#140 + #141: Kabuto and Kabutops

Since this is another fossil (the dome, this time around), and it was a choice between Kabuto and Lord Helix, does this make Kabuto the antichrist?

Back on topic, this is another rock/water-type with swift swim (see Omanyte among others) and weak armour (when you're hit, you lose defence and gain speed), and the other standard ability is battle armour, which is the same as shell armour in that it blocks criticals. As far as stats go, you get a rather low base 30 HP, 90 physical defence and 45 special defence, so a special hit will probably kill you. Base 80 attack and 55 speed suggests that you can dish out an attack but only after you've been savaged, and the low base 55 special attack doesn't really matter if you intend on using your ok physical prowess.

You can see why I went with the evil theme, right?

You know how you have decent attack and poor special attack? Well, you get scratch (base 40 normal physical) and aqua jet (base 40 normal physical with priority) as the only physical moves by level. You get harden to buff your defence, leer to lower the foe's defence, sand attack to lower their accuracy and you also get endure to keep you alive. Absorb and mega drain are grass special moves that heal you for a fraction of the damage you deal (the former base 20 and the latter base 40), whilst mud shot is a base 55 ground move that lowers the foe's speed. Metal sound comes in rather late to soften up the foe's special defence by two stages, and you can couple this with ancient power that hits as base 60 and can grant a stage boost to all stats and wring out hits the foe with greater power the healthier they are to start with.

Again in the TM list you can get ice beam and blizzard (not sure why) along with hail, and you can pick up some physical moves at long last: return is a decent shout as ever, rock tomb and smack down are STAB attacks (the latter knocks fliers out of the air), facade is never a dreadful one, hell, you can even summon a sandstorm. Rock slide and thief come in to the mix, too, waterfall and rock smash are decent bets, but surf and scald aren't the best since they are special focused.

Breeding nets you a couple of things, mainly flail (you hit harder when you have less HP) and knock off, as well as take down (which isn't really worth it) and rapid spin (which can be used to clear hazards). If you want to use the tutor, you can get knock off again, as well as another array of special moves (like giga drain, icy wind, snore and water pulse), plus stealth rock and iron defence. This is pretty miserable, really...

If you get up to level 40, you can evolve into Kabutops, which based on the overused meme would probably be the devil. You get no change to the abilities, but you do get some stat boosts: you're now up to 60 HP, 115 attack, 105 defence, 65 special attack, 70 special defence but only 80 speed. You also stay as rock/water-type.

Is this a predecessor to Scyther?

In addition to the previous level set, you can pick up night slash, a base 70 dark physical move, along with regular slash, with the same details but as a normal attack, and these BOTH have increased critical ratios. Moving onto the TM list, you can also bag swords dance, X-scissor (a base 80 bug physical), and now stone edge, dive and cut. The tutor can also now bestow aqua tail, superpower (high power fighting physical that will torch your stats on use) and low kick (hits harder against faster foes).

All in all, there is some promise here as a sort of low end physical sweeper: the attack stat is pretty decent, but the speed is a little low unless you take some hits with the weak armour ability. I like this Pokemon, the design is cool and you can do some damage, but you have to get to Kabutops before you can be a threat with any variety of moves.

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

#138 + #139: Omanyte and Omastar

Right, first off, sorry I've missed out on two days: I've been majorly busy with real work. Secondly, it's time for the Lord Helix jokes to be confronted...

Omanyte is a fossil Pokemon, which means it was either a choice OR you found it from breaking rocks. What you get with it is a water/rock-type Pokemon with huge defence (100 for a first evolution is nothing to sniff at) and good special attack (base 90), but you are pretty slow (35), with poor special defence (55), poor attack (which isn't really an issue at base 40) and no health (base 35). Standard abilities give you swift swim (double your awful speed in rain, including the investment, which could actually just hinder you in a trick room team), and shell armour (prevents critical hits from hitting you), and the hidden ability is weak armour (being hit by a physical attack, your defence falls and your speed rises).

Have you considered growing a tentacle moustache?

The level up list features some interesting choices: the early moves of constrict and bite are fairly worthless with your awful attack (the former is base 10 normal and has a low chance of lowering the foe's speed and the latter being a base 60 dark physical move that can flinch the foe). Withdraw as a water move boosts your defence by a stage, but the next water move is the base 40 special move water gun, and you will get brine (base 65 special that hits twice as hard when the foe is on less than 50% HP). Between these two, you can also get rollout (base 30 rock physical that keeps attacking for a few turns, growing in power each time), leer (decreases the foe's defence by a stage) and mud shot (base 55 ground special that can lower the foe's speed). Protect is a standard move: you can't be hit for that turn, but successive use can lead to failure. Ancient power is a base 60 rock special attack that has the chance of boosting all of your stats, and so can be amazing in that respect.

Tickle will lower the target's physical stats by a stage each, whilst rock blast hits as a rock physical move with base 25 power, hitting up to 5 times in the turn. The last two moves are shell smash (basically lowers your defences to boost speed and the attack stats) and hydro pump (base 110 water special with only 80 accuracy).

In addition to the standard array of TMs, you can grab ice beam/blizzard (as well as hail, but this can hurt you), smack down (a rock physical move base 50 that knocks the foe out of the sky) and rock tomb and rock slide. Your low speed could be an advantage with gyro ball, and you can lessen your disadvantage with rock polish to boost speed a little, whilst scald is a base 80 water special move that can inflict a burn on your target. You can also take all the water HMs, surf being the best out of these as it has base 90 (not 80) and is the only specially focused one. Breeding moves can also lead to aurora beam (a base 65 ice special that can lower the speed of the foe), bubble beam (base 65 water special that can lower the speed of the foe), haze (removes stat changes) and knock off (base 65 dark physical that removes the foe's item), muddy water (just take surf) and hey, you can even get toxic spikes... If you plod over to the tutor, you can also gain access to earth power (a base 90 ground special), icy wind (as is so often the case, as has been iron defence, water pulse and snore). You can again get knock off and stealth rock as well, if you want to be a trapper.

Level up to 40 and you get to evolve into Omastar, who seems to have entered a punk-phase. To go with this new prickly appearance, you get a new level up move, which we'll come to in a bit, but no change to the abilities. Your base HP actually doubles to base 70, with attack up to 60 (not really worth it), special defence gets a much needed boost to 70 (so you can just about take a special hit), speed is still poor at 55, but physical defence is a mighty 125, with 115 special attack, making you a special attacking threat and a physical wall.

They just don't understand me, man!

As I alluded to, you get spike cannon as a new move from level, but it's a base 20 multi-hitting normal physical move, so that may have got your hopes up a bit. Stone edge is the big addition to the TM list (not hyper beam or giga impact), but even this is a trick, since it's a base 100 rock PHYSICAL move. THERE ARE NO OTHER GOOD MOVES... The tutor adds nothing.

In all honesty, I like this Pokemon. I trained one on Y because of the whole stupid Lord Helix crap and found it to be OK, kinda: nothing special, it was carried on the team by a Delphox and a Mega Aerodactyl, or by a Mewtwo, but it had a decent time and I didn't even set it as a trapper. The thing is, if you expect it to be awesome because of that meme, you'll be disappointed.

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

#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)

(#133) #700: Sylveon (Eevee part four, including the summary)

So we're onto the last leg of this mini-voyage and we stumble across yet another Eeveelution wedged in to showcase something new in the game: this time it's less a mechanic, and more the introduction of the new fairy-type.

Straight off the bat, Sylveon gets plus points for being a fairy, since fairy hasn't really been balanced as yet, much like Psychic when Pokemon was first released. The immunity to dragons and the semi-uncommon weaknesses, plus good resistances makes fairy a little broken. The only issues with fairies: scarcity of Pokemon and scarcity of decent moves. Sylveon comes from a family you're used to, and actually gets some good moves. In addition to this, you get great special stats (110 special attack and 130 special defence) with 95 HP, making it a good special wall. The problems arise with an indifferent defence (65) and poor speed (60), the attack at 65 being too low to matter with regards to a mixer, and is thus utterly unimportant. Cute charm as the main ability means that contact with this Pokemon can cause the aggressor to become infatuated AND makes it more likely to encounter Pokemon if the opposite gender in the wild, whereas pixilate, the hidden ability, converts all normal-type moves to fairy-type and grants the associated STAB, as well as a 30% power-up. Sure, the loss of normal moves may be a little odd, since it can get rid of decent neutral coverage, but fairy hits most things fairly well, and so this isn't an awful trade off.

Just FABULOUS, darlings... It practically sneezes glitter...

If we skim over the level list for the final time in this enormous family, we see that we also get a new starting move: disarming voice (base 40 fairy special that isn't affected by evasion/accuracy modifiers). Fairy wind also finds itself inserted prior to quick attack (base 40 fairy special with no hidden features). Hereafter we find draining kiss (base 50 fairy special where 75% of the damage done is used to heal the user), skill swap (swaps abilities with the target, with certain exceptions, such as multi-type, stance change and wonder guard) and misty terrain (affects all Pokemon on the ground: status conditions no longer apply, halves the damage of dragon moves in play, nature/secret power become fairy-type, and camouflage makes the user a fairy). Light screen effectively raises the team's special defence for 5 turns (can be removed by brick break and defog), moonblast is a very good fairy special move (base 95, 30% chance of lowering the foe's special attack by a stage) and the move that fits after last resort is psych up (copies all of the foe's stat changes).

Down to TM time: err... Well, psyshock is something we know fairly well, it's a good psychic special move that hits the defence of the foe. Calm mind works to buff the special stats by a stage, dazzling gleam hits adjacent foes as a base 80 fairy special move, and the rest of the Eevee moves pop up again. Tutor-wise, you can nab skill swap (again) and magic coat.

Wrapping up Sylveon, it's not a bad special wall with some decent power output, but could work ok on a trick room team. You can also play a supporting role with moves like light screen, and you can annoy foes using things like misty terrain and whatnot. The biggest pain of this Pokemon is the method of evolution, which is to do with a new mechanic: you need two hearts in Pokemon amie, you need to have baby-doll eyes in the moveset and you need to level up. It's a bit of a pain to achieve this.

Now to the Eeveelutions as a whole: the majority of them are rather mundane and disappointing, but with the cases of Umbreon, Glaceon, and arguably Espeon and Sylveon you could find something decent. None of them are awful other than the base, Leafeon and Flareon... Wait, that's actually a fair number... Really, there's now too many to make a cutesy team and too many of them are surpassed by much more common Pokemon that the only real reason to ever evolve all of them is for Pokedex completion. Tracking down the evolutionary stones, fitting to time windows, grinding on Pokemon amie and looking for the correct locations to train is rather a pain in the buttocks, and I'm really not sure why people like this line so much. Sure, there's some good bits, but overall, just don't bother.

(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)

(#133) #197 + #198: Espeon and Umbreon (Eevee part two)

Yeah, there's still more. If you haven't read part one, go do so now, then I can skip the Eevee stuff and say that you'll see a lot of stuff recycled.

We'll jump straight into Espeon, a psychic-type. You get the 65s in HP and attack, 60 in defence, 95 in special defence, a nice 130 in special attack and 110 in speed, which sits nicely for a special sweeper. The standard ability of synchronise means that if you get a status condition, your foe will also get it, and outside of battle it makes it more likely that you will find a Pokemon with the same nature as the synchronise team leader. The hidden ability you can get is magic bounce, which reflects incoming status affliction moves such as toxic, as well as arena hazards and taunts and torments. Espeon evolves from Eevee when levelled up with high happiness during the day.

Another normal animal with a split tail and a jewel in its face...

Skirting around all the moves Eevee has covered and that reappeared in all the other Eeveelutions, we see confusion come in as the early STAB move (a base 50 psychic special with the chance to confuse the foe), and swift (base 60 special normal that basically doesn't miss unless the target is in the semi-invulnerable or behind protect) slots in after quick attack. Psybeam is added to the list where the fang moves have been, acting as a base 65 psychic special with a slight chance of causing confusion, and future sight hits as a base 120 psychic special after a couple of turns. Psych up copies the stat changes of the opponent, both positive and negative, and morning sun offers healing based on the weather: normal - 50%HP, sunny - 67%HP and rain - 25%HP. Psychic is one of the best moves on offer here a a base 90 psychic special attack, and the last move that tucks in after last resort is power swap (swaps the changes to the attacking stats between the user and the target).

Taking the standard Eevee TM list (which is just a bigger standard list), you can also grab psyshock (base 80 psychic special move that hits the foe's defence), along with psychic itself, dream eater (inflicts damage and drains a sleeping foe's HP at base 100 psychic damage), and dazzling gleam (a fairy special attack base 80 that hits adjacent foes). You can also take grass knot. The tutor can bestow magic coat and magic room, signal beam, zen headbutt, skill swap and trick on top of the routine ones.

Rather than evolving during the day, if you evolve at night you get Umbreon. Yeah, these two were basically made to show off the in game clock introduced in generation two. Umbreon has a significantly weaker offensive presence, with 65 for attack and speed and 60 for special attack, but it makes up for this with some bulk: 95HP, 110 defence and 130 special defence. You're a dark-type, y'know, with the night and such. You again get synchronise, but the hidden ability this time around is inner focus, which prevents flinching.

As another Sonic tribute, we have rings...

The inserted moves into the basic set this time feature pursuit, a base 40 dark physical move that hits a switching target before it can leave the battle and hits double what it normally would. Further to this, there is also confuse ray, which is rapidly followed by feint attack (inflicts a hit of base 60 dark physical without input of evasion or accuracy stats, like swift) and assurance, which is base 60 dark physical that hits twice as hard if the foe has already sustained damage, including recoil. Screech drops the target's defence by two stages, moonlight heals just the way morning sun did, mean look traps the foe in battle, and guard swap, which switches changes in the defensive stats with the foe.

If we move on to the TM list, you get the addition of taunt, psychic, payback, dream eater, dark pulse (which can cause flinching) and snarl (dark special base 55 that hits all adjacent foes and lowers their special attack by a stage). The tutor can grant spite, wonder room, snatch and foul play.

Even though these two were pretty much exclusively put in the game to show off the new timer mechanics, these are arguably the best two of the Eeveelutions, not just so far, but overall. Umbreon fills a nice niche that hasn't really come up as a dark-type tank with some decent attacks, which is pretty interesting. That being said, they aren't anything too amazing once again.

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

#133 - #136: Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon (Eevee part one)

Oh dear Arceus... Lord Helix let us get through this... Enough with the dumb Poke-religious garbage, this is going to be awful, since there are so many of these Eevee-lutions (as they have been dubbed) that this will go across a few posts, with the intention here of doing the Generation one incarnations followed by the Generation two incarnations next, and then combining Generations four and six into a third and final post.

We're starting here with the basic Eevee. In truth, Eevee has pretty awful stats: 55 each in HP, attack and speed, 45 special attack, 50 defence and 65 special defence. You get run away as an ability, which is pretty dire and we've slammed it enough, but you can also get adaptability (boosts the boost of STAB moves from 1.5x to 2x) and the hidden ability of anticipation, which causes your Pokemon to shudder if they have a super-effective move. In this form you're merely a normal-type.

Yup, a nice bland starting point for something that will diversify

There is an annoyingly large level up list available here on Eevee, which sadly continues on the other evolutions, meaning we'll be here for a while. Helping hand remains a bit worthless, but growl can lower their attack and tail whip can lower their defence, whilst tackle remains a basic base 50 physical normal attack (but you get extra boosted STAB if you have adaptability!). Sand attack lowers the foe's accuracy, baby-doll eyes (which is essential if you want a Sylveon, post 3) has boosted priority in order to lower the foe's attack, swift is a base 60 normal special attack that doesn't miss (unless the foe protects or flies or whatever) and quick attack is a +1 priority normal physical attack with base 40. Bite gets STAB as one of the myriad possible evolutions (coming up in post 2), and is a base 60 dark physical move with the chance to flinch. Refresh cures poison, paralysis and burns, covet is a base 60 physical normal move that will steal held items from the foe, take down remains a base 90 physical normal move with heavy recoil (which basically means it's awful or you just hate your Pokemon and are using it as fodder to only last a turn or two) and charm is now a fairy (not normal) type move that reduces the foe's attack by two stages. Baton pass swaps you out for another team mate, passing on your stat changes and substitute. Double edge is like a more powerful take down, with last resort being similar, but even more powerful (take down is base 90, double edge is base 120, last resort is base 140) and can only be used if all other moves have no PP left. The last move available is trump card, which is a normal special move that is more powerful the less PP the move will have after being used, so on its last use, it will be base 200.

You get the standard array of TMs with a few nice additions, such as dig, shadow ball and retaliate, but not that much more. You get some breeding moves (breeding Eevees is pretty useful, as the different natures can help inform what you want to evolve it into). You get some of the moves we have covered so far from breeding, as well as stored power, which gets more powerful the more buffs you have on you (great for the end of a baton pass chain), endure means you can survive the next hit and then you can use flail to hit harder the less HP you are on. Along with yawn, there are some unremarkable moves here. Heading over to the tutor, you can pick up covet, last resort and helping hand from your level list, as well as hyper voice from the TM list, snore (as always), heal bell and iron tail. I started yawning and snoring because of that list...

Now we tackle the first of the Eeveelutions: Vaporeon. We're starting with a water-type with heavy HP and special attack focus, the former base 130, the latter base 110. Away from these you get a sluggish 65 speed, an indifferent 65 attack (why this reasonable I have no idea, go for an attack hindering, special attack boosting nature as a good shout to evolve into this), 60 defence and 95 special defence. As far as abilities go, you get water absorb (basically if you get hit by water attacks they will heal you) and the hidden ability of hydration (heals status conditions in the rain). This is just like Lapras except with less special attack, slightly more attack and slightly more defence. To get Vaporeon, you use a water stone on Eevee.

It's a mermaid? A merdog? A mer-something? I have no idea...

You retain helping hand, tackle, growl, tail whip and sand attack from before, but then things change a little. You can take water gun (base 40 water special) and quick attack again. You can then grab water pulse (base 60 water special with the chance to confuse the foe) and aurora beam (base 65 ice special with a slight chance of lowering the foe's attack stat by a stage). Aqua ring can be setup to heal you a small amount each turn, whilst acid armour boosts your defence by two stages. Haze prevents your stats from being altered (but this can be cleared), muddy water is a base 90 special water attack with 85 accuracy and the chance to lower the foe's accuracy (the mediocre accuracy here means that surf is a better option), last resort is the same as before and hydro pump is base 110 but a mere 80 accuracy, again making surf a better option.

You can take both rain dance AND sunny day... Hmm... But yeah, standard TMs not withstanding, hail, ice beam and blizzard are there, with dig again and hyper beam, oh and shadow ball again. You can also take surf (of course), retaliate, giga impact, scald, rock smash, dive, strength and waterfall. The move tutor now adds aqua tail, icy wind, signal beam and water pulse to their previous offers for Eevee.

If you would rather use a thunderstone on Eevee then you get Jolteon instead of Vaporeon. Along with being electric-type instead, you swap the bases in HP and speed, but all other stats are the same as Vaporeon. Instead of water absorb you get volt absorb, which is basically the same thing except it's when you get hit with electric attacks, and the hidden ability is quick feet, which adds 50% to your speed when afflicted by a status (paralysis speed reduction is just ignored).

Why are electric things seen as spiky?

We've got the theme of having the same four opening moves, as well as quick attack and last resort. Thunder shock is the weak STAB special du jour with the chance of causing paralysis at base 40 power, double kick is randomly included as a base 30 per hit fighting physical attack that could act as a sash breaker, whilst thunder fang taunts you as a higher power 65 with both chance to paralyse and flinch the foe but is physical and thus worth less than specials. Pin missile also fits into the 'worthless physicals' category as a bug physical with base 25 hitting up to 5 times in a turn. Agility is there to boost your speed a little and thunder wave will paralyse the foe. Discharge affects all adjacent Pokemon (even friendlies) with a base 80 electric special attack, whilst thunder is the powerful STAB attack with base 110 and 70 accuracy (this actually hits flying foes with double power).

You get both sunny day and rain dance again, and rain dance can be useful to boost the accuracy of thunder. Thunder/bolt pop up, as well as hidden power and hyper beam, alongside dig and shadow ball again. Charge beam has 50 power as a STAB special attack with a huge 70% chance of boosting your special attack stat. Retaliate and giga impact both resurface as physical moves, but volt switch is a decent option, especially with your really good speed. I still hate wild charge. The additional tutor moves when compared to Eevee are magnet rise, signal beam and shock wave.

Rather than a thunder stone, you can use a fire stone and get Flareon. Did I say use? I meant waste: spoiler alert, but I think Flareon is pretty much worthless. This time it's attack as the base 130, special defence as the base 110, special attack is base 95, defence base 60 and the others base 65. The hidden ability of guts ups your attack when afflicted by a status, with the regular ability of flash fire making you immune to fire attacks and upping the power of your fire attacks by 50%.

It even looks pretty rubbish! Where's the fire?

The sub in moves are ember (base 40 special with chance to burn), bite (base 60 dark physical with chance to flinch), fire fang (base 65 fire physical that can burn and flinch the foe), fire spin (can trap the foe in a fiery vortex in the wake of its base 35 special fire attack with 85 accuracy), scary face can lower the foe's speed, smog hits as a base 30 poison special move with a medium chance of poisoning the target, lava plume is a base 80 fire special move that hits all adjacent Pokemon, and flare blitz, which is basically just a fire version of double edge.

If we look at the TM list then we get all the standard TMs and the Eevee standards like dig and shadow ball. We also get flamethrower and fire blast, as well as overheat, incinerate and flame charge. You still get rain dance, for some reason, and strength and secret power are actually among the best damaging attacks you can get, awkwardly. Will-o-wisp could be good, along with toxic, since you have decent special defence and you can grind down the foes whilst trying to survive.

We've seen three Eeveelutions as well as the base. The base is rubbish, as is Flareon, with the other two being mediocre. The ranges of attacks are not good enough to be a real threat. Jolteon has a great speed stat which you could make use of, and the special attack is decent, stick on choice and volt switch with the inbounder being a good tank.

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