Cryogonal is a Pokemon that I really like but is often forgotten about/overlooked. It gets disliked by some people for being one of those inanimate object Pokemon, but to me that's also what makes it such a cool Pokemon. Yes, it's a snowflake, but when you look at it lore-wise and in terms of design it's just a Pokemon that I really, really like. I adore Vanilluxe because of how adorable it is (and how clever that design is, though I might get to it later), but Cryogonal is just such a neat Pokemon in its own right. Snowflakes are something that are considered particularly beautiful, especially because they are such fascinating things, especially from a geometric standpoint. Snowflakes are stemmed from water, and freeze into a hexagonal shape due to water's chemical structure, often times perfectly hexagonal and geometric, but at other times may end up varying because of other conditions.
There's just something remarkably appealing about how Cryogonal is so perfectly geometrical, perfectly hexagonal and just makes it visually appealing to look at. But what
really makes it interesting is that it is such a dark, creepy twist on a thing that is considered to be beautiful. I mean if you look at Cryogonal, while it looks like a snowflake, its face just looks rather sinister. Its eyes and the way they are shaped are rather creepy looking, and the mouth is honestly scary and intimidating. Cryogonal based on its looks and color is actually some sort of mysterious organism wearing the skin of a snowflake: that in itself is neat! The lore based on its Pokedex entries is also pretty dark: like a snowflake, Cryogonal is born from water molecules in the sky, and it can only sustain itself at low temperatures. It's an organism that melts and vaporizes at high temperatures and then solidifies, but when it does, it's actually a
carnivore. It uses the ice-chain mouth it has to tangle up living things with its mouth, freezes the organisms solid, and then proceeds to eat them. That's honestly a really creepy thing: it's so alien and otherworldly in that it's formed as an organism from water molecules in snow clouds, comes to life, solidifies, then comes down to the world to eat things alive, especially killing them in a rather cruel way, then vaporizes when it gets warm, in other words going back into a gas form to sustain itself, waiting for the opportunity for it to get cold again and then hunt for more prey.
It's just an incredibly
alien and a Pokemon that seems like it's from another world entirely, yet at the same time both beautiful and twisted. I'm very glad it's coming back in Crown Tundra, and I especially look forward to seeing new Pokedex entries for Cryogonal in the Crown Tundra Pokedex to see what more lore they come up with for it. Also, when you look at it, it also looks like a 80's arcade game boss sprite, which is also prety neat imo. Its rather creepy look would make it a perfect candidate for a movie villain in the Pokemon world, having movies that star Cryogonal as the antagonist, maybe even with antagonistic Trainers using them! (Team Plasma in BW2 played this straight as they used rather dark Pokemon like Bisharp, Weavile, and of course, Cryogonal!).
Battle-wise while it's not a competitive superstar by any means, it's pretty usable in-game. Its poor physical bulk really, really sucks, and it's an extraordinarily rare encounter, but from the point you get it it's immediately usable and has some neat tricks up its sleeve. It's pretty fast, has great special bulk, and decent Special Attack as well as Ice Beam and Flash Cannon. It's immediately solid against Brycen because of Flash Cannon in BW1, and later its Ice typing is great against Drayden/Iris. It also later will have decent matchups against Caitlin's Sigilyph, Shauntal's Golurk, and Ghetsisis's Cofagrigus and especially that damned Hydreigon. Cryogonal also has Light Screen+Reflect which gives it utility in-game as a fast screens setter, being able to quickly summon both screens for the team which is nice, and its naturally high Speed also outpaces both Haxorus and Hydreigon, which is nice to kill them fast when you face them in-game, especially Ghetsis's Hydreigon. Cryogonal has enough special bulk there to endure a Fire Blast/Focus Blast, and it's still usable post-game too, even though Vanilluxe tends to be overall better on that front.
Just a pretty cool and underrated gem of a Pokemon imo. It's unfortunate that it has a very shallow movepool and is still dragged down battle wise by the flaws of the Ice-type, but conceptually it's a neat Pokemon and it's still a usable Pokemon in-game in its own right (and it's decent in Lower tiers because of Rapid Spin+fast and good Ice STAB, which will probably be the case again when it returns ahaha).
