GSC In-Game Tier List Mark V

Scyther is very odd. On the one hand, it has one of the stronger sweeps of the League. My problems with it are as follows:

1. More annoying to get than the average mon:
Scyther must be caught on three days of the week. Yes you can time travel but still. The actual problems lie in its 45 catch rate and 5% encounter rate.

2. Kinda inconsistent until the League:
It beats Chuck and that’s about it. Whitney is RNG reliant on Fury Cutter not screwing you over (feasible, but still) and Clair is okay but only notable if you are somehow level 42 for Swords Dance. Everywhere else you kinda lose.

3. Level benchmarks for Wing Attack and Swords Dance:
While 30 is not hard to get to for Chuck, I still count it as somewhat of a negative given you are basically useless there otherwise. Swords Dance at 42 is possible for League but is the linchpin ALL of Scyther’s viability hinges on, as it’s definitely a C tier otherwise. You definitely have to focus on this thing and I felt like it was kinda a drain sometimes.

4. The League is easier than most of the Gym Leaders.
Self-explanatory. Only Will and Lance are notable I feel.
 
Ernesto : Really interesting post with lots of details and well-docuemented logs. It was a really nice read and I agree with most nominations.

I'm fairly hesitant between B and C for Poliwrath but the former makes sense for the reasons you mentionned especially the strong Karen matchup (btw I totally agree with delaying evolution for Morty). For Pidgey, while I can totally get the B-tier, it fits better in C imo. It's pretty good and had a strong E4 performance but Pidgeotto was really that bad. It struggled too much in mid-game and lost badly in every important battle and that's why I can't really see it in B-tier. Likewise, I feel Chinchou would be better in C-tier, it's fun to use but between needing Thunder, slow growth rate and average at best Elite 4, I don't really see it in B-tier. Ho-oh is more a matter of tiering philosophy but B should be fine as it destroys the Elite 4 while having an alright Lance. Chikorita, Graveler and Magmar are straightforward so not gonna detail (tho it's nice to see support for B as opposed to A as it struggles a lot in mid-game imo).

Where I have to disagree tho is for Bellsprout, which I found pretty bad honestly. It hard loses to Falkner, Bugsy, Morty, Jasmine, Will and Koga. Even the rest wasn't impressive outside of Bruno and Koga who were great. It was nice to take down Seel and Dewgong against Pryce but outright winning would have been better. I also tried Whitney several times and it was barely impossible to win, as Victreebel is too frail and Miltank is going to hit hard with Stomp or Rollout. Adding to that, training it was awful before getting Sludge Bomb because grass is a bad offensive type and Vine Whip is weak and has few PPs. Lastly, it needs the DST Trick for the Leaf Stone which takes time. All in all, Victreebel was usable but between few good matchups, difficulties to grind and requiring an evolutionnary stone, I don't really see it above D-tier. It's still probably the best Sludge Bomb user but honestly having read Ryota's log about Weepingbell, I fail to see many differences outside of 2HKOing Poliwrath instead of 2HKOing against Chuck and 1v1ing Clair's Kingdra (which is great ngl).

Anyway, thanks for your post that provides lots of information and was really fun to read !

I finished my run (and had no problems using 5 mons as Jigglypuff is fast growth rate and Rocky is an in game trade) :

Falkner (11) : nop Onix doesn't hit hardand is going to lose to misses and Mud Slap doing decent damages.

Bugsy (16/17) : Rock Throw 2HKOes everything and Onix barely takes damages. Clear win.

Rival (17) : Rock Throw 2HKOes Gastly and OHKOes Gastly.

Whitney (21) : After a Screech, Rock Throw 2HKOes Clefairy. 2 Screech, a Dig and 1 Rock Throw is enough to take down Miltan. With Dig disrupting Rollout, Onix has no troubles winning here.

Rival (22) : OHKOes Haunter with Dig after Curse. OHKO Magnemite with Dig. 2HKOes Zubat with Rock Throw.

Morty (25) : Onix outspeeds everything but Gengar. Only Gengar is 2HKOed by Dig, the rest is OHKOed (bar Haunter 2 which is a range). Equipped with a Mint Berry, Onix has great odds to win and even in the worst case, can beat 3 mons.

Chuck (30) : Primeape is 2HKOed by Dig after Screech. Avoid Poliwrath

Jasmine (31) : Magnemite are outsped and OHKOed by Dig.

Pryce (32) : Onix can at most beat Seel, 3HKOing while outspeeding through Icy Wind speed drop.

Rival (33) : Golbat is 3HKOed by Rock Throw and Sneasel is 2HKOed by it. Magnemite is OHKOed by Dig as is Haunter assuming it uses Curse.

Clair (38) : Nop.

Rival (40) : 2HKOes Sneasel and Golbat with Rock Throw. Outspeed and OHKO Magneton and Kadabz with Earthquake. Kadabra outspeeds but only goes for Future Sight anyway and is OHKOed by Earthquake.

Will (40) : Nop.

Koga (40) : Avoid Ariados as it uses Giga Drain. Muk is surprisingly 2HKOed by Earthquake. Venomoth is 3HKOed by Earthquake. Avoid the rest as Foretress takes forever and Crobat is going to hax and outstall Rock Throw.

Bruno (40/41) : OHKOes Hitmonchan with Screech + Earthquake under Dig. Outspeed and 3HKOes opposite Onix.

Karen (41) : OHKOes Gengar with Earthquake after it uses Curse. Avoid the rest as even Murkrow is too much.

Lance (41) : Beats Aerodactyl, 2HKOing with 2 Rock Throw after Screech. Avoid the rest as even CHarizard is too much.


Falkner (10/11) : By using a Defense Curl, Jigglypuff is bulky enough to take hits and wins by 3HKOing Pidgey and 4HKOing Pidgeotto with Pound.

Bugsy (16) : Even with 6 Defense Curl, Scyther is going to win as it can easily overhelm while Pund only 6HKOes. Cocoons are 5HKOed by Pound generally according to how much time they use Harden.

Rival (16) : Beat Zubat, 3HKOing with Pound. It can't touch Gastly and Bayleef is only 6HKOed while it can 4HKO with Razor Leaf.

Whitney (21) : Curlout 3HKOes Clefairy and OHKOes Miltank. The problem is that Clefairy outspeeds and has 4 turns to do damages and you have to be wary of a possible Stomp flinch.

Rival (22) : Fire Punch 2HKOes Haunter after Cuse and 2HKOes Magnemite. 2HKOes Zubat with Headbutt.

Morty (25) : Curlout OHKOes Gastly after Curse, 2HKOes Haunter and OHKOes Gengar and Haunter (they come in that order). The problem is that Jigglypuff is incredibly slow and everything will outspeed, meaning either a miss or Hypnosis will ruin this strategy.

Chuck (30) : 2HKOes Primeape and 3HKOes Poliwrath. Both outspeeds and Dynamic Punch is nearly an OHKO so Wigglytuff doesn't fare well here.

Jasmine (31) : Pretty good as Wigglytuff OHKOes Magnemite and Fire Punch is a range for thr 2HKO with Charcoal while Iron Tail itself is a range for the 2HKO.

Pryce (32) : Curlout 2HKOes Seel and then OHKOes Dewgong and Piloswine, while taking Aurora Beam + Blizzard. Alternatively, Strength 2HKOes Seel, 3HKOes Dewgong and Fire Punch 2HKOes Piloswine but this has less chance to win.

Rival (33) : 2HKOes Golbat with Return. OHKOes Magnemite with Fire Punch. 2HKOes Hanter with Fire Punch if it uses Curse.

Clair (38) : 2HKOes Dragonair with Strength. It will at most beat 2 as they 5HKO. Kingdra is 3HKOed by Return and 3HKOes itself with Surf.

Rival (40) : OHKOes Sneasel and Kadabra with Return. Golbat is 2HKOed by Return and Magneton by Fire Punch. Wigglytuff will at most beat these four.

Will (40) : Everything outspeeds but Slowbro and 3HKOes with Psychic. Wigglytuff will only claim one kill at best as t can only OHKO Jynx.

Koga (40) : 2HKOes Ariados and Venomoth with Return. OHKOes Foretress with Fire Punch. Avoid the rest.

Bruno (40) : Nop.

Karen (40) : Beats Murkrow 1v1 or potentially Vileplume assuming it hits through para. Umbreon outspeeds and will cheese, Gengar is only 3HKOed by Fire Punch after Curse and will use Destiny Bond and Houndoom 2HKOes.

Lance (40) : Beats either Gyarados, 3HKOing while it can't 2HKO back and set up Rain Dance. Otherwise, it can take downa Dragonite, 2HKOing with Ice Punch but not more.


Bugsy (14) : Only beats cocoons. I admitedly had a low level but I don't see Sandshrew beating Scyther tbh.

Rival (15) : 4HKOes Golbat with Scratch.

Whitney (21) : Curlout 2HKOes both Clefairy and Miltank. Even if Miltank stops it, Sandshre has the bulk to take opposite Rollout and 3HKOes Miltank with its own.

Rival (22) : OHKOes Haunter and Magnemite with Dig. 3HKO Zubat with Scratch.

Morty (25) : I probably had 15 DVs but only Gengar outsped and Dig OHKOes everything so that's an easy win.

Chuck (30) : Only beats Primeape. Curlout can't OHKO Poliwrath after 4 hits.

Jasmine (31) : Beats Magnemite with Dig.

Pryce (32) : Curlout should win if it hits as it 2HKOes Seel and OHKOes both Dewgong and Piloswine. Sandslash can take an Icy Wind + Aurora Beam and outspeeds Pilsowine even after the speed drop.

Rival (33) : Outspeed and 2HKOes Golbat with Strength. OHKOes Magnemite and Haunter with Dig. 2HKOes Sneasel with Dig.

Clair (38) : Beats one Dragonair with Surf/Ice Beam + the Thunderbolt one, 2HKOing each while barely taking 3 hits.

Rival (40) : OHKOes Sneasel with Earthquake, 2HKOes Golbat with Strength. OHKOes Kadabra, Haunter and Magnemite with Earthquake.

Will (40) : nop.

Koga (40/41) : 2HKOes Ariados, Venomoth and Muk with Earthquake. Crobat is going to hax and Foretress is 3HKOed and Explosion OHKOes.

Bruno (41) : Strength + Earthquake OHKOes Hitmontop. Outspeed and 2HKOes Hitmonchan. 2HKOes Onix with Earthquake. Hitmonlee is 2HKOed by Earthquake. Machamp is a 3HKO with Earthquake. As it can't take Ice Punch and 2 hits from Hitmonlee, Sandlash will onlt defeat 3 mons.

Karen (41) : OHKOes Gengar and Houndoom, living a Flamethrower.

Lance (41) : Curlout 2HKOes Aerdactyl and 3HKOes Dragonite. As such, it can hope to defeat either one as Thunder Dragonite barely doesn't 2HKO with Hyper Beam after Defense Curl.


Whitney (21) : 3HKOes Clefairy with Headbutt. Miltank is too much. Didn't bother trying to use Arbok as it has no chance of winning anyway.

Rival (22) : Outspeed and 2HKOes Haunter with Dig. Bayleef takes some Headbutt to beat, especially if it uses Reflect but you can easily muscle through it as Razor Leaf does nothing. Zubat is 2HKOed by Headbutt. Strong matchup, even though it's adviceable not too fight Haunter as Curse is going to be tricky.

Morty (25) : Arbok outspeeds everything. Gastly and Haunter 1 are OHKOed while Haunter 2 is a range and Gengar a clear 2HKO. Equipped with a Mint Berry, Arbok has no troubles winning.

Chuck (30) : Outspeeds and 2HKOes Primeape and 3HKOes Poliwrath. Surf only 3HKOes Arbok so it should win.

Jasmine (31) : OHKOes Magnemite with Dig.

Pryce (32) : 2HKOes seel and Dewgong with Sludge Bomb.

Rival (33) : 3HKOes Golbat with Headbutt. 2HKOes Sneasel and Meganium with Sludge Bomb. Haunter is 2HKed by Dig while Magnemite gets OHKOed.

Clair (38) : 2HKOes Dragonair with Sludge Bomb. As it only gets 6HKOed, it can take don the 3 Dragonair. Kingdra 2HKOes but is outsped and often goes for Smokescreen while getting koed by Sludg Bomb + Screech + Sludge Bomb but it's not really reliable.

Rival (40) : Outspeeds and OHKOes Sneasel and Kadaba with Sludge Bomb. Magneton and Haunter are OHKOed by Dig. Meganium is 2HKOed by Sludge Bomb. Golbat is 3HKOed by Headbutt. Clear win here.

Will (40) : Nop.

Koga (40) : Earthquake 3HKOes Ariados and 2HKOes Muk. Avoid the rest as Psychic from Venomoth actually hits quite hard.

Bruno (40/41) : Sludge Bomb and Earthquake under Dig koes Hitmontop. Arbok can 1v1 Machamp with Sluge Bomb + Screech + Sludge Bomb and beat another Hitmon, 2HKOing with Sludge Bomb while taking a hit.

Karen (41) : 3HKOes Vileplume. OHKOes Gengar after it uses Curse with Earthquake or beats Murkrow (can't beat both and Vileplume due to Curse and taking multiple hits).

Lance (41) : Only beats Gyarados, 3HKOing while not getting OHKOed (and as usual it sets up Rain Dance).


Whitney (21) : Psybeam 2HKOes Clefairy and 3HKOes Miltank, both are outsped. Miltank goes like 80% of the time for Rollout that only 3HKOes so Kadabra should win.

Rival (22) : OHKOes Haunter and Zubat with Psybeam. OHKOes Magnemite with Fire Punch and 2HKOes Bayleef with it. Easy win.

Morty (25) : Outspeeds and OHKOes everything, only Gengar is a range.

Chuck (30) : Psybeam OHKOes Primeape and 2HKOes Poliwrath, Kadabra has no troubles winning here.

Jasmine (31) : OHKOes Magnemite with Fire Punch. You do half to Steelix before getting OHKOed by Iron Tail.

Pryce (32) : OHKOes Seel with Thunder Punch. 2HKOes Dewgong and Piloswine with ThunderPunch and FiePunch respectively. Another clean sweep.

Rival (33) : 2HKOes Sneasel and Meganium with Fire Punch. OHKOes Magneton with Fire Punch and the rest with Psybeam.

Clair (38) : OHKOes Dragonair with NMI Ice Punch. Kingdra sadly OHKOes with Hyper Beam while taking half from Psychic.

Rival (40) : Everything is outsped. Kadabra OHKOes everything but Meganium and Kadabra that are 2HKOed by Fire Punch. Another easy win.

Will (40/41) : OHKOes First Xatu with NMI Ice Punch and second Xatu is a range, like Exeggutor. Jynx is 2HKOed by Fire Punch as is Slobro by Thunder Punch. It's AI reliant but as it can take Ice Punch from Jynx and Body Slam from Slowbro, Kadabra should beat 4 mons.

Koga (41/42) : OHKOes the bugs and Crobat and 2HKOes Muk. Only Crobat outspeeds but neither it nor Muk can actually ko so in the worst case, Kadabra takes down 4 mons and can possibly win.

Bruno (42/43) : Everything but Machamp is OHKOed by Psychic. Machamp is still a range and as Kadabra can take Rock Slide + Mach Punch, it should win here barring a crit.

Laren (43) : OHKOes Gengar, Vileplume and Murkrow with Psyhic/Ice Punch.

Lance (43/44) : OHKOes Dragonite and Gyarados with Magnet Ice Punch and Thunder Punch respectively. Aerodactyl and Charizard can take a hitand both OHKOes with Hyper Beam.



Onix

Onix is C-tier and feels like a Graveler to greater extreme. It has a strong early game performance and then a bad mid to late game. Still, I think that between winning against Bugsy and Whitney while doing very well against Morty, it could be worth C-tier. While it became way worse afterwards, it still retains a strong performance against Rival, beating everything but starter most of the time and take down a mon or two in gym 5-7. The Elite 4 was meh but it was great against Muk and can easily defeat Aerodactyl. That's why I think it's closer to C than D (tho I wouldn't mind the latter).

Also, I think regular Onix is better. Winning against Bugsy is great (and I struggled doing so using Rocky) and while traded experience is great, it's actually fairly annoying to train a mon that disobeys.

Jigglypuff

Honestly, I want to say D-tier on this one. While the logs indicate a potent performance, it was actually rather difficult to pull a win. Jigglypuff is just too slow and somewhat frail that it's very prone to getting haxxed. While Pryce should be defeated with Curlout, it's way harder for Whitney and Morty because they are going to attack or use Hypnosis respectively. Adding to that, it needs to use Rollout 4 times in these battles and it's not always easy to hit every hit. Outside of that, Jigglypuff was pretty bad outside of Jasmine, which still relied on a roll. Clair was average at best and against the Elite 4 and Lance, it could only beat 1 mon most of the time. Training Jigglypuff wasn't an easy task as despite its fast growth rate, it's slower than most opponents and not strong to the point it will get whittled down fast, not to mention it has no attacking moves until level 9. Back track for Moon Stone is also fairly annoying before getting Fly too. So yeah, D-tier feels adequate for it.

By the way, GS and C Jigglypuff should be merged as they are incredibly similar. While the GS one wins against Falkner, you have to switch grind until level 9 and you lose to Bugsy while having the exact same post-Bugsy, so yeah no reason to split.

Sandshrew

This is fine in C-tier. It had strong performances against Whitney, Morty and can beat Pryce. assuming Rollout hits. Outside of these matchup, it's only average at best, mostly taking down a mon or two at most. Not much to say that's not in the logs really, it's just an alright mon that performs alright but they are better things to use and deserves the same tier as things like Nidos or Chikorita.

Ekans

This looks alright in D-tier. While it's really hard to train in the begening as an Ekans, it still has its uses afterwards. Training Ekans took forever as it's really weak and has to rely on non STAB moves to deal damages. One it evolves, it starts becoming good, Morty was a nice sweep as was Cuck. Afterwards, except for Bruno, it was mostly passable, not doing too much most of the time. It should be fine in D-tier as between being hard to train and few actual good matchup I can't see it above.

Kadabra

This is an obvious S-tier.It just wins easily against Morty, Chuck and Pryce, every Rival fight and Whitney most of the time. It's worse than Alakazam in the sense that it can't defeat everything but Karen but still Kadabra has an impressive performance. Even when it couldn't win like against Jasmine and Clair, it could take down other mons than the star and do half to it, putting in a good situation (a Kingdra with half health in a recharge turn from Hyper Beam shouldn't be hard to deal with as is a Steelix in yellow bar). The Elite 4 was great as Kadabra takes at least 4 mons against Will and Koga, beats Bruno and 3 mons from Karen. Lance is always hard but defeating Gyarados and the three Dragonite is really great (and just li,e against Kingdra you can do half to Charizard and ko it during the recharge turn from Hyper Beam). Adding to that, Kadabra is incredibly easy to train because it nearly OHKOes everything with either STAB or super effective elementary punch. This is easily the second best mon and there is no doubt it deserves S-tier.


Next run is going to be Vileplume (expect D-tier as it looks like a worse Victreebel), Cloyster (expect C/D-tier), Girafarig (expect A/B) and Scyther (except C-tier).
 
I'm fully convinced for Heracross to be a D Tier condisering how Headbutt trees works in this game, also that's my first time doing log around when i'm testing Heracross(i've never done logs before), but since I've tested a lot more pokemon... yeah, it doesn't feel like C anymore. Also, what prevents me from nominating Growlithe to A is largely due to needing a huge amount of investment for the Fire Blast TM (requiring 110,000 Gold), like any usage of Game Corner TM will kick a mon out in the A Tier regardless of how good it is (this includes Fire Blast Cyndaquil btw). Even if I witness something that becomes like a SSS Tier because it wrecks everything left and right with SunnyBlast or ThunderDance, that money needing to get it will still far outweight that great performance no matter what (I'm not gonna pretend like i'm paying a single dollar just to get this). Anyways log time, apologies for the delay, i took that break so early.

=Bugsy=
Qwilfish L15
Set-up 6 Mimimize
Tackle is a total of 6HKO on Metapod after 1 Harden, a total of 5HKOs Kakuna after 2 Hardens, and 7HKOs Scyther
Swift is a total of 4HKO on Metapod after 1 Harden, a total of 3HKO Kakuna after 2 Harden and has a roll to 4HKO Scyther(guaranteed if using Pink Bow)
=Rival 2=
Qwilfish L16
Set-up 6 Mimimize
Poison Sting does 1 damage to Gastly
Tackle 3HKOs Zubat and 7HKOs Croconaw
Swift 2HKOs Zubat and 5HKOs Croconaw(4HKOs if using Pink Bow). Inefficent to solo sweep
=Whitney=
Qwilfish L20
Set-up 6 Minimize and 6 Harden, you need Harden because Miltank's Stomp becomes stronger after a Minimize
Headbutt 2HKOs Clefairy and 5HKOs Miltank. Miltank can stall out with Milk Drink
Rollout 3HKOs Clefairy and 4th + 5th hit KOs Miltank
=Rival 3=
Qwilfish L22
Surf 2HKOs Haunter and Magnemite
Headbutt 2HKOs Zubat and 4HKOs Croconaw
=Morty=
Qwilfish L24
Surf 1HKOs Gastly, 2HKOs Haunter and 3HKOs Gengar
=Chuck=
Qwilfish L30
Poison Barb Sludge Bomb 1HKOs Primeape and 2HKOs Poliwrath
=Jasmine=
Qwilfish L30
Surf 2HKOs Magnemite and Steelix
=Pryce=
Qwilfish L31
Sludge Bomb 1HKOs Seel and 2HKOs Dewgong
Surf 2HKOs Piloswine
=Rival 4=
Qwilfish L32-33
Set-up 6 Minimize
Surf 3HKOs Golbat, and 2HKOs Magnemite and Haunter
Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Sneasel and 3HKOs Feraligatr
=Clair=
Qwilfish L38
Set-up 6 Minimize
Sludge Bomb 2HKOs the Dragonairs and 3HKOs Kingdra(2HKOs if poisoned on first hit)
=Rival 5=
Qwilfish L39
Set-up 6 Minimize. Sneasel deals little with Faint Attack
Sludge Bomb 1HKOs Sneasel and Kadabra and 3HKOs Feraligatr(2HKOs if poisoned on first hit)
Surf 2HKOs Haunter and Magneton and 3HKOs Golbat.
=Will=
Qwilfish L40
Sludge Bomb 2HKOs the Xatus, 1HKOs Jynx, 3HKOs Slowbro and is close at 1HKOing Exeggutor. All 1HKOs back
=Koga=
Qwilfish L40
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Ariados and Venomoth and it 3HKOs Muk and Crobat
Surf is close at 2HKOing Forretress
Qwilfish can set-up Minimize, but Ariados can Baton Pass its Double Team boost.
=Bruno=
Qwilfish L41
Set-up 6 Minimize. Foresight can miss
Sludge Bomb 2HKOs the Hitmons and 3HKOs Machamp(2HKOs if poisoned on first hit)
Surf 1HKOs Onix
=Karen=
Qwilfish L41
Sludge Bomb 3HKOs Umbreon, 2HKOs Murkrow and Houndoom, and is close to 2HKOing Vileplume
Surf 2HKOs Gengar after it uses Curse
=Lance=
Qwilfish L42
Set-up 6 Minimize
Sludge Bomb 3HKOs Gyarados(2HKOs if poisoned on first hit) and L47 Dragonites, and 4HKOs L50 Dragonite (3HKOs if poisoned)
Surf 2HKOs Aerodactyl and Charizard.
You have to backtrack to DST Trick a swarm call and it joins underleveled because for whatever reason, it joins at level 5 instead of usual level 10 that other Old Rod Pokemon had( you can wait and catch a L20 Qwilfish with Good Rod instead). Its workable but it has to rely on cheesing through some bosses with Minimize and hoping you don't get hit. I'm going for D Tier on this one, but it might have some possibility of a C Tier.

=Bugsy=
Wooper L15
Water Gun 4HKOs the cocoon and does little to Scyther. The cocoons outspeeds
Slam seems a 6HKO on Scyther. Bad
=Rival 2=
Wooper L15-16
Water Gun has a roll to 3HKOs Gastly and 5HKOs Zubat
Mud-Slap 2HKOs Gastly
Slam 3HKOs Zubat(close to 2HKOing) and 5HKOs Croconaw.
=Whitney=
Quagsire L20
Dig 2HKOs Clefairy and 4HKOs Miltank. You need Headbutt if Miltank goes for Rollout and is at half health or it will stall you out with Milk Drink
=Rival 3=
Quagsire L22-23
Surf 2HKOs Haunter, 1HKOs Magnemite and is close at 1HKOing Zubat
Dig 3HKOs Croconaw
=Morty=
Quagsire L24
Surf 1HKOs Gastly, 2HKOs Haunter and 3HKOs Gengar
=Chuck=
Quagsire L30
Surf 2HKOs Primeape
Strength 4HKOs Poliwrath
Dig 4HKOs Poliwrath. Poliwrath can hit you underground through Mind Reader
=Jasmine=
Quagsire L30
Surf 2HKOs the Magnemites and Steelix
Dig 1HKOs the Magnemite
=Pryce=
Quagsire L31
Dig 2HKOs Seel and 3HKO Dewgong
Strength 2HKOs Seel and 3HKOs Dewgong
Surf 2HKOs Piloswine
=Rival 4=
Quagsire L32-33
Ice Punch 2HKOs Golbat
Surf 2HKOs Haunter and is close at 1HKOing Magnemite and 2HKOing Sneasel.
Strength is close at 4HKOing Feraligatr
=Clair=
Quagsire L38
Ice Punch 2HKOs the Dragonairs
Earthquake 3HKOs Kingdra
=Rival 5=
Quagsire L39
Earthquake 1HKOs Sneasel, Magneton, Kadabra and Haunter and is close at 2HKOing Feraligatr.
Ice Punch 2HKOs Golbat
=Will=
Quagsire L40
Ice Punch 2HKOs the Xatus and Exeggutor
Earthquake 1HKOs Jynx and 3HKOs Slowbro(4HKOs after it uses Curse turn 2)
=Koga=
Quagsire L40
Earthquake 2HKOs Ariados and Venomoth and is close at 1HKOing Muk
Ice Punch 3HKOs Crobat
=Bruno=
Quagsire L41
Earthquake 1HKOs Hitmontop after it uses Dig, 2HKOs Hitmonchan, 3HKOs Machamp and is close at 1HKOing Hitmonlee
Surf 1HKOs Onix
=Karen=
Quagsire L41
Earthquake 3HKOs Umbreon, and 1HKOs Gengar and Houndoom
Ice Punch 2HKOs Murkrow
Vileplume outspeeds and 1HKOs back.
=Lance=
Quagsire L42
Strength 4HKOs Gyarados
Ice Punch 2HKOs the Dragonite
Surf 2HKOs Aerodactyl and Charizard
Wooper is weak until Level 20, like Water Gun is too weak that Slam is stronger than it, but that move is so inaccurate. Alternatively, you can catch a L19 Wooper post-Morty and used the Rare Candy in Violet City instead. Yeah, you can catch a Quagsire in post-Morty too, but those things have an annoying 50% flee chance so, good luck with that. If you're attempting to catch a Quagsire, then I recommend catching one on Route 32. While it has 30% chance as opposed to 40% in other area, they have higher chance of appearing at higher level (L20-L24 compared to L15-24). As a Quagsire, its just fine except that its slow. I've been using Strength than Dig on few matchups such as Chuck's Poliwrath and Pryce's Dewgong because I think Strength has same Base Power as STAB Dig after taking badge boost into account? I'm going for C Tier on this one and its largely due to that low speed.
=Rival 3=
Chinchou L22
Surf 2HKOs Haunter(1HKOs after it uses Curse), Zubat and Magnemite and 6HKOs Croconaw
=Morty=
Chinchou L24
Surf 1HKOs Gastly, 2HKOs Haunter and 3HKOs Gengar
=Chuck=
Lanturn L30
Surf 2HKOs Primeape
Spark 2HKOs Poliwrath
=Jasmine=
Lanturn L30
MysticWater Surf 2HKOs Steelix and has a low roll to 1HKO Magnemite.
=Pryce=
Lanturn L31
Spark 2HKOs Dewgong and is close at 1HKOing Seel
MysticWater Surf has a roll to 1HKO Piloswine
=Rival 4=
Lanturn L32-33
MysticWater Surf 1HKOs Magnemite, 2HKOs Sneasel and is close at 1HKOing Haunter
Spark 2HKOs Golbat and Feraligatr
=Clair=
Lanturn L38
Return 4HKOs the Dragonairs
Spark 4HKOs Kingdra
=Rival 5=
Lanturn L39
MysticWater Surf 2HKOs Sneasel, Magneton and Kadabra and 1HKOs Haunter
Spark 2HKOs Golbat and Feraligatr
=Will=
Lanturn L40
Spark 2HKOs the Xatus and Slowbro(3HKOs after it uses Amnesia turn 1)
Surf 3HKOs Jynx
Exeggutor is a no
=Koga=
Lanturn L40
MysticWater Surf 2HKOs Ariados, Venomoth and Forretress and is close at 3HKOing Muk
Spark 2HKOs Crobat
=Bruno=
Lanturn L41
MysticWater Surf 1HKOs Onix and 3HKOs the rest
=Karen=
Lanturn L41
MysticWater Surf 4HKOs Umbreon, 2HKOs Houndoom and is close at 1HKOing Gengar after it uses Curse
Spark 1HKOs Murkrow
Vileplume is a no.
=Lance=
Lanturn L42
Spark 5HKOs L47 Dragonites, 6HKOs L50 Dragonites and is close at 1HKOing Gyarados
Surf 2HKOs Aerodactyl and Charizard
Thunder 1HKOs Gyarados and 3HKOs the Dragonites
I'm going for C Tier on this one. While a STAB Electric is good especially against Chuck and Pryce, lacking an Ice move hurts and this is what prevented me from properly going for B Tier, though its just me preferring having an Ice move against Clair and Lance.
=Chuck=
Lapras L30
Surf 2HKOs Primeape
Body Slam 3HKOs Poliwrath
=Jasmine=
Lapras L30
MysticWater Surf 1HKOs all
=Pryce=
Lapras L31
Body Slam 2HKOs Seel and 3HKOs Dewgong
Surf 1HKOs Piloswine
=Rival 4=
Lapras L32
MysticWater Surf 2HKOs Golbat and Sneasel, and 1HKOs Magnemite and Haunter
Body Slam 4HKOs Feraligatr
=Clair=
Lapras L38
Ice Beam 1HKOs the Dragonairs and 3HKOs Kingdra
=Rival 5=
Lapras L39
MysticWater Surf 2HKOs Sneasel, 1HKOs Haunter and is close at 1HKOing Magneton and Kadabra
Ice Beam 1HKOs Golbat
Body Slam 4HKOs Feraligatr
=Will=
Lapras L40
Ice Beam 1HKOs the Xatu and Exeggutor
MysticWater Surf 2HKOs Jynx
Body Slam 5HKOs Slowbro
Thunder 2HKOs Slowbro
=Koga=
Lapras L40
MysticWater Surf 2HKOs Ariados, Venomoth and Forretress and 3HKOs Muk
Ice Beam has a roll to 1HKO Crobat
=Bruno=
Lapras L41
MysticWater Surf 1HKOs Onix, 3HKOs Machamp, and has a roll to 2HKO the Hitmons
=Karen=
Lapras L41
MysticWater Surf 4HKOs Umbreon, 2HKOs Gengar(after it uses Curse) and Houndoom
Ice Beam 1HKOs Murkrow and is close at 1HKOing Vileplume
=Lance=
Lapras L42-43
Nevermeltice Ice Beam 3HKOs Gyarados, and 1HKOs Aerodactyl and the Dragonites
Surf is close at 1HKOing Charizard
Thunder 1HKOs Gyarados
Going for B Tier on this one. The problem is the backtracking to Union Cave to catch it and that its only available at Friday(though the latter can be minor due to time manipulation, i guess...), but otherwise, its a solid mon overall. Having Body Slam by default is decent until Thunder TM due to its para chance, and it learns STAB Ice Beam in the right time.

Qwilfish - D
Wooper - C
Chinchou - C
Lapras - B

Next run will be Pidgey, Oddish(Bellossom), Venonat and Jynx. Still on a break, but i might post this next log sooner
 
Just IMO, but from reading your log it seems the most efficient time to get Qwilfish would be after getting the Good Rod and Surf - the fact that it goes from maybe 2-3HKOing major trainers’s weakest Pokémon to scoring consistent 2HKOs and the occasional OHKO really says it all.
 
Scyther is very odd. On the one hand, it has one of the stronger sweeps of the League. My problems with it are as follows:

1. More annoying to get than the average mon:
Scyther must be caught on three days of the week. Yes you can time travel but still. The actual problems lie in its 45 catch rate and 5% encounter rate.

2. Kinda inconsistent until the League:
It beats Chuck and that’s about it. Whitney is RNG reliant on Fury Cutter not screwing you over (feasible, but still) and Clair is okay but only notable if you are somehow level 42 for Swords Dance. Everywhere else you kinda lose.

3. Level benchmarks for Wing Attack and Swords Dance:
While 30 is not hard to get to for Chuck, I still count it as somewhat of a negative given you are basically useless there otherwise. Swords Dance at 42 is possible for League but is the linchpin ALL of Scyther’s viability hinges on, as it’s definitely a C tier otherwise. You definitely have to focus on this thing and I felt like it was kinda a drain sometimes.

4. The League is easier than most of the Gym Leaders.
Self-explanatory. Only Will and Lance are notable I feel.
Agree on pretty much everything, though I personally feel being able to ace most of the E4+Lance and Clair is worthy of a B. It's just too good to ignore. Had it not been for that, I'd have agreed on C or less.

I'm fully convinced for Heracross to be a D Tier condisering how Headbutt trees works in this game
Headbutt trees aren't a problem in this game. There is an online calculator that allows you to find a Heracross Headbutt tree very easily depending on your Trainer ID. Also, the Lapras point IMO is one you can easily game around using time manipulation, so IMO that's not worth penalizing.

For Wooper, I'd highly recommend catching a Quagsire in the wild instead. Wooper indeed is pretty underwhelming (to put it mildly) as you said. It does make me wonder if we shouldn't tier different Pokemon differently if they have alternate availabilities, so to speak.

While I am sorry to hear that you feel this way.

First off, you were told Growlithe was in no way making it to A. You can standby that you think it is A, but it has no business in there according to other testers and myself
Fair.

Starmie, while not decided on B as of yet, has Slow XP Group (which plays a huge factor in a game where XP is very hard to come by), comes in at Level 20 which is considered underleveled
You can fish up a L20 Staryu before fighting a single trainer in Ecruteak, all it takes is a quick detour to Olivine. L20 isn't underleveled at this point.

requires WAY too much investment for it play a role in your team (Surf
Surf is a mandatory HM and one you acquire early on.

DST Trick
Not a problem given that A) you can easily go to New Bark from Ecruteak to change DST settings and B) the fisherman can call you even before you need or use the trick, especially if you have no other numbers saved on your phone.

at least 1 GC TM
This is true, but good thing Starmie can leverage Thunder (no, you don't need Blizzard, Icy Wind does it) incredibly well in many major fights. In fact, Starmie being able to leverage Rain + Thunder + Surf and a solid 100 Special Attack deserves genuine credit.

no Psychic
This isn't even a matter of investment, just lack of access to a move that you don't really need.

While I won't deny the power of Starmie, that power comes at a great cost in it's efficiency, which by this I mean the sheer amount of money required to get it off it's feat
You can obtain Thunder by the time you hit Olivine if you're using your money well, and you technically don't need Thunder until...Clair? You can

Starmie doesn't have to be in S, they can stay in A for such reasons.

It can't do anything to Chuck due to Wrath
I disagree. Rain Dance + Surf did a number on Wrath coming from my Vaporeon.

Vaporeon (L31): A Rain-boosted Surf reliably OHKOes Primeape, who outpaces but can't even bring you below the green with a Leer + non-crit Karate Chop. Reliably outpace Poliwrath and reliably 3HKO with Rain Surf. Dynamicpunch reliably 3HKO you in return. A-Tier matchup.

Vaporeon (L31): Set up a Guard Spec to avoid having your speed lowered by Icy Wind. Bite reliably 3HKOes Seel (whom you outpace) - in return, Icy Wind and Headbutt do very, very, very little damage. Bite is not good against Dewgong, though. Fortunately, Rain + Surf reliably 2HKOes Seel and reliably 3HKOes Dewgong, whom you outpace too. Piloswine gets reliably OHKOed and outpaced (too). Easy S-Tier matchup.

Starmie isn't far behind Vaporeon in Special Attack, and I wasn't using a Mystic Water for the latter (this makes up for the stat difference).

TLDR: You don't need Thunder. Rain Surf is good enough.

it can probably take down Jasmine
Surf oneshots everything in her arsenal at relative levels, IIRC. Again, use a Mystic Water on Starmie to compensate.

Vaporeon (L33): Vaporeon reliably outpaced and OHKOed everyone through Surf. No Rain needed. S-tier matchup.

Clair is another issue it has
I'll admit Clair isn't the best opponent for Starmie, though Starmie should still be able to take out a Dragonair or two...

and the E4 is just varying degrees that are against it
This I can only comment on going off pure theory, but Rain + Thunder + Surf should be able to wreck Will, Bruno, Koga, and Karen thoroughly. Vileplume and Umbreon are the only opponents that you'd probably want to steer clear of. Said combo and Icy Wind helps crunch Lance.

Now, I haven't tested the mon yet, but I can tell you by just reading what others have said and the amount of work I need to do for it, it's fine in B
Well, I'd say you're underselling Starmie. I haven't tested Starmie either, but my calcs off a statistically similar Pokemon that I have tested suggest they're better than you're giving them credit for.

Donphan hasn't been decided on yet. C/D is where it will remain until we hold it's ranking placement
Fair.

Totodile has been placed in A and is not moving (was on a 2 week time limit). While the ability to beat Whitney is there, it is not 100% guaranteed. The other reason that has been stated a lot is that it just gets into a rut with its power output and never really claws its way out. So it goes from an S tier to an A tier due to lack of power in the later stages
Still disagree, but it's your thread and the time's up, so...moving on.

By all means, tell the people how to use a Pokemon to it's full potential. You've left that very vague (though I know of one such Pokemon that you constantly refer to) and as such, have my curiosity piqued
No need to take offense. I'm just trying to help, and that includes pointing out times and instances where people are not using their Pokemon to their full potential (for instance, not teaching them a completely achievable move or strategy they would benefit from in a fight).

so you might want to clarify on the said Pokemon
All in good time.
 
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=Falkner=
Pidgey L11
Gust 3HKOs Pidgey(close to 2HKOing) and 4HKOs Pidgeotto. Needs a Berry to sweep
=Bugsy=
Pidgey L16
Gust 2HKOs the cocoons and 3HKOs Scyther
=Rival 2=
Pidgeotto L18
Gust 2HKOs Gastly(close to 1HKOing) and Zubat, and 4HKOs Croconaw
Swift 2HKOs Zubat and is close at 3HKOing Croconaw
=Whitney=
Pidgeotto L21
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Clefairy and 4HKOs Miltank. Miltank outspeeds
=Rival 3=
Pidgeotto L22
Gust 2HKOs Haunter after it uses Curse
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Zubat and 4HKOs Magnemite and Croconaw
=Morty=
Pidgeotto L24
Gust 2HKOs Gastly(1HKOs after it uses Curse) and is close at 2HKOing Haunter(close to 1HKOing 1st Haunter after it uses Curse) and 5HKOs Gengar(close to 4HKOing)
=Chuck=
Pidgeotto L31
Sharp Beak Gust 2HKOs Primeape and 3HKOs Poliwrath
Return 2HKOs Primeape and 3HKOs Poliwrath
=Jasmine=
Pidgeotto L31
Mud-Slap 2HKOs Magnemite. Magnemite 1HKOs back, this is F-Tier matchup
=Pryce=
Pidgeotto L32
Return 2HKOs Seel, 3HKOs Piloswine and is close to 2HKOing Dewgong. Piloswine 1HKOs back
=Rival 4=
Pidgeotto L33
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Golbat and Sneasel, 3HKOs Magnemite and is close at 3HKOing Feraligatr
Wing Attack 2HKOs Haunter
=Clair=
Pidgeot L38
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs the Dragonairs and is close at 2HKOing Kingdra.
=Rival 5=
Pidgeot L40
Pink Bow Return 1HKOs Sneasel and Kadabra, 2HKOs Golbat and Feraligatr, and 3HKOs Magneton
Wing Attack is close at 1HKOing Haunter
=Will=
Pidgeot L40
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs the Xatus, 1HKOs Jynx and 3HKOs Slowbro(4HKOs after it uses Curse turn 1)
Wing Attack 2HKOs Exeggutor
=Koga=
Pidgeot L41
Pink Bow Return 3HKOs Muk and has a roll to 2HKO Crobat
Wing Attack 5HKOs Forretress and is close to 1HKOing Ariados and Venomoth
=Bruno=
Pidgeot L42
Wing Attack 1HKOs Hitmonlee, 2HKOs Hitmontop, Hitmonchan and Machamp
Return 5HKOs Onix
=Karen=
Pidgeot L42
Pink Bow Return 3HKOs Umbreon, 2HKOs Houndoom and is close to 1HKOing Murkrow
Wing Attack 2HKOs Vileplume and is close to 1HKOing Gengar after it uses Curse
=Lance=
Pidgeot L42
Pink Bow Return 3HKOs the Dragonites, 2HKOs Charizard and is close at 2HKOing Gyarados.
Aerodactyl is a no
Evolving sooner compare to Spearow looks good but, honestly its not that good. Obviously, its gets stat boost upon evolving like Pidgeotto gets... base 60 Attack and 71 Speed and that looks good, but that's the problem because this is literally the same base Attack and Speed stat a Level 2 Spearow had at Route 46 and the worst thing is, its stuck with that stat all the way to Level 36, and mind you Spearow isn't far off from evolving either, and not to mentioned, Pidgeotto's overall stat is comparable to a Farfetch'd. As a Pidgeot, it goes back to being good again. I'm mixed between C or B on this one. It does have a chance of being a B Tier, but it being C is due to how bad Pidgeotto is, though Pidgey being two tiers below Spearow does feel weird. Joining at higher level and having a Medium Slow level rate compare to Spearow is indeed nice.
=Bugsy=
Oddish L16
MiracleSeed Absorb 8HKOs Metapod and does little to Kakuna and Scyther. Bad
=Rival 2=
Oddish L18
MiracleSeed Absorb is close at 5HKOing Gastly and close at 3HKOing Croconaw. Zubat is a no.
=Whitney=
Bellossom L21
MiracleSeed Absorb is close to 6HKOing Clefairy
Return 3HKOs Clefairy and 6HKOs Miltank
=Rival 3=
Bellossom L22
MiracleSeed Absorb 6HKOs Haunter after it uses Curse and 4HKOs Croconaw
Return 5HKOs Magnemite and Croconaw and 3HKOs Zubat
=Morty=
Bellossom L24
MiracleSeed Absorb 3HKOs Gastly after it uses Curse, the rest is a no.
=Chuck=
Bellossom L31
Return 2HKOs Primeape and 4HKOs Poliwrath
Absorb 5HKOs Poliwrath
=Jasmine=
Bellossom L31
Return 4HKOs Magnemite
Absorb does little to Steelix.
=Pryce=
Bellossom L32
Return 2HKOs Seel, 4HKOs Piloswine and is close at 3HKOing Dewgong
Absorb 3HKOs Seel, 5HKOs Dewgong and 4HKOs Piloswine
=Rival 4=
Bellossom L33
Pink Bow Return 3HKOs Golbat, 2HKOs Sneasel, and 4HKOs Magnemite and Feraligatr.
Absorb 5HKOs Feraligatr. Haunter is a no
=Clair=
Bellossom L38
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs the Dragonairs and 4HKOs Kingdra
=Rival 5=
Bellossom L40
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Sneasel and Golbat, 1HKOs Kadabra, 4HKOs Feraligatr and 5HKOs Magneton
Haunter is a no
=Will=
Bellossom L40
Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Jynx, 4HKOs Exeggutor, 5HKOs Slowbro and is close at 2HKOing the Xatus
Solarbeam 1HKOs Slowbro. Needs Sleep Powder to prevent Amnesia
=Koga=
Bellossom L41
Pink Bow Return 3HKOs Ariados, 2HKOs Venomoth, 4HKOs Muk and Crobat
Forretress is a no
=Bruno=
Bellossom L42
MiracleSeed Solarbeam 1HKOs Onix and 2HKOs the rest. Everyone outspeeds
=Karen=
Bellossom L42
Pink Bow Return 3HKOs Vileplume, 2HKOs Murkrow and is close to 4HKOing Umbreon
Houndoom outspeeds and 1HKOs back, Gengar is a no.
=Lance=
Bellossom L42
Pink Bow Return 4HKOs Gyarados, L47 Dragonites and 5HKOs L50 Dragonites
Solarbeam 2HKOs Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl 2HKOs back
Charizard outspeeds and 1HKOs back.
Oddish is stuck with Absorb until getting Cut and there's so many mon that resist it at that point, and not to mentioned that's its only Grass move until Solar Beam TM, and there's still too many Grass resist at that point too (it can't even SunnyBeam through Bruno effectively because all his pokemon outspeeds Bellossom). It needs certain trainers to preserve in the early-game in order to catch up easier, especially those with Geodudes and Onix and the Fishermans at Route 32, and luckily, it is helped by having a Medium Slow leveling rate. As a Bellossom, it has to rely heavily on unSTAB Return and/or Sludge Bomb (loses STAB upon evolving) for offense because Absorb sucks and its slow. I was initially going for D but honestly, can I nominated this in E instead? Bellossom in the D Tier is like its D- at best.
=Whitney=
Venonat L21
Confusion is close to 6HKOing Clefairy
Pink Bow Swift 3HKOs Clefairy and deals little to Miltank
=Rival 3=
Venonat L22
Confusion 4HKOs Haunter(2HKOs after it uses Curse), 3HKOs Zubat
Pink Bow Swift 6HKOs Magnemite and Croconaw
=Morty=
Venonat L24
Confusion 1HKOs Gastly after it uses Curse, 3HKOs Haunters(close to 1HKOing 1st Haunter after it uses Curse) and 5HKOs Gengar
=Chuck=
Venomoth L31
Poison Barb Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Primeape and 3HKOs Poliwrath
=Jasmine=
Venomoth L31
Return appears to be a 6HKO on Magnemite. Bad
=Pryce=
Venomoth L32
Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Seel and 3HKOs Dewgong(2HKOs if poisoned)
Return 5HKOs Piloswine.
=Rival 4=
Venomoth L33
Confusion 2HKOs Haunter and is close at 2HKOing Golbat
Return 5HKOs Magnemite
Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Sneasel and 4HKOs Feraligatr(3HKOs if poisoned)
=Clair=
Venomoth L38
Sludge Bomb 2HKOs the Dragonairs and 4HKOs Kingdra (3HKOs if poisoned)
=Rival 5=
Venomoth L40
Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Sneasel, 1HKOs Kadabra and 4HKOs Feraligatr(3HKOs if poisoned)
Psybeam 2HKOs Golbat and is close at 1HKOing Haunter
Return 6HKOs Magneton
=Will=
Venomoth L40
Sludge Bomb 4HKOs Slowbro(3HKOs if poisoned) and 2HKOs the rest. All 1HKOs back
=Koga=
Venomoth L41
Psybeam 2HKOs Ariados and Venomoth, and 3HKOs Muk and Crobat. Crobat 2HKOs back
Forretress is a no
=Bruno=
Venomoth L42
Poison Barb Sludge Bomb 3HKOs Hitmontop, 2HKOs Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan and 4HKOs Machamp
Psybeam 3HKOs Onix
=Karen=
Venomoth L42
Poison Barb Sludge Bomb 4HKOs Umbreon, 3HKOs Vileplume, 2HKOs Murkrow
Psybeam 3HKOs Vileplume and is close to 1HKOing Gengar after it uses Curse.
Houndoom outspeeds and 1HKOs back
=Lance=
Venomoth L42
Poison Barb Sludge Bomb 3HKOs Gyarados, 4HKOs L47 Dragonites and 5HKOs L50 Dragonite
Aerodactyl and Charizard outspeeds and 1HKOs back.
This is D Tier. The Venonat in Ilex Forest are exclusive to Crystal and even then, its still better off to catch one at Bug-catching contest instead as they joined as high as level 16 (You can catch a L17 Venomoth in Crystal too instead). Venonat is mediocre until Sludge Bomb TM, and Confusion is weak unless its facing a Poison-Type like, L22 Venonat's Confusion failed to OHKO a L7 Hoothoot at Sprout Tower, lol (i didn't fought all the trainers there yet because Medium Slow go brr...) or L28 Venonat's Confusion failing to OHKO a L14 Geodude. As Venomoth, it has some few uses here and there, but that's about it.
=Rival 4=
Jynx L33-34
Ice Punch 1HKOs Golbat and Haunter, 2HKOs Magnemite, 3HKOs Sneasel, and 4HKOs Feraligatr
=Clair=
Jynx L38
Nevermeltice Ice Punch 1HKOs the Dragonairs and has a very high chance at 2HKOing Kingdra. Jynx survives a Hyper Beam.
=Rival 5=
Jynx L40-41
Nevermeltice Ice Punch 1HKOs Golbat, Haunter and Kadabra, 2HKOs Magneton, 3HKOs Feraligatr and has a high chance at 2HKOing Sneasel
=Will=
Jynx L40-41
Nevermeltice Ice Punch 1HKOs the Xatus and Exeggutor, and 4HKOs Jynx and Slowbro. Jynx needs Lovely Kiss to beat the latter two
Shadow Ball 4HKOs Slowbro and is close to 1HKOing Jynx
=Koga=
Jynx L41-42
Nevermeltice Ice Punch 2HKOs Ariados and Venomoth, 3HKOs Forretress and Muk, and has a roll to 1HKO Crobat
=Bruno=
Jynx L42-43
Nevermeltice Ice Punch 1HKOs Onix and 2HKOs the rest. Needs Lovely Kiss against Hitmonlee and Machamp
=Karen=
Jynx L42-43
Nevermeltice Ice Punch 3HKOs Umbreon, 1HKOs Vileplume and Murkrow, 2HKOs Gengar, and 5HKOs Houndoom. Jynx outspeeds Houndoom, but gets 1HKOed back.
Body Slam is close to 4HKOing Houndoom.
=Lance=
Jynx L42
Nevermeltice Ice Punch 3HKOs Gyarados, 1HKOs Aerodactyl and the Dragonites and is close at 2HKOing Charizard. Gyarados, Aerodactyl and Charizard 1HKOs back, Aerodactyl outspeeds.

Solo-sweeping requires luck involving landing Lovely Kiss against Gyarados and Charizard, and Aerodactyl missing a Rock Slide, and Lance sends his Dragonites last
This can go in B Tier. I was initially going for C on this one simply because of how late it is, but it being B comes with its strong performance even with just using only Ice Punch and Lovely Kiss alone. I am surprised on how strong Ice Punch is even against some of Ice-resistant foes such as Rival's Magneton and Koga's Forretress and against most of its otherwise tough matchup, it can cheese through them with Lovely Kiss.

Pidgey - B/C
Venonat - D
Oddish(Bellossom) - E
Jynx - B

Next will be Hoothoot, Vulpix, Abra(No Trade) and Girafarig. I'm going to do two more runs (this next one and another) and i'm done doing logs.
 
Finished my run of Gold! I got to use some really fun mons this time around.
As some general rules for my playthrough, I didn't use any items in battle, I tried to keep my team at exactly the same level, and I didn't aim for any specific DVs or stat training.


FERALIGATR @ MYSTIC WATER
LV. 55
Met in NEW BARK TOWN at level 5.
- Surf
- Bite
- Strength
- Ice Punch (TM)

Not gonna talk about Gatr too much since it's staying in A tier for now anyways but this thing gets stupid good once you get the HM for Surf and holds its own really well even before then, notably being able to tear past Whitney with Rage. It struggles a little lategame (didn't contribute much against Sabrina or Red for me) but I think it's one of the better mons in GSC for sure!


AIPOM @ PINK BOW
LV. 55
Met in ROUTE 31 at level 10.
- Return (TM)
- Dynamic Punch (TM)
- Iron Tail (TM)
- Shadow Ball (TM)

As a Normal-type in GSC, Aipom's got some really good advantages. Any matchup where Aipom is able to dent something is a good matchup and Normal-type STAB means you'll be able to dent things a lot. Aipom's also got fantastic Speed allowing it to outpace a ton of Pokemon that'd otherwise pose a problem for it. I made a big mistake and should have caught Aipom in a Friend Ball so I could have a max power Return very early into the game, which would make it much more of a powerhouse early on. It didn't end up mattering too much, though.

Unusually for a Normal-type Pokemon, Aipom struggles the most with coverage. It lacks Dig, something that Raticate and Furret have access to and something that would allow Aipom to muscle past tougher matchups with Steel-types, instead of relying on the unreliable Dynamic Punch. It also struggles lategame, as it gets weaker and weaker the tougher the major fights get.

I think C tier is fine for Aipom - Normal-types in GSC are powerful and while this certainly applies to Aipom, it has some very apparent flaws that others just don't have.



BEEDRILL @ KING'S ROCK
LV. 55
Met in NATIONAL PARK at level 12.
- Twinneedle
- Fury Cutter (TM)
- Return (TM)
- Sludge Bomb (TM)

Beedrill's incredibly strange in that it has some strong matchups early game, falls off against some of the midgame gyms, gets exponentially better once it learns Sludge Bomb, and then falls off again once you reach the Elite 4 and Kanto. With a strong base 80 Attack though, Beedrill holds its own against many major fights, and if it can set up Fury Cutter it can sweep teams. It struggles most against teams where it cannot set up Fury Cutters or deal much damage with Sludge Bomb / Twinneedle, which is to say any team with Rock- or Steel-types. Beedrill can surprisingly set up Fury Cutters against Red's Venusaur, for example, and dent half of Snorlax's health before going down which is really nice.

All in all, Beedrill's got some nice matchups thanks to Fury Cutter and Sludge Bomb provides strong neutral coverage which is great for the same reason that Normal-type STAB is great, but I'd put it at D tier because of its middling lategame performance.


SUNFLORA @ QUICK CLAW
LV. 55
Met in NATIONAL PARK at level 11.
- Petal Dance
- Solar Beam
- Sunny Day
- Growth

Sunflora surprised me because I found it to be actually really good, thanks in part to its gargantuan 105 base Special Attack. One of the difficulties people have with using Sunflora in-game is actually obtaining a Sun Stone, but this actually wasn't too difficult for me (if a bit time consuming) and I got it on my very first try at the Bug-Catching Contest by following this guide. Sunflora's early game presence is fantastic - it can muscle past even the toughest matchups such as Jasmine (watch out for Supersonic, however) thanks to Growth and its naturally great Special Attack. After getting Petal Dance or making use of SunnyBeam if the TMs aren't going to be used by anyone else, Sunflora becomes a powerhouse.

Sunflora's not without weaknesses though - it has an incredibly low Speed stat and mediocre physical bulk, meaning that without a Quick Claw it very likely won't outspeed anything and will have to take a strong hit in return. Sunflora also suffers from being a Grass-type in a game where the lategame generally isn't kind to Grass-types. Similarly to Beedrill, Sunflora will also struggle against the myriad of Steel- and Poison-types if it isn't able to set up Growths.

In general though, I think Sunflora's ability to alleviate its worse matchups with the aid of Growth and the power it has at the point you get it makes me think Sunflora belongs in C tier as one of the better Grass-types available in GSC.


ENTEI @ CHARCOAL
LV. 55
Met in ROUTE 37 at level 40.
- Sunny Day (TM)
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam (TM)
- Dig (TM)

Ranking roamers has always been difficult because yes, if you capture Entei immediately after it flees Burned Tower, then you'd have an easy S-tier mon due to the power and level you capture it at. Realistically, though, you'd only be able to catch your roamer of choice after obtaining the Master Ball from Professor Elm after the eighth gym, leaving very little of the game left for Entei.

Entei's probably the least promising of the three roamers - it has a horrid level up movepool, leaving it stuck with Ember as its only Fire-type STAB move until level 51 or unless you obtained the TM for Fire Blast from the Game Corner which is a lengthy investment. I used this guide to find Entei which made things MUCH easier. Entei's access to Sunny Day and Solar Beam makes it a unique Pokemon that actually plays more like a Grass-type than it does a Fire-type. It surprisingly struggles against much of the Elite 4, but becomes a very potent Pokemon in Kanto, having many strong matchups thanks to its great coverage at that point in the game.

Entei's late availability, poor performance in what's left in Johto, and difficulty to capture aren't exactly points in its favor, but it does possess very strong stats and does great in Kanto. If someone finds a consistent method of capturing Entei soon after it flees Burned Tower, then I could see this thing being S-tier easily along with the other roamers. Otherwise, this thing's D-tier.


AEROY (AERODACTYL) @ SOFT SAND
LV. 55
Met in a trade at level 25.
- Fly
- AncientPower
- Earthquake (TM)
- Hyper Beam

I think Kanto Pokemon are severely underranked at the moment because while leaving postgame Pokemon unranked in other games makes sense, Kanto is very much a different beast and I feel like if a Pokemon has great performance in Kanto (and most importantly against Blue/Red), postgame or not, it should be ranked, barring Pokemon locked behind the Power Plant sidequest because frankly there's like two major fights they'd be there for anyways so if they're not E-tier they're unranked.

Aerodactyl's a Pokemon that I feel has great performance in Kanto thanks to its amazing Speed tier letting it outspeed anything in the game and relatively high Attack stat. Unlike other Pokemon in Kanto, Aerodactyl requires very little babying thanks to only being obtainable from a Link Trade, giving it boosted experience. I just slapped an Exp. Share on it and kept it in my party and it very quickly creeped up on my other team members. It's available as soon as you land in Vermilion, gets access to Earthquake immediately, and learns Ancient Power not too long after trading.

Aerodactyl has quite a few problems, though - you have to trade a Chansey to get it, which appears at a rate of 1% on Route 14. There are ways to make this easier - with the repel trick using a Pokemon at level 25, Chansey can be encountered at a 5% encounter rate, which is a significant improvement. By playing Pokemon March on the radio (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) to double the chance of encountering a wild Pokemon, I was able to find one in minutes, and thankfully Chansey can't flee in Gen 2 making capture much simpler. Aerodactyl also can't take hits very well - likely if it can't OHKO what's in front of it, it's going down next. This is particularly a problem when Electric-types aren't OHKOed by Earthquake.

Overall, despite Aerodactyl's lategame status and hurdle in obtaining it, I think it's a great mon for the Kanto side of the game. It's got great STAB, a solid Attack stat, a Speed tier that allows it to outspeed practically anything and it can also utilise Hyper Beam as a fast, strong, finishing hit for a teammate to clean up (if you're playing on Switch mode, you can swap out Aerodactyl during the recharge turn and pretty much use it at no cost). Its lategame status and aforementioned flaws cannot be ignored, however, and it's not an easy Pokemon to obtain. This can go in D-tier.

Aipom to C
Beedrill to D
Sunflora to C
Entei to D
Aerodactyl to D
 
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Finished my run of Gold! I got to use some really fun mons this time around.
As some general rules for my playthrough, I didn't use any items in battle, I tried to keep my team at exactly the same level, and I didn't aim for any specific DVs or stat training.


FERALIGATR @ MYSTIC WATER
LV. 55
Met in NEW BARK TOWN at level 5.
- Surf
- Bite
- Strength
- Ice Punch (TM)

Not gonna talk about Gatr too much since it's staying in A tier for now anyways but this thing gets stupid good once you get the HM for Surf and holds its own really well even before then, notably being able to tear past Whitney with Rage. It struggles a little lategame (didn't contribute much against Sabrina or Red for me) but I think it's one of the better mons in GSC for sure!


AIPOM @ PINK BOW
LV. 55
Met in ROUTE 31 at level 10.
- Return (TM)
- Dynamic Punch (TM)
- Iron Tail (TM)
- Shadow Ball (TM)

As a Normal-type in GSC, Aipom's got some really good advantages. Any matchup where Aipom is able to dent something is a good matchup and Normal-type STAB means you'll be able to dent things a lot. Aipom's also got fantastic Speed allowing it to outpace a ton of Pokemon that'd otherwise pose a problem for it. I made a big mistake and should have caught Aipom in a Friend Ball so I could have a max power Return very early into the game, which would make it much more of a powerhouse early on. It didn't end up mattering too much, though.

Unusually for a Normal-type Pokemon, Aipom struggles the most with coverage. It lacks Dig, something that Raticate and Furret have access to and something that would allow Aipom to muscle past tougher matchups with Steel-types, instead of relying on the unreliable Dynamic Punch. It also struggles lategame, as it gets weaker and weaker the tougher the major fights get.

I think C tier is fine for Aipom - Normal-types in GSC are powerful and while this certainly applies to Aipom, it has some very apparent flaws that others just don't have.



BEEDRILL @ KING'S ROCK
LV. 55
Met in NATIONAL PARK at level 12.
- Twinneedle
- Fury Cutter (TM)
- Return (TM)
- Sludge Bomb (TM)

Beedrill's incredibly strange in that it has some strong matchups early game, falls off against some of the midgame gyms, gets exponentially better once it learns Sludge Bomb, and then falls off again once you reach the Elite 4 and Kanto. With a strong base 80 Attack though, Beedrill holds its own against many major fights, and if it can set up Fury Cutter it can sweep teams. It struggles most against teams where it cannot set up Fury Cutters or deal much damage with Sludge Bomb / Twinneedle, which is to say any team with Rock- or Steel-types. Beedrill can surprisingly set up Fury Cutters against Red's Venusaur, for example, and dent half of Snorlax's health before going down which is really nice.

All in all, Beedrill's got some nice matchups thanks to Fury Cutter and Sludge Bomb provides strong neutral coverage which is great for the same reason that Normal-type STAB is great, but I'd put it at D tier because of its middling lategame performance.


SUNFLORA @ QUICK CLAW
LV. 55
Met in NATIONAL PARK at level 11.
- Petal Dance
- Solar Beam
- Sunny Day
- Growth

Sunflora surprised me because I found it to be actually really good, thanks in part to its gargantuan 105 base Special Attack. One of the difficulties people have with using Sunflora in-game is actually obtaining a Sun Stone, but this actually wasn't too difficult for me (if a bit time consuming) and I got it on my very first try at the Bug-Catching Contest by following this guide. Sunflora's early game presence is fantastic - it can muscle past even the toughest matchups such as Jasmine (watch out for Supersonic, however) thanks to Growth and its naturally great Special Attack. After getting Petal Dance or making use of SunnyBeam if the TMs aren't going to be used by anyone else, Sunflora becomes a powerhouse.

Sunflora's not without weaknesses though - it has an incredibly low Speed stat and mediocre physical bulk, meaning that without a Quick Claw it very likely won't outspeed anything and will have to take a strong hit in return. Sunflora also suffers from being a Grass-type in a game where the lategame generally isn't kind to Grass-types. Similarly to Beedrill, Sunflora will also struggle against the myriad of Steel- and Poison-types if it isn't able to set up Growths.

In general though, I think Sunflora's ability to alleviate its worse matchups with the aid of Growth and the power it has at the point you get it makes me think Sunflora belongs in C tier as one of the better Grass-types available in GSC.


ENTEI @ CHARCOAL
LV. 55
Met in ROUTE 37 at level 40.
- Sunny Day (TM)
- Flamethrower
- Solar Beam (TM)
- Dig (TM)

Ranking roamers has always been difficult because yes, if you capture Entei immediately after it flees Burned Tower, then you'd have an easy S-tier mon due to the power and level you capture it at. Realistically, though, you'd only be able to catch your roamer of choice after obtaining the Master Ball from Professor Elm after the eighth gym, leaving very little of the game left for Entei.

Entei's probably the least promising of the three roamers - it has a horrid level up movepool, leaving it stuck with Ember as its only Fire-type STAB move until level 51 or unless you obtained the TM for Fire Blast from the Game Corner which is a lengthy investment. I used this guide to find Entei which made things MUCH easier. Entei's access to Sunny Day and Solar Beam makes it a unique Pokemon that actually plays more like a Grass-type than it does a Fire-type. It surprisingly struggles against much of the Elite 4, but becomes a very potent Pokemon in Kanto, having many strong matchups thanks to its great coverage at that point in the game.

Entei's late availability, poor performance in what's left in Johto, and difficulty to capture aren't exactly points in its favor, but it does possess very strong stats and does great in Kanto. If someone finds a consistent method of capturing Entei soon after it flees Burned Tower, then I could see this thing being S-tier easily along with the other roamers. Otherwise, this thing's D-tier.


AEROY (AERODACTYL) @ SOFT SAND
LV. 55
Met in a trade at level 25.
- Fly
- AncientPower
- Earthquake (TM)
- Hyper Beam

I think Kanto Pokemon are severely underranked at the moment because while leaving postgame Pokemon unranked in other games makes sense, Kanto is very much a different beast and I feel like if a Pokemon has great performance in Kanto (and most importantly against Blue/Red), postgame or not, it should be ranked, barring Pokemon locked behind the Power Plant sidequest because frankly there's like two major fights they'd be there for anyways so if they're not E-tier they're unranked.

Aerodactyl's a Pokemon that I feel has great performance in Kanto thanks to its amazing Speed tier letting it outspeed anything in the game and relatively high Attack stat. Unlike other Pokemon in Kanto, Aerodactyl requires very little babying thanks to only being obtainable from a Link Trade, giving it boosted experience. I just slapped an Exp. Share on it and kept it in my party and it very quickly creeped up on my other team members. It's available as soon as you land in Vermilion, gets access to Earthquake immediately, and learns Ancient Power not too long after trading.

Aerodactyl has quite a few problems, though - you have to trade a Chansey to get it, which appears at a rate of 1% on Route 14. There are ways to make this easier - with the repel trick using a Pokemon at level 25, Chansey can be encountered at a 5% encounter rate, which is a significant improvement. By playing Pokemon March on the radio (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) to double the chance of encountering a wild Pokemon, I was able to find one in minutes, and thankfully Chansey can't flee in Gen 2 making capture much simpler. Aerodactyl also can't take hits very well - likely if it can't OHKO what's in front of it, it's going down next. This is particularly a problem when Electric-types aren't OHKOed by Earthquake.

Overall, despite Aerodactyl's lategame status and hurdle in obtaining it, I think it's a great mon for the Kanto side of the game. It's got great STAB, a solid Attack stat, a Speed tier that allows it to outspeed practically anything and it can also utilise Hyper Beam as a fast, strong, finishing hit for a teammate to clean up (if you're playing on Switch mode, you can swap out Aerodactyl during the recharge turn and pretty much use it at no cost). Its lategame status and aforementioned flaws cannot be ignored, however, and it's not an easy Pokemon to obtain. This can go in D-tier.

Aipom to C
Beedrill to D
Sunflora to C
Entei to D
Aerodactyl to D
We don't test Kanto. This is stated in the OP as well. Hence any mon obtaining in Kanto is untiered. Not sure on Sunflora myself personally but thank you for posting a link to a guide. You can win easily if you don't roll Cooltrainer Nick for the event though. Also logs would be preferred if you continue testing. These are more summaries than anything and don't really tell me much about the MUs they partook in.
 

SUNFLORA @ QUICK CLAW
LV. 55
Met in NATIONAL PARK at level 11.
- Petal Dance
- Solar Beam
- Sunny Day
- Growth

Sunflora surprised me because I found it to be actually really good, thanks in part to its gargantuan 105 base Special Attack. One of the difficulties people have with using Sunflora in-game is actually obtaining a Sun Stone, but this actually wasn't too difficult for me (if a bit time consuming) and I got it on my very first try at the Bug-Catching Contest by following this guide. Sunflora's early game presence is fantastic - it can muscle past even the toughest matchups such as Jasmine (watch out for Supersonic, however) thanks to Growth and its naturally great Special Attack. After getting Petal Dance or making use of SunnyBeam if the TMs aren't going to be used by anyone else, Sunflora becomes a powerhouse.

Sunflora's not without weaknesses though - it has an incredibly low Speed stat and mediocre physical bulk, meaning that without a Quick Claw it very likely won't outspeed anything and will have to take a strong hit in return. Sunflora also suffers from being a Grass-type in a game where the lategame generally isn't kind to Grass-types. Similarly to Beedrill, Sunflora will also struggle against the myriad of Steel- and Poison-types if it isn't able to set up Growths.

In general though, I think Sunflora's ability to alleviate its worse matchups with the aid of Growth and the power it has at the point you get it makes me think Sunflora belongs in C tier as one of the better Grass-types available in GSC.
I remember using Sunflora a few years ago and having surprisingly decent time with it in Gold. Even if it only has Growth and Petal Dance, the flower can muscle through some opponents. Personally, I would rate it between C and D tier (the latter is definitely more fitting when I compare Pokemon).
 
Sunflora in C-Tier? Blow me away. I need to try one. In theory, it doesn't sound like a bad idea...

I remember using Sunflora a few years ago and having surprisingly decent time with it in Gold. Even if it only has Growth and Petal Dance, the flower can muscle through some opponents. Personally, I would rate it between C and D tier (the latter is definitely more fitting when I compare Pokemon).
If I ever get free time, I will have to try one.
 
It must be noted that MeepBard considered Kanto as well in their descriptions, so they probably also took the positive match-ups against certain Gym Leaders. Though they should probably clarify that themselves anyways.

I also have used Sunflora (I can try to show logs), and I think that it's better than what it initially seems, but D is probably where it belongs best. I don't think it has much viability in the lategame, but it has a positive match-up against Whitney (pretty important), and it can beat Jasmine, as MeepBard indicates. Chuck and Pryce are also positive match-ups.
 
I'm fully convinced for Heracross to be a D Tier condisering how Headbutt trees works in this game,
Heracross
This one can be a bit difficult to tier due to the circumstances regarding its capture. For people that aren't aware, Heracross is only available on rare Headbutt trees, whose location is decided based on your Trainer ID. In most cases, you will be able to get it after beating Bugsy, but there are cases where you can only get it after beating Whitney. To be more specific, in Crystal, Heracross can be found in Azalea Town as long as your trainer ID's last digit isn't 7. In GS, it can be found on Route 30/31 (which means you have to backtrack) regardless of the digit, though the exact location may vary. The image below (which I blatantly stole from a Reddit thread), can be useful for determining which trees can have Heracross:
Hera trees are quite frankly a non-factor.

It's literally as easy as plugging in the relevant info in an easy to use tool.

The problem with Heracross isn't catching one, it's using it. It simply learns no moves. You're going the old road of Normal moves with Headbutt -> Strength/Return and that's all folks.

Rock Smash is pathetically weak, but it does have utility with the Defense drop and field use.
Might as well give it Strength anyway for field purposes as well.
Fury Cutter is nonsense.
Counter is cute for certain reads, but not something that would make me use a mon.
Reversal is late and also rather problematic.
Megahorn is unrealistic.
EQ is too late, but hey, it does learn it.

That's pretty much everything it learns. Just horrible. Bug/Fighting ain't exactly winning defensive awards and not having STAB for either must feel absolutely terrible.
 
Finished my run, not much surprises here except that I trained Scyther to level 41 and then used a Rare Candy to see how it would fare with Swords Dance.

Whitney (21) : Gloom 5HKOes Clefairy with Absorb which shouldn't be too hard to beat with the healing. Miltank is nearly impossible to get through as Absorb is only a 9HKO and it does way too much damages. I didn't bother trying as a Vileplume because it's long to get back to New Bark Town before defeating Sudowoodo and Absorb isn't strong enough for Miltank anyway.

Rival (22) : Vileplume can't do much here except for taking down Magnemite with luck or use Poison Powder on Bayleef

Morty (25) : Nop, Curse is too much

Chuck (30) : 2HKOes Primeape with Sludge Bomb + Absorb. Outspeed and 3HKOes Poliwrath with Sludge Bomb while taking like 20-25% from Dynamic Punch. Clear win.

Jasmine (30) : Nop.

Pryce (31) : Poison Barb Sludge Bomb OHKOes Seel and 2HKOes Dewgong. Vileplume can take Aurora Beam + Blizzard but the problem is that Absorb only 4HKOes Piloswine so between that and Hyper Potion, it's not adviceable to try.

Rival (33) : 2HKOes Sneasel and Meganium with Sludge Bomb, avoid the rest.

Clair (38) : Vileplume can either defeat the 3 Dragonair or Kingdra. With a PRZCureBerry, Vileplume beat each Dragonair as it outspeeds and 2HKOes with Sludge Bomb and has the bulk to take multiple hits (even with a crit Dragon Breath, Vileplume won). Kingdra is 3HKOed by Sludge Bomb and only 3HKOes with Hyper Beam so barring Smokescreen unluck, Vileplume can take down a Dragonair+Kingdra with a PRZCureBerry.

Rival (40) : OHKOes Sneasel, Kadabra and Meganium with Sludge Bomb (barring Reflect from the latter but Vileplume has no troubles beating it regardless).

Will (40) : Outspeed and Sludge Bomb is a range for the OHKO on Exeggutor with Sludge Bomb. The rest outspeeds, isn't OHKOed and 2HKOes back with Psychic.

Koga (40) : lol

Bruno (40) : Beats Machamp 1v1 as Sludge Bomb 3HKOes and the second hit doesn't provoke the cure. If it poisons, then VIleplume will 2HKO with Sludge Bomb after the healing so it's alright. Also beats Onix as Earthquake des nothing and Absorb koes. Alternatively, it's possible to beat Hitmontop, Onix and either Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan.

Karen (40) : Beats Mukrow, 2HKOing with Sludge Bomb and opposite Vileplume that is 3HKOed. Umbreon is 3HKOed by Poison Barb SLudge Bomb but it's a speed tie and can be really haxy.

Lance (41) : 3HKOes Gyarados. Won't do much else.


Whitney (21) : Scyther outspeeds both. 3 Fury Cutter is enough for Clefairy and then will 2HKO Miltank. Rollout does 2/3 so assuming no misses, Scyther should win here.

Rival (22) : Pursuit 2HKOes Haunter after Curse, avoid Magnemite. 3 Fury Cutter kills Bayleef and 2 Headbutt is enough for Zubat.

Morty (25) : 2HKOes Gastly with Pursuit. Haunter 1 is a range for the 2HKO and Haunter 2 is 3HKOed. Gengar is 5HKOed so it's better to avoid it. Bad matchup considering Curse and Scyther should only take at most Gastly and a Haunter.

Chuck (30) : Wing Attack OHKOes Primeape and 2HKOes Poliwrath who can't even ko with a crit Surf. Clear win.

Jasmine (30) : Nop.

Pryce (31): 2HKOes Seel and Dewgong with Sharp Beak Wing Attack. Piloswine is too much as Blizzard will kill after an Aurora Beam and it's only 3HKOed but it's great to take down the Seel line considering the type disadvantage.

Rival (33) : 2HKOes Golbat, Sneasel and Meganium with SP Wing Attack and OHKOes Haunter. Scyther has the bulk to take Wing Attack and Faint Attack and has no troubles defeating these 4.

Clair (38) : Can beat 2 Dragonair with PRZCureBerry, 2HKOing with Wing Attack but not more as Thunderbolt/Ice Beam hit too hard. Kingdra is 3HKOed but 2HKOes back with Surf.

Rival (42) : Tried this with and without Swords Dance :

- With Swords Dance : Set up 3 SD on Sneasel, easily taking hits and OHKO everything with Wing Attack except for Magneton that gets OHKOed y PB Headbutt.

- Without Swords Dance : Sneasel, Haunter and Kadabra are OHKOed by SP Wing Attack. Golbat and Meganium are 2HKOed by Wing Attack. Scyther should beat everything but Magneton as it can even take a crited Wing Attack from Golbat.

WIll (42) : Equip Bitter Berry, set up a Swords Dance on Xatu and Wing Attack OHKOes everything but Slowbro, that goes for Curse and still get 2HKOed. Clear win here.

Koga (42) : Set up 2 Swords Dance on Ariados and everything but Foretress is OHKOed by Wing Attack. Crobat was surprisingly outsped here. A clean sweep for Scyther once again.

Bruno (42) : SP Wing Attack OHKOes Hitmontop. Flee Onix and set up one Swords Dance on the second hitmon sent and ko everything with +2 Wing Attack. A Bitter Berry can be cool in the case Hitmonlee uses Swagger.

Karen (43) : Set up a Swords Dance on Umbreon, 2HKO it with Wing Attack and the rest will be OHKOed by SP Wing Attack. The problem is that Sand Attack can ruin the sweep.

Lance (43/44) : AI reliant. Aerodactyl needs 3 Swords Dance and an Agility to get koed by Wing Attack. It depends heavily on what Gyarados does because if it sets up Rain Dance and uses Hyper Beam, it should result in a win as Scyther can barely take 2 Hyper Beam. Otherwise, thanks to the team order, Scyther can take down Gyarados and the two level 47 Dragonite with +4 SP Wing Attack.


Rival (22) : 2HKOes Haunter with Confusion, flee Magnemite, 3HKOes Bayleef with Stomp and OHKOes Zubat with Confusion.

Morty (25) : Girafarig outspeeds and OHKOes Gastly and both Haunter with Confusion. Gengar outspeeds but is 2HKOed by Confusion and Dream Eater only 4HKOes (it did 20/77). Girafarig should have no problem winning with a MintBerry.

Chuck (30) : Pink Bow Return OHKOes Primeape and 2HKOes Poliwrath. Girafarig takes confortablya Dynamic Punch so barring self hitting, it should be a win.

Jasmine (30) : Nop.

Pryce (31) : PB Return OHKOes Seel and 2HKOes both Dewgong and Piloswine (it's a range on it). Girafarig can take Aurora Beam + Blizzard so it should be able to win here.

Rival (33) : 2HKOes Golbat with Confusion, flee Magnemite, OHKOes Haunter with Confusion. Meganium is 3HKOed and Reflect can be annoying but Girafarig can muscle through it.

Clair (38) : Beats the 3 Dragonair with PRZCureBerry, 2HKOing with Return while taking well enough their hits. Kingdra is only 3HKOed and 2HKOes with Surf.

Rival (40) : Range to OHKO Sneasel with PB Return. Kadabra is OHKOed by Return. Haunter and Magneton are OHKOed by Earthquake. Meganium is 3HKOed by Return. Golbat is 2HKOed by Return. Girafarig should sweep here.

Will (41) : Spell Tag Shadow Ball OHKOes Jynx, 2HKOes Xatus and Exeggutor and 4HKOes Slowbro. It's better to avoid Slowbro due to Curse and Body Slam but as Psychic only 4/5HKOes Girafarig, it can take down 4 mons which is great.

Koga (41) : Psybeam is a range on Ariados. Avoid Foretress. The remaining poison are 2HKOed (Muk requires Earthquake + Psybeam) and Crobat only 4HKOes wth Wing Attack at full health so just like for Will, Girafarig can claim up to 4 kills here.

Bruno (41) : 2HKOes Hitmonchan with Return + Earthquake. 2HKOes Onix with Psybeam. Flee Machamp and try to kill it so that SandStorm goes away. Return will 2HKO the remaining Hitmon while 2 Mach Punch + High Jump Kick doesn't kill. A bit annoying to do but Girafarig can claim once again up to 4 kills.

Karen (41) : 2HKOes Vileplume with Psybeam. Can take on Murkrow + Gengar as it outspeeds and 2HKOes and OHKOes the latter after Curse while taking Faint Attack + Curse. Will only beat at most 2 mons.

Lance (41) : Only beats Gyarados, 3HKOing with Return. Dragonite are 4HKOed, can para and 2HKO with Hyper Beam.


Rival (22) : 2HKOes Haunter with Surf. OHKOes Magnemite with Surf. Bayleef is 2HKOed by Aurora Beam and can't OHKO with Razor Leaf. OHKOes Zubat with Aurora Beam. Curse is annoying here but if Haunter doesn't use it or a switch out against Magnemite, that's a clean sweep.

Morty (25) : Cloyster outspeeds both Haunter and Gastly. Gastly is OHKOed as is Haunter 1. Gengar is 2HKOed and Haunter 2 is a range for the OHKO. With a MintBerry, Cloyster has great odds to win.

Chuck (30) : Outspeeds and 2HKOes Primeape. 5HKOes Poliwrath which can 2HKO with Dynamic Punch.

Jasmine (30) : MW Surf OHKOes everything.

Pryce (31) : 3HKOes Seel with Surf, set up Rain Dance on Dewgong and 3HKOes it and then OHKOes Piloswine with Surf. Clean win here.

Rival (33) : OHKOes Golbat with Aurora Beam and Magnemite and Haunter (which is apparently a speed tie) with Surf. Sadly Cloyster can't take 2 Feint Attack from Sneasel and a Razor Leaf from Meganium but should be able to beat Golbat+Magnemite+Haunter+Meganium.

Clair (38) : OHKOes Dragonair with NVI Aurora Beam. Kingdra outspeeds is only 3HKOes by Aurora Beam and does nearly half with Dragon Breath.

Rival (40) : Set up Rain Dance on Sneasel and OHKO it, Magneton and Haunter with Surf. Kadabra outspeeds and goes for Future Sight. Meganium is 2HKOed by Aurora Beam. As such, Cloyster can't defeat the whole team but still beat everything but Golbat which is great.

Will (40) : Psychic from everything 2HKOes and Xatus outspeed so Cloyster can only beat reliably Exeggutor, 2HKOing with Aurora Beam really.

Koga (40) : MW Surf in Rain OHKOes Ariados and is a range on Venomoth and Foretress. Muk and Crobat are 2HKOed by Rain Surf. The problem here is that Psychic from Venomoth actually does a lot and you can get haxxed but still pretty good overall.

Bruno (40) : Surf + Rain Dance Surf 2HKOes Hitmonchan. Rain Dance Surf 2HKOes everything but the problem is that it's hard to set up considering the fight weakness.

Karen (40) : Avoid Umbreon as Rain Dance Surf only 3HKOes and it 3HKOes with Feint Attack and can easily cheese. Vileplume is 2HKOed and OHKOes with Petal Dance. Houndoom OHKOes. Only beats Gengar after Curse, OHKOing with Surf and Murkrow that gets OHKOed by Aurora Beam.

Lance (41) : Only beats the Blizzard Dragonite, OHKOing with NVI Aurora Beam. Aerodactyl is 2HKOed by Surf and 2HKOes with Rock Slide. Even Dragonite outspeeds and can OHKO with Thunder or Outrage. Cloyster can beat Gyarados as it an take 2 Hyper Beam and 4HKO with Aurora Beam but it's better to take down a lvl 47 Dragonite.


Oddish (Vileplume)

This is an easy D-tier. This thing was a pain to train before Sludge Bomb, even moreso than Bellsprout because Absorb is extremly weak. Performance wise, it was pretty similar honestly, trading speed and power for much better bulk. The bulk comes in handy against Clair and Bruno which was really nice as it did better than expected against them. Otherwise, not much to say, grass-type isn't particularly good in GSC but Vileplume could at least defeat Chuck, do alright against Pryce and really well against Clair and Bruno. It's not the best Pokemon to pick but it still has a niche to warrant D-tier.

By the way, I still need to try it but just like Roldski, Bellossom is probably of E-tier honestly. I don't see a reason to use it over Vileplume as you probably want to stay unevolved to have STAB Sludge Bomb but then if you're staying unevolved, it's better to use Vileplume anyway. This, and the poison-type is great because it makes Chuck and Bruno way easier and having a STAB Sludge Bomb is great to do damages. I can't really see the point of this mon as you're relying on an unSTAB move to do damages.

Scyther

This is C-tier. This mon was really weird in the sense it had either a clear win or was just pretty bad most of the time. Catching it isn't an easy task because you need to trigger the bug catching contest and even then, it's a 5% encounter hard to catch. Training it was painful too before getting Wing Attack because it had to rely on unSTAB moves and wasn't generally strong enough to the point you have to often go to the pokemon center. Another problem is its consistency because it really needs Swords Dance for the Elite 4 as otherwise it's way worse (it won't be able to win any match by itself) and Wing Attack is needed for Chuck (reaching level 30 should be fine for Chuck tho). There is also the fact it relies heavily on Fury Cutter and a single miss can ruin the strategy against Whitney and that Lance is heavily AI reliant. Performance wise, it works as it can defeat Whitney assuming no miss, Chuck easily and assuming it is at least level 42, the Elite 4 thanks to Swords Dance. I really want to say C-tier due to its problems (availability and inconsistency) and being nearly useless against Morty, Jasmine while having a below-average Pryce and Clair (it seems impossible to get to level 42 for her). I can't really see it in the same tier as something like Jynx because it needs a certain level to guarantee the sweep and doesn't do well enough against Clair (which is a top 3 battle with Lance and Whitney).

Girafarig

I want to say A-tier on this. It's probably the best Normal-type right after Spearow and Teddiursa. Except for Jasmine, it only has great gym battles as it defeats easily Morty, Chuck, Pryce and can take down the 3 Dragonair against Clair. The Elite 4 was particularly good outside of Karen as it could hope defeating up to 4 mons. Girafarig feels like a better Tauros because it has the same matchup but actually wins against Morty and is overall helped a lot by its Psychic typing for Chuck, Will and Koga. Not much else to say, just a solid normal-type that does really well except for Jasmine, Karen and Lance and is overall easy to find and train.

Cloyster

This feels like a C-tier. Cloyster had a really strong performance before the Elite 4, being great against Morty, sweeping Jasmine, defeating Pryce and taking down the 3 Dragonair from Clair with ease. The problem tho is that the Elite 4 outside of Koga was heavily lackluster due to its really poor special bulk. Against Will, it can only net a kill against Exeggutor while being outsped by the rest (except Slowbor it can't get through) and 2HKOed by Psychic. Koga was good but it's mostly free most of the time and can still haxx pretty easily. Bruno was extremly bad and as was Karen. Lance was desperately bad, considering the type advantage, only netting a kill is bad. Cloyster feels closer performance wise to Lanturn rather than Water-types usually ranked in B- like Lapras, Vaporeon, Starmie and Golduck. It's pretty good early on but between requiring the DST Trick for Water Stone, Slow Growth rate and bad Elite 4 performance, C-rank looks good for it.


Next run is going to be Bellossom (expect E-tier), Machamp (expect B-tier), Miltank (expect B-tier) and Corsola (expect D-tier).
 

Ryota Mitarai

Shrektimus Prime
is a Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Hera trees are quite frankly a non-factor.

It's literally as easy as plugging in the relevant info in an easy to use tool.

The problem with Heracross isn't catching one, it's using it. It simply learns no moves. You're going the old road of Normal moves with Headbutt -> Strength/Return and that's all folks.

Rock Smash is pathetically weak, but it does have utility with the Defense drop and field use.
Might as well give it Strength anyway for field purposes as well.
Fury Cutter is nonsense.
Counter is cute for certain reads, but not something that would make me use a mon.
Reversal is late and also rather problematic.
Megahorn is unrealistic.
EQ is too late, but hey, it does learn it.

That's pretty much everything it learns. Just horrible. Bug/Fighting ain't exactly winning defensive awards and not having STAB for either must feel absolutely terrible.
Really late (I was basically MIA for a week, so didn't get to answer to this), but my nomination explicitly doesn't take the trees into account, only assumption is that if you are playing Crystal, your ID doesn't end in 7. With that said, I still said D-tier, because I never found anything impressive about it, it capitalizes mostly on the easier matchups and is just a worse Scyther in general (I am not gonna reiterate my points, as everything is in the original post).

As for plugging the tool into the article, it's important to note that articles avoid "external hosting" (or, in this case, relying on non-Smogon resources) when possible because there's no guarantee that it will stay online forever (the developer can always shut down the server they are running the thing on), so we may not be able to actually do this (I'd have to ask the relevant people). I had an idea of making my own "image" like the one I posted earlier so that it can be uploaded on Smogon and thus have internal hosting, but I'd need to find the maps of all relevant locations whose licenses allow me to use them without seeking permissions / crediting the creator / uploader (though I'd have to hyperlink to it, since it'd be weird to just have the image appear in the article randomly)
 
Hi guys, it's been a while but I finally finished my Silver run. I used Jigglypuff, the GC Sandshrew, Tentacool, and Lugia with the support of Totodile and Spearow (since I hadn't used them in a long while). At first I was gonna use Kenya but then I realized I had no way of training Jiggly until level 9 for Pound since Toto isn't very good in Sprout Tower so I had to catch a wild Spearow, RIP. I also caught Suicune with the Master Ball since it appeared to me, I figured it was worth a test to see how different it is from the Crystal one.

Since Toto and Spearow are unquestionably A I won't tier them but I'll still post their run. The former in particular was very fringe S since it had no real but matchup and only a few average ones, particularly Morty, Bruno, and Karen. Spearow meanwhile suffered from being female not being able to 3HKO Whitney's Miltank with Pink Bow Return and failing to 2HKO Clair's Kingdra without it (I was trying ParalyzeCureBerry to see if it could KO a Dragonair plus the ace), meaning those matchups weren't as good. On the other hand it performed much better than I remembered against Bruno since it lived Hitmontop's Quick Attack and Machamp's Rock Slide, therefore KOing all the Fighting-types no probs. I'm now thinking the two-tier difference with Pidgey is reasonable.

Without further ado:

Falkner (level 9 - 10): Scratch 4HKOs Pidgey (3HKOs at level 10) and 5HKOs Pidgeotto after leveling up, with a Berry you can possibly beat both since Gust from each does 3 and 6/33 respectively. With Rage you 3HKO Pidgey and 2HKO Pidgeotto, they always attack so it's a sure win.

Bugsy (level 15 - 16): Water Gun 3HKOs Metapod and Kakuna and appears to 6HKO Scyther. Rage is a 5HKO so at level 16 you can actually lose although a Berry helps. You can set up Rage before Scyther comes in but you risk getting poisoned, possibly the best way is to do it when Kakuna is weakened so there's less chances.

Azalea Town Rival (level 16): Water Gun can 2HKO Gastly although it's faster and puts you to sleep. The problem is that Bayleef comes in so you can't set up Rage, meanwhile Razor Leaf 2HKOs. Zubat is 3HKOed by Water Gun but speedties and can confuse or flinch. If you avoid Gastly and set up on Zubat you 3HKO provided you get attacked twice, unfortunately it only 4HKOs and Razor Leaf finishes you off. Totodile can't learn Fury Cutter although I'm not sure it would've been enough.
(level 18): Croconaw still 2HKOs Gastly but if it sets up Rage on Zubat and gets hit twice can now 3HKO it and Bayleef and live two non-crit Razor Leafs, outspeeding both. With Fury Cutter you can 3HKO Bayleef while living two hits, meaning you win 1v1 unless you get crit or miss. Note that the third hit will KO even if Bayleef sets up Reflect!

Whitney (level 19): Headbutt is a 3HKO on Clefairy and a 6HKO on Miltank, which 3HKOs back. If using Rage you can take advantage on Doubleslap to get multiple boosts, after three hits Miltank is 3HKOed and after six 2HKOed, you can live all of those plus two Stomps (which do 19/61, barely not a 3HKO) in red to win if you don't get flinched. Fury Cutter is a 4HKO on Clefairy and the fifth hit leaves Miltank in red, meaning it's best to use Headbutt first and then three Fury Cutters KO Clefairy and the other two KO Miltank. Solid win even at level 19, Croconaw's bulk is just impressive.

Burned Tower Rival (level 21 - 22): Surf 2HKOs Haunter (OHKO after Curse). Magnemite lives in low yellow and retaliates with Thundershock, that alongside Curse hurts. Ice Punch 3HKOs Bayleef and you live two non-crit Razor Leafs. Surf 2HKOs Zubat. Only Haunter outspeeds. It's hard to get a full sweep but you can avoid Magnemite and beat the rest, 1v1ing Bayleef is cool.

Morty (level 24): Surf OHKOs Gastly, 2HKOs both Haunter and 3HKOs Gengar. Croconaw only outspeeds Gastly and Night Shade is a 4HKO, so it can actually lose to the Haunter if the first one attacks. Mint Berry helps beat Gengar since it likes to Mean Look, however if it sleeps Dream Eater 2HKOs. Average matchup, can sweep but it depends on what the first Haunter does really so it's generally gonna get three KOs at most.

Chuck (level 30): Surf leaves Primeape in low yellow, it likes to Leer. Return is a roll to 3HKO Poliwrath so Pink Bow helps. DynamicPunch does 34/104 at +0 so around a 3HKO (can become a 2HKO after Leer). Mint Berry can be used to prevent Leer. Feraligatr outspeeds both, it's not a guaranteed win because there's a lot of RNG involved but you have good odds since Poliwrath likes to Mind Reader. You might lose and you might win in high green.

Jasmine (level 31): MysticWater Surf OHKOs both Magnemite (roll w/o) and is a roll to OHKO Steelix, which sets up sun and procs Hyper Potion—meaning you might need four Surfs in total to KO it. Luckily it doesn't do much back. EZ sweep.

Pryce (level 32): Return 2HKOs Seel and 3HKOs Dewgong (with Pink Bow it's a roll to 2HKO) and Surf OHKOs Piloswine. Dewgong barely does any damage back with Headbutt, although it can flinch if Seel dropped your Speed (you can try to flinch it with Bite if you're into that). Another sweep.

Underground Rival (level 33): MysticWater Surf 2HKOs Golbat (same as Ice Punch) and Sneasel and OHKOs Magnemite and Haunter. Golbat does 17 damage with Wing Attack and Sneasel 12 with Wing Attack. Ice Punch is a roll to 2HKO Meganium, which does 41/114 with Razor Leaf but likes to PoisonPowder or Reflect first. Only Sneasel outspeeds. Excellent matchup.

Clair (level 37): Both Return and Ice Punch 2HKO the Dragonair, you can live a DragonBreath from the first one and two Tbolts from the second one. Return is a roll to 3HKO Kingdra (guaranteed at level 38, one Surf can prevent it procing Hyper Potion at 37) but for some reason it spams Smokescreen if you're at full so you can win unless you miss a lot. Gatr is so bulky that it can live two DragonBreaths and a Hyper Beam. Blizzard OHKOs the Dragonair. Is unlikely to sweep but with a ParalyzeCureBerry it can either beat the three Dragonair or one plus Kingdra, solid matchup.

Victory Road Rival (level 39 - 40): Surf 2HKOs Sneasel which Screeches, Pink Bow Return is a roll to OHKO. Surf 2HKOs Magneton which T-Waves and does 41-45/134 with Thundershock, not quite a 3HKO (Earthquake obviously OHKOs). Ice Punch appears to be a roll to 2HKO Meganium which 3HKOs with Razor Leaf but likes to PoisonPowder or Reflect, NeverMeltIce clinches it. Ice Punch and Surf 2HKO Golbat. After leveling up Surf becomes a roll to OHKO Haunter and Return OHKOs Kadabra. Excellent performance, just might wanna avoid Magneton due to para.

Will (level 41): Any of Surf/Ice Punch/Bite/Return 2HKO the first Xatu which generally confuses. Exeggutor is 2HKOed by Ice Punch and either Reflects or Leech Seeds. Return is a roll to OHKO Jynx without Reflect, to 2HKO with. Jynx might put you to sleep or DoubleSlap. Slowbro is 3HKOed by Bite but uses Amnesia so you'll have to Return afterwards (if you got seeded it's best to switch out). Xatu nº 2 is 2HKOed by Surf or Ice Punch. Gatr can live any two Psychics. You outspeed everything. Great matchup all around, should generally get four kills unless you get unlucky and you can always fish for Bite flinches if that's your thing.

Koga (level 41 - 42): Both Surf and Return 2HKO Ariados as it Double-Teams and Venomoth which can Toxic or Psychic. Forretress is 3HKOed by Surf. Muk is 3HKOed by Return before Acid Armor, it likes to Minimize. Surf is a roll to 3HKO without MysticWater so best thing to do is Return first and then Surf it it boosts. Earthquake puts Muk in red Ice Punch appears to be a roll to 2HKO Crobat which can Toxic or Double-Team. The only one that threatens direct damage is Muk which does 39/145 with Sludge Bomb so with a PoisonCureBerry you can possibly sweep everything. Only Crobat outspeeds. Excellent matchup.

Bruno (level 42): Return 2HKOs all Hitmon (Top might live without Pink Bow) while Surf 3HKOs. Top does 18/144 with Dig, Chan 24/144 with ThunderPunch and Lee 46/144 with Hi Jump Kick. Machamp is 3HKOed and can proc healing while Cross Chop does around 70/144, meaning you're likely dying once you reach it. Surf obviously OHKOs Onix. Surf in rain 2HKOs all Fighting-types (Surf first against Top and RD as it Digs), although you'll be too weak to 2HKO Machamp unless it misses. Crit MysticWater Surf in rain appears to OHKO Champ which is impressive, you can also beat it one-on-one if you don't get crit. Rain Surf + Surf appears to be a roll to 2HKO Champ if it doesn't proc healing, which means if you can lure in Onix you can set up rain against it (it likes to Bind although it might Sandstorm) and 2HKO Lee and Champ while being healthier. Crits still ruin you, tho. If you're at full health against Lee it might Swagger which you can take advantage of with a Bitter Berry to 2HKO Machamp, it won't happen if you took even the slightest hit, however. Good matchup generally although it struggles against to beat the ace one-on-one due to crits and healing. Gatr outspeeds everything.

Karen (level 42 - 43): MysticWater Surf is a 4HKO on Umbreon while Pink Bow Return 3HKOs, it likes to Sand-Attack and Confuse Ray so it's not super reliable. Ice Punch appears to be a roll to 2HKO Vileplume (NeverMeltIce clinches it) which paralyzes and 2HKOs back with Petal Dance. Surf without MysticWater is a roll to 2HKO Gengar so it can Curse and Destiny Bond. All of Ice Punch, Surf, and Return 2HKO Murkrow which Faint Attacks for 35 damage. Surf 2HKOs Houndoom whose Crunch does 59/148 after leveling up, meaning that you can lose if you took prior damage. DynamicPunch 2HKOs Umbreon (and can put it in Return range if it hits itself) and OHKOs Houndoom. Earthquake OHKOs Gengar and Houndoom. With Rain Dance Surf 3HKOs Umbreon, 2HKOs Gengar, and more importantly OHKOs Murkrow and Houndoom. Since Gatr can't live Murkow's Faint Attack + 2 Crunches from Houndoom and needs one of Pink Bow to 3HKO Umbreon or NeverMeltIce to 2HKO Plume hoping for a miss/ParalyzeCureBerry hoping for rolls to 2HKO it'll generally beat one of those, Gengar and Houndoom. With EQ or Rain Dance you can also beat Murkrow since you live a turn of Curse + Faint Attack + Crunch, alternatively D-Punch allows you to beat both Umbreon and Plume and Murkrow + Doom—if you hit both, that is. Average-to-good matchup. Gatr is only outsped by Gengar and Houndoom.

Lance (level 42 - 43): Gyarados is 3HKOed by Return while it does 55/144 with Hyper Beam. The three Dragonite are outsped and 2HKOed by Ice Punch. If you took a Hyper Beam the Thunder Dnite will finish you off if it hits, if you're healthy it'll Thunder Wave. The level 50 Nite will do 86/148 with Hyper Beam after you level up; Outrage seems to 3HKO. If you're at full Aerodactyl will do 55/148 with Hyper Beam while you nearly OHKO (becomes a roll at level 44 if you beat the four previous mons) and Charizard will do 45/148 as you 2HKO. Due to the AI if you avoid Gyara and run a ParalyzeCureBerry you can beat two Dnite including the ace (can beat all three if they miss Thunder Wave) and, provided they Hyper Beam first turn or you use Rain Dance, both Aero and Zard. With healing you can sweep the whole team. Very good matchup I'd say, Gatr outspeeds everything but Aero and Zard.


Falkner (level 9 - 10): Pidgey is a 3HKO, 2HKO after Leer. Apparently Pidgeotto speed ties since I have 19 Speed and does 8/28 with Gust while Peck 6HKOs (3HKOs after two Leers). You want to Growl first so that Gust does 6, with a held Berry you might KO but you might not. At level 10 you still 3HKO Pidgey but now you outspeed Pidgeotto for sure and can 3HKO at -1. Easy win.

Bugsy (level 14 - 15): 2HKOs Metapod and Kakuna and 3HKOs Scyther after evolving, only annoyance is poison from Kakuna. EZ sweep even underleveled.

Azalea Town Rival (level 16): Gastly is 2HKOed by Peck, worst it can do is put you to sleep and spam Spite. Zubat is 3HKOed by Peck or 2HKOed by three hits of Fury Attack + Peck. Bayleef is 3HKOed and Reflects, making it a 4HKO. It does little back so it's an easy win again.

Whitney (level 19): Spearow's Pink Bow Return 3HKOs Clefairy. Miltank outspeeds and KOs with Stomp.
(level 20): Fearow's Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Clefairy and barely misses the 3HKO on Miltank which 3HKOs with Rollout (you outspeed), I should note that Fearow is female so a male might be able to get it. Otherwise you're only winning if Miltank misses a Rollout.

Burned Tower Rival (level 21): Sharp Beak Peck 3HKOs Haunter which Curses. Avoid Magnemite. Both Return and Sharp Beak Peck 3HKO Bayleef before Reflect/Growl. Return 2HKOs Zubat w/o Reflect.

Morty (level 24): Sharp Beak Peck 2HKOs Gastly (lives in red) and both Haunter and 4HKOs Gengar which can put you to sleep. Curse is also very annoying. With a Mint Berry you can beat Gengar (as long as you avoid the first Haunter) but Peck no longer 2HKOs Haunter nº 2, although it doesn't matter much since it can't touch you. Can get up to three KOs but the Gengar matchup isn't great even though Fearow outspeeds due to Peck's low BP.

Chuck (level 30): Pink Bow Return almost OHKOS Primeape and almost 2HKOs Poliwrath, maybe if it were male the odds would be better. DynamicPunch does 47/91 so it 2HKOs and leaves you in low red after Leer. Mint Berry helps against Hypnosis.

Jasmine (level 31): Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Magnemite which OHKOs on a roll with Thunderbolt. Steelix takes nothing and 2HKOs back or OHKOS after Screech. Awful matchup as expected.

Pryce (level 31 - 32): Pink Bow Return OHKOs Seel (appears to be a roll without it) and 2HKOs Dewgong and Piloswine after leveling up. It can live Dewgong's Aurora Beam and Piloswine's Icy Wind but not Blizzard. If you're at full health against Piloswine it'll Icy Wind first so you can outspeed and 2HKO, but you'll need luck to beat all three.

Underground Rival (level 33): Return 2HKOs Golbat which confuses and does 24/100 with Wing Attack. It also 2HKOs Magnemite but it can para so best to avoid. Fly OHKOs Haunter and 2HKOs Meganium, 3HKO if it Reflects on the first turn. Sneasel is 2HKOed and does 17 damage with Faint Attack. You outspeed everything. Very good matchup.

Clair (level 37): Return 2HKOs the Dragonair, the Tbolt and Ice Beam ones 2HKO back so you can barely beat the first one plus one of those. Kingdra is a roll to 2HKO with Pink Bow (near guaranteed at level 38) and 2HKOs back with Surf. I hesitate to call it a good matchup because you can only beat two Nair and need to avoid paralysis AND have Pink Bow to beat both a Dragonair and Kingdra, but I guess defeating the ace 1v1 counts for something. Maybe a male one can 2HKO even without PB?

Victory Road Rival (level 39 - 40): Return OHKOs Sneasel, 3HKOs Magneton which paras and 3HKOs back with Thundershock, Fly 2HKOs Meganium (3HKO after Reflect) which does 26/117 with Body Slam, Return 2HKOs Golbat w/o Reflect, 3HKO with and Fly barely misses the OHKO on Haunter—guaranteed with Sharp Beak. Kadabra is OHKOed by Peck. Very good matchup although Reflect can be annoying, at least Fly wastes turns.

Will (level 41): Return 2HKOs both Xatu, OHKOs Jynx and 3HKOs Slowbro if it doesn't Curse the first time. Drill Peck 2HKOs Exeggutor which can Reflect. If you avoided Slowbro Eggy will come before Xatu and therefore Reflect will make it get 3HKOed. With a Bitter Berry and depending on AI you can actually sweep without taking damage (if both Xatu Confuse Ray, Slowbro uses Amnesia first and Exeggutor Reflects/Leech Seeds), which is a bit ridiculous considering Psychic 2HKOs back. Fearow outspeeds everything. Great matchup, with a Berry you can get up to four KOs.

Koga (level 41 - 42): Drill Peck OHKOs Ariados and Venomoth and 4HKOs Forretress which threatens you with boom (you can attempt to use Fly to avoid it). Muk and Crobat are 2HKOed by Pink Bow Return (Crobat can proc healing) and generally spam evasion moves. Excellent matchup, the only annoying mon is Forretress but you should get four kills at worst. Only the bat outspeeds.

Bruno (level 41 - 42): Sharp Beak Drill Peck is a roll to OHKO Hitmontop which Quick Attacks for 16/124 damage. Avoid Onix. The other Hitmon are OHKOed. Machamp is put in low yellow/red and Rock Slide does around 90 damage, meaning you can live it after one Quick Attack (and even two after leveling up). Excellent matchup since it beats the four Fighting-types. Fearow obviously outspeeds everything.

Karen (level 42 - 43): Return 3HKOs Umbreon which Sand-Attacks and Confuse Rays, Gengar is 2HKOed by Drill Peck and Curses. Murkrow is a roll for the OHKO with Pink Bow Return, if it lives you take 43/127 from Faint Attack (and possibly Curse damage). Houndoom is 2HKOed by Return and does 84/127 with Flamethrower, it might proc healing too. Vileplume is 2HKOed by Drill Peck and paralyzes with Stun Spore. Solid matchup I'd say, Fearow struggles to live hits from both Murkrow and Houndoom but can defeat the two toughest mons and it outspeeds and 2HKOs Gengar, so if you leave Murkrow to something else (and run a ParalyzeCureBerry) you can beat the other four. Alternatively you can switch out of Gengar, the problem is without a Berry Plume can para and with Murkrow lives a hit from female Fearow and puts you in Houndoom range. Nothing outspeeds Britney.

Lance (level 42 - 43): Return 2HKOs Gyarados which generally Rain Dances and does 80/127 with Hyper Beam and Charizard which does 92/127 with Flamethrower. The Dragonite are all 3HKOed, the level 47 ones OHKO back with Thunder (100% accurate in rain) or Blizzard and the level 50 2HKOs with Outrage, although it likes to Safeguard if you're at full. Aerodactyl outspeeds and OHKOs with Rock Slide. You're basically only beating Gyara and Charizard, can beat Gyara and the ace if it Safeguards first turn tho (and if you get really lucky you can beat the Blizzard Nite). Only Aero is faster.


Falkner (level 9 - 10): Once it learns an offensive move Jiggly is actually strong, having the same Attack stat as Onix but with STAB. At level 9 Pound is a 4HKO on Pidgey (left in red), you want to set up two Defense Curls. Pidgeotto lives 5 hits. After leveling up, Pidgey is a 3HKO and Pidgeotto is a 4HKO while Gust does 6/46 at +2, easy win with Berry. You don't even need to use Sing.

Bugsy (level 15): You can Disable Harden or put Metapod to sleep, either way you're only 5HKOing it and Kakuna. Poison is annoying and Scyther is impossible even with two Defense Curls, it appears to be an 8HKO with Pink Bow. Jiggly can't learn Swift.

Azalea Town Rival (level 16): Avoid Gastly. Zubat is 3HKOed on a roll by Pound, confusion is annoying (and since it's faster it can flinch I guess). Bayleef's Razor Leaf does 24/64 so it's a 3HKO, meanwhile Pound appears to 5HKO. Bad matchup as expected, I presume with Rollout at level 19 it would fare much better but that's a lot of overleveling—although I guess if you can get Pidgeotto before Bugsy you should be able to get Jigglypuff to level 19.

Whitney (level 19): Pink Bow Headbutt 3HKOs Clefairy and appears to 6/7HKO Miltank which 3HKOs with Rollout. With CurlOut, Clefairy is 3HKOed and the fourth hit leaves Miltank in red (you can try to Headbutt Clefairy first so there's less chances of missing). Fortunately it can't do much back once you're at +1, and you're female so you should win unless you get unlucky with Metronome/miss Rollout. The only annoying thing is being slower than Clefairy even at level 20.

Burned Tower Rival (level 21): Avoid Haunter, you can try to set up Rollout but Curse will cut your sweep short. Fire Punch 2HKOs Magnemite which can confuse. Pink Bow Headbutt 2HKOs Zubat. Even Charcoal Fire Punch appears to miss the 3HKO on Bayleef which does 33/87 with Razor Leaf. A Rollout sweep is very unlikely because both Magnemite and Zubat can confuse and either para or flinch so I'd say this is a bad matchup.

Morty (level 24): Curlout OHKOs Gastly after Curse, 2HKOs Haunter nº 1 and OHKOs Gengar and Haunter nº 2. Sometimes Gastly can live the first Rollout after Curse but then the third OHKOs Haunter so it's the same (or even better since less chances of Hypnosis). Gastly outspeeds and always Curses and both Haunter nº 1 and Gengar can put you to sleep meaning that even with a Mint Berry it's unlikely to sweep, however if you get past Gengar Haunter nº 2 can't touch you. Interestingly, in my many tests even when Haunter nº 1 connected the Hypnosis and proc'd Mint Berry Gengar generally used Mean Look. Still wouldn't call it a good matchup tho.

Chuck (level 30): Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Primeape and 3HKOs Poliwrath. Unfortunately you're slower than both so you're gonna take a lot of damage. DynamicPunch does around 106/137 so you might live both it and Fury Cutter but you're mostly relying on RNG to win here. Magnet ThunderPunch also 3HKOs Poli so it's not useful here.

Jasmine (level 31): Pink Bow Return 3HKOs Magnemite which paralyzes and confuses, its Thunderbolt does 53/141 so it 3HKOs back. Charcoal Fire Punch is a roll to OHKO, if you don't you're gonna get para'd. It unfortunately only 3HKOs Steelix which 2HKOs with Iron Tail, the second Fire Punch also procs Hyper Potion so you can't even win with a miss. At level 32 both Magnemite are OHKOed but Steelix still lives two hits, however Iron Tail becomes a roll to 2HKO doing around 65-76/146. That way you can win if it misses or if you get a burn. Needs to be at level 32 but I'd say this is an average-to-good matchup. Wigglytuff outspeeds everything.

Pryce (level 31 - 32): Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Seel (almost OHKOs) and 3HKOs Dewgong (almost 2HKOs) and Piloswine. It's faster than Seel and Piloswine if its Speed isn't dropped by Icy Wind, however two Dewgong Aurora Beams can put you in range of two Blizzards (which do 51/146) and Aurora Beam can drop your Attack stat. You can still win since Dewgong likes to Rest and Pilo to use Mist, but it's unreliable. With CurlOut you 3HKO Seel (2HKO at level 32) and OHKO Dewgong and Piloswine meaning you can KO everything if you don't miss/get haxed. ThunderPunch still 2HKOs Seel and 3HKOs Dewgong but Charcoal Fire Punch 2HKOs Piloswine, which is great. It won't always sweep but I'd say chances are pretty good with FP since Piloswine doesn't generally use Blizzard twice.

Underground Rival (level 33 - 34): Pink Bow Return 2HKOs Golbat which confuses and does 29/150 with Wing Attack. Magnemite is only 3HKOed by Return but OHKOed by Fire Punch. Haunter lives two Fire Punches so it can Curse, however Shadow Ball OHKOs it. Both Return and Fire Punch 2HKO Sneasel and 3HKO Meganium (Fire Punch is more reliable due to Reflect), the latter does 30 damage with Razor Leaf and 36 with Body Slam so you can reliably beat it one-on-one if it doesn't crit. Wigglytuff only outspeeds Magnemite. It can beat everything but it'll take too much damage so it's unlikely, average-to-good matchup due to beating the ace with Fire Punch.

Clair (level 37): Return 2HKOs the Dragonair while they 5HKO back doing around 35/168 with their elemental moves. You can potentially beat all three with a ParalyzeCureBerry but from my experience they prefer to attack. Ice Punch also 2HKOs (even with NeverMeltIce) so not much point. Return 3HKOs Kingdra which is a roll to 2HKO with Surf at level 38, dealing 77-87/172. It likes to Smokescreen so you can possibly beat it but the second Return might proc Hyper Potion. Bad matchup, will generally fail to beat more than two Nair and Kingdra 1v1. Being slower than everything sucks.

Victory Road Rival (level 39 - 40): Return 2HKOs Sneasel, unfortunately it Screeches so you're forced out. Golbat is 2HKOed and confuses or does 29/177 with Wing Attack. Magneton is 2HKOed by Fire Punch and outspeeds and does 31 damage with Thundershock. Haunter lives two Fire Punches but is OHKOed by Shadow Ball. Kadabra is OHKOed by Return. Meganium finishes you off with Razor Leaf. If you're healthy it does 37 damage so you can 3HKO with Fire Punch/Return outside of Reflect. Eh matchup, with the right move you can beat everything but being slower than everything is disgusting when you're not very bulky.

Will (level 41): Return, Shadow Ball, and Thunder/Ice Punch 2HKO Xatu. Jynx can barely live if you're not holding a boosting item. Exeggutor lives two Shadow Balls and Returns and can 2HKO, doing around 93/186. It dies to two Fire/Ice Punches, tho. Slowbro is 3HKOed by Shadow Ball/Return or ThunderPunch so you can generally beat it if it Amnesias first. Second Xatu is same as the first but can proc healing. Bad matchup as you're only outspeeding Slowbro and Eggy and Psychic 3HKOs you at worst, you can sometimes get up to three kills because of the AI but you'll generally beat two at most.

Koga (level 41 - 42): Return 2HKOs Ariados and Venomoth who Double-Team and Supersonic or Toxic, respectively. Psychic does around 45-51/186, so around a 4HKO. Fire Punch OHKOs Forretress. Pink Bow Return is just short of 2HKOing Muk, leaving it in red as it Minimizes (a miss can be annoying due to Acid Armor). Sludge Bomb 3HKOs back, doing around 75 damage. Two Returns also leave Crobat in red health as it Double-Teams, using Fire Punch first might avoid procing healing. Not a particularly great matchup but Wiggly can get three KOs thanks to Fire Punch and possibly even four—although Venomoth is annoying so you're better off beating the slower mons. Veno and Crobat outspeed.

Bruno (level 41 - 42): Pink Return 2HKOs the Hitmon. You can Defense Curl against Top as it Digs if you have it to be able to tank Lee's hits, otherwise you have to switch out. Ice Punch is a roll to OHKO Onix which likes to Bind. Chan's Mach Punch does around 64/190 after leveling up. Machamp can be 3HKOed before healing but it outspeeds and KOs anyway. Awful matchup, doesn't outspeed anything and can only beat the weakest mons.

Karen (level 41 - 42): Pink Bow Return is a roll to 3HKO Umbreon (even at level 42) and barely doesn't 2HKO Vileplume. The former Sand-Attacks and confuses, with Faint Attack doing 39/186, and the latter paralyzes and does 65 damage with Petal Dance, 3HKOing. Fire/Ice Punch fails to 2HKO as well. Gengar Curses and dies to Shadow Ball, living any elemental punch. Murkrow does around 55 damage with Faint Attack meaning that you can die to it + Curse before you 2HKO back. Houndoom is 2HKOed by Return but does 110 damage with Flamethrower, 2HKOing you first. Awful matchup, Wiggly only outspeeds Vileplume and is super prone to hax against Umbreon so it'll generally only beat Murkrow + Gengar if Shadow Ball.

Lance (lvel 41 - 42): Return 3HKOs Gyarados and barely doesn't 3HKO Dragonite, ThunderPunch and Ice Punch respectively 2HKO. Unfortunately Gyara's Hyper Beam does around 100/186 which puts Tuff in range of Thunder or HB from Nite and you can't even Defense Curl against Gyara because rain-boosted Surf is a roll to 2HKO. The level 50 Nite is also 2HKOed by Ice Punch and 2HKOs back with Outrage, you can beat it from full if it Safeguards. Then Aerodactyl finishes you off before you can 3HKO it. Charizard appears to live two Pink Bow Returns, it 2HKOs with Flamethrower anyway. Awful matchup, most attacks 2HKO so you're unlikely to beat more than one mon. CurlOut is bad here since you can't set it up on Gyara and, while it allows you to beat Aero one-on-one, it's generally gonna put you in Zard's Flamethrower range (unless Aero misses the Hyper Beam first turn and uses it again, even AncientPower will do too much). Everything is faster, clearly.


Since I was playing Silver I bought it at the Game Corner. It comes at level 10 but once you get Dig it catches up to the team really fast, it might even be better than having

Whitney (level 19): Dig 2HKOs Clefairy (Swift 3HKOs) and appears to 5HKO Miltank which spams Milk Drink. Fury Cutter 4HKOs Clefairy and the fifth hit leaves Miltank in red, meaning it's best to Swift first and then KO Clefairy with thee Fury Cutters and Miltank with the fourth and fifth. From my experience Miltank doesn't Stomp so I dunno how much it does. If using CurlOut both Clefairy and Miltank are 2HKOed meaning that you can win in high green if you don't get unlucky with Metronome (again, Miltank doesn't Stomp like ever). Excellent matchup, Sandshrew has a surprisingly high Attack stat (similar to female Fearow's).

Burned Tower Rival (level 21 - 22): Dig OHKOs Haunter, unfortunately it outspeeds and likes to Curse (which hurts while underground). Avoid Bayleef. Dig OHKOs Magnemite and Strength 2HKOs Zubat, you're faster.

Morty (level 24): Dig OHKOs Gastly and the two Haunter and leaves Gengar in red. Apparently the first Haunter is a speedtie which is annoying since it can Curse (not a problem at level 25). With a Mint Berry a sweep is very likely. Rollout 2HKOs Gastly (has a chance to die to Curse) and the third hit OHKOs both Haunter although sometimes Gengar comes in. As long as one of those TMs is available Sandslash should do very well.

Chuck (level 30): Both Dig and Strength 2HKO Primeape and 3HKO Poliwrath (Strength appears to be a roll). Primeape likes to Leer but since Surf does 83/97 basically any damage can put you in range. If you're not damaged it'll generally Hypnosis tho so you can win, especially with a Mint Berry. Sandslash outspeeds both.

Jasmine (level 31): Soft Sand Dig OHKOs both Magnemite and is a roll to 3HKO Steelix which 3HKOs back with Iron Tail. Unfortunately the second Dig can proc Hyper Potion so you're gonna lose unless it misses twice. You can attempt to set up Defense Curl to lessen the damage from Iron Tail (taking 25/101 at +1), unfortunately Magnemite can confuse or Sonicboom which are both annoying. You rely on luck but it's actually winnable, good matchup I'd say (although Dig is obviously a requirement).

Pryce (level 31 - 32): Both Dig and Strength 2HKO Seel and 3HKO Dewgong, unfortunately the latter 2HKOs with Aurora Beam. Piloswine is also 3HKOed and is a roll to OHKO with Blizzard. With CurlOut you 2HKO Seel, OHKO Dewgong and OHKO Piloswine and you can live (albeit barely) Icy Wind and Aurora Beam from Seel and Aurora Beam from Dewgong, being faster than Pilo even after the Speed drop. Needs some luck but that's some impressive shit imo.

Underground Rival (level 33): Strength is a roll to 2HKO Golbat, you can use Pink Bow to have better chances. Avoid Meganium, is 2HKOs and takes too little. Dig OHKOs Magnemite and Haunter and Strength 2HKOs Sneasel. With CurlOut you 2HKO Golbat and 2HKO Meganium (a roll to OHKO with Hard Stone) through Reflect, and you barely live a Razor Leaf. Only Haunter and Sneasel outspeed. Good matchup outside of Meganium and outspeeding it and KOing with CurlOut is pretty amazing.

Clair (level 37): Soft Sand Dig 2HKOs the Dragonair, the Surf and Ice Beam ones 2HKO back and you can barely live one of those plus a DragonBreath from the other one. Kingdra outspeeds and OHKOs with Surf. Bad matchup but at least it can take out two Nairs from full.

Victory Road Rival (level 39 - 40): Return and Dig 2HKO Sneasel, Earthquake OHKOs. Meganium is 3HKOed by Return which 2HKOs with Razor Leaf, since it likes to PoisonPowder you can win (if it Reflects you lose). Return 2HKOs Golbat, OHKOs Kadabra and Dig/Earthquake OHKOs Haunter and Magneton. Interestingly Sandslash outspeeds all but Sneasel and Kadabra (before leveling up Golbat is a speed tie and Haunter is faster), neither of which threaten you, so it's a great matchup outside of Meganium.

Will (level 41): Return 2HKOs Xatu which 2HKOs with Psychic, you can beat it if it confuses first. Then Jynx comes in and OHKOS with Ice Punch. Exeggutor appears to live three Returns and can Leech Seed or Reflect, it's unbeatable. Slowbro is 3HKOed by Earthquake so you can defeat it one on one if it doesn't Curse the first turn. Xatu nº beats you. Sandslash only outspeeds Eggy and Slowbro. Dreadful matchup, everything 2HKOs at worst so the only way you're beating more than one mon is if Xatu nº 1 uses Confuse Ray twice and Slowbro Amnesias first turn.

Koga (level 41): Return 2HKOs Ariados and Venomoth as they Double-Team and Supersonic or Toxic, Earthquake leaves both in red. Psychic does 41/132, not a 3HKO. Earthquake 3HKOs Forretress which Spikes the first turn. Explosion OHKOs back, you can use Defense Curl to stop it from using it. Return 3HKOs Crobat which spams Double-Team and does little damage with Wing Attack at +1, likely not 4HKOing from full at +0. Earthquake OHKOs Muk while Return is a 3HKO (and Return + Dig 2HKOs as long as it doesn't Acid Armor). Good matchup overall, should get three kills at minimum and possibly four, including the two hardest ones if you avoid Veno. PoisonCureBerry can help but is not required. The moth and Crobat outspeed.

Bruno (level 41 - 42): Return 3HKOs Top and 2HKOs Chan and Lee, with Earthquake KOing top underground and being a roll to OHKO Lee (Soft Sand clinches it). Chan does 37/132 with Ice Punch. Lee does around 40 damage with Hi Jump Kick. Onix can live EQ in red but generally Binds. Soft Sand Earthquake 2HKOs (!) Machamp which does around 61 damage with Cross Chop, meaning Slash can win the 1v1 without needing Swagger + Bitter Berry. If you still have Defense Curl you can use it against Top allowing you to live Ice Punch + Hi Jump Kick + Cross Chop, that way getting a full sweep. Really impressive (as long as you give it Earthquake) and easily Slash's best performance since at least Morty. Only Hitmonlee outspeeds.

Karen (level 41 - 42): Earthquake 3HKOs Umbreon which Sand-Attacks and Confuse Rays and does 36/132 with Faint Attack. Earthquake 2HKOs Vileplume while it nearly OHKOs back with Petal Dance, doing 124/132 so the tiniest prior damage puts it in range. Murkrow's Faint Attack is a 3HKO from full while you 2HKO with Return, probably best to avoid. Gengar and Houndoom are OHKOed by Earthquake, the former Curses or Licks and the latter does around 100/136 with Flamethrower at level 42. Good matchup I'd say, as long as you avoid Vileplume and Murkrow you should beat the two hardest mons and Gengar. Slash outspeeds only Umbreon and Plume.

Lance (level 41 - 42): Avoid Gyarados which 2HKOs with Surf (or OHKOs with rain-boosted Surf) as you 3HKO with Return. Dragonite are 4HKOed by Return, you can attempt to set up CurlOut since Hyper Beam does less than half and Twister doesn't 3HKO (does around 40/132), Hard Stone Rollout will 2HKO after the Curl. Then comes the Blizzard Nite which obiously KOs, although you can beat it if it misses. Aero might not be able to finish you off depending on your health (if you took neutral Hyper Beam + Twister its own HP becomes a range at 35 HP, Twister followed by HB at +1 is free) so you can KO it before Charizard finishes you off. It's obviously not really reliable because you need to hit four 90% and for Lance to miss a 70%. Alternatively you can attempt to set up on Aerodactyl which is also 2HKOed but unfortunately Charizard's Flamethrower does 95/136 after leveling up so you're very unlikely to live it (you need Aero to miss Hyper Beam first turn and use it again the second since even AncientPower + HB puts you in range). The level 50 Dragonite 2HKOs with Outrage so I'm not even sure if it's 2HKOed by CurlOut. Bad matchup as expected, sadly due to not resisting Normal and Fire it struggles to do what Graveler can. Everything is faster.


At first I caught a female one but I realized I'd prolly want one with higher attack. After a couple tries I got one with very good stats all around, having 25 Attack (same as Jigglypuff), 30 Special Attack and 37 Speed at level 20. I checked and apparently that's max Speed and Special Attack (and SpDef) DVs and 10-12 Attack, so keep that in mind.

Burned Tower Rival (level 21 - 22): Surf 2HKOs Haunter, Magnemite, and Zubat and Poison Barb Acid 4HKOs Bayleef, which does 12/50 with Razor Leaf. Only Haunter outspeeds but you won't be able to sweep between Curse/confusion/paralisis/SonicBoom doing a ton. Only Haunter outspeeds. Being able to beat Bayleef one-on-one is nice.

Morty (level 24): Surf OHKOs Gastly (it appears to have a low chance to survive), 2HKOs both Haunter and 3HKOs Gengar. Tentacool outspeeds Gastly and the first Haunter. With a Mint Berry it's possible to beat Gengar 1v1 (especially since it likes to Mean Look) but Curse or Night Shade put it in Shadow Ball range so it's generally gonna beat either Gastly + both Haunter or Gastly + Gengar + Haunter nº 2—which leaves you with 8 HP after two Night Shades. If Gengar sleeps Dream Eater OHKOs.

Chuck (level 29 - 30): Tentacool's Poison Barb Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Primeape on a roll (guaranteed with poison) and 4HKOs Poliwrath (3HKOs with poison). Primeape likes to Leer but it can also use Fury Swipes. DynamicPunch at -1 leaves Tentacool in red but you can win if it misses. Mint Berry helps with Hypnosis although the rolls will be worse. Tentacool outspeeds both.
(level 30): Tentacruel's Poison Barb Sludge Bomb guarantees the 2HKO on Primeape and the 3HKO on Poliwrath (can become a 2HKO if you poison the first turn) but, more importantly, now you take only 20/91 from DynamicPunch so you can win even if you get unlucky with confusion. RNG can still be annoying but the win is very reliable.

Jasmine (level 31): MysticWater Surf OHKOs both Magnemite (roll w/o) and is a roll to OHKO Steelix, which sets up sun and procs Hyper Potion—meaning you might need four Surfs in total to KO it. Luckily it doesn't do much back. EZ sweep.

Pryce (level 32): Poison Barb Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Seel (lives in red, might die with poison) and is a roll to 2HKO Dewgong, guaranteed with poison. Piloswine is OHKOed by Surf. Dewgong is outsped even at -1, incredible matchup.

Underground Rival (level 33): Surf 2HKOs Golbat which confuses and does 22/100 with Wing Attack, OHKOs Magnemite and Haunter (can live if no MysticWater) and 2HKOs Sneasel—which Quick Attacks twice for 25 damage total. Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Meganium through Reflect and Tentacruel takes 24% from Body Slam, meaning that even with confusion damage you can get a full sweep. Nothing outspeeds Tenta. Very solid matchup outside of confusion, utterly destroying Meganium is really satisfying.

Clair (level 37): Poison Barb Sludge Bomb 2HKOs the Dragonair and 3HKOs Kingdra on a roll (guaranteed with poison). The Tbolt Nair is the only one that threatens you, 3HKOing back. Kingdra can 2HKO with Hyper Beam (if you don't 3HKO or proc Hyper Potion) but it generally Smokescreens if you're at full health so you can win 1v1 unless you miss. Blizzard OHKOs the Dragonair. With a ParalyzeCureBerry you can either beat all three Dragonair or one plus Kingdra. At level 38 Sludge Bomb becomes a 3HKO, Hyper Beam doesn't 2HKO anymore and, more importantly, Tentacruel gets Barrier which it can set up in front of Kingdra, making the matchup a non-issue. Tenta is unlikely to get a full sweep but I'd call it a good matchup anyway since you'd need to get really unlucky to lose to the ace.

Victory Road Rival (level 39 - 40): Both Surf and Sludge Bomb 2HKO Sneasel which Quick Attacks twice for 24/118 damage (poison can KO it but since it moves first you can't avoid the second hit). Magneton is 2HKOed by Surf and T-waves, doing 35 damage with Thundershock. If you avoid it Meganium comes next and is 2HKOed by Sludge Bomb through Reflect. Then comes Kadabra which lives a hit due to Reflect and Future Sights, Golbat which is 2HKOed by Surf but can confuse and Haunter which is OHKOed on rolls, guaranteed after leveling up. If you don't avoid Magneton (assuming it misses para or you have a ParalyzeCureBerry) Kadabra is OHKOed by Sludge Bomb, Golbat is 2HKOed (Wing Attack does 25 damage) and Haunter can live a hit and Curse or confuse, which might put you in Body Slam range (it does 26 damage so it can win if it paras). Very good matchup either way.

Will (level 41): Surf 2HKOs both Xatu, Poison Barb Sludge Bomb leaves Jynx and Exeggutor in red. At level 42 you still don't OHKO Jynx. Slowbro should generally be avoided since it's 3HKOed and Curses but if you get a first turn poison as it Amnesias you can 3HKO it. Any Psychic 2HKOs but fsr if the first Xatu doesn't attack then Jynx likes to DoubleSlap and Exeggutor uses Reflect, so it's technically possible to get four KOs despite the type disadvantage. Blizzard OHKOs both Xatu and is a roll on Eggy (guaranteed with NeverMeltIce). Bad matchup still, but damn. Tenta obviously outspeeds everything.

Koga (level 41 - 42): MysticWater BubbleBeam 2HKOs Ariados which Double-Teams, Surf 2HKOs Venomoth which can 3HKO back with Psychic. Forretress is 2HKOed by Bubblebeam + Surf and you can set up multiple Barriers so that you take less damage later while also preventing boom. Muk is 3HKOed by MysticWater Surf or BubbleBeam + two Surfs. Crobat appears to live two hits even at level 42 and can Double-Team multiple times to waste your PP, if you use BubbleBeam twice you might not proc healing so you can finish it off with Surf—and you can get a Speed drop. Blizzard + surf 2HKOs but have fun hitting it. Very good matchup, only Venomoth can damage you thanks to the poison immunity and Barrier so you should get four kills reliably, and if you avoid the moth you can beat the two toughest ones. Only Crobat ouspeeds.

Bruno (level 41 - 42): Surf 3HKOs all Hitmon. Sludge Bomb can 2HKO Top if it poisons and is a roll to 2HKO Chan (guaranteed with Poison Barb), while Lee is 2HKOed. Top does 50/124 with Dig, Chan 19/124 with ThunderPunch and Lee 27/124 with Hi Jump Kick. Onix is OHKOed by BubbleBeam. Champ is 3HKOed but can proc healing and does 47/124 with Rock Slide (a bit less with Cross Chop). With Barrier you can take advantage of both Top and Lee to minimize the damage and have a better chance against Champ. At +6 Def Rock Slide is only doing 12 damage so you win if you don't get crit. Excellent matchup, can sweep and more importantly beats the ace one-on-one even without a Swagger boost.

Karen (level 41 - 42): Both Surf and Sludge Bomb 4HKO Umbreon which Sand-Attacks and confuses, poison can turn it into a 3HKO. Faint Attack does 16/124 Sludge Bomb 3HKOs Vileplume which paras and does 28 damage with Petal Dance. Surf appears to be a roll to 2HKO on Gengar without MysticWater, it Curses or Licks back (which does 10 damage). Murkrow is 2HKOed by Surf or Sludge Bomb and does 26/127 at level 42. Houndoom's Crunch does 45/127 and is 2HKOed. Blizzard + Sludge Bomb 2HKOs Vileplume but have fun hitting, considering it comes in after Umbreon. It also OHKOs Murkrow. Solid matchup, as long as it avoids Vileplume and gets the poison on Umbreon it should beat four mons. If at full health Gengar will generally Lick which may para; if it Curses it's annoying because it can put you in range of Houndoom's Crunch (since you lose 31 HP twice plus 26 from Faint Attack). You can get around it with Rain Dance since Surf in rain OHKOs both Krow and Doom. Tenta outspeeds everything.

Lance (level 42 - 43): Sludge Bomb 3HKOs Gyarados even without the poison, it does 74/127 with Hyper Beam. Sludge Bomb 4HKOs the Dragonite, can become a 3HKO with poison. You're realistically not gonna be able to beat more than one due to para and PP issues. Blizzard OHKOs all of them, Icy Wind is a 2HKO except for the level 50 one (is a roll at level 43), which likes to Safeguard if you're at full health. Surf leaves Aerodactyl and Charizard in red, the first does around 70/127 with Hyper Beam so it might win if it flinches with Rock Slide and Zard does min 58/127 with HB, meaning you can barely take both hits only if Aero decides to Hyper Beam first. Using Barrier against Aero is risky because it can still put you in range of Charizard, however if you defeated the fossil you can Barrier against Zard and live the hit (unless you're below 29 HP), two-shotting it as it recharges. Icy Wind allows you to 2HKO Aero before it beats you, that way you can potentially defeat the level 50 Nite if it uses Safeguard first with NMI Icy Wind and then Aero and Charizard (if you Barrier against the Dnite it'll use Outrage but you should defeat the other two anyway). Due to needing ParalyzeCureBerry for the lv. 47 Nite and NMI for the level 50 one Tenta struggles to get more than three KOs without Blizzard but with it and getting to +6 Def it can potentially KO everything even without healing, only fearing Hyper Beam crits or missing against Thunder Nite. Due to relying on a 70% move it's hard to say it's a great matchup but it's not much worse than Starmie, at least. Only Aero outspeeds.


Suicune had appeared to me while a was training before the fifth gym so I decided to catch it with the Master Ball. Dunno how much we should tier it being hard to find as opposed to Crystal Suicune but GS Cune's starting moveset sucks: Water Gun, Leer, Roar, and Gust with BubbleBeam at level 41, as opposed to Crystal Cune which starts with BubbleBeam, Leer, Rain Dance, and Gust and learns Aurora Beam at level 41. No RD nor Ice-type coverage by level up means it'll be more TM dependant—not to mention having to use Icy Wind is awful.

Outside of that, Cune has very good bulk (higher HP and Def than Gatr and higher HP but lower SpDef than Tentacruel) while having solid Special Attack. Its biggest issue is being as slow as Sandslash due to having O Speed DVs ugh, while also lacking coverage for Water-types since its strongest Normal-type move is Headbutt (Frustration would be slightly stronger but I can't get it). Suicune's access to all Water HMs is useful, though.

Victory Road Rival (level 40): Mystic Water Surf leaves Sneasel and Magneton in red, they Screech and T-Wave respectively. Icy Wind 3HKOs Meganium and Blizzard puts it in Surf range, otherwise avoid. Surf 2HKOs Golbat, OHKOs Haunter and barely misses out on the OHKO on Kadabra. Solid matchup although it's unlikely to sweep between para, confusion and needing Blizzard to beat Meganium quickly.

Will (level 41): Surf 2HKOs Xatu. Jynx appears to be a roll with Mystic Water. Icy Wind can sometimes fail to 2HKO Exeggutor, whereas Blizzard OHKOs (and the two Xatu). Avoid Slowbro since it's a 5HKO before Amnesia. Suicune can barely live three Psychics since they do around 40-45/146. You only outspeed Exeggutor and Slowbro, although with Icy Wind you can 2HKO the Xatu being faster the second turn. Generally good matchup with an ice move but being so slow means it'll get worn down and will likely get three KOs at most.

Koga (level 41): Surf 2HKOs Ariados, Venomoth, and Forretress which Double-Team, Supersonic and Toxic and Spikes respectively. Muk is 3HKOed and it Minimizes and Toxics and Crobat appears to live two without MysticWater (since PoisonCureBerry is preferred) and Double-Teams and Toxics. If using Rain Dance Ariados is OHKOed, Veno and Forre live in red and Muk and Crobat are 2HKOed after resetting it. With Icy Wind you can outspeed both Veno and Crobat the second turn so that they don't hax you, being a roll to 2HKO the ace with Icy Wind + rain-boosted Surf. Very good matchup although poison and evasion can cut your sweep. As stated Veno and Crobat are faster.

Bruno (level 41): MysticWater Surf appears to be a roll to 2HKO the Hitmon. Top does 16/146 with Dig, Chan 22/146 with ThunderPunch and Lee 44/146 with Hi Jump Kick while outspeeding. even if you get all the rolls you're gonna be too weakened at that point so Machamp finishes you. If you avoid Lee, Onix is OHKOed and Champ is 3HKOed while doing 66/146 with Cross Chop. With Rain Dance Surf guaranteed 2HKOs all Fighting-types (Surf first and RD and Top Digs) but you should prolly still avoid Lee and try to set up on Onix (it likes to Bind but might use Sandstorm, also Earthquake does 26/146). Good matchup since you can beat Machamp one-on-one as long as you don't get crit, Cune can beat four mons including the ace if it avoids Hitmonlee—which is the only one that outspeeds.

Karen (level 41): MysticWater Surf fails to 3HKO Umbreon which Sand-Attacks and confuses, doing 18/146 with Faint Attack. Then comes Vileplume which lives the Blizzard if you manage to hit and paralyzes, doing around 65 damage with Petal Dance. Best to avoid. Gengar is a favorable roll to be 2HKOed and likes to Curse. Murkrow outspeeds and does 28/146 with Faint Attack while living a Surf (Blizzard obviously OHKOs) and Houndoom does 50/146 with Crunch and also lives a Surf, meaning you'll die if you're facing both. If using Rain Dance you can OHKO both Murkrow and Houndoom and you can set up against Gengar since you live one turn of Curse + Faint Attack + Crunch. Destiny Bond is a risk, I guess. Average matchup, Cune will generally beat three mons at most since it struggles against Umbreon and Vileplume (the only mons it outspeeds) and needs rain to not die to Murkrow + Houndoom.

Lance (level 41 - 42): Avoid Gyarados. Blizzard OHKOs the Dragonite whereas Icy Wind 2HKOs and allows you to outspeed the second turn (both are roll against the level 50 one without NeverMeltIce). Thunder Nite can put you in Hyper Beam range but they like to T-Wave when you're at full so you can take advantage of that with ParalyzeCureBerry, however Icy Wind is very unlikely to 2HKO the level 50 one. Surf 2HKOs Aero and Charizard. You can barely live the two Hyper Beams + Slash or Rock Slide but not both. Disappointingly Icy Wind can't help here because it's not strong enough against Charizard and Aero still outspeeds even at -1, that's probably due to the 0 DVs tho. Alternatively you can use rain-boosted Surfs to OHKO both from full. Due to the AI you can generally beat the level 50 Nite without taking damage which means you can get minimum three kills, possibly four with ParalyzeCureBerry—and five if one Nite misses T-Wave. Needs at least two TMs to do that (you might one both Blizzard and Icy Wind to 2HKO the level 50 Nite but it's a good matchup even if everything outspeeds Suicune.


Similarly to Ho-Oh in Gold it took me around 68 tries to catch with an Ultra Ball after Freezing it with Gatr's Ice Punch. Obviously if you're not using the Master Ball for anything else it's better to not waste time.

Victory Road Rival (level 40): Sharp Beak Aeroblast OHKOs Sneasel, Haunter, Kadabra, and Meganium and 2HKOs Golbat, leaving it in red. Earthquake OHKOs Magneton, otherwise avoid. Lugia outspeeds and destroys everything but Mag, the biggest issue is Aeroblast only having 5 PP.

Will (level 40): Sharp Beak Aeroblast 2HKOs both Xatu, OHKOs Jynx and Exeggutor on a roll and 3HKOs Slowbro. You're gonna get three kills at most since you'll run out of PP. Fly fails to KO Jynx and Exeggutor and is too weak against Slowbro. Shadow Ball also 2HKOs both Xatu and OHKOs Jynx but might not 3HKO Slowbro without Spell Tag if it Curses once. More importantly, it only 2HKOs Exeggutor. Good matchup, because of PP issues it needs Shadow Ball to sweep but with both Safeguard and Recover it won't be haxed. Lugia outspeeds everything.

Koga (level 40): Sharp Beak Aeroblast OHKOs both Ariados and Venomoth and is a roll to 3HKO Forretress (guaranteed at level 41), which Spikes and can boom. It's also a roll to 2HKO Muk and Crobat which Minimize and Double-Team/Toxic, respectively. Gust barely 2HKOs Ariados and Veno so it's not worth it. Earthquake 2HKOs Muk, 3HKO if it Acid Armors. PP is again an issue, your best bet is to avoid Forre and try to beat Ariados, Veno, and Crobat with Aeroblast and Muk with Earthquake. Good matchup if you can get that. Only Crobat outspeeds.

Bruno (level 40): Sharp Beak Aeroblast OHKOs the Hitmon and leaves Machamp in red, which does 69/134 with Rock Slide. Fly fails to OHKO Chan but does KO Lee. Earthquake only 3HKOs Onix which sets up Sandstorm or actually hurts you with Rock Slide. Solid matchup since you beat all Fighting-types easily. Lugia outspeeds everything.

Karen (level 40): Sharp Beak Aeroblast 3HKOs Umbreon, 2HKOs Murkrow, Houndoom, and Gengar and OHKOs Vileplume on a roll (guaranteed at level 41). Umbreon Sand-Attacks and confuses doing 34/134 with Faint Attack, Murkrow's Faint Attack does 47/134 and Houndoom's Crunch does 95/134 so you can't beat both Krow and Doom without a crit. Earthquake also 2HKOs Gengar and Houndoom. Due to Safeguard you should be able to beat Umbreon, Houndoom, and Vileplume at least, possibly beating Gengar too. Average-to-good matchup since it can win against both Umbreon and Doom, pretty nice considering the type disadvantage. Nothing outspeeds Lugia.

Lance (level 41): Sharp Beak Aeroblast fails to 2HKO Gyara and NeverMeltIce Icy Wind doesn't 2HKO Dragonite while Thunder 2HKOes back, meaning you can't take advantage of Safeguard effectively. I checked my DVs and with 80 Attack and 77 Special Attack at level 40 it means I had 4 Atk DVs and 0 SpAtk/SpDef DVs, remarkable. I hadn't realized before but this is one battle where it apparently matters. At level 42 Aeroblast still doesn't 2HKO Gyara but Icy Wind becomes a roll, guaranteed with NMI. The Blizzard Dnite finishes you off after a Thunder but since you're faster you can fish for a miss with Recover and then 2HKO. Avoid Aero. The level 50 Nite 2HKOs with Hyper Beam or 3HKOs with Outrage, you can again Recover on it and 3HKO (since it doesn't proc healing when locked into Outrage/on the recharge turn). Finally Charizard only 3HKOs with Flamethrower and you outspeed and 2HKO with Aeroblast (needs Sharp Beak to guarantee due to bad DVs). It's very hard but Lugia can get up to five KOs thanks to Recover. Only Aero is faster.


final team silver.png


Jigglypuff
is D. While I don't think the early catch in GS is worth much (it's good against Falkner but bad against Bugsy) the stronger Return can be helpful in some instances. In spite of getting CurlOut by level 19 it's too slow so its matchup against Whitney isn't great. The evolution comes too late but it's still a very welcome upgrade. After a bad Chuck Jasmine and Pryce are likely sweeps, but that's pretty much the end. After that you're just too slow and too frail to take advantage of its respectable attacking stats, meaning you're better off picking up KOs against some otherwise tough mons such as Will's Exeggutor and Slowbro (with Fire and ThunderPunch) or Forretress and Muk in Koga's case. Finally against Lance it's only able to pick up one KO at most, generally Gyara. It's sad because I remember using the MysteryEgg Cleffa and liking it but Jiggly doesn't measure up.
Btw I kept CurlOut to the endgame because I wanted to try it against Lance, however the best moveset is prolly Return / Fire Punch / Shadow Ball / ThunderPunch and then replacing FP with Ice Punch after Koga. Unless you're hitting for 4x Return is generally better outside of Jasmine, Pryce's Piloswine and Will's Eggy and Slowbro—and Silver and Karen's Ghosts, obviously.

Sandshrew
is fringe C to B, I'm not entirely comfortable with either tier because I think it's worse than Graveler but better than Crystal Phanpy due to the Speed + Dig, I'll settle for high C but it's performance was more than respectable. First of all, in Silver it's only available via the Game Corner at the equivalent cost of four elemental punches. It comes at level 10 and with the Dig and Rollout TMs near available, so I don't think it misses out on much from the Gold and Crystal version. It's immediately useful against Whitney and Morty, being a much more effective user of CurlOut than Jigglypuff like Phanpy. Unlike Phanpy however, Sandslash performs really well against Jasmine thanks to Dig, 3HKOing Steelix and living the Iron Tails thanks to Defense Curl. Chuck, Clair, and Will are obviously not good but Pryce can be swept with CurlOut luck, Koga is fine outside of Crobat, Bruno is an impressive sweep outspeeding everything but Lee and against Karen it can KO Umbreon, Gengar, and Houndoom with EQ. Sadly it fails to do much against Lance unlike Graveler (which could KO both Aero and Zard), only being able to pick off the Thunder Nite or Aero. Overall while it relies on TMs unlike Geodude it's a very solid user of them.

Tentacool is B. Although admittedly the one I fished had very high DVs (around 12 Atk and max SpAtk/SpDef and Spe) I'm confident from previous uses that its performance wouln't be much different. It's solid against all of Chuck, Jasmine*, Pryce and Clair—as long as it gets to level 38 for Barrier so that its Hyper Beams don't even 4HKO. Its only bad matchup is Will, and even then due to AI it can get up to four KOs since they sometimes like to spam everything but Psychic. Karen is fine since it can outspeed and 2HKO Gengar and Houndoom and possibly 3HKO Umbreon with poison, but the really great matchup is Bruno. Again, Barrier can make it so Machamp's Rock Slide is a virtual scratch, outside of Slowbro and Starmie (which both have their defects) I don't remember any other Water-type capable of sweeping Bruno. Finally against Lance it relies on Blizzard to beat the Dragonite since Icy Wind is very close to not 2HKOing with NeverMeltIce, but once more Barrier can help it take Hyper Beams easily so even if it's unlikely to sweep it can beat three mons including the ace—assuming it Safeguards first. Really its biggest problem is that its Sludge Bomb loses power quite fast in comparison to Feraligatr's Return (at first its much stronger but starting at Clair it begins to rely on poison much more, for example missing the KO on Jynx and barely 2HKOing Hitmontop) but its Poison typing and access to Barrier make it a very strong performer lategame when compared to the near S Gatr and Fearow.
Btw I caught the level 20 one with a Good Rod to see how it'd perform against Morty and although it's not bad clearly the best option is still getting it as Tentacruel. It could be mentioned in AC that it's an alternative pre-Surf since it's still much better than the Old Rod one.

Imo the midgame slow experience Water-types are like this Starmie > Lapras > Tentacruel > Lanturn > Cloyster > Mantine with the wildcard Red Gyarados that doesn't really act as a Water-type somewhere in between.

Suicune (GS)
is C. It's hard to tier it differently from the Crystal one because you're generally gonna catch them with a Master Ball and it's not that hard to find it once you've seen it, so the biggest difference is in moveset since GS Cune lacks Rain Dance and Aurora Beam by level up. However I don't know how much better the latter really is since Icy Wind is better against Lance due to allowing you to outspeed the Dragonite the second turn while still 2HKOing. Anyway it's still a really powerful Water-type so it's never gonna be below C, although the 0 Speed DVs really sucked (I failed to outspeed -1 Aerodactyl, for example). I guess if you don't feel it's too different from the Crystal one you can put both in the same tier but this was my impression from its performance.

Lugia (S)
is B. So Lugia is interesting because I first used it against Silver and it just one-shotted everything but Magneton with Aeroblast, making me think it could even be A. However similarly to Ho-Oh it struggles with PP when it's not OHKOing stuff (and Fly is weak, not even KOing Jynx) so you have to pick your fights. All in all it's solid against Will, Koga, and Bruno as expected and performs decently against Karen despite the type disadvantage, possibly beating Umbreon, Vileplume, Houndoom, and even Gengar if using EQ. The problem comes against Lance, where I realized my DVs had to be messed up and lo and behold I had 4 Atk and 0 SpAtk/SpDef which caused me to be unable to 2HKO Gyarados at level 42 and barely 2HKO the Dragonite with NMI Icy Wind. In spite of that Safeguard + Recover means that you can even beat the Thunder and Blizzard Nite without much fear and still outspeed and 2HKO Charizard. I was sad that I couldn't see it perform at its best but it was still more than decent.

* I remember Ryota sweeping Jasmine with a level 31 Mantine, and since Tentacruel is caught at the same levels and shares base Special Attack and experience group it's reasonable to say they should perform the same. Sadly they didn't use Icy Wind against Lance so I'm not sure if it'd still 2HKO the Nite.

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Wheew, that took a while. I had a lot of mons I'd like to test (like Amnesia Quagsire which I thought would have a good performance against Clair, Vileplume, Golduck, and even Sunflora piqued my interest) but since I spent so much with this I can't really say if I'll get to them. In any case if I do the runs and this thread is still open I'll keep trying to contribute. Good night!
 
So I am new here and interested in helping out. Any recommendations for me to test? I will be willing to test anything.
Edit: i am also playing the virtual console of Crystal for the record.
 
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So I am new here and interested in helping out. Any recommendations for me to test? I will be willing to test anything.
Edit: i am also playing the virtual console of Crystal for the record.
These are the things currently placed/getting ready to be placed. The OP has some on there already but these are not a done deal barring Abra (that is pretty much a done deal for S). So just look at that link and the OP and cross out the ones that were placed (Totodile, Nido Male, Spearow, and Growlithe). If you want to get a final test in for the ones that were due Sep. 1st, you can do so or find others to test. I am wrapping up HGSS and then we will start progressing this thread again.
 
Alright based on that my true starter will be Pidgey, with Geodude nontrade, Jynx and Staryu to round out the team. Hope Jynx being so late will make up for Staryu’s slow growth.
Edit: Caught my Geodude at level 3 and beat every trainer available before Falkner besides Sprout tower and is level 10. Meaning no rock throw without grinding more. May test to see how awful the fight is without it.
 
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So I have beaten the first 3 gym leaders. Here are my observations for Pidgey and Geodude.
Geodude was tried once at level 10 and two times at 11. At level 10 tackle from Geodude is a 4HKO against the Pidgey and 6HKO against the Pidgeotto. At level 11 the Pidgey is a 1shot and the Pidgeotto is a range for a 1shot with Rock Throw. The Pidgey does 3 damage with mudslap and the Pidgeotto does 5 damage and Geodude had 29 HP. Easy enough at level 11. The fight at 10 is a complete shitshow. This either requires wilds or some fights in Sprout Tower which is kinda iffy.
Pidgey at level 13 from the Sprout Tower 2HKO the Pidgey and 3HKO against the Pidgeotto with Gust. Easy time for Pidgey.
Geodude was level 15 and 2shot the Metapod plus Kakuna after they use a harden and 1shot the Scyther with rock throw. I think fury cutter did 3 damage. Really easy matchup.
Pidgey was level 16 and 2shot the Kakuna and Metapod with gust. He then 3shot the Scyther with gust. Kinda easy as long as the Scyther does not use quick attack too much. He can use it up to 2 times without crits but 3 will kill Pidgey.
Geodude was level 17. He 1shot with Magnitude against the Gastly plus the Quilava. The Zubat was 1shot by rock throw. Kinda easy if not paralyzed by the Gastly. You can still win while paralyzed but you can be confused and flinched by the Zubat. Pretty good matchup.
Pidgey was level 16. He 2shot the Gastly with gust while it can't do anything back. The zubat is a 2HKO with Swift, can confuse you which can end the run depending on luck. Quilava you are not beating since it is a 4HKO and he is faster plus beats you with 4HKO himself with a berry. Decent Matchup overall.
Geodude was level 18. Rock throw was a 3HKO on the Clefairy, I think rock throw was a 6HKO against the Milktank. Should have grabbed dig before testing since Magnitude is extremely volatile. Still a decent matchup as long as she doesn't get a strong rollout chain going since with 1 defense curl rollout starts at 1 damage.
Pidgeotto was level 20. It was a 3HKO with swift on the Clefairy, while the Milktank was a 6HKO with Swift while stomp alone was a 3HKO, let alone the dreaded rollout. Pretty bad Matchup overall.
Overall Geodude and Pidgeotto have been decent so far. Geodude has had problems with status and flinches since he is so slow. He does hit damn hard with stab plus super effective though. Pidgeotto has fewer problems by being faster but I need a feel before I judge that for sure. Time to go hunt down my Staryu.
 
Here are my thoughts for the next 4 gym leaders with Starmie, Graveler, and Pidgeotto.
Graveler is level 25. 1HKO Everything with dig. Can sweep if no curses are cast. Unlikely to do so though. Decent matchup.
Pigeotto is level 25. Can 2HKO Gastly with Gust. Haunter is 3HKO with gust. Gengar is a 4HKO with gust. Sweep is possible if hypnosis hits only once since they really can’t hurt you besides dream eater or curse which chunks half their HP. Do need to switch out when they do so to someone else to break curse. Decent Matchup.
Starmie is level 25. Surf is a 1HKO on the Gastly and Haunter. Gengar is 2HKO by surf. You also outspeed everything so just give Starmie a mint berry and it is a total cake walk. Near Flawless Matchup.
Graveler was level 29. He can 2HKO the Promape and survive 1 crit Karate chop. Dig does around a 6HKO on Poiliwrath and Surf is a 1shof. Terrible matchup.
Pidgeotto was level 29. Can 2HKO the Primeape and 4HKO the Poliwrafh with gust. Dynamic punch does over half to Pidgeotto. Real luck based. Sorta bad matchup.
Starmie was level 29. Turn 1 Rain dance into surf spam. 1 Shot the Primeape with Surf, 4 shot Poliwrath with Surf boosted by rain with final not needing rain. Also faster than them so pretty consistent. Tested twice but could not find how much damage Dynamic punch did since it never hit Starmie. Good matchup due to not having thunder because I did not have enough money. With thunder probably is a flawless matchup.
Graveler was level 33. Rollout is at least a 2HKO on the seel and he gets no further without a ton of potions since icy wind did about a sixth and makes him move second. Then Aurora Beam lowers him into KO range for anyone else. Pretty terrible matchup.
Pidgeotto was level 32. Fly then swift is a 2HKO on the seel with icy wind being about a fifth. Fly does about a 3HKO on dewgong and is 2shoted in return by aurora beam. Pretty bad matchup.
Starmie was level 32. Set up rain dance turn 1 with icy wind doing 3 damage. Thunder is a 1Shot a on the seel and a 2Shot nearing 1Shot on dewgong. Surf 1Shots Piloswine. Pretty great matchup.
Graveler was level 33. 1Shots the Magnemites with dig. Steelix is 4HKO with dig while Iron tail is a 2HKO. You do surprisingly outspeed everything. Decent matchup but unless the Steelix misses with Iron tail he is not winning this.
Pidgeotto is level 32. Mudslap does about half to magnemite and you get 1Shot in response by thunderbolt. Pretty terrible matchup.
Starmie is level 33. Setup rain dance turn1. Surf 1Shots everything. You also outspeed everything and as long as you are not confused is an easy win. Flawless matchup.
Graveler is starting to have pretty big issues in major fights due to being slow and weak to a ton of things. Pidgeotto is merely ok right now with barely any use in major battles. Starmie is MVP for this section and easily justifies its slow exp group cause it murders everything. The biggest drawback it has is the gamecorner TMs being so expensive but Surf is so damn strong that resists crumble as well. Min B tier in my opinion.
 
Here are my thoughts for the next 4 gym leaders with Starmie, Graveler, and Pidgeotto.
Graveler is level 25. 1HKO Everything with dig. Can sweep if no curses are cast. Unlikely to do so though. Decent matchup.
Pigeotto is level 25. Can 2HKO Gastly with Gust. Haunter is 3HKO with gust. Gengar is a 4HKO with gust. Sweep is possible if hypnosis hits only once since they really can’t hurt you besides dream eater or curse which chunks half their HP. Do need to switch out when they do so to someone else to break curse. Decent Matchup.
Starmie is level 25. Surf is a 1HKO on the Gastly and Haunter. Gengar is 2HKO by surf. You also outspeed everything so just give Starmie a mint berry and it is a total cake walk. Near Flawless Matchup.
Graveler was level 29. He can 2HKO the Promape and survive 1 crit Karate chop. Dig does around a 6HKO on Poiliwrath and Surf is a 1shof. Terrible matchup.
Pidgeotto was level 29. Can 2HKO the Primeape and 4HKO the Poliwrafh with gust. Dynamic punch does over half to Pidgeotto. Real luck based. Sorta bad matchup.
Starmie was level 29. Turn 1 Rain dance into surf spam. 1 Shot the Primeape with Surf, 4 shot Poliwrath with Surf boosted by rain with final not needing rain. Also faster than them so pretty consistent. Tested twice but could not find how much damage Dynamic punch did since it never hit Starmie. Good matchup due to not having thunder because I did not have enough money. With thunder probably is a flawless matchup.
Graveler was level 33. Rollout is at least a 2HKO on the seel and he gets no further without a ton of potions since icy wind did about a sixth and makes him move second. Then Aurora Beam lowers him into KO range for anyone else. Pretty terrible matchup.
Pidgeotto was level 32. Fly then swift is a 2HKO on the seel with icy wind being about a fifth. Fly does about a 3HKO on dewgong and is 2shoted in return by aurora beam. Pretty bad matchup.
Starmie was level 32. Set up rain dance turn 1 with icy wind doing 3 damage. Thunder is a 1Shot a on the seel and a 2Shot nearing 1Shot on dewgong. Surf 1Shots Piloswine. Pretty great matchup.
Graveler was level 33. 1Shots the Magnemites with dig. Steelix is 4HKO with dig while Iron tail is a 2HKO. You do surprisingly outspeed everything. Decent matchup but unless the Steelix misses with Iron tail he is not winning this.
Pidgeotto is level 32. Mudslap does about half to magnemite and you get 1Shot in response by thunderbolt. Pretty terrible matchup.
Starmie is level 33. Setup rain dance turn1. Surf 1Shots everything. You also outspeed everything and as long as you are not confused is an easy win. Flawless matchup.
Graveler is starting to have pretty big issues in major fights due to being slow and weak to a ton of things. Pidgeotto is merely ok right now with barely any use in major battles. Starmie is MVP for this section and easily justifies its slow exp group cause it murders everything. The biggest drawback it has is the gamecorner TMs being so expensive but Surf is so damn strong that resists crumble as well. Min B tier in my opinion.
Just wanted to ask if you have picked up Return already for your eventual Pidgeot? I know you'll need it coming up here soon as Fly/Wing Attack won't be hitting much SE at this point, leaving Return as your primary method of attack once the Friendship hits the range over Fly/Wing Attack. Overall, good data on these mons! Keep up the good work and thank you for offering your time to testing!
 

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