If you all haven’t noticed, March is apparently a big month for Pokémon. Pokémon’s PokéBank is dishing out three legendaries (that are normally a headache to get, seriously, you need to know braille…) Regirock, Regice, and of course, Registeel.

Hey there, Oddities! If you all haven’t noticed, March is apparently a big month for Pokémon. There’s the Celebi event for the 20th anniversary, there’s rumors of more information on Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, and now, Pokémon’s PokéBank is dishing out three legendaries (that are normally a headache to get, seriously, you need to know braille…) to anyone who uses Pokémon Bank. Those legendaries are Regirock, Regice, and of course, Registeel.

For those of you who don’t know, or have somehow forgotten, the excruciating process of obtaining them (again, fucking braille!), these three are the trio of the third generation of Pokémon. These three are all single type legendaries that are typed according to their name (it would be weird if Regirock were a fire type).

Now, if you haven’t already read my February article about Mew, there are two things that you need to know. The first thing is that I’m very disappointed in you for not reading my work. The second thing is that you need to go and read it because I’ve got three Pokémon to cover and I can’t waste the limited space I have explaining how natures, EVs, and IVs work and are made perfect. Seriously, it’s essentially an instruction manual on how to have awesome event Pokémon without cheating. Anyways, without further ado (or whatever that French word is….I took German, okay?) let’s get to theory-crafting us some perfection!

I’m going to warn you all again (the first time was in my Mew article and the second time was in my Celebi article) that these builds are not meant for tournament play. If you want that, go to Smogon.com or Serebii.net. I make these builds by looking at professional builds and reworking them for the everyday player. Tournament builds are meant to counter other tournament teams. There are so many divisions that certain Pokémon are or aren’t apart of that these builds just become game theory tools and that’s it. It’s like playing chess, but you have to make the pieces. That, admittedly, sounds cooler than I realized when I started typing it.

Alrighty, let’s start with Regice. Regice is obviously an Ice-type Pokémon. So, off the bat we know to look out for Fire, Fighting, Steel, and Rock-type Pokémon. If you notice, two of those types are the other Regi Pokémon. I always found it odd that they would make one have a huge disadvantage to the other. But you know what? It’s not a disadvantage, it’s a challenge to overcome type match ups and train the better Pokémon. Yeah, how’s that for a half-time locker room speech. I know it was inspirational, but don’t go dumping a Gatorade cooler onto your computer; that would be bad.

Now, looking at Regice’s base stats, certain things are hard to miss. The first thing would be that it has a crippling base Attack and base Speed of 50. The Attack isn’t all that important but having a low speed in a battle against another actual person (not just an NPC) can be pretty brutal. That is, unless you have something crazy like a base Special Defense of 200. Yeah, Special Attackers best beware. Its Defense and Special attack aren’t too impressive, clocking in at 100. Lastly, its HP is a little concerning with a base of 80.

I know that in the other articles, I told you the minimum and maximum of each stat but again, we have three Pokémon to cover. So, if you’re curious about that, check out Serebii or Bulbapedia (they are literally the first links that show up in a google search of any Pokémon).

So, when looking at its stats, we need to determine what role this thing can fit into, as well as how to determine the nature and EV spread. Well, my bestest buddy (I’m better than him at Pokémon no matter how many times he’s beaten me- I just want that on the record) and I are under the impression that Regice can make a fairly decent tank. Now, most people think of the tank role as a slow moving wall that can’t really dish out much damage. Well, this tank is going to be like an old school war tank. It’s going to be a slow moving wall that has a fucking cannon on it. With that being said, we decided to go with a Modest nature in order to boost its special attack some more. Don’t worry about the Attack stat getting crippled even more, we’re not going to be using it.

Knowing that this thing is going to be an armored cannon, it is safe to assume that the EV point spread is going to be straight-forward. We want to have 248 in HP, 252 in Special Attack, and the remaining 8 points in Defense. Now, all you Oddities are probably saying to yourself, “Pokémon Professor Bernbaum (that’s right, it means pear tree, I can work it), why aren’t we utilizing its great Special Defense?” Well, my impressionable trainers that are being sent off into the wilderness alone, with only an animal inside of a ball and a backpack (we should really look into the premise of Pokémon one of these days), Regice’s Special Defense is already so incredible, with a minimum neutral natured stat of 405, that we don’t need to boost it all that much. We always could do that but it creates the potential for a very ineffectual Regice. “But Professor Bernbaum, what about the fact that Rock, Steel, and Fighting types are all primarily physical attackers as well as Regice’s primary weaknesses?” Well, it sounds like you’ve been talking to that hack, Professor Oak. We put the EVs into HP instead of defense, because the defense was already so low that if we put the points into defense we’d only have a defense of 299. Whereas our HP is going to come out as 362. So, in short, stop questioning the guy with the fake Pokémon degree.

Now we’re onto the move-set that this Regice will be implementing. Right off the bat, I can tell you that Ice Beam is too powerful of a move not to use. With the Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) that Regice will receive, as well as the 15% chance to freeze its target, the move is a must.

For move two, we’re going to be taking a look at typing. Remember when you were all questioning my judgement about the types and whatnot, well, here’s the answer. Focus Blast is an obscenely powerful Fighting-type move that is a Special Attack. Fighting is super effective against both Rock and Steel-types. That’s two types down and one to go.

Fire-types are primarily special attackers, so we already have an advantage in defending against them that most Ice type Pokémon don’t have. We could just not deal with Fire-types and throw in a different super powerful move instead. However, I don’t like to do anything without some insurances. So, for move number three, we’re going to go with Ancient Power. It’s a Rock type move that has a 10% chance of boosting all of Regice’s stats. It’s not a super powerful move, but it does cover some type disadvantages that could become an issue. I wish it could learn some powerful Water type move but sadly, the only Water-type Special Attack that it can use would be Hidden Power (if it’s Water). Which, I mean, if your Regice’s Hidden Power is Water, I say go for it.

Finally, we have move number four. In my opinion, this needs to be something for survival. This thing may be an offensive tank, but it’s still a tank. Some people say “go with Thunder Wave” and I can completely understand why they’d say that. Hell, I even agree with them. However, I would personally take a risk and use Psych Up. Psych Up gives Regice any buffs that your opponent’s current Pokémon has. Given that stat boosting has become such a huge part of generation six battling, I’d say that it’s well worth the risk.

The final things we need to think about are the IVs and the items. Honestly, don’t bother trying to get perfect IVs for an event Pokémon. Try to get 31 HP, Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense. Attack and Speed just don’t seem like something Regice is ever going to really need. As for the items, I’d say just go with Leftovers. All of the Regi will be using them. With everything taken care of, your final Regice should look like this at level 100 (with assumed perfect 31 IVs):

Regice

Level 100

Role: Offensive Tank

Nature: Modest

EV Spread: 248 HP, 252 Special Attack, and 8 Defense

Item: Leftovers

Move 1: Ice Beam

Move 2: Ancient Power

Move 3: Focus Blast

Move 4: Psych Up

Final Stats: HP 368, Attack 122, Defense, 238, Special Attack 328, Special Defense 436, and Speed 136.

Now, on to Regirock. Obviously, Regirock is a Rock type. This means that it’s weak to Fighting, Ground, Steel, Water, and Grass types. That’s a lot of weaknesses to deal with. However, Regirock can act a lot like Regice, but it can hit a lot harder.

Regirock’s base stats are almost exactly the same as Regice, except you need to switch some stats around. Instead of 200 Special Defense, it’s 200 Defense. Instead of 100 Special Attack, it’s 100 Attack. Essentially, turn that Ice Pokémon into a Rock Pokémon.

With that being said, our nature and EVs are going to be rather similar too. Now, a lot of sites are telling you to go Impish natured for Defense and boost Regirock’s Special Defense with the EVs. If you want to do that, go for it. However, I feel as though they are spreading their EVs a little thin. This doesn’t mean I don’t learn from other’s example, though. Our HP stat is going to remain at 252. However, our Attack stat is going to be trimmed down. Attack is going to be 132, so that Special Defense can get the remaining 124. I’ve run the numbers and though they do not amaze me, when you throw in an Adamant nature, they are more than sufficient for what we have in store for our big rocky friend (who I have previously nicknamed Balboa on many an occasion).

Before we get to moves, I’m just going to take care of the held item right now and say that it’s Leftovers. I already told you that before. I’m not going to remind you of this on the next one.

Now then, time for the moves. Move number one is an absolute essential. Move number one is Drain Punch. This Fighting-type move is what’s going to keep our big bad monster alive. Drain Punch gives your Pokémon 50% of what it dishes out in the form of health point restoration. Not only that, but Fighting type takes care of our Steel type problem.

The next move is needed, because we’re going to need a monster hit for Regirock to dish out. That’s why I say Regirock needs Stone Edge. It’s a 100 base power Physical Rock type move with a high critical hit rate and an 80% accuracy. If you add that to the STAB bonus that it gets, you’ll realize that you just handed your Pokémon a nuke.

Move number three is a little different than what you’re probably expecting. The third move is going to be a set up move which means that you’re probably going to want to start battles off with Regirock. You’re going to need to give him Stealth Rock. This entry hazard is far too valuable not to use. You may disagree with me there and that’s fine, but you’re wrong. Stealth Rock is a huge check on Flying, Fire, Bug, and Ice types.

Now, move number four is one that I can’t decide on. There are three good options. The first option is Thunder Wave. You’re cutting your opponent’s speed in half and you’re creating a possible stall out turn. There is a logical choice. Then, we have possibility number two, Toxic. Toxic is the poison of poisons. It’s DoT (damage over time) damage that just keeps on coming. It’s hard to say no to Toxic. In fact, just to let all of you Oddities know, my Regirock has Toxic. However, don’t let that dissuade you from option one or option three, which is Explosion. Yeah, Explosion isn’t the most common move out there, I know. However, think about it. What if you’re Regirock is almost fainted, you’ve already set up your Stealth Rock and your opponent’s Pokémon has either a huge defense or rock and fighting types are ineffective against it? Well, a Normal type Physical attack with a base power of 250 and 100% accuracy will tear into the opposing Pokémon regardless of what it is. Yes, you faint one of your own Pokémon but if it’s close to fainting anyways, it may as well do it with a bang.

I’m hoping you all know by now what I’m going to say about IVs. Try to get four perfect IVs. It’s a legendary event so it three to four perfect IVs aren’t going to be that hard to come by. Look at how the Pokémon is built and then decide for yourself what you think it needs. Now then, here is what your Regirock will look like at level 100.

Regirock

Level: 100

Role: Offensive Tank

Nature: Adamant

EV Spread: HP 252, 132 Attack, and 124 Special Defense.

Move 1: Stone Edge

Move 2: Stealth Rock

Move 3: Drain Punch

Move 4: Toxic/Explosion/Thunder Wave

Final Stats (assuming all perfect IV): HP 364, Attack 295, Defense 436, Special Attack, 122, Special Defense 267, and Speed 136.

Mkay, Oddities, I save the best for last. Registeel is obviously a Steel type. If it wasn’t obvious to you, I’m really sorry, but you need some help. This means you’ve got to look out for Fire, Fighting, and Ground types. Now then, Registeel isn’t built like the other Regi Pokémon. Registeel’s base stats are all evened out. Defense and Special Defense are at 150 while Attack and Special Attack are both at 75. This evening of the stats creates many more possibilities for roles as well as how the role is executed. Of course, Speed is still at 50 and HP is still at 80 so it doesn’t change things too much.

At first, I wasn’t sure how to train this particular Pokémon. However, after my bestest buddy pointed out to me that I can do one of my favorite types of builds with it, the same type of build that he hates when I use (it really is super annoying to go up against), I couldn’t resist. With that being said, let’s get started.

Our Registeel is going to be a stall tank with a gradual cannon. In other words, this thing is going to stand firm for many a turn while slowly increasing its power until it’s ready to just wail on your opponent. Knowing this, we have to plan out our nature and EVs carefully in order to make sure that our Registeel will have enough time to build its strength.

First thing’s first, we need to know the nature. Our focus isn’t offensive power, we have something to help us with that later. That being said, we need to know what type of offensive power we are going for in order to not hinder it any more than we need to. Registeel is going to be Physically built which means we don’t need to worry about our Special Attack. So, we can hinder our Special attack but then we have to decide what’s going to be given the buff. We know that it’s not going to be speed and I already said that we’ll handle boosting the Attack stat later, which leaves the two Defenses to decide between. Now, Fire type is our first real hazard and that time is primarily Special Attack. However, Ground and Fighting are both primarily physical. At the same time, Steel types are known to be strong defensively and somewhat weak on the Special Defense game so this is our opportunity to screw with that a little. We are looking between Careful and Impish natures and in all honesty, I’m going to leave this one up to you, my Oddities. Choose at your own discretion. I am going to choose Impish for the sake of this article but don’t let that dissuade you from choosing Careful.

Now, it’s on to the EVs. You have probably already guessed this but just in case you didn’t, I’ll let you know that we are putting 252 into HP. It’s a shocker, I know. Then, we are going to put 130 into whichever stat your nature isn’t buffing. Since I chose Impish, I’m going to put 132 into Special Defense. The remaining 124 is going to be put into whichever stat the nature is buffing, in this case, Defense.

Now, we have to decide on moves. This was not a hard decision for me because the build I normally use requires all of the move slots to be designated a certain way. The first move slot needs to be used for a move that increases your primary offensive stat; for us, this is Attack. Usually I would use Calm Mind but as this is a Physical Pokémon, we need to find something that boosts Registeel’s Attack. I found it disappointing that Registeel cannot learn Bulk Up because that was my go to (especially after I made my Gogoat) and it increased both Defense and Attack. Since this was not available, I went to Power-Up Punch. Though the stat increase to Attack is not as powerful, it does damage. It is miniscule damage, but damage nonetheless. You could use Curse (which increases Attack and Defense but lowers Speed) but the good thing about Power-Up Punch is that you can use Power-Up Punch to determine when you’ve increased your Attack stat enough.

The second move needs to be the offensive move, that starts off as a bullet and, after all of the buffs, becomes a nuke. I know a lot of people would want to go for a STAB move here- I completely understand wanting that. So, if you want to make a Steel type move your nuke, then you can’t go wrong with Iron Head. It’s a good choice, especially with the rising popularity of Fairy types. However, if you’re still worried about those Fire types, going for Rock Slide isn’t a bad choice either. It has the possibility of flinching your target, does damage to both Pokémon in a doubles battle, and has a decent base power of 75. But, if you’re going to go with Curse for your first move, you may as well go Hammer Arm with your second. Hammer Arm is a move that lowers your speed but it has a base power of 100 and a 90% accuracy rating. It’s a Fighting type move, so you won’t be dealing with those pesky Fire types with it, but it’s pretty damn powerful, regardless.

The third and fourth moves are never to be separated. These moves are Rest and Sleep Talk. Rest fully restores your Pokémon’s health, both HP and status infliction. However, it puts you to sleep for three turns. I know most people see the sleep status as three to four turns but I swear when the status is caused by using Rest, it’s only three turns and then you wake up. Then, Sleep Talk will allow you to use a random move amongst from your other three moves (which does mean there is a one in three chance that you’ll use Rest) while affected by the Sleep status ailment.

Now, the reason my bestest buddy hates this so much is because he can never make any progress on fainting whichever Pokémon is employing the tactic. You continually use your Buff, be it Curse or Power-Up Punch. Then, once you are about half way down your health bar (you can wait till longer, but I’m cautious) you use Rest. Bam, you’re at full health. From there, you use Sleep Talk. Sleep Talk will either be ineffective because it chose Rest, will buff your stats, or it will nuke your opponent’s Pokémon with your primary offensive move. Then, after three turns of sleep talk, you use Rest again. You’ll have been taking hits for those three turns with no way of recovering that health other than your held item. This is why you use Rest four turns after its previous use. So, the pattern goes as such: Buff-> Buff-> (until half health) Rest-> Sleep Talk-> Sleep Talk-> Sleep Talk-> Rest. Once you start your Rest cycle, don’t stop it. Not only is this great for dealing with opponents who focus on using poison, burn, or paralysis, but it’s also annoying as hell for normal opponents too.

Now then, here is how your Registeel should look at level 100 (assuming all six IV are perfect):

Registeel

Level: 100

Role: Stall Nuke (sounds like something terrible in a public restroom)

Nature: Impish/Careful

EV Spread (dependent on nature choice): HP 252, Defense 124, and Special Defense 132.

Item: Leftovers

Move 1: Rest

Move 2: Sleep Talk

Move 3: Curse/Power-Up Punch

Move 4: Hammer Arm/Iron Head/ Rockslide

Final Stats (with Impish nature): HP 364, Attack 186, Defense 403, Special Attack 167, Special Defense 369, and Speed 136.

Alrighty, Oddities, that’s all there is on these three Regi Pokémon from me today. I know you’re probably wondering why I specified how many there were. Well, that’s because, if you recall, you need those three Regi Pokémon in order to get the Normal type Regi, Regigigas. I may write about Regigigas in the future (it honestly depends if I can think of anything else or not) but I feel as though the knowledge I’ve given you about these three Regi should be enough to allow you to create an informed decision on how to train your Regigigas.