Competitive Pokemon History - Pachirisu Quiz

Answer: NeverUsed

The Untiered designation didn't actually exist at the time, but if it did, Pachirisu would no doubt have ended up here. The fourth generation is known for being the most accommodating for mid-tier and low-tier Pokémon to find some sort of useful niche in.

The list of threats viable for UU is extensive, and is larger than any other generation in franchise history. Thus, the fact that Pachirisu fails to appear on this list should tell you all you need to know about how great it was. Pachirisu's pathetic offenses and below average bulk made it miss out on this list.

In NU, Pachirisu was really not viable, but it could at least be somewhat functional with a mediocre support set that could weaken walls with Super Fang, pivot threats in with U-Turn and maybe spread paralysis with Discharge or Thunder Wave.

Answer: Pickup

Pickup allows Pachirisu to occasionally find a random item while its trainer travels throughout whatever world it happens to be in. This obviously does nothing in an actual battle. Since Run Away does nothing either, the decision between the two abilities is immaterial.

Answer: Volt Absorb

Volt Absorb allows Pachirisu to heal itself instead of take damage whenever it is targeted by an Electric type attack. The fact that it actually does something even mildly useful made it clearly preferred over the useless Pick Up and Run Away.

Answer: Se Jun Park

Se Jun Park, notably claiming Pachirisu to be his favorite Pokémon, took home the gold with his favorite squirrel taking up a position of prominence on his team. With Pachirisu supporting his team and harassing his opponent thoroughly, Se Jun Park was able to adequately exploit matchup advantages Pachirisu's partner had to deadly effects. Pachirisu's surprisingly good bulk let it take a couple of hits, meaning that its partner could use the time to take out dangerous threats on the opposing team while remaining unscathed.

This will almost definitely go down as the most successful innovative pick for a Pokémon of all time, and as of the eighth generation, serves as the only serious success Pachirisu has ever enjoyed in a competitive format.

Answer: Being physically defensive

Pachirisu's only two attacking moves either did fixed damage or were such where the damage output was totally meaningless, so there was no point in investing in its awful offenses. Pachirisu's Base 95 Special Defense is actually rather decent, while its Base 70 Defense is below average.

However, by maximizing the EVs in its Defense, Pachirisu could actually take even strong physical hits rather well. In maximizing its HP EVs, Pachirisu could take physical hits even better while its specially defensive side was improved as well.

Answer: Sitrus Berry

Sitrus Berry let Pachirisu take hits better, enabling it to heal 30% of its HP once it reached half or less. It was preferred to Leftovers for its more immediate effects in the faster paced VGC metagame.

Answer: Follow Me

Follow Me, in doubles, is a move which forces both Pokémon on the opposing team to only strike the user instead of the user's partner Pokémon.

In the Championship-clinching Game 2 against Jeudy Azzarelli, Se Jun Park picked a beautiful time to use Follow Me on his Pachirisu in what was undoubtedly his most masterful prediction of the whole tournament. With his Garchomp and Pachirisu facing down Azzarelli's Salamence and Rotom-Mow, Pachirisu's Follow Me diverted away a Draco Meteor and Leaf Storm that would've doubtlessly KOed Garchomp into Pachirisu itself. Salamence's Draco Meteor did roughly 50% damage to Pachirisu, activating its Sitrus Berry, which enabled it to then easily survive Rotom-Mow's Leaf Storm with about half of its health remaining. Garchomp used the diversion to strike Salamence with a Dragon Claw that OHKOed, then leaving Rotom-M at half its Special Attack to try and deal with both Pachirisu and Garchomp, an endeavor that definitely did not work out as Se Jun Park took home the gold largely off of making this play.

Answer: Nuzzle

Nuzzle itself does next to no damage, but what it does do is guarantee that a struck target will become paralyzed unless they have an ability that prevents this, like Limber or Comatose. Jeudy Azzarelli's Choice Scarved Tyranitar certainly didn't have these abilities, and its capacity to revenge kill Se Jun Park's Garchomp with a 4x super effective Ice Punch was just about ruined when Se Jun Park's Pachirisu hit the Tyranitar with this move.

Answer: Super Fang

Super Fang takes the current HP total of the target and halves it, unless the target is a Ghost type and thus immune to the attack. This was definitely Se Jun Park's least used move on Pachirisu, as he scarcely ever needed it to actually deal damage amidst supporting his team, but it had its niche uses.

Answer: Protect

Protect allows Pachirisu to stall out unfavorable conditions while its partner can deal with the perpetrator. Pachirisu itself was usually meant to divert away unfavorable conditions from its partner, so Protect's purpose was moreso to keep the opponent honest and not automatically think to double target Pachirisu all the time, lest they risk wasting an entire turn doing so. Because of Pachirisu's otherwise very small movepool, Protect was the go-to fourth moveslot.