Summary

Milotic is the premier bulky Water type Pokemon in ADV Draft, and is often drafted early within the second round. Bulky Waters, as they're called, are essential for almost every draft and fill invaluable roles. No pokemon shows this concept better than Milotic. Its movepool isn't very vast, but what Milotic lacks in flexibility more than makes up for in pure specialization. No other Pokemon combines longevity and defensive utility quite like Milotic does.

Milotic's set variety is quite limited compared to other top-tier selections. While a pokemon like Tyranitar can reasonably run more than 20 moves or a pokemon like Starmie can use the same stat spread to fill two entirely different roles, Milotic's move variation is small. The most common set is the OU set -- yes, the OU set -- with Surf, Toxic, Refresh, and Recover. These are superb moves to run on Milotic and remove much of the counterplay that otherwise exists for bulky waters. A Charizard or Salamence, for example, might be quite effective at breaking down bulky waters without reliable recovery like Blastoise or Swampert, but no amount of critical hits can ever allow them to win an interaction versus Milotic. Recover means you can play with an effective 1700% HP and Refresh moves the best counterplay to Recover, that being status, while Toxic and Surf ensure you aren't a sitting duck. Outside of the core OU set, there are niche options that Milotic is able to run such as: Ice Beam for dragons, Hydro Pump if Surf doesn't do enouh damage, Dragon Breath and Body Slam to spread paralysis, Mirror Coat to duel Electric types that otherwise deal enough damage to neutralize Milotic, Protect to scout for Choice Band or Explosion, Hypnosis to threaten sleep, Light Screen for a boost of Special Defense in a pinch, and Hidden Power to win 1v1 scenarios against Pokemon like Vaporeon. However, even with these moves, the vast majority of them will be worse than the standard four moves of Surf, Toxic, Refresh, and Recover, and should only be slotted if you're expecting that one of them is poor in the matchup while another one of these moves are high quality. Toxic is your most droppable move, followed by Refresh if you're particularly strapped for moveslots (though this should be very rare). Milotic's EV spreads are very similar to move choice -- it is very difficult to find situations where running anything besides maximum defensive bulk with a Bold Nature is compelling. Milotic either simply doesn't have enough Special Attack to hit offensive breakpoints or already has enough to do tasks like OHKOing Salamence. Not only that, even if Milotic isn't hitting these critical breakpoints, it is more than bulky enough to stomach one or two hits, use Toxic or Surf, then Recover the damage off later. There are rare Offensive Milotic sets that have been used by high level players, with more Special Attack and Speed investment over the common HP and Def spreads, but these are extremely difficult to justify over either benching Milotic entirely or running the bulky set anyway with just one or two moves swapped out.

So, why is Milotic a top pokemon in ADV Draft with such a lack of what makes other high level pokemon powerful? The answer is simple: Milotic is so incredibly good at what it does that it succeeds through sheer force of will. Every single draft must be prepared to break bulky waters, and bulky waters are crucial to take on just about every single physical threat. Metagross is forced to either use Explosion or fish for Meteor Mash attack raises versus Milotic, fighters can't bust through the raw defense Milotic has, Salamence has to run specially leaning sets to meaningfully chip it. Even special threats can struggle to defeat Milotic, with just HP investment more than capable of living Modest Zapdos Thunderbolts. Even pokemon like Tyranitar and Dragonite need to rely on inaccurate moves such as Thunder or Rock Slide to deal enough damage to reasonably threaten Milotic, opening up many avenues where a single miss forces a switch or connecting two Thunder hits isn't even enough to kill Milotic. Milotic also has a fantastic matchup into every other water type, including itself. As the only Water type with access to both status recovery via Refresh and health recovery via Recover, it is the only Water type which can switch in and stay in on others. Swampert and Vaporeon cannot break Milotic with their normal sets (Swampert has to rely on using Curse to trade and Vaporeon needs to hope Milotic doesn't run Hidden Power), while offensive water types like Kingdra cannot even guarantee a 3HKO onto Milotic with rain-boosted Hydro Pumps.

Milotic is great on just about every draft, but fits particularly well alongside teammates that need a strong glue to keep everything together. Top picks such as Celebi and Metagross greatly appreciate the defensive utility Milotic provides, and mid-round pokemon that open defensive holes such as the Regi trio and Dragons such as Salamence and Flygon appreciate the presence of a bulky water. Milotic also fills the defensive roles necessary to support a rock resist to take on Dragon Dance Tyranitar or Choice Band Aerodactyl, is more than capable of trading with fighters and prevents their entry, and stops offensive Water-type Pokemon in their tracks. Many more gimmicky strategies such as Belly Drum or Swords Dance Marowak can't even OHKO Milotic, so it is a fantastic catch all for physical threats. Other pokemon can replace Milotic (or have other unique tools such as Vaporeon's Substitute + Baton Pass or Blastoise's Rapid Spin), but nothing fills the bulky water role as well as Milotic. This is Milotic's main flaw: it is a generalist bulky Water that can't provide some of the valuable niche features that others can.

Summary written by Wraxius

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