Seel Movesets & Competitive Sets

Moves Fake Out provides chip damage, while Aqua Jet is a second priority move that has good revenge killing potential alongside Fake Out. Waterfall is Seel's strongest physical STAB move and should be used to hit bulkier foes. Drill Run 2HKOes Croagunk and Chinchou, which are two common switch-ins to Seel. Keep in mind that Chinchou can still outspeed and Volt Switch out to a more favorable matchup. Icicle Spear allows Seel to potentially OHKO Grass-types such as Foongus and Cottonee. Set Details Life Orb is required to maximize Seel's offensive potential. Thick Fat is a rather lackluster ability considering Seel already resists Fire and Ice, but it's more useful than Seel's other abilities. The given EV spread and an Adamant nature maximize Seel's Attack while also giving it some bulk. Seel doesn't need any Speed investment, although you can run 236 Speed EVs if you want to tie with other 14 Speed Pokemon. HP investment would cause Seel to take 3 damage from Stealth Rock instead of 2, so it should be left alone. Usage Tips While Seel's Fake Out is weak compared to other users such as Aipom and Meowth, the Fake Out + Aqua Jet combo serves as a nice tool for revenge killing weakened threats. Seel can even take out certain threats such as Abra and Berry Juice Archen that are at full health while only taking Life Orb recoil in the process. With the defensive investments, Seel is able to tank some powerful attacks with HP to spare for Life Orb recoil, such as Pawniard's Knock Off and Fletchling's Acrobatics, allowing it to hit them with powerful attacks. Team Options Fire-types such as Ponyta and Houndour can blast through the bulky Grass-types that trouble Seel. Ponyta in particular can also run Solar Beam to handle bulky Water-types, another problem for Seel. Bulky Grass-types such as Ferroseed and Foongus have excellent type synergy with Seel, easily tanking the Electric- and Grass-type moves that threaten Seel, while also taking on opposing Water-types.

Moves Whirlpool allows Seel to trap the opposing Pokemon. Perish Song then puts a three turn counter on both Seel and the foe. The other two moves, Rain Dance and Rest, allow Seel to set up rain and return to full health and instantly wake up due to Hydration. Rain Dance can also be used for team support, ensuring Seel isn't dead weight versus hyper offense and VoltTurn teams. Set Details A Bold nature and the given EV spread maximize Seel's overall bulk, allowing it to easily trap weaker defensive threats. Hydration lets Seel heal itself with Rest and wake up instantly in the rain. Eviolite maximizes Seel's bulk, but Berry Juice can give Seel more turns to set up and successfully pull off a Perish Trap. Usage Tips Seel should execute its moves in a specific order: Whirlpool, followed by Perish Song, Rain Dance, Rest, then switch. This allows it to trap certain defensive threats such as Spritzee, Koffing, and Lickitung and escape unscathed. It's important to note that if Seel switches out before two turns have ended, Whirlpool's trapping effect ends and the foe can switch out. Seel struggles to trap most offensive Pokemon, so it should stick to trapping defensive threats. If you find yourself up against a team where Seel is unable to trap any opposing Pokemon without being 2HKOed, use it as a Rain Dance setter instead and have some teammates ready to take advantage of the rain. Team Options Seel is able to both remove walls and provide Rain Dance support, so sweepers that have Swift Swim or are strong Water-types, such as Omanyte, Carvanha, and Anorith, make for good offensive teammates. Fighting-type sweepers such as Scraggy and Timburr are also good teammates, as they appreciate that Seel can remove Spritzee. Finally, Pokemon such as Lickitung and Spritzee can provide cleric support for Seel in the case that it is heavily damaged or asleep from using Rest outside of rain.

This set attempts to make the most of the offensive movepool Seel has. The priority attacks compensate for lack of Speed, but unfortunately have quite low power. Fake Out induces flinching, something very important when up against other faster Pokemon. Aqua Jet gets STAB, and is Seel's best option when it comes to revenge killing. Ice Shard hits Dragon-types for super effective damage. Waterfall gives Seel a more powerful STAB attack, while Return gets good coverage alongside Aqua Jet, meaning that Seel will hit everything neutrally with its four attacks, bar Frillish. Life Orb is the best item, remedying the low attack power of Seel's priority attacks. Ice Body is the preferred ability as Seel has good synergy with Snover by covering its glaring Fire-type weakness. Thick Fat provides extra resistance to Fire- and Ice-type attacks which can come in handy when dealing with threats like Larvesta. Hydration isn't very effective because of the prevalence of sandstorm and hail, hindering its usefulness. In addition, this set doesn't mind most status conditions, except for burn. The EVs on this set maximize Attack and Speed while the rest is put into Special Defense in order to make the most out of Seel's base stats. Good partners for this set need to be able to beat Ferroseed and Bronzor, two Pokemon that are real trouble for Seel. Magnemite can trap and KO both without much trouble, but must be wary of Earthquake from the latter. In addition, Magnemite is also good at stopping Frillish, a Pokemon that will wall this set without any trouble at all. Wynaut is another good teammate because it doesn't fear any attack from any of the aforementioned threats, and it can Encore a support move. This set also needs a teammate that can easily take out Chinchou; Munchlax and Lileep are great partners for that reason.

Having a variety of different priority moves is an amazing niche for Seel. With Fake Out, Aqua Jet, and Ice Shard, Seel is able to get two hits for the price of one without the opposing Pokemon being able to touch it. Ice Shard differentiates Seel from other Aqua Jet users, allowing it to deal with threats such as Croagunk and Paras, which would normally wall Pokemon that rely solely on Aqua Jet for priority. The Speed EVs may seem wasteful, but with the given EVs, Seel is able to Speed tie with other priority move-using Pokemon in the 14 speed tier. An alternative EV spread of 236 Atk / 236 Def / 36 SpD, which is based more around bulk, is available and should be used if your team already has a way to deal with priority Croagunk. When using this set, keep in mind that Seel is in no way a priority sweeper, as it lacks the raw power that other priority sweepers have; it is instead only a revenge killer. As a revenge killer, Seel needs to be able to come in more than once; residual damage from entry hazards such as Stealth Rock and Spikes will gradually add up to cause Seel's death. Therefore, Pineco makes a good partner due to its resistance to Grass-type attacks and access to Rapid Spin. Baltoy may be weak to Grass-type attacks, but it has an immunity to Electric-type attacks and, like Pineco, the ability to Rapid Spin. Lastly, Croagunk makes a good partner in crime. It resists Seel's weakness Grass-type attacks and can help Seel finish off weakened opponents, as it has reliable priority moves as well. Croagunk is also immune to Water-type attacks, and Seel has difficulty hurting Water-types.