Pokémon of the Week

POKEDEX name: ARON number: 304 type: Steel/Rock height: 1'4"/ 0.4 m weight: 132 lb./ 60.0 kg characteristic: rock head - prevents recoil damage; sturdy - protected against one-hit KO attacks evolutions: aron --lv.32--> lairon --lv.42--> aggron Ruby: This POKéMON has a body of steel. To make its body, ARON feeds on iron ore that it digs from mountains. Occasionally, it causes major trouble by eating bridges and rails. Sapphire: ARON has a body of steel. With one all-out charge, this POKéMON can demolish even a heavy dump truck. The destroyed dump truck then becomes a handy meal for the POKéMON.

base stats: HP:50 AT:70 DE:100 SA:40 SD:40 SP:30

POTW was late and no one noticed...
cute pokémon get more commentary attention. cute pokémon it is.
ARON!!! the cutest ball of swiss metal and rock around.

unevolved pokémon are generally weak, yet aron boasts a formidable defense, coupled with the generally highly defensive rock and steel type, and a decent attack. alas, the hit points, speed and special defence are woeful to the max - or min, as it were.

its move selection is nice and diverse, generally offensive attacks. unfortunately it also learns all the good special attacks that are rather not useful on a pokémon with such a low special attack stat. however, it does have a nice surprise effect when a graveller is trying to earthquake him but gets wiped out by a water pulse instead. note: arons are all slower than gravellers, save for paralysis and quick claws.

you know what's awesome? the rock head characteristic. it prevents recoil damage from attacks that are saddled with recoil, i.e. take down, double-edge. and aron can learn both. take down blows, but double edge is totally sweet. 120 power, normal type, 100% accuracy, 15 PP, but deals 1/3 of the damage dealt to the opponent to yourself in recoil damage. but with rock head, recoil is negated! yippee!!! thus, rock head + double-edge is a must on aron and all it's evolved forms.

Movesets

aron @ scope lens
characteristic: rock head
personality: adamant (+ATT, -SPA)
double-edge, earthquake, aerial ace, metal claw
adamant is one of the most useful personalities, skewing offensive stats to one end (physical). which is why all the attacks listed are physical and run off the attack stat. double-edge has already been explained. earthquake is a solid and accurate attack (100 pwr, 100% acc., 10 PP, ground move). aerial ace is a reliable attack that never misses so long as the opponent is on the screen (60 pwr, 20 PP, flying move) to nail pesky fighting types that aron happens to be 4X weak to. metal claw (50 pwr, 95% acc., 35 PP, steel move) is the only attack that runs off STAB, multiplying its power by 1.5, and has a wonderful 10% chance for the side effect of an attack boost. scope lens raises the chance of a critical hit, which doubles the attack power of that move.

next week... mmm... i don't know. someone pick one.

Pokémon of the Week

POKEDEX name: NUMEL number: 322 type: Numb height: 2'4"/ 0.7 m weight: 53 lb./ 24.0 kg characteristic: oblivious - is not affected by ATTRACT evolutions: numel --lv.33--> camerupt Ruby: NUMEL is extremely dull witted - it doesn't notice being hit. However, it can't stand hunger for even a second. This POKéMON's body is a seething cauldron of boiling magma. Sapphire: NUMEL stores magma of almost 2,200 degrees F within its body. If it gets wet, the magma cools and hardens. In that event, the POKéMON's body grows heavy and its movements become sluggish.

base stats: HP:60 AT:60 DE:40 SA:65 SD:45 SP:35

due to popular demand, i present to you, numel. the numb camel. this is the first potw featuring a pokémon from ruby/sapphire. numel is the unevolved form of camerupt, one of the few new fire types available in RS. it has an intriguing type mixture, fire/ground. it neutralizes fire's weakness to rock and ground's weaknesses to ice and grass. unfortunately it compounds their collective weakness to water.

for an unevolved pokémon, numel boasts fair enough stats, leaning more to attacking than defending. a high-ish attack and special attack lends itself to using attacks from both types for STAB. by sheer charity, numel learns both flamethrower and earthquake! the pokégods smile upon this dopey pokémon. and it can learn body slam through breeding (w/ torkoal)!

unfortunately the rest of the moves available to numel are somewhat blah, and considering his weak defenses, numel cannot be expected to last long, nor can camerupt. with such low defenses and speed in an attack happy RS environment, there isn't much chance for setup. numel is probably better off as a fun pokémon for in-game play, as the elite five sport both ice and steel types, both suseptible to a numellian assault. onto the movesets...

numel @ quick claw; body slam, amnesia, flamethrower, earthquake
personality: relaxed (+DEF, -SPD)
train for max attack, half max special defense and half max special attack.
quick claw to maybe correct that woeful speed and the chance for paralysis from body slam will aid that cause. amnesia will maybe help numel live a little longer, or survive a pesky bubble (any water attack more powerful will faint numel no matter what =P).

numel @ scope lens; focus energy, body slam, overheat, earthquake
personality: sassy (+SDE, -SPD)
train for max attack, max defense
scope lens + focus energy for boosted critical hit rate. overheat is more or less one-time use because of that special attack drop. probably saved for skarmories and other steel types with no special defense. body slam for a chance for paralysis and speed drop, earthquake for a solid STABed attack.

Pokémon of the Week

POKEDEX name: NINETALES number: 38 type: Fox elements: Fire height: 3'7"/1.09 m weight: 44 lb./19.8 kg evolutions: vulpix -fire stone-> ninetales Gold: Some legends claim that each of its nine tails has its own unique type of special mystical power. Silver: Its nine beautiful tails are filled with wondrous energy that could keep it alive for 1,000 years.

base stats: HP:73 AT:76 DE:75 SA:81 SD:100 SP:100

oooh, foxy. ninetales is hot. can i say that? i think it's the tails. or maybe because it's a fire type. ha. ha. haaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

ninetales is a special attacker, as you can see in it's stats. like all stone evolutions, ninetales learns nothing, so it'd be wise to train it as vulpix for the moves. unfortunately, fire types don't get too much support from other moves, and are weak to common moves like Surf and Earthquake and Ancientpower. as it were, ninetales is not built for stamina, but speed and to wreak a bit of havoc on any setups (i.e. scizor baton pass). for all its beauty, ninetales is a bit of a kamikaze. it is best used as a starter, or perhaps after you take out the earthquaker and surfer and rock slider and generally anything that uses physical attacks.

so we'll look at a few possible movesets. annoyance/stall and starter. the moveset section will now look a bit different. actually, it's looked different each time so, meh.

Annoyance/Stall:
Ninetales @ brightpowder: Confuse Ray, Attract, Flamethrower, Dig
confraction will give the opponent a 75% chance of being incapacitated. dig will dodge attacks and do a bit of damage if you're stuck against a golem or something. flamethrower for a nice and heavy attack. brightpowder for that little extra help in avoiding attacks.

Starter
Ninetales @ Focus Band: Fire Blast, Roar, Confuse Ray, Sunny Day
a nice way to ruin early baton passing chains. starter scizor? roar or toast him! starter alakazam? confuse ray and switch out! sunny day will boost fire blast and will halve any pesky water attacks. focus band for luck, so you can actually pull off that roar or one final fire blast before you kick the bucket.

Pokémon of the Week

POKEDEX name: HERACROSS number: 214 type: singlehorn elements: Bug/Fighting height: 4'11"/1.50 m weight: 119 lb./53.55 kg evolutions: none Gold: This powerful pokémon thrusts its prized horn under the enemies' bellies then lifts and throws them. Silver: Usually docile, but if disturbed while sipping honey, it chases off the intruder with its horn.

base stats: HP:80 AT:125 DE:75 SA:40 SD:95 SP:85

now "Pokémon of the Week" since "Pokémon of the Month" takes too long.

heracross is nifty sumo-bug with decent stats and an interesting type mixture. the first thing you'll note is how easily this guy gets slaughtered by any fliers. but that's not too big a deal, what with all the ice beams, thunderbolts and rock slides floating around.

depending on the moveset, heracross can be a tank, or a kamikaze cannon. given the right circumstances, heracross can push just about anything over. and it learns the strongest bug attack in the existence of pokémon.

Moveset 1: @ scope lens earthquake megahorn hidden power (rock) return/hyper beam

smash stuff and smash them lots. megahorn is the beefy bug attack, great for polishing off disabled psychics and grass types and mad STAB. earthquake is a staple attack for any smasher and helps get rid of some fire types. hidden power (rock) to surprise those fliers on the swtich in. return (or frustration) is a nice strong attack for regular beating. or you could go with hyper beam for more oomph. attached scope lens for higher chance of critical hits.

Moveset 2: @ focus band counter endure reversal take down

this is a more specialized moveset, with counter and take down to help lower hp to add power to reversal. endure to eat up drill pecks and fire blasts also to power up reversal. let's hope you're faster than the other. focus band in case you mis-time an attack and hope you get lucky. not to be deployed until the psychic or flier or other fast pokémon are gone.

Pokémon of the Month

POKEDEX
name: JUMPLUFF!!!
number: 189 type: cottonweed elements: Grass/Flying
height: 2'7"/0.79 m weight: 7 lb./3.15 kg
evolutions: hoppip > skiploom > jumpluff (lvl 27)
Gold: once it catches the wind, it deftly controls it's
cotton spores to float, even around the world
Silver: drifts on seasonal winds and spreads it cotton-
like spores all over the world to make more offspring

base stats: HP:75 AT:55 DE:70 SA:55 SD:85 SP:110

first p.o.t.m. ever. and we start with a funny looking fluff ball of a pokemon. like a rotund cheerleader. mmm... rotund.

in terms of usage, jumpluff is a powder specialist, learning all the standard powder moves characteristic of grass-types. they include stun spore, poisonpowder, sleep powder, leech seed, and the new one, cotton spore. the only non-TM attacks learned
are tackle and mega-drain. needless to say they are useless.

speaking of useless, that's a pretty good adjective for this pokemon. with base stats skewed into the speed category, this pokemon has very little going for it. there are much better grass-types to use. but if you're just playing for the fun of it...

Moveset:
attach brightpowder
stun-spore
headbutt
double team
giga drain

with base attack/special attack stats of only 55, you're not going to hit them up for too much damage. so, stun spore + headbutt for paraflinching. double team + brightpowder for avoiding those pesky ice beams that will surely ravage this little ball of allergy. and giga drain for STAB and regaining some hp from double teaming.