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The Cheapness of Celebi

As most of you will now know, Celebi is not generally allowed in battles on Pokémon Battle Simulators, like the GSBot, or in Link Cable or Stadium battles against other players.

However we're going to look at why this extremely powerful Pokémon are generally considered to be "cheap". First of all lets take a look at their base stats, in comparsion to similar Pokémon.

Celebi's Base stats:

HP: 100

Attack: 100

Defense: 100

Specal Attack: 100

Special Defense: 100

Speed: 100

= 600

Exeggutors Base stats:

HP: 95

Attack: 95

Defense: 85

Special Attack: 125

Special Defense: 65

Speed: 55

= 520

These Two Pokémon are both Grass/Psychic type and they are both used quite a lot in serious competition. Celebi has excellent all-around stats where Exeggutor only beats Celebi in terms of Speical Attack even though it's attack, HP and Defense are really above par in comparisson to other Grass or Psychic types. Let's look at TM compatibility:

Exeggutor's TM Compatibility

Take Down, Double-Edge, Rage, Mega Drain, Teleport, Mimic, Reflect, Bide, Selfdestruct, Egg Bomb, Psywave, Explosion, Substitute (All RBY)

Headbutt, Curse, Rollout, Toxic, Psych Up, Hidden Power, Sunny Day, Snore, Hyper Beam, Protect, Giga Drain, Endure, Frustration, Solarbeam, Return, Psychic, Double Team, Swagger, Sleep Talk, Sludge Bomb, Dream Eater, Rest, Attract, Thief, Nightmare, Strength, Flash (All GSC)

Celebi's TM Compatibility

Curse, Toxic, Psych Up, Hidden Power, Sunny Day, Sweet Scent, Snore, Hyper Beam, Protect, Rain Dance, Giga Drain, Endure, Frustration, Solarbeam, Return, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Mud-Slap, Double Team, Swagger, Sleep Talk, Sandstorm, Swift, Defense Curl, Dream Eater, Detect, Rest, Nightmare, Flash (All GSC)

All in all surprisingly Exeggutor can learn more TM's, because Celebi is not available in RBY. But in terms of GSC TM compatibility Celebi has the upper hand.

But the intelligent mans argument would be that the guys at Gamefreak put Celebi in the game so therefore it can't be cheap. This could be true. Also it's rareness in English games shows that only good, dedicated trainers can get it, and therefore these people should be allowed to use it.

In comparisson to other Super Legendaries it is probably the weakest of the Five. Mewtwo Lugia and Houou all have enormous stat totals, weighing in at 680 each and all have recover. Mew has an equal stat total to Celebi and is as rare as it, but it has complete TM coverage. Although it does not have recover, it can learn softboiled via TM, which is pretty much exactly the same move. So it seems as if Celebi is questionably super legendary.

Another argument which can be put forward is moves that are naturally learnt. Lets

compare Mew and Celebi:

Celebi's Naturally Learnt Moves

Leech Seed (Start), Confusion (Start), Recover (Start), Heal Bell (Start), Safeguard (10), Ancient Power (20), Future Sight (30), Baton Pass (40), Perish Song (50)

Mew's Naturally Learnt Moves

Pound (Start), Transform (10), Mega Punch (20), Metronome (30), Psychic (40), Ancient Power (50)

Level up Moves wise Mew is actually pretty weak. Pound is useless, Transform is Useless albeit very good in terms of novelty, Mega Punch is laughable in comparison to the awesome power of Double-Edge, Metronome is yet again a novelty, Psychic is excellent and Ancient Power is good, but only if you get the boost.

Celebi on the other hand is sheer genious. Leech Seed is useful, Confusion is sucky, Recover is arguably the most useful move in the game, Heal Bell is almost as useful as recover, Safeguard is awesome, Ancient Power as I said earlier is only good when you get the boost, Future Sight is in my opinion sucky, Baton Pass is brilliant and Perish Song, if combined with a Mean Looking Umbreon or Misdreavus, a Whirlpooling Suicune, a Wrap Shuckle or a Fire Spinning Flareon, hell, any good trapper is great.

However Mew's TM compatibility puts it leaps and bounds ahead of Celebi overall, even though Celebi naturally learns better moves than Mew, for example Heal Bell.

However I would like to conclude that Battle rules are very interchangeable, it is really up to the two trainers if Celebi, or any other Super Legendary is allowed in the battle. When it comes to tournament rules in my opinion Super Legendaries ought to be banned not because they are too strong, but because Mewtwo, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Mew and Tyranitar vs Similar or exactly the same teams are very boring in my opinion. But Celebi should be given a serious looking at by tournament organisers, because it unlike its other legendary and super legendary counterparts it is not quite as strong, and certainly not as boring.