Day 7: Octillery
(BGM: Eterna City from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum)
Me: Well another Friday has come and gone. So, Lyra, do we know what we do on Fridays during Lent?
Lyra: Is this really a conversation we're having?
Me: Well, I'll tell you.
Lyra: And you're choosing to ignore my question.
Me: On Fridays during Lent, and by extension Ash Wednesday, people of the Catholic Faith are not allowed to eat meat, so we have to eat seafood instead.
Lyra: Why are you bringing this up in a Lent Marathon about your favorite Pokemon?
Me: Because there's quite a lot of Pokemon out there based on a wide variety of fish and I was wondering how good they'd taste when cooked.
(Beat)
Lyra: Is this seriously the thought process you have on most days?
Me: For example…
Lyra: And he ignores me again.
Me:…People all over the world eat octopus, so I wonder what Octillery tastes like.
(Beat)
Lyra: This whole weird conversation is just some kind of a segue into you talking about Octillery isn't it?
Me: Oh, you can read me like a book, Lyra. Yeah, we're talking about Octillery today.
(Insert Octillery cry here)
(BGM: Battle! Rival from Heart Gold/Soul Silver)
Octillery is another Pokemon I don't really hear a lot of people talk about all that much. Which is a shame because, Octillery is one of the best Pokemon that this franchise's second generation has to offer.
For one thing being pure water type means it's only weak to Grass and Electric types, good start.
Second, Octillery has some pretty good attacking stats, with both physical and special attack stats being at 105. Unfortunately it's a little bit slow, and it's defenses are meh, but put a quick claw or train this Pokemon up enough and it is ready to take on the world.
Where Octillery lacks in defenses and speed, though, he makes up for it by having an awesome ability, and an even more amazing movepool. I'm talking about a movepool so diverse that most Psychic types are blushing at this thing.
First, let's talk about Octillery's abilities. It can come with Suction Cups which prevent moves that force a switch out, like Roar, Whirlwind, or Dragon Tail, from working. It's situational at best and you won't find use for it often. The ability that you do want for Octillery is Sniper, which increases the power of any moves that get a critical hit. Sure, getting a critical hit may come down to luck, but when it happens and you have a Pokemon like Octillery with Sniper for its ability, it's incredibly satisfying to see your opponent's health bar go down.
And finally, we come to Octillery's movepool, and whoa mama does this thing learn some good moves. His name is a play-on words for the word 'artillery' for a reason.
Naturally, Octillery can learn moves like Rock Blast, Psybeam, Bullet Seed, Ice Beam, Bubble Beam, and Hyper Beam. And of course we can't overlook its signature move Octozooka, which has a fifty-fifty chance of lowering your opponent's accuracy.
But once we get to the moves that Octillery can learn through other means…that's where the fun really starts.
Octillery ain't afraid of now Grass types if he has moves like Sludge Bomb and Flamethrower at its disposal. A fire breathing octopus! Now I know I've heard and seen everything.
But beyond that, Octillery can learn Charge Beam to combat its own type and get a chance to boost its special attack stat, Energy Ball which is a much better Grass type move than Bullet Seed, Mud Shot to combat Electric types and lower the opponent's speed, and for good measure, it can learn Flash Cannon.
I know yesterday I said Blastoise was like a living, breathing tank…well Octillery is even moreso!
Add in the hilariously weird idea for its evolution…in what other universe would a remora evolve into an octopus…and you get a very underrated Pokemon and a hidden gem in the Generation 2 Pokedex.
Lyra: But seriously, dude, would you really eat an Octillery?
Me: Yeah, why not? I mean, I assume the characters in-universe eat Pokemon all the time. We don't really see any other animals in the series, so food has to come from somewhere.
Lyra: So when we don't use these creatures for battling we're killing and eating them?
Me: It's a mon eat mon world, Lyra. Welcome to reality.
(Beat)
Lyra: This whole segment took a dark turn.
Me: Given I was talking about Octillery, it could be worse. I could've made a hentai joke.
Lyra: (Shrugs her shoulders) True.
