Thunderbolt/Ice Punch/Volt Tackle/filler; Timid
Imo the worst starter, but still a good mon. The special attack is just a little low. His volt tackle wasnt killing shit like r2 lorelei's milotic which is pretty bad. But the speed is really nice, you can just outspeed and ohko all those annoying crobats you fight throughout the game which usually just outspeed u, hypnosis+confuse ray and are generally a pain in the ass. At least he helps u breeze through cerulean gym which was undoubtedly the toughest in the game. Wasn't outstanding but good mon overall, did his job. 5/10
Crunch/Flamethrower/Thief/Overheat; Lax
Awesome availability as you get her right in viridian city, you get blackglasses somewhere in the middle of the game too so she's all set. Very useful stabs, good special attack and speed, my only real gripe is that you gotta get flamethrower tm from celadon city or its gonna be a drag using her. Thief is a fantastic filler move because all the gym leaders and elite four members have great items to swipe, you can net extra copies of leftovers or some cool berries. Its a move I'd recommend fitting somewhere on your team when playing this game, and houndoom is a good user of it. She did her job well ultimately, I enjoyed using her. 8/10
Psychic/Ice Punch/Hypnosis/Giga Drain; Mild
The availibility is late bc you need to get the silph scope to catch her in pokemon tower, and she'll be underleveled at that point in the game, but its actually very easy to compensate for that. Just give her the Psychic TM you can get in saffron city, she can easily handle the fighting dojo, any grass/poison mons in Celadon gym, and opposing gastly/haunter in the pokemon tower. She caught up to the rest of my team pretty quickly, and was useful throughout because this game is kind to her, letting her evolve without trading and giving access to ice punch/fire punch upon evolution (I think level 38). Access to hypnosis is nice as always, putting people to sleep is always useful in both battle and for catching mons, and his super wide movepool makes him pretty easy to fit onto teams (psychic/tbolt/ice punch/fire punch/giga drain + hypnosis)
She's comparable to Gardevoir which I used in another playthrough, but while garde has more special attack and access to calm mind/trace, gengar has speed and better defensive utility in immunities to Fight/Normal/Ground and resists to bug/poison/grass. The 4x poison resist and immunity to poison is especially very useful in this game as you fight through hordes and hordes of arboks, weezings, and muks. Overall a very good pick, just comes a bit late and needs some babying. 7.5/10
Brick Break/Surf/Hypnosis/Ice Punch; Naughty
Very good availability, you can fish just about anywhere and get her, and you get at least the old rod very early (and in this game it can fish up more than magikarp). She has really good role compression just by having water/fight stab, access to hypnosis is great, early access to water stone is good too bc the pre-evos suck ass and learn almost no useful moves. Brick Break was a TM in mt moon I think, and water stone was available in the route above vermillion, and with the water pulse TM from the cerulean gym she was basically good to go for the rest of the game until you just add surf. Having a fighting type pokemon that does more than kill every normal type you run into is nice, and while all of her stats are honestly really middling, she still performs well. The Water Absorb ability was nice for those fat waters that electabuzz was too weak to ohko. It is kinda annoying to not ohko a lot of the bulkier normal types, but his good defense stat makes up for it. 8/10
Earthquake/Dragon Claw/Rock Slide/Fly; Jolly
Pretty good availability as you can get him next to Vermillion city, and honestly Trapinch is not as dogshit as he seems. You can give him the dig tm you get in cerulean, the secret power tm from the route above cerulean, and those two physical attacks can let him take on the weaker shit like clefairy or whatever. Ultimately though, flygon needs some serious babying until he reaches his final form, but when he does oh boy. This hack gave flygon access to earthquake upon evolution and that sets him miles apart from the other late-game dragons like salamence and dragonite that I could've had fairly early access to. In general I think mence/dnite are super duper overrated in-game, dragon stab isn't useful and I dislike relying on fly because mons in this game have actual good movesets and I hate giving them any room to breathe. Flygon, on the other hand, is rocking a STAB eq right in time for koga, will mess up blaine, and is generally a great asset against all the poison mons u fight in this game. The power, speed, and typing just make him so much better than the other ground types you have access to, even if he needs a fair bit of babying starting out. It's also convenient to fit Fly on him. Excellent mon the second he evolves and not awful when he's getting there, 8.5/10
Last slot was HM slave linoone, pickup was nice, covet was nice to steal some rare candies from that lady in the travelers tomb. Good boy.