#33: Lucario

Hell yeah, this merciless fighting fox Lucario... It looks cool, it's a very strong Pokémon to use in the video games and it is one of the few non-legendary Pokémon to be featured in a full movie. In fact, Lucario appeared in the eighth movie and was one of the main Pokémon throughout it (see image below). Only Unown managed to be one of the most important Pokémon in a feature film before. The third to be precise, although Entei filled up more screening time than Unown. Besides, Lucario and Unown didn't stay the only non-legendary Pokémon to be featured in a full film: the thirteenth film was dedicated to Zoroark, although I question its non-legendary status because it's very hard to get in the first Black and White games. Enough about that, get ready to get some awesome news: Lucario gets a Mega Evolution that only works during battle while holding a special stone! Yep, that's right! Gamefreak announced the appearance of Mega Pokémon for the upcoming Pokémon X and Y a few days ago and Lucario is one of them, along with Blaziken, Ampharos, Mawile, Absol, Mewtwo (meh) and Kangaskhan. That makes it even stronger than it already was, damn it! I'm excited for this new type of evolution, but until then we'll have to make do with just the normal Lucario.

So how well does it do in in-game battles? Just great, I can tell you that! It evolves from the pure fighting-type Riolu at a high friendship level, but Lucario gains the unbelievably useful steel-type upon evolving. That gives it normal resistances to steel, normal, ghost, grass and ice, double resistances to rock, bug and dark and an immunity to poison. Also, Lucario is definitely a strong Pokémon offensive-wise. It has great attack and special attack (with a slight preference to special attack) and it even has good speed in order to strike first very often. Its defenses are nothing to write home about, but it should be capable of taking quite some hits: its immunity and many resistances make up for its average defenses. As if that wasn't enough already, Lucario has a very diverse movepool. It is capable of learning Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Psychic, Rock Slide, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Shadow Ball, Ice Punch, ThunderPunch, Zen Headbutt and Poison Jab. Lucario's high attack stat let it pull many of those moves of very easily, and those are not even the moves of its own type. It hits even harder with Brick Break, Close Combat, Iron Tail, Drain Punch and definitely Focus Blast, Flash Cannon and its signature move Aura Sphere (keep that move no matter what!), since they're special-based.

In Diamond, Pearl and Platinum you get a level 1 Riolu very late in the games, so unless you spent much extra time in training, it was of no use. In Black 2 and White 2, however, you could catch a Riolu before taking on the first gym. That makes it a lot easier to get yourself a Lucario in your team! My Lucario has rescued me out of sticky situations, so I'd definitely recommend to catch yourself a Riolu and evolve it into Lucario before taking on the second gym. It's poison-type, so you'll laugh your butt off! Anyway, Lucario is undoubtedly one of my favorite Pokémon. Not only because of its use in the last few games, but also because of its design, its awesomeness and its new form in the upcoming X and Y games (see image below; click on it to enlarge it, or drag it to another tab). I believe that will make Lucario even more awesome!