#129 + #130: Magikarp and Gyarados

There's a good chance that people remember Magikarp for being just about the worst Pokemon, but then they remember Gyarados as being one of the better ones of the time. Let's see how that holds up.

Magikarp itself is a pure water-type, with dreadful stats other than a decent speed (base 80), which then gets further boosted by the swift swim ability in the rain. You get a pathetic base 20 HP, a laughable base 10 attack, base 55 defence, pitiful base 15 special attack and fragile base 20 special defence. Your other ability, which is the hidden ability, is rattled, which raises speed one stage when hit by bug, dark or ghost moves, if you survive.

The face of ambition...

As far as moves go: splash (my all time favourite move as it does literally nothing), tackle (as primitive as ever) and flail, which is the only way to inflict real damage when you're on low health. You can tutor on bounce, which may be a good idea, as this is a flying physical move with base 85 power and a flinch chance.

Level this excuse for a Pokemon up to level 20 and you get the reward for the dedication and loyalty you have shown, the so-called atrocious Pokemon, Gyarados. You only gain a token point in speed (up to 81), but everything else explodes: 95HP, 125 attack, 79 defence, 60 special attack, 100 special defence (which is the defence it needs more considering weaknesses). You add flying to your typing (rather than dragon) and you also swap abilities out: intimidate comes in in place of swift swim and moxie comes in to replace rattled (moxie boosts your attack by a stage when you KO a foe).

It doesn't look too happy to see you...

You start off with thrash (base 120 physical normal that leaves you confused after a few turns of use), and you soon get bite, a dark physical move with base 60 power and the chance to flinch (you will get STAB later...) and dragon rage, which always does 40 damage. Leer will drop the foe's defence by a stage, and twister again teases as a dragon move with base 40 special, hits berry trees in battles, hits flying/etc. foes and can flinch the enemy. Ice fang is a base 65 ice (wow, shocker) physical move with a slight chance to freeze AND a slight chance to flinch the foe, whilst aqua tail is a base 90 physical water move that carries STAB. Rain dance is also on the move list to boost your water attacks and support team mates, but it means that thunder will hit you all the time and likely obliterate you. Crunch was a welcome new addition to ORAS as a base 80 dark physical (like a boosted bite) with the chance to lower the foe's defence. Hydro pump is basically a bit of a waste as a fairly inaccurate water special with good base power (110), hyper beam also comes up and is similarly useless, but between them is dragon dance, which boosts both attack and speed by a stage.

You should really avoid special moves from the TM list, such as ice beam/blizzard, thunder/bolt, flamethrower and fire blast (how does it use these?), surf, incinerate, dark pulse and even scald. Instead, you can take return and other physicals from the standard sets, as well as substitute as a potential cover for running a dragon dance set. Earthquake is probably a good one to take to hit electric types and just for a nice powerful move. Payback would work quite well since you get decent bulk and a low priority move isn't a disaster since you're slow to start off with. Stone edge packs a serious (base 100) punch and can also flinch the foe but lacks some accuracy, dragon tail hits base 60 physical and forces the foe to switch (with negative priority) and bulldoze can cut down their speed a little whilst your at it. Strength is a reasonable shout as a normal base 80 physical which can carry some coverage, dive is a decent call with the same power and alignment but as a STAB water move that has the semi-invulnerable stage, but waterfall is probably where it's at: more accurate than aqua tail with a little less power (80) but with a decent flinch chance.

If you choose to hit up the tutor due to the lack of breeding moves, you can again get bounce (now with added STAB), aqua tail (in case you missed it), outrage (dragon thrash, basically), iron tail and iron head, spite and a mess of special moves that you'd be best off ignoring.

As I mentioned, dark moves could get STAB, and this is with the mega evolution. You swap out flying-type for dark and you take the ability mould breaker, which neutralises the foe's ability with regards to you attack them. HP and speed stay the same, and there's a useless boost of 10 to special attack, but the defence get nice boosts along with attack (all up by 30 to 155 attack, 109 defence and 130 special defence). No speed, but good bulk and awesome physical attack power. You should really consider this having a place on your team.

Based on river spirits that are often dragons, twice denied dragon-type, now is a sailboat...

Some trivia, by the way: you can catch Gyarados at any level (between 1 and 100) in Black and White 2 after the 'King of the Lake' guff in Pokemon Platinum, where you could catch Magikarp in the high 90s. Also, the stat changes from Magikarp to Gyarados in total are huge: the total change is 340, tied with Milotic (from Feebas) as the biggest change. Also, Gyarados was likely the first shiny many of you saw, before we really knew shinies were a thing.

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