Full help for Impish Manaphy?

Question

Moveset, EVs, maybe item

Answer 1

Manaphy @ Life Orb / Leftovers

/ 252 HP / 252 Special Attack / 4 Speed /
OR
/ 252 Defense / 252 Special Defense / 4 HP /

One's a little less bulky, but more flexible in sweeping. The other EV spread is pure bulk, and is a monster with Aqua Ring. Make sure it holds Life Orb or EV Spread #1, and Leftovers for #2.

Aqua Ring
Tail Glow
Surf
Ice Beam

A bulky Life Orb Sweeper that can switch into a lot of stuff. I haven't used Manaphy a whole lot, but I've played against a few of them, and my God, they're bulky.

This set will hit pretty hard hard (With Life Orb or Tail Glow boosts), and OHKO all OU Dragons like its nothing. For neutral damage, you may need to boost, but with huge bulk, Aqua Ring, and (possibly) Leftovers, you'll have lots of set up and sweep.

This is truly a jack of all trades set that is extremely versatile. Just watch out for fellow Bulky Waters such as Vaporeon, Suicune, and Lantern.

Comments

And what about Rest/Rain Dance/Surf/Tail Glow ???

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Without Sleep Talk, that set isn't very good, and without Tail Glow, you won't hit hard enough. Life Orb wouldn't work well enough with that set, you'd have poor coverage, and would likely have to use Toxic, resulting in a predictable RestStall strategy.

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Will, I disagree with you on one point: Rest. Now obviously you'll need some team support, but if one of your other Pokemon gets Rain Dance up (Kyogre, Politoed for Gen V) then you've got Rest+Hydration. Easily better than Aqua Ring. And if you don't have the right team support, you shouldn't be using Manaphy anyways. Grass Knot could replace Ice Beam if you are having trouble with those bulky waters, but Ice Beam is probably best.

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This is likely Gen IV, and having an Ubers Team with both Kyogre and Manaphy on it isn't exactly the smartest plan. hen again, Manaphy in Ubers in general isn't really a good idea. Plus, to have Rain Dance Support based around Manaphy abusing Hydration + Rest is just your generic Rain team, which means you'd need every Pokemon to have Rain Dance, resulting in only three, or sometimes two slots for coverage.

I would've recommended Hydration; I considered it, but the weight of Manaphy's Dependence on it is way too risky to use. Plus, as I said, you'd slow down the battle and lose momentum once Manaphy came out.