Pokémon Colosseum In-game Tier List

TCTphantom

formerly MX42
I have returned to finish the job. Among other things.

I've read through the posts made the past couple years and will do some placement overhauls due to moving the "end" to Fein.

Tentative changes:
  1. Tyranitar, Smeargle, Ursaring, and Shuckle will be tiered
  2. Heracross and Metagross will move up, possibly to C
  3. Bayleef and Quagsire will move down
  4. Might condense some tiers since I don't think we need 7 with so few good Pokémon
If we are condensing tiers, I would look at knocking down the lower tiers. Something like an S A B C F would probably work fine given how few options we have in Colosseum. Id honestly be fine with an ABCF instead tbh.

I also support Fein being the end point.

The only one of these I have actually used was Tyranitar, and that was ages ago. I could boot the game up and do a new run with Tyranitar in mind. I think out of the four new mons that will be tiered, it is the only one that will escape F Tier or whatever our lowest tier is going to be.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
If we are condensing tiers, I would look at knocking down the lower tiers. Something like an S A B C F would probably work fine given how few options we have in Colosseum. Id honestly be fine with an ABCF instead tbh.

I also support Fein being the end point.

The only one of these I have actually used was Tyranitar, and that was ages ago. I could boot the game up and do a new run with Tyranitar in mind. I think out of the four new mons that will be tiered, it is the only one that will escape F Tier or whatever our lowest tier is going to be.
Knocking down the lower tiers is the plan. There's so much garbage in this game that just blends together. Why bother having them arbitrarily split when they're all probably F anyway?

I can take or leave S. I feel like Espeon might be worthy of staying there but am iffy on Croconaw. Gen III spread move mechs hurt its viability as a Surf spammer with its mediocre SpA.
 

Texas Cloverleaf

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Still gonna advocate for Miltank, it's one of the few things fast and bulky and strong enough to make an impact even underleveled in the final fights of the game, definitely worth rising out of the bottom tier away from the other end gamers.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Still gonna advocate for Miltank, it's one of the few things fast and bulky and strong enough to make an impact even underleveled in the final fights of the game, definitely worth rising out of the bottom tier away from the other end gamers.
With the changes to the new endpoint I'm totally fine with this.

Speaking of ranking changes, D and E will be removed and anything in them will tentatively be placed in F. Miltank and Heracross are currently in E but will go to C for now since they're clearly better than the trash in F.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Changes:
Ariados -> F
Heracross -> C
Houndoom -> C
Mantine -> F
Metagross -> C
Miltank -> C
Plusle -> D
Qwilfish -> F
Remoraid -> F
Shuckle -> F (was untiered)
Skamory -> C
Smeargle -> F (was untiered)
Sudowoodo -> C
Tyranitar -> C (was untiered)
Ursaring -> C (was untiered)

Rank E has been removed. Kept D for now because I'm considering gutting S. I might be pulling out my GameCube real soon for a run to test Espeon since I remember it having some when I played a couple years ago.

Added new sprites using Bulbapeida's mugshots except for the non-Shadow Pokemon because I got these from the Shadow Pokemon list and don't know where to get the shots for Espeon and co.
 
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Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Another update. I know it's a triple post but it's my thread.

First of all, I rewrote a shitton of the Pokémon entries. I'd encourage people to reread them, and check the E tier in particular.

Speaking of E: to be consistent with our other recent Tier lists, I swapped E and F. E is still the bottom of the barrel fwiw.

Finally, I moved Matine out of the bottom and into D. It's actually usable, if only for a short period, due to decent SpA and walling Miror B. I was also going to say I put Qwilfish in D, but it's been sitting there since my last post so eh.
 
Another update. I know it's a triple post but it's my thread.

First of all, I rewrote a shitton of the Pokémon entries. I'd encourage people to reread them, and check the E tier in particular.

Speaking of E: to be consistent with our other recent Tier lists, I swapped E and F. E is still the bottom of the barrel fwiw.

Finally, I moved Matine out of the bottom and into D. It's actually usable, if only for a short period, due to decent SpA and walling Miror B. I was also going to say I put Qwilfish in D, but it's been sitting there since my last post so eh.
I greatly appreciate the massive write up. I was thinking about going through it again and cleaning up as admittingly it was sloppy. Not much of an excuse as more of the reason, when I did those write ups, I wasn't in the best of spirits and was trying to inject some humor in an otherwise fairly depressing point in my life.

But anyways the write ups are good, and the (new) E tier manages to inject humor in otherwise terrible Pokemon. The only Mon in E tier that I could probably argue that could be moved up to D is Absol as unlike the other E tiers, it can potentially do something without needing tons of investment, but I generally don't care enough to do so.

I do feel there is some stuff to add in the additional notes section for a few Pokemon, namely the "postgame" Pokemon and their usefulness during Batlle Mode's Mt. Battle. The added stuff is in bold.

Additional Notes: Heracross can make a good recipient of the Time Flute to gain immediate access to Brick Break and be able to level up before the final gauntlet. It can also be taught Earthquake by TM, but that might not be strictly necessary since its STAB options already have high power and provide decent coverage. It's resistance to Earthquake and strong base power STAB moves can prove to be valuable if attempting to obtain Ho-oh.

Additional Notes: If purified, Houndoom has a good showing against Nascour, being able to hit most of his Pokémon for super effective damage, but is nowhere near worth the investment just for one battle. Houndoom's strong dual STAB combination make it a great choice for obtaining Ho-oh, especially since it is a rare Pokemon to come across on a cartridge game.

Additional Notes: The game's QA team must have noticed Metagross's awfully low catch rate, because it has been increased to ensure you don't spend forever trying to catch it. Metagross is a great choice to take if attempting to claim Ho-oh due to its great typing, ability, and strong moves.

Additional Notes: Since Tyranitar has the largest Heart Gauge in the game, it might be worth using a Time Flute on to make it more effective. Also, remember that Sandstorm does not provide a boost to the Special Defense for Rock-types in Generation III, so don't be cheeky and leave Tyranitar in against Water- or Grass-types. If you plan on obtaining Ho-oh, Tyranitar is one of the best choices to take with you as it's rather difficult to obtain in a cartridge game, and auto sand can prove to be very useful against that pesky Kyogre

Additional notes: Forretress can learn Earthquake by TM to make use of its passable Attack without exploding. However, the move is typically better suited for other Pokémon. Forretress also makes for a solid Pokemon to use for obtaining Ho-oh due to Explosion strategies being highly abusable.

And speaking of Mt. Battle, while writing up a guide for Ho-oh is unnecessary, as it is your reward for effectively 100% Colosseum, it is still a Pokemon that is obtainable. Obviously it goes in the Untiered tier.

Ho-oh
Availability: Reward via Battle Mode's Mt. Battle after Snagging and Purifying all 48 Shadow Pokemon at Level 70, as well as using a Story Mode-registered team to complete it
Heart Gauge: N/A
Overview: As Ho-oh is the very last Pokemon obtained in Pokemon Colosseum as you effectively need to 100% the game to get it, it has zero story presence whatsoever. However, Ho-oh can be used in the Level 100 portions of Colosseum's Battle Mode (Tower and Orre Colosseum). The AI uses box legendaries in the battles, so why shouldn't you? While Ho-oh isn't as great in Gen 3 as it is in later generations, it still has a massive base stat total and a wide movepool to take advantage of.
Additional Notes: When going for Ho-oh, you can use any Pokemon you desire, but they must be registered through the Story Mode. So if you want to use your Mewtwos and Kyogres and whatnot, make sure you trade them over to Colosseum first.
 

Minority

Numquam Vincar
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This tier list can't be taken seriously until these changes are made:

Quilava = S (This Pokemon is used alongside Espeon for the any % and all snag speedrun WRs. If the WR strats use this Pokemon, clearly its innate traits are worthy of being ranked at the highest tier.)

Heracross = A (This is the best physical attacker in the game that isn't snagged during the final gauntlet. The only reason it isn't S rank is because it's captured in the second-half of the game.)

Quagsire < A (This Pokemon is not good for running the game as described by my previous post. Whoever put this Pokemon here is letting major biases cloud their ranking. Seeing it alongside WR setter Quilava and the box legends is heinous.)
 
This tier list can't be taken seriously until these changes are made:

Quilava = S (This Pokemon is used alongside Espeon for the any % and all snag speedrun WRs. If the WR strats use this Pokemon, clearly its innate traits are worthy of being ranked at the highest tier.)

Heracross = A (This is the best physical attacker in the game that isn't snagged during the final gauntlet. The only reason it isn't S rank is because it's captured in the second-half of the game.)

Quagsire < A (This Pokemon is not good for running the game as described by my previous post. Whoever put this Pokemon here is letting major biases cloud their ranking. Seeing it alongside WR setter Quilava and the box legends is heinous.)

I've been thinking about Quilava's placement for quite a while. Speed runs are an interesting point to make, but when you do look at Colosseum speedruns, it's Typhlosion getting a few key KOs, and then Espeon doing most of the heavy lifting. Typhlosion is a great Pokemon as Fire is a great STAB to have but I just don't see Typhlosion as "S tier material" ( I'd even say that Espeon is the sole S rank in the game, but that's an entirely different discussion).

And if Quilava goes in S tier, then it can be argued that Entei should go there too. Both Pokemon are pretty interchangeable in a playthrough. Each have their advantages over each other (such as Entei being way bulkier, and Typhlosion being able to hit much harder on the STAB side during specific moments), but they both have to rely on the fairly inaccurate and PP hungry Fire Blast until they both naturally learn Flamethrower (which Entei gets earlier) or you grind out Mt. Battle a lot to teach them. And while Typhlosion does hit harder with its Fire Blast, it's not that much harder to make that much of a difference unless you're abusing Blaze a ton, which isn't a very reliable strategy. I'd rather have both of them stay where they are or both of them move to the S tier if Quilava moves up,

I know Heracross's ranking was somewhat leftover from when an F tier existed, (where it was E) and when we counted Evice as the end instead of Fein. Heracross is great, but it's gotten so late. I'd argue for B tier before A.

And with Quagsire, it's more of making the most out of a bad situation. While Quagsire wouldn't be all that great in a cartridge game, Colosseum has limited options and Quag manages to be one of the mons that is least affected by Colosseum's restrictions. Water/Ground is a solid typing with only one weakness. It can offset that weakness somewhat with Amnesia. It naturally learns Earthquake at level 42 which is such a boon. And as a Ground type, its only competition are Piloswine and Flygon, who are at the complete mercy of (limited) TMs. Quagsire basically comes with everything it wants, and gets what it wants via level up. I think it's fine where it is.

Quagsire having a lower ranking in the XD tier lists where it has more competition and is an optional rare encounter are where its flaws become more apparant. And while it does still naturally learn Earthquake in that game, level 42 in XD is nearing the tail-end of the story (more or less starting to fight Ardos or Eldes) whereas level 42 in Colossuem is anywhere between Venus and the start of the Shadow Pokemon Lab
 
This tier list can't be taken seriously until these changes are made:

Quilava = S (This Pokemon is used alongside Espeon for the any % and all snag speedrun WRs. If the WR strats use this Pokemon, clearly its innate traits are worthy of being ranked at the highest tier.)

Heracross = A (This is the best physical attacker in the game that isn't snagged during the final gauntlet. The only reason it isn't S rank is because it's captured in the second-half of the game.)

Quagsire < A (This Pokemon is not good for running the game as described by my previous post. Whoever put this Pokemon here is letting major biases cloud their ranking. Seeing it alongside WR setter Quilava and the box legends is heinous.)
Biased post is biased. Heracross deserves lower than A. If I wanted a physical attacker so badly, I'd pick Meditite in a heartbeat over something I get as the one of the very last Pokemon and waste a Time Flute on it.

Quilava honestly doesn't have business being in S based solely on WR/Speedrun performance. Most of these lists don't test for that. Yes, getting through it efficiently as possible is the key, but at the same time, no on really cares how fast you cleared your game. As it was stated, just because it is used WR Speedruns and gets a few key KO's isn't unique to it as Entei can do it as well (albeit that also should not be in S because it requiring you to KO all of Dakim's Pokemon fast and then putting Entei to sleep to catch it easier). We don't generally cater to speedruns anyway.


As for Quag....I could legit say the same to you with Heracross.
 

Minority

Numquam Vincar
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Quilava honestly doesn't have business being in S based solely on WR/Speedrun performance. Most of these lists don't test for that.
What exactly are these tier lists even doing if they aren't measuring cart performance efficiency? Clearly the intent is to organize Pokemon based on how well they run the game, and Typhlosion along with Espeon are the two best Pokemon at doing this, objectively measured by completion times that come with full video coverage showing the extent of their prowess.

If I wanted a physical attacker so badly, I'd pick Meditite in a heartbeat over something I get as the one of the very last Pokemon and waste a Time Flute on it.
You can fail to compare a garbage pick like Meditite to the best physical attacker in the game all you want, but any half-decent ADV player knows you're grasping. Heracross' innate traits are so strong they cannot be understated; this mon is so wicked it seizes tournament wins in Ubers, a scene where even the dogs aren't viable. Regardless of if you believe it or not, that potency rings true in casual play, arguably more so because of its Speed. If you stopped to think before scribbling a low-effort response you might even come to realize that Heacross' late pickup is an advantage for teams that accommodate it because it comes pre-leveled for the final gauntlet, rather than being another mediocre exp sink the way most early to mid game pickups are.

Water/Ground is a solid typing with only one weakness. It can offset that weakness somewhat with Amnesia.
Nobody is running Amnesia; defensive stat boosting moves are inherently counterproductive in cart play and mentioning it shows a desperation to find anything good to say about this Pokemon. Quagsire's defensive typing, which is its best trait outside STAB Earthquake, isn't even particularly good because it doesn't resist Earthquake, but Flygon and Heracross do.

As for Quag....I could legit say the same to you with Heracross.
Heracross is an enlightened pick where Quagsire is a noob pick. It's literally designed to be starter bait; a Pokemon a newbie runs the game with on their first playthrough when they didn't pick Croconaw. I speak from experience; I ran Quagsire on my first playthrough. But to a player acquainted with Colosseum even Mantine is a better early game Water-type pickup because of its superior matchup against Mirror B. and Dakim, while in the late game Quagsire is a worse Water-type than Suicune and a worse Earthquaker than most things you can simply slap the TM on. As for the benefit of learning Earthquake upon level up, Quagsire isn't even very good at being a second Earthquaker because it doesn't resist Earthquake itself. This Pokemon is used for the love of Quag and noob pick nostalgia and that's okay, just don't pretend otherwise.

Through this discourse it's clear we simply have different levels of familiarity with this game. I've completed Pokemon Colossum more than 40 times and have used every Pokemon at least once, including Yanma, Plusle, and Smeargle. I've beaten Mt. Battle in story mode prior to reaching Realgam Tower, and did so with only two Pokemon. I've cleared every battle mode Colosseum using in-game Pokemon. I've obtained the Mattle Ho-Oh multiple times, and I've yet to get one with a good nature. I've done all the equivalents in the sequel Pokemon XD and I'm the author behind the two most in-depth NGC Pokemon guides this site has. Even my ADV tournament records speak for themselves.

But since it's still unlikely you're convinced, what truly shows a lack of a deeper familiarity with this game is how Skiploom is placed and written off. Under sun, Jumpluff is the best Pokemon in the game. Chlorophyll + Sleep Powder + no sleep clause is something the AI simply can't deal with, and sleep is also conveniently by far the best tactic for snagging Shadow Pokemon, the central challenge of the game. When I said I beat Mt. Battle prior to Realgam in story mode with only two Pokemon, Jumpluff was one of them, and did so four levels under the AI's Pokemon. Despite this, there's Pokemon tiered above Jumpluff that can't hope to do the same things it can do, simply because there's been a failure to use Jumpluff to its full potential. The same can be said about Typhlosion, Heracross, and several other Pokemon on this list. I have my preferences, but I know this game. Perhaps with enough playthroughs you'll begin to see where I'm coming from.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Oh thank god people are actually discussing stuff here.

I greatly appreciate the massive write up. I was thinking about going through it again and cleaning up as admittingly it was sloppy. Not much of an excuse as more of the reason, when I did those write ups, I wasn't in the best of spirits and was trying to inject some humor in an otherwise fairly depressing point in my life.
I felt like those were fine for the E ranks since they're supremely awful and hard to talk about, and took inspiration from those writeups lol.

But anyways the write ups are good, and the (new) E tier manages to inject humor in otherwise terrible Pokemon. The only Mon in E tier that I could probably argue that could be moved up to D is Absol as unlike the other E tiers, it can potentially do something without needing tons of investment, but I generally don't care enough to do so.
I've been thinking of bumping Absol up to D since it can KO things with Shadow Rush, which is a lot more than anything else in E can claim.

I do feel there is some stuff to add in the additional notes section for a few Pokemon, namely the "postgame" Pokemon and their usefulness during Batlle Mode's Mt. Battle. The added stuff is in bold.
I'm not sure it's worth bringing up Battle Mode's Mt. Battle. I doubt most people playing the game would try to engage with it using just the available Pokémon unless they were on emulator with pkhex or some other way to mitigate shitty stat rolls. Besides, Mt. Battle requires an entirely different approach compared to a normal playthrough, where it's less about efficiency and more about consistency and optimization.

And speaking of Mt. Battle, while writing up a guide for Ho-oh is unnecessary, as it is your reward for effectively 100% Colosseum, it is still a Pokemon that is obtainable. Obviously it goes in the Untiered tier.

undefined
I was planning on doing a Ho-Oh writeup anyway, but just. Forgot. I'll get on it later.

This tier list can't be taken seriously until these changes are made:

Quilava = S (This Pokemon is used alongside Espeon for the any % and all snag speedrun WRs. If the WR strats use this Pokemon, clearly its innate traits are worthy of being ranked at the highest tier.)

Heracross = A (This is the best physical attacker in the game that isn't snagged during the final gauntlet. The only reason it isn't S rank is because it's captured in the second-half of the game.)

Quagsire < A (This Pokemon is not good for running the game as described by my previous post. Whoever put this Pokemon here is letting major biases cloud their ranking. Seeing it alongside WR setter Quilava and the box legends is heinous.)
While I don't think we should be taking speedrun viability into account since a speedrunner's methods don't typically align with your average player (see GSC Totodile and Rage strats), Quilava is pretty straightforward in its use case. I've also come across independent accounts that more or less agree with the sentiment to S and and can see a rise. I think the main reason that I put it in B initially was because it underperformed super hard in my last run, though I'm pretty sure it got IV and Nature screwed there (it had Brave or Adamant or something else disgusting).

I've actually been considering a Heracross bump but wanted to test it myself before committing. A friend of mine did a run on emulator recently that I couldn't use as the basis for any rankings since it involved a bunch of ROM editing for good IVs and TMs, but Heracross did wonders and didn't need much of anything to work. It also has a pretty stupendous matchup for the Realgam gauntlet, and it's less resource-intensive than Vibrava while only being slightly later.

Could take or leave Quag.

But since it's still unlikely you're convinced, what truly shows a lack of a deeper familiarity with this game is how Skiploom is placed and written off. Under sun, Jumpluff is the best Pokemon in the game. Chlorophyll + Sleep Powder + no sleep clause is something the AI simply can't deal with, and sleep is also conveniently by far the best tactic for snagging Shadow Pokemon, the central challenge of the game. When I said I beat Mt. Battle prior to Realgam in story mode with only two Pokemon, Jumpluff was one of them, and did so four levels under the AI's Pokemon. Despite this, there's Pokemon tiered above Jumpluff that can't hope to do the same things it can do, simply because there's been a failure to use Jumpluff to its full potential. The same can be said about Typhlosion, Heracross, and several other Pokemon on this list. I have my preferences, but I know this game. Perhaps with enough playthroughs you'll begin to see where I'm coming from.
ngl my own biases and hesitance to give Skiploom any credit made me lowball it when this thread was first made. The potential to shit on the Evice fight alone should make it S if we're being honest.
 
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What exactly are these tier lists even doing if they aren't measuring cart performance efficiency? Clearly the intent is to organize Pokemon based on how well they run the game, and Typhlosion along with Espeon are the two best Pokemon at doing this, objectively measured by completion times that come with full video coverage showing the extent of their prowess.

You can fail to compare a garbage pick like Meditite to the best physical attacker in the game all you want, but any half-decent ADV player knows you're grasping. Heracross' innate traits are so strong they cannot be understated; this mon is so wicked it seizes tournament wins in Ubers, a scene where even the dogs aren't viable. Regardless of if you believe it or not, that potency rings true in casual play, arguably more so because of its Speed. If you stopped to think before scribbling a low-effort response you might even come to realize that Heacross' late pickup is an advantage for teams that accommodate it because it comes pre-leveled for the final gauntlet, rather than being another mediocre exp sink the way most early to mid game pickups are.

Nobody is running Amnesia; defensive stat boosting moves are inherently counterproductive in cart play and mentioning it shows a desperation to find anything good to say about this Pokemon. Quagsire's defensive typing, which is its best trait outside STAB Earthquake, isn't even particularly good because it doesn't resist Earthquake, but Flygon and Heracross do.


Heracross is an enlightened pick where Quagsire is a noob pick. It's literally designed to be starter bait; a Pokemon a newbie runs the game with on their first playthrough when they didn't pick Croconaw. I speak from experience; I ran Quagsire on my first playthrough. But to a player acquainted with Colosseum even Mantine is a better early game Water-type pickup because of its superior matchup against Mirror B. and Dakim, while in the late game Quagsire is a worse Water-type than Suicune and a worse Earthquaker than most things you can simply slap the TM on. As for the benefit of learning Earthquake upon level up, Quagsire isn't even very good at being a second Earthquaker because it doesn't resist Earthquake itself. This Pokemon is used for the love of Quag and noob pick nostalgia and that's okay, just don't pretend otherwise.

Through this discourse it's clear we simply have different levels of familiarity with this game. I've completed Pokemon Colossum more than 40 times and have used every Pokemon at least once, including Yanma, Plusle, and Smeargle. I've beaten Mt. Battle in story mode prior to reaching Realgam Tower, and did so with only two Pokemon. I've cleared every battle mode Colosseum using in-game Pokemon. I've obtained the Mattle Ho-Oh multiple times, and I've yet to get one with a good nature. I've done all the equivalents in the sequel Pokemon XD and I'm the author behind the two most in-depth NGC Pokemon guides this site has. Even my ADV tournament records speak for themselves.

But since it's still unlikely you're convinced, what truly shows a lack of a deeper familiarity with this game is how Skiploom is placed and written off. Under sun, Jumpluff is the best Pokemon in the game. Chlorophyll + Sleep Powder + no sleep clause is something the AI simply can't deal with, and sleep is also conveniently by far the best tactic for snagging Shadow Pokemon, the central challenge of the game. When I said I beat Mt. Battle prior to Realgam in story mode with only two Pokemon, Jumpluff was one of them, and did so four levels under the AI's Pokemon. Despite this, there's Pokemon tiered above Jumpluff that can't hope to do the same things it can do, simply because there's been a failure to use Jumpluff to its full potential. The same can be said about Typhlosion, Heracross, and several other Pokemon on this list. I have my preferences, but I know this game. Perhaps with enough playthroughs you'll begin to see where I'm coming from.
Just kinda seems to me you don’t really know how to do IGTLs of the more recent iterations. Or you just don’t care, No one cares about Heracross’s Ubers Performance in an IGTL. No one cares about Typhs WR record. At all in here. Those outside factors have next to no business being mentioned since they hold 0 value for a list like this. We aren’t looking at performances other than ones in the game. I could care less about a mon I get at the very end of my game, waste an item that’s one of 4 in the game on a Mon I can use in about 5-6 fights overall pre credits. (This list is on some stuff since you gotta catch every Shadow to even fight Farly making test runs painfully long)

And since you have preferences, it’s best to leave your bias out of it. I‘ve ran the game enough times to know what is considered efficient, what’s bad, what’s good, etc.

I’m disappearing now since we’ve argued in the past and I don’t wish to cause an entire stink.
 
What exactly are these tier lists even doing if they aren't measuring cart performance efficiency? Clearly the intent is to organize Pokemon based on how well they run the game, and Typhlosion along with Espeon are the two best Pokemon at doing this, objectively measured by completion times that come with full video coverage showing the extent of their prowess.

You can fail to compare a garbage pick like Meditite to the best physical attacker in the game all you want, but any half-decent ADV player knows you're grasping. Heracross' innate traits are so strong they cannot be understated; this mon is so wicked it seizes tournament wins in Ubers, a scene where even the dogs aren't viable. Regardless of if you believe it or not, that potency rings true in casual play, arguably more so because of its Speed. If you stopped to think before scribbling a low-effort response you might even come to realize that Heacross' late pickup is an advantage for teams that accommodate it because it comes pre-leveled for the final gauntlet, rather than being another mediocre exp sink the way most early to mid game pickups are.

Nobody is running Amnesia; defensive stat boosting moves are inherently counterproductive in cart play and mentioning it shows a desperation to find anything good to say about this Pokemon. Quagsire's defensive typing, which is its best trait outside STAB Earthquake, isn't even particularly good because it doesn't resist Earthquake, but Flygon and Heracross do.

Heracross is an enlightened pick where Quagsire is a noob pick. It's literally designed to be starter bait; a Pokemon a newbie runs the game with on their first playthrough when they didn't pick Croconaw. I speak from experience; I ran Quagsire on my first playthrough. But to a player acquainted with Colosseum even Mantine is a better early game Water-type pickup because of its superior matchup against Mirror B. and Dakim, while in the late game Quagsire is a worse Water-type than Suicune and a worse Earthquaker than most things you can simply slap the TM on. As for the benefit of learning Earthquake upon level up, Quagsire isn't even very good at being a second Earthquaker because it doesn't resist Earthquake itself. This Pokemon is used for the love of Quag and noob pick nostalgia and that's okay, just don't pretend otherwise.

Through this discourse it's clear we simply have different levels of familiarity with this game. I've completed Pokemon Colossum more than 40 times and have used every Pokemon at least once, including Yanma, Plusle, and Smeargle. I've beaten Mt. Battle in story mode prior to reaching Realgam Tower, and did so with only two Pokemon. I've cleared every battle mode Colosseum using in-game Pokemon. I've obtained the Mattle Ho-Oh multiple times, and I've yet to get one with a good nature. I've done all the equivalents in the sequel Pokemon XD and I'm the author behind the two most in-depth NGC Pokemon guides this site has. Even my ADV tournament records speak for themselves.

But since it's still unlikely you're convinced, what truly shows a lack of a deeper familiarity with this game is how Skiploom is placed and written off. Under sun, Jumpluff is the best Pokemon in the game. Chlorophyll + Sleep Powder + no sleep clause is something the AI simply can't deal with, and sleep is also conveniently by far the best tactic for snagging Shadow Pokemon, the central challenge of the game. When I said I beat Mt. Battle prior to Realgam in story mode with only two Pokemon, Jumpluff was one of them, and did so four levels under the AI's Pokemon. Despite this, there's Pokemon tiered above Jumpluff that can't hope to do the same things it can do, simply because there's been a failure to use Jumpluff to its full potential. The same can be said about Typhlosion, Heracross, and several other Pokemon on this list. I have my preferences, but I know this game. Perhaps with enough playthroughs you'll begin to see where I'm coming from.
With all due respect I think this sort of response is honestly reprehensible toward another user who was just stating their opinion. Even when someone calls you out, I'd think a tournament player would have the dignity to at least give someone's differing points the time of day instead of constant backhanded remarks. You don’t have to agree, but maybe you could at least say “my experiences differ from yours, but maybe you have a point” or if you’re going to be so dismissive, maybe just not engage with that person.

Normally I would be more hospitable toward you, but when you say stuff like “the list can’t be taken seriously until X happens” just comes off as remarkably pompous and only further indicates that you can’t handle when something doesn’t align with your narrative. Does your self-worth matter to you so much that you need to immediately discredit another user's experiences? Your views on the Pokemon in Pokemon Colosseum might have some merit Minority, but there has to be a better way of displaying them beyond more or less going "this argumentative discourse of your current position is hereby rendered void because I've played this interactive media more than you." It's needlessly disrespectful.

Furthermore, just because you’ve ran the game 40 times doesn’t make you the ultimate authority. People should be allowed to state their opinions without living in fear of them being immediately shot down simply because they didn’t want to do more than one playthrough of a game. I've played Pokemon Colosseum only a few times and I think your argument is way off base. You might not be the tier leader of this list Minority, but that doesn’t mean you are granted the right to just be rude because someone else wanted to engage with this thread’s rhetoric in a different way from you.

Maybe people would engage in something more than “low-effort posts” if you made an effort to accommodate and facilitate the fact that every opinion that doesn’t align with someone who is so insecure they bring in both Ubers tournament results into an environment they clearly aren’t applicable for. Last time I checked I didn’t see Nascour tossing out Rayquaza or Kyogre, so I don’t know what this point is supposed to establish given it has no basis in the reality for the environment we are testing in. Also, not everyone wants to make a wall of text post.

This is the part where I would say I support Meditite being A, but I know that might as well be saying "This doesn't agree with Minority's opinion and is 'objectively' wrong." You'll simply default to your accolades in other areas in some tangential, barely relevant dissension that has next to nothing to do with this list is actively about, just because you believe that gives you the license to be needlessly contemptuous. And even when you manage to stay on topic, you always have a "sooner or later this uninformed person beneath me will see it my way" air about your points which is just such an immense turn-off. There has to be a better way of stating your points. Stop being so offensive and try and hear someone out for a change.

Aren't these lists supposed to be a community project? Where does patronizing language fit into such an ongoing goal? We should be working toward a mutual respect of each other rather than scathing, impertinent comments. You might win in tournaments, but you'll never win people's respect.

I'm done here.
 

Minority

Numquam Vincar
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No one cares about Heracross’s Ubers Performance in an IGTL. No one cares about Typhs WR record. At all in here. Those outside factors have next to no business being mentioned since they hold 0 value for a list like this.
How are the best objective measures for Pokemons' performance in offensive efficiency or potency not indicative of their performance in a tier list that ranks various Pokemon's offensive efficiency / potency? Since you don't yet see how foolish your point is, you're arguing that Eilud Kipcoge's ability to run a marathon is irrelevant to his ability to run a 5k. Even the post before yours understood the point. If you put as much effort into playing Pokemon as you did trying to argue, this argument wouldn't be happening.

...barely relevant dissension that has next to nothing to do with this list is actively about, just because you believe that gives you the license to be needlessly contemptuous.
You wrote a 500+ word post complaining about me calling out your friends' bad takes and discussed none of the points that were made. Who is being needlessly contemptuous?

The most useful piece of information that the two prior posts produced is that their authors have only played the game a few times, and have likely never even used most of the Pokemon being tiered by the OP, much less used them to their full potential in a run. As someone who's actually used every Pokemon and has discussed them with earlier authors in this thread, this is how I'd do the ranks for an all snag run, ordered alphabetically within ranks:

S [Easy Mode]
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(The best mixed attacker in the game)
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(The most offensively efficient Pokemon in the game)
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(The second most offensively efficient Pokemon in the game)

A [Best Picks]
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(A bulkier mixed attacker Typhlosion, with the drawback of being a mid-game pickup that also sinks EXP harder)
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(The best Electric-type, but slow enough to be occassionably noticable)
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(The best physical attacker in the game prior to the Realgam Gauntlet, but prefers a 5-Pokemon team prior to its integration)
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(The best Fighting-type until Heracross is obtained)
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(A faster Ampharos, with the drawback of being a mid-game pickup that sinks EXP)
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(The best Pokemon in the game under sun, but requires a Fire-type teammate on the field to function at this level)
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(A bulkier non-mixed Feraligatr, with the drawback of being a mid-game pickup that sinks EXP)
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(The most offensively efficient Earthquake user in the game and a Ground immune, but requires a Time Flute + 2 Rare Candies + TM 26)

B [Second Picks]
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(The best Grass-type that isn't dependent on Sun to function)
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(The best physical attacker in the game, but can only be used for the postgame)
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(A worse Flygon that is obtained earlier and gets Dragon Dance)
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(Earthquake user and Sand setter, but can only be used for the postgame)
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(Damage sponge that is very hard for the AI to KO, but has poor offensive efficiency)

C [Temporary or Niche Picks]
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(A notable temporary pick for the early-game and has a unique niche with Follow Me and Helping Hand, but bad otherwise)
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(The strongest Intimidate user with a solid movepool, but is noticeably slow)
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(A notable temporary pick for the mid-game due to Intimidate and good effective bulk)
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(Strong Fire-type that can be used instead of Typhlosion or Entei, but only for the postgame)
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(A notable temporary pick for the early-game due to its matchup against Mirror B. and Dakim)
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(In steep competition with Hariyama and Heracross, but notable for having Psych Up)
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(A notable temporary pick for the early-game due to having STAB Shadow Ball, but a bad pick into late game)
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(In steep competition with Feraligatr and Suicune as a Water-type and several Pokemon as an Earthquaker, but doesn't need TM 26)
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(A notable pick for a rain team, but has to wait until obtaining Sludge Bomb and Shadow Ball to be effective)
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(A niche pick for Body Slam spam, but only for the postgame)
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(A niche pick as a mediocre combination of Intimidate, Sleep spam, and flinch spam)
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(Physical damage sponge and Ground Immune, but can only be used for the final gauntlet and postgame)

D [Bad Picks]
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(Gets Baton Pass but can't do anything notable with it, only good moves are from TMs)
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(It's traits are too lackluster to justify its low Speed)
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(Can't actually make good use of it's Attack stat or Swords Dance, thus outclassed by other postgame physical attackers)
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(Has Glare, but doesn't do anything else)
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(Outclassed by Flygon in every way and not notable as a sand team pick either)
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(A good Pokemon, but too offensively inefficient)
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(Outclassed by Umbreon in every way aside from its Ground immune)
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(Outclassed by Jumpluff as a sleep spreader)
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(Slow with a bad movepool)
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(In steep competition with other Water-types and comes under-leveled)
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(Outclassed by other Fire-types)
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(Effectively has unusable STABs and is thus outclassed by other physical attackers)
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(Slow with too many common weaknesses)
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(Outclassed by other Grass-types)
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(Outclassed by other Grass-types)
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(A good Pokemon, but comes under-leveled and isn't worth grinding for only the final battles of the game)

E [Challenge Run or Final Snags]
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(Has no notable traits and is cursed by a lack of usable STABs, low offensive efficiency, and vulnerable defensive typing)
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(Outright difficult to use between its comically shallow movepool, low offensive efficiency, and vulnerable defensive typing)
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(Comes extremely under-leveled and is a chore to use over Ampharos or Raikou)
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(Comes under-leveled right at the end of the game)
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(Ironically has a neigh-unusable movepool)
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(Obtained at the end of the game)
1668628457891.png
(Has to rely on TMs for any usable moves, and overlaps poor traits)
 
How are the best objective measures for Pokemons' performance in offensive efficiency or potency not indicative of their performance in a tier list that ranks various Pokemon's offensive efficiency / potency?
Well for one thing, Heracross in Colosseum has not even half the options available to it as it would in a competitive Ubers or OU battle. It's missing Rock Slide, Substitute, Swords Dance, etc. Getting a good Hidden Power in Colosseum without RNG manipulation is borderline impossible. And you'd be a madman trying to get something like Salac Berry or Choice Band in an ingame playthrough.
But lets say a player does attempt to go for a Choice Band. If they only try to do it from Area 1 battles, they need to complete Area 1 one hundred times. Even if you one shot every Pokemon and it takes 5 minutes on average for one completion due to all the animations from attacks, fainting, sending out Pokemon, etc., that's still at minimum 8 hours of pure grinding. And if you attempt Area 10, with the average completion time being something like 40 minutes, that's still at minimum 6 hours. And that's just for the Choice Band, it'd take even longer for Salac Berry, and that's a consumable item on top of it.
Heracross is a great Pokemon and all, but in the end, it's still a Brick-Breaking fighting type in which you have three available significantly earlier than it showing up. It does have secondary STAB in Megahorn, but not only is bug a pretty bad offensive typing (with many of its resist shared with the fighting type), Megahorn is pretty inaccurate too. At the point you achieve Heracross, an average player will most likely have their full team. I've been messing around with it during the postgame with other Pokemon that are gotten late/post game and it has a very solid showing, but I still believe B in this revamped tier list is a fine representation for it. A great Pokemon that's mostly held back by being a late encounter, which usually describes B tiers in other tier lists.


When it comes to Jumpluff, I may have been the one to advocate for its B tier placement and I think I came to that conclusion because of its borderline non-existent offensive presence. Sleep is a broken mechanic, but a 75% accurate move is a 75% accurate move. You're still missing 1 out of 4 times on a good day. And then there's the whole thing about 1-turn sleeps. I've used Jumpluff a half dozen or so times through my multiple playthroughs of Colosseum, but in the end, all Jumpluff is doing is spamming Sleep Powder. I've had moments where Jumpluff had an "S-tier showing" where it basically incapacitated the team as many times as I've had it been "D-tier dead weight" due to stuff like Sleep Powder missing three times in a row or enemies getting 1 turn sleeps. There's just so many variables to consider when relying on a status condition such as sleep. When it works, it works, but when it doesn't, it makes you wish you were using something more consistent.
Maybe B might be underselling it overall. Maybe.
 
Did a run, no I am not going to Fein. These lists shouldn't be doing 100% Completion runs anyway since that is a massive timesink and a waste of time. Reminder that getting Shuckle requires you to be on average in your Mid 50s to low 60s due to Deep Colos levels. Credits roll at Evice. Ideally that should be when it ends. There are legit no bosses leading to Fein outside the Under King and an optional Gonzap fight.

I ain't posting Logs either. Colo is a game where this is too tiring to do in an efficient and feasible manner. I went and used Quag, Hera, Medi, Typh, Espeon, and Plusle.

Typh: No business being S Tier. Not even A. I can see B or lower. The issue with Typh is that it's frail and 100% requires you to use Fire Blast and it actually landing and dealing an OHKO on neutral targets. A doubles format requires Typh to be able to take two hits as an expectation. During my runs, it either lived with a modicum of HP or was outright teamed up on to be KO'd. If I missed Fire Blast, then I might as well have done nothing (which the misses rarely happened but when they did, was noticeable as I would have a KO'd Typh or I would be getting statused). Overall, I cannot advocate for something that fails to OHKO neutral targets for S, let alone A. Typh is best used to target a single mon or two in a MU that it can easily OHKO with Fire Blast and then die. That isn't S by any definition. Off the top of my head after acquiring Fire Blast, it deals with Plume and Steelix on Venus, and then Bellossom on Venus in Realgam and then once more on Scizor on Evice (if you get lucky and it lines up where you can kill it. Otherwise you are best waiting to swap in for free and hope you can live to Flame Wheel it)>

Heracross: Lower than C. I can see C as well, however Heracross is just downright bad. There are only 7 fights just about left in the game for this thing to make any impact. It doesn't. In fact, both it and Medi have the same performance at the same levels with Brick Break on both. They do roughly the same damage, except Medi is able to use HJK while Hera has to wait til Level 52 to use its other STAB. You aren't getting Megahorn in time for Evice unless you sink time into a mon to hit 49 and then use your 3 Rare Candies to get Megahorn. Why should I use this when Medi is available at the beginning of the game and pulls more weight than this? Hera can deal with the Normal and Dark Trainer in the gauntlet and hurt Slaking pretty bad or even KO it due to Traunt Turn. However, it cannot do anything to the Grass Trainer really due to Plume and Tropius resisting it's only move and the Fire Trainer just clicks Overheat and you die. Nascour laughs at it with Voir and uses Psychic to OHKO it. It deals with Crawdaunt and Shiftry on Gonzap but that's it. For a mon this late, I'd expect it to do a LOT more than just nitpick a few mons and then outright fold to the rest.

Quag: B/C. Honestly this thing saved many fights by its sheer bulk alone. However Quag is in a very tough predicament in terms of how to judge it. Pre Dakim it's good, Post Dakim is doesn't do much till the Lab where it just outright laughs at all the Researchers in there with Damp + Ground Typing, and then just kinda sits around as a bulky mon that takes punishment and retaliates with EQ for some sizable damage. You have Yawn and Amnesia to help you deal with some troublesome opponents if you encounter them. This mon's achilles heel is that it can't do anything to Grass Types, is slow, and lacks power (though Helping Hand can alleviate this to an extent). It should be stated that the Lab is horrendous without a good Ground type which Quag is your only really good option for this. You also get EQ in time for this.

Medicham: A. This thing is bonkers. Just insane damage output when you get it so long as you stay in Hyper Mode and get those insanely high crit rate Shadow Rushes. This thing was able to effectively 2HKO all Ludicolos by dropping them to low Red which Espeon just picked off while I moved out to the other ones coming out. Even after this, HJK, while only 90 accurate, hits insanely hard and will generally place things into a 2HKO range if not SE. If you crit, something is dying unless resisted. HJK being relied on isn't great though as I missed it a fair number times so it's best to get BB when you are nearing Realgam. Outside of that, Medi is one the very few Pokemon that can just destroy or heavily dent early to mid teams before the game stops that and turns most of everything into 2HKO ranges.

Espeon and Plusle are fine in S and D respectively. Plusle did pulls its weight, but having to raise it from 13 to low 30s to start holding it's own isn't the greatest thing (though you have to grind anyway in Mt. Battle right after Miror anyways). Good and Fast support mon that can abuse the ThunderDance combo and use HH.
 

Minority

Numquam Vincar
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I completed a 100% Story Mode run (all snags and all trainers) and documented the journey for MMII. Also tagging Pokemon Colosseum enthusiasts Eledyr Lasen and Aberforth


Teambuilding


The main intent of this run was to test the viability of Octillery. I previously put this Pokemon in D Rank viability for its inexplicable LV. 20 snag and competition with other Water-types. It's been years since I've used this Pokemon in a run and had the idea of assessing Octillery's niche as a Water-type that learns Fire Blast by putting it on a sun team that maximizes its potential in a run.



An in-game sun team needs to be founded on potent sun abusers. Jumpluff is the best Pokemon in the game when under sun due to the lack of Sleep Clause, boasting the most accurate Sleep-inducing move in the game, pseudo priority with Chlorophyll, and resilient effective bulk with Synthesis and high Special Defense. Flygon is the most versatile sun abuser with access to Fire-type coverage moves and Solarbeam in combination with STAB Earthquake + filler options such as Crunch, Dragonbreath / Dragon Claw and physical beat stick attacks Return / Hyper Beam. Jumpluff and Flygon additionally provide the team with two Ground resists, an essential trait for strong teams in Colosseum since these moves are used by some of the game's most powerful trainers: Dakim, Gonzap, Evice, and Somek.



The choice between Typhlosion and Entei as a Fire-type and sun setter was difficult; however, my prior run utilized Entei in a partial Sun role and Typhlosion proved to be an opportunity to once again evaluate its title as the second most offensively efficient Pokemon in the game. Typhlosion also has an edge with stronger Fire-type attacks which can be brought to nuclear levels with its ability Blaze and sinks exp to a lesser extent.



Espeon and Umbreon with their recovery moves Morning Sun and Moonlight and ability to learn Sunny Day prove to be the only balanced sun abusers to add to the team. Espeon nevertheless justifies itself on any Pokemon Colosseum team as being a starter and being the Pokemon with greatest offensive efficiency. Umbreon takes on the role as team anchor to once again test its immense bulk, reliable recovery, and Toxic stalling potential.


Run Highlights

Espeon was obtained with a Bold nature and Umbreon with a Modest nature, shifting focus to using a non-mixed Umbreon. The game's first bottleneck occurs at Mirror B in Pyrite Cave. The strategy was to prioritize exp onto Espeon so that it reached LV. 36 to learn Psybeam in time for this battle, which consistently 2HKOs Mirror B.'s Ludicolos or OHKOs them with chip from a teammate. Quilava was obtained with a Modest nature, Skiploom with a Bold nature, and Remoraid with near-perfect offensive IVs. All three had their heart gages cleared prior to Mirror B. and all other exp was shunted to Umbreon. At this point Espeon has access to the Twistedspoon from the Meditate snag and Quilava came with Charcoal. Mantine was used as a filler but went unused.

With Psybeam and Sleep Powder obtained, Espeon and Skiploom proved to 6-0 Mirror B. and prepared Sudowoodo for a successful snag. This initial performance affirmed the offensive potency of Espeon and the additional benefit of learning Psybeam prior to Mirror B. Skiploom's sleep support demonstrates how even under rain the Pokemon is able to simultaneously limit damage and support snags.

In Agate the squad is able to expand significantly towards its ultimate composition with immediate evolutions of Remoraid and Skiploom. Obtaining the EXP Share in Agate is also convenient for Octillery to help bring it up to level with the rest of the squad. Phenac Colosseum is completed to evolve Qwilava and obtain the TMs for Sunny Day, Giga Drain, and Solarbeam, which are among the most important moves for this team. Sunny Day is given to Jumpluff since its mediocre offenses place it comfortably in a support role and its high Speed means that it will consistently set sun before abusers Typhlosion, Octillery, and ultimately Flygon. Solarbeam is saved for Flygon so Giga Drain is given to Jumpluff to replace it's pathetically weak Mega Drain. Octillery proves to be the MVP of the famously brutal difficulty spike against Dakim, securing OHKOs on Golem, Camerupt, and 60% chip on Entei with Bubblebeam, reinforcing the importance of a Water-type in this battle. Espeon sets Reflect to further invalidate Metang's already weak Earthquakes and Psybeams down Marshtop. Typhlosion switches into Entei Fire Blast to OHKO Metang and Smokescreens Entei until it's moves are virtually unusable. Jumpluff switches in to sleep Entei to get snag.

Between Mt. Battle and the showdown with Venus in The Under, exp is dumped onto Espeon until it reaches LV. 46, at which point one of the three Rare Candies obtained immediately prior to Venus can be used to bring it to LV. 47 when it learns Psychic, while the other two are saved for Vibrava. The Under also unlocks the TM shop, which gives Typhlosion and Octillery Fire Blast, and Hyper Beam to Octillery. Hidden Power is taught to Espeon and Typhloshion, but unfortunately both have Hidden Power Fighting as Special Attackers with -SpA natures. Psychic Espeon and Fire Blast Typhlosion are able to outspeed and OHKO the first four of Venus' Pokemon. Jumpluff is safely brought out against Suicune to Sleep, snag, and close out another 6-0.

Throughout The Under and the Shadow Pokemon Lab Jumpluff is able to expedite snags with it's consistent sleep. Pyrite Colosseum is cleared at a 10-15 level deficit thanks to abusing Typhlosion's Blaze. Focus Punch is taught to Typhlosion to replace it's weak Hidden Power Fighting. Vibrava is obtained with a Lax nature, but has nearly perfect offensive IVs across the board. Against Ein Espeon blasts down targets with fast neutral Psychic while Octillery cleans them up. Sun is used to dodge Thunders and force Ein to re-set Rain Dance while Jumpluff Sleep is used to snag Raikou.

A Time Flute, the two saved Rare Candies, and TM 26 obtained after Ein are used to obtain instant Earthquake Flygon. Under Colosseum and Mt. Battle Zones to 80 are completed prior to the Realgam Admin rematches. Enough poke-coupons are obtained to purchase the Psychic TM for use by Umbreon as special coverage for Fighting-types. Protect is taught to Typhlosion and Espeon for use alongside Flygon. Sun strategies and level advantage proves overwhelming for the AI who are 6-0ed in the Admin rematches. Flygon and Typhlosion prove exceptional as sun abusers and Jumpluff as a supporter. Unfortunately Octillery doesn't get much chance to shine outside the occasional Ice Beam or sun-boosted Fire Blast.

Prior to the Realgam gauntlet Mt. Battle is completed in story mode, which levels Pokemon nearly up to Nascour and Evice. Zone 10 of Mt. Battle is arguably more difficult than the final Realgam gauntlet, depending on how effective your team's means of ensuring snags are. Using Sleep from Jumpluff and Typhlosion + Sun + Blaze abuse to their maximum potential, even Mt. Battle Master Somek is 6-0ed with only two Pokemon.

The same strategies prove just as effective in the Realgam gauntlet. Typhlosion replaces Fire Blast with the more consistent Flamethrower at LV. 60. Jumpluff and Typhlosion not only manage to secure all four snags, but do so across four battles with perfection, taking zero damage.

Against Nascour his initial leads of Walrein and Blaziken prove dangerous to Jumpluff, which switches out of the incoming Ice Beam for Umbreon while Typhlosion sets sun. Nascour X Specials on Turn 2 while Typhlosion's Sun-boosted Flamethrowers mow down Nascour's remaining Pokemon turn after turn. Jumpluff is brought back in to sleep Metagross and Typhlosion safely chips it down for snag with free Focus Punches.

As a wonderful treat every Pokemon got to shine at least once in the final battle against Evice while still preserving the 6-0. Typhlosion got a quick OHKO against Scizor. Unfortunate RNG meant Salamence dodged a Sleep Powder to get a Dragon Dance before getting a subsequent Aerial Ace Crit, which the switch into Umbreon from Jumpluff was able to tank. Octillery Ice Beamed Salamence for the OHKO and Umbreon switched to Espeon to get the OHKO on Machamp. Flygon and Jumpluff together took down Slaking and Slowking with a combination of Sleep Powder and Earthquakes.

Into postgame the rematches against Gonzap and the Cipher Admins proved worthy challenges. Emphasis on Sun use, primarily from Jumpluff, Typhlosion, and Flygon remained a powerful tactic. Octillery showed little use outside the occasional Ice Beam, and unfortunately felt its low Speed during the more critical battles. Against Mirror B. Umbreon was able to Toxic stall a Ludicolo and Armaldo simultaneously with Sun support. Deep King Agnol's unusual team composition also gave Umbreon a rare opportunity to showcase its offensive use and earn yet another 6-0.

Shady Guy aka Cipher Peon Fein was the final trainer of Story Mode. In the postgame there was a consistent use of the EXP Share on Umbreon and Octillery to help keep them leveled with the rest of the squad, showing them to unfortunately be exp dumps. Fein uses a balanced combination of high-level effective Pokemon in which type advantage and Speed are important. Nevertheless Espeon and Typhlosion were able to overpower most of his squad, with Flygon cleaning up the final members before the snag on Shadow Togetic. I've included an importable of the final team.

Umbreon @ Black Glasses
Ability: Synchronize
Level: 62
Modest Nature
IVs: 7 HP / 0 Atk / 26 Def / 29 SpA / 16 SpD / 16 Spe
- Toxic
- Moonlight
- Psychic
- Feint Attack

Espeon @ Twisted Spoon
Ability: Synchronize
Level: 65
Bold Nature
IVs: 26 HP / 5 Atk / 23 Def / 24 SpA / 13 SpD / 28 Spe
- Protect
- Reflect
- Morning Sun
- Psychic

Typhlosion @ Charcoal
Ability: Blaze
Level: 65
Modest Nature
IVs: 26 HP / 8 Atk / 20 Def / 26 SpA / 11 SpD / 30 Spe
- Protect
- Sunny Day
- Focus Punch
- Flamethrower

Jumpluff @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 63
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 17 Def / 16 SpA / 29 SpD / 22 Spe
- Sunny Day
- Sleep Powder
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain

Octillery @ Mystic Water
Ability: Suction Cups
Level: 65
Lax Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 28 Atk / 17 Def / 29 SpA / 6 SpD / 17 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Bubble Beam
- Fire Blast
- Hyper Beam

Flygon @ Soft Sand
Ability: Levitate
Level: 65
Lax Nature
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 17 Def / 15 SpA / 2 SpD / 24 Spe
- Return
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake



Viability Conclusions

(S Rank)
Espeon proves once again that it's the most offensively efficient Pokemon available in the game. Its use is greatest near the start of the game when there really aren't other options for getting good damage against opposing Pokemon. It falls off a tiny bit in effectiveness into the late game due to how shallow it is, but nevertheless remains a powerful and efficient special attacker that is always useful. Helping Hand is a seemingly nice support move, but in practice this move is horribly suited for Espeon because more often than not clicking anything other than Psychic STAB reduces its net productivity. Reflect has the same problem, but to a lesser degree because it increases overall team physical resilience rather than shifting damage output, and ultimately gets more practical use than Helping Hand. Morning Sun, even with sun support, unfortunately isn't really worth using because in the few battles where it ever wants to recover health, it's better off securing the KO against the physically offensive tank. In practice Espeon is better off running Protect, and Hidden Power if the type is at all usable. Espeon has but a single weakness in terms of its offensive efficiency, which are Dark-types, and unfortunately no coverage options to offset this. Regardless, Espeon can merely be paired with a Pokemon that can hit Dark-types, and does even better when used alongside a Pokemon that comfortably hits Dark-, Steel-, and Psychic-types, most notably Fighting-types, Fire-types, or the ultimate which hits all three with STAB and super-effectively; Heracross. In this run it paired best with Typhlosion, which makes sense as the team did not use a Fighting-type and the WR Speedruns for Any % and 100% both use Typhlosion as Espeon's partner.


(B Rank)
Umbreon is Colosseum's ultimate damage sponge, great at simultaneously chipping Shadow Pokemon and absorbing their attacks. Unfortunately Umbreon isn't too useful beyond this, with the exception of functioning as a powerful Toxic staller, a tactic which is not efficient but is effective if relied upon. When played well and kept at a strong level, the AI simply cannot KO this Pokemon; team anchor. Ironically the support moves of Helping Hand and Reflect that Espeon gets would be incredible in Umbreon's arsenal and could propel this Pokemon to A Rank status since they would allow it to offset its greatest weakness of poor offensive efficiency. Umbreon is stuck with a pitiful base 60 Special Attack and an equally pitiful STAB that never improves in base power beyond 60, meaning that even super-effective attacks rarely OHKO. As a result Umbreon needs to be paired with an exceptionally strong attacker if it's going to do anything other than snag Shadow Pokemon or Toxic stall. In this run, that meant Espeon or Typhlosion, who can dump enough damage on a Pokemon to put it in range for Umbreon to pick it off, working from the Mirror B. fight all the way through post-game. Fortunately Umbreon was able to make real use of sun support through its use of Moonlight, though has to contend with the aggressive rain setting strategies used by Mirror B. and Ein.


(S Rank)
If this playthrough proved anything, it would be that Typhlosion is cemented as the second best Pokemon in the game. Again and again Typhlosion shocked and stunned with the sheer power of its attacks, at times making Espeon look weak in comparison. Sun-boosted blaze-fueled Fire Blasts were enough to allow Typhlosion to 6-0 many of the game's most challenging trainers, being capable of OHKOing even resisted targets. In Pyrite Colosseum Typhlosion was able to OHKO targets when at a 15 level deficit. To put this into perspective, Typhlosion has the same offensive power as Soul Dew Latios after two Calm Minds, a premier threat of tournament ADV singles:

+2 252+ SpA Soul Dew Latios Thunder vs. 144 HP / 136+ SpD Snorlax: 318-375 (63.9 - 75.4%)
252+ SpA Blaze Typhlosion Fire Blast vs. 144 HP / 136+ SpD Snorlax in Sun: 316-372 (63.5 - 74.8%)

This power when contextualized to a casual playthrough is obscene, and allows Typhlosion to OHKO Evice's Slaking even when at a 10 level deficit. Fire is a great offensive type, and allows Typhlosion to fair well as a partner to a variety of attackers, from Espeon to Flygon to Octillery to even Jumpluff. Typhlosion does unfortunately suffer from being nearly as shallow as Espeon, having no good special coverage moves to utilize outside of Hidden Power. It can at least make effective use of Focus Punch, Brick Break, or Earthquake as coverage if these TMs don't need to be used on a Pokemon better suited to them, and also obtains Sunny Day upon purification. In comparison to Entei it's effectiveness as a mixed attacker is worse, however this is overshadowed by the sheer potency of its special attacks. In practice Typhlosion's lower bulk as compared to Entei also isn't an issue because it helps to active Blaze while still having enough bulk to survive a majority of super-effective attacks; the only move in the entire run that OHKOed Typhlosion was a rain-boosted Hydro Pump.


(A Rank)
Jumpluff confirmed its place as the best Pokemon in the game under sun, and is arguably S Rank depending on how much one weighs outright offensive efficiency. Sleep Powder with pseudo priority is a broken move that turns 2v2 matchups into 2v1 matchups on turn 1, and potentially 2v0 matchups by turn 2. Jumpluff is the primary reason the squad was able to not only 6-0 many of the game's most challenging matches, but secure snags on hard-to-catch Pokemon first try. The ability to simultaneously increase the odds of snagging a Shadow Pokemon, incapacitate a Shadow Pokemon so it cannot chip at your team while you attempt to snag it, and stop a Shadow Pokemon from KOing itself with recoil simply can't be overhyped. Synthesis and STAB Giga Drain to maintain health insurance against missed Sleep Powders and early wakes is just icing. However, in terms of sheer offensive efficiency, Jumpluff isn't particularly good due to it's reliance on a pathetic base 55 Special Attack and the poor offensive typing of Grass type attacks, but does at least get OHKOs on otherwise hard to hit Water-Ground types. As a result, much like Umbreon, Jumpluff is dependent on its teammate to secure kills, but is nevertheless incredible at offering support in this capacity. The Ground immunity even makes it an incredible partner for Earthquakers, notably demonstrated by Flygon in this run.


(C Rank)
The star of the team that ultimately wasn't really the star of the team, Octillery did at least prove itself a niche Water-type rather than being outright bad like initially thought. It's a Water-type that can function well on a sun team by simultaneously reducing its risk to Thunder while getting pseudo-STAB Fire Blasts, and that's notable enough to justify it in this specific capacity. Other areas where Octillery shines are it's fairly strong offensive stats of 105 and its great movepool that also includes Ice Beam, Bubblebeam, Hyper Beam, and even Psychic if you're so inclined. Bubblebeam proves itself to be a far better Water-type stab to be reliant on as compared to Surf, sporting an effective base power of 97.5 as compared to Surf's split power 71.25, which only serves to needlessly threaten Shadow Pokemon and increase time wasted in animations. Octillery's low Speed is unfortunately felt during some major battles, but not too much otherwise. Beyond this Octillery has shown how important Water-types are in the first Dakim battle, and how useless they are otherwise. From the Shadow Pokemon Lab all the way into postgame Octillery's primary use is as a pseudo Fire-type that has Water's defensive typing, and as an Ice Beamer. What's become clear in this run is that Water-types are mostly only good for beating Dakim, and their primary use after that is their access to Ice-type attacks, an important offensive type in major late-game battles.


(A Rank)
Flygon is the best Earthquaker and an exceptional sun abuser. Where Espeon and Typhlosion are shallow one-trick Pokemon, Flygon is a versatile generalist. It's extensive movepool allows teams to customize it to fit their needs, and it fears little other than Ice Beam from bulky Water-types, which can be mitigated through use of Solarbeam. It's fast enough to almost always move before opposing Pokemon, and it's Earthquakes are just strong enough to typically OHKO neutral targets. Perhaps even more notably, Earthquake has a way of dual hitting targets like no other move in the game does, securing KOs against pesky specially defensive Pokemon and Electric-types alike. Fire Blast lets it annihilate Ground-type resists of Grass- and Bug-types, and hits Flying-types hard under sun. An additional coverage move such as Return, Hyper Beam, Crunch, or Dragon STAB lets it chip at anything else, always giving Flygon something to do. Flygon can also offer snag support of strong Shadow Pokemon since it usually has at least one move that will deal less than 50% damage and Dragonbreath has good paralysis rate. In practice Flygon's greatest weakness is that its partner needs to be able to accommodate it's Earthquaking, either through being a Ground immune, or less optimally through use of Protect.
 
So I just completed my second play through of Pokemon Colosseum. A couple years ago, after numerous attempts, I was able to complete a hardcore nuzlocke of the game. I only had access to the first Pokemon in each area, so I was unable to use the whole roster, but that also gave me a bit of a better understanding of those I did use. Recently, I decided to challenge myself more with a water type only hardcore nuzlocke. I could use any water type available, but nothing else, which also took a number of attempts. While the limited rosters, permanent deaths, and bans on healing items make them unique challenges, there are some things I noticed that are very applicable to regular play throughs as well. Feel free to let me know what you think!

Quagsire
Quagsire may be the best Pokemon in the game. Its natural bulk and typing allow it to shrug off hits with ease, and it boasts two great immunities with Water Absorb. It can dominate the ground types in Mt. Battle and the electric types in the Lab, while its support moves are useful against Skrub, Venus, and in Realgam Colosseum. Learning STAB Earthquake naturally before Ein (unless you're very under leveled) is a massive boon, as it is probably the best move in the game. It has one problem in its terrible matchup vs. Miror B, which is exacerbated in nuzlockes that have very few encounters in the early game. If anything, it's even better in regular runs than in nuzlockes, where Quagsire is arguably the best Pokemon available. I think it deserves to be in S tier.

Espeon

Most people seem to agree that Espeon is the single best Pokemon in the game, and that is for good reason. It's STAB Psybeam and later Psychic tears through everything, while it gets Reflect and Helping Hand early on for support. I wish it wasn't quite so frail, but that's more of a personal choice since I like bulkier Pokemon, especially in double battles. That said, its speed and strength make Espeon one of the best Pokemon available, and it certainly belongs in S tier.

Umbreon

Again, this is personal preference, but I think Umbreon is amazing. Its massive bulk and support options make it useful in just about every single battle in the game, with the possible exception of Gonzap. Though Moonlight does not matter as much when using healing items, this allows for another support move to be used in its slot. It is not a Shadow Pokemon either, so you get from the start with Taunt plus the abilities to gain experience and learn TMs. For this reason, I also think it is the best user of the Toxic TM in the game. That said, its bulk is more important in nuzlockes than in other runs. Personally, I would have it in S, but A probably makes more sense for regular runs.

Suicune

It isn't available until somewhat late, but Suicune has the best stats in the game and the moves to complement it. Between a strong STAB Surf and coverage in Aurora Beam or Ice Beam depending on how much you like Mt. Battle, Suicune has great special attacks. It has decent support moves in Rain Dance and even Leer. Because of the changed catch rates and availability of Net Balls, it isn't as tough to catch as in other games. It dominates the end game and even has uses vs. Ein's non electric Pokemon. If it were available earlier, Suicune would be an easy S tier, but sadly, it isn't. A tier is spot on.

Croconaw

While I think the Feraligatr line is very good in this game, I think it is somewhat outclassed. For my initial run, its bad matchup vs. Miror B meant it was redundant to pair with Quagsire. However, in my water type only run, I began to see some of its strengths. Shadow Rush and Slash/Return were very useful in helping deal with grass types vs. Miror B and Venus. Its rain, Surf, and Mystic Water can help dominate ground Types at Mt. Battle. It has solid speed, attack, and bulk. That said, once I got Suicune, all of its niches just about went away. The lack of a physical special split really hurts Croconaw, as Suicune and Mantine are better special attackers. Quagsire's natural STAB Earthquake, support moves, and electric immunity make it a better bulky physical attacker. In regular runs these issues are worse, as you can use actual counters vs. grass types, and your lone Earthquake TM is likely better served on a faster ground type like Gligar or Flygon. I think it should be in either A or maybe even B tier.

Plusle

With its speed and moves, Plusle may be the best support Pokemon in the game. While it does come at a low level, it can fit on just about any team in the game. It pairs well with flying types for switches, rain teams with Thunder, fire and ground types for getting rid of water types, grass types for getting rid of flying types, frailer teams with screens, and slower teams with Thunder Wave. I lost mine vs. Dakim, but it was still useful in that battle, and its frailty isn't as bad outside of nuzlockes. Finally, it's difficult to understate how good Encore is, as it makes Plusle useful in every single battle, even vs. Dakim. It levels up very quickly, so just give it an Exp. Share, and it will be up to date soon enough. You won't regret it. I would have it in A tier, but if you really hate grinding, then maybe C makes more sense. I think B probably is a happy medium though.

Bayleef

The Meganium line is actually pretty good in this game. I found it to be the best Johto starter for hardcore nuzlockes, but the reasons why may not be as applicable to regular runs. Potions get rid of much of the need for Synthesis, especially since you can farm money with rematches in Duel Square. Meanwhile, its strength vs. Miror B takes added importance when you can only choose one Pokemon in Pyrite Town. It also may be outclassed in someways by Skiploom's speed, Sleep Powder, ground immunity, and neutrality to bug, but again, if you can only use one Pokemon in Pyrite Town, you should probably choose Quagsire. That said, it can set up screens and sun, has great moves early on, and still has strong matchups vs. most of Venus, Dakim, and Ein's Pokemon, aside from Entei and Golbat/Crobat. It may not be as good as it is in nuzlockes, but it is useful in most scenarios nonetheless. It's an A for nuzlockes, but B sounds good for regular play throughs.

Mantine

Mantine is a phenomenal special wall and fares incredibly well in the early game. Its typing and bulk gives it great matchups vs. Miror B and Dakim. While it does tail off after that, I still found a number of odd uses for it. By drawing in electric attacks, I can use Protect or get a safe switch into a ground type, allowing for its partner to get more damage off. Confuse Ray is inconsistent, but can be useful as well. Most importantly, it's a great pivot with a ground immunity, Water Absorb, and incredible special bulk. It actually is a solid option vs. Nascour and Evice. While some of these uses were necessary due to only having water types, I got a lot of mileage out of a Mantine that had terrible IVs and an awful Naughty Nature. Plus, the addition of healing items and more ground types can only improve its defensive capabilities. I don't think it is amazing or anything, but I think it deserves to be in C at the very least.

Makuhita

Personally, I do not like Makuhita. It's guaranteed at the start, which is nice, but it's slow and can't take a hit until it is purified and evolves. By then though, you have access to faster fighting types in Hitmontop and Medicham. Sure it gets Belly Drum, but it is tough to use in a double battle unless you have something to bait or KO the opponent. Even then, it is probably too slow and low on health to take advantage of the attack boost, especially since your best moves are the slow Vital Throw and the risky Cross Chop. Sitrus Berries don't help either due to how Gen 3 berry mechanics work. Do I hate Hariyama partly because mine somehow missed 4 straight Cross Chops vs. Evice? Probably. That said, its bulk and early availability is huge, especially in a nuzlocke. B tier is probably the right spot.

Meditite

There are a lot of trade offs between Meditite and Makuhita. Meditite is better as a Shadow Pokemon, but Makuhita evolves earlier, is available earlier, and is a guaranteed catch. Medicham has an additional psychic typing, but that makes it weaker to ghost types and doesn't help offensively with the lack of a physical special split. Medicham has Calm Mind, but its special attack is weak. Medicham has Hi Jump Kick as opposed to Cross Chop and Vital Throw, but the potential recoil is scary. It has much less bulk, but much higher speed and early access to Detect. It also has more support options in Light Screen, Reflect, and Recover, although the latter only helps in Realgam Colosseum and does not matter much when healing items are allowed. It is more of a question of preference, so B tier makes sense for it as well.

Hitmontop

As good as its stats are, Hitmontop has no strong moves to pair with it. Intimidate is fantastic, especially in double battles, and its special bulk is superb. The Brick Break TM is tough to get and could be used by a number of other physical attackers, so you'll likely be stuck with Triple Kick as its only natural STAB fighting move. I wasn't even able to catch Hitmontop, though I'm sure it wouldn't have been too much help if I did, especially since I already had two fighting types in Meditite and Makuhita. Still, its bulk and ability are great. I think it is outclassed, but C tier is fine.

Qwilfish

Similar to Hitmontop, Qwilfish is a Pokemon that is much better competitively than in game due to its move pool. Its best physical move is Take Down, and your choices for physical poison STAB are 15 BP Poison Sting or the incredibly difficult to obtain Sludge Bomb TM. It has solid abilities, but it has a terrible special attack making STAB Surf do little damage if at all. In my water type only run, I somehow got an insanely good Qwilfish with an Adamant Nature, 28 attack IVs, and 31 speed IVs. I still barely used it even though it was neutral to grass and only had 4 other Pokemon. At least it is okay in the early game, but it is severely outclassed later on. D tier is good.

Gligar

While Gligar has decent stats, its move pool is severely lacking. Slash will likely be your top physical move, though it is a great candidate for the Earthquake TM. Screech is a solid support move, and its type helps with two immunities for switching. The other main issue is that it is not available until the Under Subway, and without catching restrictions, Vibrava is better once it evolves into Flygon. Still, Gligar has its uses against electric types in the Lab and possibly as support in Realgam Tower. I even got decent use out of it in Realgam Tower, but I wouldn't suggest you use it. It isn't very good and is largely outclassed once it is available, but I still think it should be in D tier.

Yanma

It is available early, but that is all Yanma has going for it. Its stats and moves are so terrible that even 2 phenomenal abilities can't redeem it. Hypnosis could help, but its best use is probably as a ground immunity and a bait for opposing moves. Yanma's best attribute is being so weak that any opponent can knock it out. That isn't a good sign. E tier.

Ledian

There are a lot of similarities between Ledian and Yanma. They both have the same typing, terrible stats, and awful moves. Ledian has access to screens, but it is available later on and doesn't have sleep or any good abilities. E tier again.

Aipom

While it does have some decent support options, Aipom is too weak and frail to do anything with it. It isn't available until the Lab either, so your opponents will be very strong at that point. Tickle can help, but its best move combo of Agility and Baton Pass is too difficult to use since it cannot survive many hits. Pickup is nice, though. E tier is 100% correct.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Quagsire
Quagsire may be the best Pokemon in the game. Its natural bulk and typing allow it to shrug off hits with ease, and it boasts two great immunities with Water Absorb. It can dominate the ground types in Mt. Battle and the electric types in the Lab, while its support moves are useful against Skrub, Venus, and in Realgam Colosseum. Learning STAB Earthquake naturally before Ein (unless you're very under leveled) is a massive boon, as it is probably the best move in the game. It has one problem in its terrible matchup vs. Miror B, which is exacerbated in nuzlockes that have very few encounters in the early game. If anything, it's even better in regular runs than in nuzlockes, where Quagsire is arguably the best Pokemon available. I think it deserves to be in S tier.
I cannot in good conscience put Quagsire into S, especially since the nature of Nuzlockes heavily skews perception of a Pokémon's usefulness. (See the SoulSilver run done by TFS Plays making Chikorita look way better than it actually is.) The terrible Miror B. matchup alone is pretty bad and enough to damn it, as the fight comes during a part of a game where options are already very limited due to lack of purification. Being benched for an entire boss (and probably most of the dungeon beforehand due to all the Lotad) unless you wanna risk it with Amneisa spam is not a good look for an S-Rank. Quilava has been nominated for S and also has issues with Miror B., but it can at least do Smokescreen and Dig cheese and might not auto-die since the Water moves in the fight are Water Gun and Dive.

I also cannot move Mantine up due to how passive it is. Confuse Ray can be useful but is still very late into the game, so Mantine does very little for too long.
 
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I cannot in good conscience put Quagsire into S, especially since the nature of Nuzlockes heavily skews perception of a Pokémon's usefulness. (See the SoulSilver run done by TFS Plays making Chikorita look way better than it actually is.) The terrible Miror B. matchup alone is pretty bad and enough to damn it, as the fight comes during a part of a game where options are already very limited due to lack of purification. Being benched for an entire boss (and probably most of the dungeon beforehand due to all the Lotad) unless you wanna risk it with Amneisa spam is not a good look for an S-Rank. Quilava has been nominated for S and also has issues with Miror B., but it can at least do Smokescreen and Dig cheese and might not auto-die since the Water moves in the fight are Water Gun and Dive.

I also cannot move Mantine up due to how passive it is. Confuse Ray can be useful but is still very late into the game, so Mantine does very little for too long.
Thanks for the response! Always like to hear other peoples' thoughts. Really great work with the rankings and write ups!

Agreed on Mantine. I think it is useful, but it certainly tails off due to its lack of damage output. In looking at the tiers as they currently are, C tier has good Pokemon available later game and Swablu. I haven't used Swablu myself, but I can only assume is better than Mantine due to its typing, better attacking stats, and access to Dragon Dance. It is very similar to Noctowl, which is also in D tier.

On Quagsire, it's a shame it struggles early on since it really is that good the rest of the game. Being the only Pokemon in the game that learns Earthquake without the use of a TM is a massive deal. That also makes it the only Pokemon able to use Earthquake vs. Ein and Dakim. It's in a similar situation as Quilava as incredibly strong Pokemon with an awful Miror B matchup. One difference is that if you get Quilava, you can't get Croconaw or Bayleef until the post game, whereas there are no such natural restrictions on Quagsire. That said, if you're keeping Quilava in A tier, I can go along with Quagsire being in A tier.

As for nuzlockes clouding judgement, I agree 100%. That's why I included that disclaimer at the top! I tried my best to separate out their usefulness in nuzlockes vs. regular play throughs, but that can be tough. In retrospect, Mantine is better in nuzlockes and is where it belongs in D. I still think Plusle is great, but it's been two years since I had to level it up. B is too big of a jump. I still stand by my takes on Croconaw going to A and Makuhita going to B though, but I can see why others like them more.

As for Quagsire, in looking at other peoples' comments, I'm more convinced it's just a personal preference thing rather than solely being due to nuzlockes. I like bulkier Pokemon like Quagsire, whereas most players prefer faster and stronger Pokemon like Espeon. I still think it is better in regular runs than nuzlockes since you get healing items and can also get the other Pyrite Town Pokemon, but I see why others may disagree.

Overall, the rankings are pretty darn good, and there's not really a ton to quibble with. Really great work! :)
 
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Happy 20th Anniversary to Pokemon Colosseum! Remake/Remaster never ever!
It's interesting how unique of an experience the Gamecube games hold, even with their numerous flaws. Genuinelly surprised no fan game or ROMhack (besides the 2D fan remake in the works) have ever attempted to do an experience similar to Colosseum/XD. Even without the use of Shadow Pokemon.

For the six years I've contributed to this tiering list, I will admit that since the very beginning, I've always felt Croconaw wasn't an S tier mon and more of an A tier mon. It has a high amount of versatility and solid offensive and defensive stats, and water is a good typing to have, but Feraligatr was never the hardest hitter. Or the fastest dude. Or the bulkiest tank. In many ways, it reminds me of other jack of many trades Pokemon such as Vibrava/Flygon, Swablu/Altaria, Bayleef/Meganium, and Stantler. None of them have terrible matchups, and with the exception of Flygon, none of them are going to be carrying battles. Even with Flygon it can be iffy since trainer's Mons seem to love to have random-ass Ice Beam coverage.

If the decision was made to move Croconaw down, it would mean Espeon is the only S-tier mon. Frankly, I'm fine with that decision. With my numerous playthroughs across the 20 years this game has been out, Espeon has always been the most consistent Pokemon used, even when factoring in RNG moments that were against you. With other S-tier potential Pokemon, Typhlosion does have to rely more on Blaze Fire Blast strats to reach that ranking, which can be tricky to utilize if you're unfamiliar with Colosseum and/or Doubles. An untimely miss and the low PP can potentially mean Ty is out of commission earlier than you'd like. Still doesn't change the fact that Typhlosion is like the special equivalent of Medicham.
Entei is very similar to Typhlosion and trades potential obscene amounts of power with more reliable bulk and an earlier Flamethrower by nine levels, among other things. Fire Blast is inaccurate and has low PP, and it is Entei's only fire move until 51. But it can also be used as a highly potent Shadow Pokemon all the way to the final battles due to on-demand crits off of a 115 base attack stat/90 base power move.
And then there is Skiploom/Jumpluff's increased support for potential S as well due to sleep being a broken status infliction. I can't deny that sleep isn't broken. Everyone knows sleep is broken. Sleep is so broken that Dark Void eventually ended up not only getting nerfed, but becoming exclusively programmed to Darkrai. But I'm getting off track, this is about Jumpluff. While I personally can't think of Jumpluff as S-tier (at least in Colosseum) access to sleep while being one of the fastest Pokemon in the game does mean Jumpluff does retain usefulness throughout the entire game, whether you're using it to capture Shadow Pokemon or not.

Throughout this post and my dozens of previous posts throughout the years, I think I may have finally said everything I've ever wanted about this peculiar entry. I should move on to XD as that tier list could use a lot of work.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Happy 20th Anniversary to Pokemon Colosseum! Remake/Remaster never ever!
It's interesting how unique of an experience the Gamecube games hold, even with their numerous flaws. Genuinelly surprised no fan game or ROMhack (besides the 2D fan remake in the works) have ever attempted to do an experience similar to Colosseum/XD. Even without the use of Shadow Pokemon.

For the six years I've contributed to this tiering list, I will admit that since the very beginning, I've always felt Croconaw wasn't an S tier mon and more of an A tier mon. It has a high amount of versatility and solid offensive and defensive stats, and water is a good typing to have, but Feraligatr was never the hardest hitter. Or the fastest dude. Or the bulkiest tank. In many ways, it reminds me of other jack of many trades Pokemon such as Vibrava/Flygon, Swablu/Altaria, Bayleef/Meganium, and Stantler. None of them have terrible matchups, and with the exception of Flygon, none of them are going to be carrying battles. Even with Flygon it can be iffy since trainer's Mons seem to love to have random-ass Ice Beam coverage.

If the decision was made to move Croconaw down, it would mean Espeon is the only S-tier mon. Frankly, I'm fine with that decision. With my numerous playthroughs across the 20 years this game has been out, Espeon has always been the most consistent Pokemon used, even when factoring in RNG moments that were against you. With other S-tier potential Pokemon, Typhlosion does have to rely more on Blaze Fire Blast strats to reach that ranking, which can be tricky to utilize if you're unfamiliar with Colosseum and/or Doubles. An untimely miss and the low PP can potentially mean Ty is out of commission earlier than you'd like. Still doesn't change the fact that Typhlosion is like the special equivalent of Medicham.
Entei is very similar to Typhlosion and trades potential obscene amounts of power with more reliable bulk and an earlier Flamethrower by nine levels, among other things. Fire Blast is inaccurate and has low PP, and it is Entei's only fire move until 51. But it can also be used as a highly potent Shadow Pokemon all the way to the final battles due to on-demand crits off of a 115 base attack stat/90 base power move.
And then there is Skiploom/Jumpluff's increased support for potential S as well due to sleep being a broken status infliction. I can't deny that sleep isn't broken. Everyone knows sleep is broken. Sleep is so broken that Dark Void eventually ended up not only getting nerfed, but becoming exclusively programmed to Darkrai. But I'm getting off track, this is about Jumpluff. While I personally can't think of Jumpluff as S-tier (at least in Colosseum) access to sleep while being one of the fastest Pokemon in the game does mean Jumpluff does retain usefulness throughout the entire game, whether you're using it to capture Shadow Pokemon or not.

Throughout this post and my dozens of previous posts throughout the years, I think I may have finally said everything I've ever wanted about this peculiar entry. I should move on to XD as that tier list could use a lot of work.
As the years have gone by, I look back and wonder if Croc had been severely overhyped by me. It's probably still A-worthy for being one of the better abusers of Shadow Rush (very important when you get it) and overall a consistent and versatile mon, but definitely not Espeon's level of dominance.

I think Quilava is comfortable in A. It starts out kind of rough and requires careful use of Blaze to nuke, but it's still definitely quite good. Entei is probably easier to use but also has a lower power ceiling, which evens things out.

I've honestly been wanting to bump up Skiploom for a long time. Every time I play the game the thing just shits on the hardest fights -- a fast sleeper is supremely broken. I cannot justify S, but a move to A is well-deserved imo.
 

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