Hello there! It's time for Pokémon of the week, and this week the Pokémon isn't rolled by me - I've been given permission to do it on a somewhat popular starter choice for newer players. What is it, you ask?

[img]http://img.pokemondb.net/artwork/lucario.jpg[/img]

That's right, it's Lucario! If you have one of the steel/fighting types, feel free to claim $1,000 and add them to your stats (after posting here, of course.

[B]How to obtain[/B]

Lucario is quite a difficult PokémonNot including winning one as a prize in a tournament or writing contest, via auction, through a trade etc., there are only two ways to obtain a Lucario. One of these methods is by writing for one. As a Complex ranked Pokémon, even Riolu is very difficult to capture, requiring your story to have around 30,000-40,000 character in addition to a strong plot and good grammar. However, if you're interested in writing directly for Lucario, it will be 40,000 to 55,000 as it is Demanding ranked.

The other way is through the National Park, although you cannot choose what you're going to find there, without the use of a voice disc item. This will only work on a Riolu, though, as Lucario is too high a rank for it. If you come across Riolu, the MCR (minimum character requirement) is 25,000 characters, and if you find Lucario you'll need to write 35,000 characters for it.

[B]Battle Strategy[/B]

On paper, Lucario should be pretty good in the URPG. It has a pretty good Attack and Special Attack, and an alright speed. However, it has a few problems. It's quite weak, and can only take a hit or two - you'd expect something like this to be quite a bit faster, though. Another flaw is that it's not quite strong enough to become a feared sweeper without taking a turn to set up Swords Dance or Nasty Plot which, due to being relatively frail, might not be a possibility. However, it can be quite good if you know how to use it. For example, switching in on a Pokémon which can't do a lot of damage or is holding a choice item will give you the turn (or more, if they don't switch out) you need to start inflicting some major damage. The basic strategy is to either Swords Dance, Nasty Plot or Agility (to stop revenge killers - but be warned, this will leave you significantly weaker) and then make use of it's somewhat diverse moveset to deal a lot of damage. Priority is a small problem, but Extremespeed will let you have the final laugh, particularly with the Attack boost.