(#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)