#150: Mewtwo

Ok, that's a mad few weeks over (thank the Lord Helix) and now hopefully things will settle down. Some filler info: I've been to Sheffield and had some fun with some of my work friends, which involved a lot of drinking, no blogging and no Pokemon, then when I returned, Lizzie was off on holiday, my dad visited for the Easter weekend and so no blogging was done when hanging out with my dad, work was busy gearing up for the Southampton conference (my PhD sponsors are a major company and book out a lot rooms in a very fancy hotel, with nice food, horrible local beer and a very disappointing presentation performance from yours truly). After getting back from all this, I spent a few days readjusting to seeing Lizzie for the first time in like 2 weeks, as well as getting back to work, and visiting Lizzie's family at the weekend, but now I'm back and ready to carry on writing. It's a shame we didn't finish Gen One before the break, but we've got a real classic here...

If you haven't heard of Mewtwo: what the hell? Seriously? One of the most famous and iconic Pokemon ever, and deservedly so, it has been the star of films, included in Smash Bros (and now again), and looks like Frieza from Dragon Ball Z. This is a psychic-type legendary with two rather mundane abilities: pressure (which comes as standard) doubles the usage of PP by the foe whilst unnerve (hidden) prevents the foe from eating berries. Mewtwo was the original badass (Pokemon Jesus, according to some theories), and has the stats to back that up. 106HP isn't bad (actually really good considering you're kind of a sweeper), and 90 in the defences means you can take hits better than most Pokemon. 110 attack is pretty awesome, but utterly irrelevant since you have 154 special attack (that's rather impressive, and there's more to come), plus 130 base speed means not that many things can keep up.

I'm going to kill Vegeta, blow up Vegeta and then kill Vegeta... Wait, what?

As far as damage dealing moves go by level up, there aren't as many as you'd first think. To start off with, you get confusion (base 50 psychic special with the chance to confuse the foe) which can damage foes and if they survive leave them reeling, whilst you also get disable (stops the foe from using that move anymore against you) and safeguard (prevents the team from getting status afflictions for 5 turns). Thereafter you get the normal special move swift (base 60) which bypasses the accuracy check (so only misses if they protect or are flying or whatever), which is then followed by future sight, which is cripplingly powerful (base 120 psychic special) but hits a few turns down the line, meaning it allows the foe to swap in a dark-type to take the hit (so immunity swapping, basically). Psych up copies the foe's stat changes (so great if you wanna mess with a baton pass team), but beware that it does still copy negatives. Miracle eye can be a great choice since it removes the immunity to psychic attacks that dark-types possess, as well as resetting the foe's evasion to normal. Psycho cut is a base 70 physical psychic move with an increased critical hit ratio. Power swap trades the changes to the offensive stats with the target, so this could be used to cripple the foe, or to transfer boosts from a teammate, and guard swap does the same but with defensive stats (as if you couldn't guess).

So we march ever on and get to level 50 (which is probably below where you meet this beast), and you'll get recover, which can recover (oh, I get it) 50% of your HP. I don't feel as though I need to remind you much of the move psychic (base 90 special), whilst barrier buffs the defence by two stages. Aura sphere is an interesting move (for now it's coverage, but you'll see in a few), which is a fighting special move, base 80 in power, no accuracy check as well as hitting anyone in a triple battle (it also gets a boost when you have mega launcher, which Mewtwo doesn't unless you skill swap it). Amnesia buffs your special defence by two stages (heaven forbid they give you calm mind or nasty plot, the former boosting both specials by a stage and the latter being a two stage boost to special attack). Mist shrouds your team and prevents stat changes for a while (can be lifted by defog), and me first steals the foe's move with 50% interest back at them ONLY if they are using a damaging move AND you are faster than them (so you don't get priority and you can't steal priority moves, but I guess you can take focus punch). Lastly, at level 100, you get access to the big brother of psyshock, psystrike, which is more powerful (base 100) as a psychic special move that hits the foe's defence, meaning that a special sweeper that can mess up a special wall. Great move.

TM time! Psyshock is rather pointless since you get psystrike, but I guess that may come a little late, so you could take it for a bit. Calm mind is here, so that's good, and there are a lot of general ones that pop up all over the show, like hail, return, blah, basically all the 90/110 things like thunder/bolt, flamethrower/fire blast, ice beam/blizzard, hidden power, solar beam, earthquake, shadow ball (ghost special base 80), brick break (base 75 physical fighting that can break screens and is of use under certain conditions as I dangle this again), focus blast (base 120 fighting special but with crap accuracy), energy ball, low sweep, charge beam, incinerate, stone edge, rock tomb, bulldoze, poison jab, dream eater, grass knot, dive and strength, basically. No breeding here, since legendary, y'know...

The tutor is causing me grief here: far too many moves for an already long entry... You get standards like focus punch, magic coat and room, drain punch, fire punch, ice punch, thunder punch, icy wind, aqua tail, foul play (pretty cool), iron tail, recycle, role play (copies the foe's ability) and in the same mould is skill swap, shockwave, signal beam, zen headbutt, wonder room and trick. I've detailed these before across my other blogs, so go read them. I'll wait...

Back? Good. Mewtwo got made better in generation six with the introduction of 2 megas, which means not only do you get a power boost, but there are options to keep the foe guessing. We'll start with Mega Mewtwo X. There are no move list changes, so this is nice and brief.

Mega Mewtwo X adds fighting-type to the resume (have been hinting at that the whole time), along with a new ability of steadfast (boosts speed when flinched), and some nice stat changes, boosting the defences by 10 a piece to 100 and the physical attack by 80 (yup, eighty) to a beastly 190. 106HP, 130 speed and 154 special attack remain. Scary, huh?

"Yeah, been working out! What of it, maggot?"

Mega Mewtwo Y (which is the one I have) stays as mono-psychic, but you swap the ability for insomnia, so no being put to sleep by the enemy. Attack goes up by 40, so big whoop, but special attack also goes up by 40 (so 150 and 194 respectively), with a drop in defence to 70 and a boost to special defence (now 120), as well as a touch more speed (now 140). Yeah, special sweeping time...

So what if you cut of his tail? He's got a pony-tail now.

Do you really need me to state my opinion on this one? It's amazing!! Seriously, I love this Pokemon, it's one of my favourites because of the design, the backstory and the horror it gives.

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

#147-149: Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite

So we've passed the first legendary trio, now we're to the first pseudo-legendary, that is a Pokemon with a base stat total of 600, which usually fits in between sets of legendaries in the Pokedex. Quite a lot of these have been dragons, and this is the first that sets the trend.

Ah Dratini. So cute, and so annoying to find in most games. Dratini itself is a little weak, with fairly balanced stats reading as 41HP, 64 attack, 45 defence, then 50 across the rest (both specials and speed). Little mediocre, but you get the ability shed skin as standard (30% chance at the end of each turn to cure status conditions) and marvel scale as the hidden ability (if you're inflicted with a status condition (not confusion/infatuation), your defence gets a 50% boost). If you forgot, this is a dragon-type.

Awww!

Little baby Dratinis will start with wrap (traps the opponent using a base 15 normal physical move that keeps the foe in play for a few turns, inflicting mild recurrent damage) and leer (decreases the foe's defence by a stage). Thunder wave comes in pretty early as a weak electric shock (so won't work on ground-type foes) that will paralyse the foe, whilst twister brings in the first STAB move as a base 40 dragon special move with a chance to flinch the enemy, hitting all adjacent foes, even those in the middle of fly, bounce and sky drop, these situations leading to double damage output. Dragon rage comes in to hit foes for 40HP damage (typing only plays a part on immunities, so it will not hurt fairies), and slam is a base 80 physical normal move with poor accuracy (75), which is then followed by agility, which allows you to boost your speed a bit. Dragon tail will knock the foe out of battle as a base 60 dragon physical move, which has a very low priority, pretty much guaranteeing it will hit last. Aqua tail is a different story, a base 90 water physical move.

Dragon rush is a base 100 dragon physical move with disappointing accuracy (75), a 20% chance to cause flinching, and is another move that ruins the idea of ever using minimize, hitting a minimized foe without fail and with double the power. Safeguard pops up to protect the team from status conditions, and dragon dance boosts attack and speed by a stage, which is actually rather awesome, with great utility on this line. Outrage is a dragon equivalent of flail, hitting very hard (base 120) as a dragon physical move for a few turns before leaving the user confused, which means you could already have swept through the opponent before you get the downside, whilst hyper beam pops up to end the list as the same worthless move it always is, a base 150 normal special move with 90 accuracy, a recharge turn and just generally being disappointing.

You get some nice things in the TM list, with the old standards like return, toxic, rest, sleep talk, swagger, double team, substitute etc... But then you get hail, blizzard and ice beam? Ok, I guess. You also get flamethrower and fire blast (as well as sunny day and rain dance) to cover the ice weakness, and light screen can buff up your bulk. Thunder pops up along with thunderbolt, incinerate and facade are also there, and dragon tail again makes an appearance.

This is a Pokemon that can breed, after three that were seemingly sterile. Aqua jet is basically a water version of quick attack, hitting as a base 40 physical move with priority. Dragon dance and dragon breath also appear, the latter being a base 60 dragon special move, which is succeeded by dragon pulse as a base 85 dragon special move that can target anyone in a triple battle. Dragon rush is there again, as well as extreme speed, which we will see later. The rest of the list is a little boring, with mist, haze, iron tail, water pulse, dragon pulse and supersonic. If you feel like visiting the tutor to see what they can give you, aqua tail comes up again, along with the previously visited water pulse, outrage and iron tail, alongside the old familiar snore, icy wind and also shockwave (base 60 electric special with no accuracy check other than against semi-invulnerable turns). Bind is basically wrap from the pre-level level list, and draco meteor is one of those high power moves (base 130) that kills your stats (2 stage drop to special attack) as a dragon special attack, so it hits less and less each time, but is amazing if your only going to use it once, or actually the best thing ever if you've got contrary.

You may well have evolved before dragon tail, with the chance to become Dragonair at level 30. You keep the old abilities, and you get a rather regular boost of 20 to all stats (61HP, 84 attack, 65 defence, and then everything else at 70). You remain mono-dragon, and the only real differences beyond the stats are the introductions of surf and waterfall as water moves to the HM slots (the former is base 90 special, the latter base 80 physical with a chance to flinch the foe).

What's with the tail beads and the Adam's apple?

Dragonair can then evolve at level 55 into Valoo from Windwaker Dragonite, the cuddly, dorky looking orange dragon, not sure why the colour change. You get an average of plus 30 to the stats, but that doesn't actually hold up, with 30 boosts to HP, defence, special attack and special defence (now 91, 95, 100 and 100 respectively), but attack goes up by 50 to 134 and speed edges up a little to a modest 80. You add flying to the typing, and you swap the abilities out: standard ability to inner focus, which prevents flinching (moderately helpful since most of the time you'll be going second, which is when flinches actually affect you), and the hidden ability goes to multiscale (damage taken when at full HP is halved, except moves that do fixed damage, like the aforementioned dragon rage).

"Hey!"

Fire and thunder punch come into the fold as base 75 physical moves (you can guess the types here) with chances to afflict their associated status issues. Wing attack also pops up to go with the newly sprouted wings, hitting as a base 60 flying physical attack with 35PP (which is amazing) and can hit anyone in a triple battle. Hurricane also appears, hitting as a base 110 flying special move with 70 accuracy, but in sunshine it gets worse accuracy and in the rain it skips the accuracy check. Hurricane even hits foes in the middle of a flying turn for more damage.

Hone claws (attack and accuracy up a stage), dragon claw (base 80 dragon physical), earthquake, brick break, sandstorm, rock tomb, aerial ace, steel wing, focus blast, sky drop, stone edge and fly all pop into the TM list. The tutor now offers the elemental punches, heat wave (see the legendary birds), iron head, tail wind and superpower (base 120 physical fighting that drops both your physical stats by a stage) along with focus punch. If you brought Dragonite from a previous generation you could have extreme speed here, which could then be bred onto the successors, but this option has disappeared.

All in all, this is pretty good. You lack speed, and priority has dried up a bit over the years, but there's power and bulk here, so not hitting first may not be awful, and hey, you can draco meteor your way out of trouble for a second or two, killing a foe and crippling another before you're finally downed. Fairy has made this a little worse, but still, this is so cute a line, and so iconic it's well worth considering, even if it's just to be your friend.

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

#146: Moltres

So we now reach number three, the final of the Spanish legendary birds, the majestic phoenix Moltres.

So, Moltres... This again suffers from the 580 syndrome, and is basically the same as Zapdos in stats with the same HP and special attack (90 and 125 respectively), and with similar everything else, with a few swaps. This leads to 100 physical attack, 90 speed, the defences swapped (90 physical and 85 special), and the same pressure ability as the standard. This time, the hidden ability is flame body, which is pretty much the same as static but results in a burn instead of paralysis, and can be used to hatch eggs faster. Oh, and you're flying/fire this time.

I more imagine this kicking young Harry Potter's ass than dragging him through the sewers...

We have the same deranged move situation again, this time running through roost (we know this one), hurricane (which pops up through this trio quite a lot as a special flying move with 110 damage, 70 accuracy and the chance to ignore the accuracy check in rain, though that said it will be ruined by sunny day), sky attack (base 140 flying physical with a charging turn and 90 accuracy, with the chance to flinch the foe, too, but still not really worth it when fly exists), heat wave (base 95 fire special with 90 accuracy, 10% chance of inflicting a burn and can hit all adjacent foes), wing attack (base 60 physical flying attack with good accuracy and huge PP as 35PP, and can hit ANYONE other than the user, so the middling power is the only drawback), and then ember (base 40 fire special with the chance to burn the foe). All of these before the actual levels kick in.

When the levels kick in, they still don't really matter until the last four before level 50, do they? Fire spin is a fire special move with only base 35 power and 85 accuracy (and 10 less PP than ember), but it does trap the foe for a few turns to do regular slight damage, so there's that. I'm bored of describing agility on these ones, so I'll go straight to endure, which allows you to survive a hit, even if you get taken down to 1HP, and then you get ancient power YET AGAIN! You should know flamethrower, which is a base 90 fire special with 100 accuracy, the chance to burn the foe and 5 more PP than heat wave (which has 10), so that leads to a hard decision... Safeguard prevents the team being afflicted by status problems for a while, and the other move you'll no doubt find on it is air slash, a base 75 flying special move that can hit any target you so wish with a good chance of a flinch and 95 accuracy.

Sunny day is an interesting choice since it will boost your fire moves and remove the charging on solar beam (which comes up next but one as a base 120 grass special) but it will also kill the accuracy of hurricane, so the choice is yours. Up comes heat wave again, and since that's written up above, just go back... Solar beam is next as I hinted, then sky attack, roost and hurricane (see above).

Yet again there are no egg moves (for obvious reasons), and the TM list is very familiar to the other two, but of course lacking ice and electric moves, including hail. You still get U-turn, roar, toxic, return, steel wing, sandstorm and facade. This time you get solar beam and flamethrower again, along with fire blast, overheat (base 130 special fire, 90 accuracy, 5PP and kills your stats), flame charge (base 50 fire physical that boosts your speed a stage on use), will-o-wisp inflicts a burn, and incinerate destroys the foe's berry along with dealing base 60 fire special damage. Sky drop is back, and the HMs are the same again. Moving on to the tutor to see if we can find something really new that offers any sort of coverage will leave you disappointed: just 4 moves, being sky attack, heat wave, snore and tail wind.

I'd be tempted to argue that this is the weakest of the three, but looks pretty, and still has good stats to back it up. You can really use a mixed attacking set, if only to allow for U-turn, return and maybe even flame charge as alternatives or utility, flame charge making up a little for the lower speed than Zapdos for allowing a free stage boost. You can still maybe take a hit or two, especially with some nice resistances and the ground immunity, but stealth rock will mess you up like mad. You also need to decide: rain or shine?

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

Oh, and for the few of you who read this far (or this at all), I'm planning soon to introduce some companion Youtube series (when I have some time after this silly season I'm in the middle of and when the generation one run is done). I have two ideas to put to you:
1) battle videos: basically I upload some of my online battles from Y and Alpha Sapphire, and this will make me do some more of this, which you can then issue challenges such as just a duel challenge or a challenge team, though Matthew (Lizzie's brother) and I have a good set of these already founded
2) WonderTrade Adventures: I sort out something (halfway) decent to stick on wondertrade, whether it's something cool I've bred or something rare I've caught, and we keep trading what we receive until we get something decent.

Bare in mind I don't have the fancy gadgets to do proper recording people like Pimpnite and Verlis have setup, so it will be on a cheapo handheld recorder we bought when I had an awkward run trying to vlog. I'd like some feedback on the ideas and which you'd rather I did first. Thanks.

#145: Zapdos

You wait forever for a legendary Pokemon to come along and two (well, three, actually, but this is the second one) arrive pretty much at the same time. Again with the legendary Spanish bird trio situation.

Zapdos is the electric one of the bunch, also being flying-type as well. We again get the slightly sad base stat total of 580, which is good, but since this is a legendary, you wouldn't expect ordinary mortals like Dragonite to surpass it. You're a fair bit faster than Articuno was with a base 100 speed, and 125 special attack as a nice damage dealing prospect, maybe even a special sweeper. 90 physical attack is pretty good, allowing for either a mixed attacker or just some coverage like U-turn, whilst the bulk is a little reduced, with the same 90 HP, but only 85 defence and 90 special defence. You again get the pressure ability, which was quite common among legendaries, but you get the hidden static ability, which will paralyse foes that make contact with you.

Why does it look so '80s disco?

The big list of 'superfluous' start moves is not quite so big this time, with roost showing up again, alongside zap cannon (base 120 electric special with only 50 accuracy and a perfect chance to paralyse IF it hits), drill peck (base 80 flying physical and can hit any Pokemon in the field other than the user), and on that theme there is peck (hits anyone, base 35 physical flying) and then there's thundershock (base 40 electric special that has a slight chance of paralysing the foe). When assigned a level, you get thunderwave (paralyses the foe with no damage), detect (basically protect, means that you can't be hit, but successive uses make it less likely to work), pluck (again a physical flying move that can hit anyone on the field, hitting base 60 and also eating a berry carried by the target), ancient power carries on being ancient power, charge boosts the power of the next electric move used whilst also bestowing a one stage boost to special defence that lasts the battle and agility raises your speed.

Level 50 will probably be where you find it these days, at which point it will have learned discharge, which is a base 80 electric special move that hits everything adjacent to you with a 30% chance of paralysing them. You may think it's weird that you get rain dance, but this is for a reason, as after you get lightscreen (boosts the team's special defence for a few turns) and another shot at drill peck, you get thunder, which is powerful (base 110 electric special) but wildly inaccurate (70) other than in the rain, where it bypasses the accuracy check. Couple this with hurricane on Articuno on a rain based multi-team and you can really mess things up, even foes in the middle of flying. After this, roost and zap cannon come back again.

Since this is a legendary again, you get no breeding and thus no egg moves, you do get most of the TM standards. Hidden power and thunderbolt are good special moves, return is there as ever, toxic comes back like the bad penny, roar puts in an appearance, and sandstorm pops up again at random. Aerial ace and facade are also decent physical moves, but you can't be paralysed, so you'd best get poisoned to take advantage of the attack boost. Steel wing, sky drop and giga impact are also there, charge beam (base 50 electric special with a 70% chance of raising the user's special attack), along with the HMs fly, rock smash, and the other TM secret power. More interesting options, however, were alluded to before with U-turn as a base 70 bug physical that kicks you out of the battle, but better would be volt switch as a base 70 electric special (so STAB and stat alignment) along with the same battle switching. I've ignored wild charge because I hate it. If you feel like going to the tutor, you can grab the old familiars of snore, signal beam, tail wind and shock wave (shockingly no water pulse (pun intended)), along with sky attack (you do nothing for a turn then attack with base 140 flying physical power and the chance to make the foe flinch, 90 accuracy, can hit any Pokemon other than yourself, and the use of a power herb can skip charging), and heat wave (base 95 fire special that hits all adjacent foes with a 10% chance of burning them and will destroy background rocks).

Well, it's a bit more offensive than Articuno with a more common offensive type, but it's weaker because it lacks the sneaky kill combo. All round it is pretty good, with a lot of positives, so it may well be worth getting.

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

#144: Articuno (and more apologies)

For the avid reader(s) of this blog, I apologise for being away for around a week, but life has been rather hectic, and it isn't over just yet, as I'm scheduled to be away at two conferences in the next few weeks, starting next Monday. However, we're within reach of finishing this first generation of monsters, so we'll do our best to have this wrapped up for when I'm away, giving a more suitable pause than in the middle of a gen for the third time...

We move onto the bird trio, or as some may have them, the Spanish trio, since they count one to three in Spanish in their names. Articuno is the first legendary Pokemon in the Pokedex, which is something rather special, and probably one of the first legendaries you legitimately caught, so that has to count for something, right? The rather sad thing is that most legendaries have around 600 total in base stats, whereas this trio hits only 580, making their total lower than Mega Aerodactyl, Slaking (which is a bit of an exception in all truth) and even Dragonite among others. But it's a legendary, and we must show it some respect.

"The fish I caught was THIS big!"

Ok, so the base stat total is lower than some regular Pokemon, but it's still high. Speed is a little disappointing at base 85, but there is decent bulk here with 90 HP, 100 defence and 125 special defence, supported by 85 physical and 95 special attack, so nothing dreadful, but just a sad lack of speed. You won't be sweeping, but you could stall or even revenge kill a little. You're an ice/flying combo for the types, which is rather interesting, and you get pressure as the main ability (causes the foe to consume PP twice as fast). As a hidden ability, you get snow cloak, which boosts evasion by 25% in hail or snow, which is fairly handy if you intend to tank and chip away, making this a good set, but either ability could be worthwhile depending on how you want to play it.

Ok, the move set is pretty decent here, with one combo that will just make you weep. But we'll get to that in a little while. To start off with, let's say that you get roost (sacrifice your flying-type for the turn to heal you), hurricane (base 110 power, 70 accuracy flying special move, can hit anyone in multi-battles, gets perfect accuracy in the rain but reduced in the sun, and can hit foes that are in the middle of flying for double damage), freeze-dry (base 70 ice special move that has a 10% chance of freezing the foe and is always (even in inverse battles) super-effective against water-types for a change), tailwind (boosts the speed of the team), sheer cold (back to this in a bit), gust (a weak base 40 flying special but hits fliers for double again) and powder snow (hits all adjacent foes with a slight chance of freezing the target, but is otherwise just a weak base 40 ice special move). All these are listed as "start" moves, and up to reflect in the following, they all come at a level below you are likely to find this Pokemon in the wild, so think of them as relearner moves. At level 8, supposedly, you get mist (prevents stat modifiers for a few turns), ice shard (a weak base 40 ice physical move with a single level of priority) and mind reader (again, we'll get to that one in a few moments). Ancient power is its usual self with base 60 rock special and a chance to boost all stats, agility is a psychic move that allows you to boost your speed, ice beam is a good standard ice special move with base 90, the chance to freeze and 100 accuracy, so in a way better than a non-hailed blizzard, and as we mentioned, reflect (effectively doubles the team's defence for a few turns).

Ok, so now we may see the moves cropping up that we can select! Hail pops up pretty early, which allows you to hide in the hail with your snow cloak and boost the accuracy of blizzard, as well as hurting all non-ice types a little per turn as a decent way of tanking out a bit. We've mentioned tailwind, which comes back, followed by blizzard, which is like hurricane in that it's 110 damage and 70 accuracy other than in weather, in this case it's an ice special move which skips the accuracy check in hail. We've talked about roost and hurricane that pop up after sheer cold, so it's about time to fill you in: mind reader basically guarantees that the next move will hit, whilst sheer cold is an ice-type one hit KO move. This is pretty special as if you can survive the hits, you will get a kill (unless they see it coming and protect, or are sturdy or whatever). There's no combo like this elsewhere as far as I know, unless you can skill swap no guard onto something that has fissure or whatever.

There's no chance of egg moves here as this is a genderless legendary ice-Phoenix, and so cannot breed, so we'll see what the TMs are. The standard array pop up with things like aerial ace, return, sunny day, hail, rain dance, protect, roost, toxic, hyper beam, frustration/return, double team, facade, round, rest, sleep talk, swagger and all that. You can also nab steel wing, sky drop, U-turn, sandstorm (for some unknown reason), frost breath, fly (of course), rock smash and secret power, because almost everything learns secret power. For a change here, you do not get hidden power, which makes me sad. With regards to the tutor (not the relearner), you can nab icy wind, tailwind (for the millionth time), signal beam, snore (why can everything learn those two), sky attack and water pulse, which I'm sure I can learn by tutor, since everyone else can.

The USP (unique selling point) for this is obviously the accuracy/OHKO combo: there are actually two other examples of this: Smeargle (which is a bit of a cheat since it can sketch anything) and Poliwrath, which could only do it in generation 2. You get good bulk with decent attacking stats, but I'd trade all the physical attack for a boost to speed. You get 4 weaknesses here, being fire, electric and steel as regular and rock as a 4x weakness: this rock weakness is bad in an age of stealth rock as it will mash you up and leave you needing to roost straight off, whilst fire in particular is common. Bug and grass resistances are rather worthless but the obvious ground immunity is nice, as are the neutrals which will just brush off on your tankiness. All in all, this is a legendary and deserves your respect for that (it's always nice to catch them and tuck them away at the very least as a badge of honour since it's fiddly to catch, looks cooler than most things and has good backstory) but it also deserves respect for being rather powerful yet sufficiently poor enough a legendary to be allowed to use in the battle resort etc.

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

#143 + #446: Snorlax and baby Munchlax

Well, here we have two annoyances: another baby that can be bred only using another incense (though it was the first Generation 4 Pokemon revealed), and the world's cuddliest roadblock that got in the way of your wanderings...

We'll start with the baby, little Munchlax. This is the slowest Pokemon there is, tied with Shuckle. It gets the pickup ability, which is great in the overworld as you can find things (just remember to remove them so that you can grab more), along with thick fat (not only appropriate, also useful in that you take reduced ice and fire damage) and the hidden ability of gluttony (bit of an odd one: berries that would normally be eaten at 25% HP are eaten at 50% HP instead). You're a normal-type, with substantial HP (base 135), along with solid attack and special defence (85), but defence and special attack are poor at base 40 each, and speed is FIVE... Which is great for gyro ball or trick room, I guess.

Don't let him near the cake!!!

FIVE... Sorry... On with the moves...

In X/Y you get access to snatch straight away, which basically means you steal the effects of a healing move the foe is using, but in ORAS this is replaced with recycle, meaning you can re-use your berry again, allowing for you to use a chesto berry to wake you from rest repeatedly, cutting downtime on sleeping. You could take last resort if you're weird, but there's also the weak ghost physical move lick (base 30 but can paralyse the foe), as well as metronome, which basically has a random effect, whether that be suddenly using earthquake or self-destruct, you get no control, it picks from a huge list of moves. Odour sleuth allows you to hit ghosts with normal moves, and tackle has been covered too many times. Defence curl is a viable move to patch up your shabby defence, whilst amnesia is also a great idea, giving a two stage boost to special defence, meaning special moves will barely hurt you. Chip away is a base 70 normal physical move that ignores stat modifiers, like to the foe's defence, and screech will lower the target's defence by two stages. Body slam is a base 85 normal physical move that has a 30% chance of paralysing the foe, and hits twice as hard if the foe has used minimise (why would anyone use that move when most Pokemon can get double team?). Stockpile and swallow (but not spit up) appear again, with the former stacking up to three times boosting defence and special defence a stage at a time, and the latter using the stored energy to heal itself (wiping the modifiers when used), healing 25%, 50% or 100% of the HP dependent upon the number of charges.

Rollout is a base 30 rock physical that is boosted by defence curl, and hits harder on subsequent hits, hitting for a few turns (up to 5). Fling is still a stupid move since you throw away your precious item, but belly drum could be useful here, since you have such huge HP and a decent attack stat: belly drum halves your HP (which you can easily recover with a chesto/resto-recycle build) and boosts your attack all the way up to +6, which is 400% of your normal. Scary, since you get STAB return... The last move to consider is natural gift: the move's power and type is affected by the held berry, which will be eaten in the process (chesto berry gives base 80 water).

You naturally get the standard TM list with some additions. I would recommend rest, whether you pair this up with recycle and the chesto berry, or with snore (which is my lowest recommendation on Munchlax of the three options) or with sleep talk (a risk, it picks a move at random of your four). That said, you could survive a few turns asleep if the foe is burned (reduces their physical attack by a half and whittles away their HP) and you boost your defences/HP and not focus attack at all. Sadly, this is one of the few sets where Will-o-wisp is missing, and there is no scald, either. There are too many special moves here (ice beam, hidden power, flamethrower (which can burn but has a low chance), thunderbolt, solar beam (but no weather moves to help/hinder), psychic, shadow ball, surf). You do get STAB return, frustration and facade, so you could be an attacker with focus on HP, too, and equip a toxic orb, which will slowly kill you, but double up the power of facade. Brick break, earthquake and secret power offer less suicidal alternatives, and power-up-punch could be used, especially if you don't want belly drum.

Breeding moves are a mixed bag, with belch being a great move for a berry eater, which is something I would suggest, but this is held back by your physical focus and belch being a special move. Self-destruct is still an awful idea, but curse could work, since your speed has nowhere to go anyway, reducing it is probably a great pay-off for boosting your bulk and your damage output. Counter is also good, since you can tank a hit on your HP, taking a huge value of damage on raw numbers from a physical move, and then sending more than that back, so you could kill a fairly bulky foe yourself. Zen headbutt is a decent base 80 psychic physical move that can flinch the foe, we know pursuit quite well, whirlwind makes no sense at all, and double edge has recoil, which isn't too bad here since you can sponge most things. Fissure can be a OHKO, but with decent attack and counter available, you can kill things rather easily on just regular attacks without dire PP and even worse accuracy. The tutor also offers a fair bit, with after you (which works for team battles), the elemental punches (not shabby), focus punch (you can set up sub-punching quite well here), gunk shot (a powerful poison physical), covet (basically a normal version of thief), seed bomb, zen headbutt again, several special moves that I'm choosing to ignore and both last resort and recycle again.

You get friendly enough for return to be a good option, you'll probably evolve into the roadblock itself: Snorlax. 160 HP, 110 attack and special defence, 65 in defence and special attack and 30 speed. Everything is better, except arguably the speed, but this makes things a bit interesting. You're basically a monster, a better version of Blissey, with much more in the way of threats. The only difference to abilities is that you've kicked out pickup and gained immunity: you cannot be poisoned. You also remain normal and chubby.

"And I thought it smelled bad on the outside..."

A few moves are lost from the level list, but I'd rather talk about what you gain (the ones you don't get can be relearned from the relearner). You can now nab the base 80 dark physical move crunch (bonus: you lower the target's defence, but they may well be dead anyway). Yawn can force the foe to sleep, which can make it safer to put yourself to sleep when they go down, and snore and sleep talk arrive by level up. Giga impact remains not worth it, but block will hold the foe in, and heavy slam is a steel physical move that hurts the foe the lighter they are compared to you, so if they are less than 20% of your weight (good chance considering you're enormous) then it hits at base 120. The TM list now gains the boosts of weather, thunder, blizzard and fire blast in addition to their weaker, more accurate forms, along with smackdown, retaliate (hits twice its base 70 physical when an ally has been KO'd the previous turn), bulldoze, strength, and wild charge (which I still dislike with a small passion). Outrage is now offered by the tutor, and I'll mention here that superpower is, and was on Munchlax. Outrage hits as base 120 dragon physical for a few turns before leaving you confused, if you don't remember.

What you have with this family is an arguably better version of Blissey/Chansey: there's a reason to be afraid of this one, rather than just frustrated. You get a bit less HP, but much better physical defence, and using an assault vest is much more viable here since you have damaging attacks at your disposal. You've got survivability and one of the rare chances to actually use belly drum well, and you can play out as a staller. There's a lot of variety here, you don't even need to kill them quickly since you have good healing options with stockpile/swallow and rest/recycle. Definitely worth waking up and catching, even if it's just for something to cuddle or use as a shelter like Luke Skywalker...

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

Oddly enough, Snorlax opens its eyes when it's KO'd...

#142: Aerodactyl

Well, we've now come across the only fossil Pokemon that has an in-game trade, as well as the lack of standard evolutions... But, it's a giant pterodactyl, so it has that going for it...

Aerodactyl is a rock/flying-type, because they've all been rock-type so far. Unlike the others so far, however, it's actually fast, with base 130 speed coupling well with a good 105 attack. The special attack is a little low at 60 (not an issue, just pretty much rules out ancient power), but there is some bulk there, with 80HP, 65 defence (the lowest of the three) and 75 special defence. I said some bulk, not lots. You get the ability pressure (common with legendaries, this doubles the foe's PP usage on each move) as well as rock head (eliminates damage from recoil moves like brave bird etc.), with the hidden ability of unnerve, which prevents the foe from eating their berry.

Yeah, this may make you forget about eating...

What do you get with these decent stats and an interesting typing? Well... One thing that's interesting is that you can get the three elemental fangs, along with bite, quite early on. All of these have the chance to flinch the foe, the elemental moves correspond to their type (bite is dark) and they have base 65 power to bite's 60, but they can also inflict status ailments. All four of these moves are, of course, physical. Iron head also has a decent chance to flinch the foe with a base 80 physical steel move. Supersonic fills a niche to confuse the foe, whilst wing attack is a physical flying move, only base 60 but does get STAB, with a good PP of 35 and can hit anyone in a triple battle. Scary face is there to drop the foe's speed, whilst roar scares the foe out of battle, dragging in another opponent, so this can be used to replace the target if you can't work with it, or shuffle them onto arena hazards, with the drawback here being that roar has a very low priority.

Agility allows you to boost your already rather alarming speed, we know ancient power rather well by now (base 60 special rock that can raise all your stats by a stage), and crunch is a base 80 physical dark move that can lower the foe's defence. Take down may actually be useful here with rock head, barring the fact that it's only 85 accuracy and 90 power, whilst return (which nearly everything can get from TMs can top out at over 100 power, 100 accuracy and never has the issue with recoil). Sky drop is an interesting move, where you pick up the foe on the first turn and then throw them back to earth in the second, damaging them at base 60 flying physical and stripping them of a turn, which can be handy in multi-battles (say you pick up a water absorb foe and make sure it doesn't get healed when you have to use surf on the other foes). Iron head pops back up again just before hyper beam (base 150 power normal special with only 90 accuracy and a recharge turn) rears its useless head, in before rock slide (base 75 rock physical move, 90 accuracy, with the chance to flinch and break parts of the arena) and giga impact (see hyper beam but replace special with physical).

So we have a nice big level list, let's see the TM list... There are a few too many special moves in there (hidden power, flamethrower, fire blast, incinerate, round) but it's still pretty good. You get the standard array, remembering either return or frustration as being better than take down depending upon how happy everyone is. You could take sandstorm for consistent foe damage that you will be immune to, but since you are very much geared to be more of a physical sweeper, why bother? Just take things like earthquake, smack down (don't make me define these again, but you may have forgotten that smack down hurts foes in the middle of something like fly at base 100, rather than base 50, as well as stopping the attack), roost (gives up your flying-type for the turn in order to heal you), rock tomb (base 60 rock physical) and aerial ace (base 60 flying physical, no accuracy check), steel wing (base 60 steel physical), facade and thief, payback (I guess this is for when you're up against another Aerodactyl or a trick room team, as base 50 dark physical as a standard is poor, but it does double if you've already been hit in this turn), stone edge (base 100 rock physical with 80 accuracy as the drawback), fly, strength and bulldoze. Wow, there's a lot of decent, not brilliant, moves in there. Highlights surely include fly, return (as normal), earthquake, arguably smackdown and payback as situational moves, facade and stone edge (if you ignore the crappy accuracy).

If you breed this majestic monster you can be rewarded with assurance (again, this only works if your foe uses a recoil move and is amazingly fast, like a life-orb Deoxys, or your teammate is even faster than you, since it's base 60 dark physical that hits twice as hard against a foe that has already been hurt in the turn), dragon breath (a special move, sure, but it can paralyse the foe), pursuit (base 40 dark physical but will hit a foe before it can switch out at base 80 instead), whirlwind (see roar, since they're basically the same) and tailwind, which boosts the whole team's speed. The tutor, on the other hand, offers a few moves we've already seen (tailwind, iron head), along with aqua tail (base 90 water physical with 90 accuracy), iron tail (base 100, 75 accuracy steel physical) and sky attack (base 140 flying physical, 90 accuracy, 5 PP with a boosted critical hit ratio, a 30% chance to flinch and the necessity of a charging turn that can be overcome with use of a power herb, but you need to consider your items...). You also get a smattering of special moves available to be tutored, these being: snore, heat wave, earth power and dragon pulse.

No evolution? No problem. Not content with having a higher base stat total than either of the other fully evolved fossils so far, Aerodactyl is the only fossil to have a mega evolution so far. This bestows upon it a new ability, tough claws (boosts power of contact moves by a third), as well as 30 more in attack (now base 135, scary), 20 more in defence (base 85 now means that the decent base 80 HP won't all go in one hit), and 20 more in special defence up to base 95 now, with special attack getting an unnecessary bump of 10 to base 70 (I guess if you need to run ancient power or whatever), and then finally a boost of 20 on speed to a reality-defying base 150. Yeah, unless you get a Ninjask or a speed form Deoxys, you may well be attacking first: seriously, you are tied for third fastest with Mega Alakazam, normal and attack form Deoxys and other Mega Aerodactyls, and the only ones ahead of you (Ninjask and Deoxys) have their own drawbacks, namely being a bit weak (the former) and routinely being banned or a pain to get (until Delta Episode in ORAS) for the latter. That doesn't mean you should slack off and not invest in it, since with some investment you may overtake those ahead of you, whilst with no investment, things like Mega Beedrill, Mega Mewtwo Y, Mega Sceptile, Electrode, Accelgor and co could catch up to you.

Seems to be cosplaying Serj Tankian...

What we have here is a scarily fast physical attacker: even without mega evolving you pack a serious punch before the vast majority of Pokemon will even know what happened. You get a nice array of moves to pick from, sure not all of them hyper-powered but they have their roles, with the fangs you get nice coverage, and hey, you can even get stealth rock from the tutor. This Pokemon is pretty unreal, if you think about it. Sure, you need the old amber to get it, but that's now seriously easy to find in Generation 6: across Y and Alpha Sapphire I probably have about 20 spare, to the point I stuck them on things to wonder trade. If you can't find one, let me know and I'll sort you out: you need this Pokemon as an option.

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