#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)