#47: Rampardos

When I was a kid, I had a thing for dinosaurs. In some way I found them terribly fascinating. Now I have other interests, of course (although my even bigger thing for Pokémon has never disappeared), but I guess even now my short-term obsession with dinosaurs has affected my taste in Pokémon. Rampardos looks like the hunchback of the Notre Dame, but it is a cool Pokémon all the way! It evolves from Cranidos, which is in turn revived from a Skull Fossil. Rampardos looks like it's going to smash into you with high speed, destroying everything in its way. That's probably why it is called Rampardos, like in 'rampage'. The 'high speed' part does not apply to Rampardos, though. In the video games it's quite slow (although not so slow that it doesn't outspeed some Pokémon out there) and its defenses are absolutely terrible. But guess what? Its attack is MONSTROUS!!! By the time level 50 is reached, some Rampardos already have an attack of above 200 (depending on its nature). That's absolutely fantastic! Also, give it a Quick Claw to hold and it will probably hit first around 70% of the time. You'll almost definitely knock the opponent Pokémon out in one hit, anyway. Rampardos is a great Pokémon to use in-game (heck, even its pre-evolution Cranidos is already very strong!), although you should watch out against Pokémon who want to take advantage of its weaknesses, because most of the time it is not capable of surviving that attack! Still, Rampardos is great, that's why it's positioned at number 47 in my list of favorite Pokémon.