Sure?

The main reason I can think of for being wary of that is because, well, the way you beat Medicham is with a big physical wall… and the way you lose big physical walls is by switching them into something that’s actually a monstrously powerful special attacker.  I know in terms of having big numbers it doesn’t actually make Medicham any more powerful, but the gain in versatility is enormous, and it’s not like Medicham is bad as is.

I’m assuming we’re going with the traditional Grass-Fire-Water set-up here?  Let’s see… we want Pokémon that are straightforward, likely to be easy to raise and well-behaved.  For the most part, starter Pokémon seem to be chosen along those lines anyway.  Something docile like a Chikorita, for instance, is likely to be very forgiving of a new trainer’s skill in comparison to something like a Foongus or, gods forbid, a Ferroseed.  Squirtle is clearly easier for an inexperienced child to work with than, say, Psyduck or Staryu.  Of the Pokémon that aren’t already starters in one region or another… Skiddo seems like it’d make a really good choice for the Grass-type, being a thoroughly domesticated species with a calm and gentle nature.  Energetic, helpful Buizel seems like a natural choice for a Water-type; Poliwag might also make a decent Water-type starter, but its general helplessness on land is a distinct drawback for trainers who don’t have experience with Water Pokémon (could be worse, though – Sycamore gave Tierno a Corphish, of all things, and I still have no idea what possessed him to pick a mean-tempered bastard of a Pokémon like that).  I’m kinda stuck on the Fire-type.  A lot of Fire Pokémon are temperamental (Vulpix) or outright dangerous (Litwick).  There’d be a lot of sense to picking Growlithe, whose loyalty and bravery are excellent traits in a first partner, although a two-stage Pokémon who requires a stone to evolve seems less than ideal – I might prefer Litleo, or maybe even Numel, whose passive personality and long history of domestication make up for the fact that it’s… well, a little slow, if you catch my drift.

You know, I never thought about it that way, but that’s a good point.  The whole idea of Pokémon that are unobtainable in the game started as an accident.  I can only suppose that they kept it up because Mew worked so well.  Remember the mystique Mew had in the first-generation era?

Or, uh… I don’t know; maybe you don’t… damn, I’m old…

But basically the fact that there was this ‘secret Pokémon’ that existed but couldn’t be found or captured normally was the source of more rumours and speculation than just about any other aspect of the game.  It helped that the internet was still young then, and reliable information was hard to come by (I didn’t have an internet-capable device of my own, and even if I had I wouldn’t have known where to begin looking).  There is in fact at least one glitch that you can manipulate to obtain Mew in Red and Blue (I’ve done it), but to my knowledge it didn’t become widely known until well after the end of those games’ time.  I think the continued introduction of ‘secret’ Pokémon – first Celebi, then Jirachi and Deoxys, and so on – was designed to capitalise on the same sense of mystery and excitement that surrounded Mew.

Now, of course, the idea that these Pokémon exist and will inevitably be revealed by Nintendo in due course has become totally routine – as has the fact that the Pokémon fan community will find any information about them that exists in the games, long before we’re actually ‘supposed to.’  But maybe getting us to run around and trade scraps of information and speculation like that is all part of the fun?  They must know, after all, that this is not the 1990s anymore and our capacity to extract, verify and share this information is orders of magnitude above what it was in Mew’s time.  They’re not stupid.  I think they do it specifically to make us talk about it.

Actually, no.  With certain notable exceptions (I’m looking at you, Primeape), Fighting Pokémon draw their power from discipline, control and martial study – like real martial artists.  Tauros is all about uncontrolled rage.  If anything I would consider putting him into Ground or maybe even Dark, but I think it’s most appropriate to leave him where he is in Normal.

Hoopa will probably get an entry to himself in a couple of weeks, just like all the other X and Y Pokémon – there are only five more to go (Noibat/Noivern, Carbink/Diancie, Zygarde, Volcanion, Hoopa – order to be determined).  Not sure how much I can possibly say about him, of course, but I’m sure I’ll think of something; I always do.

It has more recently been pointed out to me that, contrary to my initial assumptions, Girafarig’s Pokédex entry on Crystal version seems to imply it’s her auxiliary rear head that is responsible for her psychic powers, not her main head – so maybe flip those two around, with the ‘power’ form referring to the dominant giraffe head.  That minor point aside, though, I think I like the basic idea, because it expresses the uniqueness of how her bifurcated nature affects her fighting style much more clearly than anything she’s got at the moment.  I would point out that, assuming you intend this to work more or less like Aegislash’s stances, you are effectively giving Girafarig a no-questions-asked +30% to both attack stats, and I’m not sure whether that’s exactly what you intended.  Depending on exactly how you choose to do her effort training, this translates into an effective increase from 80 base attack and 90 base special attack (which is nothing special) to about 118 base attack and 132 special attack (which is f&%#ing terrifying).  Having said that, she’s still pretty fragile and not all that fast (though she does get Agility), doesn’t have any really powerful attacks, and is saddled with a rather poor offensive type combination, so I don’t think we’re necessarily looking at broken levels of power here – just dangerous.

Myself, I think I might go with something other than plain bonuses to different stats for the two forms – keep the switching mechanism, where physical moves shift her into ‘power’ stance and special ones shift her into ‘mind’ stance, but maybe make the benefits things that emphasise the way the two work together?  Maybe ending her turn in one stance boosts the attack stat associated with the other, for instance?  As long as she’s in ‘power’ stance, her second head is constantly storing energy, while as long as she’s in ‘mind’ stance, her main head is building up its own focus.  Something like that might be more interesting.

Well, minor point of description, what you’re actually saying is “all Fire moves have priority +3” – the reason Gale Wings doesn’t beat Extremespeed is because Extremespeed has +2 priority rather than just +1 like Quick Attack et al.  +3 would mean that Rapidash automatically outruns Extremespeed, Feint, Follow Me and Rage Powder, and can potentially outrun Fake Out, Endure, Wide Guard, Quick Guard, Crafty Shield and King’s Shield, but still loses to Protect. [EDIT: At the time of writing, Bulbapedia listed King’s Shield as +3. This is incorrect; it’s actually +4, which means you can ignore the rest of this paragraph.]  The big deal here is King’s Shield, because +3 priority on Fire moves would mean that Rapidash absolutely murders Aegislash (who’s not going to outrun her on a priority tie).  If you’re okay with that, fine – Aegislash could stand to be taken down a peg or two – if not, make it +2 and Rapidash can still outrun slower Pokémon using Extremespeed and faster Pokémon using lesser priority attacks.

Anyway.  What we’re getting here is the Fire equivalent to Talonflame’s priority Brave Bird, in the form of Flare Blitz, so it makes sense to compare the two (priority Will’o’Wisp is not nothing, but I feel like Flare Blitz is the big draw here).  Rapidash’s physical attack stat is significantly higher than Talonflame’s, though, which is worrying when you consider what a dangerous Pokémon Talonflame is, largely on the back of Gale Wings.  Their defences are similar, and Rapidash has less trouble with Stealth Rock but doesn’t get Earthquake immunity.  The main disadvantages are that Rapidash doesn’t have a second STAB attack, can only heal herself with Morning Sun, doesn’t have set-up moves (although Hypnosis could be interesting), and doesn’t have U-Turn.  She does have marginally better coverage with Megahorn, Wild Charge and potentially Drill Run through the Black and White 2 move tutors.  Another point is that Fire, unlike Flying, has no shortage of good special attacks, and while Rapidash prefers physical, her special attack stat is actually very similar to Talonflame’s attack, which means that bunging in Overheat to murder physical walls is a very real possibility.  I don’t think it really ruins any of the Pokémon that would otherwise counter you, but it will certainly make life more difficult for them.  Overall… it makes perfect sense in terms of Rapidash’s flavour that she should be the fastest of the Fire-types; she’s supposed to be a speed demon, and this certainly gives her that. She would certainly be dangerous, and I’m just generally wary of handing out anything that compares favourably, by any metric, to Talonflame’s Gale Wings, but she lacks some of the little extra tricks that help Talonflame to really shine like Swords Dance and priority Roost, so I don’t think we’re getting into broken territory here.