POTW Pokémon of the Week #90: Shinx, Luxio & Luxray

Cresselia92 · May 28, 2018

In the World of Pokémon, there lives a vast number and variety of amazing creatures to befriend and collect. Every week, we will be focusing on a single one of these Pokémon or evolutionary line and talking about what makes it special. This week's Pokémon of choice is...

Luxray, the Gleam Eyes Pokémon, and its pre-evolutions Shinx and Luxio!

Introduced in the 4th Generation, Shinx can be found as an early-game critter, and it's known to make its fur shine brightly by contracting its muscles to produce sparkling electricity, which increases in brightness when in trouble and doubles as a defensive mechanism, as it can use the shine to blind the opponent and flee. Once evolved, it can use its claws to send electricity strong enough to faint the opponent or temporarily stun it, as well as communicate with the rest of its group. As a Luxray, it gains the ability to see through anything with its X-ray vision, which is a great asset when hunting or when looking for its lost puppies.

This mighty feline family was quite unusual back in the day, as it was one of the few Electric-types who focused more on physical prowess rather than special attacking skills and who traded a bit of Speed for some extra bulk, which is further improved by the great Intimidate Ability.

All members of the line have interesting Abilities in the form of the abovementioned Intimidate to cut down the opponent’s Attack, Rivalry to take on Pokémon of the same gender and Guts to boost their own Attack when affected by a status condition. The latter is very useful when paired with Flame Orb to make you immune to conditions like Sleep or Toxic Poison, while Intimidate can be a great asset in Double Battles.

This line also has some interesting physical moves, like the elemental fangs, Crunch, Wild Charge, Superpower and Quick Attack, as well as supportive moves like Electric Terrain, Baby-Doll Eyes, Eerie Impulse and the classical Thunder Wave. Thanks to its passable Special Attack, Luxray can also use some special moves, like the bread-and-butter Thunderbolt, Volt Switch, Signal Beam and Discharge.

In the games “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time” and “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness”, the player and their partner have to deal with a tribe of Luxio led by their leader Luxray, while in their third version “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky” the player may turn into a Shinx. Due to this, the group of Luxray has been replaced by a Manectric with his Electrike allies.

In the anime Luxray has been prominently featured by important Electric-type specialists, namely Volkner and Clemont. In both cases, Ash had to face the felines as his final opponents, with Volkner’s Luxray facing Ash’s Blaze-powered Infernape and Clemont’s Luxray having a duel against the tanky Goodra. While both Luxray put up a great fight, they ultimately fell to Ash’s Pokémon’s raw power and quick strategies, granting him the Beacon and the Voltage Badges.

Meanwhile, in the Pokémon Special/Adventure manga, a Luxio with broken claws debuted with his pack and kidnapped Platinum and her Piplup, after being shunned by his gang due to being unable to communicate with them anymore. Forcing Diamond and Pearl to face him, he managed to gain the upper hand, but the pack still refused to consider him. However, helped by the two boys and regaining the ability to communicate with his group, he reunited with the other felines. He reappeared multiple times as a Luxray, helping the group face Team Galactic before eventually joining Pearl's team, after being nicknamed Rayler.

Here are some questions to consider to get conversation rolling. You don't have to answer all of them or any of them in your post as long as you're staying on topic and within global forum rules.

Do you like or dislike this Pokémon? Why?
How is this Pokémon in-game?
How is this Pokémon in competitive play? Are there any interesting strategies you like to use for them?
Do you like this Pokémon's representation in the anime? Are there any moments or qualities in particular you enjoy/dislike?
How do you think this Pokémon would interact with our world?
If given the power to, would you change anything about this Pokémon and if so, what would you change?
Should there be more varied early-game creatures, aside from the standard "early-game rodent", "early-game bird" and "early-game bug"?
What's your opinion about Pokémon who break the mold by going against their typical type standards (i.e., a slow Electric-type Pokémon or a Psychic-type with great physical attack)?

If you have any suggestions for Pokémon you'd like to discuss in the future just leave your ideas at the bottom of your post. Make sure you give your thoughts about the current Pokémon first!

Many thanks to @CrystaI and @Max1996 for suggesting this Pokémon of the Week!

Previous Pokémon of the Week:

ocelotlrama jaguar · May 28, 2018

I LOVE this line! They're lions! Who doesn't love lions? Shinx is adorable, while Luxio and Luxray are adorable and fierce-looking. They are also not too shabby in-game. Luxray's Intimidate is very handy and it has a great Attack stat and it's Special Attack is decent. What makes it not so great in the competitive scene is that it's Speed is too low, especially for an Electric-type. A 70 base Speed is too low in an environment where Earthquake is too commonly present. I typically look to Manectric to be my Electric-type competitive battler, but I'll happily use Luxray in-game.

I loved to see the Luxray-line in the anime, especially in the X and Y series. Every appearance of them was great. It's as if the writers have a bias for this line, but I'm not against that.

The Luxray-line would be dangerous like any other animal. Imagine a lion, but with X-Ray vision. Yikes! You wouldn't want to mess with a pride of Shinx, Luxio, and Luxray.

If I could change anything, it would be the Speed. As mentioned before, base 70 is way too low for my tastes, yet it's too fast for a Trick Room team.

Yes, there should be more varied early-game creatures. It's a lot more fun. I loved getting Poochyena early. I loved getting Shinx early. I'm not too big on any of the early rodents, bugs, and birds with the exceptions of Zigzagoon and Bunnelby.

As long as they have moves and abilities to compensate for going against typical standards, than I'm fine with changes like this. When they first came out in Gen IV, the Luxray-line didn't have Wild Charge to really take advantage of their STAB attacks. There's really nothing I can think of in terms of taking advantage of that base 70 Speed. Too slow for normal use, too high for Trick Room. Not a fan of that, but I am a fan of Luxray and family.

Stratelier · May 28, 2018

The whole Shinx family is one of the few Sinnoh-native Pokemon I actually like. Shinx is cute and Luxray is cool, even if their designs aren't as lion-based as the Pyroar family. Ice Fang is a great move for extra type coverage (literally every type that resists Electric, save itself, is weak to Ice) and Charge is good to shore up its somewhat weak Sp.Def while comboing straight into a massive Electric attack. I haven't tried using Volt Switch on this critter (owing to how difficult they are to find after Gen 4) but it would definitely pair well with Intimidate.

I chose a Shinx for my partner in Explorers of Sky, and it felt like a great choice.

Zeb · May 28, 2018

One of the few original Gen 4 designs (meaning not related to previous Gen Pokemon) that's actually decent. Good how early you can get them too, since it's something you can pick up nice and early that pulls its weight through the entire game. Other than that, I've kinda waned with my opinion on them over the years.

I do wish they had made it a bit faster though. Good physical Electric types are few and far between, and with Guts and its strong coverage like Superpower and Facade, Luxray had potential to be one of the better ones. Wild Charge kinda sucks as the best physical Electric move though - compare it to Flare Blitz and it's just plain worse. Maybe Zing Zap will get more distribution so it doesn't have to use a recoil move, but the name makes me think it's unlikely for Luxray.

Also the "Luxray should be part Dark" meme is really boring.

Camille · May 28, 2018

Shinx is adorable and Luxray is a beast, but Luxio's design leaves much to be desired. I do like its perpetually frowning expression, though. Intimidate is very useful, if boring, and Guts is helpful, too, since burn is normally a crippling status condition for physical attackers. Luxray's movepool is solid, but it is a bit slow to really deal damage. I've never used it during the main storyline, since its level-up moves aren't that good, sadly. I think it should definitely have higher base Speed, but otherwise, it is fine.

Zexy · May 28, 2018

Do you like or dislike this Pokémon? Why?
Like. Nice design, early availability, strong enough.
How is this Pokémon in-game?
Pretty cool. Early availability, has some nice coverage, is strong enough by late-game. A fine Electric-type option for the Sinnoh games.
How is this Pokémon in competitive play? Are there any interesting strategies you like to use for them?
Haven't tried it out.
Do you like this Pokémon's representation in the anime? Are there any moments or qualities in particular you enjoy/dislike?
Clemont's Luxray is awesome.
How do you think this Pokémon would interact with our world?
People would probably like it, it's a nice Pokemon. Perhaps some would be afraid of its electric powers, however.
If given the power to, would you change anything about this Pokémon and if so, what would you change?
Electric/Dark typing, slightly better stats, maybe some other Ability in the mix...
Should there be more varied early-game creatures, aside from the standard "early-game rodent", "early-game bird" and "early-game bug"?
Sure, it only makes things more interesting!
What's your opinion about Pokémon who break the mold by going against their typical type standards (i.e., a slow Electric-type Pokémon or a Psychic-type with great physical attack)?
It can be great if done nicely.

POTW Pokémon of the Week #90: Shinx, Luxio & Luxray

More options

Cresselia92

Just Your Average Writer

ocelotlrama jaguar

Fluffy with 80% more spots!

Stratelier

Well-Known Member

Zeb

what is your spaghetti policy here?

Camille

Call of Fate

Zexy

Quaxly Boy

Similar threads