winstein's Blogs

If you played competitive battling, you would take a Pokemon's nature seriously among the other characteristics of that Pokemon. That's because a boost in one particular stat is enticing, although this comes with the drawback of a stat being lowered. Unfortunately, not every nature is considered. Before going on explaining about Lax and Gentle, like the title, I will explain how certain natures are good.

If you are an attacker, you would take one of the natures that boost an Attack stat or Speed. So,
- A Physical attacker would prefer Adamant (+Atk, -SpAtk) or Jolly (+Speed, -SpAtk).
- A Special attacker would prefer Modest (+SpAtk, -Atk) or Timid (+Speed, -Atk).
- A Mixed attacker could opt for a defence-lowering nature, preferably the frailer ones, or one that is frail on one side (Tangrowth). These natures are Lonely (+Atk, -Def), Naughty (+Atk, -SpDef), Mild (+SpAtk, -Def), Rash (+SpAtk, -SpDef), Hasty (+Speed, -Def) and Naive (+Speed, -SpDef).
- A Defensive Pokemon would like to have boosted durability. Natures include Bold (+Def, -Atk), Impish (+Def, -SpAtk), Calm (+SpDef, -Atk) and Careful (+SpDef, -SpAtk).
- Speed-lowering natures could be useful, preferably for one with Trick Room, one that benefits from Trick Room or Gyro Ball. These natures are Brave (+Atk, -Speed), Relaxed (+Def, -Speed), Quiet (+SpAtk, -Speed) and Sassy (+SpDef, -Speed)

Now, if you kept track, you would have counted 18 natures here. That leaves seven others. Previously, I have stated the two natures that are unloved, but what are the other five? They are called neutral natures, particularly because they neither increase a stat nor do they reduce it. If you want to know what are they, they're Hardy (Atk), Docile (Def), Serious (SpAtk), Bashful (SpDef) and Quirky (Speed). Why did I mention a stat beside these nature? Because these natures are essentially a neutralised positive and negative stat boost. They are generally not preferred because, while it doesn't hinder a stat, it doesn't increase any either, and an increased stat enhance a Pokemon's job.

That leaves Lax and Gentle, two other natures that boost and reduce one stat each. What do they do?

- Lax is +Def, -SpDef
- Gentle is +Spdef, - Def

Well, if you are competitive player, you would know that even a bit durability means a lot. Neither nature isn't attractive to an attacker or a defender. An attacker would prefer an increased attack, while a defender would prefer not to hinder its other defence stat. There is also practically no application for both of these natures that it's easy to forget what they do. In fact, it was odd to me when something in the wild has either, because they seem foreign to me.

If there's something I wish after all these, it would be that one day, a Pokemon could utilise one of those two natures. Perhaps Smogon's CAP could have some ideas in making a Pokemon that would use the nature, though I doubt that may happen since they are quite forgettable. Perhaps another way these natures could be enhanced is to increase the rate of the positive one (20% probably) and decrease the rate of the negative one (5% maybe), so that they would be attractive. What about the neutral ones? I guess they could increase a nature of a certain stat by 5%.

Thanks for reading.