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| Pokemon Ruby Version Pokemon of the Day: Ponyta |
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| Pokemon have taken a new evolution with Pokemon:
Ruby/Sapphire Versions. The Pokemon of the Day Chick has helpfully
shifted her attentions to Ruby and Sapphire, so you can rest assured that
she has your trainer's corner covered.
As before, the Pokemon Chick will be taking a personal and detailed look at a Pokemon. You'll find a list of all the moves you will want, and a choice list of recommended moves you want to keep for your prize pet. You'll also find breeding chains, Pokedex entries, stats, descriptions, locations, resistances, gameplay tips and a suggested move set for those of you who can't seem to make up their mind about what to saddle their Pokemon with! ===============================INTRODUCTION============================== Today's Pokemon is Ponyta! I'm not sure how many of you realize
this, but Rapidash was the first Pokemon I ever analyzed, indeed, that
was the one review that got me in the door. Of course, I sucked at writing
back then (as practically any newbie would), so I've long awaited the day
I could analyze Ponyta both because this fiery equine Pokemon line holds
special meaning for me and because I wanted to see if I could improve upon
that Rapidash review of old. If the intriguing new moves Ponyta can learn
in RuSa are any indication this analysis should in fact be markedly improved,
if for no other reason than a wealth of new moves means a wealth of new
move explanations. But I ramble...Ponyta is one of those Pokemon who never
seemed all that great to me stats or move wise; I just wanted to train
one because there was no getting around the fact that her evolved form
was an absolutely captivating beauty (no, I'm not gay OR into animals,
but thanks for asking). Who woulda thunk my totally shallow outlook on
Pokemon would actually pay off for once? This thing is and always has been
a hidden treasure!
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| NAME: Ponyta
TYPE: Fire Horse (Fire) HEIGHT: 3' 3" WEIGHT: 66.1 lbs. |
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EVOLUTION: evolves into Rapidash at level 40 CHARACTERISTIC(S): Run Away (this Pokemon can run away from any battle other than a trainer battle), Flash Fire (the power of this Pokemon's Fire type attacks is boosted by 50%; it is also immune to Fire type attacks itself) AVAILABILITY: Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal LOCATION: Argh...now this is one Pokemon whose absence in RuSa truly saddens me. We should be able to get Ponyta in those games once Fire Red/Leaf Green (or Water Blue or whatever the heck they decide to call the English release) come out, but for the time being you'll only find Ponyta in the GBP/GBC Pokemon games. Catch wild Ponyta in Cinnabar Island's Pokemon Mansion in Red and Blue; Yellow players will find it moved to Route 17. GSC owners should be looking for Ponyta on Routes 22 and 26-28 as well as at the base of Mt. Silver...if you're playing Crystal specifically, be aware that Ponyta will only come out to play during the morning and daytime hours. ============================MOVES & MACHINES============================= |
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Learned Moves: |
Compatible TMs: |
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| RBY
Ember - Basic
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RBY
TM06 - Toxic
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| GSC
Tackle - Basic
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GSC
TM02 - Headbutt
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| RuSa
Tackle - Basic
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RuSa
TM06 - Toxic
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Hereditary Moves: |
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Charm: Breed a female Ponyta/Rapidash with a male Snubbull/Granbull, Skitty or Pikachu (via Pichu). Double-Edge: Breed with a male Phanpy, Skitty, Numel or Spinda (RuSa only). Double Kick: Breed with a male Jolteon, NidoranM/Nidorino/Nidoking or Combusken/Blaziken. Flame Wheel: Breed with a male Cyndaquil/Quilava/Typhlosion or Growlithe. Hypnosis: Breed with a male Stantler or Spinda. Quick Attack: Breed with a male Cyndaquil/Quilava/Typhlosion, Eevee/Espeon/Flareon/Jolteon/Umbreon/Vaporeon, Pikachu/Raichu, Rattata/Raticate, Sentret/Furret, Sneasel or Vulpix/Ninetales (GSC only). Thrash: Breed with a male Mankey/Primeape, Tauros, Teddiursa/Ursaring or Spinda. ==============================BATTLE SHEET=============================== Max stats at Level 100
Suggested moveset Held Item: Lum Berry
Sunny Day
On the subject of strictly outer beauty (continued from above), did anyone notice the error in Ponyta's official artwork? If Ponyta's various in-game sprites and her numerous appearances in the Pokemon anime are to be believed, that blaze on her forehead should be the same orangish color as the one on her tail, not white. I didn't notice it until after the IGN media had already been edited and uploaded or else I would've asked my editor to fix it in PhotoShop (complete PhotoShop retard over here *points at self*)...but now that we're stuck with it I've decided I actually like it. Gives the little beastie extra personality, it do. Anyway, if I had to sum up Ponyta in five words regarding her transition from RBYGSC to RuSa they would be "Goodbye Horn Drill, hello Solarbeam!". Y'all know how much I love Horn Drill so you can imagine how much the loss of it in RuSa depresses me, but we'll see if we can't make the most of it in this day and age. I generally loathe Sunny Day as an attack on relatively brittle Pokemon like Ponyta, but with Solarbeam now in attendance it just makes too much sense NOT to use. Hopefully you'll be able to bring Ponyta out first thing in a match or after one of your other Pokemon has fainted (read: don't switch her in unless you're certain your opponent is about to use, say, a Grass or Ice type attack; she can't afford to be absorbing a free attack without retaliating otherwise). A quick Sunny Day on the switch (thank goodness for this line's stellar Speed) and Ponyta will be in a good position to deal with just about anything; the power of all Water type moves will be halved, the power of Ponyta's own Fire type attacks will be increased and any Rock or Ground types brave enough to venture forth will be greeted with a one-turn Solarbeam right to the breadbasket (err, in this case I guess "breadbasket" would be "universally crappy Special Defense). Just be sure to run like Hell if you see an Aerodactyl on the horizon; Sunny Day ain't gonna help Ponyta out any against that infernal creature. Next we have Solarbeam, something you should have seen coming considering it's already been mentioned more than once and all. Why can Ponyta learn Solarbeam all of a sudden? I have no idea, but it's usually not a good idea to look a gift (fire) horse in the mouth. As you all know (or should), Grass type attacks just happen to be super-effective against ALL of a Fire type's defensive weaknesses, so while the Fire types that can learn Grass type attacks are few and far between, those that DO generally find themselves holding onto such attacks with a death grip. We actually went over the merits of Solarbeam fairly well in the Sunny Day spiel, so we should be moving on shortly...just wanted to say that while Ponyta's expertise obviously lies in the realm of physical attacks and she doesn't get STAB on the elemental Solarbeam, the move's mammoth base power coupled with the usually poor Special Defense of the types she's most likely to be using it against make the move a worthwhile investment regardless. You know...I actually wanted to try and avoid putting any Fire type attacks on Ponyta; as I said, she tends to play better as a physical attacker and you KNOW you'll never secure the element of surprise by using Fire attacks on a Fire type Pokemon. Alas, though, with Sunny Day, STAB and Flash Fire I just couldn't in good conscience leave Flamethrower off Ponyta. Le sigh. Why Flamethrower and not Fire Blast? While it's true that Ponyta's lackluster Special Attack could benefit from the added power of Fire Blast and the move is easier to come by (considering Ponyta learns Fire Blast naturally while you'll have to breed, TM or Tutor for Flamethrower), I didn't want to risk Fire Blast's iffy accuracy when this Ponyta already sports one relatively inaccurate attack in Bounce. I figure with the aforementioned STAB and various other Fire type move boosters at Ponyta's disposal she'll be doing more than enough damage with Flamethrower, but if Fire Blast's added power and ease of obtaining is just too big of a draw for you then I'd suggest you use that instead. Bwahahaha...I just about fell outta my chair laughing when I found out Ponyta can learn Bounce (even though it's not all that funny...we'll attribute that one to a gas leak cutting off my oxygen and making me giddy. Stupid old broken-down pipes). I hope you're actually reading this and not just skimming over the moveset itself, because I have to say if you're smart you WON'T use Bounce on Ponyta. Think about it...not only is Bounce's accuracy questionable, but its greatest use is against Bug and Grass types, two types that Ponyta's Fire type attacks are ALREADY extremely effective against! I just had to mention it because the Ponyta and Spoink lines are the ONLY Pokemon that can learn this most interesting attack, and I sure as heck am not going to muck up Grumpig's moveset with it (so I have to get my licks in while I can). Well, at least it makes sense, kinda. The Pokedex notes Ponyta's astonishing ability to leap over the Eiffel Tower in a single bound (that's 986 feet, by the way...in other words, that's a big damn tower!!), so I suppose Bounce is logical. What ISN'T logical is a beast weighing 66 pounds and purportedly possessing hooves as hard as diamonds crashing down on an opponent's head from such a height and ONLY doing 85 base damage, but whatever. Maybe they were just thinking of Spoink's flabby butt hitting something from a few feet up when programming the damage for the move and only added it to Ponyta's repertoire as an afterthought. Anyway, I'll have you know I'll be raising a novelty Ponyta with Bounce when the time comes solely because I must, MUST see how they opt to animate it in Colosseum...this oughtta be good. I didn't recommend the popular Leftovers for Rapidash way back when and I'm no more enamored with them when it comes to Ponyta; I still say this particular line is too fragile to make decent use of them. There are still Bright Powder and Focus Band to consider, but I'm liking Lum Berry on Ponyta due to the explosive popularity of paralysis, confusion and sleep inducing moves out there (just wait until you switch in against Breloom and the fool thing thinks it's been blessed as it readies a Spore 'specially for Ponyta). As for characteristics, Run Away has been noted several times as being utterly useless in trainer battles so we're left with Flash Fire. A few people emailed me after Ninetales' review to inform me that Flash Fire ONLY activates when the bearer is hit with a Fire type attack...I did not know that (I can only go by what the guides tell me, people, and none of them mention that!). I still don't know if it's true since I haven't had an opportunity to test it myself (not a big fan of Fire types in general)...sooo...good luck finding an opponent stupid enough to use Fire type attacks against Ponyta, I guess, but I still say Flash Fire is more useful than Run Away, at least. Okay, this is the part where I slap you if you actually listened to me about Bounce and say "Fool! Put Charm or Reflect in that spot, post-haste!!". Err...except Ponyta can no longer take the Reflect TM in RuSa even though she could in RBY. What the crap? Okay then, Charm is probably your best bet in the alternate moves department...I always found Reflect to be more useful on my GSC Rapidash, but Charm is better than nothing. It's a shame Ponyta can't learn more physical attacks to take advantage of her above average Attack stat, but the few she CAN learn are all worth considering, even if only momentarily...we have Double-Edge for power hungry players, Return for those who find Double-Edge's recoil to be a turnoff, Iron Tail if you don't care about accuracy and just want an interesting attack, and even...um...Double Kick. Okay, so you should probably just forget about Fighting type moves on Ponyta altogether, though I suppose I should mention there was at one time a Low Kicking Ponyta available at NYC's Pokemon Center...Low Kick is even weaker than Double Kick, but with Ponyta's great Speed that 30% flinch chance is awesome (speaking of which, Stomp and King's Rock are also advisable if flinching something to death is your aim). Toxic and Attract are still decent filler, Hypnosis sucks but some people actually use it (go figure), and you of course have the option of the paralysis-inducing Body Slam, the survivability-enhancing Substitute and the sheer awesomeness of Horn Drill if you're lucky enough to still be playing RBY (I only hope to God or Gaia or Ganesh or whoever's listening that the Red/Blue remakes on the GBA will bring back the old TMs...I want TM07 to be Horn Drill, dammit, not Hail!!). About the only other move worth mentioning is Overheat...I don't see Ponyta being as much of a legitimate Overheat contender as a Torkoal or Ninetales, but if you're going for a primarily physical attacking Ponyta (meaning you use Overheat once and then stick to physical attacks while paying no mind to Ponyta's crippled Special Attack) the additional power of Overheat may be worth considering. Yep...I still like Ponyta! I was afraid my adoration might have waned since I haven't seen her in awhile and she can no longer learn Horn Drill, but with the addition of Solarbeam (for practicality) and Bounce (for fun!) she's still a champion in my book! With the inexplicable lack of decent new Fire types in RuSa I imagine Ponyta will be welcomed with open arms once the remakes of Red and Blue come out...or she'll just be trampled over in everyone's haste to get to Arcanine and Charizard like she was in years past. Poor thing. Well, no matter what anybody else thinks I'll always love Ponyta for who she is (I suppose the fact that my Rapidash's Horn Drill in GSC hardly ever missed didn't hurt, but I'm sure I'll get over that eventually). Y'all can keep ignoring her if you want; while I believe Ponyta deserves all the credit in the world, I've never had a problem with training the "average" surprise contender as everyone else obsesses over their precious Dragonite and Metagross. I'd advise you to do the same, but hey, to each his own. I do sincerely hope you'll give this hot-to-trot hoofed hearth-horse an opportunity to prove herself, and I'll be right back here tomorrow with another (coincidentally) fiercely flaming Pokemon of the Day!
Questions? Comments? Want to argue with the Pokemon of the Day Chick? Please e-mail your inquiries pokemonofthedaychick@ign.com, or drop me a line if you just wanna say hello! I'm always up for a heated Pokemon chat. As always, come visit everyone on IGN's free Pokémon Board. See you there! |
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