#190, #424: Aipom & Ambipom

Ash's Aipom had a penchant for headgear,
especially Ash's hat, as you can see in these
images. You can't see it here, but Aipom
usually has a cowlick atop its head.

Aipom, wipe that stupid grin off your fucking face.

You know, this time I'm glad Game Freak did the right thing and actually gave such a bad Pokémon a great evolution. But however bad a battler Aipom might be by itself, it is actually a pretty fun Pokémon. At the end of the Advanced Generation series (seasons 6 to 9), Ash encountered one that had quite the playful and jealous nature and had a fetish for headgear, continuously stealing Ash's hat and even getting itself into trouble when it put on a crown that couldn't be taken off. Eventually, a berry helped solve the problem. A bigger problem was that the Advanced Generation series ended shortly after Ash acquired Aipom, causing him to leave all of his Pokémon behind when he left for Sinnoh - with the exception of Pikachu, of course. But Aipom would have none of it: he attacked Professor Oak and snuck aboard the boat Ash was traveling on to accompany him on his journey. This proved to be extremely beneficial, as Pikachu was kidnapped by Team Rocket immediately upon arrival and Aipom helped Ash find him. Ash ultimately traded Aipom for Dawn's Buizel, as Buizel was more interested in Ash's battle training and Aipom was more interested in Dawn's Contest-oriented training. Ash must have regretted that, because soon after the trade was made, Aipom learned Double Hit and evolved into Ambipom. And let's be honest, Ambipom is much better than Aipom and has a lot more tricks up its sleeve.

To hell with fan art, anime screenshots are much more interesting to use in this
particular article. Look at that smirk on Ambipom's face! 

But let's not jump the gun, I want to focus on their flavor first. Aipom seems to be based on a squirrel monkey with traits of cymbal-banging monkey toys and the ahuizotl, a creature of Aztec mythology that has monkey hands and a fifth human hand on its tail. Aipom's tail does look like a hand; its tail is actually prehensile and is strong enough to anchor Aipom to a branch and suspend the rest of its body in the air, while it is delicate enough to pick fruit and grab other objects. Aipom even wraps its tail around tree branches as it sleeps upside down, and even uses it to swing from branch to branch. Ironically, its actual arms aren't all that dexterous because it uses its tail so much. And Ambipom? Well, Ambipom has two tails, both of which have hands on it and both of which it can use equally well - hence the reference to 'ambidextrous' in its name. Its tails are so adept at handling and doing things that it barely uses its hands anymore, and they're used to leap from tree to tree with brilliant speed. Those trees seem to be Aipom and Ambipom's habitat, which is nicely demonstrated by the games: in Gold, Silver and Crystal - and their remakes - Aipom can be found in Headbutt trees, while in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum you have to smear Honey on Honey trees to attract them instead.

These girls just want to have fun. 

Aipom evolves into Ambipom by leveling it up while it knows the move Double Hit, which is the kind of evolution method used for evolving Lickitung into Lickilicky (ugh, I cannot emphasize enough how much I despise that thing), but with the move Rollout instead. There's just one difference: while Lickilicky should avoid using Rollout, Double Hit is actually a viable move for Ambipom to use... when it's running the Technician ability, that is. Pickup lets it occasionally pick up items after winning battles in a regular playthrough, so it's only handy outside of competitive play (Ambipom does pick up one-time use items of opposing Pokémon in battle and uses them itself, but only when it is not already holding an item, and you don't want that), while Skill Link enables it to let multi-strike moves always strike the maximum number of times. As Skill Link only affects Double Slap, with 15 power, and Fury Swipes, with 18 power, it is by far not the preferred ability. True, both moves will strike five times, but the combined power of these moves are 75 and 90, respectively, while Double Hit always hits two times for 35 power a pop. This will be 52.5 power per hit when Technician is applied, which can add up to 105 power in total. That's more than the maximum power of 102 from Return, although Double Hit does have lower accuracy.

No, don't ask me why Double Hit always hits two times and Double Slap can hit two to five times, because I have no clue whatsoever. I can only theorize that it has something to do with their original Japanese names: when translated, the Japanese name for Double Slap is Round Trip Slap, which does not indicate a specific number of strikes, while Double Hit is Double Attack.

Somehow this kind of ghostly wallpaper art fits Ambipom perfectly.

But let's not digress here. Ambipom isn't the best Pokémon in the competitive metagame, but that's not to say you can't compose a good set for it. It excels in attack and speed, while its defenses are pretty abysmal altogether, so it's more of a hit-and-run Pokémon. Give Ambipom a Jolly nature and a Life Orb and make its moveset look as follows: Fake Out (priority move that makes the opponent flinch and is boosted by Technician), Double Hit/Return (whichever you prefer), Knock Off and U-Turn. This is more of a utility moveset, but if you want more of an offensive threat, Ambipom also learns a variety of other physical-based moves: Seed Bomb, Gunk Shot, the elemental punches, Acrobatics (doesn't work well with a Life Orb, which it needs; its attack is good, but it needs all the power it can get), Brick Break, Focus Punch, Iron Tail and a bunch of Technician-boosted moves like Revenge (this move doubles its base power of 60 when Ambipom is hit first, but the ability only activates when Ambipom gets the first hit instead), Pursuit, Aerial Ace, Thief, Covet and Power-Up Punch. Lastly, one gimmicky strategy you could use is the Fake Out/Last Resort combo. Last Resort is a normal-type move with 140 base power and it will only activate when all of the other moves Ambipom knows have been used at least once without having switched Ambipom out during the battle. It can be pretty lethal combined with a Life Orb, but Ambipom will end up with only two moves in its arsenal, which could turn out to be disadvantageous.

Oh, one more thing: both sets make a Choice Band or Choice Scarf pretty useless, so I don't recommend using them as alternatives to the Life Orb.

Ambipom's official art is heavily modified, but I think it's pretty this way. 

Man, I love Ambipom and I think it is easily the best Gen. IV cross-generational evolution alongside Rhyperior. Aipom was pretty enjoyable back in the day, but I have slowly come to love Ambipom since it was introduced in Diamond and Pearl. I thought it was weird, but now I regret not putting it in my top 50 favorite Pokémon (check my badly-written previous blog for that; or rather, don't). After all this praise, you probably think I'm gonna give it a perfect rating... and you would be entirely correct.

Rating: 5/5