Update: since I completed my testing of this Pokemon, many of Showdown’s replays were lost (occurred Nov/Dec 2023). Consequently, some of the replays I used as a showcase may no longer work- apologies!
My previous post covered Golbat, where I mentioned that it was one of the two Pokemon suggested to be worse than Ditto. Hitmonchan is the other one and frankly, I never understood why. Golbat has literally no upside, and any use for it really scrapes the bottom of the barrel. Hitmonchan on the other hand, has a respectable Attack stat (higher than Tauros!) and a STAB that’s super effective against the three Pokemon seen on almost every team- Tauros, Snorlax and Chansey. That alone gives it a floor substantially higher floor than Pokemon that are literally useless.
Of course there are plenty of valid reasons for Hitmonchan having such a negative perception. Being a Fighting type makes it weak to Psychic types, which are famously strong in RBY. It’s not just Psychic types though, as other staple Pokemon such as Zapdos and Gengar also absolutely demolish Fighting types. On top of the massive obstacles facing Fighting types, Hitmonchan is very clearly the weakest of its brethren and as such struggles to distinguish itself. It generally has worse overall stats, while it lacks coverage thanks to its terrible Special stat neutering the elemental punches it learns.
So how would you use it? Hitmonchan seems to be totally outclassed. However, comparing it to other Fighting types via Veekun, I noticed one thing that it had over every other Fighting type in RBY: Agility. No other Fighting type in RBY learns Agility, which means that there are technically some scenarios in which Hitmonchan can outperform other Fighting types. That’s not a very good niche, but it’s technically valid, which is good enough for me!
Teambuilding
With a niche decided on I then filled out Hitmonchan’s set- Agility of course, Submission as its best STAB move, Seismic Toss to reliably damage the otherwise untouchable Gengar and lastly Body Slam rounded out the set, giving Hitmonchan a chance to paralyse and a tool for damaging frail Psychic types (i.e. Alakazam and Jynx). Hyper Beam would’ve been nice, but Hitmonchan doesn’t learn it for some reason. I considered Ice Punch to fish for freeze, but decided it wasn’t worth it, it’s not the kind of thing Hitmonchan is good at.
The team I initially built around Hitmonchan used an aggressive, Explosion-oriented strategy that I won’t go into here as it was an unmitigated disaster. It basically mandated perfect play, as there were a number of battles I convincingly lost against weaker opponents where I only really made a single mistake. I guess I should’ve figured out that building around a heavily limited Pokemon that generally isn’t that great means that blowing up the rest of the team that’s actually good, isn’t very sensible.
Standard Tauros was a given for this team. Lax was another easy choice, packing a Reflect/Ice Beam set. My initial issue with Lax was that it naturally draws in opposing Lax and they then weaken each other, which isn’t helpful for Hitmonchan since it has no issue threatening Snorlax itself. Reflect/Ice Beam gives Snorlax the best chance of beating opposing Lax, in theory forcing the opponent to send in something else which Lax could then weaken.
Chansey was also a given- Hitmonchan has atrocious Special bulk, there was never a chance that I wouldn’t run the best special wall in the game. I chose a Raish set, being more resilient and having consistent damage against everything it faces. Exeggutor was another easy choice, giving me a sleep user and something to sponge Psychics- I chose to use Stun Spore for additional paralysis. Lastly, standard Jynx was my lead, purely because it’s likely to put an opposing Psychic to sleep. Here’s the final version of the team if you’re interested.
Results
What I found when using Hitmonchan is that it’s far from useless and is capable of being a legitimate threat, but its flaws are still severe enough that it cannot be taken seriously. Being able to seriously threaten the most important Pokemon in RBY is extremely valuable- this replay showcases Hitmonchan abusing Chansey to break down the rest of the opponent’s team. It can also really shine with a bit of matchup luck, as shown in the prior replay and this one.
That’s all the more reason to bring it out midgame rather than saving it for lategame. Hitmonchan is at its best abusing Chansey and Snorlax and if you end up having a favourable matchup it only makes sense to go to Hitmonchan as much as possible. It’s better to challenge the opponent and find out they have the tools to combat Hitmonchan than to keep it hidden and handicap yourself over the course of the match.
Of course, matchup luck goes both ways, especially since it’s totally reasonable to use 3 pokemon that are strong checks to Hitmonchan (if not outright countering it). On top of all this, its paper thin defences are a nightmare to play around, as basically everything 2HKOs it, while super effective STABs are capable of OHKOing, making it difficult to bring into play. This also mostly negates what should be its niche over other Fighting types- it almost never has time to set up Agility and typically finds more value attacking immediately. Additionally, most things it would outspeed with Agility beat it regardless. Really any time Hitmonchan isn’t using Submission it struggles.
That last statement is ironic, because it’s so much worse when it’s not using Submission, but at the same time I think all of those flaws would be manageable were it not for the fact that Hitmonchan relies on Submission. Submission is just an atrocious move that Fighting types have no option but to rely on much of the time. Its power is only decent, but the 80% accuracy is woeful and most importantly, the recoil is devastating. Especially given that the two most important targets, Chansey and Snorlax, have enormous HP stats and non-existent/mediocre defense stats, a recipe for maximal recoil damage. I once had a Hitmonchan sweep countered by my opponent sacrificing their frozen Chansey, which set up a Tauros OHKO.
This all combines to create a Pokemon which although not useless, is so flawed it cannot be used in any serious capacity. It’s ultimately far too unreliable to justify working around its flaws. This means that Hitmonchan is substantially better than Golbat, but substantially worse than Magneton
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