I am Zangoose, I am bad guy.

335: Zangoose

These two aren't quite as directly related as Plusle/Minun or Volbeat/Illumise, but their existence pretty much circles around their rivalry so it's hard to have one without the other. Like peanut butter and jelly! If peanut butter and jelly were capable of having the urge to kill each other. Zangoose here is allegedly a mongoose, but it doesn't really look like one at all, aside from being some mammalian thing. I guess they didn't want it looking TOO much like a mustelid since Furret had just happened, but cmon! Mongeese aren't even proper mustelids!

Either way, Zangoose is neat for what it is, being a mono-Normal type with a nice amount of edge to it. It has cool claws and fur markings that look like exaggerated anime scars, just to sell how totally badass it is. Way to posture, Zangoose! Those aren't even real scars!

Of course, mongeese are most well known for being able to go toe-to-tail with venomous snakes. And it's neat how a mongoose's natural resistance to snake venom is recognized through its two abilities; Immunity, which just makes it outright immune to being Poisoned, or Toxic Boost, which gives it an Attack boost when it's Poisoned!

"Ow my spine hurts"

336: Seviper

And of course, Zangoose's snaky counterpart is about the equally edgy-looking Seviper. In a lot of ways, it's a more fun snake than Ekans or Arbok were. We just really like its cartoon snake energy with that devious smile and comically oversized fangs. It also gets some edgy "scar" markings too, to match Zangoose. The part we're less fans of is those "scales" that go along its back. Had they been smaller, it'd be fine, but when they're THAT large, they look like they're TRYING to be just a patch of coloration, but instead just looks like one, huge scale. Which is perhaps funny, but not really selling Seviper's cool-factor here. Its scrunched-up zig-zag shape is also kinda odd, especially as a resting position. Still though, Seviper's a cool snake! All it's really missing are some verticle pupils.