We’re back for the Normal-type reviews, and today we’re going to focus on Deerling and Sawsbuck, who change their coats depending on the seasons! If you are ready with this one, please proceed.
Selected Fan Art (Artist: suikuyo)
Seasons were a notable inclusion in Unova, since you see its effects in everywhere you go there. Every month signals a change in seasons, since three months is too long in game time for the effects you will receive, such as travelling to locations only accessed during winter and obtaining certain Pokemon. As with a lot of Pokemon created to showcase a certain feature in the games, Deeling and Sawsbuck are made to showcase how seasons can affect a Pokemon.
The seasonal change will affect the look of Deerling and Sawsbuck. The changes are only colour for Deerling, changing to pink, green, orange or brown depending on the season. The colour change is explained to not only be due to the seasonal change, but also temperature and humidity, even if it didn’t have a major impact on its colour change. It is not just the colour of the fur that changed, but its smell also changes. This is quite helpful in camouflage, since it will smell like mountain grass, making it easier to conceal itself from any predators.
For Sawsbuck, its back still has a colour change, but it’s not as noticeable. The most visible change for Sawsbuck is its antlers. In spring, it will have blooming flowers. For summer, it gets an overgrowth of greenery on its antlers. In autumn, its green overgrowth becomes redder and ripe. Finally, winter time is when the antlers are devoid of plants, instead becoming white. There are other subtle changes including the amount of fur (it’s most obvious for winter, since the extra fur provides more warmth).
Depending on the season, Sawsbuck would migrate, much like real deer. They are referred to as the “harbingers of spring”, which might come from the fact that they are most visible to the public eye at spring. Where there’s a herd migration, there’s a leader of the pack, so the leader is determined by the one with the best horns. In a way, Sawsbuck is beauty-aware. It would be interesting if different members of the herd have the best horns on each individual season, because the outcome would be interesting to see. It is likely that different herds would solve this predicament differently.
Pokémon rarely ever give each species sexual dimorphism since Generation 5, but if they do, you can expect them to be major (example: Pyroar, Jellicent). Since Sawsbuck is based on a deer, one would expect sexual dimorphism from them, to an extent. For the unaware, female deer don’t grow antlers. However, there is one type of female deer that has antlers: the reindeer. It should be noted that they would normally be smaller than a male’s.
Since deer antlers have the capacity to grow and renew, it is akin to a plant which keeps growing. Growing antlers has a substance called velvet, which encourages growth of the antlers, like the leaves that stem from the branches. Since deer antlers can be shed, regrowing them quickly is a necessity, because they could be used for lots of things, such as sparring with other deer, digging the earth for food and to aid in hearing the surroundings. The fact that antlers can be regrown like a plant is the basis in making this deer Pokémon a Grass-type, and that’s amazing to know.
Having antlers could be useful, but Sawsbuck’s antlers have the attribute of absorbing nutrients, which is the basis of its now-former signature move Horn Leech. Sawsbuck has other qualities that make it a good Physical attacker, such as Swords Dance, Jump Kick (for Steel-types) and an ability that boosts its Attack (Sap Sipper). It has other advantages as a Grass-type, such as Chlorophyll and some useful resistances. Unfortunately, having a Grass-type could also be a curse thanks to the many weaknesses of a Grass-type.
What would have been a more ideal way for Sawsbuck to make its seasonal change more meaningful is to have a different type for each form, so its Normal-type would probably be replaced with Fairy-type in spring, Normal-type in summer, Ground-type in autumn and Ice-type in winter. This would give some advantage for each of its forms. Since Generation 6 didn’t have seasons to randomly change the seasonal coat, and possibly future Generations, this could realistically be implemented. If it couldn’t, that is understandable, since both its Normal and Grass could feasibly be replaced that it won’t be right to replace either. Still, at least these Pokémon can battle decently, so they still have some substance.
A Pokémon that interact with seasons is a really cool idea for the novelty. There are several other ways to use seasons to distinguish a Pokémon’s appearance, so if seasons were to make a return, another Pokémon could use the seasons to their advantage, preferably one that can affect the way they battle. Anyway, a deer with plant-like qualities is quite clever, since deer are dependent on their environment (mostly forests) and their antlers are similar to a growing plant.
+ Clever fusion between deer and plants
+ Venison would be composed of meat and greens
+ Good battler in Intense Sunlight
– Season could be more meaningful in battle
Deerling’s TCG Card
Although Deerling and Sawsbuck have different forms depending on the season, not all are represented. For Deerling, only the first three seasons are available, leaving out only winter (Sawsbuck only has two: spring and summer). Anyway, none of the Deerling cards particularly stood out as amazing, but this is fine because at least there are the wide plains to marvel at.
Sawsbuck’s TCG Card
This majestic deer shows off its freshly-blossomed antlers while standing proudly, which is quite a sight to behold since it makes the deer appears larger than they normally are. It helps that it’s standing at where it is, because it makes for a great photo shoot.
Nature Power
Being a Pokémon associated with the seasons, as well as changing their appearance with each season change, Nature Power is a suitable move for Deerling and Sawsbuck. This move isn’t affected by seasons but by terrain, so it may seem that it’s not the best move to represent both of these Pokémon, but the fact is, seasonal changes are part of nature.
This move is more varied when used in an in-game quest because the player will travel through different types of terrain. On grass, a Grass-type attack is used. In the water, a Water-type attack is used. Each Generation has a different set of moves, which could be either a Physical or Special attack, so there are times when certain users will use an attack based on their weaker stat. It’s a situational move because of the various terrains you will encounter.
Usually, this move will become Tri Attack, which is a decent move because it can inflict status, but it’s not the strongest Normal-type attack. In Generation 5, the designers decided to make this move more useful, so they made it so that this move uses Earthquake in Link Battles, which benefit a lot of Grass-types looking for important coverage, and as you might guess, Deerling and Sawsbuck would want to use it. However, in Generation 6, it becomes Tri Attack again, therefore making this move inferior to any Physical attacker.
All is not lost for Nature Power in Generation 6, as this move calls Special attacks no matter the terrain, which makes it convenient, because now the trainer can give this move to Special attackers, and they won’t find a time where this move isn’t useful. The new terrain moves also increases this move’s variation, so while Electric Terrain is active, it will call Thunderbolt. One important distinction with Nature Power is that it is a Status move, which means it isn’t affected by Sucker Punch, while getting a priority boost with Prankster. Unfortunately, Taunt prevents this move from working, but you can’t have everything with one move, right?
Overall, this is a fun attack for experimentation on what it will become based on where the trainer is, and it is sometimes a useful move when the occasion rises.
That’s all for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.
Next Article: Ditto
