No. 949: Toedscruel

"This isn't a war," said the artilleryman. "It never was a war, any more than there's a war between man and ants."

Original Tentacruel was a boss, so it should come as no surprise that Toedscruel is also a boss. Adding black to the color scheme is very striking, and completely fixes my issues with Toedscool. The big ol' snoot is a fair replacement for that ominous beak/claw, too.

 

The jellyfish -> mushroom remix works great, I think it looks ominous standing around like a freakish alien. Then it hops around, and you lose the mystique somewhat...

What's funny is that Gamefreak feels obligated to give every mushroom Pokemon access to the move Spore (the only 100% accurate Sleep-inducing move), but Toedscruel is fast. A fast sleeper would be broken, so they dealt with it the same way they did other potential super-threats like Regigigas or Slaking: Give it a terrible ability that actively makes it worse! As a result, all of Toedscruel's status moves automatically go last, meaning it can't put its high speed to use if you want to put things to sleep.

That said, unlike those other unfortunate Pokemon, it doesn't interfere with the rest of Toedscruel's stats or moves. So feel free to use it in-game like any other Pokemon, spamming Earth Power and Energy Ball.

Overall: 9/10

No. 948: Toedscool

big steppy

So, it's about time we talked about the Convergent Evolution Pokemon. Design-wise, these are the same as the Regional Form Pokemon: it's an excuse to remix an old design with a new twist. Igloo Sandshrew? Cool! Mushroom Tentacool? Neat! I think it's a fun design exercise, and much more interesting than coming up with over-the-top Mega Evolutions or Gigantimax forms.

Functionally, there's not much difference, either: In both cases, you're gonna get the same stat block, but a new type, design, and movepool. Regional Forms can breed with their normal forms, but that doesn't really matter.

No, the big difference is how the Pokedex treats them: Regional Forms are classified as "forms", and denied official Pokedex slots, whereas Convergent Evolutions are treated as entirely new Pokemon. Which is horseshit, because the Regional Forms should also be treated as entirely new Pokemon. For all intents and purposes, this is a new 'mon! And it looks dumb as hell to glance over a list of Pokemon and see Alolan Vulpix right alongside regular Vulpix. Alolan Vulpix is a Gen 7 Pokemon and you damn well know it.

Basically, it's like how Daisy is an "Echo Fighter" of Peach, but apparently not distinct enough to be a fully new fighter, like how Falco is a Clone of Fox. But distinct enough to be more than a skin, like how Alph is just a costume for Olimar. Then you have Chrom, who is an Echo Fighter of Marth, except he has Ike's Up-B. I've lost control over this metaphor, but the point is, Sakurai is a madman.

Anyway, Toesdcool!  I like how he runs around. The colors are awful, reminiscent of Mr. Blobby, which furthers my suspicion that half the designers did not realize they were in the Spanish region, not the British one. Shiny Toedscool is all-white, which is uncomfortable in its own way. I think I'd prefer a red-and-white Mario style mushroom coloration.

Overall: 7/10

No 947: Brambleghast

 Let's go brambling! (aw dangit)

I'm not a fan of Pokemon where the concept is "wow look, these shapes are coincidentally lined up so they just so happen to resemble a face!" Like, miss me with that Pokemon Signs bullshit. These are magical monsters, if they wanted to have a face, they could just have one.

Dhelmise is the main culprit here, but I see it in some fakemon, and now Brambleghast. It's a bit more purposeful than the others, but it's still like... that's not a mouth. That's a line in the SHAPE of a mouth. How can you bite anything with that?

The other frustrating thing is that Brambleghast looks like some sort of thorny bone pumpkin, which could be the coolest thing ever. Except it's not, it's a few floating eye-seeds and some dry branches. Why couldn't it have just been a spiky jack-o-lantern, with an actual mouth? Or a haunted skeletonic ribcage thing? I don't want a dumb weed.

Overall: 2/10

No. 946: Bramblin

I'm a Bramblin' Man

 

It's funny how in Pokemon, the desert areas are almost always associated with Ghost-types (as well as Ground). "Ancient ruins hidden by the sand" seems to be the theme, although in this case I think the reasoning is that it's like a lonely tumbleweed rolling through a deserted western town... a ghost town, if you will.

But, I fear Bramlin might be my Vanilluxe. I liked that icy bastard, but where other people said "oh my god its literally just an ice cream cone" I see Bramblin and think "oh my god its literally just a tumbleweed". Which isn't accurate, I know - a real tumbleweed wouldn't have so much empty space inside, much less any floating eyes.

But that just makes me think, is a tumbleweed really that interested to be the entire concept? It's Ghost-type, but I don't see much spookiness. If anything, the shape reminds me of Chandelure, and then I'm thinking about a much cooler Pokemon. Which is also an object-mon, but for some reason it's different. I liked Minior, too, which is also very similar. Not sure why Bramlin just leaves me so cold.

idk, I think it could have used a jaunty cowboy hat, or maybe it should be a little imp running around inside the tumbleweed-cage, like a hamster ball.

Overall: 4/10