Pokemon: Arcanine

 Yukki here!


I will start with an overview of this "arcane canine", followed by my own review of its overall appeal and XY-aged battling summary.

Arcanine is a fire-type Pokémon introduced in Generation 1. It is known as the Legendary Pokémon.

We know Arcanine from the original Pokemon opening theme,
from Gary/Green's original line-up along with Blastoise and others,

...from the first set of the card game as an uncommon with 100 HP and two fairly heavy attacks,

...and we know him as the original dawg! (aren't you glad I didn't say doge?)
 

He is classified as the "legendary" Pokemon, though he is not "legendary" in terms of rarity, as he evolves by simply using a Fire Stone on a Growlithe.

Here's some more basic Arcanine information:

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Kanto Pokedex #059

Japanese: ウインディ

Types: Fire

Average height: listed as 6'3" (About my height~!)

Average weight: listed as ~342 lbs

Abilities (XY): Intimidate, Flash Fire, Justified

Red Blue	A POKéMON that has been admired since the past for its beauty. It runs agilely as if on wings.
Yellow	A legendary POKéMON in China. Many people are charmed by its grace and beauty while running.
Gold HeartGold	This legendary Chinese POKEMON is considered magnificent. Many people are enchanted by its grand mane.
Silver SoulSilver	Its magnificent bark conveys a sense of majesty. Anyone hearing it can’t help but grovel before it.
Crystal	An ancient picture scroll shows that people were attracted to its movement as it ran through prairie s.
Ruby Sapphire	ARCANINE is known for its high speed. It is said to be capable of running over 6,200 miles in a single day and night. The fire that blazes wildly within this POKéMON’s body is its source of power.
Emerald	This fleet-footed POKéMON is said to run over 6,200 miles in a single day and night. The fire that blazes wildly within its body is its source of power.
FireRed	A POKéMON that is described in Chinese legends. It is said to race at an unbelievable speed.
LeafGreen	A POKéMON that has long been admired for its beauty. It runs agilely as if on wings.
Diamond Pearl Platinum Black White	Its proud and regal appearance has captured the hearts of people since long ago.
Black 2 White 2	The sight of it running over 6,200 miles in a single day and night has captivated many people.

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From Wikipedia:

Arcanine, of the Legendary Pokémon species, is a canine or wolf-like Pokémon, resembling a shisa with traits of a tiger.

 In fact, Arcanine even appears at the very beginning of the Pokemon series on a stone tablet displayed in season 1: episode 2 (from 09:47). Ash points to the tablet, claiming to have seen "a flying Pokemon like that one" that "flew right over the rainbow," pointing to the upper right (blue) section of the display.

Articuno can be seen in the upper right, with Moltres in the upper left, Zapdos in the lower left, and Arcanine standing proud and dignified in the lower right.

Ash is mistaking the featured legendary bird in blue (Articuno) for a Pokemon that's neither of those four (namely Ho-oh), much to the doubt of Professor Oak, who proceeds to ditch Ash for Pizza.
Oops! I meant this...
Ho-oh..

It can be clearly deduced from this that Arcanine was meant to be more than just another stone-evolving non-elite Pokemon. Well, at least to me he is much more than that. You'll understand why after some explaining, but his information and lore are pretty cool too!

Here is an overview of Arcanine's battling stats: 

For those who don't know how to interpret this, I will explain in some detail:

His 90 base HP (health/"hit points") is above average. At lv. 100, he can have 384 HP if he is trained in that way. 384 is quite high actually, for an offensive type. It doesn't match up to Lapras, Vaporeon, Chancey, or anyone like that who specializes in HP, but most Pokemon have less HP than Arcanine. He knows how to take a hit!

His Attack stat is not astronomical or anything, but it is quite high. He can hit very hard, and investing a lot into this Attack stat and relying on it is not a bad way to go. For reference, a ridiculous offensive stat would be something like Mewtwo's maximum Special Attack of 440 (though he is legendary and kind of unfair), and 350 (base 110) is a typical "high stat" number; Jolteon's Special Attack, Espeon's Speed, Vaporeon's Special Attack, and many more all max out at 350 (base 110). Charizard's maximum Special Attack is 348.


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So to start off, 

we can say that Arcanine's HP and Attack are good.

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Arcanine's Defense is poor; it's above average for very offensive Pokemon, and is not below average or anything, but it's not reliable either. The same goes for Special Defense. But with Arcanine's good HP and "not terrible" defenses, he can be trained into a decently wall-y Pokemon.

His Special Attack sits at a respectably high max of 328 - base 100 - and some Pokemon would even fully invest in this and use special attacks. It's not recommended to focus on this for Arcanine, since his Attack is even better, but having great Attack is no reason to ignore his good Special Attack stat, which is just as high as that of a Mew or a Celebi. Thus, Arcanine's move set should be either physical, or both physical and special. 

Lastly, Arcanine's Speed: Maxing at 317, it's not amazing, but it still makes him faster than most Pokemon; Arcanine can still be considered a "fast" Pokemon, though in the current age of Pokemon, his speed should not be relied upon. More on that in my battle review below.

As you can see, Arcanine's stats are solid and respectable; while he isn't hyperbolic enough to be an insane "sweeper" or "wall", his ability to fill either role pretty well without moving to either extreme gives him a certain longevity on the battlefield and versatility as a team member.

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Having detailed a thing or two about his stats above, I will try to keep this as brief as possible now.

I won't get into the whole "appeal" thing much, either. Arcanine is a cool Pokemon, and I've loved him since Pokemon first came out in Red and Blue (Blue w00t!!).

Arcanine's lore and overall appearance put him, I can almost objectively say, into the top tier of cool Pokemon out of all 700'something! (Yes Blastoise... that includes you too. Especially in the picture above <3 )

Battle Review: 
 

Now, first of all, Arcanine has great versatility due partly to his move pool. Here is a far-from-exhaustive list of some of his best and most useful moves:


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Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Heat Wave (etc.)

Flare Blitz, Flame Charge

Extremespeed

Wild Charge

Close Combat

Crunch

Iron Head

Roar

Bulldoze

Will-o-wisp (A TM I have to mention...)

Body Slam

Morning Sun

Iron Tail

Reversal

Outrage

Dragon Pulse

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So as you can see from this list, he learns all the physical or special fire-type moves he could need, he learns a strong electric attack - a wonderful way to deal with water* and flying types - and he even gets Close Combat, a very powerful fighting-type move he also received starting in the 5th generation, which helps him deal with any rock or normal types, as well as pests like the steel/fire Heatran.

Crunch can help him deal with any psychic or ghost types, but also guys like Latios or Jellicent who try to wall him off.  

Iron Head also help his issue with rock types, but it serves a special purpose now of damaging fairy-type Pokemon. Luckily for Arcanine, he is a fire type and as such, resists fairy-type attacks (for some reason).

Bulldoze isn't super powerful, but it is a ground-type move that can truly help him a great deal.

Morning sun is amazing, as it allows us to create a bulky (defensive) Arcanine who can recover his own HP! 

Plus, he even learns strong dragon-type moves, which could be a strong niche choice - a special attack in Dragon Pulse, and an even stronger (but riskier) physical dragon move in Outrage.

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It is clear from this that Arcanine has a lot at his disposal.

Continuing,

His downside is that as a fire type, it's not too hard to wall him off. It's true that he may have prepared the right countermeasures with his move set, but then comes the question - how do we choose 4 moves out of all this? One of Arcanine's weaknesses is none other than his own strength; he has so many good moves and so much coverage, but he can never cover everything at all times. If you choose to make a bulkier, more defensive Arcanine like I do, your choices may then be even less if and after you assign him anything like Will-o-wisp or Morning Sun.

But at least as a fire type, Arcanine is easy to look after. It is clear that he is only weak to water, rock, and ground, and if you know the opposing Pokemon can't use any strong moves of those types, then there's little to worry about aside from sheer power, status ailment, or stat-boosters.

Still, the fact that there is a whole plethora of different Arcanines we can construct gives us the fun, creativity, and uniqueness that I personally always yearned for in games like these.

Personally, I do not invest much in Arcanine's Speed. His Speed never hits any impressive numbers anyway, and he can make up for slowness with defensive bulk. After all, even if you do choose to invest a lot in an offensive stat or two, playing your cards right will lead you with plenty more EV's to spread around onto HP and here and there. Arcanine can compensate for any lack of Speed not just through defensive bulk, but with his awesome and formerly exclusive move, Extremespeed - it's a Quick Attack with double the power that has even higher move order priority.

The last Arcanine set I was trying out was a Special Defense Set with some investment in Attack and HP as well, and a smidge in Defense. By investing a lot in Special Defense, I could treat him as a kind of Special Wall taking advantage of his Intimidate ability to make up for any lack in physical Defense, and then further raise that stat by multiplying it by 50% with Assault Vest. Mind you, this item prevents Arcanine from using any non-attack moves, so this is a purely experimental set.

By having Arcanine act as a slow tank with high offense, he ends up only lacking in the Speed department and fully compensates with Extremespeed (though it's not mandatory. Still, it's good to have at least one Pokemon on your team with a "priority" move. But for that I also have Scizor with Bullet Punch). After attacking second (unless the Pokemon was slower than Arcanine, which is actually still often the case), Arcanine can choose to make a second move in a row by taking priority in the next round with Extremespeed.

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Abilities and my team:

Intimidate can either make Arcanine into a great Defense wall, or balance him out as a Special Defense wall or in general (because Intimidate lowers the opposing Pokemon's Attack stat).

Flash Fire can be used for prediction-switching when they try something like hitting Scizor with fire.

Justified can be useful if Tyranitar or someone tries to lock in Espeon with Pursuit but instead Espeon escapes using Baton Pass and has Arcanine power up from the Dark-type hit.

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~END~

RAFF!  

RAFF RAFF!!

~Yukigami