Road to Hoenn: Treecko, Grovyle and Sceptile

Welcome to a new segment on this blog that will be leading up to the release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in which I take a look at certain Pokemon or aspects of the game, and how I would handle improving them. Today we will be looking at the first evolutionary line native to Hoenn and my personal favorite line of Pokemon to date. Let's jump right in.

As much as I hate to say it, this line of Pokemon is not very good. Their move pool and stat spread really has no cohesive logic to them, I'm assuming they were going for a fast special sweeper, but they hardly have any special moves. The power creep that really solidified in gen 5 hasn't done these gecko's any favors either. 105 for your main attacking stat as a sweeper just does not cut it any more. So going on the assumption that Sceptile and Swampert will be getting new mega evolutions with this release, let's try and spruce them up a bit. It would seem rather unfair if just Blaziken got preferential treatment.

In-Game

Before we get into competitive play, let's address how this trio plays out in-game. While I am a firm believer that you can make anything work in-game, it's nice to diversify your options, especially for starters. As your first Pokemon in the game, they should give you a compelling reason to use them. Sceptile has received only 3 new moves to it's barren level-up move pool since it was introduced, one of which being a fairly common place TM anyway. These moves are Leaf Storm, X-scissor and Night Slash. Now every one has their own play-style, but when I compose in-game move sets I generally like to stick with moves that hit hard and provide a wide array of type coverage. Using two moves of the same type is frowned upon excluding extreme circumstance. With that in mind it's also important to note not only what moves you get, but when you get them. A good coverage move coming in at level 70 won't do you a whole lot of good in game. I have decided to rework their level-up move pool to allow for a few more options, and the ability to get access to moves at a more acceptable rate. Additions/ changes will be underlined.

Original Level-Up Move Pool

-  Leaf Storm                                              

-  Night Slash
-  Pound
-  Leer
6  Absorb
11  Quick Attack
16  X-Scissor *see note below*
17  Pursuit
23  Screech
29  Leaf Blade
35  Agility
43  Slam
51  Detect
59  False Swipe
67  Leaf Storm

New Level-Up Move Pool

-  Leaf Storm
-  Night Slash
-  Thunder Punch
-  Pound
-  Leer
- Fury Cutter
6  Absorb
10  Quick Attack
16  Leaf Tornado
17  Pursuit
23  Screech
25  Swift
27  X-Scissor
29  Leaf Blade
35  Agility
40  Sucker Punch
43 Slam
51  Detect
54 Giga Drain
59  False Swipe
67  Leaf Storm

First there is something important to note about X-Scissor, that is only Sceptile get's it at level 16, Grovyle is stuck with Fury Cutter at level 16 thus cutting it off from X-scissor either until you get the TM or you get to the move re-learner which is generally later in the game. Now the first order of business would be to either get rid of Fury Cutter all together, or move it to a level 0 slot, replace it with X-scissor out right and just move it up a little. In the original set, Absorb is your primary form of STAB until level 29. UNACCEPTABLE!!! Leaf Tornado not only mitigates this, but gives you a respectable grass move upon evolution into Grovyle that works off of your superior special attack stat. Mega Drain is STILL 40 base power and therefore too weak, and Giga Drain is too powerful that early at 75, Leaf Tornado finds a happy medium. Swift is simply there as a filler attack to pad it's abysmal options on the special side. At level 25, decent filler is welcome. X-scissor comes in at 27 and Leaf Blade at 29 should you want to go physical. This way you have a choice, better coverage and higher base power for working with your lower attack stat, or vice versa. Next we have Sucker Punch at 40, as a predatory creature jumping around in the jungle from tree to tree, it always struck me as something that would have more dark type moves. Sucker Punch in Japanese is "Surprise Attack" which fits this Pokemon well and an 80 power dark type priority move is always nice. As it get's Absorb for it's first grass move, the absence of Giga Drain seems odd. I know you get it as an egg move, but it would be nice to not have to breed your starter just to have an optimal STAB move. Lastly I put in Thunder Punch as a level 0 move just to give it something of substance to deal with pesky flying-types. It will probably come back as a move tutor, but this was more of a safety net kind of thing, plus it's nice to not have to grind for shards if you don't have to. Now we are looking at something that has a few more options to choose from.

TM's and move tutors also play a role, so here are some of the decent options that we already have as of X/Y. TM's: Hone Claws, Dragon Claw, Earthquake, Brick Break, Focus Blast, Energy Ball, Acrobatics, Swords Dance, and Rock Slide. I would only really want to see Stone Edge added to this list simply because Flying, Bug and Fire types pose a problem to Sceptile and more power to deal with them is always nice, but Rock Slide will suffice if it comes to that. Move tutors assuming that all are returning from BW2: Dragon Pulse, Drain Punch, Iron Tail, Outrage and Thunder Punch. I would add Earth Power to the tutor list just to give it a special option to get coverage with ground since it already gets Earthquake. A very nice list but depending on the location of the tutor in the game their usability is questionable. Since Sceptile gets Dragon Pulse as a move tutor, I'd like to see them add it as a TM because why not. Some day I'll do a write up on what I would like to see as new move tutors in OR/AS, but for now let's just stick with what we can assume is coming back. Even with it's weird stat spread, this move pool makes these Pokemon function in a much more streamlined fashion in-game, here's hoping.

Mega Evolution Time:

Now it's time to see if we can't work a little magic with a mega stone and some imagination. Being able to add 100 base stat points while changing it's ability and typing are great and could really give Sceptile the boost it's been craving since it left OU at the beginning of fourth gen never to return. Let's start with typing. Unless your name is Tangrowth or Shaymin, it sucks to be a mono-grass type, and even those two are decent more in spite of their typing than because of it. 5 weaknesses and 4 resistances sounds fairly balanced, but when you consider that the weaknesses come from very common offensive types such as Fire and Ice that starts to be a problem. Defense isn't really something to consider on a sweeper, so the few resistances that we do have are fairly negligible. Grass as a solitary STAB doesn't help out much either if you are trying to be offensive which is what we are going for. A secondary STAB would be really nice and as such I am electing to add Dark to Sceptile. While it does open up Sceptile to a few more super effective hits, Grass/ Dark has pretty decent STAB coverage as of gen 6 now that dark can hit steel for neutral, and an immunity to psychic is always nice. It fits it's aesthetics nicely and with proper coverage moves and boosted offenses, it should be able to hold it's own a lot better.

Sceptile was gifted a weird ability in gen 5 in the form of Unburden. When it consumes an item, it get's a speed boost, while that is nice, it's kind of a waste on something with 120 speed to begin with. We also have Overgrow, but for something with minimal defense, it's hard to get into activation range without dying. A more appropriate ability for a sweeper is something that doesn't require an outside force to activate. The two that came to mind for me were Sheer Force and Moxie. Moxie would be nice if we wanted Mega Sceptile to be purely physical, but Sheer Force is something to consider if we want to go the mixed or special route. I have two stat spreads to consider, each using one of the two abilities to their advantage.

Let's start with the original stat spread to work from.

HP: 70 Atk: 85 Def: 65 SpAtk: 105 SpDef: 85 Spd: 120

We have 100 points to spend as we please so let's spend them wisely. First let's make the purely physical set with Moxie.

HP: 70 Atk: 165 Def: 65 SpAtk: 105 SpDef: 85 Spd: 140

So with 20 points into speed and 80 into attack we are looking at something pretty scary here. If you let it get on a roll, you are in for a world of pain. A moxie boost or two and even your bulkiest walls aren't going to enjoy taking a hit. It's mediocre defenses and defensive typing still leave it vulnerable so it feels like a fair trade off to me. Anything that can land a super effective hit on the physical side is a pretty solid counter.

Our second option to consider is the Mixed Sheer Force set.

HP: 70 Atk: 130 Def: 65 SpAtk: 155 SpDef: 85 Spd: 125

With this set you trade speed for the ability to hit hard on both sides. That being said, 125 speed still allows it to outpace everything below Darkrai. With Sheer Force boosting the likes of Rock Slide, Earth Power, Iron Tail, Focus Blast, Thunder Punch and others you have some options to play around with.

Sceptile has some potential, it just needs a little help. Let me know what you think of these suggestions. How would you build a Mega Scpetile?