Rosalia’s Favourite Pokemon – Water/Grass/Fire Edition

Introduction

So, whilst this is semi-obvious, some of the Pokémon listed in the graphic above are not going to be my absolute favourites, for some types it was hard to pick one representative that communicates my love and affection for what that type embodies. And conversely, for some of choices I have made, they are my favourite, no questions asked. Why I have made certain choices will be explained in the respective section for each Pokémon.

With that small disclaimer out of the way, let us move onto covering the trio of types that encompass the starter Pokémon.

Water – Mudkip, #258

I am a girl who practically always goes for the Water-type starter (more on that in the next section), from Squirtle to Sobble, each generation’s offering has managed to capture my heart in unique ways. So what elevates Mudkip to standing out amongst the rest?

First off, the design. Whilst it is more possible that the design was inspired more by mudpuppies and mudskippers; there are also some hints of axolotl within there, with the gills on the side of its cheeks mimicking an axolotl’s gills. This instantly elevates my opinion of Mudkip, as axolotls are my personal favourite amphibians with their charming smile and docile personalities. This is not to say that Mudkip is not cute on its own, sharing the common trait amongst all starter Pokémon of looking incredibly huggable.

With this being the first Pokémon in an evolutionary line (the only such entry on my list), discussing what Mudkip evolves into seems appropriate.

At Level 16 it evolves into Marshtomp, gaining Ground-type as a secondary type, this eliminate its weakness to Electric-type, but that comes with the caveat of a four-times weakness to Grass-type. Whilst quad weaknesses can be perceived as liabilities to some trainers; I consider them almost a point of charm, since additional types can also bring additional resistances.

At Level 36, it evolves into the final form of the line, Swampert.

The two defining stats of Swampert are their HP (100) and Attack (110), leaving them as a bulky physical attacker, with the very powerful advantage of gaining Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) on Earthquake, probably the best move in their arsenal. Physical Water-type moves are a bit lacking for a physical Water-type attacker, but with a Sp. Attack base of 85, having a move like Muddy Water or Surf would not go amiss.

Also, try sort out an Ice-type move ASAP, Grass-type is the only weakness here so having the type coverage to deal with them would be valuable.

Swampert is also the first of several Pokémon on this list to have a Mega Evolution. Introduced in Generation 6 as a way to try spice up battles; Mega Evolution allows certain Pokémon holding Mega Stones (or knowing a certain move, in one broken case) to unlock a pseudo-evolution in the middle of a battle, changing their form, stats, and abilities. This was only allowed once per battle.

Mega Swampert has clearly been hitting the gym, with those massive arms providing a huge boost in Attack to 150, with minor buffs to both Defense stats and Sp. Attack. Speed only goes up by 10 points, but in the right hands this should be no issue, as this Mega Evolution gains the ability “Swift Swim”, doubling speed when the weather condition of the battle is rain.

Mudkip was my choice when Ruby and Sapphire first released, and when Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came around, the choice continued to be a no-brainer.

Grass – Torterra, #389

So… about what I said about being someone who always took Water-type starters…

Yeah, there has been one exception on a first playthrough of any main series game, and that is the Turtwig line.

And even today, I consider this quite a break away from what I’ve always known, especially considering Generation 4 is when the Water-type starter line was designed after penguins, one of my all-time favourite animals. But… something about this cute, grassy tortoise spoke to me.

Since I’m specifically saying that Torterra is my favourite here, I’ll give some condensed thoughts:

• Turtwig Cute
• Grotle Meh

Now, onto the main show, the tortoise carrying a world on their back.

Meaning of course The Great A’Tuin.

Nah, we’re still talking about Torterra here, but A’Tuin is admittedly one of the nicknames I’ve used in the past for this Pokémon, along with various ground-based puns, and when I first got Pokémon Diamond at the age of 8…

“Tree King”

I wasn’t wrong, they do have a pretty formidable tree growing out of them. Formidable is also pretty accurate word to describe the offensive capabilities of Torterra, carrying a base Attack stat of 109 and learning the powerful STAB Ground-type move of Earthquake upon evolution at Level 32, with the ever-versatile move of Crunch being learned at Level 45 providing valuable type coverage in a reliable way, and, with a Move Reminder, Wood Hammer unlocks true STAB Grass-type potential at the cost of some recoil damage.

However, the recoil doesn’t necessarily have to be an issue, as the utility moveset of Torterra allows for limited recoil mitigation in the form of Synthesis, potentially combining with a Sunny Day user to fully maximise recovery, or Leech Seed to give more gradual recovery across multiple turns whilst maintaining damage output.

And like Swampert beforehand, a favourite Pokémon of mine has a four-times weakness, this time in the form of Ice-type moves. And again, this just adds to the charm for me, especially with the raw amount of power Torterra is able to put out.

Fire – Marowak (Alolan), #105

Of all the new experimental designs to come out of The Pokémon Company in recent years, the idea of regions having specific forms of different Pokémon has to rank highly for me, as it’s a way of creating diversity within a region whilst utilizing existing designs in creative ways (though admittedly, Galar does this better than Alola did).

Out of all the Alolan forms added in Generation 7, one stands out to me, the ghostly fire dancer form of Marowak.

Fire dancing is a worldwide spectacle at this stage, but it is theorised that Alolan Marowak draws inspiration from multiple Pacific civilisations, with the Samoan fire dancers inspiring the bone club with flames on each end, mimicking the design of a fire staff. The second half of the typing (Ghost) potentially has routes in the Polynesian culture with the concept of “mana”.

Mana is a wide-ranging term, but it usually comes down to the concept of people possessing different forms of spiritual energy that exists in people, places, and objects. Ancient Hawaiian culture teaches that in nature, everything has a counterpart, and so both positive and negative possessions of mana are possible. If we compare this to Alolan Marowak’s Pokédex entries, it can be theorised that the mana possessed by this Pokémon is one of sorrow, regret, and vengeance, manifesting as the fire imbued within them.

Brief culture lesson over and wild theories postulated, let’s get into the finer details of why I love this alternate form.

I had made up my mind pretty early on that I wanted one of these on my Pokémon Sun team, as when I saw it in previews I almost instantly fell in love with the design and typing and, with the knowledge I’d be choosing Popplio as my starter, gave diversity to my team composition.

When using the Thick Club (the only correct item for any sort of Marowak in my opinion), an aggressive moveset is ideal, and the Fire/Ghost typing of Alolan Marowak opens many possible avenues for powerful STAB and type coverage moves:

• Flare Blitz, when combined with the Hidden Ability of Rock Head (nullify recoil damage from moves), is a 120 power, 100% accuracy STAB Fire-type move with no downside whatsoever. Use. It.
• Shadow Bone, the signature move of Alolan Marowak, a good power STAB Ghost-type move with the added benefit of potentially reducing the target’s Defense stat
• Brick Break, learnt via TM, gives utility to remove Light Screen and Reflect effects, whilst also granting type coverage to deal with the new weakness to Dark-types
• And finally, depending on your preferences, you can either go for Swords Dance to make sure attacks sweep foes away, or you can go with the unintentional theme of this article, and teach it Earthquake to round out the moveset more

Part 1: Completed

So ends the Water/Grass/Fire edition of my favourite Pokémon, it’d be nice to hear what you think of my choices in specific types, or what your favourites are within the types of the edition. Next time, I’ll be covering the Normal, Electric, and Psychic entries of my list.