The thing about those trade Pokémon is that even just their second stages are sooo good enough on their own. As a kid I didn't have opportunities to trade so I never had a Golem even tho I loved it's design, but Graveler was 99% of the time my physical tank from the beginning til the end of the game, it never drops off in usability, so I have many fond memories of it. Kadabra is similar, there's really no need to evolve it into Alakazam.
When I played Red and Blue when I was a kid the bullies at school told everyone that they weren't allowed to trade. They were the only ones who could have Golem, Gengar, Alakazam and Machamp. If you had one of those they would beat you up, force you to trade them your pokemon for a Weedle or something and break your Game Boy. Good times.
TIP: Use universal randomizer, without randomizing anything, just check the box that says "Change impossible evolutions" on the first tab. Congrats you now have a rom that can evolve all the trade pokemon. Since it's the universal randomizer it can work with any game up to gen 5. There's a specific randomizer for 3DS games that can do this too, but it's harder to get.
I’m genuinely surprised that Gyarados isn’t on the list. It’s good in every game it’s in the regional dex, and it’s the best free water type in gen 1, and one of the best in gen 4
@@hoozoohleague8264 yeah but it has a Special stat of 100 in Gen 1. It's basically a slower Starmie that trades a little Speed for better Attack. It's still very good
If a pokemon was required to be traded to evolve, i never had it if the final evolution wasnt available in the wild. Growing up i had Blue, Yellow, Gold and Crystal but noone to trade with, so i never got to find out how good Golem, Gengar, Machamp, Scizor, Steelix, or Alakazam was in those games
I was lucky enough to have a few opportunities to do that when the first two gens were current. From the third gen onward, I made sure I had at least two handhelds specifically for the Pokemon games. Thankfully from the 4th Gen onward you can use the GTS to get Trade Evolution Pokemon. In Pokemon Legends Arceus you can get a special item to evolve Kadabra, Graveler, Haunter and Machoke though you can also get their final evolutions in the wild in that game.
Another thing about Nidoking that makes it so broken in gen 1 is that there is an x accuracy bug where if you use an x accuracy your moves don’t have an accuracy check anymore (this includes OHKO moves), so you can cheese the game with horn drill x accuracy nidoking in the original red blue and yellow games
Alakazam actually does this 2 gens in a row because if you teach him elemental punches....you basically have weaker versions of ice beam/thunderbolt/flamethrower but it's so effective and can destroy the entire region solo if you wanted to
In Gen 1, Alakazam is great because it's the best Psychic type Pokemon that isnt Mewtwo and Psychic types are busted in Gen 1. In gen 2, Psychic was nerfed with Dark and steel, but Steel only had one gym and was mainly defensive not offensive. Dark is not very common in Johto, and only has the E4 Karen who uses Vileplume and Gengar. So I would argue Psychic didn't really change much other than the fact that there were two new types to stop it from not having any types that resist it or immune to it. Also ghost is now good against Psychic but that doesn't matter because Gengar is weak to Psychic and doesn't have special attacks, and same goes for misdreavus except it's not really that good or even available for that matter.
From an in-game perspective, especially in the classics, its movepool is quite TM-oriented. In Gen 2, you're just waitin and waitin for EQ and your early game is Double Kick and Normal moves, and STAB Poison Sting.
Yellow was my first pokemon game. The hurt child inside who cannot move past his grudge against Brock's geodude owes an eternal debt of gratitude to Nidoran male
@@goldengoodra2941 in Gen 2, you can slap on all of the elemental punches in addition to getting STAB Sludge Bomb after the Rocket Hideout event in Mahogany Town, which you can do right after Morty. Things actually aren’t that bad for it.
As soon as I seen Wally catch the rarest spawn Ralts I stayed in that area for hours looking for one. Gardevoir is an icon that I make sure I have access to one every gen since. Its a powerhouse and the reigning champ.
@@carvelcake I was gonna say the same thing. It’s easy to forget surskit there though because most people don’t spend a lot spend enough time there to run into it, and most people don’t care enough to look for it since it’s pretty bad
When Alakazam was mentioned, I thought he was going to talk about how good it is in gen2, since it's arguably even better there the in gen1 thanks to the elemental punches being special AND being TMs that you can by as early as the third gym. This makes it insanely good in the main game, destroying Morty with ease, doing even better against Chuck (that fight is basically a free win), having fire punch to melt Jasmine's steel types, fire and thunder punch will take care of Pryce easily, ice punch hits 3 of Claire's 4 Pokemon super effectively and can power through her Kingdra with STAB psychic, and those 4 moves I have been mentioning so far let you super efficiently hit literally EVERYTHING in the elite four and the champion fight with only 2 exceptions in Karen's Houndoom and Umbreon. If you could get it by trading with the elemental punches, it could even hit the only 2 gym leaders that you'd face before obtaining it for super effective damage as well. Sure, there's an argument that you can't get it as early as Geodude, but because of how low leveled the first 2 gyms are, it's not hard to get through them quickly if you have a good team
I pretty much prefer Gastly. Can be found very early at Night on Route 31 or Sprout Tower. With the exception of Falkner and Whitney, it's far bulkier and deadlier than Abra in the long run. Its last stage, Gengar is considered one of the best assassins of the game.
@@JDark-lc2ck ..................To be completely honest with you, I would agree with you, if we were talking Gengar in gen4 onwards, mainly because it's STAB attacks were physical before this point, which made players generally opt to not use them on it. It's also worth noting that it does poorly against 1 more gym you didn't mention: it actually has a pretty bad match up against Morty, mainly because it doesn't have shadow ball in it's level up moveset, and it's notably a TM you get from that gym leader, and this is without going into the fact that if you're trying to avoid overleveling (such as in a Nuzlocke, for example), Gastly doesn't even evolve until level 25, the same level as the gym leader's highest level Pokemon is, both facts put you at a disadvantage that Kadabra/Alakazam does not struggle with here. To be blunt, I would argue that Gengar is an overall worse pick than Alakazam or Golem in gen2; and about your argument of it being "much bulkier", that's just false, as Gengar and Alakazam are pretty comparable in terms of stats across the board, and if you really want to get technical about it, Gengar may have 2 immunities due to it's type combination, but it lacks any sort of recovery options outside of rest, while Alakazam can learn recover if you really want to go that route and can even get access to reflect to cover it's low defense stat as well, neither of which Gengar has access to
@@matthewkuscienko4616 yup, up until gen 3 alakazam is a beast. I really feel like it out class gardevoir in gen 3 games too. Yeah i know thunderbolt is a good TM but kazam still work fine with shock wave. And you can instantly evolve it after level 16 whereas you would have to wait until level 30 to get gardevoir. And as for comparing both gengar and alakazam. Gangar is a good Pokemon until gen 3 but it really becomes great after the physical/special as for alakazam it took all the advantages of pre Physical/Special split era and became an unstoppable force in early 3 gen (I'm sure it's good even after gen 3, but I just haven't been able to play with it, yet. So no comments about that).
Wait your not gonna mention Heracross (G/S HG/SS) and Lucario (B2/W2)!?! Those two were absolutely monstrous first route Pokémon. Heracross is freakin busted since you have a Pokémon with 125 ATK stat by the second gym and You can get a Lucario before the third gym which means you have a semi pseudo legendary Pokémon on your team very early in the game.
@Marnie I’m not sure about the old version but in HG/SS, once you obtain the Cut HM and defeated Bugsy you can practically cut the tree where the fat man is in the forest and once you learn it you can go back to Azalea Town and start spamming headbutt on the trees until Heracross pops out.
@@jonmcknight18 Riolu is a friendship evolution, so you can technically get it after Riolus first level up if you grind its happyness by having it in your party and running in circles for an hour. Lucario completely trivializes not only the second gym, but the first gym as well. If you are doing a hardcore nuzlocke, Riolu/Lucario is the only Pokemon that can consistently beat Cheren, everything else makes the fight very tough.
Yeah, even Scyther and Pinsir are too strong for where they are found. If you are willing to back track a bit you can get Heracross even earlier than them which is crazy.
Heracross was fucking awful in og g/s as it only learned 2 fighting moves and 1 one bug move, and in hg/ss, its after the 2nd gym, but it does murder whitney
johto geodude is absolutely insane and i’m glad someone else is finally acknowledging it. if you don’t get one in a nuzlocke of any johto game, you’ll notice how much harder the early game gets without it.
Geodude-line is such an underrated and overlooked Pokémon similar to the Zubat-line. They’re used so much by common enemy trainers like Hikers and Grunts, people assume they’ll always be weak. Not realizing they are monsters waiting for someone to put the effort in.
You forgot to mention that Gen 1 Nidoking was OP due to learning Thrash at lvl20 (in gen 1 it could last 5 turns).... for most of the game you could literally just every trainer battle with 1 move lol.
Am surprised Drilbur from Pokémon black and white wasn't mentioned because you can get one as early as route 3 in a cave and Excadrill is a monster in a playthougth
I think Gastly of Gen 2 Crystal Version deserves to be included here. Gastly can be obtained as early as Route 31 or more commonly in Sprout Tower and is the pratically immune to normal type attacks at the start of the game and becomes one of the most lethal assassin and fan favorite in Pokemon history, Gengar.
@@georghuppertz5727 it is but haunter gets the elemental punches tms after goldenrod. You can make do until then and you have a perfect counter to Whitney
@@T.D.B-TheDeckBuilder haunter doesn’t get any of the elemental punches. Kadabra gets all 3 and is way better for in game. Gengar can learn ice punch however.
The only roadblock you could theoretically find is Falkner's Mud-Slap. Which is also how I found out that his Pokémon actually knew that move since he gives the TM later (his Pidgey always used Tackle so I didn't know he had something for a Ghost-type)
I’d say that a potential runner-up to Staraptor would be Talonflame in Gen 6. It’s a solid Fire-Flying type available just as early. It’s movepool isn’t as great early on, but it’s fast and strong enough to make it work for a while until it gets better moves like Flamethrower, Brave Bird, or Flare Blitz.
Finally someone who agrees with me that Gardevoir is overpowered. But it's even better than that. Just 2-3 Calm Minds means it will completely and utterly shred damn near everything that isn't resistant to it, and Reflect kills physical damage. Gardevoir can make Cynthia's Garchomp into mince meat in any generation.
ampharos in hgss is also an amazing early game powerhouse! although it may just be personal bias since it's my favorite pokemon so i use it on almost every playthrough 😅
Honestly flaffy/ampharos are better in game in the og gold and silver in my opinion. You get flaffy at like lvl 15 I believe, and in goldenrod can teach it thunder-punch and fire-punch that both do special damage in those games. Once it evolves into ampharos it just gets even better. Charge beam on the gen 4 remakes was a pretty nice tech to add onto ampharos though when you get it in olivine. That special atk raise is nice.
For Sun and Moon, Magnemite is the absolute god, being an essential in Nuzlockes for Trainer School, resists a good amount of trials, and is all around an absolute beast.
For Lucario in gen 6, you get a Riolu on the route outside the bug gym and you can train it's friendship right there and have a non mega form before the first gym, then just transfer the lucarionite after the event.
I used to pretty much build my team entirely around the combination of Infernape and Staraptor and decided to do it again playing the remakes given they were my first games since Black, and my god I forgot how good the 2 of them are.
But Staraptar adds nothing to Infernape. Both have strong physical attack and good speed. Both have Close Combat. Both are super effective against grass and bug pokemon, common types in early Sinnoh. You can rather add a Luxray or Roserade to your Infernape, although both give a twice ground or physics weakness.
@@georghuppertz5727 well Staraptor is still really good if you need a flying mon. But yes, focusing the entire team only around those two doesn't make much sense
@@obambagaming1467 The benefit of Infernape is that you don't need Staraptor (or Crobat) and get a free spot to fill with something bulky (or a staller or barrier setter if you play competitve).
@@obambagaming1467 I agree, Pelipper, Noctowl and Drifblim are not that great. So maybe not pick Infernape for playthrough, but Torterra. Together they ace the first four gyms.
Nidoking is basically a swiss army knife for the kanto games, even before you consider the fact that you can glitch a lvl 100 Nidoking before beating Brock in Pokemon Yellow.
Dude, Nidoking is ALWAYS talked about. Why do you think it's on this list? Because it's some secret tech no one knows about? No. It's because it is insanely strong and everyone knows that. Gen1 is about 30 years old now. There are no secrets. We even know how to actually get Mew now. Nidoking is used in speedruns of gen1 ffs, where every fraction of a second counts and you'd ideally get a strong Pokemon early on, with which you can single-handedly complete the game with, i.e. Nidoking.
@@ThorsShadow nidoking is slept on by the pokemon company from the lack of tcg cards to the lack of appearances in the anime they act like he isn't involved at all, also how did me saying that nidoking is never talked about tick you off this badly 😂
Man, so glad my man Geodude gets the shoutout he deserves. Such a great moveset for Gen2 and great stat lineup for the general gyms. Plus all the reasons you said.
This content is really well made! I been watching your zombies videos for years and recently stumbled upon this channel. Glad to see we share multiple interests!
It's pronounced drap E on Also explosion is effectively 500 base power in gen 2 because until gen five explosion and self destruct half the defense stat of the opponent on the turn explosion is used
One thing you forgot about gardevoir is that if you stack calm mind 2-3 times, you can essentially 1 shot ANY POKEMON YOU AGAINST, i kid you not I have beaten essentially the whole game like this, extremely easily. Younger me thought he was a genius by doing so
@@fluffylizz people usually have either substitute or a defensive pokemon like umbreon with status moves to help those like dragon dance gyrados and calm wind alakazam setup with even on of such sweeper you could wipe the floor with any trainer in game. A good natured umbreon is so good though I never knew untill i tried it for a rom hack: 'rocket editon' out of curiosity the game had all moves till gen 6 (well almost I noticed hurricane missing for my dragonite but everything else was dope), first time I tried out a defensive pokemon and used stat influencing moves other than early game sand attack growl and such (I usually prefer a mix of status and pure offensive moves) results were 10/10 definitely left a pretty cool impression and changed how I think.
@@butchcassidy2083 well tbh even 7-8th graders at some point fail to understand just how much they can do so elementary seems fine 🙂👍 Edit: me 20 third year uni not a 7th grader lmao!
That secret to getting and training early Nidoran in red/blue was a childhood favorite move. Instant game winner and not many people knew about it. Low kick taps Brock, then later feed it x accuracy at the start of the match and fissure the elite 4 to death.
I’ve used all of these Pokémon at some point or another and a few of them are even my favourites from their respective regions. Ralts is *very* hard to find, but Gardevoir & Gallade (if you're playing ORAS, have a male Kirlia with a good nature & a Dawn Stone) *so* worth it. My honourable mentions would be Gyarados (in Red & Blue because of its 100 Special,) Breloom (it's not too bad in RSE and it's even better in ORAS with the physical/special split,) Roserade (you may have to wait awhile to evolve Budew & Roselia but Roserade's 125 base Sp.Atk is worth the wait,) Excadrill (Drilbur can be found in dust clouds in the Wellspring Cave just beyond Striaton City,) Talonflame, Corviknight. 6:05 The early Nidos are only found on Route 22 in Red & Blue, in FRLG they were moved to Route 3 (east of Pewter) but of course, that's still a *very* early location for two awesome evolutionary lines (personally, I prefer Nidoking.) Which one is more common depends on your version; in Red & FireRed it's Nidoran male and in Blue & LeafGreen it's Nidoran female.
Bulbasaur starter was underappreciated big time. Sleep powder, poison powder, leech seed and Vine whip or razor leaf depending on how far into the game you were. You could catch most pokemon or in my case your rival won't appear at the SS Anne, happened with the version leaf green..
@@sunshower6560 somehow I killed him with poison powder and leach seed before ss Anne and couldn't progress... It was a pain and I had to reset the game or trade something with cut.
Bulbasaur can essentially solo the first 3 gym leaders with type advantage in Gen 1. By the time you get to Lavender Town, you've had ample time to build yourself a strong team to not rely on Bulba so heavily. But it can carry you through that first leg of the game alone.
i was also bulb too. Fire i could get an arcanine who is arguably just as good as charizard, and there are plenty of waters on par with Blastoise (Starmie/Lapras/Gyarados). Plus the grass alternatives to bulb are average.
And in Gen 1, Nidoking is technically the most powerful. This is due to Accuracy boost glitch, which will make moves never miss. So, you can 1 hit K.O anything.
12:48 It also worth mentioning before gen 5 Explosion damage calculaton halved enemies defense giving Explosion an effective 500 base power instead of 250.
Shoutout to seedot, but only in sword and shield. Due to the move relearning mechanics in that game you can have a shiftry with its whole level up moveset super early
Actually, Nidoking doesn't get Dig in gen 1. It does, however, get Horn Drill, which instantly KOs nearly everything after an X Accuracy. Plus, you get Earthquake earlier in gen 1, so there's that too.
I'm surprised Gen 1 Butterfree isn't in this list, as it learns confusion at level 10, which back in Gen 1 psychic attacks were nigh unstoppable. So to get a very good one at level 10? That was nuts!
so agree with you, butterfree has always been a must have in my team for its ability "compoundeyes", sleep powder and access to dream eater, which practically meant almost perfect sleep inducing, attacking and health restoring combination 🦋
Butterfree and its early Confusion are indeed usefull, but there are various battles where it struggles, or at least it is best used as a support and not as main weapon: -It bypass physical defense against Brock, but against onix a rock moves can be a possibile 1H-Ko - Surge and his electric mons are a danger - Sabrina resist Butterfree's psychic moves, other moves from Butetfree are quite weak, and they can fire back with strong STAB unresisted moves. - Blaine destroy it (and any other Kanto bug) - Against Giovanni the mathcup is neutral (immune to ground moves and supereffective againt NidoKing/Queen with psychic moves, 4x weak to rock moves that some of them have) but stat wise it's below some of them - E4 ice is hard to manage - against Bruno it can deal agaist 2 Hitmons, but is not the best pick to deal with 2 Onixes and Machamp (that have a rock coverage move) - It struggle against Lance (as lots of other mons) So yes, it can be usefull against some battles, but its far from being a powerhouse as the ones in the video
@@alessiodaniotti264 Brock's rock types don't have rock moves, luckily. So that won't be an issue. Confusion breaks them easily. But for an early mon, a bug type with such weaknesses, an evolved Caterpie.. it does pretty good overall against the many poison types, Brock, Erika, Koga, Team Rocket, Bruno, Agatha.. so not a top 5 (or 10 actually) but deserves a shoutout ☝️
A mention should be made for Gen 2 Kadabra, that you can load up with Thunderpunch, Ice Punch, Fire Punch, and Psybeam. Able to outspeed most Pokémon, and (with this moveset) able to hit almost anything super effectively, you can sweep the game with just Kadabra
The two most recent games I played were Pokémon Y and Pokémon alpha sapphire, and the two early monsters for me were fletchling and mudkip. For fletchling, it does good damage early as the prototypical bird, but once that thing turns into fletchinder and later talonflame, holy mother does it hit like a truck. There were points where I had to actively make myself stop playing with it bc it was running through battles alone. For alpha sapphire, kind of a funny story. I picked mudkip bc I had never played with one before, I was a treecko guy back in the day and I played with torchic my first play through of omega Ruby bc of the speed boost ability. Regardless this was my first time ever playing mudkip. I started just playing it as my starter, keeping it a couple levels above my main team, u know. Well eventually I started never needing to switch it out bc it was 1 shotting everything and I had no reason to. It got to the point that by the 5th gym it was level 41 and my next highest mon was level 26. I decided instead of waste my time and grind the whole time lemme just see how far I can go with swampert. Yeah, I ended up sweeping the entire game. With nothing but a swampert. The worst part was it never died a single time the ENTIRE playthrough, not even when I had other mons on the team, which means u can literally nuzlocke a game of alpha sapphire with nothing but ur starter. The funniest part was I checked it’s IVs after the run was over just out of curiosity. They were mid. Lmfao. Long story short swampert is the most ridiculously broken mon in oras it’s not even funny. Once it has ice punch for the grass types and the mega stone for bulk, it can literally sweep every battle in the entire game. And it’s your STARTER. Can’t get any earlier than that
I'd like to submit Gen 1 Mr. Mime (Marcel) as an honorable mention alongside Alakazam. It's arguably better than Kadabra for those in a no-trade situation, as well as barrier for extra staying power and the screens to set up your team. PLUS it always gets the traded EXP boost.
The boosted exp is what makes Marcel better than a random Kadabra. If they are both at the same level, Kadabra still outperforms Mr. Mime due to having access to recover, but the traded Mr. Mime will always have a level lead, which more than compensates for the lack of one move.
Ha shit I always pick mr mime over kadabra in the remakes bc it learns psychic, thunderbolt by tm, magical leaf, and calm mind by tm. you can get it before the third gym if you manage to avoid all the digletts, it's so versatile and its high sp atk makes up for it not being an electric type or grass type pokemon 😁
@@randomweeb2809 "psychic, thunderbolt by tm, magical leaf, and calm mind" I'm sure that moveset worked great in Fire Red or Leaf Green, but those last two moves didn't exist in Gen 1. Best moves in RBY after Psychic and Thunderbolt were Thunder Wave, Barrier, Substitute, the screens, you could trade Mime to GSC and teach the elemental punches, and Counter. And rumor has it you could train it to clean your apartment, too.
Nidoran male was essentially my starter Pokemon back in the day for Yellow playthroughs; Early double kick helped fix that your actual starter Pokemon was Brock's dinner, then everything else it could get set you for the rest of the game. Even had utility in the fact that it could be your discount water coverage and overworld helper with Surf. Always found it funny that he could swim around the map and flood entire arenas no problem while 2x weak to water.
Just to add to lucarios honourable mention. It starts with bone rush, and you can get the shadow claw tm pretty quickly, which with its base stat total means it goes positive on every gym leader in the game. It beats half of team flare, it beats two of the elite four outright, and has the power to beat the water member too, and the champion solo outside of hawlucha maybe. Adaptability on those stats is insanity. One of the few megas to be banned competitively is a gift pokemon. I feel like lucario also does the same to b2w2. You can get one before the first gym, which it beats. Its then useful five of the following gyms with the aid of ice punch move tutor, useful in two elite four battles and beats the champion again. A busted playthrough pokemon in any game that isn’t sinnoh seemingly
Alakazam and golem personally should have been lower, only because you're not gonna be using them if you don't have a way to trade for them. Kadabra and Graveler are good in their own rights as well especially in the specified games, but if you can't trade them your not able to use them to their full power. Also Gastley in Crystal as well for about the same reasons.
The most threatening in game Pokémon is kadabra in gen 2. You don’t need to trade it for it to be amazing, and if you do trade it it’s just even better. Psychic, ice punch, and thunder punch. You really don’t even need fire punch, but you can use that if you want. I prefer flash just for in field use.
Its crazy how well gardevoir dominates hoenn, especially in the remakes, theres little to no major battle it cant overcome *i just wish the internet didnt ruin it*
@@nightmarishtaco3434 My Ophanimon In Digimon World Dawn And Dusk Is Both Sexier And Stronger!Her Traits:All Elements,Mind's Eye,Assassin,StatusBarrier!Her Moves:Call Dramon,Holy Destroy,Royal Cannon,Royal Slash,Sephirothic Crystal!!!Her Items:3 Legend Swords!Plus I Have A Beautiful Nude Picture Of Her!THE VIRGIN MARY OF DIGIMON!
I know lucario for x/y was briefly mentioned, however I think number 1 can easily be given to lucario in black/white 2. Riolu can be found very early on and can be fully evolved into lucario before the first normal type gym leader and will continue to carry for majority of the play through. (Soothe bell is also available this early)
Great channel bro. You just need to be consistent with the way you speak. Sometimes you have a strong start voice in a sentence but finishing with a low voice to the point I don’t understand what the word are you talking about. But thanks to the auto generated caption. hope your channel grows.
Great vid. Gotta say though, I kinda prefer Staraptor's other ability which complements brave bird and take down, both stab moves, plus choice band. Add uturn and close combat, and you have an absolute juggernaut, that can one shot nearly everything in the game.
I'd like to mention B2W2 Lucario and Magnezone. Early game steels are hard to get normally, but B2W2 just throw these 2 at you. You can get Riolu at the ranch before the first gym as a rare encounter and Magnemite in the town with the 2nd gym before you face it as a common encounter. Riolu evolves via friendship during the day, meaning you can have a Lucario BEFORE THE FIRST GYM! And while Magnemite doesn't evolve into Magneton until level 30, it's still physically defensive and has good special attack, and you can evolve it into Magnezone almost immediately after since you're right next to Chargestone Cave at this point, though I'd wait until reteaching it Tri Attack for coverage. Steel walls the first 3 gyms hard but your steel of choice changes the later gym outcomes. Steel resists normal and bug, Lucario quad resisting bug thanks to its fighting typing, and is immune to Roxie's poison. If Lucario, Elesa can be an issue from her Emolga's Aerial Ace (on challenge mode) and Zebstrika's Flame Charge, Clay stomps with his Bulldoze, Skyla and Marlon are neutral, and Drayden is resisted. If Magnemite, you resist Elesa's mons except her Zebstrika's Flame Charge, Clay stomps even harder, you just walk all over Skyla and Marlon, and Drayden is resisted. In the Elite 4, both are weak to Marshal's fighting types, but that's where they split. Lucario is neutral to Caitlin and Shauntal, but its coverage can give it the edge, and walks all over Grimsley. Magnezone resists all three and is deals neutral damage, but that's not an issue when you're using Thunderbolt, Flash Cannon, Tri Attack, and/or maybe Thunderwave+Electro Ball. For both, the only real obstacle with Shauntal is her Golurk and Chandelure, though they're slow so they should go down fast. As for the champion, it's Iris using Dragons and a few others that both stomp with steel moves their other typings with the only hiccups being Hydreigon's Flamethrower and Haxorus's Earthquake. Lucario gets the slight edge with its coverage, but you shouldn't dismiss Magnezone's bulk and sheer destructive might.
The only thing about Golem and Alakazam is that they're trade only Pokemon, requiring another pokemon game/game boy/link cable. (Friends not required) Or a rom hack that makes every pokemon available on one version.
in gen1 there is also clefable, in the originals you can catch it in mt moon, evolve it right away and teach it both water gun and megapunch, later on it gets bubble beam, then bodyslam, thunderbolt, ice beam, psychic and blizzard, every move you could possibly want, it can learn it, sure nidoking can use x accuracy horndrill, but with clefable you wont even need it, 1 x special is usually all you ever need, sometimes 2. (the badge boost will make you faster than the champions alakazam after 2 x specials, so its pretty much perfect) the only downside is that its rare, so ofc its not good for speedruns unless your doing tas, but for casual players i think clefable is even better than nidoking, you barely need x items even at minimum battles, only 1 or 2 for the elite four and thats it pretty much. in firered and leafgreen its just as good as well. instead of water gun and bubblebeam youll get megakick and water pulse instead, instead of thunderbolt youll get shockwave and thunder and instead of icebeam you get blizzard and instead of bodyslam you get base 100 return which is even better. its pretty much just as good. better than blastoise thats for sure.
Gen 5 Riolu, Gen 6 Talonflame with the unerfed gale wings, Gen 3 tentacool, Abra and shroomish. Gen two if you have someone to trade you can get all 4 trade evolutions before the 3 gym. And gen 7 the early Salamence if you commit.
When I had a Staraptor in my Platinum nuzlocke, I spammed double team and beat the crap out of every boss battle except Roark and Volkner. It also crushed 4 of Cynthia's pokemon because none of their moves hit lol
Gen 1 speedrunners use Nidoking because of how broken it is. Level 23, it gets Thrash which is the strongest move you'll get at that point and is only resisted by Rocks and Ghosts. As for Staraptor, Platinum is where it's at its best due to getting Return from Rowan after you leave the lab
Having an Alakazam in gen 1 is overkill because Kadabra is already one of the strongest Pokemon you could ever play on a normal playthrough. The AI can't outspeed it and 120 base special is busted, psychic type destroys everything
I’ll never forget in FireRed when I prepared Ice Beam for my water Pokémon, Dragon Claws for my Charizard and then literally destroyed all Lance team with Golem, Snorlax and Raichu. Golem alone handled Aerodactyl and Dragonite - at level 51.
I've been sleeping on Nidoran, apparently. I usually just catch a Mankey for Brock in the Kanto games. And here I was thinking that that was the clever play. Sure, I knew Nidoking was particularly strong in Gen 1, but it didn't know Nidoran was that useful from that early in FRLG.
I agree with nidoran at number three, but there’s one thing that people always seem to forget. It literally learns double kick in GEN two. I went into Whitneys gym and smoked it with double kick nidorino.
Shadow Ball in gen 3 is unfortunately physical so I don't think I'd be running that on Garde lol. Zigzagoon is even a better choice but awesome vid man keep it up :)
Gen 2 Gastly can be obtained very early on Rote 31 or Sprout Tower. Gen 2 Abra can be obtained as early as Route 34. Due to availability so early, I'd definitely go Gastly it also becomes OP Gengar
@@JDark-lc2ck Gastoy’s level up set is trash, it has no special STAB and it can’t learn the elemental punches until it evolves. You can teach them to Abra as soon as you get one and evolve it 9 levels earlier.
Watch Part 2 HERE: ua-cam.com/video/RGOSiJb1l-M/v-deo.html
mayeb you forgot that rayqaza can elite 4 carry as soon as you get him
"You *did* evolve it into Golem, right?"
*Anyone who can't trade:* 😢
I use cheats to obtain them once I get to 2nd evo.
The thing about those trade Pokémon is that even just their second stages are sooo good enough on their own. As a kid I didn't have opportunities to trade so I never had a Golem even tho I loved it's design, but Graveler was 99% of the time my physical tank from the beginning til the end of the game, it never drops off in usability, so I have many fond memories of it. Kadabra is similar, there's really no need to evolve it into Alakazam.
@@iamnotinvolved1309 I was in a similar boat as a kid, but I always remember having a Haunter on my team for the longest time. It smashed :3
When I played Red and Blue when I was a kid the bullies at school told everyone that they weren't allowed to trade. They were the only ones who could have Golem, Gengar, Alakazam and Machamp. If you had one of those they would beat you up, force you to trade them your pokemon for a Weedle or something and break your Game Boy. Good times.
TIP: Use universal randomizer, without randomizing anything, just check the box that says "Change impossible evolutions" on the first tab. Congrats you now have a rom that can evolve all the trade pokemon. Since it's the universal randomizer it can work with any game up to gen 5. There's a specific randomizer for 3DS games that can do this too, but it's harder to get.
I’m genuinely surprised that Gyarados isn’t on the list. It’s good in every game it’s in the regional dex, and it’s the best free water type in gen 1, and one of the best in gen 4
In gen 1 it's not that good though. Unless I'm mistaken. Early beasts in gen 1 for me are Abra, nidoran male. Gyarados had no physical stab moves
@@hoozoohleague8264 yeah but it has a Special stat of 100 in Gen 1. It's basically a slower Starmie that trades a little Speed for better Attack. It's still very good
Actually wouldn’t you start with magic carp and it would take till mid game to get it?
@@tylerd1297 speed is incredibly important in gen 1 battles though
@@hoozoohleague8264 it’s nuts in gen 1, gen 2 is where it is at it’s worse and it’s still a monster
If a pokemon was required to be traded to evolve, i never had it if the final evolution wasnt available in the wild. Growing up i had Blue, Yellow, Gold and Crystal but noone to trade with, so i never got to find out how good Golem, Gengar, Machamp, Scizor, Steelix, or Alakazam was in those games
I was lucky enough to have a few opportunities to do that when the first two gens were current. From the third gen onward, I made sure I had at least two handhelds specifically for the Pokemon games. Thankfully from the 4th Gen onward you can use the GTS to get Trade Evolution Pokemon. In Pokemon Legends Arceus you can get a special item to evolve Kadabra, Graveler, Haunter and Machoke though you can also get their final evolutions in the wild in that game.
When it first came out my mom's bfs son always got the opposite game as me so we could get all 150.. the cable link days bring me back lol
Another thing about Nidoking that makes it so broken in gen 1 is that there is an x accuracy bug where if you use an x accuracy your moves don’t have an accuracy check anymore (this includes OHKO moves), so you can cheese the game with horn drill x accuracy nidoking in the original red blue and yellow games
That's how speed runs of Gen 1 are done.
@@AlldaylongRock
x speed + x acc meaning making mewtwo say "Hehe... I'm in danger!"
(make sure to spore it with parasect though)
Can't Nidoking even learn all of the gen 1 one hit ko moves? I know he also gets fissure (Guaranteed team sweeps with 10 pp)
@@VCV95 There's also guillotine who is only learnt by Pinsir and Kingler of which only pinsir can make use of with his speed
Alakazam actually does this 2 gens in a row because if you teach him elemental punches....you basically have weaker versions of ice beam/thunderbolt/flamethrower but it's so effective and can destroy the entire region solo if you wanted to
Yeah elemental punches+psychic move
@edmond santos No recovery move but we got potions for that
In Gen 1, Alakazam is great because it's the best Psychic type Pokemon that isnt Mewtwo and Psychic types are busted in Gen 1. In gen 2, Psychic was nerfed with Dark and steel, but Steel only had one gym and was mainly defensive not offensive. Dark is not very common in Johto, and only has the E4 Karen who uses Vileplume and Gengar. So I would argue Psychic didn't really change much other than the fact that there were two new types to stop it from not having any types that resist it or immune to it. Also ghost is now good against Psychic but that doesn't matter because Gengar is weak to Psychic and doesn't have special attacks, and same goes for misdreavus except it's not really that good or even available for that matter.
Trade Kadabra for Mr. Mime in Gen 1, thank me later. Mr. Mine can actually learn all of those elemental attacks, not just the punch versions
Man Nidoking has got arguably the best movepool in the history of the game.
dude evne special attack variant is good i use eit in heeartgold. rivalry makees it a nice mixed attacker
From an in-game perspective, especially in the classics, its movepool is quite TM-oriented. In Gen 2, you're just waitin and waitin for EQ and your early game is Double Kick and Normal moves, and STAB Poison Sting.
Not quite normal types have just as good or better movesets. Such as Snorlax and stoutland
Yellow was my first pokemon game. The hurt child inside who cannot move past his grudge against Brock's geodude owes an eternal debt of gratitude to Nidoran male
@@goldengoodra2941 in Gen 2, you can slap on all of the elemental punches in addition to getting STAB Sludge Bomb after the Rocket Hideout event in Mahogany Town, which you can do right after Morty. Things actually aren’t that bad for it.
biggest weakness of ralts/guardevoir in gen 3 is the constant dark fights against aqua and magma
As soon as I seen Wally catch the rarest spawn Ralts I stayed in that area for hours looking for one. Gardevoir is an icon that I make sure I have access to one every gen since. Its a powerhouse and the reigning champ.
ralts is like 4% and surskit 1% right? 😳
I watched that smug prick get a shiny ralts on my first playthrough back when they came out 😒
@@carvelcake I was gonna say the same thing. It’s easy to forget surskit there though because most people don’t spend a lot spend enough time there to run into it, and most people don’t care enough to look for it since it’s pretty bad
Didnt even knew you can find surskit there
@@Machoke. surskit would have been way more popular if it didnt lose the water type upon evolving
When Alakazam was mentioned, I thought he was going to talk about how good it is in gen2, since it's arguably even better there the in gen1 thanks to the elemental punches being special AND being TMs that you can by as early as the third gym. This makes it insanely good in the main game, destroying Morty with ease, doing even better against Chuck (that fight is basically a free win), having fire punch to melt Jasmine's steel types, fire and thunder punch will take care of Pryce easily, ice punch hits 3 of Claire's 4 Pokemon super effectively and can power through her Kingdra with STAB psychic, and those 4 moves I have been mentioning so far let you super efficiently hit literally EVERYTHING in the elite four and the champion fight with only 2 exceptions in Karen's Houndoom and Umbreon. If you could get it by trading with the elemental punches, it could even hit the only 2 gym leaders that you'd face before obtaining it for super effective damage as well. Sure, there's an argument that you can't get it as early as Geodude, but because of how low leveled the first 2 gyms are, it's not hard to get through them quickly if you have a good team
I pretty much prefer Gastly. Can be found very early at Night on Route 31 or Sprout Tower. With the exception of Falkner and Whitney, it's far bulkier and deadlier than Abra in the long run. Its last stage, Gengar is considered one of the best assassins of the game.
@@JDark-lc2ck ..................To be completely honest with you, I would agree with you, if we were talking Gengar in gen4 onwards, mainly because it's STAB attacks were physical before this point, which made players generally opt to not use them on it. It's also worth noting that it does poorly against 1 more gym you didn't mention: it actually has a pretty bad match up against Morty, mainly because it doesn't have shadow ball in it's level up moveset, and it's notably a TM you get from that gym leader, and this is without going into the fact that if you're trying to avoid overleveling (such as in a Nuzlocke, for example), Gastly doesn't even evolve until level 25, the same level as the gym leader's highest level Pokemon is, both facts put you at a disadvantage that Kadabra/Alakazam does not struggle with here. To be blunt, I would argue that Gengar is an overall worse pick than Alakazam or Golem in gen2; and about your argument of it being "much bulkier", that's just false, as Gengar and Alakazam are pretty comparable in terms of stats across the board, and if you really want to get technical about it, Gengar may have 2 immunities due to it's type combination, but it lacks any sort of recovery options outside of rest, while Alakazam can learn recover if you really want to go that route and can even get access to reflect to cover it's low defense stat as well, neither of which Gengar has access to
@@matthewkuscienko4616 yup, up until gen 3 alakazam is a beast. I really feel like it out class gardevoir in gen 3 games too. Yeah i know thunderbolt is a good TM but kazam still work fine with shock wave. And you can instantly evolve it after level 16 whereas you would have to wait until level 30 to get gardevoir. And as for comparing both gengar and alakazam. Gangar is a good Pokemon until gen 3 but it really becomes great after the physical/special as for alakazam it took all the advantages of pre Physical/Special split era and became an unstoppable force in early 3 gen (I'm sure it's good even after gen 3, but I just haven't been able to play with it, yet. So no comments about that).
The funny thing is how even abra can learn all 3 before it evolves
Sadly isn't viable if you are nuzlocking
I would call Hawlucha one because you can get on before the first trial in gen 7 and it's a MONSTER, especially in the remakes.
Wait your not gonna mention Heracross (G/S HG/SS) and Lucario (B2/W2)!?! Those two were absolutely monstrous first route Pokémon. Heracross is freakin busted since you have a Pokémon with 125 ATK stat by the second gym and You can get a Lucario before the third gym which means you have a semi pseudo legendary Pokémon on your team very early in the game.
@Marnie I’m not sure about the old version but in HG/SS, once you obtain the Cut HM and defeated Bugsy you can practically cut the tree where the fat man is in the forest and once you learn it you can go back to Azalea Town and start spamming headbutt on the trees until Heracross pops out.
If you train riolu right you can have lucario by the second gym so roxie can't do anything to you because your part steel type
@@jonmcknight18 Riolu is a friendship evolution, so you can technically get it after Riolus first level up if you grind its happyness by having it in your party and running in circles for an hour. Lucario completely trivializes not only the second gym, but the first gym as well. If you are doing a hardcore nuzlocke, Riolu/Lucario is the only Pokemon that can consistently beat Cheren, everything else makes the fight very tough.
Yeah, even Scyther and Pinsir are too strong for where they are found. If you are willing to back track a bit you can get Heracross even earlier than them which is crazy.
Heracross was fucking awful in og g/s as it only learned 2 fighting moves and 1 one bug move, and in hg/ss, its after the 2nd gym, but it does murder whitney
johto geodude is absolutely insane and i’m glad someone else is finally acknowledging it. if you don’t get one in a nuzlocke of any johto game, you’ll notice how much harder the early game gets without it.
Geodude-line is such an underrated and overlooked Pokémon similar to the Zubat-line. They’re used so much by common enemy trainers like Hikers and Grunts, people assume they’ll always be weak. Not realizing they are monsters waiting for someone to put the effort in.
My 1st pokemon game was yellow and I remember reaching elite 4 even lance by just having a high level graveller 😆
You forgot to mention that Gen 1 Nidoking was OP due to learning Thrash at lvl20 (in gen 1 it could last 5 turns).... for most of the game you could literally just every trainer battle with 1 move lol.
Yess. Moonstone before cerulean. 1 hit KO for each pkmn. Just wait the duel ends 🤣
Am surprised Drilbur from Pokémon black and white wasn't mentioned because you can get one as early as route 3 in a cave and Excadrill is a monster in a playthougth
In Single or Competitive, this mon is a pure monster. It was banned of OU, in Gen 5, for one thing: Sand Rush in Sandstorm.
Gen 3 Ralts is like Magikarp. It isn't great in the short term but give it time and you'll have a great team member.
and a great wife 🗿
I think Gastly of Gen 2 Crystal Version deserves to be included here. Gastly can be obtained as early as Route 31 or more commonly in Sprout Tower and is the pratically immune to normal type attacks at the start of the game and becomes one of the most lethal assassin and fan favorite in Pokemon history, Gengar.
Its movepool is disappointing early game.
@@georghuppertz5727 it is but haunter gets the elemental punches tms after goldenrod. You can make do until then and you have a perfect counter to Whitney
@@T.D.B-TheDeckBuilder haunter doesn’t get any of the elemental punches. Kadabra gets all 3 and is way better for in game. Gengar can learn ice punch however.
The only roadblock you could theoretically find is Falkner's Mud-Slap. Which is also how I found out that his Pokémon actually knew that move since he gives the TM later (his Pidgey always used Tackle so I didn't know he had something for a Ghost-type)
He put it in the sequel video!
geodude has always been one of my favorite pokemon, thank you for giving him the love he deserves. always loved him in my play throughs.
I’d say that a potential runner-up to Staraptor would be Talonflame in Gen 6. It’s a solid Fire-Flying type available just as early. It’s movepool isn’t as great early on, but it’s fast and strong enough to make it work for a while until it gets better moves like Flamethrower, Brave Bird, or Flare Blitz.
Finally someone who agrees with me that Gardevoir is overpowered. But it's even better than that. Just 2-3 Calm Minds means it will completely and utterly shred damn near everything that isn't resistant to it, and Reflect kills physical damage. Gardevoir can make Cynthia's Garchomp into mince meat in any generation.
ampharos in hgss is also an amazing early game powerhouse! although it may just be personal bias since it's my favorite pokemon so i use it on almost every playthrough 😅
Honestly flaffy/ampharos are better in game in the og gold and silver in my opinion. You get flaffy at like lvl 15 I believe, and in goldenrod can teach it thunder-punch and fire-punch that both do special damage in those games. Once it evolves into ampharos it just gets even better. Charge beam on the gen 4 remakes was a pretty nice tech to add onto ampharos though when you get it in olivine. That special atk raise is nice.
Hell yeah! I’ve always loved that line of Pokémon and always had them in my roster in any Johto playthough. They’re a definite must have for me!
For Sun and Moon, Magnemite is the absolute god, being an essential in Nuzlockes for Trainer School, resists a good amount of trials, and is all around an absolute beast.
For Lucario in gen 6, you get a Riolu on the route outside the bug gym and you can train it's friendship right there and have a non mega form before the first gym, then just transfer the lucarionite after the event.
That also applies for b2w2 just removing the mega-evolution part
I used to pretty much build my team entirely around the combination of Infernape and Staraptor and decided to do it again playing the remakes given they were my first games since Black, and my god I forgot how good the 2 of them are.
But Staraptar adds nothing to Infernape. Both have strong physical attack and good speed. Both have Close Combat. Both are super effective against grass and bug pokemon, common types in early Sinnoh. You can rather add a Luxray or Roserade to your Infernape, although both give a twice ground or physics weakness.
@@georghuppertz5727 well Staraptor is still really good if you need a flying mon.
But yes, focusing the entire team only around those two doesn't make much sense
@@obambagaming1467 The benefit of Infernape is that you don't need Staraptor (or Crobat) and get a free spot to fill with something bulky (or a staller or barrier setter if you play competitve).
@@georghuppertz5727 but you still need a pokemon that can learn Fly. Staraptor is definitely one of the better ones.
@@obambagaming1467 I agree, Pelipper, Noctowl and Drifblim are not that great. So maybe not pick Infernape for playthrough, but Torterra. Together they ace the first four gyms.
Geodude and it’s evolved forms are always a must when I play Gen 2 and the remakes. They’re beasts
Nidoking is basically a swiss army knife for the kanto games, even before you consider the fact that you can glitch a lvl 100 Nidoking before beating Brock in Pokemon Yellow.
I knew alakazam was really good in gen 1, but I didnt know it was that overpowered. Cheers for the insight pat!
Nidoking is never talked about I'm so glad you brought him up 🔥
Dude, Nidoking is ALWAYS talked about. Why do you think it's on this list? Because it's some secret tech no one knows about? No. It's because it is insanely strong and everyone knows that. Gen1 is about 30 years old now. There are no secrets. We even know how to actually get Mew now.
Nidoking is used in speedruns of gen1 ffs, where every fraction of a second counts and you'd ideally get a strong Pokemon early on, with which you can single-handedly complete the game with, i.e. Nidoking.
@@ThorsShadow nidoking is slept on by the pokemon company from the lack of tcg cards to the lack of appearances in the anime they act like he isn't involved at all, also how did me saying that nidoking is never talked about tick you off this badly 😂
@@ThorsShadow and obviously others agree that he's slept on and not talked about enough he's highly slept on 😴
@@Dracomics Nah he’s right they DEFINITELY talk about nidoking 😭😭
Anyone familiar with gen 1, nuzlockes. Speed runs. Etc. Knows nidoking is amazing. If you don't, you just weren't paying attention
Man, so glad my man Geodude gets the shoutout he deserves. Such a great moveset for Gen2 and great stat lineup for the general gyms. Plus all the reasons you said.
The problem with Geodude is that evolving it to Golem is too hard...
That said, for Abra, Kadabra isn't much worse in a play through so it's fine...
Nidoking was always my favorite. Good to know he was a good one to have.
Glad there is more Geodude respect. Always have room for one in every game it is included in.
It's nice to see you have passion in a video again. Havent seen this type of emotion since the zombie retrospective videos
This content is really well made! I been watching your zombies videos for years and recently stumbled upon this channel. Glad to see we share multiple interests!
Welcome to the channel :)
It's pronounced drap E on
Also explosion is effectively 500 base power in gen 2 because until gen five explosion and self destruct half the defense stat of the opponent on the turn explosion is used
One thing you forgot about gardevoir is that if you stack calm mind 2-3 times, you can essentially 1 shot ANY POKEMON YOU AGAINST, i kid you not I have beaten essentially the whole game like this, extremely easily.
Younger me thought he was a genius by doing so
That is unless the foe KO’s it first. I just end up going full offensive and skipping boosting attack moves but to each their own.
65 physical defense with 68 HP though
@@fluffylizz people usually have either substitute or a defensive pokemon like umbreon with status moves to help those like dragon dance gyrados and calm wind alakazam setup with even on of such sweeper you could wipe the floor with any trainer in game. A good natured umbreon is so good though I never knew untill i tried it for a rom hack: 'rocket editon' out of curiosity the game had all moves till gen 6 (well almost I noticed hurricane missing for my dragonite but everything else was dope), first time I tried out a defensive pokemon and used stat influencing moves other than early game sand attack growl and such (I usually prefer a mix of status and pure offensive moves) results were 10/10 definitely left a pretty cool impression and changed how I think.
that brings me back to elementary where everyone thought status or stat moves were useless because we didnt understand english
@@butchcassidy2083 well tbh even 7-8th graders at some point fail to understand just how much they can do so elementary seems fine 🙂👍
Edit: me 20 third year uni not a 7th grader lmao!
That secret to getting and training early Nidoran in red/blue was a childhood favorite move.
Instant game winner and not many people knew about it.
Low kick taps Brock, then later feed it x accuracy at the start of the match and fissure the elite 4 to death.
Nidoran wasn’t doing anything to Brock in Red and Blue. It doesn’t get Double Kick (not Low Kick) until level 43.
I’ve used all of these Pokémon at some point or another and a few of them are even my favourites from their respective regions. Ralts is *very* hard to find, but Gardevoir & Gallade (if you're playing ORAS, have a male Kirlia with a good nature & a Dawn Stone) *so* worth it. My honourable mentions would be Gyarados (in Red & Blue because of its 100 Special,) Breloom (it's not too bad in RSE and it's even better in ORAS with the physical/special split,) Roserade (you may have to wait awhile to evolve Budew & Roselia but Roserade's 125 base Sp.Atk is worth the wait,) Excadrill (Drilbur can be found in dust clouds in the Wellspring Cave just beyond Striaton City,) Talonflame, Corviknight. 6:05 The early Nidos are only found on Route 22 in Red & Blue, in FRLG they were moved to Route 3 (east of Pewter) but of course, that's still a *very* early location for two awesome evolutionary lines (personally, I prefer Nidoking.) Which one is more common depends on your version; in Red & FireRed it's Nidoran male and in Blue & LeafGreen it's Nidoran female.
Awesome list Smith! Look forward to more.
Bulbasaur starter was underappreciated big time. Sleep powder, poison powder, leech seed and Vine whip or razor leaf depending on how far into the game you were. You could catch most pokemon or in my case your rival won't appear at the SS Anne, happened with the version leaf green..
Blastoise is the stronger pick for Kanto. Better typing and movepool.
Blue doesn’t appear in Leaf Green if you select Bulbasaur?
@@sunshower6560 somehow I killed him with poison powder and leach seed before ss Anne and couldn't progress... It was a pain and I had to reset the game or trade something with cut.
Bulbasaur can essentially solo the first 3 gym leaders with type advantage in Gen 1. By the time you get to Lavender Town, you've had ample time to build yourself a strong team to not rely on Bulba so heavily. But it can carry you through that first leg of the game alone.
i was also bulb too. Fire i could get an arcanine who is arguably just as good as charizard, and there are plenty of waters on par with Blastoise (Starmie/Lapras/Gyarados). Plus the grass alternatives to bulb are average.
And in Gen 1, Nidoking is technically the most powerful. This is due to Accuracy boost glitch, which will make moves never miss. So, you can 1 hit K.O anything.
12:48 It also worth mentioning before gen 5 Explosion damage calculaton halved enemies defense giving Explosion an effective 500 base power instead of 250.
One other thing with Staraptor, you can get super effective coverage against Psychics with U-Turn!
Shoutout to seedot, but only in sword and shield. Due to the move relearning mechanics in that game you can have a shiftry with its whole level up moveset super early
Actually, Nidoking doesn't get Dig in gen 1. It does, however, get Horn Drill, which instantly KOs nearly everything after an X Accuracy. Plus, you get Earthquake earlier in gen 1, so there's that too.
I'm surprised Gen 1 Butterfree isn't in this list, as it learns confusion at level 10, which back in Gen 1 psychic attacks were nigh unstoppable. So to get a very good one at level 10? That was nuts!
so agree with you, butterfree has always been a must have in my team for its ability "compoundeyes", sleep powder and access to dream eater, which practically meant almost perfect sleep inducing, attacking and health restoring combination 🦋
@@chariiksyu5918 it also boosts Hurricane!!
I love Compound eyes Galavantula personally. 90% accurate thunder with no held item or setup? Yes please!
In gen 1 it learns confusion at 12 actually. Descent speed and special, bit lacks physical attack and defence. Still love it though!
Butterfree and its early Confusion are indeed usefull, but there are various battles where it struggles, or at least it is best used as a support and not as main weapon:
-It bypass physical defense against Brock, but against onix a rock moves can be a possibile 1H-Ko
- Surge and his electric mons are a danger
- Sabrina resist Butterfree's psychic moves, other moves from Butetfree are quite weak, and they can fire back with strong STAB unresisted moves.
- Blaine destroy it (and any other Kanto bug)
- Against Giovanni the mathcup is neutral (immune to ground moves and supereffective againt NidoKing/Queen with psychic moves, 4x weak to rock moves that some of them have) but stat wise it's below some of them
- E4 ice is hard to manage
- against Bruno it can deal agaist 2 Hitmons, but is not the best pick to deal with 2 Onixes and Machamp (that have a rock coverage move)
- It struggle against Lance (as lots of other mons)
So yes, it can be usefull against some battles, but its far from being a powerhouse as the ones in the video
@@alessiodaniotti264 Brock's rock types don't have rock moves, luckily. So that won't be an issue. Confusion breaks them easily.
But for an early mon, a bug type with such weaknesses, an evolved Caterpie.. it does pretty good overall against the many poison types, Brock, Erika, Koga, Team Rocket, Bruno, Agatha.. so not a top 5 (or 10 actually) but deserves a shoutout ☝️
First video I've seen of yours. Love it. Keep it up. I've subbed btw
Tbh I always used the alakazam evolution chain when I played pokemon stadium on the lv 50 cup from poke to master cup. Worked for me when I was little
A mention should be made for Gen 2 Kadabra, that you can load up with Thunderpunch, Ice Punch, Fire Punch, and Psybeam. Able to outspeed most Pokémon, and (with this moveset) able to hit almost anything super effectively, you can sweep the game with just Kadabra
Nindoran male line was my favorite when I first played Red on my Gameboy in 1997
I am glad to see it is getting recognition.
Put respect on his name
The two most recent games I played were Pokémon Y and Pokémon alpha sapphire, and the two early monsters for me were fletchling and mudkip. For fletchling, it does good damage early as the prototypical bird, but once that thing turns into fletchinder and later talonflame, holy mother does it hit like a truck. There were points where I had to actively make myself stop playing with it bc it was running through battles alone. For alpha sapphire, kind of a funny story. I picked mudkip bc I had never played with one before, I was a treecko guy back in the day and I played with torchic my first play through of omega Ruby bc of the speed boost ability. Regardless this was my first time ever playing mudkip. I started just playing it as my starter, keeping it a couple levels above my main team, u know. Well eventually I started never needing to switch it out bc it was 1 shotting everything and I had no reason to. It got to the point that by the 5th gym it was level 41 and my next highest mon was level 26. I decided instead of waste my time and grind the whole time lemme just see how far I can go with swampert. Yeah, I ended up sweeping the entire game. With nothing but a swampert. The worst part was it never died a single time the ENTIRE playthrough, not even when I had other mons on the team, which means u can literally nuzlocke a game of alpha sapphire with nothing but ur starter. The funniest part was I checked it’s IVs after the run was over just out of curiosity. They were mid. Lmfao. Long story short swampert is the most ridiculously broken mon in oras it’s not even funny. Once it has ice punch for the grass types and the mega stone for bulk, it can literally sweep every battle in the entire game. And it’s your STARTER. Can’t get any earlier than that
I'd like to submit Gen 1 Mr. Mime (Marcel) as an honorable mention alongside Alakazam. It's arguably better than Kadabra for those in a no-trade situation, as well as barrier for extra staying power and the screens to set up your team. PLUS it always gets the traded EXP boost.
The boosted exp is what makes Marcel better than a random Kadabra. If they are both at the same level, Kadabra still outperforms Mr. Mime due to having access to recover, but the traded Mr. Mime will always have a level lead, which more than compensates for the lack of one move.
Ha shit I always pick mr mime over kadabra in the remakes bc it learns psychic, thunderbolt by tm, magical leaf, and calm mind by tm. you can get it before the third gym if you manage to avoid all the digletts, it's so versatile and its high sp atk makes up for it not being an electric type or grass type pokemon 😁
@@randomweeb2809 "psychic, thunderbolt by tm, magical leaf, and calm mind" I'm sure that moveset worked great in Fire Red or Leaf Green, but those last two moves didn't exist in Gen 1. Best moves in RBY after Psychic and Thunderbolt were Thunder Wave, Barrier, Substitute, the screens, you could trade Mime to GSC and teach the elemental punches, and Counter.
And rumor has it you could train it to clean your apartment, too.
Staraptor was such a powerhouse on my Diamond team when I first played the game. My favorite of all the early game birds.
Nidoran male was essentially my starter Pokemon back in the day for Yellow playthroughs; Early double kick helped fix that your actual starter Pokemon was Brock's dinner, then everything else it could get set you for the rest of the game.
Even had utility in the fact that it could be your discount water coverage and overworld helper with Surf. Always found it funny that he could swim around the map and flood entire arenas no problem while 2x weak to water.
I feel like Sandshrew and Sandslash is another good one it helped out a lot and I defeated mew in stadium 1 in one of the cups. ☺️💖
Just to add to lucarios honourable mention. It starts with bone rush, and you can get the shadow claw tm pretty quickly, which with its base stat total means it goes positive on every gym leader in the game. It beats half of team flare, it beats two of the elite four outright, and has the power to beat the water member too, and the champion solo outside of hawlucha maybe. Adaptability on those stats is insanity. One of the few megas to be banned competitively is a gift pokemon.
I feel like lucario also does the same to b2w2. You can get one before the first gym, which it beats. Its then useful five of the following gyms with the aid of ice punch move tutor, useful in two elite four battles and beats the champion again. A busted playthrough pokemon in any game that isn’t sinnoh seemingly
YES on GEN 2 Geodude!! I pair him with a fearown from the same route and just mow through everything in Johto. It's not even slightly competitive.
Alakazam and golem personally should have been lower, only because you're not gonna be using them if you don't have a way to trade for them. Kadabra and Graveler are good in their own rights as well especially in the specified games, but if you can't trade them your not able to use them to their full power. Also Gastley in Crystal as well for about the same reasons.
Gen 2 rock ground types are just amazing. Onix is also insane in gen 2.
Yes but keep in mind
Onix fucking sucks ass
gyarados should of been on this list. It's an amazing pokemon which takes out most types
The most threatening in game Pokémon is kadabra in gen 2. You don’t need to trade it for it to be amazing, and if you do trade it it’s just even better. Psychic, ice punch, and thunder punch. You really don’t even need fire punch, but you can use that if you want. I prefer flash just for in field use.
Obv Golem and Alakazam were good but they were hard to evolve normally
Great video, yeah, all of them are good on this list, keep it up!
He comes back. :O Subscribed!
Its crazy how well gardevoir dominates hoenn, especially in the remakes, theres little to no major battle it cant overcome
*i just wish the internet didnt ruin it*
if that isnt enough, it gets an amazing mega evolution with great 100 speed and an amazing ability
"ruin"
I don't see any ruining. All I see are improvements
@@-welfin- the pokemon is great….
*The internet’s interpretation of it however*
@@nightmarishtaco3434 My Ophanimon In Digimon World Dawn And Dusk Is Both Sexier And Stronger!Her Traits:All Elements,Mind's Eye,Assassin,StatusBarrier!Her Moves:Call Dramon,Holy Destroy,Royal Cannon,Royal Slash,Sephirothic Crystal!!!Her Items:3 Legend Swords!Plus I Have A Beautiful Nude Picture Of Her!THE VIRGIN MARY OF DIGIMON!
Thank you for shouting out Geodude! I always team it up with Meganium it covers all its weaknesses.
Got to love the ridge racer soundtracks playing in the background
Funny enough when I used to play red, both Nidoking and Alakazam were the top two of my team. And I got them very quickly.
I love Gardevoir. It helped me win so many elite 4 fights, indeed a powerhouse.
I know lucario for x/y was briefly mentioned, however I think number 1 can easily be given to lucario in black/white 2. Riolu can be found very early on and can be fully evolved into lucario before the first normal type gym leader and will continue to carry for majority of the play through. (Soothe bell is also available this early)
Cool video! As a Genwunner I loved most of these pokemon
I heard Interplanetary Spark during the Alakazam part, good stuff
Great channel bro. You just need to be consistent with the way you speak. Sometimes you have a strong start voice in a sentence but finishing with a low voice to the point I don’t understand what the word are you talking about. But thanks to the auto generated caption. hope your channel grows.
11:35 best golem animation ever
Great vid. Gotta say though, I kinda prefer Staraptor's other ability which complements brave bird and take down, both stab moves, plus choice band. Add uturn and close combat, and you have an absolute juggernaut, that can one shot nearly everything in the game.
Finally some love for my favorite dude, Geodude!
1:37 if you look at gardevoir's white part of the face it's like an uncolored minilatios/as. I cant just unsee it
1:23 “Norman’s Normals” sounds like a deceptively awesome team name. ⚪️
i just started watching this video.
just wanted to say great choice on picking sophias shop music. 👍
I'd like to mention B2W2 Lucario and Magnezone. Early game steels are hard to get normally, but B2W2 just throw these 2 at you. You can get Riolu at the ranch before the first gym as a rare encounter and Magnemite in the town with the 2nd gym before you face it as a common encounter. Riolu evolves via friendship during the day, meaning you can have a Lucario BEFORE THE FIRST GYM! And while Magnemite doesn't evolve into Magneton until level 30, it's still physically defensive and has good special attack, and you can evolve it into Magnezone almost immediately after since you're right next to Chargestone Cave at this point, though I'd wait until reteaching it Tri Attack for coverage. Steel walls the first 3 gyms hard but your steel of choice changes the later gym outcomes. Steel resists normal and bug, Lucario quad resisting bug thanks to its fighting typing, and is immune to Roxie's poison. If Lucario, Elesa can be an issue from her Emolga's Aerial Ace (on challenge mode) and Zebstrika's Flame Charge, Clay stomps with his Bulldoze, Skyla and Marlon are neutral, and Drayden is resisted. If Magnemite, you resist Elesa's mons except her Zebstrika's Flame Charge, Clay stomps even harder, you just walk all over Skyla and Marlon, and Drayden is resisted. In the Elite 4, both are weak to Marshal's fighting types, but that's where they split. Lucario is neutral to Caitlin and Shauntal, but its coverage can give it the edge, and walks all over Grimsley. Magnezone resists all three and is deals neutral damage, but that's not an issue when you're using Thunderbolt, Flash Cannon, Tri Attack, and/or maybe Thunderwave+Electro Ball. For both, the only real obstacle with Shauntal is her Golurk and Chandelure, though they're slow so they should go down fast. As for the champion, it's Iris using Dragons and a few others that both stomp with steel moves their other typings with the only hiccups being Hydreigon's Flamethrower and Haxorus's Earthquake. Lucario gets the slight edge with its coverage, but you shouldn't dismiss Magnezone's bulk and sheer destructive might.
The only thing about Golem and Alakazam is that they're trade only Pokemon, requiring another pokemon game/game boy/link cable. (Friends not required) Or a rom hack that makes every pokemon available on one version.
Explosion isn't 250 power in gold/silver as it divides the enemy's defense by two: It's a 500 effective power move
Staraptor has always been stuck in UUBL for 5 gen for very good reason. He's really good with intimidate and close combat
2:55 though, nowadays if it's in your party, you may get looks in your direction so....yeah....
in gen1 there is also clefable, in the originals you can catch it in mt moon, evolve it right away and teach it both water gun and megapunch, later on it gets bubble beam, then bodyslam, thunderbolt, ice beam, psychic and blizzard, every move you could possibly want, it can learn it, sure nidoking can use x accuracy horndrill, but with clefable you wont even need it, 1 x special is usually all you ever need, sometimes 2. (the badge boost will make you faster than the champions alakazam after 2 x specials, so its pretty much perfect) the only downside is that its rare, so ofc its not good for speedruns unless your doing tas, but for casual players i think clefable is even better than nidoking, you barely need x items even at minimum battles, only 1 or 2 for the elite four and thats it pretty much. in firered and leafgreen its just as good as well. instead of water gun and bubblebeam youll get megakick and water pulse instead, instead of thunderbolt youll get shockwave and thunder and instead of icebeam you get blizzard and instead of bodyslam you get base 100 return which is even better. its pretty much just as good. better than blastoise thats for sure.
The only issue that i see with Ralts is that Abra is also early available and has a higher rate of encounter.
I agree with gardevoir. But, level up ralts and kirlia really Pain. Zigzagoon and linoone helped me since they can get rare candy.
Gen 5 Riolu, Gen 6 Talonflame with the unerfed gale wings,
Gen 3 tentacool, Abra and shroomish. Gen two if you have someone to trade you can get all 4 trade evolutions before the 3 gym. And gen 7 the early Salamence if you commit.
When I had a Staraptor in my Platinum nuzlocke, I spammed double team and beat the crap out of every boss battle except Roark and Volkner. It also crushed 4 of Cynthia's pokemon because none of their moves hit lol
I would say following early game Pokémon were amazing
1. Ralta
2. Budew
3. Starkey
4. Fletchling
5. Shinx
6. Gyrados
7. Timber
Shinx has a bad movepool. It never shines in a playthrough. But the battle frontier offers some cool Luxray's.
Another great video
I highly agree with this list with Gyarados and asan honorable mention
Golem is ine of my favourite pokemon, but i didnt use it until Sinnoh because i previously had nobody i knew that i could trade with.
Gen 1 speedrunners use Nidoking because of how broken it is. Level 23, it gets Thrash which is the strongest move you'll get at that point and is only resisted by Rocks and Ghosts. As for Staraptor, Platinum is where it's at its best due to getting Return from Rowan after you leave the lab
The problem with the top 2 is if you don't have anyone to trade with, you have no chance at running them.
Having an Alakazam in gen 1 is overkill because Kadabra is already one of the strongest Pokemon you could ever play on a normal playthrough. The AI can't outspeed it and 120 base special is busted, psychic type destroys everything
I’ll never forget in FireRed when I prepared Ice Beam for my water Pokémon, Dragon Claws for my Charizard and then literally destroyed all Lance team with Golem, Snorlax and Raichu. Golem alone handled Aerodactyl and Dragonite - at level 51.
I've been sleeping on Nidoran, apparently.
I usually just catch a Mankey for Brock in the Kanto games.
And here I was thinking that that was the clever play.
Sure, I knew Nidoking was particularly strong in Gen 1, but it didn't know Nidoran was that useful from that early in FRLG.
It was moved to after brock in frlg, it's on route 3 in those games
I agree with nidoran at number three, but there’s one thing that people always seem to forget. It literally learns double kick in GEN two. I went into Whitneys gym and smoked it with double kick nidorino.
Shadow Ball in gen 3 is unfortunately physical so I don't think I'd be running that on Garde lol. Zigzagoon is even a better choice but awesome vid man keep it up :)
in gen 2 alakazam can learn all the elemental punches, in gen 2 they are all special attacks
Gen 2 Gastly can be obtained very early on Rote 31 or Sprout Tower. Gen 2 Abra can be obtained as early as Route 34. Due to availability so early, I'd definitely go Gastly it also becomes OP Gengar
@@JDark-lc2ck Gastoy’s level up set is trash, it has no special STAB and it can’t learn the elemental punches until it evolves. You can teach them to Abra as soon as you get one and evolve it 9 levels earlier.