Saturday, July 31st Pokemon of the Day

Slapping steel typing together with another one is a good way to test for resistances thanks to the healthy amount that the steel typing has. That said, you guys are going to LOVE me for this pokemon. Slamming a Steel typing to a Grass one is very much a blessing. Like the ever lovely Bug/Steel type, Grass/Steel comes with only one weakness, a four times weakness to the less than commonly used fire type. Grablade is the perfect example. But this guy comes with MORE resistances. How so? Bug, not going to lie, has a fair few weaknesses but only one resistance to ground of all types. Grass comes with some very healthy resistances to Electric, Ground, Water, Fight, and, of course, itself. Steel comes with resistance to Rock, Dragon, Steel, Flying, Bug, Dark, Ghost, Psychic, and an immunity to Poison...Very Healthy type combination giving Grablade a whopping 10 resistances, an immunity to what the grass typing would have initially been weak to, five neutral damages, and only one weakness.

Stat wise Grablade isn't that bad off. It's got Outstanding Physical Attack, Good Physical Defense, and Good Speed (for a Steel Type, not so much for a grass type). This mixes well with its movepool which is loaded with physical attacks and the difference maker, SWORDS DANCE!

The Fire is nothing to sneeze at. Why? This Pokemon comes with two awesome abilities. You get Chlorophyl and Fan Off. What's Fan Off? It's an ability exclusive to this pokemon and one of the best abilities in the game. At te cost of lower evasiveness, this pokemon can't be hit by Special Attacks, making it particularly threatening. Few fire types for some reason have Special Attack stats better than their physical ones, but there are very few physical fire type attacks.

That said, there are some exceptions and pokemon who can totally annihilate this guy. Infernape has the speed and physical offense to work with it, as do Typlosion and Charizard. Heck, why are we talking specifics? All the fire starters (barring Blaziken who sufferes from inferior speed and a weakness to Ariel Ace) can mop the floor with Grablade. Other viable options include Metagross ad Tyranitar who can drill at it with Earthquake or the Torkoal Evolution who does a very good job of walling it.

This guys MAIN issue is weakness to Acid Rain. Acid Rain completely destroys this guy and is the only hope many poison types have of hurting it. Acid Rain is a poison type move but it's the only one that can harm steel types and one that's out of the way, the grass type's weakness also kicks in, doing this guy a fairly large amount of damage.

Strategies using this guy? If the game were turn based then I'd say it's an easy switch in and a great Physical Sweeper/Glass Cannon. BUT it isn't. (PvP is, Storymode isn't) In Storymode the idea is to exploit all it has going for it. Take full advantage of its ability and offensive stat.

Going back to stats. Pokemon's only fast for a steel type. For a grass type (Benchmark set by pokemon like Jumpluff and Sceptile) it's really quite slow. Don't try to outspeed much with it because it'll do you no good. This pokemon wasn't meant to dodge. Let the opponent get close as you can then slam it hard.

For the Turn-Based PvP basically just don't hope to outspeed anything. Switching in isn't that hard for it. Just be careful as you may find yourself switching into a fire trap. Avoid any pokemon with Fire Punch. A decent strategy for it is to have one pokemon with Follow Me or Cute Face to draw the opponent while it uses Swords Dance (you only need it once because its attack is already HUGE) then use Follow Me again so Grablade gets the free set of a possible OHKO.