Ok, moving on to some of the earlygame Com Mons.
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Poochyena/Mightyena
Type: Dark
Ability(s): Run Away (Poochyena), Intimidate (Mightyena)
Poochyena is one of those Pokemon that you get early on and is commonplace, of course it sucks!
Ok, you only need to take one look at Poochyena's stats and you know he
sucks. 30-35 in every stat except attack (which is a decent 55), which
quite frankly doesn't improve much when he evolves (well, +30/35 is good
by his standards, but 60-70's in most of his stats only really holds up
during early midgame) and dark isn't a particularly useful type until
Mossdeep (by then, you would've ditched your Mightyena a long time ago),
considering that Brawly isn't kind to him, and quite frankly, no one
else is either other than the twins.
As far as his movepool goes, he's way past fucked. He gets Bite
relatively early at Lv13, which will likely happen after Roxanne, so
he's not doing much there, but Mightyena has to wait until Lv47 to get
Crunch, which by that point, you really should consider finding a
replacement party member. As for any coverage he may have, it's
basically a joke and a half. Most of his level up movepool is wasted on
shit like Swagger, Odor Sleuth, and Roar, with his only other damaging
attacks (Take Down and Thief) coming at Lv37 (too late for such a shitty
Pokemon) and Lv52 (you're kidding, right?) As for any TM moves, his
only noteworthy moves are Dig and Shadow Ball, which supply him with a
way of killing steels and a physical replacement for his STAB (dark runs off his 60 SpA in Gen III), respectively.
The only real good thing about Mightyena, really, is his Intimidate
ability, which can extend his physical durability a bit, but I would
rather switch him out to something that didn't suck after he intimidates
something. However, he's not getting many points for that. He's not even
a particularly good HM mule either, only learning Strength and Rock
Smash (stuff Linoone can learn as well, but the latter gets Surf and Cut
as well).
Also, Poochyena's line are not dogs, they're hyenas.
3.5/10
Zigzagoon/Linoone
Type: Normal
Ability(s): Pickup
In tradition that has carried over from generation to generation,
Zigzagoon is likely the first normal type you'll come across. These
things have almost paralleled availability, can be found in every route
up to Petalburg, and are as easy to catch as it gets. You can find these
things all over the place on Routes 101, 102, and 103.
Like Ratatta before him, Zigzagoon has respectable combat early on, with
Lv9 Headbutt being roughly the equivalent of Ratatta's Hyper Fang,
though 30 base attack sucks. And being normal means that he doesn't get
to super effective stuff to death until TM's are burned on it. Evolution
(at Lv20, thank god he evolves early) brings his attack to a heart
stopping total of 70, which while good for midgame, really doesn't cut
it lategame. At least he's pretty fast with 100 base speed as Linoone.
While Zigzagoon isn't exactly lacking in movepool, it's just that his
stats are too poor for it to be useful. Level up wise, he doesn't get
anything really noteworthy until Lv41, when he gets Slash, and he does
get Belly Drum at Lv53 which can turn him into a nuke. Too bad even a
slight breeze will knock a half health Linoone down. As for the TMs he
can make use of, all he really has going for him is Dig and Shadow Ball
on the physical side. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam access is cute and all,
but he's not doing significant damage with them thanks to his even
shittier 50 SpA.
Now that I'm done ranting about his combat, let's get to Ziggy's main
uses: HM slavery and being a Pickup bot. Now, it is a well known fact
that Zigzagoon is a good HM slave because he can mega man 3 HMs at base
and gains Strength access as Linoone. Basically, if you have an HM move
that you don't want on someone, catch a Zigzagoon. He'll handle most of
your HM needs for the first half of the game. As for Pickup, I am going
to warn you that this is not an R/S rating or else he'd get a lot of
points for this. In Emerald, Pickup works a lot differently; by that, I
mean that you only start to get good items as you become higher leveled.
So to get the most out of it, you'd have to get your stupid little
badger up to around Lv50 (Can't find a Pickup chart on Serebii. Sorry.)
I think I am done here.
6/10
Wurmple/Silcoon (Cascoon)/Beautifly (Dustox)
Type: Bug, Bug/Flying (Beautifly), Bug/Poison (Dustox)
Ability(s): Shield Dust (Wurmple/Dustox), Shed Skin (Silcoon/Cascoon), Swarm (Beautifly)
Wurmple is what you basically get if you were to merge Caterpie's line
with Weedle's line. Unfortunately, it's not a pretty sight.
Wurmple's stats are just disastrous, and he has severe issues killing
anything on his own, besides those Magikarps the two fishermen outside
of Petalburg have. He gets a little bit of durability when he evolves at
Lv7 to either Silcoon or Cascoon (fuck if I know what determines the
evolution, it has something to do with his personality value), then only
becomes marginally decent once he evolves into either Beautifly or
Dustox.
Beautifly:
Beautifly is marginally useful in the first gym despite the huge
achilles heel to rock moves by way of Absorb. Now, I'm not going to lie,
an non-STAB Absorb has even worse output than a STAB-boosted one, but
90 SpA is more than sufficient to make the hits hurt. Of course, you
probably only want to attack Geodudes with it thanks to the 4x weak
(Nosepass is a no-go.) Lv13 STAB Gust also makes him super clutch
against Brawly, thanks to the 4x resist to fighting on top of hitting
super effective.
So, how does Beautifly fare against the competition later on? Poorly. He
has a worse base stat total than Mightyena and Linoone, which equates
to him being crap as soon as you get off Dewford. On top of that,
Bug/Flying happens to be one of the worst typings defensively in this
game, being weak to the next four gyms after Brawly (Norman doesn't
actually hit anything super effectively but he's so powerful that Beautifly might as well be weak to his attacks). He might have some marginal usefulness against the twins
with STAB Silver Wind, but by then, who cares?
Beautifly's movepool is terrible. He doesn't get an upgrade to his grass
move until Lv24, which while that would be reasonable by most
standards, is obviously too late for something this bad. And that's just
Mega Drain. Giga Drain doesn't show up until Lv38, well past
Beautifly's expiration date. He also gets Stun Spore early on and
Attract later, which can help stall stuff, but why you are stalling in
an efficient run is beyond me. His TM game is also blegh. He does get a
few noteworthy moves like Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Aerial Ace, but
otherwise, his movepool is beyond redemption.
Basically, useful for one or two fights, then he hits the bench for good.
3/10
Dustox:
Remember how I said that Beautifly was an earlygame nuke capable of
killing Geodudes? Unfortunately, Dustox doesn't even have that. His
offenses just suck. 50/50 offenses on a fully evolved Pokemon are just
sad, really, and unlike Beautifly, he doesn't even get a STAB move until
Lv34. His defenses are surprisingly good for an earlygame bug,
especially his special defense, but considering that bug is plagued with
weaknesses, yeah no. Still great against Brawly, though.
Dustox fares even worse than Beautifly for the long term. Sharing the
same BST, but much worse distribution means that this little bastard is
doomed to hit the bench after Brawly. Well, ok, he can Protect+Toxic
stall Slaking, but who wants to waste a perfectly good TM06 on something
this pathetic (Lv38 is far too unreasonable for Norman), and he does decently
against Sidney offensively, if only because bug is super effective against dark (it's still a better idea to get something with more damage output).
Dustox's movepool is just as bad as Beautifly's. Instant Confusion is
cute and all, but Psybeam shows up a little too late to help him and he
doesn't even get Psychic through level up. And like I said, Silver Wind
shows up too late. Pretty much anything I said about Beautifly's TM game
can be applied to Dustox, except replace Aerial Ace with Sludge Bomb.
Only has slight usefulness against Brawly due to 4x resist.
2.5/10
Wingull/Pelipper
Type: Water/Flying
Ability(s): Keen Eye
Every generation of Pokemon has introduced a new earlygame bird Pokemon,
as per tradition. In the case of this generation, two bird families
were introduced, and like with Pidgey and Spearow, there is the issue of
which one is the superior one. And it's pretty obvious that Wingull is,
for the most part, inferior. But he is still decent.
Take one look at his stats, and you'll see that he is pretty fast for
something that is unevolved. Most things don't reach 85 speed until
they've evolved once. Too bad he loses this speed upon evolution, but he
does gain some good physical bulk as Pelipper, which can be useful at
times. As far as offense goes, just like with Hoothoot, he has higher
special attack than attack, but unlike him, Wingull actually gets proper special STAB.
Yes, unlike other earlygame birds, Wingull has Water typing, which as
I've discussed with Mudkip, is a useful typing to have in Hoenn.
Wingull can serve as a clutch against Roxanne if you chose Torchic,
thanks to Water Gun nuking her Geodudes (Nosepass is an ass with its
high special defense and lack of ground type though, so watch it), as well as being a
solid pick against Brawly; even though his attack is pretty much rock
bottom, Wing Attack should still dole out serviceable damage. Flannery
also does not like Pelipper very much, and he can also troll Norman's
Slaking with Protect.
His movepool is pretty dreadful to say the least. Level up wise, he
doesn't get any flying moves besides Wing Attack, and has to wait until
Lv61 to get Hydro Pump. As for the rest of it, he gets Stockpile and
Spit Up/Swallow, which is useless, and a slew of support moves that no
one cares about. Thankfully, he gets access to the Surf HM when Water
Gun really begins to lose its muscle and Ice Beam isn't too far off. For
added coverage, he gets Shock Wave for some reason, which can be useful
against fellow Wingulls. He also gets Fly and Steel Wing if you want to
go that route, but good luck hurting things with 50 Atk lategame.
I will admit though that despite his pros (availability, fighting
resistance, Slaking trolling), he does suffer from a case of outclassed.
While he practically is the best non-Mudkip water type early on, in the
mid and lategame, he starts to get outshone by dudes like Carvanha and Barboach, who have more desirable qualities than Pelliper.
Great early on, outclassed later on.
6.5/10
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Have a nice day.
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