It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these Interesting Specimen posts. It got to be a little draining trying to come up with a new one every week. But this morning I got the inspiration to one on a Pokemon that is probably forgotten about quite often. Presenting one of the second generation’s more oddball Pokemon, Smeargle.
For clarification, Smeargle is the green dog-like Pokemon sitting on the Typhlosion’s head. This was the best image I could find. Anyway, this is one of the odder Pokemon I’ve seen. I discovered it while actually playing the game. The strategy guide I had at the time indicated a secret Pokemon in the grass at the Ruins of Alph. So of course I decided to look for it. And after a long time of searching I encountered this odd bipedal dog with a paintbrush tail and quickly discovered what it could do. This of course led me to capturing and experimenting with Smeargle. I discovered that while Smeargle may not be the most powerful Pokemon out there, it sure is an interesting one.
In the Games: Smeargle first showed up in Gold, Silver, and Crystal in the grass patches of the Ruins of Alph, as mentioned above. In the Generation Two remakes, Smeargle can also be found at the Safari Zone. The only place to find Smeargle in Generation Three was in Kanto’s Artisan Cave in FireRed and LeafGreen, while in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum of Generation Four Smeargle is found on Routes 208 and 212 using the Poke Radar (depending on the version). Finally, Smeargle can be again in the original Black and White games on Route 5. But for some reason one has to trade in order to get Smeargle in Black 2 and White 2.
Smeargle’s most remarkable power is its ability to learn almost any Pokemon move. Just how it does that I’ll get to in a minute. Unfortunately, Smeargle’s stats are so bad that usually this power isn’t really worth using, except perhaps for passing on attacks to other Pokemon through breeding. Of course Smeargle does have a hidden Ability known as Moody that can increase two of its stats while lowering one, which over time and with the right moves can make Smeargle quite formidable. You have to watch out for those moody artists. Unfortunately, Pokemon with Moody as an Ability have been banned from most competitive tournaments.
Signature Move: Now we come to the reason why Smeargle has landed a place in the Interesting Specimen category. Imagine my surprise when I first encountered Smeargle in the old Gen. Two games when it copied one of my Pokemon’s moves, then when I found it still knew that move after I had captured it. That’s because Smeargle had used its signature move, Sketch. In a nutshell, Sketch permanently copies the last move used against its user. Any move except Struggle and Chatter, otherwise Sketch fails.
Sketch is the only move that Smeargle learns naturally, but it learns it multiple times. The tricky part I found with using Sketch though is finding the right time to use it if you’re trying to copy a certain move. One could say be trying to copy Ice Beam but not know for sure if the opponent is going to use it. In trying to copy Ice Beam one might end up accidentally copying Rest or something like that. One solution I can see would be to get together with a friend and ask that said friend to use specific move against Smeargle so it can use Sketch.
That about covers it for this Interesting Specimen post. At the moment I’m not sure when I’ll do the next one. So until then, stay tuned.
EDIT: I fixed the multiple misspellings of Smeargle's name. I don't know how I could've screwed that up.
