Tag: Ranking

Pokémon Top 5: My Favourite Steel Types

Rock gets beaten by steel! While Ice and Rock are arguably the worst typings in the game, Fairy , Steel and Dragon are commonly seen as the best . Mostly Fairy and Steel, where an  argument made for steel to be the absolute winner. So this must be an amazing list of pokémon right?! Well.. I don’t really like the steel type! It’s my least favorite type in the entire game..with some margin. So for the first time I had a hard time selecting Pokémon I actually like.

Now same rules as all my others lists apply but this one has one additional rule, but before we get there let’s discuss what we already know. Pokémon that were on a list before already can not be on this list before. Otherwise Magnemite and Lucario would be on this list.

I identify them by the type I most identify them with. Lucario I don’t find that steel like, and Magnezone’s evolution line was introduced in Gen I as a pure electric type.. hence I came to see it as electric. There is a pokémon on this list though that would have made the Rock Type list, if I did not see it more as a steel type as well so it can work both ways. If A pokémon doesn’t feel like a steel type to me at all it will not make this list either. Example and otherwise number 1 for this list Mawile! I love the Pokémon and I have used it as a steel type before.. I just don’t feel it is. Reading it’s lore I can get it but ask a random person to look at it’s picture and say what typing is that.. I bet you almost no one would ever call it a steel type. Jirachi for me is the same.

Another rule is that there is only one entry per evolution line, while i am free to pick my favorite of a line.. if the pokémon at one point becomes not fun for me to use or I find it ugly or stupid in terms of lore or whatever I have to deduct points. While I love Bulbasaur more than Venusaur I do not mind the big boy either.  Cufant however is an adorable cute elephant pokémon that really makes me go n’awww! I love how cute it is for a steel type and the typing really needed a cutie!  However it’s evolution and even worse it’s gigantamax are just square blocks of green metal with the trunk being a digging tool. It isn’t all that bad but a big missed opportunity to warm me up to the type a bit.

Temporary forms do not count as separate entries so was a pure rock type that only upon mega became steel it would not be allowed. However the steel type has no qualifiers as for that! It does have one extra rule though that no other type had before! I have to exclude pokémon I haven’t played a lot with yet. Perseker for example  is a pokémon I can really get behind, however I have no real grasp of its abilities or moves.. as opposed to Copperajah who is used by some major characters in the game. I have also dabbled with it in Pokémon Showdown.. Perserker however is a big unknown to me and I know it has gotten some love in the community and it does appeal to me.. so at best I can give it a mention.

The first time I nominate a basic pokémon while it possesses a stage 2 evolution, but not the last time. Aron and me go way back!  Way back when I was a kid that tried to fit in at school and never really did!  Pokémon no longer was hype and after Gen 2 it became a only for geeks kinda thing. So under pressure I did not buy the game. One day though trough my dad mentioning it..before I remembered I could emulate! I wasn’t allowed to buy Pokémon Ruby in stores because I should play more grown up games or do things with my friends in person so I wasn’t allowed to own an official version. On a day a school kid made me trip into lockers than threw his sandwhich meat on me I got at home feeling sad and misunderstood when I found a rom of Sapphire.. I could play the game…. but it was illegal. I decided that my mental health was more important to me then the legality issue and since I would have bought it if I could I figured let’s do this. I picked up a Torchick as my starter and decided not to capture anything else before the second gym.. and there I found Aron. Which I named Hummel. It was the first steel type I liked it was so cute!  It was pretty good and when it evolved at level 32 that was it.. Okay I still like Hummel.. but then it evolved again and it was actually really good!  Yay Hummel!

Lorewise it is pretty interesting as well..Aron to me is like a tiny steel dog, not bigger than the size of a poodle being about 40 centimeters tall  which is like 1 foot 4 or something and not that much longer. However it weighs about 60 kilograms and with the right ability even double. Double these weights is you measure in pounds and you know this is one heavy metal poodle.  Aron’s body is made by Iron and it sustains itself by eating metals and extracting stuff from it to grow/maintain its body! Aron is not very able to recognize what it eats though so at times it causes trouble for everyone by eating train tracks or tackling dump trucks , which it is able to take down.. before eating those as well. I like my pokémon clumsy or clunky and this sort of thing is my jam when it  comes to pokémon lore. Unfortunately my beloved steel baby has not been getting lore in Sun and Moon or we would have learned something about the horrible accidents it causes when eating cars or train tracks.. then again it does keep my baby innocent.

In the competitive scene Aron is a Little Cup Pokémon, one of the very first featured on here.. with the exception of Cubone being in there as well. Little cup is format where you duke it out with unevolved pokémon (that still can evolve)  with the exception of a handful of them for balancing reasons. There is also a catchable at level 5 rule but I am not sure how that work because  you can get later stuff as well. It excludes some evolving legendaries and such I am sure. Regardless Aron has two major uses in battle. You can use it to set up hazards like stealth rock and sand storm or it can be used as a physical sweeper. The physical sweeper set can be super fun since Aron has some serious power in that department when it comes to little cup. Using It’s ability Rock Head, Head Smash becomes an amazing move that allows it to trash anything weak to rock or even neutral to rock! Earthquake  is that move that you always put on a any ground type unless you do double battles and you add Iron Head for Same type attack bonus moves and flinch chances.  Aerial Ace for Weakness covery as Little cup fighting type pokémon prefer to set up using Belly Drum or Sword Dance and you got a solid set and a very useful and lovely Aron. Top it with A Choice Band a voila! A steel wrecking ball that is super cute!

I am one of those girls that really takes a shine to a pokémon when it gets hate. I want to show the little creatures that someone cares for them even if the world is being mean and cruel to them, and so I adopted a Klefki from a friend which was calling it stupid. I asked them to rename it Sesame for me before they send it over. Sesame and I quickly became great friends. I did not run fairy type moves on it as I had my sylveon! No Sesame was there to save my other guys! I really like it’s cry and it has some pink elements! I imagined Sesame was like Ash Charmander.. with its original trainer leaving it out to die.. not caring for it at all. It became a sort of thing for me to adopt people’s Klefki after that.  Due to the excellent friend system Pokémon X and Y had as well as some communities. I became a Klefki Mamma and it was fun..it did not help me with the game as I mostly kept an almost full  box of Klefki which I had to play with in Amie so they would at least get some love..but it was a fun side activity. Sesame eventually got replaced right before the pokémon league so I could focus a bit more on offence but it was the pokémon that made me like using defensive strategies.

Lorewise I am also very charmed by this pokémon too because it has gotten of of the silliest pokédex entries among this list. Klefki is a ring pokémon that uses the “horn” on it’s head to suck the ions out of metals. For no reason whatsoever it adores keys. It likes them so much that giving it one.. is like giving it the greatest gift in the world. It will be super happy, and while you can still use said key it will do everything it its might to keep those keys safe. Never will you have to worry anymore when you go inside a rollercoaster,  that you would lose the key, never will you lose a key anymore because it will never ever lose one!  You just ask it to lock something up for you or if it can help you open it and tadaa! Such a  pure an innocent little thing. It’s beyond beautiful. But that is not even the silly part what I love about it so much.. in Pokémon shield it was revealed that this pokémon likes keys SO much that it’s head had to look like a key as well! In other words it likes something so much, it became that in a way.. talk about mind over matter! I see a symbol of hope in it that people can be what they want to be if it truly makes them happy!

Klefki in competitive was pretty amazing for a while. Mostly as a Hazard of Barrier setter, but a particularly fun set I like to use is a Prankster set with Thunder Wave, Foul Play Torment and Flash Canon. It makes Klefi into a pesky little sweeper. Foul Play allows you to use your opponents physical stats instead of Klefki’s for damage calculation, Torment prevents opponents from using the same attack two times in a row and Thunder Wave paralyze your opponent and halves their speed.  This can result in a little mind game on when to swap out when to t-wave, when to foul play and so on that can make this set of keys give you a lot of battle field momentum. This is exactly my kind of pokémon! People get annoyed if they are being destroyed by a set of keys! Since Foul Play is a dark type move and not a lot of typings are resistant to that.. it really is fun to see Sesame and it’s friends take revenge on those who cast them aside! Mwhuahahaha!

Time for the legendary entry on this list.. and yes it is a legendary and no I do not care it is also called a mythical. While it never really became a part of my journey this pokémon really is a bit of a spirit animal for me.. well not really a spirit animal as it is more of a homunculus pokemon somewhat ..but still .. it reminds me a bit from the owl Clash of the Titans (1981 version) that was a great animal companion and Magearna is no different. The combination of Metal and Princess as well as parts mechanical pokeball make it a cute addition to the line up, and one of the cuter artificial pokemon out there, along with Ditto and Porygon….hmm Artificial pokemon sure come in pink often enough! Guess people really know what is the best colour in the pokemon world.

Lorewise this pokemon is a bit of an odd one you see it’s body is not the pokemon, that little round sphere in the center is the pokemon and not even that, this monster is basically what is inside that sphere. It is best comparable to a Kinder Egg, its not the chocolat, its not the yellow container it’s the toy that is inside..oh and its also banned in some places. Magearna is one of the few pokemon that fully understands human speech, while it may seem like all pokemon can this is not actually true, I guess Ash super specific instructions were just a lucky shot. Mageaena can not just comprehend language though, it can also understand peoples emotions, train of thought and can  even feel their pain, so it is always willing to help! The monster was made as a gift for a princess who lived about 500 years ago, over time her colour faded away and we get the metally grey pokemon we see today.

As with all legendaries this pokemon is not really usable in any form of battle.. Where pure in game legendaries are usually based around one or two incredible stats, the event distributed legendaries, also known as mysticals  always get a more even stat distribution. Magearna’s highest stat is it’s special attack which with 130 is nothing to cry about but compared to the Mewtwo’s and Arceus’s and it’s other peers out there it isn’t really to much to write home about. However it shines through because of it’s typing Fairy Steel is an incredible typing that allows many defensive bonuses.  First of all it negates ALL the fairy type weaknesses. Fairies are weak to poison, which steel type is immune to so cant damage this soul at all, it’s weak to steel..and steel resists steel so that hits neutral now. Metal has three weaknesses, fighting, ground and fire. The fighting weakness gets resisted due to it’s fairy typing so it has only 2 weaknesses , 9 resistances and 2 immunities. That is some good typing.  Almost as good as Water Ground! As a result Magearna is very beginner friendly. It’s signature move Fleur Cannon is like a counterpart of the Draco Meteor move, high power but lowers its own stat after use.  The ability Soul Heart negates this drop a bit however.. so i’d say pick up a robot and soul today!

A crowd favorite along Lucario I am sure but only my penultimate steel type! Metagross is a Pseudo Legendary that is known as the signature pokémon of Champion Steven Stone. One of the trickier champions to beat. (Lance was such a weak champion) The pokémon looks amazing has a great moveset and it evolves early enough to use endgame (level 45) but late enough so it really does feel rewarding. However there is one flaw that keeps Metagross from the number one spot here. Beldum’s Catch Rate of 3. This means that a Beldum (or any of it’s evolutions) have a 1.6% chance to stay in their pokéballs if you throw it at a pokémon with no status condition and green health. This catch rate.. is shared with Mewtwo… this means that a Beldum is as hard to catch as a MEWTWO! So imagine chibi pinkie playing her game, encountering this weird fist shaped pokemon with an eye… that just doesnt want to stay in it’s friggin pokébal! I did not know it was a pseudo back then! I wasn’t even allowed to play this game so I played it in secret! I was like.. well fudge this pokémon! I am out! It took me until Omega Ruby until I got myself a Beldum.. A shiny one from an event! I loved it! I named it ..Hi Ho..because it was silver.

Hi Ho would grow up from a little stubby fist like, missile looking thing to a four legged tank/super computer with one of the most badass mega evolutions out there, ever. Metagross is formed by the fusion of two Metang, (the stage 1 form of the pokémon) while it’s mega evolution is A Metagross, A Metang and Two Beldum forming together. So in other words this is the combiner robot of the pokémon world. It has four separate brains which allow it to analyse things faster and  better than a super computer does. Meanwhile it is still incredibly strong as well. It has the strength to pin an enemy on the wall with it claws after which it will begin devouring them alive. It will also use it’s big brain to win the fights it is in, analyzing it’s optimal moves. Making this a fearsome foe. When it Mega evolves it gets even smarter and leaves behind any decency it might have had before, now dictated by cruel cold logic. Any means of victory is now allowed and thus its fighting style becomes so gruesome most people can only avert their eyes and wait for it’s battle to be over. If it senses it can not win a fight it will impale an enemy’s limb with itself and then self detonate. Ouch

Metagross is fairly universally run as physical sweeper, and with a base attack power of 135 that isn’t too surprising. It doesn’t get much better than that.  The moves you’ll want to put on this monster is Earthquake, Agility, Zen Headbutt and Meteor Mash.  Agility and Zen Headbutt can be adapted if your team  specifically requires anything else, like calm mind if you need it to tank out a few hits for reasons or Grass Knot if your team is weak to ground but over all Zen Headbutt, and Agility will allow you to sweep if Meteor Mash gets one or two attack boosts. Meteor Mash is almost it’s signature move, only learned by Jirachi, Clefairy, and Lucario otherwise, a 90 base power physical attack that can boost up your attack stat.  Agility once or twice can take care of it’s meh speed and as an item a life orb can give you more damage output.  It’s not to uncommon to run aforementioned explosion either to kill something completely dead if Metagross is about to die! It is one of those pokémon that pressures your opponent into making the right call.. mess up once or twice and this pokémon has all the cards it needs to wipe your entire opponents team of the board.

This sword and shield pokémon was obviously introduced in X and Y.. huh that seems weird now huh! However this pokémon quickly became my favorite steel type. I have never really liked wall Pokémon much .. for the simple reason that I never found a wall that was better than Chansey. While Chansey’s physical defence isn’t great I’d use something like Shuckle. A pink egg and a worm in a rock.. those clearly are the superior tanks. I always like to mess with people when playing pokémon.  I don’t play with the pro’s so people never expect that Dugtrio is one of the fastest Pokémon ever.. they do not expect Chansey can  take a Draco Meteor like nothing has even happened, no one suspects Shuckle to survive a normal gem explosion..but they sure do! When people make mistakes people play poorly.  Aegislash is one of those guess what’s coming next pokémon I love so much because it is both a sword and a shield! It’s either a sword resting in a shield or a sword wielding a shield.. guestimate what it does wrong and you will be sorry! Also I really like object pokémon apparently!

Aegislash begin their live as Honedge. Honedge become pokémon when a person on the battlefield dies. Their soul becomes entangled with the blade that kills them and and the sort gains a blue  cloth that it can use to attach itself to those who dare touch the hilt. It will then begin to drain their life force completely. It evolves when it fed on enough life force, usually draining several people completely and it becomes two blades, who communicate with telepathy to form deadly attacking patterns that slice their foes to ribbons. After evolving it they become attendants of kings in history. Their past has allowed them to judge those who possess leadership qualities, hanging around those who it deems destined to be king.  However it does not do this from an altruistic stance it possesses over might spectral powers that allows it to manipulate people and pokémon alike and they use these kings to create a kingdom of their liking. One kingdom was particularly mentioned with a powerful king wielding an Aegislash creating an amazing kingdom, eventually however the sword drained all his life away and the kingdom since quickly fell. Aren’t ghost pokedex entries the best?

Like Metagross , Aegislash has a fairly widely accepted build. That being it’s signature move King’s Shield, which is a form of Protect (a semi perfect shield move)  that negates all damage and lowers your opponent’s special attack. It should know Swords Dance to heighten it’s already high attack, and Shadow Sneak and Night Slash or Sacred Sword as it’s attacking moves. Shadow Sneak is a move that always goes first and is boosted by the same type attack bonus and Night Slash or Sacred Sword you slap on there depending on what type of team your opponents run for maximum damage. What makes this pokemon so fun to use though is its ability, Stance Change. With this it can go from defensive mode into offensive mode and vice versa. In defensive mode it’s defensive values are 150 and in blade mode it’s offensive stats are 150. With all it’s other stats being only 50 though it’s a one trick pony… well it’s a one trick pony twice to be exact. However this does keep pressure on your opponent, if you sent it in against a physical attacker, the fun begins! Since its secondary stats are super weak it is a pokémon that does require you to know who is physical and who is not so it is a bit on the more advanced side of things. Yet it is through all of it’s quirks that and the brain game that this pokemon is so fun to play!

Callum and the best Steel Type…that will kill him!

It was wonderful seeing so many steel types still have plushies! I would have been in trouble with how I handle my images otherwise! What is your Favourite Steel Type? Do you like this typing? Do you use it oftenly?! Can you guess which type is next? Let’s get those comments going! Now excuse me while I go feed my hair!

Pokémon Top 5: Favourite Ice Types

Hello my sweet island guests, get a fruity little drink! Today I’ve got the ice!
The Ice type  is commonly seen as one of the worst two typings in the entire game. While good against the Grass, Flying Dragon And last weeks ground type, it’s weaknesses to fire, steel rock and fighting make it quite a struggle to use these things. Their defences are usually very flimsy while many are built like tanks.. Today we look for a little ray of sunshine amongst the ice types. Let’s hope they don’t melt!

If you have been keeping tracks of these list by now you do know the rules. No pokémon from earlier lists and only one entry per evolution line which in this case is much less of a problem because there is only one good unevolved ice type pokémon and even then I do not mean it in the viable sense. The only good, non fully evolved ice type is of course Snom! He’s so adorable!He also feels like an ice type because of well his name.. and his colour! He’s precious we should all protect snom! A single pebble can kill him so he’s no list material but still!

The second rule I always wield is.. the pokémon has to feel to me like it’s typing and ooh boy.. does the ice type miss that mark a lot. Of the 53 ice types out there 9 do not feel like ice types at all to me. That would arguably be more if I count the cold water pokémon. Lapras however I do count among the list that do not feel like ice types to me. Perhaps because the anime branded it as native to tropical islands but yeah that doesn’t feel icey to be.. it’s gigantamax does. Then again I think it would be better as a water-sound type. I do not like Lapras though.. so it would not make the list regardless. Sneasel and Weavile also don’t really feel like Ice types to me! I love using them and I run them with ice moves but why is it an ice type?! I don’t really see it. Same goes for Jynx . 

A final shout out goes to Zen Mode Galarian Darmanitan. I really don’t like the design of it’s normal mode.. but when it goes into Zen Mode using its ability I love the design. The fire and ice typing is fun as well.. but SO much ice types have quad weaknesses and this on does as well.  Given that Zen Mode Galarian Darmanitan needs to be  below a certain amount of health to transform into his ice and fire state, it is a temporary form pokémon and thus not eligible for this list. Still a great design though. 

I am gonna get strung up for this by the Pokémon community but I LOVE Vanilluxe! The ice cream pokémon it looks so Happy! The idea of a snow cone pokémon  I find perfectly okay! People complain that it’s ice cream and say Gen I pokémon were better no stupid objects. We had a Pokéball  that evolved into an inverse Pokéball.  We had a stick in the ground that became three sticks in the ground and we had two magnets on an eyeball! The whole idea of Pokémon is seeing creatures you have never seen before. If you just want cats in varying colours go play that cat mobile game.  Vanilluxe is great!  It deserves love! It is probably THE pokémon that everyone would look at at say “Now THAT’s an ice type”  along with very few others.  Along with about half the full ice types.  My test for this would be.. imagine a black and white picture of the pokémon.  No colour.. could you still say it’s an ice type? Heck yeah I could!

Vanilluxe comes into existence when two Vanillish (it’s pre-evolution) partially melt in the sun! When they go out to play at night together they freeze up together and now are one entity! This gives them the ability to cause powerful blizzards that can freeze just about everyone. However this ice-cream is also a bit of a hot head! It gets angry a lot and when both heads get angry it will cover the land in a huge snowstorm regardless if friends or foe are in there! It just throws a tantrum! An Ice type that is a hot head! I love it! Of course Pokémon Sun and Moon had to add some darkness to it’s pokémon entries by stating that both it’s head have separate brains that can agree and disagree with each other.. making it’s power alternate! It also was stated there that it can occur that one of the heads is lost! If that is so the other still can live in relative comfort! How said! You just got a forever friend and then it’s head is blown off and you live with just the body of your friend. Basically.. it’s just Dio then I guess

In combat Vanilluxe is not bad either! It has an okay base speed of 79 but it can learn the ability weak armor which easily allows you to crank that up! It also has some speed boosting moves. Ice body and Snow Warning as an ability can come in clutch as well. It’s attack being at 95 which is also fairly high makes it that it’s Explosion move can also hurt like heck! It’s defences are quite okay as well! Not great but not trash either so it could possible take a hit and if it’s too damaged you just blow it up and take your opponent with you.  It gets powerful ice moves such as blizzard and ice beam but it also learn Flash Cannon a nice steel type special move to give it some weakness-covery against rock! It gets the move Sheer Cold as well which can knock your opponent out in a single hit. .if luck is on your side!  It was a great addition to my  princess tea party team in Galar (An Apple Pie, With some Whipped Cream, A scoop of Ice and Some hot tea, all with a fairy princess and her magical unicorn)! 

A pokémon that is both an ice type and a fairy type. That looks super pretty and is inspired on the nine tailed fox? Of course that would make the list! This pokémon is probably the most pretty Alolan form across the line!  I wish I could have made this my favorite but unfortunately it has two major flaws. It’s stats aren’t all that great with everything but speed hovering at around 75, only being specially defensive. It is quad weak to steel type moves though.  It’s great for killing dragons though! Also have I told you it looks pretty?! This definitely is the prettiest pokémon on the list.. heck I think it might be one of the prettiest pokémon ever! What it lacks up for in battle aptitude it  makes up for in style.  Many times over! During my fairy only type run in Alola,  Shirona  was my Alolan Ninetales and while I noticed she lacked the ability to hit hard.. she made my team look pretty and helped me deal with a bunch of peky types! Sometimes style does go over substance.

This design is reflected in the  pokédex lore it has been given. Due to it’s looks it has been revered as a deity before it was identified as a regional version of Ninetales. This has to do with the fact that in the mountains these majestic pokémon dwells there lives a deity. When seeing a snowy beautiful pokémon like this of course it was given divine qualities. This also is in part because Alolan Ninetales will guide lost hikers back to the foot of the mountain. However it does not do this out of kindness it does this because it wants the hikers gone from it’s mountain to protect the deity! Other deities seem to visit the areas they live in as well making it even more important that they are left alone. Those who damage the nature in the areas they live in.. do not get the kind treatment to safety. It will never forgive anyone who scars it’s mountain.  So there you go! This is a pokémon that is above humans it rather plays with deities! That’s top 5 worthy!

In battle Alolan Ninetales does not have a lot of oomph! It’s attack stats are just to poor. It usually is made to be into a supportive wall setter. Equipped with the ability Snow warning and the Light Clay Item, this pokémon can set a unique barrier that shields against both physical and special moves (it needs to be hailing for it to do so though.. hence the ability which sets up the snow/hail) This means you give it the move encore as well to prevent your opponent from setting up or force a switch if they set up weather to counter you.  Very important to carry that move then! Offensively there are two main types of pokémon that can set up the weather in your disfavor in general,  Grass types set up the sun while Water types set up the rain! (Rock and Fire types can set weather but you switch out against them anywya) By taking the move Freeze-Dry you have super effective special moves against both grass and water so that is a good shoutout to take as well. For a fourth move you should let it know Sheer Cold. Random One Hit Knock Outs can be good since when the shields are up, Ninetales becomes a tad throwaway.

A penguin that has a block of ice on it’s head that is also a head already sounds like a perfect pokémon for me! So adorable and derpy!  This is the type of design I love! I am fairly alone in that because some people seem to hate this pokémon despite of how cute it looks!  When it is hit by a physical move the ice cube shatters and it becomes penguin with a super tiny head that has turned all blue from the cold! I love it so much! In the Crown Thundra DLC trailer we have seen recently we see an Eiscue in the water.. it’s floating there because it’s head is just a big ice block! It looks so fun! Squeee! I just imagine the little feet trampling at all their might underneath the water to get anywhere but it just doesn’t work! So it has to let the current take it where it wants to go! If you read any of my lists before you know I really appreciate clunk in Pokémon.

Since this is a Gen VIII pokémon we do not have a lot of pokédex entries yet ..but what we have is super cute! It does indeed mention that it likes to drift in the ocean to keep its head super cold! It likes the big head it seems! When it breaks it reveals a slightly worried expression that has enamoured many people in the pokémon world and I totally get that! I love that face I just want to squeeze it in it’s tiny cheeks and tell it’s a good boy and I will help it get it’s favorite head back! Yes I will! Mamma will put a block of ice on your head! When it is drifting about the ocean it uses it’s little hair that grows out of the ice block as a fishing rod.  When it’s in it’s small faced form the single hair reacts to it’s thoughts. The hair is in straight connection to the brain so  when something is on it’s mind the hair emits a cold aura. I just want to put a little ribbon in there! 

In battle Eiscue can be amazing! It learns Belly Drum.. and combining that with a hp recovery berry, and it’s ice face ability this pokémon is rather amazing. Belly Drum boosts it’s physical attack stat from a base 80 attack to a base 320 attack. If it moves into its tiny face form by being hit physically it’s speed stat becomes 130 too. Which means it hits fast  and REALLY REALLY hard. If you combine it with a Dynamax it can even set up the hail and get it’s square head back to be bulky in defence over speedy! The only problem.. it doesn’t really matter it has bulky defence as the head shatters if it’s hit with a physical move and the head shattering negates any damage! So … in the ice head form it has a lot of wasted stat points, which is a shame and prevents it from being higher up this list. Liquidation avalanche and facade are good physical moves to run on this good boy!  The ability Ice face is kinda tricky to understand and I do not have the room to go into detail.. so google if you need.. but if used properly this penguin can kick some ass.

A very close to number one second this time around in the form of the Gen 3 pokémon Walrein. While I have used one on my team in my first playthrough of Pokémon Sapphire, I really warmed up to the pokémon trough my playthrough of Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. There is something about seeing a Walrus in 3d with animations that makes it more charming. I also really needed it on my team as it destroys Salamence which I saw often in that game.  Designwise it’s about as much as you can do with a Walrus I guess. While I do not like that all water pokémon are blue, or most of them at least,  the blue on this one along with the white really does well to sell the cold qualities it possesses. It looks kind of dopey which I do like.. it doesn’t feel as ugly and mean as some other stage 2 pokémon. It keeps that beloved pet vibe more than say Tyranitar or Exploud for example. 

It’s pokedex entries do not state to much interesting facts about this pokemon, other than that it is very fat! There have been 12 pokedex entries of Walrein  to date and 11 mention it’s thick layer of blubber. The only one that doesn’t mentions that when a Walrein is the leader of a herd it will battle anything that invades it’s territory and it will continue to fight to keep it’s herd safe regardless if that means it’s own death. It can even lose it tusks in these battles.  All the other pokédex entries state that it is protected by it’s large amounts of blubber. The blubber shields it from both the cold and enemy attacks. The real impressive feat however is that it can break 10 tons of iceberg with a single attack with its tusk! Now that is an effective ice cube maker!  I bet it would be neat to use at parties! Crushed ice for everyone!

In battle it’s quite okay! It’s hindered by the poor stat average most ice types have.. with only a very high hp count and the other stats being okay! However.. due to its ability Thick Fat it is so bulky it makes up for that weakness. It can just tank! It will not die easily!  As for movesets.. that is a bit tricky! I ran my most beloved Walrein, Hoomphrey on a coliseum game, which means 2 v 2 battles. Moves like Surf and Blizzard are great shout outs for that.  It’s special attack is capped at 95 which is really quite alright certainly given it’s high hp, so special moves are your bread and butter. I personally run it with rest for a full recovery and sleep talk. But Snore is also a okay move to put on this pokémon. There are plenty ways to play but I do really prefer to break this one out in 2v2 battles. In 1v1 I kinda see how it does not deal as much damage as it could. Still it’s  also nice PvE playthroughs as it learns a nice amount of HM’s and is able to use them in combat rather effectively. A great allrounder that I wish would have gotten just a little more punch.

Even now I feel like .. should this be here? Does it feel enough like an ice type?! Heck there was  time I didn’t even know it was an ice type! It was only when I started playing competitive battles with my friends that i discovered skill link, kings rock Cloyster using ice type attacks with stab.. murdered EVERYTHING. I always liked Cloyster quite a bit as it had one of the most interesting designs in Gen 1 for me. I loved that black pearly little head in that spikey shell. Of course in Gen 1 this was a rather terrible pokemon. A good looking but terrible pocket monster. It lacked some good moves, it lacked anime support. Shellder being involved in Slowpokes evolution and having such an iconic but annoying cry in the anime made me aware of this pokémon .. rather than the pokemon itself . However since the invention of the ability skill link and the move Shell Smash.. killer oyster is exactly my battle style! The kings rock item makes it so much better even!  I really love it!  I have since used that spec in a playthrough with my main guy Hurl-Pearl. 

For some reason this pokemon seems rather hated in the pokémon-world.. well or at least they think there is a pearl inside and they want to reach it.  As it is stated that once a Cloyster closes its shell no one can open it.. not even someone with superior strength. It is also stated that not even bombs can open it! Mentioning no one managed to get inside to take a look at it’s interior .. It can “swim” by swallowing up water and shooting it out the back…. that sounds kind of dubious and kinda clunky but well it’s a shell  so I am sure it doesn’t poop out water or anything… “it uses this same system to to shoot its spikes a it’s opponent”.. Uhm wait.. it shoots spikes out of it’s ass?! That’s kinda cool! Do shells even have asses though?! It has a hole in the back that expel excess material at least. Sounds like an ass! The spikes on its body are its main method of attacking. They are so hard that old tribes used the spikes that Cloyster lost.. by shooting them away as their weapons.  The spikes are even so hard that even missiles can’t break them! Why are humans shooting missiles at cloyster and why do they try to blow them up! You meanies!

In combat this by far is one of my favorite pokemon to use ever! Skill Link, as an ability makes your pokémon always hit the maximum amount of times a move can hit.  Icicle Spear and Rock blast are both offensive moves that hit up to five times and the coverage amongst them is quite solid. Shell Smash will boost your speed Attack and Special Attack in trade for your Special Defence and Defence.. but with a White Herb that first skill down step is negated.  Or like me you could give it a Kings Rock! Which grants an attack a 10% chance ability to flinch. However due to skill link you now have five 10% chances.  That makes the chance of flinching pretty high! A flinch means a pokémon can not move that turn. So this pokémon can deal massive damage with a huge chance to stun your pokémon! I know there are better builds like the herb..but Kings Rock is just so funny!! Hurl-Pearl and me.. we are Nakama! I think this pokemon is very nICE!

What is your favorite ice type? I am predicting a lot of Articuno answers here, but proof me wrong?! Do you use the ice type a lot?! Let me know! Next week we will discuss the other “weakest” type, the rock type! Which Pokémon do you think will be on there?! Since Rock Types are super effective against the ice type..some ice pokémon are already coming up with a counter! See you next time!

Pokémon Top 5: Favorite Electric Types

The electric type in Pokémon is a bit of a weird one. Super effective against only the water and flying type, and weak only to ground. As a result it is one of my least used typings. Since I mostly start with a grass starter I tend to start with a grass and rock/ground core rendering this typing a rather ineffective addition to my team. Yet there are so many great electric pokémon. So today let’s look at the ones that are SO special they won a spot on my team anyway in this week’s top 5.

The same rules like always would apply to Pokémon… but.. I have a problem here. Hardly any of the rules are applicable here! Normally I’d say only one entry per evolutionary line where if the evolution and its necessity is factored in should I dislike where forms go. Yet every single electric type has amazing evolutions. There isn’t a single one I’d disapprove off. The only one that kinda meets this brief is Yamper. I adore Yamper and do not feel very strongly about Boltund. It’s a good dog but I liked the clunkiness of the first form a lot more.. like the whole “loaf” feeling it has going. Boltund is only a type of dog I prefer slightly less.. but hey since I need honorable mentions it counts.

Pokémon that featured on other lists do not count either,since I love Galvantula so much and it was on my bug list, it will not feature on this one. Otherwise it would most likely be in the number two spot yet again. The honorable mention goes to it’s pre-evolution Joltik whom I love dearly as well.. technically it could make the list because it’s not Galvantula..but since I have the one entry per evo line rule as well it still felt wrong. Still it is so adorable so it deserves more shoutouts than I can give it!

In every other list I managed to mention a pokémon that did not feel like it’s typing to me.. the electric type doesn’t have that to me! All of them feel tied to their given element. The Psychic type gave me trouble with this as well but with these ones.. I am convinced I could even show the biggest pokémon non believers a picture of a pokémon and ask what type it is and you’d all guess correctly.  Luckily I also made a rule that disallows  temporary forms because of how situational it is .. which gives me my final honorable mention Pop Star Pikachu.  Just because it is because.. It’s Pikachu in pink.. This one would be disallowed either way because….

The Pikachu line in Pokémon has always been a bit lackluster except for the whole mascotte thing of course. Kantonian Raichu wasn’t all that good. While normally I say that an entry in the anime is beneficial this applies to me for everything but the Pikachu line.. and to a lesser extend Greninja and even Charizard. All the Pokemon Ash made hype.. kind of let you down in the games. The final evolutions less than Pikachu ..but if you saw Ash first.. they still feel lacking in oomph compared to how they are build up. Raichu was always one of those for me.. We see Pikachu do such epics things and ours.. fizzle.. as if we are playing with a bootleg. However this all changed when Alolan Raichu came along.

While it stats do not change , it addresses the generic looks of the original Raichu and they give it an additional typing in the form of the Psychic type. Electric Psychic is a great offensive typing!  It is super effective against flying, water, poison and fighting which actually makes it great to use next to Rowlet or Popplio, who both have a weakness to poison and Litten which has a weakness to water.  Regardless of the starter you choose this is a great accompaniment to them all. In Kanto, Normal Raichu doesn’t help you much when you pick Squirtle and if you start with Bulbasaur going with Geodude would be a better way to cover your flying weakness.  But let’s back up a bit and talk a bit more about the looks. Original Raichu was originally meant to be a midway station between Pikachu and Gorochu and in a way you feel that. Alolan Raichu has much more finality to it’s design. The surfing on it’s tail with electromagnetism, the tanned look, keeping Pikachu’s cuteness. I really adore it’s looks.

Statwise this Pokémon still feels like a relatively weak end station. It’s main offensive stat is only 95 which is okay enough but something you can easily find a better answer for. For reference the area between 70 base stat and 100 is deemed okay and above 100 a stat is great. So 95 is good enough. However here is where it’s new typing comes into play. Since Generation VII Raichu can learn Calm Mind.. the best set up move for special attackers. It raises special defence and special attack. Prior to this Raichu had no proper setup for offence, only evasion so even if it made it hard for an opponent to hit it could never really hit back hard either. It’s move pool has also vastly expanded. Same Type attack bonus boosted psychic hits harder and more reliable than most electric moves and using the ability surge surfer it’s speeds can reach insane levels so even in its core moveset it already deals a lot more with it’s own weaknesses.  It can set up defensive screen which half damage, it can set up terrain and it can set itself up to hit hard.  While it’s still frail it reviced a lot of weaknesses with the originals and when you look so adorable when dealing a fair amount of damage as well as be Hau’s best buddy! You are doing something right!

I was trying to decide whether to put the final evolution of the magnemite line in the Steel Type top five or the electric top five. In retrospect I should have put it in the other one as I like a lot less of those.. but since in Gen I the line was still pure electric I always see it as that first. Magnezone is on this list because it lets me combine two of my least used typings in a pretty amazing pokémon that is very weak to ground type moves though. Magnezone came to me via a trade in Gen V, it was a very random trade but there it was. A magnet Ufo that to me.. had some cop vibes/patroller in it as well. I did not know that Magneton could evolve. It was named Kilowatt. The original trainer was LeLouche all of people.. I never figured he would be into pokémon! Kind of makes sense though with all the tactical battling.

While I never really was appealed by balls and magnets sticking together they already looked very gleefull in Pokémon Snap when you fed them apples.. I always remembered those happy eyes. I imagined this Ufo like thing do the same thing and I was immediately sold. A magnetic Ufo who doesn’t want that?!  These pokémon are so Magnetic they attract each other and then become unable to move! That sounds clunky! I like that as well! Implications that this pokémon has alien contacts were made in Sun and Moon.. when all pokédex entries were particularly ominous and it added to it’s mystery. While made by man scientist kept trying to evolve it again.. could it be that in the future this will be the first pokémon we see get a stage 3?  <Pinkie Explains: A first form is called a basic.. the second form a stage 1 evolution.. if that evolves it’s stage 2>  Will it call something from out of space like a new legendary tied to it?! Kind of like Carbink and Diancie? Mysteries keep surrounding this pokémon, along with the unique and fun design I think Kilowatt is a keeper.. Had I not sold that game for convention money back in the day.

In combat having using steel and electric moves are basically it’s entire bread and butter. It also gets hyper beam which then can do big damage with the Analytic ability. Since Magnezone is a fairly slow Ufo with a base speed of 60 so the ability is quite usable as well.It will outspeed ground types.. but unless you equip it with a Balloon you’ll want to swap out when those come out and threaten your space ship anyway. It’s special attack being at 130 as a base value is amazing and really makes this a floating attilery thing. It’s best when paired with big damage moves such as Zap Cannon, Flash Cannon and Hyper Beam, I either run it with Magnet Rise ..which makes it immune to ground type moves with a Life Orb as held item or I put it on a Balloon and give it Signal Beam  as well for some extra type coverage and possible confusion. The first set is usually better though. It also makes sense that it floats on it’s own abilities..being a Ufo at all.. why would a Ufo be on a balloon? That is just silly.

What’s up with my favorites  and quad ground weaknesses. This is yet another that could look at a patch of soil and die in agony! Yet poison electric is such a cool typing. I really like the poison typing as well. Much like my Pokémon flying list though.. this would have been an ideal candidate for the sound type! Which funnily.. I would make weak to ground types.  This pokémon is all about playing air guitar.. or Keyboard as some version of this pokémon would.  Toxtricity has two forms, the Low Key form and the Amped form. This is on Toxel’s (its basic stage)  nature. If it has an energetic nature like Rash or Bashful  it will become Amped and if it has a more tranquil spirited nature.. for example Modest or Mild. That is SUCH a great idea. Letting a pokémon evolution look differently based on their character. Amazing!  I really love the colours of the Amped form myself.. but the Low Key version is pretty neat itself. Competitive it’s mostly Low Key though since the Modest Nature fits it the best. That’s a bit a let down in that system for me. 

Lorewise there isn’t that much known about the pokémon yet except that is quite arrogant and it plays air guitar or Electric organ to generate up to 15.000 volts on electricity. It’s poisonous nature is never really mentioned anywhere..but I think it comes from being a punker.  Or from being purple! In the world of pokémon the colour of your skin quite oftenly depicts your typing. I wonder if Lucario gets bullied for being blue but not being a water type?! The design however looks so friggin amazing, this is one of the coolest designed electric types out there. Tying it’s theme to the electric guitar was a briljant stroke that we untill now have only seen in a trainer type. I can just imagine  it singing the Sex Pistols version of I did it my way while frying it’s opponents with its electric waves or tossing some goop their way! This is a rebel and for once I like that.

In combat you mostly would like to rock out with a Low Key… Mild Toxtricity. It’s defences aren’t good at all and you really want to capitalize on it’s special attack of 117 without compromising it’s speed and preferably not it’s attack either since that being close to a 100 at 98 can allow you to run it as a mixed attacker.  It should be decked out with the ability Punk Rock which boosts sound type moves by 30% offensively while reducing damage taken by 50% defensively. This one definitely needs it’s own signature move Overdrive to be good, but if you equip it with Boomburst it might even be scarier. The last one has a base power of 140 so boosted by 30% that is one of the most powerful moves in the game. Though still not coming close to a fully boosted Fisheous Rend.  As a third move and fourth move I’d run it with Toxic and Venoshock, but that is mostly when I have other toxic users or stallers as well.  There are other options as well like some physical attacks like Gunk Shot.. or Throat Chop to give it something to defend against the psychic type. As an item you definitely want to give it some Throat Spray. As a side node why are some many electric type pokémon names so hard to spell?!

Ah the moment I begin writing this entry I realised how big of a whole I have dug myself. I normally blab on movesets and designs and Rotom.. has six forms, six typings and six designs. This is going to be a tricky one. Technically this one even has nine forms, if we count the pokédex, phone and drone form as well. It’s also the weakest pokémon on the list of today..but I can’t help but to love Rotom. It’s such an amazing concept. Basically he is the poltergeist that make your electric devices go bump in the night. It’s very mischievous as well. It loves to ruin your day. If it possesses the microwave it gleefully burns your favorite clothes, if it possess your fan it giggles why blowing away important documents and if it’s a freezer it will freeze your bath  water or give you a very cold shower. When it possesses a lawnmower it will destroy all your flowers and when it possesses the washing machine.. well you probably have a good idea what happens then! Let’s hope you don’t have any wooden floor.

The concept of a ghost pokémon animating things is great of course and since it is a ghost electric type animating devices makes so much sense! The fact that it loses its ghost typing and replaces that with the element it possesses even more so. If you have the ability to swap devices this pokémon can be incredibly versatile, although a bit of a hassle to set up. Will you run it as a lawn mower for the water type gym or will you run it as a  fridge to defeat that guy who has some strong ground types? The sky is the limit.  Having access to water-fire-grass-flying-ice OR ghost typing as a secondary STAB is an unparalleled feat for a pokémon. I know temporary forms do not make the list but these are semi permanent and I count this pokémon in its entirety so it’s all good! If your game does not have an area to swap rotom tools you’ll just have to work with the one traded to you. I like the idea of customisable pokémon and it doesn’t get much more customisable than this.

In the competitive scene Rotom Wash is the most popular form to use. Water Electric is a great typing and since Rotom has the ability levitate it doesn’t have all that many weaknesses. Rotom is mostly used as a trickster. Use Will O Wisp to burn your opponent and lower their attack stat. It’s a bit in that “float like a butterfly sting like a bee” segment of things. I like Rotom Wash the most myself as well.. the square design with that pipe as some form of weird tale is adorable. It can be a bit more offensive due to learning scald. You can get those burns while attacking, yet each Rotom is fun to use in it’s own way. I had a blast when trying Rotom Freeze uit for the first time. Rotom Mow i’d say is the most tricky form to use but if played well it can be hard for your opponent to deal with as well. Rotom Fan i’ve seen a lot in Showdown battles and now that Dynamax Air moves boost speed it has quickly become much better than it was before!  Maybe a full Rotom Playthrough would be fun.. it would be pretty balanced at least.

The first electric type I ever actively  used and my strongest pokémon in my favorite pokémon game. At least in main line Pokémon games! In Pokémon Stadium I used Pin Missile Jolteon to take down my sisters all Mewtwo team. I am not sure why that worked so well back then because I never was able to reproduce it. Ampharos though I can make good time and time again. I am using it again on my Pokémon Reborn playthrough..but that games runs so much more horrible now than it did before.. so much lag.. so now I only play it when someone is live streaming and I need some side content.  Still Ampharos is there for me. My first one did not have a name, I needed to remember the new pokemon names still. The second one was called Apple, I think, I used it during a Soul Silver playthrough I named things after fruit. I used one in my main team in Gale of Darkness XD  named Shaun and my custom shiny Ampharos in Reborn is called Choked Sheep (because it turned blue, and my nicknames are descriptions)

I also played the crap out of the pokémon in Pokémon Stadium 2. If I can get  the monster early on I will use it. Now it took me way longer than I am willing to admit to discover that this one has a pink shiny… oh no.. I admitted it!  So now that I know that it makes this pokémon even better though I only have a few pink ampharos (pokemon plural is the same as singular) on Pokémon Go due to community days. I never had a pink Amphi in a fun game though.  I am always drawn to it no matter what media it appears on almost as if it’s a beacon drawing me in.. what do you know! Pokémon Lore bride.. Ampharos only lore is that it can store electricity in it’s tale to shine very bright. So it functions as a lighthouse. This light is so bright that it can even be seen from space. It seems to hurt it’s own eyes though so it doesn’t really like using it.. the way it moves.. is also kinda clunky and it isn’t exactly elegantly shaped. I begin to see why I like this.

In Galar my troupe of sheep isn’t that special when it comes to stats.  It has a special attack stat of 110 which is great but it is on par with most the electric types here that take less work to evolve.Yet in this last generation my baby got robbed of its mega evolution. In its mega form my sweet hairless sheep had an amazing 165 base special attack and gain the dragon typing as well as a bunch of wool back as fancy luscious locks. It’s so good as a Mega, even though the hair kinda looks silly, that’s what made it so sexy to me! Not as in Bomchikawawa sexy but non sexual sexy! That is a thing! Mega Amphi is kinda like my Totoro! So I was robbed! I can’t even put it to words but this pokémon is so charming to me! If I only could make one pokémon real this would be a consideration. It would probably be Sylveon in the end.. but the whole flesh ribbon things is kind of off putting. I am not going to make a battle set because all my Amphi’s were different and I love them all and I feel one of them might cry if I favor the other and I just can’t bear to imagine that!  Given the fact that I consider the feelings of digital picture I resetted over twice, and that they are still with me in spirit tells something on how much I love this pokémon! A deserved number 1.

What is your favorite electric type?! Did you ever use one of these in your team?! Do you use the electric type a lot? Leave your thoughts in the comments and let’s start talking Pokémon! Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog if you want to make sure that you catch nexts weeks Earth Shattering top 5! That’s right! Bring your balloons cause there will be earthquakes! Now I have to go to the store because my Joltik drained all my batteries!


Top 5: Dark Type Pokémon

Konichiwa Mina! It’s time for another top 5! So many more pokémon list to make, so many more pokémon to gush about! Recently I started listing my favorite 5 pokémon of all types. I started with the normal type and now it’s time for the second list. As Suggested by ThatRandomEditor.. this is my top 5 Dark types.

Rules and Honorable Mentions

The rules are the same as last time, I can only count one entry per evolution line and the entire line factors in. For example I really like Impidimp the newest Dark and Fairy type introduced into Gen VIII. However I REALLY dislike it’s evolution Mogrem and feel generally somewhat bitterly neutral towards its final evolution Grimmsnarl.  Since we can’t manually stop evolution in this game and lose the utility of an item on it when leveling which it would need because I want to keep it tiny. Therefore it doesn’t qualify in my top 5, when purely design wise it should. It’s about the journey and the feeling in this list.

Because of that rule what also applies is that I need to feel this pokémon actual fits their typings. I really like Absol , however I feel like it should not be a dark type but a normal type that people think is a dark type because it can predict disasters. Even in it’s lore it’s stated people think it’s evil (the dark type is called evil type in japan) but that is a misunderstanding. Therefore in my opinion, it’s typing is a mislabeling as well and thusly it does not qualify for a spot on the list. Yet a pokémon as amazingly designed as this should at least get an honourable mention. I really love it..but in my headcanon it’s a normal type. 

Dark Type Number 5: Krookodile

Aside from it’s hideous shiny , purely because of eye design,  Krookodile or Krook as I lovingly call it is an amazing dark type in every way. It is canonically bad natured, it is scary , it has some solid stats and a nice dual typing, it comes with great abilities and I simply love the design. Krookodile is a pokémon that is fairly fast when compared to other ground types and it is able to spot its prey up to 30 miles away using it’s extremely sharp eyesight. It will use it’s fangs to clamp it’s prey than twists his jaws around to rip his prey in half. A very crocodile thing to do. It’s jaws can crush cars according to the pokédex so it’s no wonder that it gets the ability intimidate.

I used a Krookodile named Hippo (because it was hungry hungry) during my Pokémon Black playthrough.. and I was so happy with it that when I played Pokémon Black 2 I also went with a Krookodile which I named Kaminom.. after Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but with more eating flavor. Ash had one in the anime as well so it’s always nice it’s personality is showcased a bit. I also used to run a Krookodile EX card in my pokémon TCG Night Marsh/Dark Deck which made me warm up to it even more. 

 While Krookodile as a competitive Pokémon stat-wise completely gets surpassed by Tyranitar it has the better abilities in Intimidate and Moxie. Because it is defensively lackluster the hidden ability Anger Point I feel is a bit wasted on it, but hey that means I can use a decent one without having to breed for the best version, that is a win in my book. One set up as a Choice Scarfed Sweeper, with Earthquake Moxie and Crush.. this pokemon becomes about as scary as a dark type really can. With earthquake it can become a bit of a double edged sword in double battles, but with a good team to back it up and a great move pool this is one pokemon one never should underestimate. 

Dark Type Number 4: Guzzlord

While I like Darkrai more as a legendary , it always felt as if that one should have been a ghost type. It works trough sleep and nightmares and I’d associate that with ghosts. Now Guzzlord is an all consuming Eldritch Abomination that consumes everything.  It’s  body is rather indescribable and it’s cry.. especially in the anime feels really otherworldly. Eldritch Abominations really should be dark types. Which is why it’s probably my favorite Ultra Beast next to Poipole. (That last one is pink though so there is no contest)  It just hits that brief of what the Ultra Beasts were meant to be so well.  An all consuming force that just will devour whatever it’s in its path. Able to consume entire buildings and mountains (allegedly) it does credit to its name.

Competitively Guzzlord is nothing to really write home about. It’s Dark and Dragon typing along with it’s poor defences leave it wide open for to be destroyed by the fairy type, which will can hit it 4x effectively.  With fairies being very active in the competitive scene Guzzy isn’t your smartest pick. However it has potential for a great physical tank. With moves like Stockpile, Heavy Slam and Stockpile Normalium Z in it’s generation  or an Assault vest in current rules it is something that is quite bulky due to it’s insanely high health base stat. So if you are a rookie battler and want to learn pokémon movesets a bit, it’s a pretty good scout switch in to learn the ropes. 

In D&D we have something called the alignment chart.  A character can be Lawful, Neutral/True or Chaotic in mindset and Good, Neutral or Evil in heart.  One of the scariest evils to encounter is that of True Evil. A chaotic evil character just likes to see the world burn and enjoys seeing people suffer, lawful evil are your typical megalomaniacs who belief they can improve the world my reshaping it in their image. Thanos is a good example of that or Lex Luther.  However the scariest evil to me has always been Neutral/True Evil.. these characters are evil just because they exist. Their entire existence is evil and I feel Guzzlord falls under that category.. therefore he becomes de facto one of the best dark types.

Dark Type Number 3: Zoroark 

One of the few dark types that actually have a nice Shiny, this Illusion pokemon takes the third spot on my list. Like the other two designwise you can immediately tell it’s a dark type. However Zoroark is much more a dark type than it is an evil type. It’s really a family guy or gal who lives to protect it’s pack. With the adorable Zorua as it’s pre-evolution it is no wonder why.. you’d obviously want to keep  that precious thing safe. It’s darkness stems from it’s abilities to use illusions.

Unlike the psychic type these do not play out in people’s minds but manifest “physically’  allowing hundreds of people to believe in this Illusion. It protects it pack.. although quite dramatically. When it senses humans coming it can conjure strong illusions to make them wonder the forrests aimlessly. We do not know what becomes of these humans.. but we do know how Phantump are born.. they are children that get lost in the woods and starve to death.. since most pokémon trainers are children I am sure there is a link there.

Pokémon battling is all about momentum, and while not the best in any stat, Zoroark’s ability illusion allows its owner to gain momentum like crazy.  When you send it out in battle it will always look like the last conscious pokémon in your party. Taking on its nickname and even potential shininess. If you like to run poison types like me , it is very easy to bait out a psychic attack on your beloved poison attack.. but it doesn’t affect anything .. because Zoroark is a dark type. While most poison types are slow.. Zoroark is very fast. 

Having great special attack as well and access to fire moves it hard counters one of it direct weaknesses, and soft counters the other (while fire is not super effective on fighting..the burn condition halves physical attack making attacks do neutral damage in the end). If you use Zoroark effectively it’s easy to lure the opponent in making a bad play and you can seize control of the battlefield, and anything that messes with the mind of my opponents is darn sure to be a favorite of mine.

Dark Type Number 2: Malamar

While not my favorite on my list Malamar might be THE most deserving of the evil type. While Guzzlord is True Evil and just evil for existing, Malamar is Lawful evil, manipulating people into doing their bidding. Malamar is a pokémon who is stated to virtually always have evil intentions, they are so evil that they manipulate humanity to their own gain.. historic events in the pokémon world ..

Like the Kalos Pokémon war,  might be because of their influence. They seek to make humans eradicate themselves and enslave them.Now I must say that not all Malamar are that evil.. some just hypnotize you to give them a hug after which they wrap you into their tentacles and finish you off with digestive fluids.

Design-wise it also looks super evil, this is pokémon looks like a Disney Villain or I could even see it as some Isekai beast world villain. You can just see how nefarious it is. It will not play by the rules. It’s fins are said to be razor sharp and by staring either into its eyes or it’s body you can be hypnotized to either become a slave.. a tool to further their plan to get rid of humans.. or willingly walk into an acidic shower. The dark and psychic typing give it that flair and feel of a menacing villain as well. To evolve it’s predecessor Inkay, you have to level it up to level 30 and then flip your 3ds upside down enforcing that feeling that this thing does not play by the normal rules.

This is further enforced by Malamar having the ability Contrary which makes sure that whenever it would get stat downgrades it gets upgrades as well.. not only can you  not lower it’s stats because that would mean you raise them.. it also has access to the fighting move.. Super Power, which normally lowers physical attack and defence but in case of Malamar raises it.. and since it IS a physical attacker it can dish out massive damage.. while getting stronger by it in the process.  Now overall Malamar’s stats aren’t great but this is compensated by the fact that it only has 2 weaknesses. It is 2x weak to fairy and 4x weak to bug.

While that last one might seem like a problem, aside from U-turn people rarely run bug type moves.  U-turn has a low base attack power and usually is quite easy to predict. Malamar also is the only pokémon that possess the ability Topsy Turvy a move that inverts stat upgrades to stat downgrades. So it blocks off pokémon from setting up Sword Dances to get over its own raised defence. In fact.. just by bringing it to a match you can probably prevent your opponent from using stat boosting sets. A great mind game pokémon yet again!

Dark Type Number 1 : Umbreon

My number 1 dark type is also the actual number 1 dark type as in it’s the pokémon that can be considered the first dark type ever encountered. While Gen II also introduced us to Sneasel and Murkrow Umbreon is the lowest national dex number pokémon that was a dark type upon its release. This pokémon is simply stunning in every single way… well except for it’s japanese name being Blacky.. that feels a bit off. It by far is the best dark type shiny and a contender and probable winner for me for best shiny ever.  It’s just gorgeous.

While it has fairly mellow lore compared to other dark types, Umbreon still hits the flavor for both evil and dark types all the same. Trough actual darkness it’s rings can glow up which have the ability to instill fear into others. Yet it can also bland in the darkness completely to sneak up it’s prey from behind just to stealthily rip open its throat to do and enjoy it’s meal afterwards.  When backed into a corner Umbreon can secret poisonous sweat which it then tosses into its opponents eyes to play dirty. All cheat like moves in pokémon count as dark type attacks so it just works. Add the cute but mysterious design and we got a winner.

I so enjoy using Umbreon in PvP combat. It’s role as a toxic staller is something it does so well. Umbreon is a non offensive pokémon that should be run with moves like. Toxic, Mean Look (to lock a target into the field) Moonlight, which heals it and Protect.. to take a hit. Mean Look you can replace with other moves like Heal Bell to cure status, confuse ray  to make hits unreliable.. or if you feel trolley even sand attack. 

While Umbreons poison slowly wittle their target down they HAVE to deal more than 50% damage to it each time if they do not want to be whittled down, if you have no counter against it all you can do is despair and pray for a critical hit. The heal bell set even prevents your from counter toxic stalling it yourself, high jump kick becomes risky because of it’s protect..and it’s amazing defensive stats leave your opponent with very little options in general. For all those who can not breach it defences.. things are looking very dark.

What is your favorite Dark Type?
What Type would you like to see me tackle next?

With 16 types left to cover there still are 90 Pokemon to love!
Untill then you can check out the others in the series here:

Normal Types

Thank you for reading! Keep Smiling

XO
Pinkie

Top 5: Normal Type Pokémon

Two top fives in one week?! How uninspirational of me! Yet it is time to talk about pokémon again and stories about pokémon are just so much easier in top five form since there are so many of them and so much stories to tell! I never told you my favorites of each type, so let’s start with the most basic one! The Normal Type.

Before we start a few rules. I will only use one entry per evolution line. Other than that I have to actively use them AS normal types. Chansey for example is one of my favorite pokémon ever, but I run it as a toxic stall or counter set (a poison and fighting type move.. as well as a normal type recovery)  it just doesn’t feel like a normal type to me.

Ditto and Smeargle are in a similar situation for me. Pokémon who once were normal  type do not count either, their typing stands as it is currently. Dual typings are allowed..but did not make the list this time. Yet now you know for the future! Now onto the ranking

Normal Type Number 5: Regigigas and Slaking

Another top 5 AND a shared spot… Boo Pinkie Boo… but hold up! These two normal types have a shared trait that endears me to them. Aside from their monstrous strength they are known for having BAD abilities. Their abilities hinder them and make them unpractical to use, which compensates for their amazing stat pool. Slaking has to skip his turn every other turn and Regigigas has it’s stats quashed for the first five turns it is on the field. 

Slaking is the more viable of the two as it usually is set in as a revenge killer using moves like retaliate, or sometimes slash. It’s first form Slakoth shares it’s truant ability but it’s second form VIgoroth has the ability Vital Spirit which prevents it from even being asleep Design wise Slaking feels rather intimidating even it it’s lazy… something I would see as a viable evolution of Snorlax as well… just  not AS large. This is the only normal type that gave me more trouble as  the infamous Whitney’s Miltank. In Pokémon Colosseum the final boss Evice uses a Slaking alongside a Slowking that skillswaps the bad ability away leaving a relentless raging monster for you to face . Truly scary.

Regigigas is a bit of a weird beasty. It’s robot/golem like thing that makes the weirdest cry that really endeared me to it. It’s fun to try to keep a Regigigas alive on the field until it can unleash its full stats.  The issue I have with this one however is that if another pokémon keeps boosting it’s stats .. it can outdo even a Regigigas at it’s “normal”  level.  So you have to find ways to break Regigigas ability, which makes it super fun to use in double battles. But I even had fun with it in singles.. pairing it up with a Cofagrigus, who has the ability to create an infections ability to everything that uses contact moves… thus would allow you to replace it’s hated Slow-Start.  You really have to build your team around these two..which makes for fun little dips into battle and for memorable pokemon.

Normal Type Number 4:  Wooloo

While I loved the feeling of the world in Gen VIII’s  Pokemon Shield, there were few pokemon I feel head over heels for. Of course there was Galarian Ponyta, Polteageist and Alcremie but I had little sentiment for Corviknight or Perserker for example. I would describe the 8th generation of pokémon games as having lots of pokemon that I think “Wow thats an awesome looking pocket monsters’ but lacking in “O.M.A. I love it I love it.. add it to the team now”. However Wooloo was definitely in the latter category. It’s the generation mascotte and a lot of work went into making Wooloo and it shows.

Wooloo quickly became a fan favorite and was turned into a meme. I cried a bit when my Wooloo evolved because even though it was still my pokémon some of that appeal had gone. I swore not to catch another Wooloo because I loved Beep so dearly that even now that he became kinda ugly, nothing would take his place. So I started to shiny hunt for a black one., why do  normal types have such awesome shinies anyway?! My Switch controller broke which ended my hunt and I sending them in was a bit difficult for me.. since it happend in Corona time.. so I just got a new controller and Animal Crossing. Which meant I haven’t searched for Beep Beep yet since.

Wooloo DID make me cry a second time. During the animated series Pokémon Twilight Wings. It’s a  seven episode series of 6 minute short episodes, telling self contained stories from the pokémon game universe, opposed to the more liberate anime universe. These stories are connected by the fact that they feature a corviknight taxi, hence the name. The third episode is about Hop’s (your rival) Wooloo. This six minutes of animation are amongst the best I have seen. This is so utterly adorable and charming and since it is on the pokémon official channel I can share it with you! If you want to spend six wholesome minutes please.. look at this youtube link.. if you are using wordpress reader.. please look at it from my site.. or just look it up after.. it is so worth it.

Normal Type Number 3: Furret

Another  route 1 rodent making it on this list makes a lot of sense in my opinion. You encounter these pokémon first in the game, so whenever you add them to your team very soon. You build a bond with them because they are often lackluster in stats. You struggle with them so you talk to your screen. You can do it Sentret, you can get a flinch Rattata or even I’ll EV train you into a Bidoof! While Hoehn Form Linoone is the most competitive and “factually” good starter it never became that endeared to me. Simply because I first  caught a Poochyena instead and ran that on my team.  Had I had the third gen rodent as my first encounter the day I first played pokémon Sapphire, this spot might have belonged to the shaggier , belly drumming rodent.

Yet it was not the case so my favorite rodent is that of my favorite pokémon game.  Sentret’s evolution Furret has since the publication of pokémon animation have gained some pretty big popularity, Walking all across the world to the sweet tunes of Accumula Town (Gen V had some REALLY good music) it has walked into people hearts as well. The Shiny Furret Candycane is one of my most treasured pokemon  in Pokémon Go, It’s pink! It has some minor combat options as a  Frisk , Toxic Orb , Physical Sweeper, with moves like Trick , Brick Break and Facade. It’s solid and cute and it walks in my mind a lot. It is a perfect analogy for mt brain at times.

Normal Type Number 2: Cinccino

Now it is actually time for pokémon I use in battle and really enjoy running on my team. It’s the Chinchilla pokemon  Cinccino, whose name I always spell wrong. Cinccino is the evolution on Minccino.. so it has the the tiniest name change of all the evolutions. It’s cute and fluffy and it has the ability Skill Link. which makes it quite useful. 

While Aipom, my number six ..so barely not on this list shares this ability , Cinccino can run it much more effectively.  Skill link is a move that make sure multiple hit move always hit the maximum amount of times. The little chinchilla learns, tail slap (which gets same type attack bonus), Bullet Seed (which is a grass type move) and Rock Blast (which is a rock type move if you would believe it) 

Equipped with a Choice Band, this pokémon  can really kick ass and take names. It’s super easy to counter and it is very frail. Unlike chansey this one gets access to a solid Normal move it can deal a lot of damage with, it can be fun and trolley if you run it with a Kings Rock which allows for super high chances to flinch your enemy which can be great in a toxic stall team. There is just so many ways I can have fun with this little guy and ontop of that it just looks super cute and fluffy! I really want a plushie of this one as it looks Kawaii as  heck and I just want to snuggle it’s fur!

Normal Type Number 1: Exploud

Exploud has a horrible shiny, it goes from a blueish purple to a more Muk/Grimer is purple.  Changing from a Lavender shade to something more akin to the Amethyst or muddy Lilac spectrum is not that special. With both 91 base attack and base special attack it can really make you hurt. Pokemon like these is where the normal type shines hence it is my favorite. 

It’s sound based moves, like Hyper Voice and Boomburst, move through substitute. Not a single type resists them, though ghost types are immune.However Exploud can come with the Scrappy Ability which solves that problem as well. It’s super reliable and since you usually would only use it for it’s sound move it’s great with Choice Specs.  Really fun to use as it just shouts it’s enemies to their demise.

It’s ugly. but it’s ugly in a good way. Whenever you look at it you feel like it is gonna be loud and obnoxious and gonna ruin your party and that is exactly what an Exploud does. It’s the number one pokémon to justify making Sound  an official pokemon type and it that happens.. you bet I will get a plushie of Loudred as well. It is just such an amazing pokémon to me. It’s evoltion line tells a story of it getting louder and angrier as it evolves and it makes sense for it to go that way.

There is also something oddly satisfying about yelling, Exploud use Boomburst to your game.You encounter it relatively early in Hoehn as the shy and pink Whismur.. so of course  since I caught that Poochyena I mentioned earlier.. I’d take this as my normal type. Given that Zinnia made me like Whismur even more it just helped push this pokémon to greater heights to me. Fun to use, solid design and for now embodies what the normal type to me is about! An absolute number 1.

Special Shout-out to The Holy Mailman
Whose love and support on my Ko-Fi go above and beyond!
His love for the Furret Walking the World is big.. so let’s hope the song sticks in his head for the entire day! That way I can repay him for all the love… trough earthworms!

Which is your favorite normal type?
What type should I list next?
Let me know in the comments and enjoy Paradise!


XO
Pinkie

Top 5: Favorite Legendary Pokémon

Dear little subjects, this may come as no surprise to you but Princess Pinkie scores high in terms of views and likes. Of course this makes sense, because this is the only place on the internet with factually correct rankings of pokémon.  Since I princess Pinkie am such an legendary icon for this site, today we shall look at legendary pokémon as well. Fit for a princess. This list will contain ALL of the legendary subclasses. This means Ultra Beasts, Mythical Pokémon and all that jazz goes as well. While in the future this list might be split up and revisited we start things with no restrictions. 

Legendary Number 5: Tapu Lele

Tapu Lele is my favorite Island Guardian, she is cute  girly a fairy type and her ability is my favorite of all the Tapu’s as well. The case of Tapu Lele is helped that she of course is pink. It is the Akala Island guardian which so happens to be my favorite Island in the Alola region.  While arguably not the most useful ability psychic surge , which sets up psychic terrain can be a great interruptive move to your opponent’s strategies. The terrain itself will influence everything that is on the ground by sealing away priority moves. If your opponent set is build on those, like Sucker Punch or Ice Shard you can really disrupt their momentum. I like getting under the skin of my opponents and Tapu Lele allows me to do that. She just looks adorable on my team and even her brief appearances in the anime are quite cute.

However the reason why adore Tapu Lele as much as I do is actually her TCG card.  The trading card game GX version of Tapu Lele fits in every deck that relies heavily on their supporter cards. My (albeit aged) fighting deck needs me to keep as much Korina’s in my hand as possible for combo options. Tapu Lele just needs to be played to the bench (backrow) so you search for a supporter card. Since my deck’s ace is a normal pokemon and not a GX (thus low hp) Tapu Lele can also function as a (somewhat costly) wall. In other words she is an amazing supporter to virtually any deck and mine even more so. To this day the Tapu Lele card is fairly costly due to how relevant it is. While the card is now also aging rapidly it doesn’t blemish the memories of me roffle stomping my friend when I had this girl in hand and could pull of some epic combo shenanigans My current best friend Jilly just bought it for me one day and it was a really beautiful and appreciated gift. So this pokemon just has a lot of fond memories for me and she looks good while doing so.

Legendary Number 4: Regigigas 

Now for  those who know anything about pokémon this choice might be very weird! Regigigas is commonly known as one of the worst legendaries if  not the worst. Yet I have to say something to them! Everyone doubting Regigigas, saying Slow Start is the worst!. Well you are absolutely …….. true.  There is no way around it.. Regigigas is quite bad. It’s base stat totals aren’t exactly that high and his main stat is halved until five turns in! Each time you swap the ability resets. To me that is exactly what makes Regigigas so fun to play.  It is a challenge to keep it alive for five turns so that slow start ends, do you run confuse ray and protect or do you  try to sap health with a Drain Punch. It’s a battle of wits that only expands in double battles where it is such a treat to use. Frustrating at times but it feels rewarding to pull off. Especially when you can use it alongside cool team combinations.  My favorite combination is letting my gentle giant attack into my own coffagrigus which I equip with a ring target. Doing this while it uses the move power-up punch will result in a one turn .. nightmare to deal with. People usually assume I will set up trick room and either attack  It is just so much fun to see your opponent realise what just happened and how now they are doomed.

It makes the funniest sounds and I just really like normal types and underdogs and this Trio Leader is both. He is also a craftsman who just creates smaller golems while being a golem. I don’t know why I think that is cute. Something that lakes little friends for itself I always like. But mostly those sounds!  While it will do little against ghost types it will wreak havoc on the rest. It can be quite fierce in the anime, it has shown that it has the ability to control the three legendary Golems even if they are under the control of a trainer. Regigigas is more important to them which is really a nice sentiment for a pokémon and their trio master. It how ever can also be a big friend giant as well.The fact that I have nothing with stories about Golem or constructs makes the fact that I like it this much even more amazing.

LEGENDARY NUMBER 3: Kyogre

Kyogre is one of the legendaries I ever actively used on my team. I started my first game of pokémon sapphire with a blaziken, because torchic was the cutest of the three. Though I later got to appreciate Mudkip a lot more it meant that in that particular playthrough I did not really carry a water pokémon I really liked with me. While there are plenty to be found, on my first go around I just did not lay my hands on it.  I usually go complete the league first then use the money I got to catch in a dedicated fashion. I had a water HM slave but I needed something better for the league. Since you catch Kyogre before the league and relatively early compared to most games I really got to form more of a bond with it. When I came back to do a mono water type run in it (it has a lot of great water pokémon) I named my Kyogre Laboon. Laboon was great , since I had a monotype team it really helped me carry the rest trough some of the tougher final fights.

I also have fond memories of Kyogre in the trading card game.  My best friend at the time used a Kyogre and Mega-Kyogre EX deck against my Medicham Deck, and we always had exciting matches. It was great fun to battle together and catch up over a lunch before or after our game. I am thankful for the pokémon who helped me win as many games as i did, but I am also grateful to the Kyogre in the deck of Alpha-Geek. I didn’t like his Blastoise though! Stupid Deluge ability. Designwise Kyogre als always appealed to me, it’s deep blue colour is really pops and seems brighter than that of most water pokémon. Those mysterious stripes on its body really help sell a legendary quality to it. A quality that only got better when they added Primal Reversion in the remakes. 

Being a weather pokemon it is great on rain boosted teams with enough offensive power with moves like Water Spout , Thunder and Origin Pulse to hold it’s own. Choice Scarfed this Pokémon can really reduce your opponents team to nothing quite fast. It’s oigins are very much explored in the game’s narrative so you always know what pokémon you are using. This trait is oftenly lacking at other legendaries. Sure there are some signs and books to read on the events of burned tower, but the legendary birds were hardly explained during the games. Mewtwo was .. but the way Kyogre and Groudon are interwoven in their stories I think is so much better. Better than any other game in my opinion. Mewtwo I feel myself is a tad overrated (do not get me wrong it would be number six) the myth was great, the story was great but we did not get it from one source, we had to go out of our way to find all that amazing lore. As a kid that is easy to miss. They messed up the landing.. had they let Giovanni use Mewtwo in battle and afterwards you can capture it.. it would have taken this spot.  I do not mind a mystical pokémon being shrouded in mystery.. but for one so important to the story and to the world of pokémon you kind of get it late. Kyogre (and Groudon too for that matter) stuck the landing. The whale just had a super cool design and moveset to go with it. A myth , not everyone has heard about.. a legend everyone knows.. so that is why the whole mythos and Gen 3 story is Legen…..wait for it!

Legendary Number 2: Poipole

Generation VII introduced us to the first legendary who could actually evolve , Cosmog! This was something I wanted all my life… or well at least since generation one.  Unfortunately you really dont evolve Nebby the Cosmog yourself and Lillie does all the work for you. Even if you get your hands on another Cosmog and evolve it, both the basic and stage 1 evolution know no useable moves.. so you can’t actually use. My hope died that I ever got a legendary that I could raise. But one year later my prayers to Arceus were answered when I got Poipole. A legendary that could evolve into the awesome Naganadel. Yet I vastly prefer the little one. It’s design is steller it looks kind of like an alien with a dragon tail. It is a Pokémon that lives in Ultra Megatropolis , a pokémon that lives in the depths of Ultra Space.  People live here as well (though different) . In it’s world it enjoys incredible popularity and thusly is often chosen as a starter. So to put it bluntly, it’s the pikachu of an alternative eldritch infested dimension.

Being unevolved of course it does not have to amazing stats, it ends up being around the power of a first evolution starter. Exactly at the level of the Alolan starters stage 1 evolution. However it’s ability Beast Boost, which upgrades its strongest stat with each kill it makes, puts it in a league above them. Yet in all honesty by the time you get Poipole it is a bit underwhelming, but it is just so cute you do not really care and make it work.  It’s the first legendary that is a poison type which is one of my favorite types.. and thusly factually one of the best types. Ash caught one, and it is soooo adorable in the anime. Perfectly adorable! From the moment it had been caught to how it sleeps next to Rowlet in Ash bag. It is such a delight to look at in literally everything it does. Speaking of a delight to look at it’s shiny is among one of my favorites ever as well. It’s white body with golden details really resonate with me, giving it quite a regel quality for something that strange… also it kinda looks like a fried egg.. and for some reason I love it. It has a fun moveset and as Naganadel even more so, it’s an evolving Ultra Beast.. so you kind of feel like you are carrying along an overpowered baby! I LOVE overpowered monster babies!..I hate the real ones though but let’s not talk about those. Popole’s Ultra Beast name is Adhesive.. or STICKY in japanese. It must be named that way because you never want to let it go anymore and keep it with you always! I really need a poipole plushie!

Legendary Number 1: Mew

Of course Mew would be my number one, I looked under the truck, I talked to professor Oak 151 one times so he would take mine back  and trade it for a Mew, I did weird step patterns outside of Cerulean City. and so much more. We searched for hints of Mews in tons of magazines and tried to unlock it via all sorts of tricks and unless you got a gameshark or clever friends we simply never got it. It was the proverbial white whale. The only Mew I legitimately caught to this day was the one in Pokémon Go. The others where  either in fangames or randomisers, randomisers are basically ‘hacks’ which replace the pokemon spawns with different one, so your Pidgey can suddenly become Shellder and instead of hundred Zubat in caves you might find hundred Mew. When you finally get your hand one in it is a delight to use! Mew has a equal 100 in all of it’s stats which means it can literally play into any role depending on how you raise it up. That is helped by the fact that it can use ANY Technical Machine thus he learns every single move that has one. Randomised that means it can literally learn anything. 

It is the blank sheet Pokémon. When you bring it out your opponent will never know what is coming towards them so Mew always has an upper hand. Now there is a risk with a pokémon that can be everything. Can it be itself? Yes! Mew can be run with sets that no one else can but also has been given a lot of love in terms of lore and it has even gotten it’s own Z-move A little move to call it’s own. This only contributes more to it’s awesomeness. There is nothing I can about what moves makes it great because it learns everything. So let’s take a look at it’s design! It’s so pink and cute. it’s so playful it has so much personality! IT HAS A FLUFFY MARSHMALLOW DRINK!!!!! Now that it will play big role in the anime it even has me more excited for the pokemon. Now we only need a main line game where it isn’t behind  a paywall or extra item. With Go hunting for Mew in the new Pokémon Anime series , I actually think we will get it as well, as an event pokémon. I have high hopes! It’s blue shiny is super cute as well and one of the retro pokemon trading cards I am currently hunting for.. speaking of which I run a old Mew-Ex in my secondary deck as well.. because mew has the ability to use any attack of a pokemon on the board as long as he has the correct energy. So it means that if you build your deck smart Mew can use all of your own attacks, keeping the enemy guessing at your strategy. In the beginning of this post I already said I liked mind games and Mew either as a card or a monster is the ultimate pokémon for that. The Pokemon Card even created a villain in the pokemon world!! Talk about messing up minds!..It even drives me crazy! Because I gotta have that FLUFFY MARSHMALLOW DRINK!

Question to my readers:

What is  your favorite legendary?

So we conclude our list of my favorite legendaries at least for the time being. Favorite pokemon are always in shift each memory we make with them can bring them closer to our heart. So if I left your favorite out don’t feel sad that just means there is another pokemon out there for me to enjoy one day. Don’t forget my opinion is right cause I am a princess! Also…….dairy!

The Pinkest Poké Blogger is blasting off again!
XO
Pinkie 

Pink-Poké-News Week 33: World Championships Edition

Hey little monsters, welcome back again, due to sunday special today we bring you the Pink-Poké-News! Over the course of the past weekend the Nintendo World Championships 2019 took place in Washington DC. People competed to be the very best like no one ever was not one but THREE! separate games.  With up to three divisions for each game. Pokken (the Pokémon fighter game) Pokémon Trading Card game and Pokémon VGC all have new champions. This stage where titans clashed was a great source for news as well. This is Pink-Poké-News!

And the winners are?

First of all we at Pink-Poké-News would like to thank everyone participating and attending these venues. You keep our community strong and and alive. You are our backbone and our trainer. For those who do not know the Pokémon World Championships are an invite only tournament for those who have gathered enough points. These points you can gather by participating at other official tournaments and getting higher rankings in those.  So this tournament really pits the best against each other.
Generally each tournament has three divisions Junior for those of twelve and below, senior trainers are of the ages of 13 to 15 and master trainers at the age of 16 and above. Regardless of their division and age champions of the trading card game will take home a price of $25,000 dollars, winners of the VGC (video game championship.. or main game)  will take a $10,000 dollar and the winners at Pokken take home a $6000 dollar price.
Quite a difference when we compare it to Fortnite paying  3 million for the winners. But for those interested here a brief summary of the winners.

Trading Card Game Winners:
Juniors Division: Haruki Miyamoto from Japan
Seniors Division:  Kaya Lichtleitner from Germany
Masters Division: Henry Brand from Australia

As Pink-Poké-News prides itself in being the least objective news search we would like to say that seeing Kaya win her final match was the best moment of the TCG for us. Kaya placed second last year and it is great to see a strong european and female presence at the top of the crop. Thank you Kaya! And congratulations to all winners of course.

Video Game Championship Winners
Juniors Division:Pi Wu from Taiwan
Seniors Division:  Ko Tsukide from Japan
Masters Division: Naoto Mizobunchi from Japan

VGC is a format that features two on two fights which doesn’t which means it’s quite a different.. and kind of trickier format than your standard one v one battles. So you still have ways to defeat these champions. Naoto was interviewed at the end. Not very high on charisma but he managed to charm this reporter and the public when he was asked. “Who would you like to thank?’ Naoto without a moment of thought looked at the reporter and said (trough translator) ‘Noone it was really just me’

Pokken Tournament DX  Winners:
Seniors Division: Ashgreninja1
Masters Division: Subatan

The news crew over at Pink-Poké-News is less into competitive d fighting games than they are into 2d fighting games. The zoning and trapping just doesnt gel to well. It was nice to see Ash take the stage and thanking the community for making tournaments like these possible though.
As for the game itself, personally I find a bit too much meta to have snuck in so let’s hope that next year we really see someone push the envelope there. Once more congrats to all winners and giving us pokéfans such an amazing weekend!

The Arrival of V

With Sword and Shield coming to your Switch, it will also come to your decks very soon. The Pokémon TCG has announced that their game is eVolving.  After the Team-Up cards we are getting new mysterious V cards. Little is known but they will function like a GX or classic EX card. If your V card is knocked out your opponent gets  two prize cards. In the trailer we see a card shrouded in darkness with 330 hp. The average these days would be around 250, back when the reporter used to play this was about 180, with our deck hero only having 90 hp. We see a Zacian have an attack called brave blade, an attack that deals 230 damage with the downside it can’t attack next turn. Zamazenta has the attack Assault tackle which forces the opponent to discard special energy. Unfortunately energy cost has not been revealed yet so we can not  deduce their typings yet. Based on the spacing between the edge and the name.. of the move and the card edges it would however seem they have a fairly high energy cost. Though not much is revealed it seems that V cards are going to have just a single attack and a “bigger ability” however this has yet to be confirmed. It will be interesting to see what V cards will actually bring to the table.

Competitive Sword and Shield

Pokémon also released  a new trailer for Sword and Shield. No new Pokémon or story elements were described but catering to their demographic Nintendo offered a trailer that wet the appetites of competitive battlers, with some new modes, abilities and items it was a very solid , well thought out trailer that will show us the changes in the competitive metagame. Ladies and gentle people Nintendo is actually listening.   

The unstoppable Dynamax
A few new mechanics about Dynamax were revealed in the new trailer that can leave a definite impact on the battle ground. All max moves have a secondary effect that is the same regardless of what base move it replaces. The Max Grass attack for example will set up Grassy Terrain, while Max Flying will have the same effect as defog and remove hazards. The Max Ice move will set up hail. This in itself will make Dynamax much more fluent  and balanced than Mega-Evolution or Z-moves. The focus is back to controlling the battle momentum by having a team. In most recent games you build your team around a Mega-Evolution and have a strong meta in your way to play. Since every pokémon can Dynamax without an item, you can pick the way your team flows. Will you use Dynamax to set up the Rain for speed and power or will you negate the opponent’s strategy by dynamaxing your flying pokemon. Pokémon is becoming so much more than a single mon’s game again which is super exciting. Dyanmaxxed Pokémon won’t be able to flinch and will (partially)  be able to attack through a protect, making the moment you Dynamax absolutely crucial in battle. It lasting only three turns means being smart about this is an absolute must.

New Items
We have also heard about two new held items which both are something quite amazing.
Room Service will be a super fun item to use for people using a trick room team.  In Pokémon who goes first is determined by who has the highest speed. However the move Trick Room makes it so that the slower Pokémon go first. It’s a tactic that is often used by the more bulky/defensive playstyle pokémon, that can turn the tide of battle.  However it is very hard to build an entire team that functions in Trick Room, however Room Service is an item that will reduce your pokémon speed by one stage (from 0 to -1 means your stat is 0.66 of it’s original) allowing a lot more monsters to be viable in the twisted dimensions. Giving new depth to the game. 
Eject Pack: The Eject Pack will be a consumable item which switches the user out once it’s stats are lowered. Switching out a Pokémon resets their stat changes to 0 (0 means 100% regular stats) In Pokémon there are a lot of moves that deal massage damage with the trade of of lowering your stats, this item will let you switch them out for free (once per battle) This on itself would be great but it basicly alters moves like Draco meteor or Super Power, into extreme switch moves like U-Turn or Volt Switch (Moves used to deal damage while switching Pokémon.. opposed to hard switching which consumes your turn) .  Since the item also pops when your opponent lowers your stats as well it can become a bit of a double edged sword where the item becomes wastable.. just adding more excitement and giving your opponents possible counters.

New Abiltiies
Mirror Armor is one of the two new abilities that has been released.. and like everything that was announced it is awesome. It reflects any stat lowering effect your opponent uses on you.. back to the one triggering it. Corviknight is currently the only pokémon known to receive this ability but as he is going to be a tank pokémon this ability suits him greatly. If your opponent has a  pokémon with the ability intimidate (lowers attack modifier with 1 stage) Corviknight will make sure that ability is reflected back to the user itself. Most intimidate users are physical attackers themselves so this ability could be a game changer.
Neutralising Gas however is the ability that is shown in memes. Galarian Weezings ability negates ALL other pokémon effect that are on the field.  The impact on the game is huge. Not only can you mess up your opponent nicely, you can also use this to remove bad traits on your Pokémon. I could remove defeatist from my beloved Archeops, you can run Slaking without Truant and you can retrigger field effects by swapping Weezing in and out next to a weather pokémon to retrigger the weather. You can trigger intimidate multiple times and so much more. Hats off to you Galarian Weezing you really are amazing.

Ranking system
Competitive battling will finally have a decent matchmaking system by giving you access to tiered ranks. Named Pokéball Great Ball Ultra Ball and Master rank. It will make battling quite a bit more fun for people like me and maybe you who on occasion like a battle but don’t commit to breeding the perfect little monsters. This Battle Stadium mode will also allow you to participate in friendlier battles where everything goes like legendaries and certain move combinations. Ranked mode will of course be a bit more strict and level the playing field with updating rules to keep it balanced.  We know too little to go deeper to go speculating and call it good yet but should they do this properly this reporter and her alternate personalities might dabble with competitive. 

Mobile game news

Pokémon Go and Pokémon Master news will be combined in this one given that they both only had just a titbit of new information. Pokémon Masters has passed a mark of having 5 million pre registered users showing us the game will at least be quite healthy before it even starts. Plenty of countries don’t have the pre-registration as well as a lot of people won’t bother and just will go for it upon release. We think it’s a great sign that so many people are taking interest in this mobile game, the developers seem to have put a lot of love and attention in this game and it’s nice to see people of the Pokémon community are at least able to somewhat drop the stigma surrounding mobile games. Just because it’s a different form of gaming that focus on other forms of payment doesn’t make it bad and soulless.

Pokémon Go had some exciting news. On the 23rd of august there will be a water festival event during which we can catch a lot of aquatic pokémon and are able to hunt for shiny barboach and carvanha. A fun way to fill up some of your box spots. However don’t go to wild because it looks like you are going to need your space soon. The goals of Pokémon Go fest Yokohama have been reached which means all players will get the so called Ultra  Unlock Bonus. Least year it resulted in regionals being in eggs, this year we get something else.
-Unusual Pokémon will be appearing in the wild during this week.
-Noteworthy opponents are coming to raids, too.
-Over the course of the event, you may also be able to add some Pokémon to your Kanto Pokédex that previously eluded you in your part of the world.
-Venture out to take on challenges and make discoveries.
-As always, happy exploring, Trainers!
These five bullet marks read down Unova the fifth Pokémon region that is the next in line to be implemented in Go It looks like soon we can finally expand our collection again! Maybe this reporter can find her spark for the game back that way.

Pinkie’s Pokémon joins OWLS

Those who have visited my website rather than my reader recently may have already noticed. This Blogger has joined OWLS. OWLS is an acronym for Otaku Warriors for Liberty and Self-respect.  A group of bloggers dedicated to promoting individuality without having to conform to stereotypes. To give people who are different a community where they are the same as well. No matter the colour of skin, sexual preference or what way you identify you are an Otaku or part of a fandom, someone that can enjoy the same stuff we all like. To me being a part of OWLS feels quite amazing. I am a part of the LGBT+ society myself and I have seen the embracing power of the geek/otaku community first hand.  Being part of OWLS feels like sharing that warm welcoming blanket I received.
Having joined the group will mean I shall partake in their blog tours from the next month on , meaning you will quite possibly see some non (fully) pokémon content for me. Though I will try to keep a Pokémon theme where possible but you can expect some fresh posts from me in the future. Besides the blog tour I would like to do my own little OWLish thing called OtakUnite.  A post I will make fusing my beloved pokémon fandom with the fandom of one of the people commenting on the post.
What I do with it will remain a surprise until the post launches! All you have to do is make a suggestion! So who wants to do a fusion dance with me?  Who wants their fandom spliced with mine and prove we aren’t that different and all?!

Let’s united my fellow Otaku? Let me know what show you want me to connect with Pokémon for the first OtakUinited post and who knows your suggestion might get picked! United we can create some amazing things.
Remember:
I am not weird! Just very pink!
Until we read again.