Pokemon: Type Combinations That Don't Exist Yet

Generation VII brought to us a fair amount of brand-new type combinations. Some are very unique and awesome (Salandit's Poison/Fire, Kommo-o's Fighting/Dragon, Marshadow's Fighting/Ghost), some are just pairing other types up with the newest type, Fairy (Alolan Vulpix's Ice/Fairy, Cutiefly's Bug/Fairy, Mimikyu's Ghost/Fairy) and some are just filling in the niche of being Normal/whatever -- it's kind of an odd trend that's been happening over the last couple of generations, just making random part-Normal Pokemon without any real thematic reason.

But Generation VII seemed to try to tick so many boxes, as no less than thirteen brand-new type combinations never seen before in Pokemon have been introduced in the relatively limited amount of Pokemon we got in VII. That got me thinking, though -- Generations VI and VII have introduced so many brand-new type combinations that we haven't seen before that there must be someone at Game Freak headquarters with a list of type combinations that haven't been used yet and is just happily ticking off the boxes. So with that in mind, let's go through what's left, and talk a bit about just what could fit in those categories.

Surprisingly enough, the brand-new Fairy-type has been paired up with almost every other type. Guess they really wanted to promote that type, huh?

Anyway, let's go and talk about this:

Normal/Poison; Normal/Rock; Normal/Ice; Normal/Bug; Normal/Ghost; Normal/Steel: I'm going to lump all of this together, because, well, basically there's not much that differentiates between a pure whatever-type with a Normal/whatever-type. Like, say, compare Arcanine and Pyroar. Arcanine is a pure-Fire type because it's a tiger-dog that breathes fire. Pyroar is a lion hat breathes fire, so it's... Normal/Fire? Because it's an animal? But so are Rapidash, Arcanine, Slugma and Flareon. What makes Drampa more 'normal' than a pure Dragon-type like Goodra or  Druddigon? What makes Alolan Raticate more 'normal' than Mightyena or Liepard? So, yeah. Really, they could easily slap the Normal tag on anything that's animal-esque and call it a day. Normal/Steel might require a bit more of a creative design, I think, but overall you can probably just slap it on anything. Normal/Ghost is the probably going to be the most interesting, since it's already established that Normal and Ghost are anathema to each other and can't touch each other... and I'm curious what that type combination would eventually give us. A creature that half-materializes as a physical being and then melds into the 'shadow realm', sort of like some D&D monsters? If the influx of Normal/X types in Generations VI and VII is any indication, we'd probably see most of these in record time.

Fire/Grass: Some of the typings listed here are just hard to probably design a Pokemon for, because the two types are anathema against each other. A Fire/Grass type probably would have to be a walking burning tree, like a personification (poke-sonification?) of a forest fire or something along those lines. I don't know, though. Pokemon could be really unexpected (Volcanion, for one, wouldn't be what I would expect Pokemon's first Fire/Water type to be). Other possible Fire/Grass critters could be, uh... a matchstick themed Pokemon, maybe? This one's going to be pretty interesting. 

Fire/Ice: Similar to the Fire/Grass example above, Fire/Ice is a bit hard to make a Pokemon for, and I feel it probably would have to be like a legendary frost-fire creature. Fire/Ice would be an insanely powerful offensive type, I think, even if it would be absolutely fucked over by Rock-types. I don't really have any idea what this could be, though. 

Fire/Fairy: One of the five types not yet paired with Fairy is Fire, and I feel that there's a huge, huge amount of design space and flexibility for Fairy-types. I mean, you can go all the way from cute to creepy with these Fairy-types, and I think it's a simple matter of time before we see a Fire/Fairy. Fire is a remarkably popular typing, after all, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it in like the immediate next generation as some sort of fire-slinging gremlin or living will-o-wisp or something. Hell, for design ideas you don't have to look too far, if Victini had been released post-Generation VI I bet he would've been Fire/Fairy instead of Fire/Psychic. 

Bug/Dark: I'm surprised there isn't a Bug/Dark type yet, because Drapion immediately comes to mind... but apparently Drapion is Poison/Dark. Oops! It's honestly quite odd considering there's a fair amount of evil-looking insects out there (Ariados, Beedrill, Scolipede,  Pinsir...) but none of them are Bug/Dark, because... uh... all these bugs are good guys, I guess? It's genuinely surprising considering how often bugs and creepy-crawlies are often typecast as evil monsters, but Pokemon tended to go for the Kamen Rider mentality of bugs as neutral or heroic creatures, I guess. Again, like Fire/Fairy, it's going to be a matter of time before Nintendo finds a bug that's evil-looking enough that they don't slap the very common Bug/Flying or Bug/Poison tag on. Probably a spider or a disease-spreading creature or something. 

Bug/Dragon: I love bugs. I love dragons. That's sort of my two favourite types, and the two are sort of anathema to each other? Bugs tend to be portrayed as relatively weak and fragile, while dragons tended to be portrayed as mighty, legendary beings. Obviously the obvious thing to do is point to Flygon. On the other hand, without doing Flygon Redux, it's a bit hard to design a dragon that's the same time also an insect. Still, on the other hand, if Alolan Exeggutor and Sliggoo get to be called dragons... I mean, it's also not very hard to imagine what it would look like. Or they could just give Flygon a regional variant or mega evolution that makes him the bug/dragon we know he is. Come on, Gamefreak, make it happen. 

Bug/Ice: Bugs just don't live well in cold, but this is still a typing I'm not surprised hasn't been made yet. Because our arthropod buddies are very, very versatile, and there are definitely insects that live in icy climates, though, like the Arctic-dwelling tiger moth, so it's not impossible to make one. Though, honestly, Bug/Ice is such a horrible typing defensively. Rocks and Fire will fuck it up! But we care more about flavour here on this site than competitive viability. 

Bug/Psychic: Bugs and Psychics are also two types that hate each other, with Psychic-types being bullied by. It's not hard, though, to imagine a bug that's all zen and shit. I mean, we've got psychic tapirs and psychic cats and psychic bats, why not psychic bugs? I'm thinking of something along the lines of that psychic praying mantis in A Bug's Life or something like that? I'm not sure if the 'praying mantis' pun works in Japanese, though. It's going to be a bit of a weird combination since Bug is such a fragile typing, so yeah.

Fighting/Electric: Fighting is another type that's surprisingly have a fair amount of match-ups that aren't done yet, with several (Fighting/Ice, Fighting/Ghost) only done in Generation VII. With Generation V's huge hard-on for Fighting-types it's honestly a bit of a surprise. Apparently we haven't had a Fighting/Electric yet? Well, it's easy to just slap Fighting on to anything, so it's honestly not that hard to imagine a dude who punches stuff with lightning in their fist. Like, you see those in anime all the time. How did we make a kung-fu mushroom dinosaur decades before we made a dude who has electric punches?

Fighting/Ground: Again, not that hard to imagine. Just imagine Bruno from the Kanto Elite Four, but as a Pokemon. I can just imagine a fighter that relies on slamming the ground to screw up the enemy's footing and something similar to that. Like, honestly, I actually clean forgot that Terrakion is Rock instead of Ground. That's dumb because, y'know, 'terra' means 'ground', right?

Poison/Ice: ... yeah, you got me. I'm not sure how to make this. A snake that lives in icy terrain, maybe? I don't think snakes survive in the cold, though. Poison and Ice just doesn't seem like two types that would naturally work together. Not sure what Nintendo will do with this combination.

Poison/Electric: Another hard one is poison and electric, to be honest. Then again, the electric typing has been given randomly to animals like zebras, rats and tarantulas just to let them be awesome, so I won't really mind that much if, like, we get an electric cousin of Crobat or Arbok or Weezing that shoots lightning bolts in addition to poison blasts. Shit, that has to be one of the most terrifying things in the world, to have a glob of poisonous acid that also has electricity coursing through it launched at your face.

Poison/Psychic: This one would be kinda horrifying, I think. Imagine it's a waterbending-style Pokemon that uses its psychic powers to manipulate poison through the air. Like, instead of shooting Muk gunk at the enemy, this theoretical Poison/Psychic would straight up telekinetically have the poison gunk chase you around. It's also a pretty decent combination, which means only Ground-types, Ghost-types and Dark-types can really deal super effective damage against it.

Poison/Steel: Steel can't be poisoned, so it's a bit hard to think of just how this would work. Like Normal/Poison, the immunity makes this a bit hard since Steel is just, well, metal, and robots don't tend to produce venom. But maybe I'm thinking about it wrong? Maybe they produce poisonous gas or sludge like Weezing or Muk, but as robots or something.

Poison/Fairy: Not an entirely impossible task to do -- Fairy is such a broad category that you can easily shift a more mischievous poison-manipulating one. Like, Fairy's other weakness, Steel, has already been combined with it to form Mawile, Magearna and the menacing Klefki, I can't really imagine that Game Freak would not be able to design a cute enough poison-type to justify being called Poison/Fairy.

Electric/Dark: HOW IS THIS NOT A THING YET? HOW IS LUXRAY NOT ELECTRIC/DARK? I keep forgetting, honestly, and how the hell have they not gotten into making this? Luxray, Manectric, Eelektross... honestly, this one's a bit odd on Pokemon's part.

Rock/Ghost: A ghostly rock? Like, a poltergeist possessing rocks? If you asked me two generations ago I'd probably laugh, but we already have ghosts possessing candles, chandeliers, swords and motherfucking seaweed, so yeah, why not rocks? I mean, it probably would be a bit similar in terms of design to the likes of Regirock or Golem, but honestly I'm confident that they can dig up some lore about a rock ghost or something along those lines to make the theoretical Rock/Ghost distinct in design from the more golem-inspired Pokemon.

Fairy/Fighting: Yeah, this one's easy. Like, it's just a Fairy. That likes to fight. I mean, we have a fighting bird and he's a freaking pro wrestler that goes around flying pressing people. A fairy that goes around punching people isn't hard to do.

Fairy/Ground: Mmm, another easy one to do, could easily have been Tapu Bulu's typing, to be honest, if they didn't focus so much on it being an abundance Pokemon in-lore. I know a lot of fairies traditionally live in underground caverns, so this isn't a hard one to do either.

Fairy/Dark: This one is obvious, a lot of Fairy-types are already evil as it is. Shiinotic is a fucking trickster that lures humans into forests with lights and shit, and apparently kills its prey like the asshat fungus that it is to feed on their nutrients. Mimikyu can kill people by showing its true form to them, and while it just wants a buddy and a friend and it's sad and shit... the psychotic Mimikyu in Sun and Moon's trial seemed pretty evil to me. Mr Mime is a clown mime, making him doubly evil. And Klefki, scion of hell, truly is a horrifying monster of eldritch horror. It's not hard to make like an imp or a satyr or any sort of a trickster fairy to fit this role, to be honest.

Yeah, that's about it. It's a bit of a shorter article and I meander off from trying to discuss viability into just design ideas, but there we go.
_________________________________________

===UPDATE FROM 2019===

Hello from the present-day! Wow, this article's old, huh? It was written in 2017, and I've done a bit of an editing to fix some grammar errors and reformat the article a bit to make it more presentable, but man, we've gotten a brand new Pokemon generation with Sword and Shield, and this simple, humble article has somehow became hands-down THE most-viewed article on this blog. I'm not sure why, I guess google likes the title? I guess it's something that people search on google a lot or something? Anyway, instead of making a random short article as a follow-up to this, I thought I'd just update this list!

But with a new generation, we do actually get to see many of these type combinations that haven't existed yet become reality! (Surprisingly none of them are the part-Normal ones!)


FIRE/ICE! Welcoming our very first Fire/Ice Pokemon is the galarian form of a familiar face, Darmanitan! And normally it's just a pure ice-type yeti snowman creature, but when it enters Zen Mode, instead of becoming a psychic statue, it... becomes a burning snowman that shoots flame out of the snowman head! It's just so fucking weird, and I definitely wouldn't think that Pokemon's first Fire/Ice creature's going to be a burning snowman that's constantly on the threat of melting. I don't know that much about Galarian Darmanitan's lore, but I think this is a form that he takes on if he gets super-duper angry? It's certainly interesting!


BUG/ICE! Holy shit, that random 'tiger moth' speculation actually became reality! And I remembered that part of the article was just me spitballing about random Arctic insects. Snom and Frosmoth are easily some of the highlights of the eighth generation. And they're as fragile as you'd expect, combining bug and ice, but it's definitely a very, very welcome addition to the Pokemon family!


BUG/PSYCHIC! This one was unexpected, because it's the regional early-route bug that turns into a psychic ladybug! Breaking the trend of butterfly early-route bugs for the second generation in a row, Dottler and Orbeetle are based on ladybugs and they're part-psychic... and I certainly wouldn't have thought that it's the case looking at Orbeetle's design. The anatomy is still pretty weird-looking and I still kind of have trouble getting used to it, but its Kabuki face certainly looks awesome, those eyes do scream 'psychic monster'. Ladybug spots are, I believe, used for fortune-telling in some cultures, so there's certainly something mystical about it. I'm just genuinely surprised that it's a ladybug UFO creature of all things that ended up being our first Bug/Psychic instead of something more obvious like a moth or a praying mantis! I like these two, too, even if they're not obviously Bug/Psychic.


ELECTRIC/DARK... Oh, man, after all of the angry yelling the fandom collectively have about how Luxray or Manectric or whatever should be Electric/Dark, it's... it's the regional Pika-clone that turns out to have the distinction of being the franchise's first Electric/Dark creature and it's Morpeko, the perpetually emotionally unstable, angry-when-he's-hungry creature. That's... that's sort of hilarious, I guess, but I really don't have much of an opinion about Morpeko, and while he's certainly mean-looking and while not all Dark-types are super-edgy and serious, it's kind of an odd subversion, y'know?


POISON/ELECTRIC! Y'know, out of all of the Poison/Electric Fakemon I've seen online over the years, they always tended to be... oh, something like Pokemon Uranium's Haagoop, like, these cool-looking alien creatures that generate electricity and secrete poison. Never in a million years would I personally think up of a punk-rock lizard-man who strums his own chest to play death metal, while also generating electricity, being modeled after a rock-star, having super saiyan hair, and having an ability that amps up all of its sound-based attacks. Also its pre-evolved form is a lizard baby. Toxel and Toxtricity are two of the more creative and surprising additions to this generation's roster, and their Poison/Electric typing is certainly... unconventional, but somehow it just ends up making sense, y'know?


POISON/FAIRY... um okay yeah this one doesn't make quite as much sense. I adore the concept and ridiculousness of Galarian Weezing, giving him top-hats that also double as smoke-stacks and giving him poison gas facial hair. That's great and all, and of course it has to retain the Poison-typing. I'm just not quite sure where the Fairy part of it comes in, y'know? I guess the puff-balls? I dunno. I like Galarian Weezing, I like that he's a fairy, but I really feel like he stands out particularly badly next to all of the other Fairy-type Pokemon.


FAIRY/DARK! It's an imp that evolves into a goblin that evolves into a troll. WIth the bonus of having a very fair-folk-esque gimmick of fighting with its hair, and also absorbing negative emotions. Impdimp, Morgrem and Grimmsnarl are all pretty much what I expect from Fairy/Dark, and it's sort of the obvious route to go (hair muscles aside). And while it did take some getting used to, they certainly are pretty worthy and pretty suitable (if, again, obvious) as our premiere evil fairies. I like them.