Aerodactyl - Low Tier (at best)
Availability: Cinnabar Island, at Lv. 30. You need the Old Amber.
Stats: The second highest Speed in the game, with nice Attack to boot. It's very fragile, though.
Movepool: To sum its level-up movepool up: Wing Attack (35BP in Gen I), Supersonic, Normal-type Attacks. It can learn Fire Blast, but doesn't have the Special to use it effectively. It also doesn't have access to any Rock-type moves.
Power: It's one of the few Flying-types that are both walled by Rock-types and weak to the abundant Water-types. Lack of good STAB means that it'll generally be reliant on Fly and Take Down for damage. If the opponent can survive a crit Fly/Take Down, it can generally leave Aero in the yellow/red.
Type: Aerodactyl has a great offensive typing. Unfortunately, the best STAB it can use is Fly. Also, while it's the only Pokemon in RBY to resist Normal and Ground, it's also weak to Water, which is all over the place.
Match-ups:
Blaine: Because of Aero's mediocre defenses, STAB Fire Blast is seriously going to hurt, even though it's resisted. Basically, spam Fly and hope for Criticals.
Giovanni: You resist his entire team's moves, except for his Nidoking/queen in Yellow, because of Thunder. Also keep in mind that Aerodactyl can't exactly do anything to Rhyhorn/don.
Lorelei: Her team's STAB is SE on you. No further explanation is necessary.
Bruno: His 2 Onix (embarassingly) wall you, but the rest of his team is easily dealt with by Fly.
Agatha: Her entire team is physically frail, and Aero's naturally faster then all of them.
Lance: While Aerodactyl resists Hyper Beam, Lance's Gyarados knows Hydro Pump. Don't push your luck otherwise. In Yellow, his 2 Dragonair and Dragonite now know moves that are SE against your pterodactyl.
Additional Comments: Aerodactyl is a great example of how important STAB is, in the inverse manner. As you can see, Fly deals heavy damage to anything that doesn't resist it. Lack of Rock-type moves to use, late joining time, and a weakness to Water hamper its usefulness. At least Fly is good on it, thanks to STAB, base 105 Attack, and a 25% crit rate.
-Caterpie - Low Tier
-Availability: It couldn't possibly be any easier to obtain. Common and before the first gym.
-Stats: Butterfree's stats are mediocre. Decent Special and Speed but poor Defence and HP (and Attack). It does help that it evolves early though, since it gives it a moment to shine.
-Movepool: It has access to the powders, giving it some utility, and access to Psychic moves this early is great. However, its moves lack power overall (Psybeam is its strongest attack). It learns Psychic and Mega Drain as TMs but Psychic is quite a valuable TM and Butterfree is probably not the best thing to use it on.
-Power: It has decent power early on, but as the game goes on you'll find that it starts to fail to kill things quickly enough, taking big hits in return.
-Type: It doesn't have any STAB moves. Its typing blows defensively and later on in the game it may limit the number of things that Butterfree should be used against.
-Match-ups: Brock - One of the best choices here since they don't have rock attacks and they lose to Confusion.
Misty - Starmie beats you but it is fairly evenly matched against the others.
Lt. Surge - Electric attacks kill it.
Erika - Wins here.
Koga - Butterfree is actually weak to Poison in 1st gen so its a risky choice in RB (it should still contribute though thanks to its psychic attacks). In Yellow, none of Koga's pokemon have poison attacks so it isn't as bad.
Sabrina - Her pokemon kind of 'out-special' Butterfree. They resist its strongest attack too. Not a good choice here.
Blaine - No.
Giovanni -In RB, it actually isn't THAT bad. It can beat the Nidos, and none of his pokemon have rock attacks. In Yellow it is much worse off because of Rock Slide, Thunder and perhaps Persian's Slash.
Lorelei - You lose here.
Bruno - If you have Mega Drain then you can stop Onix before it can kill you. It resists fighting but Machamp and Hitmonlee's (and Hitmonchan's in RB) normal attacks will do a lot.
Agatha - Psychic is super-effective against all of them. It is weak to Wing Attack and Acid though. As per usual beating the ghosts can come down to luck (you have to hope that Hypnosis misses and that Confuse Ray doesn't completely screw you over).
Lance - Useless here, especially in Yellow.
Blue - In RB it COULD beat Rhydon, Exeggutor and Venusaur. In Yellow, Exeggutor is the only thing I would feel "comfortable" against.
-Additional Comments - I think that Butterfree is somewhat borderline in its tier placement. Its availability, early evolutions, psychic attacks and useful status moves are definite pluses, but its low stats and limited offensive movepool basically mean that it is just medocre on the battlefield. I think that low is appropriate. If low tier gets separated again though, don't put it in Bottom since it does have SOME attributes.
-Chansey - Low Tier
-Availability: Chansey is probably the most unavailable Pokémon in the whole game. It is a rare Pokémon with low catch rate. What’s worse is that it is a Safari Zone Pokémon which means you have little control over whether you will successfully catch it or not. The odds are stacked against you and you will probably be looking for this for a long time.
-Stats: Chansey’s stat distribution is quite unique. Chansey has a ridiculous 250 HP. Backed up by 105 Special, Chansey absolutely cannot be defeated by any special attack, ever. The high Special also makes it a powerful attacker. On the other hand, it only has 5 Attack and Defence. Although the massive HP stat helps with physical attacks somewhat, don’t be surprised when random things like Weezing’s Sludge 2HKO you. Chansey is a bit on the slow side with 50 Speed, but as long as you are at a decent level you should go first most of the time.
-Movepool: Sadly, Chansey’s level up movepool is quite useless. It only learns physical attacks, which do laughable damage, along with a bunch of insignificant support moves. On the plus side, Chansey’s TM compatibility is insane! Between Ice Beam/Blizzard, Thunderbolt, BubbleBeam, Fire Blast, Psychic and SolarBeam, Chansey can throw together a moveset catering to your teams needs. Another thing that can’t be over-looked is its access to Softboiled. With this move in hand, Chansey can become the ultimate support Pokémon by healing its wounded team mates, saving you a trip to the Pokémon centre. Given its incredible HP score, Chansey is more than capable of performing in this role, and it is the only Pokémon able to do so anyway. Finally, Chansey has Thunder Wave which isn’t a required move but it allows it to make up for its low Speed in important battles.
-Power: Chansey is mainly held back by its lack of Special STAB. It can have trouble getting around some Pokémon that aren’t weak to one of its moves. Kadabra, Alakazam and Hypno in particular can cause problems. Still, Chansey has amazing coverage backed by 105 Special, allowing it to kill teams just fine on its own. Chansey’s low Speed can cause problems occasionally, but against most under-levelled you’ll go first anyway.
-Type: It has no use for its Normal STAB thanks to its useless Attack score. Chansey sort of wishes it had more resistances, but it doesn’t really need them. Only powerful Fighting attacks (which are not that common) have a chance to OHKO it without a critical hit, and special attacks do laughable damage to it.
-Match-ups: Koga – Psychic can be used to sweep here if you have it. In RB, you’ll be attacked from the physical side so you may struggle to sweep unassisted. In Yellow, you are much better placed thanks to your special bulk cushioning Psychic.
Sabrina – You start out with an advantage because you shrug off all of their hits. They have high Special stats though so they can survive your hits. You can’t lose unless you suffer several Special drops. Thunder Wave is a useful option here.
Blaine – The fire attacks you will face are easily shrugged off. The physical attacks are more of an issue, although watching Arcanine maim itself with Take Down recoil is satisfying! BubbleBeam is your strongest option here.
Giovanni – BubbleBeam and Ice Beam/Blizzard will cover everything except Persian. You must be careful though, as this is a physically based team and a full sweep is difficult.
Lorelei – On the plus side, you take nothing from their Ice and Water attacks. On the down side, all of her Pokémon have physical attacks except Slowbro, who can set up Amnesia. Lapras is the biggest threat with Body Slam. Thunderbolt covers most of her Pokémon just fine.
Bruno – BubbleBeam/Ice Beam/Blizzard wrecks Onix and Psychic covers everything else. Hitmonchan is a joke, especially in Yellow. Hitmonlee and Machamp are more dangerous thanks to their Fighting attacks.
Agatha – All of her Pokémon can’t really do much to Chansey directly but your low Speed leave you vulnerable to status moves. If luck is on your side then this won’t be an issue though.
Lance – BoltBeam covers everything. This is a bit easier in Yellow because there are more special attacks but everything has at least 1 physical attack. This will make a full solo difficult, but as long as you have the right moves then you can at least contribute.
Blue – What to teach Chansey governs what you can kill. Everything except Alakazam has at least 1 physical attack but not all of his Pokémon can do much with them. Basically, just pick off what you can with the moves you have and leave the rest to something else.
-Additional Comments: Chansey is definitely a good Pokémon if you can get your hands on it. But that’s the problem. Catching it is difficult and can take ages. Much like all of the rare Safari Zone Pokémon, you can waste precious time catching this, and any time that you save by having this on your team will probably not be enough to make up for this.
Clefairy - Low Tier
-Availability: Clefairy can be caught in Mt. Moon, but are quite uncommon there (highest encounter rate in Red and Blue is 6%). Their levels range around 10, with 8 being the lowest and 12 being the highest. They evolve through the use of a Moon Stone, 2 of which happen to be in Mt. Moon, the place where you find Clefairy in the first place! The first one is in the northwest corner of the first floor, and the second is in the bottom floor, hidden 4 steps below and 6 steps to the right of the Super Nerd.
Of course, if you don't want to go on a Clefairy hunt but still want one on your team, you could buy one in the Rocket game corner for a low cost that you should be able to afford (500 coins in Red, 750 coins in Blue, not there in Yellow), but it'll be underleveled in comparison with the rest of your team when you get it meaning you're better off looking for them in Mt. Moon earlier on in the game.
You can evolve Clefairy whenever you want, but it's recommended that you do so once you get a Moon Stone, as Clefairy's level-up movepool leaves quite a bit to be desired.
-Stats: Clefable's stats are average in many areas, with the exception being HP, which is high enough for Clefable to take repeated hits. Unfortunately, its lowest stat (aside from its "good enough" Speed) is its Attack, meaning that despite getting STAB off of Normal-type attacks, Clefable won't have much business using them as opposed to a move from its vast special movepool, such as Thunderbolt or Fire Blast.
-Movepool: Clefairy's level-up movepool is, simply put, bad. Moonlight, the only reason why people would delay evolving Clefairy, doesn't exist yet, thus leaving absolutely no reason for not evolving it immediately outside of "I'm also using a Nidoran and don't know where the hidden Moon Stone is". The problem with this, though, is that because Clefable learns no moves by level-up, making it completely dependant on TMs to keep up. Among these TMs are Water Gun, Mega Punch, Thunderbolt, Psychic, and more, but the problem with all of this is that the TMs that benefit Clefable the most are one-time use TMs (Yes, Mega Punch can be purchased in Celadon City, but by then your Pokemon should have equally powerful/more powerful alternatives for it.), and as such Clefable will face competition for a large amount of them. However, Water Gun is almost necessary early on if you want Clefable to be useful for Mt. Moon and Rock Tunnel. Mega Punch is also quite helpful as a general attacking moves.
-Power: Clefable is quite good in the first half of the game if you give it the right support (read: Water Gun, Mega Punch, Moon Stone), but after Rock Tunnel, Clefable quickly fades into obscurity as it stays the same (unless you use more one-time TMs on it) while everybody around it gets better.
-Type: Normal could be considered the "blank slate" of all the typings, being weak to only Fighting-type attacks, which only comes into play for 2 battles in the entire game, and one of them is optional, while it has no resistances or immunities save for Lick (The other Ghost-type moves, Night Shade and Confuse Ray, aren't affected by type match-ups), which is only appears in Pokemon Tower.
-Match-ups: The following match-ups are assuming you taught Clefable at least Mega Punch, as it does dismally against all of them otherwise.
--Misty: Clefable has the bulk to take 3 Bubblebeams from Starmie (assuming none of them crit, of course) and its Mega Punch is powerful enough to beat Starmie in 3 hits, meaning that if Starmie messes around by using Tackle or the like, Clefable wins.
--Lt. Surge: As with Misty, Clefable can withstand 2 Thunderbolts from Raichu and 2HKO back with Mega Punch. The problem is, Raichu's obviously faster, so Clefable either has to get lucky with a crit or Raichu has to use Growl or Thunder Wave.
--Erika: Cefable's slower than her Victreebel, so it's inevitably going to get trapped by Wrap if it chooses to use it. Tangela and Vileplume are more manageable, especially if Clefable knows Ice Beam. Watch out for Sleep Powder from Vileplume, though.
--Koga: Simply put, if Clefable knows Psychic, it wins, but not smoothly. If it doesn't know Psychic, Koga wins.
--Sabrina: Clefable can beat all of her Pokemon by itself with the exception of Alakazam. It can do decently against it if it didn't fight anything else in her party, but doesn't have a guaranteed victory over it.
--Blaine: Fire Blast can hurt a bit, but Clefable should still be able to beat Growlithe and Ponyta by itself.
--Giovanni: Clefable needs Bubblebeam to stand a chance against him, as Water Gun just does not have enough power behind it to OHKO even his Rhyhorn. Of course, you shouldn't expect Bubblebeam to OHKO either of his Nidos, but at least it's better than only getting a 3HKO against them. In Yellow, his Nidoqueen and Rhydon can actually pose an offensive threat, making things overall more dangerous for Clefable, who will get worn down quite quickly when fighting Dugtrio and Persian alone.
--Lorelei: For Clefable to beat her, you need 3 things:
1. Thunderbolt
2. An X Special
3. At least 2 Hyper Potions.
--Bruno: Watch out for Hi Jump Kick from Hitmonlee and Submission from Machamp. Bruno's Onix are pathetic and Hitmonchan can be easily dealt with if you don't use Mega Punch, Strength, or any other Normal-type attack, as it can Counter it back at you.
--Agatha: Her Ghosts take pathetic damage from all of Clefable's possible attacks (except for Psychic, of course) while Arbok (in Yellow) knows Wrap, which can trap Clefable for an extended period of time, meaning the only Pokemon Clefable should even consider taking on is Golbat.
--Lance: While Clefable's bulk allows it to take a non-critical Hyper Beam from any of his Pokemon, it can't really do much back to them unless you taught it Thunderbolt (for Gyarados) or Ice Beam/Blizzard (for everything else).
--Rival: Whatever Clefable can beat can be easily accomplished by almost every fully evolved Pokemon in the game, so its performance against him isn't too impressive (for those of you wondering, it can beat Pidgeot, Rhydon, and Exeggutor).
-Additional Comments: Simply put, Clefable is one of those Pokemon that's good early on in the game, but falters mid-game and never gets out of its slump. It also needs a large amount of support to be good, and its rarity certainly doesn't help matters much.
Cubone - Bottom Tier
-Availability: Lavender Town is the earliest and they come at level 22 which isn't too far off your team at the time. In Yellow they also appear in the Safari Zone, but that's a bit out of your way.
-Stats: Cubone is slow. He has a decent Attack and a great Defense stat, but he's always taking hits because he is slow.
-Movepool: Comes with STAB moves unlike other Ground types, and can learn some great moves, but Cubone's Special is poor and can only really obtain Normal moves to take advantage of its stats.
-Power: Cubone/Marowak is very strong coming off it's STAB moves, but it's quite slow so it will always be taking a hit which will wear it down significantly.
-Type: Not a lot of trainers use Electric-type moves, meaning Cubone's immunity is useless. In addition, weakness to Grass and Water is not great. Marowak doesn't get a lot of important resistances though, which is unfortunate.
-Match-ups:
Erika: Erika is a problem for Marowak. It's slow, so it can be hit with a status, locked in a constricting move or taken out swiftly with a Super Effective move. However, if you are lucky and you are appropriately leveled, Marowak should KO one of Erika's Pokemon. Just don't expect a sweep.
Koga: Marowak is strong against poison and has a high defense. In addition, Bone Rush hits all of his Pokemon hard. Koga will often be too busy giving his Pokemon X-Attack as well, so you can be comfortable 2HKOing some of his Pokemon. Also worthy of note, Marowak's defense can help cushion Weezing's Self-destruct. In Yellow, Marowak will sweep nicely as well as Venonat is frail, but beware Venomoth's Psybeam as it will hurt you on the Special side.
Sabrina: Marowak is not great here. His low Speed combined with his low Special means he will be hit first and hard, even at level 50. He will KO Kadabra in 1 shot, but he will be hit first. Venomoth will use Stun Spore to slow you down and hit you with Psybeam. Mr Mime can take a hit, but can't do much to you back with Doubleslap. Alakazam can usually take a hit from you and hit you hard back, and since he outspeeds you even with a large level gap, this means he is very likely to KO you regardless.
Blaine: Marowak does well here, as STAB Dig/Earthquake/Bone Rush will OHKO all of Blaine's pokemon. All he will do in response is spam Super Potions and use Normal-type moves, which Marowak can take with ease due to his high defense.
Giovanni: Marowak is a solid performer here, especially if he has Earthquake. His high defense and STAB Earthquakes mean Marowak will be able to take a hit from every Pokemon on his team and strike back hard. He also gets type advantage against Nidoking and Nidoqueen as a bonus.
Lorelei: Unfortunately every Pokemon in Lorlei's team will have a type advantage over Marowak, and many of them will be faster. This is a bad match-up for Marowack.
Bruno: The opposite of Lorelei, Bruno will be hitting you exclusively with Physical attacks and his pokemon will more likely be slower. Marowak will be dealing some serious damage here, this is a great match-up.
Agatha: This match-up is very much mixed. On one hand, all of her Pokemon are poison types, but on the other, they are all faster than you and will status you to high hell and back. This match basically comes down to luck.
Lance: He has 3 Pokemon that are immune to Ground attacks, and many of those Pokemon will be hitting you hard with moves like Hydro Pump and Slam. You don't have it easy here. In Yellow this battle is much harder as his Dragons will now carry the likes of Ice Beam and Bubblebeam.
Rival: There are definitely better match-ups for Marowak, but there are some pros and cons. There will always be a Fire type and he will always have Rhydon, so you have an advantage there, but aside from that you do not want to try to sweep with this match-up. The addition of an Electric-type (and the subsequent removal of Pidgeot) gives Marowak better standing in Yellow, but not by much.
Additional Comments: Sandslash, Dugtrio, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Rhydon, Golem. Those are all the Ground types that outclass Cubone. Many of them come earlier as well, which means that in many playthroughs Marowak will be overlooked. That being said, there are a number of benefits to Cubone, one such being that he learns high base power Ground moves and works with good TM support to round out his coverage. His middling Speed and weaknesses to Grass and Water let him down. Essentially, while he has his uses, Cubone is situational at best and he is best left to be the best of the Bottom Tier.
Ditto - Bottom Tier
Availability: The earliest you can get it is Route 13, but only in Red and Blue. You can find it in Pokemon Mansion in Yellow.
Stats: Untrasnformed, Ditto has a BST of 288, just enough to be absolutely useless. When transformed, Ditto copies the opponents stats aside from HP, which is still pitifully low. This works very much against Ditto. Unlike every other Pokemon in the game, Ditto's stats are forced to be terrible because he can never truly "outlevel" the opponent. He is stuck with the stats he Transforms, which takes away the advantage of being a higher level.
Movepool: Transform. Most ingame trainers use terrible movesets as well, so don't think that will save you, either.
Power: Depends entirely on what you turn in to. If you turn in to Fearow, who has high Attack but low Defense, you're golden. If you transform in to Onix, who has garbage Attack and insane Defense, well, you're not golden. Oh, and since the Special stat isn't split, you will always be doing disappointing damage there.
Type: Ditto is a Normal-type with no STAB. If a Pokemon is carrying a move super-effective against itself, pray you don't get hit by it after you Transform.
Match Ups:
Erika - You are REALLY going out of your way to get Ditto if you are using it against Erika. You can actually do pretty well here: she leads of with Pokemon that use trapping moves.
Koga - You are going to be walling each other, so expect a long fight. Except in Yellow version, since he runs Psychic on his Pokemon.
Sabrina - You wall each other. Not exactly the base way to go. You can probably oneshot Venomoth, though.
Blaine - Again, you pretty much wall each other. Don't bother.
Giovanni - In R/B, don't expect Ditto to do anything. In Yellow, Transform into Dugtrio and spam Earthquake, which hits everything but Persian and his own Dugtrio super-effective (but they are frail as hell anyways).
Lorelei - You wall each other. Don't use Ditto here.
Bruno -If you can Transform into Hitmonlee, you can spam Hi-Jump Kick. Good luck surviving long enough to do so.
Agatha - You can do extremely well against her with her high level Gengar. Just not anything else.
Lance - None of Lance's Pokemon are exceptionally vulnerable to each other, except for Yellow Dragonite who can easily clean his own team.
Additional Comments: Ditto may seems to do actually well against a few major fights, but keep in mind that they can use the same strategy to beat Ditto you are using to beat them. You can't breed in Gen I, so that utility is gone too. Don't use Ditto.
-Dratini - Low Tier
-Availability: In RB, you can theoretically get it as soon as you get to Celadon by buying it from the Game Corner. It is cheaper in Red but is at a lower level and therefore requires more grinding (level 18 for 2800 coins in Red and level 24 for 4600 coins in Blue). So either you’ll have to fork over a bit of money but spend time grinding, or you’ll get it at a more manageable level but have to spend up bigger. Neither is particularly desirable in an efficient playthrough. Another more minor issue is the fact that you can only buy 50 coins at a time, which slows things down compared to later generations. Alternatively, you can catch it in the Safari Zone with a Super Rod at level 15. This is probably a bit more practical and cheaper, but you are at the mercy of the Safari Zone mechanics and the level is a lot worse especially at that point in the game. In Yellow, it can only be obtained from the Safari Zone, and it is a bit rarer. It comes at the same level. Note that it is possible to catch Dragonair as well, but since you’ll likely have to go past level 30 for Dragonair to match your team, this isn’t really much of an advantage.
-Stats: Dragonite has excellent stats, but Dratini and Dragonair don’t. It will struggle compared to the rest of your team until it evolves, by which time most of the game will be done anyway.
-Movepool: Dratini’s level up movepool is not that good. Hyper Beam comes way too late. Slam has decent power but is inaccurate, though Thunder Wave has some utility until stronger moves come along. Dratini can also use the Agility/Thunder Wave + Wrap combo to get around troublesome opponents, but this is slow and not very reliable. On the plus side, Dratini has great TM/HM compatibility. Pick from Surf, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Fire Blast, Thunderbolt or Body Slam. Obviously this comes with opportunity costs (except Surf) but chances are that you will have at least a few of these free so it isn’t so bad.
-Power: Well, Dragonite has power, but Dratini and Dragonair don’t. Dragonair will not be sweeping through enemies on its own. Dragonite potentially can, but as I said most of the trainers will be defeated once you get it so it hardly matters.
-Type: It doesn’t learn any STAB moves sadly (not even Fly). From a defensive point of view, pure Dragon is nice. A strong set of resistances is backed up a general lack of Ice moves throughout the game. It is also unique to Dragonair. However, Dragon doesn't resist everything and Dragonair will end up relying on stats alone in these instances.
-Match-ups: Lt. Surge: In the unlikely scenario that you have Dratini at this point, it should go ok in RB, but in Yellow Raichu will win using Mega Punch and Mega Kick.
Erika: Grass resistance, but you need Ice Beam to really be helpful at all. If you do then it should go ok though it won’t absolutely dominate the gym.
Koga: Neutral, in terms of type advantages. Koga sucks in RB so pretty much anything can work here (Dragonair is no exception but a full solo might be a bit much). Venonat is weak so Yellow is probably the same deal (if you have Fire Blast at this point then you do even better).
Sabrina: Alakazam will be too strong to handle. It probably doesn’t do well in the gym overall, though Thunderbolt can help against the Slowbro and Slowpoke used by the gym trainers.
Blaine: This gym is one of your best match-ups. Surf is probably the best move to teach Dragonair simply due to it being a HM rather than a TM, and Surf + Fire resistance gives it a good showing here.
Giovanni: Chances are you’ll have at least one move that hits Ground super-effective (Surf most likely), so you do alright here too.
Lorelei: Ice attacks are being thrown out a lot here so don’t bother.
Bruno: Onix dies to Surf. Dragonite should be strong enough to kill everything else but Dragonair isn’t.
Agatha: Golbat is weak to Thunderbolt and Ice Beam/Blizzard, but if it outspeeds and confuses you then you may lose anyway. Arbok shouldn’t be too much of an issue but Gengar can still win if you are unlucky.
Lance: Depends on your moves it has. Thunderbolt hits Gyarados, Ice Beam/Blizzard hits the dragons and Aerodactyl is weak to both. In Yellow you need to watch out for an ice attack from Lance’s Dragonair and Dragonite.
Blue: In theory, you can hit pretty much everything super-effectively but again it depends on what you gave it.
Additional comments: Dragonite is awesome, but because it evolves so late it may as well not exist before the Elite 4 (and even then you may not have it yet). Instead, what you are essentially getting is Dragonair, who has below average stats. Combine this with how tedious it can be to obtain in the first place and you have a pokemon that is clearly at home in Low tier.
Ekans - Low Tier
Availability: Red version only, right after Mt. Moon.
Stats: All of Arbok's stats are average or below average. It can't do much damage directly without a super effective hit and it can't take too many hits either.
Movepool: Only Ekans and Arbok learn Glare, which while inaccurate is only move that can paralyze every single Pokemon in the game. They also learns other useful moves like Wrap, Dig, Earthquake, Fissure, Strength and Rock Slide. Their main fault is a lack of a good STAB move. Acid is complete garbage.
Power: Technically speaking, Arbok can probably beat 90% of the Pokemon you will encounter in the game with Glare + Wrap, but doing so is extremely time consuming and risky due to low accuracy. A super-effective Rock Slide or Dig might do some damage, but Arbok's Attack and Special are just too low to do any significant damage.
Type: Pure Poison is a pretty lousy typing. Arbok gains no good STAB and a weakness to Psychic. It also has a Ground-type weakness, but Ground-type moves are rarer than Psychic-type moves. It's resistances aren't anything to write home about either.
Match ups: With Dig/Earthquake, Arbok could potentially bring the pain train to Lt. Surge, Koga, Blaine and Agatha, but otherwise Arbok doesn't really excel in any way. Keep it away from Sabrina and Giovanni: they will eat Arbok for breakfast. Again, it can use Glare + Wrap if you have the patience, but otherwise keep Arbok on the sidelines for most of the major fights.
Additonal Comments: RBY is tough on pure Poison-types because they lack a good STAB move. Their best move is Sludge, which Arbok can't even learn. If you want a ParaWrap abuser, Arbok is probably your best bet in Red version due to its availability. But Arbok's low stats, mediocre typing and reliance of TMs for good moves make it difficult to place on a team.
Exeggcute - Low Tier
Availability: Pretty damn late... it appears in the Safari Zone, though it's fairly common and easy to catch, and comes at a max of level 26-27, which is...possibly useable... but decidedly under leveled. It can be immediately evolved with a Leaf Stone.
Stats: The evolved Exeggcutor has freaking amazing stats-- of course, it's one of the most used OU Pokemon after all. Massive fat 125 Special, and above average stats everywhere but Speed-- stats are a major reason why Exeggcutor is an amazing force in competition.
Movepool: Exeggcute comes to you with a pretty meh movepool of Hypnosis, Barrage, and Reflect, and immediately learns the similarly almost-good-but-still-meh Leech Seed. It's best Grass Stab is Mega Drain (ew...), so like competitive sets, you will likely be depending on the Psychic TM as your main means of doing damage; though you do have immediate access to the Psychic TM at the point in the game you get Exeggcute. Exeggcutor does have a decent 95 Attack stat and can use Strength, Stomp, or Hyper Beam. It gets the powders too, but really late (level 48 for Sleep Powder... ew...), so you'll likely be immediately evolving and just enduring with Hypnosis. Explosion, probably don't want to use it in-game.
Power: Psychic and 125 Special rips shit up. Mega Drain can do decent damage against opponents it hits super effectively, and Exeggcutor's decent Attack means it can actually best other Psychic-types like Alakazam by stomping them to death on their weaker physical side.
Type: Grass / Psychic is obviously good typing in general-- it's the main reason Exeggcutor is so popular in OU. However, in-game, Grass does more to hurt Exeggcutor than help, especially at the point in the game you get it. Ground-, Electric-, and Water-type attacks are rare enough that these much-sought resistances in the competitive scene are less useful in game. Low Speed and weaknesses to Fire-, Poison-, and Ice-type attacks are a bit of a burden.
Match-ups:
Koga: If you evolve it and teach it Psychic, it can destroy anything he has. Keep in mind you will be horribly outmatched level-wise (you catch Exeggcutor in Fushia at max level 27, Koga's Pokes are all level 37-50). In RB, if you don't do some major grinding, his pokes will outrun and smack you with powerful super effective Sludge attacks. In Yellow, the Venonats can only status you, but Venomoth carries the 4x super effective Leech Life (though... it is only Leech Life), and is at level 50.
Saffron Rockets: You have STAB Psychic, and resist Electric, so you will have a big advantage.
Sabrina: Exeggcutor can do well here if you have trained it sufficiently and taught it Stomp or Strength. Its Psychic resistance, high Special, and decent Attack give it a significant advantage--again, assuming you've leveled up sufficiently.
Blaine: Er... just don't get hit by a Fire-type attack. Yeah...
Giovanni: Exeggcutor obviously dominates this gym.
Lorelei: Exeggcutor's not dead weight here, with its massive Special allowing it to whether some Ice-type attacks, and retaliate with super effective Mega Drain (healing back in the process). However, your low Speed, high probability of being under leveled, and the sheer power of Lapras's Blizzard will not make this an easy match up for Eggy.
Bruno: Eggy basically laughs at anything Bruno can do (again, provided you get to a decent level).
Agatha: Everything she has will be destroyed by a STAB Psychic attack, but with your low speed, prepared to face several turns of sleeping and hurting yourself in confusion (and being extremely annoyed) before you can claim victory here... eventually.
Lance: You're slow and will not like taking repeated Hyper Beams. In Yellow, 2nd Dragonair and Dragonite can hit you with powerful super effective attacks. Not dead weight, but not great.
Rival: Exeggcutor has an advantage against most of his Pokemon. Just be wary of those with Flying and Fire attacks.
Additional Comments: All things considered, the above information definitely doesn't look bad. Good stats, a usable movepool (fuck, in RBY, STAB Psychic = usable movepool), and a few favorable match-ups. So, what's the problem? The problem is that in addition to Eggy coming so late and under-leveled in the game, it's further hindered by a really slow experience curve and low Speed. In terms of power, experience curve, and availability, you could compare it to Tauros and Staryu-- except that both of those Pokemon have a much better Speed stat. Better Speed allows them to rapidly sweep through opponents and "grind" their way to catch up to the rest of the team with comparable ease. With Exeggcutor, you will find yourself constantly stopping to bust out healing items as you try to catch up to the rest of the team-- making it decidedly more annoying to train. Given dedication, Eggy will blossom to its potential, as one of the most popular of competitive Pokemon-- in-game though, you're probably much better off with Venusaur or Victrebel... or Alakazam.
-Farfetch’d (Yellow) - Low Tier
-Availability: Farfetch’d isn’t available until after you get passed the sleeping Snorlax in Yellow, on routes 12 and 13. It can be obtained as high as level 31, although a level 31 Farfetch’d is quite rare and you may have to settle for level 26.
-Stats: Awful. 65 Attack and 60 Speed are poor, and it is frail with 52/55/58 Defences.
-Movepool: Access to Swords Dance and Agility by level up is pretty cool. Slash is a nice move too, although it comes late and Farfetch’d doesn’t even have a 100% crit rate when using it (although >93% is pretty close to perfect). Farfetch’d’s once famous access to both Cut and Fly is now useless because it comes so late that Cut doesn’t even give access to anything anymore, but at least dropping Cut allows it to run both of its boosting moves at the same time (with Fly for boosted hits and Slash when you don’t want to boost).
-Power: Farfetch’d needs to boost with Swords Dance to sweep, but a Swords Dance boosted Fly is surprisingly strong. Farfetch’d can sweep whole teams quickly using the tactic. However, having to boost every time it faces a team with more than 1 Pokémon is a pain as Farfetch’d doesn’t have the bulk to keep doing it over and over. This is especially true against faster teams, since it may need to use Agility too. Overall, Farfetch’d sweeps are satisfying but they aren’t the most efficient way to go about things.
-Type: Normal/Flying is not a unique combination, but it is a pretty good type to have. You get walled by Rock types, but these are pretty rare when you get Farfetch’d. Rock, Electric and Ice weaknesses aren’t particularly problematic because they are overall rare.
-Match-ups: Koga – You can sweep him in Yellow by setting up on the first Venonat and hitting his team with Fly. Setting up is risky though because Venonat can hit you surprisingly hard with Psychic and can inflict Toxic to wear you down as you set up.
Sabrina – You can set up on Abra but it will Flash you, and a single miss with Fly will likely lead to Farfetch’d fainting.
Blaine – Farfetch’d just doesn’t have the bulk to set up here, especially since its Low speed necessitates the use of Agility. Don’t bother.
Giovanni – You can set up on Dugtrio, but it might Sand Attack you. If it doesn’t, you can blast through a lot of his team. Rhydon can end your sweep though, and even Persian can screw you if it sets up Double Team on the first turn of Fly.
Lorelei – You are weak to Ice, so you aren’t going to do much.
Bruno – In theory, you can hit his Fighting types hard, but the problem is that Onix stops your sweep partway through so you switch out and lose your boosts. Your best bet is to just try hitting without boosting and hope you don’t die. Good luck with that.
Agatha – The interesting thing here is that you can actually set up on the first Gengar because it simply refuses to attack you with Mega Drain (due to resistance), which means all it will do is spam Substitute and Confuse Ray. If you can survive Confuse Ray, you can set up enough to ensure a sweep against her frail team! There are better ways of dealing with her, but Farfetch’d can work with a bit of luck.
Lance – Not worth it. Aerodactyl walls you, the Dragons hit you with Electric and Ice moves, and Gyarados is just too strong.
Blue – The problem here is that it is very difficult to find a safe Pokémon to set up on because all of his Pokémon have something to hit you with. You may be best trying on Exeggutor or Ninetales, but really you should just use something faster and more reliable.
-Additional Comments: Farfetch’d is a fun gimmick, and that’s it. In RB it was actually useful but Yellow nerfed it badly. Boosted experience? Gone. Early and convenient availability? Gone. Access to Cut and Fly? Still true, but now useless because of how late it arrives. Farfetch’d just isn’t worth it in Yellow.
Grimer-Low
Availability: It can be caught in the Pokemon Mansion in all three games, but is much easier to find in Blue and Yellow
Stats: Above average HP and Attack, middling Defense, and horrible Speed and Special.
Movepool: He should only be a few levels aways from Sludge when you catch he if he doesn't have it already. That's important, because it's his only STAB and most of his usable TMs run off his bad Special. When you need to seriously consider running Mimic, you know your movepool is horrible. If you haven't used the Body Slam TM yet, Muk can make decent use of it. Without it, you'll be forced to run crap like Toxic or Screech in the fourth moveslot.
Power: Grimer blows (especially that late in the game), but should be pretty close to evolving to Muk if you didn't just catch the evolved version to begin with. Sludge can actually do some decent damage thanks to Muk's 105 Base Attack. That said, 99% of teams will carry something that can do more damage to any given threat by the time Grimer is available. Grimer's biggest problem comes from the fact that Poison hits almost nothing relevant for SE damage by the time you get him.
Typing: As touched on in the last section, Poison is a horrible typing. This is made worse because by the time you catch him, there aren't really any more Bug type or Grass type pokemon to prey on, and most of the important fights put him at a big disadvantage.
Matchups:
Blaine- Muk can't really trade blows thanks to his low Special and low BP STAB.
Giovanni- This is a horrible, horrible idea. Don't even bother trying
Lorielli- Gets hit on his Low Special all match, and can't really threaten anything she has.
Bruno- Muk can beat all three Fighting types in both versions, as long as your level is higher than his Machamp's to negate the threat of Fissure.
Agatha- All five pokemon resist your STAB and three are immune to Normal moves. So no.
Lance- Muk can take a Hyper Beam and multiple Dragon Rages from the Dragonairs if you're desperate, but Gyarados and Aerdactyl beat him and D-Nite probably will as well. In Yellow, everything beats him.
Rival- Muk can trade blows with Venusaur if you picked Squirtle. That's about it.
Additional Comments: Muk could probably be bumped up a tier if it didn't come so late. Unfortunately, by the time you get him his typing is a big hinderance and there are many better options. You could technically beat Koga early and Surf down to Cinnabar to get it earlier, but it's really not worth the extra effort. Disappointing.
-Growlithe (Yellow) - Low Tier
-Availability: Growlithe can only be found on the first floor of the Pokémon Mansion on Cinnabar Island. It can be found as high as level 38, but this is very rare even with the repel trick, so you may have to settle for something more underleveled.
-Stats: Excellent overall. There is little reason not to evolve it straight away, at which point it gets 110 Attack, 80 Special and 95 Speed. With 90/80/80 bulk, Arcanine can take hits well too.
-Movepool: Arcanine requires TM support to work. This was tolerable in Red given how early it arrives, but in Yellow it is much hard to justify saving TMs for it. Dig, for example, it a near requirement on Arcanine, and keeping it for Arcanine can hurt the many things that benefit from it earlier on. Without Dig or Body Slam, Arcanine is stuck with Take Down/Double-Edge and Fire Blast for coverage, and both of those have drawbacks that make relying on them difficult.
-Power: With the right moves, Arcanine is a powerful attacker. Even with just Take Down it can hit somewhat hard. However, if you aren’t using Dig or Body Slam, then you are using moves with recoil and accuracy issues, and all of this can take its toll on Arcanine as it builds up damage, causing you to heal it frequently.
-Type: Fire really isn’t that useful considering how late you get Arcanine. The weaknesses to Water, Ground and Rock are not appreciated, and Fire’s coverage is somewhat poor late-game.
-Match-ups: Sabrina – You can do ok here as you have decent bulk and speed, and you hit her Pokémon hard with physical moves. Take Down recoil (or a miss) may lesve you open to a kill from Alakazam though).
Blaine – If you have Dig then you pretty much win be default, but it’s a mirror match without it.
Giovanni – Ground and Rock weaknesses aren’t fun are they? Persian doesn’t have either though so you can beat that. Dig is useful for Nidoqueen, Nidoking and Rhydon if you have it.
Lorelei – You have a weakness to Water so you are a bit limited. Jynx is beatable.
Bruno – You can’t touch Onix without Dig. The Hitmons are fried by Fire Blast, and Machamp doesn’t have a specific answer to you either.
Agatha – Use Dig if you have it. If you don’t, her Ghosts are going to be tough with Normal immunities and high Specials. Just focus on Golbat and Arbok instead.
Lance – Gyarados has Hydro Pump, Aerodactyl walls you and you aren’t exactly OHKOing the Dragons (one even has BubbleBeam).
Blue – If you have Dig then you can do pretty well, but without it just focus on Alakazam, Ninetales, Flareon and Exeggutor.
-Additional Comments: The transition from Red to Yellow involved a simple availability change for Arcanine, but it proves to have a significant impact on its usefulness. Arcanine’s performance was at its best during the middle of the game, but being locked away on Cinnabar Island causing it to miss out on most of this. Being such a late Pokémon with reliance on such an exclusive TM seals its fate.
-Hitmonchan - Low Tier
-Availability: You can get this as soon as you get to Celadon by heading to Saffron straight away and fighting through the Dojo. This isn’t particularly hard, and Hitmonchan comes at level 30, which should be around what your team is at.
-Stats: 105 Attack is pretty good and it has a decent enough speed for in-game purposes. Its Special is horrible though, which is a shame given its movepool.
-Movepool: Hitmonchan is a case of a Pokémon who has a movepool that doesn’t match its stats. It is the only Pokémon with all 3 elemental punches, but 35 Special makes these completely useless. It has no STAB moves by level up. It absolutely needs TM support to work. Submission is obtained from Celadon, and it gets Body Slam, Mega Punch and Double-Edge to pick from, all of which are powerful enough for that point in the game. Body Slam is the best choice for reliability but it may not be available. It gets Strength later though which is a reasonable substitute.
-Power: Initially it can actually power through weaker opponents using stats alone. As the game goes on, Submission's recoil begins to become a issue and its lack of STAB outside of Submission begins to show. It becomes less useful as a result.
-Type: Submission is its only real STAB and be obtained by TM as soon as you get Hitmonchan, and although it has great power it is inaccurate and deals recoil (which is bad for Hitmonchan’s poor HP stat). Fighting is a bad defensive type overall. Flying and Psychic attacks are common in this game are fairly common, which hurts Hitmonchan as a viable choice.
-Match-ups: Erika – Neutral overall, but it isn’t particularly useful. Her Pokémon can take hits and can strike back with a status move, or just hit hard with a special attack.
Koga – In RB, his Pokémon are bulky and can poison you, but otherwise this isn’t a particularly bad match-up (a full solo might be a bit much though). In Yellow he gets screwed over by Psychic, though he might take down a Venonat!
Sabrina – I shouldn’t have to explain why this is a bad match-up. Hitmonchan just dies here and is completely useless.
Blaine – Hitmonchan is crippled by its poor Special. Flamethrower and Fire Blast do tons of damage to it, making it a mediocre choice at best for this battle.
Giovanni – Dugtrio and Persian can be beaten due to frailty. Nidoqueen and Nidoking are tougher, particularly in Yellow where they have Thunder. Rhyhorn and Rhydon are weak to Submission. It doesn’t flat out lose here like in other gyms but it isn’t particularly great either.
Lorelei – Well you should have Submission now, but it still doesn’t do that well. Submission is so risky and those Ice and Water attacks will hurt.
Bruno – Mirror Match, except for his Onix who you can beat with Submission. Beating everthing else depends on level really.
Agatha – Holy crap you are awful here. Gengar and Haunter are IMMUNE TO ALL OF YOUR PHYSICAL MOVES! None of the elemental punches are going to help you win. Arbok and Golbat resist fighting but can be beaten with whatever normal move you have. You will probably get statused though.
Lance – You might beat Aerodactyl, Dragonair or Dragonite because their movesets suck, but Gyarados has Hydro Pump. In Yellow things are tough because everything except Aerodactyl has special attacks, but Aerodactyl has Fly anyway.
Blue – You stand a chance against Rhydon, Exeggutor and Sandslash, but everything else is a risky match-up due to special/super-effective moves within their movesets.
-Additional Comments: Hitmonchan started off decently thanks to its high starting level and above average attack, but it became quite poor in the long run. Its horrible movepool, lack of RELIABLE STAB, terrible match-ups during key battles and that awful Special really work against Hitmonchan and I just can’t see why anyone would use this for an efficient run.
-Kangaskhan - Low Tier
-Availability: It can only be caught in the Safari Zone. This is a problem because it means you are left in the hands of the Safari Zone capture mechanics. It doesn’t help that Kangaskhan is a rare Pokémon with a low capture rate. Unless you can very lucky, you will be looking for it for a long time. It also comes at a level that will probably be lower than your team’s average, but it is powerful and can grind up quite easily.
-Stats: Kangaskhan is built as a physical sweeper with its 95 Attack and 90 Speed. Although they aren’t jaw-droppingly awesome, they are good enough for in-game purposes. With 105 HP and 80 Defence it can take physical hits comfortably. However, 40 Special is poor and powerful special attacks will do a lot of damage to Kangaskhan.
-Movepool: Kangaskhan only learns Normal moves by level-up, although they have plenty of neutral coverage so you could almost get away with just running a mono-Normal moveset. However, Kangaskhan has an extensive TM/HM movepool. It has Earthquake and Rock Slide which will complement the Normal coverage well. Kangaskhan also has a large special movepool, capable of getting Surf, Ice Beam/Blizzard, Fire Blast and Thunderbolt. However, Kangaskhan’s low Special limits the use of these and there are better choices for these moves.
-Power: Kangaskhan is a strong attacker thanks to its decent attack and great physical movepool. It can comfortably run through the weaker trainers in the game easily. It often can’t OHKO stronger opponents with its STAB but it should have no problem 2HKOing things at the very least.
-Type: Normal has no super-effective coverage unfortunately, but it does hit neutral on everything except Rock types and the 3 Ghosts, both of which are covered by Earthquake. Normal has one weakness and one immunity, though both are mostly irrelevant for in-game playthroughs.
-Match-ups: Koga – In RB you may struggle a bit unless you have Earthquake already because they have good bulk. However, they can’t do much back to you either. In Yellow, you have Rock Slide for his bugs, but they are hitting you on your weak Special and Venomoth may be a difficult opponent.
Sabrina – This is an interesting match-up because you both do heavy damage to each other. They hit you on your Low Special and you hit back at their low Defence. This battle will probably come down to level.
Blaine – You have either Rock Slide or Earthquake and can attempt a sweep. However, Arcanine’s Fire Blast hits you very hard and can burn you.
Giovanni – Earthquake is a good choice here since it covers the stronger Pokémon on his team, and Dugtrio and Persian should be beaten with brute force. Even Surf could be a viable option! Thunder is really the only thing that you care about here.
Lorelei – You have Rock Slide but they are hitting you on your low Special so be careful.
Bruno – Hitmonlee and Machamp are brutal with their Fighting moves, but the others should be easily beaten.
Agatha – You do nicely here. Earthquake and Rock Slide cover everything and you have the power to beat her quickly. As usual you can lose if you are unlucky, but that’s assumed.
Lance – Rock Slide covers his stronger Pokémon and Dragonair are easy to beat. Gyarados will hit you for large damage with Hydro Pump. This is harder in Yellow since he has more special attacks.
Blue – It depends on what you taught him. Earthquake gets Jolteon, Magneton and the Fire types. Rock Slide hits Charizard, Pidgeot and Gyarados. You can contribute here, but as usual look out for Special moves.
-Additional Comments: Kangaskhan is Low simply because it is one of the most unavailable Pokémon in the game. It is a decent Pokémon in its own right, but unless you get very lucky in obtaining it you’ll be looking for it for a while. Any time you gain from using Kangaskhan will probably be insufficient for the purposes of making up for lost time looking for it. If you do get lucky and catch it quickly then it can be awesome, but actually PLANNING to have it as part of your team and specifically looking for it is not recommended.
Koffing - Low Tier
Availability: Koffing is not available in Pokemon Yellow. In Red/Blue, the moment you can use Surf outside of battle, you have access to Koffing. You can find it in the Pokemon Mansion at L30-L32 at fairly common rates, or if you're really patient you can find Weezing at L37 or L39 (1% or 4% encounter rates though). Probably best to stick with Koffing and level it up to L35.
Stats: This line's stats are about the opposite of what you would hope for in-game. Weezing is slow, and its Attack and Special are average at best. The one thing it has going for it is Defense.
Movepool: Koffing can consider himself lucky to actually get a half decent STAB move in Sludge (but that still clocks in at a modest 65 base power). However, the next best moves that it learns naturally happen to be suicide moves. Thunderbolt is the only TM it can take early on, and it's quite a coveted one. Thunder and Fire Blast are out there as well, but you get them much, much later.
Power: Koffing has no problems beating a Bird Keeper with Thunderbolt, or a random Paras with Sludge. The problem is when it doesn't have an overwhelming type advantage, or when you don't have the TMs to spare for it. In those cases, you'll find that it will take a quite a while before he wins, and he's at the mercy of annoying status moves or even super effective moves in the meantime.
Type: Poison is a horrible type offensively and defensively, offering no real meaningful advantages other than Erika's gym (but there's only a total of two Pokemon Sludge can hit for double damage there). Thunderbolt is actually effective against a lot of things, though.
Match-ups:
Erika - If you go through the effort of getting yourself a Weezing before you fight Erika, this is his one chance to shine (sort of). He can outlast all the Pokemon in the gym (Exeggcute doesn't even have any Psychic moves), but because most of them are part Poison you are not going to do a whole lot against them unless you somehow got Fire Blast.
Sabrina - If it can use a Psychic move, Koffing pretty much loses. If it can't, then you should be okay, though you will need Thunderbolt to really do anything to Gastly/Haunter. You can Thunderbolt a couple of Slowpokes/Slowbros, perhaps.
Blaine - An even match-up at best. Koffing can beat joke Pokemon that don't use any "real" moves against him, but he's not going to outlast anything that uses Flamethrower/Fire Blast.
Giovanni - This gym actually only has two Ground moves to worry about: Rhydon's Fissure (which won't affect you if you're faster), and Dugtrio's Dig (which is telegraphed). But on the other hand, Sludge and Thunderbolt will do absolutely nothing, and Weezing's only other remotely viable options have 5 PP each (Hyper Beam and Fire Blast).
So our beloved mascot has average availability, and poor everything else. Not recommended.
Jigglypuff - Low Tier
-Availability: You can catch it at Route 3 in Red and Blue, at levels 3, 5, and 7. In Yellow, you have to wait until you get to Route 5. It evolves by using a Moon Stone, which can be obtained shortly after catching Jigglypuff.
-Stats: The only stat that can be considered "good" is HP, which is actually a curse in disguise, as if it has low health, it'll take more items to heal it than others. It's also one of those Pokemon that are actually outsped by some of the non-boss trainers' Pokemon.
-Movepool: Considering its only move before reaching level 9 is Sing, it needs Water Gun and/or Mega Punch to actually fight. Also, aside from Rest and Body Slam at levels 29 and 34, respectively, its level-up movepool is absolutely barren, thus requiring the use of even more TMs for it to try to keep up.
-Power: If you evolved it ASAP (which you should have) and taught it Mega Punch, it's actually pretty decent. Then you reach Rock Tunnel, and it can't do much in there unless you taught it Water Gun/BubbleBeam/Seismic Toss, and it has trouble in Pokemon Tower no matter what you taught it. The Poison-types of Cycling Road and Silph are also a pain unless you taught it Psychic. To make a long story short, Wigglytuff needs TMs to be usable for at least half of the game.
-Type: Normal has no type advantages against anything else, not even Ghost because the only Ghost-type move that won't affect Normal-types is the pathetic Lick. The fact that Normal-types don't hit anything super-effectively balances out how uncommon Fighting-types are in-game.
-Match-ups:
--Misty: An interesting trick against Misty that actually works: Before fighting her, make sure Wigglytuff knows Mega Punch and Bide. Then, when fighting her, defeat Staryu normally, with Mega Punch. After that, use Bide. Wigglytuff's bulk should allow it to take 4 BubbleBeams (barring crits, of course), and if it loses at least 30 HP, its Bide will be strong enough to OHKO Starmie.
--Lt. Surge: Wigglytuff can take a Thunderbolt from Raichu, but not much else on top of it.
--Erika: You'll get Wrapped up when fighting Victreebel. It can beat her other Pokemon, but only if you taught it Ice Beam or Psychic.
--Koga: In Red and Blue, his Pokemon are physically defensive juggernauts, all of which take minor damage from Strength, and in Yellow, they all know some sort of status move. Keep in mind that his Pokemon are most likely faster than Wigglytuff.
--Sabrina: Wigglytuff can defeat her Kadabra if it knows Body Slam and manages to paralyze it. For the others, it has to hope they use Psywave instead of Psybeam/Psychic.
--Blaine: Fire Blast is going to do a lot, regardless of who's using it. Don't forget that Ninetales (Yellow only) and Rapidash know Fire Spin. Also, Arcanine can actually survive 2 uses of Strength.
--Giovanni: Wigglytuff needs Ice Beam or Blizzard for this fight, or else it's going to be walled. The sad thing is, his Nidos, Dugtrio, and Persian are all faster than Wiggs, and of those, Dugtrio's the only one that can't withstand a Blizzard.
--Lorelei: Thunderbolt is required here, as 3 of her Pokemon have great physical bulk, and Dewgong (obviously not one of the above 3) has Rest. Of course, Thunderbolt has trouble 2HKOing the majority of her team, all of which (minus Slowbro) are faster than it, meaning it'll most likely take at least 3 hits from each mon.
--Bruno: I don't think any explanation as to how Bruno defeats Wigglytuff is necessary.
--Agatha: If Wigglytuff has a hard time in Pokemon Tower, how well do you honestly think it'll do against Agatha?
--Lance: It's a sad day when a Thunderbolt fails to even 2HKO a Gyarados. Same goes for Blizzard and everything else on his team, except for Aerodactyl and Dragonite. Thankfully, Wigglytuff has just enough bulk to survive a Hyper Beam from anything not named Gyarados or Dragonite.
--Rival: It needs TMs to do well against any of his Pokemon, with the exceptions of Exeggutor, which is the worst Pokemon on his team, and his Alakazam and starter, which can't be beaten regardless of what you taught Wigglytuff. Ninetales also poses a serious threat, thanks to Fire Spin.
-Additional Comments: Third worst Pokemon in the game, right here. Jigglypuff is comparable to a parasite, as they both rob you of important things (exclusive TMs for the former, nutrients for the latter) and weaken your performance overall. Thankfully, Jigglypuff is easier to get rid of than a parasite, and the way do do so is as follows:
Step 1: Deposit Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff.
Step 2: Release Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff.
That's pretty much all you need to know about Jigglypuff.
Lapras - Low Tier (possibly Bottom)
Availability: Given to you by a Silph Employee, at level 15.
Stats: All of Lapras's stats are okay, with the exceptions of massive HP and unappealing Speed.
Movepool: Learns Body Slam and Ice Beam by level-up, and has TM access to Thunderbolt and Psychic. It's notably the one of the few non-starter gift Pokemon to learn both Surf and Strength.
Power: Because you get it at Lv. 15, when the levels of your opponents' Pokemon are in the high 20's to low 30's, don't expect it to be winning any fights on its own.
Type: Well, it's a Water-type with STAB on Ice Beam...
Match-ups: Because you get it at the pitiful level 15, you'll definitely need to grind to acheive good results against the remaining Gym Leaders.
Erika: Lapras won't have learned Ice Beam by then unless you used up TM13, and there's no reason to put off Erika until you get Lapras in the first place.
Koga: Surf hits his Pokemon's weak Defense, and Lapras has the bulk to take a Selfdestruct.
Sabrina: Her Pokemon are trampled on by Body Slam.
Blaine: Lapras resists Fire despite being part Ice, and gets STAB on Surf.
Giovanni: His Ground-types are washed away by Surf.
Lorelei: Lapras can go toe-to-toe against her, but don't expect it to take out more than 2 of her Pokemon.
Bruno: Lapras can take out his 2 Onix and Hitmonchan any day of the week, but it's weak to Hi Jump Kick and Submission.
Agatha: Gengar's high Speed and Lapras's low Speed mean that Lapras will usually put to sleep before it can take out her first Gengar.
Lance: Ice Beam hits his Pokemon for SE damage, and has just enough bulk to survive 2 Hyper Beams.
Additional Comments: Lapras is held back by 2 things: its late joining time, and its poor level when you get it. If it came earlier, or at a more convenient level, it would be great, but alas it isn't. At least it's a good HM Slave.
Lickitung - Low Tier
Availability: Only one (trade a Slowbro for one at Route 18 fairly late game) in Red/Blue or Cerulean Cave in Yellow.
Stats: MARC (that's his name, don't wear it out) has got pretty good HP, but is decidedly below average in every other field, especially speed. On the plus side, it does get an experience boost.
Movepool: Terrible level-up learnset full of nothing but Normal attacks (the best of which being Stomp), but has an incredibly wide TM movepool. This walking saliva factory can learn 27 out of 50 TMs and 3 HMs, including such gems as Earthquake, Blizzard, Fire Blast, BubbleBeam, Thunder, and Seismic Toss. It's also the only Normal type besides Farfetch'd to learn Swords Dance, also by TM.
Power: Despite potentially gargantuan type coverage depending on how many TMs you want to put into this thing, it's awful offensive stats mean that Swords Dance is pretty much necessary to sweep even semi-effectively.
Type: Offensively and defensively speaking, Normal is anything but mundane in Gen I. However, The Pink One faces stiff competition from the likes of Snorlax (who actually ties it in speed) and Tauros, both of which can be obtained at about the same time, and both require far less setup to be useful.
Match-ups: Lickitung's battle prowess is completely dependent on which TMs the player is willing to part with in order to make it do anything other than give the opponent a good tongue trashing. In particular:
-- Koga and Agatha: Licky shakes things up with Earthquake, but might end up taking a status first.
-- Sabrina: Swords Dance + any decent STAB attack will make short work of her whole psychic hotline, but your low Special means you can't take it as well as you can dish it out.
-- Blaine: Licktung extinguishes his hot-blooded hench-'mon, but only if it's packing BubbleBeam.
-- Bruno: Earthquake makes his rock types go all to pieces, but unless you're overleveled his Hitmon's could easily beat him to the punch.
-- Lance: Blizzard leaves his whole squad out in the cold, but more than likely you're going to take a few licks yourself from his speedier Dragons.
- Bottom Line: While Lickitung could fill just about any gap your team is missing, it is precisely this unspecialization that unfortunately dooms poor MARC to the low tiers. In nearly every case, there are faster, bulkier, more powerful, or simply better choices.
Machop - Low Tier(Red and Blue)
Availability: Towards the middle of the Game, Rock Tunnel specifically.
Stats: Machoke has a good Attack stat with average or less-than-average stats everywhere else.
Movepool:Starts with Karate Chop, which has a high critical hit ratio. Low Kick and Submission are its only STAB options, neither of which are exceptionally good. Moves like Strength, Rock Slide, Mega Kick, Earthquake and Fissure can be used to fill in the gaps in its level up movepool, which in all honesty isn't that good. Don't use Focus Energy.
Power: Unless you are playing Yellow version or somehow find someone who still has a link cable (props if you do!), you are likely going to be using Machoke. It can do decent damage with its 100 base Attack, but you are probably better off with Hitmonlee or Primeape, who deal more damage and are faster.
Type: In a game dominated by Normal-types, Machop and its evolutions STAB moves, as mediocre as they are, are incredibly helpful. Just stay away from the almost equally dominant Flying-types and rarer but much more dangerous Psychic-types. Machop can't take a Psychic-type attack to save its life.
Match Ups: By the time you get Machop, it is almost useless against the remaining major battles. It can be somewhat helpful against Giovanni and Lorelei, but it doesn't excel against any of the Gyms or Elite Four. This line is much more suited for regular trainer battles.
Machamp: Low Tier
-Availability: Machamp is obtained through a traded Cubone, who is available at Pokemon Tower. So Mid-Game.
-Stats: Machamp has a huge Attack stat, but has rather average defenses and low Speed.
-Movepool: Mostly TM dependent, Rock Slide and Earthquake provide good coverage.
-Power: Due to his huge Attack stat, Machamp hits hard.
-Type: Fighting. In a game where Dark and Steel don't exist, and Poison types are omnipresent. Fighting isn't the best STAB to have.
-Matchups:
--Koga: His whole team packs Super Effective Psychic which takes Machamp down easily.
--Sabrina: Her Pokemon outspeed and pack Super Effective Psychic to take Machamp out.
--Blaine: Machamp can hit his Pokemon hard with Dig or Earthquake, but keep in mind all of his Pokemon outspeed Machamp and Machamp doesn't enjoy taking Fire moves. A Fire Blast burn will put a huge damper on Machamp's performance.
--Giovanni: Machamp can beat Persian due to fighting STAB, and Earthquake hits majority of his team for Super Effective damage. However, Giovanni's Nidos and Rhydon can take a hit and retaliate with their own offensive moves.
--Lorelei: Fighting is Super Effective on Ice, but Submission is a bad STAB move due to accuracy and recoil issues. Meanwhile, Machamp is worn down by Special Attacks.
--Bruno: Fighting verse Fighting, Machamp breaks even here if you are at similar levels.
--Agatha: Earthquake hits her team for Super Effective, while Rock Slide deals with Golbat. However, keep in mind her Pokemon are fast and her final Gengar knows Psychic.
--Lance: While Rock Slide is Super Effective against half his Pokemon, Machamp wont enjoy taking Special Attacks or Hyper Beam. Not to mention Aerodactyl has Super Effective STAB Fly.
--Gary: Machamp can take on Sandslash, and Exeggutor has he doesn't pack Psychic. But that is it.
Additional Comments: Despite his strong power, Machamp is held back by his Speed and frailness. There's never really a point of the game where he dominates, and even the ones that he does fair well on, another Pokemon can easily do the job much better.
-Magmar (Blue only) - Low Tier
-Availability: Magmar come late in the game, in the basement and top floor of Pokemon Mansion in Cinnabar Island to be specific. At the third floor, the have a one-in-ten chance of appearing, but are only at level 34. While Magmar are level 38 in the basement, they aren't exactly the most common Pokemon there at a 4% encounter rate. Capturing Magmar can be noticeably difficult thanks to their low catch rate.
-Stats: Overall, Magmar's stats are good, but none of them are impressive. Surprisingly, Magmar's Attack is higher than its Special, but it's nothing incredible at a base 95. Another noticeable aspect of Magmar's stats is that its Defense is poor, below that of Primeape and even Goldeen.
-Movepool: When caught, Magmar is likely to know merely Ember and Leer. This means it greatly appreciates TM support almost to the point of necessity, as it doesn't learn a good attack (which in this case is Fire Punch) until level 43. 2 TMs you should have access to by the time you get Magmar are Mega Punch, which can be bought in the Celadon Department Store, and Psychic, which is its best weapon against Rock/Ground-types but is a once-in-the-game TM. Magmar can also learn Submission, but it isn't recommended as it causes recoil.
-Power: Because Magmar's Special is merely average, it won't be doing too much against the several resists it'll encounter soon after being caught.
-Type: Fire is an unfortunate type to have late in the game, as everything at that point in the game either resists Fire-type attacks, hits their users super effectively, or both.
-Match-ups:
--Blaine: Because Magmar resists Fire-type attacks, Blaine will not use any against it, allowing Magmar to take out everything but his Arcanine, as Magmar's mediocre physical bulk will cause it to be worn down. However, Blaine has a strange tendency to use pointless moves like Roar when there isn't any need to, helping Magmar's chances against him.
--Giovanni: Whether Magmar does well against his Rhyhorn and Rhydon or not depends on whether or not it knows Psychic, as the best it can do against him without it is defeating the Nidos. An important thing to remember is that Dugtrio will always beat Magmar regardless of what moves it has.
--Lorelei: Despite Slowbro being the only Pokemon on her team that resists Fire-type attacks, Lapras and occasionally Cloyster can also cause trouble for Magmar. The reason why Dewgong doesn't is because even though it is a Water-type, it doesn't actually know any Water-type moves, though Rest can be a pain if you don't want to waste Fire Blast, but then again, there isn't much in the Pokemon League for Magmar to use Fire Blast against in the first place.
--Bruno: His 2 Onix are much like Giovanni's Rhyhorn and Rhydon: they can comfortably take whatever Magmar throws at it other than Psychic. Speaking of which, Magmar with Psychic almost entirely sweeps Bruno, but it can settle with Fire Blast if it wants, as the two have the same base power after factoring in STAB and type match-ups. Machamp might be able to take a Psychic or Fire Blast thanks to its impressive level as well as Magmar's average Special.
--Agatha: As with several Pokemon, Magmar has trouble against Agatha's Ghost-types without the aid of items due to the fact that its most powerful attack hits them on their very high Special, allowing them to confuse or sleep Magmar before going down. It doesn't help that all of them are faster. Her other 2 Pokemon, Golbat and Arbok, are much easier to deal with thanks to them having mediocre Special as well as (Arbok) being slower than Magmar.
--Lance: Everything on Lance's team resists Fire-type moves, they all know Hyper Beam which hits it hard because of its poor Defense, and he leads the fight with his Gyarados, which happens to know Hydro Pump.
--Rival: Everything Magmar beats one-on-one here can easily be taken out with several other Pokemon, meaning that while it could take out a few of his Pokemon, it isn't too impressive.
-Additional Comments: Magmar is unfortunately a Fire-type who came a bit too late to be useful, as it joins surrounded by Water-types and bosses, almost all of which have favorable outcomes against it. Another thing of note is that it knows only Ember and possibly Leer when its caught, and catching them can be a pain considering the chances of finding them (10% and 4% on the top and bottom floors of Pokemon Mansion, respectively) as well as how resistant they are to being caught.
Moltres - Low Tier
-Availability: Available through a detour at Victory Road at the end of the game. It comes at the level 50 and is hard to catch, so be sure to have a ton of Ultra Balls and save before you fight the legendary bird.
-Stats: Moltres has one of the best BST's in the game, most notable of its stat is it 100 Base Attack and 125 Special.
-Movepool: When you get it, the only moves it has are Peck and Fire Spin. Peck can be replaced by Fly, and if you kept TM38 you can give Moltres Fire Blast. However Moltres cannot learn Flamethrower, which is an issue as Fire Blast can quickly run out of PP. At Level 55 Moltres learns Agility, allowing you to use the Agility + Fire Spin combo. However, trapping moves are time consuming and have unreliable accuracy.
-Power: Fly off a 100 Base Attack will hurt anything that doesn't resist it, and his Fire Blast is tied with Articuno's Blizzard and Zapdos' Thunder as the most powerful Special move int he game.
-Type: Here is where Moltres falls apart. Its Fire/Flying type doesn't do it many favors. It's typing helps it overwhelm the E4's Fighting and Grass types, but those are minor threats. Not to mention it gives Moltres an unwanted weakness to Water, Ice, Rock, and Electric.
--Lorelei: Moltres is weak to Water and Ice moves, which are omnipresent in this battle. The only notable fight here is Jynx, who despite knowing an Ice move, is weak to Fire Blast.
--Bruno: Fly easily disposes of his Fighting types. While Fire Blast can overwhelm Onix, it is not recommended due to Fire Blast's limited PP, Fire Blast's 15% chance of missing, and the fact that Onix has Rock moves - which Moltres is quadruply weak to.
--Agatha: Much like Articuno, Moltres can easily overwhelm her team through sheer force. Just watch out for Confuse Ray hax.
--Lance: His entire team resists Fire, and in every version he leads off with a Gyarados with STAB Hydro Pump. In R&B, Moltres can spam Fly against the two Dragonair's and hope for a lucky break, but in Yellow all of his Dragons including Dragonite know Super Effective moves. It should be noted that although Aerodactyl resists Fire, its low defenses means that it will take a ton of damage from Fire Blast. Just make sure you don't run out of Fire Blast PP if you dare to challenge Aerodactyl.
--Gary: Moltres walls his Grass types, and it can take on Pidgeot. Moltres can also take a Psychic from Alakazam and hit back with Fly, but Alakazam can use the set up turn of Fly as a chance to set up Reflect or even just Recover. Don't bother fighting his Water Types or Rhydon. In the Yellow version of this fight - Exeggutor, Ninetails/Flareon, and Sandslash are your main targets.
-Additional Comments: Moltres has high stats and comes at Level 50 just like Articuno and Zapdos, so where did it go wrong? Simple, its typing. By the time you get to the E4, Fire/Flying is only good against E4 Pokemon who are not really a big threat, such as Exeggutor. Another problem is that it doesn't get Flamethrower, meaning you'll only have Fire Blast limited PP to take on the E4 with.
-Onix - Low Tier
-Availability: Rock Tunnel. Could technically be obtained before Lt. Surge, so it can be obtained fairly early. It is at a level that may require some grinding to match your team though.
-Stats: Its attack stat is awful. Its high defense and decent speed help it beat things but if you are playing for efficiency then Onix is not a good choice because it often can't OHKO things.
-Movepool: Its level up movepool is poor. Slam is its strongest attack from level up. It requires TM support (Earthquake/Dig and Rock Slide) to work properly, which comes with an opportunity cost. Why would you use these TMs on Onix when there are better choices?
-Power: Pretty much what I said in the stats section applies here. Its attack stat is too low for it to "sweep through enemies", despite the power of its best STAB attacks. It can take hits from the physical side, so it can beat things one-on-one, but it isn't what I would call efficient (and it flat out loses to some special attacks).
-Type: Its typing is a mixed bag. Offensively it is quite good. Ground/Rock is a great STAB combination (unresisted I believe). Defensively, it has some useful resistances and it can beat most normal types, but it has crippling grass and water weaknesses so it will struggle along routes with lots of lasses carrying Oddish/Bellsprout. Another thing to consider it that Onix's typing is not unique. Golem and Rhydon carry more power and have similar bulk. Onix is faster but you will be at a level where you will be outspeeding most stuff anyway, making it a rather insignificant advantage most of the time. Geodude is also obtained earlier than Onix (Rhyhorn has terrible availability so it is probably a even match).
-Match-ups: Lt. Surge - wins here, assuming you haven't done the battle already.
Erika - Nope.
Koga - In RB, it should do well, but it will not enjoy taking Psychic from Venomoth in Yellow (Venonat shouldn't be as bad but they also carry Psychic attacks).
Sabrina - Psychic does lots to Onix's bad special. Onix's low attack means that it won't be able to kill Alakazam anyway most likely. Easier in Yellow (it can kill Abra OMG).
Blaine - You win here, but so do a lot of things.
Giovanni - Does ok in RB (just watch for Fissure from Rhydon), but in Yellow all of his pokemon except Persian carry Earthquake.
Lorelei - No.
Bruno - Can beat his Onix in RB. In Yellow they have Earthquake so it isn't as easy.
Agatha - Should beat Arbok and Golbat. How it goes against the ghosts comes down to luck. One of the Gengar in Yellow has Mega Drain apparently so look out.
Lance - In RB, Gyarados is the main threat. His Dragonair will also chip away at Onix's low HP with Dragon Rage so that sticks. He walls Dragonite and Aerodactyl though. In Yellow, Dragonite has Blizzard and on of the Dragonair has Ice Beam but he walls Aerodactyl and the Thunderbolt Dragonair.
Champion - In RB, he beats Pidgeot, Rhydon, Exeggutor, Arcanine and Charizard. In Yellow, he beats Exeggutor, Magneton, Ninetales, Jolteon and Flareon. Overall not bad.
-Additional Comments - I think what I should stress is that Onix is not absolutely terrible. It can work if you are willing to put in the effort. It's just that it is outclassed. It would rather use Geodude, even if I couldn't trade for Golem, due to the superior power. Definitely Low.
-Paras - Low Tier
-Availability: Paras are found in Mt. Moon, and the deeper you go, the more common (and higher leveled) Paras will be. For comparison's sake, they have a 10% encounter rate at level 10 (9-11 in Yellow) in the middle floor and have a 15% chance of appearing in the deepest floor, at levels 10-12 (13 in Yellow). They can be found on the ground (top) floor in Red and Blue, but not in Yellow. They're only a 5% encounter there, so you're better off looking in the lower floors. Paras evolve at level 24.
-Stats: As with most early-game Bug-types, Paras have unimpressive stats all around. Their only stat that could be considered better than "average" is Attack, but it quickly falls behind due to a forgettable physical movepool. As for Speed, Parasect is up there with speed demons Snorlax and Slowbro.
-Movepool: Paras starts with Scratch as its only move, but gains Stun Spore at level 13, not too far from when you catch it. Stun Spore could potentially be very helpful, but the fact that you have to waste a turn to use it means it's only useful against Gym Leaders (that is, those that Paras and Parasect have a chance at beating). Paras's only STAB moves are Leech Life and Mega Drain; however, Leech Life is weaker that Scratch in any scenario other than ones where Leech Life deals super effective damage, and Mega Drain's power isn't too much better. Paras and Parasect also learn Slash, but not until level 39, and Parasect is one of the few users of Slash to not have a guaranteed critical hit when using it (for reference, Parasect's chance of landing a critical hit with Slash is 48.88%). Because of this, Body Slam is a great alternative, as it has a higher base power and Parasect also appreciates the paralysis chance. Other moves in Parasect's arsenal include Spore, which is very helpful against several bosses, and Swords Dance, whose sole purpose is to make Leech Life usable. Paras and Parasect also have access to Dig, which is possibly their best damaging move. Unfortunately for Paras, having it learn Dig means having none of your other Pokemon learn it, and Dig is a highly-contested TM, which might cause trouble for other Pokemon who might also greatly benefit from it.
-Power: With an initially average Attack stat and no STAB moves, it should come as no surprise that Paras starts off doing poorly. Even after it evolves and all of its stats get a much-needed (but not quite as much as it would have liked) increase, its performance never exceeds being average, thanks to its 4x weakness to Flying-type attacks as well as its pathetic speed and unimpressive defenses.
-Type: Paras's typing is infamous for having the most 4x weaknesses in the game, at 3. Said weaknesses are to Fire-, Poison-, and Flying-type moves, the latter two being quite common after Pokemon Tower. Also, while Bug and Grass are both helpful STABs at certain points in the game, Parasect just doesn't have the stats or moves to utilize them.
-Match-ups: The following match-ups will not take Spore into account, as a majority of them would be made easier, but longer.
--Misty: While Paras does have a resistance to Bubblebeam, it still has trouble with Misty if it doesn't know Leech Life due to its Scratch doing less to her Starmie than said Starmie's Tackle does in return.
--Lt. Surge: Parasect runs into a similar problem here, just replace Leech Life with Dig. Also, the problem is much more noticeable in Yellow due to his Raichu knowing Mega Kick.
--Erika: Her Victreebel (Weepinbell in Yellow) will not hesitate to Wrap Parasect into oblivion, but her other Pokemon fall quite easily to Leech Life.
--Koga: Koga's Pokemon all either have good defensive stats, allowing them to not faint in 2 Digs (Red/Blue), or are higher in level than Parasect, possess a neutrality to Dig, and can fire back with Psychic (Yellow)
--Sabrina: Leech Life does less to Alakazam than Recover heals, meaning you'll have to be reliant on Slash (which might as well be a coinflip) or Body Slam (which is learned via an exclusive TM) to beat it. This is not taking into account her previous Pokemon, which could capably weaken (if not KO) Parasect on their own.
--Blaine: Parasect is sluggish and has a 4x weakness to Fire Blast. Nothing more needs to be said.
--Giovanni: How well Parasect does against his Rhydon depends on whether or not it knows Mega Drain. While Dig gets the job done, it takes more hits to beat Rhydon with it than Mega Drain. Persian can be an annoyance, but the Nidos are far from intimidating, thanks to them having few attacks effective against Parasect.
--Lorelei: Considering all of her Pokemon (barring Slowbro for whatever reason) know Ice-type attacks of some sort, it should be safe to say Parasect should not be fighting her.
--Bruno: As with Giovanni's Rhydon, Bruno's Onix can either be taken down by 5, 2, or countless hits, depending on whether you taught Parasect Dig, Mega Drain, or neither. However, his Fighting-types can be beaten without Dig, with the exception of R/B Hitmonchan, as it knows Counter.
--Agatha: First of all, Parasect needs Dig to beat her Ghost-types. Secondly, she has a tendency to switch to Golbat when an opponent goes underground. Thirdly, all of her Pokemon are faster than Parasect and know status-inducing moves, which can be quite irritating.
--Lance: While Parasect might be able to withstand a Hyper Beam and then proceed to sleep something with Spore, that's all it can do against Lance.
--Rival: Most of the things Parasect can beat (and there are only 2-3 of those) are easily taken down by several different Pokemon, with the exception of Jolteon in Yellow if Parasect knows Dig.
-Additional Comments: Paras and Parasect were never good. This is mainly due to its lack of usable (outside of super effective hits) STAB, poor typing, and middling stats. While Spore is a great move, it was unfortunately given to a Pokemon that didn't have the Speed, defenses, or typing to utilize it to its greatest effect. As such, Paras (and Parasect) should not be considered for anything in Generation I. Even its utility of being a good HM Slave for Rock Tunnel because of its ablility to learn both Cut and Flash is only applicable to the remakes due to Paras not being able to learn Flash until Generation II.
-Pidgey - Low Tier
-Availability: Immediately available as soon as you can catch Pokemon on the very first route, and is very easy to catch. Likely will be among the very first Pokemon you obtain.
-Stats: The Pidgeot line is an example of extreme mediocrity when it comes to stats All of them are middle of the road with speed being slightly higher than average and Special being slight lower.
-Movepool: Pidgeot's level-up movepool is sorely lacking in powerful attacks, and requires TM and HM support to become useful, and even then remains quite limited, with only Normal and Flying type moves available. Worse, no Flying type STAB move is available until either HM 02 Fly is obtained (recommended) or Wing Attack is learned at level 31 (not recommended since it really blows in generation I). This is due to Gust being Normal Type in Generation I. However, most of the most beneficial TMs for Pidgeot such as Take Down, Reflect, and Fly are easily obtainable once the player reaches Celadon City.
-Power: Pidgeot is quite average in both attacking and defensive strengths. The length of time one must wait for a Flying Type STAB greatly reduces Pidgeot's effectiveness early game however. Once the moves are obtained though Pidgeot can hold its own against most foes.
-Type: Flying Type is quite useful early game... shame Pidgey doesn't get any flying moves until Celadon City, rendering this advantage moot. Once you do get Fly though, Pidgeot makes a rather effective substitute for a Fire type, since the selection available is quite slim unless you chose Charmander as a starter.
-Match-ups:
Brock - Very little chance, though if you're in a real bind Pidgey can use Sand Attack to increase your chances of success
Misty - Staryu won't provide Pidgeotto with any challenge, but Starmie will prove a very great challenge due to its much higher special and Bubblebeam
Lt. Surge - Since his Voltorb has no electric moves Pidgeotto can handle it, but Pikachu and Raichu will probably destroy you.
Erika - Status is annoying, but if you can keep Pidgeotto alive and have taught it Fly before the fight, Pidgeotto should absolutely demolish Erika.
Koga - Due to the high defensive stats of Koga's Pokemon Pidgeot isn't a very good choice for this battle, and is all to likely to get taken out by Self-Destruct
Sabrina - Hitting quickly and fairly hard on the physical side, Pidgeot can actually stand a fair chance here. Does not take their attacks particularly well though, but better than some at least.
Blaine - Average at best, and must look out for random burns. While not a terrible choice, you probably have better Pokemon for the job at this point.
Giovanni - Matches fairly well against his Pokemon without Rock Typing, but very poorly against those that do.
Lorelei - They all carry Ice type attacks except for Slowbro and are too bulky for Pidgeot to OHKO, with the possibel exception of Jynx. Best to stay out of this one.
Bruno - Matches up very well against his fighting types, but very poorly against his Onix. Don't worry too much about Ice and Thunder punch from Hitmonchan; coming off his special they're laughably weak.
Agatha - Fares as well as anything does that doesn't hit them super-effectively. Simply be on top of any status inflicted on Pidgeot and you should be fine, though the battle will be longer than if you used a psychic or ground type.
Lance - Matches up pretty poorly against most of his team, though might stand up to his Dragonair should it be required.
Rival - Works well against Exeggutor and Venusaur, but distinctly less well against the rest of his team, who all hit too hard and are not OHKO'd by Pidgeot.
Additional comments: Not sure on the tier to be mid or low. While Pidgeot is quite severely outclassed by Fearow, it's not a bad Pokemon and I have brought it to the end of the game several times without regrets. It just doesn't stand out.
Pinsir (Bottom Tier)
Availability: (Blue/Yellow Only) Players who want Pinsir can buy him from the Rocket Game Corner if they have the coins. He's only 2500 in Blue, but costs a ridiculous 6500 in Yellow. Alternatively, he's in the Safari Zone, but he's rare and pretty difficult to catch.
Stats: Pinsir has great Attack and good Defense, but is really let down by his average Speed and terrible HP and Special.
Movepool: Pinsir may have the worst move pool in the game. He learns no STAB moves and he can only learn non-Normal moves (besides Seismic Toss) through TM. It's not all horrible though; Pinsir gets Swords Dance and Guillotine through Level-Up and can make decent use of the buyable Submission TM. However, unless you want to waste your Body Slam TM on him, it'll be stuck with Slash in the fourth slot, which has pretty terrible synergy with Swords Dance. In Yellow it gets Bind, so it can trap whatever is slower with some luck.
Power: All in all, even though Pinsir has decent stats it's entirely outclassed by almost everything. It doesn't have the bulk to tank hits while setting up Swords Dance, and doesn't get any STAB to work with. Even off that great Attack stat, it'll hardly ever get OHKOs and gets wrecked by any Special, Flying, or Rock move sent his way. You can fish for OHKOs with Guillotine, but Pinsir's low Speed means it's not reliable. If you teach it Submission you can do some damage to things weak to Fighting, but it doesn't have any other redeeming qualities.
Type: Pinsir is really just a Fighting-type wannabe. It would be much better if it had STAB on Submission. Heck, even being Normal would be an improvement. As it is, Bug typing really hurts him since it means he has no STAB at all. Being weak to for somewhat common types (mainly Flying and Poison) doesn't help either.
Match Ups: Pinsir does horrible against almost everything. What did you expect with such horrible typing and coverage?
--Erika:It can chip away at Tangela, but shouldn't face anything with a poison-type move.
--Koga: Koga destroys you. End of story.
--Sabrina: Pinsir's low Special and HP means he can't take many Psychic hits. He should sit this one out too.
--Blaine: Lol
--Giovanni: Pinsir can actually do okay against Rhyhorn, Rhydon and Dugtrio in Blue and Persian in Yellow, but needs Submission.
--Lorelei: Pinsir can dish out some damage with Submission, but is let down by his low Special, so he can't take hits.
--Bruno: A Fighting resistance actually comes in handy here. You can set up Swords Dance against Hitmonlee and Machamp (both versions) or Hitmonchan in Blue and sweep with Strength or Submission.
--Agatha: Pinsir can't even touch 3/5 pokemon. Pass.
--Lance: Not great in Blue, but even worse in Yellow since Lance's Dragons get better moves.
--Blue: He can take on Rhydon in Blue and Sandslash in Yellow, but you should really have a better option for both of those.
Additional Comments: If the analysis hasn't convinced you, let me make this clear. There is no good reason to use Pinsir. He has horrible typing, an even worse move pool, and embarrassing Special and HP for a fully evolved pokemon. His middling Speed is the final nail in the coffin, meaning his great Attack is really wasted. He's not even a good HM slave since he comes too late for Cut and you probably have plenty of other things to learn Strength. In a nutshell, there's nothing Pinsir can do that something else can't do much better. If you must use Pinsir, be sure to teach him Submisison and then hope for the best.
-Porygon - Low Tier
-Availability: Porygon is obtained as a prize from the Game Corner. In Red and Yellow, it costs an obscene 9999 coins and comes at level 26. In Blue, it is a relatively more reasonable 6500 coins, but comes at level 18, somewhat cancelling out the advantage (although Blue players probably do have it better). Although this may seem like it would take ages to obtain, it is possible to obtain it at least mid-game, before the 5th gym (and even before the 4th in Blue). This involves finding and selling every single item that you don’t absolutely need, including useless TMs and vitamins. You should keep your spending to a minimum, and you should do every battle possible to get as much money as possible. Then you simply buy all the coins that are required. This is the quickest way to get it, although this requires you to sacrifice many items. If you aren’t willing to be that anal about it, then you don’t have to be, but don’t expect to get Porygon before late-game.
-Stats: Porygon has poor stats overall. Its highest stat, Special, is a mere 75, giving it barely average special hit taking abilities, and limiting its power. 60 Attack makes it hard to use STABs properly, 65 Defence is not impressive, and 40 Speed makes it slow as hell. These deficiencies will really begin to show as the game goes on.
-Movepool: Porygon actually has an interesting level-up movepool, although that doesn’t necessarily translate to a great one. Tackle, Psybeam and Tri Attack are all it gets for offensive options. What Porygon DOES get is Recover, which is useful on anything that gets it. It also gets the gimmicky Conversion, which works well in 1st gen thanks to most opponents only running STAB + Normal coverage. Changing into a type that resists itself can improve its survivability, especially with Recover. It is a bit too slow to abuse this properly though. Agility can be run to fix its speed issues. Porygon’s offense will come from TMs, where you have Ice Beam/Blizzard, Thunderbolt and Psychic to pick from. This provides excellent coverage and makes Porygon much more useful, albeit at the cost of the TMs.
-Power: If you can get it mid-game, Porygon can pull its weight for a little while. It can carry Psychic + Electric coverage, which is phenomenal along the routes heading towards Fuchsia. It also works well against Rocket Grunts. However, later in the game where everything is fully evolved and has better stats, Porygon’s poor stats really begin to show.
-Type: ‘Beige’ is probably the best way to describe Normal. Normal has no super-effective coverage, which contributes to why Porygon shouldn’t really be using STAB moves in the first place (the low Attack is also a key reason). Porygon also lacks resistances which is disappointing. It would really kill for some to potentially give it better bulk. Of course, this all gets thrown out the window when Conversion comes into play!
-Match-ups: Koga – Conversion is a huge help in RB, allowing you to take his hits much more easily. Psychic coverage helps immensely. Don’t use Conversion in Yellow, as you’ll make yourself weak to Psychic. Just spam Psychic attacks until you die.
Sabrina – Avoid this battle. Porygon is too slow and weak. Conversion may seem helpful but it’ll be hard to pull it off before you get hit. Clearly you’ll beat Abra in Yellow though.
Blaine – You get screwed by your low stats once again. In RB, Growlithe and Ponyta are beatable, but otherwise you don’t do much.
Giovanni – Again, stats prevent you from truely owning this battle, despite the type coverage.
Lorelei – Conversion + Thunderbolt can work here, but only if you manage to pull it off in time (you are so slow). Lapras is the toughest opponent thanks to Body Slam.
Bruno – You can beat Onix with Blizzard. Hitmonchan is beatable with Psychic since it lacks any Fighting attacks besides Counter. Avoid Hitmonlee and Machamp.
Agatha – Psychic covers everything, but have fun getting a hit in while she has her way with you with her annoying status moves. If she switches a lot against you, you might be able to do something.
Lance – Blizzard and Thunderbolt provide perfect coverage. You can actually do ok here since his Pokémon use mostly crappy or unSTABed moves, but a full sweep is difficult to pull off.
Blue – Interestingly, if you carry Thunderbolt, Blizzard/Ice Beam and Psychic, you have super-effective coverage on everything except Alakazam, Arcanine, Magneton, Ninetales and Jolteon. You can contribute here, but your low stats will make a complete sweep a real challenge.
-Additional Comments: This just isn’t a good Pokémon. It is way too much trouble to obtain, requiring a lot of sacrifices to get at a reasonable time. Once you get it, it just doesn’t perform well enough to justify obtaining it in the first place. It is an interesting choice, but this should be left for your fun teams.
Rhyhorn - Low Tier
Availability: Mid-game at the earliest. It is uncommonly found at levels 25-26 in the Safari Zone, and it is found in 2 of the 3 areas. There is a 15% chance of encountering one, so it is likely you will find a Rhyhorn somewhere. Their catch rate isn't too bad either, it can take a few attempts to get one. The only other place you can get one is in Cerulean Cave in Pokemon Yellow Version, but that's much later than practical.
Stats: Massive Attack and Defense make Rhyhorn/Rhydon an absolute powerhouse, and with a great HP stat it makes it a very strong pokemon. Unfortunately, it's low speed really hinders it and it's low special means that it should stay away from special moves.
Movepool: Rhyhorn has incredible TM capability, the kind most special sweepers would dream of, despite having a terrible special stat. As for level-up, Rhyhorn gets very little moves of any worth, and actually relies on TMs to give it STAB moves.
Power: Pure power best describes Rhydon, anything it hits, it KO's. It doesn't score many critical hits, but the raw damage output is always significant.
Type: Rock and Ground type are both great offensively, but defensively it's so-so. Immunity to Electric and resistance to Fire and Normal is great, but weakness to Grass (x4), Water (x4), Fighting (x2) and Ice (x2) is less than desirable.
Match-ups:
Erika: If you have Rhyhorn at this point (unlikely) then this is the last place to use it. Everything in this gym is faster and can cripple you with status or OHKO with STAB 4x Grass moves against your miserable Special stat. Leave Rhyhorn at home.
Koga: Rhyhorn wrecks if you gave it Dig or Earthquake, but if you didn't, it's very likely you will have normal-type moves. Rhyhorn still does ok in that case though, but watch out for poison.
Sabrina: Sabrina wrecks you here. Her pokemon are fast, high-powered and hit you in your pathetic Special stat. Even without weaknesses this is a bad match-up, although if you can survive a hit you can beat Kadabra as it's frail. But that's still a big IF.
Blaine: You come in with type advantage, but you won't like fighting here. Everything is faster than Rhyhorn, and even though he resists Fire, his special stat is atrocious. In addition, if Rhyhorn is burned, it will be pretty much useless. That being said, Rhydon should be able to take out Growlithe. The biggest threats come from Ponyta and Rapidash, who will both be faster than you and will trap you with Fire Spin. If you can move successfully however, you should take them out in 1 shot. Arcanine is a much bigger deal as you will be weakened by the time he arrives, and even though you resist Fire Blast, it can still KO you (or burn and cripple your attack stat).
Giovanni: This match-up very much depends on whether you taught Rhydon Earthquake/Dig, and only fight with Rhydon if he's level 51 to outspeed Giovanni's Rhydon, otherwise you risk Fissure. In this battle, Rhyhorn only knows crappy normal moves, Nidoking/Queen only have normal and poison moves and Rhydon can only hurt you with a lucky Fissure/Horn Drill. All of these Pokemon are hit supereffectively by Ground moves as well, but watch out for Dugtrio, because you won't like a STAB Dig (but is countered by your own Dig funnily enough).
Lorelei: Avoid avoid avoid. Lorlei can hit you with 4x Water moves and 2x Ice moves, and most of her Pokemon will be significantly faster than you. However, if you MUST fight her with Rhydon, make sure he knows Rock Slide to hit them back for 2x damage.
Bruno: Odd, but he actually does OK here. Both Onix are no trouble at all, and he can probably take down one Fighting-type Pokemon due to his high defense. However, Rhydon get's worn down very easily here, and won't solo unless he is extremely over-levelled.
Agatha: The sheer speed of her Pokemon plus Confusion/Sleep hax that her pokemon carry don't guarantee a quick or efficient sweep. If you can avoid these though (unlikely), then it's a clean sweep for Rhydon, as the best move each of them carry is essentially Night Shade.
Lance: If Rhydon ever picked a single moment to shine, it's here. Aside from Gyarados, Rhydon picks apart this team like it's no big deal. The only moves that any of them use are normal-type, and with Rhydon's massive defense and type resistance, it will be able to shake off the damage. It's worth noting though, Aerodactyl is still dangerous with Supersonic and immunity to Ground-type moves. In Yellow, Rhydon has a tougher time as his Dragonair has Ice Beam and Bubblebeam, while Dragonite now has Blizzard, but on the flip side, Aerodactyl no longer has supersonic, and the other Dragonair carries Thunderbolt (which you are immune to).
Rival: It doesn't matter what your Rival will be using here, he's going to have a different way of ending Rhydon in almost all circumstances. Charizard is the best starter to come up against due to it's weakness to Rock, but your terrible special means you will be eating Fire Blasts. Your Rhydon should be able to beat Pidgeot though, as it's frail. Exeggutor can be annoying with Hypnosis, but he only knows normal moves so he's no threat. Arcanine is easily beat, as Ember is piss-poor and his other moves just aren't up to scratch. The key Pokemon for Rhydon to completely avoid here is Blastoise, Venasaur, Alakazam and Gyarados who can all outspeed and OHKO.
Additional Notes: Rhydon would be awesome if it actually learned a single STAB move by level-up. And while it is able to beat regular trainers, it's useless in almost all of the important battles. It's unlikely that you saved Dig for Rhydon, and I would be hesitant to teach it Rock Slide and/or Earthquake. But, if you HAVE to use Rhydon, you need to give it these moves, it depends on them. Rhydon's TM movepool is amazing when it comes to special attacks, but unlike the Nidos, he doesn't have the stats to use them. In fact, Rhydon is a great special attacker in the same way Alakazam is a great physical wall. Rhydon does have a couple of interesting uses outside of battle, as it is able to use both Surf and Strength, so it's not a terrible HM slave. Overall, stick with Golem, Sandslash, Dugtrio, Nidoking or Nidoqueen, Rhyhorn is completely outclassed.
Scyther (unavailable in Blue) - Low Tier
-Availability: There are 2 ways to get a Scyther, and neither of them are pretty. The less expensive but also less recommended way is by looking for it in the Safari Zone. Keep in mind that it's a 4% encounter at best, and they tend to run away after one turn. The recommended but far more expensive method is to spend 110,000 poke (130,000 in Yellow) at the Game Corner. Regardless of the method, it'll be at level 25 (or close to it) when you get it.
-Stats: It has good Attack and great Speed. It also has enough bulk to take a few neutral physical hits.
-Movepool: Scyther's movepool is disappointingly shallow, outside of Slash (which it learns at level 29). It learns Swords Dance and Agility, but it never has a use for either of them, as Slash's omnipresent criticals negate the attack boosts from Swords Dance and Scyther's already faster than almost everything already, making Agility useless. Also, its attacking movepool is composed entirely of Normal-type attacks, with the exception of Wing Attack in Yellow, but Scyther doesn't learn it until level 50, and it's so weak that the only thing it hits harder than Slash is Ghost-types, which are in only one battle in the game by the time Scyther might have learned it.
-Power: By the time you get it (assuming you played the game normally), you'll be at Pokemon Tower, where the majority of enemies happen to be Ghost-types, which wall Scyther completely. Assuming you chose to go to Cycling Road first, Scyther's going to have a very rough time catching up thanks to seemingly everybody there having a Poison-type with good Defense. Also, even with Slash, it still has a bit of trouble OHKOing Pokemon that have decent Defense.
-Typing: With everything else it has in mind, Scyther really would've appreciated if it was at least part Normal-type, so it would get STAB from Slash. Instead, it gets no STAB whatsoever (if you say Wing Attack...) as well as a weakness to Poison-type attacks. At least it isn't part Grass-type...
-Match-ups: Note: All of the following are assuming Scyther knows Slash, as its capabilities are quite feeble without it.
--Lt. Surge: His team is swept in Red, but Raichu can occasionally survive a Slash in Yellow thanks to its higher level and then proceed to OHKO with Thunderbolt.
--Erika: Scyther's faster than her team, making Wrap not as threatening as it would've been (unless of course Scyther got paralyzed prior to the fight), and it has a 4x resistance to Grass-type moves.
--Koga: Considering Scyther's weak to Poison-type attacks and Slash failing to 2HKO Koffing, things won't go well for it in Red. In Yellow, it has a better chance, and might be able to take down more than one of his Pokemon, assuming none of them use Stun Spore or Sleep Powder.
--Sabrina: Her entire team is outsped, and Kadabra and Mr. Mime are flat out OHKOed by Slash. Venomoth and Alakazam can both survive one Slash, but they need to use Psybeam and Psychic to beat Scyther. In Yellow, Scyther loses the Speed advantage and the ability to OHKO Kadabra, because of it being higher levelled.
--Blaine: Every member of his team knows Fire Blast, and as such I feel no need to explain what the outcome of this battle might be.
--Giovanni: His Rhyhorn/don wall Scyther, and the Nidos have enough bulk to take a Slash. In the transition from Red to Yellow, there's good news and bad news: the good news it that he got rid of his Rhyhorn and Dugtrio can no longer touch Scyther. The bad news is that Persian can do more to you than Rhyhorn can, and the Nidos learned Thunder.
--Lorelei: All of her Pokemon (barring Jynx, who is outsped and OHKOed) fit at least 1 of 2 criteria:
1. Can take repeated Slashes.
2. Know an Ice-type move of some sort.
--Bruno: This battle features a double rarity: His Onix actually holding their own against something, and Hitmonchan being genuinely threatening (thanks, Counter!).
--Agatha: Nothing doing.
--Lance: Hyper Beam does a chunk regardless of who's using it, and Scyther has trouble 2HKOing anything on his team. In Yellow, things are even more hostile, as all of his Pokemon, with the exception of Gyarados, know super-effective moves.
--Rival: First of all, make a list of every Pokemon he'll use when you fight him. Then, cross out anything that's faster than Scyther, are physically bulky, or have a type advantage. The remaining Pokemon on the list should be Exeggutor and Venusaur, as while Blastoise and Vaporeon don't completely meet any of the above categories, keep in mind that they know Ice-type attacks.
-Additional Comments: Scyther is the closest thing to a one-trick pony in RBY; it has Slash, but nothing else. It's also one of the most expensive Pokemon in the game, second only to Porygon, and when all you get from 5500 coins is a Pokemon which has only one good move (which has absolutely no super-effective coverage), something's wrong.
-Tangela - Low Tier
-Availability: In RB it is caught after you get Surf south of Pallet Town. It isn’t too difficult to find usually but it needs some time to catch up to the rest of your team. Annoyingly, there aren’t any particularly good spots to grind it, although the Power Plant and Seaform Islands are ok choices. In Yellow, it is purely a Safari Zone Pokémon and is therefore harder to obtain (though it can be obtained sooner).
-Stats: Tangela has good stats overall. 115 Defence and 100 Special allows it to take all kinds of hits. It is a bit slow though, and its Attack is disappointing.
-Movepool: Tangela’s movepool is horrible. It is capable of learning Grass and Normal attacks. Because of its low Attack, its Normal attacks are mostly worthless. What’s worse is that it can’t learn Razor Leaf or Petal Dance, which leaves it with SolarBeam and Mega Drain as its best options. This limits its overall power. It does have access to the status powders though, which helps it defeat things.
-Power: Tangela is really held back by its movepool. To get around anything with resistance to Grass, it has to resort to Bind-trapping and its status moves to win, neither of which is particularly fast. Even against opponents that lack Grass resistance, it often can’t OHKO anything because Mega Drain is a weak attack and SolarBeam takes 2 turns. It can OHKO things with a Grass weakness, but that’s it.
-Type: Grass really is a mixed bag as an attacking type. It does hit some important Pokémon super-effectively, but it’s also resisted by a large number of Pokémon. The same applies from a defensive point of view. Grass has some good resistances but it also has some irritating weaknesses to Flying, Ice, Poison and Fire (and Bug but that isn’t that important). Tangela’s good bulk does help with the weaknesses a bit though, as long as you don’t get overly reckless.
-Match-ups: Sabrina – You aren’t that good here. You are outsped, Psychic does quite a bit of damage and you can’t do much back to her.
Blaine – You are pretty useless here. You can’t really do anything useful here unless you have an extreme aount of luck on your side.
Giovanni – This is one of your better match-ups. Grass hits Dugtrio, Rhyhorn and Rhydon. Nidoqueen and Nidoking can’t do much to you. Persian is a weakling that you can take out just fine. You can actually solo here, which is rare for Tangela.
Lorelei – Grass is super-effective on most of her team, but Ice is super-effective back. Slowbro can be beaten just fine but there are better choices for everything else.
Bruno – This is an ok match-up. You kill Onix and you can take on the fighting types thanks to your high Defence and their low Special.
Agatha – Don’t bother. You can’t touch anything here and they have their way with you with their annoying movesets.
Lance – Gyarados is the thing you stand the greatest chance against. Aerodactyl is doable in RB thanks to its lack of Flying moves (watch for Supersonic). In RB, you can take their hits but you can’t do much back (you may need to resort to status moves). In Yellow, 2 of the Dragons have Ice moves.
Blue – Your best match-ups are Rhydon, Blastoise, Sandslash, Magneton, Vaporeon, Jolteon and Cloyster. Watch for Ice attacks from the Water types.
-Additional Comments: Tangela has nice stats but its movepool is just too small to make this a good choice for an efficient run. It is the worst Grass type in the game and it is incapable of doing much of anything that would make it a worthwhile choice.
-Tauros - Low Tier
-Availability: Tauros can only be found in the Safari Zone. In RB, it is rare (4% encounter rate in area 3), has a low catch rate and tends to flee. It comes at level 26 at a minimum, which is somewhat underleveled (but not completely unsalvageable). This makes it a very inaccessible Pokémon indeed. In Yellow it is slightly more common (10% encounter rate in area 1 and 3), but comes at level 21 and retains its low catch rate.
-Stats: Tauros’s stats are impressive overall. 100 Attack and 110 Speed are perfect for sweeping through regular trainers quickly. 70 HP, 95 Defence and 70 Special give it decent bulk. 70 Special also allows it to use special attacks well.
-Movepool: Tauros’s level up movepool is very small. Stomp is a good move to start off with, but since Strength comes at around the same time that Tauros does you might as well use that. Although you can get away with just Strength if you want to, Tauros really appreciates TM support to be as effective as possible. It gets several Normal TMs, Thunderbolt/Thunder, Ice Beam/Blizzard, Fire Blast and Earthquake as strong options, but it is a big ask to actually reserve all of these for such an difficult-to-obtain Pokémon. Chances are that you might be able to take some of these, but simply have Nidoking/Nidoqueen and a Water type on your team (which is a fairly “standard” team in in-game first gen) can take most of these away and that leaves Tauros with nothing. As a result, you may have to build your team with these restrictions in mind if you plan to use it with its best possible moveset.
-Power: Tauros is an excellent sweeper, especially if you gave it TM support to improve its coverage. Strength should be sufficient to at least 2HKO most things though, and obviously standard trainers are going to fold to it. However, it isn’t the monster it could be if you rely on Strength alone, which you kind of want it to be if you are going that much out of your way to get it.
-Type: Normal has wide neutral coverage but no super effective coverage to speak of. This does allow Tauros to run mono-Normal coverage if it wants to, although some super effective coverage would have been nice to get more OHKOs. It’s a similar situation defensively, with only one weakness but only one immunity.
-Match-ups: Koga – In RB, if you have Earthquake, you do well. Without it, you are less effective, although to be honest Koga isn’t really that big of a deal in RB. In Yellow, you do ok too because his Pokémon are frail bugs (albeit high level ones).
Sabrina – Her Pokémon are frail. You can outspeed and KO her Pokémon with your STAB move.
Blaine – Earthquake is a huge help here. Even without it you can contribute, and Strength obviously gets the job done against Growlithe and Ponyta in RB, but it needs Earthquake to reliable pull off a quick sweep.
Giovanni – If you have an Ice (or at least Ground) move then you’ll do well. His Rock types wall you otherwise. Still, your Normal move can hit Dugtrio, Persian, Nidoqueen and Nidoking.
Lorelei – Tauros can learn Electric moves and if you have one then you cover everything except Jynx, who is KOed by your STAB anyway. But just like most of the other match-ups, it is less effective without the TM support, capable of contributing but not powering through.
Bruno – Unless you have an Ice move or Earthquake, Onix walls you. Machamp is a huge threat thanks to its bulk and Submission. If you have a Special move then Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan are less threatening, but Hitmonlee’s fighting moves are very powerful against Tauros.
Agatha – Earthquake is needed for her Ghosts. Otherwise, you are hopeless against them. At least Golbat and Arbok can be beaten though.
Lance – Ice and Electric covers everything. Without them, Aerodactyl walls you, and Gyarados and Dragonite are harder to take down.
Blue – How useful you are comes down to what you taught it. It should be noted that Rhydon is the only thing that resists Normal though, so at least you can contribute using just your STAB.
-Additional Comments: Tauros can be amazing if you give it the support from TMs, but without them it isn’t as impressive. Mono-Normal can be described as “reliable”, but it needs the TMs to be able to power through most of the important match-ups as quickly as possible. Given how late Tauros comes, and how difficult it can be to obtain (especially in RB) and train (especially in Yellow), it is difficult to assume that Tauros will have access to its favourite TMs. The final nail in the coffin is its availability. In RB, just catching it can be an excruciating time drain. In Yellow it benefits from a higher encounter rate but is even more underleveled and still have the same problems with catching it, what with the Safari Zone mechanics. If you manage to get it quickly and you can provide it with at least some of its TMs, then it isn’t a bad choice, but it just isn’t a good idea to plan your playthrough with the intent of using it on your team.
Venonat - Low Tier (Bottom Tier in Red/Blue)
Availability: Route 25 in Yellow, as high as Lv. 16. In Red/Blue, you'll have to wait until Route 12. It evolves at Lv. 31.
Stats: None of them stick out as a Venonat. After it evolves, things don't change much aside from having okay Special and Speed.
Movepool: While Venonat can learn the powders, it has to wait a while before it can learn them. (Lv. 43 for Sleep Powder!) It also learns Psychic-type moves via level-up, but it doesn't get STAB on them, making them generally weak in comparison to others, and it doesn't learn Psychic until Lv. 50, meaning that you'll have to either waste your TM29, or just use Psybeam for the rest of the game.
Power: Lack of effective powder attacks means that it can't cripple its opponents like its competition can, and poor typing with no STAB and only "okay" Special means that you shouldn't expect much from its attacks.
Type: Bug/Poison is awful, considering that its most powerful STAB move is Leech Life. It doesn't even get STAB on the Psychic-type attacks it learns.
Match-ups: Don't expect Venonat to do well in combat, due to its unfortunate typing and average-at-best stats.
Misty: Leech Life is super-effective, but only on Starmie, and Bubblebeam will generally do more anyways.
Lt. Surge: Similar case as Misty, but Leech Life and Confusion are neutral.
Erika: Even though Venonat has the type advantage, don't expect a clean sweep here, because of its awful (for this point in the game) stats.
Koga: If you're playing Red/Blue, you might have a chance. General rule of thumb for Yellow is 3 Venonats + 1 Venomoth >>> just 1 Venomoth.
Sabrina: Type chart says no.
Blaine: See Sabrina.
Giovanni: Thanks to his team either being weak to Psychic or having low Special. Watch out for Dugtrio and Persian though, as they can rip you moth to shreds with Slash.
Lorelei: Don't expect victory from Venomoth, due to its average stats. Generally, it'll fire an attack, not KO, and get hit back, with equal or greater power.
Bruno: Venomoth is primarily a special attacker, and x4 resists Fighting, meaning the only thing you have to worry about from Bruno is Hitmonlee's Mega Kick.
Agatha: Her 2 Gengar are barely faster than you, and the first one can put you sleep while the other has Psychic at its disposal.
Lance: Don't push your luck. They all have Hyper Beam, know how to use it, and can take a hit.
Additional Comments: Venomoth is too average for its own good, with nothing to set it apart from the competition. It's usable, but outclassed in Yellow, and even worse in Red/Blue, due to its much later joining time.
Vulpix: Low Tier
-Availability: Midgame. In Blue, Vulpix can either be found before Celadon City (where you can buy a Fire Stone and evolve him straight away), or in the Pokemon Mansion. In Yellow, Vulpix is obtained through the Game Corner, which is also in Celadon.
-Stats: Ninetails has very good Speed and Special. Its Special allows it to take Special Hits (provided they are not Water moves), and it outspeeds a lot of Pokemon. However, the rest of his stats are average at best.
-Movepool: If you evolve it into Ninetails straight away, you'll be stuck with Ember unless you feed it TM's such as Fire Blast, Body Slam, and Dig. Keep in mind the latter 2 TM are in very high demand in this game. Fire Blast also comes only later on in the game and has low PP, which may cause issues when fighting the Elite 4.
If you keep him as Vulpix or catch him later at Pokemon Mansion, you can train him to learn Confuse Ray and Flamethrower. However, Confuse Ray is not the most efficient strategy as it is a luck based moved. While Flamethrower may seem tempting, by the time you get it, Fire loses much of its value due to not being especially good against the majority of latter gym leaders/E4.
-Power: Not very powerful at all. Evolving it straight into Ninetails means you are stuck with Ember as your STAB.
-Type: Fire
Offensively, it hits Bug, Grass, and Ice for Super Effective damage. By the time you get Vulpix, you'll barely have any Bug and Ice types to fight. The majority of Bug users are battled before Celadon, where as the only Ice type you battle (that is weak to Fire) is Lorelei's Jynx. Grass is still common at this point, but you also get HM 02 Fly and TM13 Ice Beam to hit Grass types with. Fire is resisted by Rock, Water, Fire, and Dragon. Most Rock types you face in-game have weak Special and wont even like taking resisted hits, and there is only one Dragon user in the game. However, Water is problematic for Ninetails, especially with how common it is late game (all the water trainers in the water surrounding Cinnabar Island).
Fire also offers resists to Bug, Grass, and Fire. However, he is also weak to Water, Ground, and Rock moves, which is more common than Bug/Grass/Fire moves.
-Mathups:
--Erika: Despite the type advantage, Ninetails only has Ember which will not sweep her team. Also, status moves put a serious damper on Ninetails performance.
--Koga: If Ninetails was given the Dig TM, it can hit his entire team for Super Effective damage, just watch out for getting poisoned. In Yellow, Koga uses Venonats/Venomoth who are weak to Fire. However, much like Erika, you'll be stuck with Ember and Ninetails will not like being poisoned.
--Sabrina: Ninetails has the Special Bulk to survive Sabrina's move and can use Body Slam/Dig to hit her physically frail Pokemon.
--Blaine: Dig hits his whole team for Super Effective damage. While Growlithe and Ponyta are not threats, his Rapidash and Arcanine can survive a Dig. Rapidash and Arcanine also both have goo Physical Attack and can hurt Ninetails with Stomp/Take Down.
--Giovanni: Dig is Super Effective on his whole team except for Dugtrio. Despite that, Giovanni's Pokemon can take a Dig from Ninetails and wear it down with their own moves. His Dugtrio also knows Dig.
In Yellow, almost all his Pokemon know Earthquake, easily taking Ninetails out.
--Lorelei: The only one who Ninetails can safely take on is Jynx, due to her weakness to Fire.
--Bruno: His Pokemon have low Special and don't like taking Flamethower/Fire Blast. Might want to be vary on Fire Blast PP, though.
--Agatha: If you have Dig, it deals a lot of damage to her team as they are all weak to Ground except Golbat. Golbat isn't too hard to take out either, but watch out for Confuse Ray or Toxic.
--Lance: His entire team resists Fire and their powerful Hyper Beams will hurt Ninetails. Even worse, Lance's Gyarados knows Hydro Pump, which will make short work of Ninetails.
--Gary: STAB Fire moves can take out his Grass Pokemon, while Dig can hurt his Electric types, Rhydon, and Fire types (excluding Charizard). However, his Water types are a huge threat to Ninetails, and in Yellow his Sandslash can Earthquake you.
Additional Comments: Ninetails does well against some Gym Leaders/E4 members, but at the same time, its at the cost of using up two of the most valuable TM in the games - Body Slam and Dig. There will be plenty of other people who will want those two TM's, and can use it better than Ninetails. Hence why I'm placing Ninetails as Low Tier.
-Weedle (Red and Blue only) - Low Tier
-Availability: Weedle are easy to obtain, just search for them in Viridian Forest. They can also be found at Route 2 in Red, but it's better just to go into the forest and look for them there, as you have a higher chance of finding them there. They also evolve quite early, at level 7 and then level 10.
-Stats: This here is the main reason why Weedle's bad. Its stats are unimpressive all across the board, even after it fully evolves, with its highest base stat being 80 Attack.
-Movepool: Its only attacking moves are the weak Poison Sting and the unreliable Fury Attack until it learns Twineedle at level 20. Twineedle, and later Pin Missile, are Bug-type moves, which, back in the day, hit Poison-types super-effectively, essentially meaning Beedrill hits a decent chunk of the later mid-game super-effectively. It also learns Agility and Swords Dance (although you'll need TM03 for the latter), which are absolutely essential for its performance against most of the later bosses. Also, it can learn Mega Drain, which allows it to deal with Rock/Ground-types, but has little use otherwise, as most of the Water-types in the game are hit just as hard, if not harder, by Twineedle or Pin Missile. Unfortunately, Pin Missile and Twineedle don't exactly have the best base powers in the game, with Twineedle being 75 after STAB is factored in.
-Power: With only Poison Sting and Fury Attack for the first two badges, Beedrill's not doing very well. Then, when it learns Twineedle, it actually does adequately, easily defeating the majority of things weak to it. It also does well in Pokemon Tower, outspeeding and OHKOing the Ghost-types that haunt the tower. Soon after that, however, Beedrill hits the wall known as Koffing, and realizes that the only way for it to KO them in one turn is to hope for the 25% chance of Pin Missile hitting at least 4 times. Soon afterwards, it runs into Weezing, whom it can't OHKO at all without the aid of a critical hit. Another thing: don't use the terms "Bird Keeper" and "Beedrill" in the same sentence, for Beedrill's sake.
-Type: Bug is, as mentioned above, one of the best STABs to have in RBY. Beedrill also has a secondary Poison typing, giving it a neutrality to Poison-type attacks, but also giving it a Psychic weakness, meaning Beedrill can't effectively take them on.
-Match-ups:
--Brock: Considering the fact that his Pokemon resist every move Kakuna (or Beedrill, depending on whether you grinded it or not) has, and that they have high Defense, breaking through them just won't work. And before you say something like "But Poison Sting poisons them!" keep in mind that Brock has Full Heals at his disposal.
--Misty: While her Starmie is indeed weak to Twineedle, it is faster than Beedrill and its BubbleBeam is fully capable of OHKOing it.
--Lt. Surge: Beedrill can beat his Voltorb and Pikachu with little to no problem, but Raichu can fry it with a Thunderbolt.
--Erika: This is the part of the game where Beedrill is at its best. It literally OHKOes everything in this Gym (except for Erika's Tangela, but what would it honestly do in retaliation?) with Twineedle. Ahhh, 4x weaknesses...
--Koga: You'll need to set up 3 Swords Dances to stand a chance against him, and keep in mind that his Pokemon can use Smokescreen repeatedly while you're setting up.
--Sabrina: Her Kadabra outspeeds and OHKOes you. However, if Beedrill sets up an Agility on her Mr. Mime, it can take out her Alakazam as well as Mr. Mime if it didn't use Barrier. Also, since she has a Venomoth, which can survive a Pin Missile most of the time, you'll probably want to use Swords Dance, at least if it wasn't for the fact that Mr. Mime's Confusion 2HKOes.
--Blaine: While you might be able to set up on him, keep in mind that Rapidash can weather a +6 5-hit Pin Missile and proceed to trap Beedrill, beating it in only 3 turns. If you made it past Rapidash, his Arcanine is much bulkier than it looks, having the ability to survive at least 10 +6 Pin Missile impacts.
--Giovanni: First of all, you
need Mega Drain to beat his Rhyhorn (and Rhydon), which is the only Pokemon he has that Beedrill can properly set up on. Once that is done, feel free to 2HKO Rhyhorn with Mega Drain, and after that, you can Pin Missile his Dugtrio and Nidos. Remember that Dugtrio is faster than an unboosted Beedrill, and Nidoqueen has the bulk to take a +6 5-hit Pin Missile, meaning they both have an opportunity to fire attacks back at Beedrill.
--Lorelei: Because Rest is a Psychic-type move, Dewgong will repeatedly use it against Beedrill, allowing it to set up as much as it wants. Unfortunately, Slowbro, Cloyster, and Lapras have enough bulk to easily take a +6 Pin Missile.
--Bruno: As with Giovanni, his first Pokemon is a non-threatening Rock/Ground-type that can be set up on and 2HKOed by Mega Drain. While his entire team resists Bug-type attacks, +6 Pin Missile is still strong enough to take out his Hitmonlee in approximately 4 hits. The only things you need to watch out for are Mega Punch, Mega Kick, and Karate Chop.
--Agatha: Unlike the previous two, Beedrill can't set up on any of her Pokemon, as they all know status moves of some sort that can (and will) disrupt any setup attempts.
--Lance: While it can't beat his Gyarados, it can set up on his Dragonair, both of which know Agility. Keep in mind that unless Beedrill knows Agility as well, it won't defeat Aerodactyl, who is faster and can survive a +6 Pin Missile. Also, Dragonite will do nothing against it, as it knows Barrier and Agility, and will use them against Poison-types (like Beedrill!)
--Blue: Just like with Agatha, Beedrill has no setup opportunities, and as such is of no use to you for this battle.
-Additional Comments: Weedle comes (and evolves) early and its primary STAB is very useful in-game, but when it comes down to it, it just doesn't hit hard enough against its intended targets to be a great help. The added Psychic weakness, lack of Bug-type attacks until level 20, and the low base power of the STAB moves themselves don't exactly help its cause either.
-Zubat - Low Tier
-Availability: You can get it before the second badge in Mt. Moon. Zubat’s relative weakness does mean that you’ll need to grind it though, regardless of the level you catch it (it can be as high as level 11), which is a pain since it can only beat opposing Zubat at this point. It is a tedious task, made worse by Leech Life’s low PP forcing you to run back and forth between Mt. Moon and the Pokémon centre outside.
-Stats: Golbat’s stats are not particularly great but they aren’t completely horrible either. It is quite quick, and 75 HP, 80 Attack, 70 Defence and 75 Special are ok given how early you evolve (they aren’t all that good late game though).
-Movepool: Its level-up movepool is unbelievably bad. Bite at level 15 is its strongest attack by level up. This is fine early on and the flinches it provides are helpful but the lack of power shows later on. Its TM movepool isn’t much better. Mega Drain, Double-Edge and Take Down are all you’re getting (it doesn’t even get Fly). Don’t be surprised if your moveset ends up being (Bite or Double-Edge)/Mega Drain/Leech Life/Wing Attack or something weird like that.
-Power: Bite can 2HKO some of the weaker Pokémon but during important battles, and later on in general, you will take more and more turns to kill things, so it can’t really power through routes.
-Type: Wing Attack is its only STAB and it is too weak to be of much use. From a defensive point of view, Poison/Flying (besides being unique) has some useful resistances (Ground/Fighting/Grass/Poison) and provides immunity to Poison but also provides weaknesses to Electric/Ice/Rock/Psychic, all of which are used in some important battles.
-Match-ups: Misty – Not that helpful. It can beat Staryu but it isn’t guaranteed to be faster and may take damage, and it will lose to Starmie
Lt. Surge – Thunderbolt will kill you.
Erika – Tangela is somewhat annoying due to physical bulk but can’t do much back, and Weepinbel and Gloom are at least 3HKOed by Leech Life (watch for Sleep Powder).
Koga – Depends on your level. Poison immunity is good and RB Koga shouldn't be that hard, though it doesn't exactly take everything down in one hit either. Psychic is super-effective but Golbat can take 1 or 2 from Venonat before going down.
Sabrina – Bite and Leech Life ok damage but Psychic OHKOs.
Blaine – Depends on level; Ninetales’s Flamethrower does a lot of damage, as does Arcanine’s Flamethrower and Fire Blast. Rapidash can Fire Spin trap you. Not really that good here, though RB Blaine is significantly easier.
Giovanni – Beats Dugtrio. Note that in Yellow, Persian’s Double Team is annoying thanks to its inability to kill it quickly, Nidoqueen and Nidoking have Thunder and Rhydon has Rock Slide (Mega Drain is good here though).
Lorelei – So many Ice attacks! Golbat isn’t good here.
Bruno – Mega Drain kills Onix. The 4x Fighting resistance is useful and Hitmonchan’s elemental punches are too weak to be that big of a concern (any damage can be recovered back from Mega Draining his second Onix). The Normal attacks are a bit more concerning, but overall Golbat is ok here.
Agatha – It won’t enjoy Dream Eater (easily dealt with using the Pokeflute) or Psychic, but Mega Drain and Poison resistance is handy. This battle is often down to luck with Confuse Ray and how much Agatha switches against you.
Lance – It does significantly worse in Yellow due to Ice Beam, Blizzard and Thunderbolt. Otherwise it will probably depend on level (you’ll need to be quite over-levelled to win alone though).
Blue – In RB you should do ok against Rhydon, Exeggutor, Venusaur, Pidgeot, and Arcanine with a bit of “Take Down missed” luck. In Yellow your best match-ups are Sandslash, Exeggutor, Ninetales and Flareon.
-Additional Comments: Zubat isn’t as bad as it first seems. Bite is acceptable for a little while, and Mega Drain and Leech Life have niche uses and recover HP simultaneously, which is handy. However, the fact is that Golbat is simply not an efficient battler, taking multiple turns to KO most opponents, and unlike other weak Flying types like Farfetch’d it doesn’t even provide any utility by learning Fly! There is just little justification for using this in an efficient run, making it low tier.