Pokemon of the Week #13: Mandibuzz

Pokemon of the Week: Mandibuzz, the Bone Vulture Pokemon

Actually good in competitive.

So... Mandibuzz. Mandibuzz is not a Pokemon I'm very fond of, mostly due to its rather unattractive design. Oh, it's not quite as bad as, say, Jynx or Garbodor, and I didn't put Mandibuzz on my top ten least favourite generation five Pokemon list (Mandibuzz's pre-evolution Vullaby is a honourable mention, though) but it's not a Pokemon that I'm full with positive energy towards either.

Mandibuzz gets to actually look a lot better with the modern 3D models in Generation VI and VII where it shows her flying like a bird of prey, but how it looks in the original Black/White games and the anime really make it look like this very chunky bird with random human-looking elements like the bone topknot and the skull skirt and the eyelashes for no good reason. It just felt like they just took a cartoon vulture and just plopped a couple cavewoman fashion sensibilities into it and called it a day. And it's supposed to be a counterpart to Braviary, which, while not a design I particularly like either, at least looked powerful and cool. 

Vullaby and Mandibuzz are also exclusive to Black and Black 2, whereas Rufflet and Braviary are exclusive to White and White 2. They are very rare, only found in like a route or two and as a rare encounter at that, and absolutely no few trainers actually use the two lines, meaning that they're literally nonexistent in my playthrough of White/White 2 and what little I saw of them in like websites or mangas or anime only had me going "oh, these stupid cavewoman vultures". They were also close to nonexistent in XY or ORAS, and finally saw some relevance in Sun/Moon. It's Moon-exclusive, but at least it's used by the Elite Four member Kahili, as well as some trainers in the later part of the game, bringing her from this very obscure and iffy-looking bird from Generation V (where it's competing for attention with so many other Pokemon) to, well, I wouldn't say prominence, but at least it's a lot less obscure than it was before. 

Mandibuzz is also an entirely-female species, a counterpart to Braviary being all-male. Perhaps that's why they all died out? It's like how Tauros is all male and Miltank is all female, yet neither pairs can interbreed (contrast this to Nidoran family and the Volbeat/Illumise species, where the females of these pairs can produce either male or female versions of the pairing). No wonder they are close to being extinct. The recent Sun entries even lampshade this: "[Bone decorations are] supposedly an effort to attract males, but no male Mandibuzz has ever been found." Did all the male Mandibuzz get turned into bone skirts and diapers?

Mandibuzz's dex entries aren't exactly interesting. It basically behaves like a vulture, attacking weak prey and then uses their bones to make a nest, which explains the bone diaper that its stupid-looking pre-evolution has, and the stupid-looking bone-skirt that Mandibuzz herself has. Generation VII added the grisly detail that Mandibuzz's favourite food is Cubone, which I suppose makes sense -- Mandibuzz is a vulture, which preys on weakened animals... and Cubones are both children without parents to protect them, and they have extra bones on their person. But Cubones are cute little buggers! Why must Mandibuzz be such assholes? I guess that's why they're Dark-type.

Which brings us to its stats. Mandibuzz has a base stat total of 510, which isn't bad, being slightly weaker than starter final evolutions. And to become a proper counterpart to Braviary, it means that their stats are switched around. While Braviary is offensive, Mandibuzz has high Defense and Special Defense, and respectable HP. It's very balanced, ever so slightly having a higher physical side than a defensive one, and Dark/Flying isn't the worst typing out there. It's nothing new, with Honchkrow being a more offensive-oriented predecessor, and it's a decent enough defensive typing -- though granted Rock, Electric, Fairy and Ice are all relatively common offensive types.

It's movepool is relatively large, though limited to Dark and Flying types with a smattering of others... in other words, decently wide enough for competitive mucking but not very overpowered. It's got recovery in Roost, it can Defog, it can help set up weather effects (which was the THING in Generation V meta), it can cast Tailwind to buff its buddies, it can Taunt to shut down other stallers, and it can even bounce back with U-Turn. Foul Play allows it to get past its inferior Attack stats while still getting STAB, too. Mandibuzz is an absolutely irritating thing on the battlefield, a menace in the few Wi-Fi and Battle Tower battles I've met her in... it's just that its lack of stats and honestly any kind of offense beyond Foul Play makes her kind of eh.

Her abilities are not spectacular, but not damning either I guess. Overcoat prevents Sandstorm and Hail damage, which might be useful in Wi-Fi battles but not particularly. Big Pecks are eeeeh not the worst ability out there, but hardly relevant. Weak Armor is risky and the speed bonus isn't exactly why you want Mandibuzz in the first place, but I guess maybe you can make it work? I dunno, none of these three really appeal to me.  

I dunno. It's actually pretty good, if irritating, in competitive, the way Klefkis are good in competitive, but I'm not a big fan of it, honestly, design-wise or playstyle-wise. Ken Sugimori, one of the lead art directors in Pokemon, actually notes how Mandibuzz and Vullaby are a last-minute addition to the Generation V games, kind of shoved in and weren't even planned to be counterparts of Braviary... which might explain the relative lack of effort the two designs had.

Before I close it off, let me tell you guys that Mandibuzz's Japanese name is Vulgina. Yes, the origin might be from 'vulture' and 'regina' (queen in Latin), but come on, who's going to think of that instead of the obvious?

Eh, I dunno. I just can't really talk a lot about this thing. Just one of those Pokemon that I don't like is all.