Beedrill2001 Presents : Let's Talk Pokémon

#508 - Stoutland

The early game normal type has been a staple of the franchise since the very beginning.

Gen 1 has Raticate, Gen 2 has Furret, Gen 3 has Linoone, and Gen 4 has Bibarel....but then Gen 5 arrived on the scene and shook things up a bit by having two normal types : Watchog and Stoutland.

I'll be talking (ranting) about Watchog some other time, but right now I'll be talking about my favorite doggie pokémon.

Stoutland is a pokémon I absolutely love, which is pretty odd because in real life I am very much a cat person.

(Not that I don't love dogs, I've just always preferred cats.)

A big reason I like Stoutland so much is because it reminds me a lot of my dog Riggs, who is a Yorkshire Terrier.

Plus, the first stage Lillipup is just sooo cute, and it's evolution Herdier is too!

(I just want to pet them and give them both treats really really badly!)

I'd also be an absolute fool not to mention the glorious flowing beard Stoutland has, which I believe makes it the crown ruler of all doggos, but that's just me.

The fact you get to ride on the back of a Stoutland in the Alola games and use the big ol' Yorkie to sniff out hidden items is a pretty cool feature to me.

Ok, enough of me gushing over the good doggies, it's time to talk about Stoutland as a pokémon.

Like a good number of pure normal types that came before it like Tauros, Granbull, and Zangoose, Stoutland is a strong physical attacker.

It learns some really good coverage moves like Crunch, Wild Charge, Dig, and the elemental fangs, along with a very respectable 100 base attack stat to use them.

Besides having relatively high attack, Stoutland also has good defense and special defense, with both being a base 90.

One thing I will say about Stoutland's moveset that kinda stinks is that it gets strong attacks like Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt.....with an abysmal 45 base special attack stat to back them up.

That isn't a problem exclusive to Stoutland mind you, because a lot of physical normal types (including the three I mentioned earlier) have that same problem.

On the topic of abilities, Stoutland is one of only two pokémon in the Unova dex to receive Intimidate, the other being Krookodile (plus Arcanine if we're talking about Black 2 and White 2).

Intimidate is a great ability to have and utterly cripples physical attackers, including the numerous fighting types Stoutland is weak to (just watch out for Aura Sphere and Focus Blast).

Stoutland's other natural ability is Sand Rush, which raises speed during a sandstorm.

The games never tell you this, but any non ground, rock, or steel type with an ability that works with Sandstorm do not take chip damage every turn like they otherwise would, which is definitely a bonus.

That said however, Sand Rush is very situational and though the boost to Stoutland's mediocre base 80 speed is nice....Intimidate's just too good to pass on.

Stoutland's hidden ability is Scrappy, allowing it to hit ghost types with fighting and normal attacks.

This is a good ability, but considering Stoutland already has ways of dealing with ghosts (especially Crunch), it's kind of unnecessary...plus Intimidate is still the best ability for it anyway.

I've been praising Intimidate a lot, but keep in mind all of what I've said applies before Game Freak nerfed it in both Gens 8 and 9 by having other abilities like Steadfast make pokémon immune to Intimidate.

The last thing I will say regarding abilities is that if you want a Stoutland with Intimidate, make sure the Lillipup you caught has Vital Spirit, which will become Intimidate upon evolution.

Otherwise your Lillipup will have Pick Up, which turns into Sand Rush when it evolves into Herdier.

Now I might do a top 10 saddest anime moments at some point, but I will briefly bring this up now since I'm talking about Stoutland.

Man, the Sun and Moon anime really tugged on my heartstrings with the story of Ash's Litten.

(If you know, you know.)

Now that I think about it, all of Ash's fire type starters besides Cyndaquil had really sad backstories, but I digress.

To end things off, I'll say that Stoutland is a really good normal type with a great ability that is definitely in my top 15 favorite pokémon, but didn't quite make it into my top 10.....sorry Riggs, I still love you though.