#104+ #105: Cubone and Marowak

Oh no... We've gone from the rubbishy eggs to something that is arguably weaker but infinitely more interesting in one of the most depressing/terrifying/creepy Pokemon ever. Seriously, it wears it's mother's skull!

Other than a good defence (95), Cubone's stats have nothing really going for them, featuring a mediocre 50HP, 50 attack, 40 special attack, 50 special defence and a rather miserable 35 speed. Taken as an average, that's worse than Exeggcute, however it's pure ground, so it has less crushing weaknesses, and it has some decent abilities. Lightning rod means that all electric attacks will home in on it and raise it's special attack, whilst rock head eliminates recoil from attacks like double edge and whatnot. The hidden ability is pretty boring: battle armour is the same as shell armour in that it prevents being hit by a critical, and that is all. The weird quirk here is that, like with Pikachu, you get a held item for Cubone that doubles its attack, but unlike Pikachu it also works on the evolved form and leaves special attack alone. This item, thick club, makes a bad Pokemon viable.

Mummy?

The level-up move list is pretty dull and offers no coverage, but all attacks play to the slightly better physical side of things (read considerably better with thick club). The moves you start with aren't great, with the first two being growl and tail whip, but again, they aren't entirely useless as you can weaken physical attacks incoming further and then soften the foe up to your physical attacks, so fair play. Next up is bone club, a signature move. Bone club is a base 65 ground physical with a chance to flinch, and is thus a decent choice, at least early on. You also get headbutt, leer and focus energy, followed by the other notable signature: bonemerang. Despite the awful name, bonemerang is a good call, hitting physical ground at base 50 TWICE, with the first hit able to break substitutes and setup the second, as well as acting as a sash breaker. The only other moves before you can evolve are rage (no) and false swipe (only if you're using this as a catcher).

If you hold off evolution then you can take thrash (base 120 normal physical hitting for a few turns but leaving you confused), fling (if you're stupid and want to lose the thick club that makes you relevant (see Marowak below)), bone rush (another signature, ground physical with base 25, hitting for 2 to 5 hits and is consequently a decent sash breaker but averages out at 79 base, so lesser to bonemerang and consequently not worth taking, really...), endeavour (you'll drag the foe's HP down to yours), double edge (a powerful base 120 physical normal attack with recoil, unless you have rock head, which makes this a great move, and better than thrash since there's no confusion), and retaliate, because a Pokemon that carries around parts of its dead mother should obviously have a move that hits harder in memoriam of a recently fallen comrade.

Ok, typical TM moves are here again, so toxic, rest, blah blah blah. You can take earthquake, which was suspiciously absent from the level list, but bonemerang may actually be a better choice due to the sash breaking potential unless you're aiming for hitting the field in multi-battles. Dig is weaker but has that turn out, so could be useful if you foresee something or other, like maybe a solar beam? I dunno, take bonemerang or earthquake for more obvious choices. What's really odd is that you get access to both blizzard and ice beam (I guess they're useful for the flying weakness, but as special moves they're of limited use, and they just seem really out of place). Instead of the ice moves, smackdown can handily deal with flying foes, and though the base power is only 50, rather than 90 or 110, the massive gulf between attack stats when a thick club is applied means that it will likely hit harder AND knock them out of the air in case they survive. If you don't fancy a base 50 move, then rock slide could be the perfect thing other than the 90 accuracy, and rock tomb is 95 accuracy but 60 power, so not much better than smackdown. It's like bulldoze (also available): uninspiring.

No point taking hidden power unless you REALLY want it, and the same applies for overheat, flamethrower, fire blast and sunny day (since it allows spammable solar beams at you, and none of these moves make any sense), and remember fling is utterly awful, and so is thief since you'll be holding an item. While round and echoed voice are also useless, facade could be a good one to have (say if you're poisoned), return is potentially good (if it loves you then it smashes things), as is strength and secret power, which covers decent physical normal moves if you don't have rock head and don't want thrash. Brick break and power-up punch offer decent fighting moves (rock smash is the same power as power-up punch but doesn't make you stronger), whilst aerial ace, though absurd to have it here, is a good physical flying move. 

Breeding can net you belly-drum, which could be absolutely amazing... if you had the HP to cover for it. Also you can get ancient power, which would be amazing if it was physical since it a) is rock type and covers flying issues and b) can boost every stat. Chip away is another solid normal physical (base 70, ignores stat changes), endure (you'll survive the next hit, and can couple with endeavour if you know that they won't just finish you off), detect (basically protect), iron head (again a recoil move, steel physical but only base 80), perish song (I'm going to pretend that wasn't there since it's so morbid) and skull bash (first turn raises your defence, next turn hits for base 130 physical normal) since you sort of have two skulls. Sorry, that was a little sick...

The tutor offers quite a lot, really. Icy wind is pretty worthless, however (no STAB, indifferent power, special), and since earth power is less powerful than both hits of bonemerang or one earthquake and is special, then it's no use. Thunder and fire punch offer good utility (flying and ice coverage respectively) and are of decent physical power (base 75), whilst focus punch is still pretty much a waste of time despite the power. Iron head has been discussed, and iron tail is inaccurate, so ignore them, and uproar, snore and even low kick are pretty dull and impotent. Really, iron defence is a great shout to buff your defence, whilst stealth rock usually has a place in everyone's team these days. The other move is knock off, which is also always worth considering as it has a fair punch and can remove the foe's item without interfering with your own.

Marowak looks less sad and more vengeful when compared to Cubone, and with 80 attack, it's pretty scary. What, you mean you've forgotten already? Right, 80 attack is good, but stick on a thick club and it's a scary 160 base (*@£!) plus double IV and EV investment... 110 regular and 80 special defence is also pretty nice, and you could be forgiven for going assault vest if you really had to. 60 HP still sucks and prevents a horrifying belly drum set, the 50 special attack is utterly irrelevant, and the 45 speed is still a little tragic unless you're on a trick room team... Same ground-type and abilities, by the way.

"You killed my mother, now I kill you! Wait, you didn't? Well, I'll kill you anyway, it helps take my mind off the grief and crippling loneliness..."

Hey, you know what trend we haven't seen enough of? A total lack of change in movesets on evolving. Yeah, at least it keeps it nice and simple. The real issue is when the TM list doesn't change. Thankfully, there are some changes. Well, adding in focus blast (special and thus worthless), hyper beam (always worthless), giga impact (physical and so a little less worthless, but still pretty worthless), sandstorm (eh...), and stone edge (powerful (100) but a little hit and miss (80 accuracy)). The tutor now offers outrage, which is the same as thrash except it's dragon-type rather than normal.

Ok, so you have the wearing the dead mother's skull, and the link to Kangaskhan being it's mother (I can't remember or care for all of that), but more importantly, you have that attack with thick club. The average base stat is far lower than Exeggutor, but this Pokemon is so much better: even without thick club you have far better typing and far better (and more options in) abilities. Factor in the much better special defence than the egg monstrosities, the better movepool, and that scary thick club and Marowak is actually pretty damn good, especially with trick room active. Fairly decent at survival, and very good at killing, this little orphan can whoop a lot of things.

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