Super effective against the psychic type we discussed last week are the creepy crawlies. The bug type! A typing that oftenly is considered the weakest type, which in actuality is the ice type. While the Bug knows quite a few lackluster Pokémon , probably the lowest base stat across the board there are a few great ones in the mix.
Here are my favorite five.
Rules and Honorable Mentions
To keep this list diverse , a pokémon mentioned in one list can not qualify for my favorite in another list. Otherwise I could rank so many pokémon on double spots which would take the fun and the diversity away, these post are made to showcase different pokémon after all. Luckily there is no such bug in my top five. Orbeetle came close in both psychic and bug category but there are just to many pokémon greater than it. By the same logic for diversity I am also only allowed to name one Pokemon per evolution line. If I like a prevolution but it is not viable to use in any way.. the next line will be held against it. These are my favorites in general not just my favorite looking once. As such Snom did not make the list. He is a sort of meme now he is adorable but he is completely unusable for anything besides his looks.
A Pokémon also has to feel like it belongs to the typing I discuss. If I do not identify the pokémon as a bug it will obviously not be my favorite bug type. While the bug type is probably the type I most consistently agree with.. pokémon belong to said type there is one exception and that is Pineco. The pinecone pokémon. I am not a biologist but I am pretty sure a pine cone is not really a bug. Nor is it’s evolution that is like a nut! Both should be grass type instead. Now I know it said it’s a bagworm..but no it’s not Wormadam is a bag worm. I love Pineco though.. so it does get an honourable mention
A final honorable mention goes to Kricketune, this pokémon has the best pokémon cry in the game and that is basically someone that everyone will agree with me on.
Bug Type Number 5
Yanmega
While Heracross and Pinsir are bugs I hold close to my heart, I never really liked their movesets. Henry the Yanma was a companion during one of my first adventures in pokémon Gold. It was such a happy little fellow and he performed quite well for a bug. I loved Henry, but I had to give him up just before the pokémon league to stand a better change. I wished it was just a bit better. Gen IV answered my prayers. Henry II evolved into a mean green fighting machine. It is one of the most awesomely designed bugs, though bug types are very well designed in general. Surprisingly so. Would this list have been about design I would have had a much harder time. I guess it makes sense since pokémon started as a bug catching game idea.
When I said it was mean and green I am not kidding either. Yanmega fighting style is described as biting apart foes while flying at high speeds. Being able to flap it wings so hard that it can also cause critical internal injuries. That is pretty scary, the shiny is even scarier. It’s a sickly blue with bright pink dots. It looks like it’s about to bite you apart.. but don’t worry you won’t even know it did. Apparently it is so fast that it can quarter you in an instant. A full restore isn’t going to fix that one. Nor would a revive I think.
Yanmega in combat is a bit of a tricky one to use. It is a bug so it’s frail. It can come with the ability Speed Boost and honestly that is always the ability you want to use on this dragonfly. It is a really good ability. This mon can be good with some rock, flying and bug moves at it’s disposal. It covers most of its weaknesses and has a immunity and two quad-resistances. (Damage is only 25% of what it would be on a normally effective pokemon). Yanma evolves into Yanmega when learning ancient power. When Ancient Power is used has a chance to boost all stats of Yanmega with one tier. While the move has low base power we often see this attack come into play with this pokémon. Not because it’s effective but because it’s fun.
If Yanmega is set up enough and gets lucky enough it can sweep trough teams but there is always a chance it doesn’t get there. Having Speed Boost means usually one slot of your moves is spend for protect. To guarantee you can outspeed anyone. Usually I run it with air slash, bug buzz and ancient power, but I have made variations of the set. As an item I tend to give it a kings rock.. just for fun and flinch chances. Weakening berries are also a good option for it to use.
Bug Type Number 4
Shuckle
Here Pinkie goes again, putting another useless pokémon in her top 5’s. Shuckle is NOT a good pocket monster!? Wrong.. Shuckle is terrifying.Shuckle is the most defensive pokémon in the entire game. It can get so high defence that is is ny immortal. I have battled with shuckle hearing people cry in agony over how broken the little thing is. I deeply hope that one day it will get an evolution…just a slip of their mind. Not because I really want to use A Shuckler , but so I can break the defences of the worm in a rock even harder. It would be unbreakable. That is pretty neat.
On first glance you’d say that Shuckle looks rather weak and that would be true it has the lowest attacking stats there are in the game. A total of 20 (10 in each) for attacks make it the weakest offensive pokémon in the game. While Chansey’s physical attack is lower than Shuckle’s it’s special attack is higher. Happiny ties with it. Yet Shuckle has the highest defence stat of any pokémon. Shuckles BASE unboosted defence is 230 his special defence is as well. This means that a Shuckle is tougher than a MEGA-Steelix and MEGA-Aggron. While both have 230 points in one stat shuckle has it in both. Now to make things worse Shuckle get access to Shell Smash and can have the hidden abillity Contrary.. in which stat upgrades become downgrades and downgrades become upgrades. This means that Shuckle can fairly easily boost it’s defences to 1120 without applying EV’s .
If you are patient Shuckle can win by doing absolutely nothing. If you do not get toxic, IOW if you can get your own Shuckle Paralysed, it can use toxic and infestation to out-stall your opponent in pure despair. Friends gave up on battles with me just because they forgot to bring a counter for my Shuckle.. or I kill the counters for Shuckle before they can use them against the little creature. There is no real set to run on it. You always run it with Toxic, Infestation, Shell Smash and usually Protect, though I prefer Sand storm. There is no real other way around it..but people sleep on this pokémon so much that in all it’s cuteness it can seem like an Eldritch Being.. So it earns a place on my list.
Bug Type Number 3
Volcarona
My middle of the list Pokémon is actually a Semi-Pseudo Legendary. What does this mean? Well A Pseudo-Legendary pokémon is something that is NOT a legendary but has over 600 base stats. A semi-pseudo legendary has only a smidge less but the pokémon are usually so rare or hard to obtain/work with they are often mistaken to be part of the elusive group. It still means this pokémon will be pretty powerful! Also it can die from a slightly bouncy pebble on the side of the road so be careful when you use it. Probably that is the reason why it is not an actual Pseudo Legendary right?! But let’s take a dip into its lore.
Volcarona replaces the sun when it’s light is blocked out by Volcanic ashes. When it fights it sets the sky ablaze with the tiny embers that fall when it falls from its wings. Because of how scary a burning sky looked ancient civilisations fear this creature thinking it was some harbinger of the apocalypse as it displayed the rage of the sun. Historical tales tell how it was born from a flaming cocoon to save people and pokémon that were starving from the cold. Now I can see how people reading the pokédex would attribute some legendary qualities to it. The way it is often found will only heighten that idea and the fact that you need to train a Larvesta up to level 59! To get it to evolve makes it even more elusive and special feeling. That is also the reason why this pokemon doesn’t take the top spot for me… because honestly.. you’ll never really end up using this sun god bug in playthroughs.
Competitively , the fact that is four times weak to rock and that makes it a bit hard to use. It is in theory a more reliable variant of Yanmega. It does the same thing only instead of flying type moves it attacks with fire.. which is cooler already a bug tossing fire is more interesting than a bug flapping its wings. It’s signature move Fiery dance has a 50% chance to boost it’s best stat, special attack by one stage. That stat is 135.. for this pokémon.. meaning this pokémon can burn and buzz as hard if not slightly harder than a Machamp can punch. Mewtwo has a special attack of 154.. so this pokémon in terms of offence almost equals Mewtwo.. Mew and Celebi for example only have 100 in these stats so it has them beat. If you teach this Pokémon Silver Wind.. which is basically the same move as Ancient Power but as a bug type move along side Fiery Dance it becomes a self buffing maniac that lives up to his semi-pseudo legendary status.
Bug Type Number 2
Galvantula
How shocking! My second favorite pokémon is the six legged spider Galvantula. Now this spot is sometimes swapped with Ariados depending on my mood. However since my number 1 spot shares it’s typing with Ariados Galvantula usually ends up on top. It’s a nice Pokémon to use even if this one has the worst stats yes of any pokémon on this list. Why is it so high? Why because I adore Joltik..it’s so super cute that I love carrying it with me, when it transforms into an okay Pokémon that is enough for me! It gets saved by it’s main ability which make it quite useful and it looks darn good. It’s shiny is subtle but impressive and while it’s six legs might make it not a spider.. it is still a great creature to have on my squad.
Bug and Electric are usually staples I do not oftenly run on my team. Electric is something I’d rather play the Ice Type for, and I usually have something to cover the things bug beats already as well. However when combined it is a really effective type combo that usually fits rather well in my time and that I can have fun building a theme around. It has no real interesting pokédex lore though.. most of it mentioning it has electric webs that paralyses it’s pray while it eats it leisurely. Kind of what we would expect from an electric spider though. On my first playthrough of Unova (Black and White) I had a Joltik/Galvantula named Lemon. I think I chosen Snivy as a Starter and ended up replacing it with Lemon as my squad leader.. because I liked it more.
In combat Galvantula is good because of its ability Compound eyes, which boosts accuracy of moves by 30% This means Thunder is suddenly very reliable. Teach it Sticky Web as an entry hazard (which lowers enemy speed) and it can take big chucks of health away from whoever faces it. Teach it Electro Web to give your other team members a speed advantage as well, teach it Bug Buzz to lower special defence.. Galvantula is there to make you help you drop your opponents stats . Which kind of feels it make a bit like a real spider. Not that a real spider really lowers your speed but once you are caught in its web you are big trouble. Since it only has six legs I am also not as freaked out as I see it.. I think it’s cute! Which is weird what another set of legs can do. Speaking of legs.. are those mouth legs feelers or legs .. could it be it only has 4? It usually seems to rest on them so maybe they are both?!
Bug Type Number 1
Scolipede
Stat-wise this Pokémon is almost a physical counterpart to it’s generation friend Galvantula. (Gen V had really good bugs) With a speed stat of 112 and a attack stat of 100 it does seem “average” in the bigger sea of Pokémon. However I REALLY prefer this thing. A pokémon I could only describe as a Centipede War horse from hell. It is called the Megapede Pokémon and if you google the word you find out this is indeed a very correct way to describe it. This horse from hell also gets the Speed Boost ability which means it’s super fast. There is no running away from a thing that can gallop so fast.
Scolipede chases after it’s target and then grabs them by their neck using its claws. Keeping tight.. as soon as your resistance begins to weaken and you begin to pass out it injects you with a deadly poison to finish you off. If you try to run it will maul you with it’s horn and it will keep horn until it prevails. Resistance is futile you will be murdered. This pokémon is also a perfect pokémon for the evil team to use. It does feel menacingly and evil and rather than someone sending in a Raticate.. this feels at least somewhat scary. It’s evolution line tells a story and it is based on Kaiju there is a lot of planning that went into this pokémon. It’s shiny is a bit lackluster, just brighter red and a more sickly detail colour it doesn’t really do anything for me the original is way better. Purple venom feels more poisonous than blue turquoise poison. Don’t ask me why but it is! Well Actually Turquoise seems painful.. purple more deadly.
In combat there are sets that are so broken it had to be banned with special rules. Using the Move Sword Dance, this Pokémon can use it’s speed up ability to boost two super important stats two stages at the same time. It then can pass those stat boosts on to better pokémon using the move Batton Pass. A big no no in the competitive scene , especially since this pokémon can deal some massive damage itself as well. It can just burn itself out till it’s near death then switch all those stats onto the next pokemon. Mega Horn and Poison Jab are usually the moves you want to use on this beast and when it has at least one Sword Dance up that makes this beast a proper sledgehammer of a bug. It is one of the bugs that uses the strongest bug type move and if it could ever learn the new Leech Life it will be truly something to fear and it already scares me quite a bit…which is good since it’s a bug type! It should!
Who is your favorite Bug-Type? Which bug deserves a shout-out?! Would you like to have any of these as your pocket monster? Don’t be a fly on the wall! Crawl into the comments and bee part of this. Ant don’t forget to leave a like! Bugs like some sugar!
Pinkie's Paradise 