Top 100 Pokemon "Countdown to Pokemon X & Y" Edition 7: #35-#31

The release of Pokemon X and Y is just a week away! In counting down this last week until the game is released, I will be posting one five-Pokemon list a day. The Pokemon from here on out are all fantastic and ones that I absolutely love. So, without further ado, let's start!

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#35: Blaziken

My favorite Gen III starter, Blaziken is a fighting chicken on fire, which is already awesome. His design is also great. That said, Blaziken’s claim to fame is in getting Speed Boost from Dream World, a change that rocketed this bird from UU and into Ubers. Even there, where he has to face up to Pokemon’s most terrifying beasts, Blaziken can hold his own; he just needs to get a Speed Boost or two to outpace everyone, get in a Swords Dance, and then start throwing around his powerful STAB moves in Hi Jump Kick and Flare Blitz. He has some coverage moves too, particularly Shadow Claw, if you want to use them. Otherwise, Blaziken is a Pokemon that finally got his time to shine in Gen V, and did so by smashing and burning everything in his path at such speeds that you’ll never want to eat fried chicken again.

#34: Gliscor (and Gligar)

First, just look at this guy. His very design is just full of so much win. Aside from his design, he has an interesting Ground/Flying typing and great stats, with a high Defense and decent Attack, and a serviceable Speed for a defensive Pokemon. Getting Poison Heal from the Dream World, though, really makes him killer, as he can hold a Toxic Orb and suddenly gain incredible healing every turn. Gliscor has many moves he can use in the meantime; he can attack with Earthquake, inflict status with Toxic, heal with Roost, or even use Baton Pass. You might even see some offensive Hyper Cutter variants that use Swords Dance before throwing out the deadly Flying Gem + Acrobatics combo. Truly a terrifying menace. That he could easily pass for the Batman of the Pokemon world is just a nice bonus.

#33: Lucario (and Riolu)

Lucario is a Pokemon that's a lot of fun to use in-game, while also being strong competitively, albeit in a much more limited way. In the competitive metagame, Lucario is a powerful OU threat that uses Swords Dance to boost its already high Attack, and then smacks opponents around with Close Combat or gets the jump on them with ExtremeSpeed. He can then gain additional coverage with either Ice Punch or Crunch, or take another priority attack in Bullet Punch, mainly to hit Ghost- and Rock-types. In-game, he's more versatile and actually gets quite a lot of cool attacks. He actually has a higher Special Attack than Attack, and has moves like Aura Sphere, Vacuum Wave, Dark Pulse, and Shadow Ball, and he can use either Calm Mind or Nasty Plot to boost his Special Attack. He can also be a fun mixed attacker. Don't expect those special sets to work too well in the metagame, but in-game, they're great.

Lucario is also just one cool dog, with his neat design, Aura-based abilities and just generally cool demeanor. He's one of the Pokemon that's shown in the anime to be more humanlike, even being able to telepathically speak human language in the eighth movie. And, of course, there's his appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where he's a fun risk/reward fighter for whom certain attacks get stronger the more damage he takes.

A special shout-out goes out to Riolu, his pre-evolution, who got Prankster from the Dream World. What makes him dangerous is that he gets Copycat, which Prankster gives priority to; a well-timed Copycat can cause all sorts of havoc, up to and including priority Roar, which if entry hazards are on the field and the opponent doesn't have any way of getting past it, is essentially an instant win, making this little guy usable even in upper tiers, including OU!

#32: Arcanine (and Growlithe)

The very first Legendary Pokemon, at least if the Pokedex is to be believed. While Arcanine himself isn't technically a Legendary in the traditional sense, he does have a higher Base Stat Total than most non-legendary Pokemon, distributed fairly evenly with a good amount put into his Attack and Special Attack. He has two fantastic abilities, Intimidate and Flash Fire, and he has a very impressive movepool that not only contain both physical and special STAB in Flare Blitz and Flamethrower/Fire Blast respectively, but also great coverage moves in Wild Charge, Close Combat, and Crunch, priority in ExtremeSpeed, and even healing in Morning Sun. He fits well on Sun teams, using SolarBeam to good effect there, and can even serve a defensive role with solid defensive stats, Intimidate, and Morning Sun. All this makes him quite a nice Pokemon in combat. Of course, he's also a giant dog, which should appeal very well to dog lovers...

#31: Houndoom (and Houndour)

...this particular entry has really gone to the dogs, hasn't it? Houndoom is much more of a menacing Pokemon than the ones above it, with his very devilish design and Pokedex entry that states that if you are burned by his fire, the pain will never go away. (Though, for some reason, that sounds oddly... romantic?) In battle, Houndoom's strong Special Attack and good Attack make him a nice mixed attacker that can hit with both strong physical Dark moves like Sucker Punch, Crunch, and Pursuit while also striking hard with special attacks like Flamethrower/Fire Blast and Dark Pulse. He can also go a more straight-up special attacker route with Nasty Plot. Houndoom was one of the Pokemon I fell in love with during my initial Silver playthrough, and I made a point of making sure I got one traded to me for SoulSilver, because as much as I'm the nice guy saving the world from an evil team's schemes, it's also fun to take a hellhound around and burning everything down.