Pok�mon of the Week

Manaphy, The Seafaring Pok�mon. It is born with a wondrous power that lets it bond with any kind of Pok�mon. It starts its life with a wondrous power that permits it to bond with any kind of Pok�mon. Water makes up 80% of its body. This Pok�mon is easily affected by its environment. Born on a cold seafloor, it will swim great distances to return to its birthplace.

Manaphy is one of the legendary Pokemon that have 100 in every base stat. There are several others who share this trait, but most of them inhabit the OU and UU tiers. What makes Manaphy special or even better in the eyes of some, is its ability Hydration. In the rain, Manaphy becomes a powerful attacker immune to any status effect. One of the best things Manaphy can do is use Tail Glow, which allows Manaphy to turn into a fearsome stall breaker, as its special attack rises three stages with a single move. All in all, Manaphy can run through entire teams when given the chance, although without the boosts it is relatively mediocre.

Hydration: Cures any status effect if rain is present. This is Manaphy�s ace in the hole, and its advantage over it�s siblings in the 100 all base stats family, as it allows Manaphy to shrug off being Paralyzed, Poisoned, put to Sleep, etc. This also allows Manaphy to recover very easily using Rest.

-Tail Glow
-Surf
-Ice Beam / Grass Knot
-Rest
Item Attached: Life Orb / Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)

A big reason to use Manaphy in the competitive metagame is Tail Glow. With it, Manaphy can gain a massive boost in special attack (+3 stages). This basically turns Manaphy into a monstrous special powerhouse and gives it the ability inflict massive damage on slower Pokemon that allow it to set up, and even some faster ones if they can't KO it. Surf is used as its main STAB attack. In the rain, it can do a lot of damage to many threats at +3 including Ferrothorn, which it 2HKOs. The choice between Ice Beam and Grass Knot depends on what you need Manaphy to hit. Ice Beam is useful coverage that hits the abundance of Dragons in the Ubers tier, such as Rayquaza, Zekrom, Kyurem-White, and so on. Grass Knot hits a different set of threats, such as Kyogre. Rest when used together with the ability Hydration allows Manaphy to recover to full health and wake up at the end of the same turn. This combination is the best recovery in the entire competitive metagame, and thus is very useful to have.

-Calm Mind
-Scald / Surf
-Ice Beam / Grass Knot
-Rest
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs and Nature:
EVs:252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)

Although Tail Glow may make Manaphy a ridiculously powerful attacker, Calm Mind gets to the same point (although slower) while also boosting Manaphy's Special Defense, making it harder to get rid of as well. There are many counters to Tail Glow, such as Scarfed Pokemon with Thunder, but there are many less counters to the Calm Mind set due to having to play around its Special Defense rising. These boosts in addition to Rest make Manaphy difficult to beat as it allows Manaphy to take hits and then easily sleep it off, and then once again get in more boosts. Scald or Surf are used for STAB, and the choice depends on whether you want to cripple physical attacker s as well as boost against Special attackers, or hit harder. The choice between Ice beam and Grass Knot is the same as the other set, just depends on which of the threats you need to hit. Overall, with Calm Mind at Manaphy�s disposal, it can both become a special attacking threat while increasing its Special bulk. Combined with Rest, Manaphy can become a pain to take down.

Acid Armor, Aqua Ring, Energy Ball, Heart Swap, Hidden Power, Icy Wind, Light Screen, Protect, Psychic, Reflect, Shadow Ball, Toxic, Uproar, U-turn
Acid Armor can be used for defensive boosts over Calm Mind, but it's a pretty bad idea as dropping either Calm Mind or one of your coverage moves is generally not worth having Acid Armor.
Aqua Ring can provide basically an extra Leftovers recovery for Manaphy, increasing longevity but having to drop a coverage move.
Energy Ball can replace Grass Knot for more reliable damage, but most of the Ubers you'll be hitting with Grass Knot are relatively heavy (Groudon, Kyogre, etc).
Heart Swap swaps stat boosts with the opponent, allowing you to steal Calm Mind, Dragon Dances, etc from your opponent.
Hidden Power is useful for any coverage that you may need, although Manaphy's main movepool covers most everything that it needs to.
Icy Wind is useful for Double Battles, and is a powerful force at +3 while also hitting both Pokemon and dropping their Speed.
Light Screen can be used to raise the team's Special Defense, and can be used on a more obscure DualScreens Manaphy set.
Protect is useful for the same reasons it usually is, helps to predict what your opponent will do.
Psychic is a good neutral coverage move although not hitting too many threats.
Reflect serves the same purpose as Light Screen, just boosting Defense instead of Special Defense.
Shadow Ball is also useful coverage, although most of the other moves hit whatever Shadow Ball would hit harder.
Toxic can be used on a more stall oriented Manaphy set (such as a DualScreens set), and take down other Stall Pokemon like Giratina and Lugia.
Uproar is the same as Psychic and Shadow Ball, providing strong coverage although not hitting anything super effectively.
U-turn can be used to help Manaphy escape situations or to scout, though you'd have to orient Manaphy to be more physical to use this effectively, plus not depend on boosts as much.

Surf and Icy Wind are Manaphy�s main assets when dealing with multiple Pokemon at once. With a Tail Glow up, Manaphy can deal massive damage to multiple Pokemon at once with Surf, and its damage is doubled in the rain as well, making an OHKO a very good possibility, while Icy Wind can hit multiple opponent's and lower their speed at the same time.

Anything that can handle Electric type moves generally helps Manaphy to survive longer, as well as Pokemon that can deal with other weather setters such as Groudon, Tyranitar, Hippowdon, and Abomasnow.

The most basic counter to Manaphy is to take away the Rain. Without Rain, Manaphy has no good form of reliable recovery as well as losing a powerful boost to its STAB moves. These counters include Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Abomasnow, and Groudon, which all can effectively stop Manaphy mid-sweep. Choice Scarf users and Pokemon with higher than base 100 Speed can generally beat Manaphy, as Pokemon such as Shaymin-S, Scarf Kyogre, Scarf Zekrom, Deoxys forms, several forms of Arceus, Mewtwo, and many others can outspeed and OHKO Manaphy with powerful STAB or coverage moves. More stall oriented Pokemon such as Ferrothorn, Blissey and Chansey can tank at least one of Manaphy's moves, although they can't do much in return if Rain is still in place.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game

FireRed/LeafGreen:

Colosseum/XD:
Not in game

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Hatch Manaphy egg transfered from Pok�mon Ranger games

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Hatch Manaphy egg transfered from Pok�mon Ranger games

Black/White:
Transfer from Generation IV

Black 2/White 2:
Transfer from Generation IV