so I live in north carolina and I thought it would be fun to make regional variants of my top 10 favorite pokemon specific to this state

10. ursaring

north carolina (especially the mountain area) is very proud of the fact that we have black bears, so it would make sense to base a carolinian ursaring off of a black bear

type: grass/dark, black bears are the best at climbing trees and are more herbivorous then other bear species, making it the grass type, the dark type is because black bears are often nocturnal

abilities: thick fat/gluttony/guts

signature ability: scavenge: when the opponent loses its held item the user will find and eat it to varying effects

stats: black bears are smaller, more mobile bears, so carolinian ursaring would reflect that in its stats. its speed would go way up at the cost of defense, with a minor buff to its attack

9. lapras

one of NC's biggest landmarks is the lighthouse down in cape hatteras, and so I designed carolinian lapras off of it

type: water/fire: the fire is because it is a lighthouse, light produces a lot of heat, and so fire type makes sense, although electric can also work

abilities: volt absorb/rain dish/illuminate

signature ability: blinding: lowers opponents accuracy on switch in, the opponent will regain its accuracy if it uses a move that gets it away from the light such as fly, dive, or dig

stats: honestly I wouldn't change lapras's stats that much, maybe lower speed or attack to increase its bulk or special attack but that is all I can come up with

8. cramorant

north carolina is home to many different types of seabirds, however I wanted to base carolinian cramorant on the blue haron (and the shiny off of the white egret)

type: water/dark: the dark type was added because of the stealthy single strike attack that harons use to catch their prey

abilities: sniper/keen eye/gale wings

signature ability: watered down: all of the users flying type moves become water moves with a boost

stats: make it more well rounded, boost its speed and attack, lower its defenses, but give it an abnormally large HP stat to confuse people

7. gallade

north carolina is a very pro gun state, and so the cornerstone of gallade's design would be that instead of having blade arms, it would have rifle arms and the ability to shoot bullets from its fingertips

type: fighting/fire: I mean...guns...fire is pretty obvious

abilities: mega launcher/sniper/soundproof

signature ability: double barrel: all of the users non contact moves hit twice

stats: BUFF DAT SPECIAL ATTACK, make it fast as hell, and honestly I don't care about its other stats

bonus: gardevoir

if gallade gets a new form then it would only be logical for gardevoir to get a new form

I'd give carolinian garddvoir a more tomboyish attitude that isn't afraid to get dirty and fight rough, to more accurately depict women in the southern states

type: ground/fairy: she aint afraid to get dirty but she still love to be purty

abilities: cute charm/sturdy/sheer force

signature ability: self defense: boosts the users defense and special attack whenever it is hit by a contact move

stats: honestly I can see carolinian gardevoir as a tanky phisical attacker, dishing out earthquakes and play roughs willy nilly, its defense stars (HP especially) would get a buff, all at the cost of speed, its special attack would be nerfed as well but still respectible

6. steelix

all of us down here know to respect the space of a copperhead, and so a massive version of our most feared snake would be most appropriate

type: poison ground: copperheads are deadly venomous and it would be a crime to not make a copperhead pokemon, poison type

abilities: shed skin/poison point/sand stream

signature ability: camaflauge: users evasiveness is boosted at the end of every turn, however its speed will be decreased

stats: a phisically offenseive monster with decent speed and defense and terrible everything else

5. arcanine

now let me tell you what, use southerners love our hound dogs, so if you gonna make a regional variant of arcanine, you damn well better make it a hound dog. I would make growlithe based off of the basset hound and arcanine based on the bloodhound

type: ground/fighting: ground because hound dogs sniff the ground in order to follow the scent of whatever they are looking for, and fighting (for arcanine specifically) is because bloodhounds can be used to take down people and animals if trained correctly

abilities: keen eye/ cute charm/ jusitified

signature ability: strong nose: users accuracy cannot be lowered, user can hit opponents using moves like fly or dig

stats: defensive physical attacker with decent speed and HP and poor special stars

4. muk

north carolina is a muddy state, so much so that one of our counties is literally called clayton, after our abundance of natural clay

type: water ground: wet clay...pretty obvious

type for secondary form: ground: hard clay...pretty obvious

abilities: stamina/damp/drizzle

signature ability: maliable: user goes into its soft form when hit by a water move and its hard form when hit by a fire move.

stats: its hard form would be physically defensive with good phisycal attack, while the wet form would switch its physical and special stats

3. blastoise

the alligator snapping turtle, the largest freshwater turtle in the world, and one of our native creatures. dreadnaw has a bit of it, but it resembles a common snapping turtle more than the ferocious alligator version

type: dark dragon: this sinister creature would be feared by locals, for its bone breaking jaws and its cruel nature

abilities: strong jaw/swift swim/mega launcer

signature ability: stealth strike: if the user uses dive or dig they stay under for an extra turn, and can attack during this turn

stats: bulky physical attacker, with decent special attack and god awful speed

2.excadrill

this was a hard one, but I decided to base it off of the rugged mountain region of this state

type: rock: yep, pure rock to represent our notoriously rocky mountains

abilities: sturdy/stamina/solid rock

mountain surge: user summons a mountain terrain on switch in, the mountain terrain would lower the power of grass and fighting moves/boost the speed of everyone who is hit by a water move, and hurt everything that uses a steel or ground move, would also boost the power of rock moves

stats: bulky physical attacker with decent speed, simple

1. gliscor

   I decided to base carolinian gliscor off of two animals native to the coastal area of NC, the ghost crab and the stingray

   type: water/ghost: water because stingray and ghost because ghost crab

   abilities: sand veil/swift swim/poison heal

   signature ability: high tide: user summons the high tide weather condition which combines the attributes of sandstorm and rain into one, user is immune to sandstorm damage

   stats: fast and bulky, its attacking stats would be negligible, but it would be fast and tank a lot of hits, acting more as a support pokemon than anything