Luvdisc, The Rendezvous Pokémon. It lives in warm seas. It is said that a couple finding this Pokémon will be blessed with eternal love. During the spawning season, countless Luvdisc congregate at coral reefs, turning the waters pink. Luvdisc make the branches of Corsola their nests. There is a custom from long ago of giving a Luvdisc as a gift to express one's feelings of love. Luvdisc live in shallow seas in the tropics. This heart-shaped Pokémon earned its name by swimming after loving couples it spotted in the ocean's waves.
Overview
Luvdisc is a Pokémon that isn't held in high regard by competitive battlers. Some Pokémon who only have a single stage in their evolution chain, like Skarmory, have stats that make them very viable and the equivalent of a fully evolved Pokémon. Unfortunately for Luvdisc, it has stats that makes it the equivalent of a first-stage Pokémon. Needless to say, stats like that automatically relegate Luvdisc to the NU tier.
Usually in an overview, it's nice to establish its strong points. Unfortunately, these are few and far between. Speed is the only stat it has that's above average, sitting at a very odd Base Stat of 97. Its Speed can get a further boost from Swift Swim, making Rain Dance sets the typical standard for Luvdisc.
With the positives out of the way, the negatives are glaringly obvious. Both of its offensive stats are pitiful and its move-pool is pretty much the default one for water Pokémon. Defensively, it's a lightweight, with pathetic HP and poor Defence and Special Defence. All of these combined make Luvdisc a pretty poor choice. It's certainly a “use at your own risk” kind of Pokémon, and it'll rarely contribute a huge amount to its team.
Trait
Swift Swim: doubles Luvdisc's Speed during Rain. The ability itself is quite good, but it's kind of wasted on Luvdisc, who already has enough Speed to outrun the majority of NUs anyway, but it at least saves on EVs.
Move Sets
Rain Dance - Special Sweeper
- Surf
- Rain Dance
- Ice Beam
- Toxic / Hidden Power [Grass / Electric]
Item Attached: Life Orb / Wet Rock
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
It's the most obvious and straightforward move-set, and arguably the most effective. It performs pretty much like every Swift Swim Pokémon, using Rain Dance for a boost to its STAB moves as well as its Speed. Surf fills in the role of a STAB move and Ice Beam is typically its strongest move for Grass Pokémon. With those two moves, it'll usually run into problems when faced with opposing water types. Toxic is usually an effective deterrent to opposing water types, but a super effective Hidden Power is also useful.
As far as items are concerned, Life Orb can give Luvdisc a much needed offensive boost, whilst Wet Rock will keep Rain going for longer, which can be a benefit to Luvdisc's team.
EVs and Nature:
There's little point in investing in Luvdisc's Speed if you're using Rain Dance. After Swift Swim, few things should really be outrunning it. The main reason to give consideration to Speed is to activate Rain Dance before an opponent's attack, rather than after. Without any EV investment (and a max IV), Luvdisc already has a decent 230 Speed stat, so nothing particularly significant needs to be invested.
Understandably, whilst weak, its offensive stat needs to be maximised. The leftover EVs can be dumped into its HP, to add a slight touch of bulk to its poor defences.
Other Options
Hydro Pump, Brine, Blizzard, Waterfall, Endure, Flail, Lucky Chant, Safeguard, Captivate, Charm, Agility, Sweet Kiss, Protect.
Hydro Pump and Brine present the unreliable power alternatives to Surf. Hydro Pump works off a high Base 120 (and that additional 25 starts to add up when you count in STAB and Rain Dance) whilst Brine doubles to a powerful 130 if the opponent's HP drops below 50%. The former has unreliable accuracy whilst the latter has unreliable Base Power, but when you're working off such a poor Special Attack, sometimes risks are worth it.
Blizzard is an unreliable power alternative to Ice Beam. Once again, the only reason to really consider it is simply because Luvdisc has such a poor offensive stat to work with that the risk of missing can be considered justifiable.
Waterfall is its only physical Water move, so a move-set that worked with physical attacks (or a mixed sweeper) could find some use for it. Unfortunately, Luvdisc only has a pathetic Base 30 Attack stat to work with. To put that into perspective, that's the same as Caterpie's Base Attack.
Endure and Flail can be given a look, but you're working without STAB or any means to boost Luvdisc's Attack stat (barring items), and of course, the aforementioned Caterpie comparison makes physical moves appear quite unimpressive.
Lucky Chant and Safeguard are getting mentioned simply for being moves that are of use to its team-mates. Luvdisc doesn't have the Base Stats to be a supporter, but it can at least be of some use to its team.
Captivate and Charm can lower the opponent's offensive stats. It isn't going to turn Luvdisc into a defensive behemoth, but it'll give it a chance, and Luvdisc should be able to lower the opponent's stats before they attack (because of its good Speed).
Agility is another means to boost Luvdisc's Speed, without the boost to its STAB moves like Rain Dance would give it. The only reason to really consider it is if Luvdisc's team would be negatively affected by active Rain.
Sweet Kiss, along with most 'annoyer moves', are unreliable, especially on a Pokémon that has no business trying to stall with such poor defensive stats, but with paralysis support it's worth a brief look.
Protect is there to stall for time, scouting the opponent's attacks, and possibly racking up some Toxic damage, but not much else.
Countering Luvdisc
With a Special Attack that caps out at 196, Luvdisc isn't exactly one to strike fear in its opponent's hearts. The main priority when facing Luvdisc is to simply not be weak to Water moves. After STAB and Rain Dance, they rack up a fairly big number, adding a super-effective multiplier to that will leave a sting.
Understandably, a water resistance is a big bonus. Grass types are fairly well off against it. Ice Beam hurts a bit but not too much. Bellossom, Parasect and Sunflora can manage, provided there's a decent investment in their Special Defence.
The boundaries of what's considered NU and what's considered UU are very unclear, making a complete counters list difficult to muster. The main thing to remember is that Luvdisc has defensive stats comparable to Eevee and offensive stats comparable to Igglypuff. The only thing allowing it to cause respectable damage is the multipliers it gets on its water moves (STAB and Rain Dance). A Special Defence stat of 250 should generally be able to manage Luvdisc's Surfs with relative comfort.
Locations in Games
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Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Route 128 & Evergrande City (Fish) Colosseum/XD Trade from RSE Fire Red/Leaf Green Trade from RSE Diamond/Pearl Route 224, Pokémon League (Fish w/ Super Rod)
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Animé Appearences
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Luvdisc has had a few Animé Appearences. Firstly, Misty & Daisy had one each and used the two of them in a production at the gym. They also had to rescue them from Butch & Cassidy. After that, Juan of Sootopolis City had one and used it in his battle against Ash's Grovyle & Corphish
Special 17: Misty & Luvdisc! Love Battle |
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