Aganos vs. Golurk Prelude

Ray: The golem, a creature crafted by man out of humble, earthly elements through the use of magical arts in an attempt to play God.

Steel: And they are forces to be reckoned with on the battlefield, like Aganos, the battle-hardened relic…

Ray: And Golurk, the Automaton Pokemon. To avoid confusion, we will be looking at a maxed-out wild Golurk, avoiding any and all trainer assistance such as TMs, HMs, and training effects.

Steel: He’s Ray and I’m Steel…

Ray: And it’s our job to analyze the weapons, armor, and skills of these two golems to find out who would win a DEATH BATTLE.

--

AGANOS/αγανος…
First Appearance: Killer Instinct 2013 (released Feb, 2015)
Height: 8’+
Weight: Unknown
Age: 3,429 (estimated creation is 1415 BC)
Aliases: "Broccoli Bob", "Broccoliman" (all pre-release)
Theme:


FEATS…
Served in many battles across the Mediterranean
Granted free will and intelligence
Holds the title of "Biggest Character in Killer Instinct"
Repeatedly fought the dark sorcerer, Kan-Ra
-Searched and battled him for centuries

Ray: Thousands of years ago, mystical artisans created many soldiers out of Earthly elements. While initially metal, they began to fall apart and the art of creating these soldiers was lost to history, forcing them to replace lost parts with plant and stone.

Steel: Then after countless battles across the Mediterranean, some of these rock-men fell apart and turned to gravel...all except for one.

Ray: Falling under the eventual command of a Greek King, the last of the golems' only purpose was serving out orders without thought or question. The king then gave this creature a new order--think, learn, and feel. The golem did this task and the king gave him a new name to suit his newfound life.

Steel: BROCCOLI BOB-I mean-AGANOS.

Ray: Aganos' past function would later return when the king learned that the evil Kan-Ra was delving deep into the Dark Arts. He ordered Aganos to kill the mummified sorcerer and Aganos has hunted and clashed against Kan-Ra for countless centuries ever since. To this day, no victor has been declared.

Steel: As you can probably tell by his eight-foot gait and stony appearance, Aganos is a walking tank. While he's pretty slow, he more than makes up for it with strength and weight. His combo-based moveset revolves entirely around crushing his opponent into dust.


(Chief Thunder, on the far left, is 6'4". Aganos dwarfs him.)

Ray: Aganos also has impressive reach and has actually used the vines among his earthen body to extend his reach further, such as headbutting his enemy with the metallic mask he uses for a face. He also is strong enough to shake the ground with his strikes and has the longest throw range among the entire Killer Instinct roster.

Steel: Plus, the guy is strong enough to shatter stone and neutralize projectiles...by flicking them. But he also has a few special moves like Pulverize, where he spins his upper body to batter the enemy with his massive arms, and Ruin, which can send enemies through FOUR stone walls.

Ray: Each wall Aganos smashes his enemies through will cause more damage. Also, despite his appearance, he can be deceptively fast with moves like Natural Disaster, where he turns into a rolling stone juggernaut straight out of Indiana Jones. Also, if the enemy attempts to jump or block it straight-on, he can bounce to strike higher.

Steel: Aganos draws strength from the ground he walks on, tearing off chunks of it for various purposes. He can use it as protective armor, fire them like cannonballs, smash them to make a shotgun blast of rocks, or create walls to prevent escapes or to plow his enemies clean through. He can even uproot the walls to make them into a giant stone slugger and homerun his enemies into red paste.

Ray: Walls created by Aganos cannot be jumped over or even teleported behind, most likely because they are in magical nature. This wall-creation ability allows Aganos to cut off enemy retreat, which comes in handy for his slower pace and helps to put his enemy in a smaller environment with a dangerous opponent.

ABILITIES...
Pulverize: Unhinges his top half to spin-punch opponent
Natural Disaster: Curls into a ball and rolls forward a short distance to crush enemies
-Can "hop" to strike higher and intercept jumps
-Bounces off if blocked
Ruin: Powerful overhand punch that sends enemies flying backward
-Can smash enemies clean through stone walls with ease
-The more walls smashed through, the more damage is inflicted
-Four walls can almost completely deplete enemy health
Uses vines to extend reach
Creates tremors with fists or feet
Can neutralize projectiles by flicking them

CHUNKS...
Pieces of earth that cling to Aganos' body
Can be replenished manually or by finishing certain combos
-One stone for each level ender.
Armor
-Can tank hits
-Max of 4
-Slows and decreases jumping with each piece
-Does not protect against anti-air attacks
Ammo
-Can fire rocks like cannonballs
-Takes one piece of armor
-Can be fired at varying arcs and speeds
-Can smash a rock with his fist to turn it into a scattershot
--Does more damage the closer an enemy is
Wall
-Creates a wall behind the opponent
-Used for cutting off retreats
-Can't be jumped over or teleported behind
-Takes about three powerful collisions to break
-Take damage when Aganos hits the ground or when an enemy is slammed into it
Peace Maker
-Requires a wall
-Aganos uproots and turns it into a club/mace
-Replaces punch attacks and has greater reach
-Makes for a decent throwing weapon
-Lasts 3 hits before breaking
-Can homerun-hit enemies straight through stone

Ray: Aganos has a few special moves like Shadow Moves, which usually just multiply his attacks' range and striking power. But Payload Assault lets him smash rocks (and his opponent) into the air to rain the stones back down on his enemies.

Steel: Then there's his Instinct Mode, Peacetime. You'd expect him to pull a Spinal and just regenerate his Chunks, but he actually gets something you wouldn't expect. He can continually get the previously-mentioned stone club and, whenever it breaks, he'll just get a new one without the need of putting up a wall. While not impressive, take into account that the club increases his already-ridiculous arm reach.

SHADOW MOVES...
Payload Assault
-Slams the ground, sends opponent and many rocks into the air, then rains the rocks down on enemy
Shadow Pulverize
-Pulverize, but it spins longer and strikes more times
Shadow Disaster
-Chargeable
-Rolls forward extremely fast
-Can cross distance VERY easily and hit multiple times instead of just one to three.
Shadow Ruin
-Ruin attack, but crosses greater distance with greater ease

PEACETIME...
Aganos' Instinct Mode
-A state that amplifies stats for ten to twelve seconds
Continually regenerates "Peace Maker" club
-No longer needs to create a wall

Ray: Aganos is a force to be reckoned with, as his history of violence and war has taught, but he is not without faults. He's more of an attacker than a defender with little true means of defense and is not used to counterattacking.

Steel: And like most fighting game characters his size, he's about as fast as a giant rock monster can be...which isn't much and his moves require a brief charge time to perform and recovery time after he's pulled off the strong ones. What's worse is that he gets slower and loses some jumping ability the more pieces of rock armor he's got on him.

WEAKNESSES...
Slow movement
-Stronger moves require windup, leaving him vulnerable
-Also require brief recovery, which can be taken advantage of
More an attacker than a defender
Movement hindered by amount of armor
-Can't move as fast
-Can't jump as high

Ray: Aganos is determined, though, to see a battle or task to the end. If you're facing him, the last thing you'll want to see is a wall in front of you.

Steel: He brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "stuck between a rock and a hard place".

(Aganos strides toward an unconscious Black Orchid, then raises a foot to stomp her to the ground).

--





GOLURK…
First Appearance: Pokemon Black/White (2011)
PokeDex #: 623
Height: 9’2”
Weight: 727.5lbs
Evolution: Level up Golett to lv. 43
Type: Ground/Ghost

Ray: Thousands of years ago, people actually created Golurk and its pre-evolved form, Golett, out of humble clay with the intention of protecting humans and Pokemon alike.

Steel: Wait, they actually MADE a working, functional Pokemon out of clay? How come none of my sculptures never came to life, then?

Ray: Well, that depends. Did you put an unknown, likely to be supernatural, energy in your sculptures’ cores?

Steel: (thoughtful pause, then feeling downtrodden) ...No.

Ray: Didn’t think so. Golurk is massive, standing nine feet tall and weighing over seven-hundred pounds.

Steel: This basically means that if you see this guy winding up, you should get the heck out of there. This is helped by his abilities like Iron Fist, which increases his punching power, and No Guard, which means that his attacks are guaranteed to hit something. And thanks to a series of jets in his arms and skirt, he can fly at speeds nearing the speed of sound.


(By the way, YES, more than a few Iron Giant references have been made in regards to this.)

Ray: The speed of sound is about eleven-hundred feet per second at sea level. Taking Golurk’s weight into account, this means that at top speed, he can hit with about eight-hundred THOUSAND foot-pounds per second.

Steel: By comparison, the biggest land-animal alive, an eight-ton African elephant charging at its top speed of twenty-five miles per hour can hit with just over half a million foot pounds. Yes. Golurk can hit harder than a creature that’s almost twenty-two times heavier than it is.

Charging Elephant: 16,000lbs x 36.7ft per sec = 587,200 ft-lbs per second
Flying Golurk: 727.5lbs x 1,100ft per sec = 800,250ft-lbs per second

Ray: While fully capable of flight, Golurk mostly prefers to do all its fighting on the ground, where it makes good use of its above-average health and extremely-high attack power to simultaneously tank through attacks and hit them hard, though his defenses are average at best and his Special Attack and Speed are quite lacking.

STATS…
HP: 89 (Above-average)
ATK: 124 (High)
DEF: 80 (Average)
SPATK: 55 (Low)
SPDEF: 80 (Average)
SPD: 55 (Low)

ABILITIES…
Iron Fist
-All punch-based moves gain a 20% boost
Klutz
-Cannot receive effects of held items unless they affect EXP
-Irrelevant in this situation
No Guard
-All attacks gain maximum accuracy
-All attacks aimed towards him also gain max accuracy
Flight
-Can fly via rocket jets in arms and...skirt?
-Capable of reaching Mach 1

Steel: Golurk has a moveset based on one thing--crushing and destroying any competition, with heavy emphasis on punching people. You have a few standards like Mega Punch and Shadow Punch, but there’s also Dynamic Punch, which can confuse targets at the cost of low accuracy. Focus Punch requires a brief charge time, but does massive damage and never misses, Hammer Arm will smash enemies at the cost of some speed, and Heavy Slam will do more damage if Golurk is heavier than his target.

Ray: Golurk can amplify his defenses with Defense Curl and Iron Defense, utilize Ground- and Ghost-Type attacks. Curse will cut Golurk’s HP in half, but will slowly drain away at the opponent’s health, Mud-Slap is a weak attack that lowers the target’s accuracy, and Rollout will turn him into a stone juggernaut that gradually gets stronger for five turns.

Steel: But if you really get him upset, this golem Pokemon can actually create tremors in the ground with Earthquake and the potentially-more-devastating Magnitude.

MOVES…
Phantom Force
-Ghost-Type
-Vanishes for a turn, then reappears to strike the opponent
Focus Punch
-Fighting-Type
-Focuses its mind before throwing a powerful punch
-Move fails if user is attacked
Pound
-Normal-Type
-Standard strike with arm or tail
Astonish
-Ghost-Type
-User attacks while shouting in startling fashion
-Chance of making the target flinch
Defense Curl
-Normal-Type
-Increases defense
Mud-Slap
-Ground-Type
-Hurls mud at target’s face
-Initially weak, but lowers target’s accuracy
Rollout
-Rock-Type
-Curls up and rolls into target for five turns
-Gets stronger with each hit
Shadow Punch
-Ghost-Type
-Punches from the shadows
-Guaranteed hit
Iron Defense
-Steel-Type
-Hardens body to iron-like levels
-Sharply raises DEF
Mega Punch
-Normal-Type
-Heavy punch
-15% chance of missing
Magnitude
-Ground-Type
-Ground-shaking earthquake
-Power varies on scale of 1-9
Dynamic Punch
-Fighting-Type
-Punches with full, concentrated power
-Confuses target if it hits
-Low accuracy (50% chance of missing)
Night Shade
-Ghost-Type
-Makes user see a frightening image
-Inflicts damage matching opponent’s level
Curse
-Ghost-Type
-If used by a ghost type, cuts the user’s HP in half and curses target
-Target will lose a quarter of their health each turn
Heavy Slam
-Normal-Type
-Striking move with body or arm
-Does more damage when user outweighs the target
Earthquake
-Ground-Type
-Sets an earthquake that strikes those around it
-Even works on underground opponents
Hammer Arm
-Fighting-Type
-Will lower user's speed slightly

Ray: Golurk is both Ground and Ghost-type and this makes him completely immune to Normal, Electric, and Fighting-type attacks. Bug and Poison-type attacks do very little damage to him and he’s also particularly strong against Electric, Rock, and Psychic types.

Steel: But these types also have their disadvantages, too. He’s incredibly weak against Grass, Water, Ice, and Dark-type attacks. And while he can fly like a jet, on the ground, he’s as slow as my first car.

Ray: Golurk also has a seal that is keeping its mystic energies under control. If this seal is removed, its energy will run out of control, drive him insane, and potentially destroy it. Also, its Special Attack is low and the No Guard ability can be used against it.

Steel: How so?

Ray: While its own attacks will never miss, enemies’ attacks towards it will always hit, too.

TYPE ADVANTAGES…
Strong against Electric, Rock, Psychic,
Immune to Normal, Electric, and Fighting-Type attacks
Resistant to Bug and Poison-Type attacks

WEAKNESSES…
Grass, Water, Ice, and Dark moves
-Do twice as much damage as they would against other types
Removing its seal makes its internal energy unstable
-Drives Golurk insane and could potentially destroy him
Low Speed and Special Attack
No Guard ability can work against him
-His attacks won’t miss, but attacks on him won’t miss either

Steel: Still, if you’re going to fight this nine-foot rock man, you’d better be packing some serious heat. If not, you’re guaranteed to be turned into a featureless pulp.

(Golurk activates the jets in its arms and waist, then takes off into the sky like a rocket)