These ‘Mons Are Poison: Poison Pokémon Players Pick

A pun and an alliteration in the title? The bar has been raised, Nugget Bridge! Anyway, welcome to another of my type overviews. Last time I talked about a type with a bad rep, Grass; this time I’ll be talking about a type that’s simply bad: Poison! Offensively, Poison is awful. It hits Grass-types super effectively and… that’s it. To make matters worse it simply cannot hit Steel-types. Defensively, Poison doesn’t fare much better, with only one notable resistance — Fighting (the other resistances are to Poison, Grass and Bug). It is also weak to Psychic and Ground, ie it is weak to some of the most common Pokémon. Now that we know just how awful the type is in theory, let’s look at the Pokémon unfortunate enough to have it!

Crobat

crobat

Some time ago, Golbat decided he had enough of everyone calling him annoying. He wasn’t mad; he was determined, determined to find someone to love him. So he set out on a quest for love. Although we do not know what exactly happened on Golbat’s quest, we do know he was successful; he came back a new man — Crobat. Ok, so Crobat’s a Poison/Flying-type. My opinions on the Flying-type aside, Flying is a pretty decent typing to have alongside Poison since it removes the Ground weakness and strengthens the Fighting (and Grass and Bug) resist. The Flying-type also nicely complements its ability, Inner Focus, allowing it to threaten Fighting-types that would like to use Fake Out. As far as offense goes, Crobat will be using Acrobatics, apart from the odd special version. Another option you can run is Brave Bird and be super cool! Speaking of super, Super Fang is also pretty decent on it, too bad most of the things you’d want to hit with Super Fang (Cresselia, Metagross, Tyranitar) are going to maim you back. Cross Poison is Crobat’s Poison STAB of choice, but it’s pretty much only useful for hitting things that resist Flying moves [and that aren’t also Steel-types. But that really goes without saying, Mr.Zach Droegkamp].

Of course if you using Crobat, chances are that you aren’t using it for its offensive capabilities; you’re using it for fast support! Crobat is most often seen setting up Tailwind. In fact, Alison McDonald (Fishy) top-cut US Nationals with Tailwind Crobat (you can read about it here). Another very common support move Crobat is known to use is Taunt. With Swagger rampant, Taunt has become better than ever before, so getting it off quickly is never a bad thing. Taunt has very nice synergy with Tailwind as well because you don’t want your opponent throwing around Thunder Waves or setting up a Trick Room. Personally I’m of the opinion that if you’ve seen one Crobat you’ve seen them all, but there’s one more thing Crobat occasionally is known to do. Some teams use Crobat for spamming a quick Hypnosis, typically under Gravity. However, why you’d ever want to make Crobat weak to Ground-type attacks is beyond me.

Toxicroak

toxicroak

I’m a big fan of Toxicroak’s design. Dude just looks terrifying. You wouldn’t want to be walking down an alleyway at night and have this guy jump out. However, while I think Toxicroak looks really cool, I don’t think it’s that great as a Pokémon. I tend to like Fighting typing, but I’m not sure how much it helps here. It makes Toxicroak even weaker to Psychic moves, but with his awful defenses he probably wasn’t taking one anyway. On a more positive note the Fighting typing allows Toxicroak to take on Terrakion and Tyranitar, Tyranitar being especially annoying to Rain teams that Toxicroak is often found on due to his ability Dry Skin. Dry Skin puts Toxicroak in an interesting position as not only can it be used on a Rain team but it can also be used to counter Rain.

Hitmontop may be the king of priority, but Toxicroak comes in second. He can Fake Out, Sucker Punch, Feint and Bullet Punch but has to use Vacuum Wave instead of Mach Punch. Poison Jab is his Poison STAB of choice, while Drain Punch and Low Kick are his most common Fighting STABs. If you’re willing to risk misses, Gunk Shot and Cross Chop are also options for more power. Toxicroak also has access to Ice Punch, should you ever need to try and take on a Ground- or Flying-type. An uncommon move on Toxicroak that I particularly like is Super Fang. It’s a low risk, moderate reward move that allows Toxicroak to at least damage Cress and Metagross. On the support side of things Toxicroak gets Taunt. That’s pretty much it, unless you want to count Substitute. Substitute in Rain with leftovers/black sludge is pretty cool, though, as you basically get a free sub.

Amoonguss

yes I did get lazy with my pokemon choices

Now you may be thinking, “Hey wait, didn’t you already talk about Amoonguss?” Yes, yes I did and you can read about it here. But this time I’m going to look at Amoonguss differently. Last time I talked about Amoonguss going slow; this time I’m talking about Amoonguss going fast! While Amoonguss has really low speed, with a boosting nature and max speed investment, under Tailwind, he can outspeed max speed base 111s. That’s right, he can be faster than fast Thundurus. With his newfound speed, Amoonguss has only one goal in mind: Spore everything! I’d argue that Amoonguss is the best Tailwind Spore Pokémon because unlike Breloom, he can actually take a hit without a focus sash. If you’ve never tried fast Amoonguss before I highly suggest it. Using it is quite fun.

Nidoking

nidoking

Alison also used Nidoking to win last year’s Colorado Regional. That puts her Poison-type count at two, which I believe is a record, and earns her the title of Toxic Trainer. Have I been waiting the entire article to say that? Maybe. That aside, Nidoking gets mentioned as he is the most offensive Poison-type. Nidoking gets his offensive power from his ability Sheer Force. Earth Power, Sludge Bomb, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and Flamethrower are all common power moves on Nidoking that get the Sheer Force boost. If you want spread moves Sludge Wave is also Sheer Force boosted. Sheer Force attacking isn’t Nidoking’s only trick, though. He gets priority in the form of Sucker Punch, which is always nice for getting surprise kills or picking off weakened things faster than you. Nidoking’s Speed is pretty interesting as well; he’s slow enough to use in Trick Room, yet fast enough he can be ran without it. Overall I guess I like Nidoking. He hasn’t been the star of the show whenever I’ve used him, but he does his job well. If nothing else he looks cool.

Gengar

gengar

Gengar… I really want to like you, I do, but you just seem so bad in VGC. I really can’t see any reason to use it. Stat wise it has Speed and Special Attack going for it but paper thin defenses. Gengar should capitalize on these points. Capitalizing on Gengar’s Speed and Special Attack is relatively easy, just load up with attacks you want to hit fast with. In my experience the only attack consistently on Gengar is Shadow Ball. Sludge Bomb, Thunderbolt; Energy Ball and Focus Blast are less commonly seen but are still options to keep in mind. In the supportive realm Gengar can throw around fast Disables, Hypnosis, Substitutes, and Taunts.

Using Gengar’s paper thin defenses is a bit trickier, and I rarely see people do it, so let me make a few suggestions. First there’s Destiny Bond. Gengar loses health fast, so it’s pretty easy to see the usefulness here. Just throw out a Destiny Bond the turn you’re sure you’re going to die and turn your opponent’s +1 into a 1-for-1. If you’re willing to risk a Focus Sash on Gengar, Counter is another option. There’s a fair amount of strong physical attackers out there with no fear of Gengar (Tyranitar, Metagross, just to name two) who will hit you down to your sash only to be wrecked by a Counter. Pain Split is the last option I’ll give to take advantage of Gengar’s paper thin defenses. If you find yourself in the position that you aren’t one shot by your opponent, you can gain some health back while weakening your opponent.

Venusaur

venusaur

After my Grass-type article, a few people asked why I didn’t include Venusaur. The short answer is I don’t think it is very good. However, when looking at a type as bad as Poison, Venusaur seems better. So to anyone who asked where Venusaur was, here you go. I’ll make this quick: you should only use Venusaur in the Sun and with its hidden ability Chlorophyll. With the Chlorophyll boost you can spam Sleep Powder. Growth is good in Sun and allows you to be either physical or special, plus boosting moves are pretty good when your opponent is protecting to scout Sleep Powder. Sludge Bomb is its common Poison STAB and Giga Drain is its common Grass STAB. I’m a fan of Hidden Power Fire on it because it’s Sun boosted and takes on Steels not named Heatran. Solarbeam is always an option as well, but you have to play carefully around Politoed and even more carefully around Tyranitar. Ladies and gentlemen, Venusaur.

Qwilfish

qwilfish

Aw yeah Qwilfish! Qwilfish may or may not have made this article due to a fabled Facebook conversation that happened at 3am one night where I went on a rant about it. Nevermind that the words Harisen (Qwilfish’s Japanese name) and Harrison look similar. Ability wise, Qwilfish actually has some things going for it. It gets two great abilities: Swift Swim and Intimidate. Not only are both great, but they actually have legitimate uses! Swift Swim allows it to hard counter Ludicolo. Not only can you outspeed and OHKO it with Poison Jab, but you’ll also resist or be neutral to all of its common moves. That’s probably the best thing you’ll be doing with Swift Swim, though.

Intimidate obviously makes it so Qwilfish can actually take a physical hit, however, on a more relevant note, it allows it to actually take advantage of its Poison-typing! Since almost all Fighting-types are physical Qwilfish can actually wall them after an intimidate. Move over Hitmontop and Terrakion, Qwilfish is here! I’ve already mentioned that Qwilfish can OHKO Ludicolo, but that’s not the end of his pointy offensive prowess. In Rain, Life Orb Qwilfish takes no prisoners. He can OHKO Tyranitar, Terrakion, and Thundurus, among other things, with Waterfall. Outside of Rain, Qwilfish can use Aqua Jet or Thunder Wave to compensate for his speed. Poison Jab… is Poison STAB… and other than hitting Ludicolo or the odd Virizion really isn’t that good. It will let him hit Dragons, though. And just to reinforce that Qwilfish is filled to the brim with power, he can execute Normal Gem Explosions. Fear Qwilfish, he’s here to ruin your day.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve realized that this article is meant to be more fun than serious. Poison just isn’t that great of a typing, nor do any particularly fantastic Pokémon have a Poison-typing, so I had to improvise. Maybe in the future Poison-types will be better (but in all likelihood they won’t). We can dream, right?

Article image created by ryuzaki and used with permission by Nugget Bridge. See more of ryuzaki’s artwork on deviantART.