Water-Type Battle Royale – Lapras vs. Milotic!
The Pokémon VGC International Challenge: April is fast approaching. I have two options: tweak my old team and use it again, or build a fabulous new one. I opted for the latter. The new team will center around the rather shocking choice of Choice Scarf Electivire(cymbal crash). His Ground weakness requires immediate protection, as well as Burn/Intimidate counters and Safeguard. Two Water-type Pokémon immediately presented themselves as prime candidates: Lapras and Milotic.
Lapras
She was my first choice. She can run multiple sets, including Assault Vest, Sitrus Berry or Weakness Policy. Her movepool, while shallow, gets the job done. Lapras offers priority, Safeguard, speed control, Water Absorb, and the ability to fry Ground-types with Freeze Dry and Hydro Pump. As an added bonus, she gets such wonderful toys as Sheer Cold and Perish Song. Unfortunately, her Ice typing adds a nasty Fighting and Rock weakness. Lapras also does not have the ability to deter Intimidate the way Milotic can. However, she does a great job at disposing of the most common ones (Landorus, Salamence, Gyarados, and Arcanine).
Milotic
Milotic is a condsideration over Lapras solely for her ability to block Intimidate. This keeps Electivire in the clear when coupled with Safeguard support. Her Water STAB can deal with Ground-type threats, while also offering Ice coverage and un-Taunt-able speed control. Unfortunately, she’s not as threatening offensively as Lapras and does pretty much moot without the Competitive boost. She does have less weaknesses than Lapras, however.
So which sea monster will benefit me more? Lapras can dispose of Electivire’s threats early, while Milotic can dispell them entirely. Lapras has better offenses but worse typing, while Milotic has the possibility of being a deadweight. Advice appreciated!
Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.
I prefer lapras due to 2 stabs, freeze-dry (handles swampert well and unexpectedly), and more Hp than milotic, and more def ( also not to low sp def compared to milotic). Lapras makes a good wall, being able to take many hits from either side, while milotic is more of a special tank.
The truth is, it depends on your needs: lapras and milotic can play different roles.
Role 1: kingdra counter- a common strategy for kingdra is focus energy, scope lens, and sniper combo, which can be devestating, but with shell armor, that strategy will fall apart as kingdra can’t get a critical hit on lapras. Now, I don’t know much about VGC, so I don’t know how common kingdra will be. Probably the least great out of these roles.
Role 2: switch in - if you decide on a Pokemon 4x weak to water, and you have him/ her out against a water type, you can switch to lapras to heal up some, which makes it a even better wall.
Role 3: rain team- this obviously won’t work on your team, but I’ll note this anyways. Any way to handle a wall is to use toxic, but with hydration, no more toxic on you, and you can use rest without any drawbacks.
Role 1: intimidate gaurd- competitive will boost your sp atk if milotic gets intimidated,which will probably be pretty common since VGC is doubles, I think.
Role 2: status taker- if milotic gets toxic, which probably she will, her defense will get boosted, which will handle that low defense.
milotic probably will fit your team better, due to intimidate gaurd.
