The Highs and Lows and Highs and Lows of the Safari Zone Crew

 

 I have been putting off this group for quite some time now because I am really struggling with the question of how I want to fit them into the game. Scyther and Pinsir started off pretty innocently, rare Bug types with the stats of fully evolved Pokemon that didn't learn any Bug moves that would actually make them relevant against Psychic types. Scyther got a cool new evolution in Gen 2 that was...OK at the time, before suddenly popping off beyond all belief when Gen 4 rolled around and gave access to Technician and Bullet Punch. It reigned supreme for years before slowly being pushed out of the spotlight from power creep. Scizor and Pinsir both got Mega Evolutions in X and Y and were both phenomenal until they became inaccessible from Sword and Shield onward. Then Scyther ended up getting yet another evolution in Kleavor that has ended up being pretty mediocre in most regards. These guys have been all over the place. For Bugmerald, I need to figure out the following:

• Are Mega Evolutions coming back?
• If not, do we give Pinsir or Scizor access to weaker versions of their Mega Evolution forms as a type of normal/permanent evolution?
• How strong do we want these bugs to be?

Going into this post, I am still truly undecided on all of these points, so I'm going to be spitting out my thoughts on the virtual paper and we'll have to see what ends up sticking by the time we're done.

1. Stats

Let's start with Stats because I think it will help us determine how we want to start answering the above questions. Are we bringing back Mega Evolutions? For Scyther and Pinsir this would jump them up to 600 base stats total, at the cost of forcing them to only hold their mega stones as items. Honestly, I really am not interested in adding Mega Evolutions to this game. They're hard to balance, they are definitely not balanced out of the box, and scant few Bug types even have access to Mega Evolutions which makes me feel like I'd have to add a bunch of fakemon to the game to bring some parity. I am really not interested in expanding the scope of the game to add in a bunch of brand new Pokemon and designs.

So then, can we work some stat magic without Mega Evolutions to bring a bit more balance between Scyther's line and Pinsir? Immediately, we run into our first problem that is unique to Scyther and its evolutions. Scyther is the only Pokemon in the game that doesn't get a boost to any of its stats when it evolves into either of its two evolved forms. I guess this kind of makes sense with Scizor if you imagine that is it just putting on the Metal Coat that is used to evolve it, but isn't Kleavor supposed to be a mystical guardian of the forest or something? You'd think it would have a little more oomph in the stats department compared to your everyday Scyther. 

Ideally, I'd like to keep Pinsir mirrored with Scyther, so if we give Pinsir an evolution I'd like Scizor to share the same stat total. But, we're walking a thin line here because Scizor is already so, so good. Any buffs to Scizor and there is a very real risk of making it the best Pokemon in this entire game. Luckily, we do have Sp. Attack as a dump stat that can be boosted with no real danger. Here's a first draft of a Scyther/Pinsir pairing with evos:

Pokemon	HP	Att	Def	S.Att	S.Def	Spd	Total
Scyther	70	110	80	50	80	110	500
Pinsir	65	125	100	50	75	85	500
Scizor	80	130	110	70	80	65	535
Pinsir 2	70	140	100	50	70	105	535

 Scizor gets a small boost to HP and Def, which I don't think breaks the game, and Pinsir gets a nice new evo that brings some of the power of its old Mega Evolution instead of overwhelming dominance. On top of that, both Scyther and Pinsir can make great use of Eviolite if the player would prefer to use their classic forms instead. While we can recycle Mega Pinsir's design to use as Pinsir's new evolution, obviously we need a better name than Pinsir 2 or Mega Pinsir so we'll have to come back to that.

What about Kleavor? Instead of just making it worse Scizor, I've opted to cut its Att to straddle the line between Scyther and Scizor and then make its HP the stat of choice. As a rare and more caveman-like version of Scyther, Kleavor is going to be tough and bulky with a middling 85 Speed stat. It's base stat total will be much higher, akin to a non-box Legendary like Moltres or Suicune, but it's evolution item will be gated to the last parts of the game. Kleavor will be a nice bonus for people willing to wait to evolve their Scyther.

2. Abilities

These two are already chock full of powerful abilities, so I won't be changing much here. For Scyther, we're taking out Swarm and replacing it with Super Luck to play with its several high critical ratio moves. We'll also can Steadfast as the Hidden Ability to give Mind's Eye, a useful ability that calls to mind its ninja-like prowess. Realistically, you'll want Technician, though.

Same thing for Scizor. We know you'll actually be using Technician, but we'll replace the absolutely worthless Light Metal and Swarm for Clear Body and Stalwart, respectively. At least those abilities actually have a use.

For Pinsir, no changes, our baby is perfect. Pinsir's evolution will keep the first two abilities, but will swap out Moxie as its Hidden Ability for Aerilate. This will make sure that the player has access to its best ability but doesn't get it too early in the game.

3. Movepool

Again, not much to do here. These Pokemon already have stellar moves that they can call on. I'll move Feint to Pinsir's level-up learnset instead of only accessing it as an Egg move. Likewise, Quick Guard and Night Slash will do the same for Scyther. Stone Axe will get a minor boost to 75 base power for Kleavor, and I'll probably end up throwing a double battle utility move or two in for everyone. 

Conclusion

Wow, that was pretty straightforward in the end. While mega evolutions are not making an appearance in Bugmerald, I think we were able to strike a healthy balance between restoring some of that lost power to our Safari Zone buddies without going overboard. Pinsir, specifically, really needed the help. Scizor has been strong for some time and even though it is now overshadowed by newer, stronger, Pokemon, it is by no means weak even in the current VGC meta. Kleavor got some nice buffs and I think the player will be in for a treat once they work out how to access one in Bugmerald. All in all, a pretty productive post! See you in the next one.