Good defenses and instant recovery make Milotic a great sleep inducer, especially with 10% boost to the accuracy of Hypnosis compared to the previous generation. Surf for reliable STAB and Ice Beam to cover Dragons and Grass types.
Sleep Talk Milotic is a very sturdy tank. With Rest activating Marvel Scale her Defense gets boosted to allow her to take most physical hits with relative ease. If you've got good counters for Garchomp, Salamence and friends elsewhere on your team, Toxic is worth considering to wear down the likes of Vaporeon and non-Resting Suicune. Other OptionsLight Screen provides team support to sponge special hits. Mirror Coat can be effective to score a surprise KO against special attackers. Hidden Power Electric means Milotic can function as a surprising and effective Gyarados counter and hits other Water types like Starmie. Dragon Pulse is only of use for Kingdra, who can be worn down with Ice Beams anyway. You can absorb status with Milotic to activate Marvel Scale, then use Safeguard to protect the rest of your team from it. Confuse Ray can cause switches or buy Milotic some time to use Hypnosis or Recover. Toxic helps to stall Pokémon who you otherwise can't hurt. Haze isn't much use outside of getting rid of Calm Mind on Suicune. A note about Flame Orb: While it may be tempting to give Milotic a Flame Orb to activate Marvel Scale, it's really not a good idea. You're not only losing Leftovers recovery, but you're sapping her HP each turn. With potential Sandstorms to worry about and switch-in damage from Spikes and Stealth Rock, Milotic will have trouble staying alive, even with Recover. EVs148 HP / 228 Def / 132 SpA ensures survival from a Swords Danced Earthquake from Jolly Garchomp (provided it does not have a Life Orb), with enough Special Attack to OHKO. 148 EVs reaches 368 which is optimal for Leftovers recovery, although you can simply max out both HP and Defense as Milotic needs all the defenses she can get. By happy coincidence, the 269 Special Attack required to off Garchomp also exceeds the 263 required to OHKO most Dragon Dancing Salamence. 212 HP / 164 Def / 132 SpA gives a little less physical defensive capabilities, but still allows survival against Garchomp and also means Milotic takes less damage from an Infernape Grass Knot. 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpA for the Sleep Talk set. Since you'll be activating Marvel Scale you can afford to drop some initial Defense and use the extra HP to soak up Grass Knot, Dragon Pulse, etc. a little better. As an alternative, the first set can be used with max HP, Special Defense and a Calm nature. This allows Milotic to function as an effective counter to Choice Specs Salamence and HP Grass Heatran. Bear in mind that she will take significantly more damage from physical attacks with this spread though. OpinionHer ability to tank has taken some significant hits when compared to the previous generation. In ADV she was an excellent counter to Salamence, but now she can be 2HKOed by a Choice Band Dragon Claw and requires masses of Special Defense to take on the Choice Specs variants, hindering her ability to take Earthquakes and Stone Edges from Ground types. Metagross is another Pokémon she could counter well, but with ThunderPunch becoming physical she's risking a 2HKO by switching in. Between physical Crunch, Stone Edge and the Special Defense boost provided by Sandstorm Milotic also has more problems against Tyranitar than she did previously. New and more powerful Grass attacks such as Grass Knot (which hits Milotic for 100 BP) and Energy Ball also dent Milotic's staying power, particularly as they are not limited to Grass types. She didn't make any significant gains in DP, with the only notable change being Hypnosis' improved accuracy. While she got little in the way of improvements, Milotic remains a very sturdy and reliable Pokémon. Hypnosis and Recover are her biggest assets over her fellow "Bulky Waters", Suicune, Slowbro, and Swampert. CountersPowerful Electric types like Zapdos, Electivire and Raikou can beat her down with their STAB attacks although they can be worn down with Surf and Zapdos doesn't enjoy Ice Beams. Sleep Talking Zapdos makes an excellent switch-in to absorb Hypnosis. Ludicolo just shrugs off Surf and is neutral to Ice Beam. Milotic won't like being hit with Leech Seed and will hate STAB Energy Ball and Grass Knot. Abomasnow works in a similar fashion to Ludicolo, but also cancels out her Leftovers with Snow Warning. You'll be in somewhat of a stalemate against Blissey and Cresselia, but if they have Calm Mind or Charge Beam they can bring Milotic down without much trouble. Starmie and Empoleon resist Surf/Ice Beam and hit back with Grass Knot. Starmie can also Thunderbolt her, but Grass Knot does a little more damage (95 vs. 100). Tentacruel can throw Swords Danced Poison Jabs at her, while sponging her Surfs and Ice Beams easily. Like any sleep inducer, potential counters have to beware of being incapacitated when they switch in. |
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