#88 - #89: Grimer & Muk

Official art of Grimer by Ken Sugimori. Look at the poor thing;
it's extending its arms because it wants a hug!

Is it possible to love a pile of sludge?

Oh, heck yes. Yes, it is.

Everything about Grimer and Muk's flavor is just fucking gross, but I have to admit that their designs are pretty original. Many Pokémon are based off of real-life animals, and their flavor often matches their real-life counterpart as well. Grimer and Muk, however, are a bit more unrealistic. They're imaginative, capable in battles and absolutely disgusting, and that's exactly why I like them. What I like most, though, is the fact that they might be based on the fear that the improper disposal of toxic and/or nuclear waste may result in the creation of new life forms. And let's be real here: pollution is a serious issue in real life. Apparently, pollution is also a problem in the Pokémon world, because Grimer was born when sludge from a dirty stream was exposed to X-rays from the moon. It thrives on polluted wastewater that is pumped out of the same factories that polluted the waters it was born from, and that caused it to be a pungent cesspool of bacteria that are so potent that it renders the soil it moves on incapable of ever supporting plant life again. It is constantly oozing a germ-infected fluid from its body; when a piece of it breaks off, new Grimer will emerge from them, and when two Grimer merge, new poisons are created.

While Grimer looks kinda cute, to some extent, Muk is probably a thing you'll want to
stay away from.

And Grimer's evolution is even worse. Muk doesn't even have to steamroll over plants to instantly kill them: being in the close vicinity of plants is enough for Muk to make them wilt and die. Within seconds. Even briefly touching it can make you incredibly ill, and one tiny drop from its body can turn a lake stagnant and rancid. Like Grimer, Muk can be found in sewers and heavily polluted bodies of water, and therefore it is often believed to be the personification of water pollution, while Koffing and Weezing are based on air pollution and Trubbish and Garbodor are based on land pollution. Game Freak gave these real-life problems a nice touch by actually turning them into 'living' things to fight with.

Muk's official art.

And Muk isn't even bad at that, to be honest. It is not the world's greatest battler, but its massive HP, excellent attack stat and good special defense makes it a good offensive and moderately bulky Pokémon. Except when there are Move Tutors to fall back on mid-game, Muk is not a particularly good in-game Pokémon to use (its level-up movepool, barring Gunk Shot, is absolutely terrible, as it mainly learns special attacks while it's a physical attacker), but it makes for a decent competitive NU Pokémon. It is inferior to Garbodor when it comes to setting up entry hazards, but it has a more diverse direct-damage movepool: Poison Jab works great in conjunction with its hidden ability Poison Touch (which has a chance to poison an opponent when it hits Muk or when Muk hits it with a direct attack), the elemental punches provide great type coverage, Shadow Sneak is an interesting move that gives it some priority but isn't very strong, and Brick Break and Rock Slide aren't bad choices to consider giving Muk either. Let it hold an Assault Vest (which raises its already potent special defense by 50%, but requires it to use only attacking moves) or a Choice Band (which raises its already high attack stat by 50%, but requires it to choose only one move until it switches out) and you'll have a bulky Pokémon that also packs a punch. No pun intended. And as it isn't very fast to begin with, an attack-beneficial nature like Brave or Adamant is the right nature to go with.

Muk is actually just a weird, shapeless blob. This interpretation of Muk looks like it
comes straight out of an R.L. Stine novel. 

Other than maybe Trubbish and Garbodor, I don't think you'll come across more repulsive Pokémon than Grimer and Muk. I absolutely loved it when I used it in a Black 2 playthrough, and its effectiveness made me get an affection for this thing that has never gone away. I think it's deserving of the 4-star rating I'm giving it, no matter how much it is hated on by many others.

Rating: 4/5