Ability Torrent/Damp Roles Spikes setter, Water wall, Ground-type wall, physical wall, special wall, pivot, artillery, setup sweeper, setup counter Assessment
Seeing through everything was already a thing of the past.
Swampert was also one of my personal favorites, and my second-favorite starter Pokémon, after Venusaur. I had to admit that how useful Swampert was in the third-generation gemstone games earned a lot of points. Swampert was another Water/Ground type, and this incredibly dependable typing had such excellent resistances that, combined with its effectively blank ability slot, people were always fantasizing about a Sap Sipper Swampert-though I didn't think it would be all that broken even if it really happened. Water/Ground was a great typing, but plenty of Pokémon had it, so competition was fierce. Swampert lacked Quagsire's Unaware, Seismitoad's and Gastrodon's Water immunity, and Whiscash's Dragon Dance, but as a starter Pokémon, it had very solid base stats. Its relatively low Speed also left it with top-class 100/90/90 bulk among Water/Ground types. Combine that with excellent resistances and only one weakness to a generally less aggressive attacking type, Grass, plus Freeze-Dry, and it was easy to feel like nothing could dent it. Its offenses also suited the standard Water/Ground combination of Earthquake for primary damage and Scald for hax. At least it wasn't like many low-Special Attack Water walls that relied entirely on burns to deal damage with Scald. Both abilities were largely dead weight, though they occasionally worked wonders. Plenty of people overlooked Swampert's Damp; the Spikes-and-Explosion Blue Mushroom used on formulaic offense teams was a prime example. Although Swampert usually got Taunted when those two met as leads and appeared unable to do much, you could watch the opponent freeze in confusion when Explosion failed, then make a hard read as they hurriedly switched moves or