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.