Pokemon Gen 1 Tier List: S-Tier
The top dogs in Stadium
These few Pokemon form the S-Tier of Gen 1. They are best in class for the endgame and Stadium. And can solo multiple fights in the Elite Four. All of them are powerful, but the number one spot is truly exceptional.
1. The Mew Duo
Level 70 Mewtwo is the final boss of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow. After clearing the Elite Four, head to Cerulean Cave and either throw your Master Ball or sleep it and throw Ultra Balls.
Mewtwo isn’t around to help you clear any gym leaders or the first Elite Four run. But it’s a psychic type with a dominant 680 base stats and the highest base special of 154. Mewtwo easily farms the Elite Four and Stadium battles. The standard move lineup is:
Psychic
Recover
Blizzard or Thunderbolt TM
Amnesia (level 81)
Mew can only be obtained in Gen 1 via an event or cheating. But you can rent it in Pokemon Stadium after clearing Round 1 of the Prime Cup. Mew has slightly lower base stats of 600 (100 each) and can learn any TM in the game. Get creative!
2. Starmie
The presence of Starmie here in S-Tier is likely to surprise people. But the water/psychic hermaphrodite has excellent 115 speed and 100 special. It has better defenses than Alakazam. And gets STAB on both water attacks and Psychic.
Catch Staryu and level it to at least 27 for Recover. Then use a Water Stone and Psychic TM. Starmie is great for the Blaine, Sabrina, and Giovanni gyms.
The standard move set is:
Surf of Hydro Pump (level 47)
Recover (27)
Psychic TM
Ice Beam or Thunderbolt TM, or defensive move like Minimize (37)
3. Alakazam
The beastly psychic Alakazam is evolved from Kadabra via a link cable trade. You can get it as early as level 16. It hits hard and fast with the Psychic move, 135 base special and 120 speed.
The core moves you want are:
Replace Confusion (16) with Psybeam at 27
Recover (31)
Psychic (38)
Open for TM or defense like Reflect (42)
Alakazam’s main weakness is low defense and HP against physical attacks. For example, Hypno resists Psychic and can fire back with Hypnosis or Body Slam.
4. Articuno
Articuno and Zapdos are both incredible. But the ice/flying type combo is slightly stronger than electric/flying. Articuno also starts with Ice Beam which wrecks Lance’s dragons.
All legendary birds have beastly base stats of 580, making Articuno the most powerful ice Pokemon. Catch Articuno at level 50 in the Seafoam Islands. Replace Peck and pick up Blizzard at level 51. The standard move set is simply:
Replace Peck with Fly HM or Sky Attack TM
Ice Beam
Blizzard
Agility or TM
5. Zapdos
The second strongest bird is the electric/flying Zapdos caught in the Power Plant. Zapdos starts with the high power flying attack Drill Peck and Thundershock. It learns Thunder at level 51, which lacks the accuracy Thunderbolt or Ice Beam.
But Zapdos is definitely the strongest electric type in the game. It’s a serious threat against many top tier Pokemon including Alakazam and Starmie. And the flying type makes it immune to ground attacks. Typical moves are:
Drill Peck
Thundershock → Thunderbolt TM
Thunder (51) or Sky Attack TM
Agility, Reflect, or Thunder Wave TM
Coming Soon: The A-Tier
The third legendary fire-bird Moltres and pseudo-legendary Dragonite are conspicuously missing from the S-Tier. But we’ll cover them soon.
Until next time. Keep on gaming in the free world.