TOP TENS: Generations I through VII

We looked back at every generation and every type, but now it's time for me to pick out favorites, unfavorites and more from across all generations, combined.

This is going to be unbelievably tricky, and with a pool that gigantic, it's also going to be even more subjective than when we do this from a limited selection. Let's go!

MY FAVORITES:

MY LEAST FAVORITES:

THE MOST CREATIVE:

SCARIEST/MOST BADASS:

THE PRETTIEST:

THE CUTEST:

THE GOOFIEST CHARM:

THE "ELEMENTALS":

This isn't a top list of any sort, but it's an interesting pattern I wanted to point out. With the sole exception of Seviper, every pure poison pokemon line (bearing in mind that the Nidorans eventually become poison/ground) consists of two stages and focuses on a single, distinct concept of what "poison type" means.

Venom, smog, sludge, acid and trash. These two-stagers never repeat a theme and never break the pattern with a new evolution or mega form. Only Muk has deviated, sort of, by offering a poison/dark Alolan alternative, and I hope the rest of these guys will see some fresh attention some day - they all need it.

What themes are left for future "basic elemental" poison pokemon? We will, of course, get to that shortly!

WHAT'S MISSING?

Something in a Gas Mask

Gas masks are generally cool as heck, already resembling the face of some bug-eyed biomechanical insectoid, and it's kind of surprising we don't have any pocket monsters that even vaguely evoke one. It would be the perfect facial design for a fly, of course, but we're talking poison here, and I don't know if I'd want my long-awaited housefly to be another vulnerable bug/poison. Ideally however, I'd like to see a weirder, more nondescript monster with a gas masked motif, and it'd be the perfect motif for a pure poison type themed specifically around stench. Yes, other poison types are known for rancid odors, but Gloom and Skuntank are the only two really centered on it as a theme.

An Oil Slick

While Muk and especially Alolan Muk can pass visually for oil creatures, they're distinctly intended to represent toxic sludge, which is quite a difference. An oil Pokemon could be almost like that "shadow" idea I had for the ghost type, a perfectly black, two dimensional blot crawling on the ground, but could possess a head and limbs that rise up from it to attack. There's also the possibility of incorporating the barrel or drum as a "shell."

Pure poison would again be ideal to me, but a signature ability could make this one immune to water attacks and become poison/fire if hit by any fire-type damage.

A Germ

Japan's go-to anthropomorphization of a "germ" is typically a rude, blackish fairy-imp ripped off from Baikinman, and obviously I'd be cool with that for an infectious disease pokemon, but I'd also be cool with a more accurate giant virus, or a giant bacterium, or some blobby creature made out of viruses or bacteria, or even just a creature that carries a disease, like some sickly, coughing and sneezing ghost type or the explicit plague doctor people expected from Aromatisse.

"Germs" are briefly mentioned as part of Weezing, Muk, and even the non-poison Goodra line, but where the heck is our full-blown pathogen pokemon!? More than any other, this is THE theme I want most for another of those "elemental" poison types.

So I guess that's it then.

We've reviewed every pokemon with a look back at every generation and every type. Now there's finally almost nothing left until new games come along...but I've got at least a few more article ideas in the works.

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