Need a replacement flying type on Nuzlocke run

Hey folks,

I'm doing a Diamond Nuzlocke run, and a cornerstone of my team was my Staraptor, mainly because he was a bit over-levelled but the speed and STAB for flying types always kept him out of trouble. Sadly, he fell in Snowpoint gym. The leader brought out a fighting/psychic type (Medicham) and I figured it would benefit to put my Rapidash away and bring out Staraptor to quickly KO it... and it would have worked too, if he hadn't missed his first attempt at using Fly, as any time Staraptor was on the field, Medicham only used Bulk Up, and only ever tried to use an actual offensive move when he was in the air.

Sadly, after the first miss, I decided it wasn't worth the risk of him missing twice in a row, so went with Aerial Ace, which dropped Medicham to around 25% health. Medicham then retaliated with Ice Punch - which I never saw coming, but in hindsight I should have. Ice gym, fighting type, I should have known there'd be an ice/fighting move coming but I didn't think...

It took Staraptor down to 4HP. I was prepping to pull him out but sadly, the Snover and Abomasnow I'd KO'd not long before had their revenge, as their hailstorm was still in play, and Staraptor was taken down. Rapidash was quickly brought back out and never got touched (except for the hail), and Staraptor was subsequently released.

Well, now that that slightly over-the-top play-by-play is done... the crux of the matter is, I need a new flying type. I don't like the idea of giving up a battle slot to two HM slaves (I have a Bibarel already taking up space just for HMs) just to have fly, and I've found myself quite proficient - usually - with flying type. I can't remember exactly where I have available to catch pokémon but there's some routes around I know I can go back to. In my box, I have a zubat and a wingull that I could train up to take the space but I'm not too sure of their stats, I don't think golbat and pelipper would be a great replacement, not least because they learn too many non-flying moves.

So the question is, what other flying types are available, and which would you recommend - and, of course, where can they be caught? The only other one I can think of is Chatot, which I've not come to the area to catch yet...

I see in your signature that you already have two Water types. Therefore, Wingull is out of the question. If I were you, I'd go with Zubat.

chrisjfinlay said:

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If you don't want to use Crobat then you're pretty much left with Honchkrow, Togekiss, Altaria and Drifblim. Chatot, Tropius and Noctowl are pretty bad choices and Vespiquen /Gliscor / Yanmega cannot learn Fly.

I keep forgetting about Crobat. I'm so used to the zubat Gen 1 line that I always forget there's evolution past Golbat...

Regarding water types, I've put my...I was about to say "Glubby" because that's what I called him... Quagsire... back in the box and gone with floatzel, because ol' floaty has better attack & spec attack stats, and the higher hp masks the lower defence a bit. For now I've put wingull into the team and did some power-levelling up to 42 last night, evolving to Pelipper after getting aerial ace. I will look into levelling up my zubat again, but it's sat in a box at level 7 >_<

Edit: the signature is out of date at the moment because it's relevant to the latest released episode, but not the latest one I've recorded. I guess I should mark this topic spoilers :P

Train a Zubat to a Crobat, extremely strong and useful Pokémon in every game. You can also get a Pelipper since the water attacks might always come in handy.