Cyndaquil, Quilava, Typhlosion (HGSS)

Cyndaquil is a cute mouse-like Pokémon that evolves into a fierce foe.

Location: New Bark Town

Stats and Evolution
Cyndaquil's evolutionary line has great Special Attack and Speed, as well nice Attack.

Cyndaquil evolves into Quilava at Level 14, and then Typhlosion at Level 36.

Moves, Abilities and Typing
Cyndaquil will learn Ember at Level 10. At Level 13, it gets Quick Attack, whose is only slightly better than Tackle.

In its Quilava stage, it gets Flame Wheel at Level 20. It's quite better than Ember, but is physical. At Level 31, it gets Swift, whose has decent power and never misses regardless of accuracy and evasion. At Level 35, it gets Lava Plume, whose is quite powerful and has 30% chances of burning the foe.

In its final stage, it will get Flamethrower at Level 42. Probably it will get around Elite Four, though Lava Plume is still pretty good. At Level 53, it gets Double-Edge, whose is extremely powerful, but has recoil from 1/3 of the damage caused. At Level 57, it gets its final move, whose is Eruption at Level 57, great for its high Speed.

It can get a few nice TMs. Headbutt is a pretty powerful move for the point of the game that it's obtained, and has decent chances to flinch the foe. Fire Blast is extremely powerful. Dig is a coverage option. Strength is an option to cover some secret areas in the game, and is also pretty powerful.

As it reaches its final stage, can get several good TMs. Focus Blast, despite its terrible accuracy and PP, gets great coverage, especially for Rock-types. Shadow Claw offers coverage from Ghost and Psychic-types. Earthquake also offers coverage. Can get the Sunny Day/Solar Beam combo, great for increasing the power of Fire-type moves and nullifying its Water-type weakness, as well countering all of its three weaknesses. Blast Burn is an option, but a recharging turn in a frail Pokémon like Typhlosion isn't worthwile.

In Kanto, it can get few nice TMs. Thunder Punch (obtained with 64 Battle Points) is its only worthwile tutor, and even having advantage against Water-types, it's physical. Will-O-Wisp (obtained with 32 Battle Points) is an option for guarating free burn on the foe. Rock Climb is a very nice option in the very end of the game to have access in several secret areas of the game.

Cyndaquil has Blaze Ability, whose raises the power of Fire-type moves by 50% with less than 1/3 of HP. This effect is mainly useless in-game since we can easily heal HP with Potions.

Fire is a decent type. Water, Rock and Ground are uncommon in-game.

Important battles
Cyndaquil has great matchup against most of the Gyms of the game, especially the second and sixth ones. Against the seventh, there are a lot of Water-types, but most of them lack Water-type moves. Its only real drawback will be against the eighth, as there are Water and Dragon-types.

In Elite Four, it will have advantage against Will and Koga, but is destroyed by Lance.

Has a decent matchup against rival and Team Rocket.

In Kanto, has advantage against Celadon Gym (2nd), as well Fuschia (3rd) as there are a lot of Bug-types. However, it's destroyed by Pewter and Cerulean Gyms. In Viridian Gym, its only worthwile matchup will be against Exeggutor. Against Red, the only worthwile matchup will be against Red.

Will's Jynx, Koga's Venomoth and Karen's Weavile are the only worthwile matchups in the entire rematch of Elite Four.

Conclusion
Cyndaquil is a quite powerful starter Pokémon. Has good type and movepool. If used correctly, can work perfectly.

Rating - 80%