Seek Out All Pokemon: A Review of The New Hisuian Pokemon

• HP: 155 Attack: 142 Defense: 92
• Fast Moves: Ember, Bite
• Charged Moves: Rock Slide, Crunch, Flamethrower

Hisuian Growlithe is adorable. Super cute. Incredible design. Great Pokém-oh. Like, viability? No. No, it’s not good. Ember/Rock Slide/Crunch is a pretty solid moveset. Or like, it would be, on a bulkier mon with better typing. Fire/Rock is actually tragic defensively, and it really doesn’t do it any favors in any existing meta. Notably, HGrow hits 1495 CP at Lv50 hundo, making it technically more Great League viable than KGrowlithe. But like, in a world with Galarian Stunfisk, Azumarill, and Medicham...like, you probably don’t wanna do this. In the Little Cup, it’s…probably still not great. Running Ember + Rock Slide, you can beat a mono-flying Ducklett in all but the 2shield. Add any Water moves though and…you get farmed down by Water Gun. It’s not great, guys.

Note: Great League rank 1 is technically 14/15/15 at Lv50.5 but like, cmon. Just max the puppy. He deserves it.

• HP: 216 Attack: 232 Defense: 165
• Fast Moves: Fire Fang, Snarl, Rock Smash
• Charged Moves: Rock Slide, Wild Charge, Crunch, Flamethrower

Arcanine’s a little more interesting than Growlithe, but not by much. Snarl adds a lot of speed, letting you power out those charged moves much more effectively. Also, access to Wild Charge is cool! However. I mean, look. Arcanine’s never really seen any meaningful play, and HArcanine is pretty similar in playstyle. The obvious comparison here is to Magcargo, the preeminent Fire/Rock-type. It’s…also not great. It’s seen play in some limited formats (Love Cup as an Anti-Charmer being the role that comes to mind) but that’s really it. Hard to feel like Baron Harkonnine is gonna perform any better.

• HP: 163 Attack: 184 Defense: 151
• Fast Moves: Poison Sting, Poison Jab
• Charged Moves: Aqua Tail, Ice Beam, Sludge Bomb, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball

Normal Qwilfish has already seen a bit of play in certain limited formats (but certainly not much in Open format). Hisuian form swaps out base form’s Water/Poison-type for the absolutely incredible Dark/Poison typing. You’ve seen this before on A-Muk, Skuntank, and Drapion. Only one weakness (Ground) and pretty darn solid resistances as well. HQwil and JQwil have super comparable stats, and honestly fairly similar movesets, so it doesn’t seem unfair to expect HQwil to see some real play. It’s just a pretty solid mon, with great typing, and solid moves. It may potentially overtake Drapion as the premier Dark/Poison in Great League, since it’s got a slightly better matchup against Walrein, Medicham, and Sableye. All things considered, definitely a mon you wanna try to grab.

• HP: 198 Attack: 222 Defense: 171
• Fast Moves: Poison Sting, Poison Jab
• Charged Moves: Aqua Tail, Ice Beam, Sludge Bomb, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball

Same moves, same typing, but bigger stats. Lower stat product in Great League means you’ll probably only see this in weird double HQwil lines, but its more interesting role is likely to be in Ultra League. Ultra League is no stranger to Dark/Poison-types, with Alolan Muk (and to a lesser degree Drapion) making their own solid marks on the metagame.

Overqwil's access to Aqua Tail makes it spammier than Muk, with a meaningfully better shot against Talonflame. Shadow Ball is great too, with really solid neutral coverage, and it actually deals damage unlike Acid Spray. However, there's a weird catch. If you're on Poison Jab (instead of Poison Sting), you actually lose the 1shield vs Cresselia if you start on even energy. You can clean up just fine if you've got even one Poison Jab of energy advantage, you'll be okay. Not that that'll help, generally. Nobody's going to switch a Cresselia into a Dark-type. Being a Dark mon that loses to Cress is, honestly, rough, but the rest of its matchups are pretty comparable to A-Muk, just…a little worse due to lower bulk. Basically, Overqwil's not gonna replace anything in the current meta, but it may certainly have a place.

• HP: 146 Attack: 189 Defense: 146
• Fast Moves: Poison Jab, Rock Smash
• Charged Moves: Close Combat, X-Scissor, Aerial Ace

Hisuian Sneasel is a Poison/Fighting-type mon with stats super comparable to Toxicroak. So, that'll be our primary point of comparison. That said, typing and stats are about where easy comparisons end. Without access to Counter, HSneasel is going to have to rely on Close Combat for Fighting-type damage. That's not a bad thing, it's a powerful move, but it's also very different. For secondary coverage, you're probably running X-Scissor for better baits (though Aerial Ace will likely outperform in Fighting Cup). Notably, you can beat Azumarill in the 1- and 2-shield matchups even without the neutral damage on Aerial Ace. That's the case even if Azu has a meaningful energy advantage. It's a little hard to feel like HSneeze'll actually see play in Great League, though. While it absolutely has some advantages over Toxicroak, it doesn't really seem like it does enough to stand out over other Poison-types (hi, Nidoqueen.)

• HP: 190 Attack: 259 Defense: 158
• Fast Moves: Shadow Claw, Poison Jab, Rock Smash
• Charged Moves: Close Combat, X-Scissor, Aerial Ace

Wow! Now that it's evolved, it's even sneasler than before! That doesn't necessarily align with, like, top-tier performance or anything. It's just very sneasly. Shadow Claw is a known quantity as an incredibly powerful move, so that's a solid start. And a solid point to end at, all things considered. Sneasler is super glassy, significantly more so than Toxicroak (who already doesn't see play in Open Ultra.) And losing matchups to Giratina, Cresselia, Talonflame (even straight Flame Charge), and an uncomfortably close Registeel marchup certainly don't help. As for PvE, Sneasler's 259 Attack isn't half bad, but its moveset certainly is. Rock Smash/Close Combat is almost exceptionally mediocre. You're out-DPS'd by everything from Machamp, to Hariyama, to Bewear, of all things. Poison Jab would be great, but you don't have any Poison-type charged moves, so that's off the table as well. Not much to say here other than Oof. Note that, since Hisuian Sneasel is currently only available via Eggs, you can’t normally get a Sneasler into Great League

• HP: 242 Attack: 213 Defense: 137
• Fast Moves: Air Slash, Zen Headbutt
• Charged Moves: Brave Bird, Psychic, Dazzling Gleam, Ominous Wind

As we all know, Braviary is one of the best Pokémon in all of PvP, which is why you definitely see it all the time. The Hisuian version is uhh. Probably comparable in power. A lack of any real speed (Air Slash's 3 EPT is a little rough when you're trying to reach 55 energy charged moves) and highly underwhelmimg bulk, combined with deeply disadvantageous typing in both Great and Ultra League, are likely to make HBraviary an absolute force to be reckoned with somewhere around 200 MMR, if it's lucky.

As for PvE, it's a minnow in a pool of sharks. 213 Attack isn't exactly exciting on its own. As a Psychic-type, it's trying to compete with powerhouses like Mewtwo, while getting out-DPS'd by Shadow Abra. As a Flying-type, it looks relatively a little better, but it's still not good, and it's definitely hard to recommend. The design's cool at least, so that's something.