Featured Pokémon: Tangrowth
By: Aaron A.

Tangrowth has three abilities entering the 5th gen. And surprisingly all three are useful. While his new ability Regenerator (from the Black and White Dream World) offers nice combo for walling options, Chlorophyll and Leaf Guard are always useful when on a Sun team. The fifth gen also has upgrades for Tangrowth in the move deptartment as Giga drain received a nice little boost in power.
Tangrowth is the Vine Pokémon (well duh) and has long reaching arms made of vines that can be re-grown if necessary. At 6’07” this beast would not be a bush you’d want to run into. Something is familiarly haunting about Tangrowth to me though. It reminds me of one of those kindergarten letter characters gone wrong. But anyhow it does serve as a huge upgrade to its Gen 1 basic Tangela, who sadly despite his cute little shoes, is ignored. Although Tangela has decent stats, he looks in-formidable (and usually is) and thus isn't used. And by the way, I always thought those shoes were probably crocs. Just saying.
Anyhow, Tangrowth has pretty good stats, but isn't your typical “special” Pokémon. It has base 125 Defense and 110 Special Attack, which is an odd mixture. That being said, its physical attack (base 100) and HP (also base 100) provide an exciting mix of relatively high stats, giving Tangrowth flexibility. Here are some nifty move-sets for Tangrowth:
Wallgrowth
Ability: Regenerator/Leaf Guard
Item: Big Root/Leftovers
- Synthesis/Ingrain
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Block
Another Wall…Jeez
Ability: Regenerator/Leaf Guard
Item: Big Root/Leftovers
- Giga Drain
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Ingrain/Synthesis/Toxic
Special Attacker
Ability: Regenerator/Chlorophyll
Item: Wise Glasses, Life Orb
- Focus Blast
- Leaf Storm/Giga Drain/Energy Ball
- Shock Wave
- Sludge Bomb/Ancient Power/Hidden Power/Hyper Beam
Mixed Attacker
Ability: Regenerator/Chlorophyll
Item: Wide Lens, Leftovers, Ganlon
- Power Whip
- Leaf Storm
- Earthquake
- Brick Break/Giga Impact/Poison Jab
Other Move options:
- Grass Knot: Good for bulky guys like Groudon
- Confusion: Despite low power, if you’re a good special attacker, this will totally surprise poison types.
- Substitute: If only Tangrowth could get Focus Punch, with base 100 (max 404) HP he’d be perfect sub-puncher. Even so, Substitutes with 100 hp each is nice.
- Swords Dance: Combo’d with Power Whip... very scary!
- Tickle: Hilarious! Lowering attack and defense is nice on a purely physical Tangrowth.
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