#126, #240 + #467: Magmar, baby Magby and the newer one, Magmortar

Ok, so we had Electabuzz and co last time, and now we get the similar one, the one that got add-ons at the same time, the ones that also have the same hidden ability and very similar main ability, and also evolve using a trade with an item using '-izer' in the name. Dear Arceus they got lazy, like me using that joke again...

Magby: prediction here, it's fairly nippy with mixed damaging prowess and wobbly defences. Now I'll look it up and... Ok, so it's a bit slower with higher attack stats, but the bulk is still a little low. 75 physical attack and 70 special attack is the other way around, but still decent and mixed-available, with 83 speed a little lower but not awful for a baby. 45 HP, 37 defence and 55 special defence is the same. Vital spirit is there as the hidden ability (can't be put to sleep), whilst the main ability is flame body, so rather than contact causing paralysis, you cause a burn here. Pure fire-type, as well.

Is that Fellaini?

Smog is a base 30 special poison move that can cause poisoning 40% of the time, so we're off to an ok start. Leer is there to lower the foe's defence, but there's only one STAB physical move coming by level (I'll let you guess until we get there). Ember is a fairly weak (base 40) fire special move with a chance to burn, and smokescreen lowers the foe's accuracy, before feint attack offers a rare physical move as dark base 60 which ignores accuracy and evasion modifiers. Fire spin is a base 35 fire special move that traps the target in a burning ring of fire for a few turns, inflicting damage and preventing escape. Clear smog is another poison special, this time base 50 and removing stat changes to the target. Flame burst is a base 70 fire special move that causes fire splash damage to the foe's teammates on either side. Confuse ray is an annoying move that confuses the enemy, and fire punch is that move you should have guess, base 75 fire physical.

If you skip evolving at level 30, lava plume is a base 80 fire special move that hits all adjacent Pokemon and can burn them, whilst also destroying rocks in the background. Sunny day not only boosts your fire attacks but allows chargeless sunny day, which could be handy against those pesky ground and water enemies. Flamethrower and fire blast is like the thunder/bolt debate: flamethrower has 100 accuracy, more PP and 90 power, fire blast has 110 power, less PP and 85 accuracy (so better than thunder but weather has no effect other than on the impact power).

Standard TMs appear with hidden power and toxic, no solar beam, but flamethrower and fire blast are there with overheat (base 130 special fire that lowers the user's special attack 2 stages). Incinerate will burn off the foe's berry, psychic and brick break are back, and base 50 physical fire move flame charge can boost your speed a stage. Will-o-wisp will burn the target, and power-up punch does the same as always.

If you eat a berry, egg move belch can make that a weapon for the battle as a base 120 special poison move, whilst belly drum will take half your health but give all six stages of boost to attack. Cross chop and dynamic punch return alongside karate chop, and mach punch is basically a fighting version of quick attack. Thunder punch is there without ice punch, flare blitz is a base 120 fire physical with recoil, and iron tail exists here, too. The tutor gives a similar list to Elekid, with the standards all there (such as signal beam), dual chop is here, too, as is thunder punch, along with iron tail and heat wave (base 95 fire special that hits all adjacent opponents with a chance to burn and can break rocks).

If you get to level 30 again, you can become Magmar. Again we have the attack inversion whilst remaining close, 95 physical attack, 100 special attack. Speed inches up to 93, HP to 65, and the same defences as on Electabuzz, too, with 57 physical and 85 special. Lord Helix is this dull... No change in type, no change in abilities and the only changes to the attacks are hyper beam, giga impact and focus blast being added to TMs. Again, looks cheap but was the first.

I never really liked this design, not sure why...

Again when trading with a held item ending in '-izer', this time magmarizer, you evolve into a newer one that was all the rage in gen 4. Magmortar again drops the speed back to that of the baby at base 83, and messes with the attacks, this time going more logically to special with special attack at 125, physical attack at 95, HP at 75, defence at 67 and special defence at 95. There is more logic evolving here than there was with Electabuzz. The abilities and type remain the same, the level list gains thunder punch and hyper beam, thunderbolt, solar beam, rock tomb/slide and bulldoze are added to the TM list with earthquake and strength and the tutor adds nothing new.

Samus broke into the cake tin...

This is a better one to go for the final evolution, as the loss of speed is not so disappointing, the defences both change, and the chosen attack stat correlates better with the move available. It's still your choice, Magmar with eviolite isn't dreadful.

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

#125, #239 + #466: Electabuzz, baby Elekid and the pretty much unnecessary additional Electivire

I hate this. They took a one-off Pokemon of good if unspectacular power, gave it a baby in Generation two, which wasn't needed, and then added a third form in Generation four since that was all the rage... Grr...

We'll start with the baby: Elekid. I remember rumours going round that Elekid was better than Electabuzz because it was harder to get (you had to breed it). This made little sense at the time, and though eviolite came in to maybe make it better without looking at the stats, Electivire also appeared and meant that Electabuzz also got that boost.

The plug that ran away

Elekid has one thing really going for it with base 95 speed, but neither attack stat is too bad at 63 physical and 65 special, meaning a fast curveball which doesn't overly lack power as a baby. The issues arise with 45HP, 55 special defence and a rather worrying 37 base defence, since being electric-type you're weak to ground, and most good ground attacks are physical in form. If you look a little deeper (at the abilities) you find you get access to static (if the foe makes contact then that can paralyse them) and the hidden ability vital spirit (prevents you from being put to sleep). Neither ability is terrible, but neither really shines that bright either, so it's a bit of a toss up.

The level list is rather restricted towards physical attacks, but you do start with quick attack (base 40 physical normal with priority), and leer is there to drop their defences. Thundershock comes in as a STAB electric special with base 40 with a chance of paralysing a non-electric-type foe. Low kick is a rare physical move here of the fighting persuasion, where the power of the move is determined by the weight of the target. Swift and shockwave are both base 60 special attacks, the former being normal and not missing, the latter being electric (so STAB) and a chance to paralyse. How good would technician have been here, hey? Nevermind, you at least get the irritation of thunderwave that will paralyse the foe (unless they're immune due to typing and ability), and electroball is another electric special attack that hits harder the faster you are compared to the foe. Light screen we have covered before, acting as a screen that protects your team from incoming special damage to an extent (but you really needed physical protection here), and thunderpunch is an electric physical move with base 75 power and the chance to paralyse - this move is arguably useful enough to spec physical and run a surprise (since you could also stick on return etc. from the TMs).

If you forgo evolution for a while, you can take discharge, which is another electric special move that damages all adjacent Pokemon (even team mates) in multi-battles and carries a decent paralysis chance. Screech is another move that doesn't really fit here as it lowers the foe's defence by two stages (better than leer) and thunderbolt hits base 90 as an electric special attack, whilst thunder is more powerful but is 70 accuracy rather than 100 (except in rain, where it boosts the accuracy of thunder), making thunderbolt arguably a better choice. This move list is odd in the fact that it gives you ways of lowering the target's physical defence but few ways to actually hit them on it, instead preferring to hit them with special attacks, and patching up your much better and less necessary special defence with light screen over than the poor defence which is more likely to be slammed.

Thank Arceus for the TM list: you get the usual ones (including toxic, hidden power (which is advisable) and return), and you also get thunder/bolt in case you didn't pick them up. Psychic and brick break offer interesting choices (base 90 psychic special and base 75 physical fighting with the ability to remove screens, respectively). I personally hate wild charge as a move due to only 90 base power for a recoil move, but volt switch is a good move allowing you to hit at base 70 special electric and then get out of the way before the incoming hit from the foe (you're pretty quick, you'll likely hit first). Charge beam carries an indifferent base 50 special electric attack but has a great 70% chance of raising your special attack, power-up punch is similar in that it lacks power as a base 40 physical fighting move but does increase the corresponding attack stat by a stage.

If we move onto breeding, you can get both fire and ice punch to join thunder punch, which suggests a decent reason for running physical, and you can also get dynamic punch (50 accuracy for a base 100 fighting physical move which will confuse the recipient doesn't really seem all that worth it, since the confusion may not apply if you kill them), and cross chop (boosted critical hit ratio for a base 100 physical fighting move with 80 accuracy). Hammer arm is there if you don't mind losing speed, it's a decent attack fairly accurate with 100 power, and focus punch is also there, but I personally prefer the elemental punches as a theme with decent coverage.

The tutor list is sufficiently large here that it gets its own paragraph! The elemental punches make another appearance alongside old standards like snore, uproar, covet, focus punch and signal beam, whilst shockwave and low kick were there before. Electroweb hits all adjacent foes, causing a
 base 55 special electric damage and slowing them down a stage, and dual chop is a double hitting dragon physical move with base 40 physical power on each of the hits, allowing it to sash break. Magnet rise basically instills levitation and ground immunity, which is pretty good, and helping hand buffs the next attack of an ally in multi-battles.

Elekid evolves at level 30 into the original Electabuzz, which sees a disparity in the attack stats, with physical attack only advancing to base 83, and special boosting to 95. Speed has also gone up a bit to 105, taking HP to 65, special defence to a respectable 85 and physical defence to a less lamentable 57 (still rubbish). Typing, abilities and move list don't change other than strength, hyper beam and giga impact coming in to the TM/HM list and iron tail being added to the tutor list, for some reason. It seems disappointing it adds nothing, but don't forget that this was here first.

The 'human-like' egg group disturbs me in many ways...

If you trade Electabuzz with an electrizer attached, it'll evolve into Electivire. This one annoys me a bit: you started with Elekid's fairly balances offensive prowess before grooming that into a special attacker, and now the scales have firmly tipped into a physical sweeper kinda realm. Base 123 physical attack out of nowhere, with a rather tragic loss of speed back down to Elekid levels of 95, with 95 special attack 75 HP, 67 physical defence and the same 85 special defence. Static is replaced by motor drive (speed boosted by a stage if hit with an electric attack).

I'm sure I've seen this guy on TV presenting something?

A few new moves appear, such as electric terrain (I don't really like the terrain moves, stops Pokemon on the floor from going to sleep, boosts electric power by 50%, and changes moves like nature power to electric-type rather than what the environment would normally give), and ion deluge (all normal attacks in the turn this +1 priority move hits become electric-type). Some moves we've already seen now infiltrate the level list, such as fire punch (but not the more useful ice punch to deal with ground), giga impact (still annoying), and all the moves we could have had before, meaning it's still more geared to special.

Rock tomb, rock slide, bulldoze and low sweep are the new physical moves to come in to the TM list, but none are really that great when compare to thunderbolt, whilst focus blast comes in as a base 120 fighting special move, just to annoy you. The tutor stays the same as before.

Other than for Pokedex completion, I'm not sure why you would evolve your Electabuzz. Sure the attack of Electivire is significantly higher, but I'd miss the speed, and Electabuzz can out-bulk with eviolite now, with both defences now standing better and the HP only 10 lower. Electivire could still be used as a special attacker to make use of the much better array of special moves, but why bother when Electabuzz actually does it better?

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