The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon series might seem super simplistic and cutesy, as far as RPGs go, but there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye. If you’ve dabbled in competitive Pokémon, you’ll know that the🧸re’s a w♔ealth of strategy, mind games and such involved in a serious Pokémon battle.

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Hyper offense is a popular playstyle, but some of us prefer to be a little more strategic and slower paced in our approach. To pull this off, 168澳🌊洲幸运5开奖网:sturdy Pokémon that ca💃n absorb damage are needed. On that note, let’s take a look at the ful💙ly-evolved starter Pokémon with the highest base Defe🧸nse (in ascending order).

10 Ci♍nderace And Decidueye (Base 75 Defense)

At the bottom of the pile (well, the bottom of the top of the pile, if you follow), we have Cinderace and Decidueye, with base 75 Defense apiece. This stat is, if we’re being totally honest with ou𝓡rselves, more than a little sub-par.

Not at all. They’re just offensively oriented, with Cinderace in particular serving as a real glas🐲s cannon. Interestingly, Rowlet’s first evolution, Dartrix, also has base 75 Defense.

9 Charizard And Typhlosion (Base 78 𒁏Defense)

Here’s another tie: Charizard and Typhlosion both share the same slightly higher base Defense value. Just barely beating out 🤡our last-placed coupling, these two aren’t much better equipped to take hits on the physica🌜l spectrum.

That’s not surprising when it comes to Fire-type starters, though. Historically, they’ve been more powerful and less tanky (there’s only one more Fire starter on the rest of this whole list, in fact), as anyone who felt 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the wrath of Mega Charizard X and Y back in the day will tell you.

8 Venusaur (Base ܫ83 Defense) 🐟

Continuing the trend of starter Pokémon having seemingly random base stats, Venusaur’s lumbering into view next (presumably doing that terrifying frog-walk it did in Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee) with 83 base Defense.

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Contrary to Fire-type starters, their Grass-type counterparts are usually designed to be bulky and annoying status-spreaders. Venusaur’s Defense is still quite lackluster, but its base 100 Special Defense and base 80 HP are solid enough to let it take a reasonable amount of punish🔯ment and reliably heal away the damage. Mega Venusaur is a cut above in that regard (especially with its Thick Fat Ability in mind), but we’re not counting Mega Pokémon here.

7 Samurott (Base 85 Defense) ꦉ♎

Generꦉation V’s Samurott is the next Pokémon to make the list, with another marginal step forward: base 85 Defense still isn’t all that much to work with at all, but you should at least be able to take a resisted hit or two by this point.

That’s good news, because Samurott is probably going to have to do just that in the line of duty. Its Speed is utterly average, meaning that it might struggle to make the best of its super solid base 100/base 1💙08 offenses. Luckily, Water is quite a good defensive type.

6 Emp🐬oleon (Ba🧔se 88 Defense)

Empoleon can be quite a deceptive Pokémon. It’s better equipped to take special hits, but it can also weather more thꦿan its average base 88 Defense might suggest.

How, by resisting al🐠most every darn thing, that’s how. It’s still the only Water/Steel Pokémon in the series, and that’s a great combination for taking hits. It can switch in quite easily on all kinds of Pokémon, but you’ve still got to take some care when using it. Even so, Empoleon is a Pokémon with a lot of utility, able to take attacking or defensive roles as your team requires.

5 𓄧 Incineroar And Swampert (Base 90 Defense) 🃏

As we’ve noted, Fire-type starters are usually all about the offense. In the interests of balance, then, this tends to mean that they can’t take a hiꦚt in return, but Incineroar’s a bit different in that sense. You might be surprised to see that it has the same Defense as the famously tanky Swampert, but there we are.

There’s more to the equation that raw stats alone, though. Swampert is much more capable of taking hits overall, thanks to its fantastic defensive typing (Water/Ground only has a single weakness, to Grass). In return, Incineroar is more of a powerhouse and now boasts 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the brilliant Intimidate Ability.

4 Se🍌rperior✤ (Base 95 Defense)

When Serperior was given the Hidden Ability Contrary, thing♑s totally changed for it. Contrary and Leaf Storm became thꦦe easy-spam combination that was all Serperior was ever seen doing, which was a real shame.

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This Generation V Grass starter has an interesting stat spread, boasting high speed, average HP and Defense/Special Defense of 95 apiece. While it doesn’t excel in any one area (besides cheesy Leaf Stℱorm boosting, which can be tough to pull off well), this versatility allows for interesting things like dual screen sets.

3 ✅ Blastoise, Feraligatr, Meganium (100 Bas♉e Defense)

For our next entry, we have a three-way tie. Generation I icon Blastoise and Pokém🎉on Gold, Silver and Crystal’s Feraligatr and Megani🎀um all have 100 base Defense.

As a rule of thum♊b, 100 is a sort of above averಞage, solid and workable level for any base stat, highlighting all three Pokémon as solid and tanky team members that can go on the offensive quite well too (especially if Feraligatr can get off a Dragon Dance boost or two).

2 🦋 Torterra (Ba𝓰se 105 Defense)

Speaking of solid and tanky, the Pokémon built with these sorts of roles in mind tend to have some telltale elements in their d🤡esign to clue you in to that. Take Turtwig’s final evolution, Torterra. This beast of a creature is 7’03” and has a darn tree growing on its back, so it’s safe to assume that it’s not going to be a 🦋speedster. Its lot in life is to sit there and take hits all day.

It Special Defense is a good deal lower, at base 85, but with all-around solid defenses and 109 base Attack, Torterr💯a can absorb a lot of damage and is far from passive to boot.

1 Che🐲snaught (Base 122 Defense)

It’s probably no surprise to see this prickly Grass-type take the top spot. Chesp🍒in’s final evolution is clearly designed to be a physical tank, with an intimidating-looking body that no opponent’s really going to want to lay a finger on.

Its stats support this view, with high HP and Attack bolstered by the most Defensღe of any fully-evolved starter Pokémon. Its Grass/Fighting typing leaves it horribly weak to Flying-types, but really helps out with coverage and gives it handy moves like Drain ꧒Punch to better do its job. Chesnaught hasn’t really been a big deal, competitive-wise, but you might be surprised how well it can perform.

NEXT: Pokémon: The 10 Ugliest Grass-Type Pokémon, Rಌanked