#115: Kangaskhan

Ooh goody, a one off Pokemon (and for those of you out there saying that Cubone, Marowak and Missingno should be combined with this post, I will usher you to a new layer of Hell).

Kangaskhan, being all alone, was always going to have to be pretty strong. 105 HP, 95 attack (ok, a little disappointing), 80 defence, 40 special attack (a low special attack doesn't matter if you have a good attack, I'd rather sacrifice the other attack I won't use than anything else), 80 special defence and 90 speed: this all looks like a nice sweeper setup. You're pretty quick, and with decent EV investment can outrun a lot of things, but then hey, if you don't, those defences and that HP enable you to soak up some punishment and get some pain delivery going. You're a normal-type, but with the awesome scrappy ability, you can use normal attacks on ghosts and keep their STAB. The other abilities are early bird (wakes you up after fewer turns) and the hidden inner focus (prevents flinching).

I love the cute look of wonder on the baby!

Hmm... comet punch has base 18 as a normal physical move but it can hit repeatedly in the turn and so can be used as a sash breaker (this may be redundant, see below), and leer drops the foe's defence by one stage. Fake out allows you to pop up at the start of a conflict and hit the foe for 40 base physical normal damage, but the main thing is causing the flinch, meaning it's a free bit of damage with no rebuttal. Hey, remember we had leer a little while ago? Well, tail whip does the same thing exactly, but may have a slightly cuter animation. Bite is a nice move, with base 60 physical dark attack and the chance to flinch, and later on you can get crunch, which is base 80 physical dark with the chance to lower defence instead. Double hit hits twice (wow!) for base 35 physical normal damage on each hit, and can thus be another (semi-redundant) sash breaker like the disappointing comet punch. Rage is just terrible: base 20 physical normal that gets better when you get hurt but you need to keep using it. It's really not worth taking rage...

What mega punch lacks in accuracy (85) and lack of secondary effect, it makes up for with a cool name and a decent base 80 normal physical, but shortly after you can take the more accurate, slightly weaker (base 70, 100 accuracy) dizzy punch, which also has a 20% chance of confusing the enemy. Chip away hits at base 70 normal physical whilst ignoring stat changes, and outrage is a base 120 physical dragon move that hits for a few turns before leaving the user confused. Suckerpunch is a dark physical move (base 80) that hits with priority, but will only work if the foe is readying a damaging move. You also get the combo of endure and reversal, meaning you can tank a physical hit down to 1HP before hitting back with huge power.

You do get a nice array of moves by TM, and I would seriously consider return and facade for the STAB. You could also take blizzard and ice beam, solar beam, thunder/bolt, earthquake or dig, shadow ball, protect, brick break, flamethrower or fire blast, aerial ace, rock tomb, round, focus blast, incinerate (to kill off berries), shadow claw, retaliate (with STAB, and what comes later, on a turn after a comrade has fallen... yikes), bulldoze, rock slide, hyperbeam or giga impact, rock smash, power-up punch, secret power, strength, surf and cut.

You can breed in some decent moves like counter, endeavour, foresight (if you lack scrappy), focus punch, hammer arm, stomp and uproar. If you drop in on the tutor, they can give you drain punch, the elemental punches, focus punch and endeavour, water pulse (not sure why), aqua tail, covet, iron tail, icy wind, low kick, spite and uproar.

Yeah, you get some decent stats above, and you get some decent choices for abilities, as well as some powerful moves, but the introduction of Mega Kangaskhan is a little frightening due to the nice boost to attack up to 125, the defences and speed up to 100, the HP staying as a good 105, and even special attack climbing to 60, along with a nice, shiny new ability: parental bond. Parental bond lets the little joey in the pouch hop out and do his thing by imitating its mummy and doing the same move as a follow-up, but at only 50% power. Still, you're doing 150% base power unless you self destruct, you use a multi hit move like comet punch, or a move with charge/recharge. You get the attack boost from power-up punch twice, however.

It looks like they're putting on a Broadway show...

Ok, Mega Kangaskhan has made a decent Pokemon a very viable option these days, yet if you don't want to run it as a mega, then you still have decent options available: you're sturdy enough to be a defence focused Pokemon, stalling for a few turns and doing some nice damage before you drop, and you could also be a slightly slow but bulky physical sweeper.

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