Anonymous asks:

How does Dwebble “melt holes in hard rocks with a liquid secreted from its mouth” without any acid based attacks?

…huh.

Y’know, that…

…huh.

Okay, well, I suppose my stance has to be that, If I Were In Charge, Dwebble would get Acid because it makes sense and there’s no compelling game balance reason for him not to, but given that he doesn’t… Upon closer inspection, the Pokédex never actually says “acid” or “acidic,” it just mentions a secretion from Dwebble’s mouth – so maybe it’s not an acidic solution at all, but a special enzyme in Dwebble’s saliva, designed to break down certain kinds of rock? It’s slow-acting, ineffective against all other materials, and therefore utterly useless in combat, but important for Dwebble’s way of life. I think that makes sense.

Anonymous asks:

Design-wise, you’ve always seemed quite fond of magcargo. More than once you’ve praised it for having a unique and interesting design that diverges from the standard “animal on fire.” But I think we can all agree that in terms of usage, magcargo is absolute trash. Gen 2 screwed it over terribly with horrible typing and quite unimpressive stats, and the later generations did nothing at all to help it. So, if you were in charge, what exactly would you do to save magcargo?

Oh, Magcargo. I’m fond of him because the idea of a snail made of lava with a shell made of cooling rock just makes sense on a level that, say, a lizard with a fiery tail or a horse with a fiery mane doesn’t – it takes a snail’s pliable body and rigid shell, and applies that to the Fire element in a way that recalls the formation of a crust of solid rock on the surface of a lava flow. But yeah, Magcargo is terrible in so many ways. Double weaknesses to Ground and Water make it impossible for Magcargo to be a top-notch defensive Pokémon, and awful speed and average special attack make it impossible for him to be anything else. I think it would be thematically appropriate, and helpful, for Magcargo to have an ability that absorbs Water attacks and turns them into a physical defence bonus to represent the hardening of his lava skin into rock (instead of f#$%ing immunity to freezing, which is what he’s got now). That just makes Magcargo less obviously awful though. Without evolving to jack up those depressing stats there’s only so much we can do; at the moment he’s so slow even Shell Smash doesn’t make him a very good attacker. The nonexistence of special Rock attacks is also a big stumbling block. But Magcargo actually gets Yawn, Recover, Reflect and Light Screen, Will’o’Wisp, Stealth Rock… given halfway decent HP and special defence, and a strong ability, it seems like there would be plenty there for a more tanky-supporty role.

vikingboybilly asks:

I’m starting to think Eevee might be based on the common ancestor of dogs, cats, weasels, foxes, otters, etc. Sound cool? Maybe the bunny ears symbolizes it’s evolutionary leap from herbivore into a predator.

Well, the basal Carnivora probably looked something like this – much more distinctly cat-like than Eevee and probably tree-dwelling – so I think it’s highly unlikely Game Freak specifically had something like that in mind. I think conceptually they may have had ideas like common ancestors and adaptive radiation in mind – they did call her “the Evolution Pokémon,” after all. But we already knew that.

vikingboybilly asks:

What is lickitung?

Lickitung is what you turn into if you’re making a face when the wind changes.

Anonymous asks:

What do you think of Clampearl/Huntail/Gorebyss? Beyond the weirdness of an oyster evolving into two fish…

I talked with Jim the Editor about the evolution thing, and he thinks Clamperl is actually an egg, of sorts, surrounded by an elaborate protective shell – Huntail and Gorebyss ‘hatch’ out of it. Also, weirdly, while it looks like Clamperl’s face is in its pearl, its Pokédex entries suggest that the pearl – the one pearl that it makes over the course of its life – is left behind when it evolves, so I’m not really sure what’s going on there.

Anyway. I don’t think either of them are spectacular. Huntail, I always felt, was somewhat lacking in personality, but I like the stark contrast between Gorebyss’ beautiful, elegant appearance and savage behaviour. I suppose if I have a problem with them, it’s that they’re not nearly as weird as they could be. Considering some of the bizarre stuff that lives in the deep ocean, a couple of eel-like Pokémon with mostly generic Water-type powers is… something of a let-down, to be honest.

Anonymous asks:

What would you say to wonder guard gaining an additional magic guard effect?

Well, it might make Shedinja suck less, and I’d be in favour of that… but the thing about Shedinja and Wonder Guard is that, because it’s so all-or-nothing, it’s almost impossible to balance. If your opponents can consistently damage it, it’s completely worthless. If your opponents can’t consistently damage it, it’s horrendously overpowered, until people wise up and start building their teams so that they can. There’s no middle ground. I don’t think changing the list of things that can insta-kill Shedinja actually helps much. Maybe if Wonder Guard worked differently – like if, in addition to its existing effect, it reduced all damage Shedinja does take to 1, and then Shedinja could be given more than one hit point (something like 3 or 5)… I feel like, at that point, you have more variables involved and more capacity to fine-tune the ability (by giving Shedinja a different number of hit points). But that’s just me brainstorming.

Anonymous asks:

Good news, Kricketune found his niche! I saw this really cool strategy in doubles of pairing Kricketune with Cresselia. This takes advantage of Focus Sash, Protect, Endeavor, and Perish Song under the effects of Trick Room to easily clear your opponent’s Pokemon.

What exactly does Kricketune specifically add to that? Wigglytuff and Marowak also get both Endeavour and Perish Song, are faster than Kricketune under Trick Room, are significantly tougher than Kricketune (although I’m not sure whether that matters in the context of this strategy) and have more useful abilities. I mean, major props to whoever found a way to make Kricketune useful, but without more details I kinda suspect there are still other Pokémon who would do it better, even for something as specific and contrived as this.

vikingboybilly asks:

Will kricketune get banned to ubers?

Kricketune will get banned to Anything Goes (the Mega Rayquaza tier). Its incredible tanking ability with Bide leaves your opponent paralysed with laugher, so that they’re helpless to do anything against Kricketune’s devastating Perish Song. Let’s not even talk about how overpowered its Technician-boosted Aerial Ace is.