Ariados is a sweet looking pokemon and it can learn an onset of heavy hitting moves, but it's annoying to raise because most of its earlier moves are weak, stat effective or annoying long (pin missile). I'd only raise one if I had a good amount of TMs so I could teach it some more powerful moves.

I'd give Ariados a 7/10.

Next Up: Breloom.

S is for Salamence - a dragon/flying type.

10) Dewgong: One word - sheer cold. Though it's a move that misses more often that it hits, I love having it on hand and I do like having the water/ice type combination on my team. It has nice HP stats, but I could do without having 4 super effective weaknesses.

09) Houndoom: Its double type combination makes it a very nice addition to any team and I really like having a fire type that just isn't only a fire type. I love most of the fire types, but I really like having two types to cover more ground. Plus I love it's move set and ability to learn Solarbeam (even if it isn't as effective).

08) Medicham: I really like the psychic/fighting combination and I always dig being able to dish it out with powerful moves and still have a high defense as well. I also like the little dance it does whenever it does a move in XD. Sue me, lol.

07) Arcanine: I love how this pokemon looks, I love it's potential move set (very powerful fire type ftw), BUT I'm not a huge fan of the singular type set, which is why it isn't higher up. Got to love its stats though, which is why is why I prefer it over Ninetails.

06) Lanturn: Especially when it has volt absorb. The double type combination is amazing, making Lanturn my favorite water type AND/OR electric type pokemon.

05) Infernape: Fire type with a fighting type? Great potential move sets and it can learn Close Combat through leveling up, which makes it all the more desirable. I'm not so hot on its looks, but it gets the job done.

04) Breloom: I love fighting type because it's the only one that really gets the job done where normal type is concerned. I like it's double type and I really like effect spore. Plus this one is a constant on my teams in XD and an always desirable pokemon throughout the handheld games.

03) Altaria: I really like dragon type pokemon and it being able to fly was a nice change from all the normal/flying type. I love Pidgeot, but I really like having a larger range of types for my move sets. Plus Altaria has a great defense and a superb move set to go along with it.

02) Flygon: I didn't like it's pre-evolve forms, so I didn't actually get into Flygon until MUCH later, but I absolutely love its potential move sets. I prefer powerful moves and Flygon can pack a good load of powerful moves while still covering a lot of ground. I love Earthquake and I love pairing Flygon up with flying types. I can sweep an entire team with Flygon doing most of the work.

01) Salamence: Heavy attack and great HP? Got to love the combination. I like heavy hitters and this pokemon is a real heavy hitter. Add the dragon/flying type into the equation and you've got a badass pokemon. Salamence makes for a great pokemon to have on your team and one of the best for overall stats.

These are my favorite attack/battle pokemon, but if I had to mention a few that I really like for their looks it'd have to be the Eeveelutions, Vulpix/Ninetails and Gradevoir/Kirlia. They're all pretty decent for battle, but I really like having a double type for my pokemon and Kirlia's defense/attack drives me crazy.

I like to do a lot of range with mine because moves seemed to overlap. I hated having a team where two of my pokemon had pretty much the same moveset. Only downfall is that if your grass type gets knocked out and you needed it to finish the battle, you'll have to figure out another way to hit them where it hurts. I did a lot of variety with my teams, though try as I might, I was never able to pick just one dragon.

This was my team from Pokemon XD:
Breloom - Grass/Fighting (With Effect Spore)
Houndoom - Fire/Dark
Starmie - Water/Psychic (With Thunder Learned)
Altaria - Flying/Dragon (Possible Swap for Salamence or Dragonite)
Dewgong - Water/Ice (Knowing Mostly Ice with possible swap for Froslass for Platinum)
Flygon - Ground/Dragon

Altaria and Flygon were probably the greatest tag team I've ever had. With Flygon knowing Earthquake and Altaria remaining unaffected every time helped me sweep through tons of battles. Shame that they pretty much went to shambles against Ice Type.

And I agree with earlier users. I'm not much of a fan for using legendaries, though I do like Jirachi and Celebi. If I was able to get them without cheating, I'd probably have them on my team because they can be pretty badass.