Week 5: Lugia
 

(3/13/10) Question of the Day: name as many creatures Lugia resembles as possible.

Hello my viewers. This is Jack with a somewhat special version of GS. This week is different in that I won't be doing a strategy guide for the Pokémon I'm featuring today. I will be talking about a few cool moves but this is more or less just a tribute to one of the Johto legendaries.

Based on popular (albeit very small) demand, based on the poll results of this last week, my featured Pokémon that I will be presenting on here is considered the "Guardian of the Sea." I am of course talking about Lugia.

I will admit this bias: Lugia was one of my favorite legendaries as a kid. He beat Mewtwo is style and even had a special move that looked absolutely epic in Pokémon Stadium 2 (why did you make it look so silly in the newer games Nintendo?!).

And just so you know, I owned a Japanese version of the holographic Lugia shown here. Cost me $40, but it was worth it to show off.


Lugia's first appearance in Johto is very important to the series even if we don't like to admit it.


There's a lot of little things to know about Lugia and its role in the series. Let's name off a few:

• Lugia (along with Ho-oh) is one of the first legendaries to start the trend of being able to catch a main game legendary to use in the story mode. In Silver, you could catch this guy and use him as early as the eighth gym leader. It was a challenge to catch without the Master Ball, but it's fun to have for the Elite Four.
  
  
• Lugia is also the largest legendary of them all. Yep, that means he beats Groudon among other key giant Pokémon in size.
  
  
• For the trading card of Lugia (the older version), the equivalent "Aeroblast" attack required three elementals (water, electric, and fire) to use. This is in direct reference to the three legendary birds and their relationship with Lugia.
  
  
• Lugia was featured in a movie ("The Power of One") before the anime even talked about him.

• When Nintendo was asked by a fan what creature Lugia resembles, they responded with this message:

"I'm afraid there isn't an answer to your question about Lugia. Having said that, there are details about Pokemon games that will remain mysteries, left to the active imagination of the player."

• Lugia is the only legendary Pokémon to be featured in two main series games (Silver and Gale of Darkness).
  
  
• It is known (along with Latias) to have babies and was featured in a series of episodes in the cartoon show.
  
  
• Lugia is the only legitimate Pokémon to learn Aeroblast. No other Pokémon can learn this move unless they perform it through Metronome.
  
  
• There is no way to get a Lugia in the third generation legitimately without playing Gale of Darkness.

• "Shadow Lugia" is available as a "jumbo trading card," although you can't use it in play.

Lugia is the harder of the bird legendaries to find without doing a little searching. The Whirl Islands can be a little frustrating to navigate without good guessing on the part of the trainer.

Everyone who has played the old games knows that you need the "Silver Feather" that you receive either after beating Team Rocket in Silver or the old man in Pewter City (spoiler alert: you go back to Kanto in Gold and Silver. OMA!!!!).

The best island that leads you to Lugia in the Northwest corner. It's more of a direct route than some of the other ones.


Lugia's special feature in "XD: Game of Darkness" was unique in that it was considered a "Shadow Pokémon that could not be purified." If you max out the purification chamber in tempo for all 9 chambers though, you can make Lugia normal again. He has the special moves Psycho Boost and Feather Dance at his disposal. This made him pretty unique for uber battles back in the third generation and is an interesting choice of moves for the fourth generation.

His signature move in shadow form, "Shadow Blast," was a decent attack in power and had super effective hits on all normal Pokémon (hard to deal with when trying to catch him without the Master Ball).

This attack is just awesome to me. I wish he could have kept it.

Speaking of special moves, Lugia is the only Pokémon to learn Psycho Boost besides Deoxys. This powerful attack has many pros and cons, but generally it's too cool to give up. You could easily work a Special Sweeper set around the attack nowadays.

Speaking of moves…


For those of you that are using Lugia for the first time, you'll have a really cool Pokémon. He can learn a variety of effective moves through each generation. Here, I'm just going to sum up his featured moves.

Aeroblast is just cool to me. Forget everyone who puts it down for its low PP. Give it a few PP Ups and it's an effective move for taking out a couple of types. Plus, that critical hit chance isn't half bad either.

Ice Beam, in all generations, in generally considered one of his most versatile moves for Lugia for dealing with dragons. Most sets that I've seen on Smogon and Serebii feature it as a main attack.

Hydro Pump, a move that is only learned by Lugia and water types, is also worth mentioning. It kills Ho-oh (maybe in 2 hits if your Lugia has low special attack) and various Rock types that could give it trouble.

I tend to stick with Surf though because of accuracy and PP.

Psycho Boost, as mentioned before, has very interesting strategies that can be focused around it. You could pop this out on a Choice Specs team and totally mess your opponent up (thinking you're going to use wall moves or Ice Beam). Generally, you're going to dent your opponent pretty bad with this move. It's just that dip in Special Attack that makes it hard for repetition.

But like with Draco Meteor for dragons, certain compromises need to be made.

Earthquake is generally effective as well for type coverage.

The final important move to note for him that isn't a staller or annoyer move is Roost. Now, Lugia only had Recover in previous generations (which was pretty good for the most part), but with the fourth generation, you can now get rid of your flying weakness and be even more versatile. It usually doesn't hurt to just pop out a Roost early in a match so that you can more effectively wall your opponent.

Generally, Lugia seems to do well as a special attacker or a wall, but having even a few of these moves while stalling is great. I'll let you guys decide what works best for stalling though (Toxic among other attacks being the best).

Lugia does tend to get the spotlight more than Ho-oh just based on its popularity. It was featured in a movie, two games, and is an awesome trading card. For some people, Heartgold and SoulSilver will be the first games trainers will use this awesome Pokémon. Enjoy using him guys and don't forget that he is a great wall that can use some pretty cool attacks.

Thanks for reading. Here's to a good time playing Heartgold and SoulSilver when they come out tomorrow. :)

I enjoyed it, even if it wasn't about Ho-oh! :lol: The very last bit about playing the game tomorrow got me mad though, because it just reminded me that I'm getting my game later :/ Still, good job!

I really liked the facts about Lugia, many of which I didn't know.

http://www.pokemontradingcards.net/images/neo/lugia.gifI currently own the english version of that exact card. It is in mint condition too. Good job Justjack! Even though it wasn't Ho-oh...its really good.

Lugia resembles a pretty birdy.

I read this late, but it is quite an interesting thread. Lugia is really cool.

Did I win? o3o

Thanks for the information its really Usefull