Top 5: Favourite Poison Type Pokémon

Hello Island Guest welcome to a post about another pokémon typing!  The final typing that is super effective against its predecessor (except for the last one being super effective against the second to last)  is my second favourite typing of all times.  The poison type! This might be the only type where there isn’t a single pokémon I dislike. It is also the only type in which I have used EVERY single one of them at one point or another in some form of game at least. So here we go!

Rules and Honorable Mentions

Pokémon who appeared on older lists are not welcome here, which excludes at least 6 older entries and more if we encounter their evolution line. The Nido’s , Bulbasaur, Venusaur,  Toxtricity, Scolipede, and Vileplume are amongst them and all their evolutions are poison type from the get go too. A special shout out to Venusaur here who was passed over in favour of Bulbasaur on my previous list. But also a shoutout to Toxel..who basically looks like a poisoned baby-like creature! I love it so so much! It’s pretty worthless in battle so I gave it a spotlight here!  Venusaur is here because…well! He’s my buddy!

Another rule is only one entry per evolution line. Where in the past I put pokémon off my list because I did not like the final evolution this week I had to do the opposite! This did not make my top 5 because I am not the biggest fan of Foongus. Amoonguss the bulky grass poison type mushroom is a favourite tank of mine. Yet it suffers a bit from Voltorb syndrome. Where, I do like the voltorb idea. Encounter an item and go….. Oh no it’s Voltorb” encounters were repeated with Foongus! Only where Voltorb is optional.. Foongus route is not! There are some pretty good things hidden in there as well so you have to endure static encounter after static encounter.. which made me like the pre-evolution less! The rom hack Reborn uses it too! So while I love my tank-shroom, Foongus encounters are a bit jarring.

All Pokémon have to feel like what type they belong to and the poison type actually really does this well.  There isn’t really a Pokémon I would not place on this list. The only exception where I find the poison link a bit flimsy is with Victreebel. That is just a flesh eating plant and though I am sure it’s saliva is highly poisonous it is the one Pokémon I feel did not exactly need the poison type. Bellsprout and Oddish are counterparts of sorts. I had blue and got Bellsprout while my sister got Oddish in Red.  I would have loved to see Victreebel get a different typing to reflect that. Like Grass ground or normal even.. who knows. All in all it just feels like a pure grass type to me so it will not be on this list.

Temporary forms also do not make it to this list and the one that is my favourite in that.. and also the only temporary poison form.. is Eternamax Eternatus. While the story in Sword and Shield was very lackluster it did have an epic evil fight conclusion unlike most pokémon games where the final fight against evil is a bit….meh!  Obviously this isn’t as good as Ultra Necrozma  but hey! For being thorough! Here it is.

Poison Type #5 Muk & Alolan Muk

This is one of the few Alolan Pokémon that kept its original typing and gained one. The other being rattata and meowth got a typing that was kinda harmful to it. Normal and Dark is NOT a good typing, regardless how much I like Galarian Zigzagoon and later Obstagoon. Muk however got a Dark type added to it’s poison typing. Poison Dark is a great typing! It’s only weakness being ground! So this is one of the few pokémon that arguably just got an upgrade. The colourful palette also made it stand out more but nothing to me can beat the classic Muk design! I loved it when Ash had it on it’s team and I have used Muk on several occasions myself. Including my run of Pokémon Infinite Fusion.. where it got fused into even greater things!  Muk is such a great example of simple done right! It’s Alolan form made it a lot more special when it was about to fade into obscurity so this is just a Pokémon to me that is solid through and through. Rainbow coloured pokémon.. great! A rainbow colour pile of stench and poison crystals even better! Still I would love to hug a Muk! It’s weird but if Pokémon would be real that would be on my bucket list… probably as a final thing!

Muk and it’s pre-evolution Grimers primarily live in sewers, this has several reasons.  First of all they like to gather in smelly places where sludge gathers. Making the stench of the place worse. It can take shelter in these places and nearly become invisible. It also keeps it safe from things that might prey on it because it’s own scent is already so bad it can cause fainting.  Added with the sewer smells and it’s hiding it is perfectly safe. How it detects those places though are very unclear because to degeneration Muk have lost their ability to smell.  My plan of hugging one might prove challenging because touching a Muk will spell trouble. It is very poisonous and a single touch will give you high fevers and cause you to be bedridden for days! It feeds on anything repugnantly filthy so the sewers do seem like a great place for it to live for that as well. This trash eating is what in fact causes Alolan Muk to look so rainbowy.. As the trash moves through its body it sparks all sorts of different chemical reactions as there are some many poisons in its body! It’s teeth and claws are not actually teeth and claws but crystallized poison.. which can prove fairly lethal. The weirdest pokédex entry though states that even the footsteps it leaves behind are poisonous.. uhm…it as feet?!

For combat we shall lose Alolan Muk as it has fewer weaknesses and more same type attack bonuses. It fills the role of a bulky physical sweeper, that means it uses its attack stat , defence stat and health stat which are all in their low hundreds. While 100 is no where near bad and in fact good, it is lacking to some others so it’s set is a lot more situational.
First of all you give it Knock Off, which is a move that deals very good damage as well as it disables your opponents item..which is super important in Pokémon.. Knockoff wins matches. It also gets pursuit which is yet another dark type move that doubles  in damage if your opponent switches out. That means Alolan Muk is a pace setter. Fire Type and Poison Jab for other physical attacks complete the set and with an Assault Vest, which increases defence but at the trade of you only being able to use offensive moves make this a great momentum attacker!  Watch out for ground types though!

Poison Type #4  Garbodor

This is one of those pokemon that gets hated because they are a thing rather than an animal.. and worse than that.. they are just trash. Well being a trash pokémon DOESN’T make you trash! Trubbish and Garbodor are something I really want to protect… also I want to hug them again… not sure what it is with me wanting to hug fictional waste material but I imagine trubbish all jingly with all the cans and bits and bobs in it when you hug it and the trash garbodor is made off seems super fluffy! Kinda like bad mash potato or something. I bet a real life Garbodor would be more composty but I bet it would be mighty interesting to dig around in it to see if you could not find any “treasures’ ‘.  Perhaps I am so in love with Garbodor because when I see him I see a ripped teddy bear..stuffed with Trash. This pokémon also got one of the very few Gigantamax forms I like (the other being Chonkachu and Orbeetle and Allcremie.) I love how there is like a giant wind up boat.. but then a real car that is smaller and a Pokédoll that is almost as great as a taxi.. it feels so random! Also why would anyone throw away these amazing toys! It would be amazing if Garbodor plays with them!

Pokédex wise this pokémon is kind of interesting. It is one of the more unpopular pokemon yet it has never skipped a pokédex entry since it’s introduction so I guess that Game Freak must love this guy as much as I do!  While originally it’s pokédex entry says nothing special.. it eats trash which gets turned into poison and the poison that it makes depends on what it eats. Therefore if you get poisoned by a Garbodor, you are in very much trouble as no doctor in the land can tell you with what type of poison you have been affected. Regardless of what the poison is .. it is so concentrated even if you are hit with it for a bit.. you suffer through all of its effects. It can completely cripple an opponent this way by covering it in random toxins. Sword and Shield added some darkness to that changing it from “the poison will cripple you” to. “anything that is already weakened can instantly die from this poison”  while Sun and Moon  described how the arrival of Grimer and Muk reduced the Garbodor population.. If you read my previous entry we see that Muk eats trash.. as a result Garbodor of the Alola region are slightly stronger..because they constantly have to fight for their lives to not be eaten by Muk.

Garbodor is a Never Used Tier Pokémon meaning in the  competitive scene  it is in the lower bracket. In it’s tier however it is the BEST hazard setter you can have.. and a hazard setter is what Garbodor is. Entry hazards deal damage effects on switching in pokémon in. Examples are webs that slow your opponent, floating rocks that heavily damage flying types or in case of Garbodor.. spikes that can damage or poison your enemy.  Spikes can be set in layers, two layers for toxic spikes (one layer causes the poisoned status and the second treats poisoned as if hit by toxic)  while regular spikes can be set in three layers. The first layer deals ⅛ of a pokémons total health in damage with two layers it stacks up to ⅙ and the third makes it so that any non flying pokemon takes ¼  of their total health in damage upon switching in. This means Garbodor is a good lead (first pokémon to send out)  with moves like Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Gunk shot and Explosion.. equipped with a Toxic plate for extra gunk shot damage.. or Black sludge for recovery. If your opponent has a ground type do not lead Garbodor and if your opponent has a poison type replace Toxic Spikes with the move Stomping Tantrum. Garbodor thrives when having an adamant nature.  It has very average stats but when you put EVs in  Attack and Speed.. it should not matter THAT much and it can still punish pokémon in its tier.

Poison Type#3 Salazzle

Gen VII introduced a lot of great new poison types. I love Toxapex as well and how they feed on corsola.. and as a result can come into Corsola SOS cries.. in which case they begin to kill Corsola to eat it instead of your team.  Well actually that’s it’s pre-evolution but that is not even the pokémon we are talking about here. Salazzle is a pokemon that only evolves from a female Salandit.. it’s a gimmick! It is so poisonous that it can poison the unpoisanable. It can poison steel and other poison types. Due to its second typing fire.. making it’s acid much more corrosive. I love the design. It looks like one of those egg stealing dinosaurs and I used to watch a lot of dinosaur series like The Land Before time about Littlefoot and his friends. There were these egg stealers as well that always scared me. Added with its graceful colour scheme and that weird look Salazzle has on her face she really seems quite powerful for a pokémon that small. Just by looking at it you know it can deal a lot of damage. It has this “evil” vibe which I really dig for a pokémon like that. 

Now.. normally I would give my own worded interpretation of Pokédex entries but in Sazalle’s case I have to quote her Pokemon Sun Pokédex entry because it’s just weird to me . “For some reason, only females have been found. It creates a reverse harem of male Salandit that it lives with.”  That’s right the term reverse harm is used in a pokémon game…for a POKEMON! Uhm..ewww… I doubt the reverse harem is will they won’t they type of scenario here as it’s still animals. It makes the Salandit males gather food for her and if they fail at this task it slaps them in the face..with a flaming palm.  Jeesz this pokémon is just getting weirder.. and we aren’t there yet… no.. this Matriarchy determines their leaders or a winner from their fight not by who wins a battle but who has wood the most male Salandit. They achieve this by some poisonous pheromone that draws them in. This pheromone however  seems to draw in any males.. as Salazzle pheromones are being used by human women as a thick and luscious perfume that helps them attract men. Do they get to slap their spouses in the face when they come home without food?! “You forgot the milk!!” WHACK! Now I want a Salazzle even more! Even if I don’t like men! I do like food!

Salazalle can be found in the RU tier, standing for Rarely used which is one tier higher than Garbodor. In its tier it’s one of the deadliest most feared pokemon! It is a glass cannon but if your opponent lets a Salazzle set up a bit.. he or she  is deader than dead! With an excellent 111 special attack and 117 in speed there is little that can outspeed it if you EV train both of these. With the move Nasty Plot it can boost its attack by two stages.so if you lead it and your opponent sets out the wrong pokémon to begin with.. you will do amazing damage. Fire Blast, Sludge Wave and Hidden Power (Ice , Water or Grass depending on your opponents team composition)  will make it blast trough your opponents as if they are nothing.  A single misclick and your opponent can feel if they just got hit by a firey bitch slap in the face

Poison Type #2 Crobat

Zubat is probably annoying Pokémon out there. Every cave is filled with millions of it…billions of it! If you are a bit like you will probably have traveled across Kanto numerous times and played pokémon mystery dungeon a lot.. where it is JUST as annoying.. so when you see a zubat you might want to strangle.. it until the light leaves it’s.. ey…. darn it!  Anyway one time I was playing Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness and I caught a shadow zubat.. I needed a flying type on my team because I had a big fighting weakness.  So I ended up purifying it and naming it Bruce… Bruce soon evolved into a Golbat and we become close friends.. which resulted into Bruce becoming a Crobat.I fully expected it to be bad because it was gen 2 of a fairly lackluster gen 1 but oh my! Bruce was a stone cold killer. It was so strong it became my team’s ace! So then I trained one up in Pokémon Diamond… which I named X-Wing  as I nicknamed all my pokémon after Star Wars things.. With Piplup being Jango Fett.. and Bidoof being Slave 1.. (which is a funny joke if you know Bidoof)  Anyway X-Wing… soon became my ace. It’s speed and attack made it amazing and the bright purple design made it cute enough for me to use as well!  It even made me appreciate Zubat and Golbat.. though their horrible early gen sprites.. really put me off them for a while.

Pokédex entry wise Crobat is quite bland. Nearly all it’s pokédex entries state that it’s legs that it has as Golbat evolved into wings. This makes it a lot faster but this speed makes it tricky for it to stop. It also has almost completely loses its ability to walk on land. It can still crawl but it looks really clumsy when it does so. Becomes it no longer has legs only wings it has to sleep upside down using its back wings as legs. This makes it more uncomfy and costs it a lot of rest.  That honestly would be it if it were not for our favourite pokédex entries in the sun and moon series. One of them states that  That Crobat constantly hungers for blood even if it does not feast on it for a little while it will become to weak to fly. Like a vampire it targets trainers and pokemons neck able to drain their blood in an instant. Another entry seems a bit more innocent but paired with that last one just now tells us the absolute horrible truth.. It fangs are so sharp if a Crobat bites you in the dark you’ll never even know that you have been bitten.. I am not sure if that is because you die or it can painlessly suck but given that it’s always hungry for blood, can drain you in an instant.. I can make assumptions.

Crobat is in the Underused Tier  which is the second highest  normal series (if we do not count Ubers which is basically for the strongest only) that means this pokémon is actually very well respected. All of that comes from the ability to have a move called Super Fang which halves hp regardless of defensive stats.. and Brave Bird.. A high Damage recoil move. Crobat also has Infiltrator as an ability so it becomes a fast sweeper. Super Fang and Brave Bird should not be accompanied by a poison move but rather by Taunt and  Roost. Though Taunt can be swapped out for a powerful poison move if your opponent does not require a great amount of set up. Like almost all Poison types on this list EV’s go into Speed and Attack and then you can have a lot of fun with this pokémon. A physical poison move instead of roost  during gameplay can also work as you have access to potions and all in there. 

My Favourite Poison type: Poipole

So my favourite Poison type is a bit of an odd one out my dear readers. It is not very useful in combat ,  it doesn’t get too amazing moves, it’s stats are bad and it basically just exists to evolve. Yet it is my favourite Poison Pokémon on it’s sheer design and flavour alone. Also it’s shiny and absolutely briljant. It’s evolution is still very amazing but not as greatly designed as it’s main. It’s soooo…..pink … and purple! I love it! It has a bit of a mythical pokemon quality like Celebi, Victini or even Mew and   yet also very starter-like qualities but very much twisted towards something more unnatural. It is one of my biggest inspirations for the Eldritch Baby Luma in my online Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Since Poipole  basically counts as an evolve Legendary I am also not discussing a moveset for it. It has no real place to shine. It’s usable in the main game and I had so much fun with it like that but basically it is the Sunkern of the legendaries (Sunkern has the weakest stats of any pokémon) ..So a pink weakish creature that doesn’t get enough love? I think you are beginning to see why I love it so dearly. Also it’s evolution Naganaendel is pretty amazing as well. I just love Poipole that much more!

Poipole is an Ultra Beast, it comes from Ultra-Megalopolis which is a city  in Ultra space. However this Ultra Space and these beasts have some fair overlap with Lovecraftian Horror. It’s  codename for Ultra Beast hunters is UB adhesive, but unlike all other beasts, Poipole is never causing a rampage. It is a gift given to you by Ultra Reckon Squad (Yes there is a lot of Ultra’s here) Poipole in it’s world is a popular starting pokémon. It does seem to be more akin to Eevee and Pikachu upon inspection though. So basically we are dealing here with the Pokémon Mascotte of another world. In sheer concept alone this of course is very interesting. The little thing seems to have a lot of joy in spraying it’s opponents with poison. For this it has a horn on its head that is actually a needle.. like one from a syringe. It isn’t described as particularly lethal or vicious but it will laugh gleefully when you are covered in it’s poison. Bodywise and lore wise it seems to have been based on a bee or hornet larva where it’s evolution becomes an Eldritch Hornet. While in this world they have no gender, in Ultra Space they dwell in groups and hives. These take the structure of that of a wasps nest. 

Since Poipole only featured in one game, and it was an updated version game rather than a new version not that much is known about Poipole besides that. It has appeared in the Manga where it followed Zosie around and even followed her orders from time and time again even when not being owned. It works like all other Ultra Beasts where it’s ability allows it to get a stat upgrade after taking down your opponent. It’s evolution also gets that with better moves to boot!  While Poipole is not useless it feels like running the game with a Pidgeotto .. not Pidgeot.. Pidgeotto it’s prevolution.. or heck an even better comparison. It feels like running with a Nidorina. You know you aren’t getting the maximum potential out of this thing. Poipole is a pure poison type but gains the dragon typing when it evolves into Naganadel. For this to occur it must level up while knowing the move Dragon Pulse. Yet while Naganadel is better at every step, it looks cool as heck, it has good movesets and is a pretty good Ultra beast, I can not help but love Poipole so much more.I really want to try and see if I can get far in the game using just a Poipole at one point.. but I would need to learn how to hack my games! Please make a UB fangame for someone! Let us show the Ultra Megalopolis league gym challenge or something! I want more Poipole in my live.

So sometimes to be my favourite pokémon, you do not have to have Nostalgia on your side, you don’t even have to have great stats. Heck you don’t even have to be all that useful. Sometimes love just happens for no reason.  I could easily say it is because it is quite pink..but even if the shiny would have been the normal one , I would have loved it all the same.. Sometimes Pokémon is just about the ones you like!  Those you want to hug , protect and keep safe.. but also want to keep a part of your journey. Poipole is that pokémon for me! While I do think everyone has one of those picks among their favourites… I would never have thought it would be the poison type that made me a fall in love with a cute and innocent thing! The winner is Poipole!

And that concludes this list! Who is your favourite Poison type? Do you like the typing?
Let me know and let’s have a nice pokémon talk! Now it is time for me to have lunch so I am off! I will see you guys again some other time! Hmm Lunch!