I think people tend to rate Gardevoir a bit higher than they should. While it's a great encounter for a casual, normal playthru, in nuzlockes I think its flaws become more apparent. It has a good movepool, great special attack and bulk, and decent abilities, however what's holding it back is base 80 speed. Granted, in gen 3 speed hadn't been so power-crept yet, but that's still slower than you'd hope from a "sweeper" pokemon. You basically have to look at Gardevoir as a slower but bulkier counterpart to Alakazam.
7:12 i just calculated that, Overgrow Rash Sceptile with 0 IVs in Sp. Atk can only miss the kill at level 38, and if you went to battle Juan with a level 38 Sceptile, that´s honestly your fault lmao
Vigoroth is actually better than slaking in emerald. It gets encore, slack off, yawn, decent stats early game and can sweep so many battles with bulk up.
Wait, wobbuffet is even taken like an option on nuzlockes? I had *never* seen anyone using it I passed the entire 2nd gen with 5 wobbuffet and 1 Xatu (only for HMs) and it was hilariously fun
gotta agree with the Sceptile assesment, but i also want to add that Grovyle is also straight up bad before it learns leaf blade at level 29, its best damaging moves will either be bullet seed (20 - 50 power) or Pursuit (non stab 40 power) before wattson and then strength after wattson. It also matches up very poorly against a lot of the early and mid game gym leaders. It does pretty average against Brawly, bad against Wattson, terrible against Fannary, average against Norman and terrible against Winona. I wouldn't even say that the Treecko line is that much better then any of the other grass types you have access to in the early game in Emerald. - Shroomish/Breloom is definitly better then Sceptile, 130 attack and access to stab mach punch, headbutt, mega drain, leech seed and bulk up all before Wattson is increadible. - The Oddish line i'd probably say is better as well. It gets Sleep Powder at level 18, which by itself makes it very usefull early game. You can also evolve it into Bellossom as soon as you beat Wattson by thiefing Solrocks. You can then straight away teach it Magical Leaf by Hearth Scale to have a very good offensive move. Late game it is also a very effective Sunny Day Solar Beam Sweeper. - The Lotad Line i'd say is better as well. It also struggles a bit in the early game. If you want you are able to get Ice Beam from the game corner to have a good special attack for the mid game, and stab Surf after Norman is also very nice. Its big problem tho is that you won't get Ludicolo before after beating Tate and Liza. Its very late, but Ludicolo is increadably strong for the late game. - The only one that I'd say Sceptile might be better than is the Seedot Line. Nuzleaf struggles even more in the early game then Grovyle does. You'l be stuck with either Thief, Bullet seed or Strength as your main attacking moves until after you beat Norman. Nuzleaf does have some utility moves it can do some stuff with like Fake Out, Synthesis and Growth, but as a Nuzleaf its stats just aren't good enough to use any of them. As a Shiftry tho i'd say it is probably on par with Sceptile, It can do the Sunny Day Solar Beam strat while also being able to set up with growth and Synthesis. Interestingly Sceptile is probably better than all the later game grass types you can get. - Cardily evolves a bit late, its stats are good, but its movepool doesn't support its stat spread at all with non of the good grass status moves. - Cacturne has some interesting moves like early leech seed and it is one of 2 pokemon to get spikes on level up. It is slow and frail with very high special and physical attack, but its offensive movepool is almost non-existent, no reliable stabs above 60 power and the only semi notable coverage it gets is Pin Missile and Focus Punch. - While Tropius is in no way better than Sceptile, i do actually think that Tropius is a bit underrated. it is able to pull of the same Growth, Synthesis, Sunny Day Solar Beam set at shiftry can, while also being a lot bulkier than shiftry. Even with a 72 base Sp atk, a + 4 or 5 stab solar beam should be enough to kill most things that doesn't resist grass. Really its biggest weakness is its terrible defensive typing.
_"It also matches up very poorly against a lot of the early and mid game gym leaders. It does pretty average against Brawly, bad against Wattson, terrible against Fannary, average against Norman and terrible against Winona."_ I read this in GrumpyGengar's voice. That's how you know I'm a fan :)
Very informative! I've seen plenty of stuff out there for best early game pokemon and underrated mons and stuff like that, but this is the first time I've seen a list of overrated mons (at least in regards to gameplay, not popularity), so it's very interesting and a nice thing to see!^^
Common abilities are garbage, and half all of their hidden abilities are garbage too, even if you take your time to set the sweep, there's several ways to stop it, but in game NPCs not always have a way to do it
Torrent/Overgrow/Blaze are great abilities, the damage boost is quite significant, you just have to know how to use them. There's a reason why the speedruns of every pokemon game with abilities all rely heavily on getting their starters to low enough health to get the damage boost. Most people don't think about them and prefer to just play at full health as often as possible. But when you're sure you outspeed the opponent, and know the ability lets you oneshot them, you can just go to town with it. It's very similar to like Swellow or Alakazam on this list.
In Pokemon Emerald, using a Rigid Slaking with Choice Band item, and I use Ultralaser. 252 IV in Attack (63 stat point), 140 IV (35 stat point) in special defense, 36 IV (9 stat point) in speed, 80 IV (20 stat point ) in pv. So my slaking is : 170 in P.V, 223 in Attack (+10%), 100 in defense, 95 in Spe. Att (-10%) 109 in Speed Move: 1. Hyperbeam 2. Earthquake 3. Shadow Ball 4. Brick Break
@@grumpygengar22 they mostly happened in gen 6 and 7, serebii lists them per game when you search for "updated stats", you can also use smogon when checking a particular mon to see if its stats changed between generations
A Nuzlocker is just someone who plays through a Pokemon game using "Nuzlocke" rules. Rule 1: You can only catch the first pokemon you find on every route. Rule 2: If a Pokemon faints during battle, it can no longer be used for the rest of the run. Those are just the basic rules, but there are many other ones added onto that to create a unique experience for every player.
So as a rule, I don't play Nuzlockes. However from what I've seen (1) Swellow is powerful, however anyone playing the Facade+Guts combo needs to understand that Swellow will take a LOT of damage. My experience using Wobbuffet is that it's pretty useless. Yes, it can 1v1 somethings, HOWEVER about ~95% of the time it's useless and maybe ~85% of the time it's worse than that as dead weight. Sceptile is actually the strongest non-Mythical grass type in gen 3. And while it may not be good with overgrow, I would argue that you're actually using it wrong if you try to do that. Overgrow should mostly be ignored TBH, as you want to keep Sceptile at high health with Giga Drain (or even Mega Drain due to the low PP). Sceptile is rarely 1-shot, so (depending on EVs) can survive a hit or two from full health and deal out more damage than one overgrow-boosted hit. Also, I would not use a Rash-natured Sceptile. Go with bold or calm optimally (or maybe modest). Not Rash.
I did use an Abra that became a Kadabra in my No Damage run in Crystal. You have access to the elemental punches when you encounter your Abra which is amazing! My team throughout my that playthrough consisted of Kenya the fearow and Kadabra. But this is obviously irrelevant because it was in gen 2 and not gen 3😅
The treecko line is actually the first and only starter that I thought was so bad in my 3rd replay of the gen 3 games that I ended up boxing my starter. With all the playthroughs I have done, has it only happened once that I boxed my starter. (If it was a normal playthrough that is. Obviously in certain challenge runs I had to box my starters)
So either youre trolling or you dont know that moves physical or special stat was determined soley by type prior to gen 4. So all grass type moves are special in these games, including leaf blade.
@@leaffinite2001 i've been playing pokémon for years... since gba advanced, i have several EV/IV specific pokemon and even pokemon i've bred specifically for battle...i was trolling , its never that serious
I think Gyarados is overrated tbh. A Water type, who are historically more Special Attackers than Physical, yet I have one at lvl 50 with a SP Atk of 73. Basically meaning his Hydro Pump is only good with it’s STAB boost. Also, as a part Flying type, I maintain that he should be able to learn Aerial Ace in Gen III
If Gyarados could learn Aerial Ace in gen 3 that would be a massive help. His movepool in those games is just horrendous. Basically using Strength until you pick up Earthquake XD
That could be a whole video in itself honestly. But to name a few off the top of my head: Both Swampert and Gyarados (and probably a few others) would greatly benefit from having Waterfall as a physical option. Banette would be hurt a little due to Shadow Ball now being special instead of physical, as well as several other physical attackers that rely on Shadow Ball for additional coverage. Most poison types will suffer with both Sludge and Sludge Bomb becoming special type moves. Sceptile would suffer a bit if Leaf Blade were physical in gen 3. Flygon would benefit a lot with Crunch. There are a lot more examples but I'm gonna run out of characters for this comment if I keep going haha
I feel it is a common sense to people that, while considering that Mudkip is arguably the best starter considering its region, all three starters in Hoenn are great, which I disagree. Mudkip isn't on this debate, so bringing up Torchic, it has a very good typing and does what you want from your starter: Hits hard and fast *enough* (once it is a Blaziken, the other have a mid speed tier). Their main drawback is that Hoenn is "7.8 Too Much Water". So yes, you can just not bring it in the first place, but then you miss Exp., which isn't ideal, considering you are in the late game already, the place where you should get the most amount of levels to beat the high level trainers out there. Now, again, Torchic line is great, they do pretty well against most of the hardest part of the game, which I consider to be the early to mid game (Gyms 1 to 5 in Gen III), at least in my opinion, as you are very limited on what you can use (including Pokémon and moves). Now, Treecko. Yes, they have STAB super-effective Leaf Blade on the "7.8 Too Much Water" section, but because in my opinion the hardest part in the game is Gyms 1-5, this means that you'll only have a shameful Grovyle with no moves to use, other than Bullet Seed/Absorb and silly coverage moves that do laughable damage because they don't get STAB.
@@grumpygengar22 Yeah, I came to this video wanting to learn about why some pokemon that are good in nuzlockes are actually not as good as they may appear, and except for Sceptile (which I do disagree btw, a pokemon having coverage against you doesn't necessarily make it a bad matchup) and Slaking, they were "you need to be good at nuzlocking to make the most out of this pokemon", or, in other words "these pokemon have a high skill ceiling and floor", whereas other pokemon are more reliable for starting nuzlockers because of their lower floor but also have a lower ceiling too.
What Pokémon have you found to be overrated in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald?
I think people tend to rate Gardevoir a bit higher than they should. While it's a great encounter for a casual, normal playthru, in nuzlockes I think its flaws become more apparent.
It has a good movepool, great special attack and bulk, and decent abilities, however what's holding it back is base 80 speed. Granted, in gen 3 speed hadn't been so power-crept yet, but that's still slower than you'd hope from a "sweeper" pokemon. You basically have to look at Gardevoir as a slower but bulkier counterpart to Alakazam.
Aggron is overrated af and Blaziken is for emerald
Alakazam/Kadabra
Oops probably should’ve watched the vid first lol
Absol, honestly. Other than Attack his stats are very lackluster, and not only does his movepool suck but I find he doesn't really oneshot anything.
7:12 i just calculated that, Overgrow Rash Sceptile with 0 IVs in Sp. Atk can only miss the kill at level 38, and if you went to battle Juan with a level 38 Sceptile, that´s honestly your fault lmao
Vigoroth is actually better than slaking in emerald. It gets encore, slack off, yawn, decent stats early game and can sweep so many battles with bulk up.
So much easier to use too!
Makes me think of eviolite, would be a nice option in hacks that have that
Wait, wobbuffet is even taken like an option on nuzlockes?
I had *never* seen anyone using it
I passed the entire 2nd gen with 5 wobbuffet and 1 Xatu (only for HMs) and it was hilariously fun
That sounds insane haha
@@grumpygengar22 and causes several bugs XD
In Emerald Kaizo Pchal (?) used a Wobbuffet during his E4 challenge, I remember him being paranoid about losing Wobb beforehand
Grumpy Gengar: *"Swellow is overrated."*
Also Grumpy Gengar: _(puts Swellow in S tier)_
Don't forget the silk scarf as well.
gotta agree with the Sceptile assesment, but i also want to add that Grovyle is also straight up bad before it learns leaf blade at level 29, its best damaging moves will either be bullet seed (20 - 50 power) or Pursuit (non stab 40 power) before wattson and then strength after wattson. It also matches up very poorly against a lot of the early and mid game gym leaders. It does pretty average against Brawly, bad against Wattson, terrible against Fannary, average against Norman and terrible against Winona.
I wouldn't even say that the Treecko line is that much better then any of the other grass types you have access to in the early game in Emerald.
- Shroomish/Breloom is definitly better then Sceptile, 130 attack and access to stab mach punch, headbutt, mega drain, leech seed and bulk up all before Wattson is increadible.
- The Oddish line i'd probably say is better as well. It gets Sleep Powder at level 18, which by itself makes it very usefull early game. You can also evolve it into Bellossom as soon as you beat Wattson by thiefing Solrocks. You can then straight away teach it Magical Leaf by Hearth Scale to have a very good offensive move. Late game it is also a very effective Sunny Day Solar Beam Sweeper.
- The Lotad Line i'd say is better as well. It also struggles a bit in the early game. If you want you are able to get Ice Beam from the game corner to have a good special attack for the mid game, and stab Surf after Norman is also very nice. Its big problem tho is that you won't get Ludicolo before after beating Tate and Liza. Its very late, but Ludicolo is increadably strong for the late game.
- The only one that I'd say Sceptile might be better than is the Seedot Line. Nuzleaf struggles even more in the early game then Grovyle does. You'l be stuck with either Thief, Bullet seed or Strength as your main attacking moves until after you beat Norman. Nuzleaf does have some utility moves it can do some stuff with like Fake Out, Synthesis and Growth, but as a Nuzleaf its stats just aren't good enough to use any of them. As a Shiftry tho i'd say it is probably on par with Sceptile, It can do the Sunny Day Solar Beam strat while also being able to set up with growth and Synthesis.
Interestingly Sceptile is probably better than all the later game grass types you can get.
- Cardily evolves a bit late, its stats are good, but its movepool doesn't support its stat spread at all with non of the good grass status moves.
- Cacturne has some interesting moves like early leech seed and it is one of 2 pokemon to get spikes on level up. It is slow and frail with very high special and physical attack, but its offensive movepool is almost non-existent, no reliable stabs above 60 power and the only semi notable coverage it gets is Pin Missile and Focus Punch.
- While Tropius is in no way better than Sceptile, i do actually think that Tropius is a bit underrated. it is able to pull of the same Growth, Synthesis, Sunny Day Solar Beam set at shiftry can, while also being a lot bulkier than shiftry. Even with a 72 base Sp atk, a + 4 or 5 stab solar beam should be enough to kill most things that doesn't resist grass. Really its biggest weakness is its terrible defensive typing.
I agree with all of this!
_"It also matches up very poorly against a lot of the early and mid game gym leaders. It does pretty average against Brawly, bad against Wattson, terrible against Fannary, average against Norman and terrible against Winona."_
I read this in GrumpyGengar's voice. That's how you know I'm a fan :)
Very informative! I've seen plenty of stuff out there for best early game pokemon and underrated mons and stuff like that, but this is the first time I've seen a list of overrated mons (at least in regards to gameplay, not popularity), so it's very interesting and a nice thing to see!^^
I'm glad I could provide something different 😃
Well.. Tbh, the starter abilities are all trash. Even the hidden abilities are hit and miss on some.
They are good but easy to forget about. Fast ones can use it to sweep tho.
Common abilities are garbage, and half all of their hidden abilities are garbage too, even if you take your time to set the sweep, there's several ways to stop it, but in game NPCs not always have a way to do it
At least they gave the gift Torchic in ORAS speed boost
Torrent/Overgrow/Blaze are great abilities, the damage boost is quite significant, you just have to know how to use them. There's a reason why the speedruns of every pokemon game with abilities all rely heavily on getting their starters to low enough health to get the damage boost.
Most people don't think about them and prefer to just play at full health as often as possible. But when you're sure you outspeed the opponent, and know the ability lets you oneshot them, you can just go to town with it. It's very similar to like Swellow or Alakazam on this list.
guts and facade are only op if you use slik scarf
i call this strat "fakade"
In Pokemon Emerald, using a Rigid Slaking with Choice Band item, and I use Ultralaser. 252 IV in Attack (63 stat point), 140 IV (35 stat point) in special defense, 36 IV (9 stat point) in speed, 80 IV (20 stat point ) in pv.
So my slaking is :
170 in P.V,
223 in Attack (+10%),
100 in defense,
95 in Spe. Att (-10%)
109 in Speed
Move:
1. Hyperbeam
2. Earthquake
3. Shadow Ball
4. Brick Break
I tried to nuzlocke once... keyword tried
4:28 these are swellow's stats from gen 7 onwards, in older gens its base special attack was lower
Good catch, I'm starting to see this comment pop up a lot in my other videos too. I had no idea that some Pokemon were buffed later on.
@@grumpygengar22 they mostly happened in gen 6 and 7, serebii lists them per game when you search for "updated stats", you can also use smogon when checking a particular mon to see if its stats changed between generations
Grumpy Gengar, you mentioned that Kadabra is a risk for an early Nuzlocker.
What does Nuzlocker mean?
A Nuzlocker is just someone who plays through a Pokemon game using "Nuzlocke" rules. Rule 1: You can only catch the first pokemon you find on every route. Rule 2: If a Pokemon faints during battle, it can no longer be used for the rest of the run. Those are just the basic rules, but there are many other ones added onto that to create a unique experience for every player.
Tbh pidgeot is my favorite starter bird. So every Gen if it’s not pidgeot. I just go crobat for my flying mon. In gen 5 case it was woobat
Birds are cool
Yes! heres a sub for that
So as a rule, I don't play Nuzlockes. However from what I've seen (1) Swellow is powerful, however anyone playing the Facade+Guts combo needs to understand that Swellow will take a LOT of damage. My experience using Wobbuffet is that it's pretty useless. Yes, it can 1v1 somethings, HOWEVER about ~95% of the time it's useless and maybe ~85% of the time it's worse than that as dead weight.
Sceptile is actually the strongest non-Mythical grass type in gen 3. And while it may not be good with overgrow, I would argue that you're actually using it wrong if you try to do that. Overgrow should mostly be ignored TBH, as you want to keep Sceptile at high health with Giga Drain (or even Mega Drain due to the low PP). Sceptile is rarely 1-shot, so (depending on EVs) can survive a hit or two from full health and deal out more damage than one overgrow-boosted hit. Also, I would not use a Rash-natured Sceptile. Go with bold or calm optimally (or maybe modest). Not Rash.
I did use an Abra that became a Kadabra in my No Damage run in Crystal. You have access to the elemental punches when you encounter your Abra which is amazing! My team throughout my that playthrough consisted of Kenya the fearow and Kadabra.
But this is obviously irrelevant because it was in gen 2 and not gen 3😅
If you had access to the elemental punches in gen 3 he would be nuts!
The treecko line is actually the first and only starter that I thought was so bad in my 3rd replay of the gen 3 games that I ended up boxing my starter. With all the playthroughs I have done, has it only happened once that I boxed my starter. (If it was a normal playthrough that is. Obviously in certain challenge runs I had to box my starters)
Good thing my Treecko randomly died early in my first Nuzlocke then.
@@robertlupa8273 very random death :((
@@eagletgriff He died to a Tailow of that kid who runs in circles on the beach west of Petalburg. So did my Poochyana. :(
@@robertlupa8273 Oh dear 😭😭😭 double casualty. My condolences
@@eagletgriff yeah, if i'm even gonna nuzlocke ruby or sapphire, I'll be staying away from that guy as far as possible
sceptile seems trash bc you're using a physical attacking move on an obvious special sweeper
So either youre trolling or you dont know that moves physical or special stat was determined soley by type prior to gen 4. So all grass type moves are special in these games, including leaf blade.
@@leaffinite2001 you'd have to be a noob to not know that....
@Sevynth Kiza so youre a noob or unfunny
@@leaffinite2001 i've been playing pokémon for years... since gba advanced, i have several EV/IV specific pokemon and even pokemon i've bred specifically for battle...i was trolling , its never that serious
@@sevynthkiza7701 thank goodness
I think Gyarados is overrated tbh. A Water type, who are historically more Special Attackers than Physical, yet I have one at lvl 50 with a SP Atk of 73. Basically meaning his Hydro Pump is only good with it’s STAB boost. Also, as a part Flying type, I maintain that he should be able to learn Aerial Ace in Gen III
If Gyarados could learn Aerial Ace in gen 3 that would be a massive help. His movepool in those games is just horrendous. Basically using Strength until you pick up Earthquake XD
If you'd play Emerald with the Physical/Special split, which Pokemon gets better and which gets worse?
That could be a whole video in itself honestly. But to name a few off the top of my head:
Both Swampert and Gyarados (and probably a few others) would greatly benefit from having Waterfall as a physical option.
Banette would be hurt a little due to Shadow Ball now being special instead of physical, as well as several other physical attackers that rely on Shadow Ball for additional coverage.
Most poison types will suffer with both Sludge and Sludge Bomb becoming special type moves.
Sceptile would suffer a bit if Leaf Blade were physical in gen 3.
Flygon would benefit a lot with Crunch.
There are a lot more examples but I'm gonna run out of characters for this comment if I keep going haha
Lost my kadabra in an emerald nuzlocke to wattsons manectric😔 crit quick attack man
Bummer, it always feels so unfair when it happens.
I feel it is a common sense to people that, while considering that Mudkip is arguably the best starter considering its region, all three starters in Hoenn are great, which I disagree.
Mudkip isn't on this debate, so bringing up Torchic, it has a very good typing and does what you want from your starter: Hits hard and fast *enough* (once it is a Blaziken, the other have a mid speed tier). Their main drawback is that Hoenn is "7.8 Too Much Water". So yes, you can just not bring it in the first place, but then you miss Exp., which isn't ideal, considering you are in the late game already, the place where you should get the most amount of levels to beat the high level trainers out there. Now, again, Torchic line is great, they do pretty well against most of the hardest part of the game, which I consider to be the early to mid game (Gyms 1 to 5 in Gen III), at least in my opinion, as you are very limited on what you can use (including Pokémon and moves).
Now, Treecko. Yes, they have STAB super-effective Leaf Blade on the "7.8 Too Much Water" section, but because in my opinion the hardest part in the game is Gyms 1-5, this means that you'll only have a shameful Grovyle with no moves to use, other than Bullet Seed/Absorb and silly coverage moves that do laughable damage because they don't get STAB.
Burn on swellow is a bad idea. It lowers attack. Having it be poisoned is better as you will have more damage.
guts ignores the burn attack drop , its the same with poision for attack stat
Crobat>Swellow
Yep, I agree with this
These seem less "Overrated" and more "Needs experience to use properly".
Yeah I guess that's true
@@grumpygengar22 Yeah, I came to this video wanting to learn about why some pokemon that are good in nuzlockes are actually not as good as they may appear, and except for Sceptile (which I do disagree btw, a pokemon having coverage against you doesn't necessarily make it a bad matchup) and Slaking, they were "you need to be good at nuzlocking to make the most out of this pokemon", or, in other words "these pokemon have a high skill ceiling and floor", whereas other pokemon are more reliable for starting nuzlockers because of their lower floor but also have a lower ceiling too.
To add to the abra line, gen 3 is the fall of the psychic type