re: Punchshroom my Swalot does in fact know Ice Beam, it simply wasn't necessary pre-Norman
Merritt slakoth redux
Name: Slakoth
Availability: Slakoth can by found in Petalburg Woods with a 5% chance
Stats: Great physical tank stats supplemented by high speed and effective special attack after evolution. Slaking has the highest Attack stat of any accessible Pokemon and better bulk than Swampert.
Typing: Normal type trades a weakness to Brawly for an advantage against Phoebe. Few enemies resist Normal in game which allows for comfortable 1 and 2HKOs from STAB attacks.
Movepool: Slakoth learns Encore and Slack Off and Vigoroth learns Bulk Up after defeating Brawly, forming an unstoppable sweeping set. Slaking's movepool is incredible diverse and can be customized to defeat any opponent; options include Return, Shadow Ball, Earthquake, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Brick Break, the aforementioned Bulk Up, and Hyper Beam - from Slaking this is the single strongest attack in the game.
Major Battles: Bulk Up+Encore+Slack Off enables Vigoroth to sweep cleanly through Wattson, Flannery, and Norman, as well as Winona if it is still unevolved. Slaking easily OHKOs most enemies among Winona, Juan, and Tate and Liza, while also tanking effectively in the double battle. Each of Sidney, Phoebe, Glacia, and Drake can be defeated by a Bulk Up using Slaking, or will see key enemies picked off by Hyper Beam; each of Wallace's Pokemon can also be picked off, or 2HKOed with Return.
Additional Comments: Vigoroth is one of the best mid-game Pokemon available. Slaking carries any fight it enters single handedly. The sole reason Slakoth is ranked only in B tier is the Truant ability. The painful training period of a Slakoth and the drain on time and resources imposed by Truant are simply too much to justify a higher ranking, even as Slaking matches or exceeds the abilities of other S tier entries.
Wallace's Tentacruel should be OHKOed with Hyper Beam as its Hydro Pump is able to 2HKO in return.
Picking the run back up
Winona:
Swalot (33): Sludge 2HKOs Swablu, Ice Beam 2HKOs Altaria while Earthquake fails to 2HKO in return, Ice Beam 3HKOs Skarmoy while Steel Wing 6HKOs in return, Ice Beam OHKOs Tropius while Aerial Ace does nothing in return, Sludge 4HKOs Pelipper (3 with Poison) while it does nothing in return. Needs 1 Potion, but excellent overall.
Grovyle (34): Strength is a 3HKO on Swablu but it can only Perish Song back, Leaf Blade 2HKOs Pelipper, auto dies to everything else.
Tentacruel (34): 2HKOs Swablu with everything while burning a Potion, 2HKOs Altaria with Ice Beam while living a +1 Earthquake, must Potion up and then 3HKOs Skarmory with Surf, OHKOs Tropius with Ice Beam, 3HKOs Pelipper with Sludge Bomb fearing only confusion hax in return. As good as Swalot, excellent overall.
Minun (34): OHKOs Swablu, Pelipper, and Skarmory, with Thunderbolt; can only beat Altaria if it DDs on turn 1 and you roll a long Encore otherwise Alaria kills it; 3HKOs Tropius while Twave+Encore locking it into Sunny Day.
Delcatty (34): Return 2HKOs Swablu while burning a Potion, 3HKOs Tropius avoiding damage if Sing hits, 2-3HKOs Pelipper depending on rolls, cannot touch Skarmory, beats Altaria because Return is a 3HKO and you have Charm but will need a Potion if Dragonbreath paralyzes.
Grumpig (34): 2HKOs Swablu with anything, 3HKOs Tropius while comfortably tanking Solarbeam, OHKOs Pelipper with Shock Wave, 3HKOs Skarmory with Shock Wave, only beats Altaria if it hits itself in a Confuse Ray confusion as Altaria will 2HKO from +2 and if you don't miss your attacks (Skarmoy is a bitch who uses Sand Attack).
Interlude: I picked up a Snorunt and decided to swap out Delcatty for it. I can make a clear judgement on Delcatty at this point that
Skitty should rise to E. The only real case for it in F is the 2% encounter rate, but as was established in the Grimer debate this should be the sort of thing that pushes an entry over the edge rather than a determining factor.
In terms of contributions Skitty does just fine, its combat ability is very reasonably comparable to Zigzagoon or Poochyena and definitively suprior to Whismur. Delcatty is similarly mediocre, it suffers from its stats but does just fine as a general attacker and could Calm Mind if you really wanted to. It's not very good because of how its stats let it down, but its definitely a competent Pokemon.
As a comparison, Rhyhorn is also F tier and is completely unusable in fights up until the point it evolves, at which point it can only contribute to some E4 matchups - Skitty and Delcatty are usable at all points and are able to contribute to varying degrees of success at any point. Comparing to E tier, I would place Skitty's performance in a similar tier to Beautifly or Minun and clearly superior to that of Whismur. It's performance as a whole argues for a clear place in the upper ranks of E (below Natu, Regice; equal to Sableye, Minun; above Sandshrew, Castform; far above Phanpy, Lileep), and its not borderline where I would consider its 2% encounter rate to drop it down a tier.
In other news I stuck Exp. Share on Snorunt and fought water route trainers until it hit 35 then stuffed 7 Rare Candies down its throat until it evolved. Training is ez (also these 7 Rare Candies can be assumed as a standard, they're all easily accessible and in obvious places e.g. Petalburg immediately after getting Surf or obvious locations for hidden items).
Tate and Liza:
Minun (40): Can't quite OHKO Xatu but can take out the threat with a partners help. Dies immediately to Claydol. Can offer some support vs Solrock and Lunatone via Encore and a decent powered Thunderbolt.
Swalot (40): Sucks taint. Can take any one hit but gets hit too hard too fast to do anything. Doesn't hit anything for any appreciable damage.
Grumpig (40): Outspeeds and confuses stuff and takes a couple hits and does literally nothing else, Shock Wave is too weak.
Delcatty (41): Shadow Ball hits for fairly decent damage on anything, good combo killer. Bulky enough to live one hit from anything, but not two.
Tentacruel (40): Surf is great here, very good combo killer against Xatu, excellent CC vs Solrock and Lunatone, and good lead to a partner kill on Claydol. Can take any one hit but Psychic type means it can't take two.
Glalie (42): Very good. Ice Beam puts in serious work against Claydol and Xatu and Crunch does fairly well vs Lunatone and Solrock. Needs a partner to combo kill, but efficient at mowing down enemies. Takes two hits from anything that isn't CM boosted or Flamethrower.
Sceptile (38): Note the slight level disadvantage due to HM requirements over water. Speed lets it effectively partner kill Xatu, Leaf Blade comfortably 2HKOs all of Lunatone, Solrock, Claydol, or OHKO on crit. Can't carry on its own but can solo with a power partner such as Glalie. Tanks 3 Earthquakes which is all it typically has to take as you focus down everything else.
Juan:
Swalot (41): 3HKOs Luvdisc with Sludge. Three. Hit. KOs. Freaking. Luvdisc. Luvdisc actually did a third of my health despite Amnesia through Confusattract strategies. Switch out of Whiscash obviously. "Beat" Sealeo but had to to use three full Potions to do it as it Encore locked Amnesia twice and started a Body Slam with paralysis train. Took so long Sealeo literally ran out of Body Slams. Kingdra can't kill you because Amnesia. You can't kill Kingdra because Rest. Kingdra can crit. You do 4HKO Crawdaunt which is nice so you usually win oh btw Crabhammer has a high crit rate. Only beats Luvdisc and Crawdaunt and it had to fuckin 3HKO Luvdisc which is as good as a loss, Swalot fucking sucks.
Tenatcruel (41): 2HKO Luvdisc with any combo of Sludge Bomb/Surf/Giga Drain, it can't touch you. Giga Drain is a 2HKO on Whiscash but you do live an Earthquake. Sludge Bomb 3HKOs Sealeo, paras are annoying but you still win. Neither you nor Kingdra can really beat each other between your typing and its Rest BUT you can and will win if you manage to land an Ice Beam freeze. Oh and you 2HKO Crawdaunt or whatever it can't touch you. See Swalot, this is what a real Pokemon looks like, Swalot fucking sucks.
Grumpig (42): Set up Calm Mind, sweep etc. Own Tempo is neat to shit on Luvdisc. Swalot fucking sucks.
Sceptile (41): OHKO Luvdisc, barely fail to OHKO Sealeo but tank Aurora Beam and burn a Potion etc, Kingdra is a losing matchup, OHKO Whiscash, OHKO Crawdaunt. Swalot fucking sucks.
Minun (42): OHKO Luvdisc, can't fight Whiscash, barely miss the OHKO on Sealeo but only a third in damage returned, OJKO Crawdaunt, can beat Kingdra with good luck but usually won't, TBolt is a 3HKO with good rolls but Double Team, Rest looping, and bad rolls make that 3HKO very unlikely. Swalot fucking sucks.
Glalie (43): Eathquake 2HKOs Luvdisc, Ice Beam 3HKOs Whiscash, Earthquake 4HKOs Sealeo and Crawdaunt, Ice Beam a 4HKO on Kingdra. You can take your share of hits but not a great matchup. Swalot fucking sucks.
tl;dr: "Did you see that ludicrous display last night?"
Brief tiering thoughts pre-E4
Skitty: Rise to E, outlined above.
Treecko: Drop to B. Good Sceptile performances so far notwithstanding the Grovyle period is utter ass.
Tentacool: Strong B. Does better as a Cool than you might think, Cruel is a boss. Great mon.
Gulpin: Firm D (and clearly worse than Grimer SMH everyone who argued otherwise)
Spoink: Drop to D PENDING E4 RESULTS. It's really not that good plus it's movepool is garbage, HOWEVER Calm Mind is a game changer and if it can be solid in E4 as one assumes it could be it can stay C.
Minun: Top of E, comfortably. Defined niche, can't go outside of it, fulfills that niche very well.
Snorunt: Undetermined. Too early to say, great performance vs T+L, bad vs Juan, E4 will decide E vs D. Taught it Explosion forthelulz.