#7 - #9: Squirtle, Wartortle and Blastoise

Since we've done Charmander and co., it's now time for his rival family, Squirtle and fam.

After being introduced with the Squirtle Squad, this Pokemon is bound to be a happy memory for you (until he went home and broke all our hearts...). This little Pokemon packs pretty good defences at the expense of any kind of speed. 65 def, and 64 special defence, as well as the rather unspectacular base 44 HP (one less than Bulbasaur) sets it out as a bit of a tank, with rather mediocre (50 and below) offensive stats. By level up it learns a couple of OK STAB specials such as water gun (of base 40 power isn't too disgraceful but is very much an early learner or story progress PP bulk move from higher level usage), bubble, water pulse (which I rather like since it has power to confuse and will be detailed when I get to the mega Blastoise and it's ability) and hydro pump (these last two, however, are at higher levels than Squirtle should still be Squirtle at). You also get a STAB physical of aqua tail.

Cute, cool, and useful if the town is burning down, but disappointingly weak and slow...

As far as TMs and HMs go, Squirtle could make a passable HM guy, with surf, strength, waterfall and rock smash, and with the TMs you can get decent coverage (a few ice moves, toxic, gyro ball so your lack of speed works in benefit, dig, return/frustration, and substitute and focus punch if you want to run the now slightly archaic yet still marginally worthwhile sub/punch routine). You also get scald, which I love: strong special water move that can result in a burn? I put that on my Primal Kyogre!

You also can get access to aqua jet (not kidding this move can be broken in the right hands), water spout, brine, and a few coverage moves through breeding.

Moving on to Wartortle (which I could never decide if this was a cooler name than Blastoise), you get a nice jump to 80 on the defences and 59 HP (which is still a bit poor), but couple that with eviolite and this could make a reasonable tank for lower tiers and the unevolved corner.

Seriously, with a name like Wartortle, that sounds like it should be more terrifying!

Carrying in a decent movepool from breeding and Squirtle and increases to both attack stats of 15, you can hit a little harder, but not with any real power. You get access to protect, which can work situationally and can work wonders to annoy the life out of your opponent, as well as the high damage skull bash on the brink of evolution. You also get access to a surprisingly deep and diverse pool of moves from the ORAS tutor, and through breeding you may go for aqua ring which gives 1/16 healing per turn and can be baton passed if you have the move. Aqua ring offers ok support on a tanky set as an equivalent of leftovers, so if you run eviolite, you can get basically leftovers from a move, and if you have leftovers, you can get it doubled, so not too shabby. Couple this with the evolutionary line's hidden ability rain dish, where in the rain you get another 1/16th of your health back, you can stick around for a while...

So now for Blastoise...100 defence and 105 special defence means that it is a passable, but not great tank unless you can get in some boosts, since the HP lounges around at 79. A low speed, and attack stats in the 80s means you won't be sweeping. You do get some decent moves that make a decent set, but you don't get much of a damage output. So why do you see Blastoise in online battles?

Pretty bad ass, and pretty useful.

The thing that makes Blastoise a decent choice (like Wartortle before it) is that they learn RAPID SPIN! So it's only 20 base power and can't hit ghosts... You aren't doing it for the damage, really. It clears entry hazards, like stealth rock and toxic spikes which can ruin your team if left lying around with no resistances to it. Clear them up, soak up a few hits, maybe drag some out, and then if you go down, you've left a clear path for the killing machine that is Mega Charizard Y, for example, or even a retaliate from something like a Terrakion or Slaking that will hit hard and fast (especially with scarves or whatnot).

Moving on from this, we now have a mega as of 2013. Mega Blastoise still has rubbish speed (78 is too slow to strike fast, and too fast to be on trick room and gyro ball sets) and HP (79 is not the best in the world), but you do get pretty impressive defensive stats (120 defence, 115 special defence), and a sudden jump 103 attack and 130 special attack, which put it into the realm of a heavy hitter. Damn, with surf on this thing you can hit things like a small train and come away with chance to fight another couple of turns!

Finally! A truly worthwhile mega!

You also get a new ability replacing torrent (standard junk starter ability that boosts your primary type damage in 'a pinch') or rain dish: Mega Launcher. I love mega launcher, particularly on Clauncher/Clawitzer, as it boosts the power of certain moves by 50%. The moves affected are: aura sphere, dark pulse, dragon pulse, water pulse and heal pulse. Blastoise can have all of these except heal pulse. Water pulse is the weakest at base 60, but with the boost and STAB it can be pretty devastating. The others are 80 (well, dragon is 85) and so offer some hard hitting coverage with reasonable PP. If you can't wait for Clauncher or whatever else gets heal pulse and it being worth mentioning, it can recover 50% of your health, and with mega launcher this goes up to a very respectable 75%.

All in all, I would say that this evolutionary line is one to seriously consider. With a decent bulk in each step of the chain, decent moves (including the useful rapid spin) and two (maybe three) nice abilities, it allows you some great flexibility to setup as you please, and this allows you to catch people off guard, which is always pretty damned nice. Also, with pure water typing, you don't have too much to be afraid of (especially not since you can get some ace ice-type moves to kill off grass threats, leaving electric as your main worry). I would even say that this was worth considering mega evolving, which is interesting since there are some excellent ones coming soon...

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