Note: 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!
For anyone familiar with the older generations of Pokemon, Pidgeot probably isn’t all that interesting. Its prior evolutions infest the early stages of their games, while every other trainer also throws one out for you to annihilate. By the end of the game you’ve probably moved onto much more interesting Pokemon. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fare any better competitively. The list of positives to this Pokemon basically start and finish with “it uses STAB Normal attacks”.
The negatives associated with Pidgeot are numerous though. Its Flying typing is a huge detriment to it, making it weak to most of RBY’s top attackers. On top of that, it has zero coverage. It doesn’t learn a single damaging move outside of its STABs, while the best its Flying typing provides is the generally unviable Sky Attack. On top of this, it faces severe competition. Dodrio and Fearow both have better offensive stats and generally superior movepools, most notably being able to use Drill Peck.
Determining a “Niche”
The first step to using Pidgeot was figuring out a niche, something that it does better than its Normal/Flying brethren. One idea I had was to use Sky Attack and fish for crits, something Fearow and Dodrio can’t do. The issue is that this isn’t a good strategy, and Aerodactyl is far better at it anyway. So I instead looked to its stats. Although it falls short of Dodrio and Fearow offensively, its bulk is better, so maybe a Reflect+Rest set could work (coupled with Double Edge and Hyper Beam)? With immunity to ParaSlam, maybe it could serve as a broke man’s Lax check? One with the potential to also function late game?
This is the idea that I ran with, and completed a substantial amount of testing using this idea. The result? It’s an absolute disaster of a set. Pidgeot’s bulk may be better than the other birds, but it’s still not good, and it takes a hefty chunk of damage switching in on anything it might want to wall (Lax). On top of this, Rest+Reflect is an insanely clunky combo. Using both moves will chew up 4 turns, all without attacking. This means your opponent has ample opportunity to bring in one of the numerous threats that eviscerate Pidgeot to punish you for your folly in using this Pokemon defensively.
The kicker is that Pidgeot can’t even deal with Lax- it can’t break through Reflect, and Ice coverage annihilates it. There’s no escaping the fact Pidgeot should be played offensively, but the question then becomes, how can it stand out from Fearow/Dodrio? I considered Quick Attack, but it’s a laughably weak attack. Mirror Move is actually a useful move that separates it from Dodrio, but Fearow also uses Mirror Move so that’s not enough. The solution I settled on? Sand Attack.
Accuracy-lowering moves are seldom seen, and with good reason; they’re just not very rewarding. Their effect isn’t reliable and they’re also easily negated. However what can get overlooked is that they’re never entirely useless either, as decreasing your opponents accuracy is almost always a small but not irrelevant boon. Accuracy drops also happen to be much stronger in RBY than later generations; -1 gives an accuracy of 2/3, like other stat drops, whereas later gens have the corresponding accuracy modifier at 3/4.
This is valuable for a Pokemon that is easily hard countered as it gives you an option to cover an incoming counter without committing to a potentially risky hard switch. Pidgeot lacks coverage and has mediocre power, meaning it’s easily walled, but opponents don’t always respect it by consistently going to their counter. This makes Sand Attack an ideal option for it, one that Fearow and Dodrio don’t have access to. An additional use of Sand Attack is that it can undermine passive play- accuracy drops can ease a switch into Tauros, normally something that would be considered risky.
Teambuilding
I settled on a set of Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Mirror Move and Sand Attack for Pidgeot. But what about the rest of the team? The biggest thing is that Pidgeot needs support against… basically everything. So standard Tauros was the call, with BoltBeam Chansey providing a steady defensive presence. When I initially built the team, I used AmnesiaLax, with the idea of Reflect+Rest Pidgeot helping to mitigate the need for Reflect, and even after I swapped out Pidgeot’s set, I didn’t swap Lax.
Rounding out the team was Exeggutor, chosen primarily to handle Rhydon, while also having dual status to support the team. I initially used Starmie in the lead position, but eventually swapped it for a standard Gengar set in the lead slot. The goal here was to find some synergy with Pidgeot, potentially baiting an EQ from Lax for Pidgeot to get a free switch in. The full team can be found here.
Results
As mentioned previously, leveraging Pidgeot’s bulk with a Reflect+Rest set was a disaster. One thing I didn’t mention is that it’s a combo that’s only really useful against Lax, since Rhydon obliterates you regardless and Tauros and can threaten Blizzard. However it’s still not actually good against Lax. It easily loses to Amnesia and it also can’t beat opposing ReflectLax. Meanwhile an unboosted Ice Beam from Lax can potentially 3HKO Pidgeot (yikes!).
What I found when I dropped swapped from Rest+Reflect to Mirror Move and Sand Attack, was that Mirror Move means that you don’t need to run Rest+Reflect to use that combo against opposing Lax. This in conjunction with Sand Attack’s general utility, allowed Pidgeot to act as a sort of defensive nuisance, while also potentially chipping in as a lategame threat thanks to its usable offensive stats and STAB Normal moves.
Sadly, Pidgeot is still terrible at everything it tries to do. It’s slower than every relevant fast threat in the game. Its mediocre defenses coupled with numerous significant weaknesses make it a defensive liability. Its lack of coverage means that it’s incredibly easy to wall. It entirely lacks status, meaning the likes of Starmie can give it issues. Its power is mediocre- its Double Edge is roughly on par with Tauros Body Slam, but its Hyper Beam certainly lacks a punch. These are all flaws that are obvious from a theoretical analysis, and unfortunately they absolutely manifest in practice as well.
Replays
This ladder match really highlights just how bad my initial idea of Reflect+Rest proved to be in practice, as well as Pidgeot’s general flaws. It got hard countered by Gengar, while the clunky nature of Reflect+Rest was on full display.
Despite my issues with Reflect+Rest, I somewhat managed to make it work in a tournament match. Pidgeot managed to wall Lax and landed a few key crits. However it still got heavily abused by Zapdos, and without Explosion missing on a 255 I doubt I would’ve won this game.
I eventually had 2 ladder matches that highlight the same issue with Pidgeot- its inability to deal with Recover or anything faster than it. I was obviously able to use Pidgeot, but at the same time, it did a whole lot of nothing.
Lastly, I have a tournament match that I think demonstrates that Pidgeot can theoretically be a lategame threat. After all, it was looking like a major threat, with most of my opponent’s revealed Pokemon being weakened and paralysed. Sadly, their last unrevealed Pokemon was a Rhydon, so I never got to unleash Pidgeot.
Verdict
I’ve been consistently negative throughout this post, so it should come as no surprise that I consider Pidgeot a terrible Pokemon. However it does manage to avoid the bottom of the barrel- access to STAB Normal attacks, particularly Hyper Beam, is enough that it’s a cut above the true dregs like Golbat. I’d rank it just below Farfetch’d, which is itself an interesting comparison. They both share very similar flaws, however Farfetch’d missing out on Hyper Beam while learning Swords Dance and Slash means that it’s a much more effective wallbreaker and slightly less effective sweeper.
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