Top 100 Pokemon #96: Weavile

Among my top 100 Pokemon are going to be a number of Pokemon that debuted before Gen IV, who I did not care much for until Gen IV came around and either gave them a new evolution or gave them a massive improvement thanks to the Physical/Special split.

Now, I realize there might be a handful of readers who have no idea about some of the battle terminology I throw out here, for whatever reason, so allow me to give an explanation: Before Diamond and Pearl came out, whether an attack used the user's Attack or Special Attack (and consequently whether it hit the opponent's Defense or Special Defense) depended entirely on the type of the attack. Fire, Water, Electric, Grass, Ice, Psychic, Dragon, and Dark attacks were all classified as Special attacks and used Special Attack, while all other types used (physical) Attack.

This can be a problem for some Pokemon, whose Special Attack stats are really low, but whose typing are both Special types. Now, if a Pokemon uses an attack that matches its type, the power of that attack is multiplied by 1.5 times. This is known as the Same Type Attack Bonus, also known as STAB because it is like an extra stab at the opponent. Unfortunately, if a Pokemon's typing is a Special type and that Pokemon does not have a very high Special Attack stat, that Pokemon would likely have to lose out on STAB attacks. (This can happen the opposite way, too, if a Pokemon's type is physical but their physical Attack is low.)

However, Diamond and Pearl revolutionized battling by classifying each individual attack as Physical or Special, so, for example, a move like Flamethrower would still be special, while Fire Punch would be physical, and both would be Fire-type attacks. This was huge for many Pokemon, who could now use STAB attacks that work off their stronger Attack stat, making them much more competitively viable.

Our next Pokemon is a shining example of desperately needing that Physical/Special split in order to have some proper physical attacks to gain STAB off of. But his stats were such that he would need more than that to become a good Pokemon; he would also need an evolution. And what do you know, Gen IV gave him both!

And they said I would never use my Dark and Ice STABs. They'll get a nice stab from my Ice Punch now.

#96: Sneasel/Weavile

Sneasel debuted in Gen II, with no evolution but with a very unique typing in Dark/Ice. He is, as his name suggests, based on a weasel. More specifically, though, he seems to be based on the Kamaitachi, a weasel-demon from Japanese folklore. A solid choice for one of the many inaugural Dark-types of Gold and Silver.

One of Pokemon's many shining examples of trollface.

His evolution, Weavile, debuted in Gen IV, and it simply requires Sneasel to level up at night while holding a Razor Claw. Weavile looks even more sinister, while also having just a bit of Egyptian flair to his design.

Sneak like an Egyptian.

I guess I should mention this right now, just to get all the flak I know I'm going to get for this out of the way right now, but I am not really a big fan of Dark-types. Something about their often conniving, evil ways just isn't the sort of thing I am a fan of. Despite this, there are still a fair number of Dark-types on my list (11 total), so don't worry if you are a fan of these bad boys. Most of them are dual-types, making their way onto my list in part due to their interesting type-combinations, and Sneasel and Weavile are no exception; Dark/Ice is a type combination still not held by any other Pokemon, three generations after Dark-types debuted. Still, I suppose my not being a Dark-type fan is what keeps him from ranking higher.

Enough of that, though. Let's talk about his battle capabilities. Looking at Sneasel, his stats already have some standout points: a solid Base 95 Attack and a great Base 115 Speed. Weavile improves those two stats to an amazing Base 120 Attack and Base 125 Speed, which makes him a vicious offensive threat. However, there is a pretty clear problem in his stats, at least from a pre-Gen IV perspective: Sneasel and Weavile's Special Attack are Base 35 and 45, respectively. To put it simply, that is pitiful. And at a time when both Dark and Ice were Special, that meant no STAB for these weasels.

Thankfully, with Gen IV, the split occured and they could use physical Dark and Ice attacks. Admittedly, their movepools kind of limit them here; none of their STAB attacks have a base power greater than 80. What they do get are Night Slash and Ice Punch as their main weapons, and two lower-power but useful moves in Pursuit and Ice Shard. The former means Psychic- and Ghost-types cannot run away from him without taking an often-fatal hit, and the latter is a priority attack that means he can put a quick stop to many Dragon Dancing or Choice Scarfed Dragons before they Outrage through your entire team.

Hide your psychics, hide your ghosts, and hide your dragons, 'cause he's revenge-killin' everybody out here.

Other attacks Weavile gets include Swords Dance, just to make him even more of an offensive powerhouse, and Low Kick to trip up Steel-types and other heavy Pokemon. However, Weavile's defensive stats are lacking; add in that 4x weakness to Fighting as well as weaknesses to Fire, Bug, Steel, and Stealth Rock and Weavile is not going to want to be taking hits if he can help it.

Weavile also kind of got the short end of the stick in the way of abilities. Pressure is better on a Pokemon like Suicune who can take a lot of hits and drain a lot of PP over time; on a Pokemon that dies to one Close Combat, not so much. Pickpocket is an odd Dream World ability; it steals an item if an opponent hits him with a contact move and he does not have an item already. It has a very situational use if Weavile holds a Focus Sash, switches in to something like Close Combat, and steals a Choice Band or something before he Ice Shards the opponent on the way out. Still, this is a very situational ability, and Weavile is better off with Pressure otherwise, just so he can use the item he wants to use.

To cap things off, Weavile is a slick Pokemon with a cool design, a unique typing and a strong offensive presence. Not much else to be said, really, so I guess I'll let Weavile have one final pic as his sendoff...

"This is for saying you don't really like Dark-types. Nyeh."

...wait, Weavile? Where are you going with my money? Come back here! ...Darn that Weavile and his Base 125 Speed. Am I going to get this kind of treatment from the other 10 Dark-types on my list as well?

"Probably."

Oh, you're back already. Where'd you put the money?

"Oh, Pokemon #95 on your list just snatched it from me. Probably took it to his lair, inside those thunderclouds."

...This is going to take some extra preparation. Which means I probably won't be covering #95 right away... so! Instead, there will be a special presentation from Pixie Theater about these past 5 Pokemon I covered, their use in the competitive metagame, and suggested uses for them in-game. After that, I go into the thunderclouds in search of my money, and the next Pokemon on my list...

Top 100 Pokemon #97: Kabutops

Prehistoric Pokemon are fairly interesting, some perhaps moreso than others. The first generation's trio of de-fossilized Pokemon are all among the better designs and concepts of the first generation, and while I do like all three of them, only one of them managed to slice his way into the top 100.

Not what I expected when I asked for someone to cut the lawn.

#97: Kabutops

Meet Kabutops, the Shellfish Pokemon. Kabutops is based on the eurypterid, a prehistoric creature that already looks pretty darn cool.

That is a "Put me in a Pokemon game or I will chew out your throats" look right there.

Of course, GameFreak decided Kabutops wasn't quite intimidating enough as he was, so hey, let's give him some scythes for arms!

The official art is all I need to illustrate just how awesome of an idea that was.

Make no mistake, Kabutops looks downright badass. He looks like someone you do not want to cross paths with, lest he rip you apart and suck out your body fluids. Oh yeah, did I mention that Kabutops's Pokedex entry says he rips apart his prey and sucks out their body fluids? Of course, just how accurate Pokedex entries are is always up for debate, but still... dang. Definitely one of the most ferocious Pokemon to come out of Gen I.

Competitively, Kabutops has always been a ferocious physical threat with Base 115 Attack and Base 105 Defense, plus Swords Dance for a massive attack boost. However, starting out, Kabutops didn't have much in the way of STAB attacks; Water-type attacks were all Special before Gen IV and while Rock was physical, Kabutops for some reason did not learn Rock Slide, for Arceus knows what reason. And all Gen II did was give him Ancientpower, which was something, I guess.

Gen III did give him access to Rock Slide, though, and also gave him a neat ability in Swift Swim. Kabutops's Base Speed of 80 is okay, but having that speed doubled in rain makes him incredibly fast, and means he can tear through teams with STAB Rock Slide, among other potent physical attacks. Still, Kabutops definitely appreciated the physical/special split of Gen IV, allowing him to add a physical Waterfall or Aqua Tail to his arsenal. (Though, Kabutops does not really have that much of a tail...) Stone Edge is a cool new physical Rock attack to use, as well. He also got Aqua Jet, which is a cool Water-type priority attack to hit first if rain is not there or if the opponent also has priority to hit with.

Finally, in Gen V, a Drizzle Politoed arrived on the scene, proving the perfect partner to go with Kabutops and Swift Swim... at least as long as you weren't playing in the competitive community where Drizzle and Swift Swim on the same team is banned.

A partnership that was too much to handle.

Due to that ban, Kabutops is now a resident of the RarelyUsed (RU) tier, and he has more roles than just a Rain Dance sweeper. He can learn Rapid Spin to clear away entry hazards, and his offensive power is such that he can tear past most Ghost-types that try to stop him after a Swords Dance. (Alternatively, he can use Foresight to ensure that he can spin even against Ghosts.) In any tier, though, if rain is available, he can be threatening, and yes, that means he can buddy up with Kyogre and take on the legendary Ubers.

Eat Stone Edge, Rayquaza.

So yeah, Kabutops is an awesome Pokemon, and honestly, all I can really say for why he is only at #97 is that there are 96 other Pokemon I like better.

As a parting shot, I'm sure some have thought of trying to make Kabutops even more awesome, like, say, encasing him in metal and giving him a blaster cannon on his back...

...oh crap.

Next time: This Pokemon communicates by clawing signs into boulders.

Top 100 Pokemon #98: Braviary

The Normal/Flying dual type is one that gets some amount of flak, for various reasons. First of all, in Gen I, Normal/Flying was the only dual type assigned to Normal, and given that no natural pure-Flying type appeared until Gen V and Tornadus (or you can count Gen IV's Arceus w/Sky Plate if you really want to), the Normal-type was the dual-type assigned to Flying to indicate that the Pokemon was a, well, normal, run-of-the-mill bird Pokemon. Then, every generation has added a Normal/Flying Pokemon that appears all across the region, adding some degree of annoyance to the equation for those who don't want to see another Pidgey ever again. In addition, the Pokemon that were Normal/Flying, while not necessarily bad, tended to be on the weaker side competitively. Gen III and IV tried to buck the trend by making sure that at least some Normal/Flying birds that could be competitive. Gen V, however, brought the Pidove line, which went right back to subpar Normal/Flying types. If only there was a hero that could save us from Normal/Flying mediocrity...

...what's that in the sky? It's a bird! It's a plane!

It's... a bird!

#98: Rufflet/Braviary

Rufflet and Braviary are eagle-based Pokemon designed to have a very American flavor. You know, since the bald eagle is the representative bird of the USA. Rufflet recklessly fights foes stronger than he is, while Braviary is a valiant Pokemon that will stand up for his friends.

The concept is pretty good, but why did GameFreak make them male-only? It is kind of silly to keep this "valiant American hero" Pokemon to be male only (moreso to make Mandibuzz a female-only counterpart). This is probably the main thing I don't like about this Pokemon's concept, and the big reason why he does not rank any higher.

That aside, though, the rest of the Pokemon is solid. Both Rufflet and Braviary combine the eaglet/eagle concept with a red-white-blue color scheme (very fitting, of course). Feathers around the head give a reference to Native Americans, which is a nice touch. Rufflet is definitely a cute pre-evolution, while Braviary is designed to be somewhat reminiscent of a Superman-like superhero.

"When I grow up, I'm gonna be like my dad and save the world from defensive walls!

Okay, time to talk competitive. Braviary has very good stats overall. His worst is Special Attack at Base 57, so forget about using him as a special attacker. His best stat is Attack at a nice Base 123, which will definitely do some serious damage. He has a solid Base 100 HP and Base 75 for both Defenses, meaning he can take hits okay. Speed is at Base 80, so he will outspeed many defensive Pokemon, though he might not be able to sweep comfortably.

The main problem with Normal/Flying types like Braviary, though, is that their STAB types are both resisted by Rock and Steel types. The good ones have ways around this, and Braviary, fittingly enough for a heroic Pokemon, has a Superpower.

I break through Rock and Steel types with a Base 120 power Fighting attack. What's your superpower?

Now, this isn't quite as good as Staraptor's Close Combat, since it does drop Braviary's Attack as well as Defense, meaning his next hits won't be as powerful. But while he's in there, the perfect coverage between Superpower, Brave Bird, and Return means that nothing can safely switch into Braviary without possibly taking massive damage, especially if Braviary has a Choice Band. This makes Braviary a great wallbreaker, designed to break through defensive walls and punish anyone that tries to stop him, especially in lower tiers.

Other good moves in Braviary's arsenal include U-Turn, Bulk Up, and Roost. The first allows him to scout for potential switches or to make an escape while still doing damage. The second actually works okay with Braviary's defensive stats, and Roost works with either Bulk Up or with a Life Orb and to recover damage from Stealth Rock or Brave Bird recoil.

Braviary's best ability is his Dream World one, Defiant. (If you have White 2, a Braviary with Defiant appears on Mondays on Route 4.) It keeps him from being affected by Intimidate, which gives him +1 in Attack instead; it also might kick in at other random times, especially in-game. Keep in mind that Defiant is affected neither by Superpower's stat drops or by ones inflicted by his teammates. Keen Eye isn't particularly useful unless all your friends like using Sand-Attack on you, and while Sheer Force is a great ability, the only attack Braviary can really use that would get a boost is Rock Slide, or maybe Sky Attack in-game.

Overall, this is to say that Rufflet and Braviary are very worthy additions to the Normal/Flying family despite being an all-male species. Use one next time you want a true American hero on your team.

The land of the free, and the home of the Brave Bird.

Next time: An eurypterid.

Top 100 Pokemon #99: Zangoose

Sometimes, the best way to deal with the poisonous things in your life is not to try to be immune to them, but to take them in and then attack back with 50% more power.

Actually, that is a horrible analogy for real life.  Pretend I said something like making lemons out of lemonade.

#99: Zangoose

Coming up at #99 in my list is one part of Hoenn's dynamic duo, the Cat Ferret Pokemon, Zangoose. Based on the mongoose, which can fight off venomous snakes, Zangoose's most notable conceptual aspect is its ongoing rivalry with Seviper, a Pokemon that... well, I never liked as much as I liked Zangoose, honestly. It might be because snakes have been done already a fair amount, while the mongoose, even now, is still pretty unique among Pokemon concepts.

It helps that Zangoose has an awesome design. That red looks like battle scars from years and years of Seviper fights. (Seviper isn't too bad, but I like Zangoose's better.) He also has an awesome name, but that's a given when your name starts with "Zan". There are varying theories as to where the "Zan" comes from, but the details don't matter that much because, well, Zan.

Zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn!!!!!

That said, Zangoose's feud with Seviper is so critical to its concept, it is practically inseparable from Zangoose himself. All of Zangoose's Pokedex entries mention Seviper (and vice versa), and even TVTropes's listing of Pokemon groups the two under the same sub-entry. Being so intricately linked, fandom has, of course, created as much fanart of the two as friends or lovers as they have of the two trying to tear each other to pieces. Not that those are mutually exclusive.

Zangoose used Pursuit! A critical hit!

To add to the Foe Yay potential, the two are in the same egg group, which has probably led to some of the most awkward moments in the Pokemon Day Care.

But that's enough about Zangoose's concept. Let's talk about Zangoose in battling Pokemon other than Seviper.

Zangoose has okay stats; his best stat is definitely Attack, sitting at a good Base 115. His Speed is decent at 90, moreso for the lower tiers. He has a good movepool that includes Swords Dance and powerful Normal type attacks, as well as great coverage moves in Close Combat and either Night Slash or Shadow Claw.

However, it is in Gen V's Dream World where Zangoose finally got something that allows it to be a dangerous threat. In the Dream World, Zangoose traded his Immunity to poison for Toxic Boost, which boosts his Attack by 50% when poisoned. Kind of like Guts, except it only works with poison, so it's not quite as good, but hey, it makes sense for Zangoose to have an ability that specifically works with poison. By holding and activating a Toxic Orb, Zangoose can boost his Attack extremely high; add in Facade, which attains a Base Power of 210 after STAB, and you have an attack that can pretty much knock out anything that isn't a Rock, Steel, or Ghost in one hit. Also available in Zangoose's movepool is Quick Attack, which can still do some major damage after Toxic Boost (and an optional Swords Dance boost). It's all very risky, as Zangoose is taking that Toxic damage the whole time, and his defensive stats are not very good, so it won't take much to take him out, but while he is alive, expect him to cause a lot of damage.

He's still in NU, but is considered one of the top threats in the tier. Metagame tierings aside, though, one thing I like about Zangoose is this transition he made, from just being immune to poison to taking that poison and using it against the opponent.

Zangoose looks cool, fights well, and has a solid, unique concept behind it, making it a good Pokemon to put in my #99 spot.

The feud between Zangoose and Seviper isn't the most interesting part about Zangoose, but it does provide for some interesting moments, like... what happens should one of the two sides... win?

The Antagonist In Mourning trope is fitting here.

Next time: A male-only Pokemon that can carry a car.

Top 100 Pokemon #100: Leafeon

Let's start this list off with an Eeveelution. Eevee was a Gen I Pokemon that could evolve into different Pokemon by using different evolutionary stones. A Water Stone gives you Vaporeon, a Thunderstone gives Jolteon, a Fire Stone gives Flareon, and a Leaf Stone gives...

Hey guys, I just returned from training near this mossy rock... what's the shiny green stone for?

...oh, wait.

#100: Leafeon

First of all, Leafeon did not appear until Generation IV, and second, you do not use a Leaf Stone on Eevee to get him; all you need to do is level up your Eevee near the Moss Rock in either Sinnoh or Unova.

Now, overall I really like the Eevee family. Having one Pokemon potentially become seven distinct Pokemon, all with their own strengths, is very interesting. Leafeon will not be the last Eeveelution on my list; overall, Leafeon is my third favorite of the Eeveelutions.

The main reason why Leafeon doesn't rank higher is because his concept is rather ordinary, especially with a lot of the fancier Pokemon that came out of Gen IV; Leafeon looks like he should have existed in Gen I as the Leaf Stone evolution. The design comes out fine; Leafeon is definitely one of the cuter Eeveelutions.

Totally adorable.

According to Pokedex entries, Leafeon is constantly using photosynthesis, so the air around him is always clean.

 Anyways, let's move on to the cooler part of Leafeon: his battle capabilities.

The first thing to note about Eeveelutions is that they all have the same numbers in their Base Stats: 130, 110, 95, 65, 65, 60. The Eeveelutions differ in which stats get which number. For those who don't know how good those stats are, 130 means it's one of the best in that stat, 110 is very good, 95 is usually pretty solid, and the rest are that Eeveelution's weak stats. Leafeon is a bit interesting, though, in which stat gets that big Base 130...

...and that is Defense. As in, physical defense.

A more accurate representation of Leafeon's physical defense.

Yes, that frail-looking cat-like critter has the same Base Defense as Pokemon such as Golem, Rhyperior, and Metagross. He's not quite the Grass-type with the highest Base Defense; Ferrothorn beats out Leafeon in this department by all of 1 point. Still, that is Leafeon, a cute plant-cat with the defense of a freaking wall.

Now, his HP and Special Defense are both Base 65, so don't expect Leafeon to be taking special attacks anytime soon.

Leafeon's next best stat is physical Attack at Base 110. This means that Leafeon is more suited to moves like Leaf Blade than Giga Drain or Leaf Storm or whatnot. And thankfully, in Black 2 and White 2, Leafeon learns Leaf Blade much earlier, at level 45. Before? You'd have to wait all the way until Level 71... and there was no way to breed it to have the move already. Until then, you'd have to just use Razor Leaf over and over... that, or try to work off of Leafeon's Base 60 Special Attack.

Finally, at a Base Speed of 95, Leafeon is decently fast.

Leafeon, though, overall suffers from a fairly lacking movepool. Other than Leaf Blade, his other physical attacks are X-Scissor and Dig for in-game; beyond that, you have Return and Double-Edge, but that's it. For this and other reasons, Leafeon is not seen too much in upper tiers, and mainly resides in Smogon's NeverUsed (NU) tier, where it has a particular niche as a good physically-defensive Grass-type with some interesting support options.

And what interesting support options it has! Heal Bell, Wish, and Roar are all great, but I think the role Leafeon is coolest at is using Baton Pass. Leafeon can learn Swords Dance, boosting his already solid Attack to sky-high levels, and if he faces a foe he cannot get past, he can always Baton Pass to someone who can also make use of those boosts.

Alternatively, Baton Pass to a Pokemon that will totally screw over the enemy. Bonus points if a Substitute is included.

Leafeon gets two abilities that are based on sunlight: Leaf Guard and Chlorophyll through Dream World. This allows Leafeon to fit on Sun teams. The latter is better for more offensively-based variations, while the former is good for support variants that utilize that physical bulk and prefer not to be hit by status.

All in all, Leafeon is a cool Pokemon and a good one to kick off this list of my Top 100 Pokemon. He might not be the strongest of the Eeveelutions, but he definitely has some tricks up his sleeve and you would do well not to underestimate him.

As a side note, Googling images of Leafeon (anyone planning on doing this, please use SafeSearch!) brings up quite a few images of him with Glaceon, the other Gen IV Eeveelution. I guess people just naturally pair these two off in that way.

Of course Glaceon would be the tsundere.

Next time: _ _ N _ _ _ S E

Top 100 Pokemon - Introduction

So I will soon start a series on my top 100 Pokemon, as of the 5th generation of Pokemon games. The list will be pretty self-explanatory, but here are some notes on what to expect:

1. All Pokemon on this list will be to some extent competitively viable, at the very least in Smogon's NeverUsed tier. I'm not one to consider the best competitive Pokemon as my favorite Pokemon, but I do prefer Pokemon to have at least some battle capabilities.

2. Beyond their combat capabilities, I also rank these Pokemon based on their design, concept, and other non-combat aspects. Anime portrayals of these Pokemon may be applied, though I have not seen much at all of anything past the Johto arc, so don't expect much there.

3. Do not expect to see many Legendaries, particularly ones that are version mascots or otherwise more "monster-like" Legendaries. For whatever reason, I'm just not a big fan of them. I do like the more, well, pixie-like ones, as well as pseudo-Legendaries, so do expect to come across them in my rankings, as well as maybe a big Legendary here and there.

4. Entries will be based on final evolutionary forms. Pre-evolutions will be covered alongside their parent evolution(s) in some entries.

5. New entries will be posted whenever I have the time to post one. Hopefully I can get through this without it taking 100 weeks (by then, Gen VI will probably have come out!), but I won't be able to post one every single day.

6. Finally, this is my list and my opinion. Feel free to comment about your thoughts, but personal attacks on me or anyone else for their opinions will just make you look like a jerk.

The Pokemon at #100 on this list will be coming up soon. Which one is it? Here's a hint: clean air always surrounds this Pokemon.

A new generation...

This post is simply a warning that anything beyond this post (that is, posted before Nov. 21st, 2012) covers the 4th generation and will be outdated if you're concerned with Black and White and the 5th generation of Pokemon.