Venomoth’s one of those pokemon I sometimes forget exists. This isn’t to say I don’t like it, just that even back in Red and Blue there was 151 and that’s a lot to remember. Now there’s like a thousand if you count all the Megas and Regional Variants, so some of them just mentally slip away.

DESIGN: 

Venonat is a cute little ball of fluff with huge eyes and just enough features to read as some sort of bug thing. Now, granted, it’s more Mite than Gnat, but the fact remains that you can tell it’s a small bug. I have no issues with Venonat’s design.

Venomoth’s design gets through the idea of a fantastic moth, with a weirdly-shaped head and a deep, toxic-purple color.  I can’t say it’s a striking design, but I also can’t complain about it. It reads uniquely and it gets the job done.

Now, you’ll hear a lot of people saying that Venonat was supposed to evolve into Butterfree and Venomoth was supposed to come from Metapod and show you visual cues that seem to support this theory… But let me tell you- this theory is wrong. We know from the internal index and beta versions of the games that Caterpie, Metapod, and Butterfree were created in unison.  And Venonat was created as a stand-alone long before, possibly before it was even decided that Pokemon would evolve. (The first Pokemon designed WITH its Evolutions were Trifox, Vulpix, and Ninetails as well as Pikachu, Raichu, and Gorochu. A lot of 3-stage evolutions were cut down to two.)

Really, it just comes down to a lot of the initial designs in gen 1 being samey in some ways because they’re working off very small sprites.

EVOLUTIONS:

Venonat to Venomoth is a two-stage evolution unchanged since the earliest days of Pokemon. It evolves at level 31 to its final form, a bit late compared to other two-stage pokemon, but not unreasonably or painfully so.

TYPING: 

No matter how well I know it, I will never get over the fact that Venomoth, like Beedrill, can’t fly. It doesn’t even have levitate. Frosmoth, too.  Frankly, it bugs me how many Pokemon in the game are clearly depicted as flying or levitating but don’t have that feature.

Anyway, Bug Poison’s fine on the defense. It has more resistances than weaknesses, and double resisting FIghting and Grass gives Venomoth the occassional free switch-in.  STAB-wise, the Grass redundancy is pretty bad when so much resists Poison anyway, so Venomoth gets STAB against Dark, Grass, Psychic, and Fairy, but is double-resisted by Poison, Ghost, and Steel. Interestingly, it’s not weak to Poison, Ghost, or Steel, so it’s not like the pokemon that wall it are its big threats, which is nice. 

STATS: 

At 450 total, Venomoth falls a bit south of average, mostly on the defensive side. Fortunately, its best stats are Speed and Special, both at 90, which are above average. Not ‘good,’ mind, but ‘above average.’  Venomoth is still regularly outclassed in stats.

ABILITIES:

This is where Venomoth shines, but first I need to give a special shout-out to the little guy, Venonat.

Obviously you won’t be playing many tournaments where it’s to your advantage to use the little guy, but there are leagues for babies and unevolved pokemon and such, and Venonat’s Compound Eyes, which grant +30% accuracy, is a real boon on a Pokemon that can learn Sleep Powder. Sadly, Venomoth can’t get this ability. Fortunately… Venomoth’s options are all good.

Shield Dust prevents additional effects from attacks, such as Fake Out’s Flinch and any chances to Burn or Freeze on attacks. It’s a useful ability, and immunity to Flinching is great, but it’s more for tankier pokemon that can survive the hit and are worried about the secondary effects.

Wonder Skin drops the accuracy of all Status moves used on Venomoth to 50%.  Now, this doesn’t stop things with no accuracy check like Follow Me, but it gives a 50% chance to dodge Taunt, Spore, Glare, Thunder Wave, etc.  It’s not full immunity, sure, but any miss from an ability is a wasted turn on the opponent’s part, and that can seriously alter the tide of battle.

Venomoth’s other ability option is Tinted Lens. Tinted Lens is simple: You do not resist Venomoth’s attacks. Resisted attacks do normal damage, doubly-resisted attacks still do half damage. This means that despite Bug and Poison’s coverage being meh at best, Venomoth doesn’t actually need to learn a variety of attacks to threaten foes. Note that this doesn’t stop immunities, so Venomoth still can’t poison Steel types.  

Overall, Tinted Lens is probably the best of the three, and it’s what makes Venomoth work as an attacker, but there’s plenty of argument to be made for Wonder Skin. Shield Dust is a fine ability, but Venomoth’s better off with the others.

MOVES: 

Quiver Dance. With its best stats being Special Attack and Speed, the reason to run Venomoth is Quiver Dance. Once you get one off, it’s an actual competitive Pokemon, and if you can jump in front of a Grass or Fighting attack, or just in front of a tank, you can start setting up. 

With Tinted Lens, Venomoth only needs one attack- Bug Buzz.  Sludge Bomb is also good, but it’s just not giving the sort of coverage you want, so it’s entirely skippable.  Without Tinted Lens, you’re going to want Sludge Bomb and/or Psychic as well, because way too many things resist bug attacks. 

After that you’ve got a few options. Sleep Powder’s great on a fast pokemon and can give you time to set up with Quiver Dance or just neutralize something that you can’t just Bug Buzz away.  Substitute is a good way to stay alive and test the waters.  Breeding enables Baton Pass, and being able to Baton Pass a Quiver Dance or two can make an incredible sweeper.  And then there’s Roost, Toxic, Toxic Spikes, and various other utility moves. 

My suggestion for a Venomoth would be Quiver Dance, Bug Buzz, Sleep Powder, and Baton Pass. Use Sleep Powder and Quiver Dance, Bug Buzz away what you can, and if they throw out something 4x resistant to Bug or that otherwise won’t go down fast enough, Baton Pass into something that can handle it.

OVERALL: 

Despite its low base stats, great abilities and great moves keep Venomoth competitive.  This is what I like to see in weaker pokemon- particularly strong abilities that make up for their stats if you build around them. And it’s not even the Hidden ability.

Venomoth’s still inherently forgettable, though. Well, they can’t all be winners.