#509 - #510: Purrloin & Liepard

Conveniently enough, the dog and cat Pokémon of the fifth generation can be found back to back in the Unova Pokédex, but the deceptive and miscreant Purrloin and its evolution Liepard couldn't differ any more from the timid and trustworthy Lillipup and its evolutions Herdier and Stoutland even if they wanted to, which I think is doubtful at best.

For some stupid-ass reason, Purrloin is always seen standing
upright in media other than its official art and Gen. V in-game
sprites.

You see, Purrloin is all about getting its victims to let their guard down by putting up a cute act so that it can steal their possessions, just to see the looks on their faces. Due to its charm, it is even forgiven easily when it is caught in the act, so it probably doesn't even see a reason to change its behavior anytime soon. It's just the nature of the beast. Even most of its names across the globe are a play on the word 'steal' - or a synonym thereof - and Páshǒumāo (扒手貓), literally 'pickpocket cat', is by far the most ingenious. Meow. It's a shame Purrloin's felonious nature is dropped when it evolves into Liepard, who gets more of a generic wildcat flavor. As it could draw inspiration from leopards and possibly other spotted wildcats like the leopard cat, ocelot, serval and even the black panther due to it being a dark type and having a dark coloration, it is unsurprising that Liepard's beautiful and slender physical characteristics are at the center of its Pokédex entries. Many Trainers are drawn to its fur and its beautiful form, the latter of which comes from the muscles it has developed and allows it to to run silently in the night, stealthily sneaking up on its target and striking from behind before its victim has a chance to react. It's even been known to vanish and reappear without a warning.

No need to act all haughty, Liepard. What's the problem,
didn't your Trainer provide you the right brand of cat food?

But however cunning Liepard may be, you know you're having a hard time in the competitive scene as an unscrupulous and merciless dark-type cat when you're easily outclassed by a timid and loyal normal-type dog. While Stoutland isn't fast, it is at least able to take a hit and retaliate appropriately, but the only redeeming quality Liepard has is its speed. Its base 88 attacking stats aren't the worst in the metagame, but you should at least have a bit of bulk to back up relatively mediocre offensive stats like that, which Liepard doesn't. That's a problem. I know it has access to its hidden ability Prankster, which lets it act first when it's using a status move, but you'll probably only be able to get off one attack due to Liepard's atrocious defenses. If anything, I would go for a set including a Jolly nature and a Focus Sash, with moves like Fake Out, Knock Off, Thunder Wave and something like Taunt, Encore or Copycat. Fake Out is a weak normal-type move, but it always goes first and some chip damage could turn the game into your favor in the end; Knock Off is pretty much Liepard's best STAB move, as it also knocks off the foe's held item (duh!); Thunder Wave paralyzes the foe and is affected by Prankster; and Encore locks the foe into an undesirable move if played right. Taunt and Copycat are options as well, but Taunt limits the foe to using only offensive moves, which is exactly what you don't want for Liepard unless you specifically meant for it to be death fodder, and Copycat is a status move that lets Liepard copy the move an opponent used last in order to revenge kill them if they're faster. It's gimmicky, but if you can manage to make it work, more power to you.

TCG art of Liepard. It is beautiful and it damn well knows that, too. 

Smogon also mentions weather utility sets (with Rain Dance or Sunny Day while holding a Damp Rock or Heat Rock, respectively) and even a Choice Band set, but... meh? I guess a weather set has its uses, but a Choice Band set isn't particularly recommended due to Liepard's mediocre physical attack and cardboard defenses. You don't even have to worry about its regular abilities, because you won't even need them. Unburden doubles Liepard's speed when its held item is used up (not knocked off), but Liepard doesn't really get anything that it can use effectively this way, aside from maybe a Focus Sash. Limber prevents Liepard from getting paralyzed, but opponents will want to attack it and get rid of it as quickly as possible anyway, so this ability is pretty much useless. Liepard does excel in playthroughs, though. While it has access to both Nasty Plot and Dark Pluse, its physical movepool is actually so much better, and when I did an all-feline playthrough of Omega Ruby I used a Liepard rocking Night Slash (I would totally replace that for Throat Chop now, but that move wasn't around back then), Play Rough, Gunk Shot and Seed Bomb. It is able to learn a few more coverage moves as well, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how diverse its physical movepool actually is and how good it can be in-game. I honestly had so much fun using one in Omega Ruby.

Badass TCG art of Liepard.

It genuinely sucks that Liepard sucks competitively, because I absolutely love this Pokémon. While I like Delcatty and Purugly to some extent, they are kind of bland, and Meowstic hasn't really found a place in my heart, either. Liepard is absolutely one of the better feline Pokémon in the game design-wise: its slender body, its graceful stance, its purple color scheme, its blood-red shiny form and its subtle body features such as the pink 'mask' and the sickle-like tail... my goodness, Game Freak have really stepped up their game with the fifth generation. I could go on like this, but I think I'd bore you to death if I did so, so I'll just conclude this review by awarding Liepard a perfect rating.

Rating: 5/5