Welcome back to me reviewing the Pokemon of Generation 7! So yesterday, I did 2 blogs and went through 11 different Pokemon. Of the 11, 4 of them got rave reviews and a few more were also positive. I still have not had to put anyone below Fair since, well, reviewing Donald Trump, but you never what can happen until I review them. So speaking of, let’s get right to it!
Fomantis – Starting things off is Fomantis, and to be fair, it is another first-stage mon that has a cute design, but competing against the likes of Rockruff is out of the question. Now because I started with Rowlet, I didn’t go out of my way to try to catch this, but I imagine this could be helpful if you chose one of the other 2 Starters. In terms of movepool, its type coverage looks to be pretty limited as its attacking moves are all types that a Grass-type would normally use. However, it has a very high base STAB for its Z-move Bloom Doom, so it can be deadly with a Grassium Z. If you started with Litten, a case could be made to try catching this Pokemon for the fight against Olivia, and if Popplio was your Starter, it can also be a good help against Hau’s Alolan Raichu once you arrive in Ula’Ula Island if you can level it up to a point where you can evolve it into Lurantis before you get there. But I missed out on this Pokemon because I already had my Grass-type via my Starter, and so I don’t really know a whole lot about this Pokemon.
Lurantis – The thing about Lurantis is that you can only evolve into this during the day, and you have to be Level 34 before you can evolve into this. Thankfully, its stats allow it to hold its own due to its 105 base Attack and 90 each in Defense and Special Defense. It’ll piss me off though to go last a lot since I prefer quicker battle strategies and this Pokemon is SLOW. It has deadlier STAB in its Bloom Doom, and Breakneck Blitz becomes another viable option if you want it to use a Z-move. Now, it can only learn Solar Beam if it learned it before evolving, but why would I need that when it can learn Solar Blade, a superior two-turn move for its arsenal? In terms of design, it looks cool, but as you will see later, it’s not gonna be my first choice for a Grass-type Pokemon in Alola even if I had chosen a different Starter. I will say though that if you have a Shiny Lurantis, it looks much more like what a mantis should look like. As a side note, I am surprised that with all the bug-like features ofLurantis that it did not gain the Bug-type upon evolution, but I’m glad it didn’t because then its type coverage would have gotten a lot more abysmal on the defensive side. I do like this evolution, but I don’t really love it.
Morelull – Right off the bat, I am going to say I know even less about this evolutionary line than I do the Fomantis line, so this is another Pokemon that you’d have to bear with me for. Depending on its Ability, it can be useful if you’re looking for wild Pokemon, but let’s be honest, with better Grass-type options out there, it’s likely this Pokemon will end up being forgotten. I still didn’t even bother going to catch one of these because, like I said, there are just other Grass-types that I feel would better fit me. Also, good luck pitting this up against Team Skull as it’s 4x weak to Poison. Another thing that goes against Morelull is its early evolution level. This evolves at a low 24, so unless you can get one in a specific patch of Grass in Brooklet, then by the time you encounter Morelull, your Pokemon will have already been mostly past 24. It also can only be encountered during the night, working even more against Morelull. SO really, the odds were stacked against this Pokemon from the start, and it only gets worse from there. I am going to be nice though and put this in Fair because I don’t dislike this Pokemon at all.
Shiinotic – Now knowing how the odds are against Morelull, this makes Shiinotic even more of a long shot to be anything memorable. The only to get this is through evolution, and if you read this far, you’d already know that just by where you get its pre-evolution that Shiinotic doesn’t really have much of a chance. It also doesn’t help that it’s even slower than Lurantis and less appealing visually. It can make for a fine choice if you want a sleeper on your team as it can learn Spore and Dream Eater by leveling up, but I already did something like this better and competitively with Lilligant in the past, and if you’re anything like me, comparing Shiinotic to Lilligant is like comparing a knife to a tank. It can also play the role of a healer support as you have the aforementioned Dream Eater and Strength Sap, but because of the also aforementioned low speed, Strength Sap is a gamble because anyone with a high Attack stat can just knock this out of the park before it gets the chance to use that move. So point blank, Shiinotic just cannot compete in any sense of the word.
Salandit – Now Salandit I am actually more familiar with, and furthermore, it can be really useful in the long run if you can manage to evolve it. There is just one major problem that keeps me ill at ease with Salandit. It can only evolve if it’s female, much like how Combee can only evolve into Vespiquen if it is female, and do you wanna know the gender ratio for this particular Pokemon? Only 12.5% of Salandit are female! That means that if you go into the wild and find a Salandit, your chances of getting a Salandit you can actually evolve is only 1 out of 8. The encounter rate for a Salandit is a decent 20% even if you wait till Route 8, but therein lies another factor that helps make evolution so fricking difficult: if you did not try catching this at the volcano , your chances of a female Salandit are 1 out of 40! GEEZ! It is also very weak, so unless you can evolve it, don’t even bother trying to catch it. But if you CAN evolve it, then it is worth catching. I do actually like the design of Salandit too, but because of how annoying it is with the whole gender thing, I just cannot give it a passing grade. Call me sexist if you want, but I am only speaking truth here.
Salazzle – So after my rant about how difficult it was to evolve Salandit that you’d think I’d not like Salazzle, right? Well, you’d be dead wrong. That is because, on the contrary, Salazzle, despite its earth-shattering weakness to Ground (pun intended), is worth all the trouble. The evolutionary line has the Ability Corrosion for Starters, allowing it to Poison even the Poison and Steel Pokemon. It looks even more dazzling in its Shiny, but even without the Shiny, Salazzle is stunning in its looks. Sure, it has no defense, but its Speed and Special Attack are both great, so as a Special Attacker, Salazzle can steam roll and make it look like an accident even if the opponent has a move that can take it out with ease. Actually, before going through the second half of Ula’Ula, I went back to Akala just to get a Salandit that I could evolve so that I could have Salazzle on my journey. That’s how much I wanted to have this Pokemon with me, and I’m glad I did because it finally gave me the option of a Fire-type I was missing. Since Guzma is a Bug-type user, this will be really helpful when going through Team Skull, especially when you face the aforementioned Guzma. So if Generation 7 ever had that evolutionary line that could win Most Improved, well here is your winner!
Love (in order of review):
Rowlet
Decidueye
Litten
Incineroar
Rockruff (Borderline with Really Like)
Lycanroc (Both Forms)
Mudsdale
Salazzle
Really Like (in order of review):
Dartrix
Torracat
Pikipek
Toucannon
Mudbray
Like (in order of review):
Popplio
Vikavolt
Sensu Oricorio
Wishiwashi (Borderline with Really Like)
Toxapex
Lurantis
Fair (in order of review):
Primarina (borderline with Like)
Grubbin
Charjabug
Crabawler
Crabominable
Pom-Pom Oricorio
P’au Oricorio
Baile Oricorio (not too far from Like)
Cutiefly (not too far from Dislike)
Ribombee
Mareanie (not too far from Like)
Dewpider
Araquanid
Fomantis
Morelull (close to Dislike)
Dislike (in order of review):
Brionne
Trumbeak
Yungoos
Shiinotic (close to Fair)
Salandit
