#50 + #51: Diglett and Dugtrio

Ok, this evolutionary line kinda straddles the border between cute maybe disturbing on the first glance, but I guess more importantly there's the question of how good it is...

So, Diglett is ground-type and has access to three abilities including the hidden ability: sand veil (increases evasion in a sandstorm and decreases the wild Pokemon encounter rate in a sandstorm), arena trap (prevents Pokemon from fleeing or switching out unless they are immune to ground-type moves or are ghosts) and sand force (boosts the power of rock, steel and ground-type moves in a sandstorm).

I can't decide if this is an adorable little thing, poo or the protrusion of a planet destroyer...

Stat-wise, the main thing here is the incredible (and slightly baffling) speed stat with base 95 as an unevolved Pokemon. To put this into perspective, Charizard only has 100, Arcanine is 95, and both Rapidash and Scyther (well known for being quick) only get to 105. Hell, Diglett dramatically outpaces Blaziken and Absol, and is nearly as fast as the Mega-Blaziken, as well as getting a tie with Sharpedo (which is a shark, so you'd expect it to be quite fast)... But enough about this amazing speed: aside from 55 attack and 45 special defence, you have nothing to offer. 25 defence and 35 special attack let this Pokemon down a little, but the worst is the pathetic HP with only 10. Yikes...

Diglett evolves at level 26, basically when it gets mud bomb, meaning good moves will probably come in for Dugtrio instead, but this is no concern, really. You get access to sand attack and growl in an attempt to hinder the opponent, but since you won't survive a hit from an enemy unless you're sashed or behind screens then this isn't necessarily wise unless there is a good plan in place. There are some good moves available with secondary effects like bulldoze which can drop speed on the foe. Scratch is fairly pointless unless you can't think of anything better and have no TMs at hand in which case this may be your only cover, and you're willing to die in two turns. Astonish hits without much force (30) but does give another type as coverage (ghost) and also can cause flinching, meaning you may get chance to do a little damage.

As a direct replacement for sand attack you could take mud slap (you're trading normal for ground, so remember what this conveys in terms of typing). Mud slap is base 20 damage but also can drop accuracy one stage. For sheer damage output, you can get bulldoze and sucker punch (only works if the foe is readying an attack, and is dark-type), or take a chance on magnitude: this attack has a wide range of powers that it can randomly draw from ranging from magnitude 4 (5% chance hitting at just base 10) all the way to magnitude 10 (again 5% chance hitting at a devastating 150), with the most common being at base 70 as magnitude 7. Mud bomb (basically a harder hitting mud slap) hits at a good 65 base, but is special, and is thus wasted here, as is earth power, but you'll probably evolve before then, so we'll come back to the others in a little while.

So we go to the TM list. You get quite a bit of the standard fare like toxic, return, sunny day (no danger here since you won't really see many fire moves coming your way) and protect. More interesting options are things like earthquake, though you can get this by level up, and dig, which hits with less force and means that if you are underground earthquake and magnitude will hit twice as hard BUT it has uses in the field and also can be of use having that turn hidden out of the way. Sandstorm can work quite well with the abilities you have and the lack of damage you take from it, and as coverage you maybe should consider rock tomb and facade (remember that if you have an ailment then it will hit with double the power at a terrifying 140). One move that baffles me that you can get here is aerial ace, since Diglett is hidden underground (largely) then how the hell can it learn flying moves?! Absurd!

With that mini-rant over, you could get shadow claw (pretty powerful ghost move) and rock slide. For use in the field then you can take secret power (which opens secret bases and hits fairly hard) as well as rock smash (not really worth it) and cut. From breeding you could pick up ancient power if you (for some reason) focus special attack, and beat up and feint attack allow for decent dark type attacks. Pursuit, reversal and headbutt are all also possibly viable, but with reversal, this is only really worth it if you know you can take a heavy hit, so maybe use a focus sash, go down to low health and guarantee that you won't be outsped...

You may choose to go see the tutor, who will only give you earth power (which is available at level 29), snore (which goes with rest on the TM list, but neither are worth it) and stealth rock, which can allow Diglett a nice niche as the trap setter as a lead off Pokemon, so long as you don't mind it being wiped out pretty much straight away.

Dugtrio has some very messed up fan-art for what's under the ground, so do yourself a favour and never look for this. You remember how good the speed was on Diglett? Well, Dugtrio gets a nice healthy boost to a massive 120, which leaves a large number of sweepers behind, excepting some of the mega evolutions. You also get nice boosts to attack (making this a possible sweeper if you choose the right moves and the right item), special defence (70) means that you can almost take a hit if it wasn't for the poor HP (35), but the defence and special attack (both 50) aren't something to work with. Oh, you're also still mono-ground-type and keep the same abilities.

Does it have three heads, or are there just three Digletts? Maybe to evolve it decapitated others... Damn...

The introduction of tri-attack is almost heartbreaking since it hits quite hard, is quite rare but is a special attack, and since my own special attack stat is higher than that of Dugtrio (seriously, I'm an absolute monster). To make things worse (well, more disappointing), there's a 20% chance of inflicting one of three status afflictions on the enemy, so there's temptation to take this move that won't hit very hard due to no special attack here. Night slash is a more welcome addition as a pretty good dark attack (70 base with a better chance of a critical). The other sudden addition is rototiller, which may lead to your destruction as it gives boosts to all grass-type Pokemon on the field. The last move snuck in is sand tomb. Sand tomb is a low power ground (so with STAB) physical that traps the opponent for a few turns, inflicting routine damage.

Going back to the ones we skipped over before, you can take earth power if you don't understand the difference between special and physical attacks by this point (really, think this through). More likely you'll be looking at dig, slash and earthquake. Slash is an interesting proposition as it hits fairly hard (70) with a good critical chance and in being normal it hits most things neutrally. Additions to the TM list are almost universally pointless due to them being special type and not that good, but stone edge is a very hard hitting rock-type coverage move, so a decent idea, maybe.

Since the tutor offers nothing more, then I will just say it: I like Diglett and Dugtrio. They're dorky looking and throwing a crisp at them could knock them out, but they are surprisingly fast with decent attack and some nice moves available (though mainly only normal, ground, rock, dark and ghost, plus aerial ace for some unknowable reason, so you are fairly restricted). The thing is, this is a Pokemon for a lower tier, and this makes it viable for those reasons: it won't be facing a Ho-Oh or Mega-Charizard unless you have special plans for it in tiers that are maybe a little high. All in all, it's not a bad shout to have one trained and on hand.

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