#524 - #526: Roggenrola, Boldore & Gigalith

Okay, so let me tell you this right now: Geodude, Graveler and Golem version 2.0 are wildly interesting, unlike the originals...

Two examples of Roggenrola art in the Trading
Card Game.

Granted, it's not hard to be more interesting than Geodude and Graveler, and Golem doesn't have much to write home about, either. It's like Game Freak took the rock part of Geodude and just improved on it with Roggenrola, whose ear seems to be the hexagonal gap positioned smack-dab in the middle of its body rather than the rocky protrusion coming from its head. Cilan, Ash's traveling companion in Unova, actually explained in the anime that Roggenrola has sensitive hearing and can hear sounds that are inaudible to humans, panicking and toppling over if the sounds it tends to follow with its ear cease. Roggenrola is born deep in the Earth (its classification as the 'Mantle Pokémon' suggests that it was the Earth's mantle it was born in) and only made its way into shallower caves by way of fissures caused by earthquakes. Its body contains an energy core that is as hard as steel from being compressed underground, further solidifying the evidence that this Pokémon is based on a geode, which is a geological secondary structure that occurs in sedimentary and volcanic rocks and is usually hollow and vaguely spheroid in shape in order to oblate masses of mineral matter. The Sun and Moon Pokédex even state that it compares the hardness of its body with that of similar species like Geodude and Carbink. Roggenrola did steal Geodude's shtick of being able to roll, and people in Unova even use it as balls in a televised version of bowling, which is likely why its name is a play on the term 'rock and roll' - or, more specifically, 'rock-'n'-roller'.

Another reason why Roggenrola and its evolutions are rip-offs of the Geodude family is that Roggenrola and Geodude both evolve at level 25 and evolve once more into their final stages when traded.

Boldore... trying to be tough, I guess? Trust me, little guy,
you'll become much more badass when you evolve.

Actually, Boldore also follows Graveler in that it receives at least one extra limb upon evolving from Roggenrola. It looks strangely arachnid, and although I am absolutely terrified of spiders (they're my biggest fear), I don't particularly mind Pokémon that are based on them - in fact, Galvantula and Araquanid are pretty solid Pokémon in my opinion. Boldore, on the other hand, not so much. Sure, it's made of rock and therefore it's literally solid, but its characteristics seem to be greatly inconsistent with its actual in-game stats. You see, Boldore seems to have an internal core in which massive energy flows continuously, but it can hardly contain said energy and so it leaks to the surface, forming the precious orange crystals found all over its body. This indicates that Boldore is able to fire off powerful energy-based attacks, but there is just one problem with that: its special attack is absolutely horrendous. To add some more flavor, Game Freak gave Boldore the special-based rock-type move Power Gem by level-up, which I merely view as their way to rub salt into its wound. To make matters even worse for Boldore, the orange crystals on its body are so full of energy that they provide enough fuel for hundreds of dump trucks; they're incredibly valuable, so Boldore is sometimes targeted for them.

Honestly, Gigalith has one of the best shinies in the
entire franchise.

And as for Gigalith... Well, Gigalith continues Boldore's trait of converting the compressed energy within its core into devastating blows that can even destroy mountains and cause countless fissures to appear all over its body. This energy is absorbed from rays of sunlight, and it is only appropriate for Gigalith to be able to learn Solar Beam, but yet again its special attack is absolutely atrocious. Consistency has never been one of Game Freak's strengths, but this is ridiculous. At least Gigalith can claim that it's much better than Golem. First off, Gigalith is a pure rock type instead of a rock/ground type, which means it doesn't have quadruple weaknesses to grass and water and doesn't have a weakness to ice at all. It isn't immune to electric, like Golem, but its ability Sand Stream whips up a sandstorm in battles and boosts its special defense by 50%, allowing it to take even super-effective hits better while the sandstorm is in effect. The fact that Gigalith doesn't get STAB from Earthquake is compensated by its massive base 135 attack stat, which makes its other physical attacks (Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Throat Chop, Iron Head, Superpower and even Explosion) hit harder as well. Gigalith is slower than Golem, which makes the latter more adept at using a Rock Polish set, but both are pretty slow and Gigalith can take hits much better than Golem anyway, only for it to retaliate much harder. The only advantage Golem may have over Gigalith is its more diverse movepool, having access to nifty moves like Thunder Punch, Fire Punch and Hammer Arm. Golem does have an Alola Forme as well, but it's rock/electric and so it's four times weak to ground (and, therefore, Earthquake), which cripples it tremendously.

Yikes. You go and tell me Gigalith isn't terrifying...

As I mentioned before, Gigalith has excellent overall bulk and that makes it incredibly fun to use competitively. You can run Sand Stream in combination with a Sassy or Careful nature to boost its special defense (its base 130 defense is already good as is) and then simply slap a Choice Band on it to boost its physical attack by 50%. Just remember you'll be able to use only one move until Gigalith is switched out, so perhaps you'll want to change the nature into Brave or Adamant to compensate for that; it'll make it hit unnecessarily hard. There's also the option of letting Gigalith hold the Leftovers instead, just for a little bit more durability in battle, which also allows it to make use of Stealth Rock and Toxic more effectively as it isn't hindered by the effect of using only one move. Last but not least, there's Gialith's remaining abilities. Sturdy prevents Gigalith from being knocked out in one hit when at full HP, but that will most likely not happen anyway, and so it's an ability that is more useful on a Pokémon like Golem due to its quadruple weaknesses and less-than-stellar special defense. Sand Force increases the power of rock-, ground- and steel-type moves, but doesn't whip up a sandstorm itself, which means Gigalith will have to rely on a teammate to set up a sandstorm first before it can actually be effective. It's more of a hassle than it's actually worth, really, especially since items like a Choice Band or a Life Orb do a much better job at boosting attacks.

Gigalith looking like one of those monsters you encounter in your dreams.

Personally, I love Gigalith so much because of its design. It just looks plain monstrous and badass, and I have to say it's such a shame I have never used one before because I could never trade off a Boldore. I'm glad Game Freak decided to reboot the series and rehash some of their earlier designs, because most of them are improved versions of the originals. Gigalith is no different, being more interesting flavor-wise and more complex design-wise, actually resembling a fantasy monster dwelling deep in some dark and scary cave. Pokémon like Gigalith are exactly what makes Unova so great, and we're not done with this generation yet... not by a long shot.

P.S.: I'm on a roll, posting reviews four days in a row. So far, so good. Unfortunately for you, you'll have to wait at least a couple of days for the next one to appear. Bummer.

Rating: 5/5

#522 - #523: Blitzle & Zebstrika

Adorable little Blitzle.

Those of you who have been reading my blog long enough know that I love any animal belonging to the felidae family: tigers, lions, leopards, cougars, servals, lynxes, domestic cats... you name it, I love them all. Oftentimes, feline Pokémon don't quite capture the feel of real-world cats. Persian, Luxray and Liepard are perfect examples of feline Pokémon done well, while Delcatty and Purugly completely miss the mark and Meowstic hasn't yet won a spot in my heart, either. It's a hit-or-miss kind of situation and I have to say it frustrates me to no end.

In any case, the ermine - a common name for the stoat when it's in its pure white winter coat - is my second favorite animal, while the zebra closes out the top three. And that's where the relevancy of this introduction kicks in: Blitzle and its evolution Zebstrika are the first and currently only zebra Pokémon in the franchise (there are three species of zebra in the world, but they all look pretty much the same, so I don't expect new Pokémon based on this animal to pop up anytime soon), and Game Freak have done a phenomenal job creating them, at least design-wise.

Blitzle as seen in TCG.

Of course, we start off with the cute but feisty Blitzle, actually available to players pretty early on in Black and White. While the stripes on Blitzle's body are few and far between compared to a real-life zebra, it is undeniably based on one, with a spiky white mane running up its neck that culminates on its forehead in a long extension shaped like a lightning bolt. Blitzle's mane serves as a lightning rod, because this Pokémon can actually catch lightning with it and store the electricity afterwards, only to discharge said electricity via its glowing mane again. The frequency and rhythm of these bright flashes are in turn used to communicate with each other. But while Blitzle probably has no trouble containing itself, Zebstrika is an ill-tempered Pokémon that can be dangerous when angry, shooting lightning from its mane in all directions. It is as fast as lightning and releases deafening, reverberating thunderclaps when at full gallop. Zebstrika's irritable nature falls in line with how difficult - nigh impossible, even - zebra are to tame and how awfully dangerous they are to ride due to their extreme unpredictability and aggression; they have the tendency to bite, kick, flail and buck much more than other equids do.

Zebstrika is ready to charge at something.

Unfortunately, these characteristics aren't conveyed in Zebstrika's stats and movepool. Its flavor indicates that it's a physical attacker, and that's absolutely true, but the problem is that it lacks the physical attacks to be competitively viable. Base 100 attack and 116 speed stats are nothing to sneeze at, and they could have been good in combination with a Choice Band or Choice Scarf... if only Zebstrika had something to choose from. Sure, Wild Charge is a decent 90-power move, but it deals recoil damage and isn't as strong as similar moves like Flare Blitz, Brave Bird, Head Smash and Wood Hammer, while the only competitively viable move seems to be Pursuit in case you predict a hard switch on the opponent's part. It is therefore better to use it for in-game purposes, as its special attack isn't terrible in that regard and the fire-type Overheat actually hits quite hard; the special attack penalty from that move doesn't even matter if you just click on Return or Wild Charge during the next turn. Life Orb sets on Smogon even revolve around Zebstrika's specially offensive presence, with moves like Volt Switch, Thunderbolt, Overheat and Hidden Power backed up by a Timid nature, but neither a Life Orb nor the ability Lightning Rod (which raises the special attack stat of the user by one stage upon switching into an electric-type attack while granting it immunity to them; Motor Drive does the same but with the speed stat) will be able to save Zebstrika's subpar special attack. Its hidden ability Sap Sipper makes it immune to grass-type attacks and even boosts its attack by one stage when switched into one, but a physical competitive set is not a good idea and the special attack raise from Lightning Rod will come in handy much more.

A good portion of Zebstrika fan art shows how badass this Pokémon actually is.

In the end, Zebstrika's physical movepool is just too shallow for it to be a good Pokémon to use, but that is hardly the reason why I love it so much. I love it because it's a fucking zebra, goddammit! At the time it was released, a zebra Pokémon had been long overdue, and I immediately fell in love with the damn thing. It just looks so badass! And while real zebra seem to be evenly black and white, Blitzle and Zebstrika are mainly black with white lightning-shaped stripes on their bodies, which is a genius tie-in with their electric typing. I was even lucky enough to obtain a shiny Zebstrika during one of the rare occasions I was actually shiny-hunting for a specific Pokémon. You probably suspect me to give Zebstrika a 5-star rating by now, and you would be absolutely correct, because there is nothing about this Pokémon design- and flavor-wise that I don't love. Heck, even its name is cool!

Rating: 5/5

#519 - #521: Pidove, Tranquill & Unfezant

Ah, yes, the obligatory early-game bird. How could I have forgotten that?

Right, because I waited two months until posting shit again...

Official art of Pidove, because there is literally no way to make
an ordinary street pigeon any less boring.

First off, Pidove is obviously based on those annoying feral pigeons you see in basically every big city throughout the world, not on a dove. Its heart-shaped chest could prove I'm wrong, but Pidove is gray and doves as we are all familiar with are usually white in color. Also, Pidove's flavor points to it being an ordinary city pigeon anyway, as it is accustomed to people and loud flocks of them are often found in city parks and plazas. I'm going to assume that Pidove is considered a pest, like real-world city pigeons, which are even labeled an invasive species in North America by the USDA. Pidove isn't particularly intelligent and often fails to understand its Trainer's commands - in fact, the new game Detective Pikachu portrays Pidove as so forgetful that it doesn't even remember its own name. Its evolution Tranquill, on the other hand, is always able to return to its Trainer regardless of the distance separating them. It is therefore based on homing pidgeons, a variety of domestic pigeon selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distances. Many people believe that Tranquill lives in deep forests, where there is a peaceful place without conflict, which means that it may indeed draw inspiration from doves - because, as we all know, these birds are commonly used as a symbol of peace. Additionally, some of the works of Japanese poet and author of children's literature Kenji Miyazawa mention a fictional utopia called Īhatōbu (based on the Iwate Prefecture in Japan and often anglicized to 'Ihatov'), which is reflected in Tranquill's Japanese name Hatoboh
(ハトーボー) and its alleged war-free habitat.

Ash's Tranquill in the anime.

But even though Tranquill's design and color scheme are similar to that of a secretary bird, it can be seen as having pigeon-like features. Its final form Unfezant doesn't even look much like a pigeon anymore, but more like its namesake the pheasant. In fact, Unfezant seems to be one of these extreme cases of sexual dimorphism in Pokémon (the first being Hippopotas and Hippowdon), which also commonly occurs in birds, including pheasants: male pheasants are very colorful and quite beautiful, while female pheasants are paler and seem to be built to better camouflage themselves. More specifically, Unfezant may have drawn its inspiration from the green pheasants native to the Japanese archipelago, known for their dark green plumage and relatively large red wattles, not unlike male Unfezant - whose reddish pink wattle looks more like a mask. The females of this species are more brownish in color, just like female Unfezant, and lack the big wattles and vibrant colors the males are known for.

Flavor-wise, Unfezant doesn't seem to have anything interesting to say about. Males swing the ribbon-like appendages on its wattle to threaten its opponents, while females seem to be more adept at flying, which... Seriously, that's it? There's not even an explanation as to why this Pokémon's name contains a play on 'unpleasant'? There's literally nothing that indicates these birds are unpleasant aside from its classification as the 'Proud Pokémon', indicating they might act irritatingly haughty, but I'm pretty sure Piplup, Prinplup and Empoleon out-snob Unfezant in a competition.

Female Unfezant (up) and male Unfezant (down) probably
performing some kind of mating ritual. 

At the same time, Unfezant is easily outclassed in the competitive metagame by basically 95% of all final evolutions in the Pokémon franchise. It may have base 115 attack and 93 speed, but its mediocre defenses and shallow movepool keep it from being useful in competitive at all. Even worse, Unfezant gets Super Luck, an ability that increases its chance of getting a critical hit when all-out attacking, which stacks up nicely with two moves it learns that have a higher critical hit ratio: Air Cutter and Night Slash. Sounds nice and all, but unfortunately Air Cutter is a special move and Unfezant's base 65 special attack doesn't allow it to make good use of Air Cutter, while Night Slash is a dark-type move and doesn't even provide STAB. It's a shame Unfezant doesn't get regular Slash, which would have complemented its normal typing and physical offensive presence, but it doesn't seem like Unfezant gets anything noteworthy. It's decent for in-game purposes, as Return and Fly hit quite hard and Steel Wing provides excellent coverage against rock and ice types, but I would just recommend Swellow or Staraptor if you're looking for an offensive competitive bird. I mean, do you really want to resort to a Flyinium-Z-boosted Aerial Ace, or the inaccurate Hypnosis? A one-turn Sky Attack boosted by a Power Herb, perhaps? Trust me, Archeops - also native to Unova - can make much better use of that due to its higher attack and speed. Also, there are much better U-Turn users than Unfezant here. The only viable option at this point is to slap a Scope Lens on it to increase its critical hit ratio even further and hope for a miracle to happen.

Ugh, Unfezant, why must you be so bad?

A male Unfezant in the anime. It isn't Ash's, because Ash's Unfezant is female.

I think it's a shame that Unfezant is such a terrible Pokémon, because I absolutely love male Unfezant's design. And yes, I know I said it's decent for in-game use, but it's movepool is just so... lacking. I've always been hesitant about using it in a playthrough, and I probably would have used it already if it had been a little bit more diverse. As a result of its terribleness, Unfezant has become such an unpopular bird that there is hardly any fan art to be found of it on the Internet and I was pretty much forced to use official images and anime stills for this review more often than not. Despite that, I am willing to give Unfezant the benefit of the doubt because of its design and give it 4.5 stars rather than 4.

Rating: 4.5/5

#517 - #518: Munna & Musharna

Alright, so I was thinking I should shorten my reviews down significantly, giving you a brief summary of a Pokémon's origins and flavor and only mentioning its most common Smogon competitive set instead, but I know that would leave me greatly unsatisfied in the end. I will continue writing my reviews as I have done in the past three years, so perhaps you should get used to a less frequent posting schedule. At least I'll try not to take a two-month hiatus anymore, okay?

Munna, who has one of the simplest designs ever in Pokémon.

Having said that, the Kanto rip-offs really start with today's Pokémon. Purrloin and Liepard may be distantly based on Meowth and Persian - and only when it comes to their malignant personalities - but Munna and Musharna share much of their origins with Drowzee and Hypno. They seem to be based on traditional Japanese incense burners called koro, which are used in traditional tea ceremonies and have been developed to be used with insect repellent incense nowadays. These incense are often shaped like a pig and are richly decorated with all kinds of patterns painted on them, including the floral patterns that can be found on Munna - whose existence was even hinted upon in the very first Pokémon games, with an NPC stating that the Pokémon in the Rock Tunnel area are too chunky and that, quote unquote, 'there should be a pink one with a floral pattern!' The whole censer thing falls in line with Munna's ability to eat the dreams of people and Pokémon and project these dreams by expelling Dream Mist. This mist - which in Musharna's case is continually emanating from the mark on its forehead and can be used to create shapes of things from dreams it has eaten - will be pink-colored if the dream was pleasant, but Munna can seek out and cure people and Pokémon who are having nightmares, as someone whose dream was eaten by Munna will forget its contents. Musharna seems to distinguish dreams more adeptly, as the Dream Mist coming from its forehead changes into many different colors depending on the dream that was eaten.

That is probably why Fennel wanted the Dream Mist emanated by Musharna to finish her research on the Game Sync function of the C-Gear, a device that absolutely nobody in the entire world has ever used except to access the online single-player game called the Dream World, where wild Pokémon with their hidden abilities could be caught. You had to create an account at Pokémon.com (for international players) or the Pokémon Daisuki Club (for Japanese players) in order to get access to it, and at a certain point in time, players were given only one hour every 20 hours to explore the Dream World due to the large number of people accessing the site at the same time.

I never knew a Musharna plushie could be so cute, despite the
notion that its curled-up appearance is similar to that of a fetus
and the Dream Mist coming from its forehead looks like an
umbilical cord.

In any case, as Munna and Musharna seem to share some inspiration from the myth of the baku (fun fact: according to Google, Baku is - first and foremost - the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan), a tapir-like creature known for eating dreams, this is where Drowzee and Hypno come in. Pokémon Sun goes as far as to give Drowzee a Pokédex entry that states it is thought to share common ancestry with Munna and Musharna, indicating that the latter are, in fact, blatant rip-offs. As it was Game Freak's intention to sort of reboot the franchise with Black and White, it makes sense for them to hark back to some of their early designs, but Munna and Musharna are just different enough from Drowzee and Hypno to justify their existence. Even if you disagree with that, at least Drowzee's Sun entry is a nice attempt from Game Freak to rectify that. As for Munna and Misharna's names, they're derived almost entirely from Japanese, being a combination of mu ('dream') and mushamusha (onomatopoeia for eating, as they eat dreams) with a little bit of the Latin word for 'moon', luna, thrown into the mix. Additionally, there is a term/concept in the Japanese martial art aikido called munen or mushin, referred to as the state of no-mindness or no-thought, where the conscious mind becomes instinctual - which is a large part of what dreams are like - and isn't preoccupied by other thoughts. It seems a little farfetched, as Munna and Musharna are pretty motionless as is, but this martial arts term sounds an awful lot like their names.

Also, additional points to Game Freak for including the word 'yum!' (mjam!) in Munna's German name Somniam.

Musharna in the middle, with its kin sleeping on the Dream Mist
it is emanating. In the top left corner you can even see a
Drowzee trying to blend in with the rest of its alleged common
ancestors.

Last but not least, there is the question whether Musharna can hold its own in a competitive battle. Well, despite it being bulky as fuck, it was dropped to the lowest Smogon tier possible (PU) simply for the fact that it's not a very popular Pokémon to use. However, Base 116 HP and base 85 and 95 defense and special defense, respectively, are absolutely nothing to sneeze at and could make Musharna an excellent bulky pivot with Baton Pass, Moonlight, a STAB psychic-type move and either Thunder Wave or Toxic. Protect is an excellent move in order to scout what the opponent is going to do, while Heal Bell heals all status conditions inflicted on your Pokémon in battle, Magic Coat bounces any status move back to the opponent, Sleep Talk can be used most effectively in combination with Rest, and Reflect and Light Screen provide for some additional bulk to your entire team. Calm Mind - which raises the special attack and special defense stats by one stage each upon use - can be an option to make use of Musharna's excellent base 107 special attack, especially since it's able to learn a wide variety of special attacks. These include Psychic and Psyshock, but also type coverage moves like Dazzling Gleam, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball, Signal Beam, any type of Hidden Power and even Shock Wave and Charge Beam. Moonlight is basically required on any Musharna set, since it provides reliable HP recovery, so just pick a STAB move and one type coverage move that you feel is necessary in your upcoming battle. Just be aware that some moves can only be learned by Munna because of it being a stone evolution (in this case, Munna evolves into Musharna by exposing it to a Moon Stone).

Because Calm Mind raises Musharna's special defense and its base defense is lower anyway, I'd go for a Bold nature for it to take physical hits better, of course supported by the Leftovers as its held item. If you're really scared of a possible incoming dark-type attack, a Colbur Berry isn't a bad option at all. Some sets suggest a Life Orb or Choice Specs for offensive utility, but since Musharna is slower than molasses in January and has to take a hit first, that's asking for trouble. As for abilities, the only useful one in singles is Synchronize, which inflicts the same status condition to the opponent as Musharna was inflicted with by the opponent in the very same turn.

Some more amazing Musharna fan art,

As you're all probably aware of by now, I am not the biggest fan of Pokémon that look fat. To me, Musharna falls into that category; and even though its origins and flavor are interesting enough, they're so blatantly ripped off of Drowzee and Hypno's not-so-signature characteristcs that I wish Game Freak had put a little bit more effort into these 'new' Pokémon. I don't hate Munna and Musharna by any means, and their designs are totally unlike Drowzee and Hypno's, which I can appreciate, but they're by far my least favorite Pokémon introduced in the fifth generation. Still, if my least favorite Unova Pokémon gets three stars, you know what's in store for the rest of the Unova roster.

Rating: 3/5