Pok�mon of the Week

Ludicolo, The Carefree Pok�mon. If it hears festive music, all its muscles fill with energy. It can't help breaking out into a dance. f it hears festive music, it begins moving in rhythm in order to amplify its power. The rhythm of bright, festive music activates LUDICOLO's cells, making it more powerful.

Ludicolo is awesome. Good typing, alright stats, a good enough movepool (which is basically two lesser movepools combined) and a few acceptable options. Look at that grin, you know it means business. Ludicolo will always be used either in rain or against rain. Its typing and abilities make it one of the best rain checks in the game. Go offensive or defensive, either works. Ludicolo is a really cool Pok�mon who has gotten better this generation, unlike many others. Well, it hasn't gotten better itself, but things around it that changed have benefited it greatly, especially drizzle and how popular drizzle teams are.

Swift Swim: you get double Speed in rain. It's an amazing ability.
Rain Dish: pretty good, but not as good as Swift Swim. You get HP back whilst you're in rain, so you'd only really use it on a defensive set.
Own Tempo: don't bother with this. It's nowhere near as good as the others. It's useful for avoiding Confusion, but it pales in comparison with its other abilities

- Hydro Pump / Surf
- Ice Beam
- Giga Drain
- Substitute / Focus Blast
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) / Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)

Uses Ludicolo's nice base 90 Special Attack really well. Rain+STAB+120 base power or even 95 base power makes Hydro Pump and Surf really lay the hurt. Ice Beam is a great move that combos perfectly with your Water move, and it helps with Dragons and Grass Pok�mon. Giga Drain breaks down Water Pok�mon and gets you HP back from Life Orb recoil. Substitute protects you from status, and Focus Blast is mostly just for Ferrothorn.

- Substitute
- Leech Sed
- Protect / Toxic
- Scald / Ice Beam / Giga Drain
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Rain Dish / Swift Swim
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SDef or 252 HP / 12 Def / 244 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) / Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)

Whichever ability you pick, you make a great SubSeeder. Substitute blocks status and damage, allowing Leech Seed and possibly Rain Dish to keep filling your HP up each turn, meaning more Substitutes. Protect gives you another round of free healing, whereas Toxic can easily wear stuff down. Scald has the ability to burn, which is awesome. Ice Beam ruins Grass Pok�mon who will switch into you to try and take the Leech Seed, and Giga Drain gives you even more recovery.

- Swords Dance
- Waterfall
- Seed Bomb
- Drain Punch / Ice Punch
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) / Jolly Nature (+Spd,-SAtk)

Physical Ludicolo? Yep! Base 70 Attack isn't too good, but with a boost or two from Swords Dance you will be doing some major damage. Waterfall is strong and reliable, and is crazy strong in rain. Seed Bomb ruins Waters. Drain Punch heals you and beats Ferrothorn, where as Ice Punch beats Dragons and Grass Pok�mon. Make sure to only use this in rain, or if you want a killer check to drizzle teams.

Ludicolo in general
For offensive sets, you want big old Speed and big offence. With Swift Swim and max Speed, you get 524 Speed, which is just short of +1 positive 252 Speed base 110s. However, you can drop it to 244 EVs and outrun positive +1 base 108s. Max HP and a lot of Defence keeps you nice and bulky.

Choice Specs, Fake Out, Focus Punch, Rain Dance, Return, Synthesis, ThunderPunch
Choice Specs allows you to hit hard off the bat, which is nice.
Fake Out can be used... on a lead set... I guess. It's a good move, just not so much on Ludicolo.
Focus Punch hits silly hard if you predict the switch or what not.
Rain Dance is pretty good if you're playing no Swift Swimmers on the same team as Drizzle.
Return pairs perfectly with Waterfall, as the move combo is only resisted by a few Pok�mon.
Synthesis is a healing move, which Ludicolo doesn't really have many of.
ThunderPunch ruins Gyarados, but that's mostly it.

Resists Earthquake, Surf, neutral to Rock Slide, Blizzard, and Heat Wave, has Swift Swim, STAB Surf and other good moves... Yeah, Ludicolo works quite well in multi Pok�mon battles. Teeter Dance can be used for mass confusion, I guess. You can do the same thing in doubles as you do in singles; abuse rain all you can. Fake Out has more use here.

Politoed and Kyogre, if you're using Ludicolo in ubers... for some reason. Depending on the set, you want stuff removed. The special set has difficulty with Chansey and Blissey, and obviously Ferrothorn unless you run Focus Blast, so running a Fighting Pok�mon is pretty important. Terrakion or something is fine. With the physical set, you have to be careful around Skarmory and bulky Grass Pok�mon like Celebi and Virizion. Removing Grass Pok�mon is a priority if you are using the SubSeed set. Skarmory, Flying Pok�mon, that kind of jazz works fine.Scizor is a good choice as it has good synergy with rain and has U-turn to ruin Grass Pok�mon.

Ferrothorn can be a major thorn in Ludicolo's side as it resists near about every move and strategy that Ludicolo can bring. Another thing you need to focus upon is changing the weather as Ludicolo can be beastly in the rain. Pok�mon with Drought like Ninetales & Groudon will damage its strengths and speed while ones with Snow Warning and Sandstorm can inflict damage while harming Ludicolo's speed. Incidentally, Thunder Wave on various Pok�mon can be switched in and used to cut its speed should you lack any weather based Pok�mon

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Evolve Lombre (Sapphire/Emerald)
Trade from Sapphire/Emerald (Ruby).

FireRed/LeafGreen:
Trade from Sapphire/Emerald.

Colosseum/XD:
Trade from Sapphire/Emerald

Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Lombre.

HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Lombre .

Black/White:
Evolve Lombre (White)
Trade from White/Transfer from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum/HeartGold/SoulSilver (Black)