Pokemon Analyzation #2: Mareep Line

   Greetings to all of you, and welcome to Pokemon Analyzation, the series where I take a certain Pokemon or evolutionary line and review everything about it. Today, I am going to be reviewing the Mareep family. If you have played Pokemon Gold, Silver, or their remakes, you most likely have used one of these before. I certainly have. Do they hold up as well as we remember? Well, let's take an in-depth look at these shocking sheep. Once again, like Venusaur from last time, I will mostly be talking about Ampharos in the battle portion. Here we go, this is Mareep and its evolutionary line.


Name: Mareep, Flaaffy, Ampharos






Description: As you can see, Mareep starts out as nothing more than a  cute little electric sheep. When Mareep evolves, it turns into Flaaffy, changing from blue to pink, now standing on two legs, and getting fabulous hair. It seems a little weird, but it's whatever. Then we come to Ampharos, and now it doesn't even look like a sheep. Apparently, its supposed to resemble a sheared sheep an a lighthouse, but I don't see it. I thought the madness was over, but then comes Mega Ampharos. What were the game designers trying to do? Bulbapedia says that it's supposed to look like a Chinese dragon, but...
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                                                 I don't get it.


Battle Style:

Generation 2: There are plenty of ways I could describe Ampharos, but generic electric type is definitely not one of them. Sure it has the high special attack like most electric types do, but the big thing is that it is very slow. Ampharos has a base speed of 55, making it one of the slowest electric types, period. All of its other stats are average, a tiny bit is distributed in bulk, but everything else is pretty much basic.
   Now because Ampharos' highest stat is special attack, you probably think that it learns a lot of great special moves. And, while it does learn some pretty strong moves like Thunder, Fire Punch, and Iron Tail, it's main draw are some of the interesting status moves it can learn, like Thunder Wave, Cotton Spore, Light Screen, and Swagger. Ampharos is a mixed bag in this generation that has endless possibilities. I can highly recommend one here.

Generation 3: In this generation, Ampharos has not really changed at all. It learns a few new moves, but none of them are very noteworthy. It does get the ability Static, which can paralyze your foe upon contact, so that's something. There isn't really much else to say here. Ampharos acts almost exactly the same as in the previous games.

Generation 4: Now we are in Diamond and Pearl, the physical/special split occurred, and it both helped and hurt Ampharos at the same time. on one hand, Ampharos gets access to new powerful moves like Signal Beam and Power Gem. This adds extra coverage and more possibilities. Unfortunately, one of its best moves before, Fire Punch, has been greatly nerfed, now that it's a physical move. Asides from that, Ampharos didn't change too much. It got both a buff and a nerf.

Generation 5: Ampharos, the homeostasis Pokemon. Ampharos has barely made changes throughout any of the generations because if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Same deal, not much has changed. It acquired Plus for its Hidden Ability, but I don't see much practical use for it. Next game.

Generation 6: Nothing changed, next.



   Just kidding, a lot has actually changed for Ampharos in this generation. It got a stat boost. Defense went from 75 to 85. It also got a Mega Evolution, giving it a new ability, Mold Breaker, and an additional type, Dragon. This new Mega Evolution gives Ampharos an even higher special attack and a little more bulk. Asides from this big change, surprise surprise, there isn't much else to say.



Personal Experience: Like I previously mentioned, I have used an Ampharos before, and it did prove to be very useful on my team. My Ampharos in Pokemon Soul Silver, "Voltz" (I wasn't that creative with names back then), was the one that helped me beat Lance. I also had a Feraligatr on my team that did a lot of work, but back to Ampharos. He was the one who took out that pesky Gyarados of his, as well as his Charizard when my Gatr was knocked out. Voltz was a great asset to my team and I really enjiyed having him.



Overall Rating: Ampharos was a good Pokemon back then and it is still pretty okay now. Lots of bigger and badder electric types have entered the fray since its arrival, but it still holds up well. Maybe if it got more than a few mediocre moves each generation, I could give it more of a recommendation, but I would still give it a go. I had fun using it and I'm pretty sure that everyone else who used one did as well.

 7.5 Zephyr Badges out of 10.

    Thank you so much for reading and I'll see you next week for my review on the Zigzagoon Line, requested by PokeAmino user, Jack57470. Bye!