Horsea Movesets & Competitive Sets

Moves Horsea's STAB Hydro Pump deals enormous amounts of damage under rain, OHKOing bulky Mienfoo and Vullaby after Stealth Rock. Ice Beam provides great coverage alongside Hydro Pump, hitting Grass-types such as Pumpkaboo, Foongus, and Cottonee. Substitute prevents Horsea from being crippled by status and prevents Sucker Punch users such as Pawniard and Stunky from cutting Horsea's sweep short. Rain Dance can be used if Substitute isn't needed in order for Horsea to sweep. Hidden Power Ground hits Magnemite, Croagunk, and Chinchou, which are much more common than the Swift Swim users that Hidden Power Grass hits. Set Details 200 Special Attack and 196 Speed EVs with a Modest nature allow Horsea to hit as hard and fast as possible, while the remaining EVs are invested in Defense, allowing Horsea to withstand some attacks. Life Orb boosts Horsea's damage output and will inflict minimal recoil with Horsea's 19 HP. Swift Swim doubles Horsea's Speed in the rain, allowing it to outspeed the entire unboosted metagame. Usage Tips Make sure to get rid of Pokemon that could halt Horsea's sweep before starting rain. Bulkier Pokemon will need to have their items removed via Knock Off, and specially bulky foes will need to be significantly worn down. Horsea also needs as many turns in the rain as possible in order to secure some valuable KOs, including bulky Mienfoo, Timburr, and Vullaby after Stealth Rock damage. Team Options Surskit, Riolu, Purrloin, Mienfoo, Chinchou, and Foongus are all capable Rain Dance setters. Mienfoo in particular is a great partner, as it can set up rain and use Knock Off, ridding bulkier foes of their items; it can also bring Horsea in safely with a slow U-turn. Chinchou and Staryu are also both valid users of Rain Dance, as they each enjoy rain-boosted Hydro Pump and accurate Thunder; Chinchou is able to come in on the Electric-type Pokemon that threaten Horsea, and bring Horsea in safely with a slow Volt Switch, while Staryu can provide Rapid Spin support. A Damp Rock can be used on rain setters with Prankster in order to increase the duration of the rain, but bulkier teammates such as Mienfoo and Foongus will appreciate having Eviolite more than Damp Rock. Ferroseed and Foongus are great counters to Chinchou, being able to switch into any of its moves and KO or cripple it if it doesn't switch out. They can also make for good switch-ins to Cottonee, which also threatens Horsea. Entry hazard users are useful, as the damage of Stealth Rock and Spikes helps soften Pokemon and breaks the Sturdy of foes such as Magnemite and Tirtouga. Other teammates that can utilize rain can help Horsea lay waste to teams with their powerful attacks. Anorith, Omanyte, and Mantyke are just some examples of offensive teammates that can be used in the rain.

In the rain, Horsea reaches up to 32 Speed with a Timid nature, and 30 Speed with Modest. With maximum EV investment and a positive nature, Horsea can reach up to 17 Special Attack, while with a Timid nature, it reaches only 16 Special Attack. Modest is the preferred nature because Horsea needs the extra power to deal with walls such as Ferroseed carrying Eviolite. The first moveslot is the most important. In this slot, Horsea should use Rain Dance; with Rain Dance, Horsea's Speed is doubled and Hydro Pump is boosted. The second moveslot should carry Hydro Pump, Horsea's strongest attack. With a 120 Base Power STAB move boosted by Rain, Horsea can be very threatening to anything that doesn't resist Water-type attacks. Ice Beam is in the third moveslot to hit Pokemon that Hydro Pump can't hit neutrally, such as Dragon- and Grass-types. Finally, Hidden Power Grass is recommended to cover Water-type Pokemon that resist both Hydro Pump and Ice Beam. It can also hit Chinchou for super effective damage, which is a big plus as Chinchou is dangerous in the rain. The given EV spread maxes out Horsea's Special Attack and Speed while giving one more point to its Defense and Special Defense stats. Life Orb is the best option for an item on the set. It gives Horsea the extra attacking power needed to KO and 2HKO certain threats. A Timid nature may be considered over a Modest nature if you want Horsea to outspeed Scarf users with 20 Speed. However, a Pokemon with a Speed stat of 20 is very rare. Using Surf over Hydro Pump is a viable option if you prefer to have more reliability in exchange for lower damage. Hidden Power Electric can be used over Hidden Power Grass to hit Mantyke for 4x super effective damage. Other than that, Hidden Power Electric has no benefits over Hidden Power Grass with the moveset Horsea is using. Eviolite may also be considered over Life Orb to give Horsea more bulk. It is not a very good option though, because Horsea in the rain outspeeds the whole metagame, so it won't be taking many hits anyway.

This set is similar to the Rain Dance sweeper, except this set uses Agility to alleviate the problems of the duration of rain. You still have the choice between Surf and Hydro Pump but you do not get the boost from rain. Using Hydro Pump over Surf is yet again up to preference. Hydro Pump will obviously hit harder than Surf can, but it has the chance to miss, possibly getting Horsea killed. Oran Berry is the preferred item on this set, because it allows Horsea to gain some health in the process of setting up Agility. You need to recover the much needed HP to help prevent your sweep being ended by priority attacks. The ability does not matter on this set, but having Swift Swim can be a nice way to counter opposing Rain Dance teams and Sniper is not really helpful at all. This set seems to be outclassed by Mantyke, but there are traits that make Horsea the better Agility user than Mantyke in certain cases. Horsea's Special Attack and Speed are both higher by one point and it is capable of reaching 32 Speed while Mantyke cannot. Horsea also resists Ice Shard and it is not weak to Stealth Rock. Priority attacks hurt Horsea's sweep badly. Having a Pokemon able to take the priority attacks is a must. Bronzor is a nice way of dealing with priority attacks. Paras can come in on Agility or Surf and put Horsea to sleep with Spore or attack with Seed Bomb, although it takes considerable damage from Ice Beam. Using Hoothoot is a great way to counter Paras, since it resists both of Paras's attacks and is immune to Spore because of its ability, Insomnia. Munchlax can take a couple of Surfs and hurt Horsea severely with Return. Bronzor is a good switch into Munchlax. Wynaut can trap Croagunk, kill it, and Encore other moves to let Horsea get an Agility off.

Horsea is a excellent special sweeper under the rain. With its great base 70 Special Attack, Horsea is strong enough to 2HKO Munchlax (one of the bulkiest special walls in LC) with a Life Orb boosted Hydro Pump in the rain. Timid is the preferred nature on this set, since it reaches 32 Speed with Swift Swim, allowing it to outspeed all Choice Scarfers in LC. Life Orb is the best item on this set in order to help Horsea score OHKOs and 2HKOs on some Pokemon; however, Oran Berry can help recover HP from priority attacks that Horsea is vulnerable to. Having both 36 Defense and Special Defense EVs may seem strange, but Horsea's HP reaches 19, a Life Orb number, without any investment. Hydro Pump is the main attack on this set. It can tear through any Pokemon who does not resist it. Surf is an option if you find Hydro Pump's accuracy lacking, but you miss out on some important OHKOs and 2HKOs, like the aforementioned 2HKO on Munchlax. Ice Beam is useful to hit Grass-types that resist Horsea's STAB attacks like Shroomish and Paras. Hidden Power Grass allows you to hit Chinchou and Wooper super effectively, while Hidden Power Electric OHKOes Mantyke. Hidden Power Ground is an option to hit Croagunk in addition to Chinchou. To prove how powerful Hydro Pump is on Horsea, below are several damage calculations. All calculations factor in the boost from rain (except for the Snover calculation) and Life Orb. Hydro Pump vs Max HP / Max SpD Munchlax: 66.67%-81.82% (2HKO with Oran) Hydro Pump vs Max HP / Max SpD Chinchou: 44.44%-51.85% (3HKO with Oran) Hydro Pump vs 76 HP / 0 SpD Mantyke: 52.38%-61.90% Hydro Pump vs 116 HP / 0 SpD Snover: 45.83%-54.17% Hydro Pump vs 220 HP / 68 SpD Sassy Bronzor: 75% - 91.7% Priority attackers are the bane of Horsea's sweep. Meowth, Croagunk, and Taillow are all capable of heavily damaging Horsea with their STAB priority moves. Bronzor handles these threats quite well, as it can switch in easily and set up Stealth Rock, or punish them with Earthquake or Psychic. It can also set up Rain Dance should it run out, allowing Horsea to resume its sweep. Snover shuts this set down easily by summoning hail, which removes Horsea's Swift Swim boost allows Snover to take it out with its STAB Grass-type attacks. Bronzor can stop all Snover sets barring the SubSeed set; there is nothing that can deal with the SubSeed set 100% of the time. It is best to attempt to switch in a powerful sweeper such as Houndour when Snover uses Protect and then continuously hit Snover hard with STAB moves. Chinchou or Mantyke will wall Horsea depending on the Hidden Power Horsea is using. Croagunk can check both of them by switching in on a Water-type move and then KO them with a combination of Fake Out and Sucker Punch. Wynaut is also a great choice for a partner to Horsea; it can trap Croagunk and kill it. It can also trap other Pokemon using support moves or attacks that Horsea resists, Encore them, and then let Horsea set up rain and sweep.