There isn't a Lapras analysis on site and we're trying to fill in the blanks. Lapras is reasonably viable in VGC so I thought I'd go ahead and write this
[OVERVIEW]
Freeze Dry makes Lapras very useful against rain and other teams heavy on Water-types, turning Pokemon with solid defensive typing such as Ludicolo on their head. It makes for a useful sixth member to a team if the rest of your team has a bad rain matchup, backed up by solid bulk emphasized well by an Assault Vest. Still, Lapras is slow, has a bad defensive typing, and is mostly outclassed by Suicune outside of hitting Water-types for super effective damage.
[SET]
name: Rain, Rain, Go Away (Special Tank)
move 1: Freeze Dry
move 2: Hydro Pump
move 3: Ice Shard
move 4: Sheer Cold / Icy Wind / Ice Beam
item: Assault Vest
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Quiet
evs: 60 HP / 252 Def / 196 SpA
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Freeze Dry allows Laprasto tank hits from most Water-types and strike back for considerable damage. Hydro Pump, alongside Freeze Dry, has fantastic coverage, hitting just about everything for neutral damage. Because of this, there is a lot of filler in the rest of Lapras's moveset. Ice Shard gives Lapras some occasionally useful priority. Sheer Cold can get Lapras an occasional lucky KO, Icy Wind gives Lapras some speed control, Ice Beam id Lapras's best Ice-type STAB move versus anything that's not a Water-type. Feel free to experiment with the last slot at your leisure.
Set Details
========
The EV spread lets Lapras take two Zen Heabutts from Jolly Mega Metagross or a +1 Return from Jolly Mega Salamence while maintaining a solid Special Attack stat. The investment of EVs might look alarmingly strange considering there's much more defensive investment and not much in HP, but Lapras's HP stat is so large that investing in its defenses helps much more than investing in HP. Assault Vest lends so much special bulk already that very little investment is needed.
Usage Tips
========
Bring Lapras to the game if you're up against rain or some other Freeze Dry-vulnerable team. Otheriwse, you should leave it behind. Lapras trades very favorably with Water-type tanks such as Ludicolo, Politoed, and Suicune. Try to take them out or severely weaken them for Lapras's teammates. Despite this, Lapras doesn't trade favorably with Rotom-W. Rotom-W can 2HKO or 3HKO Lapras, depending on how large Rotom-W's Special Attack investment is, while Lapras 3HKOes factoring in Sitrus. Lapras is slower, so it loses this encounter either way. Targeting Rotom-W with Lapras while its partner uses a spread move can work, however. Additionally, with Lapras's heavy defensive investment, it can take a single hit from Pokemon such as Landorus-T and most Salamence and OHKO them with Freeze Dry.
Team Options
========
Pokemon that excel with Water-types gone, such as Landorus-T and Mega Metagross, like Lapras. Lapras benefits from a partner with Intimidate because most of the answers to it are physically based. Again, Landorus-T is great and the two complement each other wonderfully. Lapras synergizes well with Pokemon that can tank Rock- and Fighting-type attacks such as Aegislash, Mega Mawile, and Landorus-T. Lapras can operate well in Trick Room and has nice synergy with common Trick Room Pokemon. Amoonguss redirects Fighting-type attacks for Lapras and sets the Water slaughter into overdrive. Mega Mawile and Mega Camerupt really enjoy Lapras's ability to clear away Fire- and Water-types.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Items other than Assault Vest, such as Leftovers and Weakness Policy, can be used effectively. Be sure to invest some EVs in Special Defense and use Protect over the filler options in the forth moveslot if you opt out of Assault Vest. Lapras has a few other situational useful STAB moves worth considering, and among them are Blizzard, Surf, and Brine. Ancient Power and Psychic hit Mega Charizard Y and Mega Venusaur, respectively. Lapras also makes for an interesting Perish Song user for use on Perish trap teams. Finally, it might seem strange to not recommend Thunderbolt on a Pokemon that gets both it and Ice Beam, but Freeze Dry's coverage almost completely outclasses Thunderbolt as a coverage option.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Strong Fighting-type Attacks**: Lapras's Ice-typing gives it many exploitable weaknesses. Jolly Terrakion has a very large chance to OHKO Lapras with Close Combat, which is guaranteed if it has any boosting item. Scrafty can comfortably take hits and leech massive amounts of HP away from Lapras with Drain Punch. Lapras's weight makes it vulnerable to Low Kicks from the likes of Mega Kangaskhan.
**Rock Slide**: Lapras can tank a Rock Slide or two, but multiple will have it going down fast. Though Lapras can hurt them back significantly, Terrakion and Landorus-T are solid Rock Slide users for this purpose.
**Double Targeting**: As with most Assault Vest users, Lapras is weak to double targeting because it can't use Protect. Multiple heavy-hitting physical attacks will eventually bring Lapras down.
[OVERVIEW]
Freeze Dry makes Lapras very useful against rain and other teams heavy on Water-types, turning Pokemon with solid defensive typing such as Ludicolo on their head. It makes for a useful sixth member to a team if the rest of your team has a bad rain matchup, backed up by solid bulk emphasized well by an Assault Vest. Still, Lapras is slow, has a bad defensive typing, and is mostly outclassed by Suicune outside of hitting Water-types for super effective damage.
[SET]
name: Rain, Rain, Go Away (Special Tank)
move 1: Freeze Dry
move 2: Hydro Pump
move 3: Ice Shard
move 4: Sheer Cold / Icy Wind / Ice Beam
item: Assault Vest
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Quiet
evs: 60 HP / 252 Def / 196 SpA
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Freeze Dry allows Laprasto tank hits from most Water-types and strike back for considerable damage. Hydro Pump, alongside Freeze Dry, has fantastic coverage, hitting just about everything for neutral damage. Because of this, there is a lot of filler in the rest of Lapras's moveset. Ice Shard gives Lapras some occasionally useful priority. Sheer Cold can get Lapras an occasional lucky KO, Icy Wind gives Lapras some speed control, Ice Beam id Lapras's best Ice-type STAB move versus anything that's not a Water-type. Feel free to experiment with the last slot at your leisure.
Set Details
========
The EV spread lets Lapras take two Zen Heabutts from Jolly Mega Metagross or a +1 Return from Jolly Mega Salamence while maintaining a solid Special Attack stat. The investment of EVs might look alarmingly strange considering there's much more defensive investment and not much in HP, but Lapras's HP stat is so large that investing in its defenses helps much more than investing in HP. Assault Vest lends so much special bulk already that very little investment is needed.
Usage Tips
========
Bring Lapras to the game if you're up against rain or some other Freeze Dry-vulnerable team. Otheriwse, you should leave it behind. Lapras trades very favorably with Water-type tanks such as Ludicolo, Politoed, and Suicune. Try to take them out or severely weaken them for Lapras's teammates. Despite this, Lapras doesn't trade favorably with Rotom-W. Rotom-W can 2HKO or 3HKO Lapras, depending on how large Rotom-W's Special Attack investment is, while Lapras 3HKOes factoring in Sitrus. Lapras is slower, so it loses this encounter either way. Targeting Rotom-W with Lapras while its partner uses a spread move can work, however. Additionally, with Lapras's heavy defensive investment, it can take a single hit from Pokemon such as Landorus-T and most Salamence and OHKO them with Freeze Dry.
Team Options
========
Pokemon that excel with Water-types gone, such as Landorus-T and Mega Metagross, like Lapras. Lapras benefits from a partner with Intimidate because most of the answers to it are physically based. Again, Landorus-T is great and the two complement each other wonderfully. Lapras synergizes well with Pokemon that can tank Rock- and Fighting-type attacks such as Aegislash, Mega Mawile, and Landorus-T. Lapras can operate well in Trick Room and has nice synergy with common Trick Room Pokemon. Amoonguss redirects Fighting-type attacks for Lapras and sets the Water slaughter into overdrive. Mega Mawile and Mega Camerupt really enjoy Lapras's ability to clear away Fire- and Water-types.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Items other than Assault Vest, such as Leftovers and Weakness Policy, can be used effectively. Be sure to invest some EVs in Special Defense and use Protect over the filler options in the forth moveslot if you opt out of Assault Vest. Lapras has a few other situational useful STAB moves worth considering, and among them are Blizzard, Surf, and Brine. Ancient Power and Psychic hit Mega Charizard Y and Mega Venusaur, respectively. Lapras also makes for an interesting Perish Song user for use on Perish trap teams. Finally, it might seem strange to not recommend Thunderbolt on a Pokemon that gets both it and Ice Beam, but Freeze Dry's coverage almost completely outclasses Thunderbolt as a coverage option.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Strong Fighting-type Attacks**: Lapras's Ice-typing gives it many exploitable weaknesses. Jolly Terrakion has a very large chance to OHKO Lapras with Close Combat, which is guaranteed if it has any boosting item. Scrafty can comfortably take hits and leech massive amounts of HP away from Lapras with Drain Punch. Lapras's weight makes it vulnerable to Low Kicks from the likes of Mega Kangaskhan.
**Rock Slide**: Lapras can tank a Rock Slide or two, but multiple will have it going down fast. Though Lapras can hurt them back significantly, Terrakion and Landorus-T are solid Rock Slide users for this purpose.
**Double Targeting**: As with most Assault Vest users, Lapras is weak to double targeting because it can't use Protect. Multiple heavy-hitting physical attacks will eventually bring Lapras down.
There isn't a Lapras analysis on site and we're trying to fill in the blanks. Lapras is reasonably viable in VGC so I thought I'd go ahead and write this
[OVERVIEW]
[SET]
name: Rain, Rain, Go Away
move 1: Freeze Dry
move 2: Hydro Pump
move 3: Ice Shard
move 4: Sheer Cold / Icy Wind / Ice Beam
item: Assault Vest
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Quiet
evs: 60 HP / 252 Def / 196 SpA
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
Set Details
========
Usage Tips
========
Team Options
========
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Checks and Counters
===================
**Strong Fighting-type Attacks**:
**Rock Slide**:
**Double Targeting**:
[OVERVIEW]
- Freeze Dry makes Lapras very useful vs Rain teams, turning Pokemon like Ludicolo's solid defensive typing on its head
- A cool sixth member to add if your rain match up sucks.
- Solid bulk emphasized well by an Assault vest
- Slow
- Bad defensive typing
- Mostly outclassed by Suicune outside of hitting Water-types for Super Effective Damage
[SET]
name: Rain, Rain, Go Away
move 1: Freeze Dry
move 2: Hydro Pump
move 3: Ice Shard
move 4: Sheer Cold / Icy Wind / Ice Beam
item: Assault Vest
ability: Water Absorb
nature: Quiet
evs: 60 HP / 252 Def / 196 SpA
[SET COMMENTS]
Moves
========
- Freeze Dry is the reason to use Lapras
- Hydro Pump is Lapras's most worth while single target Water-type STAB attack.
- It gets really fillery after that.
- Ice Shard gives Lapras some Priority
- Last slot is entirely filler.
Set Details
========
- EVs might look alarmingly strange considering there's defensive investment and not much in HP, but Lapras's HP Stat is so large that investing in defenses helps much more than HP.
- The EV spread lets you live two Zen Heabutts from Jolly Mega Metagross or a +1 Attack Return from Jolly Mega Salamence while maintaining solid HP.
- SpDef investment is so small because Assault Vest contributes such huge Special Bulk already.
Usage Tips
========
- Bring Lapras to the game if you're up against Rain or some other Freeze Dry vulnerable team composition. Usually leave it behind otherwise.
- You trade very favorably with Water-type tanks like Ludicolo, Politoed, and Suicune. Try to take them out or severely weaken them for your teammates.
- Despite this, you don't trade favorably with Rotom-W. You Rotom-W can 2HKO or 3HKO Lapras depending on how large Rotom-W's Special Attack investment is while you 3HKO factoring in Sitrus. Lapras is slower so it loses this encounter either way. Targetting Rotom-W with Lapras while your partner uses a spread move can work, however.
- You can take a single hit from Special Salamence and Landorus-T and OHKO them with Freeze Dry.
Team Options
========
- Things that like Water-types gone like Lapras. Landorus-T and Mega Metagross fit that bill.
- Lapras likes Intimidate since most of the answers to it are physically based. Landorus-T is great again and the two completement each other wonderfully.
- Lapras likes something to tank Rock- and Fighting-type attacks. Aegislash, Mega Mawile, and Landorus-T do both.
- Lapras can operate well in Trick Room and has nice synergy with really slow Trick Room Pokemon. Amoonguss redirects fighting-type attacks for Lapras and sets the Water slaughter into overdrive. Mega Mawile and Mega Camerupt really enjoy Lapras's ability to clear away Fire- and Water-types.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
- Items other than Assault Vest. Leftovers and Weakness Policy are cool. Be sure to use Protect over the filler options if you opt out of assault vest.
- Blizzard, Surf, Bring are other STAB moves
- Ancient Power lets you hit Mega Charizard Y for massive damage.
- It's an interesting Perish Song user.
- Psychic can be used as filler for Mega Venusaur
- It might seem strange to not recommend Thunderbolt on a Pokemon that gets it and Ice Beam but Freeze Dry's coverage almost completely outclasses Thunderbolt.
Checks and Counters
===================
**Strong Fighting-type Attacks**:
**Rock Slide**:
**Double Targeting**:
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