Contest Contest-of-the-Week: Plusle vs Minun

[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.

vs

Your errand to deliver the Devon Goods to Captain Stern will lead you to Slateport City. After dispatching some evil team goons at the Oceanic Museum and delivering the goods, the road to your next badge lies north along Route 110. A number of new Pokemon are available to catch on this route, and the Cheering Pokemon Plusle and Minun are among them.

For better or worse these two Pokemon started the trend of the Pikaclone, and their ability to power one another up through the Plus and Minus abilities was used to showcase the new Double Battle system introduced in Ruby and Sapphire. In battle the two are essentially the same Pokemon, only Plusle has a minor statistical advantage in the offense department, whereas Minun has slightly better defences.

Which Cheering Pokemon you prefer, 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?
-How do these Pokemon compare to the electric rodents from other regions?

Let the contest begin!

---

Next week: Volbeat vs Illumise

 

[Alexg23]

Minun, because while they're both adorable, to me it seems to be a little more masculine.

 

[Sakuraa]

Plusle is my overall choice, but I'll answer the questions as well.

Which has the better design? Plusle. While they're both adorable and look nearly identical, I prefer red to blue, so Plusle wins here.

Which one is easier to train? I've used both together in Emerald, and separately in 2 different Pearl playthoughs. Overall, I think Minun ended up being easier to train simply because of higher defenses.

Which is more useful throughout the game? It depends on whether you want to focus more on attack or defense imo. But with them both already being pretty frail, I'd say Minun's extra defense helps it out a bit more.

Which do you think will be better in ORAS? Same as above.

How do these Pokemon compare to the electric rodents from other regions? I've always had an electric rodent on my team. Currently however, I think I had the easiest time with both Emolga and Dedenne. Emolga was really useful with its flying-type coverage and Dedenne's fairy-type caused it to be pretty good when defending against fighting and dark-types. If it only had a good special based fairy-type move I'd say it would be the best. Pachirisu to me is like another Minun in that it's really useful in terms of defense rather than offense. Unlike the other 2 though, it doesn't have a second type, which really limits its use.

But like I said, overall I choose Plusle since I like its appearance more.

 

[Slim Shady]

I always have liked Minun better, they are pretty much the same and I prefer blue over red. Also once during a playthrough of Ruby I used a Minun and it ended up becoming a pretty good part of my team.

 

[Team Gaara]

Yes! I been waiting for this one. Most people think of these little cuties as the same useless Pikaclone Pokemon (some don't even know they two apart if they can't see the tails), but they're my favorite of the bunch!

They have nearly identical designs, but Minun wins if for me just because she's blue. As for which is easier to train, I only ever trained the two post-game in Diamond just for fun. I found it easier to use Plusle as she dished out more damage and was good for quick KOs, while Minun had the upper paw in defenses, but normally took an extra attack to defeat other Pokemon. Neither are really hard to train, but as for which makes grinding quicker, it's Plusle.

I can't say that either is more useful throughout the game as neither are too useful on their own anyway. If you were to use them separately, it would depend on whether you're looking for offense or defense. As for which will be better in ORAS, it still really depends on that same factor.

Sadly, I've never really seen either too much in competitive, which I really want to change one of these days. As of now, Plusle can get used on its own with Lightning Rod, while Minun excels with Volt Absorb. I think I hear more about Plusle competitively with Lightning Rod Volt Switching, but I hope they can find a way to make these two useful (hopefully via Mega Evolution) in their Double Battling roots.

Now the tough question. Compared to other rodents, I think these two sort of take a back seat. They were made to work together, which doesn't happen as often as would benefit them, while the others can do something on their own. Emolga can dish out a good bit of damage and avoid Ground moves in exchange for weaknesses to Ice and Rock. Dedenne's somewhat useful with being part Fairy in terms of resistances since it doesn't have a good Fairy attacking move to save it's life and has decent Special Attack and good Speed. Pikachu gets the Light Ball, nuff said, and I think we all know what Pachirisu's capable of now with its new World Champion status.

That all said, their's nothing the Cheering Pokemon can really do in comparison. Plusle has the Special Offense, but base 85 isn't really all that much with her limited move pool and Minun's Defenses, while decent, aren't too great and won't last her too long, either. I really hope ORAS can help the two out in some way, because, as I said, they're my favorite of the rodents and I really want to see them be able to make use of the potential that they possess.

 

[VulNona]

Minum blue is more origanal than red until patserizu

 

[Lysson]

Despite them being practically identical I went with Minun simply because I like blue over red.
-Which has the better design?
They're practically the same, the question is basically which colour do I prefer. So I like blue to Minun gets it.

-How do these Pokemon compare to the electric rodents from other regions?
Well it's not Dedenne (a cross between all the Pichu line) so not the worst in my case but I'd still say they have nothing on pachirisu.

 

[Shinehollow]

Plusle,because I like the colour red more then the colour blue.The best reason to come up with...I think I might use a Plusle on OR...

 

[BlackEmboar]

Plusle is cute

 

[aliveatnight]

I'd say Plusle because I always liked how she had a more "feminine" look about her. I never use either because they always got replaced by another lightning Pokemon (usually Jolteon or Manectric).

 

[Zkat]

Minun, because I like blue more than red (I didn't even know there were any other differences besides the abilities until now). I've been using a Minun in Pokemon Emerald and I like it.

 

[The Froakster]

I like Minun because I like - more than +.

 

[Volkner=Minato]

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.

vs

Your errand to deliver the Devon Goods to Captain Stern will lead you to Slateport City. After dispatching some evil team goons at the Oceanic Museum and delivering the goods, the road to your next badge lies north along Route 110. A number of new Pokemon are available to catch on this route, and the Cheering Pokemon Plusle and Minun are among them.

For better or worse these two Pokemon started the trend of the Pikaclone, and their ability to power one another up through the Plus and Minus abilities was used to showcase the new Double Battle system introduced in Ruby and Sapphire. In battle the two are essentially the same Pokemon, only Plusle has a minor statistical advantage in the offense department, whereas Minun has slightly better defences.

Which Cheering Pokemon you prefer, 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?
-How do these Pokemon compare to the electric rodents from other regions?

Let the contest begin!

---

Next week: Volbeat vs Illumise

Both are pretty cute and are quite similar, but I prefer the colour blue and I like a higher defence stat.

 

[Camille]

Don't care much for either, but at least Plusle has higher Special Attack.