4. Delphox
It’s not another goddamned Fire/Fighting starter.
Seriously, you have no idea how happy this makes me. I loved Blaziken’s Fire/Fighting typing and everything, but I didn’t need to have it repeated for two additional generations. I also really like its Fire/Psychic type combination. Fire and Psychic are two of my favorite types. I love it when a Pokémon has a type combination of two types I really like, whether it’s competitively viable or not (I didn’t say I never played competitively).
The other reason why I like this starter so much is because of how wizardly it appears. I’ve become far more interested in playing as mage characters in games like Skyrim lately. I loved the Harry Potter universe and I find myself enamored with Little Witch Academia. Alakazam was cool, but he was based more on the stage-show kind of magician. Delphox is based on the real deal.
It also doesn’t hurt that Delphox’s hidden ability Magician lets it steal its opponents items, which is pretty awesome.
3. Goodra
The nice thing about going into this game with no idea of what moves Pokémon could learn or which would end up in what tiers was that I could choose Pokémon solely based on appearance. I came across a Goomy during my journey through Kalos and was surprised to learn that it was a dragon type. I decided to put it on my team because it was too ridiculous not to have on my team. Little did I realize how much of a badass it would become.
I have a feeling that Goodra will be classified under the fan-term “pseudo-Legendary”, a class of very popular Pokémon that aren’t quite as powerful as a legendary Pokémon, but are very close. It has access to some pretty powerful Special attacks and is, at least from what I played, very powerful in that regard. It’s a shame that a lot of people are going to accuse me of picking an over-rated Pokémon on my team. But nuts to them. I love my Goodra.
2. Aegislash
Yes, it’s a Pokémon based on an inanimate object. I don’t care. Aegislash is awesome. You know why it’s awesome? Because it’s a giant-ass possessed sword with a shield! Your argument is invalid!
In all seriousness, I find it incredibly ironic that almost all of the people that gave Honedge crap for being based on an inanimate object have an Aegislash in their team. Then again, it’s not hard to see why. Its ability Stance Change allows it to switch between its defense-focused Shield Forme and its attack-focused Blade Form depending on what kind of attack it uses, drastically changing its stats in the process. It also has access to Sacred Sword, a fighting-type move previously exclusive to Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion and Keldeo, as well as King’s Shield. King’s Shield is essentially a version of Protect that significantly weakens the opponent’s physical attack stat if Aegislash is hit with a physical attack.
But I always loved Honedge since its original announcement. I don’t have as much of a problem with Pokémon based on inanimate objects as others seem to. One of my favorite Pokémon from Gen V is a friggin’ chandelier, for crying out loud. The idea of having a possessed sword for a Pokémon was too hilariously awesome to pass up. And when its evolution Doublade was revealed, I loved it even more.
Of course, the biggest reason why Aegislash makes it onto my list is very simple. It’s a giant ****ing sword that sucks the life out of people. Argument. Invalid.
