Introduction
Rain has been a solid strategy because of Politoed setting up rain. While there are
rain abusers like Hurricane Oricorio-Sensu and Thunder Regice, none of them
come close to abusing rain in the same way that Seaking can. While on the
surface Seaking seems like a dogshit washed up dookie corpse of an orphan, in
reality it is much more than a dogshit washed up dookie corpse of an orphan,
it's a dogshit washed up dookie corpse of an orphan, that can clean games up.
Because of swift swim and it's good enough movepool, it can often clean up
games once you chip down it's checks like Swampert and Weezing-Galar.
Calcs
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Seaking Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Neutralizing Gas Weezing-Galar in Rain: 282-333 (84.4 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery
Stealth Rocks/1 spike layer=75% chance to ohko
16% or more chip on Weezing-Galar gets it
+2 252+ Atk Life Orb Seaking Waterfall vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Swampert: 227-269 (56.1 - 66.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
45% or more damage on Swampert gets it. Beware of wish passing though
Sets
Seaking @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 152 HP / 252 Atk / 28 SpD / 76 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Megahorn
- Knock Off
This is pretty much the "optimal" seaking set for March24. Though keep in mind evs can vary.
252 ATK with adamant nature is to maximize damage output, 76 Spe outspeeds Timid Ribombee while under rain, 152 HP are left overs into bulk while taking the least damage possible from Life Orb, and 28 SpD are left overs that couldn't go into HP. Swords Dance is crucial to the viability of Seaking, without Swords Dance Seaking struggles to clean games and can fail miserably. Waterfall is the move you are going to be spamming, it's simply water Stab with an added flinch chance. The flinch chance is mostly a minor bonus, but this can be relevant in your Weezing-Galar match up. If you know you won't kill Gweezing, and aren't left with a better choice, you can go straight for waterfall, not just for the flinch chance, but because will o wisp (which is often going to be their best click) has a 15% miss chance, this overall is a (including the miss, flinch, and crit chance) 34.84% chance for will o wisp to fail all together. This isn't a super reliable chance, but it's good to keep in the back of your mind. Megahorn is your only good coverage that hit's Leafon and Cacturne, which would otherwise resist or be immune your Waterfall respectively. Often your opponent will sack something to get Cacturne in safely to sucker punch Seaking, rather than risk Cacturne switching into a megahorn, though you should still be aware of Cacturne switching into Waterfall. Knock off doesn't hit anything specific, but it is your best move to take up that last 4'th slot.
Other options:
Choice band - Is better for immediate damage without having to set up a SD, but
often loses momentum after one turn
Clear Amulet - Provides an immunity to Sticky Web & Grafaiai's parting shot
Lum Berry - Is nice for gaining another turn against status spreaders
Checks & Counters
Cacturne can come in on Waterfall or SD and threaten sucker punch on Seaking which depending on Seaking's health can threaten an ohko or a good chunk of your HP. As mentioned before, Weezing-Galar and Swampert can take a +2 LO rain waterfall and threaten Will-o-Wisp or yawn back. Water immune pokemon like Water absorb Cacturne & Politoed, and Storm Drain Tatsugiri can really give Seaking a hard time, and can be very predict reliant.
Written By Essence