Spheal (Analysis)

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Spheal

[Overview]

<p>At a quick glance, Spheal looks pretty cool. Spheal's relatively high HP, average Defenses, and good support movepool stick out to make this baby walrus appealing. Like last generation, Spheal can pull off a pretty effective stall set with the help of Ice Body healing it in the hail, but there are a few things holding Spheal back now. Firstly, the advent of Drought Vulpix means Spheal's team will have to fight hard to keep hail falling onto the battlefield when playing against sun teams. Secondly, new Fighting-type such as Dokkora, Kojofuu, and Zuruggu, as well as Meditite being coming out of its old prison all mean Snover will have trouble stalling various teams. Spheal sports really bad defensive typing, with four weaknesses and only two resistances, and Spheal didn't get a useful thing from Black and White. This round seal might not be worth a slot on your team unless it's hail-based.</p>

[Set]
name: Hail Stall
move 1: Protect
move 2: Substitute
move 3: Aqua Ring
move 4: Super Fang / Blizzard / Toxic / Surf
item: Leftovers
ability: Ice Body
nature: Bold / Calm
EVs: 36 HP / 196 Def / 76 SpA / 196 SpD

[Set Comments]

  • Pretty much the same thing as Walrein
  • With 36 HP, Spheal hits 24, which makes Leftovers work as it should (24 is divisible by 8 so you will heal 3 health per turn, as you should)
  • Blizzard and Surf are both reliable STAB attacking options. Blizzard has better coverage and is stronger while surf has more PP and can be used to hit Rock-types, which otherwise pose a threat.
  • Super Fang is useful for chipping away at your opponent's HP
  • Toxic Spikes support is greatly appreciated, but Toxic can be used if you don't have it
  • Encore is another option for Pokemon that try to set up on you
  • Aqua Ring is needed to heal 6 HP per turn
[Additional Comments]

  • Ice Beam or Ice Breath
  • Nature doesn't really matter; whichever stat you want to boost more
  • You can max out speed if you want to tie with standard Croagunk and Timid Clamperl
  • Tentacool is very useful to have as it can set up Toxic Spikes and spin away Stealth Rock, as well as absorb Toxic Spikes which otherwise make Spheal useless
[Team Options]

  • Snover
  • Tentacool to set up Toxic Spikes
  • Budew resists most of its weaknesses and has toxic spikes (I think, correct me if I'm wrong), but no rapid spin
  • Hitomoshi resists fighting and grass and can kill stuff that annoy Spheal like Magic Guard Yuniran

[Optional Changes]

  • Anything you want to use in Spheal's movepool
  • Hail might be useful if you don't have Snover, but then the set kind of sucks
  • not using Aqua Ring but then you only heal a small amount
  • Ice Beam / Ice Breath
  • A different EV spread if you want to be more bulky on one side
  • Thick Fat can be used on a non-hail team, just take advantage of Spheal's good support movepool if you're going this way. Moves like Encore and Yawn are cool.
[Counters]

  • Hippopotas
  • Vulpix
  • Yuniran
  • Abra if you're running Super Fang
  • Ice-type stuff with Substitute
  • Ice-type stuff without Substitute even
  • Anything immune to toxic
  • Cleffa
  • Wow that's a lot of counters
[Dream World]

  • Oblivious is Spheal's Dream World ability
  • Why would you ever use that over Ice Body or Thick Fat
  • No one uses attract
  • Spheal will most likely have a Substitute up anyway so completely useless
 
It actually has four weaknesses, to Rock, Fighting, Grass and Electric. Also, I don't see the reason to use Ice Breath over Ice Beam or Blizzard, because even with the crit, Ice Breath is 80BP, which while being okay, is less than Ice Beam or Blizzard, unless your stats have been lowered. Also, could Aqua Ring be slashed there somewhere?
 
Alright, four. Ice Breath is for Amnesia / Calm Mind users, particularly baby Rankorusu, because Magic Guard is a burden. Plus, I don't really think this is ready for comments as it still has the (Placeholder) tag.
 
I think Aqua Ring and Evolution stone is a better than leftovers. You get the same recovry, but you are soooo much bulkier. You could run it in the last slot and use it on a Toxic Spikes team.
  • It's round
Click to expand...
lol'd^^
 
Yes but the question is why set up Aqua Ring when you can set up Substitute. Spheal isn't going to get hit anyway if predict well
 
Er, switch in on something that doesn't like Spheal, Substitute on the switch, Protect, Aqua Ring, [Protect, ]survive their puny hits and stall for infinity.
 
Both Leftovers and Ice Body only heal 1/16th of your max HP. With 24 HP, Spheal is only getting 2 HP back per turn, but its losing 6 every time it uses Substitute. Aqua Ring is needed. It's hard to get both the turn to set up a Sub and an Aqua Ring, but whatever..... its why Spheal is kind of mediocre
 
Oh, I thought it healed three, I should really pay more attention to Spheal in battle. Well if that's the case, I'll make amendments
 
Quality Control 1/2

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I'm assuming there really isn't anything else Spheal does remotely good besides for Hail stall, so I don't think there is really much else to add.


 
There is one suggestion I would like to make. That would be to up the EVs used in Spheal's HP to 116, giving it a stat of 25 HP.

The reason I suggest this is three-fold. It gives you better general defenses(I believe), which helps for keeping up a Substitute. Second, it helps with SR so that you have a higher number of potential switch-ins and Substitute opportunities, since you still use 6 HP for each sub still and still gain 2 HP between Leftovers and Ice Body. And finally, given every situation where you can only Sub + protect, it gives you one opportunity to stall iirc.

No SR, you come in free. 24 vs 25 HP.

Sub, 24 is at 20 at the eot and 25 is at 21.

Protect, 24 is at 22 and 25 is at 23.

Sub, 24 is at 20 and 25 is at 21.

Protect, 22 vs 23

Sub, 18 vs 19
Protect, 20 vs 21
16 vs 17
18 vs 19
14 vs 15
16 vs 17
12 vs 13
14 vs 15
10 vs 11
12 vs 13
8 vs 9
10 vs 11
6 vs 7
8 vs 9
4 vs 5
6 vs 7

At this point the 24 HP one has to go for a 50% chance of getting a second protect. The 25 HP one safely Subs again and Protects, stalling yet another 2 HP before being subdued. And even then, the 25 HP one can go for the same 50% chance that the other one had previously.

Basically, go 25/ 26 HP. iirc it can't go up to 27 but if possible go even there because the extra HP will always help. Never will it cause you to end your sub streak earlier. Worse case scenario is you lose the ability to keep a sub against certain attacks by lowering your defenses behind the subs.

The entire process strips a total of 22 HP with the 24 HP one, including the turn you die off(with a 50% chance of going higher through lucky Protects), whereas the 25 HP one strips off 24 HP minimum. Of course this is best-case scenario, but just 24 free damage for doing nothing but sitting there is nothing to snuff at, especially considering the prominence of LO and low HP and whatnot. ANd you can gain other turns by various other things.
 
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