#161-162: Sentret and Furret

Ok, so starters out of the way, now to the generic rodent!

Oh my... what is this? Sentret... Wow... 35HP, 46 attack, 34 defence, 35 special attack, 45 special defence and just 20 speed! Other than operating in a trick room, is there anything here? Run away is an awful ability, keen eye prevents accuracy being lowered, and the hidden ability, frisk, allows you to view all opposing Pokemons' held items. You're normal-type.

Macho, macho squirrel! He wants to be... a macho squirrel!

Now to the moves... The level list is surprisingly long. Scratch is the starter, base 40 normal physical, and you also get foresight, which resets the foe's evasiveness to normal, as well as stopping the ghost-type immunity to fighting and normal moves. Defence curl buffs the defence, and we all know quick attack as base 40 normal physical move that has a single stage priority boost. Fury swipes hits up to 5 times as a normal physical move with each hit hitting at base 18, and so is a possible sash breaker. That covers up to evolution, but there's a fair bit more... Helping hand has 5 stages of priority and buffs the power of an adjacent ally's move by 50%. Follow me, meanwhile, makes you the centre of attention as a +2 priority move, so moves that fall below this in priority will hit the user, rather than allies. You then get slam: base 80 normal physical but only 75 accuracy.

Moving swiftly on, you can learn rest to put yourself to sleep and heal up, and then this is followed by the base 80 dark physical move sucker punch, which will hit with priority but only if the foe is preparing a damage dealing move. Amnesia buffs your special defence, and the boosts from this can be passed on with the next move, baton pass. Me first is borderline useless on a Sentret unless in a trick room, since it requires attacking before the foe, stealing their move and bouncing it back at them with increased power, and finally we get hyper voice, a base 90 normal special move that can hit all adjacent opponents and hit through a substitute.

You get the standard array of TM moves, with the inclusion of hone claws, ice beam, solar beam (with sunny day), flamethrower, thunderbolt, shadow ball (huh?), dig, brick-break, shadow claw, facade, retaliate, charge beam (less power than thunderbolt and buffs your special attack at a decent probability), grass knot (you weigh virtually nothing so this should be a very good damage dealer), U-turn (to duck back out of battle with a decent base 70 bug physical damage output behind it), power-up punch, secret power, cut and surf. There are some ace moves here, which is a problem since you have no power to use them with.

You can breed in assist, which is interesting as it picks a random move to use from any other Pokemon in your party, so since you have no issue with movepool here, surely this would be better placed on another Pokemon to draw from Sentret? Hmm... You can get captivate (lowers the special attack of the foe if it is opposite gender from you and isn't oblivious), charm (same as captivate but on a physical side), covet (like a normal-type thief), double-edge (base 120 physical normal with huge recoil), focus energy (boosts critical chances but you'll be dead before this really happens), iron tail has to be chain bred in and so is pretty much not worth the effort since it has poor 75 accuracy, last resort (I hate this move, base 140, recoil, can only be used when you have nothing else), pursuit hits harder on switching foes (dark physical base 40 with no priority, but if the foe is switching then it will hit them first and hit as base 80), slash (base 70 normal physical with good critical chance) and reversal (hits harder as a physical fighting move the less HP you have).

Tutor moves! I'm just going to list these since there are billions! Aqua tail, covet, fire punch, focus punch, helping hand, hyper punch, ice punch, iron tail, knock off, last resort, shockwace, snore, super fang, thunder punch, trick, uproar and water pulse.

Sentret has an amazing movepool but no stats. Let's see what evolution does to this... Furret comes in at level 15 with big boosts to everything other than the special stats, which only get a boost of 10 for each. HP goes up by 50, physical stats go up by 30 and speed goes up by 70, leading to: 85HP, 76 attack, 64 defence, 45 special attack, 55 special defence and 90 speed. You stay as a mono-normal with the same poor abilities. You also keep the base level and TM sets, but you also add the higher power versions of some moves you had before, like thunder, blizzard and flamethrower, hyper beam, giga impact and focus blast also step in, along with strength and rock smash.

Why do so many Pokemon do the whole 'stare at the moon in wonder pose?

With no other changes, we may as well wrap this one up. Furret actually has some halfway decent stats (I mean halfway), but with such a cool moveset, it does seem like wasted potential. Brilliant moveset, awful stats and abilities, not really worth it unless you can really think of a good plan.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#158-160: Totodile, Croconaw, Feraligatr

We've had the top and bottom of the base stat total starters of generation two, so we're now visiting the middle one, the water one. And it's like a crocodile...

Totodile is a rather sweet sounding name, but carries that edge of hostility when you connect it with the surviving dinosaurs that have been known to eat whole villages when their usual prey has gone. You get this as a mono-type water Pokemon with the standard ability (torrent boosts water moves by 1.5x when your HP is 1/3rd or less), and hidden ability-wise you get sheer force (ignores moves' secondary effects for a boost in power). Stats: 50HP, 65 attack, 64 defence, 44 special attack, 48 special defence and 43 speed. Physical wall? Maybe...

"Aww! Cute!"

For once, you don't start with tackle, but instead you have the base 40 scratch (still physical normal), accompanied by leer to lower the foe's defence by a stage again. Water gun (guess the type) is a base 40 special move. Rage is a base 20 normal physical move that, if used consecutively, can allow for a boost to the attack stat when damaged by the opponent. The next move is bite, a base 60 dark physical move that can cause flinching. You can evolve at level 18 (quite high), so the last move before that joyous occasion is scary face, which drops the target's speed. We may as well carry on here for the moment: ice fang is next, which is a base 65 physical move (ice-type of course) with 95 accuracy and the chance to freeze, which is rather nice. Flail is up next, which is a variable powered normal physical move, where the less HP you have, the harder you hit (1-4% HP remaining leads to base 200), so this is pretty handy I guess. The next move is crunch, a base 80 dark move that can drop the foe's defence, so a pretty nice move, which would have been awesome if you got secondary type dark.

Trundling along, you get chip away, which is a base 70 physical normal move which ignores stat modifiers (so lowered attack on your part or buffed defence on their's), which is followed by slash, another base 70 normal physical move which also boasts an increased critical hit ratio. Screech has 85 accuracy but lowers the target's defence by two stages, hitting any adjacent target you please (which could work well on a contrary teammate). Thrash is devastatingly powerful, base 120 physical normal, but after being locked in for a few turns of this, you become confused. Aqua tail is base 90 in power and 90 in accuracy as a water physical move, which could well be your primary STAB attack if you don't mind the accuracy drop, and superpower is a base 120 physical fighting move that drops both physical stats by one stage. Hydro pump is the last move on the learnset and is one not to be used here in all honestly: base 110 is good, 80 accuracy isn't, water-type is good, special focus isn't.

Not content with being like the other starters with the same type things appearing on the generic TM lists. Here, you also get the ice ones, so hail, blizzard and ice beam. Hone claws also pops up (attack and accuracy boosted by a stage each), with dragon claw (base 80 dragon physical move), shadow claw (base 70 ghost physical with increased critical hit ratio), scald (base 80 special water move with the chance to burn the foe), dig, brick break, rock slide, rock tomb, aerial ace, power-up punch, surf, dive, and arguably the best of the bunch in waterfall (base 80 water physical with 100 accuracy and a flinch chance).

Breeding time! Ancient power is maybe a bit wasted here, but aqua jet could be brilliant as your priority move (base 40 water physical with one stage boosted priority), dragon dance, ice punch (hits harder and more accurately than ice fang at base 75 power and 100 accuracy, still ice physical), mud sport nerfs electricity, and water pulse, but that again is wasted here. You get some other moves, but they either have come up before or are questionably useful. If you want to head to the tutor, you can nab water pulse, aqua tail, ice punch, icy wind, uproar, superpower, spite (remove PP of the last move that hit you), iron tail, low kick, focus punch and block. You also get, of course, water pledge, which can combine with the other pledges for double power again (base 80 special as the standard) and the making of a speed halving swamp (with grass) and a rainbow that increases added effect chance (which is messed up by sheer force) for four turns.

Croconaw only sticks about between levels 18 and 30. 15 point boosts to every stat other than defence, which gets 16 instead, so now HP is 65, physical stats are 80, 59 special attack, 63 special defence and 58 speed. Same abilities, same typing, same moves.

"Eurgh, horrible!"

After Croconaw's short stay you then get to Feraligatr. Stat boosts are now 20, except attack, which has got 25, so now 90 HP, 105 attack, 100 defence, 79 special attack, 83 special defence and 78 speed. Same type, same abilities, but a vastly different moveset: you can get agility by level, hyper beam, giga impact, earthquake, focus blast and dragon tail from TM, and focus punch and outrage by tutoring, so that's actually a lot of additions.

"AAAAH! Ryuk from DeathNote!!!!"

You may lack the speed and coolness of Typhlosion, but this actually has a really nice, fairly diverse moveset. You may not have great bulk, but it's good. This Pokemon isn't that bad, actually, but it still just lags behind Typhlosion.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#155-157: Cyndaquil, Quilava and Typhlosion

Ok, so last time we saw what was pretty much the worst starter to date, so now we'll visit the one mentioned last time with the best of the base stat totals for the generation. Remember, base stat totals don't make for a better Pokemon.

Cyndaquil was my first ever Pokemon. My view of it may be a little rose-tinted, and I always try to get it into rotation for my teams these days.What you see from the stats here is more a setup for a sweeper, with 65 speed, 52 attack and 60 special attack, these masking 50 special defence, 39 HP and 43 defence. If only physical stats were swapped. Further to this you get the standard starter ability that boosts STAB moves by 1.5x when at 1/3rd HP, in this case it's blaze and fire-type moves (with you being a fire-type starter). You also get a hidden ability of flash fire, which makes you immune to fire-type moves and when first hit by one boosts your fire attacks by 1.5x (again with that).

Cute, but don't pet the back...

As with significant numbers of Pokemon, you start with tackle (base 50 physical normal), with this being joined by leer (drops adjacent foes' defence stat by a stage). After this you get smokescreen to drop the target's accuracy by a stage. After this, you get ember (base 40 fire special with a slight chance of a burn) and quick attack (base 40 physical normal with a one stage boost to priority). At this point you can evolve (level 14) before the next move comes in at level 19. This wasn't a lot of moves, so I may as well go on a bit before the traditional break. Level 19 sees the introduction of flame wheel (base 60 fire physical that will thaw you if you are frozen and can also burn the target, so talk about revenge). After this you can nab defence curl to boost your defence, and thereafter you get flame charge (base 50 fire physical that boosts your speed one stage when used).

Ok, so here's the break, and we resume with swift, which is a base 60 normal special move that avoids the accuracy check. You then get three consecutive fire special moves: lava plume (base 80, 15PP, 100 accuracy, hits all adjacent foes with a decent burn chance), flamethrower (base 90, 15PP, 100 accuracy and a slight chance to burn), inferno (base 100, 5PP, 50 accuracy (ouch) but guarantees a burn). After this comes rollout (base 30 rock physical with 90 accuracy and gains in power whilst it attacks for 5 turns (unless disrupted) and doubles in power if combined with rollout). After this comes double edge (base 120 physical normal that recoils on you quite heavily), and finally you get eruption (100 accuracy, 5 PP fire special move with variable power, hitting harder the more HP you have left, so at 100% HP you hit at base 150, which is amazing).

From levelling you can get some very nice moves, but not much coverage. Well, hello TM list! Standard ones apply, so hidden power/return etc. could be very useful. You get fire blast and overheat available as well, plus dig and aerial ace (for some reason), wild charge (base 90 electric physical with recoil and thus not really worth it), incinerate and will-o-wisp. I'm actually disappointed with the lack here, since it's still just fire, electric, ground, normal and the coverage is physical...

If you want to breed, you can grab another host of normal moves like crush claw and covet, but then you can get double kick (base 30 physical fighting, so at least something different), but the one you REALLY want is extrasensory (base 80 psychic special that can cause flinching, which you can get from breeding with Vulpix/Ninetales). The aforementioned Vulpix/Ninetales, as well as things like Camerupt, Heatmore and Pansear can lead to flame burst (base 70 fire special that can cause a burn and also burn other foes on either side due to splash damage). You can also breed flare blitz from a variety of partners, but all this is is a fire version of double-edge, and so is physical and not adding any coverage. You can get some more reasonable physical moves, but why bother? You can also go to the tutor and get covet (again), snore and then heat wave (base 95, 90 accuracy fire special move, 10% chance of burning and hits all adjacent foes), as well as fire pledge (base 80 fire special that can combo with the other pledge moves to double in power, as well as setup field effects: with water pledge you get it coming out as water pledge and creates a rainbow, lasting four turns and boosting the chance of additional effects of moves like burns and whatnot, whilst we've covered grass pledge, which basically creates a field of fire that hurts the foes for 1/8th damage per turn). If you use two pledge moves in the same turn but one cannot be used (say paralysis or skydrop, or death or something) then neither move with work.

Evolving at level 14 is pretty early, and you become Quilava. With this change, you get a nice boost to your stats: 58HP, 64 attack, 58 defence and 65 special defence, with 80 for both special attack and speed. Same abilities, same mono-fire-typing.

Just going through a teenage punk phase...

Brick break and strength are added to the TM/HM list, whilst focus punch is added to the tutor list (you do have substitute in the TM list).

From here you evolve again level 36 into Typhlosion. You get a boost of 20 to all stats other than special attack, which gets 29, leaving 78HP, 84 attack, 78 defence, 109 special attack, 85 special defence and 100 speed, which isn't that bad, really. Same abilities and typing.

I can't tell if it wants cuddles or your face... ripped off and bleeding...

For some unknown reason you can get gyro ball on the level list now, which makes no sense since 100 speed is pretty fast and you can easily boost it with flame charge. You also now get hyper beam, solar beam, focus blast, rock tomb/slide, bulldoze, giga impact, shadow claw and power-up punch. The tutor now also gives some much needed coverage. Low kick comes in with variable power as a fighting move, whilst thunder punch (and fire punch) comes in to hit the water-types or whatever that you couldn't really hurt before. Finally, blast burn is a base 150, 90 accuracy move that is only for fire starters, and needs recharge, so it's sort of like a fire version of hyper beam (as it's special, not physical like giga impact).

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#152-154: Chikorita, Bayleef and Meganium

Ok, so to rip-off Professor Sprout: "Welcome to Greenhouse 3, second gen!" Yeah, because we're kicking off gen two with the grass-type starter!

Chikorita was one of the starters in Gold, Silver and Crystal, the latter being the first Pokemon game I played. I did say I was late to the party. Anyway, it was one of the starters I overlooked, so it'll be interesting to see what I missed out on (except that was a long time ago and it's now utterly different). As I've mentioned, you're a grass-type, but you have rather disappointing stats, with some 40s (45 in HP and speed, 49 in the attacks) and some indifferent defence (65 in both). It suffers from the balance issue, clearly. You get the ability overgrow (boosts grass attacks to 1.5x power when your health falls to a third), with the hidden ability of leaf guard (in sunlight, you are immune to status conditions, including self-induces sleep by use of rest). Neither ability is that great, to be honest.

You can see why I didn't take it...

Is there any point in telling you that you start with tackle and growl, or any point in describing them? Go back and look at virtually any one I've written so far, I'll wait... Back? Good. Razor leaf comes in at level 6, hitting as a grass physical move with base 55 power, 95 accuracy, a boosted critical hit rate, the ability to hit all adjacent foes and the ability to cut grass in generation 6 battlefields. Poison powder carries 75 accuracy but will lead to the foe being poisoned (unless immune for whatever reason), and synthesis heals you, with the amount of healing being based on the weather (2/3rds max for sunshine, half for normal and quarter for rain), so this could be useful if you have leaf guard and can't rest...

You evolve a little early at level 16, so reflect coming in at 17 suggests that it probably belongs in another paragraph. Reflect effectively halves physical damage that would be sustained by the team for five turns. Magical leaf ignores the accuracy check and is a special move, so therefore is basically a grass version of swift, whilst natural gift hits with different powers and typings based on the berry you are holding. There are lots of berries... Sweet scent lowers the foe's evasiveness, and if used in the overworld (like you would use an HM) when in the grass, it will cause a wild Pokemon to attack, in some places provoking a horde battle. Remember a couple of lines ago I mentioned reflect? Well take that, swap physical for special and for some reason add 10 PP and you get light screen instead. Body slam is fairly powerful at base 85 (doubled if the foe is minimized), with a 30% chance to paralyse a foe as a 100 accuracy normal physical move. Safeguard protects the team for a few turns from the chance of picking up status problems (did someone forget leaf guard), and aromatherapy heals the whole party of status issues. The last level move is solar beam (you know the drill: base 120 grass special move with a charge turn unless used in sunshine). Why are there so many things that work with sunshine?

As far as TMs go, you get a rather standard array, with toxic included to make poison powder rather irrelevant. You can pick up sunny day here if you like the risk, hidden power can be used for coverage, protect could be useful, return/frustration depend on how much you love it. The thing is, you don't get the moves like thunder, flamethrower and ice beam, so every damaging move seems to be normal or grass... Hmm... Rest does nothing with sunny leaf guard, round, echoed voice and energy ball (base 90 grass special) all pop up, along with swords dance of all things. Substitute is there to shield you from fire damage for a nano-second, swagger and confide are there, and so is cut.

Breeding can grant you ancient power, which does base 60 rock special damage and can boost all your stats, which is ace, and you can also grab counter since you're really slow (but you lack the HP to allow it to work), flail can be used to go well with your terrible HP and ok defences as it hits harder the weaker you are. Leaf storm is there as a base 130 grass special move that will drop your special attack by a couple of stages, heal pulse and ingrain can be used as running a tanky set, as can leech seed, which can drain some health from the foe each turn. Aside from that, the rest are pretty dull and uninspired. The tutor is fairly similar, with iron tail, worry seed, synthesis and snore cropping up. However, you can pick up seed bomb as a base 80 grass physical move, giga drain as a base 75 grass special move that will also heal you a bit, and grass pledge (guess the type) as a base 80 special move that can be combined in multi-battles with water and fire pledge, doubling the power output, and creating a hazard foe the foes: water+grass gives a swamp that drops speed, fire+grass gives a fire that does 1/8th HP damage per turn.

I mentioned you evolve at 16, and you become a Bayleef. You're still a disappointment. 60 HP and speed, 62 physical and 63 special attack and 80 in the defences. Still nothing really looking too good. Also no change to abilities. You know what else doesn't change? The movelists... Boring...

It looks like a crappy dinosaur with a sword in its head...

It may be boring, but that means we can skip straight ahead to level 32 and Meganium. It has mega in the name, so it has to be good, right? Right? The base stat total is lower than both the other starters of the gen (they nail 530 and 534, this caps at 525), but that doesn't make it bad. The spread of stats makes it bad. Add 20 to all the stats of Bayleef and you're there. Not enough bulk to tank, not enough defence in either to really wall too well, not enough speed or offence to offer a sweep. Jack of all trades, master of none: this is pretty much right, but it doesn't really offer much in any format due to the stats, the abilities and the poor movesets. Wow! I've summed it up already. It also lacks a mega as of writing.

Just... What?

Yeah, this is probably the weakest starter ever. I'll leave it at that since I've bashed it a fair bit already...

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

End of Generation One Special (part one): The top ten from the first gen!

Ok, so we've looked at the first generation and their relatives further down the line in other generations, too, and we've seen what's good, what's mediocre, what's bad and what's Flareon, but why not present a dumb list of ten Pokemon that I feel are better than the rest. With minimal thought into this, I've basically picked 10 Pokemon that I feel are in the upper echelons of the first generation, through both capability in battle (so you've got the stats, types, moves, abilities and array of options) and my personal preference. I said I would review them, not tell you what you should or shouldn't use...

10: Articuno

Ok, this one is largely here for a very broken combo of mind reader and sheer cold, but hey, unless they have sturdy then the opponent is utterly screwed! You don't have the best offensive stats, and the defence lags behind the special defence with slightly less than desirable speed, but this combo is really good, there is nice bulk there and you do get some broken moves. You can also combo hail and blizzard, which also kicks up sustainable damage, you can use roost and it's generally really cool. If the defence was higher then that could almost account for the rock-type weakness. Really, this shouldn't be this high, but I do like it quite a lot, so that gives it a boost. Beware stealth rock...

9: Kangaskhan

Ok, so this one is largely here because it has the awesome ability on the mega evolution, but in all honesty, it's pretty good anyway. Normal-type is usually nothing too dreadful, meaning you don't really have strengths and weaknesses to really deal with, and the move list isn't dire (STAB return is no joke). On top of decent, if a little lacking, speed, you get decent bulk (HP is rather high and the defences are in the 80 region), plus you get good physical attack, with no point worrying about the special attack. Throw on the mega, defences are shored up to 100, physical attack is good (not awesome, but still) and you get 150% power on the move as it hits twice: one for the mum, and then a softer one for the baby. Ta-dah, every move is now a sash breaker, too.

8: Mew

Ok, so this should really be higher since it has a nearly bottomless movepool and all-round decent stats, with everything at 100. That's the problem, however: the phrase 'Jack of all trades, and master of none' really is apparent here. 100 is good for lower tiers or as a secondary stat, like the defences on Kangaskhan. You're never really going to be that scary no matter what you choose: even as a tank you can still be easily one-shotted by something like dark pulse from a Darkrai, or night slash from an Absol, and you aren't really going to be handing out too man one-shots either. That said, Mew doesn't necessarily need to one-shot things: it's the curveball. When it comes into play, do you know what to expect against you? No, because it could be anything. Of course you aren't going to be using it to tank an Absol, though you may be unlucky. Mew can take a few hits and deal a bit of damage through the balanced stats and the surprise element, but it goes no higher due to the dreadful availability...

7: Aerodactyl

Yeah, I like Aerodactyl, but I know a lot of people don't. In base form I can see people complaining about how it's a little frail, but when you mega evolve it, the defensive stats, though far from stellar, are actually quite capable. What you really get with Aerodactyl, mega or otherwise, is a very fast physical sweeper that doesn't need much help getting going. People can't even complain about a poor moveset, since it gets some pretty powerful moves, some with good utility, and thanks to those fangs, it gets some nice elemental coverages as well. Rock/flying as a typing isn't bad, but the main problem is the slightly mediocre abilities (you may get landed with pressure), with a secondary issue being the disfavoured design.

6: Blastoise

A starter had to be in here, and I reckon a lot of people thought it would be Charizard. The thing is, Blastoise is a bit of a curveball in itself, not just in the inclusion at number 7 on this list. It certainly packs quite a punch, with both attack stats being respectable, particularly when mega evolved, but it also has really quite good defences. If you don't go mega, you could quite nicely run an assault vest set and use the decent (not amazing, but decent) attacking stats with some powerful moves, or even just load it with surf, rapid spin and some others. Oh, yeah, and that's another good reason to have it here: rapid spin. A lot of teams are now packing a Pokemon to include rapid spin, and in this case you also have a Pokemon that a) won't just die on switch in, b) can take a few hits to make up for using a low damage move and c) be useful elsewhere on a team, the only other great option for a rapid spinner is something with either scrappy or an -ate ability.

5: Snorlax

This big old ball of love that has taken 20 years to sit up has a huge HP reserve, with the special defence to let it near master the role of special wall (only the Chansey family can really better this job from the stats). The thing about Snorlax is, however, that it packs some better moves than the egg-lovers, as well as some serious physical power and the ease of a chesto-resto set. Massive power? Yup, no problem, with STAB return, a big physical attack stat, access to earthquake and body slam, the ability to equip an assault vest and just shrug off special moves, a devastatingly low speed stat for either gyro ball or trick rooming and just being generally loveable, as well as the rather neutral normal typing.

4: Gyarados

So this was one of my favourites when I started playing since it got a forced shiny, was very strong, and also was one that came from being very weak, something I wanted to do. I mentioned it was strong, right? Yeah, decent health and special defence, hardly laughable physical defence and excruciating physical attack, and with the mega you get a great boost of 30 a-piece to the defences to a lovely 130 special and 109 physical, plus the same boost to the physical attack to 155. Kinda makes up for the lack of speed, doesn't it? In all honesty, if it hadn't got given crunch to take advantage of the mega's dark typing, it would drop a place since this and Snorlax were rather close on the list, but as it is, it's pushing number 3 since that isn't a massive gap either. The base form abilities are good, and intimidate can act before the mega as well. Typing in either form isn't bad, physical coverage options are rather limited but some strong moves do inhabit the listing. Truly, you can pretty much get away with a setup move like dragon dance and then just try sweeping with STAB moves like crunch and waterfall.

3: Alakazam

Ok, starting off, one reason why this fails to escape Gyarados is that Abra is a nightmare to catch, it just taunts you. It would still lag the top two since I love them, but it must be said, this is a pretty powerful little cat/boy thing. Even with the first evolution (Abra) you get very good special attack and speed. No bulk, just purely designed for one purpose. This lack of versatility does hold it back a little, but that doesn't really concern me that much since you are really fast with a massive dose of special attack that even some special walls can fail to contain. 135 special attack on regular Alakazam is great, but when you mega evolve, things get scary at 175, and since you get psyshock, you can decimate the special walls anyway by hitting their physical defence. You don't get the greatest list of coverage moves, but there's some mileage there.

2: Gengar

Aside from looking cool and being what my nephew calls my dad, this is a great Pokemon. Stupidly strong and fast and with a great moveset, making it the cornerstone of my Pokemon Y online team, you get nearly the speed and special attack of Alakazam (with basically the same shift in the mega evolution) combined with more durability, a dual ghost/poison typing and great coverage, allowing you to ruin people. The only issue I have is: do I run hex or venoshock on my new set. They both do similar jobs... Anyway, with a fair few choices available in terms of special moves to cover weaknesses, as well as massive power, an interesting typing and a good ability in either form (levitate nicely covers the ground weakness whilst shadow tag traps the victim in with you), this is a Pokemon that I will say you should train.

Now before I reveal the number one, I thought I would try to keep some suspense (except that number one is VERY obvious). Here are some also-rans that just missed out:

Charizard: yeah, it's pretty strong, one everyone loves from their childhood, has 2 megas that have different secondary typings and some nice moves, but just 2 words are needed: stealth rock. Yup, the same thing that kept Articuno at number 10 is in play here, and Articuno edged in with the combo. Don't get me wrong, this is a good Pokemon, and combos well with another Pokemon that just missed out: Venusaur. Venusaur, without the mega, is a great partner to Mega Charizard Y if you open with them, since Charizard will bring sunshine, allowing a chargless solar beam and doubled speed if you have chlorophyll as an ability. This allows you a fast counter to water types that could be there to shut down the big old furnace, which also can support you to some extent. Further to this, Venusaur can be used to support Primal Groudon, as well as other sunny day using allies as you can also mess with other weaknesses. On top of this, Venusaur can just about run as a solo, since the mega gives thick fat, lessing two key weaknesses of fire and ice. It misses the top 10 as it is a little pokey and shy of moves, as well as being not one of my favourites, but good nonetheless if supported.

Other ones to just miss out (by a bit more than the other starters, who were a bit situational) are the now slightly scary Beedrill (basically due to the mega), the Nidos (king and queen), Crobat (by extension, as it's generation 2), Slowbro, Pinsir, Dragonite and the other birds, Zapdos and Moltres. Sorry guys, but you just miss out (especially Pinsir, who probably should have made the list, but seriously, bug-type?)

Ok, time to reveal...

1: Mewtwo

Since I only published this one the other day, I won't bother repeating myself too much. Mewtwo is just ridiculously broken. Impossibly fast and strong, with divergent megas that both rule, and even when running in normal form you're almost impossible to contain. A good design, an offensive stat approaching 200 when mega evolved, a cool attitude and back story: what's not to like.

There you have it, my top 10, and some others that you can reasonably complain about not being included. Please feel free to say which you agree on and which you don't, but as I have said, this is largely my opinion, so I can't be wrong, and if you say I am, I will send these Pokemon after you.

#151: Mew

Ok, this is it! Number 151 of 151 in generation one! Mew, another very recognisable one that is such a pain to get.

Ok, so for starters, like Mewtwo, you're a psychic-type legendary. Stats wise, everything is base 100, so choose what you will, you are free to decide your role entirely! The only ability is synchronise, which means that if you get a status affliction, so does the foe, and you also boost the chance of finding wild Pokemon with the same nature as you have, which can be really useful for team building purposes.

Looks shifty, and pink, and what all Dittos aspire to be...

After starting with pound (base 40 physical normal), reflect type (makes you the same type as the target, which works through an illusion but no on Arceus's multi-type), and transform (see Ditto, since these are the only two that get the move), you get moves every ten levels... So at level 10 we get mega punch (base 80 normal physical with 85 accuracy, and very disappointingly there's nothing more here), then at 20 you get metronome (this basically makes you use almost any move, from stat adjusters to earthquake to self-destruct), psychic at level 30, then at 40 you get barrier (a two stage defence boost), 50 leads to ancient power (base 60 rock special that can buff all in-battle variable stats), amnesia at 60 (2 stage special defence boost), me first at 70 (ninjas the foe's incoming damaging move (but without priority so you need higher speed) and adds 50% to the power), baton pass at 80, nasty plot at 90 (boosts special attack by 2 stages), and then aura sphere at level 100 (base 80 fighting special with no accuracy check).

You can learn EVERY TM and HM, so not going over all these or else I'll cut my fingers off, and you can get every tutor move except specific ones, like the pledge moves, sacred sword and draco meteor, dragon ascent and v-create.

I could offer a few recommended sets, but there are so many different ways to set this up, since you can set it up for different niches, need different type coverages and all that. If you have ideas or need advice, drop your set or need in the comments and I'll get back to you. There's so much that Mew can do it's absurd. You can run a wall, a semi-tank, a medium rate sweeper, a baton passer (you can get full boosts to both specials and physical defence if you can stay alive with the moves only from level up, and since you can get calm mind, you can also bang on rest on the move set, so that's even more outrageous), and wow you can do anything...

Please post a comment with a specific need and I will have a look at what I can come up with for a set for you. I'd love some interaction.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)

#150: Mewtwo

Ok, that's a mad few weeks over (thank the Lord Helix) and now hopefully things will settle down. Some filler info: I've been to Sheffield and had some fun with some of my work friends, which involved a lot of drinking, no blogging and no Pokemon, then when I returned, Lizzie was off on holiday, my dad visited for the Easter weekend and so no blogging was done when hanging out with my dad, work was busy gearing up for the Southampton conference (my PhD sponsors are a major company and book out a lot rooms in a very fancy hotel, with nice food, horrible local beer and a very disappointing presentation performance from yours truly). After getting back from all this, I spent a few days readjusting to seeing Lizzie for the first time in like 2 weeks, as well as getting back to work, and visiting Lizzie's family at the weekend, but now I'm back and ready to carry on writing. It's a shame we didn't finish Gen One before the break, but we've got a real classic here...

If you haven't heard of Mewtwo: what the hell? Seriously? One of the most famous and iconic Pokemon ever, and deservedly so, it has been the star of films, included in Smash Bros (and now again), and looks like Frieza from Dragon Ball Z. This is a psychic-type legendary with two rather mundane abilities: pressure (which comes as standard) doubles the usage of PP by the foe whilst unnerve (hidden) prevents the foe from eating berries. Mewtwo was the original badass (Pokemon Jesus, according to some theories), and has the stats to back that up. 106HP isn't bad (actually really good considering you're kind of a sweeper), and 90 in the defences means you can take hits better than most Pokemon. 110 attack is pretty awesome, but utterly irrelevant since you have 154 special attack (that's rather impressive, and there's more to come), plus 130 base speed means not that many things can keep up.

I'm going to kill Vegeta, blow up Vegeta and then kill Vegeta... Wait, what?

As far as damage dealing moves go by level up, there aren't as many as you'd first think. To start off with, you get confusion (base 50 psychic special with the chance to confuse the foe) which can damage foes and if they survive leave them reeling, whilst you also get disable (stops the foe from using that move anymore against you) and safeguard (prevents the team from getting status afflictions for 5 turns). Thereafter you get the normal special move swift (base 60) which bypasses the accuracy check (so only misses if they protect or are flying or whatever), which is then followed by future sight, which is cripplingly powerful (base 120 psychic special) but hits a few turns down the line, meaning it allows the foe to swap in a dark-type to take the hit (so immunity swapping, basically). Psych up copies the foe's stat changes (so great if you wanna mess with a baton pass team), but beware that it does still copy negatives. Miracle eye can be a great choice since it removes the immunity to psychic attacks that dark-types possess, as well as resetting the foe's evasion to normal. Psycho cut is a base 70 physical psychic move with an increased critical hit ratio. Power swap trades the changes to the offensive stats with the target, so this could be used to cripple the foe, or to transfer boosts from a teammate, and guard swap does the same but with defensive stats (as if you couldn't guess).

So we march ever on and get to level 50 (which is probably below where you meet this beast), and you'll get recover, which can recover (oh, I get it) 50% of your HP. I don't feel as though I need to remind you much of the move psychic (base 90 special), whilst barrier buffs the defence by two stages. Aura sphere is an interesting move (for now it's coverage, but you'll see in a few), which is a fighting special move, base 80 in power, no accuracy check as well as hitting anyone in a triple battle (it also gets a boost when you have mega launcher, which Mewtwo doesn't unless you skill swap it). Amnesia buffs your special defence by two stages (heaven forbid they give you calm mind or nasty plot, the former boosting both specials by a stage and the latter being a two stage boost to special attack). Mist shrouds your team and prevents stat changes for a while (can be lifted by defog), and me first steals the foe's move with 50% interest back at them ONLY if they are using a damaging move AND you are faster than them (so you don't get priority and you can't steal priority moves, but I guess you can take focus punch). Lastly, at level 100, you get access to the big brother of psyshock, psystrike, which is more powerful (base 100) as a psychic special move that hits the foe's defence, meaning that a special sweeper that can mess up a special wall. Great move.

TM time! Psyshock is rather pointless since you get psystrike, but I guess that may come a little late, so you could take it for a bit. Calm mind is here, so that's good, and there are a lot of general ones that pop up all over the show, like hail, return, blah, basically all the 90/110 things like thunder/bolt, flamethrower/fire blast, ice beam/blizzard, hidden power, solar beam, earthquake, shadow ball (ghost special base 80), brick break (base 75 physical fighting that can break screens and is of use under certain conditions as I dangle this again), focus blast (base 120 fighting special but with crap accuracy), energy ball, low sweep, charge beam, incinerate, stone edge, rock tomb, bulldoze, poison jab, dream eater, grass knot, dive and strength, basically. No breeding here, since legendary, y'know...

The tutor is causing me grief here: far too many moves for an already long entry... You get standards like focus punch, magic coat and room, drain punch, fire punch, ice punch, thunder punch, icy wind, aqua tail, foul play (pretty cool), iron tail, recycle, role play (copies the foe's ability) and in the same mould is skill swap, shockwave, signal beam, zen headbutt, wonder room and trick. I've detailed these before across my other blogs, so go read them. I'll wait...

Back? Good. Mewtwo got made better in generation six with the introduction of 2 megas, which means not only do you get a power boost, but there are options to keep the foe guessing. We'll start with Mega Mewtwo X. There are no move list changes, so this is nice and brief.

Mega Mewtwo X adds fighting-type to the resume (have been hinting at that the whole time), along with a new ability of steadfast (boosts speed when flinched), and some nice stat changes, boosting the defences by 10 a piece to 100 and the physical attack by 80 (yup, eighty) to a beastly 190. 106HP, 130 speed and 154 special attack remain. Scary, huh?

"Yeah, been working out! What of it, maggot?"

Mega Mewtwo Y (which is the one I have) stays as mono-psychic, but you swap the ability for insomnia, so no being put to sleep by the enemy. Attack goes up by 40, so big whoop, but special attack also goes up by 40 (so 150 and 194 respectively), with a drop in defence to 70 and a boost to special defence (now 120), as well as a touch more speed (now 140). Yeah, special sweeping time...

So what if you cut of his tail? He's got a pony-tail now.

Do you really need me to state my opinion on this one? It's amazing!! Seriously, I love this Pokemon, it's one of my favourites because of the design, the backstory and the horror it gives.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)