#550: Basculin

Official art of both Basculin forms, of course drawn by Ken
Sugimori.

I truly feel sorry for Basculin. It seems like this little fishie receives so much hate from everybody in the Pokémon community, and I honestly can't really blame those people. Basculin isn't overly strong, looks quite unremarkable, doesn't evolve into anything and was created as a last-minute addition to the Unova Pokédex when the developers realized there were very few new 'standard' fish Pokémon in Unova, as older Pokémon couldn't be caught until post-game. To make up for the small amount of fish in the region, Basculin was given two forms, but the problem most people have with this is that, in the end, the two forms don't differ all that much from each other to warrant the existence of both of them. The only differences between the Red-Striped and Blue-Striped Basculin are the color of their stripes and eyes and the shape of their fins; while it's fairly obvious which color both of the Basculin forms have, the Red-Striped Forme has round, red eyes and spiky fins and the Blue-Striped Form has blue, slit eyes and smooth fins. On the other hand, these two forms don't take up two separate spots in the Pokédex and do share the same Pokédex entries. Both Basculin are very and hostile and violent in general (when a school of Basculin appears in a lake, everything else except for Corphish and Crawdaunt disappears), but they appear to hate each other so much that they start fighting each other on sight, be it for territory or just for funsies. That's why their White, Y and Alpha Sapphire entries are so confusing; they state that sometimes members of one school of Basculin will mingle with the other's school, but if both forms get along so poorly, surely the members of the one school trying to blend in with the other will be recognized instantly and violently chased away. Right?

The Red-Striped Basculin in this piece of TCG art don't look all
that happy to see this lone Blue-Striped Basculin in their midst.

Fortunately, this angry striped bass is always nothing more than food to organisms stronger than itself, which is why the people in the Pokémon world know for a fact that this Pokémon is so incredibly delicious - one of the rare instances that hint at Pokémon being used for food. But while Basculin itself might be remarkably tasty, its stats are far from that. Its base 98 speed makes it pretty fast and its base 92 attack stat isn't all that terrible, but the base points that went into its special attack could've been put to better use if they had been distributed among its defenses. Basculin is kind of a pushover because it's so frail, even though it has access to a few amazing abilities. The hidden ability Mold Breaker may not be all that necessary on a Pokémon like Basculin, but both forms get Adaptability as their secondary ability, which gives an extra boost to all of their STAB moves and really helps making Waterfall and Aqua Jet hit much harder than they normally do on a water-type Pokémon. You could also opt for Rock Head, an ability that prevents recoil damage and only Blue-Striped Basculin has access to. Normal goes really well with water offensively, so a no-penalty Double-Edge really compliments a move like Waterfall or Liquidation, although Basculin also learns Crunch, Zen Headbutt, Superpower and Head Smash. Crunch is basically a must-have on Basculin, while Zen Headbutt, Superpower and Head Smash are merely optional; the latter is stronger than Double-Edge and gives Basculin some rock-type coverage, but it is also less accurate and deals more recoil damage than Double-Edge does. If you want to exchange durability for sheer power, I'd recommend a Red-Striped Basculin with the Reckless ability, anyway.

You might want to watch out with that, Iris; that thing can be pretty vicious.

Is it sensible to use Basculin in a competitive setting, though? You could go for a Life Orb or Waterium Z set with Adaptability and a Jolly nature, taking advantage of Basculin's strong STAB moves with a revenge-killer tactic involving Aqua Jet, but Basculin is merely a decent Pokémon to use in-game. Because, let's be honest here, Basculin isn't a terribly original Pokémon to begin with. The whole feud thing has been done before with Seviper and Zangoose, and that was executed much better through flavor and game mechanics than they did with Basculin. I actually like this thing a lot, because I used one in an Ultra Moon Wonderlocke and it served me well up until the raid on Aether Paradise, but even I have to admit that Game Freak's attempt to create another blood feud in the Pokémon world is just a bit lame: the two forms of Basculin just look too much alike to take it seriously. However, I do have to say that I've got a slight preference towards the Blue-Striped Forme, design-wise as well as mechanically.

P.S.: Is it me, or is it just weird that Basculin's English name and most of its foreign names contain something along the lines of 'masculine', 'macho' or 'manly'? I know it has a bold and volatile nature, but come the fuck on; by far not all men are aggressive or violent, and besides that, Basculin has a 50/50 gender ratio.

Rating: 4/5