[Manic Martini]

Riolu - High Tier
Availability: virtually immediate availability, but a 5% encounter rate makes hunting it something of a chore.
Stats: Great offenses, more than acceptable speed, mediocre defenses.
Typing: Steel typing upon evolution gives it a plethora of resistances to take advantage of, even making it's unimpressive defenses palatable. Fighting STAB is also quite great offensively.
Movepool: A bit of a mixed bag early on since it's only STAB is Force Palm for quite a while, but it gets momentum with its movepool the further into the game you are as it uses numerous useful TMs (like Rockslide before Skyla and Dig before Elesa) and gets Swords Dance as a level up move before too late in the game, with a lot of other options for mixed or special versions later on. Quite good overall.
Major Battles: Useful in numerous gyms, even when it lacks an offensive typing advantage. Great against Corless's Steels and any Dark types with Team Plasma. By the time you're at the Elite Four, you have enough resources that he has access to super effective moves against every member. He can also be tailor made to suit just about any particular major battle if you've got the Shards for it (with the free 10 Red Shards, that's Ice or Thunder Punch, if you're inclined) and lack something more appropriate. Virtually never dead weight.

AC: Been my MVP - I'm at Reversal Mountain currently. Counter was super useful against Cheren (more so than any starter) although I'm not sure that's something I would recommend since it requires you take a hit to deal damage. The fact that pokemon have higher base happiness now means it's easy to have a Lucario around the third Gym, and it's quite overpowered at that point and remains strong from then on. That's a huge reason in why it's as good as it is, too.

There seems to have been a lot of disagreement over it in the previous In-Game Tier List, but it's definitely High Tier Material. Not Top, since it has very tangible flaws, but they're rather unproblematic ones.



Also, concerning discussion of Magby, staying as Magmar might mean less coverage and raw power, but you not only have higher Speed, but have access to higher bulk with Eviolite which complicates saying Magmortar is outright better (and with access to WoW, that added bulk plus burning can be quite potent).