#also lol at gen 8 starters being the least popular

[camberdraws]

Painting a notoriously likeable pokemon!

[obsidiancypher]

Pokémon Ask Game!

1.What’s your favorite Pokemon ?

Raichu! Always has been, always will be.

2.Is there a Pokémon you hate / dislike ?

Actually, none come to mind! Even the more popular ones to hate on, I kind of feel bad for. I don't think I hate any of them.

3.What’s your Favorite [add a Type] pokemon ?

I'll just pick a random type for this one! Steel! I really like Bisharp.

4.What’s your favorite pokemon from gen [add a number] / region ?

I'm a big fan of Gen2/Johto, so... Heracross!

5.What’s your favorite pokemon type ?

It's definitely Steel type. Electric is a very very close second though.

6.What’s your least favorite pokemon type

I'm not sure I really have any that I outright dislike, but my least favorite is... ehhh... Rock type? I just don't have strong feelings about it compared to others. Geodude and Onix will always be super nostalgic gen 1 rock types for me though, so I can't hate.

7.What’s your favorite Type combos

I like a lot of the Fighting type combos, even the stereotypical Fire/Fighting types!

8.Who’s your favorite Baby pokemon ?

Does Togepi count as a baby pokemon? Togepi reminds me of the first Pokémon movie, and that's from a good time in my life.

9.Who’s your favorite legendary Pokémon ?

Trick Answer: Arcanine!

10.Who’s your favorite mythical Pokémon ?

Celebi! We used my cousin's GameShark to unlock the Celebi Shrine and I remember just being in awe of the mysteriousness of it.

11.Favorite Pseudo legendary ?

Dragonite, so easy.

12.What’s your favorite Shiny Pokemon ?

I will always treasure my first shiny pokémon: Red Donphan. I had no idea what "shiny" pokémon were back then, but it was the same weird coloring as "Red Gyarados", and I couldn't explain it. It was my precious.

13.What’s your favorite Regional bird ?

God, I'm such a Genwunner. It's Pidgey. I was such a huge fan of Pidgeotto and Pidgeot.

14.What’s your favorite Pikaclone ?

Plusle and Minun!

15.What’s your favorite regional rodent ?

My boy Ziggy, for sure.

16.What’s your favorite Ultra beast ?

What the fuck is an "Ultra beast"?

17.What’s your favorite Eeveelution ?

I love Glaceon, though Vaporeon was my original Surf slave back in Red, so that's a tough choice.

18.What’s your favorite Fossil pokemon ?

Omanyte, my fossil choice. Initially regretted it because I wanted Kabutops, but I learned to respect my little guy.

19.What’s your favorite starter ?

It's Totodile. I just loved that entire evolutionary line.

20.What’s your least favorite starter ?

Eh, probably Chespin. Just didn't care for it, and the alternatives for that generation were so much cooler!

21.What’s your favorite region ?

Johto, my beloved.

22.What’s your favorite pokemon game ?

Crystal! Every great about Gold/Silver, plus all the extra Suicune content. Literally could not beat my surprise with that generation when I discovered you could go back to Kanto???

23.What’s your favorite regional variant / Alternate form ?

I don't know any!

24.What’s your favorite paradox pokemon ?

I also don't know any! Best to not think of any, else I break my mind.

25.Do you have a favorite pokeball ?

Ultra. It's such a classic. Black and gold, so cool.

26.What’s your favorite gen ?

That's a hard question. Big of Gen 1 obviously, but Gen 2 is probably my favorite games. Maybe Gen 3? Fuck.

27.Do you have a least favorite gen ?

Of the ones I played, Gen 5, I guess. Just not as memorable for me.

28.Do you have a favorite pokedex entry ?

I always though Shedinja's was kinda spooky, but its admittedly pretty tame compared to a lot of others:

"Shedinja's hard body doesn't move - not even a twitch. In fact, its body appears to be merely a hollow shell. It is believed that this Pokémon will steal the spirit of anyone peering into its hollow body from its back."

29.Who’s your favorite character from the anime ?

Meowth! (Does Jigglypuff count lol?)

30.Who’s your favorite character from any Pokémon games ?

My favorite solo mountain enjoyed: Red

Dude just loves hanging out in a low-oxygen environment by himself being extremely ominous and intimidating.

31.If you were a trainer what are the 6 Pokémon that would be on your team?

Raichu, Snorlax, Nidoking, Golduck, Kingler, Omastar

I just went through my favorite Gen 1 guys, and I realize I liked a lot of water types from that generation...

32.If you were from the pokemon world what career would you like to have ? (Ex: Trainer, coordinator, breeder, ect)

Oh, I'd probably be some kind of weird researcher. I'm not much of a trainer or an explorer, but I do like learning new things and I'd probably just keep one or two pokémon.

33.What pokemon you wish had a mega evolution ?

I'mma be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of Mega Evolution as a concept. I understand there are different variants of "temporary" evolutions now too. Call me old fashion, but I wasn't a fan of them. Too much to think about.

34.What Pokémon you wish had another variant / form ? What type would it be ?

I want an even fatter Snorlax. That guy knew how to chill. I want to build a house on his belly.

35.Who was your first Starter ever ?

Charmander. Near and dear, even its a bit stereotypical and Charizard is obviously a fan favorite for the players and developers.

36.Do you remember your first Pokémon team ? If yes, which one was it ?

I think so! Charizard, Snorlax, Kingler/Vaporeon, Pidgeot/Dodrio, Graveler, Primeape

Not so certain about some of those, but I think my final team to beat the Elite Four consisted of those 6/8 pokés.

37.If you could choose one Pokémon to bring to life, which one would it be ?

It's gotta be Raichu. Just love the design.

38.If you were a gym leader of what type would your team be ? And which Pokémon would they be ?

I'd probably be Steel/Electric type. Not a whole lot that fit that bill exactly though, so probably mixing an matching mono-types.

39.If you have to create your own pokemon (known as fakemon) what would you like to create ?

Only the most radical fakemon of my childhood: Zapizard (the fusion between Zapdos and Charizard)

40.What’s your favorite pokemon anime opening ?

[radramblog]

5 Random Pokemon

Had a low energy day today so I’m just going to shit out some bad content, sorry lol

(post-writing this me checking in, haha you thought you weren’t going to put effort into this)

Hitting the ol’ random button 5 times and seeing what pops out is always fun, right? Anyway I’m just gonna do that and give opinions on what pops out.

Kingdra (#230, Water/Dragon)

Kingdra is the only Dragon type introduced in the second generation of pokemon, and since only the Dratini line were Dragons in Gen 1, it meant the type was still absurdly rare. Despite this, the game has not one but two Dragon specialising bosses, and one of them doesn’t even have one.

3 Dragonites does not a balanced team make.

Clair’s Kingdra is actually an interesting bit of game design. It’s unique (until Gen 4) Water/Dragon is an excellent defensive typing, having only one weakness (Dragon) since Water shores up Dragon’s Ice weakness and Dragon resists Water’s Grass and Electric weaknesses. The game is designed such that it is extremely unlikely you are able to hit that weakness- while the area on the way in to Blackthorn is full of Ice types (it’s… Ice Path…), Kingdra of course isn’t weak to those, and it’s exceptionally difficult to get a Dragon type or a Dragon move before fighting her. Without trading, you can’t get a Dratini at all before her in Crystal (in Gold and Silver it’s available in the Game Corner, but it’s fairly pricey), and the only other species to get a Dragon move is Kingdra’s preevolutions, Horsea and Seadra. The Dragon move in question, however, is Twister, the weakest one in the game. These limits effectively mean that Clair’s fight is substantially harder than Kingdra’s solid but not groundbreaking stats would suggest.

After you fight Clair, you get immediate access to tools that would have made the fight easier- she gives you the Dragonbreath TM so at least one of your party can deal with them, and Dragon’s Den is not only home to wild Dratini and Dragonair but also has a Dragon Scale, letting you evolve Seadra into Kingdra. In essence, you’ve proven you can beat Dragons, so now you can play with them yourself.

Vullaby (#629, Dark/Flying)

Vullaby, the preevolution of Mandibuzz, is a ‘mon that doesn’t get a lot of use in the main series games. It’s always a version exclusive and is often only available lategame (Black, Black 2, Shield) or postgame (XY, ORAS). I can’t think of a single major character that uses it or Mandibuzz on their team. I think it’s a shame that it’s so dorky looking, since it’s a neat design idea- a baby vulture with a skull for a diaper- and it’s bulky enough that it was able to briefly see Smogon play (granted, in the lowest non-LC tier, and only in Gen 6, but still). At least Mandibuzz is a genuinely excellent Pokemon in competitive Singles (doubles, less so.) and a fucking excellent design.

Also, it’s female only for some reason? I don’t get it.

Cloyster (#091, Water/Ice)

Cloyster is a great example of an early generation Pokemon that could have been overshadowed by later power creep but was given the tools to remain relevant competitively. It’s yonic design belies a monstrous 180 base physical defence, higher than anything else in the first generation, tying it for 6th highest in the franchise overall (9th including megas and the purposely overpowered Eternamax Eternatus), and decent attacking stats as well, though it’s HP and Special Defense make it quite fragile on that end.

Also, it’s sideways in Red and Blue for some reason. But only on the front sprite?

Despite this glaring weakness, its strengths have let it be relevant in different modes across basically every generation of competitive Singles. In Gen 1 Clamp was an excellent move that only it had access to, and Ice typing made it immune to Blizzard freezes as well as giving it STAB on its own Blizzards, letting it effectively wall most of the viable physical attackers. In Gen 2 it gained access to Spikes, which were incredibly powerful and pretty rare, as well as the one thing that could get rid of them in Rapid Spin, though it competed for slots with the common Suicune. Gen 3 it was mostly doing the same thing, but the addition of Skill Link in Gen 4 and Cloyster getting it gave it a niche all its own. While there are a few Pokemon that get Skill Link, Cloyster is different from all of them in two ways- it isn’t fragile, and it (as of Gen 5) has access to arguably the series’s second best boosting move in Shell Smash (Geomancy is exclusive to a legendary, so). Because of Skill Link letting it hit astonishingly hard with it’s decent but not incredible offenses and what would normally be inconsistent moves, and having enough Defence to live just about any hit from a physical attacker it switches in to, Cloyster has an excellent niche as a lategame sweeper/cleaner, especially since its former Spikes/Spin niche has been largely overshadowed by things like Ferrothorn.

Jolteon (#135, Electric)

Jolteon is probably my second favourite Eeveelution, behind Umbreon. Unlike Umbreon, I don’t have a plushie of it, a fact that I should probably change.

Jolteon is unique in Gen 1 in being the only thing other than Beedrill to get a Bug move that isn’t the completely unusable Leech Life, making it one of the few things able to effectively combat the game’s many broken Psychic types. Unfortunately, said move (Pin Missile) isn’t actually very good, and its Attack is far from stellar either. It’s still pretty decent just spamming Thunderbolt, though, seeing as it’s high base Speed (tied for second best in the first gen behind Electrode with Aerodactyl and Mewtwo) makes its Critical rate very high.

Outside of Sylveon, none of the Eeveelutions are really competitively viable these days, which is a shame. I personally thing they should be given those busted-ass moves from Let’s Go Eevee as signature moves, but that might be a bit much.

Dubwool (#832, Normal)

Since Wooloo being basically a perfect being in every way, Dubwool is sort of painfully disappointing in comparison. It’s like, not particularly cool, a little too angry/gonky to be cute, and it’s like… a soccer ball? I think? Those ugly patches don’t make much sense otherwise, and it somehow looks way worse on the shiny.

ew. Inverting the black and the white looks great on Wooloo, not so much Dubwool.

It’s such a shame too, because there were so many fan designs for a Wooloo evolution before Sword and Shield’s release- Wooloo was, of course, one of the first Generation 8 Pokemon revealed, and was very popular, so there was plenty of time to come up with content ahead of time. I did like that a lot of the ideas were around the idea of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” theme, but most of those actual fan designs were waaay too edgy.

So what of Dubwool? Well, it’s closely associated with Hop, seeing as it manages to make it to his endgame team- having it sit alongside a fully evolved starter and fucking Zacian in the Galarian Star Tournament is a bit of a trip. And that’s fine, it suits his character. But aside from that, it’s not really noteworthy at all. A rare fate, to be overshadowed by your preevolution- Raichu and Sceptile (thanks PMD2) can surely relate.