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Taillow/Swellow
Type: Normal/Flying
Ability(s): Guts
In a nod to Pidgey, Spearow, and Hoothoot of the older generations, Taillow is Hoenn's token normal/flying type. What sets this swallow apart from that stupid pigeon and owl, but makes him similar to the sparrow is that Taillow is actually good. Actually, Taillow takes everything that made Spearow good in FRLG and takes it up a few notches.
Everything that applies to most other flying types in terms of movepools and ability to combat the various gym leaders in Hoenn applies to Taillow as well. Well, besides Wingull's ability to kill rock types, but that's beside the point. Taillow only takes until Lv22 to evolve, which is quite good for something that is quite competent, and unlike Hoothoot before him, Taillow actually has bite (or peck. Whatever.)
Taillow is the more physically biased of the two starting birds, sporting Peck at base and gaining Wing Attack at the low, low level of 13, basically turning him into an earlygame nuke. This allows him to not only act as a living can of Raid, but also allows him to pulverize the fighting types in the Dewford Gym. And to top it all off, the little bird evolves at Lv22, which is around when you reach Mauville. Another great attribute of his is that 125 base speed, which basically allows him to get the first hit against virtually anything. As far as damage goes, 85 base attack is only decent, but it is augmented by Guts, which gives him an attack raise when paralyzed, burnt, or poisoned (though you still don't want to get paralyzed since that lowers speed). While it does raise attack when sleeping or frozen, it won't do you any good, hence why I mentioned paralysis, poison, and burn only.
The strongest move that he gets through level up is 60 base power (Wing Attack and Aerial Ace), so he does appreciate TM support. Thanks to Guts boosting his attack to very good levels if inflicted with a status effect, Facade is a very strong attack on Swellow, essentially giving him a lategame nuke if he gets poisoned or something, and like most flying types, Swellow can use Fly to make use of a more powerful flying type attack (doesn't get Drill Peck). For coverage, the best he really has is Steel Wing, which does allow him to beat rocks (you still aren't doing "that" much to them), but still doesn't help him beat steels. But overall, I don't see any significant movepool issues.
In a nutshell: Comes earlygame, little issues outside of relatively poor coverage, great offense with Facade.
8.5/10
Marill/Azumarill
Type: Water
Ability(s): Thick Fat/Huge Power
The second new Pokemon you can find on Route 104, Marill is a somewhat common sight, and a water type that you can catch in preparation for Roxanne. Whether he is good or not, I know not, but let's get started on his review. The first thing of note is his unique ability Huge Power. What this ability does is that it doubles the user's raw attack stat (not its base stat). Now, considering that Marill's offenses are pretty much rock bottom and don't get much better as Azumarill, this ability is really, really helpful to him. If you catch one with Thick Fat, I recommend releasing it since Marill pretty much needs Huge Power to function.
Now that we have that out of the way, Marill has overall poor stats. Now, I know that bases don't really take effect until after he evolves, but 20 in either attacking stat is quite painful to look at, which upgrades to a still saddening 50, though Huge Power mitigates his physical attack by a significant amount. Despite this, he should be able to kill Geodudes with Water Gun, and later on, Bubble Beam. 50 speed as Azumarill is also pretty terrible, but his bulk isn't all that bad to be perfectly honest, with 100 HP and 80 in both defenses.
While his physical movepool is rather good, most of the moves which he wants show up during midgame or lategame, so he has movepool issues early on, being stuck with Tackle and Rollout for the first three gyms. I'm mostly looking at Dig, Brick Break, and Double-Edge (he gets the last one through level, but he doesn't learn it until Lv34), but you can try Subpunching if you're really gutsy. By the way, while he can learn Ice Beam, gl killing dragons in one hit with it. Still, it's not a bad option, but there's much better users out there. And even though his special attack is pretty bad, he can still nuke Gravelers and other water weak things with STAB Surf.
Huge Power is awesome, but he does have his issues.
6.5/10
Shroomish/Breloom
Type: Grass, Grass/Fighting (Breloom)
Ability(s): Effect Spore
The first new Pokemon you can encounter in the
Shroomish starts out fairly unimpressive outside of killing Geodudes and the like, boasting mediocre speed and generally weak attacks until Lv16, when he learns Mega Drain. It does not help that most of the trainers on the way here use bug types and other types that resist grass, so you will want to use bait-and-switch tactics. However, he is a boon in Roxanne's gym, where he can get easy exp from all those big, scary Geodudes that he kills in 1-2 hits and takes lol damage from thanks to his 60/60/60 defenses. Nosepass will give him some issues though, due to its high SpD and Absorb's low-ass might.
This trend pretty much continues until he evolves even once he gets Mega Drain, due in part to his 40's in both attacking stats and Grass sucking monkey dick offensively. And what if he is evolved? Breloom is a major improvement over Shroomish thanks to his fighting typing, and overall better stats. Gaining Mach Punch upon evolution also helps; sure it only has 40 base power, but considering that it bypasses his 70 speed base (and not too many things outrun him at this point in the game), and Breloom has 130 base attack to work with, it ends up being your bread and butter even after stronger fighting attacks show up.
The combination of grass and fighting allows Breloom to take on not just the water kings, but Norman and Sidney as well. And he's even better equipped to take on Glacia, even if he dies in one hit to everything there (hint: don't use him against Walrein). He still doesn't want anything to do with Flannery or Winona, and he doesn't like the twins or Drake very much.
Besides hitting hard and being good against multiple gyms, Breloom gets access to status moves, but he only gets access to most of them if he stays unevolved, only getting Stun Spore if he immediately evolves, but he can learn Spore if he stays unevolved until... Lv54. So if you wanted to try Sporepunching, forget it. That totally does not justify keeping Shroomish unevolved 31 levels, at least not ingame anyway.
Breloom kind of got shafted as far as coverage goes. While he does learn a good arsenal of fighting moves (Sky Uppercut is gotten at Lv36 and he can utilize Brick Break), his coverage is limited to Sludge Bomb, Iron Tail, and assorted Normal type moves, none of which really help him against his greatest enemies: bulky fliers and ghosts. As far as grass STAB goes, he can pick up Giga Drain or perhaps Sunny Day + Solar Beam, but with only 60 SpA, they aren't going to do as much as you would like, unless you target a Graveler or something.
To summarize, Shroomish is a rock killer and status inducer early on, but becomes a killing machine later once that fighting type and 130 attack kick in.
9/10
Slakoth/Vigoroth/Slaking
Type: Normal
Ability(s): Truant (Slakoth/Slaking), Vital Spirit (Vigoroth)
Slakoth would be
Appearing in the Petalburg Woods, Slakoth is a major rarity there, with only a 5% encounter rate, so finding him can take a while. Once you do, you've got yourself a relatively strong earlygame attacker with 60 base attack and STAB Scratch. He is also quite bulky as well, with 60/60/35 defenses and Slack Off access at Lv13, so he isn't short of durable. He does, however, have rather poor speed, so he may get outsped early on.
This would've been amazing were it not for one thing: Truant. What this god awful ability does is force Slakoth to skip every second turn, which as we all know, is an absolute detriment to efficiency. Because, let's face it, every skipped turn is a turn that the enemy can use to either get free damage on you or set up for free. This obviously makes it a pain in the ass to get Slakoth to Lv18, when he starts showing some improvement.
The first thing to know about Vigoroth is that unlike his other two forms, he doesn't have the god-awful Truant to slow him down. Speaking of slow, his base speed triples and his attack and defense go up to a respectable 80, which makes him quite strong for this point in the game. Not exactly good for taking on gym leaders, but he can mop up mooks for relatively easy exp, and any might issues he had with Scratch can be fixed with the Strength HM or Secret Power TM.
Of course, all good things don't last (or do they?), and Vigoroth evolves into the lazy-as-fuck Slaking. Disregarding Truant, a giant walks among you. When Vigoroth evolves into Slaking, he will gain an exponential boost in HP and attack (150/160), as well as a sizable defense boost (100), essentially turning him into a tempered steel wrecking ball, and 100 speed doesn't hurt either. Slaking also has one of the most vast movepools, giving him many versatile options. Of course, Truant prevents him from being truly amazing, but having the same base stat total as Groudon and Kyogre totally justifies it, since he would be broken otherwise.
Being a normal type, Slaking never has a shortage of good STAB moves; Secret Power TM on Route 111, Strength HM in Rusturf Tunnel, Return in Fallarbor (you will need to hand the scientist the meteorite for this one), Double-Edge from the Sootopolis tutor, and even Hyper Beam from the Lilycove Mall (Slaking makes better use of Hyper Beam than most considering that his ability forces him to skip his next turn anyway, so the recharge turn is inconsequential outside of the inability to switch). He can also learn Brick Break, Shadow Ball, and Earthquake for coverage, and can even use special attacks like Flamethrower and Thunderbolt thanks to his decent 95 SpA.
Basically, Slaking is a killing machine that only wishes that he wasn't stuck with a horrendously shitty ability like Truant, which is a big let down for an otherwise godly Pokemon.
6.5/10
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