Spotlight Saturday: Cradily

Source: veekun.com

Cradily is probably the one of the most underrated and forgotten pokemon out there. It holds a special place in my heart, for a couple of reasons, but I’ll get into that later. First off, Cradily is the final evolved form of Lileep, one of the fossil pokemon in the Hoenn region. She also has the exclusive Rock/Grass combination, and despite both types having a large sum of weaknesses, she actually is very bulky. Don’t believe me? Check out Cradily’s Smogon page. Don’t let that Never Used mark fool ya, as she’s a feisty pokemon with Defense and Special Defense through the roof.

Source: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net

Remember how I said Cradily is a very forgotten pokemon? Well, she’s only had ONE major appearance in the TV series. That was in the episode Where’s Armaldo where all of the fossil pokemon were resurrected and lived on Wales Island. The group was scared several times by the Cradily, because of their creepy faces! It was because of these Cradily that the gang met the island professor, Professor Proctor.

Source: pokemondb.net

The only Cradily I ever used was in a Double Battle Sunny Day team. She was named Laquandra, because it kinda looked like she had a weave for her tentacles (I kid you not, I really did.) Anyways, she was a pretty good defender, with her handy ability Storm Drain, all water attacks just wouldn’t work. I prefer to think she was the jack-of-all trades yet always on the down low of that team. She did a lot of attacking, defending, and set-upping with her move set of: Stealth Rock, Sludge Bomb, Energy Ball, and Barrier. And yes indeed, Laquandra was a tough nut to crack!

Source: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net

Cradily is based off of an ancient plant-like creature called Sea Lilies. They look remarkable similar from artist depictions compared to her, so it would make sense. However, she could also be based off of crinoids or sea anemones because of the fact it anchors itself to the sea floor or on rocks and such. Cradily’s name comes from “cradle” because of the fact it’s bottom cradles the top part of it’s body, and “lily” further strengthening it’s connections with Sea Lilies.