Hey Bill, do Magikarp have any Natural Predators in the Wild? I ask because I recently saw a Dragonair eating what i think were Smallmouth Bass and began wondering about Predator-Prey Relations in the pokemon world.

Magikarp’s natural predator is everything. Or nearly everything. Humans don’t eat it because there’s not much meat to it, and it takes a particularly strong set of claws, teeth, or attacks (or a particularly hard rock) to get past magikarp’s scales. But it can be done, and practically everything that considers itself a predator might eat magikarp if they’re looking for an easy meal.

It’s actually one of the reasons why gyarados are so notoriously angry and vicious when they evolve.

tirien66
replied to your post “Hey Bill, I’m preparing to take on the Alola Elite Four. My team is…”

Whatever happened to Magikarp guy…

She won the championship title, then forfeited it back to the previous champion and then went on to tackle the other regions in much the same way. From what I understand, she’s currently training her magikarp in the mountains. Not Mt. Silver like Red—just … the mountains. As you do with a magikarp.

I can’t tell you how many companies have openly expressed their disappointment that they couldn’t get her magikarp to serve as their spokesmon.

Hey Bill, I’m preparing to take on the Alola Elite Four. My team is Incineroar, Snorlax, Salamence, Leafeon, Metagross, and Golurk. Opinions on my chances?

Fair, anonymous, so long as you have faith in your team. This is partly an acknowledgement and agreement with Karen’s philosophy that strength is irrelevant and that one should always try to win with their favorites (that is, the team they’ve bonded with the most).

It is also partly a statement that you could practically win an Elite Four challenge with any pokémon so long as it was well-trained. For example, not too long ago, someone took the Kantonian gauntlet using a magikarp … and only a magikarp. Bruno and Lorelei thought it was hilarious, but Lance refused to face the public for nearly a week.

In other words, yes, this is a sound team, anonymous. Good luck!

Hiya! I’d like your opinion on something. Hypothetically speaking, what pokemon do you think would benefit the most from a new move that it cannot normally learn? In terms of battling/strategy. This is all hypothetically speaking of course, so no pokemon are harmed, it’s for a role-play I’m in. It’s not allowed to be a legendary move so unfortunately that rules out Spacial Rend Bidoof. (Which, quite frankly, would have been amazing.)

Magikarp.

{In all OOC seriousness (because I get the feeling you’re asking this out-of-character and not from the perspective of an in-universe person asking about roleplaying pokémon … which would admittedly be some pretty rad Inception stuff, but still), I’m admittedly bad at this kind of thing, partly because most of the movesets I build are very strictly game-based (that is, I don’t really keep wishlists) and partly because I’m terrible at remembering who learns what (hence point the first). So a lot of my knowledge on the subject of who knows what tends to be pretty limited unless it’s incredibly obvious or otherwise meme-worthy. Like, for example, why can’t Kyurem learn Ice Punch?

But memes aside, I think my favorite examples are when the anime messes up, because some of these examples just sort of make sense, both in general for the pokémon and strategically speaking. For example, my favorite? Scizor and Shadow Claw. You would think scizor of all things would learn Shadow Claw, and in terms of battling, it does have the stats to support that kind of move. Granted, yeah, it receives no strategic benefit from using that over, say, U-Turn, but still, you would think that the thing with claws and a hefty dose of Attack would learn Shadow Claw, especially if it learns things like Night Slash. Yet nope, it does not.

Same thing could be said with politoed and Jump Kick (which actually kinda would make sense as a counter for magnezone) and literally anything on that list with Tackle, but honestly, the scizor example makes the most sense imo.

Also, not to parrot Reddit, but gengar and Nasty Plot. Let’s be real.

Not sure if any of this helped, but good luck either way!}

Which Pokémon do you think would be good for a treasure hunting scuba diver? I can’t swim or anything so it’s not for me, but I’m interested in what you’d think. Personally I think Lanturn could help because of the light they give. Suicune could purify the water, but of course, catching legends is morally and ethically and generally Not Good.

Lanturn is indeed an excellent choice, particularly if trained to light up when it finds something. Because its light is so intense, it’s possible to use a team of lanturn to minimize the amount of time a human needs to dive (or fish) by having them do all the hunting and signal to the surface when they find something. Starmie can be used for the same purpose, but in both cases, be sure that their abilities aren’t Illuminate. The last thing you want is to attract more pokémon during their hunt.

Alternatively, strangely enough, magikarp might be handy in this case. Most water-dwelling pokémon leave them alone (either because they aren’t worthy prey or because they often evolve into gyarados mid-hunt), and magikarp are hardy enough to survive in the roughest territory—including anywhere treasure might be.

If your treasure-hunting friend is interested in accompanying their pokémon on a dive, use literally any pokémon that can use Dive. Mantine tend to be popular in Johto for this, as are dewgong and many starters. You may also wish to consider something capable of battling (such as bruxish or gyarados) to protect yourself from wild water pokémon.

Legendaries, of course, aren’t particularly recommended, not because they shouldn’t be caught but instead because many of them possess abilities that will be useless for treasure hunting at best. At worst, they might actually inadvertently kill you.

Magikarp and Gyarados

bills-pokedex:

bills-pokedex:

Magikarp
The Fish Pokémon
Type: Water
Official Registration #: 129
Entry: Harmless.

Update:
Entry: Mostly harmless.

Gyarados
The Atrocious Pokémon
Type: Water/Flying
Official Registration #: 130
Entry: The evolved form of magikarp, by battle experience. Twenty-one-foot-long sea serpent that consists of about 95% teeth and rage. Exercise extreme caution when engaging with this pokémon. Chances are incredibly good that it either hates you or, worse, likes you and would like to show affection with its three rows of foot-long teeth.

Mega Gyarados
The Atrocious Pokémon
Type: Water/Dark
Official Registration #: 130+
Entry: The advanced form of gyarados, via gyaradosite. Twenty-one-foot-long, 675+-pound sea serpent that consists of about 99% teeth and rage, plus a new affinity for the dark type and a power boost that together blind it to everything but its insatiable need to burn everything around it to the ground.

In other words, somewhat harmless.

Magikarp and Gyarados

bills-pokedex:

Magikarp
The Fish Pokémon
Type: Water
Official Registration #: 129
Entry: Harmless.

Update:
Entry: Mostly harmless.

Gyarados
The Atrocious Pokémon
Type: Water/Flying
Official Registration #: 130
Entry: The evolved form of magikarp, by battle experience. Twenty-one-foot-long sea serpent that consists of about 95% teeth and rage. Exercise extreme caution when engaging with this pokémon. Chances are incredibly good that it either hates you or, worse, likes you and would like to show affection with its three rows of foot-long teeth.

Mega Gyarados
The Atrocious Pokémon
Type: Water/Dark
Official Registration #: 130+
Entry: The advanced form of gyarados, via gyaradosite. Twenty-one-foot-long, 675+-pound sea serpent that consists of about 99% teeth and rage, plus a new affinity for the dark type and a power boost that together blind it to everything but its insatiable need to burn everything around it to the ground.

In other words, somewhat harmless.