Great list here are my opinions: Infernape I know is easily S tier for being a fast fire fighting type which is unique to infernape and is an irreplaceable stab combination Kircketune F: whenever I used on a trashlocke even then it was god awful there are better counters for gardenia & more common than kricketune (wurmple line, golbat, stravia) Crobat is S despite its mediocre offenses is without question or contest the best pivot in the game (pivot is a pokemon that can switch in to alot of resisted attacks taking and u turn/switch out to gain tempo which can be used througjout the game even in the e4. Steelix to me is an easy A tier as youi can get him before the second gym by thiefing metal coat from wild bronzor. in the hands of an experienced nuzlocker, steelixs typing is amazing. rampardos to me is C it is just too slow & power isnt everything hense the rampardos theorem. all other rock types outclass it and yes even graveler outclasses it Bastiodon is looow C it does no damage offensively and its typing is really bad for a tank its meant to be. Vespiquen is D because you will hardly ever get it & even if you do its really not great at all. being a tanky bug flying type which is like one of the worse type combinations is horrible Honchkrow, Mismagius, Skuntank & Purugly arent available in platinum whic is stupid imo Blissey 50% of the time is unstoppable with serene grace charge beam Spiritomb nowdays is near impossible to get unless using emulator but at the point in the game you get it, its really good but falls off later Snorlax....has anyone actually gotten his legitimately in a nuzlocke in D/P/P yes great pokemon but you'll NEVER get it..if you did, buy a lottery ticket! Drapion is fantasitic its just soooo hard to get Weavile is irreplacebale a fast hard hitting ice type with the covitted dark type typing for lucian an easy S tier it is a must have for any e4 team. all it needs is night slash, ice punch then a choice between brick break, taunt & swords dance Gliscor can literally do it all and do it all well...be a fast sweeper? sure! defensive pivot? why not! support & disruptor? absolutely! combine with a sandstorm team to be creative? FUN!!! Gliscor is the most fun pokemon to use...prove me wrong Jolteon is so good I never choose any of the other eeveeltiuons in platinum its just that good! It deals with sooo much of cyrus distortions team just make sure its already switched in when that gyarados comes out with EQ. A baton pass set on togekiss if you delay togetic for baton pass is very strong in the e4....obviously baton pass sets are op. you can make togekiss offensive, defensive, baton pass & disruptor with the best move in the game....encore So glad you put my boy houndoom at S its amazing! Rhyperior is the pokemon to use stealth rock on for cyrus distortion. bring a sandstorm team for him for. Rhyperior is great for e4 too porygon z is busted with adaptability....giga giga giga busted with nastly plot you can literally bring it to every single fight in the game and it will knock out pokemon left & right with speed evs/choice specs
18:15 idk if anyone said this already, but actually you can obtain a Steelix before the third gym if you steal a Metal Coat from Bronzor, and having Steelix early game makes all the difference, it's the best counter to Jupiter's Skuntank and does great against Fantina since it resists Mismagius' Shadow Balls, and Screech can be a great tool to bring that Mismagius down as soon as possible
Yea Platinum has great pokemon variety, lots of solid mons and and often not too late in the game to get either. Cant same the same for its gen 4 counterpart, HGSS… that game has a horrible pokemon selection
@@bloemkoolendestreetgang450 I really don’t like HGSS and I don’t get why people love it. Awful pokemon selection and awful level curve. The game does look beautiful, but in general it’s just not fun to play with pokemon you don’t particularly care for imo.
@@MrPatrickbuit fully agree, the game looks really nice and i love the following pokemon feature, but i honestly struggled putting together a team i like for only my second playthrough of the game. I have played Platinum like 8 times and i can still make a cool team i like with ease for many future playthroughs
Immediately noticed how you moved around the Pokédex to reflect timely availability and that’s really appreciated. I know that’s a bit of an annoying process on the tier list website, but that’s crucial to do for the quality of the tier list. I’ve done this myself for fire red and am considering doing one for platinum before I start the presidents run
41:12 sucker punch is "surprise attack" in japan, which explains why spiritomb gets it, and why its not boosted by iron fist in later gens. One of your best vids yet cant wait to see what other gen 4 content you have in store!
6:10: Another reason why Empoleon may be considered the worst starter is that in Barry’s team before victory road 5 out of 6 ‘mon, (Staraptor and Heracross have close Combat, Floatzel has Brick Break and Snorlax and Torterra have Earthquake) have a super effective move on it. Considering that this was the Gen that introduced Close Combat for all the late game fights and Earthquake is popular late game I think the Emperor is lucky to get low A.
I mean to be fair consistently baiting Earthquake can actually be a good thing since it gives you a free switch into a flying type, which is specially good if you have a Staraptor since it's just a free intimidate too. Also not very consistent but you can like blizzard the torterra to death
A few specific notes from my experience: Bibarel has one specific thing to keep in mind. It is likely accompanying you up Mt. Coronet. This means it will be on your team for Cyrus unless you sacrifice 2 moveslots for bad moves (surf is forgiven and strength is at least mediocre). And honestly? I just did a successful run (my first one that didn’t lose to the league) and bibarel was good for getting off an emergency sacrificial yawn against Cyrus. With the way the tier list is structured, Bibarel belongs where it is, but I at least use it for that. Medicham is actually really good for victory road, in fact with it and weavile you basically don’t need anything else. Slap the wide lens on and it should be smooth sailing between HJK and ice/fire punch and zen headbutt. Though I do play with move modernizations, so HJK is 130 power instead of just 100 (but I also play without ev training so if you do it balances). I decided to try again because of this series and while I did fail the first time because I’m bad at elite 4 prep, I did get it the second time (though I did give myself a temporary do over since I forgot to change weavile to a Cheri berry for Lucian and planned on doing that but I rolled with the para and still won after doing a separate attempt loading the state to pretend it didn’t happen). But yea tiering is mostly consistent I wouldn’t move too much. I just rate things based on how much mileage I get out of them for what they can do rather than what they can’t.
15:24 i was very confused by this, since Crobat is my all time favorite Pokemon, not knowing that Crobat learns Poison Jab was unbelievable... It's because it doesn't learn Poison Jab XD, if you want physical STAB, you have to rely on Cross Poison via move relearn, or you can teach the Sludge Bomb TM for special side, which isn't that bad honestly
I’d like to make a case for Pachirisu- while in battle it isn’t terribly useful, getting it means you have access to Pickup, which has the potential to be absolutely busted, especially in a setting like a hardcore nuzlocke where you’ll be EV training pokemon during the main story. With it, you can potentially get rare candies to cut down on level grinding, a king’s rock, free repels, and even the potential for an early Mismagius or Honchkrow with a dusk stone. But, if it has run away, it’s still not useful.
I'd say Mismagius is less a budget Gengar, but more what Gardevoir is to Alakazam, trading a little offense and speed for bulk. I think Gardevoir does it better, but Mismagius comes with a few things that it does better than Gardevoir, far more bulky, just worse damage, but faster, and 3 immunities rather than none.
I've never used a Bronzong before, but recently I took a look at its stats, and was pleasantly surprised by its attacking stats, for something that is lets be honest a tank meant to be a tank, its attack stats aren't actually that bad.
I personally would put Magnezone higher up in S tier than it wound up, mostly because it's typing makes it great against pretty much every encounter in the whole game. I don't remember if you get it before Maylene, but assuming you have it for Wake, it's obviously great there (except for his Quagsire, of course), and after that, the only trainers it doesn't do well against are Bertha and Flint in the Elite Four, and it even gets signal beam for Lucian and his psychic types, too. Other than how slow it is (Magneton is actually slightly faster, but is otherwise worse overall), it just does great and is a strong addition on any game you have access to it in
Magnemite is available after you get surf, so before the 6th gym. I used one in my latest playthrough, its a powerhouse but i honestly didnt find myself spamming it all that often after getting it, earthquake coverage destroys it and just doesnt have too many good matchups at that point in the game, the route before victory road being a massive exception lol
I made an exception to my nuzlocke rule just to keep bibarel at level 15 and exclusively use as an HM slave. I’m just praying I can keep Gyarados from fainting in gen 4 now that the physical special split is gone
Starly line should be S tier. Staravia is the most consistent counter to Mismagius if you factor availability. It also 1v1s Skuntank and Purugly thanks to Pluck. These are HARD fights.
I think it's hard to take availability into account properly, because if you caught something it doesn't matter how available it is since it's available to you already, you just want to know how good it is.
I think the way I look at it is, taking Electabuzz for example, Electabuzz is solid for Route 223 and the League, but it's useless against the rest of the game because you don't have it. So I tend to take some points off for that, but not too much because I do agree that it doesn't paint the entire picture
Recently used a physical empoleon cause my piplup happened to be Brave nature, the pluck TM is pretty good on it early, and Swords Dance + Aqua Jet + Torrent can sweep some lategame fights. Kricketune falls off before it even has a chance to be good, at least from the time i used him. Would not recommend. Wormadam-Trash could make a case for B tier if you get it before Gardenia, just cause of how the matchups work out. Falls off after Maylene for sure though.
Seeing Rotom next to Flareon is a big surprise to me, Rotom's immunities and synergy with choice specs make it so much better than Flareon, whose low speed, unreliable defense, and low bp attacks make it close to useless lategame, with no real 'peak' to speak of. Altaria is hard to get the most use out of, but dragon offers some great resistances and theres a lot of ways you can build its moveset (special nuke with Draco Meteor and Fire Coverage, Bulky Dragon Dancer with Roost, Full on attacker, Supportive pivot with roost and u-turn) Yanmega's TERRIBLE learnset got let off the hook too easily, off the top of my head the poor sod doesnt get any reliable stab till like 47. It can get Silver Wind by the time you catch it but ...its Silver Wind.
@@tijnvannelmen5832 Hey Flareon has 95 Special which means that it can use flamethrower at least semi-reliably. The rest of its moves suck tho and relying on Strength and Dig isn't exactly what you should build a game plan around.
That was long but oh boy it was enjoyable. I agree with basically everything and there isn’t necessarily something that I find to be wrong. Here is what I would change: Crobat deserves S tier since you can theoretically get it before mars by catching a wild golbat on the bottom floor of orebeurgh gate. Bottom of S tier just because it is unlikely. Wormadam trash is very underrated. In fact I think I would put it in B tier even better than luxray. Hear me out bro. Bug steel is ridiculously good. It trivializes mars if you get it early enough. It also makes gardenia free. It is bulky enough to be useful against maylene and can even potentially go to the elite 4 to deal with Lucian. That one is probably my biggest hot take. Onix is F tier because if you get it from oregeargh mine, that means you probably don’t get a geodude dupe which is annoying for the the mid game. And geodude itself sweeps mars so you can’t really justify onix for that reason. Mantine could potentially get bottom of A. Am I biased? Maybe. It is basically blissey with a water flying typing and significant lot worse hp. But it can still wall special threats without T bolt regardless. There are a bunch of scary special threats in Vic Road that mantine can handle and it is also an amazing answer into Cynthia’s Milotic and maybe even garchomp with rain dance swift swim + ice beam. Also it’s great for flint. Lopunny should go C tier because 76 attack isn’t gonna do much to anything that has even decent physical defence. That’s all I would change. This was a beautiful video.
I wrote out my thoughts on most of these then lost it 😭😭😭 good tier list with only a few suggestions and comments. I might redo later when I'm not heartbroken
Same here. I wrote a few corrections and personal thoughts, but then I turned off my PC and went to take a bath, forgetting I was in the middle of writing (and didn't want to post a half-complete comment). 😵
Excelent tier list overall, really great job researching and analysing so many pokemon. Gen 4 has an exceptional dex, doesn't it? There's one take I disagree with, though, and that is sticking spiritomb in A tier. I've used that thing in a gen 4 run and it was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in a Pokemon game 😂. While its offensive stats aren't bad, the stabs it gets aren't that useful. But the biggest problem is its speed. It has good defenses, ruined by an awful hp stat, and the fact it's so slow means it's always taking hits. It stacks up. Unless you successfuly predict a psychic or normal move, it's almost always getting hit twice when coming in before it can do anything in return. It might have something to do with my expectations for it. It's usually hard facing it in the champion fight, so I thought it would be a breeze through the game. I'm not saying it's the worst, but boy was it annoying to use. B tier at most in my opinion
I can see that, I don't have enough experience with it to have a strong opinion on it. I'll definitely have to grab it for a future run and try to utilize it in more places to get a good feeling of what it can really do
Man you did Wormadam sandy dirty. It sweeps Gardenia and Maylene (kind of), and It does ok for most of the game I think It deserves to be at least in C tear. Overall I agree with the tearlist tho
A tier list I’m very curious for how it turns out! Though I won’t have any use for it because my copy of Platinum is my hub of fully completed pokedex in gen 4 and yeah I don’t use emulators. You will get most likely 3-4 views from only my because I won’t be able to watch it in one go
I think Rampardos and glaceon in B is an insane take. Neither of them are very bulky without ev investment-which takes away opportunities to EV other stats. They are strong but that doesn’t matter if you get out ran and killed in 1-2 hits. Some of the mons-honch, mismagius, skunktank, purugly are unavailable sadge. This is overall a solid tier list where I can agree with the logic behind most of the placements even if I don’t necessarily agree. Togekiss, for example to me is just high A because you have a 50% chance for Hustle and you only get one. That’s the sole reason why I have not used a togekiss in a nuzlocke yet because I only get hustle. But I do see the potential and the argument for S tier.
Man how could you keep -Cheat Code- I mean Weavile out of s tier ? I totally agree with your arguments, poor defensive typing and defenses, awkward movepool but he can wipe out most of the league except for the fire elite 4 member and Cynthia but that's because her team is very well built ! And it has access to swords danse so it can get even more broken
well for starters id make a class cannon ranking for guagsire as, people under- estimate how op he can be. having him able to learn encore, in most of the games. that can break a match up if you really get lucky. not to mention. he can learn rock and water moves. next to Swampert, the only thing tha makes him weak is his speed. and slightly controversial Gyarados would be in the lowest teir for me. as its got too many weakness, to be considered to ever really be useful
Empeleon deserves s tier because it has the best typing and stat distribution out of the 3 and is among one of the best type combinations ever in a starter. Only surpassed by primarina and swampert possibly. (Water types really kill it with the types) It hits harder than either of them (111 base special attack), it can easily tank hits with 101 spdef and 88 def. So it should be in the same tier as infernape imo.
If you want to be "faithful" _(and/or still be able to evolve a pokemon immadiately instead of at a set level if the randomizer would've made it so),_ there's probably a way to set up two emulated games and trade with eachother.
Steelix is significantly better than bastiodon for nuzlocke and just in general especially if you know opponent move sets ..... Steelix has significantly more physical bulk and significantly higher attack making it significantly better in physical matchups. Bastiodon is more tanky on the special side but what are you really getting out of that in a primarily singles format? Steelix is better in every way in physical match-ups and you can actually get solid value out of it. Bastiodon just isn't good at anything but hard counters and taking hits and should probably drop a tier.
You have to use the Universal Pokemon Randomizer program to create your ROM. You can search for how to install and use it on UA-cam. But basically, there is a checkbox in the randomizer program that says something along the lines of "change impossible evos" or something like that (sorry I'm not at my desk at the moment to confirm the exact verbiage). You would just check that box and generate the new ROM file from the program and BOOM, trade evolutions are now possible without actually trading. As for how the trade evolutions actually evolve, I think there might be a list somewhere online that lists them all out. But you can usually make a pretty good guess. For example, you can evolve Magmar into Magmortar by giving it the Magmarizer and leveling it up once (instead of trading it). As for the Kanto trade evolutions (like Gengar and Alakazam for example), they simply evolve at level 37. I hope this helps!
41:46 to clarify, sucker punches name in Japanese is actually sneak/surprise attack. So it’s not actually punching, rather it’s doing a dirty blow ant an unexpected time, a “sucker punch” if you will
You can use the Universal Randomizer program to make trade evolutions possible in your ROM file. It basically updates the way those pokemon evolve. In the case of Alakazam, Kadabra will evolve at level 37.
*[WARNING: Jumbo-sized comment incoming]* 6:22 This is the second time you've used the phrase "dragging through [something]" to describe a starter. In Emerald, it was the Grass starter. Here, it's the Water starter. I wonder if the next game will have the Fire starter meet the same fate? :) 10:11 That's not as big of a deal as you'd think. Two of Maylene's Pokemon carry Rock Tomb, which will deal super-effective damage against Kricketune, while her Lucario double reisists Bug and single resists Normal, so while it can't really hit you too hard, it'll still hit you harder than you will hit it. And don't forget Fighting and Bug resist eachother mutally, so you won't be hitting the other two too hard either! Overall, it's not a very good matchup, unless I guess you want to switch Kricketune in on a Fighting move, _then_ switch it out for a Pokemon that resists Rock and is good enough to win the matchup in that situation, but that feels like overcomplicating it to me. 11:49 According to Bulbapedia, Rivarly has always boosted both categories of moves. It _does_ however boost confusion self-damage in Gen 4 only though. 13:19 lol 24:07 Male Combee is actually _way_ worse than Unown because Unown is always the only encounter wherever it is. Getting a male Combee means you didn't get something better. Same reason why I've seen other people say getting Onix (without trading) is horrible because it means you didn't get Geodude, which is the same but leagues better. 25:09 I still get tripped over the spelling of this one's name. Why is it pronounced Pachurisu if it's spelled with an i instead of u? 27:50 I actually don't mind Ambipom's design, though this might be because I'm a really big fan of its Technician-focused battle style (or at least the idea, as it's probably not as good in practice), so I'm willing to stomach its strange design. Still, I don't think it's _that_ bad, creepy tail-hands aside, and I really like its Diamond/Pearl sprite, 'cause it looks like it's ready to kick some ass. :D 28:53 To be fair, it died to a random crit through Reflect. 33:32 I assume you meant it in a "this this is too weak to use before then", but you can't even catch Glameow until after you get Surf, which is right before Byron, i.e. after Fantina. 40:09 "The physical/special split helps [Raichu] utilize its mixed attacking spread" _(proceeds to mention two moves that were physical even before the split)_ 44:49 Yep. The TM for it can only be bought at Battle Frontier. 58:29 xDDDD Can't say I disagree. :3 1:00:23 Extreme Speed. With base 50 Attack. Yeah, I doubt that's gonna work.
What did you think of the list? What would you change? I'm excited to see what you guys think!
Great list here are my opinions:
Infernape I know is easily S tier for being a fast fire fighting type which is unique to infernape and is an irreplaceable stab combination
Kircketune F: whenever I used on a trashlocke even then it was god awful there are better counters for gardenia & more common than kricketune (wurmple line, golbat, stravia)
Crobat is S despite its mediocre offenses is without question or contest the best pivot in the game (pivot is a pokemon that can switch in to alot of resisted attacks taking and u turn/switch out to gain tempo which can be used througjout the game even in the e4.
Steelix to me is an easy A tier as youi can get him before the second gym by thiefing metal coat from wild bronzor. in the hands of an experienced nuzlocker, steelixs typing is amazing.
rampardos to me is C it is just too slow & power isnt everything hense the rampardos theorem. all other rock types outclass it and yes even graveler outclasses it
Bastiodon is looow C it does no damage offensively and its typing is really bad for a tank its meant to be.
Vespiquen is D because you will hardly ever get it & even if you do its really not great at all. being a tanky bug flying type which is like one of the worse type combinations is horrible
Honchkrow, Mismagius, Skuntank & Purugly arent available in platinum whic is stupid imo
Blissey 50% of the time is unstoppable with serene grace charge beam
Spiritomb nowdays is near impossible to get unless using emulator but at the point in the game you get it, its really good but falls off later
Snorlax....has anyone actually gotten his legitimately in a nuzlocke in D/P/P yes great pokemon but you'll NEVER get it..if you did, buy a lottery ticket!
Drapion is fantasitic its just soooo hard to get
Weavile is irreplacebale a fast hard hitting ice type with the covitted dark type typing for lucian an easy S tier it is a must have for any e4 team. all it needs is night slash, ice punch then a choice between brick break, taunt & swords dance
Gliscor can literally do it all and do it all well...be a fast sweeper? sure! defensive pivot? why not! support & disruptor? absolutely! combine with a sandstorm team to be creative? FUN!!! Gliscor is the most fun pokemon to use...prove me wrong
Jolteon is so good I never choose any of the other eeveeltiuons in platinum its just that good! It deals with sooo much of cyrus distortions team just make sure its already switched in when that gyarados comes out with EQ.
A baton pass set on togekiss if you delay togetic for baton pass is very strong in the e4....obviously baton pass sets are op. you can make togekiss offensive, defensive, baton pass & disruptor with the best move in the game....encore
So glad you put my boy houndoom at S its amazing!
Rhyperior is the pokemon to use stealth rock on for cyrus distortion. bring a sandstorm team for him for. Rhyperior is great for e4 too
porygon z is busted with adaptability....giga giga giga busted with nastly plot you can literally bring it to every single fight in the game and it will knock out pokemon left & right with speed evs/choice specs
I would add munchlax! >:(
justice for kricketune, it is the underdog but i defeated lucian with it in platinum
Where does dragonite enter?
@@clashwithdaragh Why is Drapion so hard to get? Can't you just pick up a skorupi from the safari zone?
Don't ban Snorlax, if you actually found a Munchlax in the wild you earned to use that fucker
18:15 idk if anyone said this already, but actually you can obtain a Steelix before the third gym if you steal a Metal Coat from Bronzor, and having Steelix early game makes all the difference, it's the best counter to Jupiter's Skuntank and does great against Fantina since it resists Mismagius' Shadow Balls, and Screech can be a great tool to bring that Mismagius down as soon as possible
Awesome tip!
You’ll also need an emulator so the steelix doesn’t need to be traded
@@Alastordadeer Or a second ds ;)
Platinum's roster is kinda nuts when you think about it. So many strong pokemon.
Yea Platinum has great pokemon variety, lots of solid mons and and often not too late in the game to get either. Cant same the same for its gen 4 counterpart, HGSS… that game has a horrible pokemon selection
@@bloemkoolendestreetgang450 I really don’t like HGSS and I don’t get why people love it. Awful pokemon selection and awful level curve. The game does look beautiful, but in general it’s just not fun to play with pokemon you don’t particularly care for imo.
@@MrPatrickbuit fully agree, the game looks really nice and i love the following pokemon feature, but i honestly struggled putting together a team i like for only my second playthrough of the game. I have played Platinum like 8 times and i can still make a cool team i like with ease for many future playthroughs
@@MrPatrickbuitBro me too I never understood why Johto was so popular, I think it was because of the aesthetics.
Immediately noticed how you moved around the Pokédex to reflect timely availability and that’s really appreciated. I know that’s a bit of an annoying process on the tier list website, but that’s crucial to do for the quality of the tier list. I’ve done this myself for fire red and am considering doing one for platinum before I start the presidents run
41:12 sucker punch is "surprise attack" in japan, which explains why spiritomb gets it, and why its not boosted by iron fist in later gens. One of your best vids yet cant wait to see what other gen 4 content you have in store!
platinum dex still to this day is still an impressive selection
6:10: Another reason why Empoleon may be considered the worst starter is that in Barry’s team before victory road 5 out of 6 ‘mon, (Staraptor and Heracross have close Combat, Floatzel has Brick Break and Snorlax and Torterra have Earthquake) have a super effective move on it.
Considering that this was the Gen that introduced Close Combat for all the late game fights and Earthquake is popular late game I think the Emperor is lucky to get low A.
I mean to be fair consistently baiting Earthquake can actually be a good thing since it gives you a free switch into a flying type, which is specially good if you have a Staraptor since it's just a free intimidate too. Also not very consistent but you can like blizzard the torterra to death
imagining rating drifblim higher cause "it's technically the best pokemon to sack"
A few specific notes from my experience:
Bibarel has one specific thing to keep in mind. It is likely accompanying you up Mt. Coronet. This means it will be on your team for Cyrus unless you sacrifice 2 moveslots for bad moves (surf is forgiven and strength is at least mediocre). And honestly? I just did a successful run (my first one that didn’t lose to the league) and bibarel was good for getting off an emergency sacrificial yawn against Cyrus. With the way the tier list is structured, Bibarel belongs where it is, but I at least use it for that.
Medicham is actually really good for victory road, in fact with it and weavile you basically don’t need anything else. Slap the wide lens on and it should be smooth sailing between HJK and ice/fire punch and zen headbutt. Though I do play with move modernizations, so HJK is 130 power instead of just 100 (but I also play without ev training so if you do it balances).
I decided to try again because of this series and while I did fail the first time because I’m bad at elite 4 prep, I did get it the second time (though I did give myself a temporary do over since I forgot to change weavile to a Cheri berry for Lucian and planned on doing that but I rolled with the para and still won after doing a separate attempt loading the state to pretend it didn’t happen).
But yea tiering is mostly consistent I wouldn’t move too much. I just rate things based on how much mileage I get out of them for what they can do rather than what they can’t.
15:24 i was very confused by this, since Crobat is my all time favorite Pokemon, not knowing that Crobat learns Poison Jab was unbelievable... It's because it doesn't learn Poison Jab XD, if you want physical STAB, you have to rely on Cross Poison via move relearn, or you can teach the Sludge Bomb TM for special side, which isn't that bad honestly
That's right, it was Cross Poison I was thinking about, got confused there
I’d like to make a case for Pachirisu- while in battle it isn’t terribly useful, getting it means you have access to Pickup, which has the potential to be absolutely busted, especially in a setting like a hardcore nuzlocke where you’ll be EV training pokemon during the main story. With it, you can potentially get rare candies to cut down on level grinding, a king’s rock, free repels, and even the potential for an early Mismagius or Honchkrow with a dusk stone. But, if it has run away, it’s still not useful.
That's a good point, being the only pickup user in the game should count as a positive.
@@grumpygengar22 Aipom has it too but considering how uncommon it is, Pachirisu might as well be the only user of it available in a nuzlocke
I'd say Mismagius is less a budget Gengar, but more what Gardevoir is to Alakazam, trading a little offense and speed for bulk. I think Gardevoir does it better, but Mismagius comes with a few things that it does better than Gardevoir, far more bulky, just worse damage, but faster, and 3 immunities rather than none.
13:32 bro ignored garyadose completely as he knew everyone knew it's best Pokemon byfar🤣
I’m so sad no one realized the joke where you didn’t even bother to explain why Gyarados is S tier LOL.
XD
I've never used a Bronzong before, but recently I took a look at its stats, and was pleasantly surprised by its attacking stats, for something that is lets be honest a tank meant to be a tank, its attack stats aren't actually that bad.
Rampardos can learn surf, so that's gotta make it A 🤣 even though it's SpAtk is garbo
Tentacruel sitting on top of the A tier like it was sitting on top of the Gen 1 UU tier
Great timing, was about to go for a run and had nothing to listen too. This will make it quick and easy 😄
I’ll always have a soft spot for beautifly. It got me through an emerald nuzlocke once and set its place in my list pretty high up
I personally would put Magnezone higher up in S tier than it wound up, mostly because it's typing makes it great against pretty much every encounter in the whole game. I don't remember if you get it before Maylene, but assuming you have it for Wake, it's obviously great there (except for his Quagsire, of course), and after that, the only trainers it doesn't do well against are Bertha and Flint in the Elite Four, and it even gets signal beam for Lucian and his psychic types, too. Other than how slow it is (Magneton is actually slightly faster, but is otherwise worse overall), it just does great and is a strong addition on any game you have access to it in
Magnemite is available after you get surf, so before the 6th gym. I used one in my latest playthrough, its a powerhouse but i honestly didnt find myself spamming it all that often after getting it, earthquake coverage destroys it and just doesnt have too many good matchups at that point in the game, the route before victory road being a massive exception lol
I made an exception to my nuzlocke rule just to keep bibarel at level 15 and exclusively use as an HM slave. I’m just praying I can keep Gyarados from fainting in gen 4 now that the physical special split is gone
Starly line should be S tier. Staravia is the most consistent counter to Mismagius if you factor availability. It also 1v1s Skuntank and Purugly thanks to Pluck. These are HARD fights.
I honestly wouldn't argue with you there. Just the fact that it's guaranteed also makes it kind of a big deal
I think it's hard to take availability into account properly, because if you caught something it doesn't matter how available it is since it's available to you already, you just want to know how good it is.
I think the way I look at it is, taking Electabuzz for example, Electabuzz is solid for Route 223 and the League, but it's useless against the rest of the game because you don't have it. So I tend to take some points off for that, but not too much because I do agree that it doesn't paint the entire picture
Recently used a physical empoleon cause my piplup happened to be Brave nature, the pluck TM is pretty good on it early, and Swords Dance + Aqua Jet + Torrent can sweep some lategame fights.
Kricketune falls off before it even has a chance to be good, at least from the time i used him. Would not recommend.
Wormadam-Trash could make a case for B tier if you get it before Gardenia, just cause of how the matchups work out. Falls off after Maylene for sure though.
Seeing Rotom next to Flareon is a big surprise to me, Rotom's immunities and synergy with choice specs make it so much better than Flareon, whose low speed, unreliable defense, and low bp attacks make it close to useless lategame, with no real 'peak' to speak of.
Altaria is hard to get the most use out of, but dragon offers some great resistances and theres a lot of ways you can build its moveset (special nuke with Draco Meteor and Fire Coverage, Bulky Dragon Dancer with Roost, Full on attacker, Supportive pivot with roost and u-turn)
Yanmega's TERRIBLE learnset got let off the hook too easily, off the top of my head the poor sod doesnt get any reliable stab till like 47.
It can get Silver Wind by the time you catch it but ...its Silver Wind.
@@tijnvannelmen5832 Hard agree on Yanmega. I've never used it personally, but just looking at its moveset makes me want to cry.
@@tijnvannelmen5832 Hey Flareon has 95 Special which means that it can use flamethrower at least semi-reliably. The rest of its moves suck tho and relying on Strength and Dig isn't exactly what you should build a game plan around.
That was long but oh boy it was enjoyable. I agree with basically everything and there isn’t necessarily something that I find to be wrong. Here is what I would change:
Crobat deserves S tier since you can theoretically get it before mars by catching a wild golbat on the bottom floor of orebeurgh gate. Bottom of S tier just because it is unlikely.
Wormadam trash is very underrated. In fact I think I would put it in B tier even better than luxray. Hear me out bro. Bug steel is ridiculously good. It trivializes mars if you get it early enough. It also makes gardenia free. It is bulky enough to be useful against maylene and can even potentially go to the elite 4 to deal with Lucian. That one is probably my biggest hot take.
Onix is F tier because if you get it from oregeargh mine, that means you probably don’t get a geodude dupe which is annoying for the the mid game. And geodude itself sweeps mars so you can’t really justify onix for that reason.
Mantine could potentially get bottom of A. Am I biased? Maybe. It is basically blissey with a water flying typing and significant lot worse hp. But it can still wall special threats without T bolt regardless. There are a bunch of scary special threats in Vic Road that mantine can handle and it is also an amazing answer into Cynthia’s Milotic and maybe even garchomp with rain dance swift swim + ice beam. Also it’s great for flint.
Lopunny should go C tier because 76 attack isn’t gonna do much to anything that has even decent physical defence.
That’s all I would change. This was a beautiful video.
Great takes! I think I could change my mind on Wormadam Trash specifically if I tried to use it throughout an entire playthrough.
I wrote out my thoughts on most of these then lost it 😭😭😭 good tier list with only a few suggestions and comments. I might redo later when I'm not heartbroken
RIP, hopefully you find it!
Same here. I wrote a few corrections and personal thoughts, but then I turned off my PC and went to take a bath, forgetting I was in the middle of writing (and didn't want to post a half-complete comment). 😵
Excelent tier list overall, really great job researching and analysing so many pokemon. Gen 4 has an exceptional dex, doesn't it?
There's one take I disagree with, though, and that is sticking spiritomb in A tier. I've used that thing in a gen 4 run and it was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in a Pokemon game 😂. While its offensive stats aren't bad, the stabs it gets aren't that useful. But the biggest problem is its speed. It has good defenses, ruined by an awful hp stat, and the fact it's so slow means it's always taking hits. It stacks up. Unless you successfuly predict a psychic or normal move, it's almost always getting hit twice when coming in before it can do anything in return. It might have something to do with my expectations for it. It's usually hard facing it in the champion fight, so I thought it would be a breeze through the game. I'm not saying it's the worst, but boy was it annoying to use. B tier at most in my opinion
*Platinum has an exceptional dex.
I can see that, I don't have enough experience with it to have a strong opinion on it. I'll definitely have to grab it for a future run and try to utilize it in more places to get a good feeling of what it can really do
Man you did Wormadam sandy dirty. It sweeps Gardenia and Maylene (kind of), and It does ok for most of the game
I think It deserves to be at least in C tear. Overall I agree with the tearlist tho
I think I just need to use it in a full playthrough to get a better idea
Wow this channel is really good. I can tell you put so much work and thought into your videos
Prinplup can learn pluck so its good in the grass arena. in Floaroma Town there is a girl which gives u the tm.
Oh hell yeah love a nuzlocke good tier list. Gonna watch this and voice any controversial opinion I have about it for sure
34:09 i never knew Stuntank learns flamethrower naturally i thought only by tm
A tier list I’m very curious for how it turns out! Though I won’t have any use for it because my copy of Platinum is my hub of fully completed pokedex in gen 4 and yeah I don’t use emulators.
You will get most likely 3-4 views from only my because I won’t be able to watch it in one go
I like your Gyarados coverage.
the pure joy when you talk about gengar 🧡
I think Rampardos and glaceon in B is an insane take. Neither of them are very bulky without ev investment-which takes away opportunities to EV other stats. They are strong but that doesn’t matter if you get out ran and killed in 1-2 hits.
Some of the mons-honch, mismagius, skunktank, purugly are unavailable sadge.
This is overall a solid tier list where I can agree with the logic behind most of the placements even if I don’t necessarily agree. Togekiss, for example to me is just high A because you have a 50% chance for Hustle and you only get one. That’s the sole reason why I have not used a togekiss in a nuzlocke yet because I only get hustle. But I do see the potential and the argument for S tier.
Good points! Rampardos in particular was one of the tougher ones for me to rank, and you could very well be right about it
@@grumpygengar22yeah they are both bad-sometimes you have to be realistic to a Pokémon even if they have good qualities.
26:29 thats drought, not manual sun
Yeah I just realized it after I finished the video haha. Same thing with sand and hail too and their respective weather setters
Man how could you keep -Cheat Code- I mean Weavile out of s tier ? I totally agree with your arguments, poor defensive typing and defenses, awkward movepool but he can wipe out most of the league except for the fire elite 4 member and Cynthia but that's because her team is very well built ! And it has access to swords danse so it can get even more broken
well for starters id make a class cannon ranking for guagsire as, people under- estimate how op he can be. having him able to learn encore, in most of the games. that can break a match up if you really get lucky. not to mention. he can learn rock and water moves. next to Swampert, the only thing tha makes him weak is his speed. and slightly controversial Gyarados would be in the lowest teir for me. as its got too many weakness, to be considered to ever really be useful
For the algorithm 🎉
Love your channel and videos
Mamoswine is the Walrein of Gen 4 Hardcore Nuzlockes but better
That's a good comparison
Empeleon deserves s tier because it has the best typing and stat distribution out of the 3 and is among one of the best type combinations ever in a starter. Only surpassed by primarina and swampert possibly. (Water types really kill it with the types) It hits harder than either of them (111 base special attack), it can easily tank hits with 101 spdef and 88 def. So it should be in the same tier as infernape imo.
my boy Luxray deserves a better movepool
i would love to see a nuzlocke of only destiny bond and status moves allowed, maybe someone can do it despite being impossible
That would be nuts! Haha really cool idea
No munchlax on the list, therefore incomplete. Munchlax surely must be right behind Snorlax on a tier list!
There's no justification needed Gengar will always be S tear in any choice no matter the circumstance
If i play on emulator can i still get the evolution trades like gengar or machamp? And how?
Cheats or use an rom hack
You can edit your rom to allow trade evolutions with the universal randomizer. I believe the option is allow “impossible” evolutions
If you want to be "faithful" _(and/or still be able to evolve a pokemon immadiately instead of at a set level if the randomizer would've made it so),_ there's probably a way to set up two emulated games and trade with eachother.
So you just pick 6 from the S tier and balance out the move sets and typings. Boom sweeping the game
Steelix is significantly better than bastiodon for nuzlocke and just in general especially if you know opponent move sets ..... Steelix has significantly more physical bulk and significantly higher attack making it significantly better in physical matchups. Bastiodon is more tanky on the special side but what are you really getting out of that in a primarily singles format? Steelix is better in every way in physical match-ups and you can actually get solid value out of it. Bastiodon just isn't good at anything but hard counters and taking hits and should probably drop a tier.
That's a lot of "significantly", wow. :o
Great vid
Gliscor????????
Yo gangar you should do emerald with only gimic pokemon like shednija slaking castform kekleano
You not consider the availability of pokemon, it's can be worth
This but for renegade platinum👀
Snorlax is OP for sure, best mon ever.
you cant get murk or honchkrow in platinum
58:33
why did he call the cat sexy 👀
have you NOT seen the fanart of this smooth cat? :)
Bro did Gyrados bad 😂
You said it's an option to trade evo Pokemon in a vanilla rom of the game
How so you do it
You have to use the Universal Pokemon Randomizer program to create your ROM. You can search for how to install and use it on UA-cam. But basically, there is a checkbox in the randomizer program that says something along the lines of "change impossible evos" or something like that (sorry I'm not at my desk at the moment to confirm the exact verbiage). You would just check that box and generate the new ROM file from the program and BOOM, trade evolutions are now possible without actually trading.
As for how the trade evolutions actually evolve, I think there might be a list somewhere online that lists them all out. But you can usually make a pretty good guess. For example, you can evolve Magmar into Magmortar by giving it the Magmarizer and leveling it up once (instead of trading it). As for the Kanto trade evolutions (like Gengar and Alakazam for example), they simply evolve at level 37.
I hope this helps!
@@grumpygengar22 wow thank you very much! Didn't expect such elaborated response :)
Commenting for a free algorythm boost
no pikachu ranking
S tier
@@grumpygengar22 but that's a meme rank probably :(
41:46 to clarify, sucker punches name in Japanese is actually sneak/surprise attack.
So it’s not actually punching, rather it’s doing a dirty blow ant an unexpected time, a “sucker punch” if you will
Thank you for that clarification! That makes so much more sense now
how do u even obtain an Alakazam in an emulator game tho?
You can use the Universal Randomizer program to make trade evolutions possible in your ROM file. It basically updates the way those pokemon evolve. In the case of Alakazam, Kadabra will evolve at level 37.
When i get to fight venus and mars my primplup is already stronger than them wtf
If you over level
No Starmie?
sorry, you need the Super Rod for that and the rod is only found in the Fight Area (postgame)
*[WARNING: Jumbo-sized comment incoming]*
6:22 This is the second time you've used the phrase "dragging through [something]" to describe a starter. In Emerald, it was the Grass starter. Here, it's the Water starter. I wonder if the next game will have the Fire starter meet the same fate? :)
10:11 That's not as big of a deal as you'd think. Two of Maylene's Pokemon carry Rock Tomb, which will deal super-effective damage against Kricketune, while her Lucario double reisists Bug and single resists Normal, so while it can't really hit you too hard, it'll still hit you harder than you will hit it. And don't forget Fighting and Bug resist eachother mutally, so you won't be hitting the other two too hard either! Overall, it's not a very good matchup, unless I guess you want to switch Kricketune in on a Fighting move, _then_ switch it out for a Pokemon that resists Rock and is good enough to win the matchup in that situation, but that feels like overcomplicating it to me.
11:49 According to Bulbapedia, Rivarly has always boosted both categories of moves. It _does_ however boost confusion self-damage in Gen 4 only though.
13:19 lol
24:07 Male Combee is actually _way_ worse than Unown because Unown is always the only encounter wherever it is. Getting a male Combee means you didn't get something better. Same reason why I've seen other people say getting Onix (without trading) is horrible because it means you didn't get Geodude, which is the same but leagues better.
25:09 I still get tripped over the spelling of this one's name. Why is it pronounced Pachurisu if it's spelled with an i instead of u?
27:50 I actually don't mind Ambipom's design, though this might be because I'm a really big fan of its Technician-focused battle style (or at least the idea, as it's probably not as good in practice), so I'm willing to stomach its strange design. Still, I don't think it's _that_ bad, creepy tail-hands aside, and I really like its Diamond/Pearl sprite, 'cause it looks like it's ready to kick some ass. :D
28:53 To be fair, it died to a random crit through Reflect.
33:32 I assume you meant it in a "this this is too weak to use before then", but you can't even catch Glameow until after you get Surf, which is right before Byron, i.e. after Fantina.
40:09 "The physical/special split helps [Raichu] utilize its mixed attacking spread"
_(proceeds to mention two moves that were physical even before the split)_
44:49 Yep. The TM for it can only be bought at Battle Frontier.
58:29 xDDDD Can't say I disagree. :3
1:00:23 Extreme Speed. With base 50 Attack. Yeah, I doubt that's gonna work.
Love reading these as always!