Venusaur Evolutionary Line

Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur; the very first pokemon in the pokedex, and one of the original starter pokemon from Generation I.  Bulbasaur was the easiest starter to use at the beginning of Red/Blue, due to Brock's quadruple weakness and Misty's double weakness to grass-type, but became far less useful as the game went on, when faced with Sabrina's psychic-type and Blaine's fire-type.  To be fair, it could hold it's own against Giovanni; but pales in comparison to Charizard (more diverse) or Blastoise (fewer weaknesses) when going up against the Elite Four.



In competitive play (against other players), Venusaur is fairly average; with base stats of 100 in Special Attack and Special Defense.  When training a Venusaur, your focus will likely be in HP and Special Defense.  You won't need to deal in special attack too much, as your primary focus should be on leech seed and poisoning your opponent.

As far as attacks go; it's move-set is somewhat lacking in diversity; which is common among grass-types.  This leads to many sets having Leech Seed included.  A good move-set would be:

• Leech Seed (obtained at Lv. 7)
• Toxic (Via TM06)
• Giga Drain (via breeding) or Venoshock (via TM09)
• Hidden Power [Rock] or Hidden Power [Ground] (via TM10)

Hidden Power [Rock] gives coverage against most of Venusaur's weaknesses (Fire, Ice, Flying); however, this move-set does not cover Steel-types, which are immune to Poison, and are strong against both grass and rock attacks.  Hidden Power [Ground] will provide coverage against Steel-types, as well as Poison-types, who are immune to Toxic.

Run 252 HP/252 Special Defense/6 Speed or Special Attack, with a Calm nature.

As far as held items go, use Leftovers or Black Sludge.  Many rulesets won't allow for duplicate items, but some do allow items which duplicate effects; so if you're using leftovers on another pokemon, use black sludge on Venusaur; just watch out for someone who may be running Soak, which would change Venusaur's type to Water and make the black sludge cause damage instead of healing.

Another set to consider, IF Bulbasaur ever appears in the Dream World, is:

• Leech Seed (Obtained at Lv. 7)
• Toxic (TM06)
• Sunny Day (TM11)
• Solarbeam (TM22 or Venusaur Lv. 53)

Sunny Day will double Venusaur's Speed, due to the Chlorophyll ability, as well as eliminate the charging turn of Solarbeam.  Of course, this is a one-trick pony, and VERY situational; if your opponent isn't hurt much by grass attacks (Charizard/Moltres), has an ability such as Cloud Nine (which eliminates weather effects) or a move which can change the weather, this setup is useless.

Run 252HP/252 Special Attack/6 Speed, with a Modest Nature.  Hold a Meadow Plate.

Things to watch out for:

• Flying-types.  Venusaur is usually slower than flying-types, and many flying types have a high attack, which works against Venusaur's lower defense.
• Physical Psychic attacks: in particular Psycho Cut, due to it's higher Critical Hit rate; and Psyshock, which deals physical damage, but the damage is determined by the Special Attack stat.
• Any Physical Ice or Fire attacks

Feel free to comment, criticize, ridicule, or suggest in the comments below.