Clefable

It arrived with the first generation, in Pokémon Red and Green, and that game’s design put it where it made sense: Mt. Moon held both Clefairy and the Moon Stones that make them evolve. Cause and effect, in the same cave.

Pokédex entries have been repeating two traits ever since. Hearing comes first: it can hear a pin drop from a kilometre away, which is why it retreats to live far from noise, in groups, deep in the mountains. Then there’s its shyness — it runs and hides as soon as it senses people approaching, to the point that seeing one is considered rare.

The rest is all little hops. It moves by bouncing around as if it were making use of its wings, and those hops even let it walk on water; some entries describe it strolling across lakes on calm nights under a full moon. Another claims that spotting a pair hopping together brings happiness to a marriage, which says more about whoever tells it than about the animal.

It is 1.3 metres tall and weighs 40 kilograms, a considerable jump from Clefairy. It completes a three-stage line that begins with Cleffa, one whose official category sums it up without fuss: Fairy Pokémon.

Its 483 base points do not stand out in any one stat, and they fit together well: 95 HP, 73 Defense, 90 Special Defense, 95 Special Attack, 70 Attack and 60 Speed. No single figure is frightening. The ability is what decides the game.

Magic Guard nullifies all damage that does not come from a direct attack. Stealth Rock, poison, burn, recoil, hail: none of it takes a single HP, even though status conditions still retain their other effects. On a 95/73/90 body, that erases the opponent’s passive-damage plan; they have to take it down by hitting it, turn after turn, while it hits back with 95 Special Attack. The other option is Unaware, which ignores the opponent’s stat boosts and puts Clefable in front of anything that has spent its time raising numbers.

Pure Fairy type: immune to Dragon, resistant to Fighting, Bug and Dark, and poorly matched into Poison and Steel. Moonblast, which it learns at level 1, is the reliable STAB attack, with 95 power and no conditions attached. Moonlight, available only through breeding, is the recovery that holds the set together. Encore locks the opponent into the wrong move.

Steel-types shut the door: Excadrill takes Moonblast and answers with its own Steel typing. Then there are the usual holes — 60 Speed means moving last against almost everything, 70 Attack makes any physical hit largely token, and its ability does not stop it from being put to sleep or paralyzed. It has been a regular presence in Smogon’s OU lists for several generations, and that has been because of Magic Guard, not its stat spread.

A single Egg Group, Fairy, which cuts down the list of possible partners quite a bit. The gender split is three to one: 75% female and 25% male, so finding a breedable female is rarely the problem.

Ten incubation cycles work out to about 2805 steps ((10+1)×255), among the shortest times you will see for an egg.

The Egg Move list is long, and three of them justify the effort. Moonlight, the recovery move that is not available by TM anywhere. Wish, which heals on the following turn and can also help whatever comes in afterwards. And Encore. Cosmic Power, Heal Pulse and Mimic come next, more useful on paper than in battle. It can also inherit Splash.

The evolution leaves no room for interpretation: Clefairy becomes Clefable as soon as a Moon Stone is used on it, at any level and with no other conditions, while Cleffa evolves into Clefairy when it levels up with friendship at 160 or higher. It is worth delaying the stone, because the middle stage is the one that learns moves by level.

It lives in the mountains, and in the wild it can be carrying a Moon Stone, a Lum Berry or a Comet Shard; stealing the stone from a wild one saves you the search. Its catch rate is 25, below the 45 already considered difficult, so the Ball takes a while to stick. Its base friendship, 140, is high, and it grows quickly.