Pokemusings, week 19

Bug Pokemon get no love. It's easy to understand why. In every Pokemon game - whether the adventure starts in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, or Sinnoh - the early goings have tons of weak bugs for your team to slaughter. With a staple of immensely non-threatening Pokemon like Kakuna, Weedil, Metapod and Caterpie abundant in the early stages of every Pokemon game, players are conditioned to think that bug Pokemon suck. This is a shame, since there are so many awesome bug Pokemon out there. This week, we're going to try to spread some bug love by talking about two awesome bug Pokemon you might have overlooked.

Above: Scizor demands your respect

First up is Scizor. This cool-looking evolution of the already cool-looking Scyther is a very unique Pokemon that can throw your opponents for a loop. Although it loses significant speed evolving from Scyther to Scizor, its unique typing more than makes up for it. You see, it's a combination of bug and steel. This makes it highly resistant to grass, normal, bug, ghost, psychic, steel, ice, dragon, and dark, while being weak only to fire. The steel type also comes in handy against any sandstorms and opposing Tyranitar whips up, since steel resists the nasty effect.

Scizor has impressive attack and defense stats, which gives it versatility as an offensive force and a physical wall. The obvious way to go would be with X-Scissor and Swords Dance, but keep in mind that Scizor makes a pretty good Baton Pass user as well. Oddly enough, it can have the Technician ability, which doubles the power of attacks with a weak base stat. This can also be used to surprise your opponents. With its strong defense and great offensive versatility, there's a lot you can do to make Scizor a great addition to your team.