Pokémon Sword & Shield Surprise Trade Week 55: Emolga
4For this week's Surprise Trade, it will be Emolga, the Gen 5 Pikachu clone, which has the rare typing of Electric/Flying. When breeding for Pokémon, I usually go for 31 IVs in at least 4 or 5 stats, and these Emolga have a Timid Nature, as Speed is its best stat, and even if it has equal Attack and Special Attack, I find Emolga has better Special Attack, even though it doesn't get too many good moves, and most of which have Motor Drive, that is Emolga's Hidden Ability, and probably the best Ability you will want on Emolga.
For Egg Moves, the moves I went for those ones are Shock Wave, Roost, Tickle, and Defog, it does also get Covet and Astonish, but I found the four moves to be the best ones to go with. I will list which parents in the Field Egg Group that can learn those moves.
Astonish: Diglett, A-Diglett, Dugtrio, A-Dugtrio, Seedot, Nuzleaf, Shiftry, Whismur, Loudred, Exploud, Mawile, Wailmer, Wailord
Covet: Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon, Umbreon, Zigzagoon, Linoone, Leafeon, Glaceon, Espurr, Meowstic, Sylveon, Greedent
Defog: G-Farfetch'd, Sirfetch'd
Roost: Dunsparce
Shock Wave: Electrike, Manectric
Tickle: Minccino, Cinccino
Outside of Astonish and Covet, not too many Pokémon in Emolga's Egg Group can learn those moves, so they are limited to one evolution line, unless you Chain Breed for some moves.
Emolga can be retaught Nuzzle through the Move Reminder, and for its level up moves, it can learn Double Team, Thunder Shock, Quick Attack, Charge, Acrobatics, Spark, Encore, Volt Switch, Light Screen, Discharge, and Agility.
For TM and TR moves, starting with TMs, it can get Solar Beam, Thunder Wave, Charm, Attract, Helping Hand, Swift, U-turn, Speed Swap, Electroweb, Eerie Impulse, Air Slash, and a few other moves. For TRs, it can learn Thunderbolt, Thunder, Baton Pass, Iron Tail, Endure, Substitute, Energy Ball, Electro Ball, Wild Charge, and Taunt, so that is not many moves Emolga can get, and it can get Rising Voltage and Dual Wingbeat for Tutor moves.
Emolga is not that viable for competitive battling, and if even Electivire is in the lowest tier, then there is not much hope for Emolga. The best thing Emolga can do is use Nuzzle and lower stats with Charm and Eerie Impulse, and it does get some decent Special moves, like Air Slash, Volt Switch, and Energy Ball, so it is at least decent enough. It has the same type combo as Zapdos and Thundurus, and these two are way better options than Emolga, and even Fan Rotom is better, despite having a redundant Ability.
That is Single Battles out of the way, there is not much reason to take Emolga over Zapdos, and as far as Electric-type Pokémon work in online battles, Regieleki, Tapu Koko, Magnezone, Dracozolt, and most of the Rotom forms are better choices, and while Motor Drive is a good Ability for Emolga, it is outclassed by Electivire, as it also gets Motor Drive.
Emolga isn't much better in Double Battles, but there can be a way to make it work, if it has a teammate like Tapu Koko that has Discharge and a Choice Scarf, it can activate Emolga's Speed through Motor Drive, and Emolga can use Electroweb to slow down its opponents. It is also one of few Pokémon to learn Speed Swap, as Emolga has fairly good Speed, but it is overshadowed by Ribombee and Pheromosa for Speed Swap users. There is not much reason to use Emolga in Double Battles, when Electivire also gets Motor Drive, and it has the movepool that Emolga doesn't.
As for Electric-type Pokémon that see a lot of use in Double Battles, there is literally no reason to take Emolga over better options, like Zapdos, Regieleki, Tapu Koko, Thundurus, or Raikou, and if you don't like using Legendary Pokémon, it is outclassed by Raichu, Togedemaru, Dracozolt, Toxtricity, Magnezone, and the Rotom forms.
While it is a decent Pokémon, Emolga is unviable for competitive battling, and it's even worse when Electivire is in the lowest tier according to Smogon. The only Pikachu clone that even has viability is Togedemaru, and that thing is in PU, the lowest actual tier, all the other Pikachu clones have no viability in competitive battling. After how many people expected Emolga to be an evolution of Pachirisu when it first revealed, it does not stand out well in battle, and even Pachirisu had its moments, specially in one VGC Tournament back in Gen 6 where Pachirisu was on the winning team, and Togedemaru has seen usage in VGC Tournaments during Gen 7, so I don't expect to see anyone using Emolga in Tournaments.
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