Everybody knows the infamous sarcastic wit and acid tongue of the infinitelybrilliant Pokémon of the Day Chick, right? Well, rumour has it that after she
tried to review a Missingno, she went mad and fled to Mount Kilimanjaro,
whereupon she joined the Pokémon of the Day Guy , the reviewer of yesteryear.
With the advent of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, as well as the recent release of
Pokémon Platinum in 2009, help and education on Pokémon is increasing in
demand more than ever. Therefore, to revitalise the honourable tradition left
to fallow so long ago, IAPN.com is proud to present the brand new resident
fool, Pokémon of the Day Dude! (PhD in AP Pokemonology)
Every day he will give a cyber-lecture on one of the great many species of
Pokémon. He will teach from the revised textbooks relevant to the 4th
Generation games. Find here all you ever need to know about Pokémon moves,
battle strategies, breeding chains, stats, Pokédex and historical trivia,
where to find them, what they are strong and weak against, and much more. Likehim, hate him, this not-named-after-a-tree Professor is here to stay!
-----------------------------NOTE------------------------------------
Before I go into anything, I'd just like to point out that the above
introduction was written by my eight-year-old grandson. It seems
cyber-lectures are a hot thing in the world of technology today; indeed
high-tech home-schooling employs such methods. It was my grandson who came up
with the idea of the PotD Dude being a self-proclaimed Professor. I don't know
if it sounded a little pompous, but I'm not really a well-educated person, so
I get to live out a small fantasy of sorts. Sorry, I just wanted to make a
small mention.
Oh, for your info, the PotD Chick & Missingno. bit is mine. :)
===========================INTRO=====================================
Today's Pokemon is Ledian. Ledian didn't get an exclamation mark on the
beginning sentence because he didn't deserve it. Everything about him sucks;
stats, move options, and the fact that he looks like a wimpy Power Ranger kid.
(I HATE Power Rangers.) In fact, the only reason I'm doing Ledian today is
because my granddaughter pressured me - it so happens that she fancies Ledian
because he's 'cute' amongst other related adjectives. Well, the PotD writers
sign a pact with IAPN to review every Pokemon in the Pokedex, and I meant EVERY
SINGLE Pokemon; inevitably I will get to Ledian. So bear with me today as we
explore this five-spotted midget's few redeeming qualities that might just
prove he's NOT a total piece of crap in the Pokemon world.
Name: Ledian
Pokedex number: #166
Type: Bug/Flying
Species: Five Star Pokemon (Five stars on its carapace, not a Five-star grade
Pokemon)
Size: 4'07"
Weight: 78.5 lbs
Evolution: Like all puny Bug types, Ledyba evolves into Ledian early; at level
18
Location 3rd Gen: Ledian cannot be caught in any of the 3rd Gen games, but
Ledyba can. In Leafgreen, Ledyba are abundant in the Pattern Bush. They are
also present in Firered, at the same place, but rarer. In Hoenn, only Pokemon
Emerald has Ledyba; in the Safari Zone Extension.
Location 4th Gen: Route 229, hunt for Ledian in the morning. You CANNOT catch
Ledyba in Sinnoh, oddly enough.
Pokedex entry: It is said that in lands with clean air, where the stars fill
the sky, there live Ledian in countless numbers. There is a good reason for
this - the Pokémon uses the light of the stars as its energy. When more stars
appear at night, the patterns on its back grow larger. When the stars flicker
in the night sky, it flutters about, scattering a glowing powder. In the
daytime when it gets warm, it curls up inside a big leaf and drifts off into a
deep slumber.
=============================MOVES===================================
Learned Moves:
3rd Gen 4th Gen
L1 Tackle L1 Tackle
L1 Supersonic L1 Supersonic
L8 Supersonic L1 Comet Punch
L15 Comet Punch L6 Supersonic
L24 Light Screen L9 Comet Punch
L24 Reflect L14 Light Screen
L24 Safeguard L14 Reflect
L33 Baton Pass L14 Safeguard
L43 Swift L17 Mach Punch
L51 Agility L24 Baton Pass
L60 Double-Edge L29 Silver Wind
L36 Agility
L41 Swift
L48 Double-Edge
L53 Bug Buzz
Compatible TM/HM:
TM01 Focus Punch
TM06 Toxic
TM10 Hidden Power
TM11 Sunny Day
TM15 Hyper Beam
TM16 Light Screen
TM17 Protect
TM19 Giga Drain
TM20 Safeguard
TM21 Frustration
TM22 SolarBeam
TM27 Return
TM28 Dig
TM31 Brick Break
TM32 Double Team
TM33 Reflect
TM40 Aerial Ace
TM42 Facade
TM43 Secret Power
TM44 Rest
TM45 Attract
TM46 Thief
TM51 Roost
TM52 Focus Blast
TM56 Fling
TM58 Endure
TM60 Drain Punch
TM62 Silver Wind
TM68 Giga Impact
TM70 Flash
TM75 Swords Dance
TM78 Captivate
TM82 Sleep Talk
TM83 Natural Gift
TM87 Swagger
TM89 U-turn
TM90 Substitute
HM04 Strength
HM06 Rock Smash
Egg moves:
(Some Parents listed here are babies. Baby Pokemon cannot breed, but their
evolved forms can.)
Bide: Breed with Forretress, Kricketot, Shuckle, Heracross, Pineco and other
Ledyba
Psybeam: Breed with male Butterfree, Dustox, Mothim, Venomoth, Venonat, Ledyba,
Paras, Spinarak, Surskit
Silver Wind: Breed with Beautifly, Butterfree, Dustox, Ledian, Masquerain,
Mothim, Venomoth, Nincada, Scyther, Volbeat, Yanma. In addition, there are a
host of TM compatible parents, all invariably Bug Type. (E.g. Beedrill,
Scizor, and the psuedo-bug Vibrava)
Bug Buzz: Breed with male Beautifly, Butterfree, Dustox, Kricketune, Ledian,
Masquerain, Mothim, Venomoth, Volbeat, Yanma, Yanmega, Nincada, Scyther,
Volbeat
Screech: Breed with male Flygon, Gligar, Gliscor, Kricketune, Ninjask, Vibrava,
Yanma, Yanmega, Ledyba, Paras, Skorupi, Venonat
Encore: Shuckle seems to be the only parent. Volbeat can pass on the move as an
Egg move as well, but you'll have to get it on Volbeat himself as an egg move.
Knock Off: Drapion, Gligar, Gliscor, Skorupi, Ledyba, Shuckle
Bug Bite: Ariados, Ninjask, Yanmega, Ledyba, Nincada, Paras, Surskit, Venonat
============================STATS====================================
Base stats / Max stats with neutral nature:
HP: 55/314
Attack: 35/169
Defence: 50/199
Sp.Atk: 55/209
Sp.Def: 110/319
Speed: 85/269
Offensively strong against: Psychic, Dark, Fighting, Bug, Grass
Offensively weak against: HAH! Just about everything, really.
Defensively strong against: Grass, Bug, Fighting, ground (immune)
Defensively weak against: Electric, Ice, ESPECIALLY Rock, Flying, Fire, and
just about everything else.
=========================BATTLE STRATEGY=============================
Before I jump in onto anything, let me elaborate on why the Authority (Smogon)
labeled Ledian a 'Never-Used' tier Pokemon. No matter what you want to do with
him, someone else does it better. Baton Pass? Look for the likes of Mawile,
Gliscor and Scyther. Tank? Ledian's caparace wouldn't stop a pebble. Sweep?
HAH! Don't even entertain that thought!
The only oasis in the pool of terrible, TERRIBLE stats, is his Special Defence.
There is some possibility that Ledian can be a supporting Special Wall, but
then again theory doesn't always work out in an actual battle. His physical
defence is so bloody poor ANY effective attack - especially a Rock atack -
will crush him into paste. An undisputable fact. Come to think of it, just
about every strong physical move has the potential to floor him. And as if to
rub salt into the gaping wound, Stealth Rock knocks out 50% of Ledian's
already low HP, probably rendering your Baton Passing ambitions royally
screwed from the start. Well, we'll see what we can do with this Power Ranger
wannabe. *sigh*
1. BATON PASS
Suggested nature: Timid, or anything that boosts speed but doesn't lower the
defences
Pokemon Ability: Doesn't matter
Suggested held item: Focus Band/Sash
Suggested moveset:
Baton Pass
Swords Dance
Agility
Encore
There's only one thing Ledian can do remotely well; Baton Pass. I disagree with
the Authority on the offensive; you'll be too busy worrying whether Ledian
might survive this turn to BP the next. Insults waived, you don't have time to
attack. Just stat-up and get the **** outta there! That's why I put both
Agility and Swords Dance on him. Mind, you'd be crazy to want to waste that
Swords Dance TM on Ledian in the first place, but at least there's more
versatility; pick either booster depending on who you want to send out next.
Here's the rule that everybody knows: SD is for a Physical Sweeper to come out
swinging, and Agility is for a slower sweeper or tank you use to blast them
sky-high. (E.g. Absol, Aggron etc.)
Encore works if you can switch in on an Earthquake or any move that doesn't
hurt Ledian, like a stat-up move. With adequate speed, Ledian could Encore his
foe before he gets creamed by something pathetic - you know, like Rock Tomb.
That being said, the only times you should summon Ledian is if the enemy is a
slow beast like Golem, who is a known Earthquaker. Encore will probably
trigger a switch; during the turn your enemy switches out, stat-up with either
move, then BP the next so you don't, I dunno, die.
Hmm, dying. That's why Focus Sash and Band are here. The Sash works if the
first hit is a knock-out blow; it saves your life. Focus Band hasn't a 100%
life-saving guarantee, but should you get lucky, you live to Baton Pass once
this battle. I don't know what the hell those Smogon boffins were smoking when
they said, "Leftovers is the superior option." WTF!? How long d'you think
Ledian truly lasts in battle? (Ans: 2 turns at most.)
NOTE: There's always a chance your opponent might choose NOT to switch out his
Earthquaker, in anticipation of you bringing out a sweeper. In which case, he
might clobber your next Pokemon with one fell blow. Be careful when making the
decision; when facing an Earthquaker, send a Flyer out instead of your Weavile
or Blaziken.
2. PASSING A SUBSTITUTE
Suggested nature: Timid
Pokemon ability: Swarm
Suggested held item: Liechi, Petaya, or Salac Berry
Moveset:
Baton Pass
Substitute
Agility/Swords Dance
Bug Buzz
To be terribly honest, I haven't a clue how to use this moveset, so I copied it
word-for-word from Smogon's site. The strategy, I think, is that while you
stat-up, to let the enemy hit you and knock you down to berry-eating levels of
HP. (God forbid he knock you straight DOWN.) Then Sub, and pray he doesn't
break your Substitute immediately. On the next turn, Sub smashed or not, baton
pass and scarper. This strategy can also be turned the other way: Substitute
and hope the enemy doesn't hammer your Sub to rubble. Stat-up next turn -
eating the berry if you do get hit - then pull Ledian's ass back into his
Pokeball for someone else to take the spot.
It just DOESN'T WORK that way! It simply doesn't! It's theoratically unsound,
and I'll bet you 5 years of life it'll fail utterly in battle. What they're
suggesting is to hope Ledian survives the damage he risks taking before
Passing the stat boosts. That's the problem: HOPE! You don't HOPE you get
lucky, you make bloody damn sure you DO live to carry out your mission! In
fact, the only way I see this set working is if Ledian comes out against a
Special attacker. Sp.Def is his best quality, and it's likely your enemy might
not even know of Ledian's existence, much less remember he has high Sp.Def. So
yes, you CAN absorb a Special Attack, but wait! A Sub has only a quarter of
your max HP - the amount you sacrificed to make the Sub - plus 1. Ledian's
measly HP and crummy defences make that Sub hard to sustain. You know what?
I'd just forgo this moveset entirely.
And I shan't touch it until someone proves to me that it CAN work!
3. SPECIAL WALL + SUPPORT
Suggested nature: Calm, for more Sp.Def
Pokemon Ability: Swarm
Suggested held item: Stick to something sensible, like a stat-boosting berry or
Focus Band. Leftovers is for gits.
Suggested moveset:
Light Screen
Roost
Bug Buzz/Silver Wind
Reflect/Safeguard/Knock Off/Toxic
Right, I'm not saying this moveset works very well at all, but it may give
Ledian more screen time than the other two. Light Screen will abuse Ledian's
already high Sp.Def, raising it to a stellar Shuckle-standard 220. This Ledian
is good to switch in on Special attackers or a number of UU Pokemon like the
Grass types. Mind, if any of them pack a Physical move, your Special wall will
be screwed, so Reflect is a good idea; 100 Defence is not very bad at all. In
fact, I strongly suggest you cast Reflect the moment you switch into battle,
before worrying about other unimportant things (like staying alive).
Roost is gold, period. If you call yourself a Wall yet can't regenerate your
HP, you'll die very quickly against the aptly named Wall Breakers - off the
top of my head: Aggron, Golem, Rampardos, and Marowak. You got the defences
set up, so when HP falls precariously low, heal up with Roost. Be cautioned,
though. Even with high defences, Ledian folds quickly to sweepers and Wall
Breakers, so don't expect him to live for extended periods of time. By the
way, does anyone wonder why Ledian doesn't learn Moonlight? The Pokedex states
clearly that they use starlight as their source of energy, and while Moonlight
isn't the same thing, that's pretty close, don't you think? If I could hack
Moonlight on my Ledian just for the sake of decoration, I would.
Okay, so your life expectancy is more than two turns. What are you gonna do
now? Sit around mocking your enemy for not being able to crush a midget like
you? NO! You're going to attack! Bug Buzz makes it into this moveset because
you can't possibly dick around while your foe whales on your impenetrable
defences. It's strong, it's accurate, and it balances out that horrendous
Sp.Atk of Ledian's. Silver Wind is mentioned, interestingly, because I kinda
like the 10% all-stats raising chance. Still, Bug Buzz is superior because 5
PP finishes very quickly, and that 10% chance is minuscule even though Ledian
might be alive for quite a while. Plus I like the higher base power of Bug
Buzz, so there.
The Authority puts Knock Off on their Ledian, yet neglects to state why. I
think that move serves as a filler; therefore, the 4th moveslot can contain
anything you like. I chose the aforementioned Reflect. You can try Safeguard
if you're worried about status problems like Toxic, since Roost only heals HP.
Toxic in particular is a bane to the Wall Ladybug, as you'll find yourself
Roosting more than you'd like during battle. That being said, the enemy can
call out their Altaria just as easily sweep Ledian's five-spotted ass off the
arena. Despite all that talk about survivability, when it comes down to the
essential qualities of this moveset, the baseline message is this: LEDIAN
SUCKS.
LEDIAN SUCKS ****.
So don't expect him to live very long in practice.
==============================CONCLUSION=============================
There are two more movesets on the Smogon website that I neglected to put here:
Swords Dancing and Choice Specs Ledian. I chose not to spend time on them
because frankly I think they are a joke, a newbie-deceiving prank. They won't
EVER work. No other way to slice it. You can't, you simply CAN'T make a Ledian
sweep the enemy. I mean, have you seen his offensive stats? Don't dream about
it! If you are indeed stupid enough to ignore these words, more likely than
not your faster and stronger opponent (a Staraptor or related sweeper) will
hack him to pieces pronto. Then maybe hand back to you his ass and other
assorted mangled/severed/twisted insect body parts.
Got the message? I'll repeat: SWEEPING IS A NO-NO.
In fact, I'll eat my hat if you successfully prove me wrong.
So after all that, what have we learned about Ledian today? He sucks, he looks
like a dork, he doesn't rely on star/moon light after all, he's only a notch
short of good-for-nuffink, and he has a two turn life expectancy. In addition,
he's got a 4x weakness to Stealth Rock, a very poor movepool and
debilitatingly hellacious stats. These things make him the true definition of
'weenie', or 'Quintessential NU Pokemon'. You can venture out to OU and see if
Ledian can thrive there, since the Baton Pass strategy is nevetheless pretty
fool-proof; but watch out for Extremespeed and Pursuit! Anyway, anyhow, there
are lots of other Baton Passers that outclass Ledian, even if remotely. Wall
Pokemon aren't exactly hard to find, but Ledian is interesting by virtue of
being less-seen and hence 'foreign' or 'strange'. That might earn you a
reputable name for being creative, especially if your Ledian successfully
infuriates your opponents to hair-tearing magnitudes.
But don't expect him to live a million years. (Had enough of this repetition?)
Right, excuse me for ending this lesson so abruptly; my granddaughter is
presently thumping me for bashing her beloved 'Red Lady'. (Hey, get off of
me!) Have fun training your own little Power Ranger and taking the piss outta
him every now and then for being such a stupid loser! (Ow, that hurts!) See
you all Friday, and remember to send in a comment or request whenever you
wish! (Ooof! Oh no, don't punch me THERE!)
Class dismissed!
(*Tooth gets knocked out, blood flowing* Ouch! Gawd, I'm your grandfather, for
Heaven's sake!!)
=====================================================================
Comments? Queries? Suggestions? Insults? Maybe death threats? Or just want to
say hi?
You are free to send them to [email protected]
Thanks for reading today, and I hope to see you again tomorrow for a brand new,
Pokémon of the day!
Alexander, the Red Baron
