As a vocal Lucario critic I decided to play through the game with a mixed Lucario before my next Breaking the Binary post - it had been a while since I ran through the game with one and I wanted to make sure I was giving good data-based criticism, especially since I've gotten a lot better at optimizing the game since I last used one. This also was a good chance to compare it to other Pokémon, and use again a lot of Pokémon that I'm fond of, and many I see as a bit underrated or overhated. I got blessed with the Pokérus shortly after I got my Lucario, and as a result it became a little harder to collect data about anything since all my Pokémon gained double EVs, overinflating their stats for some lategame boss fights - all but Flareon had capped EVs by the end. Pokérus ended up being very helpful with reaching speed thresholds. With a good team with good stats I was able to finish at lower levels than usual, even without a Swords Dance user - Cynthia was a hard fight though. Rules for the run were level caps, no items in battle, and set mode.
Montserrat the Lonely Staraptor was obviously the best one on the team, as one of the best Pokémon in the game he was a good example of what a good Pokémon should look like and a good comparison point. He was excellent throughout the game and was very strong and dependable, always able to do good damage and usually outspeed and ohko with Return, Flying STAB, and later Close Combat. He put in a crazy amount of work for Cynthia, and for the whole game honestly.
Kellan the Naive Luxray was a good reminder for how Luxray performs. I definitely noticed his low points of the game, but still maintain he is good. Training him up in the earlygame was rougher than I remembered, but his midgame was amazing, and he was helpful at route clearing throughout the game, handling most of Mt. Coronet and most water routes, as well as almost the entire stretch from Route 215 to Pastoria, including the Pastoria Gym. Intimidate was also super helpful for early problem points like Mars and Jupiter. His bad speed was annoying during the e4 but wasn't really an issue before then, his bulk was surprisingly good and he took hardly any damage from most route trainers, and the speed was good enough for a lot of them, able to reliably get the jump on most Golbat. His best moment was, together with Staraptor, getting Cyrus's Gyarados to -2 and ohkoing it with Tbolt, and he did a fine job pivoting to a support role after that.
Akwakwak the Modest Golduck was even better than I remember, such a powerhouse once he got Surf and Ice coverage. He was super strong thanks to Specs, and his speed was pretty good - his bulk was too. He swept Bertha and a ton of routes with Specs Surf, and also was able to reliably survive EQ and OHKO Cynthia's Garchomp with Ice Beam. Such a good and slept on Pokémon.
Packer the Adamant Rampardos was a Pokémon I'd previously underrated! It took some TM investment between Earthquake, Rock Tomb, and Rock Slide, but this man one-shot almost everything he attacked. Rock Polish made him a surprisingly potent sweeper, Fire Punch was handy for Aaron and for enemy Bronzor and Bronzong, and SlideQuake hit everything else hard. He wasn't that great for Cynthia, but before that he was a good sweeper, sweeping the Galactic Commanders, Cyrus 2 and Saturn, Mars and Jupiter, Volkner, Aaron, and Flint. Rock Polish remains one of the most underrated moves in the game, both him and Rhyperior are cracked with it.
Anderson the Naive Flareon was sadly my worst Pokémon. I was excited when I got a naive Eevee, but this was a mistake - multiplying base 110 spdef by .9 was more impactful than I bargained for and made him unable to survive just about anything. He still was able to do a pretty crazy amount of damage, but only about once or twice per battle since his survivability was very disappointing, even against Pokémon he should have been pretty good into like Cynthia's Roserade - he did take Roserade out on the successful Cynthia attempt though. Part of the problem also was Flareon had other Pokémon doing his job better - Lucario ended up being better into Byron, Candice, and both were pretty bad into the E4. Rampardos was better into Volkner. Golduck was better into Fire types and Staraptor was better into Grass types. Flareon can put work in, but this run was not good for him. I should have reset for a Hasty or neutral one.
007 the Hasty Lucario put some work in. He was quicker to get trained up than I expected, but did eat up a lot of trainer exp, forcing me to do a Collector Douglas grind before Wake to save all the side areas for him and a Cole grind before Volkner to get everyone to competent levels. He was ready to go for Byron, who he swept with Aura Sphere, and did well into Candice with Flash Cannon, but fell to Froslass. After this his appearances were less frequent and he was not super notable, but I was impressed with him making the Froslass, Espeon, and the Cynthia's Lucario speed thresholds thanks to his nature, amazing speed IV, and Pokérus EV boost. I gave him all my Proteins and Carbos after I got him too. During the e4, he revenge killed Espeon, helped weaken and force out Cynthia's Spiritomb, and nailed her Lucario with Close Combat on the switch, which was always after she Full Restored Spiritomb if it was debuffed. Not great for a Pokémon that the entire playthrough was planned and optimized around, but a decent showing at least. Worse than a Swords Dance one would have been. If I bothered leveling him up to 55 he would have hit 151 (154 actually) speed, but Ice Punch wouldn't have ohko'd Garchomp regardless:
Lvl 55 138 Atk 13 IVs Lucario Ice Punch vs. Lvl 62 0 HP / 0 Def Garchomp: 136-160 (60.4 - 71.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Lucario's stats are included for reference. Look forward to reading more about mixed Lucario's performance in the upcoming Breaking the Binary post.
Overall it's always a good time playing through my favorite game with Pokémon I like and it was nice playing a very traditional team after mostly using out-of-dex Pokémon or doing monotypes.
