#152-154: Chikorita, Bayleef and Meganium

Ok, so to rip-off Professor Sprout: "Welcome to Greenhouse 3, second gen!" Yeah, because we're kicking off gen two with the grass-type starter!

Chikorita was one of the starters in Gold, Silver and Crystal, the latter being the first Pokemon game I played. I did say I was late to the party. Anyway, it was one of the starters I overlooked, so it'll be interesting to see what I missed out on (except that was a long time ago and it's now utterly different). As I've mentioned, you're a grass-type, but you have rather disappointing stats, with some 40s (45 in HP and speed, 49 in the attacks) and some indifferent defence (65 in both). It suffers from the balance issue, clearly. You get the ability overgrow (boosts grass attacks to 1.5x power when your health falls to a third), with the hidden ability of leaf guard (in sunlight, you are immune to status conditions, including self-induces sleep by use of rest). Neither ability is that great, to be honest.

You can see why I didn't take it...

Is there any point in telling you that you start with tackle and growl, or any point in describing them? Go back and look at virtually any one I've written so far, I'll wait... Back? Good. Razor leaf comes in at level 6, hitting as a grass physical move with base 55 power, 95 accuracy, a boosted critical hit rate, the ability to hit all adjacent foes and the ability to cut grass in generation 6 battlefields. Poison powder carries 75 accuracy but will lead to the foe being poisoned (unless immune for whatever reason), and synthesis heals you, with the amount of healing being based on the weather (2/3rds max for sunshine, half for normal and quarter for rain), so this could be useful if you have leaf guard and can't rest...

You evolve a little early at level 16, so reflect coming in at 17 suggests that it probably belongs in another paragraph. Reflect effectively halves physical damage that would be sustained by the team for five turns. Magical leaf ignores the accuracy check and is a special move, so therefore is basically a grass version of swift, whilst natural gift hits with different powers and typings based on the berry you are holding. There are lots of berries... Sweet scent lowers the foe's evasiveness, and if used in the overworld (like you would use an HM) when in the grass, it will cause a wild Pokemon to attack, in some places provoking a horde battle. Remember a couple of lines ago I mentioned reflect? Well take that, swap physical for special and for some reason add 10 PP and you get light screen instead. Body slam is fairly powerful at base 85 (doubled if the foe is minimized), with a 30% chance to paralyse a foe as a 100 accuracy normal physical move. Safeguard protects the team for a few turns from the chance of picking up status problems (did someone forget leaf guard), and aromatherapy heals the whole party of status issues. The last level move is solar beam (you know the drill: base 120 grass special move with a charge turn unless used in sunshine). Why are there so many things that work with sunshine?

As far as TMs go, you get a rather standard array, with toxic included to make poison powder rather irrelevant. You can pick up sunny day here if you like the risk, hidden power can be used for coverage, protect could be useful, return/frustration depend on how much you love it. The thing is, you don't get the moves like thunder, flamethrower and ice beam, so every damaging move seems to be normal or grass... Hmm... Rest does nothing with sunny leaf guard, round, echoed voice and energy ball (base 90 grass special) all pop up, along with swords dance of all things. Substitute is there to shield you from fire damage for a nano-second, swagger and confide are there, and so is cut.

Breeding can grant you ancient power, which does base 60 rock special damage and can boost all your stats, which is ace, and you can also grab counter since you're really slow (but you lack the HP to allow it to work), flail can be used to go well with your terrible HP and ok defences as it hits harder the weaker you are. Leaf storm is there as a base 130 grass special move that will drop your special attack by a couple of stages, heal pulse and ingrain can be used as running a tanky set, as can leech seed, which can drain some health from the foe each turn. Aside from that, the rest are pretty dull and uninspired. The tutor is fairly similar, with iron tail, worry seed, synthesis and snore cropping up. However, you can pick up seed bomb as a base 80 grass physical move, giga drain as a base 75 grass special move that will also heal you a bit, and grass pledge (guess the type) as a base 80 special move that can be combined in multi-battles with water and fire pledge, doubling the power output, and creating a hazard foe the foes: water+grass gives a swamp that drops speed, fire+grass gives a fire that does 1/8th HP damage per turn.

I mentioned you evolve at 16, and you become a Bayleef. You're still a disappointment. 60 HP and speed, 62 physical and 63 special attack and 80 in the defences. Still nothing really looking too good. Also no change to abilities. You know what else doesn't change? The movelists... Boring...

It looks like a crappy dinosaur with a sword in its head...

It may be boring, but that means we can skip straight ahead to level 32 and Meganium. It has mega in the name, so it has to be good, right? Right? The base stat total is lower than both the other starters of the gen (they nail 530 and 534, this caps at 525), but that doesn't make it bad. The spread of stats makes it bad. Add 20 to all the stats of Bayleef and you're there. Not enough bulk to tank, not enough defence in either to really wall too well, not enough speed or offence to offer a sweep. Jack of all trades, master of none: this is pretty much right, but it doesn't really offer much in any format due to the stats, the abilities and the poor movesets. Wow! I've summed it up already. It also lacks a mega as of writing.

Just... What?

Yeah, this is probably the weakest starter ever. I'll leave it at that since I've bashed it a fair bit already...

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

(#133) #470 + #471: Leafeon and Glaceon (Eevee part three)

Oh no... there's more, and this isn't even the end of it. Here we have two more Eeveelutions, so we may as well press on with them.

Leafeon and Glaceon are more examples of new evolutionary mechanics. We're starting with Leafeon, which can only be obtained by levelling up in the presence of a mossy rock, which have been added to areas since Generation 4 to allow for this. The question on your minds is no doubt "is this any good?" To start my answer, it's a grass-type, so not a great start, but that said, it could be what the type really needs... The thing is, it's pretty much an exclusively physical beast, with base 110 attack and 130 defence along with 95 speed. Since we have an attack focus, low special attack isn't a deal breaker, so this being 60 is no issue, but special bulk would have been nice since you suffer at the hands of fire (predominantly special), and with only 65 in special defence and 65 in HP, you won't last long at the hands of something with flamethrower. Leaf guard as an ability courts danger, as it only works in the sun, preventing status conditions affecting Leafeon, even stopping you from using rest, which could be a great way of getting shut down by a foe. On the hidden ability side, chlorophyll again needs the sun to activate, but it does double your speed, including EVs and IVs, so nearly base 200 with no investment: that's insane!

It sucks AND it looks bad... Just set it on fire...

After a fairly poor start, maybe a good move pool can save this? In addition to the Eevee standards, you get access to razor leaf (base 55 grass physical with a good critical ratio, also hitting all adjacent foes), grass whistle (puts the target to sleep, and also like sing is only 55 accuracy), magical leaf (tragically a grass special move, so the base 60, no accuracy check attack is of limited use here (think of it as a grass version of swift)), and giga drain (utility of this move is also lowered by the special categorisation, but it exists as a base 75 grass special that drains the foe's health to you). Swords dance gives you a double stage boost to attack, and synthesis is very much like morning sun and moonlight we saw last time, healing you based on the weather (50% normal, 67% sunny and 25% rainy). You get sunny day by level, and then after last resort, we close with leaf blade, a base 90 physical grass move with a good critical ratio once more.

Moving onto the TM list, the interesting additions to the Eevee standards include solar beam (base 120 grass special (sadly) that would be great in the sun as it has no charge turn in bright sunshine), aerial ace (basically a flying physical version of swift), energy ball (another good grass move that falls into the special category), X-scissor (a base 80 bug physical that is well worth consideration) and grass knot (the heavier they are, the harder they fall). In addition to the Eevee tutor set you can pick up giga drain again, knock off, seed bomb (a grass physical with base 80), synthesis and worry seed (effectively replaces the target's ability with insomnia, preventing it sleeping, like loads of foes may do to you with your leaf guard).

Things haven't looked good so far, so moving onto Glaceon, and we have to first admit that the decent ice moves are also available on Vaporeon, so why do we have this? A different stat distribution, STAB on the ice moves, different abilities and arguably less coverage (see later). 130 special attack is similar to Vaporeon, but 110 defence and 95 special defence seem good, but 65 HP and 65 speed are a little sad. 60 attack isn't disastrous, but there are some good physical moves on offer, which is a bit annoying. The new abilities are snow cloak (increases evasion in hail, and since you don't take hail damage, this could be inspired if you invest in the defences and HP as a bulky staller), and the hidden ability of ice body (any Pokemon that makes contact with you gets frozen). If you run the former ability and you are looking for wild Pokemon, don't let it lead in the snow.

It looks like crystals, like a poor man's Suicune!

So again to the level list, and again ignoring the Eevee regulars. This time around we bring in icy wind (base 55 ice special which hits all adjacent foes and lowers their speed a stage), bite (base 60 dark physical, sadly, which can cause flinching), ice fang (again a physical tease, base 65, can cause freezing and flinching), and ice shard, which is basically an ice version of quick attack, which is also on this set... Yeah, this makes me confused. Anyway, we also get barrier (boosts your defence by two stages) and mirror coat (if you're hit by special attack, it will hit the aggressor back with double the damage you sustained unless they are dark-type, since, y'know, this is a psychic move). You also get hail and blizzard either side of last resort, and they combo well, especially with snow cloak.

Onto the TMs, and what we get in addition to the Eevee standards. Pretty slim pickings for offensive variety here, in truth: hidden power and shadow ball that are on that long list we said we'd ignore are two of the better shouts if you wish to deal damage directly, whilst blizzard and hail also pop up again. Sunny day is there if you feel suicidal, as well. Frost breath is a decent shout as a base 60 ice special with basically 100% critical chance, but only 90 accuracy. The tutor offers water pulse and aqua tail, so basically that comes back to the Vaporeon comparison I made earlier, but you also get signal beam again, along with icy wind.

In all, Leafeon is just rubbish: the abilities may as well not exist, since in the sun an ember used by something with minimal special focus will torch you (literally) and as a grass-type, well, you'll be laughed at. Glaceon appears to be rubbish if you look at it and at Vaporeon, and yes, you get a fighting, rock and fire weaknesses, but a good standard ability to use with hail, which in turn boosts blizzard's feeble accuracy to perfect, with a good way to deal consistent damage from hail itself, some good bulk and blizzard itself is a little scary.

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

#114+ #465: Tangela and Tangrowth

Ok, it's a ball shaped tangle of vines that seemingly evolves into a tree version of cousin it? Eh...

Tangela looks either really dumb or like a creepy stalker/murderer. Going a little deeper than skin, we find that it has really good defence (115) and special attack (100), but rather poor special defence (40), which is a shame since its grass-type, and thus the weakness to fire and ice is exacerbated by the poor special defence, since most inbound hits will likely be of the special variety. 65HP is alright, 60 speed is mediocre and 55 attack isn't worth talking about. As far as abilities go, it's another Pokemon that gets chlorophyll (double speed in sunlight), and this is joined by leaf guard (again in sunlight, you cannot be afflicted by status, including from orbs and rest), and the hidden ability of regenerator (restore 1/3rd health when switching out or the battle ends). Yeah, grass-type and two of the potential abilities needing sunlight doesn't go too well...

The rookie error of stalkers everywhere: make sure your feet are hidden...

Ok, moves? Ingrain digs into the battle field and grants recovery of 1/16th maximum health per turn which is great for tanking, and also works as an anchor, preventing you from being roared, red carded, dragon tailed or whatever out of play. You also start with constrict (physical normal base 10 with the chance to lower the foe's speed by a stage, but only 10%, so it's dire). Sleep powder has been covered to death, and vine whip hits base 45 physical grass, which is rather meh. Absorb is an obvious early choice as a base 20 special grass that heals you (later, you can upgrade this for mega drain (base 40) and giga drain (base 75) so it'll get better, but for now it's a good way to heal yourself). I also don't want to talk about poison powder too much, but bind comes in as a weak (base 15) physical normal move that can attack for a few turns, trapping the foe in the battle unless they rapid spin out of it. Growth boosts attack and special attack by a stage, except in the sun, where it's two stages. Mega drain and knock off don't really need any coverage here, nor does stun spore, but natural gift's effects are different dependent upon the berry held by the user. We've also covered giga drain, really.

Ancient power gets the new paragraph because a) it's a pretty awesome move (base 60 special rock that when used can boost ALL your stats) and b) you have to have it on Tangela to evolve. Oh, and also, ancient power offers some coverage for you. Slam probably isn't all that (75 accuracy for 80 normal physical power with no secondary effects). Tickle lowers both the foe's physical stats by a stage, and wring out is made more powerful the more HP the foe has remaining. Grassy terrain boosts the power of grounded Pokemons' grass moves, restores the HP of grounded Pokemon by 1/16th their maximum and halves the power of earthquake, bulldoze and magnitude. The last move by level is power whip, a base 120 physical grass (85 accuracy) with no secondary effect.

Moving onto the TMs, you get the standard set, of course, including sunny day (no rain dance), solar beam (of course...), sludge bomb, thief, round, energy ball (base 90 grass special with a chance of lowering the foe's special defence). You also get swords dance, which is great for attack boosting (up by two whole stages). Infestation can come in for decent routine damage, whilst both hyper beam and giga impact are available. Cut and rock smash are there as HM moves, whilst reflect as a TM really does help to make a physical wall by doubling the defence of the team.

Having stuck on some Barry White, you can breed in amnesia (two stage special defence boost), confusion, flail and endeavour. Leaf storm can hit pretty hard as a grass special, but it causes the special attack stat to tank (a two stage drop). Leech seed can be in there for some decent routine damage as well as some decent routine healing. The other moves you can get are either what you've seen before or pretty redundant. Instead, go see the tutor for seed bomb, shockwave and snore in addition to things you could have had before.

I hope you learned ancient power (if not, why not, you muppet?), since that would enable you to evolve into Tangrowth and give us something else to look at. In one of the rare cases, you get a stat decrease in speed from 60 to 50, but elsewhere there are nice boosts: 100 HP, 100 attack, 125 defence, 110 special attack, and 50 special defence. I've heard a lot of people run assault vest on this with the decent attacking options negating the need for things like toxic stalling, so with the AV equipped, that would work out at basically 75 special defence and 187.5 defence. Abilities and type stay the same.

I just can't take this one seriously...

You only get the addition of block to the level list, which is pretty disappointing all round. The TM list grows a fair bit to add some versatility and coverage options with: earthquake, brick break, rock tomb, aerial ace, facade (ok it was there before, but now you have a workable attack stat), focus blast, pay back (to go with the poor speed), rock slide, bulldoze, poison jab and strength. The tutor adds nothing.

You've got a decent range of options in terms of moves if you evolve, with the stats to back them up, pretty much (well, except the speed). You could very much be at home on a trick room team as a mixed attacking sweeper, or whack on the assault vest and rely on the natural damage output without investment to make you a viable physical wall. The world is your creeper living stalker bush, as that old saying goes.

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

#102+ #103: Exeggcute and Exeggutor

I cringe at those names... They're pretty bad. If you hadn't guessed, they have eggs in their design, and I'm leaving it at that.

Exeggcute isn't cute, it's a clutch of angry, cracked eggs. Something else not so cute about it: poor stats. 60HP and 80 defence are actually pretty good, really, but 45 special defence is awful since you're weak to fire, ghost, poison and ice which are predominantly special focused, and you also carry several other weaknesses with being grass/psychic. You get the chlorophyll ability to double your desperate base 40 speed when in the sun (which will just lead to even more powerful fire attacks killing you anyway but softly). 40 attack and 60 special attack means that you won't really hurt anything too much. You at least get an interesting hidden ability in harvest, which 50% of the time (or always in the sun) can return a used or lost berry after each turn, which is actually pretty awesome.

They look rotten. I like eggs, but I wouldn't eat these ones...

Barrage is a weak normal physical move which can hit a few times up to 5, meaning a maximum power of 75, but an average of just 47, though it can be used as a sash breaker if anything is weak enough to actually be damaged by this mess. Uproar packs a decent punch at base 90 as normal special and will last 3 turns, whilst also preventing Pokemon in play from sleeping, which is awkward as the next move on our list is hypnosis. Reflect lasts for 5 turns (unless removed with brick break or defog, and is ignored by infiltrator) and doubles the team's physical defence. Leech seed will sap HP from foes and can be baton passed to team mates, but it can also be removed by rapid spin. Bullet seed is a physical grass move that hits up to 5 times with base 25 power per hit, which is ok until you remember that your attack is pitiful. Stun spore, poison powder and sleep powder are fairly obvious in what they do, but aren't that accurate.

Confusion is a base 50 special psychic with the chance to inflict confusion, and worry seed will temporarily change the foe's ability to insomnia, preventing sleep and awakening it. Why does this Pokemon get moves to both cause and prevent sleep, and not just one of each but two! Natural gift's power and type is determined by the held berry, but it will consume it, so this is pretty rubbish, really. Solar beam is powerful, but the temptation to use in sunlight is a big problem since you really can't even take an ember with special attack backing. Extrasensory is arguably the best move at your disposal as a psychic special attack with base 80 and a flinch chance (I like this move). The last available by level is bestow, which gives the target your held item.

You get the standard array of TM moves, including solar beam again. Here, things like hidden power and return actually stand out as possibly decent moves again. Hidden power could be a saving grace since there are so many things you can't touch and could ruin you that almost any type other than what you have will do the job. Psychic and sludge bomb are decent ideas for moves to take due to high power and being special, and facade is ok-ish, reduced in utility due to awful physical attack. Energy ball is a safer alternative to solar beam but only at base 90 rather than 120. Dream eater goes great with hypnosis or sleep powder but awfully with uproar and worry seed. Grass knot, infestation and strength (somehow) are some of the better options as well.

If for some reason you choose to breed this waste of a Pokeball into existence (maybe for the laugh of hatching some eggs from an egg), then you can get ancient power, which in addition to being a base 60 rock special can boost all your stats by one stage (can, not will). Curse is ok since your speed is around that of a dead house cat anyway, and giga drain is possibly worth the effort if you really want this Pokemon as it does decent damage (base 75 STAB special) and it gives you back some health. Moonlight and synthesis both do the exact same things, granting healing based on weather, both giving back a massive two thirds in, you guessed it, sunlight. Leaf storm would normally be almost inadvisable since it crushes your special attack by two stages after use, but you won't be hanging around long, so a base 130 special STAB attack is worth it in my book. Power split is a great argument for hindering natures and no investment in your attack stats as it averages your offensive stats with those of the foe, which is amazing for tanky Pokemon like Shuckle that do no damage but can take hits like champs, so it may well be worth it here, if only to make the foe less of a threat for the rest of your team.

Why waste time seeing the tutor for this? Yeah, you can get giga drain, skill swap, synthesis and seed bomb, but you won't use this Pokemon.

If you're willing to waste a leaf stone, you get Exeggutor, with the same awful typing and middling abilities, the standard chlorophyll being far better for other Pokemon, like ones that don't suck. I've been a little harsh on Exeggutor: it has decent stats, like 95 HP and attack, 85 defence, 125 special attack, and then it ruins it with 55 speed and only 65 special defence, meaning fire-types will still wreck your day. I guess stats can lie, since with the horrible typing, this Pokemon is still bad.

There are no words to describe how awful this design is...

If you went all the way through the moves of the previous evolution (I refuse to type out that mess of a name again), then you'll possibly want to visit the move relearner, since you get some decent moves at low levels with this, which is something which really annoys me: to get some good moves, you have to stick around to high levels, but then when you use your stone, you've missed out on gems like psyshock (level 17), egg bomb (level 27, physical normal base 100 but a bit inaccurate) and wood hammer (level 37, base 120 grass physical with recoil equal to a third of damage inflicted). Unless you really wanted bestow, you probably won't have missed out on leaf storm (level 47) and I won't describe it again.

You can at least use a TM for psyshock, but this Pokemon is still not forgive for the split movelists. Other than that, hyper beam and giga impact, you basically get nothing new from the TMs, and the tutor only adds low kick and zen headbutt (base 80 psychic physical with the chance to cause a flinch).

As far as training goes, you could make a decent mixed attacker, since the speed is so bad that investment will actually be counter-productive (use a trick room team). The thing is, no matter what you do, this Pokemon will never really be worth your time due to the massive number of weaknesses and the poor special defence. Just don't bother with it.

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

#69-71: Bellsprout, Weepinbell and Victreebell

With the number of evil, poison plants from generation one of Pokemon, someone there must have been a fan of Day of the Triffids. Especially since Bellsprout seems to be running...

Oh God, the sausages are burning!

Bellsprout has surprisingly good attack and special attack for an unevolved Pokemon (75 and 70 respectively). Both of these are serviceable, but the other stats really let it down: 50 HP, 35 defence, 30 special defence and only 40 speed... The main ability is chlorophyll, which doubles the speed in sunshine, but this is conditional AND maybe dangerous. The other ability is gluttony as a hidden ability, which means that HP restoring berries will be eaten earlier. You also get that oft seen typing of grass/poison...

By level up you get 7 damaging moves: vine whip (grass physical base 45), wrap (normal physical base 15 that wraps the foe up for a few turns), acid (poison special base 40 with 10% chance of lowering the foe's special defence), knock off (you know this one: dark physical base 65 which will remove an item if the foe has an item), razor leaf (grass special base 55 with nice critical chance), slam (normal physical base 80 but with only 75% accuracy) and wring out (normal special that hits harder the higher the foe's HP is (percentage wise)).

You get the powder moves (poison, sleep and stun SPORE if you want to be picky with the name). Growth boosts your special attack by one stage, though this is doubled in the sun. Sweet scent lowers the foe's evasion by two stages, but in the overworld this will initiate a wild encounter, and if hordes are available then it will be a horde battle. The last level up move is gastro acid is an atypical poison type move as it will still affect steel types, but it isn't damaging since what it does is suppress the foe's ability, which can be immensely useful.

I'm willing to bet you could guess half the TM list with no effort. Sunny day could be worth it, especially with solar beam AND chlorophyll. Since both attack stats are good then you can grab venoshock, solar beam, sludge bomb, energy ball and grass knot as special STAB moves, and you could also go for round, cut, secret power, infestation, thief, hidden power and facade. I find that cut is an odd one, however, since Bellsprout would then be cutting another plant down and oh never mind...

There are some decent breeding moves, like acid spray, belch, bullet seed, clear smog, giga drain (I like this move), leech life, magical leaf, power whip and weather ball (changes depending on the weather). If you visit the tutor then you can get seed bomb and bind.

The running plant will evolve into the mouth walking Weepinbell at level 21. To make up for not changing the movelists upon evolution, Weepinbell also doesn't change its abilities and every stat increases by 15, just to be really dull.

Oh my God! Why are you using me?

Since Weepinbell has nothing to talk about, you'll grab a leaf stone and evolve to Victreebell, which looks like a carnivorous plant-made dustbin... Guess what happens to the stats? Aside from the special defence, everything goes up by 15. Special defence goes up by 25... Typing and abilities also haven't changed since Bellsprout...

Anyone up for a game of Basket-Voltorb?

There are actually changes to the level-up learnset! Forget everything else, you now get stockpile (boosts defence and special defence and can stack three times), swallow (consumes the stockpiles, negating their effects, but granting healing, which heals more for more stockpiles), and spit up (again removes the effects of stockpile (you can build them again of course) as a special attack, with base of 100 for each stockpile, so up to 300, as a normal type attack with no added effects). You still get vine whip, sleep powder, sweet scent and razor leaf. The other new moves are leaf tornado (special grass base 65 with 90 accuracy and when it lands it has a 50% chance of lowering the foe's accuracy), leaf storm (base 130 grass special that lowers your special attack by two stages and is only 90 accuracy, basically don't use as a sustained attack) and leaf blade (a physical grass attack base 90 with good critical chance and 100 accuracy).

The usual suspects giga impact and hyper beam are added to the TM list, but nothing is really there from the tutor, no more than there was before.

All in all, this is a family that you could consider, but you shouldn't really pin your hopes on it. There's not much to talk about: it's good, but there are enough weakness problems to think that maybe it shouldn't be a centrepiece.

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

#46 + #47: Paras and Parasect

Seeing as I'm VERY allergic to mushrooms (much to my girlfriend's ire), Paras and Parasect are not great for me in terms of design, but does that make them bad Pokemon all round? I remember finding a level 49 Parasect in Mt. Silver whilst playing Crystal, and I threw a Pokeball at it on the first turn, and BAM! Mine, so I have that positive.

Before we really get going I'd like to point out that you get access to stun spore and sleep powder along with false swipe, which is great for catching wild Pokemon, so it could always have a use.

One thing to take into account is that Paras is slow... 25 base speed slow... Only on a trick room team slow... Both of your defences are reasonable at 55, but health is a bit crap at only 35, so you don't hit first and you may not survive much, especially since you're bug/grass and thus demolished by fire... If, by a miracle, you survive then you'll be using your physical attack (70) rather than special (45).

AAAAH! Kill it with fire (so long as I have a respirator)

You get three available abilities: effect spore (we've seen this before: contact has a 30% chance of inflicting a status condition on the opponent), dry skin (makes fire hurt you more, sunlight also inflicts damage to you, but water attacks and rain heal you) and damp (hidden ability which prevents self-destruct and explosion, and also negates the effect of aftermath).

From levelling, you gain access to a few decent moves. Early on you get scratch and the effect powders/spore. There's not too much to think about here, you know if you want them or not. You get access to leech life and fury cutter, which are both bug-type, so you get STAB, and they're both physical. Leech life is very low base power (20) but does give you some of their health, whilst fury cutter is a bit stronger (40). Slash is a good neutral move at 70 base power, and being normal it will hit most (not all) things as neutral but without STAB, yet with a fairly high critical chance. Growth boosts both attack stats by one stage unless you're in the sun, in which case it goes up two stages. Tragically, the poor special attack means that giga drain, which hits hard and heals well, is not that practical for you. Aromatherapy cures all status problems within the party and rage powder makes the Pokemon as a preferential target. X-scissor will probably be your primary STAB attack, since it has very good base power (80) with good accuracy (100) and decent PP (15) with no secondary effects.

You do get access to some decent TMs, so consider dig, since that can hurt the fire-types that will wreck you (if you can't switch out on them) along with brick break as a decent coverage attack. Special attacks are pretty much not worth it, like solar beam (since with dry skin you'll be losing HP when trying to support solar beam and a charging turn is basically suicide), and sludge bomb, hidden power and venoshock also don't play to your strengths. You could pick up aerial ace (not bad), facade (if you have a status problem then this would be really powerful), cut, rock smash and false swipe. False swipe, if you didn't know, will always leave 1HP, with 40 base power, so this is great for catching. Other special moves that are available but probably should be ignored: round, energy ball, grass knot and struggle bug. You also get the rest of the standard fare, like toxic and return and things like that (rest included).

Some decent moves can be bred in, such as cross poison, fell stinger, metal claw and bug bite. You can also get things like leech seed, flail, endure and counter. If you go to the tutor, you can get seed bomb (very decent physical grass-type attack) and knock off, with a few other moves that aren't necessarily worth it because they are special.

Evolving, you become Parasect, and get a nice few boosts to the stats. Your speed goes up to 30, so not a big jump but that's good for trick rooming things. Attack gets respectable at 95 (not great but decent), 80 in both defences with 60 HP, so there is some survivability, oh, and special attack now gets up to 60, so basically decent for an unevolved Pokemon. You don't really even get anything new from this evolution: no new typing, no new abilities, and no new level moves. You get one or two new TMs that aren't particularly worthwhile. All in all, you just get the boosts...

J-John Lennon????

This isn't an evolutionary line I really care for other than using one at a grossly high level in wild encounters to ensnare new Pokemon. This is probably the best use for them, but don't just ignore them: if you like them then use them...

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

#43 - #45 + #182: Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom

Oh good! A nice happy generation one family which gained a fourth member, making it a divergent series... Way to complicate this, Pokemon people...

So we start with Oddish. Being brief you can say that the stats aren't bad, or at least the special stats aren't bad: 75 special attack with 65 special defence, actually rather impressive for an unevolved Pokemon. The thing is, the speed is poor, HP is just 45, defence is 55 and attack is 50, so make of this what you will... Abilities wise, the poor speed is almost made up for by chlorophyll, which doubles speed in the sun (but you carry the risk of being hit by fire moves which will kill your grass/poison-type self), but you can also get run away, which is pointless...

Looks rather happy and cute...

Since there are four Pokemon to discuss here I'm going to be brief on the moves lists (which maybe I should carry over a bit more to other posts). By level up, all you get are special moves and status moves, so this negates the comparatively poor attack. You evolve at level 21 into Gloom, so I'm going to cut off there: you get very little... You start with absorb (basically you drain some of their health, but not much since this is the weakest of the absorb/mega drain/giga drain line of moves), you can also get sweet scent (improves your accuracy, and in the field entices wild Pokemon, forcing a horde battle if available). Acid is available as a weak STAB poison attack, you also get poison powder, sleep powder and stun spore (all 75% accuracy) and then mega drain, which is double the power of absorb. You do get some better moves down the line, such as giga drain, moon blast and petal dance.

From the TM list, venoshock isn't a bad option (STAB and special correlation), hidden power could be useful as coverage, sunny day sits well with chlorophyll and solar beam (if you can survive, that is), otherwise you could take a safer option with energy ball. Round is a possibility, especially in double battles, and if you don't want venoshock then you can take sludge bomb. Grass knot would also be viable against heavier enemies. There are a lot of the standard TM moves that every Pokemon seems to learn, like rest/return/substitute/blah, but here you may choose infestation as a bug-type move that deals sustained damage. HM wise, you get cut, despite their being no evidence Oddish has anything to cut with... Moves via breeding tend to be on the physical side and thus not really that great since they also carry lower base power than the TM moves you could go with. Tutor-wise, giga drain is available, so if you don't want to level to it, then here it is as one of your better STAB options.

Level 21, you get Gloom... Nice cheery name for a Pokemon that doesn't see that much of an improvement on its predecessor. The major change is that the hidden ability is replaced by stench, which reduces the wild encounter rate and also adds the chance of flinching the opponent when contact is made, so not dreadful, really...

I guess Oddish went into an emo-phase?

So we have small improvements across the stats and a middling ability replacing a useless one. From here you will probably go for the moves you didn't stretch to with Oddish (that is you evolved and now can go for them if you wish), so giga drain is one you should really consider. Moonlight is a reasonable healing move that has different powers dependent on the weather (clear bestows 1/2, sunny gives 2/3s and other weathers only 1/4), but unless you're going with a sunshine set to buff speed and give spammable solar beams then giga drain is better since it's reliable and covers for solar beam quite nicely. Petal blizzard is a high damage physical attack, but petal dance is a harder hitting special attack with a twist: it hits for a few turns at 120 base before confusing you.

TM wise there is nothing else new, but with the tutor you could take seed bomb or drain punch if you randomly decide to focus on the weaker physical attack side of things.

So... which stone will you use: leaf or sun? Let's go with leaf first, shall we? Say hello to Vileplume, where the stats look great, other than 50 speed. 110 special attack, 90 special defence, 85 defence, 80 attack and 75 HP are all pretty good, and you get to keep chlorophyll and the poison/grass-typing. Stench as the hidden ability is replaces by effect spore, which has a 30% chance of causing an affliction on a Pokemon that makes contact.

Looks shady... HAHA!

If you've chosen this route, I hope you got all the moves you wanted, since the only new one from level-up is solar beam, with the vast majority of earlier moves no unavailable. Further to this, nothing of real consequence is added to TMs or tutors.

If, rather than the leaf stone, you took the sun stone, you will get Bellossom, which doesn't carry the damage output, but defends better, with stats reading 75HP, 80 attack/90 special attack, 95 defence/100 special defence and still 50 speed. You lose the poison-typing to go with the friendlier name, so now you're pure grass, for better or worse. You keep chlorophyll, but you replace stench with healer as the hidden ability. Healer carries a 30% chance of healing an adjacent ally's status conditions at the end of each turn in multi-battles. So chlorophyll may be wiser... maybe...

That reminds me to go to that limbo competition...

In place of solar beam by level-up (pretty much everything else by level has been covered in the previous evolutions and the list looks the same as the contracted one for Vileplume bar the last) you get leaf storm, which hits a little harder than solar beam without the need for charging. The issue with leaf storm is that it drops your special attack by a whopping two stages, so this is pretty ruinous unless you can get it on a contrary Pokemon. The TM and tutor lists have basically been covered, and are rather uninspired, sadly.

All in all, this isn't a bad little run of Pokemon. For Oddish and Gloom, they offer decent damage outputs with more than acceptable defence to cover for the poor speed: stick them with eviolite and you could do pretty well... Moving to the top table duo, and things get more complicated. If you want to pull off sunny day, run with a heat stone and it will extend it from 5 to 8 turns, but this may be better on a support Pokemon. You could go choice items for more power or speed (but without the sun the speed will still suck), or you could go life orb, which works wonders with giga drain, since you can patch over the previous turn's recoil. Another option is assault vest if you don't want to use status afflictions and rely on just pure damage output. The choice is yours, but forgive the slightly frail typing...

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

#1 - #3: Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venusaur

If you're going to start something, may as well go from the beginning, and so for my first assignment, I am reviewing the generation one grass-type starter and first in the national Pokedex, Bulbasaur and it's evolutionary line. (Please note that stat totals and learnsets will only be for Generation Six (X, Y Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.)

I came to Pokemon quite late, getting Crystal version for Christmas in 2001 with a brand new Gameboy Colour, so regrettably I didn't have much to do with these generation one starters until a fair while later. However, for the vast majority of players of my age/generation, Bulbasaur may well have been their starter (such as my girlfriend over at http://lizziedailyblog.blogspot.com), or their rival's starter if they picked Squirtle, and I guess many people will be familiar with many Pokemon from the anime, which regrettably I never really saw until the release of X and Y when we watched a few episodes online when we started those games together.

Bulbasaur and it's evolutionary line will always hold a special place in the heart of those who chose it as a starter, I'm sure, but I myself have put it on a different pedestal (fire-type all the way for me): I see it as being a very rare case of a good grass-type Pokemon, and with recent developments like mega-evolution and the introduction of fairy-type, along with the allowance for dual-typing (not so recent), this 'mon has just got better with age. Bulbasaur itself has a rare base stat total only share by Turtwig and Chikorita, two other grass-type starters, which I thought was fairly interesting.

Being a first evolution, Bulbasaur will mainly only be used in progress through the game or in niche multiplayer battle tiers such as little cup, taking advantage of decent special stats, both special attack and special defence leading the way in terms of the Pokemon's stat levels at base 65, yet level-based learnset for Bulbasaur doesn't take advantage of the greater special than regular attack giving a movepool entirely devoted to status and physical moves.

Admittedly, some of the status moves could prove very useful, such as the powder moves (poison and sleep) and leech seed for draining your enemies' health and restoring your own, but if you plan on taking full advantage of this 'mon, either evolve it up and up, or use it's fairly impressive TM list, including one of my favourite moves: venoshock. Couple venoshock with the poison powder (if you can take a hit after powder or two hits if you're (quite probably) outsped), as when the target is poisoned, venoshock doubles in power from a strong STAB (same type attack bonus) move to something utterly devastating (which I have spammed to oblivion on the online from Pokemon Y).

You can also pick up the moderately risky solar beam (more on that later) and a few other powerful STAB moves like sludge bomb (a good poison attack that deals damage and has the potential to poison, so maybe drop powder for this unless you need to inflict the status, but then you could just take the TM for toxic which can multilayer) and energy ball as a grass-type move. You can also stick on the situational grass knot, which hits heavier opponents harder, you also get round, which is a move I kinda like for some reason, as a coverage option (though it cannot hit ghosts or Pokemon with the ability soundproof, and will be non-STAB neutral at best on most other things other than rock-type which resists it). There's also a few moves that can allow you to go tanky or setup role, as well as some decent moves via breeding, such as giga drain, leaf storm and petal dance for example.

Moving on to the less cute, more deadly Ivysaur, which was likely the first time you saw an evolution in the games unless you power levelled bug-types. Ivysaur comes with a significant boost to all stats, especially those already decent special stats, now boosted to 80, yet still not learning any decent special moves until level 44 by level up (solar beam, if you count that as decent), so again you'd be looking at the TM lists or breeding, which I believe are unchanged. Also, in both cases, it is possible in some versions to get move tutor moves, such as grass pledge.

As far as battling goes, Ivysaur falls into some reasonable tier levels and can be equipped with eviolite to boost defences (this item only works on Pokemon which aren't fully evolved, and so makes Scyther ludicrous, though more on that in a later blog).

Now onto Venusaur, which now has a barely workable physical stat (82) yet still a much more preferable 100 in each special categories. If you let it evolve at level 32, the first opportunity, you're just in time for a decent special move in petal dance (not to be confused with the physical move petal blizzard learned a little while later). If petal dance and solar beam don't do it for you, you can still scavenge a decent TM list (which has several decent poison moves and a few coverage moves scattered through) and a smattering of tutor moves such as grass pledge, giga drain and the heavy damage dealing frenzy plant (heavy hitting but with a fair few drawbacks, such as low PP, 90% accuracy and a recharge turn).

I you're building a Venusaur, you'll probably consider breeding, in which case you may want to breed in something like giga drain as it has a decent attack level, a good accuracy and also heals you, though there are some very high damage moves available through level up such as petal dance. You'll also probably want to pick up the TM for earthquake as a coverage option to hit fire-types which can wreck your day, especially if you're running a solar-beam set with sunny day to remove charging turns, or even just sunny day to take advantage of the speed boost chlorophyll bestows (doubles speed of your pokemon, so for Venusaur it would go from a fairly mediocre 80 to a monstrous 160). Remember, however, that sunny day boosts fire-type attacks, and can leave you very vulnerable, since it will also come with the double damage of type effectiveness and probably STAB boost from something like a Charizard.

Chlorophyll as a hidden ability works well if you are running the solar beam set as a single battle, or if popped in safety in a multi-battle from an assistant. Running a chlorophyll Venusaur, you could stick on a life orb, which boosts damage output by a delightful 30%, yet hits the holder for 10% of its maximum HP.

If you choose to run Mega Venusaur with it's nice boost to stats once again, giving boosts to all bar speed and HP, then you also get the rather nice thick fat ability, covering the weaknesses to fire and ice and rendering them neutral damage (but not to flying or psychic). The leap to base 100 attack means that earthquake is a viable option without EV investment into attack, still focusing a special set, or even a fairly tanky set, as physical defence leaps 40 points to 123, overtaking special stats at 120. Mega Venusaur packs decent power with reasonable bulk (HP is not so amazing at 80, meaning a true tank set is not necessarily the best option).

Personally, I don't really use Venusaur, let alone Mega Venusaur, yet this is for no particular reason. If I were to do so, I would be hoping to run a special attack set chlorophyll Venusaur of a sunny day team, whether that is switching in in a singles game or pairing up in a multi-battle. I'm not knocking Mega Venusaur, it is very usable as a wall or tank or whatever, but I personally prefer other options for my Mega Evolution.

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