Top 100 Pokemon #93: Garchomp

As far as controversial Pokemon go, perhaps few are as controversial as this guy. In the history of Pokemon, he was the first Pokemon that was not an actual legendary Pokemon to be deemed too powerful for standard competitive play and thus banned out of OU and into the Uber tier. (And no, it's not Wobbuffet or Wynaut, who just had a stupidly broken combination of moves and ability that got him banned.)

That's right, it's that crazy land shark, Garchomp!

The OU tier can't handle his awesomeness.

#93: Garchomp

Meet Garchomp, the strongest non-legendary Pokemon from Generation IV. Concept and design-wise, he combines a dragon with a hammerhead shark with a jet plane, and then puts him at home on land because putting a shark in water isn't cool enough. Seriously, though, if that does not sound awesome, just look at him.

"Attention all passengers. You will soon be experiencing some major turbulence on this jet ride."

As absolutely ferocious as this guy is, though, it seems only fitting that he is the signature Pokemon of Cynthia, the Champion of Sinnoh. Aside from being a good strong Pokemon to go with the strongest trainer of the region, having such a menacing beast tamed by a trainer as nice as Cynthia (who is one of my favorite Champions) is quite appropriate.

"You're such a cute dragon-jet-land-shark, yes you are!"

Oh, but now we get to talk about Garchomp in competitive play. To understand how he got banned, we first look at his stats. Garchomp might not actually be a legendary Pokemon, but he does belong to the "pseudo-legendary" class of Pokemon, occupied by such folks as Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, and Metagross: they have a Base Stat Total of 600, which is the same as Legendaries such as Mew and Latios. Garchomp specifically has a very nice stat distribution: a brutal Base 130 Attack, a Base 102 Speed that is not only fairly fast on its own, but also outspeeds the multiple Pokemon at Base 100, and very good defensive stats, with Base 108 HP, Base 95 Defense, and Base 85 Special Defense, meaning he hits hard, hits fast, and takes hits well. Now, there's also his typing, Ground/Dragon, which lacks notable weaknesses outside of 4x-Ice and the 2x-Dragon weaknesses; offensively, there is very little that resists both Ground and Dragon (currently, only Skarmory and Levitate Bronzong, though other Steels might get a temporary respite with an Air Balloon or Magnet Rise). Swords Dance means Garchomp needs only a moment to set up and then almost nothing can stop his Outrages and Earthquakes. In fact, a Yache Berry means not even an Ice Shard user can stop him. And, there is his ability, Sand Veil. All Garchomp needs is a Tyranitar or Hippowdon on his team to set up a sandstorm, and then he has that 20% chance of dodging that Ice Beam or Ice Shard that was otherwise supposed to stop him.

All this added up to a Pokemon that was just too much to handle, so in both Gen IV and early Gen V, he was banned from standard OU play and into Ubers. Recently, though, he's been let back into OU on one condition: he use his Dream World ability of Rough Skin instead of Sand Veil. Under that condition, he does become a little more manageable, though you'd be a fool to think he's not a big threat still.

I'm back, and this time I ain't hidin' from your Ice Beams!

And speaking of Ubers, Garchomp does just fine fighting the titans that live there, as well. Yeah, he's just that good.

And there you have it: one of the strongest Pokemon out there, period. He looks menacing and plays menacingly; in fact, if I had to put a reason why he's not higher, it probably is because he's a bit too overwhelmingly powerful. Cynthia aside, there just isn't really room to talk about Garchomp in any other way than his crazy design or how good he is in battle. Still, those two things are definitely why Garchomp has ranked in this Top 100 ranking in the first place, so go ahead and take one last good look at this guy before he Outrages on out...

Swords Dancing in the rain.

Next time: This Pokemon's headbutt can derail a train.