#96 + #97: Drowzee and Hypno

Why is it that there are psychic pig Pokemon (see Spoink and Grumpig later on as well)? Drowzee and Hypno were basically unbeatable in generation one due to errors, but how do they really hold up?

Drowzee is a hideous design, and the stat list isn't too spectacular. It has a good base 90 special defence and ok HP (base 60), but with psychic, you would expect better special attack than 43, or even better than the 48 attack. Speed is in the gutter with only base 42 and defence prevents full tanking with 45 base. As far as abilities go, you get access to insomnia (rather ironic since you're called Drowzee, this prevents you from being put to sleep), forewarn (tells you your foe's most powerful attack) and the hidden ability being inner focus (prevents you from being flinched). Nothing amazing there... Oh, and as alluded to, you're pure psychic.

Dear God NOOOO!

You start with pound, and your name's move (from Japanese) of hypnosis. The thing is, you don't get dream eater by level up (take it from TMs). You do get disable, confusion and headbutt. Poison gas has a high chance of poisoning the foes (90%), and you can also take meditate to boost your attack by one stage. Psybeam is next up, effectively replacing the special psychic confusion but with a bit more power (65 rather than 50), and then you can take headbutt again (physical normal base 70). Psych up copies the foe's stat boosts, whilst synchronoise looks tempting with very high power (base 120 psychic special) but it only hits those who are the same type as you, meaning a non-effective hit on other psychics (hope that your foe is psychic/fighting for a neutral hit). Zen headbutt is a little less accurate than headbutt, but is base 80 and psychic, so you get STAB when it lands, and swagger is a classic we've discussed often before. Psychic is really a better option than synchronoise at base 90 and hitting anything, and psyshock is also using your special attack but hits the foe's defence for some versatility (10 lower power at base 80, but so worth it). Nasty plot gives a two stage boost to special attack, and the last move is future sight, which hits as hard as synchronoise but after a two turn delay, so your foe has plenty of chance to swap out to a dark-type and resist it entirely.

By TM, calm mind, hidden power (depending upon what type you get), toxic, protect, safeguard, reflect, thunderwave, trick room and confide are all decent options if you can sit around and survive. I would say rest, but with insomnia it won't work. Toxic can whittle the foe down whilst they sleep, which pretty much makes up for your lack of damage output, and protect can stall them more. With hypnosis and maybe dream eater, you can whittle down most things bit by bit. If you're looking to actually dole out damage, you can take power-up-punch, dazzling gleam, secret power, low sweep (also drops their speed), brick break, facade and shadow ball. Light screen is a decent shout for something to take, and you could always setup sunshine or rain for your team.

You can breed in the elemental punches, barrier, skill swap (can wreck things), psycho cut, guard swap and barrier if you can be bothered. If nothing strikes you fancy, go to the tutor for the elemental punches, skill swap and zen headbutt again! The tutor can also give focus punch, drain punch, foul play, signal beam and snore, along with role play, magic room, magic coat, snatch, trick and recycle.

You can evolve at level 26 into Hypno (sadly not a toad). Yeah, things get a little better: 85 HP is a nice increase, 73 on both attacks, 70 defence and 67 speed, but the thing that gives this Pokemon mileage is the 115 special defence. There's no chance to mono-psychic nor to the abilities. Oh, and this Pokemon is also hideous!

GET IT AWAY FROM ME!!!

As far as level up goes, nightmare and switcheroo come into play. Switcheroo swaps held items with the target, whilst nightmare can take 25% of the foe's HP per turn when they're asleep, basically being the best routine move you could hope for since it requires no investment in attack or special attack, allowing you to focus on survivability. The standard TMs come in with hyper beam and giga impact, as well as focus blast, but that's about it, really. Nothing new from the tutor.

All in all, I really don't like Drowzee and Hypno much. I hate their design, they're rather forgettable, despite some usability, and they remind me of a nightmare I had when I was very young, so I doubt you'd ever see them on my team. This isn't a reason not to use them, however: a reason not to use them is because their abilities are poor and their stats are mediocre.

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