Pokémon: Cala Maria
Franchise/Origin: Cuphead
Type: Dark/Water
Ability: Cute Charm, Marvel Scale (Hidden)
Notable moves: Assurance, Comeuppance, Dark Pulse, Fake Tears, False Surrender, Feint Attack, Flatter, Foul Play, Lash Out, Obstruct, Parting Shot, Punishment, Snarl, Taunt, Torment, Whirlpool, Aqua Jet, Water Gun, Chilling Water, Flip Turn, Water Pulse, Brine, Scald, Octazooka, Waterfall, Surf, Hydro Pump, Soak, Water Sport, Aqua Ring, Life Dew, Charge Beam, Electro Ball, Thunder Wave, Thunder Shock, Eerie Impulse, Shock Wave, Discharge, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Charge, Confuse Ray, Curse, Grudge, Spite, Astonish, Ominous Wind, Hex, Shadow Ball, Power Gem, Rock Tomb, Stealth Rock, Growl, Baby-Doll Eyes, Sing, Encore, Hyper Voice, Boomburst, Charm, Attract, Round, Perish Song, Glare
Signature moves:
- Gorgon's Gaze (Dark, Special, 120 BP, 8 PP max, 100% accuracy) - Affects all adjacent opponents. Lowers the Speed of each target by 1 stage, but also lowers the user's Special Attack by 1 stage for each target hit.
- Petrify (Rock, Status, 32 PP max, 100% accuracy) - Semi-clone of Soak that turns the target's displayed type to Rock for three turns. This does not, however, change their existing type resistances, weaknesses, or immunities. If the target resisted Water-type moves, for instance, it will retain that resistance even when affected by Petrify. The afflicted target will not, however, receive STAB on attacking moves they would have otherwise, with the obvious exception of Rock-type attacks. This move will succeed even if the target is already a pure Rock-type.
"You dare to gaze?! How 'bout stone boots so you can swim with the fishes!"
Mega Evolution: Based on her appearance during Phase 2 of her boss battle, seen above, Mega Cala is now a Dark/Electric-type. She gains 25 points for Attack, 20 points for Special Attack, 20 points each for Defense and Special Defense, and 10 points for Speed. Her ability is now
Intimidate.
Stats: 90 HP/55 Atk/95 Def/100 SpA/110 SpD/50 Spe =
500
Reasoning:
One of the most well-known and honestly best-designed bosses from
Cuphead, Cala's Water-type is obviously due to her being a mermaid, while her new Dark typing is a nod to the at least mild mean-spiritedness of her personality, particularly her defeat messages (the second-stage one especially), along with the soul contract she made to the Devil (Dark being the "evil" type in Japanese), the latter of which is common to all the other bosses of the game. There's also the fact that her scary-looking, monstrous second stage is a freaking
gorgon that actively tries to kill Cuphead and Mugman, or at least sets her pet electric eels on them. She uses these same eels to transform into her second stage, hence her Mega Evolution's Electric typing, and the fact that she can learn a variety of Electric attacks is because she uses the eels themselves as her primary means of attack during this stage, as well as a few Rock-type moves to reference her petrification ability (which also informed one of her two custom moves). The ghosts of sailors she's eaten, which she spits out as one of her attacks in her first stage, justify her retaining Ghost type coverage, and her movepool is topped off with a couple of sound-based moves in the vein of Primarina given the connection between mermaids and singing in popular culture (and indeed, she does get
a song of her own in the Netflix cartoon). Her abilities are obvious picks based on her appearance and behavior in all of the stages in her boss battle, though I had to pick only the first two because there was only enough room for the normal form and the Mega Evolution. Her high HP, special attack, and defenses but low speed and physical attack reference the fact that she remains in one place throughout her boss fight, attacks from a distance with projectile volleys straight out of a bullet hell, and takes a
lot of punishment before the "A KNOCKOUT!" message shows up.
Competitive Info:
Cala Maria is a slow but hefty special tank with a powerful special attack stat and just enough durability to actually make use of it despite her terrible speed. On top of her Special Defense stat in and of itself, her Dark typing in both of her forms for this mod gives her key resistances to Wizard Lord Phoenix and Maya Fey's STAB in general and Meta Knight's Ceaseless Edge, enables her to easily switch into Maw Jaw and Ragman, and helps counter Void Kong's Dark Pulse and especially Mineralize because her Mega Stone is not removable. On the offensive front, her signature attack, Gorgon's Gaze, carries the added benefit of interrupting the momentum of her target on top of the raw damage it packs on its own, but if you don't want your Special Attack to suffer in the long run, she can certainly make use of a good solid Dark Pulse as well (I imagine this would be spat out from her mouth like the ghosts she spits in her Phase 1 when in her normal form, and from her snake-hair mouths like in her Phase 3 when Mega-Evolved). Her Water-type STAB options are largely on the special side with Hydro Pump and Surf as her most obvious picks, although Scald's burn chance and Octakazooka's accuracy reduction may also be worth checking out if you can afford to max out her special attack EVs. Coverage options include Normal, Electric, and Ghost, and though none of these are super-effective against any of the types she's weak to, they do provide such strong general-purpose attacks as Hyper Voice, Boomburst, Thunder, and Shadow Ball. Her support options include Taunt, Confuse Ray, Perish Song, and especially her other signature move, Petrify, which can turn potentially rob opponents of their most important attack options for a couple of turns - and trying to counter it with an actual Rock-type (such as the aforementioned Void Kong) will just leave you open to a faceful of Surf. With her low speed leaving her unable to avoid faster enemies cutting in before she can get anything done, however, it's not quite as easy for her to take up a supporting role than her defensive bulk may suggest, especially given that she'd often be forced to run Life Dew just to stay relevant.
Upon Mega-Evolving, Cala doesn't gain any speed at all, but her defenses are increased alongside losing one of her previous type weaknesses (though she also has just five resistances compared to the six of her normal form), making her even harder to bring down, though the tradeoff of an added weakness to Ground is worth taking into account. More importantly, her Special Attack is now through the roof and backed up by an extremely dangerous offensive STAB type combo, on top of retaining the Water attacks she abuses already as anti-Ground coverage. Her nigh indestructibility with regards to actual attacks shouldn't be an excuse to get overconfident with her, however - Cala has no way of handling entry hazards or status effects on her own, the chip damage from burning and poisoning especially, and while her Mega form is immune to paralysis, she can still be frozen, put to sleep, or subject to any other status that can hobble her offensive prowess at the worst possible moment. As such, making full use of that vulnerability, as well as taking out any team support that can clear hazards away and give her room to be at her most lethal, might be just enough to turn the tide against her.
