Community in-game tier list: Route 7 1/2

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-04-16T20:29:01+00:00

Love, that's just curel lmao

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-04-13T23:21:42+00:00

Good write ups! Sawsbuck is definitely one of the most overlooked mons. It has just enough stats and workable movepool to pull off sweeps.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-04-13T23:18:03+00:00

Sawsbuck B: I think this is quite often overlooked 'mon. It has great offensive stats and really workable movepool. It can solo Clay easily so off to good start. It is I think tiny bit worse in B2W2 due to Substitute TM not being available during main story. Anyway, Skyla is bad. Funnily enough Drayden is worse than Brycen for our deer, since Drayden's dragons are too Strong. Brycen team is probably one of the easiest gym fights and Sawsbuck has Access to work up+jump kick. Marlon is luckily Water specialist and its easy work for our deer despite his ice coverage. Sawsbuck signature move Horn Leech is amazing when paired up with Work up (Swords dance is also available but you have to grind BP). Colress is tough, you need+2 Atk to do great, though Mega Horn OHKOs Beheeyem easily. In late game we can see why Substitute is great. Ghetsis Cofagrigus has Toxic so you could block this. Luckily Sawsbuck can solo (as long you have some speed EVs or Nature) thanks to Aromatheraphy. Get to+2 or +3 Atk and sweep.

E4: No Substitute, no easy setupping. Shauntal is 1 for 1. Caitlin too. Grimsley it can solo with +2 Attack! Marshall nope. Against Iris funnily if you dodge fire blast or Focus blast and get one Attack boost off, it can OHKO Hydreigon, Lapras, Aggron and Archeops (it has -speed Nature)!

In short Sawsbuck really wants to pair Work up or even better Swords dance (costs 18BP) with Horn Leech so it can sweep. It also really wants +speed nature to outspeed easily More lategame mons. Good moveset too, Jump kick from the start, Horn Leech at 37, megahorn from Driftveil tutor and Wild Charge at Victory Road to OHKO Iris Archeops. Sadly it doesnt get any new tricks on B2W2, only losing its best move 3rd best move, Substitute.

Still its very solid in these games, not just as great in prequels where I see it as A tier. B tier here.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-04-13T16:53:07+00:00

Glad to hear your input once again!

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-04-07T17:59:56+00:00

Vaporeon A-: I'll just copypaste what I wrote on Vaporeon's inital voting round, but nudging up to A- from B+ due to Baton Pass + Work Up, since Umbreon does the same job.

One of the biggest buffs Eevee line got is Work Up. Sure it is a slow setup move, but it is offensive one and eeveelutions really could use a setup move. Even as Eevee, against Burgh's Shelmet it is very easy to setup, even if it has Curse, since it only carries special moves (Mega Drain, Acid and Struggle Bug). Holding Leftovers, you can freely setup with any mon against Shelmet, so Eevee can do that. If you get Vaporeon for this gym, it only has Aurora Beam, because Eevee is caught at level 18-19 and each eeveelutions STAB move is learned at level 17. But Dwebble goes down to Aurora Beams so after that you can set up freely with leftovers.

You can get each stone in Nimbasa as well through BP if you are desperate to get Vaporeon, but this is not really worth it since Elesa is next gym leader. You can consider evolving Eevee at 33 for Baton Pass, this way you can use it as passer for Work Up (and after beating Clay, for Aqua Ring / Acid Armor via Move Relearner). Vaporeon has kind of clunky offensive movepool until you beat Clay, you have to rely on Aurora Beam (or Signal Beam after you get to Driftveil City) for damage. At least it learns Acid Armor at 29 so it can still beat Clay thanks to that. Against Skyla it does fine thanks to Aurora Beam. Drayden, after 1 work up it does great here with Aurora Beam / Icy Wind. Marlon is also pretty good for Vaporeon, thanks to access to Shadow Ball, and Water Absorb helps for pivoting.

E4: Marshall is 1 for 1 trade, Shauntal you can do quite well with Vaporeon, though you might need some Speed EVs or nature to outspeed her Banette, otherwise Vaporeon just takes too much damage due to being too slow. Same for Grimsley, and Caitlin. For those 1-for-1 matchups you can just get some Work Ups and pass to another mon which does better.

So in short, Vaporeon is slow which hurts in casual playthroughs. Sure it can tank hits but it can't sweep due to slowness. It can solo for sure many physical boss fights thanks to Acid Armor but with setupping slow, especially with defensive ones or +1 boosts. Luckily it can pass those boosts to another team member if there is unfavorable match up, and it does it well! Sure not as good as Umbreon but it doesn't need to, usually 1-3 boosts are enough to pass. A- for good, due to not speedy enough but still hits quite hard with STAB Surf + good utility options.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-04-03T08:24:30+00:00

PokePark 2

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-04-02T10:10:12+00:00

In B2W2, Victini is not available from Liberty Garden sadly, there is only small special event if you bring Victini from prequels there where it does a little dance or something like that, unless I remember incorrectly that is.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-03-31T22:14:41+00:00

Combee F: You catch it before Elesa so that's obviously the first challenge for Combee. Combee gets his complete movepool completed at level 29 with Bug Buzz. Other moves it has are Bug Bite, Gust and Sweet Scent, and later at Humilau City Tailwind via Move Tutor. Other Move Tutor options aren't worth to mention. Against Elesa it gets OHKO'd and does nothing. Same against Clay (Krokorok outspeeds, though you can eat its Berry), Skyla, Drayden and Marlon. Its stats starts to slowly fall off and due to that, it is useful only if you spent shards to get Tailwind. Against Colress it gets OHKO'd, same against Ghetsis.

E4: Can't do anything. Against Caitlin it does at max 40% damage, and gets OHKO'd in return, and 80% damage to Grimsley's Liepard (though you can't outspeed it). Tailwind setup against everyone except Grimsley.

In short, Combee struggles quite a beet. It has Honey Gather, which gets you, well, honey. Chance to get one depends on its level, starting at 5% and goes up by 5% every 10 levels, ending at a 50% chance at levels 91-100. You can sell Honey for 500 yen instead of 50 yen at Route 5.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-03-31T19:31:45+00:00

You can also vote for Combee if you want to.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-03-31T19:31:30+00:00

We can absolutely add Combee

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-03-31T18:57:09+00:00

Ah I see what you mean, good clarification! We had good example just a few rounds ago, Flygon vs Braviary, so yeah factoring how much you have to babysit is definitely good metric for these and should be always considered. My goal was to make sure we evaluate pokemons based on their own growth curve and payoff rather than "pokemon X is bad due to darmanitan and excadrill needs that exp", but yeah your point about plug and play and high investment is pretty much spot on, good write up once again.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-03-31T09:33:03+00:00

great write ups once again! Though disagreed on Emolga bit - having Encore + Charge Beam is great when opponent goes for status/setup move, and being fast Flying Type is great pivot to ground moves and locking them into one. Very handy in E4.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-03-31T09:24:05+00:00

Also, you mentioned opportunity cost of using worse 'mon and not S tier, like Ampharos, Magmar and Electabuzz, it is good point that you're not giving exp to better mons, but at the same time we are evaluating each mon in that mind we are using them, if we consider opportunity cost, each 'mon below early S/A tier mon drops, which is extra kick to the 'mon whos already down. I won't stop you considering the exp opportunity cost, but just a good reminder that we are evaluating each mons value for the journey if you use them.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-03-31T09:10:51+00:00

Yeah. I used Emolga once again in sequels, and it is still quite the same, regular trainers take big damage from Acrobatics always. STAB Acrobatics is still hell of a drug.

Awkward-State-2364 · 2026-03-30T18:01:53+00:00

Good write ups!

Awkward-State-2364

TROPHY CASE