#54 - #55: Psyduck & Golduck

Fan art of Psyduck. It's probably having a headache.

Psyduck looks dumb.

There, I said it. I'm sorry to all you Psyduck lovers out there, but I'm not really all that fond of the thing. I totally felt for Misty every fucking time her dim-witted Psyduck, which she accidentally caught, broke out of its goddamn Poké Ball without having been asked to. This source of annoyance, to Misty as well as to the viewers, might have been dim-witted and oblivious, but it has been shown to use psychic powers that far exceed its normal abilities when its headaches get bad enough. No surprises there, because that is what Psyduck is all about: being dumb and oblivious, being plagued by chronic headaches, trying to calm its headaches by standing immobile (hence the Psyduck on Sinnoh's Route 10 in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, who won't move until Cynthia gives you a Secret Potion), and releasing crazy-strong psychic powers when its headaches become too severe. It is even unable to recall such episodes. The psychic thing, along with Psyduck's ability to learn several strong psychic-type moves, makes me believe that it should have had the psychic type as its secondary typing to begin with, but I guess that is absolutely none of my business.

Old TCG art of Golduck in action.

I feel like Golduck is, however, which is mainly because I love it, whereas I really don't care for Psyduck in the slightest. You'd think Golduck gains the psychic type as its secondary typing upon evolving from Psyduck, but that couldn't be any further from the truth: Golduck is a pure water type, just like its pre-evolution. Even so, it inherits Psyduck's psychic powers (although not its headaches), only with the ability to control them through the gem on its head, which glows when it is using its psychic powers and occasionally when it swims at full speed. And that is pretty fast, considering the fact that it outswims the most athletic humans because of its webbed hands and feet. It isn't even bothered by rough seas and will sometimes rescue people from shipwrecks. That is probably why it is often mistaken for a Japanese monster called the kappa, which is exactly what Golduck is based on (and quite frankly, I like that a lot). In short, Golduck is a hundred times more bad-ass than its pre-evolution.

Official art of Golduck.

But how good is it in the video games? Well, Golduck's flavor is perceptible through its ability to learn quite some psychic-type moves (such as Psychic, Psyshock, Confusion, and even egg moves like Psybeam, Synchronoise and Future Sight) and its hidden ability Swift Swim, which doubles its speed when it's raining in battles. It is therefore not uncommon to use a 'rain' Golduck in the NU tier, with a moveset consisting of Rain Dance, a STAB move like Scald or Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, and Psychic. Maybe you can omit either Psychic or Ice Beam and give it Calm Mind, to boost its more-than-decent special attack and fairly decent special defense and use it as a sweeper. For in-game purposes, you might want to go for an all-offensive Golduck with a moveset consisting of Surf, Ice Beam, Psychic and Focus Blast. Signal Beam is an option, but it's a Move Tutor move and can't be obtained until after you've finished the Delta Episode. As you can see, its movepool is just diverse (and strong) enough to consist of moves of four different types. If only Psychic was a STAB move... right?

Some awesome modified art of Golduck.

Forget about it, Game Freak will never decide to bless Golduck with that ever-useful psyhic type. Nonetheless, Golduck has always been one of my favorite Gen. I Pokémon: its streamlined design is simplistic but effective, and it is a strong Pokémon that's somewhat capable of taking a hit from another Pokémon (both its HP and defenses are halfway competent, resulting is some decent bulk). Overall, Golduck is a very interesting Pokémon that totally lives up to the characteristics it is known for. I can't help but give it a perfect rating, which is the second one in a row. Will Primeape be able to add a third?

Rating: 5/5