[W.I.P.] Lapras

[Jexulus]

Lapras, the Transport Pokemon​

[Pros]

<ul>

<li>Boasts an excellent stat spread, held back only by its salvagable Speed and Ice-typing.</li>

<li>A diverse movepool allows it to be very flexible to adjust to a team’s needs.</li>

<li>Thanks to Freeze Dry, Lapras can run its STABS with nearly impeccable coverage, with the added bonus of hitting such Pokemon as Kingdra and Gyarados for 4x damage.</li>

<li>In addition to Thunderbolt/Ice Beam and Freeze Dry/Surf coverage on the special side, it can use Waterfall/Return on the physical side to better effect thanks to a handful of stat-boosting moves at its disposal.</li>

<li>Has two useful abilities in Water Absorb and Hydration.</li>

<li>Drizzle’s nerf has given it a new lease on life as a self-sufficient rain supporter.</li>

</ul>


[Cons]

<ul>

<li>Ice-typing holds back its bulk as well as giving it a Stealth Rock weakness.</li>

<li>Its low base Speed is easily its biggest weakness.</li>

<li>Can potentially be outclassed by other bulky Waters if it isn’t supporting a rain team.</li>

<li>Lacks a boosting move to take advantage of its superior Special Attacking options and a movepool to take advantage of its swarth of physical boosting moves.</li>

<li>Its recovery options are limited to Water Absorb and Rest.</li>


</ul>


[Set Recommendations]


<p>Lapras @ Life Orb / Leftovers / Chesto Berry<br />

Ability: Water Absorb<br />

EVs: 16 HP / 252 Atk / 240 Spe <br />

Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)<br />

- Dragon Dance<br />

- Waterfall<br />

- Return<br />

- Substitute / Rest</p>


<p> Lapras can remedy its Speed stat and enhance its workable Attack stat by using Dragon Dance. Thanks to its bulk and the given EV spread, Lapras can outrun such threats as Haxorus at +1 and work around its Stealth Rock weakness at the same time. Dragon Dance provides some flexibility with the rest of its moveslots, such as Freeze Dry/Ice Beam in place of Return or Rest instead of Substitute. Keep in mind that splitting its offenses is only feasible for the Life Orb set; the bulkier sets will need Return to be effective.</p>


<p>This set requires a great deal of support to work; Rapid Spin and hazard support are almost necessary to defeat bulkier Pokemon. Bulky Water and Grass types are also a big issue, so be sure to have some Pokemon with super-effective STABS to break them down before sending Lapras in.</p>


[Checks and Counters]


<p>Bulky Water and Grass-types are the bane of most Lapras sets, since they can survive whatever Lapras throws at them. Grass-types in particular can prove to be a pain as well. Chesnaught can take anything from the physical sets and use either of its STABS to severely damage Lapras, if not OHKO. </p>

As of right now, this is a work in progress, but please feel free to post any sort of criticism you would like. Since this is my first time, I'd like to make it as best as I possibly can, so the criticism is more valuable to me than you might think.

 

[Shiruba]

Moveset doesn't need to be so hugely spaced out. In addition, you mention its being a rain supporter + having Freeze Dry as a reason to use it, but your set doesn't utilize any of these things. Perhaps make another in addition to your DD set, or find someone who's used such a Lapras enough to make suggestions on the matter?

Also, and more importantly, what can Lapras do that others can't? Even without the DD set, which looks like an inferior Gyarados to me, what's there? Don't get me wrong, I like Lapras as a Pokemon, but liking it doesn't make it good, and certainly doesn't mean you should use it on a serious OU team. Freeze Dry is something, admittedly, but why use it to take down water types when you can just use a Pokemon like Rotom-Wash to do the same thing? As for rain, there are other setters that work well, too, like Klefki, which has entry hazards and priority on the move and Politoed, which doesn't require a turn or a moveslot to set up rain. Why is Lapras exceptional?

 

[Jexulus]

Moveset doesn't need to be so hugely spaced out. In addition, you mention its being a rain supporter + having Freeze Dry as a reason to use it, but your set doesn't utilize any of these things. Perhaps make another, or find someone who's use Lapras enough to make suggestions on the matter?

Also, and more importantly, what can Lapras do that others can't? Even without the DD set, which looks like an inferior Gyarados to me, what's there? Don't get me wrong, I like Lapras as a Pokemon, but liking it doesn't make it good, and certainly doesn't mean you should use it on a serious OU team. Freeze Dry is something, admittedly, but why use it to take down water types when you can just use a Pokemon like Rotom-Wash to do the same thing? As for rain, there are other setters that work well, too, like Klefki and Politoed, off the top of my head. Why is Lapras exceptional?

As I said, it's a work in progress. That one set is all I had time to make, but rest assured I'm adding many more tonight and tomorrow, including those that take advantage of the "Pros" I mentioned. Also, I wrote it Microsoft Word, so I didn't realize how gigantic the spacing was until I posted it. I'll get around to making all of the fixes you mentioned and then some. Thank you for the feedback.

 

[Alice in Pyroland]

Freeze Dry is something, admittedly, but why use it to take down water types when you can just use a Pokemon like Rotom-Wash to do the same thing? As for rain, there are other setters that work well, too, like Klefki, which has entry hazards and priority on the move and Politoed, which doesn't require a turn or a moveslot to set up rain. Why is Lapras exceptional?

Whilst I don't personally think Lapras is an OU candidate even with Freeze Dry, the major advantage Lapras has over Rotom-W is the combination of Water Absorb and STAB Freeze Dry hitting both Water/Ground and Water/Grass types 4x effectively. Freeze Dry / Surf in general has really, really good coverage even if Lapras itself has relatively meh offensive ability.

 

[X5Dragon]

Well technically everything is either LC, Uber or OU until we have usage stats but yeah it's pretty obvious where this one is heading. In any case, a Freeze Dry set can be:

Lapras @ Leftovers/Expert Belt
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpAtk / 4 Def
Modest Nature

Freeze Dry
Surf
Rest
Rain Dance

 

[Jexulus]

Well technically everything is either LC, Uber or OU until we have usage stats but yeah it's pretty obvious where this one is heading. In any case, a Freeze Dry set can be:

Lapras @ Leftovers/Expert Belt
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpAtk / 4 Def
Modest Nature

Freeze Dry
Surf
Rest
Rain Dance

This is almost identical to one of the sets I was about to post, except with Damp Rock slashed instead of Expert Belt and investment in SpD instead of SpAtk. Still, it's a variant I didn't think of, thank you.

 

[ginganinja]

No.

Lapras lost its main niche in the generation switch due to the weather nerf utterly destroying its DD set. Sure, it can run RD itself, and you have Damp Rock Politoed, but it really wants the perma rain, and it no longer has this. In addition, QC actually rejected its DD Hydra Rest set in BW2, and nothing actually changed in XY to make it more viable, only less so.

If you can prove to me that Lapras is actually good, then I can reconsider, but atm I don't see it getting anything that would make it worth using, Freeze Dry is ok, but not good enough to push it up to "good enough" tier.

QC REJECTED 1/3

 

[alexwolf]

QC REJECTED 2/3

 

[Fuzznip]

QC Reject 3/3

 

[Dat_Sauce]

You should make a specially based set and mention how Freeze Dry and Thunderbolt have amazing coverage together.