Manaphy @ Waterium Z
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe OR 252 HP / 192 Def / 64 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Rain Dance
CM Manaphy carves itself a small (mostly not worthwhile) but distinct niche over other CM Water-types with its access to Hydration; this set takes a much more patient approach to breaking than the standard Tail Glow set, putting its very solid 100/100/100 defenses to good use and bolstering its SpD to help it get to +6 more easily. Rain Dance+Hydration means that it doesn’t need to wait until it’s been worn down before healing off poison is justifiable, making it useful for combatting TSpikes in a way that stuff like VinCune/CroCune/Slowbro can’t really achieve reliably, and Rain Dance also allows Z-Scald to OHKO non-Haze max/max+ Toxapex and PhysDef Chansey at +6 a large % of the time. Z-Surf would guarantee the kill, but not being able to cripple stuff like Tapu Bulu that try to take advantage of it means that the trade-off isn’t worthwhile—especially when you consider burn damage puts Toxapex/Chansey into range anyway. It also helps Manaphy take advantage of things like Mega Venusaur, which it uses for setup fodder, a little better by knocking its HP down a lot quicker, conserving Scald PP and helping vs Leech Seed variants.
The drawbacks of this set should be very obvious; the set is very passive before it’s able to sweep, meaning that it’s generally limited to spreading burns early on. It’s reliant on RD+Rest to heal up consistently, meaning that it has difficulty doing that if not paired with Wish support from stuff like Jirachi that synergise well with Waters defensively. It struggles to check a lot of the prominent Fire-types consistently, struggling vs Taunt Heatran, BloomTran and Specs Blacephalon, and the commonness of Tapu Koko offense means that it generally has a hard time setting up versus offense. Realistically speaking, most Toxapex carry Haze, meaning that it absolutely needs to be paired with a lure for it. If it forgoes Leftovers it hurts its ability to check things as consistently as it could, but without Waterium it can’t break any Water resists, namely failing to defeat Pokemon like Mega Venusaur and Chansey—making it lose its somewhat decent matchup versus balanced/defensive teams.
The listed EV spreads outpace Jolly TTar and Timid Magearna, respectively; the latter spread allows it to boost before Mage uses TBolt, helping it make use of its SpD boost. You could also invest more to creep Tran or Mega TTar, but Manaphy’s bulk takes a large hit by doing this.
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