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#708 - Phantump
Ghost/Grass
A Ghost/Grass Pokemon has been an idea that fans have been wanting from the beginning of the franchise, and the demand for such a Type combination was only increased when Gardenia teased it in Diamond and Pearl. And finally, years later, it arrived in not one but TWO different Generation VI families, our first one being Phantump and Trevenant. Thing about Ghost/Grass is while conceptually it's rather neat, in terms of gameplay it's kind of odd---you got two immunities, a decent about of resistances, but then a lot of weaknesses as well and it's just a really odd Type combination when you get down to it. Anyway Phantump is probably a Pokemon many players will skip over when forming their in-game teams due to the fact it doesn't appear till quite late in the game and evolves through trading, though fortunately if you really want to use the line you can wait a tad bit longer and just catch its evolution in-game which was a nice thing for Game Freak to do to make up for giving it the most annoying evolution method.
Phantump is quite a slow Pokemon, but specializes in Attack and Special Defense---that's kind of a combination you don't see too often, right? It takes it awhile before it will start picking up its greatest STAB moves such as Wood Hammer and the new Phantom Force, basically a Ghost-type Fly/Dig, but by the time you catch one you should have plenty of TMs to use on it till you get to those levels. In terms of Abilities in-game you'll get either Natural Cure and Frisk, with the former being the obvious choice since so few in-game opponents use items outside of the Battle Facilities which you'll probably tackle with post-game bred Pokemon anyway. It also gets its own Signature Move known as Forest's Curse, a Grass-type move that adds the Grass-type to the target and, yes, this means you can make a Pokemon triple-typed! But you can't add it to a Grass-type Pokemon and make them a double Grass-type, but otherwise everything's fair game---Grass comes with a lot of additional weaknesses (using this on Kyurem will totally fuck it over with a total of ten weaknesses!) so you can make an opponent quite vulnerable with this move, but the fact you need to waste a turn setting it up and the opponent can simply switch out of it means it's quite situational and probably not worth bothering with. Maybe one day someone will come up with a crazy Forest's Curse strategy but for now it's simply a novelty.
When designing Generation VI there was one thing that Sugimori and Masuda realized Pokemon had been missing---dead children. Phantump is said to be a rotten stump possessed by a spirit and not just any spirit, the spirit of children who died while lost in the woods. Now technically the PokeDex mentions it's just an "old tale", but it's still rather surprising Game Freak, and the English localization, didn't pull any punches here in the description and just flat out mentioned dead children. Phantump appears to be based on the kodama, a Japanese spirit believed to inhabit trees---though the actual kodama isn't the spirit of a dead child, or even a human spirit, but rather simply a nature spirit that inhabits the trees as its physical location. Though there are stories of kodama taking on the appearance of animals, including humans, usually they're simply sacred trees marked with a "shimenawa" rope to ensure that people don't cut them down lest suffer a curse. There's really no agreed upon look of the kodama for Game Freak to use, though the appearance of them in Princess Mononoke is pretty iconic, so Phantump is just a stump with a ghost popping out. But it's a cute design, has a neat lore, and a unique Type so it's a nice little Pokemon even if they played the design safe.
In every series of the anime Ash has always obtained a Grass-type Pokemon, but unlike his Water and Fire-type Pokemon which have been various Pokemon like Buizel and Torkoal his Grass-type was always the Starter---so when Chespin went to Clemont in XY fans figured that Ash's Grass-type this time around would be a non-Starter Pokemon, and Phantump I recall being quite a popular choice. So when it finally got a focus episode in XY&Z, right before the Kalos League where Ash would assuredly need six Pokemon to compete with, fans were pretty hopeful---only to have their hopes dashed as the episode ended up being a simple filler to give us a bit of a break from all the Ash-Greninja episodes. The episode's mainly focused on Bonnie who befriends a Shiny Phantump and introduces it to the wonders of the world outside its forest while Team Rocket, rocking Ralts-family themed costumes for some reason, attempt to capture it for themselves. It's nothing too special but has some cute moments. Anyway Phantump are never said to be the ghost of dead children directly here, instead they make noises that sound like children laughing---so if the "dead children" thing is still true in the anime, this actually adds a creepier layer to it.
#709 - Trevenant
Ghost/Grass
For whatever reasons Phantump is a Trade Evolution, but unusually for such a Pokemon Trevenant can actually be captured later in Kalos around the 8th Gym in the Winding Woods if you want to use one and don't have anyone to trade with. It's actually the first Trade-based Evolution available for capture in its debut which is pretty cool, and makes me wonder why they felt a Trade-based Evolution was even necessary in the first place. In terms of learning moves there's no downside really to evolving Phantump as soon as possible if you're able because the only downside to Trevenant is picking up Horn Leech at a slightly later level naturally, but it also learns the move at Level 1 so you can actually teach it to it quicker through the Move Reminder---and exclusive to it it'll pick up Shadow Claw too though that's an easy-to-find TM in Kalos if you explore the Glittering Cave. Either way the stat boost is needed so trade away!
Competitively Trevenant is a fairly unique Pokemon thanks to its Typing that means it can serve as a spinblocker, can't be trapped, and is resistant to all powder and spore moves and being a great counter to the threat of Scald thanks to Natural Cure, plus it's a rare Physical Ghost with nice Attack and moves at its disposal. Unfortunately it's very slow and as fragile as a twig which isn't good considering how many weaknesses it has so it has a lot of competition from more popular Grass-type Pokemon pushing it down to the lower tiers. As I've said before, perhaps there's some hidden merit to Forest's Curse that will only become apparent in Gen VII where it can be combined with some new Pokemon or Ability to create an unstoppable combo, but for now poor Trevenant will find itself getting cut down before it gets a chance to really do any damage.
Trevenant was revealed long before Phantump in a trailer for X&Y that aired after the Genesect film in Japanese theaters, and due to how harsh the laws apparently are in Japan when it comes to snapping cellphone pics in theaters everyone else had to wait a few days to see what the Pokemon actually looked like, until then it was quite fun seeing how different members of the fandom described and sketched it out. We knew for sure it was a Pokemon based on a tree, but beyond that we were in the dark about everything else---and even when the trailer became available globally online The Pokemon Company were pretty quiet about Trevenant and it was even later before it was officially revealed including its Type and localized name, most people guessed Ghost/Grass (or Grass/Ghost) but Dark/Grass and even Bug/Grass, since it seemed spider-like, were also popular choices.
Ever since Sudowoodo I've been wanting a Pokemon simply based on a tree---I mean it's such a common staple in fantasy games, a living tree, that Game Freak were actually pretty unique in holding off on one and giving us a fake tree Pokemon years before the real thing! I'm glad they finally gave in and Trevenant is a pretty nifty design, a cool take on the haunted tree. According to lore Trevenant basically can control an entire forest with its roots and while it's amiable towards Pokemon, some implied to live on Trevenant even, it will trap humans who harm its home forever---and one wonders if it's responsible for those children getting lost in the woods and turning into Phantump. In a neat mix of lore and gameplay they're found in the Lost Woods-style Winding Woods, perhaps partially responsible for the labyrinthine nature of Route 20. Oh, and Sudowoodo hanging out in Trevenant Hordes? Brilliant!
Trevenant's design is a bit more intricate than Phantump, and various parts of its design may have a deeper meaning. Though it isn't as obvious as male Pyroar's mane, and may be reaching, some have noted its body shape is somewhat similar to the Japanese kanji symbol for tree, "木". The cyclops eyes, while making it look like another Pokemon inspired by the Zeon Empire aesthetic, link it to the Yamawarawa, another type of Japanese nature spirit which often take the appearance of one-eyed hairy boys though beyond the eye the traits of the Yamawarawa are rather different from Trevenant and the kodama, in fact it's been said they're a type of kappa that head to the mountains during the winter months when the lakes and rivers freeze. Finally the markings on its torso resemble the design of the previously mentioned "shimenawa" rope wrapped around kodama, though I don't quite see it myself. Regardless of the deeper elements of the design on the surface it's a pretty creepy looking dude and also has an eye-catching and thematically appropriate Shiny.
Even though people wanted this line for Ash, I always thought this would've made a perfect Pokemon for James---and it would've worked nicely with Jessie getting the other Ghost/Grass Pokemon, but it wasn't to be. Instead Trevenant got an early semi-filler episode, I say semi-filler because while nothing major happened Froakie learned Cut, which despite being such a common move in the games has been used rather neatly by the line in the show, and also formed a fun bond with Hawlucha as the two learned to combine their attacks. Plus it gave us the great shot of Hawlucha wearing Ash's hat which always cracks me up for some reason. Anyway, in this episode Trevenant "kidnapped" Ash causing Froakie and Hawlucha to come to his rescue, but in reality it just wanted Ash to help it free a Bonsly and Sudoowodo from a net that Team Rocket had set. Trevenant seems pretty strong though so one wonders why it needed Ash's help. Also this was one of those episodes where they suddenly remember game rules and began to point out Ghost's resistance to Fighting-type attacks, though XY has been a bit "better" with this in general.
