#521 - Unfezant

                                    

                                          
Unfezant is what many fans consider to be the worst early game bird, but honestly, I have a soft spot for this pokémon. 
Don't misunderstand me, I don't absolutely love Unfezant, I just like it a considerable amount. 
Now, this may be a controversial thing to say, but in terms of design, I like Unfezant more than the likes of Noctowl, Swellow, and Corviknight, but not as much as Staraptor, Toucannon, Pidgeot, Fearow, and Talonflame. 
Unfezant follows the design philosophy of simple but cool.
It's just a regular bird, and there's nothing wrong with that in my opinion. 
Something relatively unique about Unfezant's design that I really like is that it's sexually dimorphic. 
If you don't know what that means, allow me to explain.
Sexual dimorphism is when both genders of the same species of animal look different from each other. 
An example of this in real life would be the black widow spider, where the males are much smaller than the females and are more diverse in color while the female is bigger, black, and has the red hourglass that we're all familiar with. 
As for Unfezant, the males have a green coloration on their stomach along with wearing a reddish pink mask over his face whereas the females have a brown stomach and lack the aforementioned mask. 
I like both designs of Unfezant, but the male is definitely my favorite of the two because of how cool that mask is to me.
Stat wise, Unfezant has 115 base attack, 80 base defense, 65 base special attack, 55 base special defense, and 93 base speed. 
(Much like other sexually dimorphic pokémon like Meowstic and Pyroar, Unfezant's stats are the same no matter which gender it is, making the gender differences purely a cosmetic thing.)
Unfezant's stats are pretty much what you'd expect from an early game normal/flying type, that being high attack, decent speed, and poor special stats. 
Those things aren't necessarily bad mind you, but they just help cement the opinion a lot of plays have about Unfezant being a rather lackluster bird pokémon.
As for moves, Unfezant doesn't get any interesting coverage other than U-Turn and Steel Wing, which are both pretty standard for flying types. 
The only other attacking move it can learn that isn't flying or normal is Heat Wave, which is a special attack, and Unfezant has an awful base 55 special attack stat, making Heat Wave pretty useless to have. 
On a brighter note though, Unfezant does get some pretty cool status moves like Detect, Agility, Work Up, Defog (Egg Move), Wish (Egg Move), and Hypnosis (Egg Move). 
Moving on to abilities, the two Unfezant can have normally are Super Luck and Big Pecks.
Starting off with Big Pecks, it makes Unfezant immune to defense lowering effects. 
Despite being a worse version of Clear Body, having any kind of immunity to stat reduction will never be bad in my eyes, so I'll just go ahead and say that Big Pecks is a pretty useful ability. 
Super Luck however, is the far superior ability in my opinion. 
Being an ability also found on my beloved Honchkrow, Super Luck increases the chance of Unfezant landing a critical hit by one stage. 
Critical hits are absolute hell when used against you (especially in a nuzlocke), but are incredibly awesome when your pokémon manages to get one, so of course I think Super Luck is an amazing ability. 
As for the hidden ability, Unfezant gets Rivalry. 
Rivalry gives Unfezant a 25% boost to its attacking stats if your opponent's pokémon is of the same gender, but decreases its physical and special attack by 25% if Unfezant is the opposite gender of its opponent.
While Rivalry is an interesting ability in concept, I feel it's reliance on what gender the opponent's pokémon is can be too situational to be all that useful, especially compared to how good Super Luck is (and Big Pecks as well). 
Of these three abilities, I feel that Super Luck is the best, with Big Pecks being a solid second option. 
Besides the whole sexual dimorphism thing, Unfezant is different from its normal/flying type ilk in other ways too.
First off, you can't even encounter Pidove until after beating the first gym, which is very weird for an early game bird. 
Secondly, Pidove doesn't evolve into Tranquil until level 21, the highest evolution level requirement for a three stage normal/flying type since Pidgeotto in gen 1. 
(That just goes to show how ridiculous gen 5 evolution levels are, but at least it isn't nearly as bad as some other pokémon from Unova.) 
I myself have used both genders of Unfezant quite a few times in the Generation 5 games, and while they aren't as fun to use as other bird pokémon like Staraptor and Toucannon, I never found myself hating Unfezant like some players. 
Unfezant may not be the best normal/flying type out there, and has a movepool more shallow than a puddle of water near a bus stop, but I can't help but like this pokémon both because of its sexual dimorphism, and how incredible Super Luck is.