Tag: Typing

Gotta Make Em All: Turning Pinkie into a Pokémon

Hear Ye Hear Ye Princess Pinkie has returned with a Pokémon Post

Salutations , Loyal Subjects and Island Guests.  I am a creative writer in spirit, and a concept designer in blood! As a result I often find myself pondering questions like “what if Irina was A Pokémon ” or “What if Indigo was a Pokémon”?  On this blog I answered  these questions. These posts  enjoyed moderate success but never did as well as “less creative” posts.  So I forgot about them for a while.. but I decided to bring this back!  What better way to start with the most obvious omission in my lineup so far! Myself! What would I be like as a Pokémon?!

The Typing of Pinkie

File:Pokémon Fairy Type Icon.svg - Wikimedia Commons

Like the two that have come before me, to design me as a Pokémon we first need to find out what typing I am. My primary typing of course is super easy! It would be the fairy type! Not only is it represented by the colour pink, it also has that whole spirit and cutesie vibe I often try to go for!  If I had the money I would totally be wearing lolita clothing a lot, and fill my house with adorable plushies and sweets and what not!  I love the fairy typing to bits!  From it’s attack esthetics to the way it functions.  I am really afraid of metal things oftenly.. it seems so painful to me, and I am sickly and prone to diseases so a weakness to the steel and poison type makes perfect sense to me. I like to break through guys/warriors types by cuteness and charm so my strength against the fighting type would also be explained. 
In general I really like how the fairy type works and I am pretty sure it fits me as well. So obviously I will stick with it! It means I can use a lot more pink in my design.

File:Pokémon Psychic Type Icon.svg - Wikimedia Commons

The second typing is where things get tricky for me! There are a few options. There is a good case for the psychic type, as I love mind games and reading people and in real life I am a bit of a manipulator. Not Persé in the bad sense, but rather than convince people to give me what I want, I’ll be more inclined to convince people they want to give that to me.An example is when I would go out back in the days with friends, I would not tell them I really want to go to club A. I would look at what they want and try to connect that to Club A so their desire changes to align with mine. Mind tricks if you will! Yet there is a bit of a problem!  In general in Pokémon , that is not really how the psychic type works!  It is more about brute mental power and telekinesis, and even though I do believe I can use telekinesis I just have not figured out how yet.. it might not be the best typing to convey this idea of the puppeteer.

File:Pokémon Ghost Type Icon.svg - Wikimedia Commons

A typing that I think would fit this idea much better would be the ghost type!  With moves like Spite, Curse and their being prone to learn moves like Dream Eater and Nightmare fits me a lot better. It also offers me a reason to become a pokémon! I am not the healthiest person in the world. I have come face to face with the limits of my own mortality and I even crossed it once. Part of the reason that I have this blog is to live on, after I leave the land of the living. To leave some ideas and my voice behind and let it reach places it could not travel otherwise. This whole living on metaphor could be a great way to become a pokémon! I one day woke up beside my body but refused to pass on so I became a ghost Pokémon.. not in the somber way but as in a spirit that wants to experience more from this world even though life has already passed me by! An embodiment of Joy de Vivre of loving life and it’s adventure. 

Designing Pinkie

Banette (Pokémon) - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia
Banette

Now that we have established my typing we can move onto the design phase.  A Unicorn Duck Pokémon would be the most obvious choice. Yet I feel that would be a little bit too obvious. I will include some design elements of that in here, but I feel I want to take this design in a bit of a different direction.  My Pokémon Counterpart unlike other ghosts should not feel particularly cursed. She is not sad she is dead.  Rather than that she takes a page out of School Live’s book and rather would deny she is dead. She wants to have more fun and wants to live more! And while that sometimes comes at the cost of other peoples she would want to present things cutely, as it would get things done. I would think a cute Pokémon Name for me would be Vidolly. A basic design content I think that would fit me very well is the idea of a haunted doll.  Kind of like how Banette is a discarded plushie, though kind of the other way around.  Instead of a toy that got discarded and became vengeful, this is a beloved toy that became that host for it’s passed away owner. Bound together by love to give their owner a second chance at “life”

Of course it would be a very princessy doll! Though in canon there might be several variations based on the Lolitha variants. Stuff like Sweet Lolita, Goth Lolita , Punk Lolita and Wa lolita.  Hime Lolita seemed like a logical choice but from a design perspective it looks a lot like Sweet Lolita so I am combining the two. Let’s go with the name Hime-Form Vidolly,  Goth-Form Vidolly, etc. For those who don’t know what Wa form Vidolly would be, it would be something more traditional Japanese. More elaborate versions of Kimono and Yukata like designs. When summoned out of their Pokéball or as a basic attack animation a Vidolly would shoot out shadowing strings almost like a puppeteer which then would form the attack they are performing or hit their enemy to try and manipulate them. 

October 2014 – OMG Girls Game!

Vidolly would statistically be around the stat total of Mawile or Absol.. a slight bit higher making it more relevant like their mega Counterparts.  Yet not fully a mega, so somewhere in between.  It would not evolve from or into a Pokémon. A cool alternative idea would be to make it an alternative evolution for Shuppet that needs an item, but I would like to keep this pokémon Genderless if possible.. you know to simulate my Panda-ness! I would prefer if the Vidolly would be static encounters you can find across the world in certain places, after midnight.  It would be a cool capture mechanic that fits the ghost theme. The pokémon would get two abilities based on if you recently changed the clock of your game or not. If you did the ability Vidolly would get is Manipulator, which disables a random move on the target it is switched in against. (Like cursed body but random and not upon hit but upon entry) If you haven’t switched your clock within the past 48 hours Vidolly would get the ability Life Lust, where each move with a secondary effect would heal 50% of damage given instead. IOW all moves with secondary effects turn into leech life. 

Vidolly-Hime Form

Pokédex Entries for Pinkie

Gentle on the goods, OK? — Rotom Dex

A good ghost pokémon pokédex entry makes you read it and go “wow, that’s rather dark”  Vidolly’s story is a bit more uplifting but there will be some implications here.  With a very basic entry along the lines of something like “ Even Death could not take away her will to live, so once the girl took her final breath her life force instead of passing on moved into her favourite doll, wanting to experience life once again and share this joy with others”  It is both a tragic and a good fate! This is a ghost which has gotten a second life rather than something that is defined as “dead”. Sure the second life is as a ghost..but  since a Pokémon still is kinda alive she is also alive!  It will be up for debate, which will be the angle of her secondary angle.  “Scientists can’t agree if Vidolly is alive or dead, her will to live inside an inanimate object baffles scientists everywhere. Vidolly considers herself very much alive and will enjoy life at any cost”   

Cloud & Crane ~ Kimono Style Wa Lolita Dress by OCELOT
Wa Style Lolita! Just imagine this as a porcelain doll!

Vidolly, as an unevolving ghost much like Mimikyu, would be a static encounter. Meeting her would be tricky like I said before.  She only shows up at four different places.  The Goth Vidolly would show up at midnight in the ghost tower, graveyard or ghost or dark type gym! Each Pokémon game always has an area like this, a place of mourning or dark energy or something like that.  She will be the most obvious version to find. Wa form Vidolly would show up at more classic locations, something like “the hot springs” , the “japanese restaurant” the “Kimono girl house”. Temples would be a fine location for her as well  or if anything else fails at the entrance of the Pokémon League. It’s the traditional variant so something with a bit of status or mysticism to it. Punk Vidolly is found at a location that is basically the opposite of Wa-Vidolly. She is most likely found in a location filled with technology (as Punk Lolita’s mostly have steampunk designs)  such as the evil team base that has been abandoned after you defeat them. Perhaps something like the Pokémon Mansion from Kanto where Mewtwo was designed.  At worst at the Pokémon lab.. as long as it is not in the started town.. because……….

The version that I identify with, Hime-Vidolly, would be the most tricky one to get.. or the easiest one once you know how.  Because I am a Pokémon player and the ghost princess deserves something special as well, Hime-Vidolly would only show up in the players house after midnight. Now of course this seems like a super easy catch, but it is not!   Not exactly!  You would find a rumor mid way in the game.  The previous owner of my house just vanished without a trace a npc would say.. Now every night I get a feeling something is watching over me.  It would be a hint that to find Hime-Vidolly you need to create a character.. then delete your old save to start with a new character. In other words.. The ghost that possesses Hime-Vidolly is that of the player’s former character. Here the non-gendered character comes into play again as it would work for both a male or female avatar, even though Vidolly will identify as female in all her dex entries and in the anime.  I think it is a nice twist and just enough ghosty darkness to make Hime-Vidolly a fan favourite.

Pinkie’s Role

Vidolly would not be the most offensive Pokémon out there, nor would she be the worst.  She would be a special attacker that focuses on controlling the momentum of the battlefield.  Vidolly uses moves like Sweet Kiss, or Lovely Kiss to confuse an enemy or put them to sleep, or even both. This isn’t  to say she is a flirt but more like a soothing presence people like and find hard to hit. I would replace kiss with hug to make it more clean and in line with the character but these I can assure you would be platonic kisses. From there Vidolly would proceed to use offensive moves like Hex and Dream-eater  on her manipulator set or Moonblast on her  Life-Lust set. Moves like Curse will also show up in her repertoire. As a result she has a very mixed stat pool, slightly on the more bulky side. She’d be fairly similar to Chansey, where she has a LOT of HP! Opposed to Chansey she is better at fighting off physical moves than special moves.  She isn’t as bulky as Chansey though as she will have some special attacks as well. Her physical attack would be lower than even Shuckles or Magikarps. 

One of the  Vidolly would excel in double battles. Her Manipulator version could disable a move while with disable she blocks a second one off. Allowing you to gain momentum on your Pokémon. Life Lust Vidolly  is better at single battles. Where she functions as a hard physical wall that can put to sleep anything that switches in. She would work very well on entry hazard teams. Her speed is not great but most Pokémon that know Rapid Spin would start off slower so depending on her calls, she can overcome this by utilising sleep. Encore might be a good move to put on her if you put some speed IV’s into her as she is immune to three typings and because of her high health pool, she rarely gets oneshot. Gengar would be her worst enemy though! In PVE Life Lust Vidolly is without a doubt the better version of the two! It’s healing and high number of immunities make her a great pick up for Nuzlockes as well.  Her special attack stat would be around the 80/90 is area so while not amazing it would be respectable enough to use her!

A final special thing about Vidolly is how she would react to your friendship building mechanics. All modern games have something that builds friendship or lives with Pokémon.  Usually this involves playing (minigames) with them and feeding them. Vidolly would be able to play by herself! A quirk. If you throw a ball in Pokémon Camp in Galar, Vidolly instead of returning it would go off with it and play by herself.. perhaps with other pokémon as well but she would not give you the toys back! If we see the return for Pokémon Amie, and the minigames when you are leveling up with Vidolly you will notice that sometimes  the game plays by itself or your controls suddenly invert. Nothing to major but just something to show you Vidolly is having some fun herself! I honestly think they should do this to more Ghost Pokémon..but now that I am one I’d tell you, I would definitely steal your game.. so I could have more fun!

And that is me as a Pokémon! I As well as create an entire species of Pokémon with it!  I will work on making my bestie Summer into a Pokémon next. She asked once before and then stuff happened and it never happened but now I am ready! If you want to be turned into a pokémon let me know! I will make it happen! What do you think of Vidolly? What would you imagine yourself as a Pokémon to be like?! Let me know in the comments! I will see you all in my next post! Stay Random!

Pokémon Top 5: My Favourite Dragon Types

We are almost done my friends! It has been a journey that with breaks and missed days took us almost six month! Today we list the penultimate favourite Top  5 Pokémon of a certain type! That type is the crowd favourite Dragon Type.. defeated by ice.. Itself.. why it is on this spot on my list and it is defeated by my favourite type! It is not a type I enjoy using a whole lot even. They are just such a hassle to raise. With most Pokémon Games having a lackluster after game..it’s hard to enjoy these before you are done with the game..so I still wonder how to train my dragon.

Rules and Honourable Mentions

This list was started to showcase as much love for Pokémon as possible so we only add one entry per evolution line and it can only make one list if it has a dual typing. For that reason Noivern is excluded from this list who’d definitely make it in the top 3 of my favourite dragons otherwise. Since evolutions are now much harder to stop I will also hold it against a pokémon if it evolves into something I don’t like. .and for this reason Axew is on my list! I love that little dragonny guy. But his final evolution, Haxorus, is sooooo boring. I don’t like the colour, it looks very murky and it just has no stand out traits. Thus I never like evolving my Axew past Fraxure.. and therefore it is a nice honourable mention.

The second rule I have always wielded is that a Pokémon has to feel like it’s part of the actual type. And The Dragon Type actually is mishandeld quite a bit. I don’t feel Latios or Latias are Dragons , I don’t think Zygarde in most of his forms looks like a Dragon, Altaria, Kindra , Sliggoo, Mega Ampharos.  None of these feel like dragons to me! But perhaps the biggest offender, yet a Pokémon I really love for it’s completely goofy design is Alolan Exegegcutor. It looks so unique for a pokémon and I love how in games you basically never see it’s head!  It is always off screen that is how big it is. Same for Pokémon Go.. that is hilarious and we did not have a better grass Dragon back then either.. we do now.. but it still earns a spot on this list.

Finally no temporary forms are allowed on this list. So Mega Charizard X is not allowed as for the majority of the adventure that pokémon comes with you as another typing. Not that I particularly love Charizard. No! My entry for this spot is Ultra Necrozma. I love it’s design I love it’s flavouring and most of all I love it’s musical theme! It is my favourite piece of music in Pokémon maybe.. though the Galar0 gym team is very good as well of course!  It is a an actual Dragon Psychic type in my eyes unlike the Latios and Latios and it is the single best boss Pokémon we ever fought. Also if you are not checking this out in WordPress Reader, check out the Ultra Necrozma theme below!

Dragon Type #5: Flygon

Flygon had the privilege of being the first Dragon Type I had in active use.  I caught myself a Trapinch as I liked it’s cry and went through the works with it! Ground types are quite useful and it matched my team fairly well. I did not expect it to turn into a dragon but that was a neat surprise. I For a long time I believed Vibrava was a Ground Bug type but I certainly had some fun with it. I really like it’s unique design , the rich green colour and heck I can even appreciate it’s shiny! Though I do feel that kinda belongs in the 90’s . It  is a bit lackluster in combat compared to some other Dragons but that also gives it some shine. I do not like how so many Dragons have super high stats but trash stats to begin with and in case of this evolution line it is all a bit more paced out. Vibrava has some usefulness. Even Trapinch is..so it is just a fun pokémon to carry around.

Pokédex entry wise there is not a lot to say about Flygon! In fact the only thing that really is explained in earlier games is that it has a red membrane over its eyes shielding itself from sand.  Its wings are powerful enough to whip up big sandstorms and as it prefers desert-like areas it has been given the nickname the Spirit of the Desert.  Even across versions this is usually the only thing that is said about this pokémon. Luckily we have Pokémon Sun and Moon.. you know those games where the pokédex entries all went a bit  heavy on the dark side?! Well in there it is stated that Flygon can beautifully sing and steal peoples heart so they wander through his deserts. It then uses sandstorms to hide Sandile and Krookodile in the storm so they can kill humans and pokémon or whatever they might prey on. They then share this prey with Flygon! So while Flygon is seen as a good boy by the fandom.. there is a dark side to it.. also there are Dakimakura of lewd Flygon’s out there so I bet it’s darkness goes even further.

In combat Flygon is pretty lackluster for a Dragon Pokémon. With a Base Stat total of 520 of which it’s physical attack stat and it’s speed stat are the highest at a total of 100 it struggles to keep up with other Dragons. However this does make it an excellent Dragon Dance user. It’s ability to levitate makes it immune to ground types, it is immune to electric types but very weak to ice. Which means you will probably want to run it as a mixed attacker.  Earthquake , Dragon Dance, Fire Blast (for scaring away those ice types)  and Dragon Claw makes a good set for this pokémon. Dragon Dance boosts speed and physical attack and while Fire Blast is inaccurate and special, it’s high base power and the fact that Flygon has a passable special attack makes it viable enough to use.  This isn’t an easy pokémon to use but if you can get a few Dragon Dance’s off and scare off your opponent it can surely bring you victory.

Dragon Type #4 Rayquaza

Rayquaza is probably my favourite looking Dragon Type ever! It should be my number one but I don’t like using legendaries.  It feels cheap. Yet Rayquaza and Mega Rayquaza look so amazing. They have unique moves and abilities as well. There is lots of lore and story around Rayquaza and it really feels like  it is a bigger part of the pokémon world. It even played an important role in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. There is so much Rayquaza love that it really had an impact on me. Like how Zacian and Zamenzenta seemed really important.. just the story of their game was really bad. When A pokémon looks this amazing, you HAVE to use it in ORAS post game and there is significant content for it..it deserves a spot on my list

Most people know it as a part of the ruler of the Weather Trio. It was the Pokémon that put an end to the conflict between Kyogre and Groudon and it is a Pokémon that really has a beef with Deoxys.  It normally resides high above the clouds in the ozone layer. There it moves around consuming meteorites which have caused it to awaken to the power of Mega Evolution. It is said this pokémon is hundreds of millions years old and since the beginning of its life has lived about the clouds. Constantly flying through the ozone layer invisible from the land. It will only come down if Kyogre and Groudon will clash again. How exactly it stopped the Pokémon of Land and the Pokémon of water has been lost to legends. 

Rayquaza is not really allowed in much competitive formats let alone Mega Rayquaza.  Most sets are fairly similar amongst them and use Sword Dance for a powerful but trail sweeper, or Dragon Dance for a slightly less strong but more quick hitter. Personally I prefer the Sword Dance set as I love bringing Webs as hazards on my team which slow my enemy down! Equipped with it’s signature move Dragon Ascent, Victini’s Signature move V-Create (yes it can learn it but you can replace it with earthquake if you don’t want stat dropping moves)  and the always useful Extreme Speed this pokémon is a force to be reckoned with.  Like with Xerneas and Yveltal and to a lesser extent Zacian and Zamazenta these are pokémon you need to use in gameplay so this pokémon scores a lot of points for that. It actually feels cool instead of cheaty to use this legendary and the moves it has and uses really befit a legendary! I vastly prefer legendaries with signature moves that are actually useful. It gives yet another reason to use them in combat so Rayquaza is a solid pick.

Dragon Type #3 Hydreigon

There is something I really dislike about Dragons! Nearly all of them.. at least the ones that are good have a quadruple weakness. Everything except for my number two pick is quad weak to one of the dragon’s major counters. Hydreigon would have been my favourite dragon had it not had the worst quad weakness. It is a Dragon/Dark type so it can not take hits from Fairies. Add to that that it only evolves at the atrociously late level of 64! Which is 9 levels later than Dragonite.Still I LOVE this pokémon! It’s design is so fierce! It’s line mimicking that of a Hydra with it’s evolution getting more and more heads.. Dark and Dragon might be the coolest type out there. I don’t think there are any besides him either. It’s first evolution is super cute and it is the most fun line to have with you of all the dragons. It can do just about everything you expect a dragon to do and it’s cave colour scheme feels so in line with what we’ve seen in caves before! Thought went into this one!

The pokédex lore says this creature isn’t exactly the most kind. The dark type is called the evil type in Japan and this one really lives up to that name. It uses its six wings to fly in the sky but it is SO violent and aggressive that the only thing it needs to attack something is movement. It will attack and DESTROY anything that moves.Two of it’s heads.. the arm heads as they are called do not have brains so they continuously devour everything never feeling like they had enough to eat. The main head does join in for it’s fair share of violence though taking an almost equal share in all the killing. In Galar there are plenty of stories of Hydreigon that have destroyed villages entirely. As long  as Hydreigon spots movement it will continue to consume and devour until nothing but itself moves. 

Hydreigon is a very scary wallbreaker in the OU tier.. the most competitive tier so it does show how good it is. With its lowest stats being in the 90’s range and it’s special attack being at 125 this pokémon is very powerful but has no real weaknesses at least in the stat department. With the move Nasty Plot, it can continuously hail down Draco Meteor on your opponent. With a single move it can recover from the greatest weakness of  the Dragon Type’s strongest move. If you can set up beforehand it can even hit harder.  With additional moves like Flash Cannon , being a steel type move or Flamethrower being a fire type move it’s offensive coverage is great. Dark Pulse can give it a good flinch chance with high damage output still and moves like Roost will dramatically improve it’s survivability.  This pokémon both in lore as in combat is truly fearsome…unless you have a pink little creature by your side.. then you are probably fine!

Dragon Type #2 Dracovish

Generation 8 introduced me to my two favourite Dragon Types of all time.. and it is all because of the way Dragon Types are handled. Dracovish is one of the four fossil pokémon in the game and strictly theoretical this pokémon has the strongest move EVER in a pokémon game! I love it’s weird design! It feels and in a way is a science experiment gone wrong. But the positive is.. it doesn’t evolve and you can get this pokémon mid-game. This means Dracovish much like my number 1 can be an active part of your journeys.  While I did not walk around with a Dracovish the fact that it has a move that can have a base power of well over 5x that of the most powerful move in the game makes this a very odd thing in the pokémon world. I like oddities and this is what I feel Dragon’s can be like as well. Instead of giving us insane level requirements give us weird set up material for it to truely shine. Dracovish really utilised the Dynamax mechanic.. not Persé as the Pokémon that grows but one that really benefits from the weather effect.

Being introduced in Galar only we do not get a lot of trivia about this pokémon yet! What we do know is that much like Hydreigon it can be a bit ruthless. Weirdly enough even though it is a combination of two mismatched fossil halves it seemed to exist in the past like this as well. There it was driven to extinction by its own devices. It hunted for prey so fiercely that eventually it ended up starving itself due to overhunting. It has experienced other problems as well. It’s body is very much made to dwell on land and it can be fairly fast with running speeds of about miles per hours. It can’t maintain that for long though because it can only breath underwater.. as it’s head is a fish! That is just hilarious and if you have seen these lists you know I like awkward pokémon like that.

In combat Dracovish is very hard to use. With only a base stat total of 505 and his defence being his highest stat at 100, it seems very lackluster. However.. it knows the move Fishious Rend. Fishious Rend is an 85 base power move that doubles in power if the user goes First. Making it a 170 Base power move in that case. Since Dracovish is a water type it gets a same type attack bonus of 50% on that. So when it hits a Fishous Rend it would hit for 235 base power?! So far nothing that special! Most Pokémon with powerful moves get STAB (Same Type Attack)  Bonuses. Draco Meteor from  Hydreigon above would most likely still do more!  But then there is Dracovish’s ability! Strong Jaw.. which powers up biting moves by 50%. After all other calculations! So Suddenly this move takes a giant leap to a base power of 340 ish. Which is quite the number.. and then there is the Dynamax mechanic. Every water move used in Dynamax form sets up the rain. While you usually don’t want Dracovish itself to evolve, along with a rain setter, or a dynamax rain setter boosts it greatly. Because any water type  move in the rain .. you guessed it.. gets a 50% power boost post other calculations. Putting Fishious Rend’s optimal Base power at 510. With an item like a choice scarf or god forbid a choice band (you need web setters or paralysers or a trick room user)  this means Dracovish can attack as if it has been given 3 turns of set up from the get go. So unique but very cool!

My Favourite Dragon Type :  Appletun

No Dragonite is not on this list. I don’t like how it suddenly turns from blue to orange and gains the flying type after being found in the ocean. It doesn’t learn good flying moves either so it just happend to make it weaker to ice. If Ice is going to be my weakness I rather run with my Pokémon that is also an apple pie! This looks more unique, actually learns grass moves and again is available mid game! My Appletun had been with me for a very large part of my Pokémon Shield playthrough and I got so attached to it! It is amazing. Never EVER have I bonded so much with a Dragon. It’s compact design and it’s goofy animations make it a delight to have it walking around your camp and it is no slouch in combat either. It is not the most powerful or competitively viable pokémon but for the story playthrough it is incredibly good!  I named my Appletun Tarte Tartin because why not!  It sounds cute and fancy and it is actually related to Apple Pie! It is apple Pie! The fact that a baby dragon got into an apple and it evolves by eating yet another apple makes it a wonderfully wacky pokémon that I will hold close to my heart forever.

Pokédex wise we don’t see much difference from Dracovish.. it’s a fresh pokémon so there isn’t a lot to say.  This pokémon is popular amongst children because they would eat it’s skin as a treat. I am not sure if that means after it is dead or if it regrows.. but well eating the skin of something that is alive sounds kinda unappealing. No matter how sweet it may taste. Galar children are quite horrible either way if they kill this cutie or if they steal his skin! The pie of the little beast is slathered in nectar …the body is  about pie sized just fatter and higher. So dare I say it might be an American Pie?!.. Eeew… that gave me a visual I did not want. This nectar functions as an armor but it also lures in bugs which Appletun happily eats. Making the idea of kids eating it’s skin grosser… there is dead bugs in there kids! Still stay away from my baby!  It also has a Gigantamax form in which it turns into a giant apple covered in nectar! In this form it’s nectar has become more like armor but it also uses it to cover it’s opponents and drown them in the sweet goop!

Appletun has a special attack of 110 which is not bad for a Pokémon that evolves with a simple item.  It also gets a signature grass type move named Apple Acid which is a nice 80 base power move that lowers your opponents special defences  With an HP stat of 110 Appletun is quite bulky as well so it really works well with Leftovers as a held item to recover or Giga drain if it can deal super effective damage. With moves like Dragon Pulse and Draco Meteor on the side you have a wide arrangement of options available to you to deal damage. Choice Specs might also be a good shout-out as a held item. It really puts a bit of kick into this cake! It has not that many recognised movesets yet due to official tournaments and such not being a thing right now, so who knows you might have more fun with leech seeds, left over, giga drain to create the immortal apple pie!  With it unique Gigantamax move G-max Sweetness.. we get a pretty accurate description of using Appletun though! Sweet!

In the end I ended up without any of the classic Dragons all because of some piece of pie! It looks clunky, it has a bit of awkward lore with children eating it, it has good stats and the fact that both my number 1 and 2 can be a part of your journey in a significant capacity really helps. There is so much persona to Appletun and I really would love to see one scurrying across my house doing tired sighs from just moving little bits! I fell in love with this pokémon and a Dragon Type never did that before.It goes in against the stereotypical idea of a dragon and makes something still IS a dragon but also something completely else! Appletun has found it’s way into my heart like a worm..dragon-thing to an apple! The Winner is Appletun!

Who is your favourite Dragon?! Do you use Dragon Types a lot?!  How do you train your dragon?!  Let me know in the comments!   I expect to see a lot of Salamance and Dragonite.. but feel free to prove me wrong or right! Now it’s time for me to blast off again! As I found a new game in which I can catch a dragon!

Pokémon Top 5: My Favourite Ghost Types

Welcome again Island Guests!  We have discussed Pokémon 15 Types so far.  Three more to go!  The Ghost type is not super effective against the poison type I discussed last time..which had determined my order until now ! But it IS super effective against itself! One of the fan favourite types that is kind of frail. While definitely one of my favourites when it comes to Pokédex Entries this type is my absolute favourite. When it comes to actually favouring a type it’s actually quite mid tier for me!  I did this list once.. but my answers have changed a bit with how much I learned!

Rules and Honourable Mentions

As always to keep this list diverse I will not allow Pokémon that were on prior lists. I am not sure any ghosts made it on my lists normally due to how prominent the typing is. So there aren’t that many conflicting issues. However under the same rule I only add one entry per evolutionary line in! Since Gen VIII made evolution harder to cancel if I do not like a final evolution, I will mark down the previous forms. Even if it’s not a Gen VIII Pokémon it seems fairer that way. Pumpkaboo and Phantump are for me forms I really like, but both their final evolutions feel a bit meh! With Trevenant being okay but Gourgeist not feeling fully evolved for me. I can’t shake the “is this it?” feeling. It’s fine.. but it really feels like a mid evolution to me! So Pumkaboo takes this honourable mention. Had there been a form above Gourgeist it would have made the list.

Another rule is that ghost types have to feel like ghost types. Decidueye for example doesn’t feel like a ghost type to me and simply gets the type because it’s based on an extinct Owl. However I talked about him enough so he doesnt get the honourable mention on this rule. That goes to Dhelmise. While I very much get why it’s a ghost.. and it’s possessed seaweed around an anchor..and it fit’s the ghost ship theme.. I feel like it should be a Steel Grass type. Dhelmise gets the ability Metal Worker which effectively gives it a steel typing in the form of adding Same Type Attack bonus to his attacks but I feel that should have been swapped out for Possessed..which would give Ghost STAB as a result. In the end I do just see a seaweed covered anchor. I love it but it’s the ghost part that is implied rather than the steel bit. 

Temporary forms also do not count! So Mega’s do not count. This for me excludes Mega Banette. Which designwise is one of my favourite mega’s. I like Banette fine enough in it’s normal form but it’s mega is something I found really amazing. One of the best designed Megas and a Pokémon that could really use one.  Banette is somewhere like my seventeenth favourite ghost type or so but it’s mega might have made it a contender. Unfortunately..we judge pokémon for how they are for the majority of their journey, without any special items or so! So it falls short! The backstory about Banette being a discarded plushie swearing on revenge though! One of my all time favourites.

Ghost Type #5 Mimikyu

I thought Mimiky would be higher on this list. It is cute, has a great backstory, is fleshed out in the anime a lot and truly is a fan favourite! I love Mimikyu as well..but I do not like putting it on my team all that much! It’s design is top notch and I appreciate it a lot more than Pikachu itself..but it’s a physical ghost and fairy type. Which does make it rather unique but also a bit trickier to use.  To effectively use Mimikyu you have to sacrifice one moveslot to use Sword Dance. One for Shadow Claw and probably one for Play Rough ..because fairy types do not get a lot of physical moves either.  That means Mimikyu is one of the most rigid and less versatile ghost types with  three moves more or less being set. It managed to fight off Marshadow from the fifth place though, who is arguably the better physical ghost type due to its move Spectral Thief, by sheer love! There is so much fun stuff about Mimikyu including his Z-move! Let’s Snuggle Forever. The story of this Pokémon wanting love.. despite it cursing people to death if they see it’s true form.. is just heartwarming and wins me over every time.  Even though I do not always want to run it on my team.. I can not stop from helping to want to adopt one! It is high on my list of Pokémon Plushies I want to get and it’s song is one of my more played Pokémon tracks!

As for his Pokédex entries! I am so familiar with his lore that I do not even need to look these facts up anymore.  No one has ever seen Mimikyu’s true shape….well at least no one who did lived to tell the tale. However, looking at the true Mimikyu gets cursed ..which if you get a good view of the thing usually means you die. This made Mimikyu sad as he also wanted to be among people! So it created a disguise it could wear.  It noticed that humans really liked Pikachu so it based it’s design on that! So it could be loved as well.  For those of you unfamiliar. The Pikachu-like head is completely empty ..the actual eyes are on its body!  If it’s costume ever breaks Mimikyu gets extremely down and won’t stop working on repairing it’s costume, no matter how long it takes. It shall not rest until it’s costume is complete yet again. Mimikyu is a bit scared of sunlight, probably because it might think it’s costume doesn’t pass as much or who knows what is underneath that disguise it might be allergic to sunlight. Mimikyu can get jealous of Pikachu if it really gets lonely! Yet all in all it’s a crafty little who knows,  with a heart that wants to be loved and a disguise that wants to be hugged.

Like I said before, Mimikyu in battle is kind of boring to use. His Ability disguise  allows it to take one free hit per battle , without taking damage. (Excluding Hazards and status) Mimikyu’s strong ability however is countered with a lackluster stat pool. It’s physical attack is only 90, which is not bad but no where near the ballpark of others. Since it’s most targetable weakness is ghost it does really benefit from his high special defence and his decent speed. I ran Leech Life as a final move on mine since Gen VII really improved that move , giving it 80 base power instead of 20. With his high defences it can get a fair bit of recovery of types Leech Life is super effective against. It doesn’t offer much covery though as it overlaps a lot with both it’s fairy typing against dark and ghost typing against psychic. Woodhammer is an option to make it more diverse.. but that last slot really depends on what kind of teams you are facing.. you can not swap the other moves out at all so that one changes depending on what you face. I always give it it’s Z-crystal as a held item because I want to use Let’s Snuggle forever! Cause you know! It’s cute!

Ghost Type #4 Polteageist

My Polteageist Earl Grave was one of my favourite Pokémon during my Pokémon Sword and Shield run! I bet the nickname has been passed around a lot so it’s not very original but I did not want to go South African/Dutch with Dooibos  and it was a male and I felt Deadjeeling felt a bit more feminine.  Still I never thought tea would make such a good Pokémon. When I say good I mean that for a while it was amongst the top 10 most powerful Pokémon in Galar. I haven’t kept up with it so I am not sure if it got a bit nerfed but I know this Pokémon without any imposed limitations can kick ass and take names. It’s design like a pot of tea also is quite unique and I really prefer pure ghost types a lot!  With only two weaknesses, one that it always has covered, it just works for me!  Also it’s dead it loses some of those other aspects. I never got why Gengar got the poison type! This is just ghostly black tea haunting a cup! Sure you could add the water or grass type to it.. but it would only end up with more weaknesses.  So they did well with this one!

What many people did not know is that Polteageist comes in two forms and this has to do with a lore thing. Polteageists are formed if you leave a bit of black tea in a teapot and another ghost usually another polteageists comes to visit it in the night!  If it does it will move into the tea and possess it after it leaves the beverage a new ghost is formed.  Ever after they roam around. Usually they originate from fake chinaware but once every now and again it is an official antique teapot they possess. Which is also mentioned in the Pokédex. But this is actually a feature in the game! If you manage to tilt the camera below your Polteageist, you can see a blue stamp of a prime brand if you have the anique form. If there is nothing it is called the Phoney form. If you use a cracked pot evolution item to evolve it .. your Pokémon is a fake antique..however if you used a Chipped Pot.. it is the real deal!  There are no stat differences here.. and it’s just tea possessing tea but I love how much detail went in such a seemingly throw away pokedex line. When it trusts its trainer it allows them to sample some of their tea. However if it is angered it will shoot some bad tea in your mouth that will cause severe chills. No gruesome stories for this one it seems!

Polteageist has a Special Attack stat of 136. Which means it is more offensive than nearly all other pokémon I listed before. No more than 5 pokémon of the 75 I mentioned before are more powerful than this tea!  Yet that is not all! Polteageist gets the excellent combination of  Shell Smash, a move that changes all your stats .. dropping your defensive stats for offensive stats and speeds, as well as Stored Power.. a move that deals damage equal to the number of stat boosts you have gotten. It’s ability weak armor raises its speed when it’s hit by a physical attack and equipped with a white herb or a focus sash; this combination can wreck teams if they do not have a proper special wall.  (A wall is a pokémon whose main purpose is to take damage and shift momentum in your favour)  It also gets moves like Willow Whips to lower physical damage, it gets Shadow Ball the most powerful Ghost special move and it gets Giga Drain which with 136 special attack can offer you some very reliable recovery. This Pokémon needs to be taken out because with just two goes of Shell Smash it can nearly one-shot an entire team…as long as the opponent doesn’t have a dark type or priority moves. Truely a scary ghost!

Ghost Type # 3 Gengar

While I do not understand why it has the poison type, and that typing often is more a nuisance as a boon, I do love the original ghost pokémon.  That is right both in generation one and two there was only 1 ghost pokemon line for each. Gengar is a classic and for good reasons. His design is haunting, the idea of incorporating him with shadows pays off, and the way he reflects Clefable in a way has led to many interesting theories. He is still one of the better designed ghost Pokémon for me. Both his Giganta Max and Mega evolution are amazing in their own rights. I particularly like the Mega! Even if its forbidden to use because of how amazingly powerful it is! It fits in Gengars Pokedex lore! So love that one! There is something intimidating about Gengar. It seems the most insane and chaotic of the ghost pokémon and Haunter and Gengar are arguably the first pokémon that killed Ash. Haunter at least ripped out his soul long before Mewtwo and Mew ever turned him to stone! Gengar was also the first trade evolution I ever managed to obtain so he was something very special to me!  Later becoming one of my staples in Pokémon Stadium! I also had a Gengar toy which looks awesome and translucent!  So with this many memories he was sure to be on this list and I am fairly sure that no one really thinks this is a bad ghost type Pokémon!

Pokédexwise this pokémon used to be moderately innocent. His earliest entries seem to focus on that shiver you feel down your spine when you’re scared or anxious! They explain it is Gengar stealing heat from its surroundings. It can hide in your shadow or mimic to be your shadow and if  your shadow ever overtakes you on a full moon or when you are passing by streetlights it is actually the ghost running and having fun. As soon as early as Pokémon Silver though it already mentioned that it preys on lives to steal.  Hiding in the shadows to do so. It becomes quickly clear that this stealing of heat is more a stealing of life force. He also likes to curse you without reason.. just to have a laugh. Yet Gengar is at his darkest .. in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Sun’s ingame pokédex entry states: Should You ever feel yourself attacked by a sudden chill it’s the sign of an approaching Gengar. There is no escaping it. Just give up! Which… is quite dark!  Moon then explains that it was once a human himself and now he is looking for a traveling companion which he achieves by taking the lives of other humans hoping the dead turn into other Gengar. If you ever think .. well I will just not leave the house then.. Ultra Moon states.  Not even your house is safe… all Gengar needs is a Dark corner to wait for a chance to catch its prey!… Darn Game Freak.. that would have given Kid Pinkie sooo much nightmares!

Gengar got infamy in the competitive scene when Mega Gengar was released. In its Mega form it’s base special attack became 170. The most Powerful special attack ever. So promptly Mega Gengar was cast into the Ubers Categorie.. where it rests with all the overpowered legendaries. Since that is not possible in Gen VIII I will discuss his non mega evolving set from the Under-used tier! Here he works as a special sweeper with 130 special attacks.  Ev’s go into special attack and speed and it is equipped with Focus Blast, Shadow Ball , Sludge Wave and Substitute. The idea is to keep a substitute up and bombard your enemies from behind cover.  Since virtually all sound based moves, except for bug Buzz, which Gengar resists,  are normal type moves he works great behind a sub. These moves offer a wide variety and deal a lot of damage against fairly common archetypes. Myself I oftenly swap out Focus Blast for Thunderbolt since I oftenly lack proper covery against flying types and the paralysis chance is neat as well. The Focus blast slot once more is the most swappable slot.. though substitute can also be replaced if you face off against a trick room team!   Gengar has a few options and lots of types covered.  

Ghost Type Number # 2 Mismagius

Mismagius to me is mostly an improvement of Gengar.. but more femine. It has a bit more defence, for a bit less offensence, It lacks the pesky psychic type and ground type weaknesses the number three has and it has a hat! While Gengar feels more scary. Mismagius feels more ghostly! It also has a bit of a scholarly quality! A mage! …well duh! Oddly that mage like quality isn’t on to many pokemon. Alakazam is more a mentalist like Uri Geller, Gardevoir is more of a Bride or something. While we had plenty of warriors , there are not that many real mages. So as a D&D Player I am happy! It is also something I really would like to cosplay as a Gijninka version.. which is basically the pokémon interpreted as a human. I just love this design that much!  The colours are more vibrant than on Gengar, it has a  better shiny form then Gengar (it becomes greenish yellow, where Gengar slightly hue shifts to barely noticeable less saturated). I really like how it differs from the other ghosts as well. 

Most Ghosts have insanely dark Pokédex entries. Like people dying from looking at them, them praying on human lives just to have a playmate to stuff like “this ghost is a child that got lost in the woods and starved to death’  , this ghost carries its former human face with it and sometimes looks at it and cries tears of blood (yes that’s a  real in game thing). Mismagius though is a half and half. It is a chanting/spellcasting pokémon befitting its name.  While it certainly can cause trouble with it’s chants, such as intense migraines and visions of absolute terror , Mismagius can also induce Happiness in people with some of it’s chants. The Pokémon is feared for it’s wrath and the curses that it places but it on a whim also bestows positivity upon humans. For example , besides the happiness, Mismagius is known to be able to cast love spells. It can make two people fall deeply in love with another. This means some people desperately seek it’s aid. I like how it once again is a bit of a counterpart to Gengar’s doom and gloom.. and with him most of the other pokémon. It makes Mismagius much more of a balanced Pokémon, a creature you could actually see people use as a pokémon.

Mismagius is a Pokémon in the Never Used Tier. It’s offensive stat of 105 makes it an average  but solid sweeper. This rating is mostly based on how dominant Inciniroar was a presence in the Metagame though.  In Sword and Shield it would most likely be more successful due to a much lesser presence of Dark types. It is best on a team with Webs, Hazards and possibly Sleep. As it is dependent on Nasty Plot to get properly set up! It having Nasty Plot though means that IF you can set it up.. it gets powerful FAST. People really used to run it with Power Gem but that is a rather specific counter.  Due to how Dynamax fighting moves offer one of the best stat buffs, Dazzling Gleam might be a better shout. Protect and Taunt are good support moves to run on it and if you can run it on a team that keeps you in the driver’s seat when it comes to momentum this pokémon is great. As it doesn’t require a trade but just a Dusk-Stone to evolve this Pokémon is also a lot more viable to use on gameplay stuff. Let’s be honest if you are playing an older game who is going to reliably trade a Gengar to you?! You already need a friend with a game! So while it’s not the BETTER pokémon I think it is the better pick.

My Favourite Ghost Type: Chandelure

A lamp.. My favourite ghost type is a lamp! Back in the early days of my blog I bumped him down a little as recently I had used a Gengar again and to be safer with my audience! However since then it has climbed in my list again. Somehow this always climbs back to the top! I love purple flames! The whole dark fire thing is one of the tropes I like the most! I loved it in Underhero, I loved in Pokémon, I love anything that has a canonical purple black flame! It is my main in Pokken.. not that I play Pokken a lot but as far as it goes..it’s my main. I just want to own one and swing on its arms.  I also want to hug it ..as long as it doesn’t burn me!  The Pokémon also has a great Gijinka which I love very much.. but that might be a topic I cover on it’s own.  There is just so much to love! The  black frame.. the bluish intended glass, those endless yellow eyes and the dancing purple flames together create a stunningly designed pokémon. I absolutely adore the design and it is one of the very few Pokémon that uses a jet(ish) black in it’s design so well. Zekrom is a thing but other than that most pokémon are more a dark blue than a black.. yet here it works so incredibly well! This makes it more unique in my opinion. Of course Jynx used to be jet black but we like to forget about that one and even if we considered it.. it’s not much competition. This Pokémon perfectly fits it’s ghost fire typing for me and it works very well in my shadowy mansion with a big haunted library ..old tea pots and seemingly moving plushie collection!

While it’s  pokédex entry  is nowhere near as scary as both its earlier evolutionary stages.. which are a candle that mesmerises you by looking at it’s flame.. but also drains you off life force as you do.. or a smaller lamp that if it burns you , you will experience that pain forever from then on out. Chandelure still is a bit of a creeper. It is said to live in ancient dilapidated mansions. It hypnotises those who visit it with it’s swinging arms. Then it burns your soul from your body. Leaving around a soulless husk of a corpse. While a part of your spirit fades a part of it is doomed to wander this world forever, never finding rest. Being a generation V pokémon it has only seen pokédex entries in Unova, Kalos and Galar. Unfortunately missing out on those sweet sun and moon dex entries. However Shield does have a bit of a zinger as well!  It mentions that those who have their homes illuminated by Chandelure will not get light in abundance. In place of lights, there will be lots and lots of funerals. At least it hypnotises you before it kills you! So that is better as just giving into your fear like is the case with Gengar! I much rather be murdered by a Chandelure!  So of course it is higher on this list.

Chandelure is commonly used as a Under-Used Tier Stall breaker. That means this is the Pokémon you set in if your opponent is bunkering down. It gets the ability Infiltrator which allows it to negate substitutes which can come in handy against some Pokémon! Yet you normally do not even have to run it to be effective. Just by being one of it’s possible abilities means  they can not risk staying in against it if they are weak against its unique typing. Fire and Ghost is great against a great many Meta popular types so it should get the most powerful but reliable moves for those.  Shadowball and Flamethrower. Yes Fire Blast is more powerful but the general consensus in the gaming community is that due to its accuracy Flamethrower reliably deals more damage. However Fire Blast should be taken if the enemy has some very big special walls, such as Aggron! While it is super effective against it. Aggron also can use super effective moves against it.  This means Chandelure is a bit more versatile but also more tricky than say Gengar. Like most Chandelure is best if it can set up. It’s set up move of choice is Calm Mind. With it’s 145 base special attack it  can already pack a wallop but with just One Calm Mind already..it becomes a massive treat leaving you in control of the fight.

Chandelure is everything I want in a Pokémon. It is more versatile to use, it is a bit trickier to use due to how frail it is but it is also something that really can boost your team rather than just be a stand alone thing. It’s slightly more than just a cannon. Combine that with one of the best ghostly designs and its ability to literally leave it’s mark upon one’s soul and it is not hard to see why this one is my bright and shiny light on top of the Ghost Pokémon list.

So what is your favourite Ghost Type? Do you prefer any of the legendaries maybe? What is your favourite ghost pokédex entry?! Do you use the ghost types often? Let me know and let’s talk Pokémon! Next week..we shall cover our penultimate type! The Dragon-Type! Feel free to let me know your favourites on that one in advance! Now I still feel a bit under the weather so Pinkie is heading back to bed.. or next time she might actually be a ghost herself.

Pokémon Top 5 : My Favourite Grass Types

Hello Island Guests, we are nearing this series completion! Five more types and we covered every single Pokémon type and made lists of my favourites for all of them! Today we discuss the grass type! One of my favourite typings over all that oftenly blend with another favourite typing of mine! The poison type! This does mean I had a bit of difficulty with the the number 4 and 5 on my list.. but my top 3 is something that will never change!  I love almost all grass types though and except for my top 3 they are all incredibly close to another.. except for a few but I will never tell them cause it will make them cry!

Like always time for some honourable mentions! As per the rules I can not state more than one entry per evolutionary line and if I like a final form less and it makes me want to use it less  than it can go on this list. While nowhere near as strongly as some of the other types this is how I feel about Bayleef!  I LOVE Bayleef! I am however not a big fan of Meganium.  It’s a bit safe, it doesn’t get great moves , let alone good grass moves. Since Typhlosion and Feraligatr do get some great moves with the Same Type Attack Bonus.. Meganium is just really the lesser choice. It is really outdone by most other grass starters which is a shame. Bayleef has so much personality though and will always be one of my favourites.

A Pokémon also has to feel like a grass type. Grass types usually have this covered except for some legendaries like Kartana the Ultra Beast and  Tapu Bulu the Island Guardian. Paper and a Tiki Bull do not shout Grass Type to me…However I don’t like to use Legendaries in general..only the earlier ones . There is one other Pokémon that I dont really find a grass type and that is Whimsicott. I see the fairy part, and I guess I can see how you look at it as a tree spirit thing or something.. but I just see a pixie like creature. It usually doesn’t rely on grass moves all that much either! It’s hella cute and a great Pokémon.. I am just not sure I see it as a grass type!

Speaking of almost not using legendaries there is one I do really like, no It is not shiny Celebi.. I know it is pink.. but it is just a lesser variable and more fragile version of Mew..and Mew is pink base form.  No I am  talking about Shaymin… I do not mind it’s normal form but I find it a bit meh design wise. Shaymin Sky Forme however is amazing!  I LOVE that design and the extra typing it gets puts it as one of favourites. However it is just a side form of Shaymin so I did not feel it was right to put it here as I really find regular Shaymin to be quite lackluster.

Pokémon that appeared on earlier lists will not make the cut either! Which actually includes what would be by definite number four! This Pokémon is Breloom! I love Breloom soooo much!  In the pokémon scene it has become very popular to react to Jaiden Animations , My First Nuzlocke!  In it a Breloom dies and I felt the pain! A Breloom is such an amazing grass type pokémon that it would just feel terrible to lose it! This is why I do not Nuzlocke these games. I’d cry my eyes out! In am a sucker for mushroom Pokémon and even though none of them made the list.. because they are all below Breloom.. a swarm of mushrooms would show up if this was a top 10 and every Pokémon was allowed! Breloom! You rock!

In the past I made an argument of including the “sound” type in Pokémon.. and a lot of my top five Pokémon so far would have fitted in that typing. Ludicolo, Chatot, Exploud, Toxtricity and now Maractus. I have a thing for sound based Pokémon. I am not even sure what it is because Maractus isn’t that amazing when it comes to gameplay! I just completely adore it anyway!  On a Stream of a Pokétuber called Patterrz he had a Maractus named Jeb! Jeb was amazing!  My own Maractus I used in a fan game was pretty sweet as well!  It is just such a nicely designed cactus Pokémon. A dancing cactus that has pink little flowers on its head. It is just one of those pokémon that makes me go N’awwww every time I see it. I think in part it’s it’s bunny like design , a bunny was my first plushy so I have something for bunny ears. Bunny eared cactus is definitely a win here! In the anime it’s adorable as well.. and I would like to hug it so much! It would be a bad idea! But still it’s just one of those things. 

Maractus live out in the desert where they would fall prey to some of the arrid region birds if they had not had their secret weapon! The power of dance! With a little uptempo dance they become some weird sort of scarecrow. A Marcatus can only move rhythmic and if it does it produces a Maraca like sound which scares of Pokémon..I assume because it sounds like rattlesnakes.. but maybe Pokémon are scared blind of Samba de Amigo games as well! Who knows?! The scarecrow thing they do to protect their very nutritious seeds once a year they shed ove these seeds and scatter them all across the desert. These seeds are an important food source to animals and humans in these regions alike!  Birds want to eat them while they are still on the Marcatus though..and pecks are super effective.. so you can’t really blame these cactus pokémon for defending themselves can you.

Maractus is a Never Used tier Pokémon and it’s base stat total of 461 is quite low! It has a very decent special attack and a fair amount of health though so it’s best if you equip it with a Big Root, and teach it Leech Seed and Giga Drain. Big Root boosts your health gains and it’s ability Water Absorb let’s you freely switch it in against water types and provide some extra heals even. Acupressure will help you give it some boosts on the turns your opponent is free to swap out but you can go with Growth as well.. but Growth will make speed an issue. If your opponent runs a lot of physical moves Spiky Shield is a good shoutout.. or use Maractus to counter your opponents walls and teach it toxic!  Personally I prefer to use it as a Wall breaker! A careless opponent can really let you buff your Cactus up nice and easy!  If you do run Acupressure, which gives you a random stat buffed you could take poison jab instead of toxic as well in case you get lots of physical attack buffs!

The pinkest grass type I could find (except for maybe Shiny Celebi)  is definitely on my favourites list. While again it’s stats are a bit lackluster, it is just such an interesting Pokémon.  We all know the walking twig bug is a bug pretending to be a plant. So Creatures Inc, Game Freak and Nintendo came up with a plant pretending to be a bug! Amazing! It’s a Totem Pokémon as well so if you play Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon you can get a special version of this pokémon.. which was a huge selling point for me to use it. It’s amazing!  Sun and Moon really made their mons so much more memorable. The design looks very feminine and elegant but you can also tell it is a physical attack that will use it’s sickle talons to attack. Its pre-evolution is absolutely adorable and I just want to hug it till it heads pops.. but not literally I’d be super super upset. I like cool evolutions fine but I love the graceful evolutions just a bit better.  Primarina , Gardevoir, Milotic and Lurantis, it is nice to see some “grace” in the pokémon world. This is definitely a monster I have taken a shine to.

Lurantis is very themed in with solar light! Not only is grooming  this pokémon an effort that requires a lot of love and sunlight, this makes it quite popular among non Pokémon Trainers who want to have the Lurantis with the most vibrant colours. So it has a pretty nice life. It has little defences against bugs however so it just pretends to be a bug itself! In its habitat there are still a few  bugs so that is probably a good move. However if you look closely you can spot that the cloth over its arm is actually flower petals. These petals are harder than they look super thin and razor sharp. So they are often used as a sickle! However these petals can also actually shoot laser beams! Yes it is actually called a laser in the Pokédex! These beams are so powerful that they can blow holes in , what else but, thick steel plates. The steel plate industry in the Pokémon world must REALLY be thriving with how much of those get destroyed! Of course this pokémon is a Alola region creation so  it has a more twisted pokédex entry as well. When it is slashing and cutting into its opponents and great speed and grace people almost look like it is dancing. If you see a Lurantis cutting up it’s opponent you will think it’s the most Glamorous Pokémon you have ever seen.

There are many ways to build a Lurantis  for battle. It has Contrary as it’s hidden ability so a Leaf Storm using Lurantis is a good way to build for victory! Z Sunny day for some speed and bam!  But that is not what we are after! Today I want to give you a build that does that whole laserbeam from it’s petals thing! So we make a set that has the ability Leaf Guard (which prevents status changes in the sun)  Sunny Day, which sets up the sun!  Toxic, to prevent your opponent from setting up (As toxic damage stacks over time) Aerial Ace  to deal with bugs and (most) poison types and Solar Blade.. which is buffed up by Sunny Day.EV’s  go into Health to make it sure it can take a hit and Attack to make sure it deals Maximum Damage. Your laser plant is ready for use!

Vileplume is just another Pokémon I am just in love with! From it’s simple but appealing looks, to its cry. Every time i see a Vileplume I want to use one. When I saw  it in Pokémon Snap it was my favourite Pokémon to put on camera. Vileplume has been on plenty of my teams and will continue to be for the future. It is great and bulky so it allows you to scout new Pokémon a lot as a result  I really like to use it during first runs and as a lead. That means I always see what nickname I give it first and most.. and our bond really grows! I also still like the fact that Oddish it’s prevolution can punch and tackle better than an Onix. Vileplume has that level of clunk in it..it doesn’t seem to be able to run very fast and the way it’s hands are shaped make think with how it’s head is shaped it can get into a few awkward situations! So in essence I really like this pokémon because I think it could easily get it’s head stuck in a door!

Right away from the first generation we begin with a zinger of a Pokedex entry. It’s big head is heavy and hard to hold up! Oh my Arceus I love it so much for that!  Mamma will help you with your head Boo! It also seems to be the thing with the largest petals in the world… Don’t tell it about Galarian Venusaur! The larger the petals are the more poisonous these things are. As it waddles about it spreads those toxic spores around oftenly making the sky tint yellow . This poison causes ravaging allergic reactions that sometimes can even lead to paralysis. Once a Vileplume has paralysed its prey will will walk up to it and devour it. It seems to prefer jungles as its natural habitat and it can be dangerous enough that people are advised to stay away from any pretty jungle flower because it might be a vileplume and it might not end well for you.

In combat Vileplume is one of those, Jack of all trades master of none type pokémon. It’s Special Attack is it’s best stat and the rest is actually “fine”. So EV it’s special Attack to the maximum and split what’s left across it defences and equip it with Moonlight, a powerful healing move, Effect Spore as ability to help you with you defences, Sludge Bomb And Giga Drain for offensive moves and toxic to status non physical attackers. It will be a nice set that allows Vileplume to do it’’s thing and hold it’s head up high proudly when it comes out of it’s battles victorious! It is a set focussed on enduring and out-stalling your opponent. Vileplume can also work well on a sun team but still can be a bit sluggish!  Trick Room might be an option as well if you give it a slowing item to equip, but I’d say it is best equipped with something like Leftovers who heal a little between turns.

Rowlet is just SOOO adorable.  It is one of my favourite starters ever. I wrote a lot about Rowlet before just before I joined OWLS!  Rowlet’s line is based on an Owl that is a plague in Hawaii.. evolving into an Owl that is becoming scarce on Hawaii into an owl that has gone extinct in Hawaii. I love that it is a bit a story of human hubris. First we see something as unwanted , so we try to bring back balance but we do not know what we do.. and we end up with only memories. This pokémon is so well designed and has so much personality! When the starters were revealed everybody loved Rowlet right away and I mean everybody! The little owl with a tie on it’s neck won over so many hearts including mine. The anime where Rowlet sleeps in Ash backpack just made me love it so much more. I love my grass starters but rarely do they turn out so well as Rowlet. I do think Chespin and Snivy are the weakest grass starters, respectively and seeing Creatures Inc return strongly in the form of this was amazing.  For a good chunk of my first blogging year Rowlet has also stood for OWLS. The Otaku Warriors of Liberty and Self Respect.. and a message I very much support which makes this more than a Pokémon it is a symbol as well.

Rowlet nesting in Ash bag is something that is actually explained in it’s pokédex entries. Rowlet do like to nest in caves or dark and tight spaces. It is even known to nest in Trainer’s Pockets if they are big enough! Which of course is completely adorable! Pocket Owl! It doesn’t mind being in the light all that much as well as it does sleep during the day to photosynthesis and store energy to use at night. It is a very silent flyer and on dark nights it will go out hunting for prey! When it spots something it will toss it’s feathers at it which are sharp and arrow like.. as a little..hint and what is to come. Rowlet is quite hot tempered though. It it moves too close to its opponent it doesn’t retreat of fly up and try to throw it’s feathers again.. no It just moves in close and treats their opponents to some vicious kicks.
So even though Rowlet is only 30 centimeters (or 1 foot)  tall and it only weighs 1.5 kilograms apparently it’s kicks are formidable. For those who need to know 1.5 kilograms is like 3. a bit  in pounds. This one is definitely on the list of Pokémon I would want as a pet.

Rowlet is first form pokémon, so the moveset here is a Little Cup Set, which means only unevolved pokémon.. that at least evolve ones created at level 5.  EV’s  are used to max out attack, just a little bit into special defence to tie it up with its other defensive stat and the rest goes into speed. Rowlet is a physical attacker and like most little cup Pokémon it is quite weak which means you will want to bring some set up. Rowlet’s best set up move is Sword Dance. Fittingly enough it’s best grass move is Leaf Blade. Brave Bird will give it it’s flying Same type attack Bonus and Sucker Punch will give it some hard hitting priority move your opponent really has to work around! Depending on your opponents team you give it either a Life Orb to maximize damage ,if you plan to burn it out quickly and need it for a few specific takedowns like ground or fighting types. If you want to use it to chip at your opponent you better be off equipping if with some Berry Juice though to let it endure for longer. While this format may not have the prestige of an O.U. (OverUsed Tier)  fight bringing Rowlet to a little cup fight certainly can be a hoot.

Was there ever any doubt in my mind that this would be my favourite grass type? Hell no! Not only is Bulbasaur my favourite Grass type, it may very well be my penultimate favourite pokémon just behind Sylveon. This was the first pokémon I ever adventured with and with very few exceptions, whenever I can pick Bulbasaur. I think I used about 18 different Bulbasaur in games. Not counting Delta Bulbasaur in Pokémon Insurgence and Browniesaur in Pokemon Sweet Version. This is more than a Pokémon to me.. even more so than Sylveon. Bulbasaur is the single most important pokémon in my life without a shadow of a doubt. That first journey I went on with Bulbasaur the Bulbasaur changed my life. I would not be writing this today without that little guy.  Bulbasaur was something I nurtured, it started my trent for rooting for the underdog! We had Pokémon Red which meant Charmander.. and we had Pokémon Blue which meant Squirtle and while I indeed actually picked Squirtle first..empty batteries soon fixed that.. as if I got a signal from above that the little leapfrog with the bulb on it’s back should have been my partner. Now well over 20 years later.. I still partner up with Bulbasaur whenever I can.. it made me fall in love with Pokémon and taste the geek community!  It is just a super big part of me! It is part of my soul!

Pokédex entry wise Bulbasaur isn’t all that facinating though… but there is an interesting factoid all the same. The moment a Bulbasaur is born a seed is planted on it which grows out to be it’s bulb. This means that a Baby Bulbasaur technically is born without it’s bulb.. just as soon as it is born it gets its own bulb. After that moment the bulb rapidly grows every day. Bulbasaurs like to sunbathe and nap in the sun a lot as this allows them to store nutrients in said bulb. If the bulb is filled with nutrients Bulbasaur can survive on whatever nutrients it stored for days. Not having to eat a single Morsel. That is about all there is to tell about Bulbasaur’s Pokédex entry. Yet there is a question I can not shake. Who plants the seed on Bulbasaur.. is it it’s parents? What if you get a bulbasaur egg from the daycare.. do you get a seed to plant on it from the old folks taking care of the daycare?  Does the egg itself maybe plant the seed?  Is there like a sandman of bulbs?  What does a bulbasaur say when it comes out of the egg bulbless! Is it just called Saur or Asaur until it’s seed grows?! I do not know! One of my favourite pokémon in the world and I do not have an answer!

In Little Cup Bulbasaur is an amazing Pokémon as well, but I don’t think Sword and Shield have the little Cup format at all. So we are going for a Sun and Moon build here! Which means taking advantage of Z-moves and in this case Z-Celebrate. Z-moves are a form of super moves and while Celebrate is a worthless move that just gives your opponent a present Z-Celebrate will be a big and useful stat Buff!  Sludge Bomb, Giga Drain and Sleep Powder will decimate your opponents team in the later phases of the fight. If you burn out there counters against the little thing early game you are sure to sweep your way to victory using this amazing Bulbasaur build. It looks festive too!  If your opponent runs a lot of grass types, or steel types take hidden power Fire instead of sleep powder to get around those. Z-Celebrate and Little Cup will make sure that Hidden Power still has enough oomph to realling bring the pain! Who says you need to evolve to be strong!

Bulbasaur and I go way back..it is one of those pokémon I’d say I have a genuine bond with! It  opened up a new path in my life! It went with me to the  first geek gathering I ever had.. even if it did not play. I have a Bulbasaur plushie watching over me at night, I have a hard time not picking Bulbasaur whenever I can.. I genuinely feel bad.. as if we belong together. That First Bulbasaur may be gone.in terms of data, it got reset over.. and I played the other two starters as well. I also made a new game and came back to Bulbasaur. A new one! Bulbasaur accompanied me in Pokémon Leaf Green, it was on my team in Let’s Go Eevee. Bulbasaur was there for me in Pokémon Reborn, Bulbasaur was there for me in Pokémon Mega Adventures. I played variations of it, I ran a grass TCG deck just so I could play a Bulbasaur and if someone asks me what is the best starter I can without a shadow of a doubt say it’s name. My sweet Bulbasaur you will always be my number 1.

What is your favourite Grass-Type? Which of the starting types you like best? What was your first ever pokémon? Do you have any loyalty toward it?! Let me know in the comments! Next time will be the last time I can add to the chain of typings that are super effective against the previous list. Next time we discuss my five favourite Poison types! Now it’s time for me to be all plantlike and play in the sun for a bit!

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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: Favorite Rock Type Pokémon

Hello Hello my sweet island guests! Even a restyle can not stop me from continuing to do top fives on one of my most beloved franchises in the world. Pokémon! By the time you are writing this the DLC will have been out for about a week or so. However I plan to take my time with that.. plus I work ahead a bit so I will discuss that when I get there. Most likely on a game cocktail as well. So keep an eye out on tuesdays! Today however we will discuss a pokémon type that is super effective against the ice type! The Rock type!

Unlike the ground type , which is counted as one of the stronger pokémon types, the rock type oftenly along with the ice type is considered on of the two worst typings. Rock type moves are quite okay .. but due to how many enemies are weak or quad weak to rock, you do not really need the STAB bonus for it.. rock type moves are often better of being used on a non stab pokémon. And  that is mostly due to the insane amount of weaknesses rock has as well. Water, Grass, Ground, Fighting , Steel. While it is super effective against Fire, Flying, Bug and Ice that already forms a problem. Bug Ice and Flying are all part of the weaker, less (end game)  represented typings.

In the competitive scene.. nearly all fire types learn will o’wisp which burns an enemy and harms physical attack.  Most rock moves are physical and stat wise.. these pokémon are oftenly specced on the defensive side.. for example Oddish has a better physical attack than Onix.. that means a beet..can punch you harder than a rock snake! Halving their offence so easily.. is not that good! Since it’s so bad! Onix is not my favorite but he does get a mention.

This snake lifts less than this beet!

Like Always one entry per evolution line, while I can use prior forms if I like them better, I’d have to like the final form at least a bit. It has to be usable.. if the final form makes me not want to use it.. it gets reprimanded. As is the case with Tirtouga and it’s evolution Carracosta. While I really like the energetic looking rock turtle Tirtouga, Carracosta is just a cranky boring as bipedal version of it and it feels extremely lazy in design! It doesn’t have a fun move set either and it lacks any form of charm. Gen VIII finally showed us how a rock turtle is properly done with Chewdle and Drednaw. I do love Tirtouga design wise.. it just doesn’t got anywhere.. which is a shame. 

Now this typing is the worst offender by far of my.. it has to feel like a rock type to me rule as well. The biggest reason is all the fossils being rock type because they are ancient pokémon and came out of a rock! (Well except for the Gen VIII fossils but so many of them miss the mark. Aerodactyl should have been a dragon type.. while I get the redundancy with dragonite nothing really screams that this thing is made of rocks until it’s mega evolution. It’s a flying dinosaur. Flying Rock and Flying Ground and Flying Rock types I have difficulty believing. Minior and Archeops being the only exceptions because one is a meteor.. so I get both typings.. and the other is a dinosaur that can barely fly.  I know Aerodactyl has some pretty solid rock type moves but I’d rather see either an Ancient Type or giving Dinosaurs the Dragon type. 

Another rule is that a pokémon can not show up on a list more than once. If a pokémon was on an earlier  typing list it can not exist on the list of it’s other typing as well. Shuckle, Archen and Archeops are therefore out of the running. Still I would like to name one of my favorite Ultra Beasts here, Nihilego.. it’s a starry Jellyfish that shoots poison .. but for some reason they gave it the rock typing! Not only does this make my precious like super weak to sooo many types.. it should not be a rock type at all! It doesn’t have anything that ties it to a rock type other than that it learns Power Gem and possibly Ancient Power?!  Blegh! Bad call Game Freak!  So unfortunate that lovely will not be on the list either! Now let’s see who did make it.

For the first time I flipped a coin to determine my number 5. It was a close one between this and Minor, the cute jelly filled rock which has a pink form!  Ultimately when I think about it though Sudowoodo is definitely the more iconic one of the two! It’s one of the famous roadblock Pokémon, it has that level of clunk to it which I really appreciate in pokémon and like Minior it has a bit of a deceptive nature.  Where Minior looks like a rock but is actually a rock covered.. alien thing.. this looks like a tree that is actually a rock. Comparing those statements next to each other does make me think Sudowoodo is the better pick! His anime voice is amazing as well! This pokémon actually became a part of my first Pokémon Gold Team for a brief while! I would later travel with a Bonsly that would turn into Sticks the Sudowoodo in another pokémon fangame, whose name I am not sure off. It might be Pokémon Phoenix Rising.. but it might have also been something else. I play a lot of those!Reason enough to have a personal connection with this pokémon though! So yay for number 5.

Lorewise Sudowoodo is quite an odd Pokémon which endears me to it! It hates fighting so it pretends to be a tree to avoid being attacked.  While up close you can see it seems to be made out of rock rather than out of wood it really sticks to the practice. It is so rigid that if you see a twig shake in the wind.. you know it’s NOT a Sudowoodo! While it is not moved by the wind.. it starts fleeing as soon as it begins raining as it hates the rain so much, which I find adorable.  The fact that it hates rain and water so much is mentioned in nearly every pokédex entry.. and it had a lot!  It allegedly has has gained tremendous strength keeping its muscles so stiff. However by far the best pokedex trivia comes from the fact that old folks tend to collect and groom Sudowoodo. The greener their finger orb things are the higher the collectors value. Old people like to compare their Sudowoodo with each other, trying to find one that has the perfect arm length and angle with as green as possible orbs. This practice has become so popular it even sprouted it own magazine! So if you ever want a magazine filled with posing tree rocks travel to the pokémon world!

Sudowoodo is not a very competitive pokemon. With a Base Stat Total of only 410 it’s about as powerful as a Ponyta, Bibarel or Pyukumuku .. it also has the same base state total as the number four on my list.. and that one is not even fully evolved… neither is Ponyta though. While it’s defence is a great 115 and it’s attack a very respectable 100 the rest of it’s stats are VERY poor. Speed being at 35 as Sunkern and a Metapod and with it’s Special Defence, and Health being below par means it will not take kindly to even a water gun!
Sudowoodo however can learn the devastating move Head Smash and is one of the most punishing sucker punch users to send out against psychic types, ghost types or fire types.  While Woodo will go down with just a splash of water or a Giga- or mega drain  it can still take away a large chunk of enemy hp. Counter or Lowkick and Wood Hammer are pretty solid to run on this pokemon as well. It could also set up the sun if you have team build around that.  All in all a great monster that does show the rock type it’s flaws very well. It might be physically defensive..but three out of the  9ish predominantly physical types are its weaknesses.. 4 if we count the pretty solid grass physical covery.  So it is a mon you need to swap out a lot.

This pokémon is a bit of a weird pick! It’s the first, and not final evolution of Rolycoly, the cutests named rock type in existence. It is on this list because with some distance it is my favorite designed rock type. A coal cart! That is so random.. but what won me over is that Coltrane  my Carkol was so fun to play with at Pokémon camp! I had a blast tossing the ball for it and see it play fetch. There is something about seeing a mine cart filled with fire and a head smile gleefully at you that felt deeply satisfying. I also really like the combination of fire and rock types being used as non-lava pokemon for once. Coal seems a perfect metaphor for that type and since Galar is based on England making a pokémon to represent that part of their history I found quite enjoyable. There is so much recognisability in Galar pokémon, one might call it gimmicky but I actually love this style. You can glance at a pokémon and say! Well yep that’s from Galar!  It’s a great route I hope they will take in the future and this pokémon to me might be the epitome of it. 

Now lore wise Carkol is lacking a bit as it is only one generation old and DLC has replaced alternative versions so less dex entries for it to be had anyway! Carkol  apparently can form coals deep inside its body which it then “drops”  these coals have fueled many generations of people living in Galar. So there you have it , steam trains in Galar run on Pokémon Poop! I never thought I could make a PooChoo train joke but here I am! Thank You Game Freak.  Not to speak of Poop-Power Plants! Pooper Plants?  Of course this is never really stated to be poop.. but it is a dropping the pokemon forms out of waste inside its body so that does sound awfully familiar.  Carkol rolls around on its little  stumpy legs, they can spin around like wheels.. but not as round.. which is hilariously clunky and if you read any previous top 5 you know I have a thing for that. It’s top speed is 30 kilometers per hour or 18 miles per hour! Proof that kilometers are the best because more of them fit in the same hour! More is always good!  This little train that is about as fast a sprinting cyclist  can also breathe fire of about 1000 degrees Celsius or 1800 degrees Fahrenheit.. which proves Celsius is better.. because there are less degrees to get hurt by!

Competitively this pokémon of course can’t do anything! It’s base 410 stats are evenly distributed with a best stat of 90 in defence and speed being the lowest at 50.  Since it is 4x weak to both water and ground basically every semi decent pokémon trainer will kill it dead within a single turn. Coalossal it’s evolution however does have some uses as a physical wall. Just make sure to equip it with an air balloon. It’s signature ability Tar Shot adds a weakness to fire moves on the next turn so it’s best used to take care of enemies you do not have a counter for during gameplay! I don’t see this pokémon being used a lot in competitive battles and Smogon has put it in a bit of a borderline competitive tier RarelyUsed. So instead of trying to making this pokémon work for you in battle I suggest you use it where it really matters. In your pokémon camp! Making it fetch various forms of toy-balls and such! Thats where this little coal cart really can warm your heart!
<I found no Carkol Plushie otherwise it would be depicted as an image>

Who would have thought that a pink pixie that is considered the jewel pokémon with a mostly white and pink colour scheme would ever be one of my favorite rock types?! It’s a legendary pokémon as well.  Now I know some people will nitpick and call it a mystical pokémon instead but no it has 600 stat points at least! It’s a legendary! Mystical is a term I hate to define pokémon with. It’s so exclusive for no reason at all! Anyway this pokemons design is so amazing. I loved Carbink already but when they gave it a magical evolution that formed this legendary creature it just got better. It’s Mega evolution is so amazingly pretty! It felt truly like something legendary.. but not like Celebi or Victini.. whose designs I find a back lackluster. This one walked that balance so much better. Just look at it! It’s so pretty and the gem on the normal form changes into a heart when it evolves. Have I told you it’s shiny is even pinker?! * Fan Girl purring noises* 

Only in the Gen VI games has Diancie ever had a pokédex entry! While it is linked to the regularly pokémon, the rock and fairy Type Carbink it doesn’t actually evolve from it in game. Rather according to the pokédex it more or less mutates into a Diancie. A sudden transformation rather than a build towards evolution. The reason why it does this is not known. It’s pink glimmering body is in universe said to be the prettiest site in the entire world… *Squeeeeee*  So the fact that this pink thing is the prettiest thing in existence in the pokémon world makes me feel I am right! Pink is an amazing colour! So it’s a great pokémon for me to have! Not only that but Diancie also has the ability to create Diamonds from “nothing” It can compress the carbon between it’s hand and form pink diamonds which she can hurl at her enemies.. or of course give to me .. her loving trainer. Diamonds might be a girls best friend but that is just because most girls do not know what a Diancie is!

In battle Diancie is amazing, as to be expected of a legendary with a mega evolution. Just unfortunately like almost every dual rock type she has a 4x weakness. This time to steel types. Luckily Iron Head and Bullet Punch, and Meteor Mash are usually the only steel type moves that are run so it’s not as bad as being 4x weak to fighting or to Water or Grass.  With 100 base stat in both attack and physical attack it’s about as strong of an attacker as Mew  and with 150 defence and special defence it’s as hard as Registeel! It has terrible hit-points and speed though. It can probably survive one of two hits due to it’s tankiness but still this pixie does not enjoy pain! When you Mega evolve it it swaps around it’s offensive and defensive stats and becomes fast!  Meaning it now can hit really hard really fast. Usually I run a barrier setting Diancie with Diamond Storm and Moonblast as offensive moves.  Get your barriers up, transform and bring the pain.  Once again though Diancie is a monster you do not want to sent out against anything it is weak against.. and that is still a fair few things. You probably need a trick room setter or a hazard setter to optimise your beautiful jewel.

This pokémon would be my number 1 with quite some margin if it did not have one big strike against it.  It’s four times weak to fighting type moves. Those are quite prevalent in end game and competitive scenes due to moves like Close Combat. Also since Dynamax fighting moves are really good, as in that they actually increase your most important stat if you use those type of moves…  that is a major flaw in the current generation for this pokémon. Despite that fact though this is such a cool pokémon. I am a bit upset they did not give it a Godzilla like Gigantamax. This is the pokémon is basically Godzilla anyway so now that pocket monsters can actually become Kaiju this is a missed opportunity. That being said ..this pokémon is so incredibly cool! Like from it’s design to it’s moveset, to it’s mega!  This is a COOL pokémon. I’d say rivalling charizard in charisma for me! …Not that I am THAT fond of charizard but still I can’t deny it’s charisma! This is the same.  Probably my favorite designed pokémon from Gen II. 

In the pokedex this pokémon is quite hyped up as well. It being described as so incredibly powerful that in a single of its hands it has the power to destroy mountains. It is unable to feel physical pain so it travels through mountains to find a new home destroying every opponent it finds on it’s way. It cares for nothing but for itself and it can create earthquakes powerful enough to shape the land. When A Tyranitar goes on a rampage maps have to be altered because the land simply will not look the same. Ultra Moon describes it as a mobile Disaster.. it will go where it wants to go and if something is in it’s way it will go through rather then around. No matter if this is pokémon , people, houses or mountains. All shall be  crushed by its power.  It should come to no surprise then that Tyranitar is a Pseudo-Legendary.. and in fact having high enough stats to be counted among some of the legendary pokémon. It’s mega evolution only has 12 pokémon physically stronger than it.  Mewtwo X, Kyurem Black, Primal Reversion Ground and Deoxys are amongst the list.. so  you can imagine how many pokémon can actually stand up to it… all but two are mega evolutions as well. 

What is most terrifying about this pokémon though is that it learns Dragon Dance, a support move that boosts Attack and Speed. Dragon Dance is one of the.. if not the best set up move in the entire game and it turns Tyranitar in a justified OverUsed (best rank of competitive battling that are not widely banned)  candidate despite it’s weakness. However since I don’t exactly know what does get Superpower or Close Combat or on who it ‘s viable and what not I can’t use this pokémon to the max of its potential!  You definitely want Dragon Dance on your Tyranitar usually with Crunch a dark type (thus boosted) physical move  and Stone Edge, which is the best physical rock type move an elemental punch of your choice to complete the set and you are done! You created a monster.. although one that will fall immediately if someone uses low Kick!

This pokémon looks like the most edgy pile of rocks you have ever seen. Yet this pokémon really feels like rocks! I just love this design! The blueish main rock with those orange like shards and those split rock.. yellow eyes it is completely amazing to me! During my first play trough of Black and White I caught a Roggenrolla intrigued by the little thing. It’s evolution into Boldore and trade evolving into Gigalith was one of my most liked evolution lines. This really feels like an evolution but it also feels really impressive and powerful. I managed to get it evolved by trading with someone willing to help me out after I wondered why Boldore would not evolve and looking it up. The pokémon that I got in return was so badass and while I am not a big fan of badass pokémon this one quickly won my heart.  During Black and White 2 I found no one to trade me and this pokémon was sorely missed. It’s a super sluggish pure rock type.. but unlike Tyranitar I always feel like I am control of this beast and I can make the proper plays!  Plus my Barney could really look impressive while he was doing it. 

Like Tyranitar Gigalith is a force to be reckoned with, though where Tyranitar is a Pseudo Legendary this one is not, which is reflected in its lore! It’s a much more friendly pokémon usually working with humans in construction. It works a bit like Dynamite..capable of producing energy that could blow up filled dump trucks. However to do so it must  charge it’s orange bits in sunlight first. It can not keep this charge for very long either because it is stated that on rainy or cloudy days it can not use it’s beam attacks.  While it is being described as a beam attacker though it’s actual special attack stats (which is used for beams etc)  are quite low. However there is still a way that Gigalith can unleash all this energy! It can explode with a big bang! When it compresses the energy inside itself it can gather enough energy to blow up an entire mountain along with it, so that means it would be a great pokémon for Megumin from Konosuba.  Explosion!

Explosion is a great optional move on this pokémon. However this pokémon comes with with the ability Sand Force .. and that is what you want it to have. This ability boosts Rock steel and earth types moves power by 30% if used in a Sandstorm.. so obviously you want to carry that move named the same as a Darude song with you . Then you want to run earthquake.. while it does not get STAB bonuses on Gigalith it’s 135 attack along with the 30% boost will not make that to much of a problem. You could run toxic on it because Gigalith is counted as a wall pokémon but I honestly advise you to just bring normal gem and explosion along and use the last move for Stone Edge. Toxic stalling might be smarter but exploding and taking out your opponents ace is so much more satisfying. For some reason everything I see Gigalith I just think.. man now thats a cool rock type.. when I see Tyranitar I think.. wow thats a cool pokémon! So that’s a point for this one! Another point.. A fully set-up Tyranitar will surely cause despair in your opponent but seeing their face when their Kyurem white just jumped into an explosion is so much more priceless. Now seeing a face doesn’t often happen but I got lucky on a few occasions and while I think Tyranitar really is overused and a bit of a generic pick.. I would use Gigalith again!  My favorite rock type is just that.. a rock! Both on and off the battlefield.

Winner! Gigalith!

Due to almost all the Rock dual types having a 4x weakness, this is one of my lesser favorite types! I love rock types moves but due to their stats they are usually still beter on another Pokemon. What are your favorite Rock-Types? Is it Aerodactyl? Do you use the type a lot? Let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading and next time we are going to look at my absolute least favorite type.. the steel type! Now it’s time for me to be taking a plunge into making some more content! Bye!

Pokémon Top 5: Favourite Ground Type Pokémon

Island Guests! It has happened! I have a top five of typed Pokémon for you where Iridium Eye probably knows like 80% of these Pokémon! That’s like super special! That also reveals to you there is probably not a lot of Pokémon of later generations on this list! They really started the series strong with this type!  So prepare for my eight out of 18 typing lists. With the only typing that is super effective against the electric type ! The ground type!

Like Always we will follow the rules of only one pokémon per evolution line and no duplicates of previous lists to reduce redundancy. This leaves Krookodile out who already made it to my dark type list. If a pokémon’s evolution is something I strongly dislike it’s previous evolution can be given a demerit for evolving into something I dislike. Drilbur is one of these cases. It’s evolution just looks so incohesive and meshed together to me that I actually really dislike  using it. Since Drilbur on it’s owe will not be that useful in playthroughs nor does it have any other way to use it.. it gets no further than a mention here.

Pokémon also have to feel like a Ground type to me to qualify for this list. Oddly enough the Ground type is rather weak in this department. Nincada, Gligar, Gliscor, Gastrodon and of course fan favorite Flygon are all pokémon that I quite like but would not associate with the ground type just by looking at it.  Gastrodon is a sea slug, Gligar and Gliscor are flying scorpions and Nincada is just a bug… from the faintest distance I still see why they belong to that type but then there’s Flygon. A flying green dragon that gets the ground type bestowed up to him because he evolves from a Sand Trap Pokémon. I get why the first evolution gets it but there should not be ANY flying Ground types  besides for Landorus. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I guess It’s nice to have a Dragon that is not a Dragon Flying type, unlike so many before it.. but they have the same weakness. Nothing shouts to me that this is an earthquake user other than that it gets STAB boosts.. so it will not make the list.

By that same sort of standard there is yet another honourable mention i wish to mention and that is Quagsire. Which is a great Pokémon that I deeply love for how derpy and joyful it looks but teaching it ground moves is SUCH a hassle. It learns 2 in it’s natural moveset and one of them is totally worthless as it has low base power and uses it’s rather bad special-attack stats to deal damage. The second it learns at level 52, which in Gold and Silver basically is end game. It’s so hard to run this with a decent ground  type move unless you breed that you basically will be using this as a pure water type that switches out it’s electric weakness with a double weakness to grass (and Freeze Dry) that it is just a very defensive Water Typing that can feel like a ground type… but on average not so much.

Cubone has the “honour” being being the very first ground type on this list whom I have never really (actively) used during a playthrough of the main games , yet I still love the  heck out of. It doesn’t have great stats and Marowak is a bit lackluster in its ground shape. Yet Cubone made it on my list for another reasons. Cubone for example is one of the most significant lore driven pokémon of the earlier games. The whole story of Lavender Town?! Where it’s mother gets killed by team Rocket and it wears the skull of its mother as her final protection. It is so sad and it left an early impact on me! We always saw it depicted crying and in a way it is one of the very few things that have ever appeared to something I thought I would never have. Motherly instincts.  I just wanted to take care of it , hug it and tell it everything was going to be alright! It’s the exact emotion you have to feel about the pokémon as well so it really landed.  To this day it’s design is one of the most unique looking pokémon out there and I adore it.  It feels cute and cold at the same time.. cold as in..distant. Which.. again is rather as intended. 

I really enjoy Alolan Marowak as an evolution as well! It was the Alolan form I was the most excited about and felt the most clever of them all. It stayed with me! A fire dancing ghost.. worked so well. Yet Cubone and Pikachu have never changed their basic forms (Yes Pikachu is still a basic form not Pichu.. as to gain that little tyke you need some incense) which shows how great it’s design is. It made me laugh and cry .. but mostly cry.  I am not a big fan of the Let’s Go Games but their rendition of the Cubone story was so beautifully animated. How Trace accompanies it.. how Cubone sees it’s mother one more time and tries to embrace her right as she ascends to heaven.. it showed very clearly..pokémon can truly die. Pokémon have families to.. and some pokémon deserve to be taken care of , even if they aren’t always the strongest. Had Trace not taken the little Tyke I would have done so myself but it was a nice reminder that Pokémon .. isn’t always about using the strongest like Agatha says.. it’s about using the pokémon you love.  Unfortunately I have always been really unlikely when it comes to finding one and I usually only add it to my team in the actual gameplay phase.

The real reason why I have this added to my list though is because it was the pokémon I reincarnate as in the first Mystery Dungeon game. I knew the story a tiny bit and playing through the game as a Cubone made so much sense given the story and the main character that gets turned into a pokémon by a mysterious force, then finally finds some friends in their brave little adventure club! While the game surely is not easy to run as a Cubone.. I had a blast being this little monster and seeing it’s epic journey .. growing into one of the coolest club around .. taking on other squads and solving mysterious was just so great and unique. If I ever get around to playing Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX I am sure I want to be a Cubone again. It will ALWAYS be the mon for these type of games. In a way I really felt I could relate to Cubone. To odd for the real world but bound to friends by this mysterious thing called pokémon.. a sentiment that could have easily made it my number 1..but this week I decided to follow a bit of a different route. Because there is sentiment throughout!

This is the only pokémon on this list that does not belong to gen I. It is my favorite Pokémon typing combination being Ground and Water.. but it beats out Swampert as my favorite because I really like the way it evolves. Swampert I prefer to leave as a Mudkip.. so cute! Mudkip of course doesn’t have the ground typing yet or that would actually be on this list. Seismitoad also has such a cool name. It’s an earthquake making frog, that uses it croaks to establish it! How cool is that?! It looks pretty darn cool as well. I love it’s design and evolution line so much. This walks the perfect line between clunky and cool to me. It feels sluggish and derpy yet also something that can hit you hard and without mercy. I like frog Pokémon in general and we have a surprisingly nice variety on them as well. Most are water types of course, but we have fighting, poison , dark and ground types to boost the roster.. one frog can even change types! Woop! This Ground one is a very good addition as a warted toad. 

Seismitoad is popular with the elderly (in universe) .. while I am not that old… it’s  appeal its not lost on me. It’s warts constantly vibrate constantly which the old folks love to use for massages. I would love a massage from a big frog pet! Even if it’s vibrating Warts. It can also harness these vibrations to throw powerful punches that can turn rocks to dust or even create earthquakes. Not that’s some multi functional warts.  I wonder how I can get vibrating warts! Think about  how relaxed I would be!  ..  Maybe they can swell up really bad and they would be pink too! Seems like a win! Just kidding , of course I would not want any warts as big as this pokémon but it’s design is among the most  toad like of the whole series.. It has this uniqueness that I really love. Most other frogs are a bit streamlined. This feels like the pokémon of a Witch.. not sure why but I also really love the colouring.. it’s just a blue with a lighter blue.. but the red eyes.. the dark rings and the deep blue base tone really makes it something I love to see.

With the abilities Poison Touch and Water Absorb this Pokémon already is  though to deal with.. but it’s main Bread and Butter is the Swift Swim Ability. Due to the way that Dynamax Works setting up rain is now easier than before and if you run it on a rain team it can deal massive damage. Ground Types usually are slow but this one with a base speed of 74 is already fairly okay speed wise but can easily become blisteringly fast.  That 74 is it’s lowest stat as well. Which means that this pokémon is quite okay in everything. It’s not great at anything but you can customise it in anyway you like. It keeps your opponent  guessing. Assuming it is Swift Swim while it is actually Water Absorb.. can hurt.  Since you can run it with both special and physical set it is capable of catching your opponent of  off guard. Earthquake and Surf are great multi-target moves  Best on a rain team, this combines great with Drizzle Pokémon like Pelipper for maximum damage.  A boosting combination that  that is a landslide of earth and water that will wash your enemies away.

This is it guys and girls, the first pokémon that ever existed. Rhydon was the first pokémon to ever be programmed into the game. A fact that many people did not even know. Of course that already makes this Pokémon special to me! It’s one of my favorite pokémon designs ever to boot. Sure it got its evolution later  on that also is pretty great..but this look was something so special. I am normally not a fan of grey pokémon and the ground type is far from my favorite, yet this Pokémon .. was so stunning ever since I saw it come to live in 3d in Pokémon Stadium. The version in that game.. at least one of them.. that knew Surf. It was truly amazing. It was the first time I knew looks could be deceiving. The way it was depicted in the anime! Pikachu using the horn to conduct electricity to it, the whole proud face and the tough skin.. I would love a little statue of this pokémon! It’s so magnificent! Words fail me to describe why..but whenever I see it.. I just go.. that’s a good looking pokémon. It might even be my absolute favorite design wise….and it’s grey! Sylveon of course is amazing as well but that’s pink I was bound to like that.

With an armor that can withstand temperatures up to 3600 degrees fahrenheit it can swim in Lava.. or hide in it as well!  As soon as it left it’s quadruped phase of Rhyhorn it became intelligent and also the ability to punch holes into rocks by  simply jabbing it with it’s horn. When he uses the horn as a drill he can turn even uncut diamonds into dust. Suck on that Shiva! He’s a rock type ..which is super effective against ice types.. so it kinda makes sense.. though ground types lose to ice .. so it would be a 50/50 on Shiva vs Rhydon. That’s a Final Fantasy reference by the way.  The fact that it can swim in lava is a bit of an underestimation. Lava is around 1250 degrees Centigrade at its hottest.. that weird Fahrenheit thing .. means it it can withstand 1900 ish degrees centigrade.  The less confusing temperature standard. Basically this means that this Rhino could even swim into melted platinum! The only metal on Earth that would kill it in its molten form would be Osmium ..which melts at 2700 degrees centigrade. Makes sense Rhydon is quad resistant to the fire type then!

Rhydon is still quite usable in battle! It hits with a whopping 130! Base stat in attack and it’s Defence is 120. This kinda makes it a more favorable option in combat than it’s fully evolved counterpart! Who buffs the attack up to 140 and defence also goes up a notch but no longer can use Eviolite! Since Rhydon usually functions as a hazard Setter and you combine it with moves like Sword Dance, Stone Edge, Earthquake and aforementioned Stealth Rocks.. the non evolved version is actually the bulkier option of the two. This means in pvp battles it is nice as a pokémon to swap in with and take a hit as well. It’s lighting Rod ability even makes it quite nice for double battles.  With a 130 base stat in attack you also do not have to worry this pokémon is lackluster in terms of gameplay playthroughs. I can even learn surf and strength which are the two HM’s that are quite usable in battle for older generations. It gets elemental punches as well including Ice Punch. That and it’s Stab Rock moves basically make it super good against Dragon Type elite four members, because of so many dragons being quad weak to ice.. and plenty of them being flying types so also being weak to rock! In general this pokémon is really good against the elite 4. At least against the majority of them.

I was thinking of classifying this among my favorite rock types..when I realised it would not make the top of that list! So it’s actually safe to put on here! Because it is among my favorite ground types… I do not know why I favor the weaker typings in general. Fairy being a major exception. Golem is another one of those pokémon whose design I really really love. It’s that thing Indiana Jones always runs away from.. but this time it has a face! Yet another pokémon I cam to adore trough Pokémon Stadium.. and spoiler, number 1 will have that as well.  My first time meeting this pokémon however was quite an experience. I was always bullied in school  because due to my motor issues and muscle trouble I walked weird. I never had many friends.. yet Golem is a thing that got me a friend.. or sort of at least.. I was just going to middle school. Thirteen years of age and I had zero friends. To pass the time I brought my gameboy to school! It wasn’t really allowed.. but I’d find a quiet corner to crawl away and since going to the cafeteria usually meant people started throwing food to me .. and the school had to clean it up.. it was sorta allowed. One day one of the bullies snuck up to me and looked nervous.

He asked me if I played Pokémon and if I would trade his graveler with him so it could evolve it was the last pokémon needed but his little brother kept his first one and would not trade it back.I did not know about trade evolutions yet so in trade I got all 4 as he explained to me. When that Golem was send over I thought it looked so cool and I bonded with my bully! The fact that he also snuck a gameboy to school did not even occur to me .. but he saw me do it .. so should be fine.  We talked about pokémon for an entire recess.. he could let a part of him out he could not show in front of the other kids.  Every now and again .. he would return if something happened in the tv series that was cool. Because of that kid I also had the courage to go to a pokémon competition hosted on tv to meet other fans.. my first geeky community thing. He of course became an ass again as soon as he lost interest in the game after but he never really bullied again.. like he laughed as others threw tacks at me.. he  was there when people stole my lunch..but he never  was active against me anymore.. all because of a Golem!

In combat the pokemon is about the opposite of Rhydon.. Physical defences and physical offence are swapped. The rest is  about the same.  Yet since this boulder does not benefit from an Eviolite.. it is the lesser choice to use in battle. I tend to run it with Rollout , explosion and earthquake .. more as a flavor team member as too seriously use it in combat. Also dig on it is quite fun because how it looked in Pokémon Stadium! Also since Gen I did not have abilities and held items yet.. Golem was a bit better in those games.  Golem’s main ability is Sturdy.. which is a good ability for it two have since it has two quad weaknesses so usually I run it with a normal gem and explosion  as a revenge killer. That’s fun and though I would of course never use it like that in a Nuzlocke because I would not  want it do die..  it is always fun to know if an opponent can do nothing to stop a normal gem boosted explosion.. as long as they don’t have a ghost type or Protect on a certain set. Using this creature is much more of a gamble but that is what makes it fun. Essentially if you do not misplay it can get rid.. or close to get rid of anything you do not want to deal with by sacrificing itself.. such a good friend! 

Hail to the king baby! While I could easily see this as a Poison Type it is because of it’s counterpart Nidoqueen that I actually both identify them more with the Ground type. She doesn’t get that much good poison moves.. in fact.. I originally planned her to take this spot and give the King the top spot in the poison list.. but Nidoqueen kinda sucks! Well not really she is okay at everything but it feels like the wrong stats have been averaged. She lacks a great offensive stat and makes it up with a bit more bulk.. but her defence isn’t that good anyway. Her special attacks a borderline bad. I love both these designs though .. but I do favor Nidoking’s more Kaiju-esque.. vibrant purple design over Nidoqueens sleaker one.  Nidoqueen if defencive where Nidoking is offensive.. yet Nidoqueen’s bulk can get her less far than King can do with his offence. I still really love them both though! They shaped pokémon! Big time!

In the lore department Nidoqueen is kinda bland She’s just hard.. that’s like rephrased seven different times or so and bam that’s all we know about Nidoqueen. she protects the nest, she has hard scales with phrasing differing just a mild bit every time.  Nidoking has at least some cool stuff like destroying radio towers, horns hard enough to break diamonds… I guess in the Pokémon Universe Jojo’s part four would be REALLY short.  Anyway it also destroys telephone poles. Now there is an entry that did not hold up all that well.. well that or there are A LOT more Nidokings than we think there are in real life. I bet some conspiracy guys would love to get their hands on a Nidoking right about now!  5 Great balls required to capture it. All in all though there isn’t all that much special about this pokémon.

Then why do I love it so much?! I do not know which seems a theme about these ground types. I love using earth power on Nidoking even if Earthquake is more effective. I love random trivia about the pokémon! For example did you know that Nidoqueen is the undefined Egg Group.. that means she can’t breed! The first gendered Pokémon.. the two species that started a trend for gold and silver and all the games onward to become the breeding game we all know and love. .and one part is sterile! This also again.. makes Nidoking factually better.. as it that can be IV bred. Also their secret ability “Sheer Force” is  their best ability.. you can get that by breeding.. so …..there is problem for one of them.. still these two pokémon are icons in the pokémon world.. they reshaped the pokémon world for generations to come.. yet they can not “play”with each other. It’s so wonderfully odd. Nidoking looks better though, learns better moves, is easier to use in combat and bascily does everything a little bit better. The fact that what they do isn’t anything special makes just all the more credible that I actually love this Pokémon! Sometimes there is no reason.. but I just have some heavy Nido in the kokoro.

What is your favourite Ground Type? Did you know Rhydon was the first pokémon?! Did you play Pokémon Stadium as a kid?! Let me know! Let’s hope next week it will be nice and hot outside, because I got another top 10 list waiting for you to cool you off as we discuss the Ice Type.
Now I have to Dig into some more writing for my DnD games so I will be off! See you next time.

Trainer Profile: Perfect Cell

A jolly good day to you again my dear little Watsons. Over the past few weeks we had some experiences with creating so called trainer profiles for the likes of myself and my family. Now we shall apply this skill to actual delinquents to see how they would look like in the actual world of Pokémon so we know what to expect should they misbehave. Today’s villain is one most of you will know. Calling himself the perfect life form, Perfect Cell from Dragon Ball Z. Why did I choose Cell? Well because if I did them in order the criminals would know what to expect of course! Also Frieza scares me..so I rather pick one that is still in the home for infinite losers. Because I cant say where he REALLY is

Trainer-class: Champion

Perfect Cell could have been a gentleman, as a villain Cell is well mannered, eloquent and even somewhat charming. At least in his final forms (counting instant transmission 100% perfect cell as well). For those who do not know who perfect Cell is, he is the third major antagonist in the dragonball Z series, take third with a grain of salt though because there were some other villians in there as well. Created out of the cells of all fighters by the ‘evil’ doctor Gero this bugman had to absorb two androids in order to achieve his perfect form. When he did this and noticed no one was able to stand up to him he had given the people of Earth seven days to train and come face him in a big tournament he called the Cell Games, if they would not be able to defeat him he would destroy the Earth. While this simplification doesnt do the character justice it shows exactly why his trainer class has to be Champion. He in his very concept is ‘the strongest’ that people have to train up for in order to challenge him at a tournament.

This is basically the entire concept how a champion in the Pokémon World works as well. You gotta train your team so you fight a really strong guy in the end that no one had the strength to face before. Cell is a Boss type villain, like Frieza, Hit  or Jiren. Yes I am leaving Kid Buu out of that list as Buu was basically the only relevant encounter in his arc so he never really felt like a boss to me and more like let’s say the Moon in Majora’s mask that will cause certain doom instead of the final boss encounter. In terms of Pokémon Kid Buu would be your legendary encounter or Ultra Necrozma battle. Cell is a knowledgeable fighter has mastered many techniques and can be both charming as well as an arrogant sack of shiitake mushrooms.  Being a mix of classical champions like Blue and Lance arguments can be made for Cell being the perfect Champion.

Preferred Type: Bug

Being a bugman himself it would make sense that Cell has a natural affinity with the type. Yet I do need to say that Cell probably one of the few people here, who I’d possibly rank as “omni’ type. Cell is built with the cells of other fighters and thusly is super adaptive and can use techniques of others much like they are his own. However there is also merritt to  Cell preferring the bug type other than him being one. Bug types have a super fast development cycle, much like our subject of today. Their evolution cycle is the fastest of any type of Pokémon. Cell evolved from his pod form to his perfect form in the span of a few days. Near a single day. This means he is still the fastest evolving character in Dragonball. The Saiyans had to train for a year to catch up to him and even than they needed an emotional trigger to be pushed over the edge. While Frieza jumped a massive distance in the span of three months of training Cell did, I’d like to say about 20 to 25% of that in terms of power levels (when considering the current scaling)  inside a day and than caught up to Gohan again in a matter of minutes.

Like basically every bug type in the pokémon game he does need some set up though. While he outlevels the Z-fighters on his first arrival he is not that much of a threat until his plans begin to work. He needs to absorb people for strength first, which he was able to do and throughout his saga he needed boosts to reach his maximum potential. That is also how bugs work. They hinder your opponent while they set up a boost for themselves. So in the end this type does seem to work in his favor.

The Team

Signature Pokémon:  Silvally (Any Type)

Silvally is a pokémon that was created to save the world by combatting the Ultra Beasts, which are the Eldritch Abominations of the pokémon world. While some may find my continuing statement an exaggeration, they are all extremely odd creatures that are quite hard to describe or fathom, (except for Buzzwole maybe) that live outside space and time that have the ability to drive you insane. Silvally’s  pre-evolution Type: Null at least was created to combat these creatures. For this Pokémon to be able to defeat the Ultra Beasts they build it from the cells of pokémon of all the types with the idea behind it that it could switch on the fly to be resistance while defending and super effective while attacking against this threat from outside time and space. An ultimate fighter that is made from the cells of others, where have we heard that one before?!

Oh right it fits Cell quite well, yet Cell wasn’t created to defend the world. Or was he?  While most of this is hearsay or ‘after-information’ made in interviews years after the source material, Dr Gero (the creator of Cell) arguably was not a bad guy. As a former member of the Red Ribbon Army, and having lost his son in said army, assumably to Goku, Gero saw Goku as a huge threat to his world. He created the androids to stop that treat to the world. Now of course all of them sort of turned into homicidal maniacs in one timeline or another, except for 16 which was based on Gero’s son. Cell blinded by his arrogance lost his calling somewhere along the way but like Silvally he was created with a semi-noble purpose. I mean I can’t even deny that Goku IS the treat to the world Gero saw him as.. he got the earth destroyed a few times and even risked being wiped out of existence as an entire universe just for thrills. So Silvally and Cell nicely parallel each other, the same type of abilities, the same type of being one having found friendship, silvally needs friendship to evolve, the other one releasing the power of his ego.  A great pairing.

Physical Sweeper: Accelgor (Bug Type)

Accelgor is one of my favorite bug type pokémon, alongside Galvantula and Ariados.. which arguably are arachnids and not bugs. This one makes the list due to it’s high speed which resembles Cell’s method of fighting. When Trunks introduced us to Super Saiyan Grade 3 (not to be confused with Super Saiyan 3.. which is something different)  we saw a shift in tone for power-ups. While Grade 3 overpowered Cell, it became to bulky and lacked the speed to stop him properly. With the term Grade 3 is never mentioned in the anime .. let’s just call it Super Saiyan Swole. Swole Trunks got his Mudbray (the Arse Pokémon) handed to him by a much faster Cell.

While Accelgor prefers special attacks, the same can be said for Cell. He is very much a Ki blast user and Accelgor favors special attacks. Yet both have respectable enough physical traits (in Accelgor case should you focus on them) Both Cell as Accelgor have Moxie and with the ability Guts Accelgor can really put out a great Facade, which seems something also quite befitting of our bugman.  In its own way Accelgore can even be pretty swole!

Physical Wall: Forretress  (Bug-Steel type)

Cell has been known to take quite a bit of violence without flinching an inch. Be it by completely absorbing vegeta’s neck shatter kick, or even taking a saw blade to the neck, (which somehow does physical damage opposed to how other ki blasts work) he has shrugged it all off.  Forretress is the evolved pinecone pokemon whos is a bug with a skin as hard as steel. Which is quite fitting for the man we are talking about today.

Forretress basically likes to control the arena where he builds something with rocks , much like how cell did when he built and destroyed his own little arena for the games.  Having access to Rapid Spin as well as Stage Hazards the Steel Ball pokemon can make or build his own arenas as well. This is not the reason why it is included on this list though, the reason why Forretress is on the list is because it’s endgame is quite similar to Cell.

In Pokémon games Hazards can not be set up indefinitely. Depending on which Hazard you can set up one to to three stacks per Hazard, yet set hazard still takes up an entire move slot. After those hazards are in place the pokémon becomes virtually useless. Fortress however is a hazard setter who learns a particular move that Cell also used near the end of the Cell games. The move explosion! While Cell uses this move he even puffs up almost like a ball.. much like this Pokémon.

Special Sweeper: Lucario (Fighting Steel type)

While Cell’s physical fighting style is closest to Picollo his special moves he mostly borrows from Goku. Lucario is Special Sweeper (yes his special attack stat is higher than his physical one) that resembles their style quite a bit. Lucario and Goku share quite a similar moveset. Both have the after image technique (Double Team for Lucario) both can create blinding Sunlight (Solar Flare for Goku and Sunny Day for Lucario)  Both have stats multipliers (Kaioken for the human and Calm Mind/Swords dance for the pokémon. They can even both transform into a more powerful state with Lucario being a pokémon with a mega evolution. Arguably Dragon Fist and Giga Impact are ultimate finishing moves and the only thing that Lucario seems to be lacking is the Spirit Bomb.

Yes he does have the Kamehameha, that’s why he is on this list as the technique is Cell’s de facto offensive move as well. It is called Aura Sphere and it is EXACTLY the same thing. Literally the ONLY difference between the two is that one is a beam and the other is a sphere.  Aura sphere is made out of one’s on inner energy , Aura as pokémon calls it is basically the same thing as Ki in dragonball. It is gather from within the user and hurled at the enemy in an attack that never misses. Aura Sphere is the Kamehameha Wave to a fault. Plus having a fighting type on this team that is able to transform as well seems to fit Cell quite nicely as well. 

Special Wall: Reuniclus (Psychic Type)

While this Pokémon isn’t particularly specially bulky it is okay at that job because of his high health stat and more than passable special defence but it will struggle against powerhouses. Much like Cell who has been blasted into pieces quite a few times during the Cell games. He doesn’t take special attacks that well. However I did not pick this pocket monster for the time traveling insectoid just because of their shared mediocrity. Reuniclus is the final form of the Cell Pokémon Solosis. The fully evolved pokémon is called the multiplying pokémon.  This means that the pokémon canonically is able to produce new cells or versions of itself . Quite like how Cell is able to produce miniature versions of himself called Cell Junior. A fun detail in this is that while the regular evolution line has a green (gelatinous) skin much like the antagonist that serves as it’s master, the shiny counterpart is blue.  Pokémon can get shiny from multiplying so Reuniclus could technically, maybe create blue juniors as well.

The hidden ability of the pokémion is called regenerator and what do you know.. that is Cell’s main defensive ability as well. Both of them can regenerate as well. So a bulky cell pokémon that can create blue offspring that doesnt take special hits to well but can regenerate?  That seems like quite a perfect pokémon for Cell.

Legendary: Mewtwo (Psychic Type)

A perfect lifeform and another perfect lifeform walk into bar and one says to the other ‘you are coming home with me tonight’ The second perfect life form scoffs and says ‘Why do you think that’ to which the first replies ‘I got some Masterballs with your name on them’ Now bad jokes aside, was there ever any doubt that Mewtwo would be the perfect legendary for Cell? Both created in a lab, both believed to be the perfect life form, both grown in a test tube for many years with the DNA of the most powerful creatures around. Even English Dub Mewtwo and Perfect Cell’s motivations are quite similar. Feeling they are a superior species they want to eliminate the unworthy. In case of Mewtwo that just happens to be Pokémon that serve humans as well as humans themselves and in case of Cell it’s ..everything that is not him. Mewtwo can transform beyond his perfect form and in Dragon Ball Online as well as some Dragon Ball Heroes arcade machine we have seen bugboy do the same.

Cell like Mewtwo is great at manipulating minds, seeing how he managed to trick Vegeta in letting him obtain his perfect form. Of course in a straight up fight between Mewtwo and Cell the later would win, because Bug types beat Psychic types.. so there is that question solved. Besides being their respective universes ultimate life form though they both have one more commonality that is too good not to mention. Both  Mewtwo (Game version and to a lesser extend the movie version) as well as Cell have been beaten by a ten year old boy!

Question to my Readers:

Which Villian (or Hero) would you like me to profile next?

When you fight Cell be warned he is a lot tougher than me, and less likely to play fair. Bring plenty of Fire types when facing Cell and make sure of them at least one of them is a Mega Houndoom that you don’t use against Lucario and you should be fine. Bring a Delphox for Lucario..or like a Chandelure and Cell will go down! 

The Pinkest Poké Blogger is blasting off again
XO
Pinkie

Top 5: Favorite Pokémon Types

Since I aim to make this blog into a youtube channel one day, we can not escape clickbaity stuff. I am not sure if clickbait works for blogs but we sure as well might try.  I always think they are nice and fun reads. For a first one let’s discuss what Pokémon types I prefer raising.

Number 5: Fighting Types
The odd one out I guess would be my number five, I in general go heavy on the special attackers, those are generally less ‘mother-law-like’ when they evolve. Physical attackers tend to get very bulky and scary looking, much like my former mothers in law. But one of two physical types I actually really like is the fighting type. In Pokémon TCG it’s my main typing and there are some fighting types I truly adore. Mega-Medicham, Lucario and it’s mega Hawlucha and good old classic Hitmonchan are amongst my favorites of the type. Shiny Mega Lopunny as well..because pink! Yay! But the fighting type is such a good type, most fighting types learn elemental punches, giving them great coverage, and a lot of fighting type moves actually have quite unique mechanics. High Jumpkick for example is one of my favorite moves in the game, not just for its power but because of the high risk high reward. Moves like Low Kick, drain punch, power up punch , brick break and more result in so much possibilities with your fighting mons and you can just have so much fun with them. Easy to pick up, hard enough to master and featuring some very memorable designs this type certainly packs a punch. 

Number 4: Grass Types
No starter can ever beat Bulbasaur for me it was my first back, and whenever I can pick him now, I feel bad if I don’t. It gave me a big connection with the typing since I was just a sprout myself. It might be the type where I dislike the least amount of Pokémon in it’s typing line.
All grass types are quite enjoyable to me, I can hardly think of one. Perhaps Pansage and Simisage but in the latter’s case I quite enjoy it’s pompadour design.  Grass types are nice and versatile they being able to wall, status, heal, dot , weather or sweep. Their designs range widely and they often have some of the best shinies and take on nearly all secondary typings. In the Pokémon TCG, the grass type is usually widely supported with some interesting tactics as well and there are both cute and tough looking designs for everyone to enjoy. If you prefer sceptile like many or Lurantis like me?  In the world of Pokémon it IS easy being green.

Number 3: Normal Types
‘Okay Pinkie, you got to be kidding here? You actual favor the normal types? They are so lackluster, not super effective against anything and they are just soooo basic.’ Well yes, you are right, the normal type does feel a bit lackluster, but they are not useless they just need a little love. I love a lot of normal types, Ambipom, Blissey, Slaking, Snorlax, Exploud and Swellow belong to my all time favorites. They are just incredibly fun to run and raise in a gam. You can get normal types in all sorts and flavors. It’s not just plants and fish. From Gorillas to pink teddies, from a virtual duck to an ancient construct. Only weak to the fighting type they compensate by an immunity to the ghost type.  So they are quite safe to use. Not all of them are green or yellow, like the grass and electric type for example which makes all normal types feel a bit more unique and grounded, which is a nice change from your giant steel snake with spinning disks over his head or your christmas suited bird. Most normal types are speedy enough, and with moves like Return, there is some effort you need to bond with that Pokémon, you can’t just fetch it from your pc. Most normal types have a high level of a “pet” feeling I really appreciate in my mons. I also am very fond of ducks and this type holds some of the best duck with Porygon and Farfetch’d. Whitney is one of my favorite gym leaders, we both like normal types, both have pink hair , cry really easily and we both can use our Miltanks to totally destroy your team and devour your soul!

Number 2: Poison Types
While not very prevalent in any meta due to their ground and psychic weakness, the poison types have earned a place in my heart. I feel for Pokémon that are not very loved, and the poison type does not get a lot of love. Sure there is Gengar that is a crowd favorite, but no one cares about poor old Koffing and Trubbish is even hated by the community, this in itself endears it to me. I will show the world it’s okay to love a stunky or even a little trash bag filled with hopes and dreams to become  a strong mon one day. The poison type is all about damage over time, something only ghost and grass types can do as well, but the grass type is not as effective at it and the ghost types have to cut their hp in half for it and their hp is not their strong suit anyway. So if you go for dots, go for poison. The poison type also has some good combo possibilities in the form of Venoshock as well as being quite good hazard setters. Most poison types can learn at least some form of dark type moves which at least covers one of their weaknesses. Gen VII offered us some very interesting new poison types in the form of Salazalle , Poipole  and Toxapex which I all love to bits. Besides from my obvious number 1 type it would be the only type I would ever run as a mono type game.
With some of the best designs in the game and some of my favorite moves of all times, I can happily state that the poison type is not trash!

Number 1: Fairy Types
Even if you have not read my other posts up until now , I think it’s quite clear what is my favorite type. It’s the only type featured on my banner, and my entire site is coloured in their defacto tint. One of the best designed typings with only Aromatise as a bit of design fail. Jigglypuff , Xerneas, Mimikyu, Alolan Ninetales and of course my pal Sylveon, every single one of them looks so amazing. I love so much of them, I genuinely think Slurpuff looks delicious and Mega Audino, despite being somewhat useless looks very huggable.
With a whopping 7 legendaries of the type it’s represented well in the upper echelon of Pokémon as well, 8 if we count pixie plate Arceus. Having access to a vast array of secondary (or primary) typings, it’s very easy to run an all fairy type party, with Impidimp of gen 8 only increasing its viability even further. The fairy type being super effective against fighting and dragon .. and even immune to dragon make it so good and meta viable that only the steel type is a metagame usefulness , and the latter usually is just to slow in play for me.
So really there is no comparison. I love the Tapu’s , Magearna Soul Heart ability is great, Pixilate, though not very unique is so much more useful in the metagame then glaciate for example, though Aereliate is a stiff competitor , I just feel Pixilate would cause pink sparkles and those are so much better then some puffs of air…so there! The introduction of the fairy type also made no mon’s worse. They all became a lot better.  Where poison types weren’t that common and normal types did not fare well against steel before anyway.. none of them got worse. When the steel type was introduced it kinda made magnemite worse giving it a quad weakness rather than a double. The dark type was never given to a Gen I mon, so the fairy type has been the only typing that has enhanced old Pokémon, and in case of gardevoir even made some great again. Twinkle Tackle is easily the best Z move, mostly because of the activation dance and they are all just a treat to use. Fairy type is my dream type, and in my humble opinion one of the best typings there is in the game.
If Pokemon ever become real.. I will collect them all and snuggle them forever.

Now that you know what types I favor , feel free to challenge me to a battle on Pokémon Showdown, you know what types I am most likely to use! Leave a like on the post and let me know what your favorite type is, who knows we might pit them against each other in battle one day. But before that time comes, don’t hate on fairies, love the pokémon you love and most of all stay pink!
Untill we read again.