Honedge, Doublade, Aegislash (SM)

A sword. Two swords. A sword and a shield.

Location: Akala Outskirts (Island Scan on Wednesday)

Stats, Evolutions
Heck yeah. Honedge is slow as molasses, but its Attack and Defense are pretty high. Its special defense is low, so a special attack is all it takes to break this sword.

Doublade has the same stat distribution after evolving at level 35, which is quite a bit (you get it at 23), but it's all increased. In fact, its defense is impossibly high, making it one of the best Eviolite users. It will resist ANYTHING. Its attack is pretty darn high too.

Aegislash evolves when you give it a Dusk Stone (found late in the game) and it's a bit special. It has two stances, Shield (High defenses, low offenses) and Blade (High offenses, low defenses) and it changes stances via the appropriately named Stance Change ability. In both formes its HP and speed are low. Aegislash starts the battle in Shield. Using an attack makes it switch into Blade. If it's in its Blade forme, using King's Shield makes it switch back to Shield. You don't get King's Shield until you access the Move Relearner right before the League, but two knights in shining armor and fiery steeds called Autotomize and Swords Dance come to the rescue. Using both of these moves while Aegislash is in its shield forme, and then using a powerful attack to switch to Blade...

Moves, Abilities, Typing
Its unique move is Destiny Bond. Um... okay? It will also have Autotomize (doubles its speed, keep it around for when it evolves), Shadow Sneak (always hits first), and Aerial Ace (never misses). At level 26 it gets Retaliate, which doubles in power if the ally Pokémon it switched in its place faints. It hits very hard and it's not difficult to make it reach full power. It gets Slash at level 29 which has a high chance of a crit. And Iron Defense at 32 boosts its already high defenses. Right before evolving, it gets Night Slash, which is like Slash but it's a dark move.

You should probably wait until Doublade gets Iron Head at 45 before evolving it again. Sacred Sword at 51 is not bad either, but Iron Head is the better and quicker option.

Aegislash gets no more moves upon evolving, but via TMs it gets many attacking moves. Just about any of them are good because Bladegislash has those sky high attacking stats. You should definitely teach it Swords Dance, because it significantly boosts its already high attack to higher levels, but it's already high enough so you should use Autotomize instead, which it naturally gets.

The first two swords' ability is No Guard. It makes any move that it and the opponents use hit. Aegislash's ability is Stance Change. Already explained.

Its typing is Steel/Ghost. It has 9 resistances and 3 immunities, which completely offset its four weaknesses. Simply amazing.

Important battles
It does well against virtually every battle in the game. It's a bit delicate before evolving, but once it evolves into Doublade, it will start wrecking anything that is not a special attacker, and once it evolves into Aegislash it's a complete gamebreaker. It does badly against the last two Kahunas though.

Conclusion
You'll never feel like you're babying Aegislash. It's the best Steel-type and best Ghost-type in the game. Its stats and gimmick are great, its moves are great, its ability is great, and just about anything about it is great. It's a shame that it doesn't have King's Shield without relearner, but it gets Autotomize by levelling up. AN OFFENSIVE POKÉMON LIKE BLADEGISLASH WITH A SPEED BOOSTING MOVE. Use Autotomize while on the Shield Forme, then attack and tear it all to shreds.

Rating: 96%