Vaporeon can then use Baton Pass to pass the Substitute to a sweeper or can dry pass to a counter if it can’t keep up a Substitute, such as against Zapdos, Celebi, or Snorlax. Vaporeon can also use Roar, as one of the common answers to this set is a defensive Roar Suicune, as well as Roar Swampert and Skarmory.
As mentioned, Vaporeon can survive all kinds of strong hits in range to activate the Salac Berry—as an example, Modest Zapdos’s Thunderbolt has only a 1/16 chance to OHKO this Vaporeon, whereas more defensive variants are outsped and take large amounts of damage from two hits of Ice Beam. If one wants more midgame utility, Leftovers prevents this Vaporeon from being worn down by sand and gives it the ability to make more Substitutes. However, Salac Berry allows Vaporeon to take advantage of Zapdos and potentially even pass the speed boost. Generally, Salac Berry variants run Ice Beam to best take advantage of weakening offensive Zapdos and KOing Salamence, while Leftovers versions can run either Ice Beam or Roar depending on how much the team is bothered by Roar Suicune, Skarmory, or Swampert.
Vaporeon generally runs Timid max speed with this set to maximize how many Pokemon it can set up on. A fully invested Vaporeon hits 251 speed, outspeeding Tyranitar and slower base 100s such as defensive versions of Zapdos, Jirachi, and Celebi and everything in OU besides Jolteon and Aerodactyl after a Salac Berry boost. A Timid nature also is very helpful for defensive Celebi, Toxic defensive Jirachi, and offensive Claydol without a boost as well as Starmie, Dugtrio, Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and offensive Gengar with the Salac Berry boost. A Modest nature outspeeds everything up a neutral Tyranitar and Swampert while giving favorable damage rolls for Tyranitar, Swampert, Skarmory, and Snorlax. However, Vaporeon also has the option to invest into its defense to better take physical attacks. An example EV spread is 16 HP / 88 Def / 152 SpA / 252 Spe with a Timid nature, which lives Adamant Choice Band Salamence HP Flying with enough HP to make a Substitute. Vaporeon can also use 12 SpD EVs to survive Modest Zapdos's Thunderbolt guaranteed. As Vaporeon only needs 16 HP EVs to make four 101 HP Subsitutes, there are many different possible EV spreads—just make sure not to drop SpA too much to make sure Vaporeon is still threatening enough to get off the SubPass.
Team Options
========
Vaporeon is largely fairly self-sufficient. One of the main reasons to use Vaporeon is to take advantage of the 101 HP Substitute and early momentum that it provides. These partners can be divided into four catagories: physical set up sweepers and their support, special chains based around Celebi, Focus Punch users, and trappers.
As Vaporeon easily gets a Substitute on Jirachi and Blissey lacking Electric-type coverage, physical sweepers such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Dragon Dance Salamence, and Dragon Dance Gyarados are good partners. Dragon Dance + Hidden Power Grass Tyranitar stands out as a partner because the passed Substitute protects it from Swampert's attacks, allowing it to 2HKO Swampert safely. This paves the way for other physical sweepers like Aerodactyl and Dragon Dance Salamence. Dragon Dance Salamence especially takes advantage of defensive Jirachi and Celebi, as defensive Jirachi can't break the Substitute, while Celebi needs Psychic and is greatly threatened by Salamence. A +2 Salamence outspeeds and threatens much of the tier. With Roar, Vaporeon can generate momentum against Roar Suicune, the only common phazer that Vaporeon cannot hit hard. Vaporeon also fits alongside Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi, as it can provide the early momentum needed for Swords Dance Celebi to set up and give the boosts to Dragon Dance Gyarados or Agility Metagross while providing the defensive help against Salamence, Moltres, and Charizard. Vaporeon can also sacrifice itself to weaken Roar Zapdos and Jolteon in range of Celebi’s attacks. If Zapdos's Thunderbolt places it in range of Salac Berry, can even pass the boost to Celebi as well. While rare, Ninjask also benefits from Vaporeon's ability to lure and chip these phazers, which it can take out and then pass its boosts.
Vaporeon also fits well on Baton Pass chains focused around Zapdos and Celebi, as it can continue the chain with its own Baton Pass and provide some physical backbone against Tyranitar, Salamence, Flygon, and Metagross. Celebi provides an answer to Zapdos should Vaporeon not want to sacrifice itself and can pass Calm Mind to make Vaporeon more powerful. Zapdos can pass Agility to make Vaporeon faster than everything while providing a soft check to opposing Zapdos. Vaporeon’s powerful Hydro Pump can also weaken Snorlax, a common check to these teams due to its special bulk and strong physically offensive presence. Common choices alongside these Pokemon include Jirachi, Raikou, Gengar, and mixed Metagross, while Porygon2 can provide some additional defensive backbone should Vaporeon be weakened. Gengar can even carry Focus Punch to power through Blissey and Snorlax. These types of special offense typically forgo Dugtrio to set up one threat with a multiple Calm Mind or Substitute head start to overwhelm the opposing special walls like Blissey and Jirachi.
Vaporeon can also maximize damage in the short term by passing to strong Focus Punch users such as Heracross, Breloom, Medicham, and Snorlax. Heracross and Medicham can KO every Pokemon in the game with their coverage and Focus Punch behind a 101 HP Substitute while Breloom guarantees a free Spore + Focus Punch. Snorlax greatly threatens all common Vaporeon checks and can KO much of the tier with Focus Punch + coverage move. These partners typically do not appear in a full chain; they commonly appear alongside Zapdos to further generate momentum and another stronger check to Rock-types such as Flygon and Swampert. Another common partner on these types of teams is Charizard, as it can take advantage of the Substitute to terrorize Toxic, Sandstorm, and Spikes (TSS) teams, while Vaporeon invalidates Milotic and other bulky Water-types that neutralize Charizard.
Vaporeon also can fit alongside trappers such as Magneton and Dugtrio; one of the common ways to deny Vaporeon a Substitute for Toxic, Sandstorm, and Spikes (TSS) teams is phaze Vaporeon out with Skarmory. Vaporeon can easily facilitate Magneton’s entry. This is especially helpful alongside the physical sweepers mentioned in the second paragraph. Vaporeon can also pass to Dugtrio to easily eliminate Blissey and Jirachi; however, one should be careful of the defensive deficiencies of this partnership to Dragon Dance Gyarados and Salamence.
[SET]
name: Defensive
move 1: Wish
move 2: Protect
move 3: Surf
move 4: Haze / Roar
item: Leftovers
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Defensive Vaporeon distinguishes itself from other defensive Water-types Milotic, Suicune, Swampert with Wish and Haze; alongside its Water immunity, it most notably is the hardest counter to most Suicune. Vaporeon's Wish lets it heal up itself and its teammates. Despite this, Vaporeon can sometimes struggle to pass Wish. With full investment, Vaporeon has almost identical overall bulk to Milotic; as such, it is vulnerable to strong physical attackers such as Choice Band and Dragon Dance variants of Salamence and Tyranitar, Choice Band Metagross, and Choice Band Aerodactyl should Vaporeon pass Wish instead of heal itself against these Pokemon. Additionally, Vaporeon has to use Protect to reliably heal with Wish—this is a major liability, as although Vaporeon can scout for Explosion and generate extra turns for passive damage with Protect, it must use two moveslots. Vaporeon’s method of healing isn’t immediate and can be easily taken advantage of due to how telegraphed it is, via phasing it out as it uses Wish to prevent healing, taking advantage of a free switch, or setting up on it. Additionally, should Vaporeon use Wish at low health, it can faint because it can't heal poison, burn, or sand damage in one turn. Vaporeon's lack of Rock-type resistance, vulnerability to sand, and average bulk leads it to these situations more often than its competition.
Vaporeon can retaliate against sweepers and tanks with its last two slots. Vaporeon has a fairly strong Surf; unlike Milotic and more defensive variants of Suicune and Swampert, it is very favored to OHKO Aerodactyl while easily 2HKOing Tyranitar and 3HKOing non bulky Metagross. Vaporeon's Haze allows it to wall most Suicune, and act as an emergency check against Dragon Dance Salamence and Curse Snorlax. Note that Vaporeon should not be the first line of defense against the latter two as Salamence can flinch with Rock Slide and Snorlax can paralyze with Body Slam; both can also easily PP stall Vaporeon. Haze is often the best choice in the last slot to neutralize Suicune while Vaporeon outspeeds Curse Snorlax and can Haze it before it uses a boosted attack. Haze is also nice against teams built around passing multiple boosts. Roar is valuable to spread more passive damage and remove opposing Substitutes; however, beware of Suicune's faster Roar. Vaporeon generally needs all the physical bulk it can get; however, it can also spare a few Def EVs for SpD to better survive strong special coverage.
Team Options
========
This Vaporeon must have specific help from its teammates, as it has critical flaws that make it harder to fit on teams than Milotic, Swampert, and Suicune. The number one support Vaporeon appreciates is Heal Bell support from Blissey or Celebi—without this, Vaporeon will succumb to Toxic rather easily. Other status conditions are also painful for Vaporeon, as paralysis makes it more difficult to pass Wish and burn damage can accumulate due to the two-turn nature of Wish. In return, Vaporeon can provide a strong answer to Rest Suicune that Blissey can commonly struggle with, while also providing Wish support and an answer to physical threats as well. The second form of support Vaporeon appreciates is Rapid Spin support. Even with its fairly strong Surf, Vaporeon typically is set-up bait for Spikes users such as Cloyster, Skarmory, and Forretress. The Rapid Spin user of choice is usually Claydol or Forretress, as Starmie doesn’t fit well with Vaporeon. Claydol also provides a needed back-up answer to Rock-types, as Vaporeon can succumb to untimely flinches from Aerodactyl and Dragon Dance Tyranitar’s +1 Rock Slide. Claydol also appreciates Heal Bell and Wish support to handle Rapid Spinning against Toxic or Drill Peck Skarmory repeatedly. On the other hand, Forretress provides both Spikes and Rapid Spin—Vaporeon does not appreciate Gengar, and as Forretress also appreciates Pursuit trapping support to remove to Rapid Spin efficiently, this pairing provides a lot of utility. Forretress also appreciates Wish support, as it can get worn down quickly from the Spikes it needs to remove and Skarmory's Drill Peck, attacks from opposing Forretress, and Starmie's Water-type attacks.
All Pokemon in the game appreciate Wish support; however, some Pokemon get worn down more easily than others. Sand vulnerable Pokemon that lack immediate recovery such as Curse + Rest Snorlax, Choice Band Salamence, and Moltres really appreciate Wish to stay healthy in longer games. Additionally, wallbreakers that are just bulky enough to have defensive responsibility, such as Metagross, Gengar, and Hariyama function more effectively with Wish support, as they can take the extra hit needed to open up the opposing team only to be healed later by Wish. Skarmory also greatly appreciates Wish, as it can be worn down by Choice Band Metagross, offensive Swampert, and Tyranitar as it sets up Spikes. Wish allows it to stay healthy to wall threats such as Snorlax, Metagross, and physical Salamence throughout the game.
Vaporeon typically is featured on stall teams and defensive Toxic, Sandstorm, and Spikes (TSS) teams, and appreciates added ways to do damage to the opponent. Spikes help in these more drawn out games—both Skarmory and Forretress work here, as while both appreciate Vaporeon's proficiency against offensive Water-types, Skarmory's superior defensive utility and Forretress's prowess as a Rapid Spinner support Vaporeon. Tyranitar's sand and offensive power can really help against Snorlax, as it is one of the set up sweepers that beats Vaporeon. Bulky physical Tyranitar can threaten the special walls that neutralize Vaporeon, while Pursuit Tyranitar can eliminate Gengar that annoys Vaporeon with burn and super-effective coverage. Vaporeon's Wish can help keep Tyranitar healthy against special offensive threats that set up on Vaporeon, such as Calm Mind Jirachi and Celebi. Another great teammate is Hariyama, as bulky variants with Knock Off can provide a strong check to Tyranitar sets that can break through Vaporeon, such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Choice Band Tyranitar, or Tyranitar with Electric-type coverage. As Vaporeon's play style can lead to longer games, Knock Off is a potent wallbreaking tool against opposing Pokemon such as a Magneton + Claydol pairing that can neutralize the damage from Spikes. Moltres also fits nicely alongside Vaporeon, as it can provide an excellent answer to Celebi that can freely gain momentum off of Vaporeon with Leech Seed. Moltres also is a secondary pivot against Metagross and can protect it from Explosion. As Moltres is very vulnerable against opposing Suicune, Vaporeon can facilitate teams substituting Moltres instead of more sure checks to Suicune such as Zapdos.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Vaporeon is a staple of teams based around chaining multiple boosts to a sweeper such as Marowak. On these teams, Vaporeon passes 101 HP Subsitutes, Acid Armor, and sometimes Wish while also making sure the chain doesn’t fall to strong physical attackers such as Metagross, Salamence, Tyranitar, and even Heracross. Speed passing is a critical component to the chain, as not only does it allow Vaporeon to Acid Armor or Substitute before taking damage, it also can now Roar before opposing Roar Pokemon such as Suicune and Skarmory to keep its boosts. Some other Pokemon that appear on these chains include Ninjask and Agility + Baton Pass Zapdos to make Vaporeon faster than everything, Magneton to prevent Skarmory from ruining the chain, as well as Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi and Calm Mind + Baton Pass + Taunt Hypno to give Vaporeon more SpD to facilitate passing. Vaporeon can also pass Wish alone on the defensive set by adding Baton Pass over Haze or Protect; however, losing either of these option makes defensive Vaporeon worse at walling what it needs to. These chains are very high risk, high reward strategies due to one mistake or unexpected move can ruin the chain and possibly lose the game.
Other than these, Vaporeon doesn’t have very many other options not mentioned. Vaporeon can add Ice Beam to its defensive set to be a better Salamence counter, Hidden Power Electric for Gyarados and other Water-types, as well as Charm or Toxic to better counter threats that might shrug off Surf, especially Snorlax in the case of Charm. However, none of these are as effective as Haze and Roar universally. Vaporeon can also run more offensive Acid Armor passing sets to pass defensive boosts to a set-up threat such as Raikou or Tyranitar to better protect them from strong physical attacks.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Bulky Electric-types**: Specially bulky Electric-types such as Zapdos, Jolteon, and even Lanturn are perhaps the best counters in the game for Vaporeon. If Zapdos doesn’t invest in SpA, it won’t even activate the Salac Berry and can barely tank two Ice Beams. Jolteon does not appreciate Hydro Pump, but can easily outspeed and break the Substitute even after a Salac Berry boost. Lanturn is perhaps the best of these due to resisting Hydro Pump, but it might cede momentum to Vaporeon due to being outsped.
**Special Walls**: Vaporeon’s Hydro Pump can generally be sponged pretty easily against special walls like Blissey, Snorlax, Jirachi, Celebi, and Regice. However, because Vaporeon can pass bulky Substitutes and commonly will outspeed these Pokemon, one needs to be careful of giving Vaporeon momentum via Wish passing or SubPass. Celebi is perhaps the best of these, as it can tank the Ice Beam relatively easily while only needed a few EVs to outspeed Vaporeon and break the Substitute with Grass-type coverage. Snorlax can similar break the Substitute and threaten the receiver with strong attacks or Self-Destruct once it breaks the Substitute. Blissey and Jirachi can surprise Vaporeon if they run Electric-type coverage, as it will easily break the Substitute. Additionally, Blissey and Jirachi can still predict what can come in and break the Substitute—Metagross can't hold even a 101 HP Substitute against Blissey's Fire-type coverage or Jirachi's Fire Punch as an example.
**Status**: All Vaporeon are heavily crippled by status, as it can’t afford to run Rest and doesn’t have access to Refresh. Toxic on a Pokemon Vaporeon is supposed to check like Swampert, Suicune, or Metagross is a great way to force status on defensive Vaporeon. Even paralysis and burn cripple Vaporeon, as its Wish recovery needs two turns to pull off.
**Grass-types**: Celebi, Jolly Breloom, and Venusaur can stomach Hydro Pump and threaten Vaporeon or at least prevent the Wish or Substitute + Baton Pass. However, all get hit hard by Ice Beam.
**Bulky phazers**: Should offensive Vaporeon lack Roar, it is vulnerable losing the Substitute to phasers such as Suicune, Skarmory, and Swampert. While Vaporeon comfortably phazes defensive Suicune, it can still be outsped and phazed by offensive Suicune.
**Residual damage**: Offensive Vaporeon isn't especially bulky—most of its defensive benchmarks, such as Tyranitar’s +1 Rock Slide, Salamence +1 Hidden Power Flying, and Heracross’s Megahorn, are neutralized once it uses Substitute, especially in sand. Defensive Vaporeon can be taken advantage easily since it can't recover immediately. Example of this are phasing it as it uses Wish, fainting due to burn or sand, or an opponent setting up as it is forced to Protect.
**Porygon2**: While Porygon2 can also be setup fodder for SubPass or Wish pass, it does have access to Trace to heal from Vaporeon’s Water-type coverage.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[johnnyg2, 57904 ]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [, ]]
[OVERVIEW]
Vaporeon has evolved into one of the more unique candidates in the tier for both its bulk and its access to Baton Pass. Vaporeon has one of the highest base HP stats in ADV and can easily make 101 HP Substitutes unbreakable by one Seismic Toss with little investment. With its Water typing, high base SpA, and solid coverage, Vaporeon can be an excellent enabler for offensive teams by leveraging its power to set up a 101 HP Substitute for a teammate on special walls such as Blissey and Jirachi lacking Electric-type coverage. As a lead, offensive Vaporeon can survive strong hits such as Choice Band Salamence’s HP Flying, Dragon Dance Tyranitar +1 Rock Slide, and Zapdos’s Thunderbolt easily and retaliate with a strong Hydro Pump or Ice Beam. Vaporeon with a Timid nature can even use these strong attacks to get a Salac Berry boost and outspeed everything except Aerodactyl and Jolteon. These qualities cement Vaporeon as a strong candidate on momentum-based offensive teams by passing a bulky Substitute to sweepers, such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar and Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi.
Vaporeon can run a defensive set to be a general check to threats like Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross, Aerodactyl, Moltres, Swampert, and especially Suicune. Vaporeon’s access to Wish, Haze, and its Water Absorb ability alongside its bulk give it some unique qualities—it notably is the only bulky Water-type with access to Wish, while its immunity to Water-type attacks neuters offensive Water-types such as Suicune and Swampert. Its other competition for that role—Milotic, Suicune, and Swampert—force other teammates to carry Wish and are less ironclad checks to Suicune. Vaporeon can also run bulkier Baton Pass sets focused on passing Wish or Acid Armor to enable larger Baton Pass chains or to provide physical backbone to the team.
Offensive Vaporeon main flaws lie in its propensity to get overwhelmed due to its low base defense stat, while defensive Vaporeon is extremely vulnerability to status and its two-turn recovery can be exploited. While offensive Vaporeon can live boosted attacks, it can often only do this once—using it often opens up the team to physical threats such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Dragon Dance Salamence, and Metagross even if it slightly weakened. Especially if it holds Salac Berry, Vaporeon will get worn down quite quickly and, due to its low Defense stat, can take large damage from even weaker physical attacks like Swampert’s Earthquake. Defensive Vaporeon's healing ability is highly unreliable compared to the other bulky Water-types. Vaporeon cannot heal from status effects as it is too defensively weak to run Rest. This flaw is compounded by Vaporeon's need to expend two turns to heal with Wish + Protect; unlike Milotic using Recover, it receives two turns of damage from burn, Toxic, and Leech Seed, and has a higher chance of failing from full paralysis. Unlike Swampert, Vaporeon's lack of sand immunity denies it recovery on Protect, giving the opponent a turn to switch at no cost. Vaporeon's defensive set is also passive; it is vulnerable to being set up on by Skarmory, Cloyster, or Forretress using Spikes.
[SET]
name: Offensive SubPass
move 1: Hydro Pump
move 2: Baton Pass
move 3: Substitute
move 4: Ice Beam / Roar
item: Leftovers / Salac Berry
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Timid / Modest
evs: 16 HP / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Offensive Vaporeon combination of power, ability to make 101 HP Substitutes, and decent speed tier allow it to be one of the only Pokemon to threaten the five common leads in ADV (Tyranitar, Zapdos if it carries a Salac Berry, Salamence, Metagross, and Skarmory) while also setting up a teammate if Vaporeon chooses to pass a Substitute.
Hydro Pump is the crux of this set, as Vaporeon has the highest SpA stat of Water-types in OU. Hydro Pump OHKOes bulkless Tyranitar and even threaten to OHKO a huge portion of Tyranitar that do invest in bulk, 2HKOes Metagross as well as Skarmory and Swampert with a Modest nature, and 3HKOes offensive Snorlax in sand. Ice Beam allows Vaporeon to handle Ice-weak Water-type responses, such as Salamence, Celebi, Zapdos, and Venusaur while also being a 100% accurate move. Vaporeon generally threatens at least a 2HKO on most of the metagame that doesn’t resist its coverage or is specially bulky, and as such, can set up a Substitute on their switch-out to alleviate prediction and possibly Baton Pass the Substitute. Substitute also partially alleviates Vaporeon’s weakness to status, Explosion, and Leech Seed, as well as takes advantage of Blissey and defensive Jirachi lacking Electric-type coverage. From here, Vaporeon can then use Baton Pass to pass the Substitute to a sweeper or can dry pass to a counter if it can’t keep up a Substitute, such as against Zapdos, Celebi, or Snorlax. Vaporeon can also use Roar, as one of the common answers to this set is a defensive Roar Suicune, as well as Roar Swampert and Skarmory.
As mentioned, Vaporeon can survive all kinds of strong hits in range to activate the Salac Berry—as an example, Modest Zapdos’s Thunderbolt has only a 1/16 chance to OHKO this Vaporeon, whereas more defensive variants are outsped and take large amounts of damage from two hits of Ice Beam. If one wants more midgame utility, Leftovers prevents this Vaporeon from being worn down by sand and gives it the ability to make more Substitutes. However, Salac Berry allows Vaporeon to take advantage of Zapdos and potentially even pass the speed boost. Generally, Salac Berry variants run Ice Beam to best take advantage of weakening offensive Zapdos and KOing Salamence, while Leftovers versions can run either Ice Beam or Roar depending on how much the team is bothered by Roar Suicune, Skarmory, or Swampert.
Vaporeon generally runs Timid max speed with this set to maximize how many Pokemon it can set up on. A fully invested Vaporeon hits 251 speed, outspeeding Tyranitar and slower base 100s such as defensive versions of Zapdos, Jirachi, and Celebi and everything in OU besides Jolteon and Aerodactyl after a Salac Berry boost. A Timid nature also is very helpful for defensive Celebi, Toxic defensive Jirachi, and offensive Claydol without a boost as well as Starmie, Dugtrio, Dragon Dance Tyranitar, and offensive Gengar with the Salac Berry boost. A Modest nature outspeeds everything up a neutral Tyranitar and Swampert while giving favorable damage rolls for Tyranitar, Swampert, Skarmory, and Snorlax. However, Vaporeon also has the option to invest into its defense to better take physical attacks. An example EV spread is 16 HP / 88 Def / 152 SpA / 252 Spe with a Timid nature, which lives Adamant Choice Band Salamence HP Flying with enough HP to make a Substitute. Vaporeon can also use 12 SpD EVs to survive Modest Zapdos's Thunderbolt guaranteed. As Vaporeon only needs 16 HP EVs to make four 101 HP Subsitutes, there are many different possible EV spreads—just make sure not to drop SpA too much to make sure Vaporeon is still threatening enough to get off the SubPass.
Team Options
========
Vaporeon is largely fairly self-sufficient. One of the main reasons to use Vaporeon is to take advantage of the 101 HP Substitute and early momentum that it provides. These partners can be divided into four catagories: physical set up sweepers and their support, special chains based around Celebi, Focus Punch users, and trappers.
As Vaporeon easily gets a Substitute on Jirachi and Blissey lacking Electric-type coverage, physical sweepers such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Dragon Dance Salamence, and Dragon Dance Gyarados are good partners. Dragon Dance + Hidden Power Grass Tyranitar stands out as a partner because the passed Substitute protects it from Swampert's attacks, allowing it to 2HKO Swampert safely. This paves the way for other physical sweepers like Aerodactyl and Dragon Dance Salamence. Dragon Dance Salamence especially takes advantage of defensive Jirachi and Celebi, as defensive Jirachi can't break the Substitute, while Celebi needs Psychic and is greatly threatened by Salamence. A +2 Salamence outspeeds and threatens much of the tier. With Roar, Vaporeon can generate momentum against Roar Suicune, the only common phazer that Vaporeon cannot hit hard. Vaporeon also fits alongside Swords Dance + Baton Pass Celebi, as it can provide the early momentum needed for Swords Dance Celebi to set up and give the boosts to Dragon Dance Gyarados or Agility Metagross while providing the defensive help against Salamence, Moltres, and Charizard. Vaporeon can also sacrifice itself to weaken Roar Zapdos and Jolteon in range of Celebi’s attacks. If Zapdos's Thunderbolt places it in range of Salac Berry, can even pass the boost to Celebi as well. While rare, Ninjask also benefits from Vaporeon's ability to lure and chip these phazers, which it can take out and then pass its boosts.
Vaporeon also fits well on Baton Pass chains focused around Zapdos and Celebi, as it can continue the chain with its own Baton Pass and provide some physical backbone against Tyranitar, Salamence, Flygon, and Metagross. Celebi provides an answer to Zapdos should Vaporeon not want to sacrifice itself and can pass Calm Mind to make Vaporeon more powerful. Zapdos can pass Agility to make Vaporeon faster than everything while providing a soft check to opposing Zapdos. Vaporeon’s powerful Hydro Pump can also weaken Snorlax, a common check to these teams due to its special bulk and strong physically offensive presence. Common choices alongside these Pokemon include Jirachi, Raikou, Gengar, and mixed Metagross, while Porygon2 can provide some additional defensive backbone should Vaporeon be weakened. Gengar can even carry Focus Punch to power through Blissey and Snorlax. These types of special offense typically forgo Dugtrio to set up one threat with a multiple Calm Mind or Substitute head start to overwhelm the opposing special walls like Blissey and Jirachi.
Vaporeon can also maximize damage in the short term by passing to strong Focus Punch users such as Heracross, Breloom, Medicham, and Snorlax. Heracross and Medicham can KO every Pokemon in the game with their coverage and Focus Punch behind a 101 HP Substitute while Breloom guarantees a free Spore + Focus Punch. Snorlax greatly threatens all common Vaporeon checks and can KO much of the tier with Focus Punch + coverage move. These partners typically do not appear in a full chain; they commonly appear alongside Zapdos to further generate momentum and another stronger check to Rock-types such as Flygon and Swampert. Another common partner on these types of teams is Charizard, as it can take advantage of the Substitute to terrorize Toxic, Sandstorm, and Spikes (TSS) teams, while Vaporeon invalidates Milotic and other bulky Water-types that neutralize Charizard.
Vaporeon also can fit alongside trappers such as Magneton and Dugtrio; one of the common ways to deny Vaporeon a Substitute for Toxic, Sandstorm, and Spikes (TSS) teams is phaze Vaporeon out with Skarmory. Vaporeon can easily facilitate Magneton’s entry. This is especially helpful alongside the physical sweepers mentioned in the second paragraph. Vaporeon can also pass to Dugtrio to easily eliminate Blissey and Jirachi; however, one should be careful of the defensive deficiencies of this partnership to Dragon Dance Gyarados and Salamence.
[SET]
name: Defensive
move 1: Wish
move 2: Protect
move 3: Surf
move 4: Haze / Roar
item: Leftovers
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Bold
evs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
[SET COMMENTS]
Set Description
=========
Defensive Vaporeon distinguishes itself from other defensive Water-types Milotic, Suicune, Swampert with Wish and Haze; alongside its Water immunity, it most notably is the hardest counter to most Suicune. Vaporeon's Wish lets it heal up itself and its teammates. Despite this, Vaporeon can sometimes struggle to pass Wish. With full investment, Vaporeon has almost identical overall bulk to Milotic; as such, it is vulnerable to strong physical attackers such as Choice Band and Dragon Dance variants of Salamence and Tyranitar, Choice Band Metagross, and Choice Band Aerodactyl should Vaporeon pass Wish instead of heal itself against these Pokemon. Additionally, Vaporeon has to use Protect to reliably heal with Wish—this is a major liability, as although Vaporeon can scout for Explosion and generate extra turns for passive damage with Protect, it must use two moveslots. Vaporeon’s method of healing isn’t immediate and can be easily taken advantage of due to how telegraphed it is, via phasing it out as it uses Wish to prevent healing, taking advantage of a free switch, or setting up on it. Additionally, should Vaporeon use Wish at low health, it can faint because it can't heal poison, burn, or sand damage in one turn. Vaporeon's lack of Rock-type resistance, vulnerability to sand, and average bulk leads it to these situations more often than its competition.
Vaporeon can retaliate against sweepers and tanks with its last two slots. Vaporeon has a fairly strong Surf; unlike Milotic and more defensive variants of Suicune and Swampert, it is very favored to OHKO Aerodactyl while easily 2HKOing Tyranitar and 3HKOing non bulky Metagross. Vaporeon's Haze allows it to wall most Suicune, and act as an emergency check against Dragon Dance Salamence and Curse Snorlax. Note that Vaporeon should not be the first line of defense against the latter two as Salamence can flinch with Rock Slide and Snorlax can paralyze with Body Slam; both can also easily PP stall Vaporeon. Haze is often the best choice in the last slot to neutralize Suicune while Vaporeon outspeeds Curse Snorlax and can Haze it before it uses a boosted attack. Haze is also nice against teams built around passing multiple boosts. Roar is valuable to spread more passive damage and remove opposing Substitutes; however, beware of Suicune's faster Roar. Vaporeon generally needs all the physical bulk it can get; however, it can also spare a few Def EVs for SpD to better survive strong special coverage.
Team Options
========
This Vaporeon must have specific help from its teammates, as it has critical flaws that make it harder to fit on teams than Milotic, Swampert, and Suicune. The number one support Vaporeon appreciates is Heal Bell support from Blissey or Celebi—without this, Vaporeon will succumb to Toxic rather easily. Other status conditions are also painful for Vaporeon, as paralysis makes it more difficult to pass Wish and burn damage can accumulate due to the two-turn nature of Wish. In return, Vaporeon can provide a strong answer to Rest Suicune that Blissey can commonly struggle with, while also providing Wish support and an answer to physical threats as well. The second form of support Vaporeon appreciates is Rapid Spin support. Even with its fairly strong Surf, Vaporeon typically is set-up bait for Spikes users such as Cloyster, Skarmory, and Forretress. The Rapid Spin user of choice is usually Claydol or Forretress, as Starmie doesn’t fit well with Vaporeon. Claydol also provides a needed back-up answer to Rock-types, as Vaporeon can succumb to untimely flinches from Aerodactyl and Dragon Dance Tyranitar’s +1 Rock Slide. Claydol also appreciates Heal Bell and Wish support to handle Rapid Spinning against Toxic or Drill Peck Skarmory repeatedly. On the other hand, Forretress provides both Spikes and Rapid Spin—Vaporeon does not appreciate Gengar, and as Forretress also appreciates Pursuit trapping support to remove to Rapid Spin efficiently, this pairing provides a lot of utility. Forretress also appreciates Wish support, as it can get worn down quickly from the Spikes it needs to remove and Skarmory's Drill Peck, attacks from opposing Forretress, and Starmie's Water-type attacks.
All Pokemon in the game appreciate Wish support; however, some Pokemon get worn down more easily than others. Sand vulnerable Pokemon that lack immediate recovery such as Curse + Rest Snorlax, Choice Band Salamence, and Moltres really appreciate Wish to stay healthy in longer games. Additionally, wallbreakers that are just bulky enough to have defensive responsibility, such as Metagross, Gengar, and Hariyama function more effectively with Wish support, as they can take the extra hit needed to open up the opposing team only to be healed later by Wish. Skarmory also greatly appreciates Wish, as it can be worn down by Choice Band Metagross, offensive Swampert, and Tyranitar as it sets up Spikes. Wish allows it to stay healthy to wall threats such as Snorlax, Metagross, and physical Salamence throughout the game.
Vaporeon typically is featured on stall teams and defensive Toxic, Sandstorm, and Spikes (TSS) teams, and appreciates added ways to do damage to the opponent. Spikes help in these more drawn out games—both Skarmory and Forretress work here, as while both appreciate Vaporeon's proficiency against offensive Water-types, Skarmory's superior defensive utility and Forretress's prowess as a Rapid Spinner support Vaporeon. Tyranitar's sand and offensive power can really help against Snorlax, as it is one of the set up sweepers that beats Vaporeon. Bulky physical Tyranitar can threaten the special walls that neutralize Vaporeon, while Pursuit Tyranitar can eliminate Gengar that annoys Vaporeon with burn and super-effective coverage. Vaporeon's Wish can help keep Tyranitar healthy against special offensive threats that set up on Vaporeon, such as Calm Mind Jirachi and Celebi. Another great teammate is Hariyama, as bulky variants with Knock Off can provide a strong check to Tyranitar sets that can break through Vaporeon, such as Dragon Dance Tyranitar, Choice Band Tyranitar, or Tyranitar with Electric-type coverage. As Vaporeon's play style can lead to longer games, Knock Off is a potent wallbreaking tool against opposing Pokemon such as a Magneton + Claydol pairing that can neutralize the damage from Spikes. Moltres also fits nicely alongside Vaporeon, as it can provide an excellent answer to Celebi that can freely gain momentum off of Vaporeon with Leech Seed. Moltres also is a secondary pivot against Metagross and can protect it from Explosion. As Moltres is very vulnerable against opposing Suicune, Vaporeon can facilitate teams substituting Moltres instead of more sure checks to Suicune such as Zapdos.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Vaporeon is a staple of teams based around chaining multiple boosts to a sweeper such as Marowak. On these teams, Vaporeon passes 101 HP Subsitutes, Acid Armor, and sometimes Wish while also making sure the chain doesn’t fall to strong physical attackers such as Metagross, Salamence, Tyranitar, and even Heracross. Speed passing is a critical component to the chain, as not only does it allow Vaporeon to Acid Armor or Substitute before taking damage, it also can now Roar before opposing Roar Pokemon such as Suicune and Skarmory to keep its boosts. Some other Pokemon that appear on these chains include Ninjask and Agility + Baton Pass Zapdos to make Vaporeon faster than everything, Magneton to prevent Skarmory from ruining the chain, as well as Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi and Calm Mind + Baton Pass + Taunt Hypno to give Vaporeon more SpD to facilitate passing. Vaporeon can also pass Wish alone on the defensive set by adding Baton Pass over Haze or Protect; however, losing either of these option makes defensive Vaporeon worse at walling what it needs to. These chains are very high risk, high reward strategies due to one mistake or unexpected move can ruin the chain and possibly lose the game.
Other than these, Vaporeon doesn’t have very many other options not mentioned. Vaporeon can add Ice Beam to its defensive set to be a better Salamence counter, Hidden Power Electric for Gyarados and other Water-types, as well as Charm or Toxic to better counter threats that might shrug off Surf, especially Snorlax in the case of Charm. However, none of these are as effective as Haze and Roar universally. Vaporeon can also run more offensive Acid Armor passing sets to pass defensive boosts to a set-up threat such as Raikou or Tyranitar to better protect them from strong physical attacks.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Bulky Electric-types**: Specially bulky Electric-types such as Zapdos, Jolteon, and even Lanturn are perhaps the best counters in the game for Vaporeon. If Zapdos doesn’t invest in SpA, it won’t even activate the Salac Berry and can barely tank two Ice Beams. Jolteon does not appreciate Hydro Pump, but can easily outspeed and break the Substitute even after a Salac Berry boost. Lanturn is perhaps the best of these due to resisting Hydro Pump, but it might cede momentum to Vaporeon due to being outsped.
**Special Walls**: Vaporeon’s Hydro Pump can generally be sponged pretty easily against special walls like Blissey, Snorlax, Jirachi, Celebi, and Regice. However, because Vaporeon can pass bulky Substitutes and commonly will outspeed these Pokemon, one needs to be careful of giving Vaporeon momentum via Wish passing or SubPass. Celebi is perhaps the best of these, as it can tank the Ice Beam relatively easily while only needed a few EVs to outspeed Vaporeon and break the Substitute with Grass-type coverage. Snorlax can similar break the Substitute and threaten the receiver with strong attacks or Self-Destruct once it breaks the Substitute. Blissey and Jirachi can surprise Vaporeon if they run Electric-type coverage, as it will easily break the Substitute. Additionally, Blissey and Jirachi can still predict what can come in and break the Substitute—Metagross can't hold even a 101 HP Substitute against Blissey's Fire-type coverage or Jirachi's Fire Punch as an example.
**Status**: All Vaporeon are heavily crippled by status, as it can’t afford to run Rest and doesn’t have access to Refresh. Toxic on a Pokemon Vaporeon is supposed to check like Swampert, Suicune, or Metagross is a great way to force status on defensive Vaporeon. Even paralysis and burn cripple Vaporeon, as its Wish recovery needs two turns to pull off.
**Grass-types**: Celebi, Jolly Breloom, and Venusaur can stomach Hydro Pump and threaten Vaporeon or at least prevent the Wish or Substitute + Baton Pass. However, all get hit hard by Ice Beam.
**Bulky phazers**: Should offensive Vaporeon lack Roar, it is vulnerable losing the Substitute to phasers such as Suicune, Skarmory, and Swampert. While Vaporeon comfortably phazes defensive Suicune, it can still be outsped and phazed by offensive Suicune.
**Residual damage**: Offensive Vaporeon isn't especially bulky—most of its defensive benchmarks, such as Tyranitar’s +1 Rock Slide, Salamence +1 Hidden Power Flying, and Heracross’s Megahorn, are neutralized once it uses Substitute, especially in sand. Defensive Vaporeon can be taken advantage easily since it can't recover immediately. Example of this are phasing it as it uses Wish, fainting due to burn or sand, or an opponent setting up as it is forced to Protect.
**Porygon2**: While Porygon2 can also be setup fodder for SubPass or Wish pass, it does have access to Trace to heal from Vaporeon’s Water-type coverage.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[johnnyg2, 57904 ]]
- Quality checked by: [[, ], [, ]]
- Grammar checked by: [[vapicuno, 5454], [, ]]
Last edited:
