#46 + #47: Paras and Parasect

Seeing as I'm VERY allergic to mushrooms (much to my girlfriend's ire), Paras and Parasect are not great for me in terms of design, but does that make them bad Pokemon all round? I remember finding a level 49 Parasect in Mt. Silver whilst playing Crystal, and I threw a Pokeball at it on the first turn, and BAM! Mine, so I have that positive.

Before we really get going I'd like to point out that you get access to stun spore and sleep powder along with false swipe, which is great for catching wild Pokemon, so it could always have a use.

One thing to take into account is that Paras is slow... 25 base speed slow... Only on a trick room team slow... Both of your defences are reasonable at 55, but health is a bit crap at only 35, so you don't hit first and you may not survive much, especially since you're bug/grass and thus demolished by fire... If, by a miracle, you survive then you'll be using your physical attack (70) rather than special (45).

AAAAH! Kill it with fire (so long as I have a respirator)

You get three available abilities: effect spore (we've seen this before: contact has a 30% chance of inflicting a status condition on the opponent), dry skin (makes fire hurt you more, sunlight also inflicts damage to you, but water attacks and rain heal you) and damp (hidden ability which prevents self-destruct and explosion, and also negates the effect of aftermath).

From levelling, you gain access to a few decent moves. Early on you get scratch and the effect powders/spore. There's not too much to think about here, you know if you want them or not. You get access to leech life and fury cutter, which are both bug-type, so you get STAB, and they're both physical. Leech life is very low base power (20) but does give you some of their health, whilst fury cutter is a bit stronger (40). Slash is a good neutral move at 70 base power, and being normal it will hit most (not all) things as neutral but without STAB, yet with a fairly high critical chance. Growth boosts both attack stats by one stage unless you're in the sun, in which case it goes up two stages. Tragically, the poor special attack means that giga drain, which hits hard and heals well, is not that practical for you. Aromatherapy cures all status problems within the party and rage powder makes the Pokemon as a preferential target. X-scissor will probably be your primary STAB attack, since it has very good base power (80) with good accuracy (100) and decent PP (15) with no secondary effects.

You do get access to some decent TMs, so consider dig, since that can hurt the fire-types that will wreck you (if you can't switch out on them) along with brick break as a decent coverage attack. Special attacks are pretty much not worth it, like solar beam (since with dry skin you'll be losing HP when trying to support solar beam and a charging turn is basically suicide), and sludge bomb, hidden power and venoshock also don't play to your strengths. You could pick up aerial ace (not bad), facade (if you have a status problem then this would be really powerful), cut, rock smash and false swipe. False swipe, if you didn't know, will always leave 1HP, with 40 base power, so this is great for catching. Other special moves that are available but probably should be ignored: round, energy ball, grass knot and struggle bug. You also get the rest of the standard fare, like toxic and return and things like that (rest included).

Some decent moves can be bred in, such as cross poison, fell stinger, metal claw and bug bite. You can also get things like leech seed, flail, endure and counter. If you go to the tutor, you can get seed bomb (very decent physical grass-type attack) and knock off, with a few other moves that aren't necessarily worth it because they are special.

Evolving, you become Parasect, and get a nice few boosts to the stats. Your speed goes up to 30, so not a big jump but that's good for trick rooming things. Attack gets respectable at 95 (not great but decent), 80 in both defences with 60 HP, so there is some survivability, oh, and special attack now gets up to 60, so basically decent for an unevolved Pokemon. You don't really even get anything new from this evolution: no new typing, no new abilities, and no new level moves. You get one or two new TMs that aren't particularly worthwhile. All in all, you just get the boosts...

J-John Lennon????

This isn't an evolutionary line I really care for other than using one at a grossly high level in wild encounters to ensnare new Pokemon. This is probably the best use for them, but don't just ignore them: if you like them then use them...

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