First off, check your spelling. It's called Meta
gross and J
irachi not Metacross or Jarachi. xP
×× Nica ×× said:
Aww~Pokemon like Milotic seem really stong, to me, they belong on the list~
Congratulations, you're the second sensible poster I've seen in this thread. =D
Yes, pokémon like Milotic, Heracross, Blissey, and Alakazam should all be on the list of strongest, as is proven by their high use in competitive play. The fact that pokes like Slaking and Registeel are only seen once in a blue moon in that environment should also be a hint that there's something wrong with this classification system.
Actually, there are five things wrong with ranking pokémon power by their total base stats, these wrongs are the exclusions of typing, trait, movepool, items, and stat division respectively.
For instance, let's compare two pokémon of equal typing, comparable statlines, and same basic function: Dodrio and Pidgeot. Both are Normal/Flying, both excell at Speed an Attack. Pidgeot's base stat total (469) is higher than Dodrio's (460) yet any of the competent moveset raters here would tell you to go with Dodrio rather than Pidgeot. Why? Of course Dodrio's ability to learn Drill Peck (The best flying type move of the advance generation) is an edge in itself, but more importantly, the stat divisons of the two pokémon are different. Pidgeot's statline is pretty evenly distributed (83 HP / 80 Attack / 75 Defense /91 Speed /70 Special Attack / 70 Special Defense) whereas Dodrio's is clearly focused (60 HP / 110 Attack / 70 Defense / 100 Speed / 60 Special Attack / 60 Special Defense), and as any experienced player knows, a good pokémon isn't one that sort of does everything but one that excells at doing something (in this case, mowing down opponents with physical moves before they can hit you). Thus, while Pidgeot has a higher stat total, a lot of those stats are diverted to things it doesn't really need (Such as special attack and defenses) at the expense of what it
does need (Attack and Speed), rendering it a far weaker pokémon than it could have potentially been. Similarly, Alakazam is a very formidable special sweeper because its statline is almost completely devoted to Sp.Attack and Speed, with very little diverted to things it doesn't have the moves to make use of (like regular Defense and Attack). Similarly, pokémon that may seem to have good statlines (like, say, Registeel) are actually quite worthless in battle because those stats have been spread out all over the place - often with a flimsy movepool to match - and since you can't effectively focus on everything because of the EV maximum, this leaves those pokémon with a lot of valuable stat points wasted on things they have no need for, weakening their actual perfomrance.
Moving on...another important aspect of power that must be taken into consideration is the trait. As Shorties quite correctly pointed out, Slaking and Regigigas (While posessing very strong statlines) both suffer debiliating traits that cripple their usefulness. Similarly, pokémon with seemingly inferior statlines may posess strong traits that empower them. For instance, let's take a look at Medicham. At first glance, it's hardly impressive with a measly base stat total of 410 and no base stat higher than 80 (the speed). Movepool is decent, but with both Attack stats at 60, it can't make use of it, right? WRONG. Medicham's trait, 'Pure Power', turns the whole game around. For those of you who never had the sense to take a look at it, Pure Power
doubles the Attack of the pokémon that posesses it. That's right, doubles, and what's more it's not a simple doubling of the base stat (Although 120 base is certainly nothing to sneeze at), it also includes EVs and IVs which - with a level 100 Medicham - can translate to a total of 92 extra Attack points (61 from EVs and 31 from IVs), and this is in addition to what is generated by the base 60, so even without an Attack boosting nature, Medicham can reach a formidable attack of 219 x 2, which is 438. Now throw in an Adamant nature (+10% boost) and you will end up with 480. And, just for good measure, throw in a Choice Band (+50% Attack) and it will jump up to 720, one of the highest values in the game and certainly higher than that of any legendary. I guarantee you, when this thing gets loose with Hi Jump Kick (Gaining another 50% bonus to damage for using a move of its own type) you will find that it is certainly far more deserving of a place on the powerful pokémon list than Entei (Awful movepool), Regirock or Registeel. In a similar vein, the highest SAtk among the three first generations in pokémon can be obtained by, drumroll please, Clamperl.
That's right, people, Clamperl has a higher maximum SAtk than Mewtwo thanks to its very own held item, Deepseatooth, which doubles its SAtk for a whopping maximum of 542. That's 95 higher than what Mewtwo can obtain. Now of course, Clamperl is still crippled by its practically non-existent movepool, but in theory it is more powerful than Mewtwo, which is a fine example of why you shouldn't take statlines at facial value. An honorary mention should also go to Marowak, which can obtain a maximum Attack of 568 because of the and is capable of buffing it through the roof with Swords Dance if the opponent is careless enough to let it play around.
Finally, on the list of pokémon whose stats can far exceed their facial value, is Milotic. Now Milotic already posesses a very formidable base stat total of 540, but what's more, it also has a signature trait that pushes this further: Marvel Scale. A pokémon with Marvel Scale has its Defense doubled 'when suffering' or, in laymen's terms, when it's affected by a special condition. Now keep in mind, this means
any status condition, meaning that a Resting Milotic can constantly smirk from behind its doubled Defense (564 maximum) while at the same time posessing a very formidable special defense to keep it well protected while the pure Water type (meaning no physical weaknesses and only two single special weaks of electricity and grass) makes it very hard to KO it during the two turns it spends sleeping, especially since throwing in Sleep Talk allows Milo to keep attacking during that period. Again, to anyone who has faced this beast it is perfectly clear that it is a far more formidable opponent than some of the ones listed here (Again, I'm singling out Entei, Registeel, and Regirock).
Finally, on the subject of movepool, I'd like to bring out one of the pokémon on this list I already mentioned earlier: Entei. Yes, the fuzzy-wuzzy mr.'If that is your wish' from the pokémon movie. At first glance, he looks tough indeed, with a statline featuring not only high Attack and Speed (115 and 100 base respectively) but also a solid 100 in base HP and decent defenses to ensure that it won't go down in one blow. The moment you take a look at the poor thing's movepool, however, you should realize just how badly gamefreak has screwed him over. The only useful physical moves (I.e. ones that a player who actually understands the game would even think of using) are Body Slam, Return, Double-Edge, and Iron Tail. Oh, and if you're playing on Netbattle you might thrown in Hidden Power. That's right, the only high-power physical moves that Entei can learn are Iron Tail and the usual set of normal ones that are practically universal. Needless to say, this is not what makes a good physical sweeper, and to drive the final nail into the coffin, Entei doesn't get STAB for his physical moves because he's pure fire and isn't even granted an Attack boosting move. Thus, one is more than less forced to live with special attacks and Entei's Lukewarm 90 base SAtk. But wait, the good designers aren't done yet. Entei only has access to three different types of special moves (excluding Hidden Power): Grass, Dark, and Fire. Of these, Grass and Dark only have one move apiece: Solarbeam and Bite respectively. Of these, Bite is too weak to ever be truly useful (Base power 60) and Solarbeam...is Solarbeam, meaning that you are basically forced to turn the poor thing into a pitiful Sunnybeamer (completely overshadowed by Exeggutor) or cling to some bizarre improvisation set composed from the rest of the movepool, unhelpfuly spread here and there, while the pure Fire type leaves you vulnerable to a triad of attack types found on basically all competitive teams: Water, Ground, and Rock. Aside from the obvious cases like Unown, Entei is a prime example of movepools gone horribly wrong and certainly not worthy of being considered one of the strongest. :\
Aaaand...I think I'll conclude my rant there for the moment. Overall, I think this kind of listing is silly and - as Shorties pointed out - redundant. There are plenty of lists like this, comprehensive ones where the names have even been spelled right.
