Competitive Pokémon History - Electivire Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Electabuzz sadly didn't stand a chance in first generation standard play. Not to worry however, as it was quite good in the generation's UnderUsed tier, as it was a great check to tier king Tentacruel and otherwise fit the metagame quite well. However, it did have to contend with the presence of a hard counter whose presence alone stopped it from being a top tier threat. Which Pokémon of the following could switch into Electabuzz and reliably win?

Answer: Hypno

Dugtrio, as a Ground type, seems like it could do this. However, a full HP Electabuzz can just barely guarantee survival of Dugtrio's Earthquake once, while Dugtrio would be 2HKOed by Psychic, so it just falls short of being able to achieve this.

Likewise, Venusaur cannot trade blows with Electabuzz if it switches into a super effective Psychic.

Hypno, however, has the special bulk to not be 3HKOed by anything Electabuzz can throw at it. This is important, as Hypno's usage of Rest allows it to take hits from Electabuzz all day and wear it down with Psychic or heavily cripple it with Thunder Wave or Hypnosis. As a top tier threat, Hypno was a troubling presence for Electabuzz and it needed support to overcome it. Sadly, Hypno itself had no counters in UU, so the only way around it would be smart play from Electabuzz's trainer to get in a strong physically offensive threat such as Persian or Kangaskhan in against Hypno without getting hit hard or afflicted with status.

2. On paper, with Zapdos rising to top tier status and the newly introduced Raikou joining it, Electabuzz should've had no chance competing with them in second generation standard play. However, Electabuzz' access to one particular move actually gave it a niche that they could not replicate, making Electabuzz viable in standard play. What move gave Electabuzz this status?

Answer: Cross Chop

Cross Chop's excellent and dangerous 25% critical hit rate, combined with the fact that numerous big time threats in the metagame were weak to Fighting, gave Electabuzz the ability to nail huge threats like Snorlax or Tyranitar for major damage. On a critical hit, it also had a good chance to obliterate Blissey in one clean hit, which was absolutely enormous for an Electric type to be able to claim. Critical hits also ignore stat boosts, so a Snorlax with a few Curses which looks like it's ready to roll over your team can be stopped by Electabuzz with a bit of luck, something nothing apart from Machamp or maybe Skarmory could achieve.

This gave Electabuzz a very meaningful niche over Zapdos and Raikou that made it very much worth using and viable.

3. Electabuzz gained an ability upon reaching the third generation. What was it?

Answer: Static

Static makes it so that any Pokémon making physical contact with its user has a 30% chance to end up paralyzed as a result. Electabuzz was relatively frail, so it had trouble consistently activating this ability. This made it not terribly impactful.

4. Electabuzz gained standard play notoriety once again through the receiving of an evolved form Electivire in the fourth generation. Electivire is predictably an all around upgrade, especially in its beefy attack stat. What is Electivire's attack stat?

Answer: 123

With Electivire's incredibly colorful movepool, this stat was just high enough to keep it consistently threatening.

5. Electivire acquired exclusive access to a new ability in the fourth generation. What was it?

Answer: Motor Drive

Motor Drive renders the user immune to Electric type attacks, while providing the user with a +1 to speed if they are targeted by such a move. Electivire's base 95 speed was relatively lackluster for an offensive Pokémon, so this ability had the potentially to come in clutch and patch that up.

6. Fifth generation Electivire went on to get booted out of standard play due to extreme power ceeep. It failed to find a place in UU either, though it settled into RarelyUsed rather nicely. Here, however, it had to contend with the presence of a counter. Which of the following could switch into Electivire and win?

Answer: Uxie

Gardevoir comes surprisingly close despite its poor physical defense- its ability Trace will let it copy Electivire's Motor Drive, then become immune to Electivire's Electric type attacks and even take advantage of them thanks to Motor Drive's speed boost. However, strong Earthquakes are a bit much for Gardevoir to come in on, so it's trainer must be careful.

Rhydon and other Ground types have a difficult time handling Hidden Power Grass or Ice Punch. Likewise, offensive variants of Rotom cannot switch in on the latter.

Uxie, however, was very, very tanky, notably is not weak to anything Electivire could use, and could switch into it easily and trade blows with it to win.

7. Not to be deterred, Electabuzz remained active in the fifth and sixth generations of NU and PU despite its evolved form overshadowing it in higher tiered play. Here, newly found access to one item helped greatly to mask Electabuzz's poor bulk, and it had big brother Electivire to thank for that. What item was this?

Answer: Eviolite

Eviolite boosts the defense and special defense of a Pokémon by one stage if they are a pre-evolved form. Despite poor 65/57/85 bulk, Eviolite made Electabuzz out to be deceptively tanky. With good offensive stats and a great movepool, this let Electabuzz be an effective offensive pivot, able to take a hit or two and respond by hitting the offender hard.

8. Flashing forward to the seventh generation, and the prospects for both Electabuzz and Electivire were unfortunately quite grim. What competitive tier did both of them find themselves in?

Answer: Untiered

Electivire and Electabuzz both found themselves outclassed by superior Electric types such as Oricorio-G, Alolan Raichu and tier king Eelektross. Electabuzz's power without being able to wield a boosting move was underwhelming, and even with Eviolite, its bulk compared to other Eviolite users was unimpressive. Electivire's lack of a good physical STAB move was too much for its otherwise amazing movepool to compensate for, causing it to pale in comparison to the aforementioned Electric types. Overall, these two weren't utterly worthless, but they failed to distinguish themselves from the competition at all.

Their competitive placement reflects upon that.

9. The infamous DexIt the Galar region became known for denied the ability of over four hundred Pokémon to be available for use once the eighth generation kicked off. Those who survived the exodus were fittingly immediately available. Were Electabuzz and Electivire immediately available for use as the eighth generation began?

Answer: Yes

After a generation of being down in the dumps, this was their best chance at returning to competitive relevance.

10. One of the quirkier things about evolving an Electabuzz into Electivire is what becomes of Electivire's stat build following the transformation. In fact, Electabuzz has one base stat which is higher than Electivire's. In what stat does Electabuzz hold an advantage over Electivire?

Answer: Speed

Electabuzz's 105-95 advantage in speed is quite significant, and the loss when evolving has been thoroughly felt since Electivire was introduced. Had this drop in speed not taken place, it's quite possible Electivire would've enjoyed more competitive success than it would go on to achieve.

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 Pokémon History - Electivire Quiz

Electivire and it's pre-evolved form, Electabuzz, get a competitive history quiz here! See if you 'elect' to pick the right answers to these questions here, from generations 1-8!

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