Top 100 Pokemon #79: Golurk

Next up is a ghost giant-robot golem. I'm pretty sure that's one of those things that is just automatically awesome.

Awesomeness that goes beyond the impossible and pierces the heavens.

#79: Golett/Golurk

Golett and Golurk, according to the Pokedex, are Automaton Pokemon. There really aren't a whole lot of Pokemon with a cooler descriptor in the Pokedex than that. They were created by an ancient civilization for protection, so instead of being Steel-type, they are based on clay golems and are thus Ghost/Ground, which I think is much cooler than if they were just steel.

The Pokedex also apparently classifies them as "green" in color. I guess ancient civilizations, in addition to channeling Gundam somehow, also liked going green.

That's all for Golurk's concept and design; it's definitely awesome, but not much needs to be said about it. More needs to be said about its competitiveness.

Golurk has an excellent Base 124 Attack and solid defenses with Base 89 HP and Base 80 Defense and Special Defense. It is on the slow side, though, with only a Base 55 Speed. Its typing is interesting, and while it does come with some common weaknesses, it also provides key immunities to Normal, Fighting, and Electric, making it easy to switch in, as well as a good choice for a spinblocker (keeps the opponent from successfully using Rapid Spin to remove entry hazards).

Golurk's abilities contain two useful and one... not so useful. Ignoring Klutz, we have Iron Fist, which goes well with Golurk's huge assortment of punching moves (including Hammer Arm), and No Guard, making Golurk the other Pokemon that can use the No Guard + DynamicPunch combo.

Just to give the scope of Golurk's punching capabilities, it can learn the following Iron Fist-boosted moves: Drain Punch, DynamicPunch (though you should probably use No Guard with that), Fire Punch, Focus Punch, Hammer Arm, Ice Punch, Mega Punch, Shadow Punch, and ThunderPunch. That's not all, though; Golurk can also make good use of its Ground STAB with Earthquake. It can set up Stealth Rock without worrying about it being spun away while it's still on the field.

It can also learn Fly, which while not competitively interesting, allows you to fly around on a giant robot. That has to count for something.

Lost my hat? Totally worth it.

All in all, Golurk is a very interesting Pokemon. And yes, it learns Rollout. It can't learn Transform, though, so save that joke for Ditto.

Next time: Have you put away your Christmas tree yet?

Top 100 Pokemon #80: Raikou

The Pokemon of this entry is part of a trio of Legendaries that have left a special legacy in the game series. In Gold and Silver, in the Burnt Tower at Ecruteak City, you could run into these three beasts, who'd then escape. Then, sometime later, you'd be wandering around the local routes, expecting fairly low-level Pokemon, when suddenly...

...that's no Raticate.

#80: Raikou

So you meet up with this Level 40 beast, expecting to be thoroughly trounced. You ready your strongest attack just in case, and...

...so much for worrying that I'd be thoroughly trounced.

Okay, so now you're a lot stronger and actually want to catch the guy. But now you've got two problems. One, he appears on random routes and warps to a random place any time you Fly. So you Fly to Ecruteak until he appears in one of the three routes around that city, then walk to another route and hope he ends up on your route. You spray on your Repels and get ready to encounter him, but what about his tendency to run away as soon as the battle starts? No problem; you've got a Pokemon with that new Mean Look attack that keeps a Pokemon from escaping. So you go into battle with Raikou, use Mean Look, and then...

Okay, now the game creators are just trolling us.

 At this point, you crank up Eye of the Tiger on your stereo (fittingly enough) and start a grueling process of finding Raikou, putting him to sleep (the only way to keep him from running or Roaring), weakening him, and throwing those Fast Balls Kurt made for you until he wakes up and gets away again, and then you repeat the process over and over until it finally clicks (the Poke Ball, that is).

Then, several years later, HeartGold and SoulSilver come out, and you get to do it all over again, except this time, Raikou can run away even when he's sleeping!

"We meet again... and I've learned how to sleepwalk."

Needless to say, Raikou and his buddies Entei and Suicune have left their mark on the Pokemon world as the first roaming Legendaries. Putting aside from the sheer frustration of trying to catch them, though, Raikou is definitely my favorite of the three.

Embodying the speed of lightning (estimated at 50 km/s with much variance), Raikou is conceptually based on the Raijū, a Japanese mythological beast of lightning, which just sounds cool all on its own. His design is also great, being a tiger with thunderstorm motifs and that awesome lightning tail.

The clouds cannot contain the awesomeness of that tail.

As a Legendary Pokemon, you can expect that Raikou will easily rise up to the challenge of his rivals. Raikou sports a Base 115 Special Attack and Speed, making him a very literal Lightning Bruiser, hitting both hard and fast. Having a Base 100 Special Defense with a Base 90 HP is nothing to laugh at either, especially with Pressure as an ability and Calm Mind in his arsenal.

Raikou is pretty limited in attacks. You have Thunderbolt or Thunder for a main STAB and Volt Switch for keeping momentum, which is great for sheer power; however, for coverage, aside from Hidden Power, you only have moves like Extrasensory, Shadow Ball, Signal Beam, or Aura Sphere and Weather Ball if you have that one Event Raikou that is locked into a Rash nature. Pairing attacks with Calm Mind and perhaps Substitute is a great idea, allowing Raikou to become a fearsome threat both offensively and defensively.

As a final note, Raikou is also awesome in Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, where you can ride on his back and jump over large gaps like a boss.

Riding on the backs of legendary thunder beasts wasn't in the job description for being a Ranger...

Next time: Apparently, even ancient mechanical engineers liked going green.

Top 100 Pokemon #81: Hydreigon

So let's hypothetically say you have two heads. And your two heads don't get along at all and have to compete with each other for food. And now, to make things worse, you're about to grow a third head. What do you do?

If your answer is to use the third head to turn your other two heads into puppets and then go on a massive spree of destruction, congratulations, you are a Hydreigon.

Worst puppet show ever.

#81: Deino/Zweilous/Hydreigon

Bringing Pokemon's time-honored tradition of multi-headed Pokemon into the dragon realm, the Hydreigon family is conceptually based on the Yamata no Orochi, sort of a Japanese mythological equivalent of the Hydra. To start things off, there is the fairly cute Deino, who has no eyes to see with, so he's always ramming into stuff and biting everything that moves.

Like a blind, emo puppy.

Zweilous is basically a two-headed Deino. Not quite as cute, but you have two heads that squabble with each other as they eat up everything in sight.

Like a high school sitcom.

And finally, Hydreigon is the final boss, a dragon of darkness that wields his spare heads on his hands like arm cannons.

A fun fact about the Hydreigon family is that they were initially going to be cybernetic dragons with tank elements. As cool as that sounds, the developers eventually decided to go the Hydra route, creating the first Dark/Dragon types in the process. The tread marks on their bellies, though, are remnants from the original plan.

Maybe they were just worried about being sued by the makers of Panzer Dragoon.

Speaking of final boss, probably one of the most well-known Hydreigons out there is the one Ghetsis uses, particularly when you face him in Black and White. He was ridiculously fast and had insane coverage with his moves, making him tough to take down. (He was also at a level below when Hydreigon is supposed to evolve, but as Lance can attest, that's nothing new.)

And that's a downside of the Hydreigon family: their evolution points are extremely high. Deino doesn't evolve until Level 50 (Gabite evolves into Garchomp before then!), and Zweilous has to wait until Level 64, the highest of all level-up evolutions.

It is worth the wait, though. Hydreigon is an absolute monster. He is Gen V's resident pseudo-legendary, meaning he has a Base Stat Total of 600, comparable to many actual legendaries. And with none of his stats lower than a Base 90, his stats are rather well-rounded. His standout stat is Special Attack at 125, while a Base 105 Attack means that Hydreigon makes a great mixed attacker. Levitate is just a nice ability overall to give him an extra immunity and switch-in opportunity.

All this means nothing without good attacks in his arsenal, but Hydreigon's got that covered in all sorts of ways. As the in-game Hydreigons can attest to, this Pokemon has access to a huge movepool; in fact, he has significant offensive attacks in 14 of 17 attacks, only lacking offensive moves of Grass, Poison, or Ghost (unless you really want to use Astonish). This allows Hydreigon to have incredible coverage. In fact, all you really need is a Dragon STAB like Dragon Pulse or Draco Meteor, combined with a Fighting attack in either Superpower or Focus Blast, to get neutral coverage on every Pokemon not named Shedinja. Dragon+Fire (with either Flamethrower or Fire Blast) is another good combination, only missing out on Heatran. And, of course, you can use Dragon + Fire + Fighting to make sure that nothing can escape unscathed from Hydreigon's rampage.

Other awesome moves in Hydreigon's arsenal? U-Turn, Earthquake, Dark Pulse, and Roost because healing is helpful when you have solid 92/90/90 defenses. And that's just the ones Smogon suggests for various sets. He's got lots more he can use, so find some moves you like and tear through the opposition.

You can also use Tri Attack, not because it's good, but because Hydreigon likes inflicting random status on his targets.

All this makes Hydreigon a monster of a Pokemon. No wonder it is Ghetsis's Pokemon of choice. Though at least a nice girl like Iris also uses one.

Even three-headed dragons of destruction need love.

Next time: ~50 Kilometers Per Second. Also expect a Pixie Theater to go up at some point.

Top 100 Pokemon #82: Roserade

Roselia was okay as a Pokemon when she was introduced in Gen III. She obviously had the thorny-rose theme going on, and while her stats weren't that good, she could be annoying to face as she could throw all sorts of status at you, including poisoning you with Poison Point if you indiscriminately used contact moves against her. Still, she didn't have that much going for her, until Gen IV introduced her evolution, Roserade, who is more powerful and a whole lot more... fabulous?

Much more fabulous, indeed.

#82: Roserade

Roserade takes the outward elegance of a rose and the prickly, poisonous interior within and dresses it all up with the mystique of a masquerade host. That last part is what helps Roserade be more interesting of a Pokemon, adding a lot of flair to what could be an otherwise boring Pokemon. It also makes everything Roserade do very stylish.

A natural at taking bows.

Aside from the visual appeal of Roserade, she's also great on the battlefield. Roserade got a much-needed boost in stats from her pre-evolution, now having a very strong Base 125 Special Attack, a decent Base 105 Defense, and a Base 90 Speed that does help her accomplish her tasks. She has abilities like Poison Point and Technician (in Dream World), but her Natural Cure ability is definitely her most useful one, as it means she is not as crippled by status.

As a Grass-type, she has access to a wide variety of Grass-type attacks as well as support moves. To work off her excellent Base 125 Special Attack, she can use STAB attacks like Leaf Storm, Giga Drain, and Sludge Bomb; she can also use certain secondary attacks like Extrasensory and Weather Ball if you're using her on a weather team. (Of course, depending on circumstances, Hidden Power is an option.) This is augmented by her great selection of support moves; she can use both Toxic Spikes and Sleep Powder, making her a good choice for a lead if Toxic Spikes support is what you want. She can also use regular ol' Spikes, but be warned that she cannot legally learn both Spikes and Sleep Powder, since both are Egg Moves and cannot both be learned by any compatible Pokemon.

Roserade can also heal herself with Synthesis, if weather is not too much of an issue. She can even use Rest effectively, since Natural Cure means she will wake up as soon as she switches out, making that a potentially potent option.

She can also learn Petal Dance, which might be competitively inferior to Leaf Storm, but it sure looks prettier.

That's all I have to say about Roserade; she really is cool and a definite improvement over Roselia, even if I didn't have as much to say about her. I apologize for the long delay in getting this post out; I think I might have gotten a bit burnt out from trying to find enough to say (and enough good pics) for this entry. In order to try to get all this done before Gen VI comes out, I'll probably have all following entries be a bit shorter overall.

The next post should come soon, so until then, I shall bid you goodbye with a bit of "Marisa Stole The Precious Thing".

Yi er san, yi er san, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, ichi ni san
Yi er san, yi er san, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, ichi ni san
Yi er san, yi er san, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, ichi ni san
...uh, something, something, Guten Morgen...