Endostrich

The Art Room on Pokemon Showdown made it a Daily Challenge to create a fire/ice fakemon, and since I’ve had one idea in the archive for some time I felt this was as good time as any to flesh it out. Check my tumblr post for more info on earlier attempts.

Fire/Ice has always been an elusive typing though since you’re throwing two opposite types into the basket and then hope they’ll get along, so while this still feels like an awkward design I at least have a concept behind it. Temperatures are the common platform for both types, so a thermometer would tie both of them together, but to avoid making Vanilluxe 2.0, I also wanted an animal with a long neck to use as a base. Despite being a bird, an ostrich works well for this typing as it’s flightless. The “Endo” part of its name refers to “endothermic”, the process of absorbing heat/energy from the surroundings, which is basically what this bird does: its feet and body feel cold because it steals heat from whatever it touches, and it stores all the heat in its head. For this reason, the only offensive fire moves it has are special, while all ice moves (apart from Freeze Dry) are physical. 

Sadly, if I need this much time to explain the idea behind the design then I’ve probably gone overboard. You be the judge.

Notable moves: Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Will-o-Wisp, Icicle Crash, Ice Shard, Freeze Dry, Giga Drain, Tri Attack, Mirror Move, Roost, Encore, Psych Up