#79, #80 + #199: Slowpoke, Slowbro and Slowking

For this Pokemon you'll need either a set of trusty shears or something to scare off Team Rocket depending on whether you think taking their tails is evil, but you may face competition from another Pokemon...

Slowpoke has become a meme, so that counts against it. However, it's cute, especially because of it's overwhelmingly dumb appearance. It's slow (as the name suggests), really slow at only base 15 speed, but that's fine for a trick room team, and there is potential in 90 HP and decent physical stats (65 in each). The special stats are a little poor at only 40 each (for now). Slowbro also gains three great abilities: oblivious (you don't get attracted/infatuated by the enemy and you can't be taunted into doing stuff), own tempo (prevents the Pokemon from becoming confused) and the hidden ability regenerator (regenerates 1/3rd of its maximum HP when switched out). Seriously, these are great abilities. Oh, you're also water/psychic-type, which is pretty good, in truth.

He's so happy you came to see him! Sadly, you were there eight years ago...

Straight off the bat you get curse (this move differs in effect, being different for ghosts than for anything else, so here it will cut your speed, which is no real tragedy, and boost both attack and defence, so not bad), yawn (puts the foe to sleep after a couple of turns) and tackle (you know this one). Thereafter you get growl (lowers their attack a little) and water gun as your first STAB move (water special base 40) followed by confusion (psychic special base 50 and can confuse the target). Disable is a really annoying move as it prevents the foe from using the move that last hit you again. Headbutt is a decent physical move (base 70 with the chance to flinch and is normal-type), and you can also then pick up water pulse (special base 60 and can confuse, so I like it). Zen headbutt is a nice psychic physical move that can flinch the foe and hits hard at base 80. Slack off is the last move before one of two possible evolutions, here you take the turn off in order to recover half your HP.

The other moves you can get here include amnesia (two stage boost in special defence), psychic (special base 90, guess the type), rain dance, psych up (copies the foe's stat changes, and is consequentially awesome to use when the foe has used a baton pass run) and heal pulse (can heal others by 50% of base HP).

There are a lot of moves available by TM here, so forgive me if I miss a few. Ones of note include psyshock (uses your special attack against their physical defence), hidden power (you know this one), calm mind (raises both special stats by a stage), ice beam (forget blizzard's dreadful accuracy, low PP and only 20 more power, ice beam hits base 90), light screen (halves damage from inbound special attacks across your team for 5 turns), safeguard (prevents inbound status effects for 5 turns), frustration/return, earthquake (great to cover electric and it's earthquake, so you know the drill), dig (you know this), shadow ball (base 80 special ghost), flamethrower/fire blast (you know the story here, take power or accuracy), facade, rest, round/echoed voice, scald (probably worth a look with it being powerful and having the ability to inflict a burn), incinerate (base 60 fire special that will burn the opponent's berry), thunderwave (electric-type and thus ignored by ground but will paralyse most foes), bulldoze, dream eater (base 100 special with STAB and couples with yawn from level up, but only works if the foe is asleep), grass knot, swagger, sleep talk (basically essential with rest), substitute, trick room (basically more haste (or speed stat) less (observed) speed), secret power, surf, strength and dive. So quite a few... Though why it gets fire and electric moves is beyond me...

If you plan on eating berries in battle then by all means breed in belch for 120 base special poison damage, else don't bother. That basically applies to all breeding moves: future sight's immense power is a bit of a dud since it only hits after a few turns of sitting around being killed, snore may be ok if you plan on using rest or being put to sleep, belly drum is rarely worth it, though I guess with the dreadful speed then me first can work ok (steals the opponent's move with priority and more power but only if they're using a damaging move). The tutor is of moderate use: lots of moves you could have taken, some moves you maybe shouldn't take, and then aqua tail, recycle, iron tail, icy wind and if you're mad and want to swap out your great abilities then by all means take skill swap and watch me frown a bit at you.

Evolving by level, you get to Slowbro, who doesn't seem to have noticed that he is being eaten by a Shellder... According to Bulbapedia, the Shellder makes it stronger, and without it, Slowbro becomes a lowly Slowpoke again. But enough: you keep the same abilities on evolving, and gain nicely in base stats: 95 HP, 75 attack (small steps for those), 110 defence (big step), 100 special attack (giant leap), 80 special defence (not bad) and 30 speed (...)...

Guys, the pain in my tail stopped after an instant and I feel great! Let's go play!

Skipping the identical level up list (well, levels shift a bit) and going straight to the TMs, you get the obligatory hyper beam (waste of time) as well as some more interesting options like aerial ace, brick break and focus blast, as well as fling and rock smash, which I don't recommend. The tutor also adds drain punch, focus punch, ice punch, foul play, iron defence and magic coat (ignore trick for the same reason you ignore fling).

Held item here can be important as Slowbro got a Mega Evolution! So what's the point of Slowking? In terms of mega evolution, you get shell armour as an ability, along with 70 extra defence (180 base) and 30 extra special attack, with no other changes.

"I may be being eaten, but that's no excuse to not hug me... How rude!"

What is the point of Slowking? You need a king's rock trade to evolve Slowpoke for 95 HP, 75 attack, 80 defence, 100 special attack and 110 special defence and still just 30 speed, so basically a specially defensive equivalent of Slowbro, who got a mega and is now so much better it's unfunny... You keep the same abilities, but now at least you have a funny crown and a weird neck ruff thingy...

Ariana Grande?

You can add power gem to your repertoire by level up (special rock-type base 80) along with nasty plot (boosts special attack) and trump card (does more damage the less PP you will have left after using, which is just weird but can be devastating if it's on its last use). The TM and tutor moves are the same as Slowbro...

Slowbro is pretty great now since it has a mega, making the alternative of Slowking rather redundant unless you desperately need that special defence. Slowpoke is a nuisance, really, as a pre-evolution as it sort of sucks at what makes the evolved forms good. The special attack, HP and whatever defence you have makes this an excellent wall, and if you train the other defence and HP then it can make for a decent tank. The designs are also adorable...

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#77 + #78: Ponyta and Rapidash

I love how the rose-tinted nostalgia spectacles of the 'gen-one-ners' who criticise anything from Chikorita onwards as unoriginal and stupid can overlook that these two Pokemon are literally just burning horses...

Ponyta is reasonable, I guess. It looks cute, it's fire-type (usually a good thing) and it has 85 attack and 90 speed, with decent 65s in both special categories and 50 HP, 55 defence. Run away is a useless ability, but you also get flash fire (being hit by fire means that your fire moves get stronger, which is pretty decent) and the hidden ability of flame body, which is good both in battle and in the overworld. In battle, physical contact with flame body Ponyta will inflict a burn on the attacker, whereas if you're walking around to hatch an egg, flame body makes this process twice as fast, which is pretty useful if you're breeding for serious competitive play and don't want to spend years hatching (merely months).

The favourite of Bronies everywhere...

Remembering that your physical attack stat is better, you get some decent moves available by level-up. Growl is there for lowering the foe's attack and tackle to hit for normal physical base 50 when you start out. From there, you get tail whip to lower their defence, and ember, a base 40 special fire move. A little while after this you get the much more preferable flame wheel, which is both more powerful (60) and more in line with what you'll likely be built as (it's physical). Stomp is a pretty good normal-physical move for coverage at base 65 and can ruin foes who have used minimize, which few things tend to do so. Thereafter you can get flame charge, which is slightly weaker than flame wheel but does boost your speed by one stage. Fire spin is a fairly weak special attack (base 35) but does trap the foe in the fiery vortex for a few turns, keeping them in play and taking sustained damage. Take down hits hard (base 90) and is physical and normal (coverage option, maybe) but does come with only 80 accuracy and rather heavy recoil. Inferno is special and base 100 with STAB, but lacks accuracy (50) and PP (5) yet will inflict a burn on the target. Agility comes in to allow boosts to speed.

The remaining moves come after the chance to level up at level 40. Fire blast is mildly inaccurate with only 5PP but hits with 110 base as a special fire move (the same type as most moves available by level up, it seems). Bounce is an interesting prospect as a flying move, like fly it has the turn out of the way but hits with less power (80) and less accuracy (85), but since this combats one of your major weaknesses (ground) and gives you the semi-invulnerable turn then it could be very useful. The last move by level up is flare blitz, a physical fire move with base 120 power and 100 accuracy but will lead to severe recoil.

As per usual you get things like toxic and hidden power, and as a fire-type you definitely get sunny day but not rain dance available from the TM list. It would be worth mentioning if toxic didn't come up. Oh, and yes, you do get return, rest, sleep talk, substitute, swagger, confide, facade (but you can't get burned so rely on poison or paralysis), attract, protect and double team, too. As for more interesting ones, solar beam gives much needed combat for water-types (you shouldn't really be in against water, but if you only have Ponyta left and they have a water-type, all you can do is fight or give in) and since you may have gone with sunny day to boost fire damage then this could work. An alternative is to take wild charge (electric physical base 90) if you can stomach the recoil. Secret power and strength offer reasonable power (70 and 80 respectively) as neutral coverage to most things. You also get to take flamethrower if you'd rather that to fire blast and want to run special, and you also get overheat (if you don't mind decreasing your own stats using a powerful move) and incinerate. Finally, there's will-o-wisp.

From the breeding list there is not much to write home about: things like charm I find to be rather useless, and double-edge is just a better take down. What you could take is double kick (base 30 physical fighting that hits twice, so effectively base 60 and a sash breaker), or maybe low kick (based on the foe's weight) or horn drill (hits lower level foes and is more accurate the more you outlevel them, leading to a one hit KO). Thrash is a very powerful (base 120 physical) normal move that attacks for a few turns and then leaves you confused. The tutor is rather useless: bounce (see above), heat wave (strong but special), iron tail (strong, inaccurate and can lower the foe's defence), low kick (again) and snore (as they always give).

In truly unoriginal style, every stat increases in base by 15 upon evolving to Rapidash. 100 attack and 105 speed is pretty good, and hey, even 80 special attack is pretty good. The thing is, you're stuck with the same abilities, so run away is still there, making you worse.

Fresh out of the Queen's stables...

As you may have guessed, the level-up list has not changed, not even levels. Hyper beam and giga impact are now available as TMs, but a better option is probably poison jab. The ground-type physical move drill run has also been added to the tutor list. Whoo!

All-in-all, this isn't bad, but there is a shocking lack of variety in moves once again. There's also the slight problem that all the good fire moves, really, are special, and you are better at physical, so this is a bit of a tricky spot, though not a deal-breaker. You'd be fast, hitting quite hard but probably taking recoil into the not enormous HP pool, and the defences are ok at best. Maybe worth considering, but not really top-table worthy.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#74 - #76: Geodude, Graveler and Golem

Yay! Another evolve by trade from generation one that didn't get a mega evolution. Geodude and co, you can queue for sympathy with Machop.

Geodude... Hmm... For a first evolution you get really good attack (80) and defence (100) and that about covers it. The speed is dreadful at 20, but this works on a trick room team, so that's that. 40 HP and 30 in both specials means you aren't a tank but a physical wall that could do some physical damage in return. You get the main abilities of rock head (prevents move recoil damage, so not things like life orb, but things like double edge or brave bird), and sturdy (basically a focus sash: you can't die in one hit from full health), as well as the hidden ability of sand veil (evasion of the Pokemon increases by 25% in a sandstorm and decreases wild encounter rate in sandstorm afflicted routes). Take your pick for how you'll play. You're rock/ground-type, by the way, so not great but not terrible.

It looks like rabbit poo with arms...

I'm not going to describe tackle, but you get defence curl AND rollout, which combo ok. Mud sport nulls electricity, which you are immune to, so worthless for singles battles, really. Rock polish boosts your speed, which won't make a difference since even at +6 you're dreadfully slow. Magnitude may be worth taking quite early on as a STAB physical to pair with defence curl/rollout combo. Rock throw is an ok rock move, but so is smackdown, which removes immunity to the ground attacks too. Bulldoze is meh-ish but can slow the foe a little, and you get to choose between self-destruct (200) and explosion (250) that kill you straight away. You also get rock blast (2 to 5 attacks base 25), earthquake and stone edge as physical STAB moves, and you can also take advantage of rock head ability with double edge (120 base). One of the main attractions will be stealth rock, too.

TM-wise you can supplement things with the standard array, as well as dig, brick break, return, facade, giga impact, gyro ball (hits harder if you're slower), strength, power-up punch and secret power as physical moves, and a totally useless array of special moves, some of them fairly decent, like flamethrower. Even as Golem, special attack is 55 and not worth your time.

If you feel like sticking on some Barry White and mood lighting, you can breed for a few moves: autotomize (boosts speed by two stages and dramatically reduces weight), block (prevent switching but not things like U-turn), curse (will reduce your speed for other gains, which is pretty good for a gyroball set), endure (means you'll survive the next hit), flail, focus punch, hammer arm (not a bad shout with base 100 power as a fighting move for coverage), mega punch (base 80 normal physical), rock climb and wide guard.

Earth power and snore are kinda worthless due to the dreadful special attack, but you could take things like fire punch, iron defence, superpower and thunder punch from the tutor, so not awful...

Graveler doesn't change abilities or typing, which means that you're still stuck with some crippling weaknesses to popular types, such as water, steel, ground and fighting. You do gain in the stats department, however: 55 HP, 95 attack, 115 defence, 45 in both specials, and 35 speed. That's +15 in everything, and the boost to speed isn't all that welcome, in my opinion.

It's going for a cannonball dive...

You know what else is disappointing: there's NOTHING new for the movelists...

Let's move on to Golem, which is the coolest, most mythological name for this tree... No new typing or abilities. You do now get heavy slam (like the inverse of grass knot it hits the harder the heavier you are) and steamroller (base 60 bug move (physical like everything else it gets) that ruins people who used minimize). TMs and the tutor give you nothing. You also gain some stats: 80 HP is suddenly acceptable, 120 attack and 130 defence are both nothing to turn your nose up at, 55 special attack is worth just flatly ignoring, and 65 special defence means that a water-type attack will kill you since they are mostly special as well as 4x effective, and the speed is still bad enough to be on a trick room team on 45.

Ah yes, the originality of being a ball with limbs... Like Jigglypuff, Clefairy and the previous evolutions...

This family is basically just a physical wall with some revenge damage unless you're determined on a trick room team. The massive water weakness and mediocre special defence basically leave you in serious hell, so this isn't really all that good.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#72 + #73: Tentacool and Tentacruel

I guess the easiest way of introducing this is by saying that it's the Zubat of the sea but lacking a final evolution still. Yep, we've reached the jellyfish Pokemon, Tentacool and it's evolved form Tentacruel.

Tentacool, on the face of it, is set up as a bit of a special wall type Pokemon: 40 physical and 50 special attack means you aren't dealing much damage, and 40 HP and 35 defence don't allow it to tank, but a brilliant 100 special defence means you can switch in on a special attacker and shut them down somewhat, and then factor in the reasonable 70 speed and you could get some buffs up or whatever. The primary ability, clear body, prevents stats from being decreased by moves like leer or by abilities like intimidate (though not by paralysis or burn). The next ability, liquid ooze, means that when a foe tries to use a draining move like giga drain or draining kiss (for example) then rather than gaining health from you, they take damage. The hidden ability is rain dish, which is pretty awesome: we've covered this before, but it basically means you get 1/16 HP back each turn in the rain and it can stack with leftovers. This makes rain dance viable again.

It looks like this jellyfish has lost a fight and most of its tentacles...

The water/poison typing makes Tentacool and Tentacruel pretty resistant, suffering a mere three weaknesses in ground, electric and psychic, which regrettably are fairly common, but you resist fighting, fire, water, steel, poison and fairy that are common, as well as ice and bug.

Tentacool's moveset by levelup is pretty huge, in all honesty, but carries only four physical moves and four status moves. In the physical camp you get STAB with poison sting (base 15 with chance to poison) and constrict (normal base 10 and carries a small chance of lowering the foe's speed by a stage). You also later get access to wrap (normal base 15t that traps and hurts the foe for a couple of turns) and poison jab (base 80 STAB move that has a 30% chance of poisoning the target). In terms of status you get toxic spikes (an entry hazard where Pokemon will be poisoned when they switch in to play unless they are resistant or flying above them), supersonic (55 accuracy that can confuse the foe), barrier (gives a +2 stage boost to defence, making damage-taking roles a lot easier) and screech (drops the foe's defence by two stages).

In terms of special moves, you get access to both acid and acid spray: the former has greater PP, they both have the same base power and poison typing, but the latter leads to a 2 stage drop in the foe's special defence, whereas the former is a slight chance of a one stage drop, so take acid spray. You can also take two of my favourite water moves: water pulse (base 60, chance to confuse) ad brine (base 65, doubles in power when the target's HP is below 50% so is a good way to finish off an opposition tank). You get one of my other favourites by TM (see below). Bubble beam is a decent water attack at base 65 with the slight chance to slow, whilst hydro pump carries great power at 110 but the lack of PP and accuracy count against it quite heavily. Sludge wave is a pretty cool poison move with base 95 and a 10% chance of poisoning, hitting all foes in multi-battles, which can wreck your opponent quite nicely. The remaining move by level up is hex, a ghost type move base 65 that hits twice as hard when the foe has a status problem, such as poison or burn, so it's like venoshock but works with more status conditions, except here it doesn't carry STAB.

As you could have guess, venoshock is on the list of TMs along with a lot of the standard fare, like safeguard and protect and stuff. Protect could be useful, as could rain dance as it could activate that cool hidden ability. Further to this, ice beam or blizzard are worthwhile shouts to shut down ground types that may try giving you grief. Hidden power, if you know what you're getting, could be a handy move, and sludge bomb might be worth taking if you can't get sludge wave for some reason, with sludge wave being on level, TM and my list of recommendations. Scald is that water move I hinted at above, and I love it. Facade may not be worth much here, but infestation could offer some utility against psychics if you can hold them off for it to wreak its havoc. Round, dazzling gleam and surf are all options, as are waterfall and maybe payback. Other recommendations would be moves like swagger (is a risk), rest and sleep talk, substitute and confide, which lowers the foe's special attack.

As far as breeding goes, there are a few ok moves: aurora beam is like a weaker version of ice beam for dealing with ground Pokemon, aqua ring can add another 1/16 healing at the end of each turn, accupressure could be amazing if you are running a support Tentacool/Tentacruel or just if you want a two stage boost on a random stat. Bubble isn't too great, muddy water is basically surf with a small chance of dropping the foe's accuracy but with lower PP and no overworld utility (just use surf). Mirror coat basically reflects special attack damage thrown at you before it strikes but with double the power, confuse ray confuses the foe, haze resets all status changes to zero, and knock off is knock off. The main one a lot of people may choose here is rapid spin from breeding with a Kabuto, as it allows you to remove hazards and clear the way for things susceptible to entry hazards, especially toxic spikes as they won't affect you.

The only moves the tutor adds on top of those you probably already have are snore, icy wind and giga drain, which aren't awful moves, to be honest.

Tentacruel gets no change of types or abilities, but it does get a nice big boost to all stats: HP up to 80 (from 40), attack up to 70, defence to 65, special attack to 80, special defence to 120 and speed to 100. This remains a nice special wall with decent speed to throw in the obstacles you may want to put out.

The 'Kraken' jokes stopped being funny a long time ago, so don't you dare!

From the level up list, you get a new move in reflect type, which basically just takes on the type of the foe. Y'know what? That's the only difference in any of the move selections. The only one. No new TMs, breeding of course doesn't change, but there's not even any new tutor ones. You don't even get hyper beam! This is a bit odd...

I guess I should just wrap things up now: Tentacruel is a pretty good special wall. Think of how you can survive and grind the foes down: not many things can hit you that well, so take advantage of this, and you could be golden.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#69-71: Bellsprout, Weepinbell and Victreebell

With the number of evil, poison plants from generation one of Pokemon, someone there must have been a fan of Day of the Triffids. Especially since Bellsprout seems to be running...

Oh God, the sausages are burning!

Bellsprout has surprisingly good attack and special attack for an unevolved Pokemon (75 and 70 respectively). Both of these are serviceable, but the other stats really let it down: 50 HP, 35 defence, 30 special defence and only 40 speed... The main ability is chlorophyll, which doubles the speed in sunshine, but this is conditional AND maybe dangerous. The other ability is gluttony as a hidden ability, which means that HP restoring berries will be eaten earlier. You also get that oft seen typing of grass/poison...

By level up you get 7 damaging moves: vine whip (grass physical base 45), wrap (normal physical base 15 that wraps the foe up for a few turns), acid (poison special base 40 with 10% chance of lowering the foe's special defence), knock off (you know this one: dark physical base 65 which will remove an item if the foe has an item), razor leaf (grass special base 55 with nice critical chance), slam (normal physical base 80 but with only 75% accuracy) and wring out (normal special that hits harder the higher the foe's HP is (percentage wise)).

You get the powder moves (poison, sleep and stun SPORE if you want to be picky with the name). Growth boosts your special attack by one stage, though this is doubled in the sun. Sweet scent lowers the foe's evasion by two stages, but in the overworld this will initiate a wild encounter, and if hordes are available then it will be a horde battle. The last level up move is gastro acid is an atypical poison type move as it will still affect steel types, but it isn't damaging since what it does is suppress the foe's ability, which can be immensely useful.

I'm willing to bet you could guess half the TM list with no effort. Sunny day could be worth it, especially with solar beam AND chlorophyll. Since both attack stats are good then you can grab venoshock, solar beam, sludge bomb, energy ball and grass knot as special STAB moves, and you could also go for round, cut, secret power, infestation, thief, hidden power and facade. I find that cut is an odd one, however, since Bellsprout would then be cutting another plant down and oh never mind...

There are some decent breeding moves, like acid spray, belch, bullet seed, clear smog, giga drain (I like this move), leech life, magical leaf, power whip and weather ball (changes depending on the weather). If you visit the tutor then you can get seed bomb and bind.

The running plant will evolve into the mouth walking Weepinbell at level 21. To make up for not changing the movelists upon evolution, Weepinbell also doesn't change its abilities and every stat increases by 15, just to be really dull.

Oh my God! Why are you using me?

Since Weepinbell has nothing to talk about, you'll grab a leaf stone and evolve to Victreebell, which looks like a carnivorous plant-made dustbin... Guess what happens to the stats? Aside from the special defence, everything goes up by 15. Special defence goes up by 25... Typing and abilities also haven't changed since Bellsprout...

Anyone up for a game of Basket-Voltorb?

There are actually changes to the level-up learnset! Forget everything else, you now get stockpile (boosts defence and special defence and can stack three times), swallow (consumes the stockpiles, negating their effects, but granting healing, which heals more for more stockpiles), and spit up (again removes the effects of stockpile (you can build them again of course) as a special attack, with base of 100 for each stockpile, so up to 300, as a normal type attack with no added effects). You still get vine whip, sleep powder, sweet scent and razor leaf. The other new moves are leaf tornado (special grass base 65 with 90 accuracy and when it lands it has a 50% chance of lowering the foe's accuracy), leaf storm (base 130 grass special that lowers your special attack by two stages and is only 90 accuracy, basically don't use as a sustained attack) and leaf blade (a physical grass attack base 90 with good critical chance and 100 accuracy).

The usual suspects giga impact and hyper beam are added to the TM list, but nothing is really there from the tutor, no more than there was before.

All in all, this is a family that you could consider, but you shouldn't really pin your hopes on it. There's not much to talk about: it's good, but there are enough weakness problems to think that maybe it shouldn't be a centrepiece.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#67-68: Machop, Machoke and Machamp

So we've had the Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam family, and Pokemon has a way of pairing families and having similarities between them, so here's the Machop family, the other one where the final evolution is by trade within the same generation, and with very similar base stat totals (Machop and Machoke are now 5 lower than Abra and Kadabra respectively but Machamp is 5 higher than Alakazam, not that this really matters). This family is also fighting compared to the psychic, so it seems like the families would pair well, so how come only one got a mega evolution?

Mega evolution aside, it's not just the base stat total that drops Machop a little lower but the spread as well. If you had a total of 605, but 600 were in speed and just one in each of the rest, you're basically dead unless you get a lucky fissure or whatever off. The problem for Machop, however, is the speed. For a first evolution it gets good HP (base 70) and good attack (80), but the defences (50 physical and 35 special) mean that the HP is a little wasted. The special attack being only 35 doesn't really matter: unless it's fairly close to the attack then it may as well be zero. The issue is, you don't have the defences to really be a boss, so you need the speed to sweep, like with Abra. Machop's speed is 35. It would be outsped by Abra with paralysis...

Bro-fist?

Machop does get some decent abilities: guts (boosts attack when afflicted with a status problem by 50%), no guard (all attacks land, so you can take ones with immense power and useless accuracy, but remember that all incoming attacks land too, so this could ruin you since, y'know, low speed) and the hidden ability steadfast (speed is boosted by a stage when the Pokemon flinches). I only said decent abilities, not great.

The thing which again makes Machop like an opposite to Abra is the sizeable level-up move pool, but like Abra, not many types are covered. In the myriad of fighting moves you get dual chop (dragon physical hitting twice at base 40 you get at level 31 in ORAS, probably after you've evolved at level 28), knock off (dark physical base 65 that knocks off an item when the foe has an item you can knock off, gained only in ORAS at level 21) and four normal status moves: foresight boosts accuracy and allows you to hit ghosts with fighting or normal moves, scary face drops their speed, leer drops their defence and focus energy boosts critical chances (if you survive).

Aside from bulk up, all the other moves are fighting physical. Low kick does more damage to heavier foes, karate chop hits at base 50 with a high chance of flinching, low sweep hits at base 65 and can drop the foe's speed one stage, and revenge hits double its base 60 if you sustain damage in that turn before moving. In fact, with revenge it used to be the case than being slow was good, but now it has decreased priority, so even a stupidly fast Pokemon could get this to work. In ORAS, the last two moves you get before the evolving level are vital throw (base 70 with -1 priority and perfect accuracy excepting things like flying turns) and wake-up slap (hits harder on sleeping Pokemon, waking them up, but has base 70).

If you hold off on evolving then you can get submission (base 80, 80 accuracy but has heavy recoil), cross chop (heavy hitting with increased critical chance: base 100, 5 PP and 80 accuracy) and finally dynamic punch (100 power, 50 accuracy, 5 PP and will always confuse the target). Remember, if you have no guard, these moves will always hit. Also, sorry if this list seems a little uninvolved, but the sheer variety of all but two damaging moves being fighting physical is a little overwhelming...

There are some decent TM moves on top of things like toxic and sunny day. In fact, return may be a good shout here if you can make your Pokemon like you enough. Ignoring special moves like hidden power and flamethrower, you can nab earthquake (but this is still useless against the flying-types you'll probably have switching in on you), smack down (addresses that problem but is only base 50), dig, brick break is a decent STAB move, rock tomb is pretty good, and facade comes up YET AGAIN, thief's ok but not as good as knock off, low sweep you should already have, payback is decent since your speed isn't, retaliate is a great move as I have said before, bulldoze and rockslide offer decent coverage, and poison jab is great for winding up fairies. Power-up punch is by no means a bad idea, nor is strength, and I guess rock smash is passable.

As far as breeding goes, bullet punch is a maybe, close combat is very powerful but does lower your defences, which you probably need, counter is great IF you know how to use it, fire punch is ok as neutral coverage, ice punch is maybe better than fire punch since it's super effective against flying, and so is thunder punch, smelling salts is a normal move with base 70 that is like wake-up slap but rather than sleep hits paralysis doubly hard and cures it (maybe pair with thunder punch?), heavy slam hits harder the heavier you are compared to the target (hmm...), rolling kick has a decent base 60 as a STAB move and has a 30% chance to flinch, and once again the tutor is only semi-useful. The tutor can re-teach a lot of level and TM moves (why pay more when TMs are now multi-use?) but you can get superpower (which lowers your attack, countering it's very nice 120 base) and focus punch, which I've slated enough... Yes it has uses, but you need setups for it.

Upon evolving, your abilities stay put, as does that mono-fighting-typing. HP and speed both go up 10 in base, attack is up to 100, defence also up 20 to 70, special defence up 25 to 60 (so now you could take a hit or two), and who cares about special attack? Ok, it's 50, not that it matters at all.

Would you hire a removal man with 'choke' in their company name?

In every way that you can get moves, there is no difference other than a few by level up being at slightly higher levels, so we can stop talking about this and moan that you need a trustworthy friend to trade with to get your Machamp (they might steal it in exchange for a Metapod).

Guess what? No change in abilities again. Or typing. Once again, speed and HP go up by 10, so the speed has now started creeping into that grey-zone where it may be too fast for a trick room set, but is still far too slow to be any use for regular sweeping. 90 HP with the 80 defence and suddenly 85 special defence sort of balances out the lack of speed so you can now take a hit or two, and 130 attack is actually pretty decent. Special attack has oozed up to 65, which would be good for a first evolution...

Yes, he does lift... Maybe a bit much...

Before writing this, I'd never really considered how same-y the move lists were for this family.Throwing in wide guard by level up, hyper beam and giga impact by TM and being ripped off for moves you should already have from the tutor (they actually give nothing you couldn't have got before) doesn't leave me a lot to write about other than the fact that Machamp should have got a mega evolution. Alakazam got one, and the two families pair up nicely, but if we're being honest, Alakazam didn't even need it as much, what with it being overpowered anyway. Fighting-type is less rare and has a nice common flying weakness, as well as the obvious psychic weakness, and the spread of stats, as well as a fairly limited movepool means that Machamp was always lagging behind.

Comparing Machamp to Alakazam is a little unfair. That's like comparing an Audi A4 to a Pagani Zonda: the Zonda is excruciatingly fast, rarer, looks better (well, that one doesn't really go well since neither Alakazam nor Machamp is much of a looker) and all that jazz, whilst the A4 is maybe a bit more reliable: the thing is, should you really be comparing a very nice sensible car with a racing car? If Machamp is the A4, that's not a problem: it's got decent power behind it, and despite the lack of speed, it's pretty good. Yes, it could probably do with a mega evolution, but don't discount it for that. It has nice bulk, good physical power and will occupy a different role from (Mega) Alakazam.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#64-66: Abra, Kadabra and Alakazam

According to the Pokedex entries, this family of Pokemon stems from a smart child turning into a Pokemon and reaching deity levels of genius, but can it live up to that?

Abra is one of those Pokemon that makes you want to put a gun to your temple for one reason: teleport. If you don't catch it straight away, odds are it will use teleport and leave you scratching your head. It has dreadful HP (25), physical attack (20) and even worse physical defence (15), with admittedly ok special defence of 55. This suggests it's not worth getting until you see it has 90 speed, and since it's a first evolution, a remarkable 105 special attack, which is better than a sizeable number of fully evolved Pokemon. Add in the abilities: synchronize (if you get a status condition given to you, then they get the same landing on them), inner focus (prevents flinching) and the hidden ability magic guard (prevents indirect damage such as from weather).

Its Japanese name is 'Casey'... Which is creepy considering the origin story in the Pokedex...

Already we can see there's an amazing base to build from with three good abilities and that amazing special attack and speed combo (better special attack than Venusaur and only just lower than Charizard's and it still has two evolutions and a mega to go). Abra is pure psychic-type, which isn't too bad, really since it has few weaknesses (but also few resistances). The problem is, it doesn't learn any moves by level up other than teleport.

Go for the TM list straight away. Psyshock, psychic, hidden power, shadow ball, round, energy ball, charge beam and dazzling gleam all offer good to very good damage, with the first two also being STAB. Ignore physical moves (I have) since the attack stat is dreadful and peaks at 50, so never go there... You get a lot of moves like protect, calm mind (boosts both special stats), thunder wave and stuff which is fairly pointless since you aren't particularly bulky. Rest and sleep talk can be coupled, and if you put them to sleep you can use the immensely powerful dream eater.

The breeding move list is pretty worthless, since the damage moves are physical. The support moves are somewhat wasted on Abra and co since they are definitely sweeper material. You could equip a flame orb on magic guard and psychoshift it off, but then you'll just get slapped hard and probably go down in one. Even when you reach Alakazam you only have 55 HP and 45 defence, with a decent 95 special defence, but just don't bother: this should be an out and out killer.

A lot of the tutor moves are pointless special attacks, but you can get some special ones: shockwave, snore and signal beam. You could also take recycle for a chesto/resto set, but you don't have enough HP in reserve, unlike say Snorlax...

So we evolve to Kadabra early at level 16. You were pretty powerful in special before, but now you're getting silly: 120 special attack being overwhelming, and throw in 105 speed and a respectable 70 special defence. Who cares if you only get 40 HP, 35 physical attack and 30 defence? You also get to keep the nice abilities.

What is it with Psychics and spoons? And moustaches?

You get access to kinesis, which drops the foe's accuracy by one stage (big whoop). Now you also have proper moves, like confusion (base 50), psybeam (base 65), psychic (90) and future sight (120 but doesn't hit straight away, so not necessarily a great idea). You also get more setup moves and psycho cut, but that's physical so why would you take it?

The TM list is basically the same, and the tutor list only really gives you more physical crap, but so long as you go with coverage, even neutral non-STAB hits should hurt most things.

Alakazam came in as one of the early gimmick evolutions: Kadabra only evolves by trade. It also seems that in response to a 'hilarious' in game trade in generation 4, where someone trades you an everstone carrying Haunter that doesn't evolve because of the stone, now trading with the stone still evolves Kadabra.

Again with the spoons?

You know how the special attack was a little daunting earlier? How does 135 sound? Oh, and 120 speed. I've already mentioned 95 special defence, and the 55, 50, 45 HP and physicals which aren't enough to torpedo this great specially offensive threat, especially since the abilities remain good.

Aside from the introductions of hyper beam (ignore) and focus blast (powerful fighting special base 120 but low accuracy and PP yet can deal with dark-type nuisances (though so can signal beam)), the TM and level sets haven't really changed. I guess grass knot could work if facing a heavy foe...

Mega evolution makes a great Pokemon a little broken. 175 special attack base is ludicrous. 150 speed makes Concorde look slow, and you get a nice boost to defence up to 65, so you could maybe take a physical hit (not worth counting on). You lose the abilities, however, and get trace: copies the ability of the enemy.

Never tell it that there is no spoon or it'll destroy you...

Do you really need me to say anything further? If you don't consider using this Pokemon then you'e mad... The only negatives are a slightly restrictive offensive movepool (you do get a lot of boosting moves and the like that you can basically get on most of the Pokemon mentioned on this blog so far), a weird Pokedex description and odd designs. These are all minor: it gets enough moves to get by and the others are merely cosmetic. Train an Alakazam: if you don't have the friends to do the trade-evolve, find some or hire someone... It's worth it. Oh, and I avoided any puns on the names! I'm just magic.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#60-63 + #186: Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath and Politoed

Great, another divergent final evolution, and this family is more than a little disturbing since their name comes from the fact that you can see their 'whirl' of intestines through their flesh...

Poliwag is a dopy looking thing which is always that bit bigger than I remember (having seen it dwarf what I've sent out on wonder trade of late). It's fairly cute, but it lacks anything real in terms of stats other than a very nice 90 speed. Every other stat is stuck at a paltry 40 other than the attack at a still-less-than-impressive 50. Wow... The abilities it gets are ok (well, two of them): water absorb is great if you can switch in on a predicted water move as it won't hurt you and will actually heal you a degree damp is still rather dull as all it does is prevent self-destruct and explosion which rarely come up from sane people, and swift swim doubles your already good speed in the rain, so if you run on a rain team, you don't really need to invest in speed EVs.

Cute until you realise the swirl is its entrails on show... 

Water sport is a move I always get bored of seeing on water-type Pokemon since it just weakens fire, but water gun isn't a bad STAB move early on other than it's special, and you are an attacking Pokemon (unless you don't want to evolve (see later)). Hypnosis can put foes to sleep 60% of the time (barring abilities) and bubble is basically water gun but superior in every way other than base power so you'd be mad to stick with water gun... You evolve at level 25, so that gives you plenty of chance to take the forgettable double slap (base 15 per hit on a physical normal move), rain dance (gives double speed and boosted water attack power), body slam (finally a decent power physical move but is only a normal attack: base 85 power and can cause paralysis, plus it deals perfect accuracy with double damage to a minimised foe) and finally bubble beam (think bubble but with 65 power and lower PP).

If you don't evolve, you can take the delights of mud shot (a ground special base 55 power which lowers the foe's speed by one stage), belly drum (halves health, maximises attack, so is a risk, but I would have killed for a Poliwag with belly-drum a few weeks ago when I was trying to breed it onto a Marill and had to go through chaining with Linoone and Walrein...), wake-up slap (base 70 fighting physical that doubles in damage when it wakes a sleeping foe (so connects with hypnosis) and becomes STAB with evolution later on), hydro pump (a very powerful, base 110 special STAB water, attack with low PP and 80 accuracy, so surf may be preferable) and finally mud bomb (base 65 special ground that has a chance of lowering accuracy).

The TM list is rather familiar, but now we have hail, ice beam, blizzard and psychic to pretty much ignore due to the poor special attack of Poliwag, which is a shame since ice beam and psychic would be pretty cool... Facade rears its head once again, along with frustration/return, thief and round. Scald makes an appearance (base 80 water special with a decent chance of burning a foe, which I love). You get secret power, rest, substitute and dig, but you could go for the HM moves: surf is a powerful water special, but you'd be better off going with dive or waterfall, the latter being a better option as it doesn't have a build up turn and has chance to flinch, as well as 5 more in base PP.

With egg moves you can get endure and endeavour, which is highly frustrating as a combo, ice ball (basically an ice version of rollout that grows in power over 5 moves from a base 30 move, yet it hits double if defence curl has been used before), mind reader (means your next attack will not miss), refresh (a reasonable healing move), splash (the greatest move ever as it does nothing (!)) and water pulse (great but special...). If you visit the tutor then you add icy wind, helping hand and snore to your repertoire, which is a bit disappointing.

Upon evolving you actually gain no speed, but everything else gets a little better: 65 HP and 65 attack and defence, and 50 for both specials. There's no change for the abilities and you remain pure water type, which actually isn't too bad a typing for defence in truth.

Is it out canvassing for gym memberships?

By level up, there is no change. However, earthquake, brick break, bulldoze, power-up-punch and rock smash all join the viable moves from TMs and HMs. From the tutor you can now take ice punch and be tempted by focus punch (and since you get substitute, this may work for you).

If you want to go for the water/fighting Poliwrath, you'll need a water stone. The thing is, the previously pretty decent speed has now fallen (!) to 70, which just isn't good enough. Your HP has gone up to 90, and both physical stats are up to 95, with special attack at 70 and special defence at 90, so you lose speed for some survivability. This does kind of make sub/punching fairly viable. You keep the same abilities, but now you do kind of need swift swim to be active to outpace most threats. Even regular Gardevoir can now outpace you, and Gallade will make your life difficult, this even without considering things like Alakazam, Talonflame (as you're now weak to flying, and many flying types are very fast) or even Pikachu...

Definitely advertising gym memberships...

You get a very small list of moves by level up, wiping out most of the previous ones (Poliwhirl learns its last at 53 with mud bomb, the last physical at 43). Here you get circle throw (physical fighting base 60 with 90 accuracy and then knocks the foe out of the battle, dragging in a new one but at very low priority), bubble beam, hypnosis, double slap, and submission (base 80 physical fighting with 80 accuracy and you take recoil that is 25% of the damage inflicted). From levelling to 32 you get dynamic punch (base 100 physical fighting with 50 accuracy, 5PP but will confuse the Pokemon on the receiving end), to 43 you get mind reader and then 53 you could take circle throw if you missed it earlier.

Added to the TM list you get focus blast (not worth it since you have useless special attack compare to physical), rock tomb and rock slide, payback, giga impact (avoid), poison jab (nice and powerful at base 80 and physical coverage) and strength. The tutor adds nothing.

Politoed is a Pokemon I so often forget, maybe since it evolved by trade when holding a King's Rock (like Slowking, and the item is useful in battle as well, so I don't like using it too often for evolving). Politoed remains pure water, and the hidden ability changes from swift swim to drizzle, meaning it summons rain for 5 turns when it comes in (8 with damp rock). The regular abilities stay the same. The stats: base 70 speed, 90 HP, 75 in the physicals, 90 special attack (so you could have taken the special moves earlier on), and 100 special defence. Basically, you're a special wall or support with drizzle to maybe setup swift swimmers or rain dishes.

Hands up who thinks this looks good? Nobody? Great.

Level up moves are again thin on the ground, starting with bubble beam, hypnosis, double slap and perish song (any Pokemon who hears this will be KO'd after 5 turns unless they have soundproof). Swagger, bounce (base 85 physical flying akin to a weaker fly and without the utility) and hyper voice (base 90 normal special, as well as the potential to destroy scenery in battles like rocks).

The TM list looks similar, but you may look more favourably on ice beam, hidden power, psychic, scald (yay!), focus blast and surf. Visiting the tutor is basically a pointless trip unless you missed out on any moves.

All in all, I don't really like this line too much. The final evolutions disappoint since they lose speed, and Politoed disappoints even more since it lack swift swim. Drizzle isn't a bad ability, since you can use it as a great setup, and the lower speed means that it will setup its weather effect second and override the first. The stat distributions don't really make good reading if you want sweepers, but they aren't bad. Arguably the Pokemon are too good as they will be thought of too highly and will be outcompeted by their peers. The move lists are a little underwhelming as well, and this annoys me. The typing is uncommon, maybe unique (I can't think off the top of my head) with Poliwrath, but don't mistake this for being good. By all means, if you like, them, use them, and you could get some success, with the opponent not knowing what to do.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#58 + #59: Growlithe and Arcanine

Hoo boy, this was partially considered a legendary at one point, so we're in for a treat. If you remember, Arcanine appeared on a flag with the legendary birds, and it just looks pretty cool anyway. Do the stats back this up?

If we considered Arcanine as a legendary, it would be a similar situation to Manaphy and Phione, except you could evolve the baby. Here, the baby is Growlithe, a pretty cool little puppy with a decent stat array. Both attack stats are very promising at 70 in both, with 55 HP and 45/50 defences, to go with 60 speed. It's a tad sluggish, but those attacks are interesting, and so you could go either way and be a real problem for a foe to predict what you are doing. You could even mix the EV training on them and the lack of a little punch can be made up for by solidly ruining their checks.

It looks like a proud little puppy!

With abilities, you get intimidate (lowers the foe's attack by one stage), flash fire (gives immunity t fire attacks, and when hit by fire it will boost the power of fire-type attacks to 1.5x, meaning you could switch in on a fire attack and ruin your foe's day) and the hidden ability justified (each time you are hit by a dark-type attack, including each hit of a multi-hit attack, by one stage). Three decent abilities, but the only really problem is being mono-fire-type attack, meaning it's easy to see a way around you, and you get too little in terms of STAB. Since many later Pokemon got new types, this could leave Growlithe and Arcanine behind...

Straight away you start off with bite (base 60 physical dark and flinch chance) and roar (low priority but removes the foe from battle). By level up you soon get ember (fairly weak fire special attack with chance to burn) and leer, which drops the foe's defence by a stage. Odour sleuth negates all enemy evasion changes and makes it possible for fighting and normal attacks to hit a ghost-type Pokemon, and helping hand offers increased damage output to a partner in multi-battles that is pretty much wasted on Growlithe/Arcanine since this is probably the damage dealer...

Flame wheel is a decent STAB attack (60 physical, 100 accuracy) but fire fang (65 physical, 95 accuracy) offers a different option very soon afterwards. In between is reversal, which deals more damage the more damaged you are, so at 0-4% HP this attack is devastating at base 200 as a physical fighting move. Take down is a double edged sword (normal-type base 90 physical) since it carries recoil damage that can mess you up a bit. Flame burst is worth considering if you prefer the special side of things (base 70 with STAB and full accuracy), and has additional bonus in multi-battles of secondary 'splash' damage across adjacent Pokemon to the target. Agility could be useful as setup, boosting your speed and facilitating a sweep if you know you have the turn to use it (or carry a focus sash and run reversal).

I've extolled the virtues of retaliate quite often, so moving on you get flamethrower (base 95 STAB special with a chance to burn and 100 accuracy), which is followed by crunch (base 80 dark physical which can lower the opponent's defence) and then heat wave (base 95 special STAB, hits all foes and breaks rocks in the background but lower accuracy than flamethrower). The last two moves by level up are very powerful physical attacks but have drawbacks. The first is the dragon-type move outrage, which hits for 2 or 3 turns at base 120 but then leaves you confused, whilst the last is flare blitz, base 120 STAB physical with recoil. Not something to immediately reject, but take the negatives into account.

You get a lot of the standard boost moves available from the TM list like sunny day, as well as toxic, return/frustration and some of the guard things. You also get aerial ace again... Flamethrower is available again along with the slightly less accurate but slightly more powerful fire blast as special STAB options, hidden power offering potential special coverage, along with round and snarl (dark base 55 with 95 accuracy and can lower the foe's special attack). Overheat (base 130 that drops your special attack by two stages, so cannot be spammed) and incinerate (base 60 and can burn a foe's berry off) are further special STAB options.

Along with return and aerial ace (still scratching my head about why so many Pokemon can learn this when it doesn't really make sense, Diglett), you can grab dig, facade and flame charge (base 50 STAB that boosts speed when used), along with thief, retaliate, rock smash, secret power, strength and wild charge (electric-type and so can cover the water threats hitting at base 90 but with heavy recoil). Things like rest, sleep talk, swagger, substitute and attract are all there, too.

From breeding you can get body slam, close combat (does drop your defences but hits very hard as a physical fighting attack), iron tail, covet and thrash among others that are either a little too weak to bother with or ones you get via level up... To be fair, aside from covet and snore, all the tutor moves are from level up...

So we evolve using a fire stone (fancy), and what do we get? 90 HP, and 80 in both defence stats gives some nice survivability, and with 95 speed, the 110 attack and 100 special attack make for a rather scary Pokemon... You keep the same abilities and typing, so make of that what you will. You also look rather cool...?

A Pokemon you could go for a pint with...

Changes to moves by level up: most of them are gone, so evolve after you've got what you want. You can pick up thunder fang, which is probably a great idea to cover water-types that you have no other options on, and you also get extreme speed, which is basically if quick attack was good (much more power and faster). You also add hyper beam and giga impact to the TM list that are worth ignoring, so you should only really consider solar beam (if you want special and are on a sunny day team) and bulldoze as a ground move that doesn't have you using a turn to prepare. Bulldoze doesn't carry the power of dig, but has less turns involved and also has the ability to cut a foe's speed. Unless you badly want dragon pulse (base 85 dragon special with the chance to paralyse) then don't bother with the tutor.

All in all, Arcanine has the potential to be a great Pokemon. If you see one switch in on you, you don't know what it's going to do. Is it going to light you up with it's good special attack, or slap you across the face with the slightly better physical. It has a great move pool for both. Alternatively it could be bulked and use things like will-o-wisp and toxic to grind you down from behind substitutes and rests, or setup sunny day and swagger on you before running away. It offers a lot of options, and does very well with attack duties, so definitely worth considering for a spot on a team, or at the very least a place in a rotation.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#56 + #57: Mankey and Primeape

Ok, these names and designs aren't the most inspired ever (people who praise generation one for being the only one with good designs are wrong, by the way, since there are some nice ones in every generation and nostalgia is a powerful thing)...

Mankey... Even the name doesn't really help its cause, but as a first evolution, its stats are promising: 80 attack and 70 speed are encouraging, meaning it can hit hard (harder than Persian, ties with Dugtrio and Golbat and also everyone's beloved Pidgeot). The things that let Mankey down are the defences (35 physical and 45 special coupled with 40 HP) so you won't survive too long if you can't outspeed, yet the poor special attack can be forgiven: you only really need one way to dominate when you have backup.

Hmm... Pigmonkey? Great!

Moving on to the typing and abilities: is this our first pure fighting-type? Wow... Remember that this makes it weak to psychic and flying in particular, as well as fairy, but you can ruin the days of normal, dark and ice, so there is that. There are two main abilities and a hidden ability. Vital spirit: prevents the Pokemon from being put to sleep, and increases the chance of higher level wild encounters when at the head of the party. Anger point: this one got weakened in generation five since it took out activation behind a substitute, but if you get hit by a critical, your attack maximises, that is it goes up +6, like belly drum bestows. Defiant: a decent hidden ability where each stat decrease applied by a foe (including things like intimidate) but not applied by yourself (like if using close combat) or a teammate leads to a +2 in attack, even if it is the attack that is lowered.

As far as moves by level up go, you get a pretty dull list, covering only normal, fighting and dark moves. Early ones on your list will be things like leer, focus energy, covet (temporarily steals a Pokemon's item (unless wild, in which case it is permanent) and hits for 60 base as a normal move), scratch (base 40 normal move with no bonus effects other than sounding a little childish) and low kick (which was changed from having set power, so now it hits harder the heavier the enemy is). At level 9 you get fury swipes (hits 2 to 5 times at base 18), then moving on up to 13 you get karate chop (fighting move with base 50 and sounds cooler than it is). You then get seismic toss: this is a fighting move that doesn't get STAB as it inflicts your level in terms of damage, so at level 17 when you get it, it does 17 HP, whereas at level 100 it is a good way to reliably hurt a tank, and a great way to counter Shuckle.

Before you reach the evolution level of 28, you could pick up screech to drop the foe's speed, or you could go for assurance, which has decent base power of 60 and doubles if the foe has already received damage, even if it's self-inflicted. If you don't evolve for whatever reason, you can pick up swagger, cross chop (fighting, base 100 with high critical chance but very low PP), thrash (base 120 normal move, hitting 2 or 3 times and then confusing the user), punishment (dark-type move that increases in power for every stat increase the foe has), close combat (120 base fighting move that reduces defence and special defence of the user and has low PP) and final gambit (classed as fighting and special, but damages the user by the HP you have remaining). Every move so far mentioned, aside from status moves and final gambit, is a physical move, so the poor special attack really didn't matter. Yay...

Now onto TMs, and since fighting doesn't do anything to ghosts (nor does normal) and you only get a limited choice on dark moves (even though they ruin psychics) then it's worth looking here, especially since you don't hurt flying or fairy either, really. You get a lot of standard moves like toxic, hone claws and bulk up, but you also get access to some special moves, which you really shouldn't take. No matter how enticing hidden power, thunder(bolt), round, overheat and focus blast are, you won't be playing to your strengths. Smack down is a good move, since it's rock type and will knock flying/levitating Pokemon to the ground, making them weak to ground attacks, though the power is a little low at 50. Earthquake is earthquake, dig is dig and brick break is still good and gets STAB. Return is a decent option if your Mankey/Primeape loves you (or frustration if they hate you). Rock tomb, facade, thief all options, as are aerial ace and acrobatics (somehow). Remember that acrobatics doubles in power when you don't have an item, so you could couple it with fling, if you wanted, or just run itemless. Retaliate is great to revenge kill since it doubles in power to 140 if a fellow died the previous turn, and poison jab is great for hammering those pesky fairies. U-turn is a good bug move that gives you a way out. Strengths and power-up punch are options, and there are a number of stat boosts available too.

You get a couple of decent moves by breeding, like night slash and revenge, as well as focus punch f you know you can work it. The tutor is a great place to go, however, with lots of physical moves like ice/fire/thunder punch, dual chop (dragon double hitter at base 40), outrage (base 120 dragon that is basically thrash), gunk shot (120 base poison) and seed bomb (base 80 grass). Nice pickings here.

So you've evolved, let's say. Now you're a Primeape. What do you get? Base 105 attack is pretty nice with base 95 speed, 65 HP with 60 defence and 70 special defence, and now even 60 special attack to ignore. You don't change typing or abilities, though.

It's another ball with legs! What genius design (again)!

The only changes to the level up set are the levels you learn at and the introduction of the forgettable rage upon evolving at level 28. Nothing to see here, folks, but then aside from hyper beam/giga impact, the only other move (and only worthwhile move) added to the TM list is stone edge. The tutor also gives nothing more.

All in all, this could be useful as a sweeper, with some decent, if restricted by type, attacks, three reasonable abilities and a good attack stat with decent speed. If you know what you're doing, this could be a decent curveball. Just don't expect it to beat up on something like a Mega Lucario...

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#54 + #55: Psyduck and Golduck

Ok, these two Pokemons' names were supposed to be the other way around, so we're already off to a great start...

Psyduck, the duck with a permanent headache, and whose name lies to you: it's not psychic-type, just water. It's fairly cute, so that may be why some people might choose to use it, since its stats are pretty average, a jack of all trades and master of none, really... Actually, that may be unkind, since its special attack is the same as Persian's, and nearly as high as Persian's attack, too (Psyduck has 65 special, Persian (who is fully evolved) only has 70 attack to carry it). The main issue is that it hasn't got anything to couple to: 50 HP and special defence and 48 defence means it's not really survivable, and 55 speed sort of lies in that limbo where it's too slow to be able to outspeed anything, and too quick to really be used on a trick room team. The attack stat, which is now fairly inconsequential, is just 52...

Has he been out drinking again?

With Persian, the poor attack was pretty much made up for by one of the best abilities in the game: technician. With technician, the low attack was sort of compensated by huge boosts to weaker moves that either got decent priority or had high extra effect chances (like bite or water pulse or whatever). Psyduck has some reasonable abilities: damp (isn't one of the reasonable abilities as all it does is shut down self-destruct/explosion and the ability aftermath, so it doesn't get much usage), cloud nine (negates weather effects, so reasonable but remember it can kill your own rain dance) and swift swim (probably the most useful since it doubles your speed in rain, sort of like chlorophyll but it doesn't need to make you insanely vulnerable, other than to increased accuracy thunder, actually). If you run swift swim, remember that you'll probably need another Pokemon to initiate the rain for you (or do it in doubles) since you aren't very survivable. This makes up for the dreadful speed we saw, doubling the base and EV investment. Nice!

So, Psyduck is kind of up in the air at the moment, meaning that the movepool is more a deciding factor... Keep in mind you evolve at level 33, and there are slight changes there, too.

We start with water sport which is pretty unnecessary, as it weakens fire when attacking something that resists fire and thus will never see a fire attack coming its way. You also get scratch and tail whip fairly early on, and then STAB special water gun, which is only base 40 (same as scratch) but at least it's progress. Going with the name but not the actual typing, you can then pick up 50 base special psychic-type confusion, which can be decent as coverage (especially since Chesnaught became a thing), but then you get fury swipes, which I've talked about before: low power hitting as a normal-type phsyical for 2 to 5 turns, so can be good, can be dreadful, but can be a sash breaker...

Moving on up to water pulse, and this could well be one of the better moves you'll have before evolving (base 60 water special with chance to confuse). Disable is a possible move if you work on survivability as it stops the use of the move that last hit you, which can be incredibly frustrating, but mainly works if you can survive fairly well or if they are trying to do a baton pass chain, for example. Screech can work to derail their speed, so not dreadful since it drops it two stages. Aqua tail is pretty powerful, but it is physical (90 base 90% accuracy) and has no secondary effect, unlike zen headbutt, which can flinch but is psychic physical, same accuracy and lower power (80 base). From here, you could evolve.

The first of the moves you could get if you evolve late is soak, which adds water type to a Pokemon, whether friend of foe, so this could have some decent tactical utility. Psych up copies the target's stat changes (both good and bad), amnesia boosts special defence by two stages, hydro pump is a very powerful STAB special attack but with lower accuracy and PP than you may be comfortable with (5PP is pretty worrying, especially if pressure or spite could come into effect), and wonder room swaps defence and special defence, so has some applications.

So far there's a couple of choices, so let's dive into the TM list to see if there's any hope. You do get a lot of the standard fare (hone claws, toxic, return, rest, double team, swagger, sleep talk and all those moves I can no longer force myself to write about or yourself to read about). The more interesting moves are moves like psyshock (80 base special psychic that uses your special attack against their physical defence, which is pretty awesome and can go well for breaking the walls they could send your way) and calm mind (boosts both special stats by a stage). Hail is available, but blizzard and ice beam lend themselves as decent coverage moves against those dastardly grass-types you never see in competitive play. Hidden power is a decent option since it's special, and can be a nice curve ball since its type varies. Light screen, protect and rain dance are all options (protect whilst a partner in doubles sets up rain dance maybe, then you could strike first with swift swim ability). Psychic and round work well, but surf is maybe a great idea since it's both useful in the overworld and one of the best water attacks. If surf doesn't do it for you, take scald at 10 less base (80 not 90) and with the chance of inflicting a burn (I like this move a lot).

Other TM moves you could pick include brick break, dig, facade, aerial ace, shadow claw, strength, power up punch, waterfall and dive. But then we get to breeding: confuse ray, clear smog, cross chop, hypnosis, future sight (beware it doesn't hit right away), mud bomb (ground special to take out electric threats), psybeam, refresh, synchronoise (only hits those of the same type but is psychic, so can hurt water-type opposition) and yawn are all decent ideas. Mud bomb is probably the best, though future sight can hurt a lot...

Going to the tutor can reward you with moves you already have, but you can also get focus punch (goes well with substitute), and icy wind (55 power but slows the foes), signal beam (decent coverage), snore (goes ok with rest), and then some iffy phsyical moves like iron tail and ice punch.

When you evolve into Golduck, you get some very nice stat increases: 80 HP, 82 attack, 90 special attack and 85 speed (consider as well swift swim) with 78 defence and 80 special defence, this makes a fairly serviceable Pokemon. Swift swim does remain as the hidden ability, so this is pretty good, but the other two fairly mediocre abilities stick around too.

Called Golduck, but isn't gold anymore... And looks like there's a sniper after it...

On evolving, you get aqua jet (which works great if you can breed it onto a huge power Marill). Remember when I said things changed? This was it, really. But it is a decent move, since it's basically a slightly more powerful water-type quick attack, so you could finish off a weakened enemy, but then again if you run swift swim in the rain with full EV investment then even Usain Bolt won't outspeed you.

As is typical when you get fully evolved, the TM list gains hyper beam and giga impact to be ignored again, but you can also get focus blast (special fighting base 120 and can lower the foe's special defence). The drawback of focus blast is low PP, whereas the drawback of hyper beam and giga impact is that they force you to miss a turn and will lead to you being screwed over. You also don't get any new moves from the tutor.

Golduck and Psyduck aren't per se bad: Golduck is actually pretty decent as a physical sweeper if you load up on some TMs, and it can be quite terrifying in the rain with swift swim, as you get the huge speed boost and boost to your water attacks (though thunder will hit reliably so you could be dead in the water (badum-tish)). Cloud nine isn't a bad ability, either, but it's a counter to others. Weigh up your options here on a Pokemon that could be pretty decent, in all truth, so long as you get the rain up.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)