#147-149: Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite

So we've passed the first legendary trio, now we're to the first pseudo-legendary, that is a Pokemon with a base stat total of 600, which usually fits in between sets of legendaries in the Pokedex. Quite a lot of these have been dragons, and this is the first that sets the trend.

Ah Dratini. So cute, and so annoying to find in most games. Dratini itself is a little weak, with fairly balanced stats reading as 41HP, 64 attack, 45 defence, then 50 across the rest (both specials and speed). Little mediocre, but you get the ability shed skin as standard (30% chance at the end of each turn to cure status conditions) and marvel scale as the hidden ability (if you're inflicted with a status condition (not confusion/infatuation), your defence gets a 50% boost). If you forgot, this is a dragon-type.

Awww!

Little baby Dratinis will start with wrap (traps the opponent using a base 15 normal physical move that keeps the foe in play for a few turns, inflicting mild recurrent damage) and leer (decreases the foe's defence by a stage). Thunder wave comes in pretty early as a weak electric shock (so won't work on ground-type foes) that will paralyse the foe, whilst twister brings in the first STAB move as a base 40 dragon special move with a chance to flinch the enemy, hitting all adjacent foes, even those in the middle of fly, bounce and sky drop, these situations leading to double damage output. Dragon rage comes in to hit foes for 40HP damage (typing only plays a part on immunities, so it will not hurt fairies), and slam is a base 80 physical normal move with poor accuracy (75), which is then followed by agility, which allows you to boost your speed a bit. Dragon tail will knock the foe out of battle as a base 60 dragon physical move, which has a very low priority, pretty much guaranteeing it will hit last. Aqua tail is a different story, a base 90 water physical move.

Dragon rush is a base 100 dragon physical move with disappointing accuracy (75), a 20% chance to cause flinching, and is another move that ruins the idea of ever using minimize, hitting a minimized foe without fail and with double the power. Safeguard pops up to protect the team from status conditions, and dragon dance boosts attack and speed by a stage, which is actually rather awesome, with great utility on this line. Outrage is a dragon equivalent of flail, hitting very hard (base 120) as a dragon physical move for a few turns before leaving the user confused, which means you could already have swept through the opponent before you get the downside, whilst hyper beam pops up to end the list as the same worthless move it always is, a base 150 normal special move with 90 accuracy, a recharge turn and just generally being disappointing.

You get some nice things in the TM list, with the old standards like return, toxic, rest, sleep talk, swagger, double team, substitute etc... But then you get hail, blizzard and ice beam? Ok, I guess. You also get flamethrower and fire blast (as well as sunny day and rain dance) to cover the ice weakness, and light screen can buff up your bulk. Thunder pops up along with thunderbolt, incinerate and facade are also there, and dragon tail again makes an appearance.

This is a Pokemon that can breed, after three that were seemingly sterile. Aqua jet is basically a water version of quick attack, hitting as a base 40 physical move with priority. Dragon dance and dragon breath also appear, the latter being a base 60 dragon special move, which is succeeded by dragon pulse as a base 85 dragon special move that can target anyone in a triple battle. Dragon rush is there again, as well as extreme speed, which we will see later. The rest of the list is a little boring, with mist, haze, iron tail, water pulse, dragon pulse and supersonic. If you feel like visiting the tutor to see what they can give you, aqua tail comes up again, along with the previously visited water pulse, outrage and iron tail, alongside the old familiar snore, icy wind and also shockwave (base 60 electric special with no accuracy check other than against semi-invulnerable turns). Bind is basically wrap from the pre-level level list, and draco meteor is one of those high power moves (base 130) that kills your stats (2 stage drop to special attack) as a dragon special attack, so it hits less and less each time, but is amazing if your only going to use it once, or actually the best thing ever if you've got contrary.

You may well have evolved before dragon tail, with the chance to become Dragonair at level 30. You keep the old abilities, and you get a rather regular boost of 20 to all stats (61HP, 84 attack, 65 defence, and then everything else at 70). You remain mono-dragon, and the only real differences beyond the stats are the introductions of surf and waterfall as water moves to the HM slots (the former is base 90 special, the latter base 80 physical with a chance to flinch the foe).

What's with the tail beads and the Adam's apple?

Dragonair can then evolve at level 55 into Valoo from Windwaker Dragonite, the cuddly, dorky looking orange dragon, not sure why the colour change. You get an average of plus 30 to the stats, but that doesn't actually hold up, with 30 boosts to HP, defence, special attack and special defence (now 91, 95, 100 and 100 respectively), but attack goes up by 50 to 134 and speed edges up a little to a modest 80. You add flying to the typing, and you swap the abilities out: standard ability to inner focus, which prevents flinching (moderately helpful since most of the time you'll be going second, which is when flinches actually affect you), and the hidden ability goes to multiscale (damage taken when at full HP is halved, except moves that do fixed damage, like the aforementioned dragon rage).

"Hey!"

Fire and thunder punch come into the fold as base 75 physical moves (you can guess the types here) with chances to afflict their associated status issues. Wing attack also pops up to go with the newly sprouted wings, hitting as a base 60 flying physical attack with 35PP (which is amazing) and can hit anyone in a triple battle. Hurricane also appears, hitting as a base 110 flying special move with 70 accuracy, but in sunshine it gets worse accuracy and in the rain it skips the accuracy check. Hurricane even hits foes in the middle of a flying turn for more damage.

Hone claws (attack and accuracy up a stage), dragon claw (base 80 dragon physical), earthquake, brick break, sandstorm, rock tomb, aerial ace, steel wing, focus blast, sky drop, stone edge and fly all pop into the TM list. The tutor now offers the elemental punches, heat wave (see the legendary birds), iron head, tail wind and superpower (base 120 physical fighting that drops both your physical stats by a stage) along with focus punch. If you brought Dragonite from a previous generation you could have extreme speed here, which could then be bred onto the successors, but this option has disappeared.

All in all, this is pretty good. You lack speed, and priority has dried up a bit over the years, but there's power and bulk here, so not hitting first may not be awful, and hey, you can draco meteor your way out of trouble for a second or two, killing a foe and crippling another before you're finally downed. Fairy has made this a little worse, but still, this is so cute a line, and so iconic it's well worth considering, even if it's just to be your friend.

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

#146: Moltres

So we now reach number three, the final of the Spanish legendary birds, the majestic phoenix Moltres.

So, Moltres... This again suffers from the 580 syndrome, and is basically the same as Zapdos in stats with the same HP and special attack (90 and 125 respectively), and with similar everything else, with a few swaps. This leads to 100 physical attack, 90 speed, the defences swapped (90 physical and 85 special), and the same pressure ability as the standard. This time, the hidden ability is flame body, which is pretty much the same as static but results in a burn instead of paralysis, and can be used to hatch eggs faster. Oh, and you're flying/fire this time.

I more imagine this kicking young Harry Potter's ass than dragging him through the sewers...

We have the same deranged move situation again, this time running through roost (we know this one), hurricane (which pops up through this trio quite a lot as a special flying move with 110 damage, 70 accuracy and the chance to ignore the accuracy check in rain, though that said it will be ruined by sunny day), sky attack (base 140 flying physical with a charging turn and 90 accuracy, with the chance to flinch the foe, too, but still not really worth it when fly exists), heat wave (base 95 fire special with 90 accuracy, 10% chance of inflicting a burn and can hit all adjacent foes), wing attack (base 60 physical flying attack with good accuracy and huge PP as 35PP, and can hit ANYONE other than the user, so the middling power is the only drawback), and then ember (base 40 fire special with the chance to burn the foe). All of these before the actual levels kick in.

When the levels kick in, they still don't really matter until the last four before level 50, do they? Fire spin is a fire special move with only base 35 power and 85 accuracy (and 10 less PP than ember), but it does trap the foe for a few turns to do regular slight damage, so there's that. I'm bored of describing agility on these ones, so I'll go straight to endure, which allows you to survive a hit, even if you get taken down to 1HP, and then you get ancient power YET AGAIN! You should know flamethrower, which is a base 90 fire special with 100 accuracy, the chance to burn the foe and 5 more PP than heat wave (which has 10), so that leads to a hard decision... Safeguard prevents the team being afflicted by status problems for a while, and the other move you'll no doubt find on it is air slash, a base 75 flying special move that can hit any target you so wish with a good chance of a flinch and 95 accuracy.

Sunny day is an interesting choice since it will boost your fire moves and remove the charging on solar beam (which comes up next but one as a base 120 grass special) but it will also kill the accuracy of hurricane, so the choice is yours. Up comes heat wave again, and since that's written up above, just go back... Solar beam is next as I hinted, then sky attack, roost and hurricane (see above).

Yet again there are no egg moves (for obvious reasons), and the TM list is very familiar to the other two, but of course lacking ice and electric moves, including hail. You still get U-turn, roar, toxic, return, steel wing, sandstorm and facade. This time you get solar beam and flamethrower again, along with fire blast, overheat (base 130 special fire, 90 accuracy, 5PP and kills your stats), flame charge (base 50 fire physical that boosts your speed a stage on use), will-o-wisp inflicts a burn, and incinerate destroys the foe's berry along with dealing base 60 fire special damage. Sky drop is back, and the HMs are the same again. Moving on to the tutor to see if we can find something really new that offers any sort of coverage will leave you disappointed: just 4 moves, being sky attack, heat wave, snore and tail wind.

I'd be tempted to argue that this is the weakest of the three, but looks pretty, and still has good stats to back it up. You can really use a mixed attacking set, if only to allow for U-turn, return and maybe even flame charge as alternatives or utility, flame charge making up a little for the lower speed than Zapdos for allowing a free stage boost. You can still maybe take a hit or two, especially with some nice resistances and the ground immunity, but stealth rock will mess you up like mad. You also need to decide: rain or shine?

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

Oh, and for the few of you who read this far (or this at all), I'm planning soon to introduce some companion Youtube series (when I have some time after this silly season I'm in the middle of and when the generation one run is done). I have two ideas to put to you:
1) battle videos: basically I upload some of my online battles from Y and Alpha Sapphire, and this will make me do some more of this, which you can then issue challenges such as just a duel challenge or a challenge team, though Matthew (Lizzie's brother) and I have a good set of these already founded
2) WonderTrade Adventures: I sort out something (halfway) decent to stick on wondertrade, whether it's something cool I've bred or something rare I've caught, and we keep trading what we receive until we get something decent.

Bare in mind I don't have the fancy gadgets to do proper recording people like Pimpnite and Verlis have setup, so it will be on a cheapo handheld recorder we bought when I had an awkward run trying to vlog. I'd like some feedback on the ideas and which you'd rather I did first. Thanks.

#145: Zapdos

You wait forever for a legendary Pokemon to come along and two (well, three, actually, but this is the second one) arrive pretty much at the same time. Again with the legendary Spanish bird trio situation.

Zapdos is the electric one of the bunch, also being flying-type as well. We again get the slightly sad base stat total of 580, which is good, but since this is a legendary, you wouldn't expect ordinary mortals like Dragonite to surpass it. You're a fair bit faster than Articuno was with a base 100 speed, and 125 special attack as a nice damage dealing prospect, maybe even a special sweeper. 90 physical attack is pretty good, allowing for either a mixed attacker or just some coverage like U-turn, whilst the bulk is a little reduced, with the same 90 HP, but only 85 defence and 90 special defence. You again get the pressure ability, which was quite common among legendaries, but you get the hidden static ability, which will paralyse foes that make contact with you.

Why does it look so '80s disco?

The big list of 'superfluous' start moves is not quite so big this time, with roost showing up again, alongside zap cannon (base 120 electric special with only 50 accuracy and a perfect chance to paralyse IF it hits), drill peck (base 80 flying physical and can hit any Pokemon in the field other than the user), and on that theme there is peck (hits anyone, base 35 physical flying) and then there's thundershock (base 40 electric special that has a slight chance of paralysing the foe). When assigned a level, you get thunderwave (paralyses the foe with no damage), detect (basically protect, means that you can't be hit, but successive uses make it less likely to work), pluck (again a physical flying move that can hit anyone on the field, hitting base 60 and also eating a berry carried by the target), ancient power carries on being ancient power, charge boosts the power of the next electric move used whilst also bestowing a one stage boost to special defence that lasts the battle and agility raises your speed.

Level 50 will probably be where you find it these days, at which point it will have learned discharge, which is a base 80 electric special move that hits everything adjacent to you with a 30% chance of paralysing them. You may think it's weird that you get rain dance, but this is for a reason, as after you get lightscreen (boosts the team's special defence for a few turns) and another shot at drill peck, you get thunder, which is powerful (base 110 electric special) but wildly inaccurate (70) other than in the rain, where it bypasses the accuracy check. Couple this with hurricane on Articuno on a rain based multi-team and you can really mess things up, even foes in the middle of flying. After this, roost and zap cannon come back again.

Since this is a legendary again, you get no breeding and thus no egg moves, you do get most of the TM standards. Hidden power and thunderbolt are good special moves, return is there as ever, toxic comes back like the bad penny, roar puts in an appearance, and sandstorm pops up again at random. Aerial ace and facade are also decent physical moves, but you can't be paralysed, so you'd best get poisoned to take advantage of the attack boost. Steel wing, sky drop and giga impact are also there, charge beam (base 50 electric special with a 70% chance of raising the user's special attack), along with the HMs fly, rock smash, and the other TM secret power. More interesting options, however, were alluded to before with U-turn as a base 70 bug physical that kicks you out of the battle, but better would be volt switch as a base 70 electric special (so STAB and stat alignment) along with the same battle switching. I've ignored wild charge because I hate it. If you feel like going to the tutor, you can grab the old familiars of snore, signal beam, tail wind and shock wave (shockingly no water pulse (pun intended)), along with sky attack (you do nothing for a turn then attack with base 140 flying physical power and the chance to make the foe flinch, 90 accuracy, can hit any Pokemon other than yourself, and the use of a power herb can skip charging), and heat wave (base 95 fire special that hits all adjacent foes with a 10% chance of burning them and will destroy background rocks).

Well, it's a bit more offensive than Articuno with a more common offensive type, but it's weaker because it lacks the sneaky kill combo. All round it is pretty good, with a lot of positives, so it may well be worth getting.

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

#144: Articuno (and more apologies)

For the avid reader(s) of this blog, I apologise for being away for around a week, but life has been rather hectic, and it isn't over just yet, as I'm scheduled to be away at two conferences in the next few weeks, starting next Monday. However, we're within reach of finishing this first generation of monsters, so we'll do our best to have this wrapped up for when I'm away, giving a more suitable pause than in the middle of a gen for the third time...

We move onto the bird trio, or as some may have them, the Spanish trio, since they count one to three in Spanish in their names. Articuno is the first legendary Pokemon in the Pokedex, which is something rather special, and probably one of the first legendaries you legitimately caught, so that has to count for something, right? The rather sad thing is that most legendaries have around 600 total in base stats, whereas this trio hits only 580, making their total lower than Mega Aerodactyl, Slaking (which is a bit of an exception in all truth) and even Dragonite among others. But it's a legendary, and we must show it some respect.

"The fish I caught was THIS big!"

Ok, so the base stat total is lower than some regular Pokemon, but it's still high. Speed is a little disappointing at base 85, but there is decent bulk here with 90 HP, 100 defence and 125 special defence, supported by 85 physical and 95 special attack, so nothing dreadful, but just a sad lack of speed. You won't be sweeping, but you could stall or even revenge kill a little. You're an ice/flying combo for the types, which is rather interesting, and you get pressure as the main ability (causes the foe to consume PP twice as fast). As a hidden ability, you get snow cloak, which boosts evasion by 25% in hail or snow, which is fairly handy if you intend to tank and chip away, making this a good set, but either ability could be worthwhile depending on how you want to play it.

Ok, the move set is pretty decent here, with one combo that will just make you weep. But we'll get to that in a little while. To start off with, let's say that you get roost (sacrifice your flying-type for the turn to heal you), hurricane (base 110 power, 70 accuracy flying special move, can hit anyone in multi-battles, gets perfect accuracy in the rain but reduced in the sun, and can hit foes that are in the middle of flying for double damage), freeze-dry (base 70 ice special move that has a 10% chance of freezing the foe and is always (even in inverse battles) super-effective against water-types for a change), tailwind (boosts the speed of the team), sheer cold (back to this in a bit), gust (a weak base 40 flying special but hits fliers for double again) and powder snow (hits all adjacent foes with a slight chance of freezing the target, but is otherwise just a weak base 40 ice special move). All these are listed as "start" moves, and up to reflect in the following, they all come at a level below you are likely to find this Pokemon in the wild, so think of them as relearner moves. At level 8, supposedly, you get mist (prevents stat modifiers for a few turns), ice shard (a weak base 40 ice physical move with a single level of priority) and mind reader (again, we'll get to that one in a few moments). Ancient power is its usual self with base 60 rock special and a chance to boost all stats, agility is a psychic move that allows you to boost your speed, ice beam is a good standard ice special move with base 90, the chance to freeze and 100 accuracy, so in a way better than a non-hailed blizzard, and as we mentioned, reflect (effectively doubles the team's defence for a few turns).

Ok, so now we may see the moves cropping up that we can select! Hail pops up pretty early, which allows you to hide in the hail with your snow cloak and boost the accuracy of blizzard, as well as hurting all non-ice types a little per turn as a decent way of tanking out a bit. We've mentioned tailwind, which comes back, followed by blizzard, which is like hurricane in that it's 110 damage and 70 accuracy other than in weather, in this case it's an ice special move which skips the accuracy check in hail. We've talked about roost and hurricane that pop up after sheer cold, so it's about time to fill you in: mind reader basically guarantees that the next move will hit, whilst sheer cold is an ice-type one hit KO move. This is pretty special as if you can survive the hits, you will get a kill (unless they see it coming and protect, or are sturdy or whatever). There's no combo like this elsewhere as far as I know, unless you can skill swap no guard onto something that has fissure or whatever.

There's no chance of egg moves here as this is a genderless legendary ice-Phoenix, and so cannot breed, so we'll see what the TMs are. The standard array pop up with things like aerial ace, return, sunny day, hail, rain dance, protect, roost, toxic, hyper beam, frustration/return, double team, facade, round, rest, sleep talk, swagger and all that. You can also nab steel wing, sky drop, U-turn, sandstorm (for some unknown reason), frost breath, fly (of course), rock smash and secret power, because almost everything learns secret power. For a change here, you do not get hidden power, which makes me sad. With regards to the tutor (not the relearner), you can nab icy wind, tailwind (for the millionth time), signal beam, snore (why can everything learn those two), sky attack and water pulse, which I'm sure I can learn by tutor, since everyone else can.

The USP (unique selling point) for this is obviously the accuracy/OHKO combo: there are actually two other examples of this: Smeargle (which is a bit of a cheat since it can sketch anything) and Poliwrath, which could only do it in generation 2. You get good bulk with decent attacking stats, but I'd trade all the physical attack for a boost to speed. You get 4 weaknesses here, being fire, electric and steel as regular and rock as a 4x weakness: this rock weakness is bad in an age of stealth rock as it will mash you up and leave you needing to roost straight off, whilst fire in particular is common. Bug and grass resistances are rather worthless but the obvious ground immunity is nice, as are the neutrals which will just brush off on your tankiness. All in all, this is a legendary and deserves your respect for that (it's always nice to catch them and tuck them away at the very least as a badge of honour since it's fiddly to catch, looks cooler than most things and has good backstory) but it also deserves respect for being rather powerful yet sufficiently poor enough a legendary to be allowed to use in the battle resort etc.

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

#143 + #446: Snorlax and baby Munchlax

Well, here we have two annoyances: another baby that can be bred only using another incense (though it was the first Generation 4 Pokemon revealed), and the world's cuddliest roadblock that got in the way of your wanderings...

We'll start with the baby, little Munchlax. This is the slowest Pokemon there is, tied with Shuckle. It gets the pickup ability, which is great in the overworld as you can find things (just remember to remove them so that you can grab more), along with thick fat (not only appropriate, also useful in that you take reduced ice and fire damage) and the hidden ability of gluttony (bit of an odd one: berries that would normally be eaten at 25% HP are eaten at 50% HP instead). You're a normal-type, with substantial HP (base 135), along with solid attack and special defence (85), but defence and special attack are poor at base 40 each, and speed is FIVE... Which is great for gyro ball or trick room, I guess.

Don't let him near the cake!!!

FIVE... Sorry... On with the moves...

In X/Y you get access to snatch straight away, which basically means you steal the effects of a healing move the foe is using, but in ORAS this is replaced with recycle, meaning you can re-use your berry again, allowing for you to use a chesto berry to wake you from rest repeatedly, cutting downtime on sleeping. You could take last resort if you're weird, but there's also the weak ghost physical move lick (base 30 but can paralyse the foe), as well as metronome, which basically has a random effect, whether that be suddenly using earthquake or self-destruct, you get no control, it picks from a huge list of moves. Odour sleuth allows you to hit ghosts with normal moves, and tackle has been covered too many times. Defence curl is a viable move to patch up your shabby defence, whilst amnesia is also a great idea, giving a two stage boost to special defence, meaning special moves will barely hurt you. Chip away is a base 70 normal physical move that ignores stat modifiers, like to the foe's defence, and screech will lower the target's defence by two stages. Body slam is a base 85 normal physical move that has a 30% chance of paralysing the foe, and hits twice as hard if the foe has used minimise (why would anyone use that move when most Pokemon can get double team?). Stockpile and swallow (but not spit up) appear again, with the former stacking up to three times boosting defence and special defence a stage at a time, and the latter using the stored energy to heal itself (wiping the modifiers when used), healing 25%, 50% or 100% of the HP dependent upon the number of charges.

Rollout is a base 30 rock physical that is boosted by defence curl, and hits harder on subsequent hits, hitting for a few turns (up to 5). Fling is still a stupid move since you throw away your precious item, but belly drum could be useful here, since you have such huge HP and a decent attack stat: belly drum halves your HP (which you can easily recover with a chesto/resto-recycle build) and boosts your attack all the way up to +6, which is 400% of your normal. Scary, since you get STAB return... The last move to consider is natural gift: the move's power and type is affected by the held berry, which will be eaten in the process (chesto berry gives base 80 water).

You naturally get the standard TM list with some additions. I would recommend rest, whether you pair this up with recycle and the chesto berry, or with snore (which is my lowest recommendation on Munchlax of the three options) or with sleep talk (a risk, it picks a move at random of your four). That said, you could survive a few turns asleep if the foe is burned (reduces their physical attack by a half and whittles away their HP) and you boost your defences/HP and not focus attack at all. Sadly, this is one of the few sets where Will-o-wisp is missing, and there is no scald, either. There are too many special moves here (ice beam, hidden power, flamethrower (which can burn but has a low chance), thunderbolt, solar beam (but no weather moves to help/hinder), psychic, shadow ball, surf). You do get STAB return, frustration and facade, so you could be an attacker with focus on HP, too, and equip a toxic orb, which will slowly kill you, but double up the power of facade. Brick break, earthquake and secret power offer less suicidal alternatives, and power-up-punch could be used, especially if you don't want belly drum.

Breeding moves are a mixed bag, with belch being a great move for a berry eater, which is something I would suggest, but this is held back by your physical focus and belch being a special move. Self-destruct is still an awful idea, but curse could work, since your speed has nowhere to go anyway, reducing it is probably a great pay-off for boosting your bulk and your damage output. Counter is also good, since you can tank a hit on your HP, taking a huge value of damage on raw numbers from a physical move, and then sending more than that back, so you could kill a fairly bulky foe yourself. Zen headbutt is a decent base 80 psychic physical move that can flinch the foe, we know pursuit quite well, whirlwind makes no sense at all, and double edge has recoil, which isn't too bad here since you can sponge most things. Fissure can be a OHKO, but with decent attack and counter available, you can kill things rather easily on just regular attacks without dire PP and even worse accuracy. The tutor also offers a fair bit, with after you (which works for team battles), the elemental punches (not shabby), focus punch (you can set up sub-punching quite well here), gunk shot (a powerful poison physical), covet (basically a normal version of thief), seed bomb, zen headbutt again, several special moves that I'm choosing to ignore and both last resort and recycle again.

You get friendly enough for return to be a good option, you'll probably evolve into the roadblock itself: Snorlax. 160 HP, 110 attack and special defence, 65 in defence and special attack and 30 speed. Everything is better, except arguably the speed, but this makes things a bit interesting. You're basically a monster, a better version of Blissey, with much more in the way of threats. The only difference to abilities is that you've kicked out pickup and gained immunity: you cannot be poisoned. You also remain normal and chubby.

"And I thought it smelled bad on the outside..."

A few moves are lost from the level list, but I'd rather talk about what you gain (the ones you don't get can be relearned from the relearner). You can now nab the base 80 dark physical move crunch (bonus: you lower the target's defence, but they may well be dead anyway). Yawn can force the foe to sleep, which can make it safer to put yourself to sleep when they go down, and snore and sleep talk arrive by level up. Giga impact remains not worth it, but block will hold the foe in, and heavy slam is a steel physical move that hurts the foe the lighter they are compared to you, so if they are less than 20% of your weight (good chance considering you're enormous) then it hits at base 120. The TM list now gains the boosts of weather, thunder, blizzard and fire blast in addition to their weaker, more accurate forms, along with smackdown, retaliate (hits twice its base 70 physical when an ally has been KO'd the previous turn), bulldoze, strength, and wild charge (which I still dislike with a small passion). Outrage is now offered by the tutor, and I'll mention here that superpower is, and was on Munchlax. Outrage hits as base 120 dragon physical for a few turns before leaving you confused, if you don't remember.

What you have with this family is an arguably better version of Blissey/Chansey: there's a reason to be afraid of this one, rather than just frustrated. You get a bit less HP, but much better physical defence, and using an assault vest is much more viable here since you have damaging attacks at your disposal. You've got survivability and one of the rare chances to actually use belly drum well, and you can play out as a staller. There's a lot of variety here, you don't even need to kill them quickly since you have good healing options with stockpile/swallow and rest/recycle. Definitely worth waking up and catching, even if it's just for something to cuddle or use as a shelter like Luke Skywalker...

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

Oddly enough, Snorlax opens its eyes when it's KO'd...

#142: Aerodactyl

Well, we've now come across the only fossil Pokemon that has an in-game trade, as well as the lack of standard evolutions... But, it's a giant pterodactyl, so it has that going for it...

Aerodactyl is a rock/flying-type, because they've all been rock-type so far. Unlike the others so far, however, it's actually fast, with base 130 speed coupling well with a good 105 attack. The special attack is a little low at 60 (not an issue, just pretty much rules out ancient power), but there is some bulk there, with 80HP, 65 defence (the lowest of the three) and 75 special defence. I said some bulk, not lots. You get the ability pressure (common with legendaries, this doubles the foe's PP usage on each move) as well as rock head (eliminates damage from recoil moves like brave bird etc.), with the hidden ability of unnerve, which prevents the foe from eating their berry.

Yeah, this may make you forget about eating...

What do you get with these decent stats and an interesting typing? Well... One thing that's interesting is that you can get the three elemental fangs, along with bite, quite early on. All of these have the chance to flinch the foe, the elemental moves correspond to their type (bite is dark) and they have base 65 power to bite's 60, but they can also inflict status ailments. All four of these moves are, of course, physical. Iron head also has a decent chance to flinch the foe with a base 80 physical steel move. Supersonic fills a niche to confuse the foe, whilst wing attack is a physical flying move, only base 60 but does get STAB, with a good PP of 35 and can hit anyone in a triple battle. Scary face is there to drop the foe's speed, whilst roar scares the foe out of battle, dragging in another opponent, so this can be used to replace the target if you can't work with it, or shuffle them onto arena hazards, with the drawback here being that roar has a very low priority.

Agility allows you to boost your already rather alarming speed, we know ancient power rather well by now (base 60 special rock that can raise all your stats by a stage), and crunch is a base 80 physical dark move that can lower the foe's defence. Take down may actually be useful here with rock head, barring the fact that it's only 85 accuracy and 90 power, whilst return (which nearly everything can get from TMs can top out at over 100 power, 100 accuracy and never has the issue with recoil). Sky drop is an interesting move, where you pick up the foe on the first turn and then throw them back to earth in the second, damaging them at base 60 flying physical and stripping them of a turn, which can be handy in multi-battles (say you pick up a water absorb foe and make sure it doesn't get healed when you have to use surf on the other foes). Iron head pops back up again just before hyper beam (base 150 power normal special with only 90 accuracy and a recharge turn) rears its useless head, in before rock slide (base 75 rock physical move, 90 accuracy, with the chance to flinch and break parts of the arena) and giga impact (see hyper beam but replace special with physical).

So we have a nice big level list, let's see the TM list... There are a few too many special moves in there (hidden power, flamethrower, fire blast, incinerate, round) but it's still pretty good. You get the standard array, remembering either return or frustration as being better than take down depending upon how happy everyone is. You could take sandstorm for consistent foe damage that you will be immune to, but since you are very much geared to be more of a physical sweeper, why bother? Just take things like earthquake, smack down (don't make me define these again, but you may have forgotten that smack down hurts foes in the middle of something like fly at base 100, rather than base 50, as well as stopping the attack), roost (gives up your flying-type for the turn in order to heal you), rock tomb (base 60 rock physical) and aerial ace (base 60 flying physical, no accuracy check), steel wing (base 60 steel physical), facade and thief, payback (I guess this is for when you're up against another Aerodactyl or a trick room team, as base 50 dark physical as a standard is poor, but it does double if you've already been hit in this turn), stone edge (base 100 rock physical with 80 accuracy as the drawback), fly, strength and bulldoze. Wow, there's a lot of decent, not brilliant, moves in there. Highlights surely include fly, return (as normal), earthquake, arguably smackdown and payback as situational moves, facade and stone edge (if you ignore the crappy accuracy).

If you breed this majestic monster you can be rewarded with assurance (again, this only works if your foe uses a recoil move and is amazingly fast, like a life-orb Deoxys, or your teammate is even faster than you, since it's base 60 dark physical that hits twice as hard against a foe that has already been hurt in the turn), dragon breath (a special move, sure, but it can paralyse the foe), pursuit (base 40 dark physical but will hit a foe before it can switch out at base 80 instead), whirlwind (see roar, since they're basically the same) and tailwind, which boosts the whole team's speed. The tutor, on the other hand, offers a few moves we've already seen (tailwind, iron head), along with aqua tail (base 90 water physical with 90 accuracy), iron tail (base 100, 75 accuracy steel physical) and sky attack (base 140 flying physical, 90 accuracy, 5 PP with a boosted critical hit ratio, a 30% chance to flinch and the necessity of a charging turn that can be overcome with use of a power herb, but you need to consider your items...). You also get a smattering of special moves available to be tutored, these being: snore, heat wave, earth power and dragon pulse.

No evolution? No problem. Not content with having a higher base stat total than either of the other fully evolved fossils so far, Aerodactyl is the only fossil to have a mega evolution so far. This bestows upon it a new ability, tough claws (boosts power of contact moves by a third), as well as 30 more in attack (now base 135, scary), 20 more in defence (base 85 now means that the decent base 80 HP won't all go in one hit), and 20 more in special defence up to base 95 now, with special attack getting an unnecessary bump of 10 to base 70 (I guess if you need to run ancient power or whatever), and then finally a boost of 20 on speed to a reality-defying base 150. Yeah, unless you get a Ninjask or a speed form Deoxys, you may well be attacking first: seriously, you are tied for third fastest with Mega Alakazam, normal and attack form Deoxys and other Mega Aerodactyls, and the only ones ahead of you (Ninjask and Deoxys) have their own drawbacks, namely being a bit weak (the former) and routinely being banned or a pain to get (until Delta Episode in ORAS) for the latter. That doesn't mean you should slack off and not invest in it, since with some investment you may overtake those ahead of you, whilst with no investment, things like Mega Beedrill, Mega Mewtwo Y, Mega Sceptile, Electrode, Accelgor and co could catch up to you.

Seems to be cosplaying Serj Tankian...

What we have here is a scarily fast physical attacker: even without mega evolving you pack a serious punch before the vast majority of Pokemon will even know what happened. You get a nice array of moves to pick from, sure not all of them hyper-powered but they have their roles, with the fangs you get nice coverage, and hey, you can even get stealth rock from the tutor. This Pokemon is pretty unreal, if you think about it. Sure, you need the old amber to get it, but that's now seriously easy to find in Generation 6: across Y and Alpha Sapphire I probably have about 20 spare, to the point I stuck them on things to wonder trade. If you can't find one, let me know and I'll sort you out: you need this Pokemon as an option.

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

#140 + #141: Kabuto and Kabutops

Since this is another fossil (the dome, this time around), and it was a choice between Kabuto and Lord Helix, does this make Kabuto the antichrist?

Back on topic, this is another rock/water-type with swift swim (see Omanyte among others) and weak armour (when you're hit, you lose defence and gain speed), and the other standard ability is battle armour, which is the same as shell armour in that it blocks criticals. As far as stats go, you get a rather low base 30 HP, 90 physical defence and 45 special defence, so a special hit will probably kill you. Base 80 attack and 55 speed suggests that you can dish out an attack but only after you've been savaged, and the low base 55 special attack doesn't really matter if you intend on using your ok physical prowess.

You can see why I went with the evil theme, right?

You know how you have decent attack and poor special attack? Well, you get scratch (base 40 normal physical) and aqua jet (base 40 normal physical with priority) as the only physical moves by level. You get harden to buff your defence, leer to lower the foe's defence, sand attack to lower their accuracy and you also get endure to keep you alive. Absorb and mega drain are grass special moves that heal you for a fraction of the damage you deal (the former base 20 and the latter base 40), whilst mud shot is a base 55 ground move that lowers the foe's speed. Metal sound comes in rather late to soften up the foe's special defence by two stages, and you can couple this with ancient power that hits as base 60 and can grant a stage boost to all stats and wring out hits the foe with greater power the healthier they are to start with.

Again in the TM list you can get ice beam and blizzard (not sure why) along with hail, and you can pick up some physical moves at long last: return is a decent shout as ever, rock tomb and smack down are STAB attacks (the latter knocks fliers out of the air), facade is never a dreadful one, hell, you can even summon a sandstorm. Rock slide and thief come in to the mix, too, waterfall and rock smash are decent bets, but surf and scald aren't the best since they are special focused.

Breeding nets you a couple of things, mainly flail (you hit harder when you have less HP) and knock off, as well as take down (which isn't really worth it) and rapid spin (which can be used to clear hazards). If you want to use the tutor, you can get knock off again, as well as another array of special moves (like giga drain, icy wind, snore and water pulse), plus stealth rock and iron defence. This is pretty miserable, really...

If you get up to level 40, you can evolve into Kabutops, which based on the overused meme would probably be the devil. You get no change to the abilities, but you do get some stat boosts: you're now up to 60 HP, 115 attack, 105 defence, 65 special attack, 70 special defence but only 80 speed. You also stay as rock/water-type.

Is this a predecessor to Scyther?

In addition to the previous level set, you can pick up night slash, a base 70 dark physical move, along with regular slash, with the same details but as a normal attack, and these BOTH have increased critical ratios. Moving onto the TM list, you can also bag swords dance, X-scissor (a base 80 bug physical), and now stone edge, dive and cut. The tutor can also now bestow aqua tail, superpower (high power fighting physical that will torch your stats on use) and low kick (hits harder against faster foes).

All in all, there is some promise here as a sort of low end physical sweeper: the attack stat is pretty decent, but the speed is a little low unless you take some hits with the weak armour ability. I like this Pokemon, the design is cool and you can do some damage, but you have to get to Kabutops before you can be a threat with any variety of moves.

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

#138 + #139: Omanyte and Omastar

Right, first off, sorry I've missed out on two days: I've been majorly busy with real work. Secondly, it's time for the Lord Helix jokes to be confronted...

Omanyte is a fossil Pokemon, which means it was either a choice OR you found it from breaking rocks. What you get with it is a water/rock-type Pokemon with huge defence (100 for a first evolution is nothing to sniff at) and good special attack (base 90), but you are pretty slow (35), with poor special defence (55), poor attack (which isn't really an issue at base 40) and no health (base 35). Standard abilities give you swift swim (double your awful speed in rain, including the investment, which could actually just hinder you in a trick room team), and shell armour (prevents critical hits from hitting you), and the hidden ability is weak armour (being hit by a physical attack, your defence falls and your speed rises).

Have you considered growing a tentacle moustache?

The level up list features some interesting choices: the early moves of constrict and bite are fairly worthless with your awful attack (the former is base 10 normal and has a low chance of lowering the foe's speed and the latter being a base 60 dark physical move that can flinch the foe). Withdraw as a water move boosts your defence by a stage, but the next water move is the base 40 special move water gun, and you will get brine (base 65 special that hits twice as hard when the foe is on less than 50% HP). Between these two, you can also get rollout (base 30 rock physical that keeps attacking for a few turns, growing in power each time), leer (decreases the foe's defence by a stage) and mud shot (base 55 ground special that can lower the foe's speed). Protect is a standard move: you can't be hit for that turn, but successive use can lead to failure. Ancient power is a base 60 rock special attack that has the chance of boosting all of your stats, and so can be amazing in that respect.

Tickle will lower the target's physical stats by a stage each, whilst rock blast hits as a rock physical move with base 25 power, hitting up to 5 times in the turn. The last two moves are shell smash (basically lowers your defences to boost speed and the attack stats) and hydro pump (base 110 water special with only 80 accuracy).

In addition to the standard array of TMs, you can grab ice beam/blizzard (as well as hail, but this can hurt you), smack down (a rock physical move base 50 that knocks the foe out of the sky) and rock tomb and rock slide. Your low speed could be an advantage with gyro ball, and you can lessen your disadvantage with rock polish to boost speed a little, whilst scald is a base 80 water special move that can inflict a burn on your target. You can also take all the water HMs, surf being the best out of these as it has base 90 (not 80) and is the only specially focused one. Breeding moves can also lead to aurora beam (a base 65 ice special that can lower the speed of the foe), bubble beam (base 65 water special that can lower the speed of the foe), haze (removes stat changes) and knock off (base 65 dark physical that removes the foe's item), muddy water (just take surf) and hey, you can even get toxic spikes... If you plod over to the tutor, you can also gain access to earth power (a base 90 ground special), icy wind (as is so often the case, as has been iron defence, water pulse and snore). You can again get knock off and stealth rock as well, if you want to be a trapper.

Level up to 40 and you get to evolve into Omastar, who seems to have entered a punk-phase. To go with this new prickly appearance, you get a new level up move, which we'll come to in a bit, but no change to the abilities. Your base HP actually doubles to base 70, with attack up to 60 (not really worth it), special defence gets a much needed boost to 70 (so you can just about take a special hit), speed is still poor at 55, but physical defence is a mighty 125, with 115 special attack, making you a special attacking threat and a physical wall.

They just don't understand me, man!

As I alluded to, you get spike cannon as a new move from level, but it's a base 20 multi-hitting normal physical move, so that may have got your hopes up a bit. Stone edge is the big addition to the TM list (not hyper beam or giga impact), but even this is a trick, since it's a base 100 rock PHYSICAL move. THERE ARE NO OTHER GOOD MOVES... The tutor adds nothing.

In all honesty, I like this Pokemon. I trained one on Y because of the whole stupid Lord Helix crap and found it to be OK, kinda: nothing special, it was carried on the team by a Delphox and a Mega Aerodactyl, or by a Mewtwo, but it had a decent time and I didn't even set it as a trapper. The thing is, if you expect it to be awesome because of that meme, you'll be disappointed.

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

#137, #233 + #474 : Porygon, Porygon-2 and Porygon-Z

Wow, what imaginative naming we have here... Anyway, it's nice to return to normality after Eevee. Well, I say normal, but this Pokemon is pretty much a computer sprite of itself.

Porygon is a normal-type Pokemon that took the idea of futuristic right out of a tacky 80s sci-fi movie: everything's flat and angular. The stats are rather underwhelming, with 65HP, 60 attack, 70 defence, 85 special attack, 75 special defence and only 40 speed, but then again, it does usually operate on trick room teams. You get the abilities trace (copies the ability of the foe, with some exceptions, but wonder guard is NOT on the exceptions list), download (raises an offensive stat by a stage to cover the foe's lower defensive stat, so for example it will boost attack against a Blissey (which has amazing special defence and awful defence)) and the hidden ability of analytic, which boosts the power of your move if the target has already moved during the turn (considering how slow you are, there's a good chance this will come into effect).

It looks kinda sad... Maybe it knows it's obsolete...

So we have a normal-type with less than impressive stats. What moves does it get? Well... Conversion and conversion 2 are both interesting: the former has undergone many changes over the years, but will now change your type based on the type of the first move in the movelist of the foe, whilst the latter will change your type to a type that resists or is immune to the type of move last used by the target. Tackle is one of only two STAB attacking moves here for Porygon (so long as it hasn't converted), with the other being tri-attack much later in the list, tackle being a base 50 physical move and tri-attack being base 80 special with chance to burn, paralyse or freeze the foe. Sharpen increases your attack by a stage, but from the level list, tackle is the only physical attack you get. Psybeam is a rather mediocre psychic special attack at base 65, not awful in truth, whilst agility increases your speed, which decreases impact for both analytic and trick room teams, really. Recover recovers your HP by 50% of the maximum, whilst magnet rise uses electricity to lift you off the ground and keep those pesky ground attacks from hitting you.

Signal beam is a pretty decent base 75 bug special move with a light chance of confusing the foe, recycle allows you to reuse a held item, like a berry, and discharge is a fairly powerful electric move with base 80 as an electric special that hits all adjacent Pokemon and has a 30% chance of paralysing recipients, whether friend or foe. Lock-on makes sure that the next move will not miss unless the foe uses protect, it even makes it hit targets that fly, but since it only sticks for one turn and if the foe has protect, they will just use it, it's kinda middling, though it does great with zap cannon, which is woefully inaccurate at 50, but hits hard as a base 120 special electric and causes the foe to be paralysed. We've already covered tri-attack, and the other move that splits lock-on and zap cannon is magic coat, which reflects back status moves onto the user.

In addition to the standard TM set, you can grab for yourself things like psyshock, hidden power, ice beam/blizzard, return/frustration as STAB physical normal moves, hyper beam as a STAB move, solar beam (with sunny day), thunder/bolt (with rain dance), shadow ball, facade, aerial ace, thief, charge beam, dream eater, rest (goes well with recycle and a chesto berry, which is why I bring it up, rather than leave it in the mire), thunder wave, trick room and secret power. This all kinda goes some way to making up for zero breeding moves, but the tutor also does a good job with a very nice selection. Some of the moves, like signal beam, we've already had access to, and some like snore come up all too often to be interesting anymore (suck on that, iron tail). The more intriguing ones are electroweb (base 55 electric special that decreases the foe's speed by a stage), foul play (a base 95 dark physical), icy wind, pain split, gravity (pulls everything to the floor and prevents moves that require leaving the ground, like fly or jump kick), wonder room, trick (switches your item with the foe's item) and zen headbutt.

In order to evolve, you need to have an UpGrade, attach it to Porygon and trade it. Porygon then becomes the imaginatively named, much more streamlined Porygon-2. The movesets are identical to the last detail, as are the abilities, so let us merely concern ourselves with the stat growth: 85HP, 80 attack, 90 defence, 105 special attack, 95 special defence and 60 speed. Some nice bits of growth, but as a trick room runner, you'd want that boost of 20 to the speed to go into something else, like HP, the defences or special attack.

More streamlined, but not much faster, really...

Again, if you attack a dubious disc to Porygon-2 and perform another trade, it will evolve into the rather manic-looking Porygon-Z, which again has the same type, an almost identical move list and the same second and hidden abilities. This time, trace makes way for adaptability, which boosts the bonus of STAB from 1.5x to 2x the normal damage. Speed takes a huge boost to 90, with special attack also soaring to 135, but the defences suffer, dropping to 70 physical and 75 special. Attack and HP remain unchanged.

Meth: not even once...

The level list gains trick room, hyper beam and embargo, which prevents the foe from using items in the battle. Dark pulse comes in as a TM move, but aside from these four moves, nothing else is new across any of the sets. It's a little disappointing really.

The drop in defences to get to Porygon-Z isn't really fully offset by the boost to speed since you're still not THAT fast, but now you are kinda fragile. The special attack is rather huge here, so hopefully you can survive a hit or two and recover, dealing some nice damage even if you can't outrun. Porygon-2 offers a little more durability, but less damage, though this is easily used anyway: you still have decent special attack to go the direct route, not much is super-effective against you, you get some pretty powerful moves and you can recover fairly well, as well as being able to outspeed the foe on a trick room team. You can stop evolving at 2 if you would rather, and I'd say the choice to go further is either for Dex completion or a slow sweeper. I'd still evolve, though, even if it is just for a smoother finish.

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

(#133) #700: Sylveon (Eevee part four, including the summary)

So we're onto the last leg of this mini-voyage and we stumble across yet another Eeveelution wedged in to showcase something new in the game: this time it's less a mechanic, and more the introduction of the new fairy-type.

Straight off the bat, Sylveon gets plus points for being a fairy, since fairy hasn't really been balanced as yet, much like Psychic when Pokemon was first released. The immunity to dragons and the semi-uncommon weaknesses, plus good resistances makes fairy a little broken. The only issues with fairies: scarcity of Pokemon and scarcity of decent moves. Sylveon comes from a family you're used to, and actually gets some good moves. In addition to this, you get great special stats (110 special attack and 130 special defence) with 95 HP, making it a good special wall. The problems arise with an indifferent defence (65) and poor speed (60), the attack at 65 being too low to matter with regards to a mixer, and is thus utterly unimportant. Cute charm as the main ability means that contact with this Pokemon can cause the aggressor to become infatuated AND makes it more likely to encounter Pokemon if the opposite gender in the wild, whereas pixilate, the hidden ability, converts all normal-type moves to fairy-type and grants the associated STAB, as well as a 30% power-up. Sure, the loss of normal moves may be a little odd, since it can get rid of decent neutral coverage, but fairy hits most things fairly well, and so this isn't an awful trade off.

Just FABULOUS, darlings... It practically sneezes glitter...

If we skim over the level list for the final time in this enormous family, we see that we also get a new starting move: disarming voice (base 40 fairy special that isn't affected by evasion/accuracy modifiers). Fairy wind also finds itself inserted prior to quick attack (base 40 fairy special with no hidden features). Hereafter we find draining kiss (base 50 fairy special where 75% of the damage done is used to heal the user), skill swap (swaps abilities with the target, with certain exceptions, such as multi-type, stance change and wonder guard) and misty terrain (affects all Pokemon on the ground: status conditions no longer apply, halves the damage of dragon moves in play, nature/secret power become fairy-type, and camouflage makes the user a fairy). Light screen effectively raises the team's special defence for 5 turns (can be removed by brick break and defog), moonblast is a very good fairy special move (base 95, 30% chance of lowering the foe's special attack by a stage) and the move that fits after last resort is psych up (copies all of the foe's stat changes).

Down to TM time: err... Well, psyshock is something we know fairly well, it's a good psychic special move that hits the defence of the foe. Calm mind works to buff the special stats by a stage, dazzling gleam hits adjacent foes as a base 80 fairy special move, and the rest of the Eevee moves pop up again. Tutor-wise, you can nab skill swap (again) and magic coat.

Wrapping up Sylveon, it's not a bad special wall with some decent power output, but could work ok on a trick room team. You can also play a supporting role with moves like light screen, and you can annoy foes using things like misty terrain and whatnot. The biggest pain of this Pokemon is the method of evolution, which is to do with a new mechanic: you need two hearts in Pokemon amie, you need to have baby-doll eyes in the moveset and you need to level up. It's a bit of a pain to achieve this.

Now to the Eeveelutions as a whole: the majority of them are rather mundane and disappointing, but with the cases of Umbreon, Glaceon, and arguably Espeon and Sylveon you could find something decent. None of them are awful other than the base, Leafeon and Flareon... Wait, that's actually a fair number... Really, there's now too many to make a cutesy team and too many of them are surpassed by much more common Pokemon that the only real reason to ever evolve all of them is for Pokedex completion. Tracking down the evolutionary stones, fitting to time windows, grinding on Pokemon amie and looking for the correct locations to train is rather a pain in the buttocks, and I'm really not sure why people like this line so much. Sure, there's some good bits, but overall, just don't bother.

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

(#133) #470 + #471: Leafeon and Glaceon (Eevee part three)

Oh no... there's more, and this isn't even the end of it. Here we have two more Eeveelutions, so we may as well press on with them.

Leafeon and Glaceon are more examples of new evolutionary mechanics. We're starting with Leafeon, which can only be obtained by levelling up in the presence of a mossy rock, which have been added to areas since Generation 4 to allow for this. The question on your minds is no doubt "is this any good?" To start my answer, it's a grass-type, so not a great start, but that said, it could be what the type really needs... The thing is, it's pretty much an exclusively physical beast, with base 110 attack and 130 defence along with 95 speed. Since we have an attack focus, low special attack isn't a deal breaker, so this being 60 is no issue, but special bulk would have been nice since you suffer at the hands of fire (predominantly special), and with only 65 in special defence and 65 in HP, you won't last long at the hands of something with flamethrower. Leaf guard as an ability courts danger, as it only works in the sun, preventing status conditions affecting Leafeon, even stopping you from using rest, which could be a great way of getting shut down by a foe. On the hidden ability side, chlorophyll again needs the sun to activate, but it does double your speed, including EVs and IVs, so nearly base 200 with no investment: that's insane!

It sucks AND it looks bad... Just set it on fire...

After a fairly poor start, maybe a good move pool can save this? In addition to the Eevee standards, you get access to razor leaf (base 55 grass physical with a good critical ratio, also hitting all adjacent foes), grass whistle (puts the target to sleep, and also like sing is only 55 accuracy), magical leaf (tragically a grass special move, so the base 60, no accuracy check attack is of limited use here (think of it as a grass version of swift)), and giga drain (utility of this move is also lowered by the special categorisation, but it exists as a base 75 grass special that drains the foe's health to you). Swords dance gives you a double stage boost to attack, and synthesis is very much like morning sun and moonlight we saw last time, healing you based on the weather (50% normal, 67% sunny and 25% rainy). You get sunny day by level, and then after last resort, we close with leaf blade, a base 90 physical grass move with a good critical ratio once more.

Moving onto the TM list, the interesting additions to the Eevee standards include solar beam (base 120 grass special (sadly) that would be great in the sun as it has no charge turn in bright sunshine), aerial ace (basically a flying physical version of swift), energy ball (another good grass move that falls into the special category), X-scissor (a base 80 bug physical that is well worth consideration) and grass knot (the heavier they are, the harder they fall). In addition to the Eevee tutor set you can pick up giga drain again, knock off, seed bomb (a grass physical with base 80), synthesis and worry seed (effectively replaces the target's ability with insomnia, preventing it sleeping, like loads of foes may do to you with your leaf guard).

Things haven't looked good so far, so moving onto Glaceon, and we have to first admit that the decent ice moves are also available on Vaporeon, so why do we have this? A different stat distribution, STAB on the ice moves, different abilities and arguably less coverage (see later). 130 special attack is similar to Vaporeon, but 110 defence and 95 special defence seem good, but 65 HP and 65 speed are a little sad. 60 attack isn't disastrous, but there are some good physical moves on offer, which is a bit annoying. The new abilities are snow cloak (increases evasion in hail, and since you don't take hail damage, this could be inspired if you invest in the defences and HP as a bulky staller), and the hidden ability of ice body (any Pokemon that makes contact with you gets frozen). If you run the former ability and you are looking for wild Pokemon, don't let it lead in the snow.

It looks like crystals, like a poor man's Suicune!

So again to the level list, and again ignoring the Eevee regulars. This time around we bring in icy wind (base 55 ice special which hits all adjacent foes and lowers their speed a stage), bite (base 60 dark physical, sadly, which can cause flinching), ice fang (again a physical tease, base 65, can cause freezing and flinching), and ice shard, which is basically an ice version of quick attack, which is also on this set... Yeah, this makes me confused. Anyway, we also get barrier (boosts your defence by two stages) and mirror coat (if you're hit by special attack, it will hit the aggressor back with double the damage you sustained unless they are dark-type, since, y'know, this is a psychic move). You also get hail and blizzard either side of last resort, and they combo well, especially with snow cloak.

Onto the TMs, and what we get in addition to the Eevee standards. Pretty slim pickings for offensive variety here, in truth: hidden power and shadow ball that are on that long list we said we'd ignore are two of the better shouts if you wish to deal damage directly, whilst blizzard and hail also pop up again. Sunny day is there if you feel suicidal, as well. Frost breath is a decent shout as a base 60 ice special with basically 100% critical chance, but only 90 accuracy. The tutor offers water pulse and aqua tail, so basically that comes back to the Vaporeon comparison I made earlier, but you also get signal beam again, along with icy wind.

In all, Leafeon is just rubbish: the abilities may as well not exist, since in the sun an ember used by something with minimal special focus will torch you (literally) and as a grass-type, well, you'll be laughed at. Glaceon appears to be rubbish if you look at it and at Vaporeon, and yes, you get a fighting, rock and fire weaknesses, but a good standard ability to use with hail, which in turn boosts blizzard's feeble accuracy to perfect, with a good way to deal consistent damage from hail itself, some good bulk and blizzard itself is a little scary.

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

(#133) #197 + #198: Espeon and Umbreon (Eevee part two)

Yeah, there's still more. If you haven't read part one, go do so now, then I can skip the Eevee stuff and say that you'll see a lot of stuff recycled.

We'll jump straight into Espeon, a psychic-type. You get the 65s in HP and attack, 60 in defence, 95 in special defence, a nice 130 in special attack and 110 in speed, which sits nicely for a special sweeper. The standard ability of synchronise means that if you get a status condition, your foe will also get it, and outside of battle it makes it more likely that you will find a Pokemon with the same nature as the synchronise team leader. The hidden ability you can get is magic bounce, which reflects incoming status affliction moves such as toxic, as well as arena hazards and taunts and torments. Espeon evolves from Eevee when levelled up with high happiness during the day.

Another normal animal with a split tail and a jewel in its face...

Skirting around all the moves Eevee has covered and that reappeared in all the other Eeveelutions, we see confusion come in as the early STAB move (a base 50 psychic special with the chance to confuse the foe), and swift (base 60 special normal that basically doesn't miss unless the target is in the semi-invulnerable or behind protect) slots in after quick attack. Psybeam is added to the list where the fang moves have been, acting as a base 65 psychic special with a slight chance of causing confusion, and future sight hits as a base 120 psychic special after a couple of turns. Psych up copies the stat changes of the opponent, both positive and negative, and morning sun offers healing based on the weather: normal - 50%HP, sunny - 67%HP and rain - 25%HP. Psychic is one of the best moves on offer here a a base 90 psychic special attack, and the last move that tucks in after last resort is power swap (swaps the changes to the attacking stats between the user and the target).

Taking the standard Eevee TM list (which is just a bigger standard list), you can also grab psyshock (base 80 psychic special move that hits the foe's defence), along with psychic itself, dream eater (inflicts damage and drains a sleeping foe's HP at base 100 psychic damage), and dazzling gleam (a fairy special attack base 80 that hits adjacent foes). You can also take grass knot. The tutor can bestow magic coat and magic room, signal beam, zen headbutt, skill swap and trick on top of the routine ones.

Rather than evolving during the day, if you evolve at night you get Umbreon. Yeah, these two were basically made to show off the in game clock introduced in generation two. Umbreon has a significantly weaker offensive presence, with 65 for attack and speed and 60 for special attack, but it makes up for this with some bulk: 95HP, 110 defence and 130 special defence. You're a dark-type, y'know, with the night and such. You again get synchronise, but the hidden ability this time around is inner focus, which prevents flinching.

As another Sonic tribute, we have rings...

The inserted moves into the basic set this time feature pursuit, a base 40 dark physical move that hits a switching target before it can leave the battle and hits double what it normally would. Further to this, there is also confuse ray, which is rapidly followed by feint attack (inflicts a hit of base 60 dark physical without input of evasion or accuracy stats, like swift) and assurance, which is base 60 dark physical that hits twice as hard if the foe has already sustained damage, including recoil. Screech drops the target's defence by two stages, moonlight heals just the way morning sun did, mean look traps the foe in battle, and guard swap, which switches changes in the defensive stats with the foe.

If we move on to the TM list, you get the addition of taunt, psychic, payback, dream eater, dark pulse (which can cause flinching) and snarl (dark special base 55 that hits all adjacent foes and lowers their special attack by a stage). The tutor can grant spite, wonder room, snatch and foul play.

Even though these two were pretty much exclusively put in the game to show off the new timer mechanics, these are arguably the best two of the Eeveelutions, not just so far, but overall. Umbreon fills a nice niche that hasn't really come up as a dark-type tank with some decent attacks, which is pretty interesting. That being said, they aren't anything too amazing once again.

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

#133 - #136: Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon (Eevee part one)

Oh dear Arceus... Lord Helix let us get through this... Enough with the dumb Poke-religious garbage, this is going to be awful, since there are so many of these Eevee-lutions (as they have been dubbed) that this will go across a few posts, with the intention here of doing the Generation one incarnations followed by the Generation two incarnations next, and then combining Generations four and six into a third and final post.

We're starting here with the basic Eevee. In truth, Eevee has pretty awful stats: 55 each in HP, attack and speed, 45 special attack, 50 defence and 65 special defence. You get run away as an ability, which is pretty dire and we've slammed it enough, but you can also get adaptability (boosts the boost of STAB moves from 1.5x to 2x) and the hidden ability of anticipation, which causes your Pokemon to shudder if they have a super-effective move. In this form you're merely a normal-type.

Yup, a nice bland starting point for something that will diversify

There is an annoyingly large level up list available here on Eevee, which sadly continues on the other evolutions, meaning we'll be here for a while. Helping hand remains a bit worthless, but growl can lower their attack and tail whip can lower their defence, whilst tackle remains a basic base 50 physical normal attack (but you get extra boosted STAB if you have adaptability!). Sand attack lowers the foe's accuracy, baby-doll eyes (which is essential if you want a Sylveon, post 3) has boosted priority in order to lower the foe's attack, swift is a base 60 normal special attack that doesn't miss (unless the foe protects or flies or whatever) and quick attack is a +1 priority normal physical attack with base 40. Bite gets STAB as one of the myriad possible evolutions (coming up in post 2), and is a base 60 dark physical move with the chance to flinch. Refresh cures poison, paralysis and burns, covet is a base 60 physical normal move that will steal held items from the foe, take down remains a base 90 physical normal move with heavy recoil (which basically means it's awful or you just hate your Pokemon and are using it as fodder to only last a turn or two) and charm is now a fairy (not normal) type move that reduces the foe's attack by two stages. Baton pass swaps you out for another team mate, passing on your stat changes and substitute. Double edge is like a more powerful take down, with last resort being similar, but even more powerful (take down is base 90, double edge is base 120, last resort is base 140) and can only be used if all other moves have no PP left. The last move available is trump card, which is a normal special move that is more powerful the less PP the move will have after being used, so on its last use, it will be base 200.

You get the standard array of TMs with a few nice additions, such as dig, shadow ball and retaliate, but not that much more. You get some breeding moves (breeding Eevees is pretty useful, as the different natures can help inform what you want to evolve it into). You get some of the moves we have covered so far from breeding, as well as stored power, which gets more powerful the more buffs you have on you (great for the end of a baton pass chain), endure means you can survive the next hit and then you can use flail to hit harder the less HP you are on. Along with yawn, there are some unremarkable moves here. Heading over to the tutor, you can pick up covet, last resort and helping hand from your level list, as well as hyper voice from the TM list, snore (as always), heal bell and iron tail. I started yawning and snoring because of that list...

Now we tackle the first of the Eeveelutions: Vaporeon. We're starting with a water-type with heavy HP and special attack focus, the former base 130, the latter base 110. Away from these you get a sluggish 65 speed, an indifferent 65 attack (why this reasonable I have no idea, go for an attack hindering, special attack boosting nature as a good shout to evolve into this), 60 defence and 95 special defence. As far as abilities go, you get water absorb (basically if you get hit by water attacks they will heal you) and the hidden ability of hydration (heals status conditions in the rain). This is just like Lapras except with less special attack, slightly more attack and slightly more defence. To get Vaporeon, you use a water stone on Eevee.

It's a mermaid? A merdog? A mer-something? I have no idea...

You retain helping hand, tackle, growl, tail whip and sand attack from before, but then things change a little. You can take water gun (base 40 water special) and quick attack again. You can then grab water pulse (base 60 water special with the chance to confuse the foe) and aurora beam (base 65 ice special with a slight chance of lowering the foe's attack stat by a stage). Aqua ring can be setup to heal you a small amount each turn, whilst acid armour boosts your defence by two stages. Haze prevents your stats from being altered (but this can be cleared), muddy water is a base 90 special water attack with 85 accuracy and the chance to lower the foe's accuracy (the mediocre accuracy here means that surf is a better option), last resort is the same as before and hydro pump is base 110 but a mere 80 accuracy, again making surf a better option.

You can take both rain dance AND sunny day... Hmm... But yeah, standard TMs not withstanding, hail, ice beam and blizzard are there, with dig again and hyper beam, oh and shadow ball again. You can also take surf (of course), retaliate, giga impact, scald, rock smash, dive, strength and waterfall. The move tutor now adds aqua tail, icy wind, signal beam and water pulse to their previous offers for Eevee.

If you would rather use a thunderstone on Eevee then you get Jolteon instead of Vaporeon. Along with being electric-type instead, you swap the bases in HP and speed, but all other stats are the same as Vaporeon. Instead of water absorb you get volt absorb, which is basically the same thing except it's when you get hit with electric attacks, and the hidden ability is quick feet, which adds 50% to your speed when afflicted by a status (paralysis speed reduction is just ignored).

Why are electric things seen as spiky?

We've got the theme of having the same four opening moves, as well as quick attack and last resort. Thunder shock is the weak STAB special du jour with the chance of causing paralysis at base 40 power, double kick is randomly included as a base 30 per hit fighting physical attack that could act as a sash breaker, whilst thunder fang taunts you as a higher power 65 with both chance to paralyse and flinch the foe but is physical and thus worth less than specials. Pin missile also fits into the 'worthless physicals' category as a bug physical with base 25 hitting up to 5 times in a turn. Agility is there to boost your speed a little and thunder wave will paralyse the foe. Discharge affects all adjacent Pokemon (even friendlies) with a base 80 electric special attack, whilst thunder is the powerful STAB attack with base 110 and 70 accuracy (this actually hits flying foes with double power).

You get both sunny day and rain dance again, and rain dance can be useful to boost the accuracy of thunder. Thunder/bolt pop up, as well as hidden power and hyper beam, alongside dig and shadow ball again. Charge beam has 50 power as a STAB special attack with a huge 70% chance of boosting your special attack stat. Retaliate and giga impact both resurface as physical moves, but volt switch is a decent option, especially with your really good speed. I still hate wild charge. The additional tutor moves when compared to Eevee are magnet rise, signal beam and shock wave.

Rather than a thunder stone, you can use a fire stone and get Flareon. Did I say use? I meant waste: spoiler alert, but I think Flareon is pretty much worthless. This time it's attack as the base 130, special defence as the base 110, special attack is base 95, defence base 60 and the others base 65. The hidden ability of guts ups your attack when afflicted by a status, with the regular ability of flash fire making you immune to fire attacks and upping the power of your fire attacks by 50%.

It even looks pretty rubbish! Where's the fire?

The sub in moves are ember (base 40 special with chance to burn), bite (base 60 dark physical with chance to flinch), fire fang (base 65 fire physical that can burn and flinch the foe), fire spin (can trap the foe in a fiery vortex in the wake of its base 35 special fire attack with 85 accuracy), scary face can lower the foe's speed, smog hits as a base 30 poison special move with a medium chance of poisoning the target, lava plume is a base 80 fire special move that hits all adjacent Pokemon, and flare blitz, which is basically just a fire version of double edge.

If we look at the TM list then we get all the standard TMs and the Eevee standards like dig and shadow ball. We also get flamethrower and fire blast, as well as overheat, incinerate and flame charge. You still get rain dance, for some reason, and strength and secret power are actually among the best damaging attacks you can get, awkwardly. Will-o-wisp could be good, along with toxic, since you have decent special defence and you can grind down the foes whilst trying to survive.

We've seen three Eeveelutions as well as the base. The base is rubbish, as is Flareon, with the other two being mediocre. The ranges of attacks are not good enough to be a real threat. Jolteon has a great speed stat which you could make use of, and the special attack is decent, stick on choice and volt switch with the inbounder being a good tank.

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