#261 - #262: Poochyena & Mightyena

Huh, interesting. New generations traditionally kick off with the starter Pokémon - with the notable exception of Gen. V, which started off with Victini instead - and after them you'll usually find the generic bird, bug or rodent. Not in Hoenn's case, in which the first Pokémon in the Pokédex after the starters are dark-type canine-like Pokémon.

Poochyena (front) in the anime, with a couple of Mightyena in
the background.

And I specifically say canine-like, because Poochyena and its evolution Mightyena seem to be based on hyenas, which are carnivorous animals that belong to the suborder of feliformia or feloidea and are phylogenetically closer to felines and viverrids than to canines (in contrast, the counterpart of feliformia is caniformia or canoidea). However, hyenas are often mistakenly thought to be canine, which isn't all that surprising if you think about it: behaviorally and morphologically they are similar to canines in several facets, although certain behavioral aspects such as grooming, mating and parenting are consistent with the behavior of other feliforms. It's a little of a gray area, and there is something to be said for the pro-canine people as well as the pro-feline camp. At the end of the day, Poochyena and Mightyena are designed to look more canine ('pooch' is even slang for 'dog'), and it is possible that they're also based on a couple of canine creatures such as wolves. Poochyena might look like your average cute little doggie, but it tries to indimidate its foes by making its bushy tail bristle out and is a tenacious and obnoxious little bastard who will bite anything it sees moving and chases after its prey until they become exhausted. Often enough the victim will strike back, which causes Poochyena to turn tail and make a run for it, the cowardly little shit.

Such lovely fan art of Mightyena and Arcanine sharing a stick.

But this persistent bullying becomes coordinated teamwork when Poochyena evolves. Mightyena live in packs and a member of such a pack will follow the orders of its leader as it chases down prey. The only thing that doesn't make a whole lot of sense is that it starts giving off obvious signals when it is about to attack, like flattening its body and even growling deeply, but wouldn't the prey hear you and flee if you did that? I guess there would be other Mightyena at the ready to capture the fleeing prey should that happen, as it is a coordinated attack, after all, but it still doesn't make sense that a predator would let its prey known that it's nearby. Or maybe I'm dumb and luring the prey into fleeing in a certain direction is actual predatory behavior in real life, but it seems to me that a more stealthy approach with a couple of back-up pack members at the ready in case the prey tries to escape is a more effective way to hunt. But fuck me, right? Anyhow, Mightyena's savagery is nowhere to be found in the games, as its base stat total of only 420 doesn't lend itself to the creation of good competitive sets. Mightyena's best stat is its attack, at base 90, while its HP, defense, special defense and speed - 70, 70, 60 and 70, respectively - are mediocre at best. That's why it resides in Smogon's lowest tier possible for fully evolved Pokémon, PU. However, an Adamant nature in combination with the ability Moxie (raises its attack by one stage every time it knocks out an opponent), the held item Life Orb and the priority move Sucker Punch might(yena) make it a late-game sweeper in its respective tier. If you invest some time in breeding a Poochyena, it can learn some pretty nifty moves, too: it learns the elemental fangs as well as Iron Tail and the fairy-type move Play Rough, which is nice against fighting types that threaten it.

This artist perfectly managed to lay emphasis on Mightyena's hyenine features.

I've never been very fond of Poochyena, and that's for one reason and one reason only: I once encountered a shiny one on either Ruby or Sapphire (I forgot which one) early on in the game and accidentally knocked it out with a crit Scratch from my Torchic when I tried to weaken it. It's a good thing critical hits have been nerfed from Pokémon X and Y onwards, now dealing 1.5 times the normal damage instead of 2 times, but to this day I remain a little salty about it. Three years ago, I put Mightyena on number 36 in my list of favorite Pokémon, but that was merely based on its design, which has lost its appeal a little since then. Mightyena is still a very interesting dark type with characteristics that fit its type perfectly, but I have to hold back at least half a star - and maybe even more when time passes - from its final rating. At least for now, Mightyena may enjoy its excellent 4.5-star rating.

Rating: 4.5/5