The Underrated Poison Types

Let me pull up the type distribution. Looking at base forms only (excluding alternate forms like Megas), there are 42 Pokemon with Poison as their primary type.

That puts Poison in the bottom third of all types by count. Water dominates with 135 Pokemon, followed by Normal (119) and Grass (106). Poison is actually tied with Fighting and Ground at around 42-43 each. It's not a rare type, but definitely not as common as the big three.

Your instinct is spot on. Let me show you the type pairings.

Pure Poison types are actually the most common (16), but Grass is the top secondary type with 14 Pokemon. Bug comes in third with 12. This makes sense thematically - venomous plants and poisonous insects are classic natural pairings. The rarer combos like Poison/Fairy (just 1) and Poison/Psychic (1) tend to be the more exotic designs.

Here's where it gets interesting. If we rank types by average Base Stat Total:

Poison ranks 14th out of 18 types with an average BST of 426. Dragon leads at 490, followed by Steel at 477. Poison sits in the lower tier alongside Water, Grass, and Normal. But here's the catch - BST averages are skewed by how many early-game Pokemon a type has. Poison has classics like Weedle and Ekans pulling down the average.

Great question. Let me compare Poison's stat profile against some of the elite types.

Poison types are the ultimate generalists - no major strengths, no major weaknesses. Compare that to Fighting (huge Attack, terrible Sp. Atk), Steel (massive Defense, low Speed), or Psychic (dominant Sp. Atk). Dragon excels across the board, which is why it's the top type. Poison's balanced profile means they're versatile but rarely best-in-class at anything.

Here are the top 10 by base stat total:

Eternatus stands alone at 690 BST - it's the legendary Poison/Dragon from Sword and Shield. Pecharunt (600) is a mythical from Scarlet/Violet. After that, you see the Ultra Beasts (Nihilego) and Paradox Pokemon (Iron Moth) filling out the top tier. Classic favorites like Crobat and Venusaur round out the list. Notably absent: Gengar, whose base form is only 500 BST (though Mega Gengar hits 600).