Vaporeon in Black and White.(Rain Dancing)
It appears that there will be Vaporeons with the Hydration ability.
This got me thinking.
As a defensive eeveelution, Vaporeon excels at wishpassing, and can be considered the best wishpasser in OU.
And I don't doubt it will change, which will make hydration fairly useless, because water absorb is simply much better.
However.. On a rain dance team, this has potential.
As everybody knows, paralysis is something that really bugs rain dance teams. However, add a Vaporeon with this ability, and it becomes much easier to deal with. Along with giving the convenience to stop burns, sleeps and poison as well.
On top of that, Vaporeon will receive double stab on its surf. Allowing it to dish out a nice amount of damage for a wall/status absorber.
So, about the moveset.
I would probably go for:
Rain Dance.
Wish/Rest.
Surf.
Hidden Power(elec)/Ice Beam/Roar/Protect/Heal Bell.
For obvious reasons, there is Rain Dance, because you can never have enough rain dancers in your team.
Combined with Wish, this becomes a very reliable way of keeping it up.
Add a Jolteon for additional Rain Dance support, and it becomes even easier(nullifies elec attacks aimed at Vaporeon, and deals with opposing water pokemon who might make your life difficult)
Surf is the typical STAB, it receives double STAB in rain, which is never a bad thing.
And then in the final slot, a lot of abilities which depend on what you need.
Hidden Power and Ice Beam for coverage, SurfBeam is probably the best combination, but I find myself liking HP-elec more on Vaporeon because it deals with Gyarados quite nicely.
Roar to pseudo-phaze, since Snorlax can make your life very very difficult.
Protect to check moves/heal with wish.
Or heal bell, in case one of your buddies got hit with a status after all.
For the EV spread, I'd probably go for a 252 HP/252 defense with bold nature.
Offensive EVs aren't needed since Surf receives double STAB.
You could take some out of HP if you need speed, 68 EVs will make you outspeed base 70s. I wouldn't attempt to add more, because it does need those HP EVs.
Now, the real question.
Why exactly would one want to use Vaporeon over another pokemon who can act as a status absorber?
Well, I personally think the fact it can act as a status absorber, a wishpasser AND a cleric is more than enough a reason to use it.
I don't think any other pokemon can actually do it all at once like Vaporeon can.
Another concern is. Is it even possible?
Considering that Vaporeons with Hydration only occur in the Dream World may mean it cannot have Wish. But we don't know if these Vaporeons don't know it yet.
But even then, a Rest variation still remains very strong, albeit it won't be throwing wishes around.
It.. somewhat diminishes its power, however, one must keep in mind.. Sleep Talk will not be necessary to absorb sleep, since rain will heal it instantly. This grants a lot of flexibility which should be the strength of this pokemon in a rain dance team.
One could even add this to a normal team, since it can carry Rain Dance anyway. Which is interesting, for two reasons.
It gets rid of the annoying sand storm chipping away at your pokemon while reducing the damage from fire attacks. Which is still a fairly often used type in the offensive.
On the other hand, water will hit you harder as well. Which is something to consider as well.
I see a lot of potential in this, and I want to see if others do as well.
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Originally Posted by Raptorg
