Raichu Only - Pokemon Yellow

Rules:
1. Only my starter in battle
2. No items in battle, except held items
3. No glitches, exploits, save states, or RNG manipulation
4. No evasion moves before level 100*
Rule details:
-- *In gen1, evasion boosting is allowed if the Pokemon does it through means other than learning the move by level up or TM. For example, using Mimic or Mirror Move to boost evasion is allowed. (This exception is to keep ranking consistent with my legacy videos.)
-- I am allowed to manipulate my starter
-- I play the game at 4x game speed
-- For fair comparisons all my Pokemon have perfect (or near perfect) DVs / IVs
-- I am allowed to catch HM users - I can use all field moves
-- All in-battle glitches are allowed in generation 1
-- In generation 1, I'm allowed to skip Marowak with the Poke Doll
-- Surge's trash-can-puzzle is automatically solved
-- The bike is allowed in gen1, banned in gen2, and allowed for bypassing terrain in gen3
-- Saving between league members is allowed
-- If the solo Pokemon faints and I choose to blackout it counts towards my reset counter
-- I can pause the game and timer to take breaks
-- The footage is sped up / slowed down to match the pace of my narration
-- The ability Pickup can only be used if the starter has it
Patreon: / scottsthoughts
KZbin memberships:
/ @scottsthoughtspokemon
Twitter: / psychicflying
Twitch: / scottsthoughtspokemon
Illustrations by / sarinavail
Thumbnail art by / brianlsart
STAB: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
DVs / IVs: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Damage Calculations: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Gen1 Stat Calculator: pycosites.com/pkmn/stat_gen1.php
Gen2 Stat Calculator: pycosites.com/pkmn/stat_gen2.php
Gen1 Crit Rates: www.smogon.com/rb/articles/cr...
Learnsets: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Base Stats: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...)

[@shimmianNS]

On the eleventh day of December, Scott's Thoughts gave to me: Surge's 'Chu with a competent trainer Classy Cat v Pig Monkey! A moonstone evolution The "Rhydon of gen three" A Pure Power Powerhouse Wattson's ace in Hoenn 'Phan v Ursaring! A tiny turtle's bubble The fire starter digging A garden lizard's leech seed And those three weirdo mons punching

[@ericwolf9664]

Someone gift this man a sub or pester Scott into giving him a pin.

[@poketrainerjames7246]

Keep it up buddy!

[@auraswan951]

If we get a live stream I hope you get the shout out you deserve! Keep it up! ^_^

[@michaelklos8089]

Fun fact: Venemoth is the only ground type pokemon in the whole franchise that can be hit by electric attacks.

[@RoninCatholic]

It's also the only Dark type susceptible to Psychic attacks.

[@pxm2337]

@@RoninCatholicalso the only fairy type that can get hit by dragon moves.

[@CallMeFreakFujiko]

@@pxm2337 It's also the only fairy/dark type in Gen 1.

[@sebarsht12]

​@@CallMeFreakFujikoit's also the only Steel-type that can be hit with an attacking Poison-type move

[@riotd.r.8363]

Fun fact: Pikachu and Meowth were meant to be connected from the start. This is reflected in their Pokedex numbers, 25 and 52. Cat and mouse

[@uli11]

For some reason I always compared Meowth and Ratata in my brain for the same reason (cat and mouse). Also both of them being speedy crit machines.

[@riotd.r.8363]

I guess "cat and rat" didn't flow as smoothly, but it does make sense.

[@paulthepotato9311]

@@riotd.r.8363how about cat and bat

[@Willingmess]

It’s painful that I only just now realized meowth and pikachu had the cat and mouse dynamic in the anime. I think I missed it because usually the cat is physically superior to the more intelligent/elusive mouse, whereas meowth entirely relies on its intelligence.

[@AzureFlute]

A fun connection, but not necessarily true. You should read up on Helix Chamber about the history of how and when Pokémon were added to the game, it's very fascinating stuff!

[@nicholsjj3371]

I know you've wanted the channel to feel like a syndicated tv channel and today/this month it feels like you've mastered that. The tease for the crystal "season finale" at the end along with the progression of the similar mons just all felt intertwined very well. Especially as a switch from vs to solo back to vs amazing job. Its very noticeable and very appericated.

[@paulnewton2284]

In Red and Blue, all of the Gym Leader TMs (Bide, Bubblebeam, Thunderbolt, Mega Drain, Toxic, Psywave, Fire Blast, and Fissure) are only obtainable via their respective TMs. Pikachu learning Thunderbolt by level up in Yellow is the only exception in all of Gen 1. This is also true of all the Gym Leader TMs in GSC (Mud Slap, Fury Cutter, Attract, Shadow Ball, Dynamic Punch, Iron Tail, Icy Wind, and Dragon Breath).

[@Kanbei11]

There is an exception in GSC as Sunkern learns giga drain by level up (the TM being the prize for beating Erika)

[@AzureFlute]

I really wish they never cut Gorochu. Gorochu sounds so cool as an evolution to Raichu, I wonder what its stats would have been. Raichu is still cool though, but if we never got Pichu and we got Gorochu instead, that may have been one of the absolute coolest evolutionary lines in the entire series

[@SV_Sol]

Seeing Raichu come out with, Go! Sol! Gives me so much joy... wish Raichu got a move for Brock though 🥲

[@megariderfire1994]

I didn't even noticed Scott even named Raichu "Sol"...that was to reference you? But it's very clear you're a big Raichu fan, huh?

[@Lockirby2]

Praise the Sol!

[@skeetermania3202]

@@megariderfire1994Look up background art in previous videos. For example, the Kanto Starter VS.

[@pjanderson4876]

Raichu is allowed to use Surf in Gen 1 Competitive because of the gift Pikachu from Stadium I believe. If Raichu could get it in a playthrough, I think it would do a lot better than many other electric types. Probably not quite as good as Electabuzz, but better than Jolteon I bet. I still haven’t seen the whole video yet, so maybe you address this, but I’m expecting Raichu to get an absolutely abysmal time because it’s a stone-evolution electric type with a weak movepool.

[@MazterP28]

And fly

[@pjanderson4876]

@@MazterP28 it does have access to fly, but it can’t use it in competitive because Fly and Dig are banned due to a glitch

[@MrBerdman77]

It is from Stadium 1, you need to have your Pikachu as one of the three Pokémon sent out in all 8 matches in Round 2 of the Prime Cup Master Ball Round (you can use Mewtwo in this still so it isn’t too hard)

[@mauricioguerra1794]

What do you mean? If it had surf from the very beginning don't you think it would beat both Electabuzz and Jolteon?

[@pjanderson4876]

@@mauricioguerra1794 I’m honestly not sure, I think Electabuzz has better stats than Raichu, and Electabuzz has Psychic, so it could be a toss up. Raichu wouldn’t struggle nearly as much against Ground types, but Electabuzz would be better just about everywhere else. Electabuzz is ok in UU, and Raichu is UUBL, so it’s really hard to tell without actually doing a playthrough.

[@jaytaytay3205]

The editing in your videos is incredibly smooth. Whoever is responsible for that deserves some recognition. I see you, editor!

[@irish_owl21]

I can’t believe Scott is still updating his overlay. We are so spoiled. I watch his old videos and it’s difficult. Not because they are bad quality, but the shuttle changes he has made to his overlay just make watching his current videos such a joy. Keep it up Scott! BTW: Venomoth a ground type? We all know it is a normal ice type…

[@baileycarter9989]

It would be neat if after you complete the solo run pokedex, you could do an "award" show where you look at pokemon with the worst/best splits, worst movepool, etc. Watching poor raichu suffer through that Brock split reminded me of tangela with constrict and how bad that was.

[@KingTKalimari]

You could do a run in the future where you allow it to learn the Surf HM. It's technically an event move and could give Raichu a chance to shine. Just a thought, your videos are amazing quality btw!

[@isaacwright1275]

Hell yeah always loved Raichu, totally underrated, also exciting news I just joined your Patreon! Been a huge fan for awhile now and am happy to support this amazing work you do.

[@angelotirado3542]

Your first run with raichu is really showing your experience with this game Well done

[@888Grim]

I felt the same way.

[@iceberg_dmb]

This was a really satisfying video to watch (especially after the rough fire red run). I liked that we got to see a bunch of different plays even with a limited move pool. Even though the placement wasn't amazing the run felt pretty smooth.

[@AndrewDavis2112]

Love seeing my favorite Pokémon struggle through yellow. Such is the sad fate of all electric types.

[@lazyhippie6139]

Omg Raichu was my first favorite Pokémon (current is Umbreon and it has been for over a decade... I don't see that changing). Weirdly, I didn't actually use it that much, mostly because I played Yellow a lot. Electric was also tied with Fire and Ice for my favorite type, and now it's honestly kind of a meh type for me. I think your editing and overlay is perfection tbh. When I watch other solo runs (I think Pokémon is kind of a special interest for me, particularly the first 3 gens), I really miss seeing the current stats and movesets on the screen. I'm always obsessed with stats and want to see them. I was watching some of your older videos and the improvement in quality and even voiceover is VERY apparent. Your hard work has really paid off.

[@Xeraser2]

I think they main """problem""" (if we really want to nitpick call it that) with the UI is that it doesn't look very slick, starting from the fonts, aligning things a little better and cutting the background off where the overlay ends and/or using a simple type icon pattern as the background (and tweaking the movepool box's bg transparency since it looks weird when it's half empty) would be a good start but I'm no UI designer. Though I get that it's not a priority since many people probably listen to these in the background (I find that it's too easy to get distracted if I do that and I hate having to rewind over and over so I just watch them normally)

[@WILSON-tc4bb]

Gen 1 Raichu sprite always makes me laugh. It looks like it has a bleach-blonde soul patch 😆

[@VinnyB77]

Would be really interesting to watch Scott try a gen 1 playthrough where all the trainer AI was fixed to be really good

[@HighPriestFuneral]

Shin Pokemon Red/Blue would certainly be an interesting playthrough.

[@rodrigojrivas]

We need justice for surfing Raichu! "Ride and surf!"

[@mattildas7515]

Scott: *has a frankly terrifyingly indepth overlay showing everything you could want to know* Also Scott: "This isn't even my final form!"

[@Spudmay]

Thanks for all the content man ❤️. Can't wait for the season finale

[@TrueNomadSkies]

There's a reason that LT Surge's Raichu uses Thunderbolt and Mega Kick as its best attacking moves. I forgot about the stone evolution's lack of level up stuff so hopefully this was a fun run haha.

[@myggmastaren3365]

looking at the learnset for gen 1 makes me feel physically ill

[@MazterP28]

It also gets fly and surf and petal dance and dizzy punch

[@gillriet773]

I agree with the opening feelings about Raichu but I ended up falling in love with it in Sword and Sheild. I needed a solid Lightningrod mon for rain teams in VGC and with fake out and nuzzle and encore etc this kangaroo mouse jumped right into me yeart. 🧡

[@kingdoge69]

Kinda off topic, but you guys remember how Raichu sounds in the anime? “Raichew!” 😂

[@HBKARDS]

Raichu is my fav Pokemon. To be fair, he did great midgame

[@WillowEpp]

I know you've wondered if people even notice your nickname game, so I want to say I appreciate you naming your Raichu after your artist (who is not your wife).

[@FlamingAomeba]

I love that Giovanni is sponsored by GuardSpec XD

[@jdsnerdverse]

I was literally about the comment about seismic toss but then you mentioned it. Personally I would have just used it. I know it's not the greatest move in the world however you got a lot of rock fights coming up. Boomer the hiker your rival sandslash Giovanni. Just a thought. Really enjoying this month of videos everyday by the way

[@BraydenJohnson]

I wonder how much a back port of Alolan Raichu would do. I’d imagine it’s busted as it starts with psychic

[@TomHenksYT]

When Scott said there's one more fully evolved pokemon that might do worse than Raichu, my first guess was Beedrill. But even if I'm wrong, I'm looking forward to seeing that run! :D

[@elladrinn4318]

Personally, I'm guessing rhydon

[@SaerasChuu]

@@elladrinn4318 Nah, Rhydon will smash. It's like Nidoking in that it learns basically every TM that isn't Psychic, so, after Brock, it will blow past most things. Stat experience will make its mediocre Speed not matter.

[@elladrinn4318]

@@SaerasChuu Misty can cause trouble due to speed, erika exists, quite a few random trainers with bellsprouts at beginning plus a slow growth rate make the beginning a real slog to get thru, definitely see it bleeding time there. once u get thunderbolt, rock slide and ice beam i see it being easy, just got to get there 1st

[@TomHenksYT]

@@elladrinn4318 could be! But I think what's gonna save Rhydon is its move pool. At least it gets a lot of different coverage moves while Beedrill gets practically nothing, it doesn't even get poison sting if you start fully evolved

[@Pepega580]

Man, scott is really cooking this month. 🔥

[@grinbrothers]

As a kid, it was typical to prefer younger/middle stages of the Pokémon (Ash didn't evolve his why should mine be evolved) but I always preferred Raichu over Pikachu. Raichu was orange after all... and had a cooler tail. 0:47 - Fascinating to hear... though if I recall correctly, you did start out with Yellow version so it's not too surprising. The Pikachu line wasn't actually easily./swiftly available in a region until X/Y. 2:16 - You know you're in a bad spot when you're considering Submission. Aside from Normal type attacks, there was a real lack of both good physical moves and especially in TM form. Earthquake was pretty much the only other one I can think of. If you level up quick enough, perhaps Seismic Toss will be the way to go. 5:19 - Poor Pidgeotto; it was the big boss of the Viridian Forest. I don't think it was expecting to encounter a Raichu thundershocking and one-shotting everything. 8:28 - An understandably so. Body Slam seems a bit of an iconic move for Raichu (probably due to the anime and Surge) so it's odd they never learn it naturally. 10:36 - Loving the little pop up of Sandslash there. 11:46 - This is the first time I'm seeing the Agatha Junior artwork. Again, love the personality that you lend towards these random trainers through the art and commentary. 16:00 - I do wonder if Body Slam would be more effective against Ninetails here. Ninetails does have more Special than Defence after all. Ah well, splendid win against Blaine anyway. 20:51 - Reflect doesn't run out in Gen 1? Holy heck; that makes it's usage completely different. Always fascinating what you learn from these videos. 22:56 - An easy sweep of the Elite Four. Given the time left and few areas to save on time (aside from Brock and Giovanni, you encountered few roadblocks), I assume a good chunk of the remaining video will be on the champion fights, rather than the 2nd playthrough. 24:20 - Likewise; holy heck. Funny how much better Raichu is doing here compared to Fire Red, an poor Sol here has to deal with Brock with just Electric moves. 26:54 - I expected Seismic Toss to get utilised in the first run so it's nice to see it get used in this second run. 32:52 - An yet, Raichu did better than I expected. With a bit of luck, I could see it squeak into that C Tier.

[@barkstopper7413]

This new overlay looks amazing.

[@fakhruddinnalawala5451]

Another great one, thanks Scott!

[@NativeGolfer10]

Raichu was a pleasant surprise, especially considering the Brock split. I loved having it on my teams growing although it’s not the best option for gen 1

[@frostedbyte0759]

Great video dude!

[@TheLunarLegend]

I always really liked Raichu. I was really disappointed that he couldn't evolve in yellow.

[@josiaharaki7310]

I was just thinking how silly it would be for Gary to get his eevee, only to turn around and see his grandfather give his rival increasingly rare and powerful pokemon. I mean, this time it's a fully evolved pokemon, but some runs canonically start with you getting a Mewtwo

[@jacobliston7339]

"I completely crush Koga" Love the alliteration!

[@thefaz3744]

I feel like the double team mimic rule is showing its age; it made sense when it was just Pokemon Yellow runs to have more variety in electric type runs. However now you also run Emerald and Crystal, and in these electric and fire types aren't as bad. I think it is very interesting seeing what types are better and worse in specific gens and intentionally adding this clause feels like cheating that. Plus, it's not really a scientific method if you make exceptions to raize the lower end of the data up 😝 Double team aside, love the content! Daily december has been awesome

[@evilvitamin]

Question: Is there a reason other than time not to go back to Celadon and buy additional vitamins before attempting the E4? You have money by then, I doubt the stat xp has maxed out, and it seems faster than grinding an extra level or resetting because you missed a damage range.

[@ArchonZach]

Im worried electric types won't get a redemption arc until Gen 5 😢

[@shreeble7113]

@archonzach You don't have to wait that long because Electric is fantastic in Gen 2 solo runs. Hidden Power by itself in addition to the lack of Ground moves on relevant trainers makes it much easier for the type to shine

[@angelotirado3542]

This next video is going to be HYPED

[@discgolfwes]

This is going to be rough

[@DLC88]

I remember sticking pikachu in the PC, then he wouldn't follow me anymore. I also remember having a raichu. But hey this was over 20 years ago

[@angelotirado3542]

Was not expecting this thing to do as well as it did

[@bensrandomshows1482]

You'd think it would get quick attack as a starting move

[@garlicjr9686]

32:52 You should probably update Magmar's placement, as your current latest playthrough that you showed us, it stands between Hitmonlee and Poliwrath...

[@momsforseti318]

I cant imagine Raichu doing very well

[@randallwilson4088]

I love you buddy, 30 vids😮

[@Lucifers-Stepdad]

I had a little toy of raichu and I absolutely loved him. He's so chonky.

[@thatponybro6940]

you know what would be a neat series, where you take a type and basically like what game that type does poor in and what game it excels in

[@TheOvalOwl]

I loved having Raichu on my team as a kid even though I was usually disappointed by it. I always assumed I needed an electric type for proper balance.

[@vidjageam6540]

You should consider using the Megakick TM. It's risky, but it might oneshot, making it faster and it helps to avoid status moves like Sand-Attack, Stun Spore, etc.

[@FarmerTome1]

I second Mega Kick. It's not a great move to have for most of the game, but as a higher-damage Normal move for the Champion fight it can definitely be worth it for some of the Pokemon

[@lukasvoglhuber3501]

Back then i always traded Pikachu from yellow with the link cable to red (or blue, i had all three as a child) and used the thunderstone to evolve it and than traded it back to yellow so i can have a raichu in yellow. Good times.

[@MsDarkz123]

Would be neat to allow him to use Surf once you get the HM.

[@red-eyessolares1817]

Could black-out training against the optional Rival before Brock work, or would that be slower?

[@hollowjoker6295]

Why did the attack and special increase on the overlay when you used the hp up?

[@nightfan1983]

The Viridian City gym battle, brought to you by Guard Spec. :D

[@skeetermania3202]

I noticed Sarina’s channel name happens to be the nickname of choice. Speaking of which, does she still do art for the channel?

[@kangaskdan]

As much as Pokemon Yellow hates Raichu, I love him :D

[@shipit7616]

Hi, at 12:03 you're using an HP UP, but in the overlay we actually see Raichu's Attack and Special increasing while its Health remains 98. Bug? Or am I missing something?

[@123kidxpac123pac]

I know it’s not your usual content but would you try smithplays Pokémon’s crystal legacy. With how many runs you’ve done in the base game I’m curious what you think of it.

[@jheal62]

Wow. Did not expect being able to beat Brock at that level

[@jptheflipper3825]

I think after about another dozen runs you could get it under an hour consistently but its going to be rough getting there. may I ask and I am sure others have asked as well, have you considered doing a surfing Raichu like you did with Pikachu, with surf, you could cut at least 10 minutes from the run against Brock alone and a lot of time against Giovanni and and the rivals sandslash

[@sjerruf3019]

Would actually be interested to see how lanturn would do in gen 1 I would feel like it would do really well considering it's typing and moveset (switching spark with thundershock for example). Hopefully I "Spark"ed an idea into your brain :]

[@Lockirby2]

Nice! And because you didn't even use Double Team against Giovanni, you won't even need to redo this one if you do playthroughs without Double Team (which I'm really hoping for; I'd probably consider those the "canonical" Yellow results). Surprised at how small of an improvement that Raichu is over Pikachu. I'm assuming that the ranked Pikachu isn't the one with Surf (despite the picture)? Do you have an analysis of why the difference is so small?

[@draykenly8418]

It’s my girl BIG CHEDDAH! also hi @Sol

[@TheOmegaDragon]

Raichu is my favorite pokemon.

[@tigeryumyums9407]

Any idea when we will be seeing Dragonite? It's my favorite Gen 1 pokemon.

[@Neogeddon]

Did you know!! While you can't trade or evolve the Yellow Pika, there IS a workaround in Stadium because it lets you put it in the N64 box. Then you just grab it out with any other game and evolve it :] The Stadium games have some features that are not very well-known at all. Like, you can tell which eggs are gonna be shiny in Stadium 2 cuz of how the nickname color shift thing works (the game thinks all eggs are nicknamed "EGG", and Shinies do not get shifted. so shiny eggs will always have the default egg color). People generally know that at this point. But I swear I'm the only person who's tried releasing Eggs in Stadium 2 just so I don't have to hatch them. And uh, you totally can. I think it's the only game ever that allows that.

[@DWargs]

Back in the day, my brother had a Raichu on his copy of Yellow, because he and our cousin traded and evolved it. I still have a vivid memory of that Raichu as being level 47 in Silph Co fights. That was, until, some snot nosed brat of a 6 year old little brother grabbed his original GameBoy, and, without knowing what he was doing, accidentally created a new game and a new save file. Whoops. Still feel guilty about it 24 years later. The next birthday, I got a Blue Gameboy Color with Pokemon Blue, which means I didn't want or need to play my brother's game ever again. Blastoise was cooler anyways. So was Snorlax and Graveler. My brother got me back plenty anyways. We played plenty of games together, and with him being 4 years older than me, any time I beat him in a game was a rarity and worth the celebration.

[@SquallLionhart409]

Surfing Raichu may have been able to hold its own again Persian and Primeape... maybe.

[@GmanTheTank]

I used a Raichu for the first time in Violet and it was ok for the beginning and midgame but fell off terribly towards the end. Alolan Raichu and even light ball Pikachu are just so much better.

[@15000avenger]

Dewgong is next! Have fun Scott

[@Nixoth]

I know glitches are not allowed in your runs but if you do the brock skip glitch and come back to him that may improve raichus time?

[@BigHeadClan]

Honestly I’m curious to see how Jolteon would do in a fresh run, I think there is at least 5-10 minutes on the table.

[@andrewjoseph2749]

When you go to the Power Plant, have you ever decided to fight Zapdos... assuming you have some type advantage?

[@RealCaptainAwesome]

For challenges with brick walls like no attacking moves or immunities that can't be overcome, I think you should teach it a neutral move that it can normally learn just to make it more interesting.

[@elladrinn4318]

like swift? or payday? ( both base 60 power, also, aside from rage they have lowest power)

[@RealCaptainAwesome]

@@elladrinn4318 yeah, just something to get through the vain grind.

[@iwanabana]

but being a stone evo means that it should have moves that pikachu should be able to learn....right?

[@redreoicy6698]

Haha the blackout training against the bug catcher is not something any pokemon should do except the abra line (to avoid finding 20 encounters to teleport from)

[@GandharKulkarni2000]

raikou is one of the most underrated pokemans out there

[@surgeongeneralx6655]

Raichu is my favorite pokemon, sad they never got much love compared to Pikachu in later gens.

[@RoninCatholic]

Pikachu next to its anime popular buddy who is also in Smash Bros!

[@trentonwilson7054]

We don't eq the dugtrio while it's in the ground instead hitting bodyslam to miss?

[@crimsoncutz8430]

You can't use Earthquake on Pokemon that are digging in gen 1, that was added in gen 2.

[@ruthlesace]

I gotta ask why you named raichu after our sun?

[@patonosequecosa]

If there was a family where the big brother was Raichu and the litle one was Pikachu, we know wo will be the favorite

[@bobosmith101]

Nice playing.

[@MazterP28]

Mad we didn’t get a evolutions of raichu

[@RalphyNoPants]

Did you name the first one after your moderator?

[@bigkirbyhj666]

Alright so I've been thinking about the primape Persian video, what if karate chop was a fighting type move

[@TheMoogleKing93]

Do a "portback" where Raichu gets all the cool extra moves it now has access to; Psychic, Surf and Nasty Plot would speed the run up!

[@nickflood1]

Anyone else notice that MOST of the S tier pokemon are part Poison typing?

[@kannavz3494]

yeah, poison as a type is terrible tbh (granting weaknesses to psy and ground best offensive types by gen 1 standards), but it's been a trend that good pokemon get there despite the poison typing but through sheer coverage (see Nidos), the medium slow growth rate (see Gengar and Vileplume) or by a high crit move and amazing speed stat (see victreebel), also the awesome primary typings of said mons are doing a lot of the carrying tbh. Now, if you look at the rest of the tier list, you'll see the poison monotypes doing positively mediocre given that their movepools are shit, their stats are way too balanced and don't get good super effective damage (except vs koga) but poison doesn't have a signature move to spam and do damage (lmao acid). As long long long time viewer of this channel, hope this helps!

[@paulnewton2284]

I think the hinted-at evolved Pokémon that is slower than Raichu might actually be Exeggutor. Why? I mean, it has great stats, a great typing, and it's in OU! For starters, it has the Slow growth rate and a terrible level up learnset. Eggy starts with only Barrage and Hypnosis before getting Stomp at level 28. So it will struggle with Brock, similar to Exeggcute. Probably not to the same degree as Raichu, but still pretty rough. Eggy, as a stone evolution, will also miss out on Exeggcute's level up moves, most notably Sleep Powder. Beyond that, its TM learnset isn't all that great either. Psychic is good, of course, and Mega Drain will likely prove useful, but its only other attacking moves are Normal moves, and all of them have pretty glaring drawbacks: Stomp's middling power, Double-Edge's recoil, the massive time and resource investment required for Hyper Beam, the inaccuracy of Egg Bomb, and Strength's inability to be unlearned. The fact that it gets neither Body Slam nor Tri Attack is baffling. Plus, Eggy doesn't get any boosting moves (besides Double Team), so it can't take advantage of the Badge Boost Glitch. Eggy's stats and typing are important to its role in OU, but just as important are moves that it will not be able to use in a solo run: Explosion, Sleep Powder, and to a lesser extent Stun Spore. I think it really needs Hypnosis to cooperate to get a decent time. I was going to say that Rhydon might also be a contender, but I looked it up and saw that in Yellow it actually gets Stomp, Tail Whip, and Fury Attack as starting moves in addition to Horn Attack, which will make Brock much easier. While Rhydon also has a Slow growth rate and a poor level up learnset, its learnset is still better than Eggy's, and its TM pool is much wider and filled with much more good options. Mega Punch, Dig, Earthquake, Rock Slide, and Body Slam are a good start, and while its Special is a pretty lackluster 45 in comparison to its exceptional 130 Attack (fun fact: Rhydon's Earthquake is the strongest unboosted Physical move with no drawbacks in the game), it can probably still find a use for moves like Water Gun, Bubblebeam, Ice Beam, Blizzard, and Thunderbolt. That terrible defensive typing paired with its poor Speed and Special and no boosting moves to remedy those weaknesses will definitely hold it back, just as it held Rhyhorn back, but its high HP will at least help compensate for that. I saw someone say Beedrill somewhere, but I don't think that will be the case. It will definitely struggle with Brock since it starts with only Fury Attack, but Swords Dance is such a powerful move in a solo run that even with its poor stats and lackluster moves it should do okay. Plus, you could do a lot worse than STAB Twineedle, which it gets at level 20. The Medium Fast growth rate isn't amazing, but it's way better than Slow. I think other possible contenders are Seadra and Seaking. But they are both Medium Fast, both get Agility for badge boosting, albeit fairly late, Surf and Ice Beam/Blizzard should be sufficient to get through the late game with their passable stats, and the early game shouldn't be too much of an issue for either of them. Seadra gets Bubble for Brock and Smokescreen as a potential workaround for annoying Route 3 trainers like the Youngster, and while Seaking's Peck isn't great for Brock, Tail Whip and Supersonic should help it get by decently fast.

[@azeria1]

Heres an idea what if you add alohan version which is psychic/electric type

[@mangoschmooves]

Raichu did a lot better than I expected it to. Hopefully it can get sub hour someday

[@SquallLionhart409]

Something interesting is that the gap between Raichu's attack and special attack (due to stat exp) widened to 9 at level 26, but ended up being the exact same at level 71.

[@DrDrao]

It's probably also because of the badge boost you get from brock. You don't get the special boost until Blaine.

[@SquallLionhart409]

@@DrDraoGood Catch. I had forgotten that Scott has his overlay display effective stats and not their "actual" stats. The large gap between 122 and 107 was actually the minimal gap of 109 to 107, for instance. Scott really doesn't show many level up screens in battle any more. It is mildly interesting that stat exp skews slightly towards physical, but it's so small. The EV skewing towards attack/speed in gen 3 is probably going to be more noticeable, especially for anything that has to grind early.

[@TSG_Ballverlust]

I actually used pikachu quite a lot and it always was my strongest mon of the team