[DISCUSSION] All Our Favorite Dark Pokémon!

[0kamii]

Hey, everybody! It's 0kamii, and you all requested Dark-Types to be the next type covered in my 'All Our Favorite' series.

What's there to say about the omnious nature of the mysterious Dark-Types? They never had a gym, most are associated with evil, malfeasance, and other putrid things from which most trainers would stay away. However, there is a select few that see the potential in all Dark-Types. Their inner demons intrigued us, and stimulates our desire to prod at them like domestic cattle. They lurk in the shadows, in the ick of the thickest swamp, and high in the caves of foreboding mountains. Though sometimes they're prowling in the grass, our animated children constantly under the gaze of these vengeful critters. Is there no greater reward for a trainer than to find an elusive beast and break its will to your own? Dark-Types relish this, and every once in a while, they seek out a trainer worthy of their malign nature. Their cruelty, their savagery, and their loyalty betray the stoick facade these beasts come spouting, only to eventually succumb to the light (of Fairy-Types that is).

Whew! Pardon the tangent, not sure where that came from. But anyway, the reason all of you love these posts is because we all get to talk about our favorite mons of the specified type, and I'm going to kick things off with a few of my personal favorite Dark-Types. My favorite Dark-Type is:
 

 

 

Yep, my favorite Dark-Types come from Gen 5. People really seem to forget about Bisharp, but I could never forget this darkly dreaming disaster walking! Dark/Steel, despite being 4x weak to Fighting-Types, is a very fitting type for this bladed chess piece, and since I'm such a avid chess player, I instantly took to this pokémon. Its stat distribution could be a bit better, mainly more Speed, but that doesn't mean Bisharp is unusable. Honestly, if you think a little Speed will slow me down you guys don't know me well enough yet. Bisharp was also one of very first pokémon I Shiny hunted, and I got him after 283 eggs. I named him Gardez le Reine, "Keep the Lady!" Fitting that a chess piece gets a chess term for a name!

 

Set 1 - Weakness Policy Sweeper

Bisharp @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rock Polish
- Sucker Punch
- Iron Head
- Night Slash/Psycho Cut

 

This is my personal favorite set, as Bisharp is usually bulky enough to survive one hit, activating the Weakness Policy and becoming a devastating sweeper. In higher tiers of play though, like OU, I wouldn't think Bisharp is a good choice because of the abundance of pokémon like Landorus, Heatran, Charizard, and Excadrill, all of which easily OHKO Bisharp. As with most of my recreational sets, this is very much a high right high reward set. But it's fun nonetheless, and besides, this isn't a forum for VGC, so I can afford to be a little crazy!

Instead of posting a second set, this time I'm going to open it up to all of you! Which Bisharp sets do you love? Whether it be in OU, Ubers, or VGC 2015 or 2016 when it was legal. In the meantime, other Dark-Type pokémon I adore are:

 

 

I've loved Zoroark from the moment I saw it, and to this day it's one of the earlier pokémon I Shiny hunted, right up there with Bisharp. The Illusionary Fox remains one of my abslute favorite pokémon, and probably will be for a long time. Weavile is my favorite of the Gen 4 evolutions to older pokémon, and I've been dying to find a way to make Weavile usable in VGC 2017. Though Worlds is coming up in a month, so it looks like I may have ran out of time. I still love it, though. And Alolan Persian. No one realy seems to like it, but I think it's absolutely charming, and seeing VGC player Sebastian Escalante bringing one to the Melbourne Internationals as well as the Indianapolis Internationals this past weekend was really exciting! Don't listen to them Persian, you're classically handsome!

As always, I put it to my fellow users to tell me what their favorite Dark-Types are. Today, let's ask: @LittleFoxS, @Reis, @iimlF4nT4Sy, @SenpaisLittleEevee, and @Corrosion2424.

What are your favorite Dark-Types, and what is your favorite set to use on them?

Thanks for reading everyone, and I'll be back on Wednesday with a long awaited VGC analysis of Drifblim! Read you all soon, battle onwards friends!

- 0kamii

P.S. Bonus points to anyone that comments on the two references I hid in this post. See if you can spot them both!