Pokémon Series #1: Rodent Pokémon

There's no doubt about it, rodents are the coolest animals ever, and Pokémon is the biggest fake-animal TV show, game series, and trading card game out there. So, naturally, I wondered, what would happen if you combined the two! But, outside of the Pokémon icon, Pikachu, what rodent Pokémon are out there? And going along with that, is it even possible to make a worth-while team out of the coolest little guys? Today, let's explore that.

First of all, we have the "chus", Pichu/Pikachu/Raichu, Plusle, Minun, and Pachirisu. Naturally, they're all electric type, and Raichu is better than any of them, so we'll focus on him. If breeded correctly, it can learn one of my favorite attacks: Volt Tackle. An electric type Pokémon of any breed can make a great addition to any team, especially in D/P/P, as I personally used to ride on a Luxray to get me through half the gym leaders. So first off, let's add a Raichu to the team - make up your own skill build for your own purposes, be it PvP or PvE, I can't do all the work for you, now can I? ;)!

Next, I think a ground type Pokémon can be useful. Although some people say that Diglett and Dugtrio are rodents, I see them more as bumps, so let's skip them and go into Sandshrew and Sandslash. They are definitly rodents, and great ones too! Sandslash has a very high attack and defense stat, which comes in handy as the (sadly) only ground-type move it learns without a TM is physical damage, and almost all of it's other (typically normal-type) moves are physical and deal high damage.

As a team, a ground type and an electric type can take you threw quite a bit of the game, but we are allowed six pokémon, there are a few more rodents, and there are some HMs we need to cover, surf and waterfall being some of the most obvious. For this, the obvious choice is a water type, giving us only three real options: Buizel/Floatzel, Bidoof/Bibarel and Azurill/Marill/Azumarill. The Azurill line is all-around pretty weak (although based off of our good friend Pikachu...), and Bidoof is, well, annoying. So let's focus on Floatzel. This little weasel-like thing (yes, I know weasels are in a different family than rodents, but so are rabbits *cough* Azumarill *cough*, so I'm being lenient) has the highest speed of all water types (well, tied with Starmie, but with it's ability it can be the highest), and really high stats all around. Although it is arguably a waste to use HMs on a battling pokémon, the two are some of the strongest, notably Waterfall because Floatzel's attack is higher than it's special attack.

Although I don't typically approve of using legendary pokémon in a team, I feel that we're lacking some vegetable friends, so I'm going to say Shaymin. Naturally, being a legendary, Shaymin has very high stats as well as a good move set with it's signature move, Seed Flare. Whether or not to use it's flight form is up to opinion, but I personally say not for this team, because it looks more like a stag than the hedgehog it is in it's land form, as well as the fact that you can bring it's land form onto wifi with non-platinum users. On the other hand, it's flight form can learn Fly.

Well, the team's almost finished, but it's seriously lacking in bad-guy pokémon that make fart noises - a must have in every team! Naturally, we're going to use Stunky/Skuntank. Some of you may say that Skuntank looks like a cat, but that is most likely due to the fact that a nickname for skunks is 'polecat', and if you don't think it looks like a skunk, you're blind. I'm not 100% sure if skunks are even in the rodent family, but again, I'm being lenient. As anyone who has played an MMORPG before can tell, it's name means it's put there to take damage - as it has a high HP stat, but don't be fooled - it has low defense and special defense stats. Aside from being a tank, it's the only non-fire type pokémon to learn Flamethrower naturally, so if that doesn't sell you, go find some other guide.

For the last Pokémon, you have some choice. For general gameplay, I typically bring a Starly, or some other pokémon that can learn fly, but if you're using it solely for battle, or you're using the flight form of Shaymin, your choices are limited to the pokémon I listed but didn't use, repeats, or normal types. Personally, I think Rattata is really cute until it turns into Raticate, who is, of course, more suited for battle. Your other choices are typically found as the second pokémon - right after your starter, and are always used by the evil team in the game. Zigzagoon/Linoone and Sentret/Furret are good choices, although Sentret and Furret are not technically rodents.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment! Stay tuned for Pokémon Series #2!