Announcement: We are currently in the process of writing entries for each Pokémon on this tier list. If you want to contribute and write an entry or two yourself, please read this post.
What is an in-game tier list?
In-game tier lists rank Pokémon according to their usefulness during the main portion of the game—that is, until the credits roll for the first time. In-game tier lists provide players with the information needed to complete the game as quickly and as effortlessly as possible. For competitively-minded players, this approach to playing the game gives them more immediate access to useful items, TMs, and HMs.
What are the tiers?
In this in-game tier list there will be five tiers. Pokémon that are the most useful belong in Top Tier, while Pokémon that are the least useful belong in Bottom Tier. There tiers are as follows:
-Top Tier
-High Tier
-Middle Tier
-Low Tier
-Bottom Tier
Pokémon the belong in Top Tier are found early in the game or at a high level, can defeat enemies easily, have strong level-up move-pools, have useful typing, have high stats, learn a variety of TMs and HMs, and match up well against the game's trainers, gym leaders, and Elite 4. Other aspects, such as self-healing and useful abilities, also positively contribute to a Pokémon's tiering.
Which Pokémon are available in Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2?
The newest entries in the Pokémon franchise add a whopping 150 Pokémon to Unova's Pokédex. These additions lend unparalleled diversity to the game. Below, you can find a list of locations as well as the Pokémon that appear in each location. These locations are listed in the order they can be accessed in the game. Routes and Pokemon that only appear in the post-game are omitted from this list. A Pokemon is only listed in the area in which it first appears.
Aspertia City: Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott
Route 19: Patrat, Purrloin
Route 20: Sewaddle, Pidove, Sunkern
Floccesy Ranch: Lillipup, Azurill, Mareep, Psyduck, Riolu
---Gym 1---
Route 20: Venipede, Audino, Dunsparce
Virbank Complex: Magby [Black Version 2], Elekid [White Version 2], Koffing, Magnemite, Growlithe
---Gym 2---
Castelia Sewers: Rattata, Zubat, Grimer
Relic Passage [Part 1]: Roggenrola, Woobat, Timburr, Onix, Drilbur [Dust Clouds only]
Castelia City: Cottonee [Black Version 2], Petilil [White Version 2], Buneary [Black Version 2], Skitty [White Version 2], Eevee - Vaporeon, Eevee - Jolteon, Eevee - Flareon, Eevee - Espeon, Eevee - Umbreon
Route 4: Sandile, Darumaka, Scraggy, Trubbish [Black Version 2], Minccino [White Version 2], Braviary [White Version 2, Monday], Mandibuzz [Black Version 2, Thursday]
---Gym 3---
Route 4: Braviary [White Version 2, Monday], Mandibuzz [Black Version 2, Thursday]
Desert Resort: Maractus, Scraggy, Sandshrew, Dwebble, Sigilyph, Trapinch
Relic Castle: Yamask
Route 16: Gothita [Black Version 2], Solosis [White Version 2], Minccino, Trubbish, Emolga
Lostlorn Forest: Roselia, Combee, Heracross [Black Version 2], Pinsir [White Version 2], Pansear, Panpour, Pansage
---Gym 4---
Driftveil Drawbridge: Ducklett
Driftveil City: Zorua
Route 6: Deerling, Shelmet, Foongus, Karrablast, Castform
Chargestone Cave: Joltik, Klink, Ferroseed, Tynamo, Nosepass
---Gym 5---
Relic Castle: Volcarona
Mistralton Cave: Aron, Axew
[Surf Unlocked] Frillish, Basculin, Buizel
Route 7: Zebstrika, Zangoose, Seviper, Cubchoo [Winter only]
Celestial Tower: Litwick, Elgyem
---Gym 6---
Reversal Mountain: Skorupi, Spoink [Black Version 2], Numel [White Version 2], Skarmory, Drifblim
Strange House: Banette
Undella Town: Staryu
Undella Bay: Remoraid, Spheal [Winter only]
Seaside Cave: Seel, Shuckle
Route 14: Swablu, Mienfoo, Absol
Route 13: Tangela, Pelipper, Lunatone, Solrock, Cobalion
Village Bridge: Lapras [Rippling Water only]
Route 11: Gligar, Virizion
Route 9: Pawniard
---Gym 7---
Route 22: Delibird, Terrakion
---Gym 8---
Giant Chasm: Clefairy, Vanillish, Sneasel, Piloswine, Ditto, Metang
Route 23: Bouffalant, Sawk, Throh, Vullaby [Black Version 2], Rufflet [White Version 2]
Abundant Shrine: Bronzor, Vulpix
Victory Road: Golurk, Druddigon, Zweilous
Route 19: Patrat, Purrloin
Route 20: Sewaddle, Pidove, Sunkern
Floccesy Ranch: Lillipup, Azurill, Mareep, Psyduck, Riolu
---Gym 1---
Route 20: Venipede, Audino, Dunsparce
Virbank Complex: Magby [Black Version 2], Elekid [White Version 2], Koffing, Magnemite, Growlithe
---Gym 2---
Castelia Sewers: Rattata, Zubat, Grimer
Relic Passage [Part 1]: Roggenrola, Woobat, Timburr, Onix, Drilbur [Dust Clouds only]
Castelia City: Cottonee [Black Version 2], Petilil [White Version 2], Buneary [Black Version 2], Skitty [White Version 2], Eevee - Vaporeon, Eevee - Jolteon, Eevee - Flareon, Eevee - Espeon, Eevee - Umbreon
Route 4: Sandile, Darumaka, Scraggy, Trubbish [Black Version 2], Minccino [White Version 2], Braviary [White Version 2, Monday], Mandibuzz [Black Version 2, Thursday]
---Gym 3---
Route 4: Braviary [White Version 2, Monday], Mandibuzz [Black Version 2, Thursday]
Desert Resort: Maractus, Scraggy, Sandshrew, Dwebble, Sigilyph, Trapinch
Relic Castle: Yamask
Route 16: Gothita [Black Version 2], Solosis [White Version 2], Minccino, Trubbish, Emolga
Lostlorn Forest: Roselia, Combee, Heracross [Black Version 2], Pinsir [White Version 2], Pansear, Panpour, Pansage
---Gym 4---
Driftveil Drawbridge: Ducklett
Driftveil City: Zorua
Route 6: Deerling, Shelmet, Foongus, Karrablast, Castform
Chargestone Cave: Joltik, Klink, Ferroseed, Tynamo, Nosepass
---Gym 5---
Relic Castle: Volcarona
Mistralton Cave: Aron, Axew
[Surf Unlocked] Frillish, Basculin, Buizel
Route 7: Zebstrika, Zangoose, Seviper, Cubchoo [Winter only]
Celestial Tower: Litwick, Elgyem
---Gym 6---
Reversal Mountain: Skorupi, Spoink [Black Version 2], Numel [White Version 2], Skarmory, Drifblim
Strange House: Banette
Undella Town: Staryu
Undella Bay: Remoraid, Spheal [Winter only]
Seaside Cave: Seel, Shuckle
Route 14: Swablu, Mienfoo, Absol
Route 13: Tangela, Pelipper, Lunatone, Solrock, Cobalion
Village Bridge: Lapras [Rippling Water only]
Route 11: Gligar, Virizion
Route 9: Pawniard
---Gym 7---
Route 22: Delibird, Terrakion
---Gym 8---
Giant Chasm: Clefairy, Vanillish, Sneasel, Piloswine, Ditto, Metang
Route 23: Bouffalant, Sawk, Throh, Vullaby [Black Version 2], Rufflet [White Version 2]
Abundant Shrine: Bronzor, Vulpix
Victory Road: Golurk, Druddigon, Zweilous
Untiered Pokémon (Pokémon in the Unova Pokédex that are only available after the Elite Four or through special means)
Victini
Munna
Eevee - Leafeon
Eevee - Glaceon
Tirtouga
Archen
Tornadus
Thundurus
Landorus
Palpitoad
Stunfisk
Vigoroth
Corphish
Jigglypuff
Lickitung
Yanma
Tropius
Carnivine
Croagunk
Pupitar
Reshiram [White version 2]
Zekrom [Black version 2]
Kyurem
Keldeo
Meloetta
Genesect
Will event-only Pokémon, Dream World Pokémon, and Dream Radar Pokémon be tiered?
No, the fact they aren't available in-game in the first place is reason enough for them not to be tiered.
Event Pokémon is only available for an unlimted time, and at times not even available for everyone, especially for those who lack Wi-Fi access or/and access to IRL events.
The Dream World and the Dream Radar might not be available for everyone either, and the fact that you can send over Pokémon not native to Unova in the first place makes them fall under the no-trading clause.
Are Hidden Grotto Pokémon being considered for this tier list?
No. The randomness with which these Pokémon generate make them ill-suited for tiering.
The only exception here is Minccino; it is 100% guaranteed in the Route 5 Hidden Grotto.
Will N's Pokémon be accounted for in the tiering process?
No. The only way to get access to N's Pokémon is through the Unova Link, which can only be accessed with two DS systems and one BW2 game and one BW game, which not everyone has access to.
All of N's Pokémon can be found in the wild anyways, with the sole exception of N's Tympole who can't be caught until after beating the Elite Four.
The only exception to this rule is N's Zorua. Since it is a gift in-game, it is available to all players at all times.
Current Rankings
Name: Braviary
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Route 4, Stationary (Mondays only) [White 2]
Stats: Really good Attack right from the get-go, with good Speed to back it up.
Typing: Normal / Flying gives it good STAB moves to work with. Its weaknesses won't really come into play.
Movepool: It starts out with Aerial Ace and learns Slash three levels later. It should be taught Return later on, and can be taught Fly for more power. It gets access to both Superpower and Brave Bird late game.
Major battles: Unfortunately it comes right after Burgh. It will be able to push through Elese despite its disadvantage. Clay will be a harder nut to crack, especially Excadrill. Braviary should be able to bust through most of the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four with just a little bit of help against bad matchups.
Name: Darumaka
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Route 4, 30% (Entrance)
Stats: It has a high Attack stat and good Speed upon evolution.
Typing: Fire doesn't hit a lot of things super effectively, but it can prove to be useful in some major battles like against Burgh.
Movepool: It has a lot of good physical attacks. Fire Fang, Fire Punch, and Flare Blitz give it good STAB moves. Rock Slide, Brick Break, and Superpower give some ammount of coverage.
Major battles: Darumaka is available right before Burgh and can help get through that gym quickly. Watch out for Dwebble's Rock moves though. Clay can be troublesome, and Marlon shouldn't be beatable. It has good utility against most of the other gyms and the Elite Four.
Name: Drilbur
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Relic Passage, 80% (Dust Cloud)
Stats: Great Attack coupled with good Speed. Gains nice bulk upon evolving.
Typing: Starts out as a pure Ground-type, which gives a good STAB to work with. An additional Steel typing upon evolution grants more resistances and better matchups.
Movepool: Will start out with Dig or learn it soon after capture. It also has access to Metal Claw, and later, Slash and Rock Slide. Waiting two levels before evolving it grants Drilbur early Earthquake.
Major battles: Won't do extremely well against Burgh, but can beat Dwebble. Elesa is child's play for it, but needs to be careful around Emolga. If evolved, it can be used to defeat Clay's Excadrill easily. Due to its good offensive capabilities, no major battle should be tough for it. However, stay away from Pokemon with potential super effective moves.
Name: Heracross
Availability: Mid Game, Lostlorn Forest, 5% [Black 2]
Stats: Heracross has a high Attack stat, which allows to tear teams apart; 85 Speed is good enough to outrun the majority of Pokemon. Its other stats are decent but not outstanding.
Typing: Offensively, Bug and Fighting can hit quite a lot. Defensively, the weaknesses to Fire, Flying, and Psychic are going to trouble Heracross throughout the game.
Movepool: It gets Brick Break one level after you catch it, as well as Close Combat at level 34. At level 46, it obtains Megahorn. TM-wise, Heracross only really would like Rock Slide, which is obtainable before Skyla.
Major Battles: Heracross beats Clay easily due to getting Close Combat around that battle. It can take on Marlon's Carracosta, as well as some of Drayden’s frailer dragons due to its sheer power. Heracross can take on Ghetsis's Hydreigon with relative ease, as well as Kyurem. Heracross beats Grimsley's whole crew and can smash Iris's Aggron and Lapras.
Name: Magnemite
Availability: Early Game, Virbank Complex, 25% (Inside)
Stats: Has a great Special Attack stat, with decent overall bulk to back it up.
Typing: Steel/Electric is arguably the holy grail of defensive typings, with resistances to everything bar four types. Ground and Fighting types are rather common though. Offensively, this typing is mediocre, but is saved by Magnemite's stats and movepool.
Movepool: Magnemite comes with Sonicboom, a godsend earlygame that can 2HKO everything. Aside from that, it has Thundershock, and later Mirror Shot. Magnemite doesn't get any good STAB moves until Flash Cannon, but it can hold on with STAB Volt Switch, Thunder, and a tutored Signal Beam.
Major Battles: Magnemite steamrolls over Roxie, Burgh, Skyla, and Marlon by virtue of typing alone. It helps a lot against Drayden, but needs to watch out for coverage moves such as Earth Power.
Name: Minccino
Availability: Mid Game, Route 5, 100% (Hidden Grotto)
Stats: Minncino has average stats, with a slightly above average speed. Upon evolving into a Cinccino, it has a very high speed and slightly above average attack. All its other stats are below average, so it won't be taking many hits.
Typing: Both Minccino and Cinccino are of the Normal type, so it has a weakness and an immunity defensively, and its STAB has two resists and an immunity.
Movepool: It may have a shallow movepool, but it has what it needs to function. It starts with Double Slap and learns Tail Slap at level 25. Upon evolving, it can relearn Bullet Seed and Rock Blast by the move relearner.
Major Battles: It struggles against any Steel-type, and Fighting-types can hit hard if they get a chance to attack. Other than that, it does just fine and will pull its own weight and more against anything else, bar Rock- or Ghost-types before getting the fifth gym badge.
Additional Comments: Skill Link Minccino is required for its top tier placement, and Cinccino needs Tail Slap, Bullet Seed, and Rock Blast to function.
Name: Axew
Availability: Mid Game, Mistralton Cave, 20%
Stats: Average bulk, but above average Speed and a whopping base 147 Attack to boot in its final form.
Typing: Dragon is a good typing, with excellent neutral coverage and nifty resistances.
Movepool: Great offensive movepool with good physical coverage, but the real gems lie in Dragon Claw and Dragon Dance. It needs to be tutored Low Kick or Superpower, or learn Brick Break through TM, to beat Steel-types.
Major Battles: There is no real horrible matchup for Axew in the game. Against most major battles, it is a simple matter of using Dragon Dance 1-2 times against an appropriate opponent. Otherwise, you can just make use of Axew's excellent power to deal heavy damage against those you cannot reliably use Dragon Dance against.
Additional Comments: Mold Breaker should always be used over the inconsistent Rivalry, as it allows Axew to OHKO the several Sturdy Pokemon in BW2. Also, one thing to take into account when using Axew is that raising it is difficult in the beginning due to its late evolutions.
Name: Azurill
Availability: Early Game, Floccesy Ranch, 20% (Azurill) - Mid Game, Route 6, 5% (Marill)
Stats: Only really lacking in Speed, but Azumarill is both bulky and packs a real punch when using Huge Power. That is essentially 150 Base Attack.
Typing: Water is a great typing both offensively and defensively. Water STAB in general is a huge asset and there are no principle Grass- and Electric-type trainers to worry about.
Movepool: Azurill gets access to Frustration as soon as it is obtained, and then Return immediately after the first gym. This goes well with its Normal typing and its evolution type. After that, Azumarill gets Aqua Tail at level 21, and then access to Waterfall and Superpower, as well as Ice Punch through tutoring.
Major Battles: It has uses against most of the gyms, just through sheer strength. Clay should prove no obstacle, and you can even smash through Drayden's Dragons. Against the Elite Four it is a similar story, just by using sheer strength. With Ice Punch you can take on Iris in a similar fashion, taking hits and firing back with super effective moves.
Additional Comments: Only use Huge Power. The other abilities will not help you at all. All you need is to take advantage of that wonderful Attack.
Name: Cobalion
Availability: Late Game, Route 13, Stationary
Stats: Cobalion will rely on its massive Defense and high Speed. Its Attack stat average at best.
Typing: Cobalion also relies on its typing. Steel/Fighting is great defensively, while it grants Cobalion a good offensive STAB.
Movepool: It starts off with Sacred Sword and Iron Head. These will be its main moves throughout the rest of the game. It will learn Swords Dance 5 levels after its capture which will help it take down opponents easier with its subpar Attack stat. Its great bulk will help it get boosts.
Major Battles: Cobalion doesn't really struggle against what's left. Drayden won't be difficult to deal with. The only real problems are Marlon and Marshal, as well as some few Pokemon on each Elite Four's team.
Name: Eevee - Espeon
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Castelia City, 5%
Stats: As Espeon, Eevee has a high 130 base Special Attack. Its Speed sits at a high base 110.
Typing: Psychic hits Fighting- and Poison-type super effectively, which will give it some good matchups. Defensively, it can't go up against Ghost-, Dark-, and Bug-types.
Movepool: You should try to evolve Eevee before level 21 so it can get Psybeam early. For the rest of Espeon's movepool, you should aim for Morning Sun and Psychic. For TMs, Espeon mainly want Shadow Ball. For Move Tutor moves, it should only ever want Signal Beam.
Major Battles: For major battles, the best situation you can use Espeon in is against Marshall in the Elite 4. However, with its high Special Attack and Speed, Espeon succeed in a lot of major battles, like against Marshall and Caitlin.
Additional Comments: Since Eevee evolves into Espeon through happiness, you can get Espeon really early in the game, but it will eat up some of your time.
Name: Eevee - Jolteon
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Castelia City, 5%
Stats: Jolteon's Speed is at a high 130, while its Special Attack is a high 110.
Typing: Its pure Electric typing gives a good offensive STAB, but will leave it vulnerable to Ground-types.
Movepool: Jolteon has pretty much nothing in its early levels. You'll mainly want to aim for Thunder Fang and Work Up until its learn Discharge. You'll also want to look for the TM Shadow Ball and Signal Beam from the move Tutor.
Major Battles: Skyla and Marlon are the two most major battles in which you can use Jolteon. You can also do fairly well against Elesa because of its ability.
Name: Eevee - Vaporeon
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Castelia City, 5%
Stats: Vaporeon is quite bulky with nice HP and Special Defense; it can also utilize its high Special Attack. It is, however, quite slow.
Typing: Pure Water comes with only 2 weaknesses in Grass and Electric, which are not super common in the game
Movepool: Very shallow. Vaporeon needs Aurora Beam for coverage so it is worth relearning if missed. Surf is obtainable from Cheren on Route 6. Work Up is a good boosting move. It learns Ice Beam and Blizzard through TM.
Major Battles: Vaporeon can be used against Clay and its Ice coverage against Drayden. Marlon walls it. Can be used against Iris's multiple Dragon- and Rock-types as well.
Additional Comments: It is recommended to complete 1 streak in the Battle Subway (Multi Train with NPC partner is the easiest) to quickly gain the Battle Points for a Water Stone.
Name: Elekid
Availability: Early Game, Virbank Complex, 25% (Inside) [White 2]
Stats: Elekid, and its evolutions, are reasonably fast and have good attacking stats, so you can utilize both physical and special attacks
Typing: Pure Electric means it is only weak to Ground. It can also beat up on Flying and Water types so it comes in handy for 2 gyms
Movepool: It learns many Electric moves like ThunderPunch, Discharge, and Thunderbolt. Many of its best TM moves come late but it can make use of Return, Psychic, Flamethrower. You can also tutor it Ice Punch with the 10 free red shards for coverage.
Major Battles: Even with Ice Punch, Electabuzz struggles in Clay's gym so don't bother. However he bounces back against Skyla and cleans her out. Marlon is even easier, especially if you traded right away to evolve into Electivire. If you have Ice Punch he can do well against Iris as well
Additional Comments: If you have access to trading it is worth evolving to Electivire; however, if you don't, Electabuzz is still good. It actually has higher Speed than its evolution.
Name: Lillipup
Availability: Early Game, Floccesy Ranch, 40%
Stats: Very decent for a Pokemon you get early in the game, with above average bulk, an average Speed stat, and a pretty powerful Base 100 Attack in its final form.
Typing: Normal-type gives you loads of neutralities both offensively and defensively with a lone weakness to Fighting-types. An immunity to Ghost-types is very nice.
Movepool: Lillipup comes with a very good level-up movepool with Tackle and Bite early on, Crunch and Work Up coming not too far afterwards, and the elemental fangs later on in the game via Heart Scales. Dig and Return stand out as notable TMs to teach Lillipup, and Superpower by tutoring.
Major Battles: With the exception of Marshal, there is no matchup in the game that stands out as terrible for Lillipup. Against virtually every matchup, Lillipup will be able to reliably make a decent contribution towards the battle—especially in the early gyms—whether it be taking hits or dishing out the damage.
Name: Litwick
Availability: Late-Mid Game, Celestial Tower, 100% (1F)
Stats: Chandelure has a massive base 145 special attack. 80 speed is decent in-game, and it has enough bulk to take a few hits.
Typing: It has good STABs to work with, and a nice immunity to work with. Fire complements Ghost's inability to hit Steel-types well.
Movepool: Comes with Flame Burst and a Hex + Will-O-Wisp combo. Shadow Ball, Fire Blast, Energy Ball, and Calm Mind are all good TMs to teach it.
Major Battles: Easily KOes most run of the mill trainers, but doesn't shine particularly against the remaining Gyms or the Elite Four. Only advantageous match is versus Caitlin, but be careful of Shadow Ball on Gothitelle and Sigilyph. Colress goes down easily from its firepower.
Name: Oshawott
Availability: Starter
Stats: Balanced stats across the board, with some emphasis in Attack and Special Attack.
Typing: Water gives it a nice variety of options, but it doesn't give Oshawott a lot of strong matchups throughout the game.
Movepool: Oshawott gets interesting movepool options, most notable being Megahorn from the move relearner (or X-Scissor from TM), Superpower from move tutor, and Ice Beam and Blizzard from TM. It also gets Swords Dance, allowing it to pull off sweeps on some foes.
Major Battles: Oshawott is one of the best options against Clay, an otherwise difficult boss. Its coverage options make it a legitimate pick for Drayden as well. In the E4, Samurott shines as a backup to almost everything, with a strong varied movepool to pick off weakened teams.
Name: Petilil
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Route 4, Trade (Black 2) - Early-Mid Game, Castelia City, 35% (White 2)
Stats: Lilligant has a high base 110 Special Attack, which is supported by a solid base 90 Speed.
Typing: Grass isn't a particularly good type because several common types resist it. It also has 5 weaknesses, although resistances to Ground and Water are quite helpful.
Movepool: Lilligant has a thin movepool with limited coverage, but it has everything it needs to work. As a Petilil, it has early access to decent STABs in Magical Leaf and Giga Drain. After that, Petilil has no particularly important moves, so you can evolve it early to gain Quiver Dance at level 28. At level 46, it learns Petal Dance, which makes it an even better sweeper.
Major Battles: Lilligant works best against Elesa, Clay, and Marlon. Its typing isn't particularly helpful against the other Gyms or the Elite 4.
Additional Comments: Petilil can be evolved with the Sun Stone obtained in Nimbasa City. It's recommended that you don't raise it past level 28 until you evolve it so you can get Quiver Dance right away. Petilil's preferred ability is Own Tempo to prevent Petal Dance confusion: the Petilil in Black 2 comes with Own Tempo.
Name: Pidove
Availability: Early Game, Route 20, 25% (5% Summer)
Stats: Above average Attack and Speed with decent bulk.
Typing: Your early-game Normal/Flying type. Offensively, strong against Fight, Bug, and Grass, while weak to Rock and Steel.
Movepool: What it needs, and nothing more. It gets STAB Return before the first Gym, and doesn't get a physical Flying-type move until Fly. Its movepool is shallow, so it doesn't learn anything else that's noteworthy.
Major Battles: It is strong against Burgh and Marshall, although it doesn't get any good options against Bug-type by Burgh.
Additional Comments: It has what it needs to function, and nothing more. Play it to its strengths and it will help out against most trainers.
Name: Pinsir
Availability: Mid Game, Lostlorn Forest, 5% [White 2]
Stats: Pinsir has an amazing Attack stat, coupled with respectable Defense and Speed.
Typing: Pure Bug typing is both good and subpar. Offensively it's a bit middling, but it doesn't have as many weakness as other Bug-type combinations.
Movepool: Pinsir starts out with 2-3 Fighting-type moves, with Brick Break being the most useful. It learns X-Scissor at level 29 and is pretty much set. Teaching it Return and Rock Slide from TM will help it a lot.
Major Battles: Pinsir will be able to break through Elesa and Clay with brute force. Skyla can be more challenging, but if you got Rock Slide it should go relatively easy. The rest of the big guys will go down with some powerful moves, with Grimsley and Caitlin being easy targets. Shauntal will break it though.
Name: Riolu
Availability: Early Game, Floccesy Ranch, 5%
Stats: Riolu's strong points are its base 70 Attack and 60 Speed. Upon evolution, Lucario gets a great 110 Attack and 115 Special Attack along with a nice 90 Speed.
Typing: Fighting/Steel is shared only with Cobalion, and Lucario can take advantage of it to switch in on weaker attacks.
Movepool: Lucario's main Achilles heel in-game. He is restricted to Force Palm for Fighting STAB until level 51. Close Combat comes at 55, barely making it to the Elite Four. He has Bone Rush for Ground-type coverage and Metal Claw as an additional STAB. Dark Pulse is learned at base and has good coverage with his Fighting moves. Tutor-wise, the main moves you will want to save up for are Ice Punch and possibly Drain Punch.
Major Battles: He beats Cheren pretty handily with Force Palm if you have it. Lucario has its advantages and disadvantages against the other Gyms though. For the Elite Four, Dark Pulse and Close Combat/Aura Sphere will destroy Caitlin, Grimsley, and Shauntal.
Name: Roselia
Availability: Mid Game, Lostlorn Forest, 15%
Stats: Roserade has a great Special Attack and good Speed. This will help when breaking down opponents.
Typing: Its Grass/Poison typing will give some powerful STAB, and a good advantage against Ground- and Water-types. Its weakness to Flying will be a problem at times.
Movepool: You need to wait to evolve Roselia to get Giga Drain at level 25. It learns Venoshock, Sludge Bomb, and Shadow Ball via TM.
Major Battles: Roselia has a good matchup against Clay and Marlon. It can do good against Elesa, but watch out for Emolga. The other Gym Leaders give Roselia trouble. The Elite Four is a mixed bag.
Name: Sandile
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Route 4, 35%
Stats: The main thing Sandile will be relying on is its Attack and Speed. When Sandile evolves into its final stage, it has 92 base Speed and a high 117 Base Attack.
Typing: Offensively it's not bad, as it hits 6 types super effectively.
Movepool: For its level up movepool, you can get Bite at level 4 so you should try to catch it at level 15; any higher and Bite will be replaced with Assurance. As for the rest of its movepool, you should mainly get Crunch, Earthquake, and Outrage. For TMs you should aim for Bulldoze and Rock Slide.
Major Battles: Sandile can solo the 4th Gym pretty easily so long as you get Rock Tomb. It can also do pretty well in the 6th Gym if you get Rock Slide. For the Elite 4, Sandile can defeat Catlin and Shauntal on its own.
Additional Comments: For its ability, Moxie is the slightly more recommended option as it increases Sandile's Attack when it KOes a Pokemon.
Name: Scraggy
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Route 4, 5%
Stats: Scraggy has solid Attack and defenses. Upon evolution, its defenses overtake its Attack, meaning it remains bulky before and after evolution. It is fairly slow though.
Typing: Dark + Fighting make a great combo, as only Heracross and Toxicroak resist them, both of which are rarely seen.
Movepool: Scraggy starts off with Faint Attack and Headbutt, then gets Brick Break at level 20. It gets Payback, Hi Jump Kick, and finally Crunch right before evolution. It can learn Rock Tomb by TM, and Ice Punch through tutoring.
Major Battles: With access to Dig and Rock Tomb, Scraggy can take on Elesa easily. Its Fighting attacks do well against Clay's Krokorok and Excadrill. Crunch can take out Skyla's Swoobat. With its bulk and strong attacks, Scraggy can go head-to-head to Drayden, only fearing Druddigon's Revenge. Scraggy manhandles Marlon's Jellicent and stomps both Zinzolin and Colress, while taking on any of Ghetsis's team bar Toxicroak. Scraggy has a positive matchup against 3/4 of the Elite Four and takes on most of Iris's team.
Name: Sigilyph
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Desert Resort, 10% (Desert)
Stats: Sigilyph's stats are well distributed for in-game runs. It has high Special Attack and Speed and its defenses are more than enough to take hits repeatedly when required.
Typing: Psychic/Flying STAB provide plenty of neutral and super effective coverage, but they are stopped by Steel-types. 4x Fighting resistance and Ground immunity are helpful. It has 5 weaknesses but some of those are rare.
Movepool: Air Cutter and Psybeam provide early power, and Air Slash and Psychic replace these to keep it going late-game. Shadow Ball from TM is useful for coverage on Psychic-types, and Signal Beam is a more expensive alternative for both Psychic- and Dark-types. It gets walled by Steel-types for most of the game, so Heat Wave is an option late-game if you have the shards.
Major Battles: It can use its STABs to beat most Team Plasma grunts. Its typing is only advantageous against Marshall (watch out for Rock attacks), but it has enough power and Speed to at least contribute against pretty much any gym.
Name: Staryu
Availability: Late Game, Undella Town, 30% (Surf)
Stats: Staryu and Starmie have an great amount of Speed and good Special Attack.
Typing: Water/Psychic is good typing, allowing for a lot of powerful moves, but it has a few weaknesses.
Movepool: Bordering on shallow. It relies on TMs to function well, but if you have Surf and Psychic, you can dish out some serious damage. Moves like Ice Beam, Blizzard, Thunderbolt, and Thunder are great for coverage.
Major Battles: It has trouble with Drayden and Colress. It is able to solo Marshal, but performs pretty poorly against the rest of the Elite 4.
Additional Comments: Definitely evolve as soon as possible. It has nothing worth learning naturally.
Name: Tepig
Availability: Starter
Stats: Bulky. It has a huge HP stat and can take all sorts of hits well. Has an excellent base 123 Attack stat and an usable Special Attack at 100.
Typing: Fire and then Fire/Fighting. Great for offense, not so great on the defense. There is a large amount of Flying-types and you might be struggling against some of the birds.
Movepool: Gets what it needs. Flame Charge boosts its Speed, Flamethrower is usable, and it can get Return and Brick Break from TMs. It can also learn ThunderPunch and Strength.
Major Battles: Does pretty well against half the gyms, the other half it can have issues with. Elesa, Clay, Skyla, and Marlon all give it trouble. Caitlin can give Emboar problems in the Elite 4 as well, but the others will take a fair bit from his Fire-type moves.
Name: Terrakion
Availability: Late Game, Route 22, Stationary
Stats: Amazing Attack for in-game with great Speed.
Typing: Rock/Fighting hits everything in-game neutrally, save Golurk.
Movepool: Comes with workable STABs in Rock Slide and Sacred Sword, both of which can last through the game. Tutoring Zen Headbutt is an option for beating Golurk.
Major battles: Terrakion can cheese Corless and Grimsley easily, and is a good option against Ghetsis and Iris. It suffers against Shauntal, Caitlin, and Marshal on basis of type advantages, but can still contribute through options such as Rock Slide and Zen Headbutt.
Name: Virizion
Availability: Late Game, Route 11, Stationary
Stats: Virizion's stats are a bit unusual. One should take advantage of its great Special Defense and mixed offensive capabilities coupled with its great Speed.
Typing: Grass/Fighting is a bit subpar, but grants Virizion good matchups during the late game, as well as solid STABs.
Movepool: Virizion comes with Sacred Sword and Giga Drain. It learns Swords Dance at level 49 to give it a needed boost for Sacred Sword. It can be tutored Seed Bomb for another physical STAB. Return can help out with coverage.
Major battles: Virizion can struggle a bit against Drayden, especially if it doesn't get a Swords Dance boost. Marlon should be an easy win, as should Grimsley. The rest of the Elite Four are matchup based.
Name: Zorua
Availability: Mid Game, Driftveil City, Gift
Stats: As a Zoroark it is fast and can hit hard with both its offensive stats. It is quite frail though so don't expect it to take a hit.
Typing: Pure Dark. Comes with 2 resists and an immunity, be careful of Fighting-types though. Offensively its STAB can be used well against Ghost- and Psychic-types.
Movepool: Zoroark has many options, but they all come very late in the game, so it will be stuck with Dark moves most of the time. It's worth relearning U-turn instead of buying the TM. Night Slash and Snarl will probably be your main attacking options. Its Hidden Power type is always Fighting, which is helpful if you have access to it
Major Battles: Zoroark does not excel in any gyms on its own, however, it can sweep two of the Elite 4 with its STAB alone.
Additional Comments: Because Zorua used to belong to N, it gains boosted experience, so it is quite easy to train.
Aron
Baltoy
Name: Basculin
Availability: Mid Game, Route 6, 70% (Surf)
Stats: Basculin has good Speed and offensive stats, allowing it to be a decent mixed attacker. Its defenses are poor, however.
Typing: Water is a good offensive and defensive type. There are plenty of regular trainers with Water-weak Pokemon out there, though it isn't as useful against stronger trainers.
Movepool: Basculin starts with Surf, and it learns Aqua Tail fairly early. Combine that with Adaptability and you have a Pokemon capable of 1-2HKOing most Pokemon you encounter effortlessly. Basculin also gets Blizzard/Ice Beam, Double-Edge, and Crunch, but it will be using its STAB moves most of the time.
Major Battles: Unfortunately, Water isn't particularly helpful against the last Gym Leaders. Basculin's better match-ups are against Shauntal and Grimsley since both carry Water-weak and/or frail Pokemon on their teams. It can also take down Iris's Archeops and Aggron.
Additional Comments: You should always use Adaptabilty on Basculin because it provides it with impressive sweeping potential against regular trainers.
Buizel
Cottonee
Name: Cubchoo
Availability: Late-Mid Game, Route 7, 25% (Winter only)
Stats: Before it evolves, Cubchoo is frail and slow, although its offenses are decent. It becomes much bulkier as a Beartic. Base 110 attack is very good but base 50 Speed isn't good late-game.
Typing: Ice is a great offensive type. Super-effective coverage on Dragon-types is rare and Beartic can provide that. On the other hand, Ice is one of the worst defensive types because it only resists itself and it's weak to Fire, Rock, Fighting, and Steel.
Movepool: Decent. Its movepool isn't that good before evolving, but it learns Icicle Crash right after evolving, guaranteeing it access to a powerful physical STAB. Superpower can be relearned by Beartic with a Heart Scale. It gets goodies like Dig, Shadow Claw, and Rock Slide from TMs.
Major Battles: Beartic is decent against Skyla's gym, although only 1 of Skyla's Pokemon is actually weak to Ice. It's very good against Drayden and it should be able to survive at least one super effective hit. It isn't that helpful against Marshall, but the other Elite 4 members carry at least 1 Pokemon weak to Icicle Crash, and it can work well against Iris's Dragons.
Name: Deerling
Availability: Mid Game, Route 6, 30%
Stats: 100 Attack and 95 Speed makes Sawsbuck a good physical attacker.
Typing: Normal/Grass grants STAB on key moves such as Return and Horn Leech, but struggles against Fighting- and Flying-types.
Movepool: Return and Horn Leech are Sawsbuck's main attacks, and it also gets Jump Kick and Megahorn for added coverage.
Major Battles: Clay and Marlon are pretty simple battles, while Skyla is a big no-no. In the Elite 4, it performs decently against Grimsley and Caitlin due to Jump Kick and Megahorn, but keep it away from Shauntal and Marshal.
AC: It's recommended to use the gift Deerling due to Serene Grace's superior usability. The initial issue of no Grass moves can be fixed by tutoring Seed Bomb, which can tide until Horn Leech. 2 ways: either as a gift from the Weather Institute (which comes with its Hidden Ability of Serene Grace) or a normal encounter at 30%.
Ducklett
Name: Dwebble
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Desert Resort, 10%
Stats: The Dwebble line focuses on defense, although Dwebble's Attack is decent too.
Typing: Bug/Rock is a neat offensive type that covers 6 types super effectively. Steel-types wall it, but these can be covered by other moves.
Movepool: Dwebble starts with Smack Down and gets Bug Bite soon after. Rock Slide at level 29 is excellent, and it learns X-Scissor later on too. It can learn Dig, so Dwebble can achieve fantastic coverage right from the start.
Major Battles: Dwebble can contribute against Elesa and Clay but a full sweep is unlikely. Skyla's Swoobat and Grimsley's Liepard should be easy to deal with.
Ferroseed
Frillish
Name: Gligar
Availability: Late Game, Route 11, 15%
Stats: Gligar comes with impressive Physical bulk that can help it tank physical attacks easier, and an above average Attack and Speed stats to boot. Its special bulk is rather average, and its Special Attack is forgettable.
Typing: Ground/Flying gives it unfortunate weaknesses to Water and Ice, but it gets two useful immunities to Electric and Ground, and just three resistances. Offensively it is no slouch, with very broad coverage and key Super Effective coverage.
Movepool: Gligar comes with a broad movepool that gives it great offensive potential, getting the Elemental Fangs, Acrobatics, Swords Dance, U-turn, X-scissor, and Sky Uppercut from its Level-up movepool, as well as Bulldoze, Dig, and Rock Slide from its TM movepool.
Major Battles: It fares poorly against Marlon and Zinzolin, but Gligar can handily take on Marshal and Caitilin, as well as do a good job against Colress. Gligar can do a decent job in all the other major battles left in the game.
Additional Comments: Unless you can put up with Gligar until the endgame before getting the Route 11 Razor Fang, you can find its evolved form (Gliscor) at the same point in the game as Gligar in shaking grass, albeit at a 5% Encounter rate.
Gothita [Black 2]
Name: Growlithe
Availability: Early Game, Virbank Complex, 20% (Inside)
Stats: Overall very good. Its Attack and Special Attack are equally usable, and it's fairly fast too. Its also quite bulky, with good HP and average defenses.
Typing: Fire is a decent type in this game. It hits a good amount of Pokemon for super effective damage, but it's weak to Water, Ground, and Rock, all of which are very easy to tke advantage of.
Movepool: Poor overall. It learns nothing useful by level, except for STAB moves and Crunch; Extremespeed is cool, but isn't very useful. To get its best physical STAB, Flare Blitz, you have to keep it as a Growlithe until level 45, which sucks. It can't learn Wild Charge, its best supplemental coverage, until Victory Road, at which it's pointless. Thunder Fang is available, but is a rather poor move in general.
Major Battles: It can be a good asset against Roxie, and it destroys Burgh and Colress. Other than those two, it doesn't do particularly well against any other important trainers, but it's only really useless versus Drayden and Marlon.
Name: Joltik
Availability: Late-Mid Game, Chargestone Cave, 39% (1F)
Stats: Decent Special Attack, high Speed. Don't let it take too many hits.
Typing: Bug/Electric makes it neutral to Ground, but gives him a weakness to Rock. Its offensive STABs hit many things quite well.
Movepool: You're going to be limited Volt Switch, and Electroweb at first, but later it gets Charge Beam. Signal Beam can also work late-game, but overall its movepool is shallow.
Major Battles: Grinds cleanly through Skyla, but faces trouble with Drayden. It can wreck Marlon with STAB Thunder. Against the Elite 4, it can handle Grimsley and Caitlin with Signal Beam/Thunder depending on the Pokemon.
Karrablast (With trade)
Name: Klink
Availability: Late-Mid Game, Chargestone Cave, 24% (1F)
Stats: Klink suffers from low speed until it hits its final form, but it does make up for very decent bulk. Its attacking stats are competent, though unspectacular.
Typing: Steel-typing blesses Klink with many resistances and an immunity to Poison-types, but three weaknesses to common types in the game leave it much to be desired.
Movepool: Klink is a case where its movepool is so shallow, yet so precise. It is gifted with its signature Shift Gear and Gear Grind by level-up which grants it amazing sweeping capabilities as well as the ability to pierce Sturdy and Focus Sash, and it is complemented by Electric and Normal coverage. Wild Charge can come in handy as well for the end-game.
Major Battles: Klink handles Skyla very well, while Marlon, Zinzolin, Caitilin, Grimsley, and Shauntal are all handled by Klink to a degree, especially once it gets Shift Gear.
Name: Koffing
Availability: Early Game, Virbank Complex, 15% (Inside)
Stats: Koffing's major traits lie in its exceptional Defense stat, which allows it to tank hits a lot on the physical side. It has okay mixed attacking stats, an average HP and Special Defense stat, but its Speed is mediocre.
Typing: Poison in an okay typing, with three resistances and a sole weakness to Psychic (Levitate takes out its Ground weakness). Offensively it is average, only hitting Grass-Types super effectively.
Movepool: Average. Its level-up movepool is mainly physical Normal and special Poison moves, but it has great TM coverage from Ghost, Electric, and Fire moves, allowing it to hit Steel-types and other types super effectively lategame.
Major Battles: Koffing has no super bad matchups besides Caitilin and Skyla. Otherwise, it can handle Burgh very well and tank a lot of physical attackers, but in general, it is only average in most matchups.
Additional Comments: Clear Smog can be used to help you in a pinch against several set-up attackers in the game, particularly against several Clefairy and Iris' Haxorus.
Name: Magby
Availability: Early Game, Virbank Complex, 25% (Inside) [Black 2]
Stats: The Magby line has above average Attack, Special Attack, and Speed, but also mediocre defenses.
Typing: Fire is an acceptable offensive type, and the coverage against Steel-types in particular is appreciated.
Movepool: Its level-up movepool is limited to STAB and Faint Attack. Flame Burst at level 22 is nice for early power, and Lava Plume and Flamethrower replace it later. Magmortar learns some cool moves, although Thunderbolt arrives too late to see a lot of use. ThunderPunch from the move relearner can be used in the meantime.
Major Battles: Does well against Roxie and Burgh, and is very good at dealing with Colress, the Shadow Trio, and Zinzolin. It deals with Skyla's Swoobat and Skarmory nicely, but most of the other gym leaders are strong against Fire and there aren't many Elite 4 Pokémon that stick out as being countered by Magmar or Magmortar.
Additional Comments: Magby's main problem comes from late evolutions. Magmortar is very good but Magmarizer comes too late for Magmortar to have much of an effect.
Mandibuzz (Route 4 stationary) [Black 2]
Maractus
Name: Mareep
Availability: Early Game, Floccesy Ranch, 10%
Stats: It may be fairly slow, but it has a powerful 115 base Special Attack as Ampharos, and respectable defenses.
Typing: Electric is a decent typing, with only one weakness, and a handful of resistances. Electric is also pretty good offensively, with few things resisting it.
Movepool: It learns almost everything it needs by level-up. A powerful STAB move in Discharge and a decent coverage move in Signal Beam. You could also teach it Focus Blast for additional coverage.
Major Battles: It's not very useful against Burgh, Elesa, Clay, or Drayden. On the other hand, it destroys Skyla and Marlon.
Metang
Mienfoo
Numel [White 2]
Name: Onix (With trade)
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Relic Passage, 20% (Dust Cloud)
Stats: Onix has massive Defense and decent Speed, but its other stats are horrible. When it evolves, its Attack, HP, and Special Defense improve significantly, in exchange for Speed.
Typing: Rock/Ground has six weaknesses, including 4x weaknesses to Water and Grass, but its Normal and Fire resistances, and Electric immunity are quite useful. It becomes Steel/Ground after evolving, gaining a ton of resistances in exchange for its Fire resistance.
Movepool: Wide. Onix's access to STAB Dig helps make up for its low Attack early on. It also gets Strength and STAB Rock-type attacks, providing it with good coverage. Steelix has wide coverage between its STAB moves, Crunch, Double-Edge, and the elemental fangs.
Major Battles: Onix is a great counter to Elesa, but doesn't do well against Burgh and Clay. Steelix can beat most of Skyla's and Drayden's teams, but hates Swanna and Flygon. Aside from Marshall, it can contribute against the Elite 4.
Additional Comments: You have the option of evolving Onix right away (Magnemite can hold Metal Coat) or waiting until Chargestone Cave. If you choose to wait, give Onix Eviolite to boost its defenses.
Pansage
Pansear
Pawniard
Pelipper
Piloswine
Name: Psyduck
Availability: Early Game, Floccesy Ranch, 10%
Stats: Relatively good as a Psyduck with good Special Attack. Its stats become more solid when it evolves, gaining better Speed and mixed offense potential.
Typing: Water is a good typing. Has both good and bad match-ups, which makes relatively balanced.
Movepool: Psyduck learns mostly Water- and Psychic-type moves, although the Water-type ones come with high power. Surf and Zen Headbutt will be its main offensive moves towards the end of the game. Can be tutored Ice Punch as well. Can also be taught Dig.
Major Battles: Psyduck will have problems with Elesa. Clay and his Gym will prove to be easier for Psyduck do deal with, but it can have trouble with Excadrill. Later in the game, Drayden and Marlon can be difficult, but Ice Punch can help.
Roggenrola (With trade)
Sawk
Name: Sewaddle
Availability: Early Game, Route 20, 35%
Stats: Solid overall. It has high Attack, with enough Speed and bulk to get by.
Typing: Grass/Bug provides some useful coverage, but also resisted by 4 types. It's also a lousy defensive typing.
Movepool: Bug Bite at level 8 gives it a good STAB move early on, and X-Scissor and Leaf Blade give it power late game. Unfortunately, its movepool outside of its STABs is poor and provides mostly unhelpful coverage. Swords Dance is available for sweeping.
Major Battles: Sewaddle's best match-ups are against Clay, Marlon, Burgh, Caitlin, and Grimsley. It can contribute against all of these, but must be wary of its weaknesses. Sewaddle does well against Team Plasma's Dark-types, but tends to struggle a bit against their Poison-types.
Additional Comments: Swadloon evolves into Leavanny with high happiness. Although this means that you can't predict when it will evolve, it should evolve fairly early.
Name: Skarmory
Availability: Late Game, Reversal Mountain, 15% (Double Grass)
Stats: Skarmory possess fantastic physical defense and workable Attack and Speed.
Typing: From a defensive standpoint, 9 resistances and 2 immunties in exchange for 2 weaknesses is nothing short of amazing. Offensively though it doesn't cover as much, though Steel at least hits Rock-types that resist Flying.
Movepool: Adequate. It starts off with Steel Wing as its best move, though it can be quickly replaced with the much better Iron Head from Driftveil's move tutor. Skarmory is one of those Flying-types that actually needs Fly for good STAB, but it makes use of it decently. Other options include X-Scissor and Night Slash via level up, and Rock Slide and Swords Dance via TM.
Major Battles: Skarmory's Dragon resist allows it to perform marvelously against Drayden and later Iris. It also wastes literally every Plasma Grunt you see after obtaining Skarmory, and does well in the Elite 4 provided you avoid Thunder/bolts and Fire Blasts.
Name: Skorupi
Availability: Late Game, Reversal Mountain, 30% (Outside)
Stats: Good. It's fairly fast, has solid defenses, and a decent attack stat. Nothing exceptional, though.
Typing: Skorupi is Poison/Bug, but shortly after you catch it, it will evolve into Drapion, which is Poison/Dark type. Poison/Dark is a good defensive typing with decent offensive presence.
Movepool: Fairly shallow. It gets nice STAB moves in Crunch and Cross Poison. It also learns the elemental fangs, but those are fairly weak, and its only other usable moves are X-scissor and Dig.
Major Battles: As a Dark-type, it fares well against Shauntal, Caitlin, and Marlon's Jellicent. Because of it's poor coverage, however, it doesn't do particularly well against any other important trainers.
Name: Snivy
Availability: Starter
Stats: Snivy is very fast with base 113 Speed at the end, and has quite good bulk as well. Its offenses are average, though they can be worked around.
Typing: Grass is not that great, as it is resisted by many common types found in the game. It also comes with five weaknesses which hurts, but resistances to Water, Ground, and Electric are quite helpful.
Movepool: Below average. Coil, Leaf Blade, and Giga Drain are its best level-up moves, while the TM pool is rather shallow and not really worth looking into, apart from Return. Its tutor movepool is not any better.
Major Battles: Snivy does very well against Clay, Marlon, and Caitilin (with Coil), but does terribly against Roxie, Burgh, and Skyla. Everywhere else it is rather average, but it is not dead weight.
Name: Solosis
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Route 16, 30% [White 2]
Stats: Solosis, all the way up to Reuniclus, has a huge base Special Attack. They are also fairly bulky, but incredibly slow.
Typing: Psychic is ok offensively being able to hit Fighting- and Poison-types super effectively. Defensively, it's subpar, being able to resist Fighting-type but being taken out by Ghost-, Dark-, and Bug-types, which all have significant trainers in-game.
Movepool: You'll mainly want to aim for Recover, Psyshock, and eventually Psychic. For TMs, you'll mainly want to look for Shadow Ball. Signal Beam is available as a move tutor move.
Major Battles: Solosis won't do well against most Gym Leaders. It can take on Marlon, Caitlin, and Marshal with relative succes. Especially against Marshal. Solosis will have an advantage against most Team Plasma Grunts though.
Additional Comments: You should always go for Magic Guard.
Spheal
Tangela
Name: Timburr
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Relic Passage, 20%
Stats: On one hand, you have an incredible Base 140 Attack, with impressive physical bulk to boot. On the other hand, it is very slow with average special bulk.
Typing: Fighting-type allows it to hit a lot of Pokémon super effectively, and gives it a few resistances, but leaves it weak to Psychic- and Flying-types, both of which are common.
Movepool: Below Average. You do not get a strong, reliable STAB until Hammer Arm at level 45. On the other hand, it gets Bulk Up and Rock Slide as useful level-up moves, as well as Bulldoze, Dig, and Payback from TMs. Thunderpunch and Ice Punch stand out from its tutor movepool.
Major Battles: It does well against Clay and Grimsley, but other than that, it is pretty unspectacular. Keep it away from Skyla and Caitilin, however.
Name: Trapinch
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Desert Resort, 5% (Desert)
Stats: Trapinch is very strong, but frail and slow. Once it gets to be Flygon, however, all of it's stats are respectable, with high Speed and Attack.
Typing: Ground is a solid typing, but having some common weaknesses makes it have a hard time. As Vibrava and Flygon, its secondary Dragon-type removes some of them, while it provides a great secondary STAB.
Movepool: Sadly, it can't get Earthquake during the main story unless you keep it as a Trapinch until level 55. Dig or Earth Power serve as decent substitutes, though, and it learns Dragon Claw by level. It gets nice coverage moves like Fire Blast and Rock Slide. You can also use it for Fly.
Major Battles: It does really well against Elesa. It can also do work against Skyla with Rock Slide, while Dragon Claw helps against Drayden. Its Ground-type moves will be helpful against most of Team Plasma.
Name: Venipede
Availability: Early Game, Route 20, 20% (Double Grass)
Stats: Venipede doesn't stand out in any category before evolving. As Whirlipede, it gains solid defenses in exchange for some Speed. When it evolves to Scolipede, it carries 112 Speed and 90 Attack.
Typing: Bug/Poison provides decent, albeit redundant, coverage. The type has a few nasty weaknesses, but 4x Fighting- and Grass-type resistances are useful.
Movepool: Venipede doesn't start out with much but it quickly learns Poison Tail and Bug Bite. Scolipede gets Megahorn via the move relearner. Dig is learnable as Scolipede and is useful for coverage against Poison- and Steel-types.
Major Battles: Scolipede can contribute against most important trainers thanks to its Speed, but the fact that every Gym Leader and Elite 4 member has at least 1 super effective move against Bug/Poison hurts it.
Name: Volcarona
Availability: Late-Mid Game, Relic Castle, Stationary
Stats: Excellent 135 SpA, with a good 100 Speed.
Typing: Has annoying weaknesses that can be taken advantage of easily, such as Rock and Water. A x4 resistance to Grass isn't very useful, but a Fighting resist works.
Movepool: Signal Beam can be tutored immediately to fix its horrible movepool, and it gets Fire Blast and Giga Drain for coverage. Fly works as utility.
Major battles: Does basically nothing against Skyla and Marlon, and doesn't have the physical bulk to take hits well for Drayden. Shines pretty nicely against Zinzolin and Colress though, but is mediocre against the Elite 4 in general.
Additional Comments: While initially seeming strong and overlevelled, Volcarona is put down by his bad movepool, forcing it to rely heavily on the inaccurate Fire Blast.
Name: Zangoose
Availability: Late-Mid Game, Route 7, 5%
Stats: Zangoose's high Attack and good Speed are ideal for an efficient playthrough.
Typing: Normal has wide neutral coverage which makes it ideal for regular routes, but lacks super effective coverage.
Movepool: Very Wide. Zangoose has Return and Frustration for easily accessible STAB, and Close Combat and Shadow Claw cover all the types that resist Normal. X-Scissor, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace, and the elemental punches are viable alternatives for coverage.
Major Battles: Zangoose is very effective at sweeping through Team Plasma grunts using its STAB. Its performance against other trainers depends on its moveset. ThunderPunch is good for Skyla and Marlon; Ice Punch deals with Drayden; Shauntal and Caitlin are weak to Shadow Claw; and Grimsley can be dealt with using Close Combat. Ice Punch and Close Combat cover all of Iris's Pokemon.
Name: Zebstrika
Availability: Late-Mid Game, Route 7, 20%
Stats: Zebstrika is one of the fastest Pokemon in Unova, and it also has decent 100/80 offensive stats.
Typing: Electric is a very useful offensive type late game because Water- and Flying-types are pretty common.
Movepool: Zebstrika's main problem is its thin movepool. It has decent STAB options, but other than that it is limited to Flame Charge, Signal Beam, Strength, and Bounce.
Major Battles: Zebstrika does well against Skyla and Marlon, and this is the main reason why you would want to use it. It also has some use against certain Elite 4 Pokemon, although it isn't going to sweep any of the Elite 4 members.
Name: Zubat
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Castelia Sewers, 45%
Stats: Zubat has average stats across the board. Golbat has above average Speed and average everywhere else. Crobat, though, has ridiculously high Speed and slightly above average Attack.
Typing: Defensively, weak to Rock, Ice, Electric, and Psychic, while resisting Poison and having a double resist to fight, grass, and bug. Offensively, it is strong against Grass, Bug, Fight, while being resisted by Steel and Rock.
Movepool: Decent, although mostly off of its weaker offensive stat in the late game. It also lacks a physical Poison STAB until after your 5th gym badge. Its only good physical STAB moves are Fly, Acrobatics, and Cross Poison. It can also use Return and Bite, plus a few tutor moves.
Major Battles: Annihilates most Bug-types in the Castelia City gym and is a good choice against Marshall, but is easily defeated by Elesa and Caitlin, and Colress's Steel-types. It can pull its own weight against other trainers, but it won't be a star.
Name: Absol
Availability: Late Game, Route 13, 15%
Stats: Decent. Its defenses are bad, and its Speed is only average. However, its base 130 Attack is amazing.
Typing: Dark is a mediocre typing, both offensively and defensively. Any Ghost- or Psychic-type will fall before it, but those types are uncommon. Thankfully, its weaknesses aren't too common either.
Movepool: Decent. It knows Swords Dance when you catch it, and learns Night Slash soon after, a reliable STAB that becomes even better if you have the Super Luck ability. Learns Psycho Cut and X-scissor for coverage, and if you can spare the Shards, it can be tutored Superpower in Lentimas Town. It also learns Fire Blast, but it's SpA isn't really high enough to viably use it.
Major Battles: It's only really good against Shauntal and Caitlyn, whom it can defeat single-handedly, and it also defeats Marlon's Jellicent with ease. However, with Superpower, it becomes quite useful versus Colress, Ghetsis, Grimsley, and Iris. Keep it away from Drayden and Marshal, though.
Additional Comments: Absol is not a very good Pokemon unless you can teach it Superpower, at which point it becomes a very powerful asset to your team. If you're not going to teach it Superpower, you should probably use some other Pokemon.
Name: Audino
Availability: Early Game, Route 20, 90% (Shaking Grass)
Stats: Audino's Speed and attack stats are at least on par with most of the unevolved Pokémon at the start of the game, but they lag late-game. Audino's strengths lie in its nice 103/86/86 bulk.
Typing: Pure Normal is a bland typing with a Ghost-type immunity, a Fighting-type weakness, and no super-effective coverage. It does have good neutral coverage though, which is ideal for taking on consecutive trainers on routes.
Movepool: Very wide. It has plenty of STAB options to pick from, with Return being available near the start. It has a lot of coverage moves as well, such as Ice Beam and Surf. You can mix and match moves to suit your team.
Major Battles: Mostly depends on what moves you teach it, but late-game it'll find that it's too weak to sweep teams. Basically just pick match-ups that suit its moves.
Additional Comments: Regenerator is definitely the preferred ability. Note that you need to get the first badge before shaking grass starts appearing.
Banette
Bouffalant
Name: Buneary
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Castelia City, 15% [Black 2]
Stats: Its Speed is great, and its Attack is decent.
Typing: Normal-type is decent, but coupled with it's overall poor defenses, it won't be taking too many hits. It does get a nice strong STAB in Return, however.
Movepool: Very wide. However, because of its very low Special Attack, it can't use most of its TM movepool well. Its only viable attacking moves are Jump Kick, Bounce, Dig, and it's Normal STAB. It can be tutored one of the elemental punches in Driftveil City.
Major Battles: Because of it's decidedly neutral typing, it doesn't stand out much in any major battles. However, as long as you keep it away from Shauntal and Marshal, it won't do too poorly.
Additional Comments: Buneary's base happiness is 0, the lowest possible value. To get it to evolve, you must get its happiness to at least 220. Because of its low base happiness, you'll probably be stuck with a Buneary for a long time.
Clefairy
Name: Drifblim
Availability: Late Game, Reversal Mountain, 20% (Outside)
Stats: Drifblim's low defenses are balanced by its HP stat, while it has decent offenses and Speed.
Typing: Flying/Ghost has acceptable coverage and is advantageous against much of the Elite 4 on paper, but it's walled by Steel-types.
Movepool: Drifblim starts with STAB Acrobatics, and it gets STAB Shadow Ball at level 40. Psychic arrives soon after via TM, and it also gets Thunder/Thunderbolt later. It lacks a good move for Steel-types though.
Major Battles: Drifblim seems good against the Elite 4 in theory, but many of their Pokemon can hit Drifblim super effectively. It may be able to take 1 or 2 of Marshall or Shaultal's Pokemon down but it can't sweep when it's taking Rock and Ghost moves in response. Caitlin is its best match-up, but even there it has to deal with Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball.
Additional Comments: Aftermath is useful because it can make a Pokemon easier to kill by a teammate if it dies.
Druddigon
Eevee - Flareon
Elgyem
Name: Emolga
Availability: Mid Game, Route 16, 10% (Shaking Grass)
Stats: Emolga has excellent Speed and its offensive stats are good initially. However, Emolga is very frail, and its attack stats start to lag behind badly late-game.
Typing: Electric/Flying is an excellent typing; its STABs provide good coverage by themselves. It has useful resistance to several types, including Fighting and Ground, and it's only burdened with 2 rare weaknesses.
Movepool: STAB Acrobatics at level 30 is surprisingly powerful. Emolga has several option for Electric STAB, but its strongest moves arrive disappointingly late. Aside from Signal Beam, Emolga's movepool is thin outside of its STABs, but its STABs have good coverage by themselves so it isn't a huge problem.
Major Battles: Acrobatics can tear through most of Team Plasma, and it does well against Skyla and Marlon. Its stats don't really cut it against other gyms though, and it really isn't doing anything against the Elite Four.
Foongus
Name: Golurk
Availability: Late Game, Victory Road, 30%
Stats: Golurk is a rather slow Pokémon with average bulk, but a great Base 123 Attack to use its Physical Attacks off.
Typing: Ground/Ghost-typing is fairly great considering you only have the Rival and the Elite Four to go, as the three immunities and STAB coverage can come in handy at the point you get it.
Movepool: Golurk gets Earthquake nearly immediate after you get it—or even have it already—while Shadow Punch is its only decent Ghost-type STAB, obtainable via Heart Scale. It also gets Rock Slide and the Elemental Punches as useful moves from TM's and the Driftveil Tutor, as well as Hammer Arm if you can be bothered grinding Golurk to Level 60 before the Elite Four.
Major Battles: Golurk fares decently in the final Rival Battle and against Caitilin, Marshal, and Iris' Aggron, but is otherwise unspectacular. It mainly depends on what you teach it.
Additional Comments: Always use Iron Fist over Klutz, especially if you get Shadow Punch for it. In short, Golurk may come at the end of the game, but makes up for it for being at a decent level, as well as being of some use in the remaining battles in the game.
Grimer
Name: Lapras
Availability: Late Game, Village Bridge, 5% (Surfing Spots)
Stats: Very well-balanced. High HP and decent defenses make it good at taking hits repeatedly, and 85/85 offenses allow it to hit reasonably hard.
Typing: Water/Ice is a strong offensive typing; its STABs have very good coverage, although they're stopped by other Water-types. Defensively, Water/Ice leaves a lot to be desired because it has 4 weaknesses and just 2 resistances.
Movepool: Wide. Lapras will likely know Ice Beam upon capture (it learns it at level 32), and Surf is obtained beforehand. Thunder (and Thunderbolt later on) is available for coverage on Water-types, and Psychic does the same for Fighting-types.
Major Battles: Lapras works very well against Drayden with Ice Beam (it should be able to take Revenge or Rock Slide). If it has Thunder, it can counter Marlon too, especially with Water Absorb. It should be strong enough to see use against the Elite 4 (it works wonders against Iris' Dragons), but it should stay away from Marshall.
Lunatone
Nosepass
Panpour
Name: Patrat
Availability: Early Game, Route 19, 50%
Stats: Watchog's stats are mediocre in the long run, although 85 Attack and 77 Speed should be sufficient early-game. Its power peaks right after it evolves.
Typing: Normal's strong point is its wide neutral coverage (ideal for Trainers on regular routes). It also has no resistances, so Watchog will be relying on its shaky defenses to take hits.
Movepool: Decent. Patrat has access to Frustration and Return pretty early and Crunch at level 16. The move tutors gave it Seed Bomb, the elemental punches, Zen Headbutt, and Aqua Tail to pick from for coverage.
Major Battles: Early-game, you'll find that Watchog works well in most Gyms because it can hit fairly hard against most opponents. Late-game, Watchog's stats just don't cut it anymore and it'll often lose against stronger Pokemon.
Name: Rattata
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Castelia Sewers, 45%
Stats: Rattata's stats aren't great but they are well distributed. 81 Attack and 97 Speed are decent, but it has poor defenses.
Typing: Normal-type is bland offensively and defensively. However, it has wide neutral coverage so it works well for cleaning up regular routes.
Movepool: Rattata starts with Hyper Fang for STAB, and Return can replace it once you get its happiness up. Facade is a good option late-game because it works well with Guts. Crunch and Dig both arrive early for coverage. Super Fang has some use for weakening wild Pokemon for capture.
Major Battles: It's not particularly useful in Gyms. Early-game, it can beat the weaker Pokemon just as well as anything, but late-game it just isn't strong enough.
Additional Comments: Guts is the preferred ability. Note that there is a Toxic Orb (B2)/Flame Orb (W2) in Reversal Mountain so that can be used with Guts.
Remoraid
Roggenrola (No trade)
Rufflet [White 2]
Name: Sandshrew
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Desert Resort, 15% (Desert)
Stats: Decent. It's Attack and Defense are rather high, but the rest of it's stats aren't very good, including it's mediocre HP and low Special stats and Speed
Typing: Ground-type is a mixed bag. Offensively, it's amazing, hitting 5 types for super-effective damage, with only three types resisting it. Defensively, Ground is somewhat poor, with its weaknesses being very common and its resistances not so common.
Movepool: Good, it gets Swords Dance and powerful STAB moves by level-up. It appreciates being taught Rock Slide to augment its coverage, but the Rock Slide TM is easy to get, so it shouldn't be an issue.
Major Battles: It completely laughs at Elesa, and is also useful against Colress. Other than those two, it doesn't shine anywhere in particular, but it doesn't really lose to anyone except Burgh and Marlon.
Additional Comments: It evolves very early, and doesn't really need any special treatment to be effective.
Seel
Seviper
Shelmet (With trade)
Sneasel
Name: Solrock
Availability: Late Game, Route 13, 10%
Stats: Below average. 95 Attack is its best stat, and its defenses are not great. A large amount of Pokemon can hit it for super effective damage.
Typing: Rock/Psychic. An interesting and virtually unique combo. Rock-type moves work well with its Attack stats, but Psychic-type moves are left desiring for more power.
Movepool: Extremely Shallow. Rock Slide and Psychic might seem great initially, and then Stone Edge arrives a few levels after capture. However, you can get Zen Headbutt for 8 blue shards in Lentimas Town which greatly increases Solrock's usability.
Major Battles: At this point you already have 6 badges and the major battles left can be a struggle for Solrock. Team Plasma has lots of Dark types, Colress resists both STABs and it only has a single resistance to one Elite 4 member. If played well, you can try to set up on Marshall and go for flinch hax with Zen Headbutt, but it is risky.
Additional Comments: Zen headbutt is almost a must for this Pokemon, it is well worth the shards. It has decent coverage against random trainers out and about with its niche dual STABs.
Spoink [Black 2]
Swablu
Name: Throh
Availability: Late Game, Route 23, 5% (Black 2) - 25% (White 2)
Stats: Exceptionally Bulky. 120/85/85 Defenses are incredibly robust and 100 Attack really lets it put on the hurt.
Typing: Fighting. Not great being so late in the game, but it still sweeps Grimsley easily.
Movepool: Average. You will likely need to spend some time teaching TMs or using Heart Scales. Ice Punch is available from the Driftveil Tutor.
Major Battles: Defeats Grimsley easily with Fighting STAB and should even be able to tank Aerial Aces from his Pokemon. With Bulk Up he can try and set up against Marshall too.
Additional Comments: It comes way too late to be of much use.
Name: Trubbish
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Route 4, 25% (Black 2) - Mid Game, Route 16, 20% (White 2)
Stats: Average. Decent defenses let it take attacks well. Garbodor has usable Attack, but not a lot to use it with.
Typing: Poison. Pretty solid defensive typing. Decent match ups throughout the game.
Movepool: Poor. For being a physical orientated Pokemon, it has very few good physical moves. Body Slam helps out your team, as does Acid Spray (making its low Special Attack usable).
Major Battles: Its solid defenses in partnership with Stockpile allow it pull of a good defensive role against most of the Gym Leaders (Avoiding Clay). Toxic Spikes can aid you in longer matches, especially against Ghetsis and Iris.
Additional Comments: It can get Drain Punch in Humilau for added coverage and for hitting Steels which otherwise wall it.
Name: Tynamo
Availability: Late-Mid game, Chargestone Cave, 8% (B2F)
Stats: You'll be holding onto Tynamo for a while which has pretty poor stats. However, it gets a significant boost upon evolving. However, like some others it is awfully slow.
Typing: Pure Electric but with Levitate. This means it has 0 weaknesses and keeps its resists. It also comes right before a Flying type Gym leader.
Movepool: As Tynamo its only 4 moves. Eelektrik and Eelektross have movepools which are pretty big through TMs and tutors; including Acrobatics, Flamethrower and other moves.
Major Battles: Comes right before Skyla, but the moves it has probably won't be much help. As soon as it evoles it'll be a big help against Marlon and does reasonably in the Elite 4.
Additional Comments: It has reasonable Bulk to go with its high offences, mixed attacking Electric- types are rare. Can also be found as both Tynamo and Eelektrik in the Seaside Cave (before the Plasma Frigate).
Name: Woobat
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Relic Passage, 31%
Stats: Woobat's only great stat is its Speed. Base 114 Speed as a Swoobat ensures that you'll always go first so it works ok for sweeping routes. Aside from an average base 77 Special Attack, Swoobat's other stats are awful.
Typing: Psychic/Flying is a decent offensive type, Steel-types aside. Defensively, 5 weaknesses is a lot for such a frail Pokemon.
Movepool: Woobat starts with STAB Gust and Heart Stamp, and Air Cutter comes at level 21. Air Slash (level 32) and Psychic (level 41) are the late game replacements. Shadow Ball from TM provides coverage, and if you hoard shards you can get Heat Wave for coverage against Steels.
Major Battles: Woobat works well against Burgh, but hates Dwebble. It doesn't really work that well anywhere else. It may seem like it would work well against Marshall, but most of his Pokemon have Rock moves that destroy Swoobat, and they can survive a hit.
Additional Comments: Woobat evolves by happiness, so you're going to have to work hard to keep the frail Woobat alive to prevent it from hating you.
Name: Yamask
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Relic Castle, 40%
Stats: Defensive. Cofagrigus has one of the best Defense stats in the game and can still pack a punch with decent special attack. Only issue is very low speed means you will be getting hit a lot.
Typing: Pure Ghost. Walls a fair few trainers outright, and most fighting types won't give you problems.
Movepool: Gets Shadow Ball via TM or Level Up, Will-O-Wisp and room for a coverage move or two. Hex is worth a shout as well.
Major Battles: Comes at a good time. Defensively it can stand up to Zebstrika and Excadrill (burning both if needs be) and with Eviolite before it evolves its hard to crack. After it evolves it becomes the teams main defensive wall. Excells against Marshall at the Elite 4 and can hold its own against Iris' Haxorus.
Additional Comments: It's Movepool is fairly small but its one of the few Pokemon that can fit all the moves it needs onto its moveset.
Name: Zweilous
Availability: Late Game, Victory Road, 20%
Stats: Zweilous is an offensive juggernaut thanks to a base 85 Attack stat and Hustle It's quite slow though, and it will be outsped by the majority of the remaining Pokemon. Eviolite can help by bolstering its decent bulk.
Typing: Being a Dragon-type give Zweilous a great STAB to use as almost nothing resists it. Dark STAB is also great for upcoming battles. On the defensive side, Dark/Dragon is good as well.
Movepool: A pseudo-legendary usually comes with a great movepool, and Zweilous is no different. Unfortunately, most of its moves come from either tutors or TMs, so your options are pretty limited outside of those. Crunch and Dragon Rush will take you far though, but Dragon Rush has poor accuracy with Hustle.
Major Battles: Zweilous comes very late and the only thing you have to beat is the Elite Four and Iris. Zweilous make short work of Caitlin and Shauntal, but it will have a little more trouble against the others. Iris beats Zewilous with her faster Dragons, while Marshall does the same with super effective Figthing-type moves.
Additional Comments: Hustle is nice for an ability, but due to your main Dragon STAB only having 75 accuracy, it can be a pain as well. Hydreigon is not worth getting, as it just needs far too much grinding to evolve. It will take a good while to get Zweilous up to level 64, which is when it evolves.
Name: Alomomola
Availability: Mid Game, Route 4, 95% (Surfing Spots)
Stats: It has the highest HP of all the Pokemon you can find in the game. It has okay Attack and Defense.
Typing: Water is a solid typing offensively and defensively. You only need to worry about Electric- and Grass-type Pokemon, but they are not very common after you capture it.
Movepool: Terrible. It gets Aqua Jet and Protect early on, which is okay, but most of the decent attacking moves it gets come off its terrible Special Attack stat. It is an okay supporter, however.
Major Battles: To put it simply, while Alomomola is not going to be dead-weight against any of the remaining major battles bar Colress, it is not going to be much of a help either.
Name: Bronzor
Availability: Late Game, Abundant Shrine, 15%
Stats: Very good defensively, but suffers from low speed and only average offensive stats.
Typing: Steel/Psychic is an incredible defensive typing with many resistances—and only two weaknesses—allowing it to take several hits, but the STAB coverage it has is nothing home to write home about.
Movepool: Bronzor's movepool is rather average ingame. Gyro Ball and Payback are the only real level-up moves worth using. Other than that, it gets some okay TM coverage with Psychic/Psyshock, Shadow Ball, and Bulldoze. If you have not used your free Red Shards yet, you could also look into Iron Head/Signal Beam from the Driftveil Tutor as well.
Major Battles: It can do a half-decent job in most of the remaining major battles, but do not expect it to sweep through any of those teams, because it is so slow and it only has average offenses. Its best bet of doing something is against Marshal with its super effective Psychic-type attacks.
Additional Comments: Levitate is generally preferred to Heatproof due to the immunity it grants. Because it only comes at Level 32—or 36 and evolved in dark grass—and the point where you get it, if you plan to use this for the Elite Four, be prepared to set a couple of hours aside to get Bronzor up to par with the rest of your team.
Name: Castform
Availability: Mid Game, Route 6, 5% (Shaking Grass)
Stats: 70's across the board are not great, but it does make for an interesting special attacker.
Typing: Normal when there is no weather or Sandstorm. Water for Rain, Fire for Sun and Ice for Hail.
Movepool: Honestly, not great. Weather Ball is a must and at least 1 weather changing move (Likely Sunny Day or Rain Dance) which helps out both Castform and the rest of your team. It can also learn several TM's depending on which weather you pick. Thunder for Rain or SolarBeam/Flamethrower for Sun.
Major Battles: The best bet for Castform during major battles is to help out your team by providing weather support. You can pick one up before battling with Clay, and Rain can help you out (You could even go on the offence with Weather Ball if you are confident). Castform is not strong enough to keep up with the endgame trainers or plot points.
Additional Comments: Castform is an extremely interesting Pokemon that can Provide huge amounts for its team. With a Damp or Heat Rock it can extend the length of the weather it creates, assuming you have a team which can utilize it.
Name: Combee
Availability: Mid Game, Lostlorn Forest, 10%
Stats: Amazing bulk as a Vespiquen, with decent 80/80 offenses.
Typing: Bug/Flying has an excellent Fighting resist, but has a crippling Rock weakness.
Movepool: It gets decent STAB moves in Air Slash and Attack Order, coupled with Rock Gem for some coverage. Can be taught Aerial Ace to work better with Attack Order.
Major Battles: Vespiquen is really bad against Elesa and Skyla. It's decent against most other trainers, but it's best to keep it away from Marshal, who packs Rock-type attacks.
Additional Comments: While Vespiquen may seem decent, one fatal flaw is that it can only evolve from Combee when it is a female, which is hard to find.
Name: Corsola
Availability: Late Game, Humilau City, 30% (Surfing Spots)
Stats: Decent defenses but coupled with bad speed and horrible offence.
Typing: Water/Rock. This type combination brings some interesting STABs to the table which can work together well.
Movepool: Surprisingly good. Access to Power Gem and Earth Power make a Special EdgeQuake combo with less power, and add into that Surf and you have a reasonably workable moveset.
Major Battles: You won't want to use it in the battle with Marlon, but it might see some use in the E4 against Shuantel and Grimsley. In terms of Plasma, Water/Ground coverage can work pretty well against Colress (Although watch out for Electric type moves).
Additional Comments: It comes a bit late to be of real use and its fairly rare typing can be both a bonus and a negative. Its movepool would be really excellent on a Pokemon with more offensive presence.
Name: Delibird
Availability: Late Game, Route 22, 5%
Stats: Poor. Extremely poor. No defenses, no offense; the only salvageable stat is Speed.
Typing: Ice/Flying. Nice STAB options for nearing the end game, but not enough power to back them up.
Movepool: Present. And then any TM's or tutor moves you wish to spend on it. Hustle with Fly/Aerial Ace can work well, as well as Ice Punch. Even with Hustle it's not hitting particularly hard.
Major Battles: Marlon, Giant Chasm, Ghetsis, and Elite 4 left. If Delibird had better stats, it would be usable in some of these matches. The STAB Combo is great, but its faint to everything.
Name: Ditto
Availability: Late Game, Giant Chasm, 15%
Stats: Poor. It won't have Imposter, so it still have to take a hit with paltry 48 stats across the board.
Typing: Normal, but then whatever it transforms into.
Movepool: Transform.
Major Battles: Giant Chasm, Ghetsis, and the Elite 4 left. If you transform into the right thing, you can probably go from there... But good luck getting that Transform in place.
Name: Dunsparce
Availability: Early Game, Route 20, 10% (Shaking Grass)
Stats: Immediately good, but he drops off horribly as you work towards even the middle of the game. Decent HP is all it really has. It's not that strong on offense and his defenses are lackluster. It is also horribly slow.
Typing: Normal. Pretty average. Has good STAB but there is a large amount of Fighting-types and Intimidaters, which really hurt it.
Movepool: Return and Dig can be useful, Glare and Coil as well. Drill Run comes at a time when you need the extra power. Apart from that, it's pretty shallow. Rock Slide works well with Serene Grace after a Glare.
Major Battles: It's good for the first few gyms, being relatively bulky and hitting OK, but after that it just falls away. The main use it has is for Glaring things and then trying to flinch them.
Additional Comments: You could try some sort of weird gimmick set with Charge Beam and Serene Grace, but Run Away probably has more utility at the start of the game with being able to escape random stuff (which you'll need given its slow speed). Needs first badge.
Name: Eevee - Umbreon
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Castelia City, 5%
Stats: A defensive behemoth in terms of stats, you won't find a lot which can dent Umbreon. Its offenses however are way under par.
Typing: Dark. It has solid matchups but with such poor offensive stats it doesn't work well.
Movepool: Terrible. Even if you wanted to try a support set, most of the good support options are off limits due to breeding. Bite and Faint Attack are your best STAB options unless you drop 8 Blue Shards for Foul Play in Lentimas Town. Access to Shadow Ball gives you almost nothing and your best physical move is Return or Last Resort.
Major Battles: Like most other Dark- Types it can handle Caitlin and Shauntal okay. With its top notch defenses it can be hard to kill for some of the stronger enemies, but you are not dealing a huge amount of damage back. Slow and Steady would be a reasonable assumption to make.
Additional Comments: Needs to be night time to evolve it and also max happiness. If you're given the choice, go with Espeon.
Name: Karrablast (No Trade)
Availability: Mid Game, Route 6, 5% (Black 2) - 25% (White 2)
Stats: Mediocre all around. 50/45/45 bulk means it is not going to take hits, base 60 Speed is below average, and its base 75 Attack is only average at best.
Typing: Bug-typing gives it some use with super effective coverage against Grass-, Psychic-, and Dark-types, but it is resisted by a lot of common types.
Movepool: Very shallow. Its level-up movepool is littered with Normal- and Bug-type moves with only X-Scissor, Swords Dance, and Double-Edge being really worth it.
Major Battles: Most of the time, Karrablast will faint before it gets to do something, so generally it is better off as death fodder if you need it. Its best bet of doing something is against Caitilin as long as she has Musharna out.
Additional Comments: If you want Karrablast to deal some damage, then you could run Eviolite + Swarm to help it survive something and deal some powerful STAB damage in return. Otherwise, use Shed Skin instead. Generally, unless you grind like mad, Karrablast is not going to help you that much ingame.
Name: Onix (No trade)
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Relic Passage, 20% (Dust Cloud)
Stats: Onix's stats are the complete opposite of what you want in an in-game Pokémon. Onix has great Defense and decent Speed, but its other stats are dismal.
Typing: Rock/Ground STABs have good synergy, and the combination has nice resistances to several types. However, it dies to pretty much any Water and Grass attack, and the Fighting weakness isn't appreciated.
Movepool: Onix gets Dig for a good early STAB, and STAB Rock-type attacks and Strength provide decent coverage. Onix misses out on some of the moves that Steelix has access to, but it doesn't really miss them too much since what it does have is acceptable.
Major Battles: Onix hard-counters Elesa's entire gym and it has some use against Skyla's gym (avoid Skarmory, Ducklett and Swanna). Other than that, its stats and typing don't really let it do much in other gyms, and it has little use against the Elite 4.
Additional Comments: Sturdy is the preferred ability to protect Onix from surprise Water and Grass attacks, although Rock Head is OK if you want to use Double-Edge. Since Onix will be unevolved the whole time, give it Eviolite to boost its defenses.
Name: Purrloin
Availability: Early Game, Route 19, 50%
Stats: Slightly better than Skitty... Which isn't saying a lot. Liepard gets usable base 88 offences and good speed. Bulk is no where to be seen.
Typing: Dark. It has solid matchups but with such poor defensive stats it doesn't work well.
Movepool: Terrible. Your best STAB move until Lv 31 (Where you get the equally poor Assurance) is Pursuit. Return could help it out early game with its average Attack. In terms of overall movepool, the most powerful move it learns via level up is Sucker Punch which is only 10 more power than Night Slash.
Major Battles: While it comes early, and with an OK Return it can damage Roxie, it loses horribly in Burghs Gym. It's defenses aren't going to be good enough for the majority of Gym matches. You can always abuse it vs Caitlin at the E4 with a Hone Claws set.
Additional Comments: Probably better of using it to aggravate people competitively... Prankster can be most annoying.
Name: Shelmet (No Trade)
Availability: Mid Game, Route 6, 25% (Black 2) - 5% (White 2)
Stats: Its bulk is okay, but its attacking stats are rubbish, and its Speed is terrible.
Typing: Bug-typing gives it some use with super effective coverage against Grass-, Psychic-, and Dark-types, but it is resisted by a lot of common types. Defensively, it gets resistances to Grass-, Fighting-, and Ground-types, which help, but weaknesses to three common types hurt it.
Movepool: Shallow. Giga Drain and Bug Buzz, stand out in its level-up movepool, but the rest of the movepool is bad. Steel-types completely wall Shelmet.
Major Battles: Most of the time, Shelmet will be dead weight due to its rubbish attacking stats. Its best bet of doing something is against Clay, Caitilin, and Grimsley.
Additional Comments: Shelmet should always hold an Eviolite in order to survive more attacks and attempt to make a contribution. Otherwise, the fact that it is terrible offensively means that it is more often than not going to be very disappointing to use.
Name: Shuckle
Availability: Late Game, Seaside Cave, 5% (B1F)
Stats: Shuckle's Attack, Special Attack, and Speed are laughably poor. It has options to boost its Attack, but its low Speed will prevent it from sweeping opponents effortlessly.
Typing: Rock/Bug is a decent offensive typing with coverage on Flying, Grass, Fire, Psychic, Dark, and Bug. Defensively it isn't so good, with just 2 resistances, although Shuckle can survive anything regardless.
Movepool: Shuckle has a few moves to boost its lousy Attack: Power Trick (massive Attack boost, but is physically frail and still slow); Shell Smash (Attack/Speed boost, but needs many boosts and becomes frail); and Power Split (also weakens your opponent, but comes later than the others). It gets Rock Slide and Bug Bite from level up, and Bulldoze from TM for coverage against Steel-types.
Major Battles: Shuckle will never be the best option for a match-up, mostly because its Speed is so low. Power Split should allow Shuckle to do well against Caitlin, although its low Speed will make a sweep difficult.
Additional Comments: Sturdy is the better ability, although it won't affect Shuckle's performance significantly (so don't worry if you get unlucky and encounter a Gluttony Shuckle).
Name: Skitty
Availability: Early-Mid Game, Castelia City, 15% [White 2]
Stats: Abysmal. Even after evolving it caps out with two base 70 stats.
Typing: Normal. Not all that terrible, but any fighting type move is going to kill you. Along with Normalize you get STAB on every move you learn.
Movepool: Vast (Shallow if Normalize). If you have Normalize you are totally countered by anything Ghost-typed. It has access to a huge selection of TM Moves, but with it's stats it still won't be hurting anything. Thunder Wave from Nimbasa is also pretty useful.
Major Battles: You get it early enough for it to be of some use. Normalize Thunder Wave allows you to paralyze Elesa's Electric absorbing Pokemon, and also Clay's gym. This tactic works in pretty much every major battle left, just be aware of how slow Delcatty is.
Name: Sunkern
Availability: Early Game, Route 20, 5% (26% Summer)
Stats: Poor. Lowest BST in the game, and upon Evolution gains a strong Special Attack stat, but you are slow and not very bulky.
Typing: Grass. Not all that terrible overall, Grass- is reliable on offense, but is fairly mediocre for defending.
Movepool: Shallow. Leech Seed, Giga Drain and Petal Dance are all you really need. Make sure you evolve him before Level 28 for Petal Dance. Earth Power is also available, and it can also learn Cut for some utility.
Major Battles: It fairs badly against all but two gyms (Clay and Marlon). Even then you'll have to watch out for Rock Slide flinches vs Excadrill if you decide to stay in. Elite 4 is not so bad, use it where Grass is strong and you should have no problems KOing a few of their Pokemon.
Additional Comments: You can evolve it in Nimbasa City by finding the Sun Stone. Sunkern will have to be at level 20 or so at this point to keep up with your team.
Name: Vanillish
Availability: Late Game, Giant Chasm, 15% (Inside)
Stats: Average. Reasonable Attack and Special Attack, and OK defenses. Nothing to really write home about.
Typing: Ice. Surprisingly neutral to most stuff left on defense. Be careful for the odd Steel/Fire/Rock move.
Movepool: Terrible. Ice Beam/Mirror Shot is all it has via level up, adding in Signal Beam from tutors. There is no real fourth move. It may be worth relearning Taunt or Icy Wind to help out its teammates.
Major Battles: Can be useful against Ghetsis's Hydreigon, and it works OK in the Elite 4 (apart from against Marshall). It'll also help out against Iris's Dragons with STAB Ice Beam.
Additional Comments: Comes very close to evolving into Vanilluxe. The power increase from the evolution is pretty big and is definitely worth doing. Also, it's an Ice Cream.
Name: Vullaby
Availability: Late Game, Route 23, 5% [Black 2]
Stats: Solid defensively, they become pretty exceptional when Vullaby Evolves. 110/105/95 is good bulk, but it lack offensive prowess.
Typing: Dark/Flying. Not bad for the Elite 4, boasting resists to everyone bar Marshall.
Movepool: Nasty Plot is worth using a Heart Scale for, and in addition to Air Slash and Dark Pulse makes for good dual STAB.
Major Battles: Elite 4 and a rival battle is all you have left. Typing alone gives it a great chance against Shauntal and Caitlin, whilst it resists Grimsley but probably lose to Marshall. Mandibuzz's defenses will also help it out against Iris.
Additional Comments: It's not bad, but it comes so extremely late and probably a few levels below your team. It comes with Air Slash and Dark Pulse at that level, and is is only a few from Evolution. Eviolite may work well if you plan on going onward without evolving it.
Name: Vulpix
Availability: Late Game, Abundant Shrine, 20% (Double Grass)
Stats: Decent. Ninetales has reasonable offense and good Speed. Its physical Defense is lacking though.
Typing: Fire. At this point in the game, no principle trainers left are weak to its STAB. On the plus side, nothing is super effective against it either.
Movepool: Shallow. You will need to spend some Heart Scales on Vulpix before evolving it in order to get the best out of its moveset. Flamethrower and Energy Ball give good coverage and Will-O-Wisp gives you something to do against Physical Attackers. Ninetales gains Nasty Plot via Heart Scale, which could be useful to fire off some super high powered offensive moves.
Major Battles: Elite 4. No good or bad match ups against any of the Elite 4 members. The only thing it hits super effectively with STAB (against every primary trainer left) is Grimsley's Bisharp. Iris will likely brute force through Ninetales with no problems.
Additional Comments: Its late catch place and movepool cost are really huge negative points. Its stats do not befit its late placement, nor does its type.
We are currently in the process of writing entries for each Pokémon on this tier list. If you want to contribute and write an entry or two yourself, please read this post. The OP will be updated every once in a while with every new entry.
Formatting
Use the following format when submitting a Pokémon:
Name: - Tier
Availability: When does this Pokémon become available? Is it easy or hard to encounter?
Stats: Describe how a Pokémon's stats make it excel. Is it a deadly sweeper or a strong wall? Discuss why you would use this Pokemon thank to its stats.
Typing: Discuss this Pokémon's typing in a sentence or two. Is its STAB effecient or not, does it have any great resistances or glaring weaknesses?
Movepool: Describe this Pokémon's movepool in a few sentences. Does it have many effective movepool options through level up? Is it over reliant on TMs to function? Does it have access to useful HMs to help you traverse the region?
Major Battles: Describe how the Pokémon handles the major opponents throughout the game. Notable opponents and battles include the Gym Leaders, battles against various members of Team Plasma, the final rival battle before the Elite Four, the Elite Four themselves, and the Champion.
Additional Comments: Discuss any miscellaneous information not covered in other sections here. Factors such as experience growth, abilities, and other lesser characteristics can be discussed here.
For Pokémon that evolve through trading, the following applies:
SuperJOCKE said:
Please write somewhat professionally (Don't use words such as lol etc.)
Some guidelines to follow:
- No glitches allowed.
- No trading in Pokemon from other games. For forth and back trading to evolve Magmar, Electabuzz, Onix, Boldore, Gurdurr, Karrablast, and Shelmet read above.
- We do not decide the tiering of one Pokémon based on another Pokémon's ability. It doesn't matter if Pokémon X does the same thing better than Pokémon Y; if both are good enough for the same tier, they will be placed as such.
- Have fun!
Feel free to dispute and discuss other users submissions, but please, no flaming.
Looking for a place to discuss the White 2 and Black 2 games in general? Well, this is unfortunately not the place to do so, as this thread is purely for tiering purposes. However, go here instead, as there you can freely discuss the games with your fellow members!
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