My Top 5 Pokemon of All Time (...for now)

One more day until Pokemon X and Y! My copy of Pokemon X will be picked up tomorrow morning, and I can't wait! For now, though, it's time to talk about the absolute best Pokemon out there right now... my top 5 Pokemon of all time.

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#5: Ninetales (and Vulpix)

This first-generation Pokemon is based on the kitsune, which is one of my favorite mythological creatures. This concept meant that Ninetales was quite different from normal Fire-types. Especially before the Chandelure family appeared, Vulpix and Ninetales were notable for having a movepool more reminiscent of Ghost-types, with moves like Confuse Ray, Grudge, Hypnosis, and others. This made these two firefoxes very interesting to me, and I enjoyed using their disruptive attacks in-game. I also really liked these two in the anime, especially with all the weird things that happened with Ninetales, and like Gardevoir, I also really liked Ninetales's role in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. So right from the start, I was in love with these foxes... even though Ninetales was rather mediocre in the metagame.

The disregard for Ninetales in the metagame for four generations, though, seems to have caused her tail to get pulled, and Ninetales decided to bring a thousand-year curse upon the metagame... in the form of a Drought. Ninetales got Drought from the Dream World, and in an instant, the OU metagame was turned on its head as Sun teams turned from a mildly-effective gimmick into a very viable and dangerous team archetype. Thanks to Ninetales's Drought, Pokemon like Venusaur and Volcarona stormed upon the metagame, while many Pokemon with Chlorophyll that are technically in lower tiers, including NU, can peek their head into OU to sweep through opponents as well. Ninetales's role in those teams may only be to provide that sunlight, but it is quite fitting that a Pokemon like Ninetales would shake up a metagame not with raw firepower, but with something far more far-reaching, and that's why she's one of my favorite Pokemon of all time.

#4: Celebi

Here it is, my favorite legendary, favorite pixie, and my fourth favorite Pokemon of all time. Celebi takes the cute pixie design and incorporates a plant motif, and then conceptually makes her a time traveler, because why not? Celebi's Grass/Psychic typing may give her numerous weaknesses, but it also gives her quite a number of very nice resistances that allow her to target certain dangerous Pokemon, as well as Rain teams in general, and keep them from running over your team. She also has the excellent Natural Cure ability, which means status does not affect her much. Celebi has an incredible movepool, and while it's not as extensive as Mew's, it still allows for a ton of versatility in Celebi's movesets. She has her STAB moves, like Giga Drain, Leaf Storm, Psychic, Psyshock, and various physical equivalents if you want to play around with a physical set, and she can get additional coverage from Earth Power or make a quick getaway with U-Turn. Celebi has all sorts of tricks in her support movepool, though. She can heal with Recover, she can boost with Calm Mind or Nasty Plot, she can pass those boosts with Baton Pass, she can cripple opponents with Thunder Wave, or set up Stealth Rock, she can Trick opponents bad items, and she can even cause all sorts of havoc with Perish Song, U-Turning or Baton Passing her way out before the song can fall on her ears. And that's just the stuff that Smogon considers competitively viable! She can also use Heal Bell, Reflect/Light Screen, Healing Wish, and more... Celebi is just so much fun to use, and she's just such a nice Pokemon aside from that, that she takes the #4 spot on my list.

#3: Rotom

Hoo boy. Rotom is easily the most complex Pokemon out of all the Pokemon on my list (with perhaps the exception of Arceus). Rotom's base form is a cute little electric ghost, with an appropriately unique Electric/Ghost type and the Levitate ability that removes the Electric half's lone weakness, giving him a really neat set of immunities and resistances. In this base form, Rotom has okay stats but mainly uses his set of immunities and resistances to block Rapid Spinners and annoy opponents in general. He hangs out in RU where he uses STAB Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball as well as Volt Switch, and messes with opponents with Pain Split, Will-o-Wisp, or Trick.

His unique gimmick, though, is that he can possess one of five different "appliances", at which point he loses his Ghost secondary typing (though not in Gen IV), gains a new secondary typing, and also gains a new STAB move to use. His stats also change, mostly for the better as he gets much higher Defense, Special Attack, and Special Defense, in exchange for a bit of Speed. What's really cool is that many of these new Rotom forms have unique or nearly-unique typings, and that Levitate ability remains, which really helps some of these Pokemon. Frost Rotom is Rotom possessing a refrigerator, giving him an Electric/Ice typing and Blizzard. This Rotom is notable for having STAB on a BoltBeam-type combo, meaning he gets rather widespread coverage, though with Blizzard being Blizzard, he functions best in hail. Known as Rotom-F in the metagame, he's classified as NU but can function in higher tiers if a Snow Warning Pokemon is there.

Fan Rotom (known as Rotom-S in the metagame) gets a bit of flak for not only having the least unique typing in Electric/Flying, but also for being the first Flying-type with Levitate. But hey, if someone uses Soak or Reflect Type on him, he still keeps his Ground immunity! A useless ability aside, Fan Rotom gets Air Slash, which is the least powerful of Rotom's additional moves but also the one with the fewest drawbacks. Fan Rotom mainly resides in NU away from his generally more capable other forms, where his Thunderbolt and Air Slash do a fair amount of damage to things there. He can also use Discharge for paralysis, at which point the flinching side effect of Air Slash provide an annoying paraflinching strategy to keep the opponent from attacking. If you only care about annoying the opponent, you can throw Confuse Ray in there and force the opponent to attack a mere 27% of the time... definitely a fun thing for this little fan.

Going back up to RU where normal Rotom resides, we also find Mow Rotom (also known as Rotom-C). Mow Rotom, in possessing a lawn mower, bears the unique Electric/Grass type, and while that type would normally be neutral to Ground (as opposed to weak to it), the Levitate immunity is still cool to have. Electric/Grass also comes with some other cool resistances, such as to Water, Electric, and Grass, and makes him a great way of taking down Water-types. His unique move is Leaf Storm, which can definitely mow down all sorts of opponents that would normally stop a Volt Switching Electric-type in their tracks, and that makes Rotom-C a top-tier threat in the RU metagame. (Also, doesn't this form's design make him look like a total madman? I find that rather awesome.)

Going further up to UU, we find Heat Rotom (Rotom-H), who possess an oven and gains the unique Electric/Fire typing. The first thing to note is that this typing would normally be 4x weak to Ground, but Levitate completely negates that, making Heat Rotom the Rotom form that most appreciates Levitate. (Just watch out for Gravity.) Heat Rotom gets Overheat to do heavy damage with, especially to Grass-types that normally resist his Electric attacks. Meanwhile, being part Electric means this is one Fire-type that Water-types are not quick to go extinguish. If what you want from your Rotom form is something to just burn everything down with, Heat Rotom is a great choice. You also got to love how his red electrical appendages form oven mitts.

And finally, we arrive at Wash Rotom (Rotom-W), the lone OU Rotom form and my favorite of his forms. Wash Rotom possesses a washing machine and has a rare Electric/Water type held by only one other Pokemon family. This typing provides all sorts of resistances, and has its normal Ground weakness negated by Levitate to boot, but it's also an incredible combination offensively. Wash Rotom gets Hydro Pump for his special move, and he easily uses the move to wash away any Ground-types looking to get in the way of his Volt Switches. Overall, Rotom is one of the greatest Pokemon to have ever been created; his concept and versatility in his different forms make him a lot of fun to use and just overall a really awesome Pokemon. So what two Pokemon could be better than this guy?

#2: Starmie (and Staryu)

How about the Pokemon that is right there in my blog title? Starmie has been a favorite Pokemon of mine from the very first generation of Pokemon and has remained so until today. It's really not hard to see why. Starmie definitely has one of the cooler designs of the first generation, and that already helps his case a lot. In battle, though, Starmie is a true superstar. Starmie is the only other Pokemon aside from Gengar to be OU for every single generation, and in Starmie's case, nothing has really changed for him since the first generation. Starmie has a good Special Attack and great Speed, along with decent Defenses, and he has a fantastic movepool to make the most of his stats. In addition to the standard Water and Psychic STAB attacks (Hydro Pump, Surf, Scald, Psychic, Psyshock), he has BoltBeam (Thunderbolt/Thunder and Ice Beam) for coverage moves. All these different moves have such good coverage together that there is very little out there that can safely stand up to Starmie's onslaught. Not only that, but Recover means that Starmie is difficult to take down as well, especially given his decent defenses. And then there is the move Starmie is most valuable for: Rapid Spin. While not particularly useful in-game, in the metagame, Starmie makes for the perfect Pokemon to get rid of entry hazards with, since he easily defeats any Ghosts that try to stop him. Starmie's Natural Cure ability just makes him even harder to take down, as status doesn't always slow him down much. Analytic might seem like a useless ability on a Pokemon as fast as Starmie, but the power boost it gives does trigger if the opponent switches, and while in-game trainers don't switch Pokemon much, the ability can be quite the surprise when used against human opponents. Starmie is a real superstar, being consistently a top-tier threat that spins about and throws out a whole rainbow of attacks, making him both lots of fun and incredibly powerful, and as such, Starmie is my second favorite Pokemon of all time, as well as my favorite Pokemon from the original 151.

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So, what is my favorite Pokemon of all time? Well, as a hint, note which of the Rotom forms is my favorite. Note that form's type, because it is my favorite type combination and the other Pokemon family to bear that combination is...

#1. Lanturn (and Chinchou)

(source unknown)

To preface this entry for my favorite Pokemon of all time, here's a story. Many, many years ago, in a time before information on Pokemon was all over the internet, I was playing my Silver version and decided to fish around Vermillion City with my Good Rod for fun. What I fished up was a Chinchou, which looked rather cool and besides, it's a new Pokemon, so I had to capture it. Well, I did, and I looked at what exactly it was, and... whoa, wait, he's a Water/Electric-type? Is that type combination even legal? Well, right then and there, I decided to train this guy, and he was just a lot of fun to play with, especially once I learned how Rain made Thunder perfectly accurate. He soon evolved into Lanturn, and the rest is history. Concept-wise, Chinchou and Lanturn's being based off bioluminescent deep sea fish is great, and as for their designs, well, they're actually quite cute. And I definitely like cute Pokemon.

Lanturn's Water/Electric typing is already a great typing, providing numerous resistances as well as being offensively potent, but Lanturn got another trick in Gen III when he got Volt Absorb for an ability, turning his Electric neutrality into an immunity and becoming a water type most Electric-types don't want to face. His stats aren't too good aside from a really good HP, but that HP plus his typing gives him everything he needs to be a strong defensive Pokemon. Lanturn is an RU resident in the metagame, where he is best known for being an effective user of Volt Switch; like Rotom-W in OU, he can scare away most Ground-types that try to get in his way with his various Water-type attacks, and as a bonus, he is slow, which can actually be a good thing with Volt Switch as Lanturn can take an attack and then switch out, protecting the incoming teammate from attack. Lanturn can do all sorts of other things aside from serving as a pivot. He can inflict status with Thunder Wave and Scald, or heal his own team from status with Heal Bell. He may not have strong attacking stats, but the combination of his STAB attacks plus Ice Beam is so nearly unresisted that offensive Lanturn wielding Choice Specs or a Life Orb can be seen, striking a balance between offensive power and staying power. Perhaps my favorite role for Lanturn, though, is that of a Rain Dance setter. In lower tiers where Drizzle does not exist, as well as in-game, Lanturn makes for a great Rain Dance user for one big reason: he himself can make great use of the rain to not only make his Water-type attacks stronger, but also to make his STAB Thunder perfectly accurate. His good bulk and ability to slow-Volt Switch in a Rain sweeper just makes him even more suited to the role. Lanturn might not look like the best competitive Pokemon, but he can actually be quite useful and is definitely worth trying out.

As an additional note, Chinchou is actually very effective in the Little Cup, being one of the most frequently used Pokemon there.

Of course, as you might expect for my #1 Pokemon, Lanturn does have a lot of just plain love and nostalgia going for him. However, his roles in battle are not to be underestimated, and overall, Lanturn is everything I could want in a Pokemon, and is such my favorite Pokemon of all time.

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So, there you have it. And now I get to play Pokemon X and discover all new Pokemon to fall in love with, or possibly find old Pokemon gain new things that make me love them more. All these things could potentially shake up this list of favorite Pokemon. So with that, join me in about a year or two when I cover the Top 120 Pokemon across six generations, and see how that list is different from this one.

Until then, I'm off to hide myself from spoilers...