"The narrow offensive coverage of Grass-type moves and the fact that they're resisted by many types isn't something I need to worry too much about. Grass-types naturally excel at recovery and battlefield control, making them exceptional in prolonged battles. Furthermore, Poison-type's true percentage-based damage perfectly compensates for Grass-type's lack of explosive offensive power."
Looking at Venusaur's colored profile card in his notebook, Ash quietly organized his thoughts.
"So moving forward, aside from making Venusaur's battle style more befitting of a Magic Tank, its training and development should primarily focus on compensating for these four weaknesses."
Fortunately, Ash had begun contemplating and planning how to deal with opponents that possessed a type advantage over Venusaur from the very day he captured Bulbasaur. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to cultivate it as an all-around primary battler, second only to Greninja among his Pokémon.
The first consideration was damage mitigation and defensive capabilities.
Venusaur could learn the move Light Screen. When the time came, whether facing ordinary opponents or Pokémon with a type advantage over it, Venusaur wouldn't have to worry about being easily one-shot.
Although Light Screen could only defend against special attacks—or more accurately, ranged attacks—and provided no protection against physical melee damage, Venusaur was ultimately a Magic Tank. More importantly, it was a Grass-type Pokémon that excelled at battlefield control and disruption.
If an opponent could effortlessly close the distance and engage Venusaur in close combat, that would only mean one thing—that Venusaur had not been trained adequately as a Magic Tank.
Besides, Venusaur wasn't without options for defending against physical attacks.
Protect was not only capable of blocking physical damage but could also defend against special attacks, earning it the reputation of being the ultimate defensive technique.
The only drawback was that Protect's success rate gradually decreased when used repeatedly.
Ash had never liked moves that relied too heavily on luck. Even if he was a Child of Fortune and the protagonist of his own story, he still disliked abilities that performed inconsistently.
Protect could certainly be used, but it shouldn't be overly relied upon—much less treated as Venusaur's primary defensive option.
Once Venusaur possessed reliable defensive capabilities, it would become exceedingly difficult for opponents to defeat it in a single blow. Combined with the incredible recovery abilities innate to Grass-types—such as Synthesis, Ingrain, Grassy Terrain, Giga Drain, and Rest—it wouldn't take long for Venusaur to restore itself back to peak condition.
When it came to compensating for Venusaur's shortcomings, Ash had never approached the problem from the perspective of simply helping it take less damage or making it harder for opponents to defeat it.
Rather, he had always been thinking about one thing—how to counterattack.
Venusaur was one of Ash's most treasured Grass-type Pokémon. Its development had always been directed toward a single goal:
Standing on its own.
What did standing on one's own mean?
In Ash's understanding, it meant that when facing opponents with a type advantage entirely by itself, Venusaur would possess not only the ability to defend and endure but also the strength to fight back—to counter and ultimately emerge victorious.
For example, what should Venusaur do when facing a Fire-type opponent?
When confronting Pokémon that possess a type advantage, the first thing to consider is whether it can learn off-type moves that are super-effective against its opponent. If not, then the next best option is to find moves capable of dealing neutral damage.
The types super-effective against Fire are Water, Rock, and Ground.
Could Venusaur learn moves from any of these types?
Water-type could be ruled out immediately. Rock-type was likewise impossible.
Ground-type, however, was a different story.
Perhaps because Venusaur was partially plant-based life, and plants are inseparable from the earth itself, Venusaur could learn quite a number of Ground-type moves.
It wasn't merely one or two moves, either.
For example:
Stomping Tantrum
Bulldoze
Earthquake
Earth Power
If Venusaur encountered a Fire-type Pokémon that recklessly charged into close range, it could punish them with Stomping Tantrum or Bulldoze.
If the opponent attempted to create distance, Earthquake could cover the entire battlefield.
And if it encountered a Fire-type Pokémon soaring through the skies—such as Charizard—Earth Power would still provide an excellent answer.
As for Ice-type opponents, Ice-types are weak to Fire, Rock, Steel, and Fighting.
Among the moves Venusaur could learn were the Fire-type techniques Sunny Day and Solar Beam (Pseudo-Fire Form), as well as the Fighting-type move Rock Smash.
Although Venusaur couldn't learn Steel-type or Rock-type moves, those three techniques were already more than sufficient.
After all, Venusaur was fundamentally a Grass-type Magic Tank—not some other type of Pokémon. Learning an excessive number of off-type moves would provide little benefit to its overall development.
Of Venusaur's four major weaknesses, Fire and Ice already had established countermeasures.
As for Flying and Psychic-types, while Venusaur didn't possess moves that could directly counter them through type advantage, it still had plenty of techniques capable of dealing neutral damage.
With defensive moves such as Light Screen, Protect, and Safeguard preventing it from being one-shot, combined with the formidable recovery abilities of Grass-types and a variety of neutral-damage attacks available for retaliation, Ash didn't believe Venusaur lacked winning chances.
Quite the opposite.
He firmly believed Venusaur's chances of victory were exceptionally high.
And despite repeatedly emphasizing the concept of standing on one's own and teaching his Pokémon moves specifically designed to counter their weaknesses, this was merely the first layer of his philosophy.
Ash's understanding of standing on one's own was never rooted in type matchups—it was rooted in capability.
In other words, Venusaur should ultimately be able to defeat opponents of every type and combat specialization relying solely upon its own Grass and Poison typing and the diverse capabilities afforded by its identity as a Magic Tank.
That was what truly meant to stand on one's own.
From the very day he first captured Bulbasaur, Ash had been considering its future growth and development.
Although Venusaur's evolution marked the beginning of its journey as a Grass-type Magic Tank, the truth was that its foundations had already been painstakingly laid long ago. What remained now was merely filling in the final pieces of the puzzle.
Because he already possessed a detailed plan in his heart, Ash felt neither confused nor unprepared when the time finally arrived. On the contrary, he was filled with confidence, approaching everything with practiced ease.
However, compared to Venusaur's development—which wasn't particularly urgent at the moment—the matter that truly required his time and attention was Greninja's Bond Evolution.
There were two stages to this project.
The first stage was straightforward: successfully helping Greninja awaken and master Bond Evolution.
The second stage would be researching the underlying principles of Bond Evolution itself to determine whether it could eventually be replicated or adapted for other Pokémon in the future.
If he could successfully complete the first stage and help Greninja achieve Bond Evolution, Ash would already be more than satisfied.
As for the second stage, that was a field of research that would likely require an immense amount of time and effort.
Meaningful results would probably remain far beyond the foreseeable future.