Bottom of the Bibarel: Making Bad Pokémon Better

By erisia. Art by Ssensenh.
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Bibarel in a Barrel

Introduction

Over time, many initially underwhelming Pokémon got extra love after their first generation, be it with the addition of new abilities, expansions to their movepools, or more recently, type changes and Mega Evolutions. However, it seems that there are a certain few Pokémon that Game Freak has left to the wayside, never to receive any more competitive merit. Sunflora, Seviper, Dewgong, and Bibarel are just a few examples; sure they look vaguely intimidating when you've only just managed to evolve your starter for the first time and you're still trying to evolve your Magikarp, but odds are you'll completely forget about them once you pass the route they live on. This article will look at some simple ways that we could give these Pokémon at least some competitive merit; OU might be a bit far off, but at least they wouldn't be completely outclassed.

Dewgong

Dewgong

While Dewgong at least has a better name than its pre-evolution, it's just about the worst Water-type in singles play, being directly outclassed by Lapras both offensively and defensively and even facing heavy competition as a Hydration user from Phione of all things. One slot on Lorelei's team and a weird Doubles Fake Out + Perish Song set was just about all of the fame that Dewgong managed to muster, and as far as we can tell it hasn't even managed to get a new Alolan form. Compared to other Ice-types such as Articuno and Lapras, its poor attacking stats prevent it from doing much offensively, and compared to other Water-types it adds extra weaknesses and lacks the reliable recovery of Pokémon such as Pelipper, also making defensive sets a poor choice.

How could we improve it?

+ Belly Drum, + Technician, + 10 base Attack

Seals like to slap their bellies and perform tricks and Dewgong has particularly big fins, so in combination with a small Attack boost (comparable to the passive boosts given to Pokémon like Vileplume and Alakazam with the release of XY), the addition of Belly Drum and Technician gives Dewgong a strong niche over other Ice-types. While Dewgong's rival Walrein already has access to Belly Drum, it lacks access to both Ice Shard and Aqua Jet, preventing it from providing any competition. STAB Technician priority attacks would make Dewgong quite difficult to check offensively after a boost, while Return would deal decent damage to most Water-types. Although Dewgong would most likely still be outclassed by Cloyster in the upper tiers due to it not relying on weak priority moves to outspeed foes, it would still be a good choice in lower tiers. Good special bulk would also give Dewgong plenty of setup opportunities against most Ice- and Water-types that can't hit Dewgong hard enough and take sufficient damage from Return. Meanwhile, Technician Frost Breath and Icy Wind would give defensive sets a little more power and utility, respectively.

Sunflora

Sunflora

Sunflora is just plain awkward to look at, and it's arguably the worst of a very long list of outclassed Grass-types. Even Bellossom boasts better stats, and although Solar Power is a somewhat rare ability, there are so many better Sunny Day attackers that no weather team ever has room for Sunflora over the likes of Weepinbell, Leafeon, or Maractus. Base 30 Speed and poor defenses are the icing on the cake, ensuring that Sunflora is completely useless unless it manages to somehow force a switch, even when the sun is out. This terrible Speed stat also makes Chlorophyll a complete joke, as threatening Pokémon such as Floatzel and Zebstrika manage to outspeed it even under the sun and hit it hard with their coverage moves. These factors all converge to thoroughly rain on Sunflora's parade.

How could we improve it?

+ Fire typing, + Overheat, + Contrary, + 10 base Special Attack

Drastic times call for drastic measures (and we're only on the second Pokémon...). Both Sunflora's bulk and Speed are too low to be salvageable, so this approach would give Sunflora some extra offensive prowess and some extra resistances to enter the battlefield with, most notably a 4x resistance to Grass and a 2x resistance to Fairy. Between Leaf Storm, Overheat, Earth Power, and Sludge Bomb or Hidden Power, Sunflora actually becomes surprisingly hard to wall, especially with Contrary letting it spam Leaf Storm and Overheat to become stronger and stronger. There's no justification for Contrary other than Sunflora is tired of being made fun of by the other Grass-types and other joke Pokémon such as Spinda get to try it out, so why not? Drought would make some sense, but Sunflora would not be used in OU regardless and the ability is banned from lower tiers, so it would be wasted as a competitive option. The following set would be a deadly threat under Trick Room, forcing the opponent to bring in a Fire- or Dragon-type to block Sunflora's STAB attacks before falling to a +2 coverage move from an excellent 361 Special Attack.

Seviper

Seviper

While Zangoose has a decent niche in NU as an extremely powerful and decently fast wallbreaker, Seviper has no such luck, being outclassed by other Poison-types with better typings, better Speed stats, or extra bulk. Seviper has a large offensive movepool including Fire Blast, Giga Drain, Earthquake, and Sucker Punch (as well as access to Switcheroo), which gives it some mild utility in PU as a mixed wallbreaker, but even then it relies too much on a non-STAB Sucker Punch to be useful against smart players most of the time. Even Arbok manages to outclass it thanks to its access to Gunk Shot making it a far superior Coil user, alongside Intimidate providing some setup opportunities despite Arbok's mediocre bulk, and a much better Speed tier ensuring it doesn't rely on Sucker Punch nearly as much.

How could we improve it?

+ Dark typing, + Dry Skin, + 10 base Speed

Poison / Dark has proven to be an excellent typing between Drapion in RU and Skuntank in NU, and Seviper's extensive movepool of Dark-type moves (including Sucker Punch, Crunch, Knock Off, Pursuit, Dark Pulse, Payback, and even Punishment) proves that it has what it takes to join this exclusive club. A slight boost to Speed gives Seviper significantly better matchups against many threatening Pokémon, such as Samurott and Ludicolo, while Dry Skin gives it an additional immunity that Seviper can use to switch in with, somewhat mitigating its poor bulk. Snakes can often suffer from dry skin in real life, and it complements Shed Skin nicely as an alternate and plausible ability. While a classic all-out attacking set would obviously be made better with an extra STAB type and some defensive immunities, these attributes would also give its Coil set a significant niche compared to Arbok despite its lack of Gunk Shot. Seviper's movepool extends to the horizon, so a Choice Band or Choice Specs set with Switcheroo could also be a decent option. While Drapion and Skuntank would generally outclass Seviper as Pursuit trappers due to their better special bulk, Seviper could still run an offensive Pursuit set decently effectively, especially in the lower tiers. While Dry Skin makes Seviper more vulnerable to Fire-type attacks, it was never going to take a Fire Blast anyways, so this is a moot point at worst.

Bibarel

Bibarel

As the title of this article suggests, Bibarel is quite underwhelming even when compared to its rival rodents such as Linoone and Raticate, although it's not quite as bad as the likes of Furret or Watchog. Despite a unique Normal / Water typing and an array of excellent abilities in Unaware, Simple, and the banned Moody, its poor overall stats and lack of recovery prevent it from achieving much compared to other Normal-types such as Audino or Water-types such as Pelipper. Most neutral attacks can break through Bibarel with ease, so it can't gain power quickly enough with Simple Curse to become a huge threat and is forced to waste turns with Rest if it attempts to run a bulky sweeping set. Furthermore, with Sun and Moon having removed HMs from the game altogether, Bibarel has lost its main in-game niche as a HM slave capable of letting its trainer go almost anywhere.

How could we improve it?

+ Extreme Speed, + Slack Off, + Wood Hammer, + 10 base Attack

Extreme Speed resolves one of Simple Bibarel's main issues; its low power against faster foes when relying on Quick Attack. Beavers can build dams extremely quickly when they need to secure a new home, and Bibarel is no exception, hitting pretty hard with the extra Attack and a Curse boost. Finally, a beaver gets to Slack Off once it's built its shelter, and this gives Bibarel some recovery that doesn't make it super passive or reliant on a Chesto Berry to be effective. This allows allows a bulkier mono-attacking set with Bulk Up / Amnesia / Slack Off / Return to be used as a wincon once opposing Ghost-types are removed, with Amnesia making most neutral special attacks irrelevant after a single boost thanks to Simple. Slack Off also makes Unaware slightly more appealing, although this will still remain a poor option due to Quagsire's better stats and single weakness. Wood Hammer is mostly an amusing coverage move, but it also lets Bibarel hit opposing Water-types extremely hard.

Heatmor

Heatmor

Black and White had some excellent designs, with Heatmor being a particular standout due to its unique physiology (breathing in through its tail and breathing out a fiery tongue) and relationship with Durant. However, it's safe to say that Heatmor got the short end of the stick out of that relationship, with poor bulk and Speed stats and a lack of secondary typing that make it very difficult to use effectively. While Heatmor has a nice movepool, featuring coverage moves such as Sucker Punch, Giga Drain, and Superpower, as well as a decent ability in Flash Fire, these aren't enough to compensate for its many weaknesses compared to other Fire-types such as Monferno and Rapidash. Heatmor isn't even significantly more powerful than the likes of Rapidash and Simisear to compensate for its low Speed, making it very underwhelming indeed. As a result, Heatmor spends most of its time licking its wounds and hoping to surprise people in random battles.

How could we improve it?

+ Arena Trap, + Flare Blitz, + 10 base Attack

Heatmor has gained the ability to use its long tongue to prevent foes from switching out of it! While trapping abilities can often go over the top and make a Pokémon too good (such as Mega Gengar in OU and Dugtrio in RU), Heatmor would likely be decently manageable due to its low Speed and poor bulk making it more matchup dependent, not necessarily being able to trap Pokémon faster than it that can get around Sucker Punch. Nonetheless, it adds another dimension to Heatmor and compensates for its weaknesses by ensuring that Heatmor only gets the matchups it wants. While Heatmor's offensive movepool is vast, it previously lacked a strong physical STAB attack to make physically based sets more threatening; Flare Blitz easily fixes that issue. Heatmor also gets an opportunity to use its surprisingly large support movepool, which includes moves like Curse, Amnesia, Gastro Acid, Taunt, and Will-O-Wisp, to set up on defensive Pokémon. Sucker Punch provides some revenge killing capacity against faster foes and can't be avoided by switching out, giving Heatmor guaranteed KOs against weakened targets that lack non-attacking moves, particularly Choice item users.

Furfrou

Furfrou

Furfrou received some brief hype early on when people speculated that its unique Fur Coat ability would make it a defensive tank of similar viability to Miltank. However, this quickly died down as people realised that Furfrou lacked the movepool to fill the same sort of role and it ended up as a mediocre offensive pivot in PU, using its wider offensive movepool alongside Thunder Wave. While Furfrou can be styled in a number of different ways in-game, this sort of versatility is lacking on the competitive scene, and its lack of Attack makes it extremely underwhelming as an offensive Pokémon. The main problem with Fur Coat is that Furfrou requires a lot of Defense EVs to make the most of it, but offensive Furfrou would much prefer Attack and Speed investment due to its low power and good Speed tier, which necessitates a Jolly Nature and thus even less attacking power.

How could we improve it?

+ Double-Edge, + Knock Off, + Taunt, + Slack Off, + 10 base Attack

Double-Edge helps to fix Furfrou's power issues, which combined with some extra Attack lets it threaten more offensive Pokémon that it outspeeds more effectively. Knock Off lets Furfrou reliably hit Ghost-types such as Misdreavus and would also make a defensive pivot set a lot less passive due to its ability to cripple offensive switch-ins such as Monferno and other Eviolite or Leftovers users. Taunt would provide Furfrou with a decent countermeasure against other defensive Pokémon and prevent it from being setup bait against the multitude of offensive threats it manages to outspeed. Finally, Game Freak should let sleeping dogs lie and give this Pokémon some reliable recovery; being able to heal off attacks in the same way as the likes of Miltank and Clefable would vastly help defensive sets be effective and make them more difficult to wear down, and could allow Furfrou to stallbreak in combination with Taunt and Toxic. Overall, Furfrou is a Pokémon that only requires a little more power and a few movepool additions to become vastly more useful in both an offensive and defensive capacity.

Conclusion

Sometimes all it takes are a few small tweaks to make a bad Pokémon usable. Game Freak has done this in the past, introducing threats such as Mega Beedrill, Mega Pidgeot, and Sticky Web Shuckle, and they will do this in the future with other neglected Pokémon in ways that take us completely by surprise. As the generations march on, here's hoping that as many of these guys stay relevant as possible and that we get to see some old dogs learn some new tricks with the release of Sun and Moon.

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