#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)