Smeargle

Smeargle National:Stantler - Smeargle (#235) - Tyrogue Johto:Mr. Mime - Smeargle (#157) - Farfetch'd Hoenn:Stantler - Smeargle (#370) - Tyrogue
General
Name (Japanese), Number	Smeargle (Doble), 235
Stage	Basic
Evolves from	(none)
Evolves to	(none)
Battle¹
Hit points	55
Attack	20
Defense	35
Speed	75
Special attack	20
Special defense	45
Biological
Species	Painter Pokémon
Types	Template:PokemonTypeNormal
Height	3ft 11in (1.2 m)
Weight	128.0 lb (58.0 kg)
Ability	Own Tempo
Signature Attacks	Sketch
Pokédex Color	White
Shiny color	Its white fur becomes light brown, its brown-gray neck, wrist and eye markings become brown and its greentail tip becomes coral.
Gender distribution	50% male, 50% female
¹ Stats for trading card versions may vary.

Smeargle (in Japanese Doble (ドーブル Dōburu), in German Farbeagle, in French Queulorior), is a fictional character from the Pokémon franchise. It is, flavor-wise, the painter of the Pokémon world and most known for its "Sketch" attack, which is unique among Pokémon skills.

Name origin

"Smeargle" is an amalgam of the verb "smear", which usually applies to paint, and the "beagle" breed of dog.

Appearance

Smeargle looks like a bipedal dog with a cranial structure resembling an artist's cap (or beret) and a long, possibly prehensile tail which ends in a tuft of fur similar to a paintbrush. The tuft is continuously soaked by a special coloured fluid secreted from the tip of the Smeargle's tail.

It is not uncommon to see a Smeargle with footprints on its front and back (which were put there by elders of the Smeargles' society).

Biology

The colour of the fluid is predetermined and, one could assume, unique for every Smeargle. The Smeargle uses this hard-to-remove fluid as a pigment to mark the boundaries of its territory and print its footprints on the backs of its fellows once they reach maturity.

In the video games

Availability

In Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, Smeargle can only be found in a small patch of grass near the Ruins of Alph. In Pokémon Colosseum, it can be snagged in the Team Snagem Hideout after snagging the final Johto starter in the Shadow Pokémon Laboratory. In Pokémon Fire Red and Pokémon Leaf Green, Smeargle may be found inside the Altering Cave in the Sevii Islands area through use of the E-card Reader. In Pokémon Emerald, Smeargle can be found in the Artisan Cave at the Battle Frontier, which it appears to infest.

Sketch

Smeargle is especially notable for its "Sketch" attack technique, which only it can learn (indeed, it is the only attack Smeargle can conventionally learn). Sketch is the only attack which has but a single Power Point. When used, it will replace itself permanently with the last attack technique used by an opponent Pokémon against Smeargle (compare with the Final Fantasy character class Blue Mage and Relm Arrowny). There are a few attacks Sketch cannot copy (Selfdestruct, Explosion, Memento, Struggle, Transform, Metronome, Mimic, Sleep Talk, and Mirror Move), but otherwise Sketch enables Smeargle to learn almost every attack in the game, making it the most versatile of all Pokémon and extremely useful in passing down unconventional attacks to other Pokémon through the process of crossbreeding.

Unfortunately, Smeargle's decidedly below-average stats discourage trainers from simply Sketching various powerful moves on it. Instead, a common Smeargle moveset focuses on buying time with disrupting (Spore) or evasion (Double Team) moves while Smeargle augments its statistics with moves like Swords Dance and Growth, finally passing these statistical benefits to one of its teammates by using Baton Pass.

Another drawback is that Sketching particular attacks may be difficult to do in the game, since:

• The player has to use Sketch before the desired opponent attack, which requires quite a bit of luck and guesswork;
• Smeargle has to go second in the attack interchange (otherwise there will not have been any attacks yet for Smeargle to Sketch) and
• Smeargle has to survive the opponent's attack in order to Sketch it, which is tricky at the best of times thanks to its low defensive statistics, let alone when trying to Sketch a powerful offensive attack.

A far simpler way to Sketch attacks onto Smeargle, which is nevertheless not available to all players, is to set up a rigged link battle against a friend with the sole purpose of teaching attacks to Smeargle. In the Gameboy Advance versions of Pokemon players can engage in a double battle and have Smeargle's partner pokemon use the desired move to be sketeched and then sketch it as Smeargle no longer needs to be hit.

The "Sketch" move gives it the opportunity to use one of the most coveted combos in Pokemon: Spore, Lock On/Mind Reader and Sheer Cold. Spore will put the enemy to sleep with 100% accuracy, after which Lock On or Mind Reader will make Sheer Cold next turn 100% accurate, granting an automatic One-Hit Knock-Out. However if the opponent switches after Lock On/Mind Reader the One-Hit Knock-Out move is no longer a guaranteed hit. Smealgle can sketch either of the trapping moves (prevents the opponent from switching) Mean Look or Spider Web (preferred) to avoid this though.

Breeding

Smeargle is also very useful for breeding Pokemon that you want to be born with Egg Moves (moves that can only be learned by breeding). Since Smeargle can learn any move using Sketch, a male Smeargle can also pass any combination of compatible Egg TM and HM moves to its offspring of a compatible female Pokemon specie. This allows players to breed their own Pokemon with custom movesets without having to pay for TMs and allows the learning of otherwise unlearnable moves.

In the animé

The Smeargle species was featured in the episode "The Art of Pokémon", where three of the painter Pokémon have gone out of control in Whitestone City, relentlessly graffitiing the spotless walls of its buildings.

In the card game

Smeargle first appeared in the Neo: Discovery set. The second Smeargle card released was a Promo card. It was banned from professional tournaments due to Smeargle's Paint attack, which could change the Defending Pokémon's type.