Competitive Pokémon History - Pikachu Quiz

Answer: Raichu

The other three options did not exist in the first generation.

Unfortunately, anime logic and plot armor have no bearing in the competitive scene. Despite Ash Ketchum's Pikachu running circles around Lieutenant Surge's Raichu, Raichu's stats are vastly superior to Pikachu's entirely across the board, due to the simple fact that Raichu is Pikachu's evolved form. With no items existing yet, Pikachu never had a chance to thrive in any particular metagame as Raichu was plainly superior to it.

Answer: Light Ball

Light Ball doubles Pikachu's special attack stat. This causes its paltry offenses to suddenly rival those of Mewtwo's, which was pretty enormous in an era which tended to mainly favor defensive play and longevity over offensive firepower. Pikachu's specially offensive capabilities were practically second to none as a result, making it viable.

Answer: 35

A 35 in HP, 30 in Defense and a 40 in Special Defense made Pikachu out to be absurdly fragile beyond initial comprehension. To give an idea, a Thunderbolt off of Raikou, a move Pikachu resists, still does north of 70% damage to Pikachu, easily 2HKOing it.

This unfortunately meant that Pikachu had to play a pretty extreme hit-n-run play style, as if it couldn't immediately KO its target, it was practically guaranteed that Pikachu itself would get immediately KOed.

Answer: Snorlax

Naturally, as an Electric type, it would stand to reason that approaching a Pikachu with a Grass or Ground type would generate straightforward results. However, directly switching one of them into Pikachu was quite risky. Pikachu was the only Electric type not named Lanturn (and Chinchou) to gain access to Surf, meaning it would always have one move to smack Ground types very hard. This also left it room for Hidden Power Ice, so it could do the same to Grass and Dragon types which resisted Electric.

In spite of Pikachu's daunting power, Snorlax, the king of the tier, packed a lot of special bulk and easily had the offenses to break Pikachu in half without struggling. Snorlax could take two Thunderbolts, have roughly 40% of its health left, and could delete Pikachu with any attacking move in its arsenal. Snorlax also usually packed Rest and had Leftovers, meaning if Pikachu fled the field, Snorlax could quite easily patch itself up should a future encounter with the yellow rodent be necessary.

Other counters to Pikachu included Raikou, Blissey, and Porygon2.

Answer: Static

Static gives Pokémon who physically attack the user a 30% chance to end up being paralyzed as a result. Due to Pikachu's awful bulk, if this ability ever activated, it often did so simultaneously as Pikachu fainted. Still, if Pikachu was at low health or was simply not needed for the rest of the game, the user could sacrifice it by switching it in on a physically offensive move and hoping Static procced in the process.

Answer: Nasty Plot

Nasty Plot doubles the user's special attack upon use. To give an idea of how monstrous this could be, a Pikachu with Light Ball that has boosted once has the power to 2HKO Blissey from full health with Thunderbolt; Pikachu became just the second Pokémon ever to make the claim of 2HKOing Blissey using a special attack with just a single turn of setup.

Sadly, much like the other Pokemon who make this claim in Porygon-Z, a Nasty Plot Pikachu sweep was virtually impossible to pull off due to Pikachu's absurd frailty. If the opponent opted to attack Pikachu on the setup turn, the damaging move would almost certainly KO in one fell hit. This often meant Pikachu users went without the move entirely, instead choosing to simply use four attacking moves and get Pikachu out of dodge should it be up against a foe it cannot immediately KO.

Answer: Lightning Rod

Lightning Rod simultaneously renders the user immune to Electric, while also granting them a +1 to special attack should they be targeted by such a move.

This ability uniquely gave Pikachu the ability to actually switch into play, which was nice albeit still extremely risky. On the chance that Pikachu could grab a free boost to its special attack, it could wield truly dangerous power that rivals Uber level threats. In a nutshell, this made it a much better ability than Static.

Answer: 90

90 for speed wouldn't be the end of the world if Pikachu had the capacity to so much as survive a single attack that has any sort of offensive potency in the slightest behind it. Because of this, if Pikachu cannot outspeed its opponent, its opponent is highly likely to be able to just KO Pikachu then and there due to its frailty.

This made Pikachu very weak to offensive teams, which had spent the last few generations becoming progressively more viable. As they took the forefront of the PartiallyUsed and NeverUsed tiers in the sixth and seventh generations, Pikachu simply got drowned in viability by them.

Answer: It paralyzed all opponents

The after effect of guaranteed paralysis could certainly be quite useful, as it could give Pikachu a Plan B option of simply hoping to steal a turn away from the opponent via paralysis if Pikachu was in a desperate situation but also couldn't quite pull off an immediate KO on its target. Dishing out tons of damage was certainly nice too.

Answer: Banned from Ubers

Unfortunately, all Gigantomax and Dynamax forms would go on to be banned entirely from competitive play, so G-Max Pikachu is technically even banned from Ubers! This sadly meant that this generational upgrade would ultimately be for naught, as Pikachu would be left to linger in PartiallyUsed.

At least it became decent enough to see usage there, which was still a step up from its sixth and seventh generation.