Sea Slug: Gastrodon Discussion

ADH

Gastrodon.png

#423 Gastrodon
Base Stats: 111 HP / 83 Atk / 68 Def / 92 SAtk / 82 SDef / 39 Spd
Ability: Sticky Hold (Gastrodon's item can't be stolen)
Ability: Storm Drain (water attacks are drawn to Gastrodon in 2v2)

Notable Physical Movepool
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Waterfall
Body Slam
Counter

Notable Special Movepool
Surf
Brine
Mud Bomb
Ice Beam
Blizzard
Sludge Bomb
Mirror Coat

Notable Support Movepool
Curse
Stockpile
Recover
Yawn

Gastrodon is an interesting Pokemon to be sure, as it has some curious stat allocation and an interesting movepool. But, why, WHY does it not have Land Power? A mystery to be certain.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Nature: Bold (+Def -Atk)
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 152 HP / 252 Def / 104 SAtk
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-HP Electric
-Recover

Look, it's Slowbro! Surf for STAB, Ice Beam for dragons and such, and HP Electric to hurt Gyarados. Recover is fun. Gyarados does 39.9% - 46.8% with Earthquake after a Dragon Dance (383 Attack Gyara) whereas HP Electric is a 2HKO.

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Nature: Calm (+SDef -Atk)
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 148 HP / 108 SAtk / 252 SDef
-Mud Bomb / HP Ground
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Recover

Mud Bomb / HP Ground for punks like Aggron (this could be UU possibly), Surf for another STAB, Ice Beam for dragons, and Recover because it's awesome.
 
Gastrodon is cool. It has some things over Quagsire (Recover, higher HP and SAtk) but it's shame it doesn't have Water Absorb. Quagsire also has a nice Ice Punch.

About the first set, watch out if Gyara has Waterfall. =[
 
Lupo Aro said:
Gastrodon is cool. It has some things over Quagsire (Recover, higher HP and SAtk) but it's shame it doesn't have Water Absorb. Quagsire also has a nice Ice Punch.

About the first set, watch out if Gyara has Waterfall. =[
Click to expand...

The first set has Storm Drain to protect itself from Waterfall.
 
Won't see much use in standard (hi Swampert), but oh boy could this thing be a pain in the ass in UU.
 
Storm Drain gives it something over Pert. It can, like Vaporeon, come in on a Water attack, and also like Vaporeon, it has a recovery move (Wish in Vaporeon's case). It's also like a perfect Gyarados counter. Resists Stone Edge, immune to Waterfall, and neutral against the other attacks and can HP Electric back to kill it.

Also this in UU would be a reason for me to carry HP Grass over Ice on Pikachu and abuse the hell out of Energy Ball Ninetales. Both OHKO iirc, I know Pika's does considering the 398 SAtk.
 
I don't think it does. I battled quite a number of wild gastrodons with my Gyarados and they all died to Waterfall
 
^ Yeah, he's right.

Aren't two different colors as well depending on if you're in the East or the South? (Or was it the East and the West?)

Anyway, those two different colors might be assigned the one different trait and only that one, kind of like how Minomaduu (the Bagworm) has three different evolutions are that similar yet different-looking and have different types and abilities (but not traits in this case).

Regardless, I'll add this to the beginning of the trait thread alongside the Lightning Rod question.
 
Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Nature: Bold (+Def -Atk)/ Modest (+SAtk -Atk)
Trait: Storm Drain
EVs: 252 HP / 128 Def / 128 SDef
-Surf
-Counter
-Mirror Coat
-Recover

More of a fun set, but with such a high HP and Recover it could work.
 
I'd give it Toxic in UU. I've seen how good Toxic is in UU where Heal Bell/etc isn't so prevalent, and this has the durability to keep spreading Toxic everywhere.
 
Storm Drain is sort of like Lightningrod, and LR Pokemon still take damage from Electric attacks (see Manectric), so I'd assume Storm Drain merely draws Water attacks to Gastrodon. Gastrodon would be a good Pokemon if it had more defenses, but no...
 
Lupo Aro said:
Confirmation on Storm Drain granting an immunity to water please.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that Storm Drain does not resist, reduce or otherwise gain immunity to water-type attacks. Just finished testing on both the blue and pink ones for completeness' sake.

Kinda sucks.

Also, posting from my Wii.
 
I don't think it matters if you test a blue or pink one, they have to have Storm Drain. I am assuming you can confirm that they both have the Storm Drain trait?
 
I'm sure Swampert would love having access to Recover like this little thing does. His defenses are lacking a little, but he has Curse and Stockpile to patch them up and will surely be an excellent choice in UU. Earthquake/Surf/Ice Beam/Recover sounds good, but a Curser with instant recovery also sounds very appealing.

I'm somewhat glad it doesn't absorb Water as Quagsire would really have nothing on him then.
 
pkmn Trainer Zach said:
I don't think it matters if you test a blue or pink one, they have to have Storm Drain. I am assuming you can confirm that they both have the Storm Drain trait?
Click to expand...

I used a Golduck with both surf and waterfall (in case special or physical mattered) against STORM DRAIN Gastrodon of both varieties, yes. I had hoped that my post was unambiguous.
 
No, I just captured them all afterwards. Obviously I ended up with a lot of Sticky Hold ones as well, but I only posted the relevant information.

Here, for clearification:
Leading with Golduck, I walked around outside Sunnyshore & Canalave looking for any Gastrodon that would cross my path. When I found one, I'd lead with smack it with Surf, capture it, and see if it had Storm Drain. When I found a Storm Drain East-side one, I switched to Waterfall on the West side to see if it made any difference, and repeated the same process. Neither Gastrodon with Storm Drain that I captured had any reduced damage from either Water-type attack, and was certainly not immune to the damage as they all took considerable damage. To be safe, I went ahead and calced the damage using MetalKid's program, which gave me comparable numbers. And in case someone feels the need to question my Japanese skill, rest assured that after 3 years of instruction and living there for a month I feel like I have a better than average grasp of the vernacular.

At this point you're just going to have to trust me, unless you yourself paid the $40 to import the game like I did. Or, you know, roms on flash cards, but we'll have no talk of that.
 
Well, it's much better at mixed or special attacking than Quagsire is. In fact, you'll find that Quaggy only has 2 base stat points more in Attack and Special defense, compared to Gastrodon's Attack and Special Defense, respectively. It's even faster by a little bit, so really the distinction becomes one of how it fits on your team. Obviously Quagsire is immune to Water-type damage, but Gastrodon has Recover and a much more potent UNBOOSTED damage-dealing capability. Of course, when you take Quagsire's Belly Drum into consideration, things get interesting.

To be honest, the two have nearly identical movepools, with Quagsire having Haze, Belly Drum, Focus Punch, Fling, Safeguard, Focus Blast and Encore to Gatrodon's Mirror Coat, Recover, Brine and Mememto. Everything else usable in their movepool is exactly the same.
 
I'm sure you are correct, however, it would make more sense and/or be more "complete" if you tested it in 2v2, as that is the only environment inwhich it has any purpose anyways.

I am sure you are correct, (as in Advanced Lighteneing Rod did not grant Manectric immunity to Electric attacks), but this is just for "completeness sake."

Also, you can probably test it by 2v2ing someone with Golduck using Surf and your teammate is Gastrodon (as Surf now hits teammates), so that way you don't have find someone to battle with a Gastrodon in a 2v2 battle.
 
With the effort made creating this thing,gamefreak could have put grass rope on moltres. They may as well have called it Quagsire v2.
 
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