Spooky Scary Spiders: Ariados

Playing Gold and Silver all the way back in Gen 2, you already know from my previous post that Ledian was essentially unusable. But what about the other Bug type you could find in the early game? Ariados was absolutely badass to little me. Menacing, poisonous, and it got wild moves like Night Shade and Psychic. Of course, it was still absolutely terrible! No good Bug moves, no good Poison moves except by TM, and it was slow and frail. 

Weirdly enough, a lot of Ariados's most terrible flaws got addressed in later games. It got potent priority moves so it could hit hard with its Attack despite its terrible Speed. It got a (tiny) buff to its Sp. Defense. It got a bevy of options now available for Bug moves like Sticky Web, Lunge, Leech Life and they even gave it a new signature move in Toxic Thread after they canned Spider Web. All in all, Ariados already know what it wants to do and how it wants to do it, we're just going to help it out with some stats and add some abilities and moves to better fit its lore.

1. Stats

 

Ariados wants to take a few hits and hit back hard, so all of its points are going into Attack and its Defenses, primarily HP.  I always thought it was silly that such a fearsome predator would keel over at even moderate offense, so hopefully Ariados can stick around a little longer now. 

But we're not done yet. Bug/Poison is one of the most common pairings for bugs, and there really is no reason for Ariados to stick with it outside of an obligatory nod to spider venom. None of Ariados's Pokedex entries mention its poison abilities, and only its relatively recent signature move leans into poison at all. Instead, I want to focus on how it prowls the night, leaving its web home to bring doom to its prey. How it captures a Pokemon, lets them escape to give them hope and then follows a secret thread it planted to devour that Pokemon and its family/friends. Ariados will now be a terrifying Bug/Ghost type.

2. Abilities

Ariados is pretty let down by its normal abilities. Once again, we have Swarm which feels like the ability equivalent of "well we have to put something down in this slot." Insomnia is nice nod to its nocturnal nature, but it's not super exciting in a single player adventure where the sleep status is not an omni-present threat. Sniper can be cool, but Ariados may not be the best user of it. Let's throw some abilities at the wall again and see what we like.

• Merciless (Ariados definitely is that and it goes well with its signature move. I already gave this to Dustox, though, so it could do something with its life)
• Shadow Tag (Fits with its new Ghost typing and is a much better version of its old signature move)
• Tough Claws (A way to give Ariados more oomph for its attacks, kind of boring though)
• Strong Jaw (Ariados is known to drive its fangs into its prey, I don't think its very imaginative, however, to just add all the elemental fang attacks to its movepool. And it doesn't really have anything to be boosted otherwise)
• Intimidate (If I see this thing approaching me in the middle of the night, absolutely)
• Gooey (I like the idea of the foe getting tangled up in a little web every time it tries to fight back)
• Infiltrator (It's coming after you, and its ability to climb up walls and phase through the darkness means that your shields aren't doing anything)
• Opportunist (I don't know if the effect is a great fit, lore wise, but Ariados is an opportunist through and through and I could see how its fixation on its prey could let its Ghost powers boost up in response to what its prey is doing)

Looking at the above, I think the best fits are going to be Gooey, Sniper, and Shadow Tag. Gooey fits with the Pokedex because Ariados is well known for subduing prey with webs while it is on the hunt. The speed control also meshes with a lot of its other moves and will enable it to strike back with strong moves once the opponent has been slowed enough. Sniper fits with its hunting persona, as it is on the prowl looking to take down the prey in one fell swoop. It also plays very nicely with the new critical boosting move that we just gave to its counterpart, Ledian, so the two make excellent teammates now. Finally, we're moving Shadow Tag to the hidden ability slot. It is very powerful in the right circumstances, but not super relevant until the late game so if a player wants to pick it up later they can use an ability capsule.

3. Movepool

Not a ton I want to change up here, surprisingly, considering its Gen 2 movepool. Like I mentioned before, time has been kind to Ariados's learnset. It gets Swords Dance upon evolving that can make its priority moves very threatening. It gets Sucker Punch and Shadow Sneak, which will now be stab. It has Focus Energy if you want to lean into Sniper along with Night Slash and Cross Poison. And it can support with Sticky Web and crippling moves like Knock Off, Lunge, or Skitter Smack. 

For additions, we'll throw in First Impression as another priority option if you really need to hit hard out of the gate (spoiler, sometimes you will). Shadow Claw is a natural addition for its new Ghost typing along with Phantom Force. X-Scissor will be getting a buff to its critical hit ratio that will be very nice with Sniper. Disable will move from Egg Move to Level-up Move for more shenanigans. And finally, Toxic Thread will be getting a huge buff. For a signature move that Ariados learns as its very last move, a slightly better Poison Powder is pretty underwhelming. Instead, Toxic Thread will poison the opponent and sharply decrease both its Speed and Defense. Toxic Thread is now the move that Ariados throws out right before moving in for the kill. 

Fantastic. With our changes, Ariados can be surprisingly bulky while hitting harder at the same time. It can boost its Attack and throw out devastating priority moves that ignore its terrible speed, or it can cripple the foe's mobility with Gooey, Sticky Web, and Toxic Thread. The player can focus on devastating critical hits boosted by Sniper, or they can opt for more utility by Knocking Off a foe's item and tanking its stats while preventing escape with Shadow Tag. There is a lot of fun to be had at the opponent's expense with Ariados, and it is all too happy to oblige.