Worst Gen V pokemon-#9

It's Mandibuzz

OK, with 510 base stats, including pretty good 110/105/95 defenses; decent typing both defensively and offensively and a fairly broad movepool which allows it to be quite versatile, Mandibuzz is far from the weakest pokemon for battling in Gen V.  In fact, the main reason it's on here is because Vullaby is one of the worst designs for a pokemon ever, and it really had to be amazing to live up to its dark/flying predecessors Murkrow and Honchkrow and, as it turns out, its successor Yvetal. But it's wearing a diaper! Mandibuzz actually is kinda cool, and I have cards in which it looks great, but that just does NOT justify a diapered prevolution. Nothing does. Also, its Japanese name is Vulgina. Just saying.

Edited to add: Just looked properly at its design for the first time and actually it's weird. I understand it couldn't completely lose the diaper (although humans do) but the spiked crotch, combined with the fact all Mandibuzz are female, makes it seem like extreme birth control

Worst Gen V Pokemon- #10

Surprisingly, it's.....Druddigon. Here's why. It always felt like this was kind of a showdown between Druddigon and Haxorus, as the only 2 fully-evolved dragon type pokemon (Arceus excluded,) and both coming from Unova, and if you read my June post on best Unova pokemon you'll see Haxorus at a conservative 6th. That makes Druddigon the loser, and in fact Haxorus wins in my book in virtually every way: overall stats, stat distribution, movepool, overall useability, concept and most of all design. Even its name is cooler. Druddigon kinda sounds like a stroke victim saying "Dragon." Druddigon is so heavily outclassed by Haxorus that I almost wonder why they put it in there. There are two things that could have really helped. First, it looks so much like a storybook dragon that it could have had normal/dragon typing, which would be better typing in my opinion. Second, again with it being the most like a fairytale dragon (read: unoriginal and uninspired) it could have had a storyline with the knight pokemon Escavalier, which could have been interesting. But really, Haxorus is here because I wanted to draw up the list before posting and I haven't done it yet, so Druddigon being 10th is kind of a copout but it also kinda works. 9th (as properly determined) tomorrow!

Countdown

OK, so it's 53 days until the new games come out, so I'm going to do a sort of retrospective on the last 5 generations. I've done my top 10 favourite Gen V pokemonm, so for the first ten days I'm just gonna do my 10 worst Gen V pokemon. After that I'll do best/worst, one of each per day, for each generation. We start Friday.

I don't like any of these damn pokemon

OK, disclaimer, this is the latest I've been with info, but things have gone nuts both in my life and the pokemon world over the last 3 weeks or so, and I've had a lot to blog and not much time to do it in. That's actually not why it's taken me so long to get this done, that's just because I have nothing interesting to say on the subject. But eventually I decided as a blogger if I have nothing interesting to say, that's what I have to say.

Along with the megaevolutions and so on, September's Corocoro also unveiled three new pokemon, with their Japanese names, followed by their English. They're kind of all indicative of the problems I've been having with Gen VI's pokemon thus far. Let's go.

 

Skiddo- The Mount Pokemon (Giggity!)

Height-0.9m

Weight-31.0kg

Type-Grass

Ability- Sap Sipper

It's Gogoat's pre-volution. It is also rideable. It can learn Leaf Blade. I'm done.

Bunnelby- The Digging Pokemon

Height-0.4m

Weight-5.0kg

Type-Normal

Ability- Cheek pouch/ pickup

Buneary called. It sounded angry. Cheek pouch is a new ability, clearly somehow related to the real-life ability of certain mammals (hamsters come to mind) that can store food in pouches in their cheeks. That might be an HP-replenishing ability, but it's hard to tell.

 

Dedenne- The Antenna Pokemon

Height-0.2m

Weight-2.2kg

Type-Electric/fairy

Ability-Cheek pouch/pickup

This isn't a horrible pokemon by any means, in fact it's pretty adorable and well-conceived, but it's nothing new. Does an electric rodent sound familiar? Yeah, if it wasn't for the fact all 3 members' names end in -chu I'd swear it was a new Pikachu evolution. It still might be. And that's not a mistake, it really does have the same abilities as Bunnelby. I like it, and electric/fairy looks like pretty good offensive typing, but it feels very uninspired and a bit derivative.

Sorry again for the horrible formatting. I'm having issues with the program at the minute and adding pictures is hard.

You sly fox, you

And Fennekin continues to confuse and intrigue me. I had what I thought was a lock on it being a fire/fairy, until....new information. The pokemon game show revealed that the fairy type will be not very effective on the fire type. That's a spanner not so much in the works as in the balls. On the one hand, that suggests something I initially thought may well be true: that the fire type counters the fairy type, but as for my thoughts that Fennekin's Glow Punch would be fairy type, that's not looking likely. Because, assuming that the battle dynamics stay the same and a hit super-effective on one of a pokemon's types and not-very-effective on the other will be neutral (e.g.  fire attacks on ice/dragon type Kyurem,) a fairy-type hit should at best be neutral on fire/normal Litleo. That's not a good sign at all for Fennekin not being fighting type. Assuming pre-existing type matchups will remain the same, that leaves Glow Punch as being fighting, water, ground or rock type, and it....doesn't look like any but being a punch fighting leads the charge. In summary, either Glow Punch is not fairy type, or Fairy type will be 4x effective against the normal type. And that's a terrible idea.

Corocorocorocorocoro chameleon

It has been confirmed that next month's Corocoro won't reveal as big a twist as this month's but will continue giving us bits and pieces from the game. It is worth noting that this will be the penultimate Corocoro before the new games are released, with the last being around a week before the worldwide release. It is now less than 2 months until the new games, and given that we only have about 30 of what will probably be 100-150 pokemon we can expect the number of new pokemon to be significant. New megaevolutions will be revealed, and so, perhaps most interestingly, will the fairy type's battle properties. Given that I, along with many other enthusiasts, am now pretty sure Fennekin will evolve to be fairy type, I wonder if that means we'll get to see the other starters' evolutions. If Fennekin's move Glow Punch, which is our biggest clue, is in fact fairy type then the fairy type does supereffective damage to either fire, normal or both types. It seems most likely to be normal. In other news, so far no new ice types have been revealed, and there's likely to be a handful, so expect at least one. The number of new legendaries has risen steadily game by game, from 5 in Gen I to 6 then 10 then 14 and finally 13 in Gen V. This number fell for the first time from Gen IV to Gen V but I don't for a moment believe that the only legendaries of Gen VI will be Xerneas and Yvetal, so there are more to come or to be announced as legendaries from the existing pokemon. But I bet there's at least one to come, because if the two we have don't make up two parts of a trio it'll be the first time since Gen II. There's a Rayquaza/Giratina/Kyurem to come. I'll be here to judge it. Oh, wait, I've still got the 3 new pokemon from Corocoro to do. They all suck. Whatever. I'll do it tomorrow.

Battle of the gods-Heat A

OK, here goes.
Heat 1-Kyurem-W vs Dialga

And straight off the bat we have 2 of the favourites, 2 hugely strong dragons. In secondary typing, they represent the dragon type's greatest offensive and defensive enemies in ice and steel. However, Kyurem's ice and dragon type attacks are balanced by the steel type's resistance to both. It can use a few very very powerful fire type attacks, but these only do neutral damage due to the dragon type. This is what makes Dialga so deadly, resistances everywhere. Dialga's STABs, however, both hit White Kyurem for super-effective damage. Both are specially-offensive nightmares, with huge special attack, but both have pretty limited special defense, meaning it really comes down to who hits the fastest, because neither can take the other's hit (Dialga's Roar of time, Kyurem's Draco Meteor.) And the faster pokemon is....Kyurem-W.
AND THE CROWD GOES WILD! THE DRAGON TYPE REPRESENTATIVE IS OUT ROUND 1 AND AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DRAW RAYQUAZA IS STARTING TO GET SCARED.

Heat 2-Terrakion vs Regigigas

I'm not even gonna. Regigigas is really only in here because it's the only normal-type legendary. Meanwhile, representing the rock type, Terrakion is a pretty good pokemon all things considered. Even without being overall better than Regigigas, Terrkion counters it beautifully. Its rock type  combined with Regigigas' teeny tiny movepool means it's pretty likely to resist every attack of Regigigas, especially because Regigigas is running confusion, paralysis and substitute, giving Terrakion a 37.5% chance of a hit. But when it does hit, which it's more than likely to do in the 5 turns Regigigas is essentially useless, it's with a scarily powerful STAB  and super-effective Sacred Sword. Bye-bye Regigigas. And the winner is..Terrakion

Heat 3- Volcarona vs Groudon

Volcarona really didn't want to face a ground type in round 1. Then again, it also didn't want to face a water, flying or rock type, or another fire type that resists its STABs. But this is Groudon's to lose, because Volcarona can be one of the deadliest pokemon in the game....in sun. Groudon, you done screwed yourself. In sun, Volcarona outspeeds Groudon to deliver an STAB sun-boosted Flare Blitz (my choice for a reliable fire-type hit, which Volcarona needs, while having huge power. The recoil is irrelevant. If that's not an OHKO you're in trouble/defensively in no danger most of the time.) coming from 120 base power, with Volcarona's 135 base attack, and with the sun up, and the fact that Groudon doesn't actually resist the fire type, and Volcarona takes it in another OHKO. Good boy, Volcarona. :)

Heat 4- Palkia vs Keldeo

This is a water head-to-head with the honour of representing water in the quarter finals at stake. It's also a battle between one of, in my opinion, the ugliest pokemon and one of the best-looking. And yet ugly old Palkia is definitely the favourite. They will both be using their non-water type STAB attacks, Palkia's Spacial Rend and Keldeo's Secret Sword. Keldeo hits first, and hits hard with a 129 special attack 85 base power STAB Secret Sword. This hits Palkia's mediocre defense stat and deals it a lot of damage, but Palkia survives and responds with 150 special attack, 100 base power STAB, into Keldeo's subpar special defence. This is a one-hit KO, and gives Palkia the win in the match. Nice job, Penis

Battle of the Gods-Heat B

So White Kyurem, Terrakion, Volcarona, Palkia have eliminated Dialga, Regigigas, Groudon and Keldeo in the early heats to secure their quarter-final places, and we get to the other 8 now. Onwards!

Heat 5- Mewtwo vs Reshiram
Huh, I've just got here to watch the battle and Mewtwo's already stood over the defeated Reshiram glaring at me. I guess it must have abused its brilliant speed and nightmarish special attack to hit Reshiram's poor physical attack with its Psystrike. Mewtwo insists that you bow down.

Heat 6- Shaymin-S vs Giratina-O

This is the only battle of round 1 that could function as a sky battle in Gen VI. Shaymin-S is built for special attack, while Giratina-O is a beautiful mixed attacker. Neither has any form of defenses, but Giratina's HP bolsters that a little. This allows it to take up to 2 hits from Shaymin-S's chosen attack, Air Slash, meaning that if they both result in flinches it takes a third and is knocked out. And it flinches twice. Shaymin-S, against all odds, takes out Giratina-O

Heat 7- Darkrai vs Zekrom

These are two of my favourites, and I'm actually pretty sorry that one has to eliminate the other. But them's the breaks. Darkrai knows exactly what to do and how to do it. It harnesses its enormous speed (only just lower than Mewtwo's) to instantly use Dark Void, giving it an 80% chance of sending Zekrom to sleep, and it can then just sweep, using its equally huge Special Attack, its superb STAB move Dark Pulse and its ability Bad Dreams to make sure Zekrom is out for the count in no time. Zekrom has one hope. It is one of the best physical attackers in the game, and since it's running a mixed attacking set including Focus Blast, if Darkrai's 80% sleep chance fails and its 75% hit chance makes it it wins the battle. But the gods of fate (by which I mean another random number generator) have decided Darkrai does send Zekrom to sleep, and wins the battle.

Heat 8- Rayquaza vs Genesect

These two ubers powerhouses are actually very similar in stat distribution; mediocre speed, horrible defenses and high and balanced offenses. Genesect has the weaker stat total, and by far the lower offenses, but the better typing head-to-head. If Rayquaza can get in first, though, many people, me included, like to run Fire Blast on Rayquaza, and that will just destroy Genesect. Genesect has the higher speed, but the strongest neutral or better hit it has for Rayquaza is Flash Cannon, and that is only just good enough to take down Rayquaza. Genesect takes out an early favourite to win the final heat
WINNERS!
1) White Kyurem
2) Terrakion
3) Volcarona
4) Palkia
5)Mewtwo
6) Shaymin-S
7)Darkrai
8) Genesect

6 vs 7- Shaymin-S vs Darkrai
2 vs 4-Terrakion vs Palkia
5 vs 8- Mewtwo vs Genesect
1 vs 3- Kyurem-W vs Volcarona
Bring it on!

Battle of the gods

OK, here's how it works... first I'll choose what I consider to be the best pokemon of each type (one type per pokemon) then we'll use alphabetical order and a random number generator to create matchups and play them off head-to-head. Now this could make dragon pretty much invincible, but there are pokemon it still doesn't wanna face. We'll start with the legendaries...

1)Bug-Volcarona  (Yes, it has loads of weaknesses but it does great things)
2)Dark-Darkrai (Well, yeah)
3)Dragon-Dialga
4)Electric-Zekrom
5)Fighting-Keldeo
6)Fire-Reshiram
7)Flying-Rayquaza
8)Ghost-Giratina-O
9)Grass-Shaymin-S
10)Ground-Groudon
11)Ice-Kyurem-W
12) Normal-It'll have to be Regigigas
13) Poison (Sorry, poison's out, no legendaries apart from Arceus and that's not fair)
13)Psychic-Mewtwo
14)Rock-Terrakion
15)Steel-Genesect
16) Water-Palkia

There are loads of dragons here, but that seems only right, I've genuinely gone with what I see as the best. And the fixtures for round 1:
11 vs 3 Kyurem-W vs Dialga
14 vs 12 Terrakion vs Regigigas
1 vs 10 Volcarona vs Groudon
16 vs 5 Palkia vs Keldeo
13 vs 6 Mewtwo vs Reshiram
9 vs 8 Shaymin-S vs Giratina-O
2 vs 4 Darkrai vs Zekrom
7 vs 15 Rayquaza vs Genesect
7 vs 15

Just the facts

More from Corocoro, as the details begin to firm up about MegaPokemon.
First of all, Megaevolution does happen via Mega Stones. The Blazikenite that event Torchic will be holding is one such item.
Megaevolution will raise stats in various ways, with MegaLucario having higher Attack and MegaAbsol having increased Attack and Speed.
There are two slightly disappointing pieces of information. First, which I sorta thought was so obvious it wasn't worth saying but which they've announced so I'll pass it on, not all pokemon will have these Megaevolutions but it won't just be the 6 announced yesterday. Second, megaevolutions will only be in effect in battle. One other thing that has been announced is that Blazikenite will not be found in normal gameplay, which somewhat suggests all the Megapokemon will be distributed via events.
The Master Tower will somehow be involved in Megaevolution.

Too excited to write witty title

OK, I think it was in a post I never published that I said the last Corocoro promised a huge reveal in today's, and I was skeptical, but this is a huge, potentially game-changing reveal, and it's all to do with that new Mewtwo.
Confirmed in Corocoro for X and Y are "Mega-evolutions" of existing pokemon, namely Absol, Ampharos, Blaziken, Lucario, Mawile and Mewtwo. Their names will be Mega(current name,) e.g. MegaMewtwo. Two of their typings have been announced: MegaMawile will be steel/fairy, and MegaAmpharos will be electric/dragon.  Steel/fairy is also the typing for Mawile, it has been revealed to be the newest retyped pokemon, which could really help it, but MegaAmpharos has not been confirmed as a new dragon, suggesting the Mega-evolutions may not always share the pokemon's typings. Their abilities have been announced: MegaAbsol will have Magic Bounce; MegaAmpharos will have Mold Breaker; MegaBlaziken will have Speed Boost; MegaLucario will have Adaptability; MegaMawile has Huge Power and MegaMewtwo has Insomnia. These abilities mostly work very well, especially Speed Boost, which oddly I was talking about in my last post yesterday, and Adaptability which is RIDICULOUS on a fighting type like Lucario. The one that doesn't really is MegaAmpharos' Mold Breaker, which essentially works only on pokemon an electric/dragon has no problems with. But whatever.
Mega-evolution will apparently be a new form of evolution, which the event they also announced may give us a clue towards.
The first X and Y event, from October 12th to January 15th, will give away a Torchic holding something called Blaziken Knight (probably Blazikenite.) It will make use of a new item called a Mega Stone, and can eventually evolve into MegaBlaziken. This suggests the MegaStone is kinda like the evolution stones we have already.
A new gym leader, whose Japanese name is Koruni, will hold the key to understanding MegaEvolution. She looks a bit like Maylene, and seems to be a fighting type.
Quite how MegaEvolutions work, and what they do, has not been confirmed.
More as it comes (including pictures,) and I'll get to the rest of Corocoro tomorrow. It's not really that interesting.

Outfoxing Fennekin

Gamefreak have tried so hard to toy with us, again, and I'm getting a little irritated. Don't get me wrong, I'm still thoroughly intrigued but I am a little bored of the misleading spoilers, half-truths and unfinished reveals. So ha ha Gamefreak, this one I've cracked. I think.
The absolute last thing ANYONE wanted for Gen VI was a 4th fire/fighting type starter. In Gen III Torchic evolved into the first of these, Blaziken. It was a pretty good pokemon, and in general pokemon players applauded the move. In Gen IV Chimchar evolved into Infernape, and Infernape was a very very good pokemon indeed. As far as I can see pokemon players were happy to accept a second fire/fighting because Infernape felt like a polishing and a boosting of Blaziken. Its stats, movepool, concept and design were all way better, and when it was released it became arguably the best starter of all time. In Gen V something strange happened, and Blaziken leapfrogged its OU rival Infernape to go from languishing in UU to being the only Ubers starter ever...for now. This was thanks to its Dreamworld ability, the almost unjustly good Speed Boost. But Gen V also brought a nasty surprise for fire/fighting, in the form of lame younger cousin to the family Embor. This fat, lumbering pig tries to copy its older relatives and fails miserably. Why is it a pig anyway? That makes no sense from a conceptual point of view. There is just no line you can draw to get from pig to punching stuff, although I have just mentally created the superhero Bacon Man. Anyway, Emboar sucked, and with so much potential still left in the fire type for new things, players rejected Emboar as a waste of a starter.
I said, in one of my very first posts, that not only did I not see Fennekin becoming a fire/fighting I didn't see how it could become a fire/fighting, when they'd done three and anyway it didn't look fighting-y (not that Tepig did either.) But then they showed us it using a move called Glow Punch, and alarm bells were set ringing. Oh, no, it's punching stuff now! But.......I'm pretty sure that not only is Fennekin's unrevealed evolution not a fighting type, the move isn't even fighting type. OK, i have just seen that it deals super-effective damage to fire/normal and fighting is one of 4 types to currently do that. But I say currently for a reason. This punch really doesn't look like, say, Mach Punch. I bet this is a special punch. Specifically I bet this is the fairy equivalent of fire/thunder/ice punch, and Fennekin will be a fire/fairy. That is, based on what we already know, frighteningly good typing. Specifically it will be a specially offensive monster. I mean, dragon, normal, steel, ice, grass, these are very good types to be super-effective against (and potentially not all,) and should slot it into ubers as an amazing counter to a lot of things you most commonly find there. Also, the fairy type IS super-effective against fire or more likely normal type or both, and isn't resisted by either. Now, Gamefreak, have you got any unintentionally very informative spoilers on Chespin or Froakie?