Johto Pokemon that should NOT be used in a GSC Playthrough

I discuss several Pokémon that should be avoided in a Pokemon Gold, Silver, or Crystal playthrough! From lackluster stats to unfavorable type matchups, these Pokemon will make your journey through the Johto region slightly more unbearable.

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TIMESTAMPS
Intro: 00:00
Grass type Pokemon: 0:59
Early Bug types: 4:45
Flying types: 6:47
Donphan: 10:14
Forretress: 12:02
Bad single stage Pokemon: 13:18
Psychic types: 20:51
Umbreon: 22:11
Steelix: 22:58
The final Pokemon: 23:34
Hitmontop: 24:57
Entei: 26:14
Water types: 28:39
Late game Pokemon: 34:13
Outro: 36:03

#pokemon #pokémon #pokemongsc #pokemongold #pokemonsilver #pokemoncrystal #pokemongbc #pokemongb #pokemonyoutube #pokemontips #pokemontrivia

[strain]

Okay, but hear me out. I ALWAYS get a Gastly to use Mean Look on a female Phanpy and then breed that Phanpy with a male Wooper because Phanpy can get Water Gun through breeding, which while mostly useless, is quite possibly one of the most adorable mental images of all time! Just a little Phanpy spraying water through its trunk. Toot toot.

[syaieya]

As an adult it's so easy to poke holes in the Johto roster, but as a kid it didn't feel like half of these pokemon even showed up in a natural playthrough. So the ones that did would get taken on as a novelty. With the levels being so low across the board after mahogany town the move pools weren't exciting but we weren't exactly pressed for power.

I think because of that though, the gen 2 games end up feeling like a shared experience. The starter being an unstoppable force, Togetic showing up eventually, Ampharos because mareep is cute and electric on it's own is real good, strong bug from the contest, cool color Gyarados making me question if I really did see that grey snubbull earlier.

[jjsponge]

I feel like some of the Gen 2 Pokemon were used more for marketing purposes, but in the games, they felt like an afterthought. Doesn’t help that they were easily overshadowed by Gen 1 Pokemon. I’m just glad that the later generations did the Gen 2 Pokemon justice with new evolutions, regional forms, Megas, etc.

[essentures]

Kenya is the single strongest pokémon in any GSC playthrough lmao

[grunkleg.]

Worth noting, getting evolution stones in Gen 2, especially Gold and Silver, is stupid difficult. You either need to talk to Bill's grandpa in Kanto, or if you're playing Crystal, figure out which trainer to add to your PokeGear that gives the respective stone. Genuinely laughable they thought that would be a wise idea

[edwardnowakowski]

I will say, friendship evolutions are WAY more easily accessible than stone evolutions in gen 2, especially if you aren’t planning on googling which npc you need the number of or doing the daylight savings trick.

[reillywalker]

Jumpluff is a fast status-setter. I've used it in a playthrough and done well with it. The trick is to _not_ use Jumpluff to deal damage directly except via Mega or Giga Drain—or perhaps Headbutt for its flinch chance.

Getting a Sun Stone is _easier_ than getting a Leaf Stone in Gold and Silver, so Bellossom is worth running if you're not playing Crystal.

[matthewroberts]

Looking them up, I wonder if Gamefreak wanted people to maybe use the new breeding mechanic. Cause some of the Pokemon in this vid (not all) can get stab from Egg Moves.
Like Forretress can get Pin Missile as an Egg move from Beedrill, Gligar gets Wing Attack from Scyther and Hitmontop get Hi Jump Kick from Hitmonlee.
Still an issue yes cause the parent Pokemon has to be a high level to get those moves (Beedrill Lv35 and Scyther Lv30, Hitmonlee decent at Lv26) but it could technically still make them a bit better.

Edit: Playing Crystal on the virtual console a couple years ago I did this with Skarmory to give it Drill Peck from a Fearow.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

As a kid, I actually enjoyed Bellossom's removal of the Poison type. Remember, in Gen 1, the Bulbasaur, Bellsprout, and Oddish lines were all grass/poison. And poison was a death sentence in Gen 1 because of the overwhelming power of Psychic in that generation. Besides, the only typing weak to Poison in Gen 2 (since bug was removed for some reason?) is Grass, which is practically nonexistent unless you picked Totodile as your starter. So losing the poison typing was, in my opinion, a buff.

Also why I liked Umbreon. Immunity to psychic, I felt, was worth its downsides. Remember, this is still Gen 2, before fighting types started popping off, and I still considered psychic opponents to be the most dangerous.

[Shyguymask]

The thing about Johto is that since there is no powercreep from later gens, their stats and movepools in the context of gen 2 games are actually not really bad in all cases at all. Meganium is pretty bulky for gen 2 standards and it's able to kill stuff just fine, it's the worst Johto starter but it's still very much viable. Jumpluff is very fast in-game and its support movepool can be significantly useful if you find yourself struggling. Zubat is basically unusable early but you're vastly underestimating Crobat, it is extremely fast while also being decently bulky. It's able to damage and kill stuff with Wing Attack just fine and Confuse Ray is very useful against hard opponents. Insane speed, solid bulk, average at best damage, good typing, it sums up to being a good Pokemon. Dunsparce has a cheese Glare + Headbutt strategy to be actually good against later boss trainers, but as you said it's luck based and just finding Dunsparce by itself is a grindfest. I could keep going but the point is that people exaggerate how "bad" a lot of Johto mons are and when judging Johto games on their own, the viability of the mons should be judged based on the context of the game itself, not modern competitive Pokemon or whatever.

29:33 I'm pretty sure Sludge Bomb TM is obtained after getting rid of Team Rocket in Mahogany Town, not Radio Tower which is a lot later in the game.

[Majora_T]

I don’t mind the Zubat grind. In GSC, I’d run Crobat as a slow killer. Toxic, confuse ray, protect, fly. Granted, he’s not much of a tank but give it leftovers and now we’re talking!

[starmangalaxy]

23:06 While not recommended, this is suprisingly likely to happen as friendship is slow to grow in GSC so unless you were to minmax, Eevee might hit that level. Mine did while I was prepping for Elite 4 and hey, at least Espeon with Bite was a good Will counter.

Edit: Also Vaporeon is once again only available before Kanto in Crystal, evolution stones basically don't exist in GS.

[andreapareti]

This just further highlights how Pokémon is also a collectathon, and Gen 2 took this to a whole new level: rather than falling into power creep and making the new Pokémon mostly or outright directly better than what came before, you have stuff like Xatu and Misdreavus which are obviously overall worse than Alakazam and Gengar but are instead used as rare, location-exclusive encounters to reward thorough players trying to complete their Dex.

This doesn't mean that I didn't like this video, however, quite the contrary! I like seen these Pokémon comparisons strictly from the in-game usability perspective; in that sense, I'd love for you to continue with these, Gen 3 and onward!

[trainern]

i don't think you should use friendship evolutions as a negative of a pokemon as that doesn't affect the availability of the pokemon, yes its a bit of a hassle but if you do get it the earliest you can, it does perform allright for most of them

[Bearded_Bream]

As someone who's doing a current run in Crystal with a team that includes Meganium, Donphan, and Ariados, I've never felt so attacked by a video that I wholeheartedly agree with 😂

[TheAzulmagia]

Not only can you give the Cianwood Shuckle back, he'll let you keep it if you have its friendship high enough.

Also, you don't need to clear the Radio Tower to get Sludge Bomb. Just the Mahogany base.

[genarftheunfuni]

I still disagree with Espeon being "outclassed by Kadabra", because at the very least it has the capability of ACTUALLY taking hits, unlike Kadabra who just takes the "glass" part of Glass Cannon to a whole new level.

Besides, Espeon has unique tools like Curse + Baton Pass if you want to open up the moveslots of a Curse user for more coverage.

[starmangalaxy]

35:35 I can immediately tell you what Gamefreak was thinking, these pokemon aren't really meant for you to use, but for breeding and trading to other players, this was still during pokemania after all.

[Shyguymask]

After doing some in-game tests I can even more confidently say you underestimate Crobat a ton in particular, Golbat with Bite ravages Morty's gym, and then Crobat with Confuse Ray, its decent bulk & amazing speed lets it defeat many threatening mons like Clair's Kingdra and Karen's Houndoom on its own. Depending on the matchup it performs on par if not better than the supposed "superior" flying types. Friendship evos aren't even difficult or particularly tedious to reach.

[pepsibIue]

I apologize for having nothing clever to say but I really like the graphics used