4th Gen The Lake Guardians

[Aslan]

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Sinnoh is famously known for the truckload of legendaries in the region. Amongst them are eerie beasts, creatures that can control various aspects such as time, some living in volcanoes while others in a soft, calm meadow. They were all over the place and everywhere you looked, they popped out everywhere. One of the various trios in D/P/Pt, was the Lake Guardians which was made up of Uxie, Mespirit and Azelf. They resembled three characteristics and made several appearances within the game, the first with Mespirit when you and your rival explore Lake Verity in Platinum.

They're also seen to be chased by Team Galactic quite a bit, as they are wanted for their power, their strength, to open up the Distorion World for the cruel commander, Cyrus. After all the chaos has ended, which you the player help to do, the Guardians return to their lakes except for Mespirit who begins roaming the region, you can finally engage with them in battle and catch them.

All of them have fairly similar stats and all are psychic types. They have some tricky moves up their sleeves (well they don't have sleeves but you get the idea!), along with other various strategies. So what did you think of them in general? Was the storyline behind them good? What could of been improved? Would you of liked them to be higher levelled, a different typing etc.? And without further ado discuss!

 

[curiousnathan]

These were the first 4th Gen legendaries I saw when Gen IV first was released and I instantly fell in love with them. They're not super strong, but that can prove to be formidable opponents competitively (Azelf more so). The one thing I love the most and probably most out of all the Sinnoh legendaries, is their battle music. It's whimsical, epic, dramatic; everything I'd expect a battle would be battling against them.

 

[Shadow Libra]

If anything needed to be improved it'd be
There moves or ability what type of legends
Don't have a custom move or ability.

There good pokemon overall but no custom
Move is unfair.

 

[Sydian]

If anything needed to be improved it'd be
There moves or ability what type of legends
Don't have a custom move or ability.

It should be noted that Mewtwo did not have a signature move until generation V, which is obviously not the generation it was introduced. Kyogre and Groudon now share their respective abilities with Dream World Politoed and Ninetales. Just because a legendary doesn't have moves or abilities only specific to itself doesn't make it any less of a legend. A legendary requires a story to make it legendary, and the trio has a story. You don't need brute strength or to be in the uber tier to be legendary either.

Back to these three, I never quite cared for their designs because they look too similar, and I didn't like them all being Psychic either. And even their shiny designs are bland. iirc, they're all orange colored. Bleh! But their involvement with the story was relevant and really fit well with Sinnoh's theme of legends and mythology. Mesprit and Azelf look good and they're alright, nothing that stand out to me, but I really like Uxie. I used it on my first "competitive" team. I use that term really loosely though, lol. But it always did well for me and it's my second favorite Sinnoh legendary, only behind Darkrai. Uxie is a bit frightening though, isn't it? If it looks you in the eyes with its own, you lose your memories, which I remember happening to someone in PMD Darkness. Crazy stuff!

Oh and my first Lv. X card was...

 

[Correspondence]

The story behind them was definitely interesting.Though they are somewhat useful in competitive battling I would've liked if they were different types.

 

[Warship]

well i like how their lakes form a triangle that has spear pillar as its center and their story is cool too i actually like them :)

 

[PlatinumDude]

Azelf is my favorite out of the three lake guardians because of its offensive-oriented approach in battle. But I never used any of them in my final teams.

 

[Sirfetch’d]

I really liked these guys especially Azelf who always found a spot on my team because it is the strongest and most useful out of the 3. Uxie is also really good because of its nice bulk. Mesprit is my least favorite out of the 3, but I still like it and will use it occasionally.

 

[Soile]

Funny enough, IV was the gen with the most legendaries and also the fewest legendaries I've liked.

Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit are pretty much the only legendaries I liked. I don't know why really. I don't battle with legendaries, they're just psychic pokes, and they're not exactly unique. I guess I like the old legendary formula over the "huge, metallic, dragon-things" formula.

 

[Golden Warrior]

Hm... I liked the trio, but not as much as any other trio up to that generation. Azelf had a huge spot on my team and was eventually one of my main power houses. Now for some reason Uxie was amazingly hard to catch. It was easy to get his HP down but... he'd just never stay in that Ultra Ball... As for Mespirit, it was really never used by me after I caught it. Set to rot away in the box with the other legendary Pokemon... ah well...

 

[Hikamaru]

The Lake Guardians are among my fave Legendary Pokemon ever, they all look so cute and make great additions to your team thanks to their good movepools. Azelf is definitely the best of the bunch because he has access to Nasty Plot right after you catch it and it gives a nice buff to its already high Special Attack.

I never used any of the three in my team but I do know Azelf is my fave for being an offensive sweeper and also he's BLUE!

 

[Treecko]

While they're far from my favorite legendary trio, I really like them. They were really flitting to the story of Sinnoh and their involvement was great. I have never really used them in battle though so I can't really say anything but how good they are. Though my favorite'd Azelf because I really like it's design. My least favorite's gotta be Mespirit mainly because it was so hard for me to catch in Diamond. >.> I was chasing it around for almost a month and it took over 100 Ultra Balls to catch it.

 

[Aslan]

Oh ouch 100 Ultra Balls, Mespirit is a pain to catch I must admit. I think Mespirit was my least favourite as well, it's design seemed awful compared to the other two and it's main colours pink and grey didn't combine together well at all. It's moves seemed also worse then the other two and I don't really like anything that much about it. I like the concept of it wandering Sinnoh though, always travelling from place to place making it more of a challenge and satisfaction feeling when you finally catch it. n_n

 

[Pokemanz]

I never appreciated the lake guardian ("midgets") and always wondered, "why should I catch one"

It could be because of the reason I don't really like diamond/pearl/platinum version or the fact that they look kinda weird compared to the bird or dog legendaries.

 

[Elaitenstile]

Eh, I wasn't so impressed by them at first, then I caught them all and thought, "not too bad for a mini-legendary". But the thing was I was so damn tired seeing Psychics everywhere; Mesprit, Azelf, Uxie, Latias, Latios, Cresselia, Mew, Mewtwo, Jirachi, Celebi. It was an overdo, and I was hopeful at first that they may be Water types since they were guardians of lakes, so I put in Luxray first, waste of time xD. Anyway, their level is good enough, but that ruffian Mespirit shoulda been 90 for the trouble it gave me.

I thought they'd be better off having their own special second type, each one's different. Also they coulda gotten a fairly better movepool and stats... xD.

 

[Sableye~]

I'm not exactly a fan of the lake guardians. They were difficult to catch (from what I remember) and the fact that they all are Psychic type means it would be a poor choice (in my opinion) to use more than one in the same team. I also am just not a big fan of Psychic types in general, though.

 

[Palkia]

I always disliked this trio, as I felt they were better as a single Pokemon. My main issue is that they are different enough from each other. They all have the same typing, just different haircuts.

Plus, I always found them annoying to capture, especially Mespirt (moar like MEHspirt am I right lol). Roaming Pokemon can go slap themselves.

 

[Nihilego]

Ach I liked them, although I was less keen on Mesprit than the others. I've a huge habit of always looking at Pokémon in at least a semi-competitive way and it just seemed like it always got totally ruined by the others. Indeed, Azelf's attacking prowess made it absurdly broken and with Nasty Plot behind it able to more or less sweep the entire game. But they were all pretty fun to use, especially Uxie since it was able to do quite a lot. Mesprit too, to an extent, but less so than Uxie and Azelf, as I mentioned.

I was, however, very bothered by how we had yet more Psychic legendaries. It seemed sorta lazy and uninventive to me (almost as bad as the Genies in B/W, and at least they had different types) and they seemed almost like they'd been chucked into the storyline just because we needed an excuse for them to be there, which... we didn't really. They didn't have to directly tie into the story at all and I'd have much rather have had that than what we actually got which seemed a wee bit nonsensical and messy to me... although I suppose that, execution aside, they were pretty important. But then I cycle back to my point of how uninventive they are and, given their key roles in the storyline, how much more effort I feel could've been put into them. Yeah idk I'm a hard guy to please, I suppose.

I... also didn't like how Mesprit was roaming when post-game we have Cresselia come along to ruin it in more or less every way imaginable, haha. Also am I correct in thinking that they all had Levitate as their ability, as did Cresselia, or is that totally wrong? Because if I'm right then... damn. Not cool, guys. B(

 

[TwilightBlade]

They do all have Levitate, which is a common yet uninteresting ability for legendary Pokemon. The pixie trio should have had signature moves or signature abilities. Although their legend and dex history stated that Azelf represents willpower, Uxie represents knowledge, and Mesprit represents emotion, I don't recall seeing a glimpse of this power in battle. I was a little disappointed. XD; I did end up catching all three, eventually. I actually RNG abused Azelf when he already dropped into the UU tier, silly me. It was a powerhouse before Gen V. Hey, listen, imagine how awesome Azelf would be if it could use Explosion twice! After all, the legend states that Azelf's spirit can leave its body without dying. Azelf's spirit can return to the body at will. I am mad

Mesprit roamed because it is mischievous, I guess. @_@