#20: Shuckle

Ah, yes... That weird little Shuckle. You wouldn't say bugs are so cute, but I find Shuckle kind of adorable. Its design is so simple, yet so brilliant, too: Shuckle may be based on several real-life organisms. The first are endoliths, organisms that live in porous rocks or animal shells. That is kind of logical, too, if you look at its hard shell it lives in. Shuckle is also probably based on scale insects: small, shelled parasites that produce a sweet fluid called honeydew that attracts other insects. Not illogical either, because Shuckle collects berries and stores them in its shell, after which the berries are liquefied and fermented by Shuckle's digestive juices. It then consumes the berry juice. In the anime, the berry juice of a shiny Shuckle even attracts Pokémon to anyone who drank it (see image aside). The hard shell resembling an exoskeleton, its limp-seeming feet, the use of acids to receive food or break down obstacles (Shuckle sometimes dissolves rocks in order to hide under them), its preference for fermented foods and its habitat (Shuckle like to live in or close to the water) also suggests that this little bug/rock-like creature may be based on mollusks and, appearance-wise, even on turtles and/or tortoises. Yeah, it seems to be based on a hodgepodge of organisms and it's not even clear which ones apply to Shuckle. But it's still a cute little... thingy. And it definitely has is uses outside battles.

So what about its uses in battles? Well, lets face it: Shuckle is terrible in generation II and III. It has the highest defenses in the games, higher even than the most defensive tanks that are often used in battle, but its special attack and attack are downright awful. They are about the lowest of all Pokémon. That's one extreme to the other, I dare say. When the move Power Trick was introduced in generation IV, Shuckle actually became a little more useful. Power Trick switches the defense and attack stat, meaning Shuckle would have an awesome attack stat and a horrific defense stat. The chance it would get knocked out by a physical-based attack before it even has a chance to strike is too damn high, because its speed is even more terrible than its attacking stats. In generation V, Power Split and Guard Split were introduced. Power Split averages the attack and special attack stats of Shuckle with the opponent's, while Guard Split does the same with the defense and special defense stats. The latter is useless. Shuckle has the highest defenses in the game, so why would you have it have lower defenses? Makes no sense whatsoever. But a little more power, while keeping its high defenses and lowering the opponent's attack stats... Nothing wrong with that! And it even learns moves like Stone Edge, Rock Slide and Bug Bite to make use of that raised attack and special attack stats! You can even drop Stone Edge (too inaccurate) to teach it Earthquake for a little more diversity. That way, Shuckle has become a lot more useful in battles, but it's a little tricky to pull off this strategy if you're more like a no-bullshit-just-attack type of battler.