Pokemon Crystal Ratings

[Espinosa]

Miltank

It hasn't been too long since you faced Whitney's Miltank and now you can catch one of your own, aren't you happy? Well, you have all the reasons to be. Miltank has nearly the same attack as Raticate, but is faster and quite a bit bulkier (95/105/70 defences let it take more punishment). What can be said about any other normal-type applies to Miltank as well - readily available normal-type STAB is hard to not appreciate.

Miltank's movepool can be envied, with many moves it would need and much more: physical - Shadow Ball, Earthquake, Iron Tail, all the usual normal moves; special - Surf, all the punches, Thunder and Blizzard. It's not likely to make much use of special moves with 35 base special attack however, so you may end up not giving it any, besides Surf if you lack the water-type for it (you'll need a slave with Waterfall whether you want it or not, though). The effectiveness of the physical coverage is also dubious - Shadow Ball won't hit psychics much harder than max power Return, Iron Tail only helps with, like, Piloswine and Jynx (latter you should also outspeed) and Earthquake comes a bit too late and only helps with some of Koga's Pokemon as well as Houndoom/Gengar (since Shadow Ball could be taken by something else, but you'll likely put it on Miltank because its good users are very sparse).

So in the end, Miltank is mostly relying on its STAB to hurt things. It doesn't hit as hard as Ursaring, nor is it special attack good enough to strike things with elemental punches (Wigglytuff and Clefable are better at this), but it's still a respectable attacker, speedy enough to outspeed many threats that matter and surprisingly bulky. For those reasons, it is well worth your time.

Rating: 7.5/10

[Espinosa]

Tauros

Miltank's male and offensive counterpart, Tauros emerges in the world of generation 2 expecting, by inertia, to be the same beast he was in generation 1, where he was surely among the top 3 Pokemon to use when playing competitively. Oh right, this is in-game.

Tauros is quite a lot like Miltank, except losing some base points in HP and defence while gaining more in attack and speed. The extra speed might let it outspeed enemies like Houndoom later with more certainty compared to Miltank, but the extra 20 base physical attack is sure to be useful, making Tauros's offence more than just 'good enough'. It's doing a good job with Horn Attack it starts with, and can be taught Strength or Return (if caught with a Friend Ball) to hit even stronger. The first gyms where it becomes available aren't kind to it, as it can't hurt Morty's ghosts or Jasmine's steels, and Chuck's fighters hurt it pretty badly so it might be sitting out on these. Surf is an option for rock/grounds and should OHKO in spite of Tauros's Surfs being quite a bit weaker than Totodile's Surfs. It's 'there' and could take a moveslot because a 95 BP move with 15 PP is nice no matter how pathetic your special attack is (Tauros lost all of it in the transition from gen 1 to gen 2, as before this it could nail stuff with Blizzard and the like fairly well). Also curious that it got Surf in gen 2 AFTER the special split (it wouldn't mind Surf for Golem/Rhydon in competitive RBY...).

Much like Miltank, Tauros wishes it could have Dig, since it's available earlier than Earthquake (and Earthquake is hardly useful endgame), and while it doesn't get Shadow Ball and elemental punches access, unlike Milty, it's no huge loss for a normal-type with 35 base special attack.

It's a normal-type with 110 base speed (Ursaring and Granbull wish they had it), 100 base attack. Joins you fully evolved. What are you waiting for?

Rating: 8/10

[Aircalipoor]

As the rating of the pokemons are based on efficiency, I ask you how do you define an efficience run. Do you avoid every optional trainer there and fight only the forced? How about dealing with wild pokemon. Do you flee the battles or do you defeat them as long as you can OHKO(or 2HKO) them?

This is my favourite tread in the moment, as you succeed in stating the specifics of each pokemon instead of rating them as a lesser version of others. I´m playing through Crystal with different teams, based on these ratings. Keep up doing this work.

[Espinosa]

Thanks! My efficiency is something along the lines of 'casual efficiency' (team-building a larger army of Pokemon for fun instead of soloing with starter/legendary/something that covers starter's weakness) but with all the factors like availability, learnset, base stats, typing, matchups etc. factored in and weighed in the final rating. Playing through the game with seemingly inferior choices can show that a lot of Pokemon people tend to avoid (mostly because they are known to be bad in the competitive metagame and that's about all everyone remembers about them) are in fact very useable and vice versa, and only few of them are quite bad. I don't assume players skip any trainers on their way as usually it's a good idea to fight everybody and specifics can differ considerably depending on team choices.

Stantler

I totally forgot about this dude and actually ended up skipping him until now. In Gold/Silver he's available before Whitney which makes him slightly more valuable I suppose, but in Crystal you have to wait until you deal with Sudowoodo (spellcheck suggests 'Dogwood') to get your hands on one of these.

Essentially Stantler is an inferior Miltank/Tauros with its bases without any availability lead to brag about anymore. Inferior/10 then? Well, let's take a closer look. 95 attack/85 speed is arguably better for killing things in 1-2 hits than Miltank, though not nearly as good as Tauros. It hits stuff with Headbutt (no Stomp/Horn Attack at base naturally but Headbutt is so easily available in Goldenrod that you won't mind even if you've used up the one Headbutt TM you were given in Ilex Forest). Return is an option if you postpone its capture until you get your Friend Ball from Kurt, and Earthquake is a lategame option. Mud-Slap is the only way for dealing with Morty.

Now, Stantler's defensive aren't too impressive, but how it compensates for this is... having respectable special attack? 85 at base is very good indeed. The big problem is that it's stuck with Thief as its sole special move in Johto until you get Psychic and Dream Eater (yeah no) postgame. That's why Stantler's useable special attack stat remains without application.

Outside from that, it has an additional function in being not only a strong normal-type hitter but also a fast sleeper with Hypnosis, aiding the capture of other Pokemon and helping you to overcome some tougher obstacles in terms of trainers on your way to become the Pokemon champ.

Rating: 8/10

[Espinosa]

Shuckle

Can't believe I missed this guy. You can catch one as soon as you're able to rocksmash those smashable rocks.

Ledyba, Hoppip and Togepi should be very embarrassed of their horrible ingame utility but they aren't... because Shuckle exists. Now now, you'll say (nah, you won't) - Shuckle just doesn't die with those 230 base defences, and as he continues his incredible existence, he lowers accuracy with Mud-Slap, confuses foes with Swagger and watches them hurt themselves, annoy with Attract, trap and inflict gradual damage with Wrap (what with having no other option of dealing decent damage), throw around Sludge Bombs and hope somebody gets poisoned... And there's the problem. When Pokemon like Dunsparce and Spinarak can actually inflict some damage thanks to respectable base attack and STAB alone, not touching upon their myriads of shortcomings right now, Shuckle moves last and takes forever to kill the weakest of enemies.

There's one way in which Shuckle can hurt something, which is giving it the Rollout TM (it does come rather early) and maybe also Defense Curl (unavailable before Waterfall, so it's only a lategame strat). Don't count on it without any ways to bolster its offence though (Curse is postgame) and having the same attack at L40 that Snubbull has at L5-10. So you'll probably keep it on Exp Share life support and switch it out to Swagger/Attract some dangerous Pokemon you have trouble facing head-on. That is, if you really plan to use it.

Aside from that, you get one for free and can teach it Strength/Flash for slaving... Yeah, not exactly unique in HM slavery either.

Rating: 1.5/10

[MacLovin]

You could lower the value of headbutt/punch usage because many pokemon can utilize them well.

[Vorena]

After seeing a couple runs on speeddemosarchive, I am starting to reconsider the idea of Abra. Speaking of quick runs, the starters are about as quick as you get. They have the longest chance for availability and usefulness. Abra on the other hand is a late addition by a couple badges. There is time spent trying to train it like nearly any Pokemon that isn't a starter.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Erika the Explosive One

[Espinosa]

You could lower the value of headbutt/punch usage because many pokemon can utilize them well.

Those who get STAB from Headbutt and a respectable attack base to go with it are really quite valuable though. Even when Headbutt can be taught to so many things and is a nearly infinite resource, I think Pokemon who use it well should get credit for it, because they become good at OHKOing.

With punches, I think the number of users is rather limited actually (compared to users of Thunderbolt/Ice Beam/Flamethrower in the later games). There's Alakazam and Gengar who are fantastic punchers, some water-types who can Ice Punch (not all of them by all means) and mediocre (Nidoroyals) to bad (Miltank, Furret) punchers. In cases like Typhlosion's, Thunderpunch comes too late, possibly after most of the water-types are already disposed of.

After seeing a couple runs on speeddemosarchive, I am starting to reconsider the idea of Abra. Speaking of quick runs, the starters are about as quick as you get. They have the longest chance for availability and usefulness. Abra on the other hand is a late addition by a couple badges. There is time spent trying to train it like nearly any Pokemon that isn't a starter.

I'm fairly sure an Abra solo would still be quicker than a Chikorita solo. Totodile on the other hand...

Anyway, Abra's start is better than, say, Totodile's start, just because base special attack and speed, not to mention Ice Punch/Thunderpunch, over Scratch, make for far more OHKOs.

What's more important to the context of the thread, Abra does a better job than Totodile in a team of 4-6 Pokemon, and I didn't want to assume soloing to be the one style we adapt and consider when evaluating things (erases most of the differences between different fairly discerned Pokemon).

[samthedigital]

Anyway, Abra's start is better than, say, Totodile's start, just because base special attack and speed, not to mention Ice Punch/Thunderpunch, over Scratch, make for far more OHKOs.

Totodile has the best start because it kills faster than any other Pokemon, so your statement doesn't make much sense. You can't really compare two different points in the game the same way.

Edited January 27, 2013 by samthedigital

[dondon151]

totodile also gets surf way earlier than kadabra gets psychic though

power-wise it's probably more comparable to psybeam given the difference in sp. atk. but still, hardly a difference