Felt like doing a Random Theorymoning for Nuzlocke runs:
What if Sneasel participated in a Nuzlocke run of Pokemon Crystal but was found at Route 29 (first route of the game)?
Lets do another one:
What if Qwilfish participated in a Nuzlocke run of Pokemon Crystal but was obtainable with an Old Rod?
In modern generations Qwilish is not bad. With either endless TMs or the option to change its ability to Intimidate (one of the best abilities for Nuzlockes) give it a useful niche. Futhermore, in some fan games you have the option to use a Hisuian one, which gets a powerful evolution with just one weakness. More movepool compensate the bad Stats Qwilfish has as well, it can use SD or support the team with Thunder Wave.
If Overqwill existed in GSC, it would certainly be very good, walling a big part of the in-game opponents and smashing them with Sludge Bomb. What we have instead is another F Rank Mon. Few Water Mons can be F rank in a Nuzlocke run, by virtue of learning Surf you should be saved from irrelevance, especially if you have a secondary and quite powerful STAB. But Qwilfish has the disgrace of only obtainable with a Super Rod in 2 Kanto routes and Johto 32 Route. Super Rod is given in Kanto, the game is almost done at that point, you will 100% certainly have a better Water type already. The other Water-Poison Mon, Tentacool can be fished with an Old Rod on the same route Qwilfish appears in, after the first Gym. Yep, Qwilfish is screwed and irredeemable.
But what if that wasn,t the case? Just like Sneasel, what a fully evolved Mon obtainable early can do? So, imagine Qwilfish replaces Tentacool on Route 32 as a Old Rod encounter. Under Nuzlocke rules, this means that we need to avoid Grass, pick Old Rod and fish. There a little problem in that there is still a 85% chance to get a Magikarp, but this is solved by going to Violet City first and fishing Magikarp there, guaranteeing that Qwilfish will be our first fish encounter on Route 32. So, how the run would look?
Vs Bugsy: Level cap is 17. Give a Berry to your Qwilfish and teach it Swift (TM is in Union Cave). Use 6 Hardens and 6 Minimizes (both early level-up moves) vs Metapod, then just hax your way through the whole team with Poison Sting and Swift. Its extrmely unlikely that Bugsy can hit and crit Qwilfish before ir murders the whole team. A rank performance, misses S due to being very slow and a little luck dependant. Realibility is priorized in Nuzlockes over time consumption, but 12 turns just to set-up is way too many.
Vs Whitney: Qwilfish needs to kill some random trainers too, so you will have to give up on Harden and learn Water Gun at level 19 (level cap is 20). You will also forget Swift due to getting Headbutt TM. With this in mind, strategy is similar, you can use 6 Minimizes vs Clefairy, kill it with Headbutt and hax Miltank with Poison Sting poison. Gold Berry from National Park would help a lot at this point of the game. There are 2 problems, however. First is Clefairy being much more dangerous than Metapod. If Metronome triggers a Thunderbolt, Qwilfish is screwed. Second problem is that Miltank not only wont actually die from poison quickly enough (has Milk Drink), but can also murder our poor fish with Stomp, which if hits when Minimize is used, has 130 power. So, actually using Qwilish vs Whitney is quite dangerous, it might be better to just flinch and kill Clef with Headbutt, maybe take a hit vs Miltank (trying to get lucky with Poison Sting) and switch out. D rank performance.
Vs Morty: Use Mint Berry here. At this point, you have Surf already. You will 1vs1 Gastly with it and if lucky enough (Curse usage and Hypnosis accuracy), even the first Haunter. You have no business fighting Gengar however, Dream Eater is a OHKO and Mean Look could trap Qwilfish. Even STAB Shadow Ball does a lot. If Qwilfish is healthy enough, second Haunter can be fought, just be careful with Night Shade. C rank performance.
Vs Chuck: You 1vs1 Primeape and can damage Poliwrath a little before having to switch out. You won,t be beating Poliwrath, however. C rank performance, but could be B if you do Rocket sidequest and get Sludge Bomb before facing Chuck. Sludge Bomb increases the chance to beat Poliwrath by a lot.
Vs Jasmine: One of the rare cases in which you quite reliably beat the ace but should not risk the fish vs Magnemites, which will probably OHKO even if you have 5 levels advantage. B rank performance.
Vs Pryce: You have Sludge Bomb and Surf here. Very bad luck is needed to not clean sweep Pryce. S rank performance.
Vs Claire: To optimally use Qwilfish, you will have to spend 2 of the most valuable TMs for Nuzlocke runs, there are only 1 of each in the game: Rest and Sleep Talk. GSC Sleep Talk mechanic makes this strategy even better than in later games. From this point, if you plan to continue using Qwilfish until the end of the game (or its death), the set should be: Rest, Sleep Talk, Surf, Sludge Bomb. Think carefully if you want Qwilfish as a long-term teammate, because almost every Mon (Sneasel being one of the few exceptions due to its frailty) wants Rest and Sleep Talk.
This being said, Qwilfish with Cheri Berry will easily 2HKO first Claire's Dragonair. However, you will need to switch out, because she will most certainly send the Thunderbolt one next. If Qwilfish's teammate wins vs the second Dragonair but ends very damaged, Qwilfish can come back vs the third one and win with the Restalk + Sludge Bomb strat (you can actually delete Surf with Move Deleter for this match to increase Sludge Bomb chance with Sleep Talk). Kingdra however, hits too hard with every move it has. Use your Meganium to deal with it.
Vs Silver in Victory Road: Qwilfish will beat Sneasel. Golbat is beatable too if it isn,t too lucky with the Confuse Ray. Unless very overleveled, run away from Kadabra, but if you are, Sludge Bomb will OHKO. Don,t fight Magneton and don,t fight Haunter either, it has Mean Look, Confuse Ray and Curse. Due to Claire being at level 40, you will be at least a little overleveled, so every starter can be beaten by Qwilfish. B rank performance.
Vs Will: First truly F rank performance for Qwilfish, every Mon here OHKOs with Psychic. Avoid this match-up.
Vs Koga: Avoid Ariados due to Mean Look + Baton Pass. Avoid Forretress due to Explosion. Avoid Venomoth due to Psychic. With Restalk + Surf, it will take a while, but Qwilfish will 100% reliably beat Muk and has a good chance to beat Crobat too. Those are the main threats, therefore C rank performance despite being useless vs 3 Mons.
Vs Bruno: One on one, you beat every Mon. You might want to switch out of Hitmontop due to Dig crit threat. If asleep when Onix appears, avoid it too, since it has EQ, otherwise just Surf it. Hitmonchan has Thunder Punch and Qwilfish has bad Special bulk.... but Hitmonchan has an even worse Special Attack, so its not really a threat. Hitmonlee can be a threat with Swagger, so a Berry that cures the confusion is your best item for this specific fight (and will help to kill faster the rest of the team). Due to several doubtful interactions, this can only be an A rank performance instead of an S one. Fortunately, Bruno is the worst Elite Four member by far, every teammate (starting with Meganium) has an easy time assisting Qwilfish.
Vs Karen: Every Mon here either hits Qwilfish too hard or has some dirty tactic (like Mean Look + Sand Attack + Confuse Ray Umbreon or Dbond Gengar). Even Murkrow, which should be the easiest match-up, could outspeed Qwilfish, crit with Faint Attack and then murder you with Pursuit if you try to switch-out. Sorry, this is another F rank performance.
Vs Lance: If Qwilfish is at level 50, it should have more than enough power to 2HKO Gyarados and live anything the sea dragon throws. After that, things go more dicey. Qwilfish certainly could beat one on one Aerodactyl, Charizard and the Blizzard Nite, but not all of them and has a hard time switching-in. In the case of Blizzard Nite, you first need to confirm its the Blizzard one, Thunder deletes Qwilfish from existance. Level 50 Nite is a very bad match-up too. D rank performance, will just kill 2 Mons at best (but 1 at worst).
Vs Kanto Gym leaders except Blue: Due to being overleveled, almost every Mon does well here. Qwilfish, however, is surprisingly bad. Surge is a no go, Sabrina is even worse and somehow even Janine is not a complete free win due to Qwilfish's special Attack being quite low and having 2 Explossives + Psychic Venomoth. Misty has half of her team with moves that target the Poison typing (surprisingly, Starmie is actually beatable and doesn,t have Psychic). Erica is our first free win in East Kanto, then Brock falls too, but Blaine has a Thunder Punch Magmar. D rank performance.
Vs Blue: Qwilfish easily beats Pidgeot, Gyarados and Arcanine. If asleep and Exeggutor gets to use Sunny Day, run away from that Solar Beam, it will hit very hard. Vs Rhydon only fight when awake, don,t risk Sleep Talk not getting Surf and taking an EQ. Obviously don,t face Alakazam either. B rank performance, can beat up to 5 Mons.
Vs Red: Charizard, Blastoise and Snorlax are all beatable, but probably not at once. D rank performance.
Overall, just like Sneasel, early availability would improve Qwilfish's run a lot. If your starter is a Chikorita and for some reason (mainly bad luck) you didn,t get a Rock Mon, Qwilfish is a pretty reliable way to get through Bugsy, which Tentacool isn,t able to achieve. It will then contribute vs every Johto Gym leader and be only useless vs 2 Elite Four members and 2 Kanto Gym leaders (which is pretty irrelevant, your Meganium will sweep Surge in the absence of a Ground Mon and Sabrina is doable too). I have mentioned Meganium a lot in this post and not only because its my favorite (and best in a Nuzlocke run) starter, but also because it sinergyzes well with Qwilfish. Bayleef can beat Whitney's Miltank, Chuck's Poliwath (if you don,t have Sludge Bomb yet) and Claire's Kingdra, all Mons with which Qwilfish struggles. Apart from that, Qwilfish apreciates some Dark teammate that fights vs Will, Umbreon being the best choice (and its also the best Eeveelution in a Nuzlocke run, since its a Defense Mon).
Despite needing 2 of the best TMs, overall I think early Qwilfish would jump from F rank right to a decent C rank, its a bulky Water that hits hard with Sludge Bomb and has been robbed by being placed in the post-game. In fact, this has been the case in almost every game in which Qwilfish appeared: in Fire Red is in post-game too, in DPP too. In HGSS, GF has realized they have done Qwilfish dirty and now its obtainable with a Good Rod, but for Nuzlocke runs this is not an option, since you will likely have already caught something at Route 32 by the time Good Rod is a thing. BW is post-game again. I have not played XY, but Kalos Route 8 (with Super Rod again) looks to be something quite late too. Its pretty sad, since Qwilfish is a pretty cool Mon. Fortunately, GF finally realized that they treated Qwilfish unfairly and gave him a Hisuian form and an evolution, but Johto Qwilfish is still currently condemned to only be used in fan games, never official ones (even outside of Nuzlockes).
Have a nice Eeveening!