“You can't protect yourself. No matter how safe you think you are. No matter how much precaution you take, the rodents always find a way in.”
Raticate
Furret
Linoone
Bibarel
Watchog
Diggersby
Gunshoos
Greedent
The route one Pokemon is a staple of every game. Walking out into your first route, and encountering one of these evolutionary lines, acts almost like a right of passage between starting your journey and becoming a true master. But what if we took all of these rodents and made them fight to the death? What generation will come out on top? Come along to Saul’s VS Blog, where we find out who would win a DEATH BATTLE!!!
Before we go anywhere
For this debate, every rodent will be treated as if they're level 100 wild Pokèmon. This means anything they can't get without outside help (TMs, Egg/Tutor Moves, Hidden Abilities, some items, etc.) will be excluded from the debate. In the event a rodent has two abilities, they will be composited, so both abilities get factored in. In addition, we'll only use moves from the most recent games the rodents were a part of, since some moves get cut over generation shifts. Finally, the battle portion of this debate will be treated like the modern Pokèmon games, where the rodents will free roam and fight when they encounter one another, meaning they have the option of fighting or fleeing just like a regular wild encounter.
This blog is also different in that we’ve removed the feats category. This is because all of these creatures scale to each other, so it would be rather pointless.
Background
Raticate
The first and original rodent, the Raticate, is a strong hunter. They’re known for their big teeth and gnawing anything that comes close to it. They take great care of their teeth, biting on objects like rocks and logs to keep them down. You also can never escape from the Raticate thanks to its webbed feet, anger disposition, and need to gnaw. If you manage to take away its whiskers, Raticate won’t be able to move and struggle to keep up. Although, you’d be lucky to get close to it.
Furret
Known for their walking cycles, which took the internet by storm, the Furret’s are quick and agile. They use their speed to overwhelm foes, squirming through narrow paths. But they’re also parents, known to protect any babies of their offspring until they reach adulthood.
Linoone
Linoone are known for their agile movements, charging their prey with their speeds. Just make sure you’re running in a straight line otherwise they can’t hurt you. Their fur is also highly expensive and used often as a luxury item.
Bibarel
Sluggish, lazy, dumb, these are the horrible words thrown at Bibarel. I’m here to tell you that they are not these words! Bibarel are hard working pokemon that only serve to help the community, known as hard workers. They’re slow on land, but fast in water. I’m tired of this Bibarel slander.
Watchog
People don’t like Watchog, I think it’s because they got skilled issued back in Black and White by hypnosis. All that’s really known about it is the fact it has glowing eyes, cool.
Diggersby
People use the services of Diggersby all the time. Thanks to the fact it can dig into almost anything. This one was also hated on release, a sad day for Diggersby fans.
Gumshoos
I’ll be honest, this thing doesn’t do much but compared to Donald Trump. It IS the first totem pokemon you fight.
..in moon.
Greedent
Ending with our newest edition, Greedent is a cute squirrel who loves berries. I do mean LOVE. it’s all this thing is known for, just its love of berries.
Experience and Skill
Raticate
Raticate are scary monsters. They hunt different types of prey and are notably aggressive to those around it. Thanks to its webbed feet, not even water types are safe from this creature, it’ll even bite your hand off if you get it too close. It has enough stamina to swim island to island in Aloha, and its whiskers are used to keep balance.
Furret
Furret is not really regarded as an aggressive Pokemon, it’s unlikely to attack all things considered. Besides its daily meal of Rattata. But what they are good at is their impressive ability to squeeze through narrow spaces and into their den. Which is impossible to be entered by any other pokemon and acts almost like a labyrinth to anyone trying to enter. Which they built themselves!
Linoone
When hunting, Linoone uses its razor sharp claws and deadly speed to pursue prey and catch them before they make it very far. It's incredibly fast when running in straight lines, however it struggles around obstacles and curves.
Bibarel
Bibarel is one hell of a beaver, not only can it quickly make a nest by cutting up roots and sticks with its sharp teeth. But its ability to make dams is off the charts. A bark and muddy dam built by a Bibarel will never overflow no matter the water pressure.
Watchog
Watchog’s jacket-like stripes are more than just looks, though they do serve an importance in intimidation. It can make these stripes and its eyes glow in order to stun opponents and even see in the dark.
Diggersby
Diggersby, as you can see in the gif, are incredible diggers. They’re compared to excavator’s that dig through bedrock. They are lazy though, lounging after days of hard work. They also have warm bellies!
Gumshoos
Gumshoos are persistent Pokemon. They’ll stalk a creature for an entire day, until the sun goes down. This only comes into conflict when they see Rattata, their favourite meal.
Greedent
(What’s wrong? Does this image scare you?) Greedent’s are described as slow-witted, caring for berries more than anything, it’ll even run away from those in battle to collect more berries. Their main strategy in combat is to sit around, tank hits and set up before doing monstrous damage. What did you expect? Something in-depth? This thing is the latest one it has nothing-
Equipment
Raticate
Oran Berry
When below 50 percent health, an Oran Berry will be eaten and restore 10hp.
Chilan Berry
If hit by a normal type move, the user will consume this berry and halve the damage taken.
Furret
Oran Berry
When below 50 percent health, an Oran Berry will be eaten and restore 10hp.
Sitrus Berry
Heals 25% of the user's max HP when it drops below half health.
Linoone
Oran Berry
When below 50 percent health, an Oran Berry will be eaten and restore 10hp.
Sitrus Berry
Heals 25% of the user's max HP when it drops below half health.
Potion
Will heal the user by 20 HP…but needs a trainer to activate.
Revive
If the user faints, it will be revived and restore half its health…but also needs a trainer to activate it.
Bibarel
Oran Berry
When below 50 percent health, an Oran Berry will be eaten and restore 10hp.
Sitrus Berry
Heals 25% of the user's max HP when it drops below half health.
Spoiled Apricot
A trainer can throw this at a wild Pokèmon to stun them, maybe Bibarel could do the same…
EXP. Candy S
Grants a single Pokèmon a small amount of exp. points, so it doesn't do anything here.
Seed of Mastery
A trainer with one of these allows a Pokemon to master a specific style of move (Strong or Agile)
Watchog
Berries
In Its cheek pouches, Watchog has its very own berries that it can spit the seeds out of as a projectile (Still can’t learn Bullet Seed), although the type of berries are unknown.
Diggersby
Nothing
Gumshoos
Pecha Berry
If the user gets poisoned, it will consume the berry and cure the status ailment.
Greedent
Oran Berry
When below 50 percent health, an Oran Berry will be eaten and restore 10hp.
Sitrus Berry
Heals 25% of the user's max HP when it drops below half health.
Powers and Abilities
Raticate
Run Away
Has a guaranteed chance of running away from a wild encounter.
Guts
If hit with a status ailment, Raticate's attack will be raised by one stage.
Teeth
Raticate in many Pokedex entries are notable for their long and strong teeth. It has the strength to bite your hand off, chew through concrete, walls, and even buildings.
Normal Type Moves
Tackle: Uses all 40.8 pounds to tackle the opponent. Does almost nothing in terms of damage.
Quick Attack: A weak but effective attack at going first due to +1 priority.
Take Down: A solidly powerful move that deals 90 damage but delivers recoil to the user.
Super Fang: Cuts the opponent's current HP in half.
Double-Edge: The cooler Take Down. Deals 120 damage with the same downside of recoil.
Endeavor: Causes the target's HP to equal the user's HP. Will fail if the user's HP is greater than or equal to the target's HP.
Stat Boosting Moves
Swords Dance: Boosts attack by 2 stages.
Coverage Moves
Bite: Uses its big cheese eating teeth to bite the opponent. Has a chance to flinch due to cheese breath.
Assurance: A 60 base power move that doubles in power if the user received damage during the turn, including indirect or self-inflicted damage.
Crunch: Instead of using its chompers to bite the opponent, it instead uses them to crunch the opponent. Has a chance to drop defense.
Sucker Punch: A priority move that always lets the user move first, but will fail if the target uses a status move or a priority move.
Other Moves
Scary Face Makes a scary face (shocker) that lowers the target's speed by two stages.
Tail Whip: Lowers the target's defense by one stage.
Focus Energy: The user focuses so that they have a heightened chance of landing critical hits.
Laser Focus: Essentially Focus Energy if it only lasted for the following turn.
Furret
Run Away
Will always succeed in running away from a wild encounter.
Keen Eye
Prevents its accuracy from being lowered.
Normal Type Moves
Quick Attack: Always goes first unless faced with another priority move.
Scratch: Didn’t know Furret was like that.
Fury Swipes: Hits 2-5 times in a row.
Helping Hand: Boost the power of another pokemon's move.
Follow Me: Attracts every attacking move to the user. Quite literally the worst thing you could do in a battle royale.
Slam: Uses the pokemons body weight to slam into
Baton Pass: Switches the user out with another pokemon, including all stat conditions the user is in.
Double Edge: A self recoil move that deals a deadly 120 base power.
Hyper Voice: Using its beautiful singing voice, Furret can AOE the enemy Pokemon with a special and 90 base power attack.
Coverage Moves
Sucker Punch: A priority move that does damage depending on if the target uses an attacking move.
Stat Boosting Moves
Coil: By becoming the fluffiest snake you’ve ever seen, Furret can raise its attack, defense and accuracy.
Defense Curl: Increases defense by 1 stage.
Amnesia: Increases special defense by 2 stages.
Other Moves
Rest: Restores all HP but puts the user to rest for 1-3 turns.
Linoone
Pick Up
Linoone picks up items it finds across the ground. It can find them after battle or while walking.
Gluttony
Linoone will automatically eat any berry it holds when it reaches 50% of its HP.
Normal Type Moves
Slash: Does a high damaging slash that has a high chance to do a critical hit.
Tackle: Tackle an opponent for weak damage.
Covet: As shown by Linoones love for picking stuff up, Linoone will snatch your berry from you with some damage to boot.
Headbutt: A powerful move that can cause enemies to flinch. When flinched that Pokémon can not attack for the turn.
Fury Swipes: Linoone will use its claws to scratch at you 2-5 times.
Take Down: A incredibly powerful 90 BP attack that comes at the cost of recoil damage to Linooone.
Flail: This move powers up depending on how hurt Linoone is.
Double Edge: It's pretty much just Take Down but stronger at a whopping 120 BP. It does come at the cost of more recoil damage.
Coverage Moves
Pin Missile: Fires 2-5 Bug type needles to damage its opponents.
Fling: Linoone throws its held item at its foes with varying effects and power depending on what is thrown.
Stat Boosting Moves
Belly Drum: By cutting half of its HP Linoone can get the largest attack boost possible.
Hone Claws: Linoone will raise its attack stat and accuracy by 1.
Other Moves
Growl: Lowers the opposing Pokèmon’s attack by 1.
Tail Whip: Lowers the opposing Pokèmon's defence by 1.
Switcheroo: Linoone will swap items with the target.
Baby Doll Eyes: A priority move that lowers the target's attack stat by 1.
Sand Attack: Will throw sand in the eyes of its foe to lower their accuracy.
Bibarel
Simple
Every stat alteration will be increased by two times (Ex. A Swords Dance boost will raise Bibarel's attack by 4 stages and Superpower drops Bibarel's attack and defense by 2 stages).
Unaware
Will ignore any stat boosts from opposing Pokèmon, regardless of if they're positive or negative.
Fur Coating
Bibarel has a very unique fur compared to most other fluff boys, in that it repels water that it makes contact with and even stores heat internally.
Normal Type Moves
Growl: By letting out a wicked growl, Bibarel can decrease the target’s physical attack by 1 stage.
Tackle: Yeah.
Headbutt: Like a more powerful version of Tackle, Headbutt deals 70 base damage and has a 30% chance to make the opponent flinch.
Take Down: A self damaging physical move that deals an insane 90 base damage, but is 85% accurate.
Super Fang: Always do half the amount of HP that the target has.
Water Type Moves
Aqua Jet: A 100% accurate and 20 PP water type physical attack that has a priority of +1, meaning that it will always go first unless faced with a faster priority move. To make up for the blitzing speed, it has a low damage output of 40.
Water Gun: Embracing its inner Godzilla, Bibarel can fire a blue beam from its mouth, but instead of a form of radiation it’s just a water type special attack that does 40 base damage.
Coverage Moves
Rollout: Starts off very weak with a damage output of 20, but doubles in power the more Bibarel uses it in a row.
Crunch: I mean those giant nerd emoji teeth HAVE to be good for something.
Superpower: A fighting type move that does a whopping 120 base damage (Jesus) but lowers the users offensive and defensive capabilities.
Stat Boosting Moves
Defense Curl: Somehow boosts defence by one stage by curling into a ball.
Swords Dance: How does the beaver have fucking swords. 2x attack boost
Amnesia: By forgoring a bit too hard, Bibarel can raise its special defensive stats by 2x.
Curse: Due to not being a ghost type (Shocker), Bibarel can use this move to raise both its attack and defence at the same time but decreasing its speed.
Other Moves
Taunt: Causes the foe to get so pissed that they cannot use non-attacking moves for 3 turns.
Yawn: Makes the target drowsy and fall asleep next turn, usually lasting 1-3 terms depending on RNG of course.
Watchog
Illuminate
Increases the chance of encountering wild Pokèmon.
Keen Eye
Prevents its accuracy from being lowered.
Light Manipulation
Watchog can use light to make its eyes and body glow in order to stun any attackers like a deer in headlights.
Normal Type Moves
Leer: Decreases the foe’s defense by 1.
Tackle: Okay you get it at this point.
Bide: By using Bide, Watchog can store energy for a turn and release said energy. Which does twice the HP it received while also always hitting the target no matter what.
Super Fang: Halves the HP of the target.
Hyper Fang: If having a 80 base power bite by Watchog of all pokemon wasn’t enough, it also has a 10% to flinch.
After You: Forces the target to go.. first?
Mean Look: Locks you in battle to the user.
Baton Pass: Switch out with another pokemon.
Slam: Despite being built like a toothpick, Watchog can deliver a 80 base power slam.
Coverage Moves
Bite: A 60 base damage munch munch with a 30% chance to flinch.
Crunch: A 80 base damage munch munch with a 20% chance to decrease the target’s defense.
Low Kick: A fighting move that fluctuates in damage depending on the target’s weight, like dealing 20 base damage against 0-10 kg pokemon.
Status Moves
Confuse Ray: Causes the target to well… become confused. Making them have a 33% chance to hit themselves during this confusion for 1-4 turns.
Hypnosis: Puts the opponent to sleep. But with 60% accuracy, it might as well be impossible to land successfully and consistently.
Stat Boosting Moves
Nasty Plot: Increases the users special attack stats by 2x through devious planning.
Focus Energy: Not a traditional stat boosting move, but it does increase the chance the critical hit raito for the user indefinitely.
Psych Up: Copies the stat changes of the foe.
Other Moves
Detect: Protects the user from any damaging moves for that turn. Cannot be used twice in a row.
Rototiller: This is a move? Well apparently it raises the attack/special attack of any grass type pokemon on the field.
Sand Attack: Lowers the foe's accuracy by one stage.
Diggersby
Pickup
While walking or after a battle, the user has a chance of picking up an item.
Cheek Pouch
When the user eats a berry, it'll restore HP in addition to the berry's natural effect…which can also be restoring HP.
Normal Type Moves
Leer: Lowers the opponents defence by 1.
Tackle: How many times do we need to teach you this lesson old man!?
Quick Attack: A priority move that will always go first unless countered by another priority move.
Flail: Does move damage the lower HP the user is currently on.
Take Down: Self damaging but 90 power move.
Super Fang: Will always split the target’s HP by half.
Ground Type Moves
Mud-Slap: Lowers the opponent's accuracy while doing damage.
Mud Shot: Lowers the opponent’s speed while doing special damage.
Bulldoze: A 60 power attack that hits any nearby mons, lowering their speed in the process.
Dig: It’s literally in the name of the pokemon. Diggersby can burrow underground, remaining invincible for a short duration before resurfacing and attacking the target.
Earthquake: An absurdly powerful move with a base power output of 100 that also acts as an AOE move, attacking everyone around the user.
Coverage Moves
Double Kick: Double hitting fighting move that delivers 2 kicks in quick succession.
Hammer Arm: A fighting type move that deals a powerful 100 base power, but lowers the users speed stat for each use.
Bounce: Diggersby springs up into the air, not being able to be hit, before slamming back onto the ground with 80 base damage.
Stat Boosting Moves
Laser Focus: Ensures that the next hit is a critical hit.
Swords Dance: Seriously, who is giving these rodents swords. Increases attack by 2x.
Gumshoos
Stakeout
Any target who’s switched into will take more damage, perfect for a matchup without trainers.
Strong Jaw
Biting moves do 50 percent more damage.
Normal Type Moves
Tackle: Gumshoos indeed uses the move tackle from the role playing game known as Pokèmon.
Leer: Lowers the target's defense by 1.
Work Up: Gets worked up about there not being a wall, raising its attack and special attack by one stage.
Super Fang: Cuts the opponent's HP in half.
Take Down: 90 BP move that inflicts recoil on the user.
Scary Face: Actually gives off a scary face (Donald Trump is very scary) which lowers the target's speed by two stages.
Yawn: Lets out a yawn that'll put the target to sleep the following turn.
Thrash: Thrashes about with a high BP of 120 for 2-3 turns, but is confused afterwards.
Other Moves
Payback: A 50 BP move that inflicts double damage if the user was hurt prior to attacking.
Sand Attack: Does a Bully Maguire reference and lowers the target's accuracy by one stage.
Bite: Bites the target with a chance to flinch.
Mud-Slap: Does a bit of damage and lowers the target's accuracy by one stage.
Crunch: An 80 BP move that has a chance to lower the target's defense.
Rest: Goes to sleep for 2-3 turns after healing off any damage and status conditions.
Greedent
Cheek Pouch
Greedent has the natural ability of Cheek Pouch. This means that whenever it eats a berry he will restore extra health on top of whatever effect the berry is delivering.
Tail
Greedents tail is a very important part of it. Most of its Pokedex entry states that it holds massive amounts of berries inside of its tail. It also could act as a fluffy spot Greedent could use to cushion incoming attacks or smack foes offensively.
Teeth
In its Pokemon Shield Pokedex entry Greedents teeth are called out for being powerful. Powerful enough to crack the toughest berry shells.
Normal Type Moves
Covet: Walks up, steals your berry while doing damage, refuses to elaborate.
Tackle: he does a mid ass tackle
Spit Up: Uses stored power to blast his foes with more damage for higher amounts of power stored.
Body Slam: A powerful slam with a 30% chance to paralyze foes
Super Fang: Will automatically half the current health of the target if it lands.
Stat Boosting Moves
Stuffed Cheeks: Eats the current berry along with giving a sharp defense boost.
Stockpile: Stores power up to 3 times and raises defense.
Coverage Moves
Bite: Bites down for weak Dark type damage with a chance to flinch.
Counter: After taking damage, Greedent will inflict double the damage it just took with a Fighting type attack.
Bullet Seed: Fires 2-5 spurts of Grass Type seeds to damage other Pokemon.
Belch: A powerful Poison type blast that can only be unleashed after eating a berry.
Other Moves
Tail Whip: Greedent whips his GYATT around to lower his opponents defense.
Swallow: AYO!?! Uses stored power to heal itself. Heals more for higher amounts of power stored.
Rest: Restores all hit points at the cost of going to sleep for 2-3 turns. The sleeping will override other Status conditions.
Weaknesses
Fighting Moves
Stats
Raticate
Furret
Linoone
Bibarel
Note: Bibarel moves as fast as a Feebas in water, which has a speed stat of 80.
Watchog
Diggersby
Gumshoos
Greedent
Before the verdict
The way we've reached a verdict in this blog may be different from what you're used to so bear with us. To get an idea as to how every rodent performed, each person working on the blog ranked every rodent on a scale of 1 to 8, with 1 meaning they had the best odds of winning and 8 meaning they had the weakest odds, along with any advantages and disadvantages each rodent had. For example, if Raticate got a score of 40 and Furret got a score of 45, Raticate would be put higher in the ranking than Furret. With this in mind, let's dive into the verdict.
Verdict
Saul
Me summoning every member of The Rappterverse as soon as I announced this.
1. Bibarel: My winner is Bibarel! This should be genuinely no surprise to anyone. Simple and Unaware, doubling his stats and ignoring everyone else's, makes it a wall able to destroy anyone else. Taunt could shut down early set ups from any other mon, Yawn could force temporary sleep, and Aqua Jet makes speed not matter. Curse and Swords dance. Then you have Superpower! Superpower is going to one shot every single rodent here, although dangerously cutting its defence down. One Swords Dance Superpower would kill Greedent, who is its other opponent for the top spot. It also has an Oran and Sitrus Berry, which allows for it to be kept into the fight for longer. (Rest is so overrated since you’re a sitting duck for up to three turns). Although its speed could be lowered by other mons, Aqua Jet is priority and would kill anything once it’s set up. It does have a few weaknesses though, such as Simple dropping his stats so much more if they’re lowered, and the chance of him being outsped and killed. While I think this is a possibility, I don’t see a reality where Bibarel doesn’t win consistently, making it my winner!
2. Greedent: Silver goes to Greedent, and I am very surprised. It’s slow and dumb, meaning that it’s going to need strategy to win. Thankfully, it has bulk! Hitting this thing would be a stupid decision, you’re not killing it. Cheek Pouch and early game berries means that it has time to go for its set up moves. Stockpile will make this impossible to kill. While it lacks any options of increasing its attack, it has enough damage to make sure most things will die in time. Counter is a perfect counter (ha) to any mon that doesn’t manage to kill in one physical hit, you’ll take double damage. It’s not a winner though! As explained, Bibarel’s unaware will ignore any stat buffs. It’s also incredibly stupid, going for any berries it sees and ignoring all forms of combat. There’s also the issue of it being the slowest mon here, opening it to be killed before the mon can set up. To specifically talk about its counter to Bibarel, it’s relying on the multi-move of Bullet Seed hitting five times which isn’t always going to happen.
3. Linoone: The biggest thread of the battle when it starts. Belly Drum gives a 4x attack stat, at the cost of half of its health. Thanks to the Sitrus and Oran berry, it’ll be back up to full health before anyone notices what it’s doing. With Headbutt, the highest speed stat here, and a 4x attack stat, anyone who is hit (and is not set up) is going down. The issue comes when everyone begins to set up, where Linoone loses some merit. The berries being gone early means that it has no reliable healing options late game, or ways to up its own defence. You did good Linoone, you did good.
4. Watchog: What it lacks in setting up, it makes back in status conditions. The ability to both confuse and send one of his opponents to sleep makes this conflict easier. With this, Watchog could likely make it to the long game and use Psych Up, copying the stats of any mon who has set up. The weakness of this is that Watchog needs to be picking the correct pokemon to confuse and sleep. He needs to keep the attackers off his back, but let the top three set up, and not get killed by them. This just sounds too difficult to get a win. I think in very, very, specific circumstances he could win. Having Low Kick, a super effective move, works well here. (One set up that is)
5. Furret: This little thing only survives thanks to pokedex entries. It’s ability to slip between little cracks and dens makes anyone who isn’t Diggersby able to follow. If it manages to get away with absolutely no issue, there is an argument for it setting up. Coil and Amnesia would cover every stat apart from speed. Using Slam or Double Edge, there’s an argument of it hiding and waiting till the end. However, it might just not get away. Furret is going to jump Raticate in the opening scuffle, and would need time to slip away in the aftermath. Although it has a good speed stat, one of the quicker pokemon could catch it and make quick work.
6. Gumshoos: Strong Jaw, High attack, Crunch, this pokemon is a massive threat, just don’t ask what it’s doing after everyone sets up. Yeah, it can’t, and is quickly outgunned by anyone who is setting up (Which is all of the Pokemon above it, apart from Watchog)
7. Diggersby: I really wish that you did better, Diggersby. Let’s start with what Diggersby has going for it! Ground type gives Earthquake stab, Hammer Arm is super effective, Bounce could allow it to skip some of the conflict, and Swords Dance would increase its attack. With a middle of the road speed stat, it could perhaps keep itself in the fight longer than some other options. There’s only a few issues that I have with this mon. While Cheek Pouch is a reliable ability, no berries means no access to healing options. While Hammer Arm is a great super effective attack, Diggersby’s speed stat would be dropped. It has the lowest attack stat out of any Pokemon in this battle royale. To really stand a chance, Diggersby would need to set up, which I don’t see it doing. Bibarel and Greedent also horribly mess this pokemon up, having moves super effective against the ground type that Diggersby is.
8. Raticate: Public enemy number one, Raticate might seem like a scary mon on the surface, but is going to horribly lose during this royale. Gumshoos and Furret absolutely HATE this mon, and will try to fight on sight. While it has pretty good stats, the lack of any good courage and practically useless abilities means it’s going to be killed very quickly. It could perhaps be set up with Swords Dance, Focus Energy, and Sucker Punch, but that requires this mon to not get absolutely tag teamed by Gumshoos and Furret second one.
The Pokedex also doesn’t help this one out. Cutting off the whiskers of a Raticate would only end in its death, as it won’t be able to balance itself. With all of these issues, from shitty abilities to being tag teamed, Raticate finds itself in dead last.
Spycrab
“Oh it’s happening! It’s finally finally happening!”
Well, if this isn’t the most fitting matchup to be my starter for writing my opinion on the verdict alongside fellow rodent loving nerds, then I don’t know what is. Well, time to get my name tag saying “Pokemon Rodent Battle Royale Guy™” on and get to rat catching! As you can tell, this matchup is dumb, stupid and so much fun. Big thanks to Tru and Saul for letting me help work on this, this is a matchup I am really passionate about. Strap yourself in for a ride, this one is full of drama, bloodshed and worst of all. Rats.
I’m gonna be (hopefully) doing something unique in terms of formatting the verdict, going off Least to Greatest. I’ll be taking this one step at a time and as coherently as possible. As coherent a person waffling about which rat from a nintendo game wins that is.
8. Diggersby: On paper, you would think this ruthless rabbit would be at least in the top 5. And for the most part you’re right. Diggersby had a fantastic movepool. Earthquake is a complete AOE move that will hit every single mon on the field (even Furret in its den) with a 100 base power move. While also being stab due to Diggersby’s ground type. It doesn’t end just yet. Diggersby also gets access to bulldoze, which similarly hits nearby pokemon and slows their speed stat down. It gets 2 fighting moves, one of which is super powerful. Dig and Bounce allow it to attack while remaining untouchable by any other rodent. It’s 1 of 3 rodents that get Swords Dance, a super powerful stat boosting move. I mean, looking at all of this. What’s wrong with it? Well that answer lies in its stats. Diggersby is very weak, having a whopping 56 in attack. It tries to trade this frankly pathetic attack stat with its fairly decent bulk. However they will not get it very far. As you can tell the top dogs of the royale so far are Bibarel and Greedent, both of which can use Diggersby ground typing against it with water moves and bullet seed. Also, with no berries or any sort of healing option. Diggersby cannot do enough damage to make up for its weaknesses. Even if it did use one of its more powerful moves like hammer arm, they would still leave it very easy to KO. Thus, he lands in last. He’s the winner in all of our hearts tho.
7. Raticate: Next up on the chopping block is the first rat himself, Raticate. Raticate is... Well he’s the most option ever. He lacks a versatile movepool for sure, having little to no coverage moves. Really only having normal and dark moves. Its main draw is Swords Dance and Crunch/Sucker Punch, given that all of its decent normal moves are self recoil and very risky. Raticate’s abilities are super situational. Its temper and aggressive behavior makes it unlikely to fall out of combat and Guts will only be applicable when hit by a paralysis from Body Slam, which is not all that likely. So with almost everything working against it (even its dex entry), it had to rely on its stats. It definitely had a leg up against Diggersby in. Being the 2nd fastest Mon here and with the Chilan Berry. It could do some serious damage if set up right. Even still it cannot run away from its problems forever. Lack of coverage, situational at best abilities and very obvious weak spot that rodents like Furret and Gumshoos can easily exploit ultimately caught up to it.
6. Furret: Speaking of Furret. Let’s see how much his endurance helps him. In this case, Furret is not exactly a fighter as much as it is an opportunist. It can play the most mind games out of any rodent here. With it being able to always successfully retreat into its maze, being impossible for any other pokemon to enter. Well except Diggersby but we ignore that. This along with it being the 3rd fastest, Furrety can choose to pick its fights and retreat if it’s an unfavorable matchup. This strat is pretty dumb but it does give Furret some leg room to set up and recover lost HP. However it just overall lacks valid means of sweeping reliably beyond a meme reversal sweep and AOE Hyper Voice (which is a special move so it won’t really do much)
5. Gumshoos: The best way I can describe Gumshoos is Raticate but on crack and many more drugs I do not have the time to name. Despite being the second slowest here and lacking a good amount of set up moves, Gumshoos is a beast. It has a base attack stat of 110, making it the hardest hitting rodent on the field right off the bat. This makes it an immediate threat to all rodents involved, especially with thrash being super power. Strong Jaw gives an added boost to biting moves like Crunch and it can put other pokemon to sleep with Yawn. Or go to sleep itself and regain all HP with Rest. Although this will leave Gumshoos easy to defeat. But I think the thing that makes Gumshoos so strong only applies to the start and not later in the battle. Because of its lack of stat boosts and focus on pure offense, it’s going to get outpaced eventually by some mon with stat boosts. But still, Top 5 ain’t bad for a rodent that I thought would be dead last!
4. Watchog: Watchog is one hell of a wildcard. It, in my eyes, has the best means of status conditions and haxes out of the bunch. Hypnosis is really inaccurate, only hitting 60% of the time. Despite this, Confuse Ray and Watchog’s completely unique ability to stun people opens the window to Hypnosis to be landed more reliably. And sleep + confusion is the highest death sentence a rat could ever be offered. When the opponent is sleeping, Watchog can do a variety of things. Either chipping away at it with super effective damage with Low Kick or copying its stat boosts. Or if The Hog was feeling especially evil that day, lower accuracy with Sand Attack. Watchog is the only pokemon here that learns a move that protects it against all incoming damage without needing to Dig downwards or Bounce upward, Detect is honestly really big for stalling certain mons and keeping Watchog out of harm's way. Watchog is a great pick and I can see it winning out in the end, but I do think it not having a permanent stat boosting move (besides Nasty Plot but that’s irrelevant) is a big negative. When faced with a stat boosted rat coming your way, I think you should have bigger worries than copying its stat boosts.
3. Linoone: Now we’re getting to the big guns. Not much can be said for Linoone, it’s a fairly basic but extremely powerful pokemon. Of course, Belly Drum is its biggest boon and it is a damn good argument at that. That move would max out Linoones attack, but leave it with 50% of its health. So since this is the Obstagoon victim’s greatest wincon, it will be my primary focus. There are certain things helping it. Its ability, Gluttony, makes it so that its berries will activate when Linoone is at 50% health. Guess what Belly Drum does? Assuming it’s a sitrus berry, that would leave Linoone at 75% of its health. Pick up allows this to happen multiple times so it really does give Linoone a ton of survivability. The risks of Belly Drum meanwhile consist of Linoones speed. Wait, but isn’t that good for sweeping? Yes, Linoone can sweep almost anyone with its 100 base speed. But that also means that it using Belly Drum will also go first, leaving it with at least 75% of its health while 7 other rodents are able to use their moves after. It can potentially get targeted and does have to roll the dice on an opportunity to use Belly Drum. But if Belly Drum does work and Linoone survives attacks, it’s basically over for anyone without a priority move. Linoone does not have any notable weaknesses, like I said. Big guns. But there is one thing I will mention, and that is priority moves of other mons. Belly Drum is going to leave Linoone without much health, as mentioned. So other pokemon, who also have certain stat buffs can use priority moves to kill it. Linoone does not have any priority moves so it would be left defenseless against it, unless it survives that is. Which it could, but it is unlikely due to its fairly weak defensive stats and lack of any defense raising move.
2. Greedent: Okay, Okay. I’ll explain. Greedent is an absolute monster on the battlefield. It’s disgustingly tanky while still being able to hit for good amounts of damage. It has healing options in berries which it can literally pull out of his ass, or tail whatever. Eat these berries while also gaining a buff in defense. Use Stockpile in order to become indestructible, attack Diggersby and the god forsaken beaver for super effective damage with Bullet Seed, deal double the damage dealt to it with counter and of course heal itself manually using Rest or Swallow. It should come as no surprise why it easily outclasses all rodents and takes home the prize as the strongest rodent around. Except… It’s only number 2. Oh god not the beaver.
1. Bibarel: Yep! I’m siding with the clean, mean rodent busting machine, also known as Bibarel to the mortals who praise it. Allow me to explain why. Bibarel’s movepool is very ranged and allows for multiple mind games to be played. It has phenomenal set up moves in Swords Dance and Curse (but we’ll get to that later), can disable mons from using any non damaging move with Taunt, have coverage with stab water moves and priority with aqua jet, do insane long term damage with Rollout and hit everyone here with Superpower, a 120 base power fighting move that can one shot most. But if you thought that was insane, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Bibarel has 2 main abilities, first of which is Simple. This makes it so that any stat effect done to Bibarel will double, making it so that stuff like Swords Dance is a 4x boost rather than a 2x boost. This makes Bibarel not only a swiss army knife, but a menace to society and public safety in general. It can replicate the effects of a Belly Drum, but without losing any HP and without making itself vulnerable to damage. It can use Defense Curl and Amnesia to become a brick wall in terms of defense. It can even use Curse to get the best of both worlds of attack and defense, while still being able to go first due to Aqua Jet. Then there is the second ability, Unaware. This ability pairs extremely well with Simple, it completely ignores stat changes to other pokemon. Making it so that even a 4x attack boost is completely meaningless against the wrath of the beaver. Both of these abilities allow Bibarel to survive almost any oncoming damage and deliver a fuck ton of damage in response. But, I hear you saying, could it really kill Greedent? Well I do want to elaborate more on that, but this formatting needs a makeover.
There we go, much better.
Bibarel Vs Greedent is a matchup with a whole lot of moving parts. I tried to mostly explain the strengths of each in terms of dealing with the other mons and why I think they are both the top dogs during both’s section. Meanwhile, this section is going to be primarily focusing on what the two can do to each other. Since I think it’s pretty self explanatory on why they would be neck and neck for the verdict.
Of course, going into it Greedent has the advantage. It’s able to hit Bibarel for super effective damage with Bullet Seed and potentially OHKO it with it. And its healing options are something Bibarel does not have access to outside of berries, and if you’re trying to use berries against Greedent then you have a serious disadvantage. But the main thing you need to know about Greedent is that if Greedent survives, no matter the amount of HP, Bibarel is as good as dead due to Counter. Bibarel has to kill Greedent in one hit.
Which it can. Bibarel usage of Simple can make it as tanky as it wants as well as strong as it wants. Swords Dance alone gets Bibarel to 4x, mix that with a super effective Superpower and it is lights out for the poor squirrel. Hell, Yawn makes this even easier and allows Bibarel to let loose all of its damaging moves without the threat of Greedent Countering it all. Taunt of course disables Greedents support moves and most importantly, Rest. Meaning no more set ups, just Bibarel to Greedent, Rodent to Rodent.
But what about Stockpile? Couldn’t that help against Simple?
One word. Unaware.
Unaware just allows for Bibarel to ignore any defense boosts Greedent goes for, making it all fall short to Superpower. Which is a guaranteed OHKO depending on the amount of attack Bibarel currently has. And with Simple Swords Dance, he really only needs one turn to activate it.
Bibarel is not perfect. Its lack of healing options beyond berries does hinder it a bit, but I can’t see any of the rodents doing enough damage to get through the combo of Simple + Unaware. Overall, Bibarels movepool, abilities and deadly counters were enough to win it out.
My vote goes to Bibarel, The Beaver Pokemon.
Once again, I cannot thank Tru and Saul enough for letting me help out on this project. I had a blast working on this and it makes me want to do more collab blogs in the future. Try not to poke your heads around any tall grass and I hope you have a good rest of your day. Pokemon Rodent Battle Royale Guy™ out.
Why am I here
( Can't wait for y'all to see the worst verdict in history!!!!!!)
8.Diggersby :
So last place is Diggersby and main reasons is just simple unaware Bibarel, counter greedent and bibarel is more likely to target him
Tbf he does have stuff like bounce and dig to hide for a bit and earthquake will probably stop furret from hiding( despite being weaker when there are multiple pokemon) and stuff like bulldoze can lower speed and has also sword and hammer arm(tho that also lower speed)
So while I do think he has a chance it is just kinda slim to me mainly cuz of Bibarel
7: Raticate
Ok so between Raticate and Diggersby on who wins probably will say radicate
Even tho he is kinda just there in this fight he is like the third fastest so he has a more likely chance to step up with like scary face,sword dance and laser focus/focus energy and could lower someone's defense with tail whip and possibly crunch considering it speed it has a chance to flinch a lot of pokemon beside from 2 unless it used scary face
It also has 2 priority moves with sucker punch and quick attack and super fang being able to half someone HP is pretty decent
Also if it wants to do something evil it could just do endeavor if it hp is low and does a quick attack after teehee
So ultimately while I think either can go to 8 or 7 probably will say Raticate would more likely go 7th mainly cuz of the fact furret and Gumshoos are likely gonna target it…speaking of which
6:Gumshoos
Ok 6th place is probably gumshoos
Don't have much to say but he is physically the strongest here and strong jaw will make bite and crunch more powerful (one can make pokemon flinch and the other would lower defense)stuff like scary face will also lower speed by 2 stages which is pretty good
As for stats boosting move he can lower your defense with leer or possibly crunch lower your accuracy with sand attack or mud slap, can go to take a nap with rest, can you go to sleep with yawn and has thrash which has 120 base power and considering it strength it will do a lot of damage and make it more dangerous with work up tho has a drawbacks of being confused after 2-3 turns
So what is gumshoos's main problem?
Well it is the second slowest here and while his attack stats is pretty insane here his defenses stats are kinda in the average and bite would only be helpful against greedent since the other are faster than him
So while he can be a good threat that speed, average defense stats and not having a super effective move is what he is really lacking here
5:Furret
Ok 5th place is probably Furret
Don't really have that much to say other than him being the second fastest and stuff like coil, amnesia are pretty decent stats boosting move(defense curl is also there i guess) and Also has rest to fully heal it and it the second pokemon that can't lose it accuracy so all of it attack beside slam are pretty much guarantee to hit
Has decent aoe but it special attack is just eh
quick attack will make him faster than everyone since the other 2 that has a speed attack move is bibarel and diggersby both of which are already slower than furret
Sucker punch will be good but it is literally the only one who has it and is the second fastest so
There also double edge which has recoil so
I mean if it wants to be funny it could just use helping hand on another pokemon but idk why it would do that
Yeah he kinda just there so him being somewhat in the middle is fine
4: Watchog
Thinking about who win between Watchog and Linoone I decided to go for watchog….until last minute anyway not only it can either confuse someone, make someone sleep or even protect himself at the start of the fight it one of the 2 pokemon that has keen eye which make move like sand attack pretty much useless against it and while it slower than like 4 maybe 5 pokemon stuff like confuse ray it could just confuse a pokemon for like 4 turn (even tho it has a chance on not working) and detect would make it play the long game for a bit and if it plays it cards right it can use psych up on bibarel or Linoone which could give it a good stats boost and with stuff like low kick
(For reference it is important to note low kick does do certain damage values for pokemons weight so imma just label them for safe keeping
Raticate is 41 pounds, so it would do 40 damage
furret and linoone are 71 pounds, 60 damage
Bibarel is is 69 pounds, 60 damage
Diggersby is 93 pounds, 60 damage
Gumshoos is 31 pounds, 40 damage
Greedent is only 13 pounds[ironic the most tacky one weighs the least amount]20 damage) and it hitting low kick either Linoone,Bibarel, Diggersby will likely defeat them if it set up right
But the main that doesn't make it in the top 3 is the fact he has to make sure he hit the right pokemon like Bibarel or Linoone but consider there 7 pokemon he fighting the chance he decides to target someone are not that high and while he could wait the long game detect somehow doesn't work and it has low pp
So while I think it close it he probably should be in 4th place
3:Linoone
Belly drum is just that good a move huh….
Anyway in third place I got Linoone and too start he should be the fastest out of everyone here so has one of the best chances to set up which he can either use a belly drum (and a has of getting heal if it get a berry) and try to either do slash which has a chance to crit or use headbutt which has a chance to flinch someone and considering it speed it can use headbutt to try to flinch them unless Raticate,Furret,Bibarel or Diggersby decided to go use a priority move or it used double edge to do a lot of damage even tho it has recoil
It can also play the safe option and used stuff like hone claws which boost it attack and accuracy or use stuff like sand attack which will lower either 5 of the pokemon in this fight and can also use either baby doll eye or growl to lower attack and either has switcheroo or covet to get someone item which will useful against someone like greedent who usually hold a berry
So while it has a good chance of it a sweeper it main problem is that it has to cut half of it hp to do that and it getting a berry is by chance
Also greedent could just use counter to one shot it cuz of it defense and an aqua jet boost up Bibarel is probably gonna one shot him
So while it can be a sweeper and is likely to beat everyone else the last 2 is just more likely to win
2: Greedent
So the slowest one here is in second place ok
Anyway despite it biggest disadvantage is it speed it also the most bulkiest one here with that HP and defense stats and the fact it carry multiple berry and cheek pouch will also heal it a bit more now on to movepool for starter it has body slam so it could paralysis anyone in the battle next up he has stuffed cheek and stockpile which will increase it defense and can also used swallow (if it use stockpile before)and has rest to fully heal himself there also move like tail whip which lower defense,bullet seed which is super effective against bibarel and diggersby and covet and superfang one will steal a item from someone else and superfang which will half the hp of the opponent but perhaps it best move is counter which does twice the amount of damage it gets from a physical attack and you know it has defenses is pretty and not many attack will kill it and most of the rodents has physically move(most of which don't even have a special move besides Furret and funny enough himself)so what is stopping him winning well it the slowest one here and the main reason is gonna be explain for the first place
1: Bibarel
The best hm slave won yay
Anyways man simple and unaware are just really good ability combined since it can used a 4 stage sword dance superpower on everyone and their stats boost which would one shot everyone including greedent also the fact it can use curse to make it very bulky so not much would take it down
Also priority move like aqua jet is pretty useful with it being around the middle in speed and would just destroy diggersby
As for move that lower other stats he has growl for attack and tail whip or crunch to lower defense and for his ability move like curse and defense curl would make it super bulky or make them tired with yawn
But probably the best move he got here in taunt in which if he pull this off against someone like Greedent or Linoone they have to use only attacking move so they can't set up and probably if Bibarel does a sword dance superpower he just has the strength to one shot
Tho the main thing that goes against the dude is one superpower lower your attack and defense so greedent could do get a 5 time bullet seed on him(tho that might happen) also that if he doesn't use a sword dance boost for superpower greedent will be able survive it which would just let him one shot with counter
However I do feel like bibarel has like the best chance here with the fact that simple and unaware combo is just pretty broken here and that no one can survive a superpower sword dance Bibarel so probably will pick bibarel as the winner
Anyway here my first verdict of all time and it probably suck
But it was fun working on this blog
K bye
Music
Me if simplifying what I said was a class.
We really are moving on up in the world. I went from jokingly debating this matchup with a couple friends two years ago and now we got to work on an entire blog for this, and this is my first (and probably only) one at that. Massive thanks to Tru and Saul for letting me yap about which fictional rodent would win in a bloody fight to the death. There's a lot to talk about with this debate so I don't want to waste any time with this, especially since I’ll be repeating some points, but I'll go from who I think is the jobber of the group and then who gets the victory royale because not only am I so original, I love using the element of suspense so posting my first place pick would be stinky and lame. With all that being said, enjoy my Ted Talk on which regional rodent will win it all.
8: Raticate
The original rodent lands dead last in my ranking and it's really unfortunate because almost everything works against this poor guy. For starters, Raticate doesn't have anything noteworthy that sets it apart from everyone else. Sure it's the second fastest rodent here but that's it. It has a mediocre movepool with no form of useful coverage, situational abilities at best which are pretty crap at worst, and the worst bulk out of all the rodents here without any form of longevity, because Oran Berry healing 10 HP after dropping below half health is gonna be so useful when everyone's level 100. Sure Raticate could go for a Swords Dance and maybe a Focus Energy to go completely haywire, but almost everyone here has much better setup opportunities and can get more explosive than Raticate without running as much inherent risk. Now all this seems manageable for Raticate and, in the right situation, could sneak by with getting a couple kills, it's just that it has one huge flaw that nets it at the bottom of the ranking: the Pokèdex. While it doesn't have any ability that makes wild encounters more likely, Furret and Gumshoos would definitely go after Raticate first due to them preying on Rattatas, something that would not translate well with Raticate. Additionally, Raticate is basically done for if its whiskers get torn off and considering that it'll have two Pokèmon gunning for it out the gate and they have natural experience fighting its evolutionary line so they'll probably know the most effective way to take it down, things don't look good for Raticate.
7: Gumshoos
Gumshoos is easily the scariest one here when the BR is in its early stage since it has the highest base attack and strong moves, especially with Strong Jaw boosted Crunches technically giving it an additional STAB move. Pair this with respectable bulk, ways to lower accuracy, and Payback giving it some merit to its low speed, Gumshoos seems like a shoe-in for the higher end, but it has some fatal issues keeping it from getting any higher on the list. The most glaring flaw Gumshoos has is that it, like the amount of females I've been in a relationship with, has no ways to boost its stats, period. Not even some situation stuff like a stray paralysis giving it a Guts boost or using Psych Up on a Belly Drum boosted Linoone, it just doesn't have anything to help it become more threatning. While it does have access to recovery in Rest, it'll leave itself vulnerable for a couple turns, essentially mitigating the benefit of using Rest to begin with, giving it no reliable means of recovering damage. Also, while Payback does give it some benefit to being slow, not only would it just be better off using Crunch, being the second slowest rodent here doesn't do it any favors and loses value the longer the royale goes on, landing it in seventh place.
6: Furret
Furret's essentially the opposite for Raticate in the sense that Dex entries help it out quite a bit and it actually gains merit from its seemingly useless ability in Run Away due to it being able to just hide away in a den that only one Pokèmon here can realistically mess with (more on them later) but outside of that, Furret is also comparable to Raticate in the sense that it's not really notable outside of a couple areas. Coil is a cool boosting move which means it can go for a reliably strong move in Slam without worrying about missing or risking recoil from Double Edge and while it has low special attack, Hyper Voice could be used as an AOE attack that targets the less prominent special defense of the rodents but outside of that, it kinda just is a slightly better Raticate that actually benefit from Dex entries, landing it in sixth place.
5: Diggersby
The Diggersby slander is insane and I'm not gonna tolerate it any longer. Sure it has a low attack stat and sure it gets hit hard by Bibarel and Bullet Seed from Greedent but it's such a trooper in various other ways that I can see it outranking everyone else that I put below it. As I previously established, Furret is perfectly untouchable when they're in its den except for one rodent, and that rodent is Diggersby. While it wouldn't do a lot before setting up, Diggersby would have more than enough opportunities to get boosted with Swords Dance and, if it wants, Laser Focus to deal respectable damage to the opposition, especially with AOE options like Bulldoze and Earthquake that, while their damage would be cut, would mess with whatever battles are going on and any sort of Furret shenanigans. Also, while Diggersby doesn't have traditional ways to stay alive, it has a couple other methods that increase its longevity. It can use Dig and Bounce to dodge attacks for one turn and strike back with damage the following turn and, while more niche due to it being RNG factored, it can use Pickup to fish for Leftovers, giving it a tiny bit of passive recovery every turn. I'm not gonna try and convince y'all that Diggersby has a chance of winning the BR, it needs to set up to become a true threat and a lack of a reliable way to heal means it won't last long even if it does get Leftovers via Pickup, but I think Diggersby's pros outweigh its cons enough to land it at fifth place.
4: Watchog
Honestly under certain rulesets, Watchog could get even higher in the ranking but as it stands, Watchog has a good amount of stuff going for it. It easily has the most amount of ways to troll the opposition, rather if that's through sleep, confusion, accuracy drops, or just being extra annoying and using all the above. It's middle of the road speed tier and solid attack with no way to boost may make it seem like it should be lower on the list but there's one move that sets it apart from the rest: Psych Up. The potential of this move is insane, rather if it's copying a Belly Drum boost from Linoone or Stockpiles form Greedent, Watchog can become a genuine threat or become even more annoying since it'll be harder to take out. Pair this up with Detect for a bit of longevity and Focus Energy to further boost its offensive capabilities and you have a potentially scary Pokèmon…emphasis on potentially. While Watchog's potential is insane, it relies on RNG and stat changes to make significant progress. Not even to mention, Illuminate means it'll be getting into more fights, something that isn't nice when you realize it doesn't have a healing move or good bulk to compensate. So while Watchog has enough good traits to be in the upper half of the ranking, it's here in fourth place due to some inconsistencies.
3: Linoone
Belly Drum is an insane high risk, high reward move that honestly sort of carries Linoone all the way up the rankings. This is not to say Linoone relies on Belly Drum since it doesn't have to commit to a sweep every time and could stick with using Hone Claws instead, but it can certainly get away with using Belly Drum due to the combination of berries and Gluttony. Linoone is also the fastest Pokèmon here which comes with some benefits, but also some downsides especially if it's aiming to utilize Belly Drum during a battle. Belly Drum into Double Edge has ludicrous power but is comedically risky due to the amount of health Linoone would lose from doing it. This could turn into a positive since a fully charged Flail with a Belly Drum boost would be the single hardest hitting attack out of everyone here, but at that point Linoone would likely be picked off by some sort of priority move, which is something it will have to watch out for anytime it goes for Belly Drum in general. As I previously talked about with Diggersby, Linoone could pick up some Leftovers to passively heal and as people say, the best defense is a good offense, so it could gain more mileage than Diggersby would using it. I kinda jumped back and forth between what Linoone's advantages and disadvantages are but the point of how explosive it can be is evident, landing it in third place.
2: Bibarel
Now this is where the gritty stuff happens and where every advantage and disadvantage matter regardless of how small they are. The debate between Greedent and Bibarel was genuinely insane that both were pretty neck in neck in terms of who'd win it all, but I'll elaborate on all that later so I'll just focus more on Bibarel as a whole. Bibarel really benefits from having a composited ability because oh boy, Unaware and Simple are two really good abilities for this debate. Simple's positive traits especially turn Bibarel into a nuke or tank much more quickly than anyone else. Unaware also pairs well with it since it just flat out ignores any stat changes from opposing Pokèmon, so it becomes a hard check to Belly Drum Linoone and Psych Up Watchog. All of this would've ranked it quite solidly, but its access to Water STAB to smack Diggersby and Superpower for an insanely powerful attack (albeit very risky to throw out) gives it a strong chance to win it all, but there's a couple small things that hold it back from being the winner of this royale. For starters, it has absolutely no way to recover any health so while it can use Curse to tank a lot of attacks, any sort of damage it gets will stay with it for the rest of the time it's alive, this is especially notable when there's a lot of Super Fangs and Endeavors flying around, which can get past any defensive boosts and leave Bibarel in a bad position. While its additional Water typing gives it a good matchup versus Diggersby, it gets hit hard by Greedent's Bullet Seed, giving it some trouble in the matchup. Speaking of matchup trouble, accuracy drops are gonna suck for Bibarel due to Simple doubling every single stat change, including negative ones. This is especially bad considering half of the rodents have accuracy dropping moves. Out of these four; Linoone, Watchog, and Diggersby outspeed and while Gumshoos doesn't outspeed, Bibarel would have to get really lucky to one shot it before its accuracy gets dropped. It may seem that I had quite a bit of negative stuff to say about Bibarel, which is why I can't confidently say it wins, but its positive traits help push it to a really good second place finish.
1: Greedent
Going into this blog, the consensus I saw for this debate was that Greedent won and while Bibarel would not go down without a fight, I believe Greedent has enough going for it that they'd win more times than not. Greedent easily has the best stats out of all the rodents here because while it's the slowest by quite a bit, all its other stats are insane. 120 HP and 95 defense means it'll survive any unboosted attack from anyone here in addition to having a good 95 attack stat, meaning it'll deal solid damage even if it doesn't have a way to boost its attack. Also, while Greedent isn't winning any award for flashiest movepool, it has enough stuff to get the job done and surprising versatility with what it does have. It can paralyze with Body Slam, punish setup sweepers with Counter, get insane value out of berries with its bevy of moves centered around it, and deal good damage to Bibarel and Diggersby with Bullet Seed. Greedent's ace in the hole however is its impressive longevity with various ways to boost its defense and heal off any damage it gets. Now I mentioned during Bibarel's section how close it is between these two, essentially having an unstoppable force vs immovable object type of dynamic and if Bibarel ends up fighting Greedent first, I'd honestly say that Bibarel would beat Greedent, but here's the thing, this is probably the only instance I'd say Bibarel would win versus Greedent, since it has to rely on being at full health to have the best chances of beating anyone, Greedent especially. Running some calculations through Showdown's damage calculator shows that Greedent has a very likely chance to 2HKO Bibarel with Bullet Seed, with there being a chance of it OHKOing if all five hits connect, whereas a Bibarel with no stat changes using Superpower isn't even 2HKOing Greedent from full health, meaning it has to commit to setting up before it can go in for the kill. If it can't set up, Greedent will win the interaction through Bullet Seed or using Counter after Bibarel uses Superpower, which would kill it with even a slight bit of chip damage. Now at the end of the day, Greedent doesn't appreciate the insane amount of damage Bibarel can unleash along with how Bibarel could toy with it using Taunt or Yawn and how it can ignore any defensive boosts it can get, but even then, Greedent can still recover off damage and stall out Bibarel in the right circumstances. Heck, Taunt may not even matter in the long run since it'd just give Greedent more of an incentive to just go for the kill. So while it would be a hard fought battle between every rodent here, Greedent's insane bulk, longevity, versatility, and berries gave it the edge to bibarely secure first place at the finish linoone.
I'm so glad this ended up being my first blog. I don't have to worry about dimensional tiering, writing a character's entire story, or calculating some insane feat that ends up getting lower than it looks, I just get to talk about rodents with my friends. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this blog as much as I enjoyed helping with it!
Tru
I'm only here because that coward Asura didn't write a verdict. Unlike most everyone one else I'm not gonna go super in depth on the weaker Rodents, they already did it for me lmao but my ranking of the weaker Rodents Goes
8. Diggersby
7. Raticate
6. Gumshoos
5. Furret
4. Watchog
3. Linoone
Look to anyone else for solid reasons on these rodents. Now we get to the real match.
Bibarel VS Greedent!
Now this is a very hard decision because of some major factors. Greedent easily outlasts most rodents off sheer bulk alone. Along with berries bro is LIVING and with many ways to boost defense and even steal berries from other rodents. Unfortunately Bibarel has the BROKEN combo of Simple (All stat changes are doubled) and Unaware (Opposing stat changes are ignored). Bibarel chooses to not believe in +2 defense Stuff Cheeks which is wild. And with Superpower to super effectively his Greedent for a OHKO (with higher speed ofc) means Bibarel can easily cook Greedent. However, Greedent has a few ways to cook here. Sure his defensive bulk allows him to outlast, but he also has another method od outlasting
Being a pussy…
In the dex we have confirmation Greedent is dumb sure, but also a coward meaning it would likely run away while the other rodents fight, conserving health and letting other rodents battle it out. A behavior Bibarel is not shown to indulge. Another weakness of Bibarel is almost every Pokemon on the field having Growl or other attack-lowering moves which take advantage of Bibarel’s own Simple. Just as easy to set up Bibarel it is easier to weaken. Sure Bibarel's Sword Dance could outpace these attack lowering moves but that's less time it had to attack the 7 other Pokemon on the field. Meanwhile Greedent is a Stuff Cheeks and ready to run away from battle until it's time to come back in and fight. Finally Greedent has high damage options like Body Press and Bullet Seed to hit Bibarel for high amounts of damage
Overall the match is very close and Greedents intelligence isn't doing it many favors but with its wimpy nature, strong bulk and perfect moves for the situation I think Greedent is the winner.
Asura
Greedent (Extremely bulky with an amazing move set which counters a bunch of the mons on the list with reliable ways to heal)
Bibarel (Has the best combination of abilities coupled with the fact it hits decently hard and a good move pool as well)
Linoone (Belly Drum is a great move to set up. It has insane speed being one of if not the fastest Mons helps it sweep a lot of the mons below it and even giving it a chance at beating Greedent and Bibarel)
Furret (The most underrated Mon on the list imo. It’s the 3rd fastest Mon with ways to boost all its stats with agility, coil, defense curl etc . It has one of the most diverse move pools and has reversal which is a great trump card imo)
Watchog (Just a very solid all around Mon. It has super fang which could screw over a lot of mons + status which is annoying and can slow down mons or do chip damage if need be)
Raticate (Starts off as the 2nd fastest. Has good diversity and hits pretty hard)
Gumshoos (Hits really hard but nothing else really too it.)
Diggersby (Has good fighting coverage and speed but doesn’t really have great attack stats nor does it have coverage for the many mons on this list with either grass or water type moves)
Ace
Greedent (Unbelievably bulky with very few good ways of actually being taken out, many good stat amps, berries, and Counter)
Linoone (High speed + Belly Drum and Extreme Speed is disgustingly good but not super viable in an 8-mon free for all)
Bibarel (Simple Superpower is a gigantic blessing and a curse at the same time, really strong yet also leaves it super vulnerable)
Watchog (Status + Super Fang shenanigans fuck a lot of Pokémon up, but these tools don't really let it get a ton of kills or play the long game particularly well)
Raticate (Good speed with a good mix of tools that the others have access too, but nothing stand out aside from Swords Dance)
Diggersby (Has strong Fighting moves and stat amps, but has too poor of an attack stat to be particularly effective)
Gumshoos (Hits really hard but otherwise lacks anything super meaningful)
Furret (Stats are garbage and Reversal is very hard to make good use of, and otherwise has nothing particularly good)
Now that all of us have given our verdicts, we can finally move onto the final tally.
Final Vote
Greedent (10)
Bibarel (12)
Linoone (20)
Watchog (29)
Furret (38)
Gumshoos (43)
Raticate (49)
Diggersby (50)
This was an incredibly tight vote, it wasn’t until the later votes came in that Greedent managed to sweep up the victory. But through it.s incredibly coverage, reliable healing moves, and great ability allowed for this squirrel to carry itself to the win.
Just one more thing…
I want to thank every single member of this blog for working on it. With school, personal life, and being (slightly) burned out from making blogs, everyone here put 100% effort into making this a possibility. With that, we’re onto the four matchups chosen by you. What’s the first one you might ask?
Aku VS The Lich (Samurai Jack VS Adventure Time)
If you want to join, Saulgoodmanagain is my discord! Find me under Saul in your friendly death battle servers, and shoot me a DM. I can also be contacted through Reddit as Saulgoodmas.
Oh boy, I'm curious to see the Adventure Time scaling next time.
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