u/Fantome719

I've decided that I wanted to use most of the pokemon available in Pokemon Black and White and try to talk about how they perform through the main-game. Today, we're going to talk about Tirtouga and Carracosta.

You can get Tirtouga before the 4^(th) gym by bringing the Cover Fossil to Nacrene Museum. The Cover Fossil is obtained in the Relic Castle by talking to the Backpacker inside.

Carracosta has good physical stats. With 108 in Attack and 133 in Defense, it hits decently hard and takes well physical hits. Its Water/Rock type helps it well offensively, allowing it to hit for super-effective Ground, Flying, Ice, Fire and Rock type. Defensively, it is pretty mid. This typing has good resistances to Normal, Flying and Fire, but it also has bad weaknesses to Fighting, Electric, Ground and Grass. While it can take physical hits well, the same cannot be said for special hits. Its Special Defense of 65 makes it quite vulnerable to special attackers. And its very low Speed of 32 won't help it to outspeed most of the pokemon you'll encounter.

Tirtouga starts with Aqua Jet and Crunch. Aqua Jet allows it to attack first, and Crunch makes it deal a good amount of damages. It can set up with Curse (lv.35), which increase its physical stats, or Shell Smash (lv.38 as Tirtouga), which double its Attack and Speed. As for its Rock STAB, Carracosta is rather limited for a good part of the game. It starts with Ancient Power, which is 60 BP and special. Later, it can learn Rock Tomb and Smack Down, which are both only 50 BP. It will have to wait until you unlock Surf to get the TM Rock Slide.

Carracosta is useful against Skyla's Swoobat and Unfezant, and can easily defeat Brycen with Shell Smash and Rock Slide. Aside from that, it will be very bad against Elesa. It can be useful against Clay if you hold a Persim Berry and if its Krokorok use Swagger. However, Tirtouga can easily be knocked out by its Ground moves. During the League, Carracosta will be very good against Shauntal and Caitlin thanks to Shell Smash, Crunch and the Expert Belt. It can easily defeat 3 of Shauntal's pokemon with Crunch and her Chandelure with Aqua Jet. Against Caitlin, however, your Carracosta must have its Sturdy ability to survive her Reuniclus' attacks and it won't be able to defeat her Sigilyph on its own. Carracosta can be useful against N's Vanilluxe and Archeops thanks to Aqua Jet and Rock Slide. Aside from that, it will mostly be useless against Grimsley, Marshal and Ghetsis due to its typing and the lack of good opportunities to set up.

Overall, I think Carracosta is a good pokemon for a playthrough. Despite its flaws, it manages to be useful for a good part of the game. I would say the biggest problem of Carracosta is that using it prevents you from getting Archeops, which is a far better pokemon in this game.

Final Ranking : B

Have you ever used a Carracosta before ? Was it a good member in your team ? You can share your experience below, if you want.

I've decided that I wanted to use certain pokemon in Pokemon Black and White and try to talk about how they perform through the main-game. Today, we're going to talk about Reuniclus.

Reuniclus' line is exclusive to White. You can encounter it on route 5, right before the 4th gym.

Reuniclus has a great 125 in Sp.Attack and an overall pretty good bulk with 110 in HP, 75 in Defense and 85 in Sp.Defense. It also has access to the ability Magic Guard which immune it to all non-direct damages. Its bulk has a major default, however, and its not related to its stats, but rather its typing. Reuniclus is a pure Psychic type, and its not a good typing to have in Unova. There's actually a good amount of Dark type and pokemon with Dark coverage during the game. Offensively, Psychic isn't that valuable either. Again, there's a good amount of Dark pokemon immune to it, and Poison and Fighting types don't have much representations during important battles. Another thing that doesn't help Reuniclus offensively is its awful speed of 30, it will hardly ever attack before taking hits.

Solosis learns Psyshock at lv.25, which is a very good first STAB, and Psychic much later at lv.39. It also learns Recover (lv.24) to heal itself, and both screens, with Light Screen at lv.16 and Reflect via TM or the move reminder. Reuniclus also get Hidden Power at the beginning, but since its power and typing can vary greatly between two Solosis, I will not insist too much about it. Thanks to TM, Reuniclus has access to Shadow Ball for Ghost and Psychic type and Focus Blast for Steel and Dark type. Unfortunately those two TM are find around the 7th gym, so you won't have them for most of the game.

Concerning its utility through the game, Reuniclus is quite disappointing. As stated earlier, Psychic isn't very valuable against most of the important battles. Against most gyms, this pokemon will be correct, and it will struggle against Clay because of its Excadrill and Krokorok. During the Elite 4 battles, Reuniclus will be great against Marshal thanks to Reflect and Psychic, but aside from that it isn't really good. Shauntal can hit Reuniclus for super effective with STAB Ghost moves. Caitlin have Shadow Ball on 3 out of 4 pokemon in her team, and since it can lower your Sp.Defense, it makes Reuniclus quite unreliable to use, even with Light Screen. And you should be able to take one hit from Grimsley's team and fire back with Focus Blast, but you'll mostly only take one of his pokemon down, and it's only if you land the Focus Blast. Against N and Ghetsis, Reuniclus can make a good use of Focus Blast, but just like with Grimsley, it will mostly only manage to take one of their pokemon down.

Overall, I think Reuniclus suffers a lot of its Psychic type, that gives it very few advantages during the majority of the game. It manages to make up for it thanks to its Fighting coverage, that the other Psychic type don't have, and its stats that, despite a very bad Speed, stays pretty good.

Final Ranking : C

Have you ever used a Reuniclus before ? Was it a good member in your team ? You can share your experience below, if you want.

I've decided that I wanted to use certain pokemon in Pokemon Black and White and try to talk about how they perform through the main-game. Today, we're going to talk about Throh.

You can find Throh at the exterior of Pinwheel Forest, in shaking grass in Black and in tall grass in White. You can get it before Lenora's gym.

Throh is a pure Fighting type, which is a good typing. Offensively, it can hit 5 types for super effective. Among them are Normal and Dark which are common in Unova. Defensively, it only has 2 weaknesses to Psychic and Flying, and it resist Dark, Rock and Bug. Throh has a great bulk with 120 in HP and 85 in both defenses. It hits hard enough with its 100 in attack while being very slow with its base 45 in speed. Throh is what we can call a bulky attacker, it is made to take hits decently and fire back efficiently. Throh has two solid abilities in Guts and Inner Focus. Guts increase its attack when it has a status condition, and Inner Focus prevent it from being flinched.

Throh learn rapidly good fighting moves. It gets Vital Throw at lv.17, Revenge at lv.21 and Storm Throw at lv.25. Moreover, it learns Bulk Up at lv.33 to increase its defense and attack. To help it against ghost and Psychic type, Throh can learn the TM Payback, a 50 BP Dark move that double in power if the user act last. Despite that good stuff, Throh doesn't have anything to reliably heal itself nor to increase its speed. It is kind of a shame because, even with its great bulk, Throh will eventually felt short of HP and you might have to use items to keep it alive if the fight last for too long.

Thanks to its fighting type, Throh will be a great choice during Lenora, Clay and Brycen gyms, which have many fighting weaknesses. The only real problem Throh might face is Skyla's Flying pokemon that do good damages to it, despite its bulk. Other than this fight, Throh might come in handy against the other gym leaders. During the League, Throh will be an excellent pick against Grimsley thanks to Bulk Up and Storm Throw. Despite that, you shouldn't hope to see it often against Shauntal and Caitlin, since their team won't allow Throh to stick around for too long. Throh will find some use against N's Vinilluxe, Carracosta, Zoroark and Klinklang. During Ghetsis battle, it can be use effectively against his Hydreigon with the Expert Belt and Storm Throw, and it will also be able to take good care of his Bouffalant and Bisharp.

Overall, I think Throh is a very good pick for a playthrough. Despite some notable flaws, Throh manages to stay an at least solid choice against most of the important fights in the game. Even during the League, where it faces most of its bad match ups, Throh will do a good work against a bunch of annoying enemies, like Ghetsis Hydreigon. If you've never used Throh, I can only recommend you to try it.

Final Ranking : A

Have you ever used a Throh before ? Was it a good member in your team ? You can share your experience below, if you want.

I've decided that I wanted to use certain pokemon in Pokemon Black and White and try to talk about how they perform through the main-game. Today, we're going to talk about Stoutland.

Lillipup can be found on Route 1. It is one of the very first pokemon you can encounter in this game.

Stoutland is a pure Normal type. Therefore, offensively, it can hit many types for neutral. And defensively, it is only weak to fighting and gets hit for neutral by almost everything else. It isn't great, but it isn't bad either. Stoutland has well-rounded stats. Its offensives are made of a decent 80 base speed and a good attack of 100. It also has a good bulk with 85 HP and 90 in both defenses that combine well with its ability Intimidate, which lower the opponents' attack stat.

Lillipup and its evolutions get good STAB very early on, with Tackle at the beginning and Take Down at lv.15. Later, you can buy the TM Return which, even if it doesn't hit anything for super effective, deals a lot of damages thank to STAB. If you don't do enough damages, you can set up very easily thanks to Work Up paired with its nice bulk and ability. To deal with Normal resistances, Stoutland's line learns Bite (lv.13 as Lillipup) and Crunch (lv.24 as Herdier) for Ghost type, and the TM Dig for Rock and Steel type. All of this (Return/Work Up/Crunch/Dig) are obtainable before the 4th gym.

Since Stoutland isn't weak against many types, you can send it pretty easily against any gym leader. With one or two Work Up, you can often do the entire fight with only this pokemon. And since fighting moves aren't common during gym battles, there's nothing that stop you from doing it. Concerning the Elite 4, Stoutland will be helpful against Shauntal and Caitlin thanks to Crunch. Though, Caitlin's fight doesn't allow much to set up properly with Work Up, so you might have to go with raw damages that can be boosted by Black Glasses or Expert Belt. Obviously, Stoutland is weak against Marshal, but its Intimidate can still come in handy to lower his pokemon's attack. N and Ghetsis' fights are mostly the same. Stoutland can come lower its opponents' attack, and can grab some kills with its good striking power.

Overall, I think Stoutland is an excellent pokemon to use in a playthrough. Despite not dealing super effective damages with its STAB, it can set up so easily during most of the game that it doesn't need it. Having Dark and Ground coverage to deal with anything that resist Normal is certainly a strong point. And having Intimidate as an ability makes it helpful even in the few bad match ups it has. All of this makes, in my opinion, Stoutland a very reliable pokemon to use in this game.

Final Ranking : S

Have you ever used a Stoutland before ? Was it a good member in your team ? You can share your experience below, if you want.

I've decided that I wanted to try certain pokemon in Pokemon Black and White and try to talk about how they perform through the main-game. Today, we're going to talk about Serperior.

Serperior is the Grass starter of this generation. Which means you'll get it as soon as you start your playthrough.

Serperior has an unuasual stats distribution. It is very fast with 113 in speed, but it only has base 75 in its attacks stats. Instead, Game Freak decided to give it good defenses with 95 in each. In addition to its poor offensive stats, Serperior doesn't have good coverage options because most of its attacks are Normal or Grass type. And its role as a "tank" is limited, since Serperior is a pure grass type, which isn't a great typing to have in Unova.

Despite that weird stuff, Serperior has access to set up moves during the game to compensate its flaws. It get Growth at lvl.13 to increases its offensive stats and Coil at lvl.36 to increase its Attack, Defense and Accuracy. Growth is really basic and only correct most of the time, but Coil is a great way set up with its stats. Since Serperior is fast, you can get a Coil before taking damage and since you increase your defense every turn, you can gather many boost in front of most of physical attacker and sweep the rest of the fight easily with Leaf Blade and Return. If you find a good position to set up, you can end up winning against bad match up with only your starter.

With that being said, how is Serperior doing in practice ? Servine is good during the 5th gym. And I don't know if it was just a weird coincidence, but when I gave a Yache Berry to my Serperior, Brycen's Vanillish didn't even try to use an ice move, despite doing this fight many times. So at that point, it was really easy to set up enough Coil to sweep the rest of its team. Other than those two, it is a bit more lacking. Drayden make set up strategies unreliable because of Dragon Tail. You can technically beat Skyla if her Swoobat doesn't use Acrobatics too much, but I still consider that Serperior isn't a reliable option in this fight. And Elsa's Emolga and Zebstrika can all hit Servine for super effective. Against the Elite 4, you can find good position to set up in front of Grimslay and Marshal. But other that, the best Serperior will be able to do is to grab some kill against grass weakness with Leaf Blade. Against N's Carracosta and Ghetis Seismitoad, for exemple.

Overall, I think despite its numerous flaws Serperior manage to be good enough during a playthrough. Mostly thanks to its set up options that allow it to do actual damages. Unfortunately, its poor defensive typing and the abundance of bad match up in this region makes it by far the weakest of the starter trio.

Final Ranking : B

Have you ever used a Serperior before ? Was it a good member in your team ? You can share your experience below, if you want.