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#30: Victreebel (and pre-evolutions)
The pitcher plant is one of my favorite plants, for its carnivorous nature and interesting design. Naturally, a Pokemon based on the pitcher plant will be one of my favorites, too. (Constantly trying to get a taste of James's head is a nice bonus.) In combat, Victreebel has good Attack and Special Attack and has Chlorophyll and Growth, making him mainly a Pokemon to be used in Sun, and being good for either physical, special, or mixed sets. Making Victreebel even more dangerous in Sun is Weather Ball, which becomes a base 100 Fire-type attack that gets boosted by the sun and allows Victreebel to get past Pokemon that normally wall him. Victreebel commonly runs Leaf Blade (and occasionally Power Whip) for a physical Grass STAB and Sludge Bomb for a special Poison STAB, with some running SolarBeam and going for an all-Special set. Some non-Sun variants use Swords Dance and go all-physical, and access to Sucker Punch makes such a Pokemon surprisingly dangerous. Having Sleep Powder just makes Victreebel even harder to take care of. Victreebel is a really cool Pokemon, but when it gets hot is when Victreebel really shines.
#29: Alakazam (and pre-evolutions)
Abra was one of the most annoying Pokemon to capture in the original games and also pretty hard to train without TMs, but once he evolved, he'd become this cool looking spoon-wielder, and then with a trade, he'd evolve again into an even cooler dual-spoon-wielder with an epic mustache. And back in Gen I, with its weird mechanics, Alakazam could be considered the strongest non-legendary Pokemon, with his insane Special stat and high Speed that led to many Critical Hits. Then the mechanics changed to make him less broken, and as more and more things threatened Alakazam, his presence in the metagame dropped accordingly. However, something incredible happened in Gen V: he got Magic Guard from the Dream World. I've talked about how great this ability is on Clefable, Reuniclus, and Sigilyph, but while those Pokemon leaned more towards defensive, Alakazam is pure offense, and uses this incredible ability in different ways. On one hand, he can just equip a Life Orb and completely wreck the opposition with his powerful attacks; that other various residual damage doesn't harm him allows him to last a bit longer, too. On the other hand, he can equip a Focus Sash, which can't be broken with things like weather and entry hazards, and become a revenge killer that is impossible to knock out in one hit. Having access to Psyshock means that not even his former nemeses, Chansey and Blissey, can stop him. Alakazam might not be quite the dominant Pokemon he was back in Gen I, but he's definitely still a top-tier threat, and one with a lot more style than before, too.
#28: Virizion
My personal favorite of the Swords of Justice, Virizion is based on Aramis from the original The Three Musketeers, and is fittingly the elegant one. Her design is my favorite of this Legendary group, and being a Grass-type is also a big plus, as Grass is one of my favorite types. Virizion is the specially defensive member of the trio, with solid offensive stats to go with it. As such, Virizion can go one of two ways: she can take a physical set that uses Leaf Blade and Close Combat or Sacred Sword plus Stone Edge for coverage, while using Swords Dance to boost her attack, or he can go the special route, using Calm Mind to boost her stats and then attacking with Giga Drain and Focus Blast. Ultimately, though, it is Virizion's elegance that makes her my favorite of this group and one of my favorite Pokemon overall.
#27: Cinccino (and Minccino)
This is one adorable Pokemon. Incredibly adorable. If I only rated Pokemon based on adorableness, Cincinno would be in the top 5. And her adorability is partly why she's as high as she is on this list. However, hiding behind this cute chinchilla's smile and fur scarf is a surprisingly deadly Pokemon. She might not look like it, having great Speed but only okay Attack, low defenses, a plain Normal-typing and a limited movepool, but she has one ability that makes her incredibly threatening: Skill Link. The ability turns her signature Tail Slap, along with Bullet Seed and Rock Blast, into base 125 power attacks that can break Substitutes and Focus Sashes and just cause a lot of havoc all-around. For a fourth attack, you can use Aqua Tail or U-Turn. You can even use Technician, which while isn't as powerful overall when using her multi-hit attacks, can potentially do a lot more damage if it hits 4 or 5 times, and can also boost her Wake-Up Slap. If you want a Pokemon that is both adorable and deadly, look no further than Cinccino.
#26: Venusaur (and pre-evolutions)
Venusaur represents everything that is awesome about Grass-types. An awesome design, a movepool full of fun options for both damaging and just generally annoying the opponent, and the ability to become terrifying under sunlight thanks to Chlorophyll, which for Venusaur is a Dream World ability. Venusaur has solid overall stats, but under sunlight with Chlorophyll, he becomes incredibly fast, and can use Growth to instantly double both his attacking stats at once (though it's worth noting that he's typically a special attacker, especially since Power Whip is illegal with Chlorophyll). Being able to use Sleep Powder to put an enemy Pokemon under helps a lot, too, and from there, Venusaur can use Giga Drain or SolarBeam, Sludge Bomb, and Hidden Power Fire (for metagame players) to cause lots of damage. The SubSeed variant (using Substitute and Leech Seed) also appears from time to time. With sunlight-inducing partners like Ninetales in OU and Groudon in Ubers, Venusaur has found his turn in the sun, and has emerged to become one of the biggest threats from a Sun team.
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