Contest Shuckle vs. Carbink!

[Stratelier]

The battle of the rock-hard stone walls!

On one side, we have Shuckle, a G2 Pokemon with:
- Bug/Rock typing
- Vulnerable only to Rock, Water, and Steel; resistant only to Normal and Poison. Bug and Rock's weaknesses and resistances largely cancel each other out.
- BST 505, including absolutely the highest defense scores in the game (230), but also the lowest HP, attack scores, and Speed.
- Can posess Sturdy or Contrary
- Able to learn a few interesting moves like Power/Guard Split and Power Trick

On the other is newcomer Carbink, a G6 native:
- Unique Rock/Fairy typing
- BST 500 with very high defense scores (150) backed up by low-to-average HP, Speed, and attack scores.
- Vulnerable to Water, Grass, Ground, and Steel (4x). Resistant to Normal, Fire, Bug, Flying, and Dark.
- Posesses Clear Body by default, but can posess Sturdy.

Some on-the-surface compare and contrast between the two:
- Both can endure roughly the same amount of total thrashing -- Carbink has better HP than Shuckle (by about +50%), but Shuckle has higher Defense scores (also by about +50%) so it takes less damage per hit. Either one takes extremely little damage from Confusion.
- Both can posess Sturdy, though you probably won't need it since it's unlikely your opponent will be able to land a OHKO without some attack boosts.
- Shuckle can posess Contrary; Carbink can posess Clear Body. Either one means you can't lower their stats without Gastro Acid or Mold Breaker.
- Shuckle has fewer elemental weak points but also fewer resistances. Carbink has more of both (including 4x from Steel).
- On the other hand, Carbink has better (but by no means stellar) attack scores.
- Shuckle has genders and can inherit egg moves. Carbink can only breed with Ditto.

Who do you like better? Which one would win?

(I imagine an actual battle between the two could take a long time to finish....)

 

[Peaceful Giraffe]

I voted Carbink because I just always go with the fairies by default

 

[Karpi]

Carbink is one of my favorite new pokemon, but I do really like Shuckle. I specifically remember reading this warstory on smogon where some guy uses his Shuckle to kill like 3 or 4 opponents with Wrap+Toxic+Rest or something along those lines. It just makes me glad that there is a pokemon that can use that strategy.

I also, a few days ago, had the idea that I could write about a pokemon trainer who wants to explore the world to sample different berries to put into his three Shuckles in order to make different flavors of Berry Juice. Which I will pretend causes hallucinations because Shuckle is a fungus. Heh.

But I also really like my non-canon backstory for Carbink, which is that they are all like 100,000 years old and have been very slowly growing deep in the earth as they absorb heat energy. Then when they have ended up on the surface through erosion or something, they have to be very cautious with the use of their energy they have slowly absorbed over hundreds of thousands of years, because when they run out they die. And that's why they have high defenses but can't do much damage. In my mind, at least.

Hmm. I'm high right now so my Shuckle story seems more appealing than the existential questions Carbink's story suggests. Shuckle wins!

 

[Camille]

Shuckle is adorable and can be destructive with Power Trick. Carbink, on the other hand, is one of my least favourite Fairies.

 

[~Smugleaf~]

I love Shuckle. It looks so cute and derpy. One of my most liked Johto mons for sure.
Carbink, on the other hand, is ugly. I hate it.

 

[Revenge of the Boyega]

I think this sums up my opinion pretty well.