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Weekly Article – From Mono-type to Dual-type

For this week’s article, I will be looking at some currently mono-type Pokémon and suggesting a new type to them to make them dual-type, since they seem like they could have both types. There were a few times that happened before, such as Magnemite’s conversion from Electric to Electric/Steel, as well as Jigglypuff’s conversion from Normal to Normal/Fairy. Since I have completed a previous article on adding Fairy-types to existing Pokémon, there won’t be Pokémon that will be receiving Fairy-types.

If you are ready, you may read on.

Ninetales is based on a kitsune, a fox spirit. It has a few things in common with them, including the nine tails and supernatural powers. Among them are its cursed tails and long life. A cursed body is a characteristic found on Ghost-types, and similarly for long life. Ninetales would be a good fit for a Ghost-type.

Fire/Ghost is a good defensive type for its nine natural resistances and ability to escape from the field. Offensively its STABs are decent, and goes well with Energy Ball. It would be weak to Pursuit, though most of the users are not going to like a Burn, so that is something you could take advantage of.

If you are familiar with the anime (especially the early times when Misty was still there), then you would know that Psyduck has latent psychic powers that it would only use in times of stress. Golduck seems more adept with its psychic powers, considering how its forehead’s light would glow when it uses them.

Because of their telekinetic abilities, they should logically be a Psychic-type, but that’s oddly not the case. It would be confusing to some viewers who would expect them to be as such. One could argue that since they are not as skilled as some other Psychic-types, they don’t have them, but considering how they are known for their psychic powers, it would make sense for them to be a Psychic-type.

The crustacean-based Pokémon we have are inconsistent in some ways. Dwebble and Crustle, another pair of crab Pokémon, are Bug-types, but the other crab-based Pokémon are not Bug-types. You may think that crabs or shrimps are not necessarily insects, but they have characteristics in common with insects, such as being invertebrates, meaning that they have a hard outer shell to make up for their lack of backbone.

It would seem that Dwebble and Crustle meant that the designers realised that crustaceans are indeed insects, but it doesn’t seem to be the case since Clauncher and Clawitzer are not Bug-types. It’s too bad, because Water/Bug is one of the types fans wanted on a fully-evolved Pokémon, and having Clauncher and Clawitzer as Bug-types would increase the Bug-types (there is only one family introduced in Generation 6).

The only reason I didn’t include Corphish or Crawdaunt is the latter’s already set secondary type (Dark).

The ability to achieve a state of intangibility thanks to travelling to cyberspace is a unique ability that Ghost-types could do as well. Even Porygon-Z could travel to alien dimensions in a whim (though this information is meant to explain its ability to naturally learn Trick Room). Given that, an extra Ghost-type would provide that type more diversity in that there are other ways to use it, as we have seen with Jellicent and Golurk.

Both the Normal and Ghost provide both great offence and defence. Offensively, only a handful of Pokémon resist both types, while defensively, the simultaneous immunity from two great offensive types is great. Porygon-Z would do well to take advantage of the former, while Porygon2 would do well to take advantage of the latter.

Being based on a sunflower, it’s a bit of missed opportunity not to have a sunflower Pokémon with a Fire-type. A Grass-type with the ability of Fire won’t exist until Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist came along, so in the middle of this time period, there was lament from this missed opportunity. It may be true that sunflowers don’t exhibit the power of fire by itself, being first and foremost a plant, but a series based on fantastical monsters would do well to take advantage of the ability to turn something ordinary into something fantastical.

Sunflora’s not exactly a top-notch battler since its stats are quite low, save for its Special Attack, so it may seem that a new type won’t do it favours (Magcargo’s type combination is unique too, but its stat distribution doesn’t do it favours). Therefore, the main advantage with having a unique type combination is that people would pay more attention to a forgotten Pokémon since it has something to stand out.

The them with Shuppet and Banette is vengeance, since they are supposedly conceived as possessed dolls that are abandoned. This type of characteristic won’t be out of place among Dark-types, since vengeance in this fashion could be evil yet understandable. They are also capable of learning several moves Dark-types are known to learn.

The extra type won’t make them completely invulnerable, considering the new Fairy weakness, but neutralising the weaknesses to two good offensive types is a huge advantage. Not to mention, Mega Banette as a Ghost/Dark-type could wreak havoc with its new-found STAB Dark attacks.

The Regi legendaries are golems that animate after certain conditions are met, which is currently unique to them (oddly, you can’t catch them while they are dormant). One type of attack that they all could learn is Electric. They have a whole set of Electric attacks, including Thunder Wave and Zap Cannon (except Regigigas). Electricity is known to reanimate things, so if all the Regis have a type in common, they would be more unique than before.

Of course, the Electric-type gives a compounded Ground weakness (double for Regirock and Registeel), but the extra resistances and neutralised weakness to Steel (Regirock and Regice) are main advantages. It would help offensively, especially in the case of Regice, since its STAB Electric and Ice attacks complement well.

Thanks to Luxray’s dark colouration, people expected it to be a Dark-type. Extra signs that it might have been a Dark-type include its group mentality and the appearance of crunching ability (hey, that’s how I guess Carvanha and Sharpedo are Dark-types). Luxray is one of the popular Generation 4 Pokémon, so having an extra Dark-type would help it stand out a bit more.

An extra Dark-type would give Luxray more offensive potential, since that would power up its Crunch attack. On the defensive side, Dark is improved thanks to being one of the types that resist Ghost (the other is Normal, a type with no other resistances), so it could be on the defensive with Intimidate.

Cofagrigus is known to be made of gold (at least, its sarcophagus body is made of that stuff), so several players expect it to have the Steel-type since gold is a metal. This is why it’s odd to know that Cofagrigus was revealed to be a pure Ghost-type. Its heavily-armoured body doesn’t quite feel sturdy if it only had that Ghost-type (though it does have gigantic Defence).

Steel is one of the best types to use in battle, thanks to their numerous resistances. A Ghost/Steel-type Cofagrigus would be very good since it could take advantage of that type combination for support, as well as making use of Mummy a lot more effectively. While it would still be weak to Ghost and Dark, in addition to Fire and Ground, at least it cannot be trapped at all.

This is similar to the Regis above, where they are given an extra Electric-type thanks to the access to Electric moves. This gear family learns more Electric attacks. Their constant motion giving them the ability to conduct electricity is the main reason for the extra Electric-type.

On the offence, it won’t mean much since they have a limited access to attacks, so getting STAB on Electric would be huge, allowing them to get more out of their offensive potential.

It was a letdown when a Pokémon that looks as strong and powerful as Beartic didn’t have a Fighting-type, especially compared to the weaker Cubchoo. The same could be said for Teddiursa and Ursaring, with the former being cuter yet the latter being more ferocious.

The Fighting-type makes their Fighting attacks do more damage, allowing them to combat some types that get in their way, especially those Rock- and Steel-types. The Fighting-type even aids Beartic in that it reduces Stealth Rock damage, which would otherwise be detrimental to it.

I did mention that this article won’t have Fairy retypings, but I didn’t say anything about retyping a current Fairy. This Pokémon presents another missed opportunity much like Sunflora, in that its nature doesn’t provide a neat retype. I suppose one could argue that these Pokémon are meant to signify symbiosis since their ability doesn’t benefit them (but benefit Grass-types), allowing their unique advantages and disadvantages to come into play. Still, Florges would be great with a new Grass-type since it becomes the flower, unlike Flabébé and Floette.

Flower Veil allows Florges to do things it couldn’t previous do. For one, this ability works on the user if they are also a Grass-type, meaning that not only would it be immune to stat debuffs, it is immune to non-volatile status. Flower Shield would also work on it, so it would experience the benefit of Defence increase along with its teammate. Of course, getting STAB on the numerous Grass-type attacks is a plus.

So that’s all. While there are several examples for mono-types to be converted to dual-types, I find it surprisingly difficult to put them down since there are times when there aren’t much to explain for those changes. What mono-type Pokémon do you think could be a dual-type? I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I have writing it.

Thanks for reading.

(Note: There won’t be a Weekly Article next week, since I could use a break. I hope you understand.)