Contest Contest-of-the-Week: Beautifly vs Dustox

[Winterdaze]

Welcome to Contest-of-the-Week! With the release of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the horizon, the attention of Pokémon fans everywhere turns to Hoenn, and all the cool and interesting Pokemon that live there.

Every week, we'll be looking at a few of the many Pokémon you'll meet along your journey through the Hoenn region, and asking for your opinions on them and how they stack up next to their counterparts or rival Pokemon looking to fill the same spot on your team.

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After leaving Oldale Town you head out into Route 102, where other beginning trainers are itching to test their strength against you for the first time. On the route, you'll find many new Pokemon, and Hoenn's early game bug Wurmple is among them. Wurmple is unique for randomly evolving into two different Pokemon, so you never know what you're going to get until it evolves.

Beautifly is the more offensive of Wurmple's two final forms, and learns Grass moves which may be useful in the first gym. Puzzlingly, it recieved a 10 point boost to its special attack in Gen VI, while its counterpart recieved...none. Dustox is more defensively built and prefers to whittle the opponent down with status moves and Psychic attacks. Both have a distinct advantage over Brawly's gym, allowing them to serve as a competent early game crutch at the very least.

Which final form of Wurmple is your favourite, and why?

-Which has the better design?
-Which one is easier to train?
-Which is more useful throughout the game?
-Which do you think will be better in ORAS?
-Which is more useful in the competitive environment?
-If Wurmple doesn't evolve into your preferred cocoon, do you stick with it or catch another and try again?

Let the contest begin!

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Next week: Shiftry vs Ludicolo

 

[aliveatnight]

I like how Beautifly looks better (Dustox seriously creeps me out). I find them both equally easy to train, although I never used them passed the second gym so I might not be the best judge there. I did always like Beautifly's grass attacks and power over Dustox's psychic attacks and defensiveness.
So yeah, Beautifly wins!

 

[Lysson]

I prefer Beautifly's design but its Pokedex entry makes it a Pokemon that I am seriously scared off, using its long mouth to drain a creature's fluids... *shudders* just as creepy as Golbat.
So overall I prefer Dustox because in the anime it was amazing and I quite like its cry in Diamond and Pearl.

 

[Mantodea]

Beautifly is definitely the better one IMO. It has better stats, a better design, a more interesting description in the Pokedex, and more. It also helps that I've raised the kind of butterfly Beautifly is based off of before, so it has a bit more sentimental value to me.

 

[Life]

Both Beautifly and Dustox are good Pokemon if used properly, but I Dustox very easily takes the cake for best final Wurmple form.

Despite learning Absorb to help counter Roxanne's rock-types, it is worse (or equal to, depending on stats) than what Dustox can do. Absorb's base power is 20, whereas Confusion, the move Dustox learns, has a base power of 50. Even against rock-types Absorb only increases to a power of 40. So unless your Beautifly's Special Attack is significantly high, it's not that special of a move. It should also be noted that Beautifly is 4x week to rock-type moves, while Dustox only has a 2x weakness, letting it battle longer than its other.

In the second gym, they both fare pretty equally. They both have a 4x resistance to fighting-type moves and have moves that are super effective against fighting-types, letting them beat Brawly quite easily. In the third gym, Beautifly has a weakness to electric-type moves, where oppositely, Dustox has the ability Shield Dust, which means it won't get paralyzed unless one of his Pokemon use Thunder Wave. Both are horrible against Flannery, and Dustox is signigicantly better than Beautifuly against Norman. Because Dustox learns Protect early on, it can easily beat Slaking, a foe to be reckoned with. Both are pretty bad against Winona and Tate & Liza, and Beautifly is surprisingly better than Dustox in the eigth gym. Though I do wonder how many people have kept it around long enough to actually make use of it. :<

Speaking of abilities, Beautifly's ability, Swarm, will only activate if its health is below 1/3 of its maximum. But if it does activate, the only move it will help is Silver Wind. Pretty crappy, huh? On the other hand, Dustox's ability, Shield Dust, block any and all additional effects from attacks. This is helpful in virtually every battle!

It should also be noted that Beautifly's best same-type-attack moves are Aerial Ace and Silver Wind, hitting enemies with a base power of 60. Dustox's best same-type-attack move is Sludge Bomb with a base power of 90. Silver Wind is learned at level 34, but Sludge Bomb can be obtained after defeating the second gym. The funny thing is, both Aerial Ace and Silver Wind are are physical moves, so Beautifuly can not even take advantage of its good Special Attack! So despite having a worse special attack stat than Beautifly, Dustox certainly makes up for it with its powerful move-pool.

Going into subjective matters, I think both Pokemon are equally appealing. Beautifly is graceful, cute, and elegant, while Dustox is tough, smart, and cool. (Contest categories, anyone?) I think they both have really nice designs that help show off their differences between the other.

(((If it was not obviously already, I will clarify that I am looking at these Pokemon as they were first debuted in Gen III and how they were then. Now, Beautifly's special attack is higher and it has a better move-pool, if only by a little.)))

 

[Karpi]

These were 2 of my first 3 pokemon, so I'm extremely attached to both. Beautifly (Wormy) was my main battler, and Dustox (Casty) was her partner that I used to breed for more Wurmple when I discovered how the daycare worked. They had so many offspring lol. Casty became one of my favorites as well.

Unfortunately my game file got deleted by my super young brother who didn't know what he was doing. RIP Wormy and Casty. We'll always be in Sootopolis together!

I think Beautifly was my favorite based on the games, but Jessie's Dustox was also really awesome and I cried when she left I also raised a second Dustox later on my new game file, and its defenses are more than good enough for in game purposes.

Still going to pick Beautifly I think.

 

[Solayoh]

For me its Dustox. I was like 9 or 10, when RS came out and I remember I wanted Beautifly so much more than Dustox based soley on the design. But the first one I got was Dustox and I was so sad, I caught another and got a Beautifly. (Back then the rumour was boys become Beautifly and girls become Dustox lol) but then I found Beautifly to be rubbish in battle, and Dustox had a much more interesting move pool. I loved Butterfree for its Psychic and status abilities and it felt like Beautifly was missing this but Dustox had it.

Also then there was the cartoon, I loved Jessies Dustox and I was so sad when it left. Yanmega was cool and all but just not the same.
So yeah Dustox forever!!!

 

[Team Gaara]

For me it's pretty much Beautifly all the way. I've replayed Emerald many times and I almost always have a a Beautifly on my team, whereas, outside of Mystery Dungeon, I've never used a Dustox. She definitely has a better design, in my opinion, even though I hate Butterflies in real life. I would imagine that both are fairly challenging to train seeing as Bug-types aren't the best types in the game. I personally remember there were times when Beautifly would fall behind, and other times when she lead the team, so it pretty much depends where you are in the game and if there are Pokemon they can easily grind against. Otherwise, they're both fairly fragile and it can be a pain.

In terms of usefulness, Beautifly succeeds in Brawly's Gym, as well as being fairly helpful against Tate and Liza, and with a Grass-type move, she can assist against Roxanne and Juan (or Wallace). Dustox can also help against Brawly, and excels in not having a weakness to Electricity against Wattson, though he does to Tate and Liza. From what I've seen, Beautifly tends to be more useful in the long run. It also stands to reason that this will probably be the case in ORAS.

Competitively, I've only seen Dustox used as a wall and I've seen it work well in that regard. Beautifly could be a good Quiver Dancer, I suppose, but Vivillon tends to work better as it learns much better moves, which is probably why I've never seen it.

The last question is something I've dealt with a few times. I always go for Beautifly, and if I don't get it on the first Wurmple, I always try again, which has so far not failed to result in a Beautifly on the second go.