Top 100 Pokemon #99: Zangoose

Sometimes, the best way to deal with the poisonous things in your life is not to try to be immune to them, but to take them in and then attack back with 50% more power.

Actually, that is a horrible analogy for real life.  Pretend I said something like making lemons out of lemonade.

#99: Zangoose

Coming up at #99 in my list is one part of Hoenn's dynamic duo, the Cat Ferret Pokemon, Zangoose. Based on the mongoose, which can fight off venomous snakes, Zangoose's most notable conceptual aspect is its ongoing rivalry with Seviper, a Pokemon that... well, I never liked as much as I liked Zangoose, honestly. It might be because snakes have been done already a fair amount, while the mongoose, even now, is still pretty unique among Pokemon concepts.

It helps that Zangoose has an awesome design. That red looks like battle scars from years and years of Seviper fights. (Seviper isn't too bad, but I like Zangoose's better.) He also has an awesome name, but that's a given when your name starts with "Zan". There are varying theories as to where the "Zan" comes from, but the details don't matter that much because, well, Zan.

Zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn!!!!!

That said, Zangoose's feud with Seviper is so critical to its concept, it is practically inseparable from Zangoose himself. All of Zangoose's Pokedex entries mention Seviper (and vice versa), and even TVTropes's listing of Pokemon groups the two under the same sub-entry. Being so intricately linked, fandom has, of course, created as much fanart of the two as friends or lovers as they have of the two trying to tear each other to pieces. Not that those are mutually exclusive.

Zangoose used Pursuit! A critical hit!

To add to the Foe Yay potential, the two are in the same egg group, which has probably led to some of the most awkward moments in the Pokemon Day Care.

But that's enough about Zangoose's concept. Let's talk about Zangoose in battling Pokemon other than Seviper.

Zangoose has okay stats; his best stat is definitely Attack, sitting at a good Base 115. His Speed is decent at 90, moreso for the lower tiers. He has a good movepool that includes Swords Dance and powerful Normal type attacks, as well as great coverage moves in Close Combat and either Night Slash or Shadow Claw.

However, it is in Gen V's Dream World where Zangoose finally got something that allows it to be a dangerous threat. In the Dream World, Zangoose traded his Immunity to poison for Toxic Boost, which boosts his Attack by 50% when poisoned. Kind of like Guts, except it only works with poison, so it's not quite as good, but hey, it makes sense for Zangoose to have an ability that specifically works with poison. By holding and activating a Toxic Orb, Zangoose can boost his Attack extremely high; add in Facade, which attains a Base Power of 210 after STAB, and you have an attack that can pretty much knock out anything that isn't a Rock, Steel, or Ghost in one hit. Also available in Zangoose's movepool is Quick Attack, which can still do some major damage after Toxic Boost (and an optional Swords Dance boost). It's all very risky, as Zangoose is taking that Toxic damage the whole time, and his defensive stats are not very good, so it won't take much to take him out, but while he is alive, expect him to cause a lot of damage.

He's still in NU, but is considered one of the top threats in the tier. Metagame tierings aside, though, one thing I like about Zangoose is this transition he made, from just being immune to poison to taking that poison and using it against the opponent.

Zangoose looks cool, fights well, and has a solid, unique concept behind it, making it a good Pokemon to put in my #99 spot.

The feud between Zangoose and Seviper isn't the most interesting part about Zangoose, but it does provide for some interesting moments, like... what happens should one of the two sides... win?

The Antagonist In Mourning trope is fitting here.

Next time: A male-only Pokemon that can carry a car.

Top 100 Pokemon #100: Leafeon

Let's start this list off with an Eeveelution. Eevee was a Gen I Pokemon that could evolve into different Pokemon by using different evolutionary stones. A Water Stone gives you Vaporeon, a Thunderstone gives Jolteon, a Fire Stone gives Flareon, and a Leaf Stone gives...

Hey guys, I just returned from training near this mossy rock... what's the shiny green stone for?

...oh, wait.

#100: Leafeon

First of all, Leafeon did not appear until Generation IV, and second, you do not use a Leaf Stone on Eevee to get him; all you need to do is level up your Eevee near the Moss Rock in either Sinnoh or Unova.

Now, overall I really like the Eevee family. Having one Pokemon potentially become seven distinct Pokemon, all with their own strengths, is very interesting. Leafeon will not be the last Eeveelution on my list; overall, Leafeon is my third favorite of the Eeveelutions.

The main reason why Leafeon doesn't rank higher is because his concept is rather ordinary, especially with a lot of the fancier Pokemon that came out of Gen IV; Leafeon looks like he should have existed in Gen I as the Leaf Stone evolution. The design comes out fine; Leafeon is definitely one of the cuter Eeveelutions.

Totally adorable.

According to Pokedex entries, Leafeon is constantly using photosynthesis, so the air around him is always clean.

 Anyways, let's move on to the cooler part of Leafeon: his battle capabilities.

The first thing to note about Eeveelutions is that they all have the same numbers in their Base Stats: 130, 110, 95, 65, 65, 60. The Eeveelutions differ in which stats get which number. For those who don't know how good those stats are, 130 means it's one of the best in that stat, 110 is very good, 95 is usually pretty solid, and the rest are that Eeveelution's weak stats. Leafeon is a bit interesting, though, in which stat gets that big Base 130...

...and that is Defense. As in, physical defense.

A more accurate representation of Leafeon's physical defense.

Yes, that frail-looking cat-like critter has the same Base Defense as Pokemon such as Golem, Rhyperior, and Metagross. He's not quite the Grass-type with the highest Base Defense; Ferrothorn beats out Leafeon in this department by all of 1 point. Still, that is Leafeon, a cute plant-cat with the defense of a freaking wall.

Now, his HP and Special Defense are both Base 65, so don't expect Leafeon to be taking special attacks anytime soon.

Leafeon's next best stat is physical Attack at Base 110. This means that Leafeon is more suited to moves like Leaf Blade than Giga Drain or Leaf Storm or whatnot. And thankfully, in Black 2 and White 2, Leafeon learns Leaf Blade much earlier, at level 45. Before? You'd have to wait all the way until Level 71... and there was no way to breed it to have the move already. Until then, you'd have to just use Razor Leaf over and over... that, or try to work off of Leafeon's Base 60 Special Attack.

Finally, at a Base Speed of 95, Leafeon is decently fast.

Leafeon, though, overall suffers from a fairly lacking movepool. Other than Leaf Blade, his other physical attacks are X-Scissor and Dig for in-game; beyond that, you have Return and Double-Edge, but that's it. For this and other reasons, Leafeon is not seen too much in upper tiers, and mainly resides in Smogon's NeverUsed (NU) tier, where it has a particular niche as a good physically-defensive Grass-type with some interesting support options.

And what interesting support options it has! Heal Bell, Wish, and Roar are all great, but I think the role Leafeon is coolest at is using Baton Pass. Leafeon can learn Swords Dance, boosting his already solid Attack to sky-high levels, and if he faces a foe he cannot get past, he can always Baton Pass to someone who can also make use of those boosts.

Alternatively, Baton Pass to a Pokemon that will totally screw over the enemy. Bonus points if a Substitute is included.

Leafeon gets two abilities that are based on sunlight: Leaf Guard and Chlorophyll through Dream World. This allows Leafeon to fit on Sun teams. The latter is better for more offensively-based variations, while the former is good for support variants that utilize that physical bulk and prefer not to be hit by status.

All in all, Leafeon is a cool Pokemon and a good one to kick off this list of my Top 100 Pokemon. He might not be the strongest of the Eeveelutions, but he definitely has some tricks up his sleeve and you would do well not to underestimate him.

As a side note, Googling images of Leafeon (anyone planning on doing this, please use SafeSearch!) brings up quite a few images of him with Glaceon, the other Gen IV Eeveelution. I guess people just naturally pair these two off in that way.

Of course Glaceon would be the tsundere.

Next time: _ _ N _ _ _ S E

Top 100 Pokemon - Introduction

So I will soon start a series on my top 100 Pokemon, as of the 5th generation of Pokemon games. The list will be pretty self-explanatory, but here are some notes on what to expect:

1. All Pokemon on this list will be to some extent competitively viable, at the very least in Smogon's NeverUsed tier. I'm not one to consider the best competitive Pokemon as my favorite Pokemon, but I do prefer Pokemon to have at least some battle capabilities.

2. Beyond their combat capabilities, I also rank these Pokemon based on their design, concept, and other non-combat aspects. Anime portrayals of these Pokemon may be applied, though I have not seen much at all of anything past the Johto arc, so don't expect much there.

3. Do not expect to see many Legendaries, particularly ones that are version mascots or otherwise more "monster-like" Legendaries. For whatever reason, I'm just not a big fan of them. I do like the more, well, pixie-like ones, as well as pseudo-Legendaries, so do expect to come across them in my rankings, as well as maybe a big Legendary here and there.

4. Entries will be based on final evolutionary forms. Pre-evolutions will be covered alongside their parent evolution(s) in some entries.

5. New entries will be posted whenever I have the time to post one. Hopefully I can get through this without it taking 100 weeks (by then, Gen VI will probably have come out!), but I won't be able to post one every single day.

6. Finally, this is my list and my opinion. Feel free to comment about your thoughts, but personal attacks on me or anyone else for their opinions will just make you look like a jerk.

The Pokemon at #100 on this list will be coming up soon. Which one is it? Here's a hint: clean air always surrounds this Pokemon.

A new generation...

This post is simply a warning that anything beyond this post (that is, posted before Nov. 21st, 2012) covers the 4th generation and will be outdated if you're concerned with Black and White and the 5th generation of Pokemon.