#some pokemon moves are cool and others are inherently very silly

[moonblast-pokemon-fancomic]

Moonblast: Page 8 (Chapter 2) &  Page 9 (Chapter 2)  

They didn’t have Astonish in Pokemon Blue, and the next Pokemon game I played was Sword -- and when I first saw Astonish being used, I died 😂

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Onix Line

Look, I’m not saying Onix is inherently a metaphor or was designed to be one, but just as we use euphemisms in the real world, there is absolutely no way that the men of Kanto don’t refer to their “Rock Snake Pocket Monster” and mean something entirely different from an actual Onix. DESIGN:  Onix is a huge serpent made of boulders stuck together, with an inexplicable spike on its head, and you know what? It gets the point across. Its size makes it scary, it blends in with the terrain enough to make it clear why it’s advantageous to look like that, and it’s design is simple but also detailed enough to not look silly. I really like the design of this long, hard beast. Steelix is then less interesting. The metallic sheen and tail spike are cool, and I do actually really like the head redesign, but the crossbars don’t strike me as anything that do anything but make it harder to go through tunnels, they look kind of goofy like stubby arms and legs, and Steelix’s huge head makes its body look short.  This thing is thirty feet long but because its head is so big compared to the rest of it, it looks more childish than Onix does. 

It seriously looks like this thing needs to keep growing, and it’s all because of its ridiculous, massive head. Shrink that thing down and we’ve got a much better serpent. Mega Steelix is an overdesigned mess. It still looks too short, it has a weirdly flat face, it has crystals now for some reason, and what’s with the blue hexagons?   Oh, and the crystals aren’t even sharp so it looks LESS dangerous than Steelix did. Onix has three forms and its later forms are just... less good.

EVOLUTIONS: I dislike trade evolutions, but what I really dislike is trade evolutions that require a specific item. If the item can do it, just let the item do it. You’re asking for extra steps with another player that don’t really enhance the gameplay. It’s just a chore.  At the time of this writing I’ve mostly completed my Crown Tundra and Isle of Armor Pokedex. I’m missing some Sword Exclusives... and I’m missing some Pokemon that only evolve by trading. Because I have to take time out of playing the game to actually get that dealt with. And the ‘requires a metal coat’ thing is just an excuse to explain why Onix couldn’t evolve in gen 1. At this point, just let it be a trade evolution. Onix, Magmar, Rhydon, Slowpoke, all of them.  Steelix is a great choice of Pokemon to Mega. While I don’t like the visual design, Steelix as a Pokemon always needed a bit more of a boost, and it was frankly a bit big. Very few Pokemon evolve past 450 stat total, and Type Null’s the only Pokemon with a stat total over Steelix’s 510 that gets to evolve (And frankly, Type: Null to Silvally is one of the smallest evolutionary jumps in all of Pokemon in terms of raw stats.) So yeah, Steelix was a good choice for a Mega, bring up a weaker full evolved Pokemon.

On the other end of the spectrum, Onix is big enough that adding a Baby Onix at some point would be an entirely reasonable option. This isn’t to say I think the games actually need one, just that there’s clearly room for it in the evolutionary line. 

Art by mark331

TYPING: 

While Onix was a Rock/Ground type, the decision to evolve it away from that was probably due to Rhydon and Golem already existing. Rock/Ground is very mediocre defensively. Though it has an immunity and five resistances, two of its six weaknesses are double weaknesses.  Offensively, the combo’s got super-effective hits on eight types, with nothing resisting both. But you’re not using Onix in a real fight, you’re using Steelix. Steelix is Steel/Ground, which gives it one of the best defensive lineups in the game. With eight resistances, two immunities, and four weaknesses, Steelix is capable of some serious tanking.  Offensively, Steel instead of Rock still gives Supereffective Stab against seven types, and once again there’s no type that resists both Steel and Ground attacks.

Art by Arvalis

STATS:  Steelix has 200 defense.

That’s it. That’s all Steelix’s stats. Okay, its HP and Attack are average. Its Special Defense is sub-par but not painfully so, and its speed is negligible. But it has 200 defense, one of the highest in the game, and when combined with its strong resistances, Steelix is one of the tankiest tanks around. 

Mega Steelix ups the stats that needed it most. While a defense rise from 200 to 230, while amazing and the new highest, is actually kind of negligible at that point, upping Special Defense to 95 and Attack to 125 turns Steelix into the full package, minus the part where it always, always, always goes last.  The weird part there is, Onix has a respectable speed of 70. Guess all that metal slows it down.

ABILITIES:  Steelix has three ability options and, honestly, they all should be good but none of them really live up to their full potential on Steelix. Sturdy is probably the least necessary of the three, but Steelix is still vulnerable to one big hit from a strong hit from a special sweeper, and being able to give a flat ‘no’ to those is useful.  Sheer Force is a particularly powerful ability that increases the damage of attacks by 30% by removing their beneficial secondary effects.  Steelix has a decent variety of moves that can take advantage of this, most notably Iron Head and Rock Slide, but also the elemental fangs for type coverage.

Rock Head is probably Steelix’s strongest ability. Rock Head removes recoil damage from attacks, and while Steelix only has two attacks that can take advantage of this,  one of them is Head Smash, a 150 Power Rock Move that normally deals 50% of the damage dealt as recoil damage.  Rock Head doesn’t have the versatility of Sheer Force, but a Super-Effective Sheer Force Thunder/Ice/Fire Fang is still only doing slightly more damage than a neutral Head Smash, and Steelix’s best attacks, Earthquake and Body Press, can’t benefit from either. Mega Steelix, sadly, does not get Rock Head. Mega Steelix gets Sand Force, which increases the damage of its STAB and Rock moves during a sandstorm. Obviously, this takes effort to set up, and Steelix doesn’t get the Rock-type defensive benefits, but hey, if you’re going to Sandstorm, Mega Steelix is a great idea.

Art by Isabelle Rathner

MOVES:  It’s weird to say, but Steelix’s strongest attack isn’t STAB. While Mega Steelix just Earthquakes basically everything forever,   Steelix’s 200 defense to 85 attack ratio means Body Press outdamages even Earthquake, though it does have the issue that more things resist Fighting than are weak to it. 

From there, you’ll want some coverage. Earthquake, Head Smash (with Rock Head), various Sheer Force attacks, etc, are all options.  Steelix is also slow enough that Gyro Ball is often very strong for it, especially if you get a nature with -Speed instead of the more obvious -Special Attack.  Mega Steelix is heavy enough to reliably Heavy Slam, but I wouldn’t try it with regular Steelix. 

Generally, for coverage you want to combine Ground with Steel or Fighting with Rock.  “Ground and steel” might seem obvious because Steelix is Ground and Steel, but Head Smash and Body Press are both as strong as Earthquake, and how well your Steel moves work really depends on what you’re fighting. And you can use three if you really want to. 

Then you get the setup moves. Steelix has two great setup options. Iron Defense raises its already insane defense to a ludicrous level and functions as Swords Dance for Body Press. On the other hand, Curse increases  the Power of Gyro Ball while also raising Attack and Defense one stage. It’s not as much raw power as the Iron Defense+ Body Press strategy, but, as said, a lot of things resist Fighting. In fact, Fighting and Steel make a good attack duo for coverage purposes, and Curse still increases damage from Body Press, just by one stage instead of two. What makes Steelix interesting here is that with a few turns of setup it can start sweeping, and its defenses mean there’s only a few attacks that can do good damage against it.

For a more defensive option, try having another Pokemon lay down Spikes, then have Steelix use Stealth Rock and bat Pokémon about with Dragon Tail. Whipping up a Sandstorm also works great in this scenario.  Combine with Leftovers for maximum longevity, and your opponent will probably take a lot of random damage throughout their team before something’s able to put a serious dent in Steelix.

Art by Tious

OVERALL:  Steelix is a lot of cool stuff that interacts in weird but not quite great ways. Sheer Force is a strong ability, but it can’t really take advantage in the way Nidoran can. Rock Head is great, but it doesn’t get STAB with either of the moves it applies to, unlike Aggron who gets Rock Head with STAB Head Smash. And then there’s Sand Force, which is strong, but as Steelix isn’t actually a Rock type, it doesn’t get the special defense boost.

You know, I kept thinking it, but this whole time it feels like Steelix would be better if everything else were identical but it was Rock/Steel instead of Ground/Steel... Though I guess Steelix’s defenses are overall more favorable, so maybe not.

Steelix is a great tank, and it has a few options of what to do while tanking, especially now that Body Press exists. Mega Steelix is even stronger, with a real attack stat. 

I just find myself moderately disappointed in all three ability options, despite them all being great ones. 

Also I still think Onix looked cooler.

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Pichu Line

Ah, the main character. Let’s bitch about it! DESIGN: Pikachu is scientifically proven to be the perfect design. Simple but expressive, cute but cool, round and jagged, Pikachu is the the mascot for Pokemon because they knew they’d struck gold when they designed him. He’s some sort of rodent, but also some sort of lightning bolt, and there’s nothing out there that’s really like Pikachu. Sure, there’s other adorable mascots, but Pikachu is its own thing.

Raichu, then, is... good. Raichu is still cute. Raichu is still badass. Raichu has a soft but tough design that a lot of pokemon try for and only a few really perfect. However, Raichu is incomplete. It’s starting to become more but still feels so... small. And there’s a reason for this: It’s a middle form. The final evolution, Gorochu, got cut from Pokemon Red and Blue for space, and for reasons I will complain about shortly, never returned. While we don’t have full imagery for Gorochu, we know its back sprite, and vague descriptions of it, and it would’ve been the normal final form ‘angry badass’ style... Though fan interpretations still tend to make it rather cute. This isn’t really the place to talk about what could have been, but take a look HERE for a great interpretation of Gorochu. My point is just that Raichu wasn’t designed as a final form and you can kind of tell by looking at it.

Pichu... is a waste of time. Look, I get it, Pikachu’s cute, and breeding is showing up in the next game, so time to make babby Pikachu, but let’s be honest: Pichu’s not actually cuter than Pikachu, it’s just “less cool Pikachu.” It doesn’t look softer, it doesn’t look more huggable, and it sucks in Smash Brothers.  Also, the idea of a ‘baby pikachu’ is sort of silly when Pikachu’s already one of the smallest, weakest Pokemon there is. And I don’t say this to disparage it, but it’s a very early game pokemon that you find in the wild as low as level 3 or that you get as a starter. There’s no need for ‘pikachu but small.’ Pikachu’s already small.  Pichu shifts the potential line from “Pikachu, Raichu, Gorochu” to “Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu” and while I respect the idea of moves that it can only learn if raised as a Pichu,  the only one that mattered when it was introduced was Charm... So it was a really roundabout way to let your Raichu know Charm. At least Nasty Plot was added later. I don’t inherently mind the concept of the Pichu as the first form in the PIkachu line, and if it was well implemented in the games I could really respect it, but Pikachu has always been such and early game pokemon that Pichu feels entirely redundant to me.

And then there’s Alolan Raichu. Alolan Raichu is soft, round, golden brown, and looks like it’s fresh out of the oven. I just want to shove it in my mouth and OMNOMNOM. It’s soft, adorable, and yet because of its rounded edges and unique tail-surfing manuever it looks far more complete than Raichu ever did. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Kantonian Raichu- hell I used to date a Kantonian Raichu- but Alolan Raichu just looks so much more like it’s right in being its own thing.  I also love the idea of making a Surfing Raichu after Surfing Pikachu was a thing, and making it Psychic so it can surf on air instead of water is just a stroke of brilliance. I just love this fluffy pancake monster so much. EVOLUTIONS: Pichu can evolve twice, and has two final forms, but I have to say I think its method of doing so is a hot mess.  First off, Pichu only evolves into Pikachu via friendship with the trainer, but all baby Pikachu are Pichu, so how are there ANY Pikachu in the wild? At the very least why are there so many more wild Pikachu than Pichu? Friendship evolutions are great, but anything that needs Friendship to evolve should be RARE. And Friendship should really be the last stage of evolution, not the first. Pikachu to Raichu is a Thunder Stone, and sure. I have no problem with Stone Evolution. I do think we’ve got a few too many stones these days, and not enough evolutions for each, though. Thunderstone has been around since Red and Bue, and yet only evolved Pikachu and Eevee until Gen 5, which only added Eelektrik, and now in gen 8 it only gained two more Pokemon.  Hell, Fire Stone still only works on four pokemon, three of which are gen 1.... But this is about Pichu, and  Pikachu to Raichu with a Thunderstone is fine.

What’s weird to me is that the way to get Alolan Raichu is still with a Thunderstone, but in Alola. I love regional variants, and when they’re a whole line like Rattata, that’s great, but it’s weird to me that Alolan Raichu is only available in Alola, and it seems like an oversight that’s already come to bite them in the ass as both Let’s Go and SwSh have had to include randos who will trade you Alolan Raichu for Kantonian Raichu.  You know what would’ve worked better?  Everything in its dex entry says the reason it evolves that way is because of too many pancakes. So why not a pancakes item that just happens to be much easier to get in Alola? Sure, it’s another new evolution item, but if every game’s going to have Alolan Raichu anyway, might as well. Or make it something like “Feed your Pikachu 10 Big Malasada.”  Of course, Alolan Pichu and Pikachu could’ve been an option, but that seems like going a bit crazy.

The availability to turn your Pikachu into an Electric type OR an Electric/Psychic type is great, but the fact that there’s no actual way to make the choice with a given Pikachu in a given game is a pain in the butt.

There’s also a Gigantimax Pikachu for SwSh players who have Let’s Go Pikachu save files, which is cute, but as it’s still using Pikachu stats, you’re better off with a Raichu.

TYPING:  Pure electric type’s actually a solid type to be. Resistant to flying, steel, and electric, only weak to ground, and STAB on electric moves is entirely decent.  Sure, ground types ruin your day entirely, but other than that you just have to watch out for grass and dragons resisting... but they’re not super-effective against Raichu so you just need coverage for that. 

Alolan Raichu’s typing is more wild. Four weaknesses, five resistances, two types of STAB. It can use Psychic against Ground types and Electricity against Dark types just fine, but it’s not exactly covering its own weaknesses. Still, it’s hardly a problem.

STATS:  You know, for all the people who think PIkachu’s so great, people don’t seem to realize that outside of Let’s Go, where it got a major stat inflation, Pikachu is not significantly than the other starter pokemon. In fact, it was weaker until it got a defense buff in gen 6.  With a stat total of 320, it’s just an early game pokemon, that even with Gigantimax, Light Ball, and all the other special Pikachu love, you should just evolve it. Yes, technically Light Ball gives it an attack and special attack higher than a Raichu (110 and 100 compared to 90 and 90 or 85 and 95) but the Raichu can more than make up for that with, say, a Life Orb, which brings its damage  up over Light Ball Pikachu’s while not bringing it’s defenses down nearly as far as Pikachu’s.

As a catch there, did you notice where I said 110 and 100? Pikachu has higher physical attack than special attack. And  Kantonian Raichu’s are equal to each other. You’d look at this thing and think it was a special attacker, but no, Pikachu was built to throw down.  Alolan Raichu does have the edge toward special, but not so much that it can’t use a physical attack if it wants to. 

Like most electric types, these boys are fast. Pikachu’s speed is a whopping 90, and Raichu’s is 110. 

Pichu is a pile of garbage with a stat total of a mere 205, which only compares favorably to Caterpie if you’re really impressed by Pichu going first. The only reason Pichu should exist is for use as a trash mob on first routes, but the only game that’s done that is Sun and Moon and even they made it super rare.

Raichu and Alolan Raichu have an overall stat total of 485, which is on the low end of good for end-game. They do have a lot of ‘redundant’ stat points in that they have both good physical and special attack and really don’t need both, but their attack stats and speed are high enough to compete, even if they’re rather frail.

ABILITIES: 

Kantonian Raichu (as well as Pichu and Pikachu) generally knows Static. Static is an entirely useful ability that gives a 30% chance to paraylze the enemy whenever they use an attack on Raichu that make contact. The problem with this ability is that most attacks that make contact are physical and physical defense is Raichu’s poorest stat.  It’s not a useless ability by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a 30% chance to work when things are going poorly for Raichu. Its Hidden Ability, Lightning Rod, is far more useful. LIghtning Rod grants full immunity to electric attacks, increases Raichu’s power if struck by an electric attack, and, in double battles, means that enemy electric attacks can only target Raichu (though this doesn’t stop multi-target electric attacks.)  In single battles, this ability is mostly used to switch Raichu into an electric attack, steal the stat boost while protecting another pokemon, and then start sweeping with a relatively potent special attacker. Despite Raichu’s equal attack stats, this is one of many reasons it tends to be used as a special attacker. In double battles, it’s even better. Setting a pokemon with Lightning Rod down next to a pokemon weak to electricity covers its weakness perfectly, and many battles have been won by pairing a Lightning Rod pokemon with Gyarados. Lightning Rod takes strategy to use, but any successful use of it can really swing a battle in your favor.

Alolan Raichu has a unique ability called Surge Surfer, which doubles its speed in Electric Terrain. As there are NO pokemon with more than twice Alolan Raichu’s speed, this means in Electric Terrain, Alolan Raichu will always go first if there’s no other effects in play. Now, actually getting Electric Terrain up can be difficult, but Max Lightning sets it up, Raichu can learn the move to create it by TM, and a few other pokemon can set it up just by existing, making it a lot more reliable in double battles.  MOVES: By virtue of being the main character, the Pichu line has a LOT of good moves.  Pichu learns Nasty Plot, which is the best reason to raise your own from an egg. As with Lightning Rod, Nasty Plot is a reason Raichu wants to use its special attacks more than its physical ones.... Which is a shame because a properly bred Pichu is the only thing that can learn Volt Tackle, a 120 Power, 100 accuracy electric move with recoil damage and a chance to paralyze.  So Kantonian Raichu just uses good old Thunderbolt as its electric attack. 

Alolan Raichu might want Thunderbolt as well, but if you are building for Electric Terrain, it has another option as well: Electro Ball. Electro Ball’s damage is based on how fast your pokemon is compared to the opponent, and with Surge Surfer it’s not difficult for an Alolan Raichu Electro Ball to have a base power of 120 or even hit its max of 150. 

Now that we’ve got our sweep setup (Nasty Plot or Electric Terrain) and our electric attack (Thunderbolt or Electro Ball) it’s time to look at what else these mice can do. 

Kantonian Raichu only gets a few non-electric special moves, none of which it learns naturally.  Surf and Grass Knot are both potent special attacks against the dreaded Ground-Type Pokemon, enabling Raichu to try sweeping right through them, with Grass Knot generally better against high-powered ground types. Focus Blast is a hell of a drug at 120 power, but 70% accuracy makes it incredibly unreliable. Volt Switch is a decent option for switching out, but once you set up a Nasty Plot sweeper you really don’t want to ever switch out.  Maybe take Surf AND Grass Knot so anything immune to Lightning Bolt knows you really mean business.

Alolan Raichu can get all the important special attacks Kantonian Raichu can, but is also a Psychic type. This means it can learn Psychic, but I’d actually suggest learning Psyshock over that. Against the majority of Pokemon, Thunderbolt or Electro Ball will do quite well after you’ve set up, and while Psyshock is slightly weaker than Psychic, it has the benefit of targeting SPecial Defense instead of Physical Defense. This means a Special Wall, like Blissey, won’t stop you cold.  This does work a lot better with Nasty Plot than Electric Terrain, of course, as Electric Terrain only boosts electric damage, but of course that’s the trade-off. Either way, still take Surf or Grass Knot. Gotta show those ground types whatfor.

Alolan Raichu has its own unique Z-Move, Stoked Sparksurfer, which is just a better version of Gigavolt Havoc, doing the same damage when used off Thunderbolt and paralyzing the target if it manages to survive. This is particularly powerful, but whether or not Z-Moves return will remain to be seen.

Pikachu also has two of its own unique Z-Moves, Catastropika and 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, but as Z-Crystals and Light Ball both take the item slot, using either of these moves means you’re back down to 55 attack and 50 special attack, and thus wasting everyone’s time even with a 210 power move. 

In Double Battles, Raichu gets even more utility. It can learn both Charm and Eerie Impulse, Fake out, Protect, Encore, Nuzzle, and all sorts of other solid moves for messing with an opponent. Interestingly, many of these attacks require it being a Pichu first... or at least they did. I think in SwSh you can just move relearn them even as a Raichu, making Pichu even more useless. Double Battles also let it take advantage of Thunder, which gains perfect accuracy in the rain, if your other pokemon is, say, a Pelipper with Drizzle or another water pokemon that really wants to hide behind Raichu’s Lightning Rod.

OVERALL: I love this stupid little thing and everything about it except for Pichu which is dumb and awful. I own multiple Pikachus and I like to hug them. Alolan Raichu is one of my favorite Pokemon ever. I used a Raichu back in Blue and her name was Amanda and I loved her bunches.  Raichu’s an entirely solid pokemon to just have in your lineup, but really shines in double battles as both Lightning Rod and Surge Surfer have more utility there, and Raichu can combine its utility with its ability to just end someone’s life with Thunderbolt. 

And in doubles you can even use Volt Tackle because it’s not like you’re going to Nasty Plot a special sweeper out of this marshmallow in 2v2.  You’re just gonna keep ruining an opponent’s ability to do stuff until you have an opening to hit with a 120 power electric attack.