Smeargle has received positive reception from both critics and fans, with writers from
Inverse and
Paste considering the species a highlight of the Pokémon introduced in the second generation.
RPGFans Pocket Squirrel used Smeargle's ability to learn any move with Sketch as an example of the variety of different moves Pokémon games have, comparing it to
Strago Magus from
Final Fantasy VI. It became a symbol for artists in the community, with a popular Brazilian
Facebook group dedicated to Pokémon fan artists, Casa do Smeargle (Smeargle's House), naming the group after the species. However, some critics found the paintbrush tail concept to be unappealing, with
IGN writer Jack DeVries finding the concept disgusting and questioned what the fluid from its tail is made of. Artist Christopher Stoll created
fan art on what an anatomically realistic Smeargle would look like, depicting the tail as housing
intestinal tissue connected to its
anal glands; Darryn Bonthuys and Hope Bellingham from
GameSpot and
GamesRadar+ respectively described the concept as gross and cursed, with Bonthuys adding that it was "pure nightmare fuel". During the initial teaser reveal for the ninth generation Pokémon
Grafaiai, both fans and journalists speculated it to originally be a regional variant, a form of a Pokémon native to a specific region, or an evolution of Smeargle. Following the full reveal of Grafaiai, some critics were happy that it was unrelated to Smeargle, either due to fatigue of the regional variant gimmick, or thinking that Grafaiai was a good take on the artist Pokémon concept; however, some fans were disappointed more was not done with Smeargle instead. Some believed the two to be a duo or competitive rivals, with
The Mary Sues Madeline Carpou believing Smeargle and Grafaiai would have tension between each other due to the former's status as being the only "Art Student Pokémon", with Carpou adding that Grafaiai was "the Cooler Smeargle" and one of the best designs in the series. Andrea Trama in an article for
Game Rant pointed out how similar the two species were, pointing out how Grafaiai's signature move Doodle, which allows it to copy an opponent Pokémon's ability, was similar to Smeargle's Sketch; he further questioned if it could lead a similar legacy during competitive play.
Competitive play Smeargle gained particular attention for its use in competitive play. Despite some writers critiquing Smeargle for its weak stats or for finding its gimmick confusing,
Screen Rant writer Scott Baird noted that although the species is considered to have subpar stats, its ability to learn status inflicting moves that are otherwise only available to a small group of other species makes Smeargle "one of the most powerful Pokémon in the series". Due to the species being able to learn any move, it is considered to be a
wild card, Due to its wide potential, Smeargle was often excluded from use in tournaments Smeargle has seen significant success in tournaments in Japan, being used by the winning team of the "Elementary School and Under League" at the Pokémon League DP 2007 Japan Championship, winners T.R. and Kentaro Shiratori at the
Pokémon World Championships 2010, winner Tashiro Kota at the 2nd Pokémon Ryuo Tournament, and Yuuma Kinugawa at the Pokémon Japan Championships 2025. In an interview with
Famitsu, Kinugawa mentioned that he liked Smeargle and it was the reason he got into competitive Pokémon due to one that his brother owned. Smeargle has also been used on teams that have caused major
upsets, where it was used in combination with Pokémon such as
Palossand and
Eevee to beat high ranking players. A notorious strategy that saw use from many competitive players was teaching Smeargle the move Dark Void, the signature move of the Pokémon
Darkrai; the move puts all opponents to sleep, which allowed the player to use to switch to a stronger Pokémon to deal damage, with a popular choice to tag-team into being the Pokémon
Kyogre. Even though the strategy did not have many options in order to counter it, according to competitive player Toler Webb, even the few counters it did have were hard to strategize alongside other team combination due to its constant appearance in competitive play. Another set-up, known as "Moody Smeargle", relied on the in-game ability of the same name and saw a large amount of use from players during the 2016 Pokémon World Championships. Both these set-ups caused frustration and pushback within the Pokémon competitive community with some members calling for the set-ups or even Smeargle itself banned from future tournaments, In the following generation, Dark Void had the accuracy of the move working drop to a 50% chance. Smeargle has also seen use in fan challenges, exploits and experiments in Pokémon games, such as
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and
Battle Revolution. Conducting a
Nuzlocke challenge for
Pokémon Moon, Neal Chandran from
RPGFan described Ilima's Smeargle as a difficult challenge due to it having good stats for early game, describing it as a "real killer" for Nuzlocke runs. In
Scarlet and
Violet, Smeargle is capable of dealing the most amount of damage in the series' history. It was discovered in October 2024 that through a specific strategy involving the Pokémon
Blaziken and multiple different moves such as Last Respects, the player's Smeargle is capable of dealing over 2.6 billion damage to the opponent. A further test and change to the strategy later found that it was possible for Smeargle to deal over 7.83 billion damage. Conversely, another strategy was discovered that used three Smeargle and a
Blissey, allowing for the latter to heal the most amount of
hit points (HP) in a single turn, totalling at 2,294HP. ==References==