Spiders are objectively cool.
Aside from being venomous, eight legged creatures that can climb on almost any surface, they are also capable of making some quite frankly beautiful webbing!
They are also our friends, eating annoying pests like mosquitoes and flies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGEY8IulWiA
Not to mention, they’re adorable.
So how do you improve upon this objectively amazing animal?
You make this air breathing beast, live underwater.
How would you do that? Why would you do that? Would it evolve gills? Could it go an extended period of time and then breathe on the surface?
Mother Nature is far weirder than that. Check this out.
As you just saw, the Diving Bell Spider lives underwater by effectively making itself an underwater oxygen tank, which also operates as its death trap, which is metal and amazing.
It should come as no surprise then, that the Pokemon this is based on, is equally boss.
Araquanid is the reverse of its real world counterpart. Instead of breathing air and making a bubble to go underwater, it appears to breathe water and make its buble to go on land. Its massive legs with the pointed edges look prepared to inflict massive damage.
Like a certain other bug type I could mention, Araquanid shines most prominently in its defenses. Special defense is fantastic, defense is middling, and every other stat is awful. So why would you ever use it?
It has a decent wall movepool, including Sub, Toxic, Scald, Reflect, and Magic Coat. All standard moves that better water types have access to, without coming with all the extra weaknesses of a bug typing.
Yet the other thing that the bug typing comes with, is access to the move Sticky Web. As an actual spider, it makes more sense for Araquanid to use this move than Shuckle (love him though I do).
This, coupled with Magic Coat, Toxic, and even Sub, make Araquanid a decent lead, being able to set up Sticky Webs on the first turn so that another ‘mon can sweep.
I do mention Sub for one reason. Despite what you’d expect from looking at it, Araquanid forces switches.
I’m sure you’re familiar with the ability Water Absorb, a fantastic ability that allows you to heal your health every time you’re hit by a water type move. Volcanion and Lapras come to mind. It’s one of the better abilities in the game.
Water Bubble is worlds better. As Araquanids unique ability, not only prevents all burns, it halves damage from fire type moves, and doubles Araquanid’s power on any water type moves. That stacks with STAB.
Even with its barely decent physical attack stat, with all that taken into account, Liquidation has an effective base power of 165. With a Z-Move, that will kill almost anything that doesn’t resist it.
That is what makes Araquanid so much fun to use. You send it out first turn and your opponent has no idea if you’re going to murder them or simply set up Webs. It’s an immediate 50/50 with incredibly low risk for you. You could even go the substitute route I recommended so that no matter what they switch into, it was the wrong move.
Araquanid gets decent coverage moves to help it out, Leech Life is good for Pokemon like Slowbro who resist Liquidation, Poison Jab for fairies, and Crunch for any other surprises. However all those moves suffer greatly from no Water Bubble boost.
Araquanid does its best work when it has partners that love its Webs and are able to tear away everything that resists Liquidation.
It’s a team player, but also a team eater. I love playing with it, and I know you will too!
Good luck, and as always, have fun.
Images courtesy of Terminix, Bulbapedia, and Smogon (respectively)
I like Araquanid! Its name is very good and I like its sticky webs. Could you please make one in real life? I will ask you this within the hour.