Slugma male

218: Slugma

And here, we're now at our top favorite Pokemon line of Gen 2! Slugma and Magcargo have actually grown on us quite a bit the past few years, with the 'mon just being an all-around neat idea. It's so simple to take a slug and just make it a fire elemental by having it also be a monster made of lava, but it's still somehow such a rare critter trope that it makes Slugma stand out among the crowd.

Then you add on the droopy face that almost looks like a handlebar mustache, and some wide, big eyes, and you got a little dude with a surprising amount of charm to it.

The one thing we could really criticize about Slugma's design (and Magcargo, by extension) are its eyes, which even when taking its Beta design out of the equation, have gotten less and less eyestalk-ey over time. Which is a DAMN shame because eyestalks are such a rare trait in the Pokedex, with just Dwebble/Crustle and Applin having them. The flaming eyebrows are neat, but it's no substitute!!

You can practically hear a portly red plumber approaching this thing

219: Magcargo

Magcargo though is when the line goes to the next level. Magcargo gives an already golden idea of a magma slug and becomes a snail, adding a big shell made of hardened magma rock. And it is SUCH a brilliantly cool idea for a design!! And Magcargo more or less keeps all the loveliness of Slugma, minus flaming eyebrows. But still making up for it with a cool flame shooting out of a hole in its shell, which is shamefully not shown on the newer 3D models.

It's just one of those Pokemon we'd like to use in a run one day, but that gosh darn Fire/Rock typing is so awkward, just kind of being deathly allergic to types that are really bad to be deathly allergic to, Water and Ground. That on top of a bad speed stat really makes us wish Magcargo got in on the regional form thing, but sadly not yet.

The one thing keeping it from being perfect is a face that's just, a bit too Yoshi-like to our liking. Something that having proper eyestalks would fix, but oh well. We appreciate it for being there nonetheless, even if it's not great at the whole Tank thing.

We're only harsh on this so much because we also live in a world where this thing exists. Yeah, yeah, Pikmin and Pokemon have pretty hugely different art styles, but the Pyroclasmic Slooch almost feels like a full, FULL realization of the "slug made of lava" idea. It clearly couldn't be a full-on replacement of Magcargo (there's room in our heart for two lava slugs!!!) with it being so visibly different, but at the same time. It's got funny eyestalks.