Pokemusings, week four

Togekiss totally took us by surprise. We weren't expecting much from this new evolution. Its first form, Togepi, was a useless egg-like creature that annoyed the hell out of us in the cartoons. Its next evolution, Togetic, looked like an albino chicken that was a victim of Crayola graffiti. While its third evolution looks like a kindergarten version of Rodan, Togekiss is an extremely versatile Pokemon with decent stats and one of the best innate abilities in the game.

First off, you want a Togekiss with the Serene Grace ability. This ability doubles the chance of an added effect happening from your attack. For example, Thunderbolt normally has a 10-percent chance of paralyzing your foe. A Togekiss with Serene Grace using Thunderbolt has a 20-percent chance of causing paralysis. Togekiss has a wide variety of moves it can learn via Technical Machine, many of which have added effects. Use Serene Grace to your advantage!

The standard move set for Togekiss is Thunder Wave, Air Slash, Aura Sphere, and Roost. You start off with Thunder Wave to paralyze your enemy and to ensure your Togekiss gets the first turn. Next you whittle away your foe's health with Air Slash. Your enemy might not be able to make a move during this time due to paralysis or Air Slash's flinching effect (boosted to 60 percent thanks to Serene Grace!). You can heal if need be, but when your opponent is ready to go down then you use Aura Sphere, which never misses.

We can't argue the effectiveness of the move set above. It's almost too easy, which in turn makes it not as much fun. We deviate from the standard a bit with our Togekiss. We retain Air Slash and Aura Sphere, which are excellent moves, and complement them with Water Pulse and Silver Wind. These attacks give it extra coverage against ground, water, and psychic Pokemon. With Serene Grace, Water Pulse has 40-percent chance at causing confusion, while Silver Wind has a 20-percent chance of increasing all of Togekiss' stats. Sure, it's not as effective as the first move set we listed, but we think this set is better balanced and way more fun.