Will never understand why it even is considered a Johto Pokemon. Like, I never played GS fully until I was a teen and played HGSS, but wouldn't most kids who did play it in 2000 consider it a Kanto Pokemon like Skarmory?
Johto's dex is just such a trainwreck is so many ways. It was obviously made to complement Kanto's original 151 and I guess it did that well but it cant stand on its own at all.
I should note that even if you're not using Geodude the whole game, and even if you don't have access to trade evolutions, a random Graveler that you can catch in Mt. Silver can 1v1 Red's Pikachu
Trade evolutions are annoying. Other tier lists, such as the ones from smogon, usually do two tiers. For the unevolved trade and the actual trade evolution. Seems a bit more fair, just in case. Some people play the virtual console games, or possibly a vanilla rom.
@@adriangutierrez7686 virtual console games you can trade with. And the time capsule works too. It’s even more accessible. With how easy it is to mod a 3ds everyone should have one.
@@adriangutierrez7686i mean i definitly get that especially for newer games but its really kinda easy to change trade evo’s with the universal pokemon randomiser (and it comes with the added bonus of allowing johto evo’s in kanto in FRLG giving lots of otherwise bad/meh pokemon like porygon, scyther, onix, horsea, and especially golbat a use, along with giving acces to split evo’s like eevee and oddish)
The Chikorita in your avatar is smiling to mask the pain... It's still a starter, so it's not THAT bad, but let's be real Chikorita is the worst starter of all time lmao.
Chikorita is my favorite starter too. I mean, Fennekin comes close (and was the first Fire starter I ever preferred to its generation's Water and Grass starters) but it just kinda lacks. At least Meganium isn't _as much_ of a step down visually from Bayleef as Delphox is from Braixen (my favorite part of most starter lines is the middle stage).
Technically you can get an Aerodactyl in Gen 2 via in-game trade, but since it's only available in Kanto and you have to trade a Chansey, might as well pretend that it doesn't exist, lol
Miltank isn’t the hardest thing, it’s just annoying. If you have Quilava you can spam smokescreen to reduce its accuracy dramatically so Rollout becomes a nonissue. Then you can switch into Gastly and put it to sleep with Hypnosis and then switch to Machop to Leer. If Miltank is going to wake up switch to Gastly to absorb the Stomp. Repeat until it dies to Karate Chop or Low Kick in a hit or two. Geodude is also a good option after you’ve lowered its accuracy to a point that consecutive Roll Outs are almost impossible. Geodude probably won’t kill Miltank without grinding it up so it learns Magnitude or Roll Out, but it can’t realistically die against Miltank especially after Defense Curling a few times.
Miltank isn't the hardest thing, instead of using a single sandslash, try my convoluted 3 pokemon idea to beat it that involves RNG and crap typing match ups to beat it. Don't you feel foolish for suggesting a sandslash instead of my insane Rube Goldberg pokemon machine?
You could try my old meta strategy of being a little babby that could barely read and just keep smacking it with the silly blue dinosaur until you win. I only had to give up in frustration like, 12 times.
@@basketbasket1225I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one who read that and thought it was a crazy strategy, if ur nuzlocking and quilt a is ur opening strategy that’s so bad bc of super effective rollout. That is not the only or the best pokemon to use an accuracy reducing move on it
Excuse me, Mr. B, if that IS your real name, but if you're not a fan of Q U A L I T Y content I suggest you indulge in wonderful American luncheon meats chock full o' fillers. No filler here! (Thank you for commenting btw)
I haven't seen anyone else say this, but you can get Pichu in Johto with the egg you get from the breeder, you'd just have to save and reset to get, becuase it can also be a bunch of other baby pokemon (nvm, that's crystal exclusive)
It's also a silver exclusive too! I remember it like yesterday trading my gold version for silver because of that and the fact lugia knows aeroblast versus forgetting it in gold >.
@@ImportedCheese yeah and it's more of an A Tier because it's movepool, Oh boi that movepool is really limited offensively, It doesn't even learn other good steel type moves and the coverage is pretty mediocre
I kind of wish you covered crystal a lot more for this because it solves a lot of the biggest problems for many of these pokemon. For one, you get an easily replenishable supply of stones from getting certain trainers' numbers, which instantly shoots a TON of Pokemon into being way more viable in that game. Granted, you do have to rely on the luck of those trainers ever actually calling you in the first place, but getting at least one of each stone isn't too hard at all, and you definitely shouldn't need any more than that. There's also some small differences in the availability of certain Pokemon, with the only REALLY notable difference being that you can get both Phanpy and Teddiursa right at the start of the game. Phanpy isn't a particularly amazing Pokemon, but it's decently solid and should be elevated quite a lot for being available so early when there aren't too many ground types besides the obvious Geodude. On the other hand, Teddiursa is MASSIVELY improved by being accessible so early on in crystal. Before it even evolves it already has a base 80 attack stat, which is nothing to scoff at, and it gets normal STAB, which is super valuable early on with headbutt being so easily obtainable. By the time you get return, it should probably already love you a lot since you get it so early on, and Ursaring can easily sweep through the entire rest of the game with return. Ursaring is basically just a better Granbull, as it's straight up better in every stat, with enormous attack, _surprisingly decent special attack for punching,_ and pretty good bulk for when you take some hits. It is definitely slower than you'd like, but you yourself talked about how stat EXP makes speed less of an issue, and it can definitely get by on base 55 speed well enough since you get it super early in the game and it is able to build up that stat EXP so quickly. Lastly, there's also the mystery egg that you get in the daycare in crystal, from which you can hatch Igglybuff, Tyrogue, Smoochum, Pichu, Magby, Cleffa, or Elekid. Most of these guys don't change anything too much, but you can get Smoochum a lot earlier now, which has surprisingly good special attack before it even evolves into Jynx, and look, it has arms, so it can punch stuff until it evolves. Aside from that, Elekid can be good with Thunderpunch and ends up being a good alternative to Ampharos if you want a faster Thunderpuncher.
Great points in favor of Phanphy and Teddiursa! I think that going forward I'll have to weight the "improved" releases more heavily, or at least mention the changes more often, because as you said, the tweaks can make certain pokemon waaay more viable.
@@ImportedCheese Thanks for considering my points! Something else to note is that Electabuzz has access to Ice Punch, whereas Ampharos strangely can only learn Fire and Thunder Punch. This gives it another small bump up in comparison to Ampharos because it has an easy way of dealing with Ground types, unlike Ampharos.
Electabuzz and Jynx are probably the best in game Pokémon. Both have elemental punches, Jynx has psychic stab and lovely kiss while Electabuzz has stronger stats and speed while getting thunder wave there’s no doubt they’re the best in the game. Magmar comes close too but I think Typhlosion is better
@@TheBlueWizzrobe Good luck getting Elekid, however. That Odd Egg can hatch into many different Pokémon, all with bad IVs, and it takes time to hatch the Egg and then bring Elekid up to L30.
One nice thing about Spearow is that Kenya (one you're intended to deliver to someone else) gets the traded EXP bonus since it's under a different OT. You get it multiple gyms later than other Spearow, but it's pretty potent.
One other nice thing is that it only matters that the MAIL gets to the other end of the delivery. If you instead give the mail to some random Bellsprout or whatever, you can get the reward for the mail quest AND keep Kenya for the rest of the playthrough.
You can get every elemental stone from kanto in bill's house, you just have to show one pokemon each who can use them. So one for leaf, one for fire etc. And getting them in crystal is super easy, you just need to have 4 numbers and they'll call you and give you stones.
Thank you for the corrections! The stones are still needlessly scarce and locked off until the Kanto post-game (unless you're playing Crystal), so I don't think my rating will change, unfortunately.
I think they made the stones rare in this one because they wanted you to use Espeon or Umbreon to showcase the happiness mechanic. That’s my theory anyway.
Again, solid tier list. Just want to mention a few things. Spearow should definitely be higher, probably A, and that's due to KENYA, the "gift" Spearow north of Goldenrod. This has the benefit of boosted exp gain due to belonging to a different trainer ID, which means you get access to stronger STAB Return much sooner than you would with a normal Spearow. Gligar should be bottom D, between Onix and Smeargle. It can't even learn Earthquake via TM in Gen 2. The ONLY WAY you can get an Earthquake Gligar is via gift in Pokemon Stadium 2. Bad stats, no STABs, available late, one of the worst mons in the game. Girafarig should be higher in B imo. Can get it fairly early (although it requires a backtrack to get back to Olivine/Cianwood), offers some role compression thanks to being a Psychic-type that also has a Normal-typing + decent Attack for good Return damage, and is one of the best Morty counters in the game thanks to its Ghost-immunity + Psychic-typing being good vs Poison. Also has a really good TM movepool and is probably one of the best Shadow Ball recipients to make it a great Psychic counter. I know Onix is bad, but I don't think it's bottom D bad. Still D, but it should be way higher in D imo. While Geodude exists, you at least have an Onix at Violet City with boosted EXP gains, and it's pretty decent against the first 4 gyms (good vs Flying and Bug, resists Normal and Miltank's Rollout, and you can teach it Dig for Morty and it takes little from physical Shadow Ball). Plus, if you're lucky enough to snag a Metal Coat from a wild Magnemite in the route between Ecruteak and Olivine, you get Steelix with boosted stat EXP. It's not sweeping much, but it offers a ton of resists thanks to the Steel-typing although you become Fire-weak which isn't really a bad tradeoff.
Hey, thanks for watching this one, too! I don't think our boi KENYA gives Spearow that much of a boost, Spearow itself just isn't good enough. I did use Kenya is my first ever RUclips video though, the minimum battle run of Gold. Gligar is...pretty horrible, yeah. He could probably go in D, but just on typing alone I don't think he goes at the bottom of it. You're right, Giraffarig is pretty good, and it has some nice use as a mixed attacker - I still don't think I would move it up much, though. My hatred of Onix is sort of a running theme of my content, and I'm memeing a bit by placing him so low, but I do honestly think Onix is horrendous. 45 base attack is just...useless. He can at least evolve, but of course he has to have the most obnoxious evolution method possible.
The Odd Egg is only in Japanese/VC Crystal I'm pretty sure, and the stones are similarly only available that way in Crystal. That's just off the top of my head though, so I could be a little wrong- I looked up the stone thing though, so I'm certain about it.
@@cadencenavigator958 Odd Egg is in vanilla Crystal, and the stones are Crystal only, so each stone evolution should be considered separately (Growlithe and Arcanine both ranked, Weepinbell and Victreebel both ranked, etc)
@@Neo_Bones what I hate about this is that you have no control over when you can evolve your stone evo mons, because the npc phone call is completely random. I could get lucky and get a fire stone real early, or wait until I'm literally about to fight the league, when that fisherman decides to give me a water stone
You can actually get a moonstone before the second gym, but it's convoluted. The things mom buys are based on how much money she has. If you decided to go back to her, and give her all of your money, and I mean every single coin from the early game. Then you just have to get a call and you will get the moonstone. But doing that is really annoying so, yeah, you won't have a moonstone this early.
This is so entertaining, damn! What a great list. Nice to see how dramativally different your ratings are compared to the competitive gods since this is the stall generation. Should've mentioned more items tho
I think this is the first video I saw from you back when it first came out. Its been a wild 3 years, but your long form content has gotten me through many long shifts of work, both premium and vod. Watching your channel grow has been great. Lets hope pokemon releases a game soon that doesnt require Tropium to enjoy.
@@ImportedCheese One thing that I LOVE about Kadabra/Alakazam is that with the elemental punches and a psychic move, it can literally super effect everything in the entire elite four except for Karen's Houndoom and Umbreon. It's such an overpowered beast of a Pokemon in gen2!
You missed another damaging dragon move that actually debuted in this gen: Outrage. The best (and only good) dragon move in the entire game and can actually knock out Kingdra easily. In this gen And III, it is only base 90, but good enough to destroy things if you give it to sth like Dragonite. Starting gen IV and its now monumental 120 base power.... It is easily one of the best moves of the entire gen.
Very late but Outrage just isn't very good at all in Gens 2 and 3, especially with how late you get it on Dragonite in GSC (even Dratini doesn't learn it until a high level). You can't use it against Clair's Kingdra and Ice Punch is just better against Lance.
Houndoom was one of and still my all time favorite Pokémon. Remember putting it in my main team next to shiny gyarados. Also I must be an odd person since I rarely used my starter Pokémon. Often pc it by final evolution if not before it. Often my team for gen2 would be houndoom. Gyarados. Skarmory. Lugia. Ampharos and tyranitar
I really wish Houndoom was available early in Johto, it would have been a great introduction to the B R A N D N E W Dark type. It doesn't even make any sense that they're only found in Kanto...where were they 3 years ago during the events of Red/Blue?
@@ImportedCheese Houndour would also be very useful for people who didn't choose Cyndaquil instead of having to get a Vulpix/Growlithe and getting lucky enough to score a Fire Stone somewhere.
Brother, you had me with the glitches and now the discussions? My subscription is ready. Continue going down the path you're going down. You're doing great!!!
It's interesting to me how your favorite choice in starter shaped how you rated a lot of these. As a big fan of Bulbasaur as a kid, I chose Chikorita. Personally to me, Lanturn is S tier for Gen 2. I seem to recall it being available fairly early, with crazy good coverage and bulk. You get Parafusion built into its kit too, which carried me through a lot of challenges. Also has insanely good synergy with Crobat, who 4x resists grass and is immune to ground, which are its only weaknesses. As well as directly countering water types that give Geodude trouble. On top of all of this, you don't have to waste any TMs on it as it learns all of its good moves while leveling. In Crystal you can move tutor Ice Beam and Thunderbolt onto it, which kept it relevant to me the entire game. But again, this is all because I never chose Totodile. So I naturally wanted to try out the new Electric/Water dual typing as a kid, and was not at all disappointed.
As much as I love Lanturn, you can only get it after having the Good Rod (aka Olivine CIty). Luckily it's an early evolution, you can teach it Surf immediately and it has Spark. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam are tutor moves that cost 4000 coins and you can only teacch one of those moves per day and only after beating the Champion. I think there is definitely an argument that can be made for it being an A tier Pokémon, but with meh speed and offenses, despite the amazing typing, ehhhh... there's not much than can make it S, sadly.
It still drives me nuts when pokemon games lock new pokemon in the post game. Gen 2 and 4 are the worst offenders, why the hell would you add all these cool new pokemon and not let people use them during the actual game?
Crobat doesn't learn Sludge Bomb at all in gen 2, which I'd say bumps it waaay down the list. Kingdra's weak to Outrage as well. Skarmory isn't Kanto, it's Johto on Route 45, Silver exclusive.
Yeah Crobat can't learn Sludge Bomb in gen 2, That's pretty bad, And in gen 3 it got Sludge Bomb and other TMS but it's movepool's still pretty shallow even in gen 3
My man! If I remember correctly, the first video of mine that you clicked on was the Gen 1 Tier List because of the Nidoking thumbnail, right? We're coming full circle!
Great vid again. Adding the gold/silver borders is a nice touch and having an extra tier and doing some sorting within tiers gave this vid more depth than the Gen 1 one. Some of you placings in the Kanto tier are slightly off though. Qwilfish and Remoraid are available in swarms, Doduo and Ponyta are technically Kanto-only but available before Elite 4 (and Rhyhorn, which you placed in a higher tier) and Skarmory is available of Route 45. You do some great work.
Thanks for the feedback! The K(anto) tier is sort of a special case because in no other gen do we have to do this weird theorycrafting about horrifically under leveled post-game pokemon. On the one hand, it's because GF balanced the level curve better, but on the other hand it's because they never again gave us a full region as post-game content...
I never bothered to look at your numbers before (subs, likes, etc.) And I'm astonished you don't have more subs. I could listen to your voice for hours.
Regarding the Nido's, the Moon Stone placement after gym 4 isn't C-rank bad, and both learn all punches and both are EQ-ers with ok speed and attack. Also... Snorlax starts with S for a reason. When you get it at level 60 (not 50), you can just replace your entire team with it and make it better than it was before. He's straight up better than both legendaries.
Ampharos is my absolute favorite pokemon so seeing it on the thumbnail made me glad. But then I saw that its line was shamefully put in A tier rather than SS tier as it objectively deserves for being a cute sheep and later a flipper giraffe dragon thing. Disliked, reverse comment that somehow reduces engagement, unsubscribed. Oh its about performance. Yeah I guess thats fair. I haven't watched the whole thing but I like that you are keeping in mind stuff like stat xp makes low speed not as bad as in later gens. Beating the opponents speed by 1 point or 200 points, the result is the same. With stat xp, the weird level curve meaning you will probably surpass their average level even if you don't try, and I think all enemy trainers pokemon have 0 DVs too, makes going second a rare occasion.
Thanks for watching, and sorry for the uh...light clickbaiting. See, light, because Ampharos is the uh, Pokemon in the lighthouse... Only 4 gens until we Ampharos fans regain the wool of our youth in glorious mega-evo fashion! ...with a bonus dragon type, for some reason?! (It's because Ampharos's Japanese name can be read as both electric current / electric dragon.)
DVs are kinda strange for enemies, it kinda depends on how "strong" the trainer should be, I'm pretty sure the E4 has something like 6 in every stat while weaker trainers do have low numbers
@@Hadaron They can be fished with a standard rod during swarms. Read the asterisk. If you are willing to register the phone number of the guy who can inform you about them, you will hear about those swarms soon enough. In my case, I received a swarm-related call not long after I registered those phone numbers. I caught a Qwilfish before even going to Azalea Town for instance.
Finished my bar exam last week and treated myself with another playthrough of Gold on virtual console. Funny how Game freak not only made Kadabra and Alakazam giga OP with the elemental punches but also for some reason made the evolution level not 25 like the other trade evos but level 15 AND give you Abra at lvl 10 right before Goldenrod. It's like they want you to break the game right open.
Also all the pokemon in S and A Tier plus Slowpoke have like near perfect availability for some reason? You have a full team of super heroes before Whitney and only optionally replace Slowpoke with the mandatory encounter Red Gyarados right after Morty? Excuse me?
Thank you! You could definitely make an argument for Slowpoke moving up to A, especially since it's not *that* much slower than Geodude, who I placed in S. I'd maybe move Snorlax up to A as well, it is undoubtedly one of the strongest pokemon once it's actually on your team, but you can only catch one halfway through Kanto. Its amazing power can only carry it so far, I think top of B is around where it averages out.
Personally I think Stantler exists to be a sort of a companion to Delibird, the two of them together having a Christmas theme (the way Murkrow and Misdreavus have a Halloween theme). In the anime, Santa's sleigh was pulled by flying Rapidash because there weren't any reindeer Pokemon available, and the closest match for an elf was Jynx so that's what his workshop was staffed by.
im very late but no, Magnemite doesn't have Thundebolt. GSC doesn't have the base 95 elemental special attacks as TMs, and Magnemite/ton's learnset doesn't include Thunderbolt. Frustratingly, Jasmine's Magnemites both know Thunderbolt.
I though Wobbufet was a cursed Pokémon, after my cousin and I caught one in the file we shared our Pokémon got infected with the Pokerus we returned him to the wild ASAP, which turns out it was just a good thing that it happened, how naive are kids.
I always hated hoothoot, hated its design and thought it was another bad early game bird, but actually it totally saved my ass on my first playthrough of Soul silver. With its normal typing and insomnia ability, its a true Matchwinner against Morty! I struggled alot against him, but Noctowl made the Fight a cakewalk, imune to sleep, imune to shadowball ... Yes please!
I think Lapras deserves A tier due to naturally learning STAB Ice Beam in a game where most water types don't get it until Kanto in Crystal only, and it helps vs Clair and Lance. Ice type isn't a con in this gen, and the availability requirement isn't THAT bad since it's a static encounter. Also a plus that you have surf ready to teach it upon catching it, so its good right away.
Here are my considerations: - I know you put the legendary beasts there with a big "*", but finding them is not the only problem. Even if you find one early, you probably won't be able to capture it. They always run away from the battles, and if you use Mean Look, they use Roar. - Heracross doesn't deserve A tier. Yeah, you can found it early and it has great stats, but you're basically stuck with Fury Cutter and an unSTABed Return during pretty much the entire first half of the game. You can only get Earthquake in the Victory Road, and Megahorn is only available at Lv 54. - Spearow is way too low. You get it very early, it has great speed and attack, STABed Return, evolves soon... Also, if you get Kenya, it also gets more experience than normal. This guy is at least A tier. - Tyrogue should be in D or bottom C. You need Waterfall to go get it, so you can only get it after you beat Claire. By that point, it is very underleved for your team. Also, Hi Jump Kick is only 85 BP in Gen 2. - Gligar is even worse than that. It can't learn Earthquake by TM. The only way to get one with Earthquake is by beating the round 2 in Pokémon Stadium 2. - Qwilfish, Remoraid and Skarmory aren't Kanto exclusive. You can get Qwilfish and Remoraid with the Good Rod during swarms. Skarmory can be found it Route 45 in Silver.
Sudowoodo is my favourite Pokemon of all time and I often use it when replaying GSC. While I do find it to be usable, it definitely struggles at times to be relevant. It starts off very strong since you get it at level 20 but due to its Speed stat it can really struggle to keep up with some other really great Pokemon. B is probably the right place for it but sometimes it feels like a C tier Pokemon. That said it does have a decent moveset since it gets Low Kick right off the bat, and it does learn Rock Slide after not too long. My main issue though is its lack of consistency. Rock Slide can miss a lot, and Low Kick is pretty niche. Once you give it the EQ TM it's a bit better once again but by that point you can rely on other Mons a lot of the time.
I did a grass mono Nuzlocke of Crystal once, and I'm going to stand up for Hoppip here. In spite of its mediocre offense and defense, all it really needs are its speed and moves. It evolves quickly, and cheeses so many boss fights. Just put them to sleep, plant some seeds on them, and spam either flash to lower accuracy or headbutt for some damage and the chance to flinch on awakening. Thanks to its speed it can do whatever it wants and there's nothing the opponent can do about it. It's a slow but surefire way to win against almost anything. Only real drawback is that grinding it is really tedious. Ended up finishing Lance's Charizard and beating a couple of his Dragonites with this thing. Also, I will confirm that Victreebel is better than Meganium if you can get a leaf stone. It functions as both a powder abuser, and an amazingly heavy hitter with sludge bomb. Aerodactyl actually is available in the game, but only in Kanto and you have to trade a Chansey for it, so not a big difference.
It is really strange that i agree with 90% of the pokemon (except for some defensive mons like Wobbuffet and Skarmory and i would even say Silver version Lugia mostly because i like to use defensive mons in my playthroughs) but the Ryhorn line should be higher not because of him, but of Rhydon, which you can get as a trade in Blackthorn so it is a bit earlier, only costing some time because you have to grind for a dragonair, but the exp boost from trade pokemon would make up the lost time i guess? And i think the dratini line should be lower because to the point you would get a dragonite, you would be already inside the E4 if you are not ending beating the game with a dragonair.
I love gen 2 for me it's easily my favorite generation with gen 5 in second and gen 7 in third (yes I know that last one is quite controversial but you know it's cool in my book)
The whole "this doesn't evolve? this mon SUCKS" bit was hilarious at first. Then it got tired. Then it got double (maybe even triple) as hilarious by the end of the video.
Good tier list. As a gen2 fan I agree with most of it. People in the comments already pointed out a few mistakes you made with availability and neglecting viable Crystal changes but other than that solid.
I fully agree with this list this time *lol* Geodude is a GOD in Gen2. Well, more a Godess, as the female one is more usable, just because of Whitney. You have some issues with the availiability, but I guess you focus on the normal playthrough methods here as well? Remoraid and Quilfish are possible to obtain with a normal rod while swarming (and they can swarm anytime, even if you don't get the corresponding fisherman's cell numbers) and Dratini is availiable in the Goldenrod Game Corner. It's a pretty easy one to get coins from, too, given you're playing at the right time on the otherwise used slot machine on the (I think) lowest right. But even then Dratini is not that good, as you will already have Abra, Ghostly and Geodude ;-p
Hey, thanks for watching this one, too! Geodudes rise up! You're right about swarming, although unfortunately Remoraid and Quilfish are still pretty underwhelming. I think I do note that Dratini is available in the game corner, but it's still wimpy until it gets all the way up to lv55 for that orange Barney glow-up. And yeah, by the time you reach Goldenrod you can already access the full trio of S-tier mons xD
Really solid list! I've played through the game with Haunter and it SUCKS, I didn't even know Gengar could learn the punches, I've really been missing out :(
@@ImportedCheese Thats gen 1 and 2 for you, as much as i love them, the move options back then werent always great. There are a few that annoys me to this day, like how aerodactyl never got rock slide in gen 2, literally would have been the perfect move for it. Doesnt make it any better that gamfreak decided to taunt us with Lance having aerodactyl with that exact move...
As a die hard Johto fanatic IC, this tier list is pretty much set except for a couple of mons. Girafarig: Definitely deserves A tier. Kick ass tm learnset (shadow ball, thunderbolt, iron tail, earthquake). Can be physical or special depending on how you set it's moves up. Most importantly & what I feel justifies it being in A tier, Baton pass. Can literally make Kingler into a guillotine god or Snorlax an unstoppable wrecking ball. Definite A tier for pokemon veterans. Also, a youtuber I'm subbed to soloed Silver (including red) with it at level 71. Magby/Magmar: A tier (would be S if it wasn't for availability & utility at *that point* , shines through the post game tho) 93 base speed, 12 off from *rapidash* . Flamthower upon evolution. Can learn thunderpunch for those pesky common water & flying types. Also kick ass tm & level up learnset (psychic, confuse ray, shadow ball, iron tail, fire blast). No other fire type does what magmar does. Chinchou/Lanturn: B tier? S Tier my guy. *THE ONLY* water/electric type. You can actually catch chinchou as early as you get the good rod (5% in new bark and olivine) I don't think you were very into competitive battling but there's this horrid status called parafusion (paralysis & confusion). Mix that confusion (of which 1/3 of the time, your mon is smacking itself) with swagger that Lanturn can learn with thunder wave & you have a big problem. Stab Surf is stronger than base fire blast, blizzard, and thunder. Thunder with stab is 180. That's *if* you don't give it mystic water or a magnet. This is why the chinchou line is my favorite johto pokemon. Death can look so deceptive.
Did a playthrough of Crystal a while back where I implemented a soft base stat cap of 420 to give myself a challenge. The only mon that had every HM I wanted, apart from Mew, was Suicune, so that was my HM slave. The rest of my team comprised Bayleef and Dragonair - and then three from your D tier: Ledian, Corsola and Togetic. So yeah, they suck, but making them work without items or overlevelling was fun.
My Corsola was pure stall (Ancientpower / Recover / Toxic / Whirlpool) and successfully pulled off a Red sweep after getting passed some boosts from my Berserk Gene-carrying Ledian (Curse / Agility / Light Screen / Baton Pass).
Yo! Just wanted to say I enjoyed this & your RBY tier list a TON. Very entertaining. Informative while also being brief. Thanks again for making these!
Dude I did the same thing with dubsparce , I feel like the devs did things like that to fuck with kids and make them raise a lvl 50 dunsparce before they find out it dosent evolve
@@ImportedCheese Totally understandable. Have a nice day. Shame so many Pokemon just don't perform so well during casual play. But I guess they had to balance and design for competitive as well.
Lapras I think is a bit underrated for one reason in particular: it’s probably your best option against Clair and Lance’s Dragon types. Kingdra is kind of a beast and you probably won’t kill it without a KO without using Lapras who is just insanely bulky and won’t die to anything other than Hyper Beam which if it’s level 36 against Clair’s level 40 Kingdra it will only perish from a Hyper Beam if it’s in the range of 32.9-39.3% hp. Aside from that Kingdra’s Dragon Breath (it’s next best attack) only has a “possible” chance to 5HKO Lapras from full while Lapras can just Perish Song and switch on the last turn or it has a 46.1% chance to 4HKO (guaranteed 5HKO) Kingdra with Ice Beam. The Perish Song trick also works great against Red’s Snorlax who might steamroll you if you don’t have a plan specifically for it. Lapras is a really good option for the 3 hardest fights in the game and deserves some recognition for it.
@@ImportedCheesesome more information I learned: -while the fact that it is restricted to exclusively Friday, I do think it is kind of a net positive for availability because of the fact that it’s a static spawn so there is absolutely zero chance of missing it. I think you can mess with the in game clock in a couple of ways if you’re too impatient, but waiting potentially 0 days, an average 3 days, and at most 6 real life days for a guaranteed encounter on a super star of a Pokémon is at least better than Heracross and Gyarados who have next to no moves (and Heracross forcing you to use some weird search engine with the right algorithm to find it because it’s based on a variety of factors you can’t easily control if you can at all meaning you might only be able to catch it on a later route). At the very least you can go outside and touch some real life grass that isn’t ass and avoid all the toxic-leech seed comments. -in Crystal Ice Beam and Thunderbolt are tutor moves Lapras can learn (admittedly you have to put down 4,000 coins for each move to some guy outside the game corner and only on Wednesdays and Saturdays) so it can get boltbeam coverage which you only really see elsewhere on Kadabra and Gengar (Haunter and Gastly don’t get the punches which kinda makes them the worst of the Kanto trade evos if you can’t actually evolve it if you’re on an emulator). It also gets Psychic eventually in Kanto…so there is that. -it gets probably the strongest Surf in the game, outside of legendaries it definitely does. Probably the strongest ice beam too, outside of legendaries. -it’s physical attack is decent and good for early-mid game so Body Slam could serve you well if necessary until you get better moves. Plus the Paralysis chance is always nice. -so long as you avoid Iron Tail and Sunny Day, it can destroy Jasmine’s Steelix while being 15 levels lower-which is how I beat it (not the biggest feat considering it’s an AHHH-nix evo but still neat) -if this thing were available before Whitney it would actually get through Miltank quite easily solo; but unfortunately it isn’t so there is that. At first that doesn’t sound like it should be a point in its favor but then you realize that even Geodude, your best solo option against Miltank, needs SOME level of support like smokescreen off Quilava and/or Gastly Hypnosis to avoid consecutive Roll Out bulling you over eventually or a grind fest up to Graveler and potentially Golem if you can trade. The fact that this fight is only as annoying as it is because Lapras is locked behind arbitrary locks and keys should tell you a lot on how strong Lapras actually is.
Great tier list! However a few things I don't agree with. I never really thought Bulbasuar was "easy" mode in Gen 1, considering after LT Surge he hits a brick wall until Giovanni. Especially when you factor in all the poison types you fight from TR members or bikers. Or how many Picnicker trainers like to use Grass types. And if we're going by RBY none of Brock's mons had Rock type moves, so Charmander didn't have that bad of a time, especially when you consider Onix/Geodude low SP defense. As for Cyndaquil I'd put it in S Tier because while Typhlosion doesn't have the most consistent type MU (now that I think about it, it does have the best MU of the trio), it gets the job done the best of the three starters. Its excellent against Elite Four, Jasmine, Bugsy, Pryce and all the rocket members. Not to mention how many common grass and poison types you run into, the latter which tend to be weaker on the special side (excluding one's like Muk) the only downside is that you get Typhlosion the latest of the three starters and its the worst to train on Mountain Rd (south of Blackthorn), while Feraligatr is gotten the earliest. (Level 30) biggest issue with Feraligatr is that there are much better water types (Cloyster, Lanturn, Lapras, Quagsire, Slowbro, Tentacruel) the Water/Ice types being effective Lance/Clair counters (provided you don't have rock for Lance or a Jynx/Piloswine) as for Lanturn its typing can wall out a lot of mons, great tank for all the legendaries, yeah Lanturn walls all of them. Evolution stones can be gotten in Crystal by NPCs. So the stone thing is only an issue for Gold and Silver, the same applies to Sneasel, its typing is bad for its stat distribution, but in Crystal you can get it in Ice Cave and does have utility with physical moves. As for the Pichu line, you can technically get one if you get it from the Odd Egg (which also helps if you soft reset) and Raichu isn't bad, works as a decent Ampharos replacement in Crystal if you don't choose Elekid from Odd Egg. Speaking of Odd Egg I believe is important to factor in the evolutions of the babies, considering Jynx, Magmar, Electabuzz, Raichu, Clefable and the Hitmons can all be gotten this way, and all make good team members. I've used Odd Egg to conduct my team before. As for Crobat its a good Pokemon, but in Gen 2 specifically its actually not that good, can't even learn a single poison type move (Why can't it learn Sludge Bomb?) it doesn't even get good physical coverage like Shadow Ball. The best it gets are Wing Attack, Fly and Hidden Power variants.
I think Pinsir deserves some credit for getting a 1 Hit KO move at level 30 in a game where using an x accuracy removes the accuracy check entirely. I almost prefer it over Heracross since Heracross only gets megahorn at level 54 which is kinda useless
@@ImportedCheese yeah surprisingly, weird they missed that. Is heracross much easier? Finding a rare tree basically requires external calculators and it’s catch rate is a pain
Having Aerodactyl on the Unown tier is actually false. There is a girl in the same field where you can catch Chansey (in Kanto just East of Fuschia City) who will trade you an Aerodactyl for your Chansey. Skarmory isn't Kanto exclusive, you can find it on the route between the 8th badge and the starting town. Doduo isn't Kanto exclusive, you can find it between Mahogany and Olivine. Ponyta isn't Kanto exclusive, you can find it on the route between the 8th badge and the starting town. Sneasel isn't Kanto exclusive, you can find it on Victory Road (before fighting the elite four). Calling Misdreavus "Kanto exclusive" is a bit of a stretch since you can only get it in Mt. Silver (which is in Johto). Since it still requires Kanto unlock to obtain though, I'll allow it. Same for Larvitar. The overused "oh the evolution isn't in this game" joke got old after the first time. Repeating jokes isn't that funny.
I think Sudowoodo is A tier because of its solid att & def, mimic tricks, fighting coverage, and if it’s strong enough it can tank Lance’s team and wipe some of them out with Rockslide
@@ImportedCheese Low kick is bad but I meant dynamic punch. Mimic is a gimmick but it’s still usable. Sudowoodo also doesn’t have as many weaknesses as graveler
@@ImportedCheese the accuracy is low but the power and 2nd effect is nice, so Idk about it being worse. The ground stab is nice but with the 2 4x weaknesses it gets countered hard in bad matchups
I wonder how much the baby Pokemon benefit in Crystal due to the possibility of receiving then from the Odd Egg, which means early Cleffa/Smoochum/Elekid/Tyrogue. Also, something you missed for Togetic, it's a good field move slave. Learns Fly, Headbutt, Rock Smash, and Flash, iirc. I also feel like you undervalue field move coverage in general in these, because frankly a good field move slave is more useful than all but the best battle Pokemon could ever be.
I recently played through Crystal with a 5 member team of Typhlosion, Politoed, Alakazam, Machamp and Granbull. That is, until I got to the E4 and Champion, at which point my team became Alakazam with occasional support from the peasants. Psychic/Fire Punch/Thunder Punch/Ice Punch is REALLY powerful on a Gen 2 Alakazam.
The Houndour line being Kanto exclusive is a war crime
Wasn't the first time houndour was available pre-E4 in Pt? What a trainwreck
As a Houndour fan, I agree. Should have at least been available on Rt. 35 1% at night but no the 1% encounter Pokémon there has to be Yanma smh
Will never understand why it even is considered a Johto Pokemon. Like, I never played GS fully until I was a teen and played HGSS, but wouldn't most kids who did play it in 2000 consider it a Kanto Pokemon like Skarmory?
What’s worse in every Kanto game to follow it isn’t obtainable...... why??? Johto mons should be in JOHTO!!
@@gars129 a lot of people thought Slugma was a Gen 3 mon
"what's that? it doesn't evolve?" got me literally every time LOL
I still can't believe they added this absolute garbage to Gen 2, they're sooooo bad.
Johto's dex is just such a trainwreck is so many ways. It was obviously made to complement Kanto's original 151 and I guess it did that well but it cant stand on its own at all.
doesn't help that so much of it that shouldn't suck either
A: is postgame locked
B: Doesn't have it's evolution yet
C: Both of the Above
I want to like this coment but i don't want to take away it's Nice status
"Oh my god this thing is awful!"
The remakes really helped a lot of these guys that aren't named Onix have a chance to shine
You can find wild Steelix in the Cliff Cave along Route 47
Yea, too bad that the Tier S are traded evolutions 😡
@@LordRemiem Weird how a DualScreen Handheld System game wants you to touch grass and communicate with other beings.
Crystal made it super easy to evolve some of these stone evolutions, I swear u could easily get stones from some of these people on the poke gear
@@SpookyRedBonei mean you can definitly get them but it takes way to long lmao
The Whirl Islands carry on the legacy of the Seafoam Islands by locking away mediocre water types until they're outclassed by every other option.
Eh kingdra is insanely good. It’s just a pita to evolve.
@@billybobbobson3797true
I should note that even if you're not using Geodude the whole game, and even if you don't have access to trade evolutions, a random Graveler that you can catch in Mt. Silver can 1v1 Red's Pikachu
I feel like that's more a slight against Pikachu, what an absolutely awful pokemon.
Trade evolutions are annoying. Other tier lists, such as the ones from smogon, usually do two tiers. For the unevolved trade and the actual trade evolution. Seems a bit more fair, just in case. Some people play the virtual console games, or possibly a vanilla rom.
@@adriangutierrez7686 virtual console games you can trade with. And the time capsule works too. It’s even more accessible.
With how easy it is to mod a 3ds everyone should have one.
@@adriangutierrez7686i mean i definitly get that especially for newer games but its really kinda easy to change trade evo’s with the universal pokemon randomiser (and it comes with the added bonus of allowing johto evo’s in kanto in FRLG giving lots of otherwise bad/meh pokemon like porygon, scyther, onix, horsea, and especially golbat a use, along with giving acces to split evo’s like eevee and oddish)
Fun fact: in the remakes of these games you CAN catch wild Steelix. In the route before the Safari Zone. So no crappy trade required.
You can also get one from Jasmine. You just have to trade her any random Pokémon of your choosing.
got two takeaways from this video:
- does it have hands? high tier
- heartgold and soulsilver REALLY fixed a lot of problems with this game huh
"And Chikorita fans know best that Chikorita is the worst starter"
No... I don't want to accept the truth...
The Chikorita in your avatar is smiling to mask the pain...
It's still a starter, so it's not THAT bad, but let's be real Chikorita is the worst starter of all time lmao.
Yeah, no other starter struggles nearly as much as Chikorita. It sucks because Chikorita's my favorite starter of all time
@@ImportedCheese that’s not even a Chikorita lmao... that’s Bell from BFDI
@@Neo_Bones I never realized how much Bell looks like Chikorita until now...
Chikorita is my favorite starter too. I mean, Fennekin comes close (and was the first Fire starter I ever preferred to its generation's Water and Grass starters) but it just kinda lacks. At least Meganium isn't _as much_ of a step down visually from Bayleef as Delphox is from Braixen (my favorite part of most starter lines is the middle stage).
Technically you can get an Aerodactyl in Gen 2 via in-game trade, but since it's only available in Kanto and you have to trade a Chansey, might as well pretend that it doesn't exist, lol
Ah...you're right, it is available!
Uh...Kanto tier. Nice and fast though!
My mom used to pack my lunch; she would put the bacon in tinfoil and shape it like a geodude.
Unown should've had a gimmick where they know 4 different hidden powers. Type coverage pokemon.
That would actually be really cool. Missed opportunity
@@RedRockin6 In Legends Arceus, Hidden Power is always super effective, but it's only on Unown. So there's that
I remember just happening to catch raikou with a great ball before the Morty gym. That was a hilarious playthrough
"I have hunted the legendary beasts in order to find Ho-Oh, and to do so i shall defea-"
"Oh you mean this thing?"
*Pulls out early raikou*
@@funninoriginal6054 Awesome!
Gen 2 Sandshrew is one of the best anti-Miltank measures with great defense, a resistance to Rollout, Dig to break the streak and good attack overall
Miltank isn’t the hardest thing, it’s just annoying. If you have Quilava you can spam smokescreen to reduce its accuracy dramatically so Rollout becomes a nonissue. Then you can switch into Gastly and put it to sleep with Hypnosis and then switch to Machop to Leer. If Miltank is going to wake up switch to Gastly to absorb the Stomp. Repeat until it dies to Karate Chop or Low Kick in a hit or two. Geodude is also a good option after you’ve lowered its accuracy to a point that consecutive Roll Outs are almost impossible. Geodude probably won’t kill Miltank without grinding it up so it learns Magnitude or Roll Out, but it can’t realistically die against Miltank especially after Defense Curling a few times.
Miltank isn't the hardest thing, instead of using a single sandslash, try my convoluted 3 pokemon idea to beat it that involves RNG and crap typing match ups to beat it.
Don't you feel foolish for suggesting a sandslash instead of my insane Rube Goldberg pokemon machine?
or geodude which works better
You could try my old meta strategy of being a little babby that could barely read and just keep smacking it with the silly blue dinosaur until you win. I only had to give up in frustration like, 12 times.
@@basketbasket1225I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one who read that and thought it was a crazy strategy, if ur nuzlocking and quilt a is ur opening strategy that’s so bad bc of super effective rollout. That is not the only or the best pokemon to use an accuracy reducing move on it
Really pushing for that 10-minute mark, huh?
Excuse me, Mr. B, if that IS your real name, but if you're not a fan of Q U A L I T Y content I suggest you indulge in wonderful American luncheon meats chock full o' fillers.
No filler here!
(Thank you for commenting btw)
I haven't seen anyone else say this, but you can get Pichu in Johto with the egg you get from the breeder, you'd just have to save and reset to get, becuase it can also be a bunch of other baby pokemon (nvm, that's crystal exclusive)
Me: Isn't Slugma a Gen 3 poke?
"I guarantee you you thought this was a gen 3 pokemon!"
Damn, read my mind, lol.
Skarmory is route 45, it's pre-elite four
You're right! In that case it escapes Kanto, but given how underlevelled and defensively leaning it is I don't think it would go above high C / low B.
It's also a silver exclusive too! I remember it like yesterday trading my gold version for silver because of that and the fact lugia knows aeroblast versus forgetting it in gold >.
You can catch it here in crystal too.
@@ImportedCheese yeah and it's more of an A Tier because it's movepool, Oh boi that movepool is really limited offensively, It doesn't even learn other good steel type moves and the coverage is pretty mediocre
And defense on this game don't even matter cause it's in game, not competitive
I kind of wish you covered crystal a lot more for this because it solves a lot of the biggest problems for many of these pokemon. For one, you get an easily replenishable supply of stones from getting certain trainers' numbers, which instantly shoots a TON of Pokemon into being way more viable in that game. Granted, you do have to rely on the luck of those trainers ever actually calling you in the first place, but getting at least one of each stone isn't too hard at all, and you definitely shouldn't need any more than that.
There's also some small differences in the availability of certain Pokemon, with the only REALLY notable difference being that you can get both Phanpy and Teddiursa right at the start of the game. Phanpy isn't a particularly amazing Pokemon, but it's decently solid and should be elevated quite a lot for being available so early when there aren't too many ground types besides the obvious Geodude. On the other hand, Teddiursa is MASSIVELY improved by being accessible so early on in crystal. Before it even evolves it already has a base 80 attack stat, which is nothing to scoff at, and it gets normal STAB, which is super valuable early on with headbutt being so easily obtainable. By the time you get return, it should probably already love you a lot since you get it so early on, and Ursaring can easily sweep through the entire rest of the game with return. Ursaring is basically just a better Granbull, as it's straight up better in every stat, with enormous attack, _surprisingly decent special attack for punching,_ and pretty good bulk for when you take some hits. It is definitely slower than you'd like, but you yourself talked about how stat EXP makes speed less of an issue, and it can definitely get by on base 55 speed well enough since you get it super early in the game and it is able to build up that stat EXP so quickly.
Lastly, there's also the mystery egg that you get in the daycare in crystal, from which you can hatch Igglybuff, Tyrogue, Smoochum, Pichu, Magby, Cleffa, or Elekid. Most of these guys don't change anything too much, but you can get Smoochum a lot earlier now, which has surprisingly good special attack before it even evolves into Jynx, and look, it has arms, so it can punch stuff until it evolves. Aside from that, Elekid can be good with Thunderpunch and ends up being a good alternative to Ampharos if you want a faster Thunderpuncher.
Great points in favor of Phanphy and Teddiursa!
I think that going forward I'll have to weight the "improved" releases more heavily, or at least mention the changes more often, because as you said, the tweaks can make certain pokemon waaay more viable.
@@ImportedCheese Thanks for considering my points! Something else to note is that Electabuzz has access to Ice Punch, whereas Ampharos strangely can only learn Fire and Thunder Punch. This gives it another small bump up in comparison to Ampharos because it has an easy way of dealing with Ground types, unlike Ampharos.
Electabuzz and Jynx are probably the best in game Pokémon. Both have elemental punches, Jynx has psychic stab and lovely kiss while Electabuzz has stronger stats and speed while getting thunder wave there’s no doubt they’re the best in the game. Magmar comes close too but I think Typhlosion is better
Yeah in Crystal Growlithe is by far the best Fire type to use if you didn't choose Cyndaquil
@@TheBlueWizzrobe Good luck getting Elekid, however. That Odd Egg can hatch into many different Pokémon, all with bad IVs, and it takes time to hatch the Egg and then bring Elekid up to L30.
Great tier list. I would have put Spearow in S-Tier because of Kenya.
OUR BIG BOI KENYA
Best Team Rocket player moment
One nice thing about Spearow is that Kenya (one you're intended to deliver to someone else) gets the traded EXP bonus since it's under a different OT. You get it multiple gyms later than other Spearow, but it's pretty potent.
One other nice thing is that it only matters that the MAIL gets to the other end of the delivery. If you instead give the mail to some random Bellsprout or whatever, you can get the reward for the mail quest AND keep Kenya for the rest of the playthrough.
@@misirtere9836 WTF that's awesome. I didn't know that. I remember using Kenya for my playthrough as a kid xD
You can get every elemental stone from kanto in bill's house, you just have to show one pokemon each who can use them. So one for leaf, one for fire etc. And getting them in crystal is super easy, you just need to have 4 numbers and they'll call you and give you stones.
Thank you for the corrections! The stones are still needlessly scarce and locked off until the Kanto post-game (unless you're playing Crystal), so I don't think my rating will change, unfortunately.
I used to sleep on Magmar, until I used it in Gold. When I learned it learns flamethrower around level 30, it became A tier to me.
Also gets thunder punch access
I think they made the stones rare in this one because they wanted you to use Espeon or Umbreon to showcase the happiness mechanic. That’s my theory anyway.
True. Why use Espeon when Abra exists? And why us Umbreon at all?
@@maninthetrenchcoat5603 because Umbreon is a good boy
@@maninthetrenchcoat5603 Because Umbreon is the only Dark type you can get before Kanto
This Cheese smiles so much. Before his spirit got broken by the constant, annoying, aggressive painful repeated questioning from chat.
Again, solid tier list. Just want to mention a few things.
Spearow should definitely be higher, probably A, and that's due to KENYA, the "gift" Spearow north of Goldenrod. This has the benefit of boosted exp gain due to belonging to a different trainer ID, which means you get access to stronger STAB Return much sooner than you would with a normal Spearow.
Gligar should be bottom D, between Onix and Smeargle. It can't even learn Earthquake via TM in Gen 2. The ONLY WAY you can get an Earthquake Gligar is via gift in Pokemon Stadium 2. Bad stats, no STABs, available late, one of the worst mons in the game.
Girafarig should be higher in B imo. Can get it fairly early (although it requires a backtrack to get back to Olivine/Cianwood), offers some role compression thanks to being a Psychic-type that also has a Normal-typing + decent Attack for good Return damage, and is one of the best Morty counters in the game thanks to its Ghost-immunity + Psychic-typing being good vs Poison. Also has a really good TM movepool and is probably one of the best Shadow Ball recipients to make it a great Psychic counter.
I know Onix is bad, but I don't think it's bottom D bad. Still D, but it should be way higher in D imo. While Geodude exists, you at least have an Onix at Violet City with boosted EXP gains, and it's pretty decent against the first 4 gyms (good vs Flying and Bug, resists Normal and Miltank's Rollout, and you can teach it Dig for Morty and it takes little from physical Shadow Ball). Plus, if you're lucky enough to snag a Metal Coat from a wild Magnemite in the route between Ecruteak and Olivine, you get Steelix with boosted stat EXP. It's not sweeping much, but it offers a ton of resists thanks to the Steel-typing although you become Fire-weak which isn't really a bad tradeoff.
Hey, thanks for watching this one, too!
I don't think our boi KENYA gives Spearow that much of a boost, Spearow itself just isn't good enough. I did use Kenya is my first ever RUclips video though, the minimum battle run of Gold.
Gligar is...pretty horrible, yeah. He could probably go in D, but just on typing alone I don't think he goes at the bottom of it.
You're right, Giraffarig is pretty good, and it has some nice use as a mixed attacker - I still don't think I would move it up much, though.
My hatred of Onix is sort of a running theme of my content, and I'm memeing a bit by placing him so low, but I do honestly think Onix is horrendous. 45 base attack is just...useless. He can at least evolve, but of course he has to have the most obnoxious evolution method possible.
GS was so whack. Like imagine only adding 100 pokes and locking like 10%+ of them until post-game? Though DP did this specific thing pretty bad too.
Qwilfish - Route 32, Swarm
Remoraid - Route 44, Fish
Skarmory - Route 45
Doduo - Route 26/27 (Yes this is Kanto but it’s before the Elite 4)
Ponyta - Route 26/27
Pichu - Odd Egg
Cleffa - Odd Egg
Elekid - Odd Egg
Kanto Eeveelutions - Get certain phone numbers. They’ll give you the stones
Cubone - Game Corner (Crystal Only)
The Odd Egg is only in Japanese/VC Crystal I'm pretty sure, and the stones are similarly only available that way in Crystal. That's just off the top of my head though, so I could be a little wrong- I looked up the stone thing though, so I'm certain about it.
@@cadencenavigator958 Odd Egg is in vanilla Crystal, and the stones are Crystal only, so each stone evolution should be considered separately (Growlithe and Arcanine both ranked, Weepinbell and Victreebel both ranked, etc)
@@Neo_Bones what I hate about this is that you have no control over when you can evolve your stone evo mons, because the npc phone call is completely random. I could get lucky and get a fire stone real early, or wait until I'm literally about to fight the league, when that fisherman decides to give me a water stone
@@johnapple6646 you can have your mom in New Bark change between DST and not DST which will confuse the clock and have your contacts call you randomly
@@Neo_Bones I've never heard of this, how do you manipulate phone calls? Do they just immediately call you when you change the clock?
You can actually get a moonstone before the second gym, but it's convoluted. The things mom buys are based on how much money she has. If you decided to go back to her, and give her all of your money, and I mean every single coin from the early game. Then you just have to get a call and you will get the moonstone. But doing that is really annoying so, yeah, you won't have a moonstone this early.
wtf were they thinking with the stone availability
thankfully they fixed it in crystal, but like how the hell do you fuck it up so bad
This is so entertaining, damn! What a great list. Nice to see how dramativally different your ratings are compared to the competitive gods since this is the stall generation.
Should've mentioned more items tho
I think this is the first video I saw from you back when it first came out. Its been a wild 3 years, but your long form content has gotten me through many long shifts of work, both premium and vod. Watching your channel grow has been great. Lets hope pokemon releases a game soon that doesnt require Tropium to enjoy.
Piloswine is the most middle evolution looking Pokemon that was once a final evolution
54:20 early evidence for latent qwilfish powers
immediately apologizes after insulting qwilfish
So basically, if you can trade, you can sweep gen 2. got it
Pretty much, although trade evolutions are a bit weird in how they boost stats. Kadabra is still very much capable of sweeping as "just" a Kadabra.
@@ImportedCheese One thing that I LOVE about Kadabra/Alakazam is that with the elemental punches and a psychic move, it can literally super effect everything in the entire elite four except for Karen's Houndoom and Umbreon. It's such an overpowered beast of a Pokemon in gen2!
As a Delibird enjoyer, I have never been so offended by something I 100% agree with
You missed another damaging dragon move that actually debuted in this gen: Outrage. The best (and only good) dragon move in the entire game and can actually knock out Kingdra easily.
In this gen And III, it is only base 90, but good enough to destroy things if you give it to sth like Dragonite. Starting gen IV and its now monumental 120 base power.... It is easily one of the best moves of the entire gen.
Very late but Outrage just isn't very good at all in Gens 2 and 3, especially with how late you get it on Dragonite in GSC (even Dratini doesn't learn it until a high level). You can't use it against Clair's Kingdra and Ice Punch is just better against Lance.
Houndoom was one of and still my all time favorite Pokémon. Remember putting it in my main team next to shiny gyarados. Also I must be an odd person since I rarely used my starter Pokémon. Often pc it by final evolution if not before it.
Often my team for gen2 would be houndoom. Gyarados. Skarmory. Lugia. Ampharos and tyranitar
I really wish Houndoom was available early in Johto, it would have been a great introduction to the B R A N D N E W Dark type.
It doesn't even make any sense that they're only found in Kanto...where were they 3 years ago during the events of Red/Blue?
@@ImportedCheese Houndour would also be very useful for people who didn't choose Cyndaquil instead of having to get a Vulpix/Growlithe and getting lucky enough to score a Fire Stone somewhere.
Brother, you had me with the glitches and now the discussions? My subscription is ready. Continue going down the path you're going down. You're doing great!!!
It's interesting to me how your favorite choice in starter shaped how you rated a lot of these. As a big fan of Bulbasaur as a kid, I chose Chikorita. Personally to me, Lanturn is S tier for Gen 2. I seem to recall it being available fairly early, with crazy good coverage and bulk. You get Parafusion built into its kit too, which carried me through a lot of challenges. Also has insanely good synergy with Crobat, who 4x resists grass and is immune to ground, which are its only weaknesses. As well as directly countering water types that give Geodude trouble. On top of all of this, you don't have to waste any TMs on it as it learns all of its good moves while leveling. In Crystal you can move tutor Ice Beam and Thunderbolt onto it, which kept it relevant to me the entire game.
But again, this is all because I never chose Totodile. So I naturally wanted to try out the new Electric/Water dual typing as a kid, and was not at all disappointed.
As much as I love Lanturn, you can only get it after having the Good Rod (aka Olivine CIty). Luckily it's an early evolution, you can teach it Surf immediately and it has Spark. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam are tutor moves that cost 4000 coins and you can only teacch one of those moves per day and only after beating the Champion. I think there is definitely an argument that can be made for it being an A tier Pokémon, but with meh speed and offenses, despite the amazing typing, ehhhh... there's not much than can make it S, sadly.
It still drives me nuts when pokemon games lock new pokemon in the post game. Gen 2 and 4 are the worst offenders, why the hell would you add all these cool new pokemon and not let people use them during the actual game?
Justice for Houndour!
"I kept leveling it up, it never evolved. Still doesn't."
Cursola: am I joke to you?
Cursola is basically a different pokemon tho >.>
And you know what's even more sad? This evolution is basically worse than Gen 8 Corsola, due to the eviolite.
@@angelovertim2360 it goes from brick wall to (yet another) trick room sweeper
Your early Tier lists were do tame and cute I love how the memes just evolved into absolute madness.
It's not my fault the viewers drove me to madness
Crobat doesn't learn Sludge Bomb at all in gen 2, which I'd say bumps it waaay down the list.
Kingdra's weak to Outrage as well.
Skarmory isn't Kanto, it's Johto on Route 45, Silver exclusive.
Yeah Crobat can't learn Sludge Bomb in gen 2, That's pretty bad, And in gen 3 it got Sludge Bomb and other TMS but it's movepool's still pretty shallow even in gen 3
""Falcon... PUNCH" is what Ledian cheers to itself in the lonely, unranked depths of PU, because it's a god-awful Pokemon with no niche."
I'm a simple man
I see a new Imported Cheese video
I click
My man! If I remember correctly, the first video of mine that you clicked on was the Gen 1 Tier List because of the Nidoking thumbnail, right? We're coming full circle!
The baby Pokémon are all available before the third gym in Crystal.
Only problem is that you can only get one of them.
Great vid again. Adding the gold/silver borders is a nice touch and having an extra tier and doing some sorting within tiers gave this vid more depth than the Gen 1 one. Some of you placings in the Kanto tier are slightly off though. Qwilfish and Remoraid are available in swarms, Doduo and Ponyta are technically Kanto-only but available before Elite 4 (and Rhyhorn, which you placed in a higher tier) and Skarmory is available of Route 45. You do some great work.
You did say where you'd place these Mon in any case so not really a big deal.
Thanks for the feedback! The K(anto) tier is sort of a special case because in no other gen do we have to do this weird theorycrafting about horrifically under leveled post-game pokemon.
On the one hand, it's because GF balanced the level curve better, but on the other hand it's because they never again gave us a full region as post-game content...
I never bothered to look at your numbers before (subs, likes, etc.) And I'm astonished you don't have more subs. I could listen to your voice for hours.
Regarding the Nido's, the Moon Stone placement after gym 4 isn't C-rank bad, and both learn all punches and both are EQ-ers with ok speed and attack.
Also... Snorlax starts with S for a reason. When you get it at level 60 (not 50), you can just replace your entire team with it and make it better than it was before. He's straight up better than both legendaries.
Snorlax is lv 50 and could be literally invincible and one shot everything and I wouldn't rank it higher, too slow
@@ImportedCheese Dang it you're right, 50 it is! And I understand your reasoning better, you basically hate the "Enemy 'mon used Move! "-text.
"You wanna hit things." Solid advice ; almost unironically.
Ampharos is my absolute favorite pokemon so seeing it on the thumbnail made me glad. But then I saw that its line was shamefully put in A tier rather than SS tier as it objectively deserves for being a cute sheep and later a flipper giraffe dragon thing. Disliked, reverse comment that somehow reduces engagement, unsubscribed.
Oh its about performance. Yeah I guess thats fair. I haven't watched the whole thing but I like that you are keeping in mind stuff like stat xp makes low speed not as bad as in later gens. Beating the opponents speed by 1 point or 200 points, the result is the same. With stat xp, the weird level curve meaning you will probably surpass their average level even if you don't try, and I think all enemy trainers pokemon have 0 DVs too, makes going second a rare occasion.
Thanks for watching, and sorry for the uh...light clickbaiting. See, light, because Ampharos is the uh, Pokemon in the lighthouse...
Only 4 gens until we Ampharos fans regain the wool of our youth in glorious mega-evo fashion!
...with a bonus dragon type, for some reason?!
(It's because Ampharos's Japanese name can be read as both electric current / electric dragon.)
DVs are kinda strange for enemies, it kinda depends on how "strong" the trainer should be, I'm pretty sure the E4 has something like 6 in every stat while weaker trainers do have low numbers
Qwilfish can be fished with a normal fishrod, you know. Remoraid isn't a Kanto exclusive as well, you can fish it before the league.
They’re not fishable with a standard rod in the original Gold and Silver. Checked both bulbapedia and Serebii to double-check.
@@Hadaron They can be fished with a standard rod during swarms. Read the asterisk. If you are willing to register the phone number of the guy who can inform you about them, you will hear about those swarms soon enough. In my case, I received a swarm-related call not long after I registered those phone numbers. I caught a Qwilfish before even going to Azalea Town for instance.
@@neorock7491
Ah, THAT’S what that asterisk was. Mobile has its downsides, and that’s one of them. My mistake!
Finished my bar exam last week and treated myself with another playthrough of Gold on virtual console. Funny how Game freak not only made Kadabra and Alakazam giga OP with the elemental punches but also for some reason made the evolution level not 25 like the other trade evos but level 15 AND give you Abra at lvl 10 right before Goldenrod. It's like they want you to break the game right open.
Also all the pokemon in S and A Tier plus Slowpoke have like near perfect availability for some reason? You have a full team of super heroes before Whitney and only optionally replace Slowpoke with the mandatory encounter Red Gyarados right after Morty? Excuse me?
But Abra can't even attack, must be bad!
Really cool list, would prob swap slowpoke up a bit, due to it learning curse, and probably snorlax as well if we're talking red.
Thank you! You could definitely make an argument for Slowpoke moving up to A, especially since it's not *that* much slower than Geodude, who I placed in S.
I'd maybe move Snorlax up to A as well, it is undoubtedly one of the strongest pokemon once it's actually on your team, but you can only catch one halfway through Kanto. Its amazing power can only carry it so far, I think top of B is around where it averages out.
Great videos Cheese, I like falling asleep with certain videos. They've been running a little dry but now I found a new well!
I'm glad you like them! You should definitely set them on loop, yes, do that...for rea$onS.
Personally I think Stantler exists to be a sort of a companion to Delibird, the two of them together having a Christmas theme (the way Murkrow and Misdreavus have a Halloween theme). In the anime, Santa's sleigh was pulled by flying Rapidash because there weren't any reindeer Pokemon available, and the closest match for an elf was Jynx so that's what his workshop was staffed by.
Really enjoyed this video! Your comedic timing is great.
im very late but no, Magnemite doesn't have Thundebolt. GSC doesn't have the base 95 elemental special attacks as TMs, and Magnemite/ton's learnset doesn't include Thunderbolt. Frustratingly, Jasmine's Magnemites both know Thunderbolt.
SAD...I guess you could....trade to crystal?
SKARMORY KANTO EXCLUSIVE? Good sir, isnt skarmory caught in the same route as gligar? yes it is...
1:09:35 Yep I started with Ruby, so I always had a thought that Slugma was a gen 3 pokemon
No one can blame you, Slugma is so bad. Mega Magcargo when?!
I played gen 2 A LOT and didn't know slugma was in there lol
I though Wobbufet was a cursed Pokémon, after my cousin and I caught one in the file we shared our Pokémon got infected with the Pokerus we returned him to the wild ASAP, which turns out it was just a good thing that it happened, how naive are kids.
I always hated hoothoot, hated its design and thought it was another bad early game bird, but actually it totally saved my ass on my first playthrough of Soul silver.
With its normal typing and insomnia ability, its a true Matchwinner against Morty!
I struggled alot against him, but Noctowl made the Fight a cakewalk, imune to sleep, imune to shadowball ... Yes please!
Of course this is a Gen 2 Tier List though so Hoothoot wouldn't have insomnia so in these games so it is another bad early game bird
Just finished my Pokedex for this game today. Go me for being 21 years late to the party.
Oh yeah, all physical hardware as well. Just 2 gameboy colors, a link cable, and a copy each of GSC and R/B.
I think Lapras deserves A tier due to naturally learning STAB Ice Beam in a game where most water types don't get it until Kanto in Crystal only, and it helps vs Clair and Lance. Ice type isn't a con in this gen, and the availability requirement isn't THAT bad since it's a static encounter. Also a plus that you have surf ready to teach it upon catching it, so its good right away.
True, but that lack of speed is bad.
Here are my considerations:
- I know you put the legendary beasts there with a big "*", but finding them is not the only problem. Even if you find one early, you probably won't be able to capture it. They always run away from the battles, and if you use Mean Look, they use Roar.
- Heracross doesn't deserve A tier. Yeah, you can found it early and it has great stats, but you're basically stuck with Fury Cutter and an unSTABed Return during pretty much the entire first half of the game. You can only get Earthquake in the Victory Road, and Megahorn is only available at Lv 54.
- Spearow is way too low. You get it very early, it has great speed and attack, STABed Return, evolves soon... Also, if you get Kenya, it also gets more experience than normal. This guy is at least A tier.
- Tyrogue should be in D or bottom C. You need Waterfall to go get it, so you can only get it after you beat Claire. By that point, it is very underleved for your team. Also, Hi Jump Kick is only 85 BP in Gen 2.
- Gligar is even worse than that. It can't learn Earthquake by TM. The only way to get one with Earthquake is by beating the round 2 in Pokémon Stadium 2.
- Qwilfish, Remoraid and Skarmory aren't Kanto exclusive. You can get Qwilfish and Remoraid with the Good Rod during swarms. Skarmory can be found it Route 45 in Silver.
Sudowoodo is my favourite Pokemon of all time and I often use it when replaying GSC. While I do find it to be usable, it definitely struggles at times to be relevant. It starts off very strong since you get it at level 20 but due to its Speed stat it can really struggle to keep up with some other really great Pokemon. B is probably the right place for it but sometimes it feels like a C tier Pokemon. That said it does have a decent moveset since it gets Low Kick right off the bat, and it does learn Rock Slide after not too long. My main issue though is its lack of consistency. Rock Slide can miss a lot, and Low Kick is pretty niche. Once you give it the EQ TM it's a bit better once again but by that point you can rely on other Mons a lot of the time.
I did a grass mono Nuzlocke of Crystal once, and I'm going to stand up for Hoppip here. In spite of its mediocre offense and defense, all it really needs are its speed and moves. It evolves quickly, and cheeses so many boss fights. Just put them to sleep, plant some seeds on them, and spam either flash to lower accuracy or headbutt for some damage and the chance to flinch on awakening. Thanks to its speed it can do whatever it wants and there's nothing the opponent can do about it. It's a slow but surefire way to win against almost anything. Only real drawback is that grinding it is really tedious. Ended up finishing Lance's Charizard and beating a couple of his Dragonites with this thing.
Also, I will confirm that Victreebel is better than Meganium if you can get a leaf stone. It functions as both a powder abuser, and an amazingly heavy hitter with sludge bomb.
Aerodactyl actually is available in the game, but only in Kanto and you have to trade a Chansey for it, so not a big difference.
This tier list is about speed though
Thank you so much for informing me of the Farfetch'd proverb, because now its English name makes sense and I love it twice as much as I already did
I like useless farfetch'd more than the actually usable Sirfetch'd
SO FUCKING REAL CHEESE he's way cooler when he's A: just a bird and B: complete dogshit.
It is really strange that i agree with 90% of the pokemon (except for some defensive mons like Wobbuffet and Skarmory and i would even say Silver version Lugia mostly because i like to use defensive mons in my playthroughs) but the Ryhorn line should be higher not because of him, but of Rhydon, which you can get as a trade in Blackthorn so it is a bit earlier, only costing some time because you have to grind for a dragonair, but the exp boost from trade pokemon would make up the lost time i guess? And i think the dratini line should be lower because to the point you would get a dragonite, you would be already inside the E4 if you are not ending beating the game with a dragonair.
Quilfish and remoraid are available through swarms, skarmory is obtainable in the same area as gligar, doduo and Ponyta are available on routes 26-27.
You’re looking at HG/SS data for at least one of those, I believe.
I love gen 2 for me it's easily my favorite generation with gen 5 in second and gen 7 in third (yes I know that last one is quite controversial but you know it's cool in my book)
The whole "this doesn't evolve? this mon SUCKS" bit was hilarious at first. Then it got tired. Then it got double (maybe even triple) as hilarious by the end of the video.
You should watch the Pokemon Colosseum list!
Good tier list. As a gen2 fan I agree with most of it. People in the comments already pointed out a few mistakes you made with availability and neglecting viable Crystal changes but other than that solid.
neglected
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but there's trainers that you can add to your phone, and battle for a stone every now and then.
I fully agree with this list this time *lol* Geodude is a GOD in Gen2. Well, more a Godess, as the female one is more usable, just because of Whitney. You have some issues with the availiability, but I guess you focus on the normal playthrough methods here as well? Remoraid and Quilfish are possible to obtain with a normal rod while swarming (and they can swarm anytime, even if you don't get the corresponding fisherman's cell numbers) and Dratini is availiable in the Goldenrod Game Corner. It's a pretty easy one to get coins from, too, given you're playing at the right time on the otherwise used slot machine on the (I think) lowest right. But even then Dratini is not that good, as you will already have Abra, Ghostly and Geodude ;-p
Hey, thanks for watching this one, too!
Geodudes rise up!
You're right about swarming, although unfortunately Remoraid and Quilfish are still pretty underwhelming.
I think I do note that Dratini is available in the game corner, but it's still wimpy until it gets all the way up to lv55 for that orange Barney glow-up.
And yeah, by the time you reach Goldenrod you can already access the full trio of S-tier mons xD
Bro I appreciated this video so much, you really know talk very well
Really solid list! I've played through the game with Haunter and it SUCKS, I didn't even know Gengar could learn the punches, I've really been missing out :(
Yeah, it's ironic that Haunter has BIGGER arms than Gengar's ghostly little nubs, yet only Gengar can pop off with punches =(
pretty sure ussaring is s tier in crystal considering he can swipe the whole game since violet city. specially when he learns return
Golduck is easy A. Anybody that can learn a decent ice move is way too valuable. Especially one as easily accessible as ice punch.
The stats are so bad bro
Gligar doesnt even learn earthquake by TM, you only get gligar with earthquake if you play through stadium 2.
Oof, what a disaster...maybe he should go in D after all >.>
@@ImportedCheese Thats gen 1 and 2 for you, as much as i love them, the move options back then werent always great.
There are a few that annoys me to this day, like how aerodactyl never got rock slide in gen 2, literally would have been the perfect move for it.
Doesnt make it any better that gamfreak decided to taunt us with Lance having aerodactyl with that exact move...
As a die hard Johto fanatic IC, this tier list is pretty much set except for a couple of mons.
Girafarig: Definitely deserves A tier. Kick ass tm learnset (shadow ball, thunderbolt, iron tail, earthquake). Can be physical or special depending on how you set it's moves up. Most importantly & what I feel justifies it being in A tier, Baton pass. Can literally make Kingler into a guillotine god or Snorlax an unstoppable wrecking ball. Definite A tier for pokemon veterans. Also, a youtuber I'm subbed to soloed Silver (including red) with it at level 71.
Magby/Magmar: A tier (would be S if it wasn't for availability & utility at *that point* , shines through the post game tho) 93 base speed, 12 off from *rapidash* . Flamthower upon evolution. Can learn thunderpunch for those pesky common water & flying types. Also kick ass tm & level up learnset (psychic, confuse ray, shadow ball, iron tail, fire blast). No other fire type does what magmar does.
Chinchou/Lanturn: B tier? S Tier my guy. *THE ONLY* water/electric type. You can actually catch chinchou as early as you get the good rod (5% in new bark and olivine) I don't think you were very into competitive battling but there's this horrid status called parafusion (paralysis & confusion). Mix that confusion (of which 1/3 of the time, your mon is smacking itself) with swagger that Lanturn can learn with thunder wave & you have a big problem. Stab Surf is stronger than base fire blast, blizzard, and thunder. Thunder with stab is 180. That's *if* you don't give it mystic water or a magnet. This is why the chinchou line is my favorite johto pokemon. Death can look so deceptive.
Did a playthrough of Crystal a while back where I implemented a soft base stat cap of 420 to give myself a challenge. The only mon that had every HM I wanted, apart from Mew, was Suicune, so that was my HM slave. The rest of my team comprised Bayleef and Dragonair - and then three from your D tier: Ledian, Corsola and Togetic. So yeah, they suck, but making them work without items or overlevelling was fun.
My Corsola was pure stall (Ancientpower / Recover / Toxic / Whirlpool) and successfully pulled off a Red sweep after getting passed some boosts from my Berserk Gene-carrying Ledian (Curse / Agility / Light Screen / Baton Pass).
At least Togetic eventually gets justice as Togekiss!
Hey superfang is always good if you know you can't 1shot and want to bait the healing item from trainers. It is always viable so rattatta can be good
Yo! Just wanted to say I enjoyed this & your RBY tier list a TON. Very entertaining. Informative while also being brief. Thanks again for making these!
Hey, thanks for watching! Not sure 50 minutes counts as brief, but there are 150 pokemon, so maybe it is xD
Dude I did the same thing with dubsparce , I feel like the devs did things like that to fuck with kids and make them raise a lvl 50 dunsparce before they find out it dosent evolve
trolled
Loving these tier lists! But the "x doesn't evolve" joke gets very repetitive.
Can't wait to see you get through all generations! : )
Ah...that's sort of what I was going for, there are so many pokemon that don't evolve for some reason.
Gen 5 coming...eventually!
@@ImportedCheese Totally understandable. Have a nice day.
Shame so many Pokemon just don't perform so well during casual play. But I guess they had to balance and design for competitive as well.
liking and subscribing for the gold and silver outlines around version exclusives
made this comment a second before you told me to do exactly that LMAO
Psychic type RUclipsr?!
Imported Cheese: *makes Gen 2 tier list*
Also Imported Cheese: this Gen 4 Pokemon...wait, it doesn't evolve into that yet?
It always makes me happy to see Togekiss getting respect. It steamrolled ORAS for me.
Togekiss is such a HUGE upgrade, it's sad
that "oh, it can't evolve?" joke overstayed its welcome.
GameFreak agreed and decided to give all of those pokemon evolutions!
(Ignore the fact that his video came out decades after Gen 4)
Lapras I think is a bit underrated for one reason in particular: it’s probably your best option against Clair and Lance’s Dragon types. Kingdra is kind of a beast and you probably won’t kill it without a KO without using Lapras who is just insanely bulky and won’t die to anything other than Hyper Beam which if it’s level 36 against Clair’s level 40 Kingdra it will only perish from a Hyper Beam if it’s in the range of 32.9-39.3% hp. Aside from that Kingdra’s Dragon Breath (it’s next best attack) only has a “possible” chance to 5HKO Lapras from full while Lapras can just Perish Song and switch on the last turn or it has a 46.1% chance to 4HKO (guaranteed 5HKO) Kingdra with Ice Beam. The Perish Song trick also works great against Red’s Snorlax who might steamroll you if you don’t have a plan specifically for it. Lapras is a really good option for the 3 hardest fights in the game and deserves some recognition for it.
Maybe if it wasn't restricted to Friday
@@ImportedCheesesome more information I learned:
-while the fact that it is restricted to exclusively Friday, I do think it is kind of a net positive for availability because of the fact that it’s a static spawn so there is absolutely zero chance of missing it. I think you can mess with the in game clock in a couple of ways if you’re too impatient, but waiting potentially 0 days, an average 3 days, and at most 6 real life days for a guaranteed encounter on a super star of a Pokémon is at least better than Heracross and Gyarados who have next to no moves (and Heracross forcing you to use some weird search engine with the right algorithm to find it because it’s based on a variety of factors you can’t easily control if you can at all meaning you might only be able to catch it on a later route). At the very least you can go outside and touch some real life grass that isn’t ass and avoid all the toxic-leech seed comments.
-in Crystal Ice Beam and Thunderbolt are tutor moves Lapras can learn (admittedly you have to put down 4,000 coins for each move to some guy outside the game corner and only on Wednesdays and Saturdays) so it can get boltbeam coverage which you only really see elsewhere on Kadabra and Gengar (Haunter and Gastly don’t get the punches which kinda makes them the worst of the Kanto trade evos if you can’t actually evolve it if you’re on an emulator). It also gets Psychic eventually in Kanto…so there is that.
-it gets probably the strongest Surf in the game, outside of legendaries it definitely does. Probably the strongest ice beam too, outside of legendaries.
-it’s physical attack is decent and good for early-mid game so Body Slam could serve you well if necessary until you get better moves. Plus the Paralysis chance is always nice.
-so long as you avoid Iron Tail and Sunny Day, it can destroy Jasmine’s Steelix while being 15 levels lower-which is how I beat it (not the biggest feat considering it’s an AHHH-nix evo but still neat)
-if this thing were available before Whitney it would actually get through Miltank quite easily solo; but unfortunately it isn’t so there is that. At first that doesn’t sound like it should be a point in its favor but then you realize that even Geodude, your best solo option against Miltank, needs SOME level of support like smokescreen off Quilava and/or Gastly Hypnosis to avoid consecutive Roll Out bulling you over eventually or a grind fest up to Graveler and potentially Golem if you can trade. The fact that this fight is only as annoying as it is because Lapras is locked behind arbitrary locks and keys should tell you a lot on how strong Lapras actually is.
Great tier list! However a few things I don't agree with. I never really thought Bulbasuar was "easy" mode in Gen 1, considering after LT Surge he hits a brick wall until Giovanni. Especially when you factor in all the poison types you fight from TR members or bikers. Or how many Picnicker trainers like to use Grass types. And if we're going by RBY none of Brock's mons had Rock type moves, so Charmander didn't have that bad of a time, especially when you consider Onix/Geodude low SP defense.
As for Cyndaquil I'd put it in S Tier because while Typhlosion doesn't have the most consistent type MU (now that I think about it, it does have the best MU of the trio), it gets the job done the best of the three starters. Its excellent against Elite Four, Jasmine, Bugsy, Pryce and all the rocket members. Not to mention how many common grass and poison types you run into, the latter which tend to be weaker on the special side (excluding one's like Muk) the only downside is that you get Typhlosion the latest of the three starters and its the worst to train on Mountain Rd (south of Blackthorn), while Feraligatr is gotten the earliest. (Level 30) biggest issue with Feraligatr is that there are much better water types (Cloyster, Lanturn, Lapras, Quagsire, Slowbro, Tentacruel) the Water/Ice types being effective Lance/Clair counters (provided you don't have rock for Lance or a Jynx/Piloswine) as for Lanturn its typing can wall out a lot of mons, great tank for all the legendaries, yeah Lanturn walls all of them.
Evolution stones can be gotten in Crystal by NPCs. So the stone thing is only an issue for Gold and Silver, the same applies to Sneasel, its typing is bad for its stat distribution, but in Crystal you can get it in Ice Cave and does have utility with physical moves. As for the Pichu line, you can technically get one if you get it from the Odd Egg (which also helps if you soft reset) and Raichu isn't bad, works as a decent Ampharos replacement in Crystal if you don't choose Elekid from Odd Egg. Speaking of Odd Egg I believe is important to factor in the evolutions of the babies, considering Jynx, Magmar, Electabuzz, Raichu, Clefable and the Hitmons can all be gotten this way, and all make good team members. I've used Odd Egg to conduct my team before.
As for Crobat its a good Pokemon, but in Gen 2 specifically its actually not that good, can't even learn a single poison type move (Why can't it learn Sludge Bomb?) it doesn't even get good physical coverage like Shadow Ball. The best it gets are Wing Attack, Fly and Hidden Power variants.
I think Pinsir deserves some credit for getting a 1 Hit KO move at level 30 in a game where using an x accuracy removes the accuracy check entirely. I almost prefer it over Heracross since Heracross only gets megahorn at level 54 which is kinda useless
X accuracy still good in Gen 2?!
Hard to catch pinsir tho
@@ImportedCheese yeah surprisingly, weird they missed that. Is heracross much easier? Finding a rare tree basically requires external calculators and it’s catch rate is a pain
Having Aerodactyl on the Unown tier is actually false. There is a girl in the same field where you can catch Chansey (in Kanto just East of Fuschia City) who will trade you an Aerodactyl for your Chansey.
Skarmory isn't Kanto exclusive, you can find it on the route between the 8th badge and the starting town.
Doduo isn't Kanto exclusive, you can find it between Mahogany and Olivine.
Ponyta isn't Kanto exclusive, you can find it on the route between the 8th badge and the starting town.
Sneasel isn't Kanto exclusive, you can find it on Victory Road (before fighting the elite four).
Calling Misdreavus "Kanto exclusive" is a bit of a stretch since you can only get it in Mt. Silver (which is in Johto). Since it still requires Kanto unlock to obtain though, I'll allow it. Same for Larvitar.
The overused "oh the evolution isn't in this game" joke got old after the first time. Repeating jokes isn't that funny.
Well beedrill, does get access to sludge bomb in route 43 so after your fourth gym beedrill finally has a good poison move.
If only poison was a usable attacking type >.>
Only 4 gens until they add fairies!
I think Sudowoodo is A tier because of its solid att & def, mimic tricks, fighting coverage, and if it’s strong enough it can tank Lance’s team and wipe some of them out with Rockslide
Slow! Gen 2 low kick! Mimic is awful
@@ImportedCheese Low kick is bad but I meant dynamic punch. Mimic is a gimmick but it’s still usable. Sudowoodo also doesn’t have as many weaknesses as graveler
@@chilly_outside dynamic punch is even worse! graveler is way better, has ground STAB!!
@@ImportedCheese the accuracy is low but the power and 2nd effect is nice, so Idk about it being worse. The ground stab is nice but with the 2 4x weaknesses it gets countered hard in bad matchups
"You're probably not playing an actual cartridge."
*shifty eyes my physical cartridges of GSC and my GBA SP*
batteries aren't dead yet?!
Nah bro, replacing the save battery isn't too difficult if you have the tools for it
I wonder how much the baby Pokemon benefit in Crystal due to the possibility of receiving then from the Odd Egg, which means early Cleffa/Smoochum/Elekid/Tyrogue.
Also, something you missed for Togetic, it's a good field move slave. Learns Fly, Headbutt, Rock Smash, and Flash, iirc. I also feel like you undervalue field move coverage in general in these, because frankly a good field move slave is more useful than all but the best battle Pokemon could ever be.
I recently played through Crystal with a 5 member team of Typhlosion, Politoed, Alakazam, Machamp and Granbull. That is, until I got to the E4 and Champion, at which point my team became Alakazam with occasional support from the peasants. Psychic/Fire Punch/Thunder Punch/Ice Punch is REALLY powerful on a Gen 2 Alakazam.
Everyone really is a peasant compared to Gen 2 Alakazam
"Ampharos Lights the Way" sounds like something they would use for a smash bros fighter reveal tagline if Ampharos ever got in.
You can dream...