#electrive

DESIGN:

Elekid looks dumb. Really dumb. Nothing about Elekid looks like a creature, and it doesn’t look artificial, either. It just looks like something that a human designed as an RPG monster. Now, granted, it is an RPG monster designed by a human, but most of these things have cohesive forms and patterns that, while infused with their element, are still things that you could conceive of as simply existing in a magical world. Elekid is as round as an egg with weirdly thick arms, no knees, and this weird plug-horns sticking straight up that don’t look like any part of anything reasonable. And then it has that big lightning bolt on its chest as if to say ‘hello, I am an electric type.’

And lightning bolts aren’t unreasonable in the design of electric Pokemon, but compare Elekid being clearly stamped to the far wilder stripe on Electabuzz, Pikachu’s tail, or Zebstrika’s mane. There are plenty of Pokemon that are visually clearly labeled as electric types, but Elekid looks like someone actually took time to stamp him. If it was a more artificial Pokemon like Magnemite or Porygon this would be fine, but we’re supposed to believe that Elekid is a baby Electabuzz and instead it just looks fake and bad in every way.

Electabuzz, on the other hand, is great. It’s got big Oni energy with its brutish form and stripes (Oni are often depicted with tiger pelts,) its stripes have a realistic animal-like pattern but still clearly evoke electricity, its little antennae are clearly non-standard but evoke oni horns, and it just looks really fuzzy. Electabuzz is clearly a thunder oni, but is also fully its own thing that is not actually a thunder oni. Electabuzz is sort of peak Pokemon design for me- taking a pre-existing mythological creature, shuffling it on itself, and making something new that evokes that creature without being it outright.

Electivire is… not something I’m happy with. It doesn’t particularly offend me the way Elekid does (save for maybe the ‘plug’ symbol on its back), but its more apelike features don’t feel like a step up for Electabuzz, and while I love the idea of it delivering electricity with prehensile tails, they always look more like tentacles coming out of its back. I think the design could be improved a lot if the tails came down and looped around instead of sticking up over its shoulders. It’s not like they’re long enough to be used as an attack that way, either.  My other issue is the straighter lines. While Electabuzz’ stripes only go partially around like a tiger’s, Electivire’s run full lines, taking away the appearance of ‘fur pattern’ and adding back some of that artificial look from Elekid. 

EVOLUTIONS:

I’m starting to think of cutting this section because I find myself repeating so often. Elekid to Electabuzz at 30 is correct. Electivire being a trade evolution with a unique item that has no effect other than to evolve that one specific Pokemon is just a waste of time and coding effort. Just make it a trade evolution and save the hassle of the Electirizer. 

That said, both pre-evolution and a third form were necessary to give this Pokemon line full playability. Electabuzz was too weak for endgame but too strong to show up before endgame. Adding a baby form that can appear on even early routes and a final form with proper endgame stats really frees up the line to be used anywhere.

Art by hftran

TYPING:

Electivire is a pure electric type, which is mediocre but not bad. Electric has three resistances to one weakness, but on the flip side, only two things are weak to electricity and four types can withstand it. Water and Flying are both common types to see, but Earthquake is a common attack, so a pure Electric type has plenty of opportunities to shine but also has to be careful.

STATS: 

Electivire has a pretty decent stat spread, with slightly below average defenses, good speed, and a great 123 physical attack. Its special attack is 95, which isn’t as good, but is noteworthy because its special attack lineup is better than its physical lineup.

Art by salanchu

ABILITIES:

Electivire’s hidden ability, Vital Spirit, prevents Sleep. This is always fine.

Electivire’s primary ability is Motor Drive. Motor Drive changes its Electricity resistance into an Electricity immunity, and raises its speed every time it’s hit by an Electric attack.

Both of these abilities are situational and require catching the right attack type, and both are equally entirely usable. Electricity’s not so much a threat that Electivire should feel the need for immunity, but at the same time, it’s common enough that being able to switch into it without harm is nice.  Neither of these abilities is bad, but neither of them encourages or unlocks any interesting strategies.

Art by Koeskull

MOVES:

Electivire has the classic “Wrong Attacks” problem, and it’s actually a pretty serious issue. Physically, Electivire’s best attack is Wild Charge, with a power of 90 and recoil of 25%. And this is the best non-signature electric physical attack, so it’s not like it’s missing an attack… But for special attacks, Thunder, Thunderbolt, and Volt Switch are all just better moves to have.

When we look at coverage, we see a similar issue. Yes, Electivire gets the elemental punches and a decent lineup of fighting type attacks and the ever popular Earthquake, but it also gets Flamethrower, Psychic, and Focus Blast.

So what’s the right answer for Electivire for a movelist? There really isn’t one. You can go physical or special or a mix to get the best of both, but either way you’re going to have issues.

“Charge” by Twime777

OVERALL:

Electivire is not as good as it should be. It has a good stat lineup, but with two abilities that don’t really do much and a move lineup that puts too many of its better attacks on its worse stat Electivire just winds up as ‘fine.’ It’s not garbage or anything, because solid speed and high attack are enough to make almost anything work, but it’s not particularly good, either.

The weirdest part here is, this isn’t a problem Electabuzz has. Electabuzz just has higher Special Attack than Physical Attack, but when it evolves, its Physical Attack goes up and its special stays the same.  It results in this awkward Pokemon who learns very few Physical attacks naturally wanting to become a Physical beater and not having quite enough tools to do so. 

You know what’d really help Electivire? If it could get a third ability slot and get Iron Fist put in there. Having 90 power elemental punches would seriously go a long way here.