AOTW: Suction Cups

Hello, trainers! I’m back from my brief sabbatical with a new Ability of the Week. If you missed my post on PokéTalk, I was on vacation with my girlfriend over Valentine’s, then came home to a simply gargantuan amount of hours at my day job, and just couldn’t get around to writing up an article. So I apologize for the unscheduled break, and back to the Ability-learning!

Last time we discussed the most common Ability in the game, Levitate. This week, we’re going to the opposite end of the spectrum, with one of the most obscure Abilities, though not a monster-exclusive like Motor Drive. And appropriately enough, where the last Ability was all about keeping you off the ground, this week is about keeping your feet firmly planted. Stand your ground, folks- this is Ability of the Week: Suction Cups!

As I said, Suction Cups is one of the least-common Abilities in the game. Introduced in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Versions, this Ability is possessed by only three monsters. Octillery can have either Suction Cups or Sniper, and Cradily and its pre-evolution Lileep have it as their only Ability.

Suction Cups prevents your pokémon from being forcibly The definition of an immovable object.removed from battle by your opponent, whether in a trainer battle or a wild encounter. If your opponent has a strategy that involves using a move like Roar or Whirlwind to make your pokémon switch out to hopefully something they’ll have an advantage over, Suction Cups will completely neutralize it. Funnily, Suction Cups can be useful with both evolutionary lines that can learn it, but in totally different ways. Octillery has a huge move pool and can attack many different types of pokémon for a super effective hit. And with Suction Cups, there’s no getting rid of that threat. Arguably more useful is the alternative- Cradily. The fossilized plant pokémon boasts respectable HP (86), Defense (97), and Special Defense (107) stats, priming it to be a solid wall. Complement the HP with Ingrain, and the defensive stats with either Amnesia or Stockpile. All of a sudden, you have a wall that your opponent cannot get rid of! To further annoy your opponent, Cradily can use moves like Stealth Rock, Toxic, Swagger, Gastro Acid, and it can bolster its own HP with Sunny Day and Synthesis. And again, there’s nothing your opponent can do to stop you.

That pretty much wraps up Suction Cups! I’ll be back next week with another Ability, so stick around!

Get it? Stick around? Suction Cups? Ha haaaaa, I’m funny.

-Wil
www.wheretheresawil.com