Walrein Movesets & Competitive Sets

This set uses Walrein's support movepool to poison foes, rack up entry hazard damage, and stop setup sweepers with Roar while being immune to Taunt. Even then, this set is very passive and lacks recovery, as well as Scald, which is something that other Water-types like Jellicent and Omastar do have that helps them cripple physical attackers. In the end, Lanturn, Cryogonal, and Eelektross function as better walls and tanks despite Walrein's positives due to their better offensive presence or because they aren't weak to Stealth Rock.

Moves Roar allows Walrein to phaze setup sweepers and other foes and rack up entry hazard damage on them. Toxic gets off turn-by-turn damage on a foe and can wear down walls. Surf is Walrein's best option for a Water-type STAB attack, as it doesn't get Scald, and allows Walrein to get some chip damage against a foe and check Ninetales and Rapidash. Ice Beam can be used instead of Surf to hit Grass- and Dragon-types, including Roselia and Fraxure, with the former being immune to Toxic. Protect can give Walrein a free turn to recover HP with Leftovers, as well as stall a foe with a status affliction and scout attacks against Choice locked Pokemon like Rotom-F. Super Fang can break down a foe by halving its health and puts many Pokemon in range of being revenge killed by a teammate. Encore can be used to lock a foe into a status move, an entry hazard, a weak move such as Rapid Spin, or a setup move such as Shell Smash from Huntail and Gorebyss or Swords Dance from Pawniard. Set Details 248 HP EVs allow Walrein to switch into Stealth Rock four times and, paired with 252 Special Defense EVs and a Calm nature, make it as specially bulky as possible. Leftovers gives Walrein a bit of recovery per turn. Thick Fat effectively gives Walrein a resistance to Fire-type moves and makes it scoff at Ice-type moves. Usage Tips Attempt not to switch Walrein in while Stealth Rock is on the field. Keep Walrein away from damaging status ailments, as they can wear it down quicker. Walrein should use Toxic to shorten the longevity of setup sweepers and walls; Super Fang fulfills the same purpose. Switch Walrein into Water-, Ice-, and Fire-types, such as Simipour, Cryogonal, and Camerupt. Team Options Walrein fits onto defensive teams well, as it needs Pokemon to switch into super effective and status moves for it, as well as a reliable entry hazard remover to keep it healthy, such as Armaldo, Pelipper, Vibrava, or Vullaby. Entry hazard setters, such as Quilladin, Roselia, Stunfisk, Probopass, and Clefairy, can allow Walrein to gain more damage on a foe when it uses Roar. Grass-types, such as Roselia and Tangela, can take on Rock-types, as well as handle opposing Grass-types. Ground-types, such as Golem, Stunfisk, and Vibrava can take on Electric- and Rock-types for Walrein. Clerics, such as Audino and Misdreavus, can heal off status afflictions from Walrein. Wish support from Lickilicky and Audino gives Walrein some recovery, although it can be difficult to directly switch Walrein in to receive the Wish.

Thick Fat gives Walrein helpful resistances to Fire- and Ice-type moves, which combined with its great bulk allows it to easily take Water-, Ice-, and Fire-type attacks from the likes of Samurott, Simipour, and Charizard, respectively. Toxic is an essential move for Walrein, as it wears down the opponent over the course of the match. Ice Beam is its STAB move of choice and lets it hit Flying-, Grass-, and Ground-type opponents for super effective damage. Surf is Walrein's method of disposing of Charizard immediately, and is its only way of doing any real damage to Steel-types that shrug off an Ice Beam with ease and are immune to Toxic. Surf also helps with other Fire-types, such as Torkoal and Camerupt, and does more damage to the likes of Armaldo. Roar and Encore are both options for disrupting setup sweepers; while Roar is the safer move, allowing Walrein to phaze and rack up hazard damage, Encore can lock the opponent into disadvantageous moves, such as a stat-boosting move or Substitute, and thus lets a teammate set up on said threat. Walrein is hampered by its lack of access to reliable recovery and the lack of permanent hail in Neverused, which is a letdown considering its great bulk. Protect somewhat mitigates this by letting Walrein get extra Leftovers recovery and rack up Toxic damage. A specially defensive spread allows Walrein to take on Charizard and special Samurott. However, you can opt to use a physically defensive set, which boasts the ability to take on Swords Dance Samurott and most Ground-types with ease. Super Fang is a viable move which can halve the opponent's health and cripples the Pokemon that can normally handle this set, such as Regice and Metang. However, since Walrein can actually deal decent damage thanks to its base 95 Special Attack, it is usually not necessary. Entry hazard support is great to take advantage of Walrein's stalling ability and to use in conjunction with Roar. Great teammates for Walrein include those that can set up both Spikes and Toxic Spikes, such as Roselia and Garbodor. In addition, they resist the Grass- and Fighting-type attacks that Walrein dislikes and can set up entry hazards against them. Meanwhile, Walrein can deal with the Ground- and Rock-types that these entry hazard setters loathe by forcing them out due to the threat of Surf. Rapid Spin support is nice to have for Walrein, as Walrein's weakness to Stealth Rock hurts its ability to take on various Pokemon, such as Charizard. Pokemon such as Sawk, Torterra, and Serperior are great partners and can also easily prevent Stealth Rock. Torkoal is the best Rapid Spin user for Walrein's team to use, as not only can it set up Stealth Rock, but it also takes Grass-type attacks for Walrein. Additionally, Torkoal can act as a physically defensive tank while Walrein acts as a specially defensive tank, making the combination of these two Pokemon a solid core. Ground-types such as Golem pair well with Walrein, as they are immune to Electric and can take Rock-type attacks for Walrein, while Walrein can take Water- and Ice-type attacks for them. Exeggutor is also a great teammate for Walrein; it can take the Fighting- and Grass-type attacks aimed at Walrein, while Walrein can check pesky Fire- and Flying-types for Exeggutor.

This set is based around taking advantage of Walrein's Ice Body ability and using it to stall turns.This set needs to be partnered with Abomasnow to get a constant stream of hail going. With Ice Body activated and Leftovers equipped, Walrein can alternate between Substitute and Protect, without losing any health, forcing the opponent to suffer up to 32 turns of hail and other residual damage. Poisoning the opponent is key to this set's success. Once Walrein has afflicted an opponent with Toxic, the stalling can commence. Simply alternate between Protect and Substitute (there is no net change in your health), healing yourself and intensifying the poison damage each turn, draining your opponent of its HP. This is the direct approach. There is another way to do this, however, but it requires some additional support. Adding a Toxic Spikes user such as Forretress or Tentacruel into the mix can really add to this set's effectiveness. Bear in mind that if you are unable to get both layers of Toxic Spikes in play, you will be inflicting the weaker variety of poison, making stalling the opponent out a slightly slower process. With Toxic Spikes support, Walrein can afford to drop Toxic from its moveset. However, if you keep it, Walrein will be able to poison Flying-type Pokemon and Pokemon with Levitate. Other than Toxic, you have a couple of options to use in its place. Roar works if your team is in need of a phazer and also has applications more specific to this set. First of all, you can shuffle opponents around to let Toxic Spikes take effect. Secondly, you can prevent Swampert from Roaring your Substitute away by Roaring it out first. Having Roar also means that Gyarados cannot simply Dragon Dance in Walrein's face and forces it to take even more residual damage upon re-entry. Earthquake is a great choice to hit Poison-types like Tentacruel that like to ruin your set-up by coming in to absorb Toxic Spikes. It also helps to wear down Steel-types, which are immune to poison. Super Fang can also be used to slice the opponent's HP in half. This ultimately makes the stalling process much faster with Toxic Spikes down. Finally, you have your choice of STAB move so Walrein's respectable Special Attack doesn't go to waste. Surf helps to wear down Tyranitar, whose ability to change the weather is a real pain. Surf also hits Steel-types for neutral damage and has the potential to 2HKO Forretress, whose immunity to Toxic and access to Rapid Spin can ruin Walrein's strategy. It also has a lot more PP than Blizzard, meaning that Walrein won't be quite so vulnerable to Taunt. Blizzard is still a worthy option, however, as it provides Walrein with good attacking coverage and smacks around most Flying-, Grass-, and Poison-types many of whom are immune to Toxic Spikes or the poison status altogether. As previously mentioned, Abomasnow is absolutely required in order to take full advantage of Walrein's ability. Since Walrein is normally used with hail, Abomasnow could support the entire team as a whole. Toxic Spikes will allow Walrein to more effectively stall out the opponent, so partnering Walrein with a user of them is a good strategy. Tentacruel and Forretress can reliably place down Toxic Spikes while also providing Rapid Spin support. Rapid Spin removes Stealth Rock from the field, allowing Walrein to come in without taking a quarter of its HP in damage. 232 HP EVs ensure that Walrein's HP stat leaves the same remainder when divided by 16 and 4, which guarantees that all of the damage it takes from using Substitute is restored in two turns. Bearing this in mind, the EVs give Walrein the best possible overall defenses. Speed EVs can be used on Walrein in order to foil some common phazers such as Skarmory and Vaporeon. However, this might reduce Walrein's overall physical tanking abilities, albeit not by too much. More importantly, though, not investing in Speed ensures that Walrein is slower than standard Choice Band Scizor, which would otherwise break Walrein's Substitute while switching out to a faster Pokemon, thus breaking the stall. Tyranitar gives Walrein a world of trouble by removing hail and packing high-powered Rock-type attacks. Swampert can keep Tyranitar at bay, and can also set up Stealth Rock for added residual damage. Walrein's typing gives it an undesirable weakness to a number of commonly used attacks. Fighting-types who are immune to poison, such as RestTalk Machamp, can beat Walrein with their STAB attacks. Gyarados can also be a problem with Taunt, an immunity to Toxic Spikes, and the ability to then set up on Walrein. Having a Rotom-A on your team will compensate for these issues extremely well. Rotom-A can check and beat Gyarados, take the Fighting-type attacks aimed at Walrein, and also block Rapid Spin attempts from Pokemon like Forretress.

Set Description With this set, Walrein can turn into a potent wincon that can defeat some of its usual checks. Although it heavily competes with Lapras due to the latter's greater special bulk and access to Shell Armor, Curse Walrein retains some merits to warrant consideration, most notably Earthquake, which makes Walrein much more immediately threatening to Electric-types that would be used to force Walrein out. Ice Beam may seem like an odd choice for a physically oriented sweeper, but it complements Earthquake nicely by hitting Flying-types such as Scyther, Gligar, Altaria, and Xatu without any prior boosts. It also dents Vileplume, which otherwise can be extremely problematic to this variant of Walrein due to Leech Seed and Hidden Power Grass. Rest is mandatory to keep Walrein healthy and cure it from status afflictions. The EV spread and Sassy nature aim to make Walrein as specially bulky as possible to make it harder to break through both specially and physically after Curse boosts. Walrein usually wants at least 236 EVs in Special Defense to ensure that Modest Lapras's Thunderbolt will never 3HKO without factoring critical hits. Team Options One of the most direct ways to prevent Curse Walrein from sweeping is to force it to use Rest before attacking it with Electric-type attacks from the likes of Ampharos and Lanturn. Thus, specially bulky Pokemon such as Kangaskhan, Vileplume, and Cradily that are suited to handle Electric-types make for solid teammates. Strong wallbreakers such as Choice Band Solrock and Hitmonlee are also able to threaten Walrein with a 2HKO even after a Curse boost, which makes physically defensive backups such as Nidoqueen, Gligar, and Vileplume good backbones. Other setup sweepers such as Lunatone and Swords Dance Feraligatr may be tempted to set up alongside Walrein and break through it. Therefore, it is a good idea to pack checks to these problematic Pokemon such as Roar Blastoise. There may be scenarios where Walrein is forced out after using Rest, so clerics such as Ampharos, Vileplume, and Altaria make for useful backups to spare Walrein from having to burn sleep turns by itself. Finally, Rapid Spin users such as Tentacruel, Blastoise, and Hitmontop can clear the field of Spikes, easing Walrein's attempts to set up in front of Pokemon such as Tentacruel, Scyther, and Gligar.

Set Description Thanks to its bulk, coverage, and STAB combination, Walrein is a very resilient Pokemon in a lot of one-on-one matchups. Ice Beam threatens Flying-, Grass-, and Ground-types such as Scyther, Gligar, Cradily, Vileplume, and Nidoqueen. Earthquake effectively threatens Lanturn as well as Poison-types such as Tentacruel and Qwilfish, all of which could take advantage of Walrein otherwise. Surf threatens Arcanine with a potential OHKO, making Walrein a more reliable answer to that threat. Surf also covers Rock-types such as Solrock, Lunatone, and Aggron while hitting Glalie fairly hard, preventing it from getting Spikes too easily on Walrein. Surf also can be used to save Ice Beam PP in long battles. Hidden Power Grass is another method to damage Water-types, most notably threatening Omastar with a potential OHKO to prevent it from getting Spikes on the field. Hidden Power Electric is also an option if Walrein doesn't pack Earthquake, as unlike Hidden Power Grass, it retains a super effective hit on Tentacruel and Qwilfish. Toxic pressures Pokemon that Walrein cannot effectively break through such as Kangaskhan, Hypno, and other Water-types such as Lapras, Blastoise, Feraligatr, and opposing Walrein. Alternatively, Encore can allow Walrein to check some setup sweepers such as Curse Lapras and Calm Mind Slowking. It can also be used to lock some of Walrein's usual answers such as Kangaskhan and Lapras into undesirable moves, thus creating opportunities for Walrein's teammates. The given EV spread ensures that Walrein can avoid 2HKOs from Hidden Power Grass from Arcanine as well as Double-Edge from Choice Band Scyther after one layer of Spikes. The rest is spent into Special Attack to allow Walrein to hit as hard as possible, enough to ensure OHKOs on Scyther and Solrock with Ice Beam and Surf, respectively. More EVs in Special Attack can be considered to hit other notable benchmarks; 212 Special Attack EVs guarantees that Surf will OHKO Arcanine without any defensive investment, and it is more than enough to OHKO standard defensive Omastar with Hidden Power Grass. 44 EVs can be spent in Speed to outrun uninvested Solrock. Team Options While Walrein does a decent job at handling Scyther, it struggles to switch in repeatedly on Choice Band variants and therefore appreciates backups to play around its usual attacks. In this regard, Omastar and Arcanine are good teammates; the former brings Spikes, while the latter offers a priority move to deal with Reversal variants of Scyther. Walrein is commonly forced out by Electric-types such as Ampharos and Lanturn. Therefore, specially bulky or Electric-resistant Pokemon suited to deal with these threats such as Kangaskhan, Vileplume, and Cradily are welcome additions to teams featuring Walrein. Walrein is also quite susceptible to residual damage in the forms of Spikes and Toxic. As a result, Rapid Spin users like Tentacruel and Hitmontop as well as clerics such as Ampharos, Vileplume, and Altaria are partners of choice. Finally, Walrein struggles against Pokemon that can take its hits comfortably while circumventing Toxic, which notably includes Rest users such as Kangaskhan and Slowking as well as Lapras. Thus, it is a good idea to pack offensive threats that can take advantage of most of these Pokemon once they are asleep or using Heal Bell. Focus Punch Kangaskhan, Swords Dance Scyther, Electabuzz, and Focus Punch Ampharos are good candidates to accomplish this task.