Pokémon X & Y In-game Tier List Discussion (MkII)

Its_A_Random · Sep 8, 2014

Approved by DHR-107 & Stellar

Pokémon X & Y Version
In-Game Tier List Discussion

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 seven tiers (Or possibly more). Pokémon that are the most useful belong in the S-Tier, while Pokémon that are the least useful belong in the F-Tier. The tiers are as follows:

-S-Tier
-A-Tier
-B-Tier
-C-Tier
-D-Tier
-E-Tier
-F-Tier

Pokémon are tiered based on several factors:

-Availability: When the Pokémon can be first found, and how rare. Earlier Pokémon tend to rank higher.
-Typing: What is the Pokémon's typing and how useful it is in the game. More useful typings tend to rank higher.
-Stats: What their base stats are like and how they contribute to a team. Pokémon with better stats for in-game runs tend to rank higher.
-Movepool: What the Pokémon's movepool is like and how it contributes to a team. Pokémon with wider and more useful movepools tend to rank higher.
-Major Battles: How the Pokémon fares against key match-ups in the game. Pokémon who perform better against more major battles tend to rank higher.
-Other: Other aesthetics like abilities, levels, can minorly contribute to a Pokémon's tiering as well.

Basically, Pokémon who are ranked higher in the tier list tend to be found earlier in the game (or at a higher level), can win more match-ups from the game's various trainers (Including the Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and Team Flare), have stronger movepools (usually being able to learn more TM's, HM's, and Level-up moves), and may have other useful aesthetics like more useful abilities, faster growth, or self-healing.

Which Pokémon are available in Pokémon X Version and Pokémon Y Version?

The newest entries in the Pokémon franchise add 68 new Pokémon to the franchise, and the game's Pokédex itself contains 454 Pokémon split across three sections. 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 Pokémon that only appear in the post-game are omitted from this list. A Pokémon is only listed in the area in which it first appears in the wild.

LEGEND
[G] = This Pokémon is given to you by a NPC.
[H] = This Pokémon can only be found in Hordes.
[IN] = This Pokémon is an interactable encounter.
[T] = This Pokémon is obtained via in-game trade.
[X] = This Pokémon can only be caught in Pokémon X.
[X*] = This Pokémon is first found here in Pokémon X only.
[Y] = This Pokémon can only be caught in Pokémon Y.
[Y*] = This Pokémon is first found here in Pokémon Y only.

Aquacorde Town: Chespin [G], Fennekin [G], Froakie [G]
Route 2: Caterpie [Y*], Weedle [X*], Pidgey, Zigzagoon, Bunnelby, Fletchling, Scatterbug
Santalune Forest: Caterpie [X*], Metapod [Y], Weedle [Y*], Kakuna [X], Pikachu, Pansage, Pansear, Panpour
Route 3: Dunsparce, Azurill, Bidoof, Burmy
Santalune City: Farfetch'd [T]
Route 22: Psyduck, Farfetch'd, Riolu, Litleo
----------GYM 1----------
Route 4: Ledyba, Ralts, Skitty, Budew, Combee, Flabébé
Lumiose City: Bulbasaur [G], Charmander [G], Squirtle [G]
Route 5: Abra, Doduo, Plusle [X, HY], Minun [Y, HX], Gulpin, Scraggy [H], Skiddo, Pancham, Furfrou
Route 6: Oddish, Sentret, Nincada, Kecleon, Audino, Venipede, Espurr, Honedge
Route 7: Snorlax [IN], Hoppip [H], Smeargle, Volbeat, Illumise, Roselia, Croagunk, Ducklett, Spewpa, Swirlix [X], Spritzee [Y]
Connecting Cave: Zubat, Whismur, Meditite, Axew
Route 8: Spoink, Taillow [H], Wingull [H], Zangoose [X, HY], Seviper [Y, XH], Lunatone, Solrock, Absol, Luvdisc, Bagon, Drifloon, Dwebble, Mienfoo, Inkay, Binacle

Route 3: Magikarp
Route 8: Luvdisc

Ambrette Town: Amaura [G], Tyrunt [G], Aerodactyl [G]
Route 9: Hippopotas, Sandile, Helioptile
Glittering Cave: Machop, Onix, Cubone, Rhyhorn, Kangashkan, Mawile, Woobat, Ferroseed
Cyllage City: Steelix [T]
Route 10: Eevee, Yanma [H], Snubbull, Houndour [X], Nosepass [H], Electrike [Y], Sigilyph, Emolga, Golett, Hawlucha
----------GYM 2----------
Route 11: Nidoran ♀ [H], Nidorina, Nidoran ♂ [H] Nidorino, Hariyama, Starly [H], Staravia, Chingling, Stunky, Throh [Y], Sawk [X], Dedenne
Reflection Cave: Mr. Mime, Wobbuffet, Sableye, Mime Jr. [H], Roggenrola, Solosis, Carbink
Route 12: Slowpoke, Exeggcute, Pinsir [X], Tauros, Mareep [H], Heracross [Y], Miltank, Pachirisu, Chatot
----------GYM 3----------
Tower of Mastery: Lucario [G]

Route 3: Goldeen, Marill, Masquerain, Corphish
Route 8: Wailmer, Shellder [Y], Staryu [X], Skrelp [Y], Clauncher [X]
Ambrette Town: Horsea

Route 12: Tentacool, Lapras [G], Remoraid, Clamperl, Mantyke
Azure Bay: Chinchou
----------GYM 4----------
Route 13: Dugtrio, Graveler, Slugma, Trapinch, Gible
----------GYM 5----------
Route 14: Ekans [H], Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Bellsprout [H], Weepinbell, Haunter, Quagsire, Barboach, Skorupi, Carnivine, Karrablast, Shelmet, Stunfisk, Goomy
----------GYM 6----------
Route 15: Murkrow [H], Mightyena [X], Lombre, Floatzel, Watchog, Liepard [Y], Basculin, Foongus, Pawniard, Klefki
Lost Hotel: Magnemite [H], Magneton, Voltorb [H], Electrode, Trubbish, Rotom, Litwick
Route 16: Phantump, Pumpkaboo

Route 3: Seaking, Gyarados, Crawdaunt
Route 8: Cloyster [Y], Starmie [X], Qwilfish, Dragalge [Y], Clawitzer [X]
Route 12: Corsola, Octillery, Huntail [X], Gorebyss [Y]
Azure Bay: Lanturn, Alomomola
Route 14: Whiscash

Frost Cavern: Jynx, Piloswine, Smoochum [H], Vanillite [H], Cubchoo [H], Beartic, Cryogonal, Bergmite
Route 17: Sneasel, Delibird, Snover, Abomasnow
----------GYM 7----------
Team Flare Secret HQ: Xerneas [INX], Yveltal [INY]
Route 18: Sandslash, Geodude [H], Graveler, Shuckle, Skarmory, Pupitar [Y], Lairon [X], Torkoal, Gurdurr, Heatmor, Durant
Terminus Cave: Ariados, Larvitar [HY], Aron [HX], Noibat
Route 19: Arbok [H], Politoed, Gligar [H], Drapion, Sliggoo
Snowbelle City: Bisharp [T]
Route 20: Jigglypuff, Noctowl, Sudowoodo [H], Zoroark, Gothorita, Amoonguss, Trevenant
Pokémon Village: Ditto, Banette
----------GYM 8----------
Route 21: Scyther, Dratini, Dragonair, Ursaring, Spinda, Swablu [H], Altaria
Route 22 [PATCH OF GRASS ACCESSIBLE BY WATERFALL]: Azumarill, Bibarel, Diggersby
Victory Road: Fearow, Poliwrath, Lickitung, Teddiursa [H], Druddigon, Zweilous, Hydreigon

Untiered Pokémon

Torchic - Event Pokémon
Articuno - Not available until Postgame
Zapdos - Not available until Postgame
Moltres - Not available until Postgame
Zygarde - Not available until Postgame
Mewtwo - Not available until Postgame
Any other Pokémon not obtainable before beating the champion or can only be obtained via earlier Generations or Events

What is, and what is not being tiered?

A Pokémon that is not being tiered is not being so if:
-They come from an event
-They cannot be captured until the postgame
-They cannot be caught in-game or can only be caught through Friend Safari

Coincidentally, Hidden Abilities are not being considered for tiering, unless the Pokémon can be found in Horde encounters, though they will only have a minor influence on tiering.

Mega Pokémon will be considered for tiering if their mega evolution stone can be obtained before the postgame, and can have an impact on tiering.

Mega Venusaur - Venusaurite (Given from Prof. Sycamore on getting Bulbasaur)
Mega Charizard X - Charizardite X (Given from Prof. Sycamore on getting Charmander in X)
Mega Charizard Y - Charizardite Y (Given from Prof. Sycamore on getting Charmander in Y)
Mega Blastoise - Blastoisinite (Given from Prof. Sycamore on getting Squirtle)
Mega Gengar - Gengarite (Given from a NPC in Laverre City)
Mega Aerodactyl - Aerodactylite (Given upon reviving Old Amber [Obtainable via Rock Smash in Glittering Cave])
Mega Ampharos - Ampharosite (Given from a NPC in Azure Bay)
Mega Lucario - Lucarionite (Held by Gift Lucario)
Mega Abomasnow - Abomasite (Given from an Abomasnow in Frost Cavern)

Current Rankings
These can be found in the next few posts.

Formatting

Use the following format when submitting a write-up for a Pokémon:

[IMG]<Sprite URL>[/IMG]
[B]Name
Availability:[/B] When does this Pokémon become available? Is it easy or hard to encounter?
[B]Stats:[/B] 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.
[B]Typing:[/B] Discuss this Pokémon's typing in a sentence or two. Is its STAB efficient or not, does it have any great resistances or glaring weaknesses?
[B]Movepool:[/B] Describe this Pokémon's movepool in a few sentences. Does it have many effective movepool options through level up? Is it over reliant on TM's to function? Does it have access to useful HM's to help you traverse the region?
[B]Major Battles:[/B] 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 Flare, the various rival battles with your friends, the Elite Four themselves, the Champion, and AZ.
[B]Additional Comments:[/B] Discuss any miscellaneous information not covered in other sections here. Factors such as experience growth, abilities, and other lesser characteristics can be discussed here. The entry can be wrapped up here as well.

For Pokémon with trade evolutions, I will tier them separately for those entries with trading and those without. If they are both with and without classed in the same tier after most things are tiered, they may be merged. Please write professionally.

Some guidelines to follow:
- No glitches allowed.
- No trading in Pokémon from other games. For forth and back trading to evolve Haunter, Pumpkaboo, etc., read above.
- We do not decide the tiering of one Pokémon based on its performance relative to another Pokémon. It does not 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. (e.g. Pansear should be E-Tier, because Charmander does its job way better)
- Try not to factor leaving Exp. Share on when nominating. This is because the increase in growth over time means you could easily out-level other opponents by at least 10 levels later in the game, and of course Pokémon are going to do a better job against something when they are that much higher. This causes a bias that means everything gets tiered higher, and I want a more accurate reflection on its performance. You could try to extrapolate though. If you are using Exp. Share though, do attempt to battle as little trainers as possible with it on to be able to replicate an efficient run without overleveling.
- Super Training and Poké Amie are going to be considered inefficient for the purposes of tiering, so do not bother trying to factor those. If you are using Sylveon, then obviously Poké Amie is fair game since you have to use it in order to get it.
- Have fun!

Feel free to dispute and discuss other users submissions, but please, no flaming. Normal forum rules apply here.

Finally, This is not the place to talk about the games in general. Go here to do that.

Oh, and a useful spreadsheet courtesy of user IOS that might help you when writing about Pokémon.

This will be done in a few phases. First, initial tiering and placing, then writing up the entries, then finally reviewing placings and write-ups. Then we will attempt to get it on-site.

Old Threads
Pokémon X&Y In-game Tier List Discussion MkI

Its_A_Random · Sep 8, 2014

Current Rankings (S-Tier and A-Tier)

S-Tier: Reserved for Pokémon who possess the highest levels of efficiency of the available options in the Pokémon X & Y versions. Pokémon in this tier are able to OHKO or 2HKO an overwhelming majority of opponents, limiting the amount of attacks used against them, and possess minimal reliance on items to help assist them defeat opponents at like levels. These Pokémon typically show up before the late-game and any flaws they have are absolutely made up by their advantages.

Aerodactyl
Availability: Ambrette Town (Gift from Old Amber in Glittering Cave, needs Rock Smash)
Stats: Aerodactyl is very fast and has a fairly high Attack stat. It also has decent defenses to couple with its resistances. As Mega Aerodactyl, it becomes even faster, much more powerful, as well as improved bulk.
Typing: Rock/Flying-typing gives Aerodactyl some nifty, relevant resistances though weaknesses to Water-, Rock-, Electric-, Steel-, and Ice-types hurt. Offensively, its typing is excellent, especially after investing in coverage
Movepool: From the moment you get it, it has access to Bite and Bulldoze. After Grant, it gains access to Aerial Ace and Rock Tomb, giving it nearly flawless coverage. In addition, it has a nearly endless supply of coverage moves, many of which benefit from Mega Aerodactyl's Tough Claws ability.
Major Battles: Even if you have Bulldoze, Grant will be a hard challenge. After Grant, Aerodactyl has the typing and movepool to dominate nearly everything you encounter. For major battles, watch out for Clemont's Magneton and Lysandre's Mega Gyarados.
Additional Comments: Do not forget to pick up the Aerodactylite in Ambrette Town as it is critical to Aerodactyl's success.

Charmander [X]

Charmander [Y]
Availability: Lumiose City (Gift from Professor Sycamore).
Stats: Geared towards Special sweeping with high Sp. Attack and decent speed, taken even further with Mega Charizard Y with an astronomical Sp. Attack with decent Speed and decent special bulk. Everything else is average.
Typing: Fire / Flying in its final form provides a stellar offensive typing that gives it SE STAB coverage against a fair chunk of the game. Defensively it provides a few weaknesses (one that can be mitigated through mega evolution) but a few important resistances to help its cause.
Movepool: Dragon Rage early on provides it with a great offensive attack to 2HKO the majority of the early-game and helps make up for the lack of good STAB until Flame Burst. After evolution to Charizard, it comes with a wide array of Special coverage from Air Slash to Flamethrower to Focus Blast and Solar Beam in the endgame. It also has a usable Attack stat to make good use of its physical coverage if needed.
Major Battles: Struggles a bit with Grant and Korrina but from Ramos onwards, it has a great matchup against almost everyone you face, especially once it becomes Charizard. Aside from a few exceptions like Clemont to some extent, many opponents will struggle to contain Mega Charizard Y, even Siebold thanks to Solar Beam.
Additional Comments: Thanks to Drought, Mega Charizard Y is one of the single best Pokémon when it comes to cleaving through the game. Its Mega Evolution and Drought trigger does make mega evolution a bit time costly but that is more than made up for thanks to its raw power to the point that many things will either be OHKOed or 2HKOed by its attacks.

Honedge
Availability: Route 6, 15%.
Stats: Honedge and Doublade's stats favor their physical attack and defense while Aegislash's stats are much more balanced so it is very bulky in Shield forme and can hit very hard in Blade forme. They are all quite slow though.
Typing: Very good defensively. Ghost gives an immunity to the common Normal and Fighting types, while Steel gives an immunity to Poison and resistance to many other types. Offensively it comes with great coverage.
Movepool: Early access to Swords Dance, Shadow Claw and Shadow Sneak give it a lot of power from the start, as well as Autotomize to help with its speed. As an Aegislash it can make use of Shadow Ball and Hidden Power.
Major Battles: Honedge beats Grant's Amaura, Korrina, Ramos, Valerie (outside of Mawile), Olympia (beware Meowstic), and Wulfric. In the Elite Four do not bother with Malva but it can contribute against the others. Against Diantha you can set up on Hawlucha and sweep.
Additional Comments: Honedge's defensive typing and great stats allows it to be a strong Pokemon for the whole story. You need to find a Dusk Stone to get Aegislash however Doublade is a very capable Pokemon—especially with Eviolite—so evolving is not necessary.

Riolu
Availability: Route 22, 5%. Shalour City, Gift (Lucario)
Stats: An even mixed attacker with decent speed, becoming a superb mixed attacker with great speed upon mega-evolution. Its Defenses are subpar though.
Typing: Very good. Steel/Fighting-typing give it nice STAB coverage with a plethora of resistances to cover its defensive holes. It cannot take a Fighting-, Fire-, or Ground-type attack though.
Movepool: Wide. Riolu gets Force Palm at 15, but then is barren disregarding Nasty Plot at 47. Lucario, however, gets many early physical boosting moves and Aura Sphere, Close Combat, Extreme Speed, and Metal Claw via level 1 move tutor. Add in great TM support with Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse, Rock Slide, Earthquake, amongst others and Riolu will hardly be lacking for coverage.
Major Battles: Riolu cleans Grant, Clemont, and Wulfric while performing excellently against Ramos, Valerie, Team Flare, and the entire pokemon league except Malva. Even on bad match-ups, Mega-Lucario's Adaptability gives it more than enough power to muscle through most situations.
Additional Comments: The choice between Riolu and Lucario comes down to personal preference. Riolu comes with three flawless stats and is great against Grant, but it does not begin to dominate until after Korrina anyway. The gift Lucario comes with a set Hasty nature and a flawless speed stat, but you do not have to deal with a happiness evolution or a rare encounter rate. Either way, take the mega stone to unlock the full potential of this top-tier beast.

A-Tier: Reserved for Pokémon whose efficiency in terms of completing the game is considered to be very high. Pokémon in this tier are able to OHKO or 2HKO a lot of opponents and are not very reliant on items to succeed, but either have some visible flaws that hurt their efficiency or have their usefulness counterbalanced by a late arrival.

Azurill
Availability: Route 3 and Route 22, 10% and 20%.
Stats: Seemingly low Attack that is incredibly strengthened by its Huge Power ability. Azurill sits at an incredibly slow base 20 Speed and only hits base 50 as an Azumarill. As an Azumarill, though, it can hold its own very well thanks to having good overall bulk.
Typing: Normal/Fairy is very usable for the early game, especially when Azurill learns its Normal STAB. As a Marill and Azumarill, Water/Fairy is a blessing, granting it great STAB to use as well as a large number of useful resistances throughout the game. It does, however, get pressured easily by Electric, Grass, and Poison types.
Movepool: Azurill is weak offensively until it gets Return, which then turns it into an early game monster. Pair it with Aqua Tail shortly after evolution and Dig/Bulldoze to make up its main offensive coverage for most of the game. It learns Superpower and Play Rough during the mid-late part of the game, so in the meantime it can use its fourth moveslot for utility: it can use Rock Smash, Surf, and Strength. Finally, it can exchange Aqua Tail for Waterfall if the 90 Accuracy is hurting its usefulness.
Major Battles: Great matchups with Grant and Korrina are immediately ignored when its not doing much against Ramos or Clemont. Its typing and Huge Power carry it through most of the game. It is also incredibly handy in taking the majority of Team Flare out on its own. It also has a great matchup against Malva and Drasna, and it can usually KO at least two of Diantha's Pokémon.
Additional Comments: Always use Huge Power over Thick Fat, or else Azurill loses out on its strong OHKO potential. It also has a Fast experience growth rate, allowing it to evolve and level up to Play Rough noticeably quickly.

Budew

Bulbasaur

Fennekin
Availability: Aquacorde Town (gift from Tierno, Starter).
Stats: Fennekin and its evolutions are geared towards special sweeping with decently high Special Attack and Speed with decent special bulk. The other stats are average.
Typing: Fire/Psychic-typing upon evolving to Delphox gives it great coverage offensively and super effective Coverage in a lot of major battles. Defensively it has five weaknesses, some of which are common, and a fair few relevant resistances that help it out.
Movepool: Ember and Flame Charge are decent early-game options before learning Psybeam and Psyshock through the mid-game. It finally gets better options upon evolving to Delphox with Mystical Fire, Flamethrower and Psychic. Calm Mind, Solar Beam and Fire Blast are solid TM options to use on Delphox.
Major Battles: Fennekin has a good matchup against Viola, Ramos, Clemont, Valerie, and Wulfric while struggling against Grant of the Gym Leaders. Its Team Flare matchup is okay though it struggles against Lysandre outside of Mienshao. Does well against Wilkstrom and part of Diantha's party but struggles elsewhere in the Pokémon League.
Additional Comments: Fennekin has great typing and stats for X/Y though its movepool during the midgame leaves a lot to be desired.

Haunter (w/ Trade)
Availability: Route 14, 5%.
Stats: Gengar is already a fast special attacker and Mega Gengar is just faster and stronger. Its bulk is subpar however.
Typing: Ghost/Poison-typing is one of the best typings offensively in XY. While Gengar is frail, immunity to Fighting-, Ground, and Normal-types help it.
Movepool: Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, and Focus Blast are generally all that Gengar needs.Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, Dark Pulse, Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, Dazzling Gleam, Toxic, and Will-O-Wisp round out its movepool.
Major Battles: Mega Gengar has no truly bad match-ups after you get it and is useful against an overwhelming majority of the remaining battles.
Additional Comments: Gengarite is in Laverre City, right after you catch Haunter, which makes it even stronger if you do not already have a mega evolution.

Heracross [Y]
Availability: Route 12, 5%.
Stats: Brilliant Attack and passable Speed/Sp. Def. make Heracross shine.
Typing: Bug/Fighting-typing is good in-game, giving it resistances to Grass-, Fighting-, Ground, Ice-, Bug- and Dark-types and weaknesses to Fire-, Psychic-, Fairy- and Flying-types.
Movepool: Right off the bat, it comes with Brick Break and Aerial Ace, the former being a reliable STAB until Close Combat and the latter allowing it to perform brilliantly against Korrina and Ramos. The only real drawback is lack of good Bug STAB until it gets Megahorn. It learns good TM's like Earthquake, Shadow Claw and Stone Edge.
Major Battles: Heracross is amazing against Korrina, Ramos, Wulfric, and Wilstrom. It struggles against Valerie, Olympia, Malva, and AZ. It does well against a lot of Team Flare.
Additional Comments: Both of its abilities are usable in-game but Guts is the better option because the AI loves to throw status around.

Magikarp
Availability: Route 3, Route 22, Parfum Palace, 100% (Old Rod).
Stats: Magikarp is a Pokemon that starts with atrocious stats until evolving into Gyarados. Gyarados excels in Attack and Special Defense with an average Speed and HP stat. Gyarados is often seen as a Pokemon that can hit very hard and take hits.
Typing: Magikarp starts as a Water-type until it becomes Gyarados which adds Flying to its typing. Gyarados trades becoming more vulnerable to Electric- and Rock-type moves for neutrality to Grass-type attacks and adding Fighting- and Bug-type to Water-type's well-rounded resistances.
Movepool: Magikarp is unable to learn any attacks until it evolves into Gyarados. As Gyarados it is able to learn Dragon Rage at Level 23 and Bulldoze through TM. Gyarados eventually learns Ice Fang and Aqua Tail to compliment Bulldoze. Eventually Gyarados learns Rain Dance naturally as well as Dragon Dance to make it an effective sweeper lategame.
Major Battles: Once evolved Gyarados does fairly well against many gym leaders barring Clemont and Grant. Team Flare only threatens Gyarados with Electrike and Manectric. Once Gyarados has Dragon Dance few bosses can stop it in its tracks from sweeping lategame teams. Watch out for Dragalge and Clawitzer late game.
Additional Comments: Intimidate is a great ability as it gives Gyarados extra durability and utility for the team. Though cursed with a slow EXP growth Lucky Egg helps alleviate some of that problem and, with training, Gyarados decimates most of its competition mid-to-lategame.

Sawk [X]
Availability: Route 11, 20% (X Version).
Stats: Phenomenal Attack and great Speed are what make Sawk shine. His defenses are passable as well.
Typing: Fighting is amazing offensively, hitting five types for super-effective damage. Defensively, it resists little, but only has three weaknesses: Psychic, Flying, and Fairy.
Movepool: Sawk gets amazing Fighting-type moves by level-up, and by the time you get him, you will have access to Rock Tomb and Payback via TM and eventually Poison Jab. This means Sawk will be set for coverage from the get go.
Major Battles: Due to its wide movepool, it can defeat any foe with little trouble, but it particularly stands out when taking on Wulfric. The many Dark-types used by Team Flare are also easy prey for Sawk. Tread with caution around Korrina's Hawlucha, Ramos' Jumpluff, Valerie, Olympia, and Diantha's Mega Gardevoir however.
Additional Comments: Sturdy is the superior ability as it means Sawk will never be OHKOed.

Its_A_Random · Sep 8, 2014

Current Rankings (B-Tier and C-Tier)

B-Tier: Reserved for Pokémon whose efficiency in terms of completing the game is considered to be high. Pokémon in this tier are able to OHKO or 2HKO a fair chunk of opponents and may have a bit of item reliance to assist in sweeping opponents. These Pokémon are still very useful but either have several visible flaws holding them back or come fairly late.

Abra

Axew

Ferroseed

Froakie
Availability: Aquacorde Town (gift from Tierno, Starter).
Stats: Froakie has excellent Speed and good Special Attack. Its defenses are poor by comparison.
Typing: Water/Dark. Water-typing is decent for route sweeping but is unspectacular in major battles. It gains Dark-typing upon evolving to Greninja which is not useful until the Move Relarner.
Movepool: Froakie gets good STAB options, with Bubble and Water Pulse learned early and Surf gained mid-game. Unfortunately, it is severely lacking in coverage for much of the game. Its level-up and TM movepools are barren mid-game, and that causes it problems dealing with Pokemon that resist Water. Access to Grass Knot helps but its power is inconsistent. Late-game, Greninja improves after it gains access to Ice Beam, Dark Pulse, Extrasensory, Waterfall, and Night Slash.
Major Battles: Greninja deals with Olympia thanks to its Psychic immunity and STAB Night Slash, and its good for Grant's gym. Other than that, it lacks favorable match-ups and is particularly poor against Ramos and Clemont. It fares better against the Elite Four thanks to its excellent coverage, and it is good for Team Flare's numerous Houndour/Houndoom.
Additional Comments: Froakie is a solid choice thanks to its availability, strong STAB moves, and stat distribution. However, its lacking movepool causes it to require some support until all its good moves become available later on.

Gible
Availability: Route 13, 20%.
Stats: Gible's stats lend itself towards a powerful, bulky physical attacker with enough speed to outrun most of the game as a Garchomp.
Typing: Dragon/Ground-typing lends itself to a lot of good matchups against major battles with a few bad ones, as well as offering good offensive coverage and plenty of resistances.
Movepool: Instantly coming with Dragon Claw before evolution as well as Bulldoze TM (later upgraded to moves like Dig and Earthquake) leaves it with good coverage from the outset and also offers Rock-type coverage and eventually, Dark-, Poison-, and decent Fighting-type coverage. Flamethrower provides a decent special option if needed.
Major Battles: Gible boasts a strong matchup against Clemont, most of Team Flare, and most of the Pokémon League, as well as ripping through Serena/Calem's last fight depending on starter. It is also able to chip in against Valerie and Wulfric despite an overall terrible matchup.
Additional Comments: Gabite really appreciates an Eviolite as it greatly improves its ability to take on several opponents with its increased bulk and greatly reducing any dud periods it would have. Its arrival in Route 13 (between Lv26 and Lv28) may necessitate some grinding to get it up to par upon capture.

Hawlucha
Availability: Route 10, 5-20%
Stats: Fast. It is not amazing on the defensive side of things, but its offensive presence makes up for it.
Typing: Fighting/Flying is a strong STAB combo. It hits 4 of the gyms super effectively, though you may need to be weary of the type that is attacking back.
Movepool: Early options with Karate Chop and Aerial Ace allow you to cover almost everything. You will want a Level 19 one as it will still have Karate Chop (or else it will have Encore instead). It can solidly use Fly and Flying Press. The coverage is poor, but its STAB coverage is all you really need. It gains Low Sweep in the Tower of Mastery and Power-up Punch from Korrina. Hawlucha is also a solid HM Slave if needed.
Major Battles: Takes on Grant, Korrina, Ramos and is reasonable against Wulfric. Excellent matchups against Team Flare's multitude of Dark- types. Solid performance in the Elite 4 and does reasonably against half of Diantha's team. It will struggle against Clemont, Valerie, and Olympia however.
Additional Comments: Hawlucha is very one dimensional in how it plays; STAB spam is all you really need.

Magneton
Availability: Lost Hotel, 20%.
Stats: Magneton comes with high Special Attack and is average elsewhere, though an Eviolite can make it quite bulky. Evolution to Magnezone trades Eviolite and some speed for greater power and the ability to use another item.
Typing: Electric/Steel-typing is great offensively for the rest of the game that you have Magneton. Defensively, it has plenty of resistances, as well as immunities to Paralysis and Poison. It is weak to Fire-, Fighting-, and Ground-type attacks though, which are usually seen in the form of a coverage move.
Movepool: STAB Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon are easy to access and make up Magneton's main (if not only) offensive presence. Discharge and Tri Attack can be used for coverage and status purposes. Metal Sound and Charge Beam also allow it to severely damage everything, even Specially Defensive opponents.
Major Battles: It cleans through the remaining two gyms with ease. It can take care of Team Flare's Flying- and Poison-types but should still look out for Fire-type moves. In X Version, Magneton can effectively handle Xerneas. At the Pokémon League, it can handle about half of the Elite Four and Diantha's Pokémon thanks to its Steel-typing, so long as they do not carry a coverage move that is super effective on Magneton.
Additional Comments: Magneton is a great Pokémon to use and can make great use of Eviolite if not evolved. The only issue with it is its sub-par Speed. Luckily, it falls back on good bulk and the Sturdy ability to take hits well and dish powerful hits back.

Mime Jr.
Availability: Reflection Cave, 20% (Mr. Mime), Horde (Mime Jr.).
Stats: As Mime Jr., it has poor stats, but as Mr. Mime, it has great Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Its HP and Defense are quite low.
Typing: Psychic/Fairy-typing is a nice offensive combo, being resisted by only Steel. It only resists Psychic-, Fighting-, and Dragon-types, but it is only weak to Ghost-, Poison-, and Steel-types.
Movepool: It learns good Psychic-type moves by level-up, and gets Dazzling Gleam via TM. It has a wide movepool with TM's including Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt, Focus Blast, and Calm Mind.
Major Battles: Korrina and Team Flare fall before it and Drasna is a good matchup too. Do not try to fight Wilkstrom with it. Outside of that, it can excel anywhere with the right coverage moves.
Additional Comments: While you can catch it as Mr. Mime, if you catch a Mime Jr., it is guaranteed to have three flawless stats, meaning it has better stats overall. If caught as Mime Jr. it does require a bit of grinding to catch up, but it is nothing to fret over.

Nidoran♀

Nidoran♂

Onix (w/ Trade)
Availability: Glittering Cave (3D area), Rare. Cyllage City, trade Luvdisc.
Typing: Ground/Steel-typing is powerful defensively, making it impervious against many different types of Pokémon. Being immune to poison and paralysis is a huge boon.
Stats: Steelix has a titanic Defense. Steelix suffers from having an average HP and Attack stat while having a low Special Defense stat. Its low Speed is great for STAB Gyro Ball.
Movepool: It gets Gyro Ball and Bulldoze off the bat and after Grant, Rock Tomb. Eventually Steelix will learn Dig and Earthquake via TM and can learn Rock Slide, Iron Tail, and Stone Edge naturally at reasonable levels. Heart Scales allows Steelix to learn elemental fangs or Curse. As an added bonus, Steelix learns Stealth Rock naturally.
Major Battles: Steelix crushes Grant, Clemont, Valerie, and Wulfric. Steelix also does average against Olympia and Korrina due to its bulk. Steelix is very notable against Wikstrom and can provide use against Diantha in the Pokémon League, while struggling against Malva and Siebold. Steelix does decently against Team Flare barring Houndour and Houndoom.
Other: Metal Coat is unobtainable until The Poké Ball Factory - it is advised to use the Steelix obtained from a trade. The traded Steelix comes with an Impish nature and is easier to level.

Pinsir [X]
Availability: Route 12, 5%.
Stats: Great Attack with good Defense and passable Speed. Both Special stats are too low to be of use.
Typing: Pure Bug-typing gives Pinsir some resists to Fighting- and Ground-types, but it will be ravaged by fast Fire- and Flying-types.
Movepool: Pinsir learns its main STAB X-Scissor almost immediately after capture. It also has access to a wide array of Fighting-type moves including Storm Throw, Brick Break, and Superpower. Pinsir also has Swords Dance via TM as well as the ever-useful Earthquake.
Major Battles: Smashes cleanly through Olympia and beats Team Flare without Golbat and Fire-types. Struggles against Malva and Valerie and is neutral against everything else.
Additional Comments: Either of Pinsir's abilities can be useful with Hyper Cutter thwarting Gyarados and Mightyena and Mold Breaker helps against Sturdy users.

Ralts (Gallade)

Ralts (Gardevoir)
Availability: Route 4, 5%
Stats: It has a very high Special Attack stat once fully evolved, with decent Speed and Special Defense to back it up. It's other stats are not great, but they are good enough. Before Gardevoir, Ralts and Kirlia's stats are mediocre.
Typing: Psychic/Fairy-typing is good offensively, though Steel does resist both of them. Defensively, it resists Fighting and Psychic, is immune to Dragon, and is only weak to Poison-, Steel-, and Ghost-types.
Movepool: It naturally learns strong STAB options such as Psychic and Moonblast (Make sure you have a Heart Scale for this one). Gardevoir also has a wide array of special attacking moves and Calm Mind to set up and sweep when necessary.
Major Battles: It has a big advantage over Korrina, and fares well against Team Flare with its dual STAB coverage. Keep it away from Wilkstrom, but other than that, it can perform fine anywhere outside of the second gym.
Additional Comments: Gardevoir suffers from having a terrible early-midgame due to the mediocrity of its pre-evolutions. Once a Gardevoir though, it becomes a valuable asset that is very reliable in what it can do.

Scatterbug
Availability: Route 2 and Santalune Forest, 20%.
Stats: As a Vivillon it is relatively fast and has a good special attack stat, but it suffers from being fairly frail.
Typing: Bug/Flying is not a spectacular typing defensively as it becomes weak to several relevant types and a poor choice for Sky Battles. It does however come with relevant super effective coverage against quite a few gyms.
Movepool: For the early game you mostly rely on Struggle Bug which does decent damage off Vivillon's good special attack stat. You also have Psybeam and Draining Kiss as well as Stun Spore to cripple opponents. Acrobatics gives it a powerful STAB move that can deal a lot of damage although Vivillon's attack stat is low. Vivillon's best moves come late in the game however in the form of Sleep Powder, Quiver Dance, Bug Buzz, and Hurricane.
Major Battles: Vivillon is quite solid against Korrina (outside of Rock Tomb Machoke) and Ramos as well as Olympia to a lesser extent, though Grant, Clemont, Valerie and Wulfric give it troubles. In the Elite Four, Vivillon should be able to set up on Siebold's Clawitzer and Drasna's Dragalge and sweep their teams but the other members give it issues, likewise AZ.
Additional Comments: Compoundeyes is the preferred ability due to the fact that it patches up the accuracy of some of its relevant moves.

Sigilyph
Availability: Route 10, 10-20%.
Stats: Excellent offensive presence ingame with good Special Attack and good Speed.
Typing: Psychic/Flying-typing is a good, reliable type, especially given it comes early in the game. Weaknesses to several relevant types do not help its cause however.
Movepool: Psybeam and Air Cutter from the off form an excellent STAB combo. These get upgraded to Psychic and Air Slash later on. It also has access to Fly, Thunder Wave and Dazzling Gleam from TM's and Gyms. It also gains Ice Beam late in the game from Wulfric which it can use to good effect.
Major Battles: Not great matchups against most of the gyms. Shalour and Coumarine are the only places it has a positive matchup. Even so, it does reasonably against Valerie and Olympia. Its strong STAB coverage carries it through the game and it does excellently against most trainers. With Ice Beam it can be a credibly threat to Drasna in the Elite 4, as well as providing paralysis support if required.
Additional Comments: Magic Guard is generally the better option for its residual damage immunity though Wonder Skin has its uses.

Squirtle
Availability: Lumiose City (Gift from Professor Sycamore).
Stats: Blastoise possesses good bulk and can make use of both its attacking stats, but it is a bit slow. Mega Blastoise becomes even more potent offensively with a stellar Special Attack stat and improved bulk.
Typing: Pure Water-typing is good for Squirtle line as it only has 2 weaknesses; Grass and Electric. Squirtle is able to contribute in many fights due to typing alone such as in several gyms, Team Flare's many Fire-types, and the Elite Four.
Movepool: Squirtle's level-up movepool is fairly limited. For STAB moves you are stuck with Water Gun and Bubble for much of the early game. Squirtle and its evolutions rely on many of the TMs you receive such as Bulldoze, Rock Tomb, and Power-Up Punch. Most of its good moves come late such as Flash Cannon, Dark Pulse and Ice Beam. Blastoise is a great HM user though, with access to Surf, Waterfall and Strength.
Major Battles: Wartortle can sweep Grant thanks to its Water typing and moves. It can also handily beat Wulfric thanks to Flash Cannon. In the Pokémon League it can sweep Malva but watch out for her Pyroar's Wild Charge, and it can beat Drasna with Ice Beam. It can also hit Diantha's whole team super effectively with a moveset of Surf/Water Pulse, Ice Beam, Dark Pulse, and Flash Cannon though be wary of Mega Gardevoir.
Additional Comments: Mega Blastoise is a solid choice ingame all and all thanks to its availability and raw power, especially upon access to Mega Blastoise.

Starly

Staryu [X]

Throh [Y]
Availability: Route 11, 20%.
Stats: Throh has a solid base 100 attack and is quite bulky with base 120 HP and 85 in both defenses. Its major letdown lies in its speed stat, at a low base 45, meaning it will have to survive a lot of hits.
Typing: Fighting is a great typing to have, with only three weaknesses and hitting five types super effectively.
Movepool: Comes knowing Vital Throw and Revenge, and learns other strong Fighting-type attacks and Bulk Up via level-up. When you capture it you can already teach Rock Tomb, Bulldoze, and Payback. Later it gains access to more powerful coverage moves such as Stone Edge and Poison Jab. It can learn Rock Smash and Strength if need be.
Major Battles: Throh is helpful against most foes due to its coverage options, with Wulfric's gym being its best place to shine. It can also easily deal with Team Flare's plethora of Dark-types. Do not bother trying with Olympia.
Additional Comments: Guts is the preferred ability, as due to Throh's speed it will likely be hit with status more than other, faster Pokémon.

Tyrunt
Availability: Ambrette Town (Gift if Jaw Fossil was chosen in Glittering Cave)
Typing: Rock/Dragon-typing is solid offensively but leaves much to be desired defensively with a plethora of relevant weaknesses.
Stats: Tyrunt has very good physical bulk and attack, but its speed and special bulk are lacking.
Movepool: Tyrunt gets Bulldoze and Bite off the bat and Rock Tomb after Grant, keeping it set until Dragon Claw and Crunch later on, and eventually moves such as Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Head Smash. Rock Polish can also be used to help Tyrunt's Speed problem.
Major Battles: Tyrunt struggles against Grant, Korrina, Valerie, and Wulfric, while doing well against Clemont and Olympia. It performs well against Malva in the Pokémon League but the other matches are not friendly towards it. Its Team Flare matchup is excellent.
Other: For those who play during the night, it is important to note that it evolves during daylight.

Xerneas [X]

Yveltal [Y]

Zangoose
Availability: Route 8, 10% (X), Horde (Y).
Stats: Great Attack, coupled with a high Speed. Its bulk is mediocre, though.
Typing: Normal-type. Weak to Fighting, immune to Ghost.
Movepool: It starts immediately with Slash, its main STAB until Return overpowers it. It can also begin with Swords Dance if you buy the TM in Lumiose City. Coverage-wise, Zangoose learns Shadow Claw (found in Glittering Cave), Power-Up Punch, and Close Combat later in the game. Zangoose can learn many other good TM's like Dig, Rock Tomb/Rock Slide, Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Rock Smash (early game), and Poison Jab.
Major Battles: Zangoose will remain useful throughout the game, but stay away from Korrina. Its bulk is quite low, so even powerful STAB moves can hurt it, especially late-game.
Additional Comments: Buying the TM Swords Dance right at the beginning in Lumiose City will allow Zangoose to beat virtually everything early and mid-game, as it has the Speed and the power to do so.

C-Tier: Reserved for Pokémon whose efficiency in terms of completing the game is considered to be moderately high. Pokémon in this tier are able to OHKO or 2HKO a reasonable portion of opponents but are matchup-based enough to need some item reliance to assist in sweeping some opponents. These Pokémon are useful but either have several visible flaws holding them back or barely make up for their late arrivals.

Absol

Bidoof

Binacle

Chespin
Availability: Aquacorde Town (gift from Tierno, Starter).
Stats: Good bulk with a nice attack stat. Speed is below average
Typing: Grass/Fighting-typing once fully evolved provides weaknesses to several common types including Team Flares many Fire- and Poison-types, as well as a 4× weakness to the common Flying-type.
Movepool: Early access to the Swords Dance TM and a good physical movepool that includes Pin Missile, Seed Bomb, and Hammer Arm, allow it to hit hard. Bulldoze and Rock Tomb can help with its low speed. Can be taught Cut and Strength if needed.
Major Battles: Chespin does not stand out in any gyms but it can contribute in places. Rollout can be used to get through Viola's gym while Bulldoze helps with Grant's Tyrunt and Clemont's Magneton and Heliolisk. Aerial Ace hurts Korrina and Ramos' Pokemon but watch out for Hawlucha and Jumpluff respectively. Chesnaught should stay away from the last three gyms though though it does well against Wulfric. Chesnaught struggles at the Pokémon League but can beat Siebold's Clawitzer and Barbaracle.
Additional Comments: Chespin and its evolutions fail to make a major impact during much of the story but they have a solid consistency that makes them great Pokémon nonetheless.

Doduo
Availability: Route 5, 10%
Typing: Normal/Flying-typing comes with two resistances but it comes with two nice immunities. Offensively Normal and Flying have wide neutral coverage, but they are both resisted by Rock and Steel.
Stats: Great Attack and Speed, but poor bulk. Do not let it take too many hits.
Movepool: You will have STAB Return right off the bat, and progressively stronger Flying-type moves as the game goes on. Sadly, it cannot learn Steel Wing (which would cover Rock-types) until post-game.
Major Battles: Dominates Korrina and Ramos and due to its good neutral coverage, fares well against most other opponents. Stay far away from Grant and Wilkstrom, and be very wary of Clemont and Wulfric.
Additional Comments: Doduo sorely wishes it had a way to break through Steel- and Rock-types, an issue that many similar Pokemon lack. Do not let that fool you, however; Doduo is an excellent Pokemon that will generally pull its weight, making it a good choice for the game.

Drifloon

Eevee (Espeon)
Availability: Route 10, 5-20%.
Stats: Espeon is a strong special attacker with great speed to back it up. Elsewhere it is average.
Typing: Psychic-typing is not very useful overall in major battles but is very useful for the many Black Belts and Battle Girls that roam in XY.
Movepool: Espeon learns powerful Psychic-type moves and reliable recovery by level-up that serve it well and learns useful coverage by TM's such as Dazzling Gleam and Shadow Ball to help deal with Pokémon that hit it super effectively.
Major Battles: It destroys Korrina and fares decently against the remaining gym leaders. Team Flare varies and it does not have that bad a matchup against any of the Pokémon League.
Additional Comments: Espeon is hampered by the fact that it must be caught at level 19 and evolve at level 20 in order to be immediately useful. The opportunity cost is that the player must make roughly 20,000 steps on average for Eevee to be happy enough to evolve at this level.

Eevee (Flareon)
Availability: Route 10, 5-20%.
Stats: Excellent Attack, great Special Defense, good Special Attack, but mediocre everywhere else.
Typing: Fire-typing is great. It offers a lot of resistances and hits with super effective damage some key types like Steel- and Grass-types. Weakness to Ground-, Rock-, and Water-types hurt on the other hand.
Movepool: It starts with Fire Fang, its main STAB until level 37 (Lava Plume) and level 45 (Flare Blitz). It learns Bite by level-up, which may be useful. TM wise, Dig is very important as Fire/Ground coverage is great. Other reliable options include Return, Flamethrower, Rock Smash, Shadow Ball and Flame Charge.
Major Battles: Excellent against Ramos, Wulfric and Wilkstrom. Terrible against Grant and Siebold. Otherwise it can contribute to any other major battle.
Additional Comments: The Fire Stone is found on Route 9, so you can evolve Eevee right after the capture and allowing Flareon to learn Fire Fang (level 20).

Eevee (Sylveon)
Availability: Route 10, 5%-20%.
Stats: Sylveon has great special bulk and a powerful special attack stat. It is quite slow however.
Typing: Fairy comes with two weaknesses; Poison and Steel. Poison is mostly used by Team Flare and Steel is quite uncommon. It also has an immunity to Dragon-type moves which is handy later in the game. Offensively it hits a lot of major battles hard.
Movepool: Sylveon's movepool is very barren but it gets what it needs. Draining Kiss and Swift are its offensive options for much of the early game with Moonblast and Shadow Ball being available later, as well as Calm Mind to boost. Because of its limited options, Sylveon has room for Cut.
Major Battles: Sylveon can sweep Korrina with Draining Kiss but that is it for Gym Battles, though its matchup is mostly neutral. Stay away from Wilkstrom of the Elite Four. Sylveon can beat Drasna aside from her Dragalge and can also put up a fight against Diantha's Goodra and Mega Gardevoir.
Additional Comments: You need to achieve two hearts worth of affection in Pokémon Amié and have Eevee know a Fairy type move to evolve into Sylveon. It is recommended doing this at or below level 20 so that Sylveon can learn Draining Kiss. This hampers the efficiency of Sylveon but it still makes a solid choice for XY.

Eevee (Vaporeon)

Emolga

Fletchling
Availability: Route 2 and Route 3, 20%.
Stats: As a Talonflame, it Base 126 Speed, giving it the edge in attacking first even against fast higher levelled opponents. Its other stats are mediocre but still very usable in terms of offense and defense.
Typing: Normal/Flying is decent early game. Upon evolving into Fletchinder, it becomes Fire/Flying, allowing it to handle Steel-types better in exchange for losing to losing to most Rock-, Electric-, and Water-types.
Movepool: Fletchling always has a reliable Flying STAB to use throughout the game. Return is good Normal STAB, but it lacks strong Fire STAB until late-game. The Move Relearner grants it early access to both Flare Blitz and Brave Bird. Other useful moves are Fly, Fire Blast, Swords Dance, Roost, and Taunt.
Major Battles: It performs well against Viola, Korrina, and Ramos, and is usable against Wulfric. It does not contribute against Team Flare besides KO Fighting-types. At the Pokémon League, it can beat most of Wikstrom's Pokémon and can beat Diantha's Hawlucha and Gourgeist.
Additional Comments: Fletchling's viability in-game is highly dependent on its type matchups, as it cannot overcome most foes who have the type advantage. Nevertheless, it is still a solid choice for its Flying STAB and high Speed.

Furfrou
Availability: Route 5 10-20%.
Stats: A nice speed stat with passable attack and bulk. Its Fur Coat ability makes it very bulky physically.
Typing: Being a Normal-type means it only has to watch out for Fighting-types while it is immune to Ghost-type moves. It will have to rely on its coverage moves for super effective hits though.
Movepool: Very shallow level-up movepool with Headbutt being its best STAB move until Return gains power from increased friendship. Dig and Bite give it good coverage but both are quite weak. Can be taught Rock Smash and Surf if needed.
Major Battles: Can handily defeat Grant with its great physical bulk and Rock Smash. Stay away from Korrina but after that, Furfrou can contribute in every other gym although it does not excel in any of them. Not excellent at the Elite Four either but it can put up a fight against several Pokémon including Malva's Talonflame, Wikstrom's Klefki and Probopass and Siebold's Gyarados if you manage to avoid Intimidate. Furfrou is nearly dead weight against Diantha.
Additional Comments: It is recommended to stock up on Luxury balls in Lumiose to catch Furfrou in as it will help it grow friendly more quickly which will increase the power of Return, which becomes a powerful move in the early-mid game. Furfrou's usefulness drops off towards the end of the story but it is a good Pokémon nonetheless.

Hariyama

Haunter (w/o Trade)

Kangaskhan

Karrablast (w/ Trade)
Availability: Route 14, 10%.
Stats: Escavalier is a bulky physical attacking tank with great bulk and an impressive base 135 Attack. Its Speed is a write-off however to the point that it will not be running away from much.
Typing: Bug/Steel is a solid typing at the point it is available for the ability to hit relevant types super effectively. It also comes with relevant resists defensively though any Fire-type attack will generally melt it.
Movepool: At the time you get it, you already have access to TM's such as X-Scissor, Poison Jab and Aerial Ace to make it immediately useful and Iron Head shortly after. These make the bread and butter of Escavalier's shallow but precise movepool with Reversal and Swords Dance making it very powerful in the endgame.
Major Battles: Escavalier has a strong matchup against the remaining three gyms (though Valerie will take a long time to take out) and it has a decent matchup against most of Team Flare. Its performance against the Pokémon League is average though Malva will take it out easily. It also beats a couple of your rival's Pokémon handily.
Additional Comments: Shell Armor is generally the better ability for its ability to prevent random critical hits from taking Escavalier out cheaply. Escavalier does come pretty late and it is slow but it more than makes up with a good matchup record as well as great bulk, typing and Attack.

Lapras

Machop

Meditite
Availability: Connecting Cave, 30%.
Stats: Overall, it has poor stats. Its defenses are mediocre, its Speed is average at best, and its Attack and Special Attack are just awful though with Pure Power, its Attack rises to massive levels.
Typing: Fighting/Psychic leaves it resistant to only Fighting and Rock, while being weak to Flying-, Ghost-, and Fairy-types. Offensively, Fighting and Psychic do not compliment each other well, but being a powerful Fighting-type is always a good thing.
Movepool: It can learn Rock Smash by TM right after you get it which is not great, but it will hold you over until High Jump Kick at Level 32. Thanks to TM's and the Move Relearner, it has a wide variety of coverage options including the elemental punches, Poison Jab, and Rock Slide.
Major Battles: Assuming you are faster, Meditite will grind Grant into dust. Your rival and most of Team Flare will also be easy targets and Wulfric stands no chance. If you have Fire Punch, Wilkstrom will also be easy (Aegislash ruins Medicham without it). Due to lacking a good Psychic STAB mid-game, keep it away from Korrina (especially her Hawlucha).
Additional Comments: Medicham has the power and the coverage to dominate any enemy you come across but it cannot take hits well should its target survive. Beware things that are faster than Medicham, and it will be fine and prove itself as a good choice ingame.

Miltank

Oddish (Vileplume)
Availability: Route 6, 30%.
Stats: Vileplume has a great Special Attack, good mixed bulk, average Attack and a terrible Speed.
Typing: Grass/Poison-typing can either be a gift or a curse. Vileplume has the edge against many common types like Water-, Fairy- and Grass-types. However, her weaknesses to types like Fire and Flying can be troublesome.
Movepool: Venoshock is Vileplume's go to move for a long time, as its best Grass Move is Absorb. Later in the game, it will have access to Mega Drain, Grass Knot, Sludge Bomb, Energy Ball and Petal Dance. Coverage-wise, it has few options, Dazzling Gleam being the most important one. Vileplume learns the Powders by itself too. Sunny Day can fix its speed issues if it has Chlorophyll.
Major Battles: Excellent against Ramos, Valerie, and Siebold. It can help against almost everyone else, but stay away from Wulfric, Malva and Wilkstrom. It fares well against team Flare.
Additional Comments: The Leaf Stone is found on Route 8, so you can have Vileplume rather early in the game. Vileplume is pretty consistent and she can be a solid choice, as it is mainly let down by a terrible Speed and her lack of a powerful Grass move early and mid-game.

Pancham
Availability: Route 5, 10-20%.
Typing: Dark/Fighting-typing has decent offensive coverage but brings quite a few prominent weaknesses to Fighting-, Fairy-, and Flying-types. An immunity to Psychic-types helps.
Stats: Pancham and Pangoro pack high Attack, average HP and defences, and a low speed.
Movepool: Karate Chop and Arm Thrust should suffice for the early-game period, until lv. 42 when Crunch arrives. Sky Uppercut and Hammer Arm are Pangoro's most powerful Fighting moves. TM-wise, Payback and Brick Break can be used for alternative STAB moves while Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Poison Jab are good coverage moves. Pangoro has access to Power-Up Punch and Swords Dance for boosting.
Major Battles: Pangoro puts on good performances vs. Grant, Olympia, and Wulfric while struggling against Valerie and Korrina. Pangoro's standout performance in the Elite 4 is against Wikstrom, and it can KO individual members of the other E4 teams as well as some of the Champion's Pokémon. Pangoro does decently against Team Flare and is an option vs. Lysandre's Mega Gyarados.
Other: Pancham requires a Dark-type in the party to evolve.

Pansear

Pikachu
Availability: Santalune Forest, 6%.
Stats: High Speed and above average Attack and Special Attack with bad bulk.
Typing: Electric-typing provides great STAB with handy resistances and a sole weakness to Ground-type attacks.
Movepool: Wide. In addition to Electric-type attacks, it also has Dig, Grass Knot, Brick Break, and Focus Blast. It is able to learn Rock Smash and Strength if needed.
Major Battles: It fights well against Viola and Siebold, and it takes care of most Flying-types. Bulkier opponents will still beat it one-on-one, though.
Additional Comments: The Light Ball gives Pikachu superior power early on but will put it at risk of being outsped often in the late game due to not evolving into Raichu and getting a higher Speed stat.

Sandile
Availability: Route 9, 40%.
Stats: Sandile evolves into a very good physical sweeper with abover average speed and solid attack. Its bulk is fairly average.
Typing: Ground/Dark-typing offers two relevant immunities and gives it good offensive STAB coverage for most opponents.
Movepool: Sandile's movepool is barren until you can buy Dig in Shalour City. Eventually it gets access to strong physical coverage moves such as Crunch, Earthquake, Rock Slide/Tomb, and Outrage.
Major Battles: Krookodile will have an easy time beating Clemont (though it must beware Heliolisk's Grass Knot) and Olympia, but struggles against Korrina, Ramos, Valerie, Wulfric, and Siebold.
Additional Comments: Intimidate is decent but Moxie is preferred as it allows it to act as a lethal as a late-game sweeper.

Scraggy

Seviper
Availability: Route 8, 10% (Y), Horde encounter w/ Zangoose (X).
Stats: It can easily put both offensive stats to good use with base 100 in each. However, Seviper is pretty slow at base 65 speed and is also quite frail, meaning it will likely faint more than other faster and bulkier Pokémon.
Typing: Poison-typing is solid with five resistances and only two weaknesses. Seviper has an easy time handling Grass and Fairy-types with its strong STAB moves.
Movepool: Seviper learns good STAB Poison moves as well as Night Slash and Crunch by level up, and you should have the Venoshock TM as soon as it is captured. It learns many strong moves through TM's such as Sludge Wave/Bomb, Bulldoze/Earthquake, X-Scissor, Flamethrower, and Dark Pulse.
Major Battles: Seviper is very helpful against Grant and Valerie's Sylveon, and can help against many neutral match-ups due to its strong coverage and attacking stats. By the Elite Four it may end up being one shotted by random STAB attacks due to its frailty.
Additional Comments: Seviper's Shed Skin can rid it of a status condition, which can and will come in useful from time to time.

Shellder [Y]

Skiddo
Availability: Route 5, 10%.
Stats: Skiddo has good enough stats for early-game. Gogoat has excellent HP, backed up by good Attack, Special Attack, and Special Defense. It is a little on the slow side, however.
Typing: Pure Grass-typing is not very good, but at least it packs resistances to Water-, Electric-, and Ground-types (as well as Grass itself). Having five weaknesses is never a good thing.
Movepool: Skiddo has a so0lid level-up movepool which includes good physical STAB, Earthquake, and Milk Drink. Rock Slide is a nice coverage move it picks up via TM and it also learns Surf, which is always handy.
Major Battles: It can beat Siebold with relative ease, but be wary of Gyarados. Grant is also a good matchup, but make sure you are faster than his Amaura. If you have Aerial Ace, it can win against Ramos, but beware Jumpluff. It can beat Clemont, but stay away from Emolga. It flat loses to Malva and Wulfric, and has issues with most other fights.
Additional Comments: Sap Sipper nets it a free Attack boost when hit by Grass moves, which may come in handy. It is a solid choice for in-game, but watch out for its weaknesses.

Snorlax

Solosis

Tauros

Tentacool

Trapinch
Availability: Route 13, 40%.
Stats: As a Trapinch it has a very good attack stat, but it is incredibly slow and quite frail. Upon evolution to Vibrava it loses some attack in exchange for some bulk and much better speed. As a Flygon it gains its attack stat back as well as a nice speed stat with good bulk.
Typing: Trapinch starts as a pure Ground-type but gains Dragon-typing with evolution. Ground/Dragon-typing is a very good offensive typing giving it good coverage with just its STAB moves. It does however leave it with three nasty weaknesses.
Movepool: Trapinch starts out with strong moves like Dig and Rock Slide before gaining Dragon Breath upon evolution to Vibrava, as well as the ability to learn Fly. Flygon also gets Dragon Claw by level-up as well as access to many TM's. If needed, Flygon can also learn Strength.
Major Battles: Trapinch/Vibrava deals with Clemont's Emolga handily though his other Pokémon take it out. Flygon does decently against Olympia and performs well against Team Flare, while Wulfric is a risky encounter since it relies on OHKOing with Flamethrower/Fire Blast and it should stay away from Valerie. At the Elite Four it can sweep Malva and Wilkstrom, as well as Drasna provided you can survive her Dragon attacks. Flygon can also contribute well against Diantha.
Additional Comments: Vibrava and Flygon are good for the various Sky Battles in the Kalos region because of their access to Rock Slide and Stone Edge. All in all Trapinch is a fairly solid Pokémon to use.

Venipede

Zubat

Its_A_Random · Sep 8, 2014

Current Rankings (D-Tier)

D-Tier: Reserved for Pokémon whose efficiency in terms of completing the game is considered to be average. Pokémon in this tier are able to OHKO or 2HKO a small amount of opponents and tend to be matchup-based enough to need item reliance to assist in sweeping a few opponents. The usefulness of these Pokémon are typically counterbalanced by many visible flaws or are useful Pokémon that come very late.

Amaura
Availability: Ambrette Town (Gift if Sail Fossil was chosen in Glittering Cave)
Stats: Amaura comes with a high HP stat and decent bulk, making it a decently bulky Pokémon. It comes with average offenses though it is more specially inclined, and its speed is mediocre.
Typing: Ice/Rock is a decent offensive typing hitting quite a few types in the game super effectively. Defensively however it is a write-off with six relevant weaknesses, two of them being 4× weaknesses.
Movepool: Its movepool is decent with Ice-, Rock-, Electric-, and Psychic-type coverage. Thanks to Refrigerate it also has Normal-type coverage as Ice-type coverage. Aurora Beam, Ancient Power and Round help early on before Nature Power comes in and eventually, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and Psychic.
Major Battles: It starts out quite badly as it struggles against Grant's Tyrunt, is a write-off against Korrina, somewhat struggles for Ramos, and struggles against Clemont. It gets a bit better afterwards with a good matchups against Wulfric, Drasna, Malva to an extent and AZ. Its Team Flare matchup is average as is its rival matchup.
Additional Comments: Amaura is quite a hit and miss Pokémon thanks to its typing and its Speed is below average as well. In spite of this, its lategame is a bit better though it is still going to struggle a bit. As a result, it is a decent choice but not a great one for running through the game.

Aron [X]

Bagon

Basculin

Bellsprout

Bergmite

Bunnelby

Carvanha

Caterpie
Availability: Santalune Forest, 10 and 20% (X and Y), Route 2, 11% (Y).
Stats: Flat-out awful until Butterfree. It has 45 HP and Speed as its highest stats as a Caterpie, and its highest stat as a Metapod is Defense at 55. Even after evolving into Butterfree, it still only has 80 Special Attack and Special Defense.
Typing: Bug/Flying-typing is not bad, but gives it a lot of weaknesses that hurt its ability to contribute.
Movepool: Butterfree attacking level-up movepool (save Tackle) consists of Confusion, Gust, Psybeam, Silver Wind, and Bug Buzz. Furthermore, all of the good special attacking TM's that it can get (Psychic, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball) are located right at the end of the game. Butterfree at least gets a useful setup move in Quiver Dance late-game.
Major Battles: Butterfree is bad against Grant, though it makes up for being useful against Korrina (beware Rock Tomb) and Ramos. It can beat Olympia if you have Bug Buzz (beware Sigilyph). Unfortunately, Butterfree has a bad Team Flare match-up save against the Liepards.
Additional Comments: Butterfree is a very good Pokémon for the early-game but tends to taper off fairly quickly until Quiver Dance.

Chatot

Chinchou
Availability: Azure Bay and Shalour City, 30% (Good Rod).
Stats: Titanic HP notwithstanding, Chinchou's (and later Lanturn's) stats are overall mediocre with its Special stats being the highest at merely 76.
Typing: Water/Electric is a handy defensive typing, leaving it weak only to Grass- and Ground-type moves, neither of which being too common after the fifth gym. Offensively, Chinchou's STABs are only resisted by Grass- and Dragon-types (not taking abilities into account).
Movepool: What Chinchou lacks in level-up moves, it makes up for it with TMs such as Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam, and Ice Beam, though you cannot obtain the latter until after the eighth gym. Of course, Chinchou can also learn Surf via HM, and Charge Beam can be helpful for the (albeit unreliable) chance to increase Special Attack, a boost which Lanturn definitely appreciates.
Major Battles: Lanturn's performance in major battles is generally average overall, with notable performances being against Lysandre (against Murkrow/Honchkrow and Pyroar), Malva, and AZ. Lanturn however struggles against Ramos and Clemont.
Additional Comments: Volt Absorb is the preferred ability since it gives it an immunity to Electric-type attacks as well as not upping the overall encounter rate unlike Illuminate. Overall, despite Chinchou's solid movepool and good typing, its stats fail to let it properly utilize its strengths, making it an average choice for efficient playthroughs.

Clauncher [X]
Availability: Route 8, Ambrette Town, Cyllage City, 70% (Good Rod).
Stats: Clauncher has generally mediocre stats until it evolves into Clawitzer, where it possesses high Special Attack and decent bulk, but suffers from being fairly slow.
Typing: Water-typing does not come as a really good time of the game for it, but it at least gives it good STAB for the field and select major battles.
Movepool: It comes with Surf right off the bat but does not have useful coverage until it evolves, where it gets access to Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse, and Aura Sphere via tutor and then Ice Beam in the endgame. Water Pulse is an acceptable alternative to Surf.
Major Battles: Clawitzer is not very good at first given bad match-ups against Ramos and Clemont, but in the late-game, it can beat Olympia and Wulfric with Dark Pulse and Aura Sphere. It destroys Malva's entire team, while it can be useful against Wikstrom and Drasna with the right moves and Diantha's Aurorus and Gourgeist, though its Speed may mean it could require item assistance.
Additional Comments: Mega Launcher gives Dark Pulse and Aura Sphere 120 Base Power. Water Pulse hits 135 with Mega Launcher and STAB. Do note that it comes under-leveled and suffers from a Slow growth rate.

Corphish

Croagunk
Availability: Route 7, 5-35%.
Stats: Toxicroak strongest stat is base 106 Attack, but has enough Sp. Attack to go mixed offense. Its Speed is at the average base 85, and its defenses are at the point where taking any strong unresisted hit is risky.
Typing: Poison/Fighting gives Croagunk very distinct traits. Its STAB coverage is useful when it gets them. Defensively, it has a number of glaring weaknesses that are balanced out by its just as notable resistances. A Poison-type immunity is handy, too.
Movepool: This is Croagunk's most notable trait. It starts with a quirky set of attacks, with Revenge learned just before Grant. Its learnset gets gradually better throughout the game thanks to its access to plenty of good TM's and to learning Sucker Punch at Level 31. By the Pokémon League, it can switch between TM's to adapt to a variety of trainers.
Major Battles: It sweeps through Grant easily and can handle Wulfric decently. It cannot do the same to Ramos or Valerie, however, due mainly to having one of its weaknesses exploited by at least one of their Pokémon each. Keep away from Olympia. With wide type coverage and its Dry Skin ability, it can adapt to many battles, most notably those at the Pokémon League.
Additional Comments: Anticipation can signal trouble spots, but Dry Skin is superior since it lets Croagunk beat Water types as well as give it free healing when battling at a rainy location. This makes Croagunk a decent choice for XY.

Cryogonal

Cubchoo

Cubone
Availability: Glittering Cave, Uncommon.
Typing: Pure Ground-typing is average overall, leaving it with few resistances, but only three weaknesses. Ground-typing is good offensively as well, hitting five types for super effective damage.
Stats: It has decent physical bulk, but its Speed is poor and its Attack is mediocre, especially without a Thick Club.
Movepool: It gets what it needs. It learns Bonemerang at Level 21, which is as powerful as Earthquake, making it very deadly. Rock Tomb/Rock Slide offers great coverage with Bonemerang, and it can boost its Attack with Swords Dance or Power-Up Punch. Double-Edge is a powerful move to use if it has Rock Head.
Major Battles: Despite its type advantage, it fails against Grant, as Amaura with destroy it. Clemont is a walk in the park, and it fares quite well against most of Team Flare due to it's typing. Malva and Wilkstrom are also easy prey, but beware Marowak's mediocre bulk. Stay away from Ramos, Wulfric, and Siebold.
Additional Comments: If you can find a Cubone holding a Thick Club, then you will have a terrifying, yet slow powerhouse on your hands. Otherwise, you are really not hitting very hard. All of this makes Cubone a fairly mediocre choice for the game.

Ducklett

Durant

Dwebble

Eevee (Jolteon)
Availability: Route 10, 5-20%.
Stats: It is incredibly fast with high Sp. Attack but it is quite frail. A low Attack stat hurts its mid-early performance.
Typing: Electric-typing provides it with effective STAB yet highlights its low defenses, especially against those that resist Electric.
Movepool: It must rely on Swift and a physical movepool until getting the Charge Beam and Thunderbolt TM's, which are its best moves. Shadow Ball is its only form of special coverage, so Hidden Power is worth trying out. It also learns Strength and Rock Smash, which can easily take up a moveslot if needed.
Major Battles: It contributes very little until it gets its primary STABs, which allow it to take care of any Electric-weak Pokémon from various opponents. It also sweeps through Siebold with relative ease.
Additional Comments: There is a Thunderstone on Route 10, so Eevee can evolve into Jolteon right away without having to miss learning Thunder Fang at level 20.

Electrike [Y]

Espurr (F)
Availability: Route 6, 20%.
Stats: Great speed and good Special Attack, with usable defenses to back it up.
Typing: Pure Psychic-typing is alright, with few weaknesses and resistances.
Movepool: Meowstic-F learns a wide variety of moves by level-up, including good STAB moves, Shadow Ball, Charge Beam, and Signal Beam. Thunderbolt, Energy Ball, and Calm Mind are available through TM.
Major Battles: She beats Korrina by type matchup and because it resists Psychic itself, she can beat Olympia with little trouble. She loses to Wilkstrom but because of her movepool, it can be helpful anywhere else.
Additional Comments: Infiltrator is the preferred ability for the ability to pierce screens, though Keen Eye has its uses. Overall because of a mediocre level-up movepool and his average Special Attack, Meowstic-F is not a great choice for an efficiency run though she is not a bad choice.

Espurr (M)
Availability: Route 6, 20%.
Stats: Without a doubt, Meowstic's greatest statistical asset is his impressive speed. Everything else about him is okay at best, often not quite being high enough for his liking. Unlike his evolution, though, Espurr's stats are balanced overall, with nothing really standing out or being above average for the time.
Typing: Psychic-typing gives him decent STAB coverage, hitting two relevant types super effectively. Defensively he does not have much going for him, but his two resistances to Fighting-, and Psychic-types are relevant.
Movepool: The male variant of Meowstic does not have much in the way of offensive options via level-up, as his level-up movepool is support-oriented. The only notable offensive level-up moves he learns are Psybeam, Psyshock, and Psychic. Meowstic has a solid TM repertoire, though most of the ones he benefits from are obtained late in the game, with Thunderbolt being the only one that appears at a decent time.
Major Battles: Meowstic does well against Korrina, though her Hawlucha could provide trouble. After that, most of the Gym Leaders have at least one Pokemon that Meowstic can defeat by itself, though that's usually the only thing it can do to their team offensively. Meowstic cannot do much to your rival prior to Anistar City unless you started with Froakie, as Chesnaught is the only Pokemon on his/her team at the time that does not have a resistance or immunity to Psychic-type moves.
Additional Comments: Infiltrator is the preferred ability for the ability to pierce screens, though Keen Eye has its uses. Overall because of a mediocre level-up movepool and his average Special Attack, Meowstic-M is not a great choice for an efficiency run though he is not a bad choice.

Farfetch'd

Flabébé
Availability: Route 4, 35%.
Stats: Flabébé specializes in Special Defense, but her stats are not particularly great until it fully evolves. Florges has great special stats and decent Speed, but her physical stats are lacking.
Typing: Fairy-typing has good neutral coverage and is useful later on for dealing with Dragon-types. Coverage against Fighting-types is also handy. Fairy's weakness to Poison-types hurts a bit though, especially against Team Flare.
Movepool: Flabébé is stuck with Fairy Wind as its best STAB for much of the game, with only Grass moves to compliment it. This limits Flabébé's power quite a bit since she relies on weak moves with poor synergy. She gets better moves later on and STAB Dazzling Gleam/Moonblast is great against anything that does not resist it, but her coverage is still limited to Moonblast, Psychic, and a Grass move.
Major Battles: Flabébé is not the most useful Pokémon for some of the earlier gyms and it is not the best option against Team Flare either. It is fairly good against Korrina but even there, she is let down by its weak moves and low Speed and Defense. She is better late-game when it gets Dazzling Gleam since it hits most Pokémon that do not resist it pretty hard. She does quite well against Drasna and Diantha too.
Additional Comments: You should evolve Floette as soon as possible since there is nothing really important that Florges misses by doing so and the stat increase is dramatic. In general, Flabébé is an early route Pokémon that takes a while to get going, but she does cover some important types and she has her uses late-game.

Floatzel

Geodude (w/ Trade)

Goldeen

Golett

Goomy

Gorebyss

Gulpin

Gurdurr

Heatmor

Helioptile
Availability: Route 9, 20%.
Stats: Helioptile has great Speed and Special Attack and decent Special Defense. Its HP and Defense are quite low however, meaning it cannot take physical hits. Its Attack is too low to warrant use.
Typing: Electric/Normal is an odd typing. It is immune to Ghost, resists Electric-, Flying-, and Steel-types, and is only weak to Fighting- and Ground-types. Offensively, Electric is decent, but Normal does not really compliment it well.
Movepool: Parabolic Charge is a decent STAB for early-game until you get the Thunderbolt TM from Clemont. It learns Surf by HM, which covers the Ground-types immune to Thunderbolt. Grass Knot and Focus Blast are other nifty coverage moves. Hyper Beam is also worth noting as the only usable Special Normal STAB it gets.
Major Battles: Siebold is a cakewalk, and Lysandre is also pretty easy (be careful against Mienshao though). Keep it far away from Korrina and Drasna is tough for it. Otherwise it has a decent matchup record though its frailty as a Helioptile lets it down.
Additional Comments: Be sure to trade the Intriguing Stone to the Hiker in Shalour City for a Sun Stone to evolve as early as possible. It does not need any level-up moves anyways. Dry Skin is preferred because the Water immunity is quite handy. Helioptile is a decent choice overall but only once it evolves.

Hippopotas

Houndour [X]

Huntail

Inkay

Kecleon

Klefki
Availability: Route 15, 10%.
Stats: Klefki is best seen as a jack of all trades, master of none, with decent bulk, average speed, and half decent offences.
Typing: Steel/Fairy-typing is stellar defensively and gives it a lot of useful resists against many lategame opponents, and offensively gives it super effective coverage against several critical opponents.
Movepool: Klefki's movepool is barren offensively with its attacking movepool basically consisting of Play Rough/Dazzling Gleam, Mirror Shot, Foul Play, and Psychic/Psyshock in the endgame. Klefki's support moves are not very good either though blocking Full Restore recoveries with Heal Block is an option. Calm Mind is a decent setup move.
Major Battles: Through its typing, Klefki can come in against many major opponents and not take much damage though average offences mean it will not be doing much in response. It does fairly well against Wulfric, Drasna, and Diantha, but Malva is a dud matchup.
Additional Comments: Klefki benefits from being in the fast Exp. Group, reducing initial grind time and allowing it to get better level-up moves faster.

Litleo

Litwick

Lombre

Lunatone

Mantyke

Mareep

Mienfoo
Availability: Route 8, 10%.
Stats: Mienfoo has decent stats for a basic Pokémon. Mienshao has amazing Attack and Speed, with good Special Attack as well. It is quite frail, though.
Typing: Fighting-type is generally useful, being solid coverage and having a few nice resists.
Movepool: Great STAB moves in Drain Punch and High Jump Kick by level, as well as U-turn and Aura Sphere. Poison Jab, Acrobatics, Rock Slide, and Power-Up Punch are notable TM moves.
Major Battles: Grant will be very easy for it, as will Wulfric. With the right coverage move, it can easily defeat any foe, but beware faster opponents with Super Effective attacks (such as Korrina's Hawlucha and Malva's Talonflame). Stay far away from Wilkstrom's Aegislash.
Additional Comments: Regenerator is an amazing ability and should always be your first choice, rewarding you for switching out (even via U-turn!). Mienfoo's biggest flaw is that it evolves at level 50, which is very late for an early-game Pokémon. Eviolite Mienfoo can still pull its weight, but it will not be anything phenomenal.

Nincada

Oddish (Bellossom)

Panpour

Pansage

Pawniard

Phantump (w/ Trade)

Pidgey
Availability: Route 2, 14%.
Stats: Pidgeot's stats are not great but they are at least distributed well, with good Speed and usable Attack. However, Pidgey does not fully evolve until level 36 so its stats will be below average for at least half of the game.
Typing: Normal/Flying. The main thing going for it is that it is given good STAB options early on. Flying is a good offensive type, although Normal/Flying coverage is walled by Rock and Steel.
Movepool: Pidgey's level-up movepool is awful. Anything usable it has is mostly outclassed by its TM options. Pidgey's TM movepool is not very wide but it thankfully has access to the good ones (Return and Aerial Ace) fairly early. Fly is the obvious choice later on. Its coverage outside of its STAB coverage is limited to Thief (also obtained early) and U-turn.
Major Battles: Its best match-ups are against Viola and Ramos. It does ok against Korrina but no Fighting-type resistance and Rock Tomb hurt. It is not that useful for the Elite Four but it has Diantha's Hawlucha and Gourgeist as targets. Team Flare commonly use Croagunk and Scraggy, so Pidgeot should see use here too.
Additional Comments: Neither of Pidgey's abilities are particularly noteworthy but Keen Eye is the preferred option for reliability. Nevertheless, Pidgey is a decent option but not that spectacular for running through the game.

Piloswine

Poliwag (Politoed)

Poliwag (Poliwrath)

Psyduck

Pumpkaboo (w/ Trade)
Availability: Route 16, 61%.
Stats: All forms have excellent Defense. The smaller forms have great Speed, while the larger forms have greater HP and Attack. All forms have terrible Special Attack.
Typing: Grass/Ghost has four resistances and two immunities, but also has four unfortunate weaknesses, to Ghost-, Dark-, Fire-, and Ice-types. Ghost is always a great attacking type, but Grass is poor offensively.
Movepool: It learns two solid STAB moves, Seed Bomb and Phantom Force, by level-up. Leech Seed and Will-O-Wisp are also available (though the former may require a Heart Scale to relearn). It learns a wide range of Special moves including Fire Blast, but its Special Attack is too low to use it.
Major Battles: It can handle Olympia and Siebold quite well, but struggles against every other remaining major battle. Keep it as far away from Wulfric and Malva as possible.
Additional Comments: No matter what size you get, it will have some issues. Larger sizes have to take hits before attacking, while smaller sizes do not hit hard enough. Nevertheless, Gourgeist is a decent lategame option irrespective of size.

Quagsire

Relicanth

Remoraid

Rhyhorn

Rotom

Sableye

Shelmet (w/ Trade)

Skorupi

Skrelp [Y]
Availability: Route 8 and Cyllage City, 70% (Good Rod).
Stats: As Dragalge, it has amazing Special Defense, great Special Attack, and decent Attack and Defense stats. However, its Speed is horribly low. Before Dragalge, Skrelp is stuck with horribly mediocre stats.
Typing: Skrelp is Poison/Water, a very good defensive typing. When it evolves into Dragalge, it becomes Poison/Dragon, gaining more weaknesses, but also more resistances.
Movepool: It learns all the STAB moves it could ever want by level-up. It also learns nifty coverage moves such as Thunderbolt and Surf (which is no longer STAB as Dragalge).
Major Battles: Skrelp struggles in a lot of battles due to its mediocre stats with Ramos and Valerie its best matchups. Upon finally evolving to Dragalge its matchups do not get much better, but it will be able to contribute better.
Additional Comments: Skrelp requires backtracking and evolves very late (further exacerbated by mediocre stats) so you can wait until you get the Super Rod for Dragalge, though it comes at a relatively low level. This makes Skrelp an okay choice, but not a very good one.

Smoochum

Snover

Snubbull

Solrock
Availability: Glittering Cave (3D area), Rare.
Stats: All are mediocre except for its usable Attack stat.
Typing: Rock/Psychic-typing gives it helpful resistances to Normal-, Fire-, Poison-, Flying-, and Psychic-types which make it a good Pokemon to use against Team Flare, watch out for their Dark-types though.
Movepool: Solrock has very limited viable options in its movepool. It has access to some great special moves but its special attack is not high enough to make good use of it. It starts with Rock Throw and Confusion, which can be upgraded to Rock Slide and Psychic shortly after. Bulldoze gives it a good coverage option that helps with its speed stat and it can be upgraded to Earthquake later in the game. Acrobatics is a great physical option if you get it.
Major Battles: Solrock fails to contribute much in any gym. It can help fight Grant's Amaura but do not bother with Tyrunt. It is able to take out one of Korrina's Pokémon with STAB Psychic but it is too weak to sweep. If played cleverly it can take out Clemont's Magneton and perhaps Emolga. It can also contribute against Wulfric but all of his Pokémon have a super effective move against it. At the Elite Four, Solrock can contribute against Malva but stay away from Chandelure. Otherwise that is all it can do as it is weak to the other members and the Champion.
Additional Comments: Despite not contributing much in major battles, Solrock is still a very good Pokémon for beating Team Flare's many Fire-, Poison-, and Flying-types. It also comes in handy for Sky Battles as it resists Flying-type moves and can hit back with STAB Rock Slide.

Spoink

Spritzee (w/ Trade) [Y]

Stunfisk

Stunky

Swablu

Swirlix (w/ Trade) [X]

Taillow

Ursaring

Weedle

Whismur

Woobat

Zigzagoon

Its_A_Random · Sep 8, 2014

Current Rankings (E-Tier)

E-Tier: Reserved for Pokémon whose efficiency in terms of completing the game is considered to be low. Pokémon in this tier are generally only able to OHKO or 2HKO specific opponents and suffer from being matchup-based, generally relying on items to assist in sweeping several opponents. These Pokémon either have flaws that outshine its strengths or are otherwise decent Pokémon that come too late to be of any major use.

Alomomola

Ariados

Audino

Banette
Availability: Pokémon Village, Trash Cans on Thursdays only.
Stats: Strong Attack stat complimented by mediocre stats elsewhere.
Typing: Ghost-typing for what is left in the game is decent with a few good and bad matchups but mostly average.
Movepool: Banette's physical movepool is barren being limited to Shadow Claw, Dark-, and Normal-type coverage though Sucker Punch off the bat helps offset speed issues. It's special movepool is a bit more varied but pales in comparison in terms of power and it carries a decent support movepool.
Major Battles: Basically average in terms of matchups across the board for what is left though its middling speed and lack of EV's to make up for it tend to let it down.
Additional Comments: Banette being in the Fast Exp. Group helps erase any initial grind time it might have.

Barboach

Burmy (Mothim)
Availability: Route 3, 10%.
Stats: Burmy's stats are atrocious. Mothim has good Attack and Special Attack, but he is very frail and not very fast either.
Typing: Bug/Flying offers a few nice resistances, but a huge amount of crippling weaknesses. They work together well offensively, but Steel-types resist both.
Movepool: Burmy learns nothing useful. Mothim learns good moves by level, including Bug Buzz, Air Slash, Hidden Power, Psychic, and Quiver Dance. Energy Ball and Acrobatics are available via TM.
Major Battles: Burmy cannot touch Viola and it loses to Grant, Clemont, Wulfric, Malva, and Wilkstrom. Korrina, Ramos, and Olympia are weak to Mothim's STAB moves, but each has one Pokémon to watch out for (Machoke, Jumpluff, and Sigilyph, respectively). He fares decently against Team Flare.
Additional Comments: Burmy needs a lot of babying until it evolves and even then, you are left with a mediocre Pokémon. A good Hidden Power type makes it better, but overall, Mothim is far from an efficient choice.

Burmy (Wormadam Plant)
Availability: Route 3, 10%.
Stats: Great Special Defense with passable Defense and Special Attack. She is horrendously slow, unfortunately.
Typing: Bug/Grass-typing is one of the worst in the game defensively, leaving it devastated by any Flying- or Fire-type attack while also being weak to Rock-, Ice-, Poison-, and Bug-type attacks. Both Grass and Bug are poor offensive types, too.
Movepool: Burmy has no good moves. Wormadam gets Hidden Power, Leaf Storm, and Psychic by level, and Energy Ball and Shadow Ball by TM's.
Major Battles: Wormadam does not have a single advantageous matchup against a major trainer. Siebold is its best matchup, but she cannot reliably take on his Barbaracle or Gyarados. Every other boss trainer has at least one Pokémon who will obliterate Wormadam by preying on one of her many weaknesses.
Additional Comments: Anticipation will warn you if the foe has a super-effective attack, so expect to see this ability activate constantly. Wormadam is a very poor choice to use in XY.

Burmy (Wormadam Sand)

Burmy (Wormadam Trash)

Carbink

Carnivine

Chingling

Combee
Availability: Route 4, 10-30%.
Typing: Bug/Flying-typing has some relevant resistances and a Ground-type immunity, but is very vulnerable to Rock-type attacks and several other relevant weaknesses.
Stats: Combee is very fast with poor offenses and questionable durability. When Combee evolves into Vespiquen it becomes very slow in exchange for improved bulk and acceptable offenses.
Movepool: Combee starts with Gust as its only offensive move and, eventually, learns Bug Bite. Vespiquen can learn Aerial Ace and Acrobatics via TM and obtains Air Slash and Attack Order mid- to late-game. Vespiquen learns Power Gem and Heal Order naturally.
Major Battles: Vespiquen does decently against Korrina and Ramos. Aerial Ace will wear through Korrina's team while a combination of Acrobatics and Bug Bite will chew through Ramos. Vespiquen can at least help against Olympia. Late game Vespiquen might as well be non-existent as it cannot get through Wikstrom and does terrible against Malva and Diantha.
Other: A female Combee is necessary in order to get Vespiquen.

Dedenne
Availability: Route 11, 5%.
Stats: Above average Speed with only an average Sp. Attack. Everything else is low.
Typing: Unique Electric/Fairy-typing covers plenty of types both offensively and defensively. It has to stay clear of Ground- and Poison-types.
Movepool: Parabolic Charge and Nuzzle are nice starting moves and Dedenne has decent level-up options. Play Rough is its only Fairy STAB move and so is still worth learning despite being physical. Grass Knot provides coverage and it can learn the Cut HM.
Major Battles: It has good matchups with Korrina, Lysandre, Drasna and Siebold, although it can only deal heavy hits to Siebold and Lysandre's Honchkrow.
Additional Comments: Cheek Pouch is helpful in battle if you can spare an Oran or Sitrus Berry, but Pickup provides long term usefulness throughout a playthrough.

Delibird
Availability: Route 17, 40%.
Stats: Delibird has mediocre offenses and okay speed, but is very frail. Its low attack can be offset with Hustle.
Typing: Ice/Flying is okay late-game, but its weaknesses are prevalent though its STAB coverage is offensively decent.
Movepool: Delibird's Level-up movepool is limited to Present, which is too unreliable to be of use. It gets two good STAB special moves through TMs, but one of the two (Blizzard) requires Hail setup to be reliable. Its useful physical movepool through Fly, Aerial Ace and Brick Break, but all are reliant on Hustle to be effective.
Major Battles: Delibird's match-ups are generally poor, but physical variants can do well against half of Wulfric's team, and put in some decent work against Drasna when it is faster. Otherwise it is too frail to live attacks.
Additional Comments: Delibird benefits from a Fast growth rate which helps reduce initial grind time. Vital Spirit is a decent alternative to Hustle if you do not like missing but makes its physical movepool useless.

Dratini
Availability: Route 21, 5%.
Stats: At full evolution, Dragonite is a very powerful bulky attacker with a large physical attack stat. Base 80 Speed is troubling however.
Typing: Dragon/Flying-typing offers it a strong offensive typing for the last part of the game and is decent defensively though several Pokémon can hit it super effectively.
Movepool: Dragonite comes with a massive movepool with huge coverage. It can be taught what it needs to help put work in the last few battles.
Major Battles: Dragonite can put in serious work against Wilkstrom, Malva, and Drasna without too much issues. It can also do work against the other two members of the league but has issues.
Additional Comments: You can catch it as a Dragonair with the Super Rod for 5% and it can come as high as level 55 for an easy Dragonite.

Druddigon
Availability: Victory Road, 20%.
Stats: Slow bulky attacker with high Attack.
Typing: Dragon-typing is decent for the last part of the game. It is a boon for several matchups but others can take advantage of its typing.
Movepool: Druddigon carries a wide attacking movepool with lots of high powered moves that complement its strong physical attack.
Major Battles: Druddigon will never fail to leave its mark in any match in the Pokémon League, even against Drasna where it takes any attack and smashes any one dragon in return with Outrage. Gardevoir and Aurorus to an extent from Diantha are its only terrible matchups.
Additional Comments: Both abilities work well for it and either way, they assist Druddigon in being a decent endgame choice.

Dunsparce

Eevee (Glaceon)

Eevee (Leafeon)
Availability: Route 10, 5-20%.
Stats: Mediocre stats for a huge chunk of the game due to being stuck as an Eevee until evolving where is becomes physically bulky with decent physically offensive stats.
Typing: Normal-typing for a long time hurts it and when it finally gains its Grass-typing, its typing is little better in a sea of Pokémon that either hit it super effectively or resist its main STAB.
Movepool: Being an Eevee and having its bad movepool until the endgame means it is almost certainly either going to rely on Heart Scales to get its best physical STAB in Leaf Blade or be severely underleveled. It does get good endgame coverage outside of that through X-Scissor and Dig, as well as a good setup move in Swords Dance.
Major Battles: Eevee flat out struggles against basically everything from the get-go and when Leafeon is finally obtained, it does not fare better with exactly one good compulsory matchup in Siebold. Outside of that it generally struggles.
Additional Comments: Being stuck as an Eevee for most of the game greatly hinders any potency Leafeon could have.

Eevee (Umbreon)
Availability: Route 10, 5-20%.
Stats: Umbreon is incredibly bulky but offensively, it is mediocre.
Typing: Dark-typing as a whole is is not very useful because there are a lot of Pokémon that can hit it super effectively in XY. Offensively it is very average.
Movepool: Umbreon has a very shallow movepool that consists of average Dark-type moves and Moonlight by level up and a plethora of Dark- and Normal-type moves by TM. Dig and Shadow Ball round out its coverage.
Major Battles: Umbreon loses to Korrina and Valerie while it wins to Olympia. Elsewhere it ranges from average to mediocre.
Additional Comments: Umbreon as a whole suffers from a bad stat distribution for in-game and a terrible movepool. The fact that it cannot hit very hard at all makes Umbreon a bad choice for XY.

Ekans

Electrode

Exeggcute

Fearow
Availability: Victory Road, Outside.
Stats: Decent Attack, decent Speed, middling elsewhere.
Typing: Normal/Flying-typing is no liability in the last part of the game but it is not great offensively considering what is left.
Movepool: Fearow coming with Drill Run and Drill Peck on capture is a boon and it learns some decent physical moves by TM. Its coverage outside of Drill Run is barren however.
Major Battles: Fearow at the very least can put in work against Wilkstrom and Malva with Drill Run though its inability to OHKO targets means it will not be soloing anything.
Additional Comments: Fearow is a bad in-game choice due to it coming at the end of the game and not having much to offer.

Foongus

Geodude (w/o Trade)

Gligar
Availability: Route 19, Uncommon (Horde Only).
Stats: It has decent mixed bulk especially with an Eviolite and decent Speed, but a below average Attack stat at this point of the game.
Typing: Ground/Flying-typing comes with two nasty relevant weaknesses and no really useful resistances outside of Fighting-types this late in the game. It is however a very decent offensive typing.
Movepool: Gligar comes with a very broad offensive movepool which consists of Acrobatics (If no Eviolite), Earthquake, U-turn, X-scissor, Sky Uppercut, Rock Slide, Poison Jab and Slash. Gligar also comes with a decent support movepool but it will not be of great help.
Major Battles: Gligar struggles against Wulfric and Siebold in particular but has a good matchup against Wilkstrom and Malva. The rest are generally average to bad.
Additional Comments: Because of its Horde-only status, an hour or two of grinding is necessary in order to be able to use it effectively. Razor Fang is inaccessible until the post game, preventing it from evolving though Eviolite is a good alternative. These factors combined with coming very late in the game make Gligar a poor choice for running through the game.

Gothorita
Availability: Route 20, 10-30%.
Stats: Gothorita only has average offensive power with decent special bulk. It suffers from having middling speed.
Typing: Psychic-typing provides decent neutral matchups in the last stages of the game with the odd good or bad matchup here and there.
Movepool: Gothorita comes with Psychic and its decent offensive movepool comprises of Psychic, Thunderbolt, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, and Energy Ball. Most of its support movepool is of little use but Calm Mind is a great asset.
Major Battles: Gothorita's matchups are largely neutral with its best matchup being Wulfric due to its ability to set up on Abomasnow and sweep. It has decent matchups in the Pokémon League but each member save Drasna has something that can outspeed and seriously dent it physically.
Additional Comments: Competitive is the preferred ability to take advantage of stat drops.

Hoppip

Horsea
Availability: Cyllage City, 30% (Good Rod).
Stats: Horsea and Seadra have the statistical pattern of below-average HP and Attack, terrible Special Defense, and solid everything else. Kingdra's weaker stats are bolstered to match its stronger ones though they are still average, topping out at 95.
Typing: Water-typing is okay to have with good coverage, but suffers from two relevant weaknesses. Kingdra's secondary Dragon typing is a mixed bag, removing the Electric- and Grass-type weaknesses but removing a resistance and adding two weaknesses, one of which being relevant.
Movepool: Horsea suffers from a shallow movepool offensively with the only good moves being Surf, Ice Beam and Dragon Pulse, only Surf being available early on.
Major Battles: Seadra should not be used against Ramos or Clemont. It can deal with Wulfric decently (minus Abomasnow), and generally has average performances against mostly everything else. Some of Kingdra's performances change due to its different type: it does better against Ramos, Clemont, and Malva (though it still should not be used against the former) and has more trouble against Valerie, Wulfric, and Drasna.
Additional Comments: Eviolite Seadra is generally the way to go but Kingdra is also an option; you need to either be lucky enough to get a Dragon Scale early on or wait until Terminus Cave to get Kingdra though. Irrespective of form, Horsea is a bad Pokémon to use for efficient in-game runs due to being out of the way, its unimpressive stats, and a barren movepool.

Illumise

Jigglypuff
Availability: Route 20, 10-20%.
Stats: Jigglypuff has huge HP but terrible defenses, terrible speed and average offenses at best.
Typing: Normal/Fairy-typing for what is left in the game gives it mostly netural matchups with the occasional good and bad matchup.
Movepool: Jigglypuff learns a huge array of offensive moves including (but not limited to) Dazzling Gleam, Hyper Voice, Shadow Ball, Flamethrower, and Thunderbolt. Its support movepool is forgettable.
Major Battles: Jigglypuff reliably handles Drasna outside of Dragalge and can generally be teched to make an impact in any battle. It does not do well against Wilkstrom and it does not hit hard enough in most other matchups.
Additional Comments: Competitive is preferred to take advantage of stat drops and its Fast Growth rate reduces initial grind time.

Larvitar [Y]

Lickitung
Availability: Victory Road, 15%.
Stats: Above average bulk and average offenses. It is also quite slow.
Typing: Normal-typing is not very helpful since it offers nothing but a Ghost-type immunity which is relevant in the Pokémon League.
Movepool: Its level up movepool is shallow with only Normal-, Grass-, Steel-, and Rock-type coverage but its TM movepool is very wide with heaps of coverage to work with.
Major Battles: Lickilicky is bulky enough to make a contribution in any of the battles in the Pokémon League and having very few weaknesses helps its cause. It is too slow to make too many contributions however.
Additional Comments: Lickitung is reliant on a Heart Scale to learn Rollout to evolve.

Liepard [Y]

Masquerain

Mawile

Mightyena [X]

Minun

Murkrow
Availability: Route 15 and Route 16, Common (Horde Only).
Stats: Murkrow makes for a great mixed attacker with decent speed (prior to evolution), but its bulk is below average.
Typing: Dark/Flying-typing is great offensively but bad defensively with a few relevant weaknesses and not many relevant resistances. It has a relevant immunity to Psychic-type attacks though.
Movepool: Murkrow's coverage is limited to Dark-, Flying-, Normal-, Psychic-, and Ghost-type attacks, all of which have decent enough powered moves to be of use. Murkrow also has a potent support movepool but it struggles to make much use of it.
Major Battles: It struggles against Olympia despite its typing due to frailty and it loses to Wulfric. Its Team Flare game is average as is its Rival game. Its performance in the Pokémon League is average but it does well against AZ.
Additional Comments: Because of its Horde-only status, an hour or two of grinding is necessary in order to be able to use it effectively. Dusk Stone's out of the way location may make trying to evolve it infeasible. All in all, Murkrow is a poor choice for an efficient run in XY.

Noctowl
Availability: Route 20, 10-30%.
Stats: Solid special bulk, decent special attack, average speed, below-average physical bulk and attack.
Typing: Normal/Flying-typing offers little to Noctowl offensively and defensively, leaving a myriad of neutral matchups and a few bad matchups for what remains in the game.
Movepool: Noctowl suffers from a barren movepool, with Air Slash as its lone notable offensive level-up move and Psychic and Shadow Ball being the only notable offensive TM moves. Roost and Reflect are notable support moves.
Major Battles: Noctowl struggles in all the remaining major battles, having a bad matchup against Wulfric and generally being overpowered by all the Pokémon League trainers outside of a select few Pokémon such as Gourgeist and Hawlucha; It is better used for support.
Additional Comments: If trying to take advantage of the Psychic TM, keep in mind it cannot be accessed until Wulfric is beaten.

Noibat
Availability: Terminus Cave, Ceiling drops.
Stats: Noibat suffers from terrible stats across the board until it evolves into Noivern soon after getting it, where it becomes very fast, has decent Special Attack, and decent bulk.
Typing: Dragon/Flying-typing gives Noivern strong offensive coverage and is decent defensively, though its weaknesses are somewhat common.
Movepool: Noivern has a great offensive movepool with Dragon Pulse, Air Slash, Hurricane, Super Fang, and Boomburst being useful level-up moves. It also gets Flamethrower, Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Focus Blast as useful TM moves.
Major Battles: Noivern has a great matchup against Drasna, but tends to struggle against Wilkstrom, Siebold, and Wulfric, though it can put work in against either. of her Noivern. Noivern should not be used against Wikstrom (who resists both of its STABs) or Siebold (who has a super-effective move against Noivern on all four of his Pokémon).
Additional Comments: Infiltrator is the preferred ability since nothing carries items save certain mega-evolving opponents.

Nosepass

Pachirisu
Availability: Route 12, 5%.
Stats: Above average Speed, average bulk, and bad offenses.
Typing: Electric-typing provides good STAB and a passable defensive typing.
Movepool: Pachirisu lacks the power to even use a STAB Thunderbolt well but it still has some decent support options, most notably Nuzzle and Super Fang. It can learn Cut, too, if needed.
Major Battles: The best it can do in a major battle is paralyze threats and put them into KO range with Super Fang. Its low stats prevent it from doing anything else.
Additional Comments: Pickup is the preferred ability over Run Away.

Plusle

Qwilfish

Roggenrola

Sandslash

Scyther

Sentret
Availability: Route 6, 20%.
Stats: It has above average Speed an passable Attack. Its Sp. Attack, while really low, is passable for using Surf.
Typing: Pure Normal-typing, while not exceptional, provides Furret with reliable STAB for handling a variety of opponents, an immunity to Ghost-types, and a sole weakness to Fighting-types.
Movepool: Furret has an okay level-up movepool, the most notable move being Sucker Punch. Its TM movepool is large, giving it wide offensive coverage, yet Furret makes a stronger candidate as an HM slave, as it learns Cut, Strength, Surf, Dig, and Rock Smash.
Major Battles: While Furret is nothing special in most major battles, it can hold its own if given the right TM's for the right battle. It cannot battle well against Grant or Korrina, though, because the type matchups are too unfavorable to make it perform well even with TMs.
Additional Comments: Run Away and Keen Eye have about equal viability with Furret, so it is just a matter of preference. Despite making a great HM slave, it is second-rate at about everything else and has a bad early-game start.

Shedinja
Availability: Route 6, 10%.
Stats: Slow, OHKOed by everything that bypasses Wonder Guard, has decent Attack.
Typing: Bug/Ghost-typing—while irrelevant defensively due to Shedinja's typing—offers great neutral STAB coverage being only resisted by Normal-types with a Bug-type resistance.
Movepool: Shedinja suffers from a lack of a high BAP STAB move until Shadow Claw and X-Scissor in Glittering Cave and Azure Bay. Its main coverage is reduced to Dig.
Major Battles: Every important trainer you face has at least one method to take out Shedinja. Grant, Olypmia, Wulfric, and Malva can take out Shedinja with any Pokémon. The best way to use it is to come in on those who cannot take out Shedinja and take them out.
Additional Comments: Shedinja is good for walling certain Pokémon but suffers from a bad experience growth curve early and being OHKOed easily by random attacks, making it really difficult to raise.

Skarmory
Availability: Victory Road, Outside.
Stats: Solid physical bulk, average power, speed and special bulk.
Typing: Steel/Flying-typing is solid defensively and decent offensively with several matchups it can take advantage of.
Movepool: Skarmory's movepool is great in terms of support and it has decent offensive coverage consisting of Steel-, Flying, and Normal-type moves, as well as Rock Slide, X-Scissor, and Night Slash.
Major Battles: Malva aside, Skarmory can make a decent contribution in all of the remaining matches. It does not have the power to solo any of the encounters however.
Additional Comments: Sturdy is superior to prevent it from dying in one hit.

Skitty

Slowpoke (Slowbro)

Slowpoke (Slowking)

Slugma

Sneasel

Spritzee (w/o Trade) [Y]

Sudowoodo

Swirlix (w/o Trade) [X]

Torkoal

Trubbish

Vanillite

Volbeat

Wailmer

Watchog

Wingull

Yanma
Availability: Route 10, Uncommon (Horde Only).
Stats: Base 95 Speed from the get-go is good until you notice it does not gain any speed when Evolving. Its Sp. Attack is its best stat while everything else is average at best.
Typing: Bug/Flying is good at the time it is found, but it outlives its usefulness during the mid-game until it gets its primary STAB moves. For each resistance it has, it also has a dangerous weakness to look out for.
Movepool: Yanma's movepool is very shallow. Sonicboom has some use for quickly leveling it up. It lacks good offensive options until it learns Ancient Power. Since Bug Buzz and Air Slash are learned by the Move Relearner, letting Yanma learn Hypnosis before evolving is an option on the way there. TM Shadow Ball provides some needed coverage.
Major Battles: Yanma lacks the power to sweep through Korrina and Ramos despite the type advantage but can at least beat Olympia as a Yanmega. It has very few advantage elsewhere, especially at the Pokémon League.
Additional Comments: Yanma has two great abilities, one of which changes into an also great Tinted Lens ability upon evolution. Overall because of its horde only status, Yanma takes too much time to train before it becomes anything worthwhile ingame.

Zoroark
Availability: Route 20 / Pokémon Village, 5-10%.
Stats: Zoroark boasts solid offensive capabilities that assist it in dealing lots of damage and great Speed to back it up. It suffers from being very frail however.
Typing: For what is left in the game, Dark-typing is not particularly useful but not a liability.
Movepool: Zoroark learns strong Dark-type moves by level up and boasts decent coverage from TM's such as Flamethrower and Dig that allow it to be of some use in the Pokémon League.
Major Battles: Given what is left in the game, Zoroark does a fairly decent job given the right moves but its frailty means it is unlikely to take out any remaining major battle on its out outside of AZ.
Additional Comments: Zoroark is not a bad Pokémon and Illusion is incredibly useful for fooling the AI. The issue with it however is that it simply comes too late in the game to be of major use.

Zweilous
Availability: Victory Road, 5%. Can also be found outside as a Hydreigon.
Stats: Physical tank as a Zweilous, it becomes a powerful mixed attacker backed with decent speed upon evolution to Hydreigon.
Typing: Dark / Dragon is a decent offensive typing for what is left in the game, hitting Psychic-, Ghost-, and Dragon-types super effectively, all of which are common at the end of the game. Defensively it is bad with weaknesses to Ice-, Dragon-, Bug-, Fighting-, and Fairy-types, of which two are common.
Movepool: Should it remain a Zweilous, Crunch, Dragon Rush, and Body Slam are the best moves for it. Upon evolving to Hydreigon, it gains a lot of coverage that it can use including Dragon Pulse, Surf, Dark Pulse, Fly, Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Flamethrower.
Major Battles: Wins against Drasna provided you hit hard enough and wins against Malva. Does very well against Wilkstrom though Aegislash will outright beat it and does decently against Siebold. It struggles against Diantha and beats AZ. Rival depends on starter though it has a good record against most of their team. It should be noted that it fails against the fast Psychic-types in Victory Road as they easily nuke it with Dazzling Gleam.
Additional Comments: Zweilous is a decent endgame option but the lack of EV's and the amount of babying it needs to evolve into Hydreigon (unless you catch a wild Hydreigon) means that it will struggle against most of the endgame trainers despite its generally good matchup record. As a result, Zweilous is a fairly bad choice for an efficient run though it is not terrible.

Its_A_Random · Sep 8, 2014

Current Rankings (F-Tier)

F-Tier: Reserved for Pokémon who possess the worst efficiency of those available in Pokémon X & Y irrespective of their availability. These Pokémon outright lose a lot of 1v1 matchups at like levels unless they are assisted with significant item support. The flaws of these Pokémon completely mask whatever advantage they could possibly have and hence, should never be considered seriously for an efficient run-through of Pokémon X & Y.

Clamperl
Availability: Route 12, 30% (Good Rod).
Stats: Average physical bulk, mediocre offenses, terrible speed and special bulk.
Typing: Water-typing offers decent coverage and is decent defensively. Not that great for major battles however.
Movepool: Clamperl has a barren level-up movepool and only Normal-, Water-, and Ice-type coverage. Shell Smash is decent but it comes too late to be useful.
Major Battles: Clamperl does not do well in any major battle due to its poor bulk and pitiful offenses that rely on an item to be of any real potency.
Additional Comments: Deep Sea Tooth is useful for allowing it to deal damage and Deep Sea Scale is useful for allowing it to have some bulk. Neither item allow it to be good enough to take it off the bottom of the list however.

Corsola
Availability: Route 12, 65% (Super Rod).
Stats: Corsola has semi-decent bulk but mediocre offenses and a low speed.
Typing: Water/Rock is decent offensively since it hits a few relevant trainers super effectively. Defensively it comes with several relevant resistances but nasty weaknesses to relevant types.
Movepool: Decent. It learns Rock-, Ground-, and Water-type coverage by level up and it gets Mirror Coat if it can live a special attack. Recover (re-learner only) is useful for potion conservation and it picks up Psychic-, Ghost-, and Ice-type coverage from TM's as well.
Major Battles: This is where it falls apart. Its bulk is decent enough to live one hit at most (useful if running Mirror Coat) and its offenses are generally not good enough to help. It can contribute in some battles like Malva's Talonflame and half of Wulfric's team, but otherwise it struggles all around.
Additional Comments: Corsola seems quite decent on paper but in practice, its late availability and its overall bad performance in major battles makes it a terrible choice for XY.

Ditto
Availability: Pokémon Village, 10-20%.
Stats: Very mediocre at Base 48 across the board prior to using Transform.
Typing: Normal-typing prior to using Transform.
Movepool: Transform.
Major Battles: Out of the remaining battles, it can be somewhat effective if you transform into the right thing and if you get the Transform off. Otherwise it is generally ineffective in virtually all of the remaining major battles.
Additional Comments: If you are lucky and get one holding a Quick Powder or a Metal Powder, it can get the Transform off much easier. Otherwise, the fact that it is reliant on its opponent to do anything in general makes Ditto one of the worst possible choices when it comes to getting through the game efficiently.

Karrablast (w/o Trade)
Availability: Route 14, 10%.
Stats: Karrablast's best stat is Attack which is Base 75. It has mediocre speed and terrible bulk.
Typing: Bug-typing at this point of the game is good for one gym offensively and not much else. Defensively it suffers from one relevant weakness and no relevant resistances.
Movepool: Karrablast's movepool is limited to Bug-, Flying-, Normal-, and Poison-type coverage. Swords Dance is a good lategame option... if it had the bulk to use it properly.
Major Battles: Outside of possibly Olympia and half of your rivals team, Karrablast will struggle in every battle. It simply does not have the bulk or the speed to be able to do much.
Additional Comments: Eviolite is a decent item for it in terms of trying to help it live a hit to do something; combine with Swarm for good effect. Otherwise, Karrablast is one of the worst options for running through XY efficiently.

Ledyba
Availability: Route 4, 30%.
Stats: It has high Sp. Defense and average speed. Very low stats on everything else makes it poor offensively.
Typing: Defensively Bug/Flying is very bad, with its only true advantages being that Ledyba can at least fight most Grass-types well and that it has an immunity to Ground-type moves. Most opponents take advantage of one of its five weaknesses, otherwise.
Movepool: Its movepool is quite limited. Offensive coverage spans mainly to Bug and Fighting-type moves. Supersonic proves useful, as well as Baton Pass in tandem with Agility or Swords Dance. If needed, it can use Dig, Rock Smash and Strength.
Major Battles: Weaknesses to various coverage moves makes it ineffective in most major battles, although it may prove useful against Ramos except when facing Jumpluff.
Additional Comments: It has Fast experience growth, so at least it can level up quickly enough to keep up with your team. There is nothing too outstanding or efficient it can do, though, making it one of the worst options for XY.

Luvdisc
Availability: Route 8 and Cyllage City, 100% (Old Rod).
Stats: Outside of an above average Speed stat, Luvdisc's stats are terrible, especially its offensive stats.
Typing: Water-typing is decent with good coverage, but suffers from two relevant weaknesses.
Movepool: Horrible. Its coverage is limited to Normal-, Water-, and Ice-type moves. Its support movepool is somewhat decent and it is good for Water-type HM slavery.
Major Battles: There is no major battle that Luvdisc does not struggle against, even against those it has a type advantage against because its offenses are so weak.
Additional Comments: It is great as a reliable way to gain Heart Scales and that is basically it. It is one of the worst possible choices for an efficient run in XY.

Onix (w/o Trade)
Availability: Glittering Cave (3D area), Rare.
Stats: Great physical bulk but everything else is poor.
Typing: Rock/Ground-typing—while decent offensively—is terrible defensively with a whole host of weaknesses that are omnipresent in XY.
Movepool: Decent with great STAB and Normal-type coverage by level up and a decent array of TM's it can learn to become more useful.
Major Battles: It walls the odd Pokémon or two but its pitiful offenses do not help it deal damage back. Outside of those exceptions, Onix struggles everywhere.
Additional Comments: Eviolite turns it into a more competent physical wall. Sturdy is preferred so it actually does not roll over the majority of the time. Irrespective, Onix is a terrible choice in XY.

Phantump (w/o Trade)
Availability: Route 16, 10%.
Stats: Terrible. Phantump's best stat is base 70 attack and not much else. Its physical bulk in particular is dreadful.
Typing: Grass/Ghost-typing is a decent defensive typing though its resists and immunities are rare at this point of the game. Offensively it is good for a few of the remaining battles.
Movepool: Phantump's coverage comes down to Grass-, Ghost-, Normal-, Psychic-, Rock-, Ground-, Fighting-, and Poison-type moves. Horn Leech gives Phantump sustainability, Phantom Force is a nasty STAB move, Will-o-Wisp burns major threats and Destiny Bond is good since it only lives one hit at most in general circumstances.
Major Battles: Because of Phantump's terrible stats, it struggles to do much in any of the remaining major battles.
Additional Comments: Natural Cure is better for status absorbing unless you want to go item hunting. Irrespective of ability though, Phantump's terrible stats means it is a terrible choice for XY.

Pumpkaboo (w/o Trade)
Availability: Route 16, 61%.
Stats: Irrespective of size, Pumpkaboo has half decent attack and physical bulk but everything else is bad.
Typing: Grass/Ghost-typing is a decent defensive typing though its resists and immunities are rare at this point of the game. Offensively it is good for a few of the remaining battles.
Movepool: Pumpkaboo has a bad level-up movepool that is somewhat offset by Trick-or-Treat improving its STAB and it has a wide TM pool with lots of special and physical coverage. Too bad its Special Attack is too low to make good use of moves like Flamethrower.
Major Battles: Irrespective of size, Pumpkaboo struggles to do much in major battles thanks to its overall terrible stats.
Additional Comments: Pickup is preferred because it means that it can pick up items for you from time to time. Outside of that, it is not difficult to see why Pumpkaboo is a terrible choice for XY. Size does not really matter much at all here.

Shelmet (w/o Trade)
Availability: Route 14, 10%.
Stats: Shelmet has fairly decent bulk—especially with an Eviolite—but it has terrible offenses and very low speed.
Typing: Bug-typing at this point of the game is good for one gym offensively and not much else. Defensively it suffers from one relevant weakness and no relevant resistances.
Movepool: Bad. Shelmet has a decent offensive movepool with Giga Drain, Bug Buzz, Body Slam, and Sludge Bomb the stand-outs. Shelmet also has Recover which could be useful for saving potions.
Major Battles: Shelmet struggles every matchup from when you get it onwards. Its terrible offensive presence and bulk that is above average at best means it will struggle to contribute effectively anywhere.
Additional Comments: Shell Armor is preferred to prevent random critical hits from taking it out. Eviolite is preferred on Shelmet. These do not save Shelmet from being one of the worst options for going through XY with however.

Shuckle
Availability: Route 18 / Terminus Cave, 5-10% (Rock Smash)
Stats: Incredible bulk but non-existent offenses and speed.
Typing: Rock/Bug-typing is not useless defensively but not useful. Offensively it is irrelevant since Shuckle is not taking things out quickly enough to matter.
Movepool: It has a solid defensive movepool and its offensive movepool is decent. Too bad Shuckle cannot take full advantage of its offensive coverage. Shuckle can come knowing Power Trick which can fix its offensive issues at the cost of losing to any physical attacker.
Major Battles: Shuckle can put up a fight with any of the remaining battles outside of Wilkstrom but does not have the power to do much unless Power Trick shenanigans are being used.
Additional Comments: Sturdy is the only useful ability Shuckle gets so that should be used. While not terrible in any sense, it is too weak offensively and henceforth, too inefficient to even be a remotely decent choice in XY.

Smeargle
Availability: Route 7, 10%.
Stats: Outside of its average Base 75 Speed, its stats in general are poor, especially its Base 20 Attack and Special Attack.
Typing: Normal-typing gives it no STAB Super Effective coverage and no resistances alongside a weakness to the Fighting-type. An immunity to the Ghost-type is the only great thing about it.
Movepool: It can learn anything as long as it can Sketch it.
Major Battles: If Smeargle can get Dragon Rage from a wild Axew, it will be fairly decent in the early Major Battles. Otherwise, it will generally be next to useless in Major Battles from the third gym onwards.
Additional Comments: Smeargle is too reliant on what it sketches to be of much use and is stuck with three or less moves until the lategame at least. Because of this alongside its poor stats, Smeargle is a very bad choice in terms of getting through the game in an efficient manner.

Spinda
Availability: Route 21, 20%.
Stats: Base 60 stats across the board. Terrible for an endgame Pokémon.
Typing: Normal-typing comes with no super effective coverage and no resistances, which is very bad for a Pokémon like Spinda.
Movepool: The only good thing about Spinda, since it is gets a lot of coverage from Sucker Punch to Psychic to Dig to Shadow Ball to Rock Slide to Wild Charge to Brick Break and of course, its Normal-type STAB. It has a decent disruptive movepool as well. The key is being able to take advantage of it.
Major Battles: Spinda struggles in all major battles from the point you get it onwards. You need to be really skilled to get any major mileage out of it in major battles.
Additional Comments: Unless you are one of the most skilled when it comes to in-game runs, it is very difficult to get anything out of using Spinda ingame. This makes Spinda one of the worst choices for running through XY with.

Wobbuffet
Availability: Reflection Cave, 10%.
Stats: Its HP is massive and its Defenses are average. Its Speed is poor and its Attack and Special Attack are poor but these stats generally do not matter for Wobbuffet.
Typing: Psychic-typing gives it weaknesses to Bug-, Ghost-, and Dark-type attacks—two of which are common—but it also has resistances to Fighting- and Psychic-type attacks, both of which are common. Offensively its typing is irrelevant due to movepool.
Movepool: Counter, Mirror Coat, Safeguard, and Destiny Bond.
Major Battles: If you are a master at prediction you can deal a lot of damage to opponents, but it will also take a lot of damage in the process. It can even take any opponent it wants when it goes down. Otherwise, Wobbuffet will generally be ineffective in major battles.
Additional Comments: Wobbuffet is incredibly slow to level up in-game due to its reliance on taking damage to deal damage. Because of this reliance on the opponent, Wobbuffet is one of the worst possible choices when it comes to getting through the game efficiently.

====================

Okay guys I have created a new thread to accommodate for write-ups because you can no longer have more than 65k characters in a single post and given there are 245 entries to write-up, it is natural that I decided to create a new thread and split it up over several posts.

But yeah write-ups are open. The format is in the OP of this thread and yeah. If you write up a significant number of entries, you could be considered for a Pre-Contributor or a Contributor badge or something, idk.

As far as reservations are concerned, I will allow with a couple of caveats:

Reservations expire after 24 hours. This is to make it fair so people cannot just take something and leave it for days. I will not really be monitoring this heavily so I encourage you to use a little sense and check timestamps and that.
You can only reserve up to three entries at a time. This is to stop people from being super greedy or something but yeah.

As for writing tips:

Try to be as formal and professional as possible. That means follow Smogon Grammar standards, do not write things like "lol" or any other of those informal casual things and whatever else. You know what I mean.
Be concise in your writing. My Mega Charizard Y entry is a bit of an example as to what I am looking for. Summarise things, keep it brief and to the point, and try to stay away from going into details.
It is recommended that you have some experience with the Pokémon. A bit of anecdotal evidence can help you understand the mon more but at the same time, do not solely base things off anecdotal evidence. The first thread has a whole bunch of arguments and anecdotal evidences for most mons so it would be helpful to look at that. Of course some things like Ditto do not really need anecdotal evidence but you get the idea.
I (and possibly several others) am going to quality control the write-ups. I am likely to edit things for grammar and whatnot or some other errors before putting it up for display but if the write-up looks like you have no idea what you are doing or something, I am likely to reject it. Though most will be accepted, you have been warned. Not really a writing tip, but it does tie in a bit with the last point.

I guess that is everything related to write-ups here. Here is the write-up list with credits given to who wrote it:

S-Tier
~~Aerodactyl~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Charmander [X]
~~Charmander [Y]~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Honedge~~ ~ cant say
~~Riolu~~ ~ stage7_4

A-Tier
~~Azurill~~ ~ 11pikabro
Budew
Bulbasaur
~~Fennekin~~ ~ Miscellaneous
~~Haunter (w/ Trade)~~ ~ stage7_4
~~Heracross [Y]~~ ~ Xenon Blastoise
~~Magikarp~~ ~ Colonel M
~~Sawk [X]~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom

B-Tier
Abra
Axew
Ferroseed
~~Froakie~~ ~ atsync
~~Gible~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Hawlucha~~ ~ DHR-107
~~Magneton~~ ~ 11pikabro
~~Mime Jr.~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Nidoran♀
Nidoran♂
~~Onix (w/ Trade)~~ ~ Colonel M
~~Pinsir [X]~~ ~ RegiFlame150
Ralts (Gallade)
~~Ralts (Gardevoir)~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
~~Scatterbug~~ ~ cant say
~~Sigilyph~~ ~ DHR-107
~~Squirtle~~ ~ cant say
Starly
Staryu [X]
~~Throh [Y]~~ ~ darkness7690
~~Tyrunt~~ ~ SkywardSword596
Xerneas [X]
Yveltal [Y]
~~Zangoose~~ ~ 11pikabro

C-Tier
Absol
Bidoof
Binacle
~~Chespin~~ ~ cant say
~~Doduo~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Drifloon
~~Eevee (Espeon)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Eevee (Flareon)~~ ~ 11pikabro
~~Eevee (Sylveon)~~ ~ cant say
Eevee (Vaporeon)
Emolga
~~Fletchling~~ ~ 11pikabro
~~Furfrou~~ ~ cant say
Hariyama
Haunter (w/o Trade)
Kangaskhan
~~Karrablast (w/ Trade)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Lapras
Machop
~~Meditite~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Miltank
~~Oddish (Vileplume)~~ ~ Tomy
~~Pancham~~ ~ SkywardSword596
Pansear
~~Pikachu~~ ~ 11pikabro
~~Sandile~~ ~ SwampySwampert
Scraggy
~~Seviper~~ ~ darkness7690
Shellder [Y]
~~Skiddo~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Snorlax
Solosis
Tauros
Tentacool
~~Trapinch~~ ~ cant say
Venipede
Zubat

D-Tier
~~Amaura~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Aron [X]
Bagon
Basculin
Bellsprout
Bergmite
Bunnelby
Carvanha
~~Caterpie~~ ~ SwampySwampert
Chatot
~~Chinchou~~ ~ Naix
~~Clauncher [X]~~ ~ SwampySwampert
Corphish
~~Croagunk~~ ~ 11pikabro
Cryogonal
Cubchoo
~~Cubone~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Ducklett
Durant
Dwebble
Eevee (Jolteon)
Electrike [Y]
~~Espurr (F)~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
~~Espurr (M)~~ ~ Naix
Farfetch'd
~~Flabébé~~ ~ atsync
Floatzel
Geodude (w/ Trade)
Goldeen
Golett
Goomy
Gorebyss
Gulpin
Gurdurr
Heatmor
~~Helioptile~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Hippopotas
Houndour [X]
Huntail
Inkay
Kecleon
~~Klefki~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Litleo
Litwick
Lombre
Lunatone
Mantyke
Mareep
~~Mienfoo~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Nincada
Oddish (Bellossom)
Panpour
Pansage
Pawniard
Phantump (w/ Trade)
~~Pidgey~~ ~ atsync
Piloswine
Poliwag (Politoed)
Poliwag (Poliwrath)
Psyduck
~~Pumpkaboo (w/ Trade)~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Quagsire
Relicanth
Remoraid
Rhyhorn
Rotom
Sableye
Shelmet (w/ Trade)
Skorupi
~~Skrelp [Y]~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Smoochum
Snover
Snubbull
~~Solrock~~ ~ cant say
Spoink
Spritzee (w/ Trade) [Y]
Stunfisk
Stunky
Swablu
Swirlix
Taillow
Ursaring
Weedle
Whismur
Woobat
Zigzagoon

E-Tier
Alomomola
Ariados
Audino
~~Banette~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Barboach
~~Burmy (Mothim)~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
~~Burmy (Wormadam Plant)~~ ~ Tyranitarphantom
Burmy (Wormadam Sand)
Burmy (Wormadam Trash)
Carbink
Carnivine
Chingling
~~Combee~~ ~ Colonel M
~~Dedenne~~ ~ 11pikabro
~~Delibird~~ ~ SwampySwampert
~~Dratini~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Druddigon~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Dunsparce
Eevee (Glaceon)
~~Eevee (Leafeon)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Eevee (Umbreon)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Ekans
Electrode
Exeggcute
~~Fearow~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Foongus
Geodude (w/o Trade)
~~Gligar~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Gothorita~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Hoppip
~~Horsea~~ ~ Naix
Illumise
~~Jigglypuff~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Larvitar [Y]
~~Lickitung~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Liepard [Y]
Masquerain
Mawile
Mightyena [X]
Minun
~~Murkrow~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Noctowl~~ ~ Kurona
~~Noibat~~ ~ SwampySwampert
Nosepass
~~Pachirisu~~ ~ 11pikabro
Qwilfish
Roggenrola
Sandslash
Scyther
~~Sentret~~ ~ 11pikabro
~~Shedinja~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Skarmory~~ ~ Its_A_Random
Skitty
Slowpoke (Slowbro)
Slowpoke (Slowking)
Slugma
Sneasel
Spritzee (w/o Trade) [Y]
Sudowoodo
Swirlix (w/o Trade) [X]
Torkoal
Trubbish
Vanillite
Volbeat
Wailmer
Watchog
Wingull
~~Yanma~~ ~ 11pikabro
~~Zoroark~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Zweilous~~ ~ Its_A_Random

F-Tier
~~Clamperl~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Corsola~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Ditto~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Karrablast (w/o Trade)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Ledyba~~ ~ 11pikabro
~~Luvdisc~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Onix (w/o Trade)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Phantump (w/o Trade)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Pumpkaboo (w/o Trade)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Shelmet (w/o Trade)~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Shuckle~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Smeargle~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Spinda~~ ~ Its_A_Random
~~Wobbuffet~~ ~ Its_A_Random

Finally some other stuff:

You can still argue about the placement of Pokémon and whatnot here. Just because write-ups have started, does not mean that the tiering placements are final. If you feel that something should be higher or lower, then by all means make your voice heard. I am still going to update tiers but mainly on demand.
Normal Forum Rules still apply here. While I personally do not moderate this forum, others do and as a result, you should not be flaming users or unnecessarily double posting or any other things that goes against the rules of Smogon Forums or the rules specific to Orange Islands.

That is pretty much it, write-ups are open as of now.

Cheers!
Its_A_Random

You can now post. Also using my 2.3k post to reserve Ditto, Smeargle and Wobbuffet because why not.

Ditto
Availability: Pokémon Village, 10-20%.
Stats: Very mediocre at Base 48 across the board prior to using Transform.
Typing: Normal-typing prior to using Transform.
Movepool: Transform.
Major Battles: Out of the remaining battles, it can be somewhat effective if you transform into the right thing and if you get the Transform off. Otherwise it is generally ineffective in virtually all of the remaining major battles.
Additional Comments: If you are lucky and get one holding a Quick Powder or a Metal Powder, it can get the Transform off much easier. Otherwise, the fact that it is reliant on its opponent to do anything in general makes Ditto one of the worst possible choices when it comes to getting through the game efficiently.

Smeargle
Availability: Route 7, 10%.
Stats: Outside of its decent Base 85 Speed, its stats in general are poor, especially its Base 20 Attack and Special Attack.
Typing: Normal-typing gives it no STAB Super Effective coverage and no resistances alongside a weakness to the Fighting-type. An immunity to the Ghost-type is the only great thing about it.
Movepool: It can learn anything as long as it can Sketch it.
Major Battles: If Smeargle can get Dragon Rage from a wild Axew, it will be fairly decent in the early Major Battles. Otherwise, it will generally be next to useless in Major Battles from the third gym onwards.
Additional Comments: Smeargle is too reliant on what it sketches to be of much use and is stuck with three or less moves until the lategame at least. Because of this alongside its poor stats, Smeargle is a very bad choice in terms of getting through the game in an efficient manner.

Wobbuffet
Availability: Reflection Cave, 10%.
Stats: Its HP is massive and its Defenses are average. Its Speed is poor and its Attack and Special Attack are poor but these stats generally do not matter for Wobbuffet.
Typing: Psychic-typing gives it weaknesses to Bug-, Ghost-, and Dark-type attacks—two of which are common—but it also has resistances to Fighting- and Psychic-type attacks, both of which are common. Offensively its typing is irrelevant due to movepool.
Movepool: Counter, Mirror Coat, Safeguard, and Destiny Bond.
Major Battles: If you are a master at prediction you can deal a lot of damage to opponents, but it will also take a lot of damage in the process. It can even take any opponent it wants when it goes down. Otherwise, Wobbuffet will generally be ineffective in major battles.
Additional Comments: Wobbuffet is incredibly slow to level up in-game due to its reliance on taking damage to deal damage. Because of this reliance on the opponent, Wobbuffet is one of the worst possible choices when it comes to getting through the game efficiently.

All done!

Miscellaneous · Sep 8, 2014

After having caught a pikachu with a light ball (admittedly, only a 5% chance) I must say that it more than qualifies for C ranking under this condition. It's one of the best early-game pokemon before the really good stuff starts coming along (MEvos, Lucario, etc). I can understand that it is not efficient to rely on finding a wild pikachu with a light ball, doing this properly would require having a rough idea of what its attacks should do with and without the item. The XY early game isn't known for being difficult, but you can easily rely on pikachu to solo until the 3rd gym due to effectively having ~125 base attack and special attack with 90 speed and instant access to a STAB which isn't resisted by almost anything (in the early game). Later on, pikachu@LB definitely suffers from its bad defenses. But it's still a bit "meh" because the encounter rate of wild pikachu isn't great, and then you're more looking on seeing if thundershock does 7 dmg+ to scout for LB (which isn't feasible if you started with froakie) - that's a lot of ifs.

But talking of pokemon that destroy the XY early game....

Fennekin
Availability: Aquacorde Town (gift from Tierno)
Stats: The fennekin line offers itself to the role of a special tank: with high Sp. Attack, Sp. Defense and Speed. Hp, Attack and Defense are a bit below average.
Typing: Fire-typing offers good STAB super-effective coverage and is pretty decent defensively; offering resistance to 6 types; whilst being weak to Ground-, Rock- and Water-type attacks, which aren't as common in X/Y. Gaining Physic-typing upon its final evolution is helpful; giving it an offensive boost with unresisted STAB coverage outside of certain dual-types and adding resistance to two common offensive types (Fight- and Psychic-).
Movepool: Ember is the best early game option, with flame charge offering a nice secondary effect, then Psybeam and Psyshock then become your strongest attacks, with Light Screen offering a workable defensive option with Will-O-Wisp later on. Fennekin then finally gains access to a better options; with Mystical Fire, Flamethrower and Psychic. It's also worthwhile considering picking up TMs to Sunny Day, Calm Mind, Psychic, Solarbeam and Fire-Blast, and with this you can have a formidable offensive movepool around ~lv47.
Major Battles: Fire/Psychic really is a wonderful typing. You are essentially at an advantage against 5 or 6/8 gyms as well as E4 Wikstrom. Outside of this, Fennekin does quite well against any special- based pokemon which aren't hitting it for super effective damage and can offer a great support option with Will-O-Wisp and Light Screen.
Additional Comments: Fennekin has great typing and stats for X/Y, it is just let down by its movepool, or lack thereof, between levels ~15 and ~40. For someone looking for a quick, efficient playthrough - Fennekin has a lot to offer due to its power and speed, particularly in the very early and late game. Fennekin does look for decent synergy, particularly to cover its Water-, and Dark-type weaknesses.

Detective Barricade · Sep 8, 2014

Honedge
Availability: Route 6 (the side routes on the way back from Parfum Palace)
Stats: This gets interesting. Honedge and its evolved form, Doublade, heavily favor Attack and Defense, with HP, Special Attack, and Speed being terrible. (Special Defense isn't much better) But once it evolves into Aegislash, its HP and Speed are still low, but it can have base 150 Defense and Special Defense or base 150 Attack and Special Attack with the other stats being base 50, depending on its form. It starts in Shield Form with the massive defenses, and changes to Blade Form when its about to attack. It can change back to Shield Form using the move King's Shield.
Typing: Steel/Ghost is so far unique to Honedge's evolutionary line, and has the same resistances and weaknesses as Steel/Psychic - Fire, Ground, and Ghost and Dark as of this generation. However, its Ghost typing gives it immunity to the very common Normal and Fighting type attacks, and prevents it from being trapped, including by Arena Trap and Shadow Tag. The latter is handy if you don't wish to battle wild Wobbuffet or Trapinch/Dugtrio.
Movepool: Fury Cutter, (very useful early on thanks to Honedge's No Guard and its buff to BP 40) Shadow Sneak, (handy to mitigate its low speed) Shadow Claw, Shadow Ball, Iron Head, Sacred Sword, King's Shield, (only as Aegislash, and only via Move Reminder) Aerial Ace, just to name a few. Its movepool is amazing, and it can make use of it all as Aegislash. If you don't want to use Aegislash itself, Shadow Claw will work wonders on anything that isn't Normal.
Major Battles: Doesn't fare so well against Grant's Tyrunt, but can handle the rest of the gym and the remaining six gyms perfectly fine. Does alright against Team Flare, especially once it learns Sacred Sword to handle the Dark types including Houndour, but Lysandre's battles may be slightly troublesome, especially Mega Gyarados thanks to the base form's Intimidate. Fares quite well against half of the Elite Four, but is risky against Malva, and very well against the Champion. (though not all at once without King's Shield as Blade Form's defenses are weak and all of her Pokemon will outspeed it) Finally, it can defeat AZ easily.
Additional Comments: Honedge is THE Steel type Pokemon to pick up, if any. While it may be a tad unintuitive to get to where it can be found, (needing to take the side paths back) it's more than worth that bit of trouble in the long run. The rest of your Pokemon after the second gym may have more trouble keeping up with it than it with them due to its wonderful, useful movepool. No Guard lets it get away with less than perfectly accurate moves, albeit any move the opponent uses will land as well, and Aegislash's Stance Change switches its form when its about to attack or use King's Shield. The only negative really is you need to go for a side trip through Terminus Cave to acquire a Dusk Stone. There is a Secret Super Training regimen that could get a Dusk Stone earlier, but it's so inefficient it's really not worth bothering with that route. And if playing with Stance Change isn't for you, it's worth noting Doublade can make excellent use of Eviolite.

This is my first time doing this sort of thing, so forgive me if it's not quite up to the site's high standards. I've tried to follow the guidelines as best as I can, but Aegislash's stats do warrant the explanation in the stats section I believe.

Naix · Sep 8, 2014

I'll be reserving Chinchou, Horsea, and Espurr (M) if nobody minds.
EDIT: Here's Chinchou! Espurr (M) is soon to come.

Chinchou
Availability: Can be fished up at Azure Bay or Shalour City with the Good Rod. They are at level 20 and have a moderate chance at being reeled in.
Stats: Titanic HP notwithstanding, Chinchou's (and later Lanturn's) stats are overall mediocre with its Special stats being the highest at merely 76.
Typing: Water/Electric is a handy defensive typing, leaving it weak only to Grass- and Ground-type moves, neither of which being too common after the fifth gym. Offensively, Chinchou's STABs are only resisted by Grass- and Dragon-types (not taking abilities into account). Chinchou can also potentially have the ability Volt Absorb, which turns its neutrality to Electric-type moves into an immunity that heals it if the opponent uses one on it.
Movepool: What Chinchou lacks in level-up moves, it makes up for it with TMs such as Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam, and Ice Beam, though you don't get the latter until after the eighth gym. Of course, Chinchou can also learn Surf via HM, and Charge Beam can be helpful for the (albeit unreliable) chance to increase Special Attack, a boost which Lanturn definitely appreciates.
Major Battles: As it should be expected, Lanturn should not be used against Ramos. Although it takes surprisingly little damage from Grass Knot, it can't do anything in return other than use Confuse Ray. Clemont is definitely worth a mention, as a Volt Absorb Lanturn can defeat all of his Pokemon with the exception of Heliolisk, who has Dry Skin. Lanturn's performance against the other major trainers is generally average overall otherwise, with notable performances being against Lysandre (can take out Murkrow/Honchkrow and Pyroar in each fight) and Malva (can deal with Talonflame and Chandelure, but has trouble with Torkoal and sometimes Pyroar)
Additional Comments: Overall, despite Chinchou's solid movepool and good typing, its stats fail to let it properly utilize its strengths, making it a mediocre choice for efficient playthroughs.

EDIT2: And now Espurr (M)!

Espurr (M)
Availability: They are in Route 6's patches of tall grass, where they are level 11 or 12 and are among the more common encounters in the route.
Stats: Without a doubt, Meowstic's greatest statistical asset is its impressive speed. Everything else about it is okay at best, often not quite being high enough for its liking. Unlike its evolution, though, Espurr's stats are balanced overall, with nothing really standing out or being above average for the time.
Typing: Psychic typing definitely allows it to do well against the Black Belts and Battle Girls which populate the point in the game between Geosenge Town and Shalour City and helps it against a chunk (but not quite half) of Team Flare. Defensively, pure Psychic-types don't really have much going for them, with their resistances being to Fighting-types (which Meowstic typically does well against anyway) and fellow Psychic-types.
Movepool: The male variant of Meowstic doesn't really have too much in the way of offensive options via level-up, as its level-up movepool is support-oriented; the only notable offensive level-up moves it learns are Psybeam (level 17), Psyshock (level 25), and Psychic (level 40). Meowstic has a solid TM repertoire, though most of the ones it benefits from are obtained late in the game, with Thunderbolt being the only one that appears at a decent time.
Major Battles: Meowstic does well against Korrina, though her Hawlucha could provide trouble. After that, most of the Gym Leaders have at least one Pokemon that Meowstic can defeat by itself, though that's usually the only thing it can do to their team offensively. Meowstic can't do much to your rival prior to Anistar City unless you started with Froakie, as Chesnaught is the only Pokemon on his/her team at the time that doesn't have a resistance or immunity to Psychic-type moves.
Additional Comments: Male Meowstic's downfalls are its poor level-up movepool and merely average Special Attack. These two aspects prevent it from hitting anything neutral to Psychic-type attacks very hard, reducing its effectiveness in efficiency-based runs.

EDIT3: And Horsea!

Horsea
Availability: Horsea are in Cyllage City and Ambrette Town, though you'll have to do some backtracking to get one as it can only be fished up with the Good Rod.
Stats: Horsea and Seadra have the statistical pattern of below-average HP and Attack, terrible Special Defense, and solid everything else. Kingdra's weaker stats are bolstered to match its stronger ones.
Typing: Water is a solid type to have (as usual), minus the two gyms you take on after you're able to catch Horsea. Kingdra's secondary Dragon typing is a mixed bag, removing the Electric and Grass weaknesses and the Ice resistance while bolstering its Water and Fire resistances and adding weaknesses to Dragon- and Fairy-type attacks (though the first of those new weaknesses isn't too bothersome by virtue of how uncommon good Dragon-types are in the game).
Movepool: Horsea's movepool is very shallow; aside from Surf, it learns very little of value prior to Anistar City, which is quite a way into the game.
Major Battles: Seadra should not be used against Ramos or Clemont. It can deal with Wulfric decently (minus Abomasnow), and generally has "okay" performances against mostly everything else. Some of Kingdra's performances change due to its different type: it does better against Ramos, Clemont, and Malva (though it still shouldn't be used against the former) and has more trouble against Valerie, Wulfric, and Drasna.
Additional Comments: If you want to use Kingdra rather than Seadra, keep in mind that there are only three ways to do so: either get lucky with catching a Horsea that holds a Dragon Scale, wait until Terminus Cave, or have the person you're trading with give Seadra a Dragon Scale for the trade back. It's worth mentioning, though, that Seadra has better physical bulk than Kingdra thanks to Eviolite. Either way, it's inconvenient and/or unreliable and it's still a bad Pokemon to use in-game regardless of whether it's a Seadra or Kingdra, as it's out of the way and has frankly unimpressive stats and a barren movepool.

Karxrida · Sep 8, 2014

I'm allowed to comment on stuff, right?

Detective Barricade said:
Honedge
Availability: Route 6 (the side routes on the way back from Parfum Palace)
Stats: This gets interesting. Honedge and its evolved form, Doublade, heavily favor Attack and Defense, with HP, Special Attack, and Speed being terrible. (Special Defense isn't much better) But once it evolves into Aegislash, its HP and Speed are still low, but it can have base 150 Defense and Special Defense or base 150 Attack and Special Attack with the other stats being base 50, depending on its form. It starts in Shield Form with the massive defenses, and changes to Blade Form when its about to attack. It can change back to Shield Form using the move King's Shield.
Typing: Steel/Ghost is so far unique to Honedge's evolutionary line, and has the same resistances and weaknesses as Steel/Psychic - Fire, Ground, and Ghost and Dark as of this generation. However, its Ghost typing gives it immunity to the very common Normal and Fighting type attacks, and prevents it from being trapped, including by Arena Trap and Shadow Tag. The latter is handy if you don't wish to battle wild Wobbuffet or Trapinch/Dugtrio.
Movepool: Fury Cutter, (very useful early on thanks to Honedge's No Guard and its buff to BP 40) Shadow Sneak, (handy to mitigate its low speed) Shadow Ball, Iron Head, Sacred Sword, King's Shield, (only as Aegislash, and only via Move Reminder) Aerial Ace, just to name a few. Its movepool is amazing, and it can make use of it all as Aegislash.
Major Battles: Doesn't fare so well against Grant, but can handle the remaining six gyms perfectly fine. Does alright against Team Flare, especially once it learns Sacred Sword to handle the Dark types including Houndour, but Lysandre's battles may be slightly troublesome, especially Mega Gyarados thanks to the base form's Intimidate. Fares quite well against half of the Elite Four, but terribly against Malva, and very well against the Champion. (though not all at once without King's Shield as Blade Form's defenses are weak and all of her Pokemon will outspeed it) Finally, it can defeat AZ easily.
Additional Comments: Honedge is THE Steel type Pokemon to pick up, if any. While it may be a tad unintuitive to get to where it can be found, (needing to take the side paths back) and may need a little babying through its first gym, it's more than worth that bit of trouble in the long run. The rest of your Pokemon after the second gym may have more trouble keeping up with it than it with them due to its wonderful, useful movepool. No Guard lets it get away with less than perfectly accurate moves, albeit any move the opponent uses will land as well, and Aegislash's Stance Change switches its form when its about to attack or use King's Shield. The only negative really is you need to go for a side trip through Terminus Cave to acquire a Dusk Stone. There is a Secret Super Training regimen that could get a Dusk Stone earlier, but it's so inefficient it's really not worth bothering with that route.

This is my first time doing this sort of thing, so forgive me if it's not quite up to the site's high standards. I've tried to follow the guidelines as best as I can, but Aegislash's stats do warrant the explanation in the stats section I believe.

The only thing Grant has for Honedge is Tyrunt's Bite (you resist literally everything else), which you can probably tank at least 1 of and still beat him with Fury Cutter spam. You can solo your way through the Gym trainers if you want EXP that badly, with only Hiker Bernard's Rhyhorn and Onix giving you any trouble since they resist Fury Cutter.

You're not completely useless against Malva if you have King's Shield. Talonflame's only way of dealing with you is Flare Blitz, which you can exploit with King's Shield and then hit back with Shadow Claw/Ball.

You also can easily go mixed with Aegislash since the TM for Shadow Ball is available in Terminus Cave like the Dusk Stone is.

Detective Barricade · Sep 8, 2014

Karxrida said:
I'm allowed to comment on stuff, right?

The only thing Grant has for Honedge is Tyrunt's Bite (you resist literally everything else), which you can probably tank at least 1 of and still beat him with Fury Cutter spam. You can solo your way through the Gym trainers if you want EXP that badly, with only Hiker Bernard's Rhyhorn and Onix giving you any trouble since they resist Fury Cutter.

You're not completely useless against Malva if you have King's Shield. Talonflame's only way of dealing with you is Flare Blitz, which you can exploit with King's Shield and then hit back with Shadow Claw/Ball.

You also can easily go mixed with Aegislash since the TM for Shadow Ball is available in Terminus Cave like the Dusk Stone is.

These are all good points, though Tyrunt is still a risky match up due to the Strong Jaw boosted Bite and the possible flinch chance. I'll edit my post to make note of this.

I'll also reserve Emolga and Sylveon. I doubt I have much competition for the electric flying squirrel, though.

Edit: Emolga is up! Will get Sylveon up tomorrow as it's getting late at the time I'm typing this, and don't want it coming out like a pile of garbled nonsense.

Emolga
Availability: Route 10 (fairly common)
Stats: Great Speed, but only mediocre Attack and Special Attack. Its remaining stats are terrible.
Typing: Electric/Flying, leaving it weak to Ice and Rock, and immune to Ground.
Movepool: Limited. It's mostly Electric moves with Acrobatics and a couple of others.
Major Battles: Has an advantage against Korrina, Ramos, and Siebold - but a disadvantage against Grant, Clemont, and Wulfric. Handles Team Flare well.
Additional Comments: Emolga is only a mediocre choice for getting through the game efficiently.

Edit 2: Sylveon is up!

Sylveon
Availability: Route 10 as Eevee. (uncommon)
Stats: Great specials and good HP, but weak on the physicals and is slow
Typing: Fairy, granting it resistance to Fighting, Dark, and Bug, immunity to Dragon, and a weakness to the uncommon Poison and Steel.
Movepool: Limited to its three STAB moves and Swift until Victory Road.
Major Battles: Has an advantage against Korrina and Drasna, while only at a disadvantage against Malva and Wikstrom. Performs favorably against Team Flare, especially Lysandre.
Additional Comments: Sylveon is only an average choice at best in terms of an efficiently-minded run, particularly due to its evolution method.

DHR-107 · Sep 9, 2014

Detective Barricade Karxrida

Why on earth are you using Fury Cutter when you get Shadow Claw in Glittering Cave? It's not far off the beaten path anyway (you literally go left as opposed to straight iirc). Shadow Claw that early and being able to totally wall one of the Korrina matches (with the two lucario in Geosenge). Shadow Claw is definitely worth mentioning for Honedge as it is his single best move for the majority of the game. Your write up doesn not even mention Shadow Claw.

It's also worth noting that Eviolite Doublade is also a very solid option if you don't want to play Stance Change shenanigans. I used Evio Doublade through my entire playthrough, and never once wanted to evolve it. My friend did evolve his and he regretted it a lot. Doublade still has ridiculous stats (59/110/150/45/49/35) and with eviolite is basically indestructible.

I'll grab Hawlucha and Sigilyph for now and get them done later.

Detective Barricade · Sep 9, 2014

DHR-107 said:
Detective Barricade Karxrida

Why on earth are you using Fury Cutter when you get Shadow Claw in Glittering Cave? It's not far off the beaten path anyway (you literally go left as opposed to straight iirc). Shadow Claw that early and being able to totally wall one of the Korrina matches (with the two lucario in Geosenge). Shadow Claw is definitely worth mentioning for Honedge as it is his single best move for the majority of the game. Your write up does not even mention Shadow Claw.

It's also worth noting that Eviolite Doublade is also a very solid option if you don't want to play Stance Change shenanigans. I used Evio Doublade through my entire playthrough, and never once wanted to evolve it. My friend did evolve his and he regretted it a lot. Doublade still has ridiculous stats (59/110/150/45/49/35) and with eviolite is basically indestructible.

I'll grab Hawlucha and Sigilyph for now and get them done later.

Thanks for pointing that out. To be honest it completely slipped my mind until now... Regardless, I've edited my post to include Shadow Claw and to note the option of using Eviolite with Doublade.

Its_A_Random · Sep 10, 2014

Its_A_Random said:
Be concise in your writing. My Mega Charizard Y entry is a bit of an example as to what I am looking for. Summarise things, keep it brief and to the point, and try to stay away from going into details.

I think some people missed this part of the writing tips. We do not need each entry to be a big wall of text, we just need a short overview of how it does. As a guide, if you are getting more than two lines for typing and stats and more than three lines for additional comments, major battles and movepool, then odds are your entry needs to be shorter (There are a few exceptions though).

Looking at some entries:

Miscellaneous said:
Fennekin
Availability: Aquacorde Town (gift from Tierno)
Stats: The fennekin line offers itself to the role of a special tank: with high Sp. Attack, Sp. Defense and Speed. Hp, Attack and Defense are a bit below average.
Typing: Fire-typing offers good STAB super-effective coverage and is pretty decent defensively; offering resistance to 6 types; whilst being weak to Ground-, Rock- and Water-type attacks, which aren't as common in X/Y. Gaining Physic-typing upon its final evolution is helpful; giving it an offensive boost with unresisted STAB coverage outside of certain dual-types and adding resistance to two common offensive types (Fight- and Psychic-).
Movepool: Ember is the best early game option, with flame charge offering a nice secondary effect, then Psybeam and Psyshock then become your strongest attacks, with Light Screen offering a workable defensive option with Will-O-Wisp later on. Fennekin then finally gains access to a better options; with Mystical Fire, Flamethrower and Psychic. It's also worthwhile considering picking up TMs to Sunny Day, Calm Mind, Psychic, Solarbeam and Fire-Blast, and with this you can have a formidable offensive movepool around ~lv47.
Major Battles: Fire/Psychic really is a wonderful typing. You are essentially at an advantage against 5 or 6/8 gyms as well as E4 Wikstrom. Outside of this, Fennekin does quite well against any special- based pokemon which aren't hitting it for super effective damage and can offer a great support option with Will-O-Wisp and Light Screen.
Additional Comments: Fennekin has great typing and stats for X/Y, it is just let down by its movepool, or lack thereof, between levels ~15 and ~40. For someone looking for a quick, efficient playthrough - Fennekin has a lot to offer due to its power and speed, particularly in the very early and late game. Fennekin does look for decent synergy, particularly to cover its Water-, and Dark-type weaknesses.

I would not put great emphasis on Will-O-Wisp, Light Screen and Sunny Day (probably not even mention it). In these sort of lists, an offensive movepool has greater importance while stat boosters can also work. Looks decent though personally the major battles section needs a bit of a rework. Nevertheless I will edit it and throw it in.

EDIT: Man I just realised I am editing this quite a bit (though the main thing feels the same even though re-worded)... but I will still credit you for it... ×_×

Detective Barricade said:
Honedge
Availability: Route 6 (the side routes on the way back from Parfum Palace)
Stats: This gets interesting. Honedge and its evolved form, Doublade, heavily favor Attack and Defense, with HP, Special Attack, and Speed being terrible. (Special Defense isn't much better) But once it evolves into Aegislash, its HP and Speed are still low, but it can have base 150 Defense and Special Defense or base 150 Attack and Special Attack with the other stats being base 50, depending on its form. It starts in Shield Form with the massive defenses, and changes to Blade Form when its about to attack. It can change back to Shield Form using the move King's Shield.
Typing: Steel/Ghost is so far unique to Honedge's evolutionary line, and has the same resistances and weaknesses as Steel/Psychic - Fire, Ground, and Ghost and Dark as of this generation. However, its Ghost typing gives it immunity to the very common Normal and Fighting type attacks, and prevents it from being trapped, including by Arena Trap and Shadow Tag. The latter is handy if you don't wish to battle wild Wobbuffet or Trapinch/Dugtrio.
Movepool: Fury Cutter, (very useful early on thanks to Honedge's No Guard and its buff to BP 40) Shadow Sneak, (handy to mitigate its low speed) Shadow Claw, Shadow Ball, Iron Head, Sacred Sword, King's Shield, (only as Aegislash, and only via Move Reminder) Aerial Ace, just to name a few. Its movepool is amazing, and it can make use of it all as Aegislash. If you don't want to use Aegislash itself, Shadow Claw will work wonders on anything that isn't Normal.
Major Battles: Doesn't fare so well against Grant's Tyrunt, but can handle the rest of the gym and the remaining six gyms perfectly fine. Does alright against Team Flare, especially once it learns Sacred Sword to handle the Dark types including Houndour, but Lysandre's battles may be slightly troublesome, especially Mega Gyarados thanks to the base form's Intimidate. Fares quite well against half of the Elite Four, but is risky against Malva, and very well against the Champion. (though not all at once without King's Shield as Blade Form's defenses are weak and all of her Pokemon will outspeed it) Finally, it can defeat AZ easily.
Additional Comments: Honedge is THE Steel type Pokemon to pick up, if any. While it may be a tad unintuitive to get to where it can be found, (needing to take the side paths back) it's more than worth that bit of trouble in the long run. The rest of your Pokemon after the second gym may have more trouble keeping up with it than it with them due to its wonderful, useful movepool. No Guard lets it get away with less than perfectly accurate moves, albeit any move the opponent uses will land as well, and Aegislash's Stance Change switches its form when its about to attack or use King's Shield. The only negative really is you need to go for a side trip through Terminus Cave to acquire a Dusk Stone. There is a Secret Super Training regimen that could get a Dusk Stone earlier, but it's so inefficient it's really not worth bothering with that route. And if playing with Stance Change isn't for you, it's worth noting Doublade can make excellent use of Eviolite.

This is my first time doing this sort of thing, so forgive me if it's not quite up to the site's high standards. I've tried to follow the guidelines as best as I can, but Aegislash's stats do warrant the explanation in the stats section I believe.

Too long. There is a fair bit of redundant information this can easily be more concise. For example:

"Typing: Steel/Ghost is so far unique to Honedge's evolutionary line, and has the same resistances and weaknesses as Steel/Psychic - Fire, Ground, and Ghost and Dark as of this generation. However, its Ghost typing gives it immunity to the very common Normal and Fighting type attacks."

This is pretty much all you need for a typing section. You could also mention how common some typings are and tone down on some fluff and whatnot.

"Additional Comments: Honedge is THE Steel type Pokemon to pick up, if any. While it may be a tad unintuitive to get to where it can be found, (needing to take the side paths back) it's more than worth that bit of trouble in the long run. The rest of your Pokemon after the second gym may have more trouble keeping up with it than it with them due to its wonderful, useful movepool. No Guard lets it get away with less than perfectly accurate moves, albeit any move the opponent uses will land as well, and Aegislash's Stance Change switches its form when its about to attack or use King's Shield. The only negative really is you need to go for a side trip through Terminus Cave to acquire a Dusk Stone. There is a Secret Super Training regimen that could get a Dusk Stone earlier, but it's so inefficient it's really not worth bothering with that route. And if playing with Stance Change isn't for you, it's worth noting Doublade can make excellent use of Eviolite."

There is way too much fluff here. The only thing relevant here is mentioning Eviolite Doublade and just a wrap-up of why it is one of the best in-game. Also Super Training is not considered so that does not need to be mentioned. Basically it needs some rework. The rest looks okay though.

Naix said:
I'll be reserving Chinchou, Horsea, and Espurr (M) if nobody minds.
EDIT: Here's Chinchou! Espurr (M) is soon to come.

Chinchou
Availability: Can be fished up at Azure Bay or Shalour City with the Good Rod. They are at level 20 and have a moderate chance at being reeled in.
Stats: Titanic HP notwithstanding, Chinchou's (and later Lanturn's) stats are overall mediocre with its Special stats being the highest at merely 76.
Typing: Chinchou can also potentially have the ability Volt Absorb, which turns its neutrality to Electric-type moves into an immunity that heals it if the opponent uses one on it.Water/Electric is a handy defensive typing, leaving it weak only to Grass- and Ground-type moves, neither of which being too common after the fifth gym. Offensively, Chinchou's STABs are only resisted by Grass- and Dragon-types (not taking abilities into account).
Movepool: What Chinchou lacks in level-up moves, it makes up for it with TMs such as Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam, and Ice Beam, though you don't get the latter until after the eighth gym. Of course, Chinchou can also learn Surf via HM, and Charge Beam can be helpful for the (albeit unreliable) chance to increase Special Attack, a boost which Lanturn definitely appreciates.
Major Battles: As it should be expected, Lanturn should not be used against Ramos. Although it takes surprisingly little damage from Grass Knot, it can't do anything in return other than use Confuse Ray. Clemont is definitely worth a mention, as a Volt Absorb Lanturn can defeat all of his Pokemon with the exception of Heliolisk, who has Dry Skin. Lanturn's performance against the other major trainers is generally average overall otherwise, with notable performances being against Lysandre (can take out Murkrow/Honchkrow and Pyroar in each fight) and Malva (can deal with Talonflame and Chandelure, but has trouble with Torkoal and sometimes Pyroar)
Additional Comments: Overall, despite Chinchou's solid movepool and good typing, its stats fail to let it properly utilize its strengths, making it a mediocre choice for efficient playthroughs.

EDIT2: And now Espurr (M)!

Espurr (M)
Availability: They are in Route 6's patches of tall grass, where they are level 11 or 12 and are among the more common encounters in the route.
Stats: Without a doubt, Meowstic's greatest statistical asset is its impressive speed. Everything else about it is okay at best, often not quite being high enough for its liking. Unlike its evolution, though, Espurr's stats are balanced overall, with nothing really standing out or being above average for the time.
Typing: Psychic typing definitely allows it to do well against the Black Belts and Battle Girls which populate the point in the game between Geosenge Town and Shalour City and helps it against a chunk (but not quite half) of Team Flare. Defensively, pure Psychic-types don't really have much going for them, with their resistances being to Fighting-types (which Meowstic typically does well against anyway) and fellow Psychic-types.
Movepool: The male variant of Meowstic doesn't really have too much in the way of offensive options via level-up, as its level-up movepool is support-oriented; the only notable offensive level-up moves it learns are Psybeam (level 17), Psyshock (level 25), and Psychic (level 40). Meowstic has a solid TM repertoire, though most of the ones it benefits from are obtained late in the game, with Thunderbolt being the only one that appears at a decent time.
Major Battles: Meowstic does well against Korrina, though her Hawlucha could provide trouble. After that, most of the Gym Leaders have at least one Pokemon that Meowstic can defeat by itself, though that's usually the only thing it can do to their team offensively. Meowstic can't do much to your rival prior to Anistar City unless you started with Froakie, as Chesnaught is the only Pokemon on his/her team at the time that doesn't have a resistance or immunity to Psychic-type moves.
Additional Comments: Male Meowstic's downfalls are its poor level-up movepool and merely average Special Attack. These two aspects prevent it from hitting anything neutral to Psychic-type attacks very hard, reducing its effectiveness in efficiency-based runs.

EDIT3: And Horsea!

Horsea
Availability: Horsea are in Cyllage City and Ambrette Town, though you'll have to do some backtracking to get one as it can only be fished up with the Good Rod.
Stats: Horsea and Seadra have the statistical pattern of below-average HP and Attack, terrible Special Defense, and solid everything else. Kingdra's weaker stats are bolstered to match its stronger ones.
Typing: Water is a solid type to have (as usual), minus the two gyms you take on after you're able to catch Horsea. Kingdra's secondary Dragon typing is a mixed bag, removing the Electric and Grass weaknesses and the Ice resistance while bolstering its Water and Fire resistances and adding weaknesses to Dragon- and Fairy-type attacks (though the first of those new weaknesses isn't too bothersome by virtue of how uncommon good Dragon-types are in the game).
Movepool: Horsea's movepool is very shallow; aside from Surf, it learns very little of value prior to Anistar City, which is quite a way into the game.
Major Battles: Seadra should not be used against Ramos or Clemont. It can deal with Wulfric decently (minus Abomasnow), and generally has "okay" performances against mostly everything else. Some of Kingdra's performances change due to its different type: it does better against Ramos, Clemont, and Malva (though it still shouldn't be used against the former) and has more trouble against Valerie, Wulfric, and Drasna.
Additional Comments: If you want to use Kingdra rather than Seadra, keep in mind that there are only three ways to do so: either get lucky with catching a Horsea that holds a Dragon Scale, wait until Terminus Cave, or have the person you're trading with give Seadra a Dragon Scale for the trade back. It's worth mentioning, though, that Seadra has better physical bulk than Kingdra thanks to Eviolite. Either way, it's inconvenient and/or unreliable and it's still a bad Pokemon to use in-game regardless of whether it's a Seadra or Kingdra, as it's out of the way and has frankly unimpressive stats and a barren movepool.

Chinchou looks a bit fine though there is some redundant information like Volt Absorb (which can be shifted to AC) and mentioning of Confuse Ray in major battles. I will add it with a few changes.

Meowstic M looks okay and I guess I will put it in with a few changes.

Horsea looks fine though AC can be shorter alongside a few other things I can handle.

Detective Barricade said:
Emolga
Availability: Route 10 (fairly common)
Stats: Great Speed...but its other stats are mediocre at best, especially in its defenses.
Typing: Electric/Flying, leaving it only weak to Ice and Rock, and immune to Ground. As of this generation, Electric type Pokemon such as Emolga are immune to paralysis, which helps it a little. There's only two other Pokemon in the entire game so far to share this typing, but they are both legendary. (Zapdos and Thundurus)
Movepool: Thunder(shock/bolt), Discharge, Spark, Shock Wave, Aerial Ace, Acrobatics, Pursuit, Roost, Electro Ball, Volt Switch, Light Screen, Nuzzle, Thunder Wave, and Encore to list the most noteworthy moves. Having access to Acrobatics via level up is a blessing, as it's rarely going to be holding anything and it doesn't matter if you don't get the TM in Coumarine City the first time.
Major Battles: Don't use it against Grant's gym, but the next two it can perform well in. It's not particularly helpful against any of the others, (though Acrobatics spam still helps a lot outside of Clemont's gym) and Wulfric will freeze it solid. It'll happily take out all the Croagunk, Scraggy, and Zubat/Golbat that Team Flare can throw at it, can handle Lysandre admirably in Lysandre Labs, but his final team will prove to be a bulkier nut to crack. Emolga can just about solo Siebold without any problem, but isn't that helpful against the other three. It can use Acrobatics to deal with the Champion's Hawlucha and Gourgeist with ease, (especially since the latter seems to love using Trick or Treat first chance it gets) but Aurorus and Tyrantrum are too big of threats for it to handle. It can handle AZ for the most part, but his Golurk might provide a little trouble.
Additional Comments: I'm surprised at how well the flying 'Pika clone' fares in game. It has little trouble keeping up with the team, and Acrobatics via level up is a godsend to the little guy, getting the move at level 30. It also has the benefit of being eligible for Sky Battles, where its Electric attacks can wreak havoc and gain generally easy EXP. Its Static ability gives a 30% chance to paralyze an opponent that makes contact with it, but it's much too frail to rely on this and is better off using Thunder Wave or Nuzzle if inducing paralysis is desired. Not the best Pokemon ever, but can do a fair bit more than just look absolutely adorable.

Edit 2: Sylveon is up!

Sylveon
Availability: Route 10 as Eevee. (uncommon) However, it needs either Baby-Doll Eyes or Charm (the only two Fairy moves Eevee learns) and a minimum of 2/5 in its Affection stat in Pokemon Amie in order to evolve into Sylveon. This is troublesome, as Eevee has forgetten Baby-Doll Eyes for Refresh at level 20 (thus requiring you to catch it at level 19) and will miss out on having any STAB move until level 37 if it isn't played with to get that Affection stat up to evolve it at level 20.
Stats: They're the exact same numbers as any other Eeveelution, but the highest stats go towards Special Defense, Special Attack, and HP in that order. The other three stats are low.
Typing: Fairy, granting it resistance to Fighting, Dark, and Bug, immunity to Dragon, and a weakness to the uncommon Poison and Steel.
Movepool: Swift, Draining Kiss, Light Screen, Moonblast, Shadow Ball, and Psyshock. It can learn Dazzling Gleam, but by this point it should be at least close to learning Moonblast if it doesn't know it already, and the latter two moves come very late. Draining Kiss gives Sylveon a form of recovery in draining 75% of the damage it inflicts to heal itself. Unfortunately, there's nothing else it gets that is worthwhile in game.
Major Battles: Draining Kiss can 2KO Grant's Tyrunt while healing back any damage it does in return, and can 4KO each of Korrina's Lucario. While that doesn't sound very impressive, her Lucario only have Power-Up Punch and Feint to hit it with, and it will be healing most if not all of it off even after a Swords Dance boost. Everything in her gym, however, has no such resistance to the move. While offensively this is about it for the gyms, defensively it still holds as the gyms start focusing on Special Attacks. Against Team Flare, it's able to destroy any Dark type without trouble except Houndour/Houndoom until it has Moonblast to help compensate for the neutrality, but can't handle Poison types with its limited movepool. Sylveon can handle Lysandre fine both times you battle him, with the exception of Pyroar. It can take out Malva's Chandelure and Wikstrom's Aegislash with Shadow Ball, (if it catches Aegislash still in Blade Form) but otherwise struggles against them. With Psyshock obtained in Victory Road, Drasna's Dragalge won't be able to stop Sylveon from soloing her. It fares great against the Champion with Shadow Ball and Moonblast, leaving only Aurorus neutral to both. (though Goodra will be a 2KO at best, for it's very bulky on the Special side) And finally, AZ only has Torkoal not weak to Shadow Ball so Sylveon handles him well.
Additional Comments: Sylveon is a good Pokemon despite its rather limited movepool. Its biggest problem is how bothersome it is to obtain, as covered in the Availability section. It needs Draining Kiss to do anything against the gym it has the most effectiveness against, much like how Espeon needs Psybeam. And you have to sit down and take about 5-10 minutes of your time to play with Eevee in Pokemon Amie, doing nothing else during that time. While admittedly enjoyable, this is inefficient as your game grinds to a halt until you're done. On the plus side, Sylveon benefits from the slight boost to EXP for getting Eevee to the required level of Affection, so it gains levels easier. Cute Charm gives a 30% chance to infatuate the opponent that makes contact if they're the opposite gender. Considering Eevee's gender ratio, this will more than likely be female. Unreliable, but a 50% chance the opponent will do nothing is certainly welcome if the ability does work.

Most of the things I said with Honedge can apply to these two though, especially Sylveon. Also:

"I'm surprised at how well the flying 'Pika clone' fares in game."

Not only is this rather redundant but it also implies that you solely based it off anecdotal evidence. It also looks unprofessional.

I am on the fence with Honedge, Emolga and Sylveon as it stands but as it stands, the entries would probably need a major rewrite before I can accept it. I am not trying to put you down Detective Barricade, but those entries need some serious reworking and concision before they are ready. If you are not sure you can make it up to the standards of other entries though, then you can just offload yourself of that responsibility and leave it to someone else.

Do not let this discourage you from writing up entries though! While I do encourage people to help out because this is a massive task, entries have also got to meet standards and looking at other entries and the guidelines to get a good idea of what is needed will certainly help you get better at meeting those standards.

Also going to implement the trivial three when I update the thread later.

EDIT: All updated. Sorry to Miscellaneous for kinda re-jigging most of the write-up though... :|

The Great Gastly · Sep 10, 2014

Very minor correction, but Smeargle has base 75 speed, not 85. :]

11pikabro · Sep 12, 2014

I'll take Magneton and Azurill for now.

I'd also like to discuss Croagunk's viability, since I myself used one. When i first caught it, I was unsure of its team potential and was almost gonna switch it for some other Fighting-type on Coastal Kalos. As the game progressed, though, the more I noted its wide movepool and great Dry Skin ability getting more noticeable. I saw myself using it the most by the endgame, switching its moves constantly with TMs for fun, save for Sucker Punch. It might be C rank, possibly, but definitely not higher because its typing and stats both pushed it forward offensively but held it back defensively.

EDIT: Magneton's ready.

Magneton
Availabilty: Lost Hotel--everything found there by normal encounter has an even chance to be found, but Static or Magnet Pull can help you find Magneton faster.
Stats: High Sp. Attack is its main selling point, and an Eviolite makes it somewhat bulky. Mediocre Speed and low HP hurt its survivability. Evolve it into Magnezone if the power boost and option to not use Eviolite are more appealing, just watch out for the noticeable drop in Speed.
Typing: Electric/Steel is great STAB for the rest of the game that you have Magneton. Defensively, it has plenty of resistances, as well as immunities to Paralysis and Poison. It is weak to Fire, Fighting, and Ground, though, which are usually seen in the form of a coverage move.
Movepool: STAB Thunderbolt and Flash Cannon are easy to access and make up Magneton's main (if not only) offensive presence. Discharge and Tri Attack can be used for coverage and status purposes. Metal Sound, Charge Beam, and Electric Terrain allow it to severely damage everything, even Specially Defensive opponents. Magnet Rise comes too late (Lv. 62) to be of much use but is still a good option, nonetheless.
Major Battles: It cleans through the remaining two gyms with ease. It can take care of Team Flare's Flying and Poison types but should still look out for Fire-type moves. In X Version, Magneton can effectively handle Xernias. At the Pokémon League, it can handle about half of the Elite Four and Diantha's Pokémon thanks to its Steel-typing, so long as they do not carry a coverage move that is super effective on Magneton.
Additional Comments: Magneton is a great Pokémon to use. The only issue with it is its sub-par Speed. Luckily, it falls back on good bulk and the Sturdy ability to take hits well and dish powerful hits back. This, coupled with a usable movepool and a unique yet effective typing, makes Magneton a valuable choice from the mid-late game onward.

EDIT 2: Azurill's ready, too!

Azurill
Availability: Route 3 (10%) and Route 22 (20%) in tall grass
Stats: Seemingly low Attack that's incredibly strengthened by its Huge Power ability. Azurill sits at an incredibly slow base 20 Speed and only hits base 50 as an Azumarill. As an Azumarill, though, it can hold its own very well thanks to having good overall bulk.
Typing: Normal/Fairy is very usable for the early game, especially when Azurill learns its Normal STAB. As a Marill and Azumarill, Water/Fairy is a blessing, granting it great STAB to use as well as a large number of useful resistances throughout the game. It does, however, get pressured easily by Electric, Grass, and Poison types.
Movepool: Azurill is weak offensively until it gets Return, which then turns it into an early game monster. Pair it with Aqua Tail at Lv. 20/21 (as a Marill or Azumarill, respectively) as well as Dig/Bulldoze to make up its main offensive coverage for most of the game. It learns Superpower and Play Rough during the mid-late part of the game, so in the meantime it can use its fourth moveslot for utility: it can use Rock Smash, Surf, and Strength. Finally, it can exchange Aqua Tail for Waterfall if the 90 Accuracy is hurtin its usefulness.
Major Battles: Great matchups with Grant and Korrina are immediately ignored when its not doing much against Ramos or Clemont. Its typing and Huge Power carry it through most of the game. It's also incredibly handy in taking the majority of Team Flare out on its own. Both of its STABs help it clear through Malva and Drasna, and it can usually KO at least two of Diantha's Pokémon.
Additional Comments: Always use Huge Power over Thick Fat, or else Azurill loses out on its strong OHKO potential. It also has a Fast experience growth rate, allowing it to evolve and level up to Play Rough noticeably quickly.

Its_A_Random · Sep 12, 2014

Gonna do my boys Karrablast (w/ Trade), Amaura and Zweilous within the next 24 hours!

Also the Magneton analysis above looks pretty solid. Maybe a bit of re-organisation when I next update the OP's but yeah, it looks good.

EDIT:

Karrablast (w/ Trade)
Availability: Route 14, 10%.
Stats: Escavalier is a bulky physical attacking tank with great bulk and an impressive base 135 Attack. Its Speed is a write-off however to the point that it will not be running away from much.
Typing: Bug/Steel is a solid typing at the point it is available for the ability to hit relevant types super effectively. It also comes with relevant resists defensively though any Fire-type attack will generally melt it.
Movepool: At the time you get it, you already have access to TM's such as X-Scissor, Poison Jab and Aerial Ace to make it immediately useful and Iron Head shortly after. These make the bread and butter of Escavalier's shallow but precise movepool with Reversal and Swords Dance making it very powerful in the endgame.
Major Battles: Escavalier has a strong matchup against the remaining three gyms (though Valerie will take a long time to take out) and it has a decent matchup against most of Team Flare. Its performance against the Pokémon League is average though Malva will take it out easily. It also beats a couple of your rival's Pokémon handily.
Additional Comments: Shell Armor is generally the better ability for its ability to prevent random critical hits from taking Escavalier out cheaply. Escavalier does come pretty late and it is slow but it more than makes up with a good matchup record as well as great bulk, typing and Attack.

Amaura
Availability: Ambrette Town (Gift if Sail Fossil was chosen in Glittering Cave)
Stats: Amaura comes with a high HP stat and decent bulk, making it a decently bulky Pokémon. It comes with average offenses though it is more specially inclined, and its speed is mediocre.
Typing: Ice/Rock is a decent offensive typing hitting quite a few types in the game super effectively. Defensively however it is a write-off with six relevant weaknesses, two of them being 4× weaknesses.
Movepool: Its movepool is decent with Ice-, Rock-, Electric-, and Psychic-type coverage. Thanks to Refrigerate it also has Normal-type coverage as Ice-type coverage. Aurora Beam, Ancient Power and Round help early on before Nature Power comes in and eventually, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and Psychic.
Major Battles: It starts out quite badly as it struggles against Grant's Tyrunt, is a write-off against Korrina, somewhat struggles for Ramos, and struggles against Clemont. It gets a bit better afterwards with a good matchups against Wulfric, Drasna, Malva to an extent and AZ. Its Team Flare matchup is average as is its rival matchup.
Additional Comments: Amaura is quite a hit and miss Pokémon thanks to its typing and its Speed is below average as well. In spite of this, its lategame is a bit better though it is still going to struggle a bit. As a result, it is a decent choice but not a great one for running through the game.

Zweilous
Availability: Victory Road, 5%. Can also be found outside as a Hydreigon.
Stats: Physical tank as a Zweilous, it becomes a powerful mixed attacker backed with decent speed upon evolution to Hydreigon.
Typing: Dark / Dragon is a decent offensive typing for what is left in the game, hitting Psychic-, Ghost-, and Dragon-types super effectively, all of which are common at the end of the game. Defensively it is bad with weaknesses to Ice-, Dragon-, Bug-, Fighting-, and Fairy-types, of which two are common.
Movepool: Should it remain a Zweilous, Crunch, Dragon Rush, and Body Slam are the best moves for it. Upon evolving to Hydreigon, it gains a lot of coverage that it can use including Dragon Pulse, Surf, Dark Pulse, Fly, Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Flamethrower.
Major Battles: Wins against Drasna provided you hit hard enough and wins against Malva. Does very well against Wilkstrom though Aegislash will outright beat it and does decently against Siebold. It struggles against Diantha and beats AZ. Rival depends on starter though it has a good record against most of their team. It should be noted that it fails against the fast Psychic-types in Victory Road as they easily nuke it with Dazzling Gleam.
Additional Comments: Zweilous is a decent endgame option but the lack of EV's and the amount of babying it needs to evolve into Hydreigon (unless you catch a wild Hydreigon) means that it will struggle against most of the endgame trainers despite its generally good matchup record. As a result, Zweilous is a fairly bad choice for an efficient run though it is not terrible.

All done.

DHR-107 · Sep 12, 2014

OK So I've finally gotten a teeny bit of spare time... I'll end up writing these during the day.

template said:
Name
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 efficient 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 TM's to function? Does it have access to useful HM's 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 Flare, the various rival battles with your friends, the Elite Four themselves, the Champion, and AZ.
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. The entry can be wrapped up here as well.

Name: Hawlucha
Availability: Route 10. Common.
Stats: Fast. It's not amazing on the defensive side of things, but its offensive presence makes up for it.
Typing: Fighting/Flying is a strong STAB combo. It hits 4 of the gyms super effectively, though you may need to be weary of the type that is attacking back.
Movepool: Early options with Karate Chop and Aerial Ace allow you to cover almost everything. You will want a Level 19 one as it will still have Karate Chop (it learns Encore at 20, pushing Karate chop out of its learnset). It can solidly use Fly and Flying Press. The coverage is poor, but STAB is all you really need. It gains Low Sweep in the Tower of Mastery and Power-up Punch from Korrina.
Major Battles: Takes on Grant, Korrina, Ramos and is reasonable vs Wulfric. Excellent match ups vs Team Flare's multitude of Dark- types. Solid performance in the Elite 4 and does reasonably against half of Diantha's team.
Additional Comments: Hawlucha is very one dimensional in how it plays. STAB spam is all you really need.

Name: Sigilyph
Availability: Route 10. Common.
Stats: Excellent offensive presence in game with good Special Attack and good Speed.
Typing: Psychic/Flying is a good typing for so early in the game. Flying is always reliable.
Movepool: Psybeam and Air Cutter from the off form an excellent STAB combo. These get upgraded to Psychic and Air Slash later on. It also has access to Fly, Thunder Wave and Dazzling Gleam from TMs and Gyms. It also gains Ice Beam late in the game from Wulfric, and can use it to good effect.
Major Battles: Not great matchups against most of the gyms. Shalour and Coumarine are the only places it has a positive matchup. Even so, it does reasonably against Valerie and Olympia. Its strong STABs carry it through the game and it does excellently against most trainers. With Ice Beam it can be a credibly threat to Drasna in the Elite 4, and can provide paralysis support if required.
Additional Comments: Sigilyph has some other support options like Reflect and Light Screen, but they generally aren't all that useful when it is strong enough to push through enemies while taking minimum damage.

Is that enough IAR? Mine will likely be a lot more condensed than other peoples :)

cheap_uber_battler · Sep 12, 2014

Might be worth mentioning that Hawlucha makes a great HM slave/user in X/Y, with access to Cut, Fly, Strength and even Rock Smash. Pair it with any mon that has access to Surf and Waterfall (ie most water types) and you're set. It is even workable to raise as part of your team thanks to Fly's high BP.

cant say · Sep 13, 2014

I'm going to reserve Squirtle, Trapinch and Scatterbug

EDIT: done

Squirtle
Availability: Gift from Prof. Sycamore upon first visit to Lumiose City
Stats: Blastoise possesses good bulk and can make use of both its attacking stats. However it is a bit slow.
Typing: Pure Water is a good typing for the bulky Squirtle line as it only has 2 weaknesses; Grass and Electric. Squirtle is able to contribute in many fights due to typing alone, such as in several gyms, Team Flare’s many Fire types, as well as the Elite 4.
Movepool: Squirtle’s level-up movepool is fairly limited. For STAB moves you are stuck with Water Gun and Bubble for much of the early game. Squirtle and its evolutions rely on many of the TMs you receive such as Bulldoze, Rock Tomb and Power-up Punch. Much of his good moves come late such as Flash Cannon, Dark Pulse and Ice Beam. Blastoise is a great HM user though, with access to Surf, Waterfall and Strength.
Major Battles: Wartortle can sweep Grant’s Rock type gym thanks to his Water typing and moves. If you picked up the Dark Pulse TM you can sweep Olympia with Mega Blastoise, and if you taught him Flash Cannon at the Move Relearner he can sweep Wulfric. In the Elite 4 you can sweep Malva’s Fire type team but watch out for her Pyroar’s Wild Charge, and if teach him Ice Beam you can also sweep Drasna. You can also hit Champion Diantha’s whole team super effectively with a moveset of Surf/Water Pulse, Ice Beam, Dark Pulse and Flash Cannon, however her Mega Gardevior has Thunderbolt so be careful. You also sweep AZ with Surf/Water Pulse and Dark Pulse/Ice Beam.
Additional Comments: Mega Blastoise’s ability Mega Launcher powers up Dark Pulse to 120 base power (giving it a pseudo STAB boost) and Water Pulse to 90 which gives it the same power as Surf. To use Mega Blastoise to its full potential it is recommended you teach him those moves

Trapinch
Availability: Route 13, Common
Stats: As a Trapinch it has a very good attack stat, however it is extremely slow and quite frail. Upon evolution to Vibrava it loses some attack in exchange for some bulk and much better speed. As a Flygon it gains its attack stat back as well as a nice speed stat with good bulk
Typing: Trapinch starts as a pure Ground type but gains Dragon with evolution. Ground + Dragon is a very good offensive typing giving it good coverage with just its STAB moves.
Movepool: Flygon’s level-up movepool is quite good. As a Trapinch you start with strong moves like Dig and Rock Slide, you gain Dragon Breath upon evolution to Vibrava as well as the ability to learn Fly. Flygon also gets Dragon Claw by level-up as well as access to many TMs. You can also teach it Strength if needed
Major Battles: Even though it is a Ground type, Trapinch / Vibrava does not do well against Clemont’s Electric types due to their low speed and frailty. It can take out Emolga with Rock Slide but will get knocked out by Magneton or Heliolisk. Dragon typing means you should keep it away from Valerie’s gym. If you still have Crunch on your Vibrava from when it was a Trapinch it can help out in Olympia’s gym. Flamethrower or Fire Blast can be taught via TM to sweep Wulfric’s gym, however if you do not OHKO a target then Flygon will likely be KO’d by an Ice move. Vibrava/Flygon does well against Team Flare thanks to its Ground moves against their Poison and Fire Types. At the Elite 4 you can sweep Malva and Wikstrom, as well as Drasna provided you can survive her Dragon attacks. Flygon can also contribute well against Diantha.
Additional Comments: Vibrava and Flygon are good for the various Sky Battles in the Kalos region because of their access to Rock Slide and Stone Edge

Scatterbug
Availability: Route 2 (uncommon) and Santalune Forest (common)
Stats: As a Vivillon it is relatively fast and has a good special attack stat, however it is quite frail.
Typing: Bug/Flying is not a spectacular typing. It is very weak to Rock types and Team Flare has many fire types to hurt it. Do not take it to a Sky Battle either as it’s Bug typing puts it at a serious disadvantage.
Movepool: For the early game you mostly rely on Struggle Bug which does decent damage off Vivillon’s good special attack stat. You also have Psybeam and Draining Kiss as well as Stun Spore to cripple opponents and help catch wild Pokemon. If you’re lucky enough to get the Acrobatics TM, a STAB 110 base power move does a lot of damage even though Vivillon’s attack stat is quite low. However Vivillon’s best moves come late in the game, these include Sleep Powder from the Move Relearner, Bug Buzz, Quiver Dance and Hurricane
Major Battles: Vivillon is able to do well against Korrina with Psybeam and Draining Kiss, however watch out for Rock Tomb from Machoke. If you have Acrobatics you can beat Ramos, however keep Vivillon away from Jumpluff. By the time you are at Olympia you should have access to Sleep Powder and Quiver Dance so it can contribute against her and Wulfric. In the Elite 4 you should be able to set up on Siebold’s Clawitzer and Drasna's Dragalge and sweep their teams, however the rest of the Elite 4 and Champion are tough opponents for Vivillon due to their typing
Additional Comments: It is highly recommended to catch a Scatterbug with the ability Compoundeyes. This ability gives a 30% boost to accuracy which highly benefits Sleep Powder and Hurricane, giving them near-perfect accuracy

hopefully these aren't too long. can I reserve more straight away? I'd like to contribute to this as much as possible :)

Antihaxxer · Sep 13, 2014

There is no luck for the quizz TM ... Each time I do a try, I have the same questions with the same order

Tyranitarphantom · Sep 15, 2014

I love writing these. I'll claim Aerodactyl, Cubone, and Doduo for now.

-Availability: Early. Use Rock Smash in Glittering Cave to find an Old Amber, and revive it in Ambrette Town.
-Typing: Rock/Flying gives Aerodactyl some nifty resistances, including Normal, Flying, and Fire, and with only a few weaknesses, including Water. Offensively, Rock and Flying are both excellent, and require little supplemental coverage.
-Stats: Aerodactyl is very fast, and has a fairly high Attack stat. It also has decent defenses to couple with it's resistances. As Mega Aerodactyl, it becomes even faster, much more powerful, and gains some bulk too.
-Movepool: From the moment you get it, it only has Bite (unless you bought the Bulldoze TM in Lumiose). However, after beating Grant, you immediately gain access to Aerial Ace and the newly-buffed Rock Tomb, giving 60 Base Power dual STABs quite early. The Dig TM can be purchased in Shalour City, and combined with it's STABs, offers almost flawless coverage. In addition, it has a nearly endless supply of coverage moves, many of which benefit from Tough Claws, Mega Aerodactyl's ability.
-Major Battles: Even if you have Bulldoze, Grant will be tough for you, so steer clear. After that, however, Aerodactyl has the typing and movepool to dominate almost anything you encounter. For major battles, watch out for Clemont's Magneton's Sturdy ability, and Lysandre's Mega Gyarados.
-Other: Don't forget to pick up the Aerodactylite in Ambrette Town. As one of the few Pokemon capable of Mega Evolving in-game, Aerodactyl offers more power than almost any other Pokemon in-game, with base 135 Attack as a mega, and almost all of it's moves (barring it's Rock STAB moves and Earthquake, if you use it) are boosted by Tough Claws, effectively granting it a Life Orb with no drawbacks for those moves.

-Availability: Early, Glittering Cave, Common.
-Typing: Pure Ground is overall average, leaving it with few resistances, but only three weaknesses. Ground is a good type offensively as well, hitting five types for Super-Effective damage.
-Stats: Poor. It has a good 110 Defense, but a horrible 45 Speed, and a mediocre 80 Attack as a Marowak.
-Movepool: It gets what it needs. It learns Bonemerang at Level 21, which is as powerful as Earthquake, making it very deadly. Rock Tomb/Rock Slide offers great coverage with Bonemerang, and it can boost it's Attack with Swords Dance or Power-Up Punch. If you have the ability Rock Head, Double-Edge is a nice powerful attack to use.
-Major Battles: Despite it's type advantage, it fails against Grant, as Amaura with destroy it. Clemont is a walk in the park, and it fares quite well against most of Team Flare due to it's typing. Malva and Wilkstrom are also easy prey, but beware Marowak's mediocre bulk. Stay away from Ramos, Wulfric, and Siebold.
-Other: If you can find a Cubone holding a Thick Club (5% chance, so good luck), then you'll have a terrifying, yet slow powerhouse on your hands. Otherwise, you're really not hitting very hard.

-Availability: Early, Route 5, 10%
-Typing: Normal/Flying is a typing everyone is familar with. Only two resistances, but two nice immunities. Offensively, Normal and Flying have wide neutral coverage, but they're both resisted by Rock and Steel.
-Stats: Great Attack and Speed, but poor defenses. Don't let it take too many hits.
-Movepool: You'll have STAB Return right off the bat, and progressively stronger Flying moves as the game goes on. Sadly, it cannot learn Steel Wing (which would cover Rock-types) until post-game. If only it learned Drill Run...
-Major Battles: Dominates Korrina and Ramos, and due to it's good neutral coverage, fares well against most other opponents. Stay far away from Grant and Wilkstrom, and be very wary of Clemont and Wulfric.
-Other: Doduo sorely wishes it had a way to break through Steel- and Rock-types, an issue that many similar Pokemon lack. Don't let that fool you, however; Doduo is an excellent Pokemon that will almost always pull it's weight.

atsync · Sep 15, 2014

I'll reserve Pidgey and Froakie.

EDIT:

Pidgey
Availability: Route 2, 14%.
Stats: Pidgeot's stats aren't great but they are at least distributed well, with good Speed and usable Attack. However, Pidgey doesn't fully evolve until level 36 so its stats will be below average for at least half of the game.
Typing: Normal/Flying. The main thing going for it is that its given good STAB options early on. Flying is a good offensive type, although Normal/Flying is walled by Rock and Steel.
Movepool: Pidgey's level-up movepool is awful. Anything usable it has is mostly outclassed by its TM options. Pidgey's TM movepool isn't wide but it thankfully has access to the good ones (Return and Aerial Ace) fairly early. Fly is the obvious choice later on. Its coverage outside its STABs is limited to Thief (also obtained early) and U-turn.
Major Battles: Its best match-ups are against Viola and Ramos. It does ok against Korrina but no Fighting resistance and Rock Tomb hurt. It isn't that useful for the Elite 4 but it has Diantha's Hawlucha and Gourgiest as targets. Team Flare commonly use Croagunk and Scraggy, so Pidgeot should see use here too.
Additional Comments: Neither of Pidgey's abilities are particularly noteworthy but Keen Eye is the preferred option for reliability.

EDIT2:

Froakie
Availability: Aquacorde Town, starter.
Stats: Froakie has excellent Speed and good Special Attack. Its defences are poor by comparison.
Typing: Water/Dark. Water isn't that useful for major battles but it's still decent for route sweeping. It gains Dark upon evolving to Greninja but until it gains some Dark moves it isn't the most useful typing.
Movepool: Froakie gets good STAB options, with Bubble and Water Pulse learned early and Surf gained mid-game. Unfortunately, it is severely lacking in coverage for much of the game. Its level-up and TM movepools are barren mid-game, and that causes it problems dealing with Pokemon that resist Water. Access to Grass Knot helps but its power isn't consistent. Late-game, Greninja improves after it gains access to Ice Beam, Dark Pulse, Extrasensory, Waterfall, and Night Slash.
Major Battles: Greninja deals with Olympia thanks to its Psychic immunity and STAB Night Slash, and its good for Grant's gym. Other than that, it lacks favorable match-ups and is particularly poor against Ramos and Clemont. It fares better against the Elite 4 thanks to its excellent coverage, and it's good for Team Flare's numerous Houndour/Houndoom.
Additional Comments: Froakie is a solid choice thanks to its availability, strong STAB moves, and stat distribution. However, its lacking movepool causes it to require some support until all its good moves become available later on.

Its_A_Random · Sep 17, 2014

I will probably update tomorrow or something since I am a bit freer now but Tyranitarphantom I would change Doduo's additional comments to something else because saying that a Pokémon is bad because of another Pokémon (or something similar) is a no-no. If I am using that Pokémon, it is because I want to use that Pokémon.

Its_A_Random · Sep 18, 2014

Okay all updated. Generally good work though I have edited most entries for one reason or another (mainly grammar and rewording). A few things:

Stick to the c/pable format in the OP: It is done that way for easy c/ping and whatnot. It also creates consistency and whatnot.
If you are working in Microsoft Word or something similar, remember to change curly apostrophe's to ASCII ones: I hate curly ones. Trivial but I would not want to spend time fixing them.
Remember when to use its and it's: its indicates ownership (Its STAB coverage is terrible offensively) while it's is a contraction for it is (It's a bad idea to use Ditto in the Pokémon League). People do keep getting it mixed up. This is eventually going to be reviewed by GP after all.
Concision, concision, concision: DHR and atsync have good examples and so does Tyranitarphantom to an extent. The more concise it is, the less likely I will have to reword things so it makes my life a bit easier.

That is all for now. Keep up the good work everyone!

also dhr this is the last post on page so page two is about to come up for you and your internet

Pokémon X & Y In-game Tier List Discussion (MkII)

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