Pokemon of the Week DP: Manectric / LegendaryPKMN

Manectric

Sets

Pure Sweeper

Item Held: Petaya Berry / Life Orb
Ability: Static
Nature: Timid (+Speed, -Attack)
Effort Points: 252 Special Attack – 252 Speed – 6 HP / Special Defense

With a base stat of 105 in both its Special Attack and Speed, Manectric’s job is to sweep. STABed Thunderbolt will be your main offensive move, with Flamethrower being here for hitting those annoying Grass-type Pokémon like Meganium and Vileplume that think they can wall your Thunderbolt. Hidden Power is here mainly for covering Ground-type Pokémon, either if it’s Grass-type or Ice-type. Hidden Power Grass is prefered in UU environment as it hits Quagsire, Lanturn and Golem hard. Hidden Power Ice is better in OU for knocking out the Dragon-types. Substitute protects Manectric from status inducing moves and activates the Petaya Berry, should you choose it. Note that you should make your HP divisable by 4 so that Petaya Berry activates after 3 uses of Substitute rather than 4. Check your HP IV and attach the Effort Points it needs. If the remaining 6 aren’t enough, you can take some from Speed.

SpecsTric

Item Held: Choice Specs
Ability: Static
Nature: Timid (+Speed, -Attack) / Hasty (+Speed, -Defense)
Effort Points: 252 Special Attack – 252 Speed – 6 HP OR 252 Special Attack – 220 Speed – 38 Attack

Same as the set above but with Choice Specs boosting your hits this time. More or less the same moves as in the previous set, with Overheat replacing Flamethrower since you’ll be switching out all the time. Hyper Beam is there for finishing off threats while knowing that your opponent will knock you out. On the other hand, Crunch can be used for hitting hard two of the most commonly seen Special Walls in UU, Grumpig and Hypno. Choose the second EP distribution with a Hasty nature if you are using Crunch.

Other Possible Options

Manectric doesn’t really boast about his vast movepool. Charge Beam can be used for getting the Special Attack boost. Discharge has a nice 30% chance of paralyzing the foe. Rain Dance + Thunder is always an option but not the best one. Hidden Power Water takes out Camerupt but has no other purpose than that. Finally, Thunder Wave and Toxic are worth mentioning but after all Manectric isn’t a defensive Pokémon.

As far as items go, Life Orb is always a great choice in a mixed sweeping set, used for taking down the aforementioned Special Walls.

Counters

If Crunch is missing from a set, Hypno and Grumpig can easily wall any move fired towards them, set up a Light Screen and hit Manectric with their Calm Mind boosted Psychic.

The rest of Manectric’s UU counters depend on the type of its Hidden Power. If Hidden Power Ice is missing, Nidoking and Nidoqueen can easily take on Manectric. If Hidden Power Grass is missing, those bulky Water-Ground-type Pokémon like Quagsire can switch in without fear. If Hidden Power Water is missing, Camerupt can wall anything shot at it and hit back with Earthquake.

If you plan on using Manectric in OU, the list of counters becomes pretty wide, the most notable of which are Swampert, Garchomp and Salamence, again depending on the type of its Hidden Power. And let’s not forget Dugtrio and Electivire who can easily switch in on predicted Electric-type attacks and KO Manectric.

Opinion & Notes

The base 105 stats of Special Attack and Speed make Manectric a quite good Special Sweeper, especially in UU play. However, its pretty shallow movepool hinders its capabilities. With Thunderbolt and those newly acquired Fire-type moves as its only options, it has to resort to Hidden Power for covering its weaknesses. The change of Crunch from Special to Physical wasn’t welcome as well. However, the addition of Choice Specs and Life Orb certainly helps its sweeping potential. All in all, Manectric seems like it will need much more help in order to jump out of the UU tier.