Once again it’s time for one of my Interesting Specimen posts. The two Pokemon that are the subjects of this post are a little more than interesting, they’re spooky. I’m speaking of two of the fifth generation’s Ghost Pokemon, Yamask and its evolved form Cofagrigus.
So yesterday morning I had to get up at 7:00 AM. The reason being that I had to be out the door by 8:50 and it takes me an hour to fully wake up. Usually I wake up by turning on an episode of Murder, She Wrote. But it was an episode that I had pretty much already seen not too long ago, so I switched back to the Cartoon Network. They were at the time showing a Pokemon rerun from the Black & White era, and in this particular episode Ash and the gang were investigating a haunted museum.
I have to point out that I do not like Ash’s new traveling companions, but the Ghost Pokemon that was haunting the museum, Yamask, was pretty interesting. So when I was done checking my email and stuff, I got on Bulbapedia and looked Yamask up. What I found out, according to the Pokedex information in the games, is that Yamask are the spirits of dead humans that lived in ancient times, and that they retain the memories of their past lives. The stone mask that each Yamask carries is a replica of the face it had when it was “alive”. And at times that Yamask looks at the mask and cries, apparently mourning the life it once had.
I don’t know if it was because I still wasn’t fully awake when I read that, but it kinda creeped me out (I was certainly wide awake after reading it). But the implication that Yamask, and by extension Cofagrigus, are actually the sprits of dead humans is what earns them a spot in the Interesting Specimen category. To my knowledge this is the first instance of Pokemon that were once human. Even most Ghost Pokemon are merely spectral entities that were created by some supernatural force or originate from another dimension. A good example of the latter is Giratina.
In the Games: I’ve never played Pokemon Black and White, so I have no experience using Yamask and Cofagrigus in the games. I do know however that they can be found at the ancient ruin known as the Relic Castle. From what I’ve read online I also know that Cofagrigus has a really good defense stat. That’s actually a little weird, considering it’s a ghost. But I guess when you consider that Cofagrigus has a physical coffin for a body it makes some sense.
Evolution: When a Yamask evolves into a Cofagrigus, it seems to become a little more malevolent (not unlike the hollows from Bleach). They gain what is basically an Egyptian sarcophagus for a body, and then lie in wait for any unsuspecting grave robber to come near. The unsuspecting thief is then pulled into Cofagrigus’s body by ghostly arms, and is later spit out as a mummy. This little trait is reflected by the signature ability that both Yamask and Cofagrigus share, which is simply called Mummy. How it works is when Yamask or Cofagrigus is struck by a physical attack, the attacking Pokemon’s own ability is replaced by Mummy.
This is basically the Pokemon version of the “zombie virus” that appears in most movies. It can also really screw up the opponent’s strategy. Of course there are a couple of abilities that can’t be replaced by Mummy. One is Wonder Guard, which is the ability of another ghostly Pokemon that I’ll probably talk about in a later post. The other ability is Multitype, the signature ability of Arceus. That makes sense, because you can’t curse a god.
That wraps it up for this post (no pun intended). In retrospect I could’ve saved this post for Halloween, but I wanted to do it while it was fresh in my mind. Besides, there are still a few interesting Ghost-type Pokemon left to talk about. Until next time.
