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Lucario:

Lucario is said to be not only a loyal fighter, but also a hunter in the later pokedex entries. But dang, reading the things that it's capable of in its arsenal, just read its dex entries.

"By catching the aura emanating from others, it can read their thoughts and movements."
If it can read something's thoughts and strategies, it can counter, predict, and act accordingly ahead of time. It can practically look into the mind where it's prey will run next.

"A well-trained one can sense auras to identify and take in the feelings of creatures over half a mile away."
"It’s said that no foe can remain invisible to LUCARIO, since it can detect auras. Even foes it could not otherwise see."
Oh great, now, many of them can now detect you like a UAV on steroids. They practically have an inner scout plane to reveal lifeforms, including prey of course. Granted, it was told only well trained ones. That being said, it is probably the few, if not, only creatures that can viably see straight through a zoroark and even hunt them. No hiding from the stronger steel-fighting variants. If it was a more cruel/realistic nature world, I wouldn't be surprised that it would hunt down zoroarks, a rare prize. Before the Gen 6 steel nerf, it had 4× dark resistance, basically meaning dark type attacks don't do jack. Just to cement it even further, it also has a hidden ability Justified, giving it an attack buff if hit by a dark type attack. So if both species lucario and zoroark duke it out, chances are the more wide covering and scout like predators would come out on top. Further about the ability Justified, it might imply they were practically designed to hunt dark types.

"They can detect the species of a living being— and its emotions—from over half a mile away. They control auras and hunt their prey in packs."
"It concentrates its mental energy and fires off mysterious waves called auras, which can crush boulders of large size to dust."
Welp, Sipping Hot Ice Tea. These things are not only formidable, can see prey far away, and detect movements, but they can determine your species and can hunt together. Show fear means a sign of weakness, be a certain species they're looking for, you will be a goner. All that you can hope for is that you're faster. Unfortunately, if you don't flee in time, or you're not a ghost type, Lucario has its signature move, aura sphere. Aura sphere in canon NEVER misses, ignores evasion checks. Has a 90 special attack boost too, combined with its homing aspect. Pray they aren't coming after you. Also since it can crush boulders, because why not, it won't have any problems destroying obstacles in its path, meaning no hiding places, even if you block it off.

Seeing how it has very strong attack stats and a wide array of type coverage, it has a large selection of things to choose from. It can hold access to dragon type, dark type, steel, poison, ice, and even psychic type moves to take on prey. Anything that is a psychic, dark, ice, normal, fairy, or even dragon if its feeling greedy, they're all fair game. I wouldn't be surprised if they practiced cannibalism and attacked one another over rivalry for game.
But seeing how it has 2× resist (4× if you go by gen 5 and before) resistance to dark types, combined with Justified, dark types would probably be its first and top choice.

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Zoroark:
It would seem incomplete to not address a fighting-steel rival, be it in opposite traits/perks, or familiarity. Unlike most pokemon I've covered on this list, it doesn't come off as a direct straightforward hunter. In the pokedex entries in the later generations, it. Despite not having extraordinarily wide like its other rivals, it has 2 obviously known abilities. Both trying into its signature move, Illusion. The first one, ability to manipulate its surroundings. It can cause the scenery to look like anything it desires, able to trick virtually everyone who sees them. If it wanted to, it can quietly swerve prey into the direction it wants, and the victim wouldn't even realize it. Whatever the pokemon or person is, the surroundings will change to whatever is needed to convince each depending on the scenario. It can also bait fleeing enemies into places they think is safe, only to find out they're at a dead end or in a place just where the perpetrator wanted. The illusions are said to be powerful enough to fool a hundred people. The second thing zoroarks are able to do is also change their appearance. They've been able to do this ever since they were zoruas. They can be any pokemon or person. Even a human, and push other humans towards their doom.

Some people may bring up the so-called ability to "speak." And to be honest, analyzing info from the anime, and in game, it's shakey. Pokedex doesn't talk about how any of them could speak. Plenty of pokemon species have been able to speak. The way it works isn't entirely clear. There are some instances of speaking zoroarks. One in Black/White2 with the traveler, the other from the anime filler episode I can't remember the name to. Overall, the ability to speak languages isn't entirely unique. At the most, I'd say it's a rare trait. But if it can, having the ability to coherse humans via social engineering is very overpowered. It could exclusively dine on people if it felt like it. Like a serial killer, yet can turn into anyone, and make everything look deceiving. It would make a swell horror movie.

It also has "bonds" between others of its kind, so safe to say it lives in groups. How large? Maybe not that large, too large would force them to share food thin. Having multiple working together, they can pull off a huge operation to catch a group of prey. Best case scenario they could strive for is to catch a large sum of game, any species to their convenience/liking. Illusions are already a powerful ability to have on the hunt, more will simply stack their prowess with high success rate.

Based on their abilites, they would most likely become ambush predators. Something just weak enough that they can overpower with sheer offense. They can use dark mainly dark, but a very small movepool for poison, fire, psychic, ghost, and flying. Unfortunately, each non dark type move is limited to just 2 or less practical moves each. They're not overtly strong or magnificent, simply practical. Not strong nor weak. More reasons for it to be jealous of its jackal rival. At least it opens room for opportunities.

So what prey would they normally come after? And how powerful can they be? They boast very high attack, special attacks, and speed. No buffs needed, although they can naturally learn boosts on leveling such as Agility and Nasty plot. But really? Why would they waste an opportunity when they could catch their prey by surprise? Prey they'd probably go for is anything that would likely go down in 1 or 2 hits. If they had one of the non dark abilites, they would maybe boost a Nasty Plot. Their first prey choice would be anything that wouldn't expect to survive an onslaught, ranging from small to straight up human sized. They would likely play it safe and avoid larger prey. Ambush predators in real life have a sense of common sense to not willingly go pick a fight with foes much larger than itself. Fairy types better be wary, as it can use Sludge Bomb, and exploit the fact it can impersonate anything and catch prey off guard. Overall, it won't discriminate based on its tastes. If it's big, and fill enough, its fair game.

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Arcanine:

This is one hefty mean red boi for a pred. All of its traits and and strategies can simply be summed up in one word, "overwhelm." Attack, attack, attack. Whatever isn't supereffective, attack it some more. Almost everything is on the menu, more on that later.
This big dude has a versatile selection of attacks all around, even if they aren't specialized to take down said pokemon. For one, they are said be be extremely fast, amd have high stamina. For crying out loud, in the Gen 3 dex, it runs 6,200 miles during the day, and night time. So assuming its part of its regime, its speed must be roughly 260 miles per hour (source being Scientific Pokedex dot Tumblr.) Going back to the in game lore, its running style is light and as if on wings. Even if it wasn't that really that fast, it is safe to infer there's no way you can flee or drive away. Most animals and vehicles can't come casually close to that. So catching prey should be absolutely no problem (unless they can turn invisible or teleport away.)
It could primarily use straight up powerful fire type moves, physical if it wants to also synergies normal blunt attacks. If you take a look at its huge movepool, most of its attacks are physical. Implying it would rathar get in and take it dowm with a brute approach. Why wouldn't they? If you have the size, the tools, and strength to match, use it.

Arcanines have very good outlook appearances. From the dex alone, they are considered legends. They are revered in lore, by eastern civilizations. If there was a charisma stat, arcanine would rank high. Though not a talker, its roar would make listeners grovel at its majesty. Perhaps its charm could work on pokemon as well. Just go up to an unsuspecting group, then have his dashing voice overtake the souls of those present. They could bend the pokemon/people to willingly come to feed it.

Water types would be susceptible to its better than normal electric type attack Wild Charge. Not even dragons are safe from being potential chow, as it can possess Outrage. Play Rough is another overpowering weapon in its arsenal, fighting and dark types must be careful. Big, small, all is fair in the realm of its hunt. Not a picky one. The only ones that wouldn't be easy meal would be anything that is ground type, as it would lack such properties to really take them on. Not that it would want to, nobody likes eating dirt. Yeah sure, it can learn Solar Beam, but so can other fire types. Why should a super fast honcho patiently wait for it to charge up? It can move onto something else. No specific choice, just make sure its nice and large. Might gloss over small prey, it can't be desperate if arcanine needs larger portions. Speaking of large...

Having to burn up so much energy being a speedster and a bulky hard hitter, it probably "burns" much energy. Lots of it, and will need to recover it. That would mean it will have a wide and demanding appetite. It would make sense it would go for loads of groups. A buffet. Or hit it big. Just use its speed and momentum to pile drive its food down, then engorge. It can sit and lay around while its distended stomach shrinks as its gut makes the works. Probably wouldn't lay around for long. Being a fire type, and heavily demanding stamina, its gut will shrink fast. No surprise if a whole village, town, or little ecosystem suddenly became vacant.

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Ninetales:

An alternative cousin/relative to arcanine. While it doesn't have the stamina to be running all around the continent, or the wide crazy gung-ho approach, it makes up for it in its tricky abilites. Ninetales is more so a long range attacker, just by looking at its special attack. Also, interestingly, if you analyze its raw base stats, its actually slightly faster than Arcanine, ironically. So it must be able to attack with faster reaction time than its bigger fire friend. The fox's abilities can be versatile, with its nice status effects and interesting choices for attack.
Ninetales holds access to mainly fire and psychic type moves. Both excellent types for weakening any prey for consumption. It can also use a bit of ghost and dark type moves. Unfortunately its chaces of being able to use any sort of fairy type moves skipped over this gal and went to the alolan sister.

Going into its hunting potential, it can use status moves to weaken and take them down. Hypnosis would be its obvious go-to move. Knock them out, sleep debuff, maintain its prey's HP so it can feed on as much as possible. It can gain a boost with Dream Eater, because why not suck the dreams out of your opponent to heal yourself? The second easy stat channge it can inflict is Confuse Ray. Very accurate, and confusion is a very mean thing to experience. Attacking yourself isn't all that nice, might end up doing something that would cause the prey to lose its quality. Ninetales have the ability to outright control people, it could hypnotize people and pokemon to do whatever it wants. Also, its fire as well. Based in the Sun/Moon pokedex, its fire has the same effect.

The amount of energy it must recover wouldn't be anywhere near the amount the larger counterparts required. Though it could be a fair chunk, due to living for such a long time. 1,000 years might mean it has very steady metabolism. Prey would dissolve gradually rathar than spontaneously evaporate.

Pokemon of choice would mostly range around the same height and strength. Of course it can go for things weak to fire, but where's the fun when they can go for a more intelligent and harder to come by creature. Without the sheer force and destructive abilities, I don't see it really trying to hunt down anything taller than 6 feet. Doesn't mean that size gets you in the clear with the hypno aspect. If they're feeling vengeful enough, they can punish those who have wronged it. May create interesting scenarios where an arrogant fool gets their tables turned. Further expanding on its mental manipulation, it might not even need to hunt or fight prey. Coax them into its will. Be it social, where a human is psychologically played into its paws. Sometimes I can imagine it wouldn't ppay fair against an obviously stronger opponent. It would use its wits, intellect, and psychic traits to its advantage. If it wanted to, ninetales could give lucario and arcanine a run for their money. Though, lucarios are also intelligent, holding the ability to read emotions, and understand speech. Both would be an interesting matchup, who wouldn't pay to see that.

Overall, it would have a more relaxed approach. Why overdo it when you can take the easiest approach possible? Sitting, lounging about as the days go by.


I don't know how to upload a text file. It wouldn't let me do so.
This is a little fun little analysis that I was willing to do. Looking at it through the lens of vore.
If this will gauge more interest, I might do more little analysis like it.




Pokemon belongs to Gamefreak, Nintendo. All is intended to be under fair use and entertainment only.

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