^ And this is why this article didn't go up sooner.ELECTIVIRE! Shortly before Diamond and Pearl were released in Japan, Nintendo revealed a specific new Pokemon: the much-needed evolution for the electric Pokemon originally obtainable only in Red: Electivire. He came with a new ability that raised his speed whenever he was hit by an electric attack. He had a nice base attack stat of 123. Ever since Gold and Silver, Electabuzz’s family had the power to learn all the elemental punches, which were becoming physical moves now. With the addition of Cross Chop and Earthquake, this meant that Electivire could hit 13 of the 17 types of Pokemon for super-effective damage!
So, why does Electivire suck?
Well, maybe saying that he “sucks” is a bit harsh, but competitive Pokemon trainers typically pan this guy over a lot of the time, often laughing at the mere mention of using Electivire. It’s not that Electivire is necessarily a “bad” Pokemon; it’s just that there are a lot of other options you can use to do its jobs.
Electivire is typically used for two primary roles on a team: switching in on Electric attacks and dealing a lot of damage before passing out. Let’s take a closer look at these roles, shall we?
Insulation Confrontation
Motor Drive is a big selling point to Electivire. With this ability, if he is hit by an electric attack, Electivire negates the attack AND raises his own speed by one stage. Electivire’s speed is pretty unattractive without this boost from Motor Drive. A common strategy employed by Electivire trainers is to pair him up with a partner who is likely to trick the opponent into using electric attacks, most famously Gyarados. Gyarados is a powerful and tough Pokemon to fight, but he cannot stand being electrocuted. Thus, Electivire is meant to step in, take the boost, and proceed to go wild.
Electivire is not, however, the only Pokemon that resists or is immune to electricity. Before Motor Drive was introduced, there was another ability that negated damage from electricity: Volt Absorb. In fact, it did one better: Volt Absorb actually HEALS its bearer by about a quarter of its max HP if he or she is hit with an electric attack. Volt Absorbers may not gain speed, but being able to heal from the enemy’s attacks is worth it. There are only two Volt Absorbers in Gen-4, though:
Jolteon: Jolteon was a powerful special attacking force even before she got Volt Absorb. Unlike Electivire, Jolteon is naturally fast, with 130 base speed (meaning its speed maxes at 394 with a +Speed nature). She doesn’t NEED the speed boost required by Electivire to outrun most of her competition, and Jolteon’s base 110 Special Attack is something to fear, too, combined with Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, and a maxed-out Hidden Power.
Lanturn: Lanturn is nowhere near as powerful or fast as Jolteon, so it may seem like Electivire outclasses this one. However, Lanturn is partially Water-type, and while that does add a Grass weakness to her Ground weakness brought by being Electric-type, it also gives her a nice set of resistances, most notably the Thunderbolt + Ice Beam combo. Water is also a really solid offensive element. She’s worth consideration.
Even without abilities, though, it’s possible AND likely to resist electric attacks. Since electricity is a common attack type, having a Ground Pokemon is often a very good idea. Here are some of the most potent options available.
Flygon: I love this Pokemon. With a Choice Scarf, Flygon becomes a ridiculously fast U-Turner to scout out enemy attacks. He has plenty of resistances plus a great typing and ability (Levitate) that lets him come in easily multiple times in a match, despite entry hazards or Pokemon with Thunder Wave. Once the enemy is battered, Flygon can also be used to sweep with Earthquake (if the foe has lost all his Flyers and Levitators) or Outrage (once you take away his Steel).
Gliscor: What Flygon has in speed and strength, Gliscor has in bulkiness and utility. Gliscor’s Defense makes him a great physical wall, and he adds to that with a myriad of support options: Taunt, Toxic, and U-Turn are the most potent, and he usually wraps that up with Roost and Earthquake. He just wants to watch out for the Ice attacks that Electric Pokemon often carry.
Swampert: I personally don’t think it makes a great lead, but later on, Swampert can be a nice addition to your team. He is a great Pokemon to use to set up Stealth Rock, especially if you no longer have to worry about Taunt to stop him. Swampert is also quite tough, and his attacks do a nice chunk of damage. Variants that use Roar also help against Pokemon who boost their stats. Swampert’s biggest detriment is really his speed.
Electivire’s not the only Pokemon that can block electricity entirely, and many of the other options don’t have to rely on getting a Speed boost from the enemy to be effective. Nor is attacking the only thing a lot of these guys are good at. So, let’s delve into the other big draw to Electivire for a bit.
Jack of All Trades, Master of None
Electivire is known for his amazing versatility. With just four attacks, Electivire is capable of hitting thirteen of the seventeen Pokemon elements for super-effective damage. With the combination of Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Cross Chop, and Earthquake, only Fighting, Psychic, Bug, and Ghost Pokemon come out of a fight with him without that message saying “It’s supereffective!” So, there must be some kind of catch, right?
Yeah, there is a drawback to Electivire’s versatility: his attacks aren’t particularly strong. With an Adamant nature, Electivire’s Attack stat reaches 379. That does sound impressive, doesn’t it? So, one might expect that Electivire has a great physical electric attack to go along with it, right? However, the best Electric physical move available to Electivire (because Pikachu wants to hog Volt Tackle to himself) is Thunder Punch, which as a rather lowly 75 Base Power.
For the sake of my arguments here, I’ll be using a very simple formula for this that I call “Power Output”. Power Output will be the Pokemon’s offensive stat in question (Attack or Sp.Atk) multiplied by the move’s base power. The Same-Type-Attack-Bonus will also factor in if the types of user and attack match. In short, it’s the power value before the target’s defense and types kick in. So…
Adamant Electivire’s Thunder Punch = 379 * 75 * 1.5 = 42637.5
Not a horrible mark, considering that Adamant Salamence’s Outrage has a Power Output of 72900. Electivire is using his best physical STAB attack. Let’s take a look at the other non-STAB’d moves he uses in this set.
Adamant Electivire’s Ice Punch = 379 * 75 = 28425
Adamant Electivire’s Cross Chop = 379 * 100 = 37900
Hmmm… the numbers are starting to look a bit shabby around here. But surely, it would be hard to top these Outputs, right?
How about we wrap about another highly-versatile Pokemon for a little bit? Infernape is seriously one of my favorite Pokemon from Sinnoh. Not only do he and his unevolved forms have some pretty awesome physical designs, but Infernape is an amazing Pokemon competitively, too: one who’s vying for a Top 10 spot and might be able to get there if not for Heatran. Infernape is a terribly frail Pokemon that can’t come in on a lot of blows, but due to his great speed, his great strength, and his ability to run diverse physical, special, or mixed attacking sets, Infernape is a wall-breaking master and a powerful hitter teams should watch out for.
Electivire can also be used as a wall breaker, but I’ll get into that part a little later. Let’s compare the best physical STAB that both ends can muster. Electivire got Thunder Punch, so what’s Infernape’s best draw? Oh, it’s not much. Just some piddly little no-name attack called CLOSE COMBAT! Now, there are many sets that Infernape can run, but the two most common ones are the mixed sets. In these cases, Infernape focuses more on Physical or Special Attacking and has a +Speed nature that drops one of his defenses. In these cases, one offensive stat will be 260, and the other at 307. Both offensives are necessary, however, because Infernape will keep at least one attack that disrupts the bias (Close Combat on Special-bias or a Special Fire Attack on the Physical-bias). So, let’s “gimp” Infernape a bit here and check the Power Output on the Specially-biased Mixed Infernape.
Naïve Special MixApe’s Close Combat = 260 * 120 * 1.5 = 46800
Hmm… judging from the numbers, Infernape’s Close Combat is generally packing almost 10% more power than Electivire’s Thunder Punch. Pretty impressive. But do you want to know the best part? With this calculation, Infernape isn’t even using his full power. He doesn’t have a +Attack nature here, and he doesn’t have his Attack power maxed out, whereas Electivire IS maximizing his damage output with Thunder Punch (in both cases without any boosts or enemy typing involved). So, what happens if the Physically-biased MixApe starts fighting in Close Combat?
Naïve Physical MixApe’s Close Combat = 307 * 120 * 1.5 = 55260
Oh, dear. Now, Infernape’s packing almost 30% more power than Electivire is. Electivire would need to use a Life Orb now to outdo Infernape’s Power Output. But that’s not going to get him anywhere, considering that Infernape’s Mixed Attacking sets generally hold a Life Orb themselves! Power boosts don’t make you better than your rival if he also has the same power boost. That’s just common sense.
So, a while back, I wrote down that Electivire makes a good wall-breaker. Up until now, I’ve been using only the second-most popular moveset and stats for Electivire, according to Smogon’s listings. Electivire actually can run his own Mixed Attacking set, utilizing some Special attacks. He has a Mild nature and runs the moves Thunderbolt, Cross Chop, Flamethrower, and Hidden Power Ice.
Thunderbolt, like on most Pokemon with Electric attacks, is used over it’s more powerful counterpart Thunder because the latter is less reliable. Let’s use another formula I call “Reliability”, a move’s Base Power multipled by its accuracy divided by 100.
Thunderbolt’s Reliability = 95 * 1 = 95
Thunder’s Reliability = 120 * .7 = 84
This Mixed Electivire set uses a different nature, usually one that boosts Special Attack power without dropping physical power. The set also invests EVs into Electivire’s Sp.Atk stat until it is maximized. Therefore, Electivire’s Sp.Atk is increased to 317. What’s the Output on his Thunderbolt now?
Mild Electivire’s Thunderbolt = 317 * 95 * 1.5 = 45172.5
Let’s see Infernape try to challenge that. Sun Wukong can also utilize a 95 Base Power STAB attack in Flamethrower. But…
Naïve Special MixApe’s Flamethrower = 307 * 95 * 1.5 = 43747.5
Um… Whoops. Infernape’s Sp.Atk is now lower than Electivire’s, and he’s using an attack of equal power. It looks like Infernape may be outclassed here.
OBJECTION!
…which is why most Mixed Attacking Infernape do NOT use Flamethrower. Remember that Reliability thing I mentioned a little while ago? Let’s check that with some of the best and most readily-available special Fire attacks.
Flamethrower’s Reliability = 95 * 1 = 95
Fire Blast’s Reliability = 120 * .85 = 102
Overheat’s Reliability = 140 * .9 = 126
As you can see, the higher-powered Fire Attacks are actually MORE reliable than Flamethrower is due to improved accuracy. Because of their higher Reliability, these moves are usually the preferred Fire Magic of Pokemon. Overheat seems the most reliable of all, but it does have one major drawback: it lowers the Sp.Atk of the Pokemon that uses it to half after one use and to a third after two uses. Therefore, Fire Blast is preferred on the Mixed Attacking Infernapes that use a lot of Special attacks. Overheat is fine to use, however, on the Physically-biased MixApe, since it’s generally the only Special Attack it will use. Let’s check the Power Outputs for both moves on their appropriate sets.
Naïve Special MixApe’s Fire Blast = 307 * 120 * 1.5 = 55260
Naïve Physical MixApe’s Overheat = 260 * 140 * 1.5 = 54600
Huh. Once again, Electivire is unable to hold a candle to Infernape in regards to Special Attacking, with Son Goku literally packing over 20% more heat than Dr. Shaggy.
These differences in numbers might seem small, but think about the extra knockouts that a Life Orb or even an Expert Belt is able to grant any offensive Pokemon. That’s roughly the difference in this case, and that is why Infernape makes a far better offensive Pokemon to come in and hit stuff with than Electivire.
HOLD IT!
You want to hear Infernape’s type coverage with his mixed sets, don’t you? I listed Electivire’s before.
Physical Mixed Infernape may often run Overheat (Fire), Close Combat (Fighting), U-Turn (Bug), and Stone Edge (Rock). That is super-effective damage on Grass, Ice, Bug, Steel, Normal, Rock, Dark, Psychic, Fire, and Flying Pokemon that’s 10 out of 17.
Special Mixed Infernape is likely to use Close Combat (Fighting), Fire Blast (Fire), Grass Knot (Grass), and Hidden Power (Ice). Here we have super-effective damage on Normal, Ice, Rock, Dark, Steel, Grass, Bug, Water, Ground, Flying, and Dragon-types. 11 out of 17 may not be as good as Electivire in that sense, but it IS impressive.
So, how about we compare the two’s Power Output for their WHOLE movesets. Just add the attacks they use together to get a result. Might help to have the other moves Power Outputs first.
Mild Electivire’s Hidden Power = 317 * 70 = 22190
Mild Electivire’s Flamethrower = 317 * 95 = 30115
Mild Electivire’s Cross Chop = 292 * 100 = 29200
Naïve Physical MixApe’s Stone Edge = 307 * 100 = 30700
Naïve Physical MixApe’s U-Turn = 307 * 70 = 21490
Naïve Special MixApe’s Grass Knot = 307 * 70 (avg. value) = 21490
Naïve Special MixApe’s Hidden Power = 307 * 70 = 21490
Physical Electivire’s Total Damage Output
42637.5 + 28425 + 37900 + 37900 = 146862.5 (139282.5)
Mixed Electivire’s Total Damage Output
45172.5 + 22190 + 30115 + 29200 = 126677.5 (120837.5)
Physical-Biased Mixed Infernape’s TDO
55260 + 54600 + 30700 + 21490 = 162050 (147720)
Special-Biased Mixed Infernape’s TDO
46800 + 55260 + 21490 + 21490 = 145040 (136751)
So, by the numbers, it seems that Electivire’s physical set may outclass Infernape’s Special-biased Mixed set slightly. However, it should be noted that Grass Knot’s Base Power varies depending on the target. If I counted its power as 80 (the second most common value altogether and rounded-up average of OU Pokemon), then the damage output would be 24560, so the set’s value would be 148110. There are slightly more Pokemon that tend toward the heavier side than there are lighter ones in OU, although there are some very viable lightweights (like Celebi and Rotom).
So, yeah… Infernape is still slapping Electivire silly. But there’s also one more nail in the coffin as to why Electivire pales in comparison to other Pokemon that can fill his role. All Electivire is really good for is attacking and taking electric damage. Outside those roles, he doesn’t do much for the team or have very many interesting moves that aren’t just damage-dealing alternatives. Again, Infernape outclasses Electivire here. Overheat / Close Combat / Stone Edge on the physical set gives him great coverage and an extra move slot to do something neat. The best options here are U-Turn, which lets him damage a foe AND switch to another Pokemon, and Mach Punch, which allows him to strike first against many opponents, including usually faster ones. Infernape is also able to fill another interesting role as a good lead Pokemon. With Fake Out to make opponents flinch the first turn, and Stealth Rock to leave a dent in flying fiends that try to switch in (and fire, ice, and bug), he has a great moveset to fight off a lot of common leads and the speed to work him through it, too.
That’s not to say Infernape is the only one can use neat tricks. Remember all of those Pokemon I mentioned earlier that resisted electricity? They can usually do other things, too. Flygon’s U-Turn lets him escape unfavorable situations while dealing a little damage to the foe. Jolteon can run a set with Fake Tears that might persuade the foe to switch a lot, or she can start to set up with Charge Beams and/or Substitutes. Lanturn is really bulky and has an amazing type that resists some of the best attacking types in the game, as well as the ability to SubCharge. Gliscor has several support options like U-Turn, Taunt, and Toxic. Swampert’s reliability in setting up Stealth Rock due to his bulk will mean that he can take a lot of attacks before passing out. A lot more interesting than the hairy bug that just punches a lot, no?
Conclusions
Of course, having good stats in Pokemon is important for what you intend to do. But even the most skilled samurai would have a hard time striking his target down if he is denied a blade to match his skill. Likewise, a Pokemon should be able to back up his or her impressive stats with moves that work well with him or her. Monsters like Electivire and Weavile have some impressive offensive stats (Weavile > Electivire statwise) and are considered overused Pokemon. However, they will have a hard time shining as major offensive threats because they lack attacks that work well with those offensive stats. Thunder Punch and Night Slash are alright, but they are lacking in power when compared to Fighting Pokemon that know Close Combat or Dynamic Punch, or Starmie with her Hydro Pump or even Surf. Having good attacks to pair with your offensive stats will make you a threat on the level of Starmie, Infernape, Gengar, Scizor, Lucario, and the like.
This has been Ryu-Kage, and all I want is to have my peace of mind. :)
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