Vaporeon Essay

A rollercoaster is probably the best analogy one can make about Vaporeon's competitive career. It started off in RBY as a fairly good special attacker due to its great base 110 Special, but it was mostly overshadowed by other Water-types like Starmie and Lapras. In the beginning of GSC, Vaporeon was considered to be completely outclassed by Suicune. However, Vaporeon was gifted with access to Growth in the middle of the generation, which was, at that time, the only move that boosted Special Attack in the game, and Vaporeon was by far the best user of the move. But it still had some issues, such as the popularity of Pokemon that hit it really hard with super effective STAB attacks, like Zapdos and Raikou.

In ADV OU, Vaporeon was probably at its highest point, as it gained access to Wish, while also getting a useful ability in Water Absorb. This let Vaporeon become the most supportive bulky Water in the entire game. Vaporeon could also run really successful Baton Pass sets, since it could make some of the largest Substitutes in the game while also passing useful Defense boosts and healing in Acid Armor and Wish, respectively. Vaporeon also performed well in HGSS OU, since it continued to be the best supportive bulky Water-type, although it faced increased competition from the likes of Milotic as a bulky Water and Blissey as a Wish passer.

BW OU gave Vaporeon a different twist to its original role as a bulky Water-type. Dream World gave Vaporeon a new ability to play around with in Hydration, which made it one of the best candidates for a spot on common rain stall teams. With the combination of Hydration, Rest, great natural bulk, and a useful Water typing, Vaporeon had little to no trouble Toxic stalling a large majority of the BW metagame. Vaporeon's other ability, Water Absorb, was also extremely useful, since rain offense was one of the most common playstyles, and Vaporeon could easily take on the strong Water-type attacks thrown around on those teams.

However, every rollercoaster eventually has to fall, and that's exactly what happened to Vaporeon in XY. Due to the nerf to weather, Vaporeon lost its main niche as a rain staller, and with the huge increase in powerful attackers that really didn't care about bulky Water-types, Vaporeon found itself drifting away from OU and into the lower tiers. Now, Vaporeon lies in LU, where its useful traits give it a niche as a great team supporter. Maybe Game Freak has more in store for our little aqua dog, but whatever the case, it looks like Vaporeon's viability rollercoaster is going down a long, steep drop.