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.

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