Type of the Month: Normal
History:
In Generation I, there were a mediocre amount of Normal-type pokémon.
There were sixteen pure Normal-types and eight that shared Flying. They weren't
that powerful, but some Pokémon, like Chansey and Snorlax, were huge
threats in the Competitive battling. Chansey could take Special damage while
Snorlax could take damage from major Pokémon like Alakazam and beat it
up using Body Slam. Tauros also was a shining aspect in Competitive as it could
hit hard with Body Slam and Hyper Beam, faster than most Pokémon, and
could possibly OHKO weak defensive Pokémon. Outside of Competitive, they
were alright as well. Eevee has a lot of fame by evolving into three other Pokémon
at that time, but Ditto and Porgyon were odd Pokémon that could become
pretty powerful if used correctly. Overall, Normal-types were pretty average
in this generation.
Generation II was also an alright Generation. They had some Pokémon
that appeared and shined, like Blissey who could take more Sp. Attack offense
and Smeargle that could learn any move with Sketch. Porygon2 was, like its pre-evolution,
a weird Pokémon. It had a balanced stats aside from Speed, but it could
learn Recover, Curse, and Return; moves that made it very dangerous if you did
not have a Fighting-type.
Generation III was a Generation that wasn't implied for Normal-types. They
introduced Slaking, who had the second highest Attack at the time, and Swellow
was pretty dangerous in OU as Hidden Power was a Physical move at the time.
Yawn was a move that could either force the opponent either switch or make the
Pokémon sleep. Generation III wasn't a huge success for Normal-types.
Generation IV was a slight improvement for Normal-types. They introduced
an evolution for Porygon2 that shared the Sp. Attack stat with Alakazam, so
they had the most Sp. Attack stat outside of Legendaries. Regigigas had a monstrous
Attack stat, but with its ability, it made it practically useless. Togekiss
and the famous Bidoof were introduced as well, along with the God of Pokémon:
Arceus.
Statistics:
Overall, Normal-types are average. They have fast Pokémon (Swellow),
powerful Pokémon (Slaking and Porygon-Z), defensive Pokémon (Blissey
and Miltank), and some are at the top with most HP (Blissey). They only have
one weakness and they have one immunity, and their offense can be powerful as
only two resist and one is immune. Normal-types countered their weakness since
the Generation began as they shared Flying in some of their types, but they
also introduced a Normal/Psychic. Some of their Pokémon have a "twist"
to them, such as Ditto or Smeargle. Therefore, the Normal-type can be thought
of as a "default" type.
Conclusion:
Normal-types are very average in stats and they have a huge amount of moves
that are also Normal. They have one weakness, but it's easily countered with
very little thinking. They have no Pokémon that are double weak to a
certain type. Overall, I can honestly say you should have one in your team,
despite that they are not super effective against any Pokémon.
Trivia:
Here's some trivia concerning Normal-types:
There are currently 152 Normal-type moves, the most of any other type.
There's ten Normal-type attacks that have more than or equal to 100 base power.
Bibarel is the only Normal dual-type who has a weakness to Fighting-type moves.
Three Normal-type Pokémon evolve into Water-type Pokémon: Eevee,
Azuril, and Bidoof.
There are currently five languages that also have it called 'Normal': English,
Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, and Spanish.
