#231 - #232: Phanpy & Donphan

Some pretty accurate fan art of Phanpy in its nest nearby the
river. 

Okay, y'all know I have a fondness for cute Pokémon. And let's be honest here, Phanpy is totally cute, but at the same I think its design is just really bland. The only features that makes it look slightly interesting are the red pads on its ears and trunk, but even then Phanpy isn't an overly fascinating Pokémon. Its Pokédex entries mention characteristics that can be pretty much found in real-life elephants, including using its ears as a fan when it's hot or using its trunk to take a shower. It even makes its nests digging a vertical pit in the soil at the edge of a river. It's actually pretty weird Phanpy prefers to be in the vicinity of water, because it's a ground-type Pokémon and ground types are usually weak to water - except when they have a secondary typing or ability that balances out or nullifies that weakness, that is. That is not the case here, however: Phanpy and Donphan are both pure ground types. But whereas Phanpy's playful nature can be potentially painful to humans because it doesn't know its own strength and can send someone flying if it bumps that person too hard with its snout, Donphan can curl up into a ball and violently roll around like a wheel (it does look like a tire when it's rolled up), starting a rampage that will be almost unstoppable. Aside from the rolling thing, I'm pretty sure I've seen these rampage shenanigans fly by on this blog at least three fucking times, so to me it's as if Game Freak couldn't come up with something better.

Now, this is less accurate. Phanpy takes showers using its trunk, but it doesn't create
entire waterfalls. :')

The anime, however, shows that this ability is further used as a form of courtship display, as male Donphan will have rolling competitions to demonstrate their toughness to females. That's pretty much it, I'm afraid. Donphan move in herds and the leader is the one with - you guessed it - the largest tusks. The leader is always the one with the largest something; I haven't seen any exception to the rule yet. At least it learns ground-type moves by level-up, unlike Phanpy. Come to think about it, that is a little bit odd; Phanpy learns Earthquake and Bulldoze, two moves Donphan learns naturally, through TMs (and even Fissure through means of breeding), so why not include them in its level-up movepool? It makes no sense.

This Donphan is 'bout to fuck up its opponent.

Phanpy is not where it's at competitively, though. It's Donphan who takes the spotlight with its excellent stats: its base attack and defense are both a fantastic 120 (it is said that its tackles are strong enough to bring down houses and that its armor-like hide is so thick that a normal attack won't leave a scratch on it), while it its able to back its defense up with its very solid base 90 HP stat, although for some weird reason Phanpy has the exact same base HP as Donphan does. Unfortunately, Donphan is very slow and cannot take special hits very well. That's why I have a tactic that I hope will work, as I'm not that much of a competitive player: Assault Vest Donphan. Run a Donphan with a Careful nature, so that it has slightly higher special defense, and let it hold an Assault Vest, which boosts its special defense by 50% but limits it to using only damaging moves. That is fine, because you can choose from a plethora of physical moves to use on Donphan: Earthquake, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Play Rough, Gunk Shot, Poison Jab, Seed Bomb, Knock Off, Iron Tail, Ice Shard, Fire Fang and Thunder Fang. It even has access to Rapid Spin to get rid of entry hazards, which - unlike Defog - does a little damage and is thus very viable for an Assault Vest set. Furthermore, invest 252 EVs in HP, 252 EVs in attack and 4 in special defense, and you'll have an overall bulky offensive Donphan. Why not try it? It can't hurt, right?

(Disclaimer: Yo guys, I swear to Arceus that I came up with this set for Donphan before I checked Smogon. It is more common for competitive Donphan to know Stealth Rock and carry an item like the Leftovers or a Choice Band, but an Assault Vest set is indeed mentioned on Smogon's website, albeit the recommended ability and EV spread are different. Guess I'm not that bad at composing competitive sets, now am I?)

You'd better flee, 'cause you don't want to get run over by a horde of stampeding
Donphan. 

Personally, I never really cared for Donphan. Admittedly, it is a very good Pokémon to use on any occasion, whether it is in the PSS's Battle Spot or just a regular playthrough. Sometimes I almost think it could easily be forgotten, until I realize it's actually a commonly used Pokémon because it sports some good competitive utility. However, I don't see myself using this thing anytime soon, and I guess I should leave it at that. I don't hate it in the slightest, but I don't think it's in the top percentage of Pokémon either.

Rating: 3.5/5