The Ranger Station

Ugh. I keep promising more regularity in this series but I never deliver. But have no fear for I'm completely free from all exams for a long time. Atleast I won't have an excuse which might encourage me to try and keep a schedule for once.


Barboach & Whiscash





^Moving in Sync. Gotta love that.

Barboach and Whiscash are 2 odd Pokemon who gained some notoreity when the Anime episode featuring them was cancelled before airing. But before that, lets take a look at the Pokemon themselves. Barboach is based on the Dojo Loach while Whiscash is based on Catfish specifically on the Namazu(The source of its Japanese name.) Both are Water/Ground types. The Ground seconday type is because both animals that they are based on have some relation to ground. The loach seems to bury itself while the Namazu is said to cause earthquakes. The typing is great because it converts this species of Pokemon from just another run-of-the-mill water type into something atleast moderately interesting even though there are far better Pokemon with the same typing

Boraboach is long and slender and is primarily a very light shade of grey with its fins and face being light blue. It has a zigzag pattern on its body. This most likely represents a Fault Line, the primary cause of Earthquakes. It also has Whiskes which become much more prominent in Whiscash. Whiscash foregoes its pre-evolutions colour scheme and goes for a dark blue body with a light yellow underside and long yellow whiskers. It also has a derp face. It has a yellow coloured "W" shaped pattern on the top of its body too. Its fins and lips are of the same colour as Barboache's fins.

Lets go back to what I said at the beginning. Shortly before the episode featuring Whiscash and Barboach was to air, Japan was rocked by an earthquake referred to in full as the Heisei 16 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake. In the episode, a group of Whiscash were causing many earthquakes. This was deemed as a case of "Too soon" and the episode was never aired. Hmm, now why does that sound familiar? Any hope of the 2 Team Rocket-Team Plasme episodes ever airing has all but faded. I haven't seen any announcement saying anything about them possibly airing anytime soon so...

Another memorable appearance by Whiscash was in Whiscash and Ash. I consider this episode to be one the best comedy episodes in the series. A really memorable COTD and a humoungous Whiscash make this one of the Anime's standout episodes and easily one of AG's best. The episode stars with the Giant Whiscash, called Nero by the COTD Sullivan, swalloing Ash's Badge case. Yep, its another one of those episodes. What follows is pure fun. Sullivan is a great character who has a tendenciy to make an awesome face whenever anyone compliments his fishing skills. The episode even features the Master Ball! Thats right! Sullivan uses it to try and capture Nero but it just swallows it. Bizzarely, when Munchlax swallows May's normal Pokeball several episodes later, it ends up getting captured anyway.

Whiscash is not a very good Pokemon though. It has lacklustre stats and but a great typing. Its notable moves include the legendary Dragon Dance, Zen Headbutt and even Spark! By no means should anyone use it in any tier other than UU or RU. Its just far too easily outclassed by Swampert which itself isn't doing that great. Back in Gen IV, I used a Whiscash on my UU team and it was surprisingly effective. I used the set:

Whiscash @ Leftovers
Adamant
252 HP - 252 Attack - 4 Defense
Dragon Dance
Earthquake
Waterfall
Rest/Spark

Now by no means was it ever an MVP but it mostly got the job done. I'm no expert in the Metagame and any pro reading this will probably rip the set to threads and for using Whiscash in the first place but I was satisfied with it. I mostly used the element of surprise. No one expects a Whiscash. Setting up atleast 2 DDs was always a given and it was then ready to take out atleast 1 Pokemon.

Barboach and Whiscash are interesting Pokemon that sadly overlooked by the whole fandom whether they are competitive battlers or just normal players. I like it quite a bit.

7 out of 10 Fins!

Corphish & Crawdaunt





Corphish and Crawdaunt are based on Red Swamp Crayfish and are Generation 3's Krabby. Corphish has derpy eyes but not as derpy as Whiscash. They are red and tan in colour with a nice crown-like structure on their heads which doesn't seem out of place. Crawdaunt has some more colours and a Star shaped crown. It does look like its been stuck on however. For the longest time I thought Corphish and Crawdaunt didn't have mouths. Only after their appearance in the anime did I learn the truth. Crawdaunt also has two feet unlike any that you would expect on a crustacean based Pokemon. One pair of legs looks like they remained undeveloped on evolution. Crawdaunt also loses a pair of feet. It has 3 pairs of limbs while Corphish has 4.

Both Pokemon are said to be territorial to the point of dangerously aggressive and never backs down. Crawdaunt is described as extremely violent, rough, brutish and a ruffian. It picks up smaller Pokemon and tosses them out of its lake. This is the reason why it can have the Hypercutter ability. Corphish is said to have been imported from other countries and it eventually got into the wild and used its durability to greatly increase its population. They live in lakes and small ponds and burrow themselves when resting, much like the above 2 Pokemon.

Corphish had a major role in the anime during seasons 6-9 as Ash's designated Water Type. Corphish was a determined and rash Pokemon who refused to back down from a challenge. This trait is present in all of Ash's Pokemon but Corphish in particular. It would always seek to win matches even if it was asked to lose. Like when Max borrowed Corphish to battle the Winstrate Family's youngest child Vivi but actually had a crush on her. He asked Corphish to take it easy but Corphish disobeyed and beat up Vivi's Marill making her unhappy and lose interest in Max much to his disappointment.

Ash's Corphish combined the best aspects of Ash's previous two main Water types. It had Squirtle's battle prowess and Totodile's tendency to provide comic relief and fall in love. In fact, they both starred in episodes where they fell in love with a Pokemon of different species only to be rejected for another Pokemon. Both Episodes were also 2 of the 3 episodes so far that use the title "Love, ______ Style!" Corphish also assisted Brock twice in his attempts to keep a crowd busy by singing Takeshi's Paradise.

Ash's Corphish is also the only Pokemon from Ash's AG team that never evolved barring Torkoal who can't evolve. This is probably because a Crawduant providing Comic Relief would not have gone well and Ash having a Dark type doesn't suit him. Thats how I think the writers felt because I would have loved to see Ash with a dark type. The writes obviously don't feel the same way because Ash now has a Dark type Scraggy.

Crawdaunt was one of the many Pokemon stuck with a Physical stat spread when both their types were Special that greatly benefitted due to split in Gen IV. It even got Drgon Dance. But still it failed to make a big splash because its defenses were a little too low. In Gen V it got the Hidden Ability Adaptability which causes STAB moves to do 2x damage instead of 1.5x. It has got some use out of this but still remains a largely lacklustre Pokemon. I wouldn't advise using it.

Corphish and Carwdaunt are pretty cool Pokemon and Ash's Corphish is my favourite of his Water Types. Just avoid using them in battles.

6 out of 10 Fins!

So C&C please! I might have gotten a bit rusty after such a long time.