What is a good moveset for Manaphy?

Question

If you have a good competitive moveset for Manaphy, post an answer below and upvote the best ones. Movesets for any of its pre-evolutions can also be shared on this thread.

Be sure to include full set details in your post, e.g. items, abilities, natures and EVs. Some explanation, including the intended game mode for your set, is also appreciated. Access the full list of guidelines here.

Manaphy Pokédex and learnset for reference.

Answer 1

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
Nature: Timid (+Speed, -Attack)
EVs: 252 Special Attack / 252 Speed / 4 Defense
- Tail Glow
- Scald
- Ice Beam
- Energy Ball

Non-Rest set that is optimal in formats where rain is banned/not viable. Tail Glow makes Manaphy a powerful wallbreaker in the span of a single turn, putting a lot of pressure on defensive teams.

Scald is STAB that can pressure the switch with a burn. Ice Beam and Energy Ball help with targets that resist your Water STAB.

Timid is preferable because Tail Glow offers sufficient power, and base 100 is a very crowded speed tier that you'll want to stay ahead of.

Comments

Best moveset here, +1 upvote.

(well, in my opinion..)

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you should replace scald with surf

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In my opinion you should replace scald with dive to heal a little bit

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i think scald is preferred for its chance to burn the opponent

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It is only a 10% chance for scald to burn and if tail glow is set up, scald is gonna OHKO before the burn happens so surf is better

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Scald has a 30% chance to burn. It also can help against tankier mons or it can catch revenge killers with a burn on the switch

Answer 2

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Tail Glow
- Rest
- Ice Beam / Grass Knot
- Surf / Scald

Standard set in any format where you can have rain. Hydration undoes the sleep from Rest at the end of every turn, which makes Manaphy very survivable when combined with 100 / 100 / 100 bulk, Leftovers, and a good defensive typing.

Aside from that, Tail Glow is one of the game's best boosting moves which, when combined with rain, makes Surf or Scald (take your pick) a nuke even without Life Orb or a boosting nature or an especially high base power. Which coverage move depends on what you prefer to hit; Grass Knot helps with opposing Water-types while Ice Beam helps with Dragon- and Grass-types that resist your STAB.

This can also be run with Calm Mind and/or bulk depending on how bad you need a response to stall. You can also run Life Orb if you think it's funny seeing "resisted, -100%" when you use Surf.

Comments

Well, instead of ice beam you can also add Energy ball/Grass knot for countering Water types, especially other Manaphies.

Answer 3

Manaphy @ Choice Band
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Waterfall
- Knock Off
- U-turn
- Bounce

I really like using physical manaphy, because nobody sees it coming.

Answer 4

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Trait: Hydration
EVs: 8 HP / 124 Def / 252 SAtk / 124 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Tail Glow
- Ice Beam
- Rest
- Energy Ball / Surf

Surf can be a replacement, Energy Ball can help cover your Rain users.

Rain use.

Comments

no STAB??

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Doesn't need it really. Ice Beam gets the job done.

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No offense, but that just makes you sound stupid. Surf and Ice Beam already have good coverage. Surf is way better than Energy Ball.

Answer 5

Gen 7 DOU

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tail Glow
- Heart Swap
- Dazzling Gleam
- Scald

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze ---> Drought
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Heat Wave
- Air Slash
- Tailwind
- Protect

On turn one, Charizard Mega Evolves and sets up Tailwind while Manaphy uses Tail Glow. Then Charizard Protects and Manaphy uses Tail Glow again. On turn three, Manaphy uses Heart Swap on Charizard, who then proceeds to rip through everything with +6 Sun-boosted Heat Waves. Manaphy can then keep using Tail Glow to up it's own Special Attack and use Dazzling Gleam, or if it hasn't done any more Tail Glows it can steal an opposing Pokemon's boosts with Heart Swap.

Comments

I'm not sure if this strategy will work, Timid Manaphy Speed ties with Charizard Y, Tail Glow will take 2 turns to use, Heart Swap will take a 3rd turn, and since sun is active for 5 turns, you might only spam ridiculous Heat Waves for 2 turns, because the Charizard might go first, before Manaphy heart swaps. Also, Hidden Power grass is too weak and lacks important coverage. I would go for Surf instead of Scald because it has the added factor of spread damage and is 10 Base Power stronger than Scald

Answer 6

Manaphy

Manaphy @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Tail Glow
- Surf
- Protect
- Ice Beam

Awesome For Sweep! Love this Moveset

Answer 7

Set 1: Manaphy @ Damp Rock

Trait: Hydration
Timid Nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP

Moves:

-Rain Dance
-Rest
-Scald
-Ice Beam

Start by using Rain Dance. With the Damp Rock, Rain Dance will extend from 5 turns to 8 turns. Once your Manaphy has been afflicted with a status condition (i.e. burn, paralyze, poison) or has taken a lot of damage from attacks, use Rest. Hydration will cause Manaphy to automatically wake up due to Hydration while also fully healing itself. Then, Scald is for STAB, a chance to burn the opponent, and an increase of power due to Rain Dance, so Scald now has a BP of 180. Finally, Ice Beam is for coverage against Grass-Types.

Set 2: Manaphy @ Life Orb

Trait: Hydration
Timid Nature
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP

Moves:

-Tail Glow
-Ice Beam
-Scald
-Heal Bell/Dazzling Gleam

Tail Glow raises SpAtk by 3 stages (x2.5). Scald is for STAB while also being powered by Life Orb and Tail Glow. Thus, making Scald have a BP of 300. Ice Beam is for coverage and Heal Bell is also to heal your team's status conditions. You can also use Dazzling Gleam to have moves super-effective against more types while also hitting both opponents in a Double Battle.

Answer 8

Manaphy @ Leftovers
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 248 HP / 80 Def / 180 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Muddy Water
- Tail Glow
- Energy Ball
- Soak

I find the setup extremely annoying.

EV's and nature for max tankiness
(403HP 281Def/SpD).

Allowing you to set up Tail Glow without too much effort.
once (236x2.5=590 SpA)
twice (236x4=944 SpA)

Then you can spam
Muddy Water (Stab)

Soak enemies and then hit them with a super effective Energy Ball.

You can also replace Soak with Ice Beam depending on your playstyle.

Offense
+3 0 SpA Manaphy Muddy Water vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Arceus-Electric: 207-244 (54.3 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Defense
252+ SpA Zap Plate Arceus-Electric Judgment vs. 248 HP / 180 SpD Manaphy: 342-404 (84.8 - 100.2%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO

Answer 9

One of the most underrated Pokémon out there.

NATIONAL DEX

Manaphy @ Salac Berry / Lum Berry
Ability: Hydration
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA or Spe / 4 Def or Spe
Timid Nature
- Tail Glow
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Rest / Tera Blast [Ground]

Tail Glow is a awesome stat boosting move, giving it big sweeping capabilities (expecially with Salac Berry). Surf is a great STAB move. Ice Beam gives coverage for Grass and Dragon types. Rest is to heal, but Tera Blast combined with Ground Tera can give you coverage for things like Toxapex and G-Slowking. Tera Ground also has the benefit of making Manaphy immune to Electric moves. Lum Berry can be used to instantly wake up after a Rest or prevent a parahax.

Have fun using it!

Answer 10

Gen 9 Setup Stealer Manaphy

Manaphy @ Focus Sash
Ability: Hydration
Tera Type: Ground/Ice
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty/Naive Nature
- Heart Swap
- Surf
- Tera Blast
- Stored Power

Using the focus sash and heart swap, you can guarantee that you live atleast one turn to steal a setup sweepers boosts with heart swap

Surf is for good ol' reliable STAB

Tera Blast is there because it uses both stats depending on which one is higher, so that manaphy can steal a physical attackers boost aswell. Any Tera Type can work, but I simply just chose ground and ice as those can hit common types and the types manaphy is weak to for super effective damage

And stored power is there to have an attack that is stronger with the bigger the boost you stole

I doubt this set would actually be effective as it also relies on manaphy stealing speed boosts for it to outspeed anything due to the insane speed tiers in the recent generations, but it is a fun thing thing I thought of and it could be worth trying out because not only can it save a team from a sweep, it can also bite back on the opponent