#557 - #558

Dwebble/Crustle

This is one of the more overlooked Pokemon of the game, it seems. That’s really weird to me because it’s one of the few Pokemon that can have multiple functions on a team, ranging from a wall to a sweeper. It’s versatile to say the least.

When you pick one up, it knows Knock Down and Rock Polish, both of which will make it fantastic. What really holds this Pokemon back is its speed, so just one buff and it’s ready to tear through the enemies. It can take a hit, so you never have to worry about it while it’s attacking. Make sure it picks up Bug Bite (23) so it’s able to make use of its secondary typing.

It really starts to shine when it evolves, giving it great attack power, even better defense, and a more usable special defense stat. Its speed gets lower, but in just a few levels, it learns one of the best new boosting moves in the game: Shell Break (43). It decreases its defenses by one factor, but increases attack, special attack, and speed by two factors! Trust me, it works wonders, allowing this thing to sweep through entire gyms. You can’t even feel the loss in defenses, in fact, you could probably stand to use the boost again to do even more damage and go even FASTER.

What makes this so great is that you really don’t have to do that at the start of a match. You can throw this Pokemon in to take a hit and maybe set up Stealth Rock and then rocket off with a Shell Break sweep immediately afterwards. That makes it great competitively, especially with coverage like Rock and Bug. 

Don’t let its looks deceive you: This thing is a monster on the battlefield, master of both defensive and offensive stat manipulation. Don’t underestimate its potential.

Rating: 2u 2c 2s 2o 2r = 10pt total.