Top 10 best pokemon introduced in Gen V

OK, many people say that Gen V's pokemon sucked. I don't quite agree. It may have had some duds, and 649 pokemon in the concepts are getting to sometimes be either stale or weird, although unlike many I have no objection to Garbodor. I will be doing a "worst of" post later, as well as tackling all the other games, so keep a lookout.

Honourable mentions
Because Gen V really did put out a great little set of legendaries. Maybe too many, I can't deny it, but let's look at them in their groups. Zekrom and Reshiram are just the best looking pokemon ever: sleek, simple, elegant, dramatic, unique and so impactful. BAM! MUTHAFUCKIN' DRAGON IN THE HOUSE! Combine this with unique and, especially in Reshiram's case, excellent typing and some seriously powerful moves and you have a killer pair. Kyurem's ice type and stats are less useful and helpful, but absofusion was a cool and helpful idea. Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus were interesting and usable, and I appreciated Tornadus as the first pure flying type. Interestingly Landorus was the weak link of the three (I'll stick to Gliscor.)  Then there were the Swords of Justice. If you're alone now, just try saying that in as booming a voice as possible, like Dumbledore. I love them, especially Terrakion who is a complete killer with awesome typing. Keldeo's Resolute form kind of looks like a depressed gay pride float but I still like it. I love the concept behind the quartet. There's Zoroark, who straddles the line between being a legendary and not, and whose ability, design and typing I love, although I find it flawed in movepool and for some reason it bugs me that its ponytail is tied in turquoise, which is the worst possible colour, and makes it look more feminine than I'd like. And then there are the event legendaries. I really like them all, but I have to give a shoutout to Meloetta, the singing pokemon. I love it as a singer, I like its designs a lot and its typings and ability to switch between them are really useful in battle. So yeah, let's leave them at the door, in a little box that says "Cool."

Other honourable mentions go to darmanitan, which is really strong but scares the crap out of me, and Escavalier which.....well, you'll find out why I didn't put a bug/steel in.

10) Samurott
This is basically here to avoid me being crucified for not including a starter. I liked the Oshawott line the best, but that's not to say I loved it. The water type is decent, especially in the Unova region, I really like its design and its stats make it a usable pokemon. I just wish it had had a secondary type. Probably fighting. But it was head-and-shoulders above the other Unova starters.

9) Scrafty
Love its typing, don't much like its design, think its stats could have been better. Next!

8) Reuniclus
As the best trick-room special sweeper is a legitimate threat. And magic guard is a killer ability. Other than that, it's a green psychic-type blob.

7) Krookodile
Krookodile looks like a boss. It's a red-and-black gangster crocodile. Decent enough typing. Otherwise, meh.

6) Haxorus
Listen, I'm as surprised as you are. But it is just a dragon type, which is fine but not unique. It's a really decent pokemon to use, and its shiny form is amazing-looking. But it disappointed me because surely this should be dragon-fighting. And THAT is good typing.

5) Ferrothorn
For finally giving us a grass type with half-decent defensive typing, and for being cool and unique. Its offensive typing...I guess, it could do with a wider movepool to let it do more, especially with types like fire. And it could REALLY do with being used with Trick Room, because boy is it ever slow!

4) Excadrill
Now that is a pokemon with killer attack. Its speed is...decent, could do with a boost. Oh wait, sand rush. Well, that's sorted. Or, if for some inconceivable reason you want a slow sweeper you can take sand force. It's all sand. Its defensive typing is...odd, to say the least. Ice and grass are the only two types to do it normal damage. 4 types do it 2x damage. The other 11 it resists or is immune to. This makes ground/steel excellent defensive typing, especially with 2 immunities, albeit to types it is never ever gonna have to face. This is hindered by its bad defences, but they aren't actually terrible It looks pretty good, and it's a design I'm surprised we haven't seen already. So yeah, it's one of the strongest battlers in Unova, and it's a solid threat.

3) Chandelure
This one's for you, Frances. No, I like Chandelure a lot, more conceptually than as a battling pokemon, but I'll still use it in battle. Mostly for its jaw-dropping special attack but also because it has the movepool and offensive typing to match it. Its abilities are amazing. I mean, if a flash fire Chandelure switches into a Heatran's fire attack, it's throwing around 142 base power flamethrowers (some say 210-base overheat, I say screw the drop in special attack.) And its dreamworld ability, shadow tag, is crazy. But like I said, mostly I LOVE the concept of a possessed chandelier that steals people's souls. And it looks amazing.

2) Hydreigon
Dark and dragon are my two favourite types. Hydreigon is the first pokemon to combine the two and its classification as "The Brutal Pokemon" is more than justified. Its all-round offenses are incredible and its movepool is huge, varied and powerful. This means that Hydreigon can fire off all kinds of hellaciously strong attacks, and you can never be quite sure what to expect from it. Its ability is hugely helpful, as it can switch in to entry hazards with impunity, and is immune to earthquake. Its speed, however, is only OK, and the one thing that movepool lacks is a decent stat-boosting move. As for its design.....I don't even need to say it. Just bow down, people. One thing you may not have noticed is the tank tracks down its front. Its original design was sort of a cyborg dragon-tank thing, and it's kept the treads even now it's a hydra. Hydreigon is the pseudo-legendary of Gen V, and it's fully earned its place among the likes of Metagross, Salamence and Tyranitar. I love my evil dragon. I call him Clive.

1) Volcarona
Because it's the sun. Also, because it might be the only truly unique-looking bug type pokemon besides Genesect. Its offensive typing is among my all-time favourites, able to deal super-effective STAB to steel, ice, bug, grass, psychic and dark types, and between its two types it is virtually unresisted. Its defensive typing is fair enough, yes the 4x weakness to rock is almost a dealbreaker, but it does have 5 resistances. As for its stats, they are wonderful. 135 base special attack ranks it just below Chandelure, but what makes it a better special sweeper is both its speed and typing. Its special defense is excellent, but its physical stats are mediocre at best, which makes rock-type moves even more of a problem. As a versatile special sweeper though, it is usually at the core of my party, especially in the sun. Hint for free, Volcarona fits BEAUTIFULLY into a dragon-type team, to get rid of pesky steel and ice types. Volcarona and Palkia make a really great doubles team. For some reason, this is like my version of Ash's Pikachu. I love you, Volcarona.

....To the ridiculous

There still aren't many pokemon on this list that I hate. It's just that there are some problems with all of them. That said, if all of the 100-140 pokemon in X and Y were to reflect the pokemon we've already seen in quality I'd be thrilled. First up is....

6) Skrelp-The Pseudo-Seaweed Pokemon

Height:1"8

Weight:7.3kg

Type:Poison/water

Good typing, allowing the water type to beat grass, and the concept's pretty cool, the idea that it pretends to be seaweed to poison opponents. A great idea. The brown/purple/blue colour combo is really ugly, and so is the entire design but I think that's deliberate. When I first saw this it was 9th or 10th but it's steadily climbed, and I'm not even sure it's not top 5. It uses Sludge Bomb, that's standard. And it could maybe evolve. I doubt it but it could. It's 6th, but only because I can't be bothered changing the last post to make it 5th.

7) The Vivillion line

Scatterbug-The Powder Blowing Pokemon

Height:1"00

Weight:2.5kg

Type:Bug

It's an unevolved bug pokemon. It's never, ever gonna be any use at all in battle. So let's look at design. It was always gonna look like either Caterpie or Weedle. So they've, cleverly I think, made it a bit of both. And finally, after all my complaints, bug types do come in black. I love the black and neutral colouring (3rd time) and I think it's pretty good looking as bugs go. It looks more modern than you'd expect. I like it a lot.

Spewpa-Also The Powder Blowing Pokemon

Height:1"00

Weight:8.4kg

Type:Bug

Still not gonna be any use to anyone. It kinda looks like a Larvesta in mourning gear, but I don't hate it. Yeah, the black/neutral/orange/white colour combo is really cool. The shapes in it, I'll save for the next post, but there's something interesting. Again, nice design.

Vivillion-The Scales Pokemon

Height:3"11

Weight:17kg

Type:Bug/flying

Despite not being the type for "pretty" things or pink, I love this design. Butterflies are a little symbolic thing between me and someone I love, so whenever possible I like using them, and this one is nice. I don't get how we go from brown and orange to pink and blue but bug types tend to do that. Struggle bug has been confirmed for it, but that's not a move I like much. Bug/flying is the other type combo that's very overdone, and I'm bored of it. Again, it's not great typing. I'd have thought bug/fairy. There's apparently a "big secret" to do with its scales. How big? This better not be a silly little thing in the anime. Put your money where your mouth is, Gamefreak. But colour me interested.

By the way, there are two big reasons why these are down in 7th place. One, and I know this is immature, Vivillion looks like it has an erection. And two, where I come from "spew" means "vomit." Why not Spupa? It will always be the vomit larva pokemon to me.

8) Gogoat-The Ride Pokemon

Height:5"6
Weight:91.0kg

Type:Grass

It's fine. It's a pretty standard grass type. It is the first goat pokemon ever, but that's only a small point in its favour. It's just so standard

"But you can ride it"

This is true, and if it were the only pokemon you could ride I may like it more, but now that Rhyhorn and possibly any number of other pokemon have also been confirmed as ride-able it's not as cool. Yawn. Next!

9) Noivern-The Sonic Pokemon

Height:4"11

Weight:85.0kg

Type:Dragon/flying

I've changed my mind! Bring back the boring goat! Because this may be the ugliest pokemon ever. It's hideous, in colour and design. The speakers on its head I get but don't like at all. Boomburst may be a cool move but it won't work at all in double/triple battles. Dragon/flying is yet another overused typing, and with the weakening of dragon in Gen VI it's not even all that good any more. This pokemon ended up being both weird and dull, which is an achievement. The only thing I hate more is...

10) Clauncher-The Water Gun Pokemon

Height:1"08

Weight:8.3kg

Type:Water

Well here it is. I have an almost irrational hatred for this one. It's just so hard to get excited about yet another standard fish pokemon with standard water typing, the most common in the game, and average looks. In fact, this could be a joke. Because this feels like a collage, taking parts of every other water-type pokemon and combining them in an ugly way. But wait! It has Crabhammer! You mean the move with pretty good power, subpar PP and accuracy and a high critical hit ratio. That crabhammer? That's nothing to get excited about. Don't you look so snootily at me, you idiot! You're nothing special.

From the sublime......

OK, this will be a little different. These are all pokemon that a lot has been announced about, in fact in some cases virtually everything. Movepool, we don't know, so I'll assume each pokemon has moves typical for its typing, and may talk about any move they have announced. Also, this will be a countdown, from my favourites to my least favourites. In this post will be the 5 I liked most.

1) Litleo-Classification Unknown

Height:1"12 (isn't that 2" ?)

Weight:13.5kg

Type:Fire/normal

OMG I WANT ONE I WANT ONE! Is that unprofessional? OK, fine. I think it is utterly adorable. It is a really nice design, incorporating perfectly the looks of normal types (recognisable animal, neutral colours, soft lines) and fire types (spikes, sharp lines, orange, and cuteness in the first evolution.) In fact, it's just overtaken Houndour as my favourite ever non-legendary design (yes, I like fire, black and dogs.) Its typing.....well, it's unique, which is good because as you'll see later I'm tired of the same old typings. But I'm not sure it's necessarily good typing. Instantly violating my rule of not speculating on movepools, I suspect it may have access to a fairly large one, including STAB fire moves and some hugely powerful STAB normal moves. But that's about it. I mean, with a defensively vulnerable primary type like fire, especially considering fire type's generally poor defences, the last thing it wants is normal's fighting weakness. Also rock type isn't any less deadly for either type. Steel is helped along. And the ghost immunity.......may be useful, if.... No. Its typing is terrible. If it wasn't SO cute I'd have dropped it straight down to the bottom half of the list. But anyway, I'm hoping it may evolve to shed its normal type in favour of a more useful type, much like Fletchling has been revealed to do.. I'm pretty sure it will evolve, and that it'll have a flaming mohican. How cool is that? Punk-rock fire puppy may be even cooler than Litleo.

2) Pancham-The Naughty Pokemon

Height:2"

Weight:8.0kg
Type:Fighting

OK, this was one of the original 4, and my favourite of them. It's a KUNG FU PANDA! It's also really cute, and again I just wanna give it a cuddle, which isn't like me at all. Again (count how many times I say it) I love the black and neutral colouring, I like the face it's making for a baby fighter, and love the concept that it's a little troublemaker who evolves into a serious fighter. I love one line of the bio, where it says "It tries to intimidate its opponents by glaring intensely (although this is rarely successful.)" How cute is that? And the leaf is a nice touch. It may evolve to get a second type-grass one would assume, and I'd be fine with it doing that or with it not. I'd actually maybe rather it didn't if grass is the option. A friend said it may evolve to fight with a bamboo sword, as in Kendo. While I really like this idea, I also think martial arts are a bit played out, and would hope this would be the last. But yeah, I can see Pancham being a favourite.

3) Helioptile-The Generating Pokemon

Height:1"8

Weight:6.0kg
Type:Normal/electric

Again, really nice design. Yellow is my least favourite colour, but I can't object to it being used to represent the electric type, even if it would be nice to see them break out of the colour=type rut with certain types (fire being the other big one.) Again it incorporates recognisable normal elements as well. I thought before any designs were announced that reptiles were really what was left to do. The almost rabbity elements take it to a more cute and Pokemon-y (it's a word now) place. Also with them having announced Parabola Charge as a new move (a great idea, given the nature of electricity I'm surprised they didn't do a healing electric-type move long ago) I like that the shape is a bit like a parabola, but not so much that it looks ridiculous. You're expecting me to hate the typing. Well, I don't. Like I said, I don't like the idea of adding normal typing to defensively vulnerable types. But with the electric type having only one weakness, and above-average defenses, it would be considered a pretty good type defensively, at least by me. So adding one weakness in exchange for a new, albeit fairly esoteric, resistance and the ability to get STAB on hyper beam and giga impact really works for me. I mean, a normal/dragon pokemon (why not Altaria?) has been high on my list for that very reason for a while. Also it gets STAB normal-effective hits on all 17 existing types. It may evolve, but if it doesn't I wouldn't be "shocked." That said, I heard grass/electric somewhere, and it's a nice idea. Maybe not a great pokemon, but I'm keen to see some more new-typed pokemon, especially with the fairy type looking likely to take prominence here.

4)The Fletchling Line

Fletchling-The Japanese Robin Pokemon

Height:1"

Weight:1.7kg

Type:Normal/flying

Frankly disappointing. The last thing ANYONE wanted for gen VI was a new normal/flying bird evolution line. I mean, wasn't Pidgey, Spearow, Farfetch'd, Doduo, Togetic, Taillow, Chatot, Rufflet, Hoothoot, Pidove and Starly enough. Fletchling becomes the 25th pokemon with this typing. IT'S NOT EVEN GOOD TYPING! It's just laziness, that they couldn't come up with proper flying pokemon that weren't birds. It's really cute, maybe the best of the typical bird-y pokemon. The red-orange and grey looks nice, and the arrow theme in the tail and name (Fletch makes me think arrows) intrigues me. But I was still really bored and not all that interested to see what was coming next. Until this happened...

Talonflame-The Deterioration Pokemon

Height:3"11

Weight:24.5kg

Type:Fire/flying

Now this is cool. It looks great, like a fiery bird of prey. The arrows are still there. It looks really strong. Again, I'm gonna mention movepool. It's been revealed to have Brave Bird. That's not a surprise. What interests me more is that the details mention kicking. Fighting moves? That's cool. And it'll have fire moves, including Flame Charge, to play with. It's been confirmed to have high speed, possibly very high speed, which is good news for a pokemon with this typing. In fact, if Fletchling wasn't so pathetic it could be higher on the list, because it's pretty kickass. Fire/flying means it joins two other pokemon, Ho-oh and Moltres. Yes, they're two of the least used and least popular legendaries but still. The arrows are still there, which makes me really curious. But there is one other thing that really creeps me out, and that is its classification as "Deterioration pokemon." That should surely be a ghost. It could be a carrion-eater, in which case maybe, but it doesn't look like one. That's full-on creepy.

5)Flabebe-Classification unknown

Height:0"04
Weight:0.1kg
Type:Fairy

Yes, it's super cute. I like the idea of it having the flower, and the idea that they have different flowers, although I wonder how far they can take that in practice. It also suggests some connection between the fairy type and the grass type, which makes sense. Apparently it can draw power from the flower. That sounds like a new move to me. Cool. It also has Fairy Wind, another new move, and that's pretty expected. Flabebe will be the smallest pokemon ever, and is tied for lightest with Gastly and Haunter. It looks weak though, and worse, it doesn't look like it's likely to evolve. It's a nice idea, and a good harbinger that the fairy type will be cool and innovative, but it's all a bit too cutesy for me.