The Pokeddexy challenge: My favourite Flying type?

In the beginning, there was Lord Helix. After several millennia he had a son, named Bird Jesus. Bird Jesus the Pidgeot is currently the most widely known Pokémon in existence, with his origins being in Pokémon Red version. In Generation I, there weren't many Flying types, and there were even fewer usable ones, pretty much being limited to the legendary Bird trio (Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres). When Gold and Silver was released there were a few new Flying types to use, including the two new mascot legendaries, Ho-oh and Lugia. Skarmory was one of the newcomers in Gen II, bearing the coveted Steel typing as well as being part Flying type, and outside of the legendaries was one of the only usable Flying types. The next few gens brought mostly legendary Flyers, with the exception to Gen IV's Staraptor, who sported a massive Atk stat, a good Speed stat, and access to some amazing moves in Brave Bird, Double Edge and Close Combat. In saying all of this, which is my favourite flyer? None other than the powerhouse I just described, Staraptor.

The franchise has a plethora of Normal/Flying type Pokémon, most of them unusable. Staraptor however stands out as being the best and most certainly the most usable due to its stats, its movepool, and ultimately its ability that makes it a true beast, Reckless. With Reckless, Staraptor has the strongest Brave Bird and Double Edge in existance, as Reckless increases the damage done by recoil moves by an extra 30%. This ability, combined with Staraptors massive Atk stat and Dual-STAB recoil moves makes Staraptor a beast to behold, but it also makes it rather predictable. Outside of this though, Staraptor just looks like a badass pokémon, with its plumage accentuating how awesome Staraptor really is. Staraptor's shiny form is also one of my favourite shiny forms in the game. All of these reasons combine make Staraptor my favourite Flying type.

Note: I will be posting a few more of these tonight as I have missed quite a few days in the pokeddexy challenge.

The Pokédexxy challenge: My favourite Fire type?

First off, I do apoligise to my fellow gamers and bloggers that I haven't posted lately, I've been so caught up in my studies I almost forgot that this blog existed. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the subject matter.

Back in Gen I (Red and Blue) you could choose from three types for your first ever Pokémon, the Grass type Bulbasaur, the Fire type Charmander and the Water type Squirtle. Being a Fire type, Charmander took the world by storm, having one of the coolest final evolution's of all the starters. However, it was quickly found by the competitive scene that defensively, Fire types were awful, sporting three very common 2x weaknesses in Ground, Water and Rock types. Combine this with the fact that Fire types generally didn't have much power, they were rarely used in Gen I. However as time went on they became increasingly useful, being super effective to a total of four types, Grass, Bug, Ice and Steel types. They also started becoming better defensively, whilst still retaining their weaknesses, they now sport a total of 6 resistances in Fire, Grass, Ice, Bug, Steel and Fire. Most Fire types were also to become amazingly strong, with the most notorious non-legend powerhouses Darmanitan and Chandelure having a base 145 Atk and Sp. Atk respectively (145 Atk for Darmanitan, 145 Sp. Atk for Chandelure). So with all of this combined, which Fire type is my favourite? None other than the powerhouse Chandelure.

Based on a chandelier, being part ghost type and, apart from Atk, it has generally amazing stats all around. It has access to the strongest non-legendary Fire Blast in the game. However, that Ghost typing is a double edged sword as it gives Chandelure two new weaknesses in Ghost and Dark types. In saying this, it gains a resistance to Poison types, a boosted 4x resistance to Bug types and a complete immunity to Normal and Fighting types. It also has two amazing abilities in Flash Fire and Infiltrator. Flash Fire increases its Fire type moves power by 50% if the user gets hit by a Fire type move and Infiltrator ignores Substitute, Reflect, Light Screen and Safeguard completely. It also has one of the best shiny forms in the game (in my opinion) and has a big enough movepool to combat those that would stop it (it even gets Energy Ball). All of these reasons combined makes Chandelure my favourite Fire type Pokémon.