I'd Like My Sandwich without the Crustle, Please

 

 

What if you had a Gigalith but underneath was a weird grumpy crab beetle? Meet this sour guy. They fight each other for territory and the one that gets his giant rock broken apart is the loser. Their massive claws can break Rhyperior armor. So this is a top-tier physical attacker, right? Well, it managed to get all the way up to RU in it debut generation I guess? And it hasn't been seen since outside of PU/ZU. For a Bug strong enough to carry this gigantic honking rock, I feel like it should at least have a little more strength to offer than Scyther. Let's see what we can do. 

1. Stats

I don't want to do a whole lot here. All the pieces are present for an effective battler, I'm just tweaking the best parts a little more. HP is increasing from 70 to 95, and Attack is getting a bump from 95 to 105 (lol, even Game Freak realized their mistake here) to 115. Everything else is staying the same, stat-wise, so abilities and moves will have to pick up any other slack.

2. Abilities

Sturdy works pretty well here in conjunction with Crustle's option to Shell Smash so it can always tank at least one hit while boosting or after boosting. Likewise, Shell Armor was previously awful but now will eliminate its Steel and Rock weaknesses, so we're keeping that. Weak Armor, though? I can't think of a single Pokemon that has been able to make Weak Armor work. Shell Smash is already ten times the option that Weak Armor wishes it could be. Instead, let's reference a very explicit fact that the Pokedex makes clear by giving it Tough Claws as a hidden ability. Crustle is famous for these tough claws that break rocks and it doesn't get Tough Claws? They thick, they mighty, and now they putting a 1.3x damage multiplier on contact moves.

3. Movepool

Crustle has some great moves already, I mostly just want to move a lot of egg moves over into level-up and tutor options instead. Curse, Knock Off, Wide Guard, Hone Claws are all fantastic options for Crustle that should be available in the first play-through without worrying about breeding moves onto your team. I think we can do better than Rock-Wrecker in the final spot, though. I want something that is actually going to take a chunk out of Rhyperior's hide.

Introducing: Sledge Claw. A base 95 power, 95 Accuracy Bug type move that is Super Effective against Rock type Pokemon. This takes Crustle from perhaps 5 hit KOing a Rhyperior without leftovers, to ensuring a 2 hit KO in all circumstances. This is a Pokemon that carves out huge slabs of rock and carries them on its back, then fights and breaks the huge rock slabs of other Crustle. It should have a move that is pretty effective at hitting rocks. 

Conclusion

I said it before, all the pieces are there for Crustle to be very effective in battle. It just gets outclassed in any single regard by other stronger, bulkier, faster Pokemon. These changes should help it carve out its own niches in Bugmerald, especially as the only Bug that gets access to (and can actually use it effectively, sorry Shuckle) Shell Smash.