- 29 Mar 2013 23:54 #14939 Gen 1: Lapras, I love it's design, and it's a tank, which is exactly the sort of pokemon I love playing. It's a shame about that ice type- STAB on Ice Beam is fun, but the threat of Stealth Rocks utterly annihilating the poor thing have sort've kept me away from competitive play altogether, than and Crobat being weak to Stealth Rocks as well.
Gen 2: Speaking of, Crobat happens to be my favorite to come from gen 2. It used to tussle it out with Umbreon, but it finally won over once I realized that Umbreon can't really attack on it's own and works much better as a supportive wall, while Crobat can take most neutral hits and I'd dare say even super-effective hits quite well depending on the situation, and it's got great speed and attacking power, which is much more my type. Plus, I just love the irony that it evolves from Zubat, a pokemon everyone hates on whenever they have to go through caves. Still love Umbreon, I just never have to baby a Crobat as much as I do an Umbreon to keep it's levels up. Another honorable mention for this slot is Ampharos. I wasn't fond of the design at first, but I remember playing SoulSilver for the first time and searching for potential teammates on Bulbapedia, and I stumbled across Ampharos. I took a look at it's stats and it's moves and being pleasantly surprised by the little sheep critter. It had more defensive looking stats than the average electric type, and it learned some pretty oddball but cool moves. Power Gem? Signal Beam? Both by level up, and running off it's better attacking stat? I was sold on that, and it didn't disappoint me once I got around to using it. It's basically stapled on my team alongside Crobat and Lapras whenever I can get it now. Also, just to tie up some loose ends, I love Umbreon because of it's design, especially the shiny form [blue on black is just so appealing to look at], and just how bulky it is. I remember watching someone play Crystal, they got up to Karen and sent out their Typhlosion, who was a couple levels higher than it, used Fire Blast on the Umbreon, and it was just barely a 2HKO. I think that was the point where I realized I much prefer tanky pokemon than glass cannons. As I mentioned before though, I'm not as fond of Umbreon as I used to be, simply because of how much I had to baby it the several times I tried to use it on a single player team just to keep it at the same levels as everyone else, but I am still fond of it and would gladly take it to war with me in a doubles battle [looking at you Colosseum and XD] just because it takes hits like a champ and is a great supporter.
Gen 3: Flygon. It's a cross between a bug and a dragon that is also somehow a Ground type. I just, what? This is the point were they were starting to come up with much more creative and bizarre designs, and it certainly shows with this guy. And I love it because of that. I took one look at it and said "that is too strange and cool looking NOT to use". It's not the sturdiest pokemon out of my usual team, definitely, but it's served me well, the stats allow for it to go either glass cannon with some survivability or tanky if you get the right nature and evs/ivs, and it's got a fairly diverse movepool.
Gen 4: Mismagius. There is something about the design that I just adore. Maybe it's the irony that such a cool looking pokemon came from one that I'm personally not to fond of, maybe it's because it's a Ghost witch/cloak thing, which is just another one of those odd typing and design mash-ups that I think just really work together, I don't know, but I love it either way. For playability, it looks promising- I haven't had a chance to actually use it yet, though I'm going to do so in my current run of SoulSilver that I'm doing. Here's hoping everything goes well.
Gen 5: Chandelure, without a doubt. I wasn't too fond of it at first- I didn't hate it, I just didn't give it any thought. Once it came time to pick my team though, I took one glance at it's unique typing and decided to give it a try, if for nothing more than I always have Ghost and Fire moves randomly spread through my team and it was pretty appealing to see a pokemon that could get STAB on both. The defenses seemed decent as well, though the HP is lacking. I remember the one I used on my team dying a few times, but to be fair, everything on my team died a few times. It was fun to use, it could take a decent amount of hits before going down and it had strong enough sp attack and enough speed to take out the majority of it's opponents with a Flamethrower or two.
And for lulz, Gen 6: Chespin. You guys probably saw that coming. Yeah, Fennekin's cute, but Chespin is just screaming HEY, HEY, GUESS WHAT I AM and it's just hilarious looking and adorable and I am really really curious to see what the hell they do with it's evolutions and jxjtj. I am excited for this little guy. Froakie gets an honorable mention here just for looking like the two wind gods from Wind Waker. I hope they keep with that theme, that would kick so much ass. Oh god it's going to be so hard picking which one to use now, I'm almost wishing they give two of the three starters designs I don't like just so it'll be easier for me to decide ahtjxjt. Okay I'm done now, carry on.
