Competitive Pokemon History - Unown Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Unown is a god amongst mortals in its debut generation. It strikes fear into the hearts of renowned heavy hitters, such as Sunkern and Magikarp. It is able to do this with the use of only one lone move that it has access to. What is this move?

Answer: Hidden Power

Unown can potentially access one of sixteen different kinds of Hidden Power to ravage the enemy with. Take that, Mewtwo! Unown does not need the sheer power offered by moves like Fire Blast, Earthquake, Hydro Pump or Thunder. Or a move with a base power higher than 70.

This would simply make Unown overpowering, and would prevent it from maintaining its guise as a Pokemon fit for the NeverUsed tier. Using Unown is making use of the ultimate element of surprise; upon seeing it, the opposing trainer is going to become awestruck, to the point where their emotions will overwhelm them, granting you an easy victory. Hidden Power is part of that magic!

2. Even the formal God of Pokemon Arceus himself can be countered in future generations. As a counter is defined as a Pokemon who can reliably switch in and defeat the target, which Pokemon of the following can reliably counter Unown?

Answer: Anything with a Base Stat Total of over 350

Sadly, even the almighty Unown has hard counters. Don't be thinking that your Pidgey, Sunkern or Magikarp are safe, though!

3. Second generation Unown is simply the epitomization of overpowering, as its base stats are gargantuan. Its Attack and Special Attack stats are fittingly its highest. What is Unown's Attack and Special Attack stat?

Answer: 72

With base 72 attacking stats combined with unbreakable 48/48/48 defenses that match those of Ditto's, Unown is an absolute nuke waiting to be dropped. With Hidden Power Psychic, it can 2HKO the likes of Machamp, Heracross and Rattata. Quiver in fear!

4. As if Unown wasn't already vastly overpowered, Nintendo ill-advisedly gave it an ability alongside Unown's inferior competition. What ability did Unown get?

Answer: Levitate

While it is understandable that the Pure Power behind Unown's Sheer Force would exert tons of mental Pressure on the opponent, at least Nintendo tamed this beast by giving it Levitate for an ability instead. This, however, ended up backfiring when one realizes that Unown can now hard-counter any Pokemon only using Ground type moves, such as Hiker Anthony's Sandshrew or a Diglett found in Kanto's Diglett Cave.

This served to make Unown too powerful for the PartiallyUsed tier that didn't exist at the time, causing it to instead ravage NeverUsed for the third generation.

5. As if Unown wasn't ridiculously overpowered, the perfect item for it was introduced in the fourth generation that none more than Unown could abuse to the max. What item was this?

Answer: Choice Specs

As Unown only cares to learn one move, in a feeble effort to make things fair for its opponent, the fact that Choice Specs locks it into one move is totally meaningless. This gives its Hidden Power even more savagery, enabling Hidden Power Psychic to now OHKO the 4x weak Toxicroak of all things!

6. Once again, even the God of Pokemon, Arceus has some degree of limitations to it. Even though Unown is clearly superior to Arceus, it suffered from a very common check in the fifth generation. What was this?

Answer: Pokemon who aren't opposing Unown

Unown had been 'known' across many generations for ripping apart even the best of teams from the get-go. The only exceptions to this have been faster Pokemon, Pokemon with an existent Special Defense stat, and Pokemon who can use a damaging move on Unown. Given this short list of qualifiers, it is easy to see why Unown is as strong as it is!

7. In the sixth generation, Unown even found viability in the Anything Goes metagame, alongside behemoths such as Mega Rayquaza, who were too powerful even for the Uber tier. What notable clause, existent in Ubers and below but not in AG, being non-existent in the tier benefitted Unown here?

Answer: Species Clause

With species clause out of the way, the player is finally free to do what every trainer worth their stuff has ever dreamed of- a team consisting of six Unowns. Here, you can do cool things, such as get the Unown letters to spell out "YOUWIN" or "ILOSE!" Which are fitting battle cries for someone looking to utilize this overbearing monster.

8. Still yet, a common check in Unown's new home tier in PartiallyUsed persisted. Which common Pokemon here consistently checked this out-of-control monster?

Answer: Fully Evolved Pokemon

While Unown generally preys on teams of all archetypes, just a single teambuild with a fully evolved Pokemon can at least contend against this monster. The balance of the battle can be swayed even more if your team has multiple fully evolved Pokemon! Remember though that Unown has teammates, most of which can function when beginning the battle automatically down a teammate, so you're certainly far from safe from this just by using fully evolved Pokemon!

9. In the seventh generation, Unown entered a new tier for competitive play. What tier was this?

Answer: Untiered

Being Untiered meant that Unown could now enter a competitive battle of any kind, legally. How foolish of Smogon to unleash this beast!

10. With many Pokemon being axed from the eighth generation, would Unown be one of them?

Answer: Yes

Unown would sadly be left behind. Its days of destroying teams single handedly would be temporarily placed on hold.

Source: Author cavalier87

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Competitive Pokemon History - Unown Quiz

It is Unown how I managed to reach my 100th quiz for Funtrivia as an author. Let's commemorate that with a quiz dedicated to Unown! See how much you know about it in the competitive scene, gens 2-8!

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