#170-171: Chinchou and Lanturn

Here's an interesting one for you. And an annoying one for me, since the level-set order changed a lot between XY and ORAS, so I'll present in the ORAS order, and put the XY level in bold in brackets with the ORAS level in italics afterwards like so (level/level!).

Chinchou is an interesting prospect as it's water/electric-type, which has some interesting coverages over one another (say ground, electric, blah), but then you get the interesting abilities, too: volt absorb makes you fully immune to electric attacks and actually restores HP, and the hidden ability of water absorb is the same but with water-type attacks, and then the other standard ability is illuminate, which doesn't actually do anything in battle but doubles wild encounter rates when at the party lead position. Time to cover the stats, and we see good HP at base 75, with weak physical stats of only 38 each, 56 in each special and 67 speed. Well, they weren't great, were they?

"Blooop!"

Now to the circus. Remember, I'm stating from ORAS and adding XY (see above). We start with bubble (12, a base 40 water special move with a slight chance to drop the target's speed) and supersonic (start, 55 accuracy and confuses the target). Thunderwave (6/6, paralyses the foe, 100 accuracy), and then electro ball (9/28, electric special that hits harder the faster the user is than the foe, where the minimum, so when the foe is twice as fast or more, is base 60, so rather good, actually). Water gun (12/start) is very similar to bubble with the same accuracy, same type, both special, same power, but less PP and no speed change or any secondary effects, so why would you take this? Confuse ray (17/17) is classified as ghost-type and is a much more reliable confusion option than supersonic was (though swagger and flatter also affect the target's stats, too, which means that the recoil can be harder, though they can do more damage if they avoid themselves). Bubble beam (20/31) is a base 65 water special move with the same 10% chance of slowing the target that bubble had. Spark (23/20) is a base 65 electric physical move with a decent chance to paralyse the target, and then you can evolve at level 27, so in ORAS, that's it before you can evolve. Of course, this is a bit weird.

Right, signal beam (28/34) is a base 75 bug special move with a slight confusion chance, then flail (31/9) is a normal physical move which is more powerful the less HP the user has in relation to the maximum. Discharge (34/39) is an electric special move that hits all adjacent Pokemon base 80 in power with the chance to paralyse the foe, and take down (39/23) is a normal physical move, base 90, that involves heavy recoil. Aqua ring (42/42) effectively sets up leftovers, leading to 1/16th HP healing per turn for the survival of the user, and can be baton passed on to other team mates. Hydro pump (45/45) has only 5PP, 80 accuracy, but 110 base power as a water special move, ion deluge (47/47) is an electric move which has one stage of priority, and makes all normal moves used that turn into electric-type, which can be useful if you have volt absorb, I guess, and finally, charge (50/50) boosts the power of the next electric move used by the user as well as conferring a stage stat boost to special defence.

Along with the standard TMs, you can grab ice beam/blizzard and hail, rain dance, thunder/bolt, facade, round, scald (base 80 water special that can burn the target), charge beam (50 power electric special with 90 accuracy and a 70% chance of raising the special attack stat by a stage), volt switch (base 70 electric special move that can allow you to switch out), dazzling gleam (base 80 fairy special that can hit multiple opponents), as well as surf, waterfall and dive.

Time to breed! Agility and amnesia can buff your speed and special defence, respectively, whilst brine is a base 65 water special move that doubles in power when it hits a foe that is below half health. Psybeam is a decent option to add a psychic special coverage move with base 65 power, shockwave is a base 60 electric special much like swift that avoids the accuracy check, soak changes the foe's type to water, which goes well with the electric attack options, water pulse remains a decent move that is base 60 water special with a confuse chance, and whirlpool traps the foe in battle damaging them 1/8th their HP per turn, sticking around for 5 turns after hitting an initial base 35 water special move and 85 accuracy. The tutor may offer bounce (base 85, 85 accuracy flying physical move), icy wind stays as a base 55 ice special move that can slow the target, we've covered shock wave and signal beam and water pulse, and snore is the same as ever, whilst heal bell cures all status issues in the party.

Time to evolve: Lanturn is a bit bulkier. 125HP is pretty cool, actually, but 58 in both physicals is pretty poor, 76 in both specials is underwhelming, and the same speed (67) is pretty mundane. Same type and abilities again!

A little happier than the standard angler fish, and certainly cuter...

Aside from changes in levels for the moves when you've evolved (it would take ages to detail them all, but they aren't huge changes), but you do get the addition of eerie impulse (start/start) which lowers the foe's special attack by two stages, electro ball (but only in ORAS), as well as stockpile, spit up and swallow (all at level 27, so on evolving, in both games. Stockpile is the precursor, which stores up energy and boosts both defensive stats by a stage until they are used. Spit up uses the stored energy to attack, with each stockpile boosting the power by 100, so therefore 100, 200 or 300 base power as a normal special attack. Swallow also uses up the stockpiles to heal the user, with one healing 25% of maximum, 2 healing up to 50%, and 3 fully healing the user. Hyper beam, giga impact and wild charge come in on the TM list, and aqua tail is also added to the tutor set.

Lanturn has the highest base HP of all electric-type Pokemon, but is that good enough? No is probably the answer. It's another example of one good stat and some good moves available, but there's little way to really use it. Maybe not at the top of the pile, but certainly an interesting possibility for a gimmick.

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

#169: Crobat

Ok, this was covered before with the previous evolutions, so to visit that, go here!

This is going to happen a few times from here on out, so these posts will happen again, but they won't really count towards the total. Thanks!

#167-168: Spinarak and Ariados

Yay! More bugs! These being counterparts to the previous Ledyba/Ledian due to version differences, and the day/night cycle.

Stats wise, Spinarak is to power what Forest Gump is to genius. 40HP, 60 attack, 40 defence and both special stats, and a mere 30 speed. At least you have different typing, swapping the flying for poison, so bug/poison now. Swarm is the same as before as it boosts bug moves by 1.5x when below 33% HP, and insomnia stops you from sleeping. The hidden ability of sniper boosts the power of critical hits by 1.5x (so now 2.25x the standard hit).

Two faces but only 6 legs? Not a very good spider...

Poison sting is a base 15 poison physical move that can poison the foe, whilst string shot can lower the foe's speed by two stages and hits all adjacent foes with 95 accuracy, but then you get scary face, which has quarter of the PP, the same effect, mono-targeting but better base accuracy at 100 so why you get both I really cannot understand. Constrict is a base 10 normal physical move that can again lower the foe's speed by a stage, and leech life is a base 20 bug physical move that heals you by up to 50% of the damage sustained by the target. Night shade is a ghost move that deals damage equal to the user's level (so very useful against Shuckle and for terrible Pokemon). Shadow sneak is like a ghost version of quick attack in that it is a base 40 ghost physical move with a one stage increase in priority. Fury swipes pops up at the same level where you can evolve (22), and is a base 18 normal physical move (80 accuracy) that can hit up to 5 times in a turn.

Sucker punch is a nice base 80 dark physical move that will only hit the foe if they are readying a damaging attack, with sucker punch having boosted priority to make it even more useful. Spider web prevents the foe from switching unless it has baton pass or U-turn etc. and doesn't affect ghosts anymore, and agility is a speed booster. Pin missile is very similar to fury swipes, but is bug-type, base 25 and 95 accuracy, so more powerful, more accurate and with STAB. Psychic is a psychic special move with base 90 power, and poison jab is a base 80 poison physical move with a 30% chance to poison the victim. Cross poison is base 70 poison physical with only 10% chance to poison the target but with a good critical chance. Sticky web is the last level move which acts as a speed reducing entry hazard that doesn't affect Pokemon that are not on the ground.

TMs, well, there's the standard set, with the additions of hone claws (boosts attack and accuracy), and venoshock, as well as solar beam, dig, psychic, sludge bomb, thief, round, struggle bug, X-scissor (base 80 bug physical with boosted critical chance), infestation, poison jab and substitute.

Baton pass an be bred on, along with disable, electroweb, megahorn, night slash, psybeam, pursuit, rage powder, signal beam, sonic boom, toxic spikes (so couple this with sticky web for an entry hazard setter), and then twineedle, which boosts power when used to kill the target. Tutoring can give the interesting bounce (basically a lower power fly at base 85 flying physical with 85 accuracy), bug bite (base 60 bug physical and eats held berries), electroweb (base 55 electric special), foul play (base 95 dark physical), giga drain (base 75 grass special that drains health from the foe), signal beam (base 75 bug special), and then snore (base 55 normal special that can only be used when sleeping).

Evolving time! Ariados is a little less pathetic: 70HP, 90 attack, 70 defence, 60 in both special and then 40 speed, which means you need either to be in trick room or using priority moves. No change to type or abilities, but venom drench pops up in the level list now, which only works on poisoned targets, working to lower both attack stats and speed by a stage. This is the only move that changes, no hyper beam or giga impact... Weird...

Not content with not having enough legs, two of them have now migrated to being utterly useless... Pretty telling...

Yeah, these Pokemon are nothing special again, but arguably better than the previous Ledyba and Ledian. Still, not really worth using at any juncture...

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

#165-166: Ledyba and Ledian

YAY! Now time for a generic bug! And this one is really odd...

Ok, so Ledyba has a claim to fame: in calculations, it can be the recipient of the highest damage move possible in the game thanks to a fifth stage of rollout from a defence curled, helping handed stat swapped Shuckle with the natures aligning leading to millions of HP as damage. 40 HP, 20 attack, 30 defence, 40 special attack, 80 special defence and 55 speed give cause to nightmares, as does the bug/flying-typing, which offers a lot of weaknesses. Swarm (boosts the power of bug moves 1.5x when HP is below 33% and increases wild encounter rate) and early bird (you wake faster from sleep) are the normal abilities and the hidden ability is rattled, which boosts speed when hit by bug, dark or ghost-type moves.

It looks like it needs glasses for some reason...

Tackle makes yet another appearance, supersonic can cause confusion on 55% accuracy, comet punch has base 18 power as a normal-type that hits 2-5 times with an accuracy of 85. Popping up at level 14 we get the following 3 moves: light screen (boosts special defence x2 for the party for 5 turns, can be broken by brick break), reflect (same as light screen but drop the word special) and safeguard (prevents the team from being affected by status afflictions for 5 turns), all these being good for setting screens, but the speed stat is not. Mach punch is the last move before you get chance to evolve, and it acts as a positive priority move, base 40 fighting physical power.

Evolution level time, and you can nab baton pass, which switches yourself out and replaces the user with a teammate, transferring all stat changes to the new entrant, so this can be used to magnificent effect if done well, transferring boosts to a sweeper that can then run riot. Silver wind is a base 60 bug special move that is much like ancient power in that it can boost your speed, attack, defence, special attack and special defence by a stage each (10% chance). Agility buffs speed, swift has no accuracy check as a base 60 normal special move, and double edge is a base 120 normal physical move with huge recoil. The final move is bug buzz: bug-type base 90 special which can lower the foe's special defence a stage.

Standard TMs apply, along with solar beam (and sunny day, but no rain dance), roost, dig (?), brick break, aerial ace, acrobatics (remember, base 55 flying physical that doubles in power when a held item has been lost), substitute (can combine with baton pass), U-turn (base 70 bug physical that allows you to swap out on the attack), struggle bug (base 50 bug special move that can lower the foe's special attack), infestation (base 20 bug special move that traps the foe for 5 turns and hurts them for 1/8th their HP for each turn) and power-up punch (base 40 fighting physical that boosts attack by a stage).

Bow-chick-a-wow-wow time! Bug bite (base 60 bug) allows you to eat the target's berry, dizzy punch (base 70 normal physical that has a chance to confuse the target), drain punch (base 75 fighting physical that heals the user based on the damage given), focus punch, encore, knock off, psybeam (base 65 psychic special), tail wind and screech. Now to the tutor, and they can give you focus punch, bug bite, drain punch, giga drain, ice punch, knock off, snore, tailwind, thunder punch and uproar.

Evolving time to Ledian, which changes hidden ability to iron fist, which boosts the power of punch moves. Changes to stats are a bit mediocre, with 55HP, 35 attack, 50 defence, 55 special attack, 110 special defence and 80 speed, which I suppose is ok for a lower tier fighter. You also retain that poor type combination.

It's trying to be a superhero, but failing so badly...

Hyper beam, focus blast and giga impact all pop in on the TM list, with the level list not changing. The only other change is that the punch moves have become more worthwhile owing to iron fist and its 20% boost.

There isn't too much to really do here unless you want a weak special wall or a baton passer, but there are better options for both. The typing and poor offensive stats hinder this Pokemon, which has a reasonable movepool, I suppose.

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

#163-164: Hoothoot and Noctowl

Starters and generic rodent done? Cool, now to the birdy!

Hoothoot was the first shiny (other than the Red Gyarados) that I ever saw, and I caught it. I saw it was different and didn't know about shinies at the time (this was pre-broadband in our household), and nobody at school really knew, but then one guy managed to find out and we thought that it was pretty neat. All in all, however, this Pokemon has some dreadful stats: 60HP is ok, 30 in both physicals, 36 special attack and 56 special defence, with a pokey 50 speed. Normal/flying is ok, I guess, as is insomnia as an ability (prevents you from being put to sleep), keen eye also isn't too bad as it prevents accuracy loss, whilst the hidden ability of tinted lens, which doubles the power of 'not very effective moves', so that's actually rather good and can be well combined with choice items, I guess. Another positive is that it evolves at level 20...

Small, round, possibly bounces on the ground...

Leveling up time! I'm not going to insult you with tackle and growl being defined, but foresight allows you to hit ghosts with normal moves as well as reverting the foe's evasion to normal. Hypnosis will allow you to put the foe to sleep (60% of the time based on accuracy), whilst peck is a base 35 flying physical move and allows you to hit anyone. Uproar is a base 90 normal special move (blocked by soundproof) that prevents anyone from going to sleep whilst it's in operation (3 turns). Reflect boosts the team's defence by 100% (except across a triple battle team where it is 50% and it can be broken by brick break in all cases) with the effects lasting five turns. Technically at this point you could just evolve, but one level later you can get confusion, a base 50 psychic special move with the chance to confuse the foe.

Echoed voice is an interesting move: it's a base 40 normal physical move (also blocked by soundproof) that bypasses substitutes and gains power with successive uses up to a maximum of 200 and gets STAB here. Take down is next, a base 90 physical normal move, 85 accuracy and recoil. Air slash is arguably much better at base 75 as a flying special move, 95 accuracy and the chance to flinch, and can hit anyone in the battle. Zen headbutt is interesting as a fairly rare psychic physical move, with base 80 power and again the chance to flinch the foe, and this is followed by the move synchronoise, which hits hard as a psychic special move, base 120 power, and only damages adjacent Pokemon that share a type with the user, which is a little awkward, and despite only being base 80, extrasensory is probably more useful since it just acts as a psychic special move with a flinch chance. Psychoshift transfers a status condition from the user to the target, whilst roost offers decent healing to the user at the cost of the flying-type for a while. Finally there's dream eater, which hits as base 100 psychic (what's with all the psychic moves here?) only on sleeping foes, healing the user based on the damage sustained by the target.

You get some fairly standard TM moves, including hidden power, sunny day, rain dance, return/frustration, psychic and shadow ball. Aerial ace comes in, as does facade (which YouTube battler Pimpnite runs on his Noctowl with psychoshift to reasonable effect). Thief, round and steel wing all crop up, as well as rest, sleep talk, substitute and, naturally, fly.

Breeding can give agility and defog, feint attack, mirror move, feather dance is good for crippling the foe's attack with 2 stages drop each use, night shade hurts the victim based on the level of the user, sky attack remains a hyper powered variant of fly with a flinch chance, boosted critical hit ratio, ability to hit anyone and a charging turn, and wing attack comes up again as a good old standard, along with whirlwind, which acts like dragon tail in that it has reduced priority and knocks the foe out of the battle but unlike dragon tail it doesn't damage the foe. Moving on to the tutor, they can randomly give you heat wave, hyper voice (same type and power as uproar but no secondary effects other than bypassing substitutes and destroying background rocks), magic coat, recycle, sky attack (again), snore, tailwind, uproar and zen headbutt.

After level 20, I would seriously consider evolving in an almost emergency situation as Noctowl is a lot better: 100 HP, 50 in both physical stats, 76 special attack, 96 special defence and 70 speed, making it a decent special wall. Same types and abilities. The only other differences are the additions of hyper beam and giga impact to the TM list. That is all.

In truth, I think this pairing has been greatly boosted in my recollection due to that early shiny and the very good usage of Noctowl by Pimpnite on YouTube, but it really is a little indifferent. The moveset is ok at best unless you run gimmicks or weird strategies, as there isn't too much coverage other than normal, flying and psychic.

Sultry and refined... and an owl...

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

#161-162: Sentret and Furret

Ok, so starters out of the way, now to the generic rodent!

Oh my... what is this? Sentret... Wow... 35HP, 46 attack, 34 defence, 35 special attack, 45 special defence and just 20 speed! Other than operating in a trick room, is there anything here? Run away is an awful ability, keen eye prevents accuracy being lowered, and the hidden ability, frisk, allows you to view all opposing Pokemons' held items. You're normal-type.

Macho, macho squirrel! He wants to be... a macho squirrel!

Now to the moves... The level list is surprisingly long. Scratch is the starter, base 40 normal physical, and you also get foresight, which resets the foe's evasiveness to normal, as well as stopping the ghost-type immunity to fighting and normal moves. Defence curl buffs the defence, and we all know quick attack as base 40 normal physical move that has a single stage priority boost. Fury swipes hits up to 5 times as a normal physical move with each hit hitting at base 18, and so is a possible sash breaker. That covers up to evolution, but there's a fair bit more... Helping hand has 5 stages of priority and buffs the power of an adjacent ally's move by 50%. Follow me, meanwhile, makes you the centre of attention as a +2 priority move, so moves that fall below this in priority will hit the user, rather than allies. You then get slam: base 80 normal physical but only 75 accuracy.

Moving swiftly on, you can learn rest to put yourself to sleep and heal up, and then this is followed by the base 80 dark physical move sucker punch, which will hit with priority but only if the foe is preparing a damage dealing move. Amnesia buffs your special defence, and the boosts from this can be passed on with the next move, baton pass. Me first is borderline useless on a Sentret unless in a trick room, since it requires attacking before the foe, stealing their move and bouncing it back at them with increased power, and finally we get hyper voice, a base 90 normal special move that can hit all adjacent opponents and hit through a substitute.

You get the standard array of TM moves, with the inclusion of hone claws, ice beam, solar beam (with sunny day), flamethrower, thunderbolt, shadow ball (huh?), dig, brick-break, shadow claw, facade, retaliate, charge beam (less power than thunderbolt and buffs your special attack at a decent probability), grass knot (you weigh virtually nothing so this should be a very good damage dealer), U-turn (to duck back out of battle with a decent base 70 bug physical damage output behind it), power-up punch, secret power, cut and surf. There are some ace moves here, which is a problem since you have no power to use them with.

You can breed in assist, which is interesting as it picks a random move to use from any other Pokemon in your party, so since you have no issue with movepool here, surely this would be better placed on another Pokemon to draw from Sentret? Hmm... You can get captivate (lowers the special attack of the foe if it is opposite gender from you and isn't oblivious), charm (same as captivate but on a physical side), covet (like a normal-type thief), double-edge (base 120 physical normal with huge recoil), focus energy (boosts critical chances but you'll be dead before this really happens), iron tail has to be chain bred in and so is pretty much not worth the effort since it has poor 75 accuracy, last resort (I hate this move, base 140, recoil, can only be used when you have nothing else), pursuit hits harder on switching foes (dark physical base 40 with no priority, but if the foe is switching then it will hit them first and hit as base 80), slash (base 70 normal physical with good critical chance) and reversal (hits harder as a physical fighting move the less HP you have).

Tutor moves! I'm just going to list these since there are billions! Aqua tail, covet, fire punch, focus punch, helping hand, hyper punch, ice punch, iron tail, knock off, last resort, shockwace, snore, super fang, thunder punch, trick, uproar and water pulse.

Sentret has an amazing movepool but no stats. Let's see what evolution does to this... Furret comes in at level 15 with big boosts to everything other than the special stats, which only get a boost of 10 for each. HP goes up by 50, physical stats go up by 30 and speed goes up by 70, leading to: 85HP, 76 attack, 64 defence, 45 special attack, 55 special defence and 90 speed. You stay as a mono-normal with the same poor abilities. You also keep the base level and TM sets, but you also add the higher power versions of some moves you had before, like thunder, blizzard and flamethrower, hyper beam, giga impact and focus blast also step in, along with strength and rock smash.

Why do so many Pokemon do the whole 'stare at the moon in wonder pose?

With no other changes, we may as well wrap this one up. Furret actually has some halfway decent stats (I mean halfway), but with such a cool moveset, it does seem like wasted potential. Brilliant moveset, awful stats and abilities, not really worth it unless you can really think of a good plan.

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

#158-160: Totodile, Croconaw, Feraligatr

We've had the top and bottom of the base stat total starters of generation two, so we're now visiting the middle one, the water one. And it's like a crocodile...

Totodile is a rather sweet sounding name, but carries that edge of hostility when you connect it with the surviving dinosaurs that have been known to eat whole villages when their usual prey has gone. You get this as a mono-type water Pokemon with the standard ability (torrent boosts water moves by 1.5x when your HP is 1/3rd or less), and hidden ability-wise you get sheer force (ignores moves' secondary effects for a boost in power). Stats: 50HP, 65 attack, 64 defence, 44 special attack, 48 special defence and 43 speed. Physical wall? Maybe...

"Aww! Cute!"

For once, you don't start with tackle, but instead you have the base 40 scratch (still physical normal), accompanied by leer to lower the foe's defence by a stage again. Water gun (guess the type) is a base 40 special move. Rage is a base 20 normal physical move that, if used consecutively, can allow for a boost to the attack stat when damaged by the opponent. The next move is bite, a base 60 dark physical move that can cause flinching. You can evolve at level 18 (quite high), so the last move before that joyous occasion is scary face, which drops the target's speed. We may as well carry on here for the moment: ice fang is next, which is a base 65 physical move (ice-type of course) with 95 accuracy and the chance to freeze, which is rather nice. Flail is up next, which is a variable powered normal physical move, where the less HP you have, the harder you hit (1-4% HP remaining leads to base 200), so this is pretty handy I guess. The next move is crunch, a base 80 dark move that can drop the foe's defence, so a pretty nice move, which would have been awesome if you got secondary type dark.

Trundling along, you get chip away, which is a base 70 physical normal move which ignores stat modifiers (so lowered attack on your part or buffed defence on their's), which is followed by slash, another base 70 normal physical move which also boasts an increased critical hit ratio. Screech has 85 accuracy but lowers the target's defence by two stages, hitting any adjacent target you please (which could work well on a contrary teammate). Thrash is devastatingly powerful, base 120 physical normal, but after being locked in for a few turns of this, you become confused. Aqua tail is base 90 in power and 90 in accuracy as a water physical move, which could well be your primary STAB attack if you don't mind the accuracy drop, and superpower is a base 120 physical fighting move that drops both physical stats by one stage. Hydro pump is the last move on the learnset and is one not to be used here in all honestly: base 110 is good, 80 accuracy isn't, water-type is good, special focus isn't.

Not content with being like the other starters with the same type things appearing on the generic TM lists. Here, you also get the ice ones, so hail, blizzard and ice beam. Hone claws also pops up (attack and accuracy boosted by a stage each), with dragon claw (base 80 dragon physical move), shadow claw (base 70 ghost physical with increased critical hit ratio), scald (base 80 special water move with the chance to burn the foe), dig, brick break, rock slide, rock tomb, aerial ace, power-up punch, surf, dive, and arguably the best of the bunch in waterfall (base 80 water physical with 100 accuracy and a flinch chance).

Breeding time! Ancient power is maybe a bit wasted here, but aqua jet could be brilliant as your priority move (base 40 water physical with one stage boosted priority), dragon dance, ice punch (hits harder and more accurately than ice fang at base 75 power and 100 accuracy, still ice physical), mud sport nerfs electricity, and water pulse, but that again is wasted here. You get some other moves, but they either have come up before or are questionably useful. If you want to head to the tutor, you can nab water pulse, aqua tail, ice punch, icy wind, uproar, superpower, spite (remove PP of the last move that hit you), iron tail, low kick, focus punch and block. You also get, of course, water pledge, which can combine with the other pledges for double power again (base 80 special as the standard) and the making of a speed halving swamp (with grass) and a rainbow that increases added effect chance (which is messed up by sheer force) for four turns.

Croconaw only sticks about between levels 18 and 30. 15 point boosts to every stat other than defence, which gets 16 instead, so now HP is 65, physical stats are 80, 59 special attack, 63 special defence and 58 speed. Same abilities, same typing, same moves.

"Eurgh, horrible!"

After Croconaw's short stay you then get to Feraligatr. Stat boosts are now 20, except attack, which has got 25, so now 90 HP, 105 attack, 100 defence, 79 special attack, 83 special defence and 78 speed. Same type, same abilities, but a vastly different moveset: you can get agility by level, hyper beam, giga impact, earthquake, focus blast and dragon tail from TM, and focus punch and outrage by tutoring, so that's actually a lot of additions.

"AAAAH! Ryuk from DeathNote!!!!"

You may lack the speed and coolness of Typhlosion, but this actually has a really nice, fairly diverse moveset. You may not have great bulk, but it's good. This Pokemon isn't that bad, actually, but it still just lags behind Typhlosion.

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