We’re back for the Normal-type reviews, and today we’re going to focus on Teddiursa and Ursaring, bear Pokémon with bright symbols on their bodies! If you are ready with this one, please proceed.
Selected Fan Art (Artist: Tierrin)
Bears are generally either cute or formidable, and both Pokémon fit both moulds. Between Teddiursa and Ursaring, there is a huge contrast between them. The former is clearly quite docile due to the harmless eyes and smaller body, while the latter is the more hostile one (not to mention fierce), with its imposing stance and eyes of no mercy.
Since parent bears are known to be quite ferocious and protective, a bear cub is dangerous in your presence, especially when a parent bear is around. Of course, bears are ferocious in general, so an angry bear is not a good sign for anyone nearby. Essentially, Ursaring is known to be dangerous compared to the more unassuming Teddiursa, and in the anime, it’s shown that Ursaring is a Pokémon to be wary of when it appears. In fact, both Pokémon have different abilities that fit their nature, only sharing Quick Feet. This could be interpreted in different ways: for Teddiursa, it means making a quicker getaway, while Ursaring would use it for offence.
True to this, Ursaring is very powerful in battle. Its high Attack, complemented with its wide array of Physical attacks, allows it to cover a wide range of threats. It works best with status, so if it has Guts, it could be even more powerful, while Quick Feet makes it faster. Therefore, a status Orb is a good item to equip. Unnerve is more situational, so it’s not as useful as the other abilities. Ursaring do have the disadvantage of being on the slow side, and having increasingly less HP if it has a status to power itself up, so it’s one of those powerful Pokémon that is manageable by being almost always the second to go while the opponent has time to deal with it. Interestingly, Teddiursa has similar stats of having Attack as the highest stat, but it’s not as powerful since it doesn’t have Guts for added power.
There are symbols found on both bear Pokémon: Teddiursa has a crescent on its forehead, whereas Ursaring has a ring on its chest. This design decision is based on the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major, well-known constellations. In the grand scheme of things, the design is minor and is mainly aesthetic, being at most used when Teddiursa found honey, in which the crescent on its head will glow. Perhaps if both Pokémon have long tails, then the reference would be clearer, because if the constellations are imposed to have a bear, they will have long tails.
Bears have an excellent sense of smell, which is useful in finding food, and since bears can eat many things, from meat to fruits, it relies on the smell to guide itself to the food, even if the food is out of sight. The smell could also be used to signal between bears, but in the context of Pokémon, it’s not as important. Anyway, the bear’s excellent sense of smell is seen on Ursaring’s ability to find food buried underground, either by the digger’s residual smell or the permeating smell of food from the ground.
Honey is known to be the favourite food for bears, even fictional ones like Winnie the Pooh. Since honey is fragrant, bears would naturally go for it if it’s available. Teddiursa likes honey, so it will naturally gravitate towards any source. Its paws are often soaked in honey, which makes it sweet and encourages licking. Teddiursa seems to have the skill to concoct its own honey by blending fruits and pollen collected by Beedrill (if Combee existed in Generation 3, it will be referred to instead of Beedrill).
During winter, it will hoard food in hidden locations because of the increasing scarcity of food, presumable before it will hibernate for the winter. Perhaps one of the places is underground, which it could very well find it later with its excellent sense of smell. Of course, when another Ursaring could smell the food, it could very well take it for itself, so maybe the food isn’t guaranteed to stay in place?
Ursaring is believed to be a good climber. It seems odd coming from the girth of a bear, but that’s the way it is: bears are skilled run, climb and swim. The climbing skill is really useful when it wants to get something from the tree that is out of reach, which results in scratch marks on the tree, so evidence on an Ursaring climb is easy to see (though it could be the mark of other Pokémon, so maybe it’s not that easy). Sometimes, it would prefer to snap the tree with its forelegs for berries, in case it doesn’t feel like getting them the conventional way. When it wants to rest, climbing on a tree to take a nap is also an option.
Overall, these bear Pokémon have taken pages from a book on what bears are like, including such things like liking honey, having an excellent sense of smell and being ferocious, in Ursaring’s case. Though having Ursa constellation references, it’s only a minor detail that adds a little touch on their designs. Of course, that’s not forgetting that Teddiursa is meant to represent the cute side of bears, whereas Ursaring represents the ferocious side of bears, so unless another bear Pokémon is a different type of bear such as the polar bear or the panda bear, it’s unlikely to see another bear Pokémon.
+ Quite accurate characteristics from bears
+ Ursa constellations’ signs are a nice touch
– Dangerous in its presence
Teddiursa’s TCG Card
Teddiursa has always been one to have a reliable source of food, so you can clearly see it storing its food away. It’s a shame that those spots seem like they can be easily stolen. On the bright side, if winter is nearby, it’s not like any Pokémon will be around to steal them, but there are always savvy (and greedy) humans to worry about…
Ursaring’s TCG Card
Although Ursaring is infamous for being a dangerous Pokémon to get close to, it has its moments of sweetness. For example, in this card, it shares a moment with Teddiursa, but that doesn’t mean you can get close to them, because you might be viewed as an unwelcomed guest attempting to hurt the small Teddiursa.
Belly Drum
The most suitable move for Ursaring, a Pokémon known for its lethal power and rampages, is Belly Drum. This is the definition of a high-risk, high-reward move. What it does is that the user trades half of their full HP to maximise Attack, and when they managed to survive their move, they will pack a mean punch, like Ursaring would if it beats the middle of the ring on its belly like a drum.
Since this move leaves the user with half of their HP lost, they must make their next turn count when they want to take advantage of their full power. Preferably, they have priority to fight back, and it happens that some users have one move. For example, Azumarill has Aqua Jet to make up for its low Speed, Linoone has Extreme Speed for superb priority to make up for its frailty and Magmortar has Mach Punch as its only priority. If the user has a Speed boost after using this move, that’s also ideal for reaping Belly Drum’s benefits. As of now, Slurpuff is the only Pokémon to do this reliably. On a lesser note, a user with recovery has a safety net in case their attempt isn’t ideal.
Overall, the effect is so good that it is worth it for the user to lose HP just so that they could attack with max strength.
That’s all for today’s article. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.
Next Article: Whismur, Loudred & Exploud
