Summary

Vaporeon is one of the best support options available in ADV Draft. As a pure Water-type with fantastic bulk and access to Wish, it gets a plethora of switch-in opportunities and excels at keeping its team healthy. Its Water immunity via Water Absorb further enhances its defensive capabilities, forcing opposing Water-types to run coverage such as Hidden Power Electric and enabling it to halt sweeps from rain threats such as Kingdra and Kabutops.

Despite its billing as a strong defensive Pokemon, Vaporeon is by no means passive. With 110 Special Attack, strong Water STAB, and coverage moves such as Ice Beam and Hidden Power it can put a big dent in teams without a sturdy special wall on offensive sets. Meanwhile, defensive Wish sets packing Roar can prevent setup attempts and rack up chip damage from a teammate's Spikes. Other niche options it can run include Curse/Acid Armor alongside Baton Pass, Quick Attack to halt Reversal/Flail sweepers, Substitute + Baton Pass, and Toxic.

A good Vaporeon draft that fully utilizes its strengths should include three main components: Heal Bell/Aromatherapy, Rapid Spin, and stat-passing via Baton Pass. Vaporeon is very vulnerable to being worn down by Toxic, which heavily limits its support capabilities in the long run. Having a reliable cleric such as Blissey, Miltank, or Vileplume gives Vaporeon much more freedom to switch into dangerous threats such as Metagross, Charizard, and Aerodactyl without worrying about getting poisoned on the switch. In this vein, Vaporeon also benefits from a bulky teammate immune to Toxic. Snorlax, Registeel, Skarmory, and Weezing all heavily dissuade their respective targets from running the move, making it safer for Vaporeon to operate. These partners also become easier to heal with Wish by virtue of them being unfazed by Toxic.

Since Vaporeon will be switching in and out frequently, it does not enjoy taking chip damage from Spikes. Having a Rapid Spin user such as Claydol provides crucial support, especially for bulky Wish sets. Beyond Wish, the main trait that separates Vaporeon from other Water-types is access to Baton Pass. This move gives Vaporeon incredible flexibility in enabling its teammates and keeping momentum in ways no other Water-type can. Leveraging its impressive bulk and Water typing allows it to force out common threats such as Tyranitar, Charizard, and Regirock, and safely pivot to a hard-hitting teammate with Baton Pass. Additionally, it can slow-pass Wish to heal teammates without them taking a hit on the switch and serves a vital role on stat pass teams. Teammates that can Baton Pass stat boosts, such as Agility + Baton Pass Zapdos/Jolteon and Calm Mind + Baton Pass Celebi/Hypno, greatly appreciate Vaporeon for its ability to utilize these boosts to wreak havoc on the opposing team and pass them back to its teammates. It can also use Roar to prevent the opponent from phazing out your boosts, making it especially useful for defending an Agility pass before passing the boost to a sweeper such as Marowak.

Vaporeon is a fantastic support piece in ADV Draft. Its Wish support capabilities are arguably the best in the entire format, it's second to none in enabling strategies centered around Baton Pass, and it can hit hard with strong Water STAB and coverage. Those who successfully draft around its strengths can expect to either wall opponents indefinitely with an almost immortal Wish passer or wash them away with clever use of stat passing.

Summary written by Aeonfa

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