u/Awkward-State-2364

This time we got the forces of nature trio, Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus with their hidden ablities! Crazy! Also we have Gardevoir and Gallade. How good are our encounters?

Pokémon obtained via the Pokémon Dream Radar 3DS app can be transferred to your game immediately, meaning you can access them right from the very beginning of your playthrough. Since players can nowadays use save editors like PKHeX to inject this exact Pokémon into their playthroughs for fun, we are throwing it onto the tier list. There are a few unique rules for these encounters:

• Hidden Abilities: Every single Pokémon transferred from the Dream Radar will have its Hidden Ability.
• Dynamic Leveling: Their level is entirely dependent on the number of Gym Badges you currently have when you receive them. They start at Level 5 (0 badges) and scale all the way up to Level 40 (8 badges), meaning you never have to worry about them being massively overleveled or underleveled (maybe after 6th gym) when they join your team.
• Dream Radar Pokémon List & Item List

Last round voting results:

Metagross B: Metagross has a pretty great typing. Even as Beldum, it resists Cheren's Normal-type attacks and is immune to Roxie's Poison-type Gym. Learning Zen Headbutt at 29 is very nice.

But Beldum phase is pretty bad. Beldum only knows Take Down until it evolves at Level 20. Also with Hidden Ability Light Metal is useless in battle. Without Clear Body, it can be intimidated and its stats dropped. It also has slow speed.

Spiritomb A: Spiritomb has zero weaknesses. Combine this with three immunities (Normal, Fighting, and Psychic) and base 108 in both defensive stats, and you have a pretty good wall. It is good for Cheren. It also easily walls Roxie and Burgh. Offensively, its base 92 Attack and Special Attack hit hard in the early game, and it gets nice starting moveset featuring Shadow Sneak, Feint Attack, and the Hypnosis + Dream Eater combo. In the mid game, it even learns Nasty Plot to function as a bulky setup sweeper.

Spiritomb's Base 35 Speed means it will always move last. Furthermore, while its Defense and Special Defense are massive, its Base 50 HP stat is low, which starts sucks when you go further in the game. Having no weaknesses is fantastic, but it also means Spiritomb doesn't naturally resist many types either, forcing it to take neutral damage from almost everything that isn't Normal, Fighting, or Psychic.

Bronzong C: Like Metagross, Bronzong has same typing, thus defensively good. Bronzor can carry your team through the first three Gyms. Offensively, it also gets to take massive advantage of its abysmal Speed stat by utilizing a highly damaging STAB Gyro Ball to punish faster opponents.

Sadly its Hidden Ability Heavy Metal is so much worse than its normal abilities. Sure, it makes Heavy Slam even better, but Bronzong doesn't learn Heavy Slam until Level 50. Without Levitate or Heatproof. Without those immunities/resistances, Bronzong takes big damage from Ground and Fire-type attacks.

Driftblim C: Since it is yet another ghost type from Dream Radar, it is fine in early game. Its Dream Radar Hidden Ability is Flare Boost, which increases its Special Attack by 50% when it is burned. So later in the game with Flame Orb (White 2 only though), you can always pre-burn with it to have that active.

Drifblim has a massive HP stat, but its actual Defense and Special Defense are awful. Drifblim also has Fluctuating experience group and having mid speed as ghost type isn't great when there are so many Dark types.

Musharna C: Munna starts strong thanks to 2nd gym being Poison gym. With access to Psybeam early and a good Special Attack stat, it is pretty good. Also Musharna has a great Base 116 HP stat and great physical Defense.

Unfortunately Black 2 and White 2 is quite bad for Psychic-types, especially slow ones. Also Team Plasma spam Dark-types. When you combine that with major boss fights against Elite Four members Shauntal and Grimsley, Musharna will be taking lot of damage in the playthrough.

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

This round we have Light Metal Metagross, Heavy Metal Bronzong, Flare Boost Drifblim, Infiltrator Spiritomb and Telepathy Musharna. How good are these Dream Radar encounters?

Thanks again for good and short round. Porygon 2 and Z aren't here since no votes, and their acquisition is kind of ass in-game so we'll just skip them. Porygon's and Rotom's votes were basically mine placements (due to downvotes of another comment). We have only this, and 2 more Dream Radar rounds so we have good discussion about the "best team of 6" for the weekend, and final list. Thanks again!

Pokémon obtained via the Pokémon Dream Radar 3DS app can be transferred to your game immediately, meaning you can access them right from the very beginning of your playthrough. Since players can nowadays use save editors like PKHeX to inject this exact Pokémon into their playthroughs for fun, we are throwing it onto the tier list. There are a few unique rules for these encounters:

• Hidden Abilities: Every single Pokémon transferred from the Dream Radar will have its Hidden Ability.
• Dynamic Leveling: Their level is entirely dependent on the number of Gym Badges you currently have when you receive them. They start at Level 5 (0 badges) and scale all the way up to Level 40 (8 badges), meaning you never have to worry about them being massively overleveled or underleveled (maybe after 6th gym) when they join your team.
• Dream Radar Pokémon List & Item List

Last round voting results:

Porygon C:  Porygon's Hidden Ability, Analytic, is nice buff. Porygon is naturally quite slow, Analytic acts as a free Life Orb, granting a 30% power boost to its attacks whenever it moves last. Combined with the Eviolite to patch up its defenses, a fantastic TM and Move Tutor movepool, and early access to good early moves like Psybeam (Level 7) and Recover (Level 18), Porygon can comfortably tank hits and deal good damage right from the very start of the game. And as a normal type, early Return STAB after 1st gym is very valuable.

While Analytic helps mitigate its slowness by turning it into a damage boost, Porygon is still forced to take a hit almost every single turn. Furthermore, unlike other versatile Normal-types like Wigglytuff, Porygon gets no access to setup moves like Work Up or Nasty Plot. This means it can never truly snowball into a sweeper, leaving it reliant on taking hits and repeatedly healing with Recover.

Rotom A: Rotom has quite good early game. Rotom learns the buffed 90 Base Power Uproar at Level 9. Because its Ghost typing grants it an immunity to Normal-type moves, it easily sweeps Cheren (Bite isn't enouogh to take down Rotom). With a Silk Scarf, it can then sweep Roxie as long as it avoids getting poisoned. In the mid-game, it gains access to the Substitute via level-up. Because the AI struggles to handle Substitute, Rotom can safely hide behind it while continuously boosting its Special Attack with Charge Beam to sweep.

Once you reach the Shopping Mall Nine on Route 9 (just before Route 7th gym), you gain access to Rotom's appliance forms. Generation 5 updates Rotom's secondary typing based on its appliance, you can turn it into an Ice-type Frost Rotom and which for example can do great against Drayden's Gym with Blizzard. Same goes for other boss fights, just use the form that gives the most value and you're golden.

During the middle chunk of the game, around the battles with Clay and Skyla, its damage output can start to feel a bit underwhelming against tankier mons, or in otherwords, fully evolved.

Liepard D: Liepard's high Speed allows it to set up and sweep major late-game threats like Shauntal, Caitlin. Furthermore, Snarl provides some niche utility by lowering the Special Attack of opponents, helping Liepard survive hits it otherwise couldn't.

Liepard is stuck with a mediocre physical Attack stat and a severe lack of high-power Dark-type STAB moves. Being fragile means that if it fails to outspeed and OHKO its target, it gets knocked out in return. While learning Nasty Plot is impressive, but Pokémon that takes until Level 50 to truly come online shouldn't be ranked much higher, especially when there are many other Dark-types available that perform more consistently from the moment they are caught.

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

First Dream Radar encounter batch is done, let's continue! This time we have some familiar faces, we have Starmie with Analytic, Wigglytuff with Friend Guard, Togekiss with Super Luck, Shuckle with Contrary and Altaria with Cloud Nine! How good are these Dream Radar encounters?

Thanks again for good discussion. u/Fantome719 we will have Liepard for re-evaluation during one of these round so Liepard can have justice (hopefully)! Let's keep up the good discussion. Oh right, when we are done with voting, I will include tier list without the Dream Radar mons as well.

Pokémon obtained via the Pokémon Dream Radar 3DS app can be transferred to your game immediately, meaning you can access them right from the very beginning of your playthrough. Since players can nowadays use save editors like PKHeX to inject this exact Pokémon into their playthroughs for fun, we are throwing it onto the tier list. There are a few unique rules for these encounters:

• Hidden Abilities: Every single Pokémon transferred from the Dream Radar will have its Hidden Ability.
• Dynamic Leveling: Their level is entirely dependent on the number of Gym Badges you currently have when you receive them. They start at Level 5 (0 badges) and scale all the way up to Level 40 (8 badges), meaning you never have to worry about them being massively overleveled or underleveled (maybe after 6th gym) when they join your team.
• Dream Radar Pokémon List & Item List

Last round voting results:

Genesect S: Genesect has one of the best defensive typings in the game. Being a Bug/Steel-type means it has a good list of resistances, immunity to Poison, and only one weakness, Fire, which is relatively easy to play around. Also, its offensive presence is unmatched at this stage of the game. With the Download ability to boost its already great attacking stats, and ready with moves Techno Blast and Signal Beam, it will steamroll everything in the playthrough.

It arrives at Level 15 so, you have to be slightly careful not to overlevel it past your current Gym Badge's obedience cap, or it will start ignoring your commands in battle. This is only minor inconvenience it has going.

Slowbro C: Slowbro naturally learns Slack Off for good reliable healing. It also has pretty good ability, Regenerator! This allows Slowbro to heal a chunk of its HP simply by switching out of battle, making it resilient defensive pivot for the stages of the game where it actually has a good matchup.

Unfortunately bulky Psychic-types just do not perform exceptionally well in B2W2 Slowbro's slowness means it will frequently take damage before it can attempt to heal or strike back.

Slowking C+: You can obtain a King's Rock from the Dream Radar, you can trade and evolve your Slowpoke into a Slowking, so you get it much sooner than Slowbro. Once evolved, having access to Nasty Plot (Level 36) allows Slowking to setup, making it a much more threatening bulky sweeper than Slowbro. Combined with its Hidden Ability Regenerator, it can hit hard and heal itself by switching out.

Despite the boost from Nasty Plot, Slowking is still painfully slow, and is a psychic type. It will almost always take a hit before it can attack. If you want a Psychic-type, there is almost no reason to use Slowking when Pokémon like Espeon exist. Espeon hits much harder, is faster, and can even use Baton Pass + Work Up.

Jynx C: With base 85 Special Attack and Confusion, it easily sweeps Roxie's Gym. Jynx has Dry Skin as Hidden Ability, providing a good Water-type immunity that helps against Marlon and random water mons. In the lategame, with its great Base 115 Special Attack, good Base 95 Speed, and Psychic and Ice Beam, it puts in solid work against the Elite Four and Champion Iris's Dragons.

Unlike in previous generations, Jynx has awful mid-game movepool, physical frailty, and quite awkward evolution requirement. If you evolve Smoochum into Jynx at Level 30, it misses out on learning Psychic via level-up. To get its best STAB move, you are need to drag Smoochum all the way to Level 38, or if you evolve it at 30, grab Psychic TM post 6th gym. It is stuck relying on Powder Snow for its Ice-type STAB for roughly 90% of the playthrough, as you don't get the Ice Beam TM until right before the Ghetsis fight.

Noctowl D+: Hoothoot learns the buffed 90 Base Power Uproar at Level 13. Combined with its early evolution at Level 20, Noctowl can practically carry your team through the first three Gyms (Cheren, Roxie, and Burgh). Its Hidden Ability, Tinted Lens, is great, allowing it to spam its STAB attacks without having to worry too much about coverage. It also has solid Special Defense and can provide some utility with moves like Reflect and Hypnosis.

Noctowl's Base 76 Special Attack and middling Speed are underwhelming for the mid-to-late game. That early-game Uproar will remain its best attack for practically the entire playthrough. Because of its mid offenses and physical frailty, it has bad matchups against Elesa, Clay, Skyla, Drayden, Marlon, and the entire Elite Four.

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

We are back! Thanks for the re-evaluation round discussion! We have now bonus rounds, which are Dream Radar encounters (and Genesect)! They really open up a new options for your playthrough which is very fun. Let's go through them how they work:

Pokémon obtained via the Pokémon Dream Radar 3DS app can be transferred to your game immediately, meaning you can access them right from the very beginning of your playthrough. Since players can nowadays use save editors like PKHeX to inject this exact Pokémon into their playthroughs for fun, we are throwing it onto the tier list. There are a few unique rules for these encounters:

• Hidden Abilities: Every single Pokémon transferred from the Dream Radar will have its Hidden Ability.
• Dynamic Leveling: Their level is entirely dependent on the number of Gym Badges you currently have when you receive them. They start at Level 5 (0 badges) and scale all the way up to Level 40 (8 badges), meaning you never have to worry about them being massively overleveled or underleveled (maybe after 6th gym) when they join your team.

And regarding Genesect:

• Availability: It arrives at Level 15, and because Mystery Gift is unlocked from the start of the game, you can pick it up at the Floccesy Town Pokémon Center before you even fight the very first Gym.
• Starting Moves: It comes with the Download ability and stupidly overtuned early-game moveset: Techno Blast, Magnet Bomb, Solar Beam, and Signal Beam.

I will have these trivia for these rounds always up (well not genesect bit). I also have marked each Dream Radar 'mon with Dream Ball for distinguish purposes. Also, check Dream Radar items here, they are also available once you receive your starter.

So, our first 'mons for the bonus round are Genesect (Event), Slowbro/king, Jynx and Noctowl! I will guess that many of you haven't really used Dream Radar encounters in your playthrough, but if you have an emulator and legit rom of B2W2, you can try one of save files I've shared, they include each encounter in the game, including Dream Radar mons. Personally I have used these encounters in my playthrough, I highly recommend, even on my OG copy of Black 2. Even if you haven't used any of them, you can give us your opinion. Anyways, how good are our encounters?

Another thing about Dream Radar encounters, quite niche questions actually:

1. there is Porygon available in Dream Radar, and its evo items are found post-game, but also in Join Avenue (post 3rd gym), and you could get them there (up-grade and Dubious Disc). Do we want to rank each Porygon evo, or only one Porygon evo? I ask since you have to grind Join Avenue and hope to get the evo items.
2. There are Dream Radar encounters you can also find in wild, like Metagross, Starmie, Lucario -evo lines. Do you want to rank these guys as well while we're at it? I will have them marked seperately with the Dream Ball icon if we do.
3. If no opinions raised for either question, we will vote each Porygon evolution, and each Dream Radar mon, even if it is found in wild without Hidden Ability.

And one more thanks for previous round! We might throw Liepard for re-evaluation with Dream Radar mons, well, for re-evaluation since it was talked about. But we will see. You can still vote for previous rounds mon if you want to. Meanwhile, enjoy the read, and let's have a good discussion!

Last round voting results:

Emolga B+: Emolga’s bread and butter is the combination of a fast Acrobatics (learned perfectly on time at Level 30) and Encore. Because of its fantastic Electric/Flying typing, it can easily bait Ground-type attacks like Bulldoze and lock the opponent into it. This Encore strategy trivializes major fights in the Elite Four. You can lock Shauntal's Cofagrigus into Will-O-Wisp, Caitlin's Musharna into Reflect, Grimsley's Liepard into Fake Out, and Marshal's Throh into Bulldoze. Once they are locked, Emolga can safely boost its Special Attack using Charge Beam and proceed to sweep. It also puts in great work at the Water and Flying gym.

In B2W2, the Thunderbolt TM has been moved all the way to Victory Road. This forces Emolga to rely on the Charge Beam, Electro Ball or Discharge for its Electric-type STAB for the vast majority of the game. Also, its movepool is shallow. Its only real coverage move is Signal Beam via Move Tutor. Because of its frailty and lack of coverage, it suffers from terrible matchups against Drayden, Colress's Magneton and Magnezone, and Champion Iris. Still, Emolga's early Acrobatics carries the early-mid game, and Encore the late game.

Jolteon A-: Jolteon is a menace once it gets going. You can find a hidden Thunder Stone behind the Nimbasa City Pokémon Center, allowing you to evolve Eevee on time. What makes Jolteon truly great is its access to both Work Up and Baton Pass. It is one of the only Pokémon in the game that can boost its offensive stats and either sweep the opposing team itself or safely pass those boosts to a teammate. It sweeps Skyla and Marlon, and with Shadow Ball for coverage, it can easily sweep Caitlin and Shauntal after a couple of Work Ups. It also has utility against Champion Iris, naturally outspeeding and knocking out her Archeops while threatening Lapras and Aggron if it has a boost.

Unfortunately, right after evolving, Jolteon suffers from a severe lack of actual special attacks. Against Elesa, its Volt Absorb ability makes it a great defensive pivot, but it has almost no way to hit back, often relying on physical moves like Dig or Thunder Fang, or weak special moves like Echoed Voice. It also has bad matchups against Clay and Drayden.

Vaporeon A-: Vaporeon distinguishes itself from the other Eeveelutions with its natural bulk, allowing it to safely take hits while it sets up. Armed with Leftovers, it can comfortably use Work Up to boost its offensive stats, or use Acid Armor to become a physical wall. Once it is fully set up, it can either dish out heavy damage itself or safely Baton Pass those boosts to a faster teammate. It puts in great work against bosses like Clay, Skyla and Drayden with its early access to Aurora Beam, and uses its Water Absorb ability to pivot against Marlon.

Unfortunately you catch Eevee at Level 18-19 and if you evolve it straight away, you will miss out on Vaporeon's Level 17 Water-type STAB move, Water Pulse. This means you are forced to rely almost entirely on the Aurora Beam for damage until you finally unlock the Surf HM much later in the game. Furthermore, Vaporeon's low Speed means it will almost always take a hit before it can attack. While its bulk usually allows it to survive, this slowness prevents it from easily sweeping late-game Elite Four members like Shauntal or Grimsley without taking too much damage.

Magmar B-: Magmar has surprisingly good base offensive stats. What truly keeps it viable in the B Tiers, is its synergy with the Eviolite item. Slapping an Eviolite on Magmar instantly patches up its otherwise mediocre defenses, turning it into a surprisingly bulky attacker that can handle the middle portion of the game while dishing out damage.

While it is definitely a cool Pokémon with a fine typing, its stats simply aren't phenomenal by late-game standards. By the time you reach the Pokémon League, even with the Eviolite, its damage output and bulk will start to noticeably fall off compared to genuine fully-evolved mons.

Electabuzz B: Pure Electric is simply a much more valuable typing than pure Fire after the 3rd Gym. Electabuzz puts in serious work in the mid-to-late game, easily sweeping Skyla and Marlon. Also, it has access to great physical coverage through the elemental punches if you are willing to visit the Move Tutor.

Sadly even with the Eviolite boosting its defenses, its overall stat spread is simply not great by the time you reach the Elite Four, meaning it will eventually struggle to keep up with the fully-evolved 'mons of the late game.

Tier promotions:

Tangrowth C+ => B-

Bouffalant C => C+

Vanilluxe D- => D

Bronzong F => F+

Ninetales F => F+

Tier drops:

Lunatone D => D-

Weavile A => A-

Throh D+ => D

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

So we've done it, we have went through every Pokémon that is catchable or gifted to us during normal playthrough. We've beaten champion, and we only have left this re-evaluation round, Dream Radar rounds as bonus, and The Best Team of Six round. We started this March 8 so good 2 months ago almost and we're not done quite yet, we have more rounds left!

But first, for re-evaluation there is my mentioned Emolga, but alongside Emolga we have Jolteon, Vaporeon, Magmar and Electabuzz. These were discussed far back when we had mid-point re-evaluation round but we didn't get enough votes back then for these so they join once again! Let me know if you want to have 2nd re-evaluation round for other mons, or just leave a pokemon name and re-evaluated rank and we can skip extra round and favor your comment.

Thanks again for good discussion! I might do 2nd round post tomorrow, but if I don't, that means I am having my vacation and I will be back on Friday. Enjoy the read!

Last round voting results:

Bronzong F: Bronzong is blessed with a great defensive typing, has access to some neat utility moves, and can hit reasonably hard with Heavy Slam thanks to its weight, or with Gyro Ball when holding Macho Brace.

Sadly catching a Bronzong this late in the game requires a massive amount of grinding just to get it on par with the rest of your team. Even if you put in the work, its offensive stats simply aren't strong enough to make a meaningful impact against the Elite Four. Even with Heavy Slam (which comes at level 58), it doesn't OHKO anything in the league (except Iris' Archeops). There is zero reason to endure this grind when the game allows you to catch Metang, a Pokémon with the exact same typing but better offensive potential and little bit earlier as well.

Ninetales F: Ninetales is easily the worst Fire-type option in the entire game due to a combination of awful availability and bad stats. If you grind enough, you might find a Vulpix in a Hidden Grotto with its Hidden Ability, Drought. This automatically sets up sun, which could power up teammates like Chlorophyll Leavanny or Lilligant. However, the Drought Vulpix is very rare, and planning your entire team around such a massive grind just for the final five fights of the game is not worth the effort. Ninetales suffers from a very mediocre Special Attack stat of 81, and has zero notable matchups in the endgame. Literally every other Fire-type in the game is available much earlier and performs much better.

Golurk D-: Golurk has okay stats and passable natural bulk. It has a genuinely good matchup against Marshal in the Elite Four, and an okay matchup against Caitlin. With the Iron Fist ability, you can try running Shadow Punch alongside the elemental punches for a bit of extra coverage and power.

Golurk is very slow, meaning it will almost always take damage before it can attack. Being weak to Dark and Ghost-type attacks is not great against the Elite Four. Also its Shadow Punch simply doesn't hit hard enough. While you can teach it the elemental punches at the Move Tutor, spending shards on a Pokémon that only benefits you in one or two highly specific late-game situations feels like a waste.

Druddigon D: Unlike many of the other Pokémon found at this stage, Druddigon is thankfully not severely underleveled when you catch it. It also has very impressive Base 120 Attack stat, naturally learns Crunch to deal with Shauntal and Caitlin, and its Dragon typing provides a nice handful of elemental resistances.

Sadly Druddigon's Dragon-type resistances simply don't line up with the specialties of the Elite Four, meaning it only ever resists random subtypes and coverage moves rather than STAB attacks. Also, its overall stats outside of Attack are mediocre, leaving it too slow to sweep and not bulky enough to tank indefinitely. It has terrible matchup against Iris, as it is far too slow to outspeed her dragons and will easily get knocked out.

Zweilous E-: Zweilous has actual stats that aren't quite as bottom of the barrel as things like Delibird or Corsola. That is only positive thing about Zweilous.

Unfortunately catching an underleveled, unevolved Pokémon this late in the game is not ideal. Also, its ability Hustle trades accuracy for power, meaning even if you do manage to get an attack off, there is a high chance you will whiff and do nothing. Finally, it has a miserable matchup against Champion Iris, she has four Pokémon that are faster and have super effective moves, meaning Zweilous will instantly fold.

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

We have taken down Ghetsis, and gotten HM Waterfall. Let's do a quick tour back to Abundant Shrine to catch Bronzong and Ninetales! Alongside them, we have Golurk, Druddigon and Zweilous at Victory Road. How good are these, our final mons? Also, you can vote either Zweilous or Hydreigon, or both.

Thanks again for good round. We are at our final round for standard main playthrough encounters. Leave also comment for 'mons you would like to see re-evaluated! Enjoy the read!

Last round voting results:

Terrakion A: Terrakion arrives battle-ready, with two STAB attacks: Rock Slide and Sacred Sword. Just like Cobalion and Virizion, it learns the Swords Dance after just a little bit of training. However, Terrakion has the highest damage output of the trio thanks to a Base 120 Attack stat. Furthermore, its Base 108 Speed is an anomaly for a Rock-type, allowing it to reliably outspeed opponents. It has great late-game matchups: it can easily outspeed and one-shot Ghetsis’s Hydreigon, sweep Grimsley, OHKO Shauntal’s Chandelure, and handle Champion Iris, as more than half of her team is weak to at least one of its STAB types.

While Rock/Fighting is a great offensive combination, it is not the best defensive one. This typing gives Terrakion with a good amount of weaknesses to very common attacking types. Because of this, it can't safely switch into attacks as easily as its Steel-type sibling Cobalion, relying heavily on its Speed to knock out threats before they can hit back.

Ditto F+: There is one specific scenario where Ditto is useful, its Hidden Ability. If you manage to find a Ditto with Imposter and hand it a Choice Scarf, it can function as a situational revenge killer. Outside of this gimmick, it has practically zero value.

Ditto copies everything except the opponent's HP stat and Ditto's base HP is a frail 48, it will always be a less bulky version of whatever it transforms into. Catching a Ditto with the Limber ability forces you to waste a turn manually using the move Transform, meaning it will almost certainly take a massive, fatal hit before it can even mimic the opponent.

Metagross A-: Because you catch Metang at around level 45, the grinding required to reach its final form is minimal. Once evolved, it has a Base 135 Attack and amazing bulk (Base 80 HP, 130 Defense, and 90 Special Defense). It has Steel-type STAB, Meteor Mash, and a quick trip to the Move Relearner grants it Zen Headbutt and Bullet Punch. Because Generation 5 Steel-types still resist Ghost and Dark, it enjoys good matchups against the Elite Four: it walls Caitlin, handles Marshal beautifully, matches up well against Ghetsis, and holds its own against Grimsley, Shauntal, and Champion Iris. You can even set it up as a double dance sweeper using Agility and Hone Claws!

To actually capture a Metang in the Giant Chasm crater will take time, since it has catch rate of 3. Furthermore, it arrives at the final stretch of the game. Also, its Base 70 Speed leaves a bit to be desired, meaning it frequently relies on Bullet Punch to pick off faster late-game 'mons before taking damage.

Throh D+: In the original games, catching a Throh gave you a free win against Lenora's Normal-type Gym. In the sequels, however, its availability is delayed until after you defeat Ghetsis. By the time it finally joins your roster, the only battles left are the Elite Four and Champion Iris. It does have impressive bulk, allowing it to take some hits, and it can handily beat Elite Four Grimsley while leaving a dent in some of Iris's team.

Catching a basic Fighting-type this late into the game requires far too much investment to get it to shine. Its bad Base 45 Speed means it will almost always take a hit before it can attack. Also, its pure Fighting typing causes it to struggle against half of the Elite Four (Shauntal and Caitlin). There is simply no real reason to use Throh when it is so completely and utterly outclassed by the Swords of Justice (Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion), all of whom are caught earlier or around the exact same time.

Sawk C-: Unlike Throh’s defensive approach, Sawk has a much higher Speed stat and a very potent Attack stat, allowing it to actually strike hard and fast. While it has worse natural bulk than its counterpart, this is mitigated with the Sturdy ability, ensuring it survives any OHKO hit. Also, access to moves like Taunt gives it a small sliver of extra utility in late-game matchups.

Sawk is locked away until after the final fight against Ghetsis. By the time you encounter it on Route 23, it requires far too much investment to reach its full potential before the Elite Four. Additionally the game practically hands you the legendary Swords of Justice (Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion) right before this route. There is simply no justifiable reason to grind up a newly caught Sawk when three of the best Fighting-types in the entire game were just handed to you on a silver platter.

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

8th badge is ours! And right after this, we can go revisit Route 22 to catch Terrakion to join to take down Plasma! In the Giant Chasm crater we have Ditto and Metagross, and after defeating Ghetsis, we can go to route 23 to catch Throh and Sawk. How good are our, almost final encounters?

Thanks again for good discussion, we're at the final stretch! We have only 1 more "main" round left before Final re-evaluation round, after this we will check our Dream Radar encounters, though I have a one week long vacation coming up so we will have a break after re-evaluation round. I'll see you next week!

Last round voting results:

Clefable C: Clefable has access to great setup and utility moves like Work Up, Cosmic Power, and Encore. Clefable can be molded to fill almost any role on your team thanks to its famously diverse TM compatibility.

Clefable is found way too late in the game. Because it requires a Moon Stone to evolve, you also have to be careful with its movepool, as stone evolutions miss out on learning future level-up moves. Its pure Normal typing does about nothing to help against the late-game fights, and it leaves Clefable vulnerable to Marshal in the Elite Four.

Weavile A: Weavile's typing is amazing for Elite Four. Its Dark-type STAB is great against Shauntal's Ghosts and Caitlin's Psychic-types, while its Ice-type STAB hits super effectively the majority of Champion Iris's team. Weavile also has very good Base 125 Speed and Base 120 Attack, and it easily outspeeds and sweeps, since it learns Hone Claws (and Swords Dance via TM if you gring BP).

Sneasel is caught right before the 8th Gym and sits in the Medium Slow experience group, meaning it requires quite a bit of grinding to catch up to your team. Also, its evolution item Razor Claw is locked in the Giant Chasm plains and cannot be accessed until after you defeat the Plasma Frigate, meaning you are stuck with Sneasel's stats for some time. Weavile's level-up movepool is also somewhat meh. It requires a bit of an investment to reach its full potential, as you have to visit the Move Relearner for Hone Claws and spend shards at the Move Tutor for Ice Punch and Low Kick.

Mamoswine B-: Mamoswine has a very nice Base 130 Attack stat and a fine speed Speed stat of 80 for its size. It is one of the very few Ground-types in the entire game that actually learns Earthquake via level-up. Because of the late stage at which you encounter Piloswine, it comes pre-packaged with Earthquake, which is very good.

Because you can only catch Piloswine in the wild (and not Swinub), you miss out on learning the priority move Ice Shard. At least it can use Ice Fang (via move Relearner) but 95% accuracy still isn't 100, and only 65 Base Power. Also, you catch Piloswine quite late in the game.

Vanilluxe D-: There are some good things for Vanilluxe's line in B2W2 availability, you don't have to grind up a Vanillite this time around. It comes pre-packaged with a STAB Ice Beam, and it has 110 base Special Attack.

Sadly being a pure Ice-type is a defensive liability, leaving it weak to several common attacking types while providing zero useful resistances. Its Speed stat is just low enough that it constantly fails to get the jump on the many fast Pokémon in the late game. Without the ability to reliably outspeed threats, its typing ensures it will take damage before it can fire off an attack. Vanilluxe's movepool is essentially limited to Ice Beam and nothing else.

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

We have beaten Drayden with many new Ice types we just caught, and it is time to move back to Humilau City! Around here we have Corsola, Shuckle and Delibird! How good are our Johto single evos?

Thanks again for good discussion. Only 7 'mons before 8th gym, not many so we will cover all of these this weekend, and start with our final mons for main story. Not many left in total. Thanks again, and enjoy the summaries!

Last round voting results:

Lapras C: Lapras is a single-stage Pokémon, it requires no babying. Larpas comes with Ice Beam right out of the gate, making it a great team member for the upcoming battle against Drayden. It also gets access to great coverage TMs like Thunderbolt and Psychic, and its Shell Armor provides some nice defensive safety by blocking critical hits.

Lapras has quite few flaws still, it sits in the Slow experience group, it has Base 85 Special Attack which is only alright and its speed is at Base 60 which is quite slow. Also Water/Ice typing isn't really the best, Ice just gives so many weaknesses, at least STAB Ice Beam is a good benefit.

Gliscor B+: Gliscor's typing is great, providing immunities to Ground and Electric, alongside great physical bulk and a respectable Base 95 Speed. While its movepool can seem a bit meh at first, it learns Swords Dance naturally at Level 50. Once it sets up, it can easily sweep most of the Elite Four, especially Marshal, using a mix of Acrobatics, Night Slash, Sky Uppercut, the elemental fangs, or and Roost.

Unfortunately Gliscor doesn't have a great Ground STAB, the Earthquake TM is locked to the post-game. Because of this, Gliscor is stuck using two-turn Dig for its Ground-type STAB and Acrobatics for its Flying-type STAB. Also you won't have access to its Poison Heal ability unless you spend hours hunting in Hidden Grottos.

Bisharp B-: Once you actually get a Bisharp, it puts in serious work against the Team Plasma and the Elite Four. Base 125 Attack stat is great start, it does great against both Shauntal and Caitlin in the Elite Four. Its Steel typing also provides a great array of resistances, allowing it to tank hits.

Pawniard is found at a maximum of Level 40, but it doesn't evolve into Bisharp until a Level 52 (Drayden's Ace level), meaning you gotta baby it for at least 12 levels. Also Bisharp's movepool takes time to get going. It learns Swords Dance at 63 (Iris' Ace Level) and Iron head at 57 (unless you delay evolution by 2 levels), so quite late. Finally, its Base 70 Speed is mediocre, and its 4x weakness to Fighting means it instantly folds the second it takes a punch.

Bouffalant C: Bouffalant has great Base 110 Attack stat. When paired with the Reckless ability and its signature STAB attack, Head Charge, Bouffalant can OHKO quite easily anything neutral. It also has surprisingly solid all-around bulk, Base 95 in HP, Defense, and Special Defense, allowing it to trade blows with most opponents.

Sadly with a bad Base 55 Speed, Bouffalant is almost always going to take a hit before it can use Head Charge. While pure Normal is a fine neutral typing, it does no favors against the Elite Four.

Virizion A: Virizion mirrors Cobalion in many of its best traits, it arrives leveled at 45, has a fast Base 108 Speed, and learns the Swords Dance at Level 49. However, Virizion swaps its physical bulk for a Base 129 Special Defense, allowing it to soak up special attacks. It comes with STAB in Sacred Sword and Giga Drain, but B2W2 gave it a good upgrade: you can now teach it Seed Bomb at the Move Tutor! Having a reliable physical Grass move to pair with Swords Dance and Sacred Sword allows Virizion to sweep for example Drayden, Marlon, Colress, and Grimsley.

Virizion shares pretty much same disadvantages as Cobalion, but there is also 4x weakness to Flying-type attacks. Additionally, it does not learn Rock Slide, and the Stone Edge TM is locked behind the post-game. But just like Cobalion, Virizion wasn't around for 6 earlier gyms.

Tier promotions:

Altaria D => D+

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

As we continue our journey towards 7th gym, we still have one more batch of 'mons to catch. Yet another Water/Ice type, Lapras is found under the Village Bridge, Gliscor & Virizion at Route 11, and Pawniard & Bouffalant at Route 9. How good are our last catches just before Drayden? Let's hear it!

Thanks again for yet another quick and short round. The list is getting populated quite quickly, and is starting to look like a cluster of mons. At the end, tiers will be divided into subtiers as well, so it should give better idea how the tier list looks. Anyways, thanks again who commented and upvoted, let's keep up the good discussion! Enjoy the read.

Last round voting results:

Tangrowth C+: Tangrowth has Giga Drain for reliable STAB damage and healing when you catch it, alongside Stun Spore for status (and you can visit the Move Relearner for Sleep Powder if you prefer). It has a great physical stats, a good 100 HP and 125 Defense, making it difficult for physical attackers to break through. Also, its offensive stats are great too: with Base 100 Attack and Base 110 Special Attack, it can effectively utilize a mixed moveset, putting in excellent work against Marlon's Water-type Gym.

Tangrowth can take physical hits all day, but its Base 50 Special Defense means it can't take special hits. It takes big damage from special attacks, even neutral ones. While Grass is great for Marlon, it is not the best typing to bring into the Pokémon League. Tangrowth's typing and terrible Special Defense leave it with a lack of favorable matchups against the Elite Four and Champion Iris, meaning it often has to sit on the bench during the most boss fights.

Pelipper E: Pelipper becomes meta stable on later generations, but this isn't later generation. You have to wait two more generations for it to actually become a good Pokémon. Pelipper doesn't have access to Drizzle. Without Drizzle to patch up its mediocre damage output and support the team, Pelipper is reliant on its naturally low stats. To make matters worse, you find it entirely too late in the game to be of any real use, and its typing and stat distribution leave it with absolutely no winning matchups against the remaining Gym Leaders, Elite Four, or Champion Iris.

Lunatone D: Lunatone has something going on for it, as a single-stage Pokémon, it has the best stats it can get. It has a notably higher Special Attack stat than its Ground-type counterpart, Claydol, and it comes pre-packaged with a STAB Psychic right upon capture. Also, Levitate is an excellent ability for it.

Unfortunately Rock/Psychic typing is very bad defensive combination. Even with Levitate, Lunatone is still left weak to a six different types. This leaves it with awful matchups against the remainder of the game. To make matters worse, because Lunatone is a special attacker, it lacks a good Special Rock-type STAB move (since moves like Rock Slide and Stone Edge use its much weaker physical Attack).

Solrock D: Solrock is essentially the exact same Pokémon as Lunatone, but flipped to function as a physical attacker instead of a special one. Solrock actually has a slightly better immediate offensive presence than its counterpart. Because it is a physical attacker, it can use Rock Slide/Stone Edge much better. Just like Lunatone, it requires zero evolutionary investment and its Levitate ability provides a needed immunity to Ground-type attacks.

Solrock shares the same fate as Lunatone. Rock/Psychic is an awful defensive combination, leaving it weak to six different common types even with Levitate active. Because of this, it struggles to find any favorable matchups in the late game. While it gets great Rock-type moves, you are forced to spend shards at the Move Tutor to teach it Zen Headbutt if you want it to have any physical Psychic-type STAB.

Cobalion A: Cobalion is battle-ready when you catch it at Level 45. It comes pre-packaged with its two best physical STAB moves: Sacred Sword and Iron Head. Furthermore, it has a great Base 108 Speed and fantastic physical bulk. The real kicker is that it learns Swords Dance at Level 49, just four levels after capture. Once it sets up a Swords Dance, it can sweep many boss fights, like Drayden, Colress, Ghetsis, Grimsley, and Caitlin. In Generation 5, Steel still resists Ghost and Dark-type attacks, giving Cobalion a great defensive edge in the late game and Elite Four. Add in a great TM movepool containing Volt Switch, X-Scissor, and Rock Slide, and you have a versatile offensive 'mon.

There is suprisingly some issues with Cobalion, Base 90 Attack is definitely good, it isn't quite "legendary" until after a Swords Dance boost, meaning it can sometimes fail to secure one-hit knockouts against bulky opponents. Additionally, its Base 72 Special Defense is a weak point, meaning you have to be careful around fast, strong special attackers (like Shauntal's Choice Scarf Chandelure or Iris' Hydreigon). And finally, because it doesn't join your team until right before the 7th Gym, it simply isn't around to help for the first two-thirds of the game.

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for same tier placement.

All Pokémon obtainable in Black 2 and White 2 are ranked based on their contribution to the journey in Challenge Mode until defeating Champion Iris . Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

Once we wrap up the final rankings, we are going to have a discussion to build the "Best Team of Six" for a full playthrough.

Investment means experience mostly, and TMs & Items that costs Battle Points. Obviously all Pokémon can be great after massive amount of investment, but we are thinking about their purpose in-game here, not competitive.

Black 2 and White 2 TM List: https://www.serebii.net/black2white2/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Wanna test each mon out? Save file checkpoints are here! Match the save file name with Pokémon Black 2/White 2 (USA, Europe) rom. Each checkpoint has each Pokémon available at that point + Hidden Grotto & Dream Radar mons and Genesect are found in Box 7/8.

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Magmar or Electabuzz) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If Pokémon is available at the route, even if it had 1% appearance rate to be found (some are affected by current Season), it doesn't matter, or if it is hard to capture. As long the Pokémon is available from the route, it's all good. 

Hidden Grottoes: The tutorial Route 5 Minccino is a guaranteed encounter, so rank it assuming it has Skill Link. For all other Grottoes, the spawn RNG is awfully low (under 1%), so while you can consider their Hidden Abilities, you should heavily penalize them for the grind required to find them.

Tier definitions:

You can also vote for + and - subtiers, and I will take these in calculations. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Usable from start to finish without a complex strategy, but they are strictly inferior to higher-tier options due to combination of average stats, late availability, a shallow movepool, or rely heavily on slow setup moves (single +1 offensive boosts) to perform, as stronger and faster options exist.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): These Pokémon have combination of weak stats, bad typing, very late availability, or extremely limited movepools that make them difficult to use effectively.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.