Floatzel, The Sea Weasel Pokémon. It floats using its well-developed flotation sac. It assists in the rescues of drowning people. Its flotation sac developed as a result of pursuing aquatic prey. It can double as a rubber raft. It is a common sight around fishing ports. It is known to rescue people and carry off prey.
Overview
What can I say about Floatzel? I like its design, it's a pretty cool Pokémon. It's among the fastest Water-type Pokémon around and it has a decent physical Attack stat. This allows it to hit hard and fast, and as its ability doubles its speed in the rain, it means it can outspeed practically any Pokémon, even if Choice Scarf'd and with its Attack it can take down many Pokémon before they can even move. Despite that, Floatzel does have some issues. It is incredibly frail with both defences in the 50s which means that if it doesn't manage to take out its opponent, it is likely to be taken out very, very quickly. It's not all bad, though. If you don't go for the added Speed in the rain, you can do something that very few physically focused Pokémon can do...avoid Burns and the Attack stat reduction.
Positives
+ Speed stat is very good, even for OU.
+ Eats up burns with Water Veil.
+ Not a Delphox.
+ Able to Baton pass Bulk Up fairly well.
+ Switcheroo makes Choice sets an option.
Negatives
- Awful defensive stats. Literally everything is capable of dealing crippling damage to it.
- Frail which prevents it from Baton Passing or sweeping easily.
- Attack is mediocre by the standards of most tiers.
- Gets walled by most bulky waters among other things which are common everywhere.
- Good ability in Swift Swim goes to waste on something which has speed as it only good stat.
- Outclassed by other offensive water types outside of Baton Passing.
- Terrible as a stand alone sweeper. It simply lacks the coverage and power to do much damage on its own.
Abilities
Swift Swim: When rainy, The Pokémon’s Speed doubles. However, Speed will not double on the turn weather becomes Heavy Rain. - A decent enough ability. Allows for Floatzel to completely outspeed practically everything and, to activate it, you boost its Water-type moves too. Not too shabby
Hidden Ability (Available):
Water Veil: This Pokémon cannot be Burned while having this ability. - Absolutely fantastic ability for a physically focused Pokémon. It prevents the burn from damaging it and it prevents the Attack drop. Absolutely perfect.
Movesets
Passing the baton
- Waterfall / Agility
- Bulk Up
- Taunt
- Baton Pass
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Water Veil
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 HP / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
Floatzel has many flaws and is outclassed by many things as a sweeper, but one thing it can do surprisingly well is Baton Pass Bulk Ups. Due to Floatzel's lightning speed is can easily Bulk Up before taking a hit and quickly Baton Pass away to another team member. While Floatzel's bulk may be comparable to that of a wet paper bag after a Bulk Up it becomes somewhat more passable, roughly comparable to that of a max HP Feraligatr. If your opponent attempts to disrupt your sweep with Roar / Haze / etc or tries to set up alongside you Taunt is there to shut them down. While this faces competition from other Baton Passers such as Shell Smash Gorebyss and Quiver Dance Venomoth Floatzel is unique in that it is able to pass Bulk Ups. This makes your Baton Pass recipient significantly tougher against priority moves like Sucker Punch that plague the lower tiers. While Combusken can Baton Pass Bulk Ups AND Speed at the same time with similar bulk while also being immune to Burn Floatzel has... Taunt?... Dang, this weasel kind of stinks doesn't it? Regardless Baton Passing a Bulk Up or two to can be a game winner if you pass to something like Feraligatr or Tauros. Floatzel can't always pass speed reliably so try to Baton Pass to things with either priority moves or good natural speed.
I've floated an option...what is your Choice?
-Waterfall / Aqua Jet
-Ice Fang/Ice Punch
-Return
-Switcheroo
Item Attached: Choice Band
Ability: Water Veil
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
Jolly Nature
This set works similar to the previous one, but locks you in. As such, there are a couple of variants. First is the inclusion of Aqua Jet. While Aqua Jet does have lower damage, you can't scoff at the increased priority, which is especially useful in Trick Room where Floatzel would be destroyed. You have the same Ice Fang/Ice Punch combo, but go with Ice Punch once it's Kalos native. Return is a simple enough move that hits really hard and Switcheroo is a unique one. Floatzel is the one of the only Water-types to get this move and, considering the frailty of it, it can completely screw up the opponent's strategy.
In the event of a water landing, I have been designed to serve as a flotation device
-Waterfall/Aqua Tail
-Ice Fang/Ice Punch
-Crunch
-Brick Break/Low Kick
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Water Veil
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 HP
Jolly Nature
As said before, Floatzel is somewhat frail, so what you want to hit hard and hit fast. This set does that without locking you into a move, allowing you to be able to cover all bases. Waterfall and Aqua Tail are Floatzel's best and standard Water-type moves. Waterfall gives a chance of the opponent flinching which is fantastic when it happens while using Floatzel while Aqua Tail has a bit more power, but is a bit more risky. Ice Fang and Ice Punch gives some good coverage against the Grass-types you may see switch in against Floatzel, among various other types. Both can Freeze the opponent, but Ice Punch is not currently available in the Kalos native metagame and Ice Fang has a similar chance of freezing, but really, Ice Punch is the best way to go for Floatzel. Crunch is a decent Dark-type move and Brick Break & Low Kick give some decent additional coverage.
Other Options
Agility, Flame Orb, Power-up Punch, Special, Substitute, Swift Swim, Taunt
Agility can be used to shore up Floatzel's Speed. While you may think this is pointless, it can mean the difference between life & death
Flame Orb can be used with Switcheroo to utterly screw other Pokémon over. As Floatzel cannot be burned, the Flame Orb won't activate. Simply use Switcheroo and you can severely hinder any physical Pokémon,br />
Power-up Punch is a good move. With every hit, it boosts Floatzel's Attack one stage. A couple of these make Floatzel a true force to be reckoned with.
Going with a Special set is a decent alternative using moves like Surf, Hydro Pump, Ice Beam etc., but with its physical movepool and Attack stat, you have to question why
Let's face it, Floatzel will go down fast. As such, you can delay the inevitable just by simply using Substitute.
Swift Swim can be used as an ability to give Floatzel a bit of extra Speed, but it may not be worth the risk of being susceptable to burn.
Taunt is always useful on any Pokémon. It can screw so many set-up Pokémon.
Double & Triple Battle Options
There are an absurd amount of Water Type Pokemon, what could possibly make Floatzel stand out from the crowd? Is it perhaps it's the hardest hitting Swift Swimmer at base 105 Attack? No, that title goes to Kabutops clocking in at base 115 Attack, though Floatzel comes second place in that contest. However Floatzel is at the top of it's game being the fastest swift swimmer at base 115 speed! Seems like overkill right? Kind of like giving a certain Fire/Flying bird with base 126 speed an ability that makes it's flying type moves go first... But I digress. Floatzel can and will outspeed pretty much anything in front of it so long as rain is up.
Swift Swim isn't it's only ability though, Water Veil stops burns from crippling it's impressive attack stat, though I'd wonder why your opponent is bothering to status Floatzel rather than attack it outright as 85/55/50 defenses won't stand up to much.
Miles "Tails" Floatzer
-Waterfall
-Brick Break/Ice Punch
-Crunch/Pursuit
-Ice Punch/Protect
Item Attached: Choice Band/Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 136 HP / 252 Atk / 120 Speed
Adamant Nature
The EVs here allow Floatzel to outspeed max speed Kingdra by one point while still retaining maximum attack power, the rest of the EVs were placed into HP. If you don't have access to the older games for Ice Punch then Ice Fang works just about the same. With a bit of a shallow physical movepool, it's difficult to be creative here. This set assumes you're playing Floatzel under rain and to it's strengths. Waterfall is your STAB with a nice flinch chance, Brick Break and Ice Punch/Fang are coverage moves, they're very nice to have access to when you're faced against Ferrothorn or Garchomp. Crunch and Pursuit are only resisted by Dark and Fairy now, most of which who might switch in don't resist Waterfall. Crunch will always hit for decent damage, though maybe not the intended target as the opponent might switch. If you feel confident in your predicting abilities then give Pursuit a try. Nothing quite feels like KOing a pokemon on the switch out. Protect is to Double Battles as teasing Delphox is to our writer Blue Harvest -- It's necessary, except in extraordinary circumstances. One of which being holding Choice Band and running Protect, don't do that.
Being fast and powerful is nice and all, but Floatzel is hardly the standalone sweeper it appears to be. It might need to take the back seat to pure offense and run some moves that will set up for it's partner. I'm talking about the move "Soak" which changes the target Pokemon into a pure Water type. If you've a rain team, what you would need to do is have Rain going (usually by Damp Rock Politoed) and have Floatzel and Mega Manectric out (easier said than done). Have Floatzel use Soak, and then have Mega Manectric follow up with a 100% accurate super effective Thunder. It'll catch your opponent off guard for sure if you can pull it off.
That being said, when talking about Rain sweepers in doubles immediately Kingdra and Ludicolo come to mind, and for good reason, they've a second and very useful STAB option besides water and generally stronger moves to work with. Until Floatzel gets some higher power moves to work with it very well may just fade away in the vast sea of other underwhelming water type Pokemon.
Countering Floatzel
How to get rid of a Floatzel? Use Tackle. Seriously though, bulky Pokémon can mostly just shrug off Floatzel with ease. Floatzel relies too much on hitting hard and fast, and if it can't knock out a Pokémon, chances are that it is not long for this world. Pokémon that can resist Floatzel's main moves are good, and if they have super effective moves like Grass and Electric moves, then that Pokémon will be able to take Floatzel out. Putting Floatzel in a Trick Room is another way to go as it completely removes the one redeeming aspect of Floatzel; hitting hard and fast.
Locations in Games
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game
Colosseum/XD:
Not in game
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Routes 213, 218, 221, 222, 224 & 230, Fuego Ironworks, Victory Road
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Safari Zone
Black/White:
Routes 11 & 14
Black 2/White 2:
Route 11, 14, 23, Abundant Shrine, Victory Road, Nature Preserve
X/Y:
Route 15, Route 16, Route 21, Frost Cavern, Couriway Town, Victory Road
Friend Safari
Animé Appearences
