#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...