Team #12
I already wrote about Torchic before.
Marill is good. Among the physical Water types of Sharpedo, Crawdaunt and Gyarados with no actual physical STAB moves, it is most likely the best physical attacker out of them. Of course we are only talking about Huge Power Marill here because Thick Fat Marill just has not good enough offenses and it really doesn't need the additional defensive help.
Gauging the actual attack of Huge Power Pokemon is always a bit hard. But Marill's Strength is about as strong as Makuhita's Strength in the early game (roughly 60 base attack). Once Marill evolves into Azumarill, its Strength becomes as strong as Gyarados' Strength (roughly 125 base attack). And it only gets stronger over time as additional attack EVs count twice for Azumarill. That is to say Huge Power Azumarill hits incredibly hard on the physical side, even with no STAB.
It also has good bulk with a good HP stat and solid defenses along with its good pure Water typing. That bulk is important, though, because sadly Marill and Azumarill are also pretty slow. And while it is mostly going second, it isn't in a speed tier yet, where it will never outspeed anything, assuming it will be a bit overleveled. Which is very easy to do because in contrast to Magikarp, Marill is in the fast level growth group, meaning it levels up super fast and will evolve super fast due to its low evolution level.
And most importantly, Marill actually learns good physical attacks early, which was Gyarados' biggest flaw. Rollout and Double-Edge are great moves via level-up, and despite the fact that Azumarill's special is equally as low as Gyarados' special, it actually learns a STAB move in Water Gun before Surf, which is really helpful between gyms 3 and 5. Azumarill also learns a crapton of HMs if you are looking for that. As usual Return is the strongest physical attacking option for these kinds of Pokemon, while Strength or Secret Power hold you over during the mid game until you reach high enough friendship. Later, options like Dig and Brick Break are also available. Surf and Ice Beam are decent enough for most of the game, and in the later parts of the game, where you notice the low special stat, its physical attacks are better anyway.
All in all, Marill is just great. Available super early in Emerald, levels up fast, evolves early, very strong for an early game Pokemon, useful typing and attacks, good bulk. Pretty much useful for the entire game and can take down several major battles by itself.
Plusle is another Electric type, but it is also among the better ones. Sadly, due to being a Pikachu clone, its stats are on the lower side. It is frail, especially on the physical side but thankfully its offenses are perfectly fine. Not as good as Manectric but 85 base special attack and 95 base speed is good enough for the role of an Electric type. Plusle's big selling point among the availble and nearly equally viable Electric types is its movepool. Most Electric types have barely four moves they seriously like to consider using. But Plusle has other good moves besides the usual Spark, Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave. Encore, Fake Tears and Helping Hand are all useful utility moves. Even Agility and Baton Pass to set up sweeps for slower team members are an option. And all of those are learned via level-up. Very good support mon. It also learns Thunder at level 37, which is nice but not really necessary, since it is less reliable than Thunderbolt and Spark, and the TM is very cheap anyway if you want it.
I want to quickly shine light on Fake Tears, though. It turned out to be strangely effective and allowed it to blow past usual Electric resists in Grass and other Electric types. Plusle can be effective with it against Wattson already. In combination with Encore and Thunder Wave, it also allows it to straightup beat some strong Pokemon like Slaking, Altaria and Kingdra, that other Electric types struggle with, if you catch them on the right turn.
Other than that, Plusle does the usual Electric type stuff of frying all the Flying and Water types, which makes the Electric type to good in Hoenn. Definitely also a good choice due to also being available early.
Koffing is the counterpart to Grimer. And while it is more defensively oriented, and Muk's stats are probably better distributed than Weezing's, Koffing is likely a bit better than Grimer due to most other things. Koffing also evolves very late at 35 but that is still three levels earlier than Grimer. Koffing and Weezing are also a bit faster, and while still being on the slower side, Weezing can actually outspeed stuff which Muk pretty much can't. The big thing is Koffing's Levitate, though. Not being weak to Ground, but in fact being immune to it, is such a huge deal for a Poison type. That means Weezing only has a single weakness to Psychic. Most Psychic types are also physically frail and waste their first turn with Future Sight, which gives Weezing the chance to just KO them with Sludge Bomb or Shadow Ball.
Which leads us to the fact that Weezing is also a much better mixed attacker than Muk. Losing Dig, Giga Drain and Brick Break is unfortunate but Shadow Ball is a great coverage move against Ghost and Psychic types that a lot of Poison types struggle with. And its Flamethrower and Thunder has a lot more power behind it. Just like Grimer, Koffing's early game STAB move is the reliable Sludge and later Sludge Bomb with the TM. But Koffing also learns the very useful Selfdestruct and Explosion that Grimer doesn't. Selfdestruct especially is incredibly early at only level 17, giving you the option to just blow up and take out some bulky early game Pokemon like Torkoal, Slaking and Altaria.
Granted, besides booming on some ace Pokemon, Koffing isn't that great against gyms 3 and 4, and only decent against gyms 5 and 6. Later, Weezing's typing really becomes more of a downside but is still perfectly fine against most normal trainers. If Koffing evolved earlier and wouldn't be so TM reliant, it would probably fare a lot better.
I talked about Doduo here already.
Rhyhorn is a very unfortunate Pokemon and sadly not worth using. The comparison to Geodude is obvious. They share almost the exact same stats, aside from a bit more HP on Rhyhorn's side. But everything else that is good about Geodude is much worse with Rhyhorn.
The evolution to Rhydon is insanely high at 42, while Geodude already evolves at level 25. That alone means you basically have to use a Pokemon with the stats of an early game Pokemon like Geodude for like 15 levels in the late game. And since those are are late game levels and Rhyhorn has a slower level growth than Geodude, it takes a long time to finally get a Rhydon.
Rhyhorn's level-up movepool is also a lot worse. It doesn't learn Magnitude and Rock Throw, which means it has to rely on the weak and inconsistant Dig, Rollout or Rock Blast. It also doesn't have access to Selfdestruct and Explosion. Just like Graveler it also learns Earthquake via level-up, but much later at level 58 instead of 45, which means you will have to use the very important TM for it. And despite losing out on those important STAB moves, Rhydon gains basically no relevant compensation for it besides level 66 Megahorn. So trying to get Rhyhorn up to its evolution level on its own is a huge struggle at the point you get it.
Which brings us to the biggest downfall of Rhyhorn that just kills its viabiliy. It loses out on all the important parts of the game, that make Geodude such an amazing in-game Pokemon, due to being a Safari Zone Pokemon. Which means it will not be present during the early game where Geodude shines. No good fights against Wattson, Flannery, Norman and Winona as well as basically most of the early game, that its typing would allow. Geodude is available before the second gym while Rhydon isn't catchable until several hours later. At a point where all that is left, are levitating special attacking Pokemon, that aren't weak to Rock, and Water types. So even Rhydon just has no use anymore due to its low speed, special bulk and typing. Golem also falls off a bit in the late game but at least it already did contribute a ton before that. Rhydon doesn't fall off, it just never claws out of the pit, it starts in. Even though Rhydon's STAB Earthquake is very powerful, in practice, Golem's is likely stronger due to it having much more EVs by that point.
You can keep this thing on life support with the EXP Share in the back of your party until it evolves but even then it is barely of any use anymore, even after you invest all those resources into it. Pure deadweight. It would at least be usable if you got it around Jagged Pass or something.
Counter after team #12: