Vigoroth, Slaking (SM)

Slaking is a lazy bum.

Location: Route 11 (Island Scan on Friday)

Stats, Evolutions
Yet another Island Scan middle-stager. Vigoroth has quite balanced stats. It has decent HP, attack and defense, and very good speed while everything else is mediocre. Does this remind you of another Pokémon that you can catch via Island Scan as soon as you enter Ula'Ula? No?

Slaking however, is an absolute destroyer once it evolves at the close-by level 36. Some of its stats barely increased, but others, however, are scary to look at. That massive attack stat, combined with its impressive speed, will demolish anything that doesn't resist it. I never put Z-moves into consideration, but STAB Breakneck Blitz Giga Impact is capable of destroying whole worlds. It has massive HP, pretty good defense and a very competent special attack. Its special defense is low though, but its HP are so massive it doesn't matter. You'd think such a giant would have some sort of drawback that balanced him out, and my friend, you're right! It has the Truant ability, which makes it act every other turn. One turn it does a move, the next it loafs around. It's an ability that drags battles out more than they should be dragged out, but it makes its attacks feel like they have more weight behind them. Plus, the AI has no way to work around Truant.

Movepool, Abilities, Typing
Its unique move is Hammer Arm. It does heavy fighting-type damage at the cost of a speed decrease. It's good for covering up against Rock and Steel types. It also has Slash, which has a high chance of a critical and gets STAB, Chip Away which ignores enemy defense changes. Nothing else that worthy when you catch it. At level 33 it gets Counter to counter physical hits. It's all it gets before evolving, but you can hold it off for a while to have it get moves that Slaking can't get otherwise. Focus Punch at 37, Reversal at 43.

Slaking learns Swagger upon evolving. It's much riskier to use this generation considering the confusion nerf, but it's still useful sometimes. Flail is better than Reversal and goes well with Endure (Vigoroth has this from default), then the best it has (and last, before the League) is Punishment, which does more damage the most stat increases the opponent has.

Slaking has many, many options when it comes to TMs. It has very impressive coverage. Give it any attacking move, you won't be disappointed, although you should teach it physical moves because of that huge attack stat. Considering that Truant makes it hit just once every two turns, you should definitely teach it Toxic to assure yourself some damage, and Work Up makes it hit like a truck.

Vigoroth's ability is Vital Spirit. It prevents it from falling asleep. Slaking's ability is Truant. I already explained it and you prolly already knew about it.

Its Normal typing only has a weakness and an immunity. Its weakness to Fighting types is made worse with Truant.

Important Battles
It's fine to use against Vikavolt. Vigoroth (not Slaking) has a very curious advantage against Mimikyu. If you teach it Shadow Claw and give it the Eviolite, Vigoroth can do some serious damage. The biggest problem in the Mimikyu battle is how Haunter and Gengar spam sleeping moves, but Vigoroth is immune to falling asleep due to Vital Spirit. Just stock up on potions. Nanu dies but Sableye requires some coverage, no problem with Hapu, and Kommo-o and Hala are just no. The rest of the League is decent.

Conclusion
You will be stuck with Vigoroth until level 36, but it's decent. Slaking is completely different from its preevolution, it has tons of raw power, is very beefy, and actually very fast, and it has a lot of coverage to boot. You'd think a mon like this would be in the triple digits, but no, he isn't. The problem is this; Truant. This ability is worse than useless and it's a cheap excuse to limit Slaking's potential. It made what was meant to be a difficult but awesome Pokémon turn into low tier fodder... But keep in mind that the AI opponents have no way to work around Truant. They will, most of the time, chip away at you like the wusses they are. Truant does make Slaking's weaknesses (Special moves, Fighting type moves) more glaring, and prevents it from sweeping, but it's still pretty good even with those flaws. You can pick Slaking up, remember that it takes skill and patience to use one because of Truant.

Rating: 81%