Wednesday, 20 May 2015

#185 and #438: Sudowoodo and its baby, Bonsly...

Oh joy... Another old Pokemon with a future introduced baby... Because that makes perfect sense... And to top that off, the baby can only evolve when it levels up with a certain move, a gimmick that permeates a few things through generation four...

Bonsly is an annoying little rock Pokemon with some interesting abilities, namely sturdy (cannot be fainted if it is hit from full HP, so it will be left with 1HP, like a focus sash), rock head (prevents recoil damage from moves like take down, but not from life orb), and it even has a hidden ability, rattled (speed is boosted a stage when hit by bug, dark or ghost moves). On to the stats, and we see a decent physical prowess, with 80 attack and 95 defence, with an indifferent 50HP, an awful 10 special attack (but hey, we can ignore that one, since you only NEED one good attack stat, right?), an abysmal 10 speed (but we can trick room this?) and a poor 45 special defence (ok, so just avoid about 70% of all water-types...).
It looks worried... Maybe about whether it'll be cut down or not
Fake tears and copycat are the only moves you start with, with the former lowering the target's special defence by two stages (but Bonsly won't be hitting their special defence) and the latter copying the last move used in battle, regardless of whether it was your own or not). The first damaging move comes in at level 5, which is flail, a move that hits harder the more injured you are, so you can couple this with the sturdy ability for great effect, I guess, especially since you'll be attacking second and they'll have hurt you a lot with that poor special defence, so you could well revenge kill them straight away, so long as they aren't a ghost as this is a normal physical move, so Gastly will still wreck your day. Low kick hits harder the heavier the foe is, and not in relation to your weight, so just go nuts on using this against Wailord as a fighting physical move. I wonder what type of move rock throw is? Could it be a rock physical with base 50 power, 90 accuracy and tragically nothing else? Yes. Yes it could well be (it is). Next comes the all important mimic, the only way to evolve, a move that is similar to copycat in that it copies the last move, but this time around it is only the move the opponent used, and you get it with 5PP, and don't use it straight away. It's kinda like sketch, which we'll see in the future...

Feint attack is a base 60 dark physical move with no accuracy check, whilst rock tomb is of the same power, also physical and has 95 accuracy (I'm not telling you the type, because seriously...) and there's the nice bonus that it lowers the foe's speed. Block prevents the opponent from being switched out, but they can baton pass or volt switch out, and can be forced out with dragon tail, and since this is normal, it doesn't affect ghosts. Rock slide is a physical move that hits adjacent foes with base 75 power on 90 accuracy and has a decent chance to flinch them, whilst counter is a fighting physical move that returns double the damage of the last received physical attack onto an opponent, so this can really hurt (we'll look into this more when we get to Wobbuffet soon). 2 more moves left, and the first of these is the dark physical sucker punch, that hits a foe readying a damaging move with priority and base 80 power, and double edge is a base 120 normal physical move with recoil, perfect to go with rock head ability.

Calm mind comes in on the TM list to shore up the special side of things, with a single stage boost to both special stats, and there are some other additions to the standard TM allowance. Smack down is a base 50 rock physical move that knocks a foe to the ground if they levitate or fly, and then you can use dig as a base 80 ground physical attack that takes two turns, like fly. Brick break is a base 75 physical fighting move that has the added effect of breaking things like barriers, thief allows you to steal the foe's held item for yourself as well as hurting them on base 60 dark physical damage, you can also summon sandstorm and sunny day and you can rock polish to get your speed up. Then you can explode on a base 250 normal physical move.

In time for breeding, curse acts in the non-ghost version, whereby it lowers speed (so stationary things will now pass you), but both physical stats go up. Defence curl and harden both do the same job and boost your defence, but the former can combo with the base 30 rock physical rollout for increased damage (rollout also gains in power as it lasts a few turns). Headbutt is a base 70 normal physical move (there are a lot of these, like retaliate, facade and secret power, but the first two can double in power under certain conditions and wow I've gone off on a tangent). Self-destruct is a less powerful version of explosion, so there's no point breeding this in since explosion is stronger and this won't leave you any less dead, will it? Sand tomb hits as a fairly weak (base 35) ground physical move with only 85 accuracy, but it traps the target for recurrent damage over a few turns, and stealth rock is a decent niche move that allows you to arena hazard foes, damaging foes who switch in for variable damage. Tutor-wise, you can get after you, block, covet (basically a normal version of thief), earth power (a base 90 ground special move), foul play (base 95 dark physical but uses the foe's attack stat, not yours), helping hand, low kick, role play (copy the foe's ability, which may not be advisable here), stealth rock and uproar.

So you levelled up with mimic and now you are that insanely annoying Sudowoodo, the one that blocks the road in generation two. Base 70 HP is decent, 100 attack is good, 115 defence is even better, 65 special defence is a shaky step in the right direction, but so far this will not go any further since there is no third evolution, 30 special attack and speed also still suck beyond belief. You're still a rock-type with the same abilities.
Not only is it in your way, it's either a regular exhibitionist or from Silence of the Lambs
Take the level set before, and now we get some extras, starting with the base 120 grass physical move wood hammer, which comes with all that jazzy recoil that rock head can ignore. The base 80 normal physical, 75 accuracy slam sneaks in and should probably be ignored for the poor accuracy, and stone edge is a bit better since it's rock and thus STAB, base 100 and 80 accuracy, as well as still being physical. Hammer arm is a base 100, 90 accuracy fighting physical move that lowers the user's speed. Earthquake is now also added to the TM list, along with rock smash and strength, plus bulldoze. Further to this, the elemental punches make their way to the tutor list, along with focus punch. Weirdly, across all this, the only way to have fake tears is to have it on the Bonsly prior to evolving.

In all, this makes a reasonable-ish physical wall, but it really is nothing special. Mono-rock typing is actually a surprise what with being a tree, but I can't really say it's too bad a thing, either... Yeah, not one that really makes much of an impression on me other than it being an annoyance in generation two games...

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

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