Technique of the Day: Sleep Powder
Sleep Powder won't do much, if you're looking for raw damage. In fact, it deals no damage at all. However, its relatively good accuracy and effect provide very useful advantages throughout the course of any battle. By putting the enemy to sleep, you benefit from free turns of action while your opponent decides to switch or simply wait until his or her active Pokémon wakes up. Either way, this is a good opportunity to start dealing some damage with other techniques, or simply boost your Pokémon, so that it can also handle future opponents as well. However, don't overuse this technique. Many trainer groups (including the official League) choose to impose a "Sleep Clause", which disqualifies any trainer who puts more than one Pokémon to sleep at a time. This clause is used to prevent trainers from simply putting the entire enemy team to sleep, thus disabling it. This technique is mainly learned by Grass and Bug type Pokémon.
Sleep Powder
Type: Grass
Power Rating: Nil
Base PP: 20
Accuracy: 79.6%
Fiery Tales
by Qui-Gon Articuno (edited for content by Marcus Majarra)
— September 28th, 2000.
Pokémon of the Day
No. 038 Ninetales
Ninetales may not be as popular as Arcanine, but it can still pack quite a punch. It possesses an excellent Special rating, thus rendering fire techniques such as Flamethrower very effective. It also benefits from a respectable Defense, which proves to be a good advantage against Ground-type opponents. Just be sure to raise your Vulpix to a high level before evolving it, so that you can benefit from its very useful techniques without wasting TMs. Among its arsenal of notable compatible skills are Dig (taught by TM, proves effective on Rock types - bar Aerodactyl), and Confuse Ray (utter annoyance). Of course, this Pokémon is blessed with a noble appearance. Its gleaming fur futher accentuates its natural elegance. And since it's not a particularly popular Pokémon, it provides the deviant trainers a vote of originality. No matter what the case, Ninetales is a serious candidate as a Fire type Pokémon for any team.
Recommended Moveset:
Flamethrower
Dig
Body Slam
Confuse Ray
Overused Pokémon of the Day: No. 150 Mewtwo
This has got to be probably the most used Pokémon in the world, and with good reason, too. Mewtwo ranks in first position when it comes to overall attributes, and its Special rating alone can surpass an Alakazam's by as much as 38 points at level 100. Not only that, but it comes equipped with a set of techniques that can send virtually any enemy Pokémon into the next world, and that's if you omit its TM/HM compatibility! It can pump-up its Special rating to a whopping 999 through Amnesia (as if a natural maximum of 406 wasn't enough), which leaves it pretty much immune to Special- based techniques. Of course, that Special increase can be also used offensively, making techniques such as Psychic, Blizzard, Fire Blast, and Thunderbolt extremely deadly. Mewtwo is definitely a power-up on any team, but be careful. Anti-Mewtwo strategies are very popular (and effective).