#240, #126, #467: Magby, Magmar & Magmortar

Old art of Maby (left) versus Magby's current art (right). As you
can see, Magby does not have visible nostrils. 

Magby may look like an cute little critter, but you should be cautious around this thing, as its body temperature is an incredibly high 1,100°F because of a magma-like substance flowing through its body, and it can spit flames of around the same temperature. Even when it inhales and exhales, hot embers drip from its mouth and nostrils (which nostrils, though?). However, when it is fatigued, the temperature of the flames decreases and black smoke is mixed in with the flames. It is said to herald a volcanic eruption when large numbers of this Pokémon gather. Yes, I know Magby is a baby Pokémon, but it is one of four babies I'm actually not bothered with for a change, the other ones being Pichu, Tyrogue and Elekid (and I explained why in Electabuzz and Electivire's entry). Magby is just an adorable little fuck, and sometimes I'm just a sucker for cute Pokémon. In the entry that I previously mentioned, I also said that Electabuzz always appealed to me more than Magmar, Magby's evolution, but that is not the case anymore. I do think Magmar got a shitty evolution in Gen. IV, though, but I'll get to that later on.

Mamar's original official art on a TCG card. 

If anything, Magmar is hotter than Electabuzz. And I mean that quite literally: Magmar's body temperature is nearly 2,200°F, which is double Magby's temperature. Ash's Pokédex in the anime compares its body with a furnace, describing it as a living inferno. In fact, its Pokédex entry in Pokémon Silver states that the surface of its body gives off a wavering and rippling glare that is similar to the sun, and its breath can create heat waves that ignite surrounding grass and trees. But it is impossible to get close to the sun, so how are you supposed to get in the vicinity of a Magmar? I know that Pokémon are shown to control whatever special abilities they have, but this characteristic is being presented as if it's something Magmar cannot control. Anyway, you want more proof of Magmar's superiority? Well, Magmar is shown to block electric-type attacks with a wall of hot air in the anime, whereas Electabuzz cannot do such a thing with fire-type attacks. And, as if it wasn't already really obvious, Magmar lives in active volcanoes and whenever it gets injured, it can just dip its body in lava and heal its wounds that way. Like, instantly. It does dislike cold environments, though, as it gets dopey and sluggish (similar to a cold-blooded animal), which it solves by spewing flames to make the environment more suitable to its needs.

Fan art of Magmar getting ready to Fire Punch someone in the face.

Unfortunately, Magmar got an evolution in Diamond and Pearl. To keep up with the trend, Magmortar (it is a cool name, though) can reach even higher body temperatures and it even launches fireballs of over 3,600°F from its cannon-like arms. Its breath always sears and sizzles, and when blasting those goddamn fireballs away, its body takes on a whitish glow from the intense heat. All that sounds really awesome, but Magmortar's design is just too weird for me to actually like it. Its pink mouth, legs and back spikes look so out of sync with the red-and-yellow body it has, as well as Magby and Magmar's colors. Besides, its big main body is so disproportionate to the small size of its head and legs that it's just not funny. AND WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH ITS MOUTH? With that grin from ear to ear (literally, even though Magmortar does not have visible ears), it looks like the Joker from Batman, but not in a good way. I am constantly trying to like this thing, but every time I see it I'm like, 'Meh, this such a stupid evolution.'

Fan art of shiny Magby and Magmar.

And as I'm searching for info about its origin, I'm shaking my head over and over again. It just doesn't make sense to me. Magby and Magmar seem to be a combination between a duck and an iguana, especially given the fact that they have some features that can be traced back to iguanas, but they are most likely based on the Japanese Hindu-Buddhist myth of the karura, a divine creature with a human torso and a bird-like head that can breathe fire. Sounds familiar, right? Well, it's similar to how Electabuzz is most likely based on the oni, which is often depicted as an ugly horned ogre but is believed to be a divine creature that has control over thunder and lightning. With those cannons and large body size, Magmortar looks nothing like a karura anymore; it still has some iguana-like features for sure, but the bird-like traits have completely gone and I just think of it as a fire-blasting lizard. There is one thing I actually like about it, and that is its shiny form, even though Magmar has the exact same shiny coloration as Magmortar does. Instead of red and yellow, they are a dark and light pink color, which is actually kind of awesome (Magby's shiny coloration, on the other hand, is an unimpressive sickly orange).

Fan art of Magmortar about to wreck house. 

But both Magmar and Magmortar are viable competitively, at least that cannot be denied. Magmar benefits from the Eviolite, as it buffs up its defenses, so this item is recommended for sure. As regards its stats, Magmar possesses some really good attack and special attack, very decent speed, and some medicore defenses (hence I recommend the Eviolite). Its special attack is a little bit higher than its attack, but only by a small margin, so both are perfectly usable. If you want to focus on the special-based side of the attacking spectrum, I'd use a Timid Magmar with Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Psychic and Focus Blast, but it can even learn some nifty status moves like Confuse Ray, Will-O-Wisp, Substitute and Clear Smog (eliminates the opposing Pokémon's stat changes). As for physical attacks, it can learn moves like Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Brick Break, Power-Up Punch, Cross Chop, Flare Blitz, Iron Tail, Focus Punch (works best in conjunction with Substitute), Mach Punch and Dual Chop. It gets an egg move that comes in handy when running a physical, Jolly-natured Magmar: Belly Drum, which halves its HP but maximizes its attack. It's risky, but if you can pull it off, you'll have a Magmar that hits like a truck. And if you want to mix things up move-wise, you can always slap a Hasty nature on Magmar; it'll let it have some more diversity at that as well.

Magmortar (right) and its electric-type counterpart Electivire (left).

Magmortar works completely differently, though: it loses some speed but gains a whole ton of special attack. Sadly, at base 95 its base physical attack remains the same as Magmar's, which renders it less useful than you'd think (although you can still use the Belly Drum trick to surprise opponents, but now with Earthquake and Rock Slide). In order to immediately let Magmortar hit the foe as hard as possible, it is recommended to max out its special attack with a beneficial nature, preferably Modest or Rash, and give it a Life Orb. It also has access to Thunderbolt, a powerful special-based electric-type move that Magmar doesn't get, so definitely use that. Want to create some bulk? Magmortar has some decent special defense and HP, so you could let it wear an Assault Vest while still doing massive damage due to its already-high special attack. Lastly, Magmar and Magmortar share the same ability with the Elekid line: Vital Spirit, which prevents them from falling asleep. Handy. Flame Body, which has a chance to burn the foe when they make direct contact with Magmortar, should usually be left alone, as it's inferior to Vital Spirit.

In the end, Magmar is a great Pokémon, design-wise and competitively, while its evolution Magmortar is not. Well, at least not design-wise. In fact, I like Magmar more than Electabuzz, but the latter got an awesome evolution in Gen. IV, whereas Magmar definitely did not. So, much like I did with Magneton and Magnezone, I am going to rate Magmar and Magmortar separately. I apologize to Magmortar fans, but I think Game Freak should have left Magmar alone, or at least given its evolution a better design.

Rating Magmar: 4.5/5

Rating Magmortar: 2.5/5

#77 - #78: Ponyta & Rapidash

Official art of Ponyta (left) and Rapidash (right).

OMG OMG OMG, DID SOMEONE SAY UNICORNS???

Yeah, I don't care about unicorns.

Rapidash is awesome though, so let's see what this thing is all about. It is the evolved form of Ponyta, who is really nothing special. Okay, its hooves are said to be ten times harder than diamond, but that's only a good thing for Ponyta. We can't go collect them hooves, PETA will have our heads for that. It can jump over Ayers Rock and the Eiffel Tower, but who says Rapidash can't do it better? Besides, newborn Ponyta can't even stand properly and only strengthen overtime while chasing its parents, very much like real-life newborn foals. I guess Rapidash can do everything that Ponyta can do, just better. And on top of that, it can even run 150 miles per hour while barely touching the ground, reaching its top speed in only ten steps. The faster it goes, the longer its blazing manes become and the brighter they sparkle.

Shiny Ponyta and Rapidash both have some of the best shiny
forms created by Game Freak.

Ponyta's flavor may not be that interesting compared to Rapidash's, but it and its evolution are definitely some of the most graceful Pokémon in existence. Not surprising, as horses are often seen as noble animals since humans use them for transport. The image of Ponyta and Rapidash's gracefulness is only enhanced by their shiny forms, which are some of the best ones out there. Normally, Ponyta and Rapidash both have normal orange-red flames as manes. This suggests that they're based on the fiery steeds in mythology, such as those belonging to the Greek god Helios, or Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi from Norse mythology. These horses are ridden by Dagr (meaning 'day') and Nótt ('night') respectively, and Ponyta and Rapidash's shiny forms only make us wonder whether they are based on those mythological horses: shiny Ponyta have blue flames (day?), while shiny Rapidash are blessed with gray flames (night?). One thing is for sure: while some shiny Pokémon are downright ugly, Ponyta and Rapidash only look more beautiful than their regular forms. I love them. Not as much as shiny Ninetales, but I love them nonetheless.

Potential Mega evolution of Rapidash? I'd support a flaming
Pegasus Pokémon for sure. 

But a shiny is nothing when it cannot fight, right? Well, don't worry: Rapidash is actually a competent Pokémon to use competitively. It's got excellent attack and speed and somewhat medicore defenses. They're not terrible, but I think Rapidash is supposed to be a glass cannon and has to hit hard and fast, so you'd better invest EVs in speed and attack and give it a Choice Band or Life Orb. Flash Fire is the preferred ability, as it absorbs other fire-type moves and gives Rapidash a boost in its own fire-type moves in return, while its moveset should consist of Flare Blitz, Wild Charge, Drill Run and Will-O-Wisp. Be careful, because the first two moves cause recoil damage on Rapidash and wear it down easily (especially when combined with a Life Orb). Poison Jab, Megahorn, Bounce, Iron Tail and Low Kick are also solid options for Rapidash if you know or suspect what you're about to face and want to use other moves instead of Drill Run and/or Wild Charge (and let's be honest: two recoil moves, especially when Rapidash doesn't even receive STAB from one of them, is a little redundant for such a frail Pokémon, don't you think?).

In the end, Rapidash doesn't even look as much like a unicorn as I made you believe at the beginning of this entry. I love everything about it, though: its characteristics, the fact that it is based on mythological horses, its fighting capabilities, its diverse movepool (but how the hell does it get Poison Jab?)... However, it is its shiny form that makes me give it and its pre-evolution Ponyta a perfect rating. I am starting to understand why the human race regards horses as noble creatures.

Rating: 5/5

#58 - #59: Growlithe & Arcanine

Cute little Growlithe chasing (about to chase?) its tail, as befits
a dog.

One thing I love about Growlithe and Arcanine is that there is so much cute and cool fan art to be found on the Internet. Just insert Growlithe in Google Images and you'll get lots of cute fan art, while Arcanine is mostly depicted as wild, ferocious and dangerous. In my opinion, both are such distinctive Gen. I Pokémon and I like them a lot. I am probably contradicting myself now, because in Meowth and Persian's entry I said that I do not like real-life dogs at all, but fortunately my dislike for dogs does not make me dislike canine Pokémon at all, so I'll be able to go into this review completely unbiased. Having said that, I have to say that Growlithe's characteristics are so... ordinary. It is loyal and obedient and it will bark at, bite and chase away any threats and will defend its Trainer and territory from them. It also has an amazing olfactory sense and never forgets a scent. Except for the fact that Growlithe uses its sense of smell to detect the emotion of others, all of this sounds like it is an ordinary dog, to be honest. That can't be said of Arcanine, who is capable of running 6,200 miles (10,000 kilometers) in 24 fucking hours. Arcanine is admired for its beauty and speed and anyone who hears its bark will grovel before it, hence its classification as the 'Legendary Pokémon', even though, strictly speaking, it isn't a legendary Pokémon by any means. Considering both it and its pre-evo Growlithe are based on Japanese artifacts called shisa or komainu, guardian statues that resemble lions and have traits of dogs and tigers, its classification isn't even that farfetched. To top it all off, the source of its power is a flame blazing wild inside its body.

You can't talk of dog-like features in this case, can you?

Some awesome fan art of Arcanine. These show
the beauty, elegance and strength of Arcanine.

But that is exactly what fan art likes to show you: the beauty, elegance and strength of Arcanine. Strength? Yes, because no matter how you look at it, Arcanine is one of those Pokémon with very balanced stats. Its defenses are decent and it has some nice HP to back them up, its speed is good and it will be even better when it's holding a Choice Scarf, and it is capable of using both attacking stats for some heavy damage. It sits in the UU tier of the competitive scene and despite this tier's name (UU means underused), Arcanine is quite a popular Pokémon. Most people use it as a fast physically offensive sweeper with a moveset consisting of Flare Blitz (be wary, as this move causes recoil damage), Close Combat (to counter one of its weaknesses, which is rock), Wild Charge (to counter another one of its weaknesses, which is water) and Extreme Speed (a Quick Attack on steroids; it's nice to have for some priority) and a hold item like Choice Band, Choice Scarf or Life Orb. You could even ditch an offensive move and throw in Morning Sun for healing purposes. If dragons are a threat, you can teach your Growlithe Outrage, which it learns by level-up, while Crunch, Iron Tail and Iron Head are also viable options for some coverage. These might only be useful for in-game purposes though, because steel is not an overly useful offensive type in the competitive scene - even though it is fantastic defensively. If you want to surprise your opponents, you could rock a specially offensive Arcanine. Its base physical attack (110) is slightly better than its base special attack (100), but the latter is more than usable. The only downside to using a special Arcanine is the lack of special moves. The best it gets are some strong fire-type moves. It also learns Dragon Pulse and some other weaker coverage moves, but those aren't even worth the hassle.

Arcanine vs. Luxray. Some people apparently see Luxray as Arcanine's feline
equivalent, as there is some fan art with these two to be found on the Internet. 

Now, I know that Arcanine was number 25 in my list of favorite Pokémon two years ago, but I think I'm going to reconsider that position. Don't get me wrong; Arcanine is still one of those cool Pokémon that are definitely worth your while, and I totally love the fan art that's made of it. Don't worry though, it will still get a perfect rating from me, especially considering the fact that I am currently using Arcanine in a playthrough (it is such a monster!), but there are other Pokémon I've come to love a lot more than I actually did. Maybe I'll make a top 100 of my favorite Pokémon - just a list with the names of my 100 favorite Pokémon, by the way - after I've rated all 721 Pokémon (that's still quite a while away, though).

Rating: 5/5

#37 - #38: Vulpix & Ninetales

Official art of Vulpix.

Next up on my list are the pure fire types Vulpix and Ninetales. Yeah... pure fire types.

You see, everything about their flavor indicates they should have had a secondary typing, probably ghost or maybe even psychic. Well, at least Ninetales should have... Because even though Vulpix is capable of manipulating fire to such precision that it can create floating wisps of flame, is born with one white tail that splits into six and learns most of the moves that define their flavor, such as Extrasensory, Hex, Spite, Grudge, Feint Attack, Confuse Ray, Hypnosis and even Will-O-Wisp (almost all fire and ghost types can learn this move, but I'll mention it just for the sake of making my point; besides, aside from Vulpix and the Fennekin line, another line of fiery foxes, only some ghost-type moves can learn this move by level-up), Ninetales is the one Pokémon in this evolution line that is the most fascinating. Vulpix is cute and all, but Ninetales is where things get weird. It is a very beautiful Pokémon, but it is also very vengeful towards those who mistreat it, laying a 1,000-year curse on them. Ninetales can live for 1,000 years due to the energy within its nine tails, each of which is said to have its own mystical power. That is not all, though: Ninetales is based on a kitsune, a fox-like creature of Japanese folklore that have many tails, have extremely long lifespans and can breathe fire. After a long-lived life, kitsune take on spirit forms, which is exactly the reason why Ninetales should have had a secondary ghost typing to begin with. And the ability to learn Shadow Ball, while we're at it.

Beautiful, majestic Ninetales.

That is not to say that Ninetales doesn't learn any other good moves, however. You might want to make sure to have a Ninetales with its hidden ability, which is Drought. It conjures up the sun for at least five turns and powers up its fire-type moves by 50% while weakening any super effective water-type moves opponents might use against Ninetales by 50% as well. This ability is excellent for setting up, because Ninetales can learn Nasty Plot, which is a start move that sharply raises its somewhat mediocre special attack stat. That, combined with Drought, the item Life Orb, its excellent special defense and speed stats, and the moves Solar Beam, Flamethrower and Psyshock, makes for an excellent competitive Pokémon in the NU tier. That way, you can go all-offensive and you won't have to spend a moveslot on Sunny Day or Will-O-Wisp. You could go for the Hypnosis/Dream Eater combo, but Hypnosis has such low accuracy that it's not really worth it. Besides, Psyshock is more reliable and consistent and, above all, hits for physical damage rather than special damage, while still making use of Ninetales' special attack stat. That is quite useful against specially bulky opponents and provides for more coverage anyway.

Shiny Ninetales is one of my favorite shinies. 

One more reason why Ninetales is one of my favorite Pokémon is its shiny form. Usually, Ninetales are beige with brown tail tips, but shiny Ninetales is gray with blue tail tips. It is... beautiful. One of my favorite shiny Pokémon for sure. Also, this color scheme fits Ninetales' flavor of being a mystical creature even more than its regular color scheme, as it looks more like a ghost-type Pokémon (there I go again about its should-be secondary typing!) when it's shiny. I love Ninetales for everything it stands for, though, so I can't help but give it a perfect rating of five stars!

Rating: 5/5

#4 - #6: Charmander, Charmeleon & Charizard

Charmander and Charmeleon.

Oh yeah, cute little Charmander. From the moment Red and Blue came out, this fiery lizard has been many people's favorite Kanto starter. Some took a liking to Squirtle as well, while Bulbasaur was crying in a corner most of the time; at least that's what I think. This is not without a reason, though: we all unanimously and unhesitantly agree that Charmander's final evolution, Charizard, is awesome (except Ash's Charizard, who was a total jerk, like, ALL THE FUCKING TIME!). Charmander is already cute and interesting by itself (the flame at the tip of its tail is an indicator for its health and emotions; it burns intensely when Charmander is at good health, but when it goes out, Charmander dies), but Charizard is totally badass. And while Charizard's badassery has slightly decreased over the past ten or fifteen years or so, due to an increasing amount of new amazing Pokémon that were introduced every three or four years, Pokémon X and Y gave a boost to Charizard by giving it not one but two Mega evolutions. In fact, it is one of two Pokémon who actually got two Megas, the other one being Mewtwo. And with that, Game Freak have given in to many people who had been nagging about why Charizard should actually have been a dragon-type Pokémon by changing its typing from fire/flying to fire/dragon upon Mega-evolving (of course, this only applies to Mega Charizard X). This indicates that Game Freak know that Charizard has been a fan favorite from the very beginning.

And the Charizard hype was REAL, dude.

While playing Red and Blue, I always chose Charmander as my starter, even though I kept having trouble beating the first Gym Leader with it. But back in the day I was still a little kid and building a team around a starter proved to be a dificult task to me (today I can't even imagine not having a team of six equally leveled Pokémon), so that's why I always played through the game with one Pokémon only: my starter, which happened to be Charmander every single time.

The holographic TCG card of Charizard
everyone was so hyped about back in the days.

And that wasn't all of it. When there were only a few expansions to the official Trading Card Game, the holographic Charizard card from the base set was by far the card everyone desired to have in their possession. I got extremely lucky and pulled this Charizard from a booster pack, and when I showed it to the other kids in my class, they all wanted me to trade that card with them. Needless to say that I refused to do that. In the end, my 'popularity' was short-lived: eventually, other kids managed to get their hands on said card, too. I happened to be the first one with that holographic Charizard, that's all. And do you remember the Topps Pokémon cards? My brother and I collected them as well (even though I liked the TCG cards a lot more than these Topps cards) and once, while we were on a holiday, my brother traded all of his Topps cards for a Topps Charizard card. I personally thought my brother was crazy for doing so, but he loved Charizard so much that he did it anyway. All of this is proof how popular Charizard was back then. That has all changed, though. Kids nowadays aren't that engaged with Pokémon anymore, and the kids who actually grew up with it and still play it as adults probably have other favorites by now. I am no different: Charizard used to be my favorite Pokémon (which is no wonder, as there were only 151 Pokémon twenty years ago; now there are 720), but today it doesn't even show up in my top 50. So how well does it do compared to other, newer Pokémon?

My brother traded ALL of his Topps Pokémon cards for just this one Charizard card.

Pretty well, actually. Daenerys' dragons would be jealous as hell: Charizard can do more than just spit fire. Due to its newly obtained Mega evolutions, Charizard is often used in the competitive scene. And while I prefer Mega Charizard X over Mega Charizard Y design-wise, the latter is actually the better one to use competitively. Why? Well, the Tough Claws ability Mega Charizard X gains upon Mega-evolving is pretty neat, boosting direct attacks (most of those attacks are physical moves) on top of its heavily increased attack stat, but Mega Charizard Y gets the better ability: Drought. This conjures up the sun for five turns and increases Charizard's fire-type moves by 50%, not to mention the fact that Solar Beam doesn't need a turn to charge first. Mega Charizard Y can use this move right off the bat and that makes for some very decent type coverage.

Mega Charizard Y also has a higher attacking stat (159 special attack) than Mega Charizard X (130 attack). And yes, Tough Claws increases most physical moves, but the only physical fire-type moves worth mentioning are Flare Blitz, which does recoil damage, and Fire Punch, which has a base power of 'only' 75. Drought increases all fire-type moves, however, including the much stronger special-based moves Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Heat Wave, Overheat, and even Fire Pledge if you want to go combo (with Water Pledge and/or Grass Pledge, obviously). The only downside to Mega Charizard Y is that it retains its flying typing, which means it still has a quadruple weakness to rock-type moves.

Art of Mega Charizard X (left) and Mega Charizard Y (right)

In the end, either Mega makes for a very good battler. It really doesn't matter which one you choose, because they both have their uses, although Mega Charizard X is a little more versatile; Charizard learns a great deal of good physical moves and fewer special moves than you would think. Is it better than Venusaur and Blastoise? Well... let's say it's definitely better than Venusaur, but I guess that's just my own opinion. And Blastoise? He's the next one on my list to review, so you'll just have to be patient! Meanwhile, I'll give Charizard a full rating of 5 stars. It's a shame I started off so badly with Venusaur, but this excellent rating of Charizard should make up for that, right?

Rating: 5/5