Breloom or Shifty for Emerald in-game teams?

Question

i'm playing Pokemon emerald on a gameboy I brought and I need to chose of I shall get shroomish(breloom) or seedot(shiftry)

i chose as starter mudkip

Answer 1

Availability: Shroomish can be found in Petalburg Woods with a 15% chance.
Stats: Good bulk with low offenses and Speed. Upon evolution, its Attack stat skyrockets to become obscenely high, especially at such an early point in the game.
Typing: Grass typing is useful for the earlier portions of the game due to its advantage against Rock and Electric. Upon gaining the Fighting type upon evolution, it gains additional favorable matchups against Norman, Sidney, Glacia, and Steven, though it dislikes the new Psychic weakness against Tate & Liza. Note that Breloom does not rely on Grass-type moves for offense.
Movepool: Shroomish relies on disruptive moves such as Stun Spore, Leech Seed, and Mega Drain to take full advantage of its bulk and make up for its lack of power. Once it evolves, it changes gears to become an attacking powerhouse, crushing foes with moves like Bulk Up, Mach Punch, Rock Tomb, Silk Scarf-boosted Headbutt / Strength, Sludge Bomb, and Sky Uppercut, most of which are very powerful attacks for when they are learned compared to most Pokemon.
Major Battles: Shroomish can solo Roxanne while being able to hinder Brawly with Leech Seed. Breloom can smash Wattson, Archie, and Sidney pretty easily as well as wipe out most of Norman's trainers, while Norman himself can be dealt with clever use of Bulk Up and / or Counter. It loses to Flannery, Winona, Tate&Liza, and Phoebe, but otherwise its immense power makes it a threat against nearly any opponent it fights, especially with the threat of Bulk Up + X-Speed sweeps.
Additional Comments: Breloom's usefulness against Glacia is heavily decided on whether Breloom is able to outspeed her Pokemon, so it should avoid having a speed-hindering nature and feed it any Carbos you can find.

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This forgot to mention that Breloom's bulk up boosted attacks can solo Juan and do heavy damage against Winona despite the type disadvantage.

Compared to Breloom, Shiftry evolves much later and is consequently a lot more useless against Wattson and Norman. It learns growth instead of bulk up, which makes it more difficult to set up and completely solo a gym battle. Shiftry learns more different moves, but all of them are weaker than Breloom's sky uppercut.

100 Atk Breloom Sky Uppercut vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Manectric: 94-111 (64.8 - 76.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
100 SpA Shiftry Feint Attack vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Manectric: 49-58 (33.7 - 40%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
100 Atk Shiftry Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Manectric: 61-72 (42 - 49.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
100 SpA Shiftry Giga Drain vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Manectric: 49-58 (33.7 - 40%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

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This means Breloom usually does more damage per turn, so it can win battle faster despite having a few other stats that are lower than Shiftry's. If you don't care about finishing the game quickly, then you can raise any Pokemon to level 100 and finish the game that way.

Answer 2

Breloom does still have Fighting as a physical STAB in Emerald, and it has the highest Attack of anything in that game that isn't a legendary, a pseudolegendary, or a Slaking. It would start with Mach Punch at lvl 23, which eliminates Speed issues, and would benefit from TM08 Bulk Up, which you earn with your 2nd gym badge.

For Shiftry, you still need a Leaf Stone. In Emerald, this means you must have beaten Norman (a trainer who is only weak to Fighting, which Breloom supplies outrageously well) since the earliest one is located on Route 119, which can't be reached at first without Surf. Sure, Breloom has weaker Special Attack for its Grass-type moves... but neither one has access to a strong Grass-type move besides Giga Drain (which Breloom can learn by level up as a Shroomish) and Solar Beam, at which point the power gap should stop mattering because you have six gym badges already. In fact, Shiftry and its pre-evolutions can't learn any Grass-type attacks in Pokemon Emerald without TMs, while Breloom has Mega Drain (more reliable than Bullet Seed) when it evolves, and the option of holding out for Giga Drain (stronger than Bullet Seed) later. In order for Shiftry to have its strongest Dark-type attack, Faint Attack, in Emerald, it needs to reach lvl 31 as a Nuzleaf, sporting the same Sp. Atk stat as Breloom. Breloom learns Sky Uppercut at lvl 36, which, at 85 base power and with STAB, utterly humiliates anything Shiftry can hope to do besides Solarbeam.

However, whichever way you decide, it's a good idea to keep a Shroomish in the daycare for the entire game. Spore can only be learnt as a lvl 54 Shroomish, and it is worth every step. Spore + Focus Punch is like an easy button for half of the Elite Four and Battle Frontier. If raising the same Pokemon twice doesn't catch your fancy, go with Shiftry. If balanced stats are an absolute must, Shiftry is probably for you. But if you want a Pokemon that can do one thing extremely well, with the stats and arsenal to back it up, without any fear of its one-dimensional nature, Breloom is the only correct answer.

(Also, in-game, there is little difference between 70 base speed and 80 base speed. At that point, you can just grind until you're faster than things that aren't stupid fast like Swellow and Electrode.)

Answer 3

I'd recommend Shiftry.

They are both good Pokemon, however the stats on Shiftry seem a little higher. Though if you focus more on Attack over other stats, then get Breloom. Breloom's attack stat is 130, whilst it's other stats are under 70.

As for Shiftry as well, it has a much more colourful move set (assuming that you'll use TMs, it has very type-varying moves)

Also, I met suggest something else. Ludicolo.
I haven't really looked over stats, however Lotad is available at Route 114 (without Surf) and is Grass and Water. This means Fire is useless against it, and it has no dual type weaknesses. (Unlike Breloom and now Shiftry, which someone pointed out) and then you also won't need a Water type! Which is good, meaning you can have more Pokemon in your party. :P

Sorry, that was just a suggestion. If you are really focused on Breloom and Shiftry, I'd choose Shiftry. Good Luck! :)

Comments

The logic of choosing Shiftry over Breloom doesn't make sense, since Shiftry is dual type too, and has a x4 weakness to Bug.

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Oh, I didn't know that.
I have plenty other reasons though, so I'll change that answer. xD

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Breloom's Defence stat is over 70. It's 80.

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It's probably better to do your research before you answer a question.

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Grass is a special attack in Ruby, so Breloom's grass STAB would be useless. Dark is special too, (oddly) so shiftry is by far the offensively stronger. The problem is that Shiftry can't take on steel too well.

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Breloom is available much more quickly, and with much better moves. In-game, it's kind of hard to justify Shiftry over DeathShroom since Emerald requires 5 gym badges (Route 119, or Surf to the Treasure Hunter) for a Leaf Stone (and 7 to Dive for a Water Stone, so Ludicolo's out, too) and Shiftry doesn't even learn Grass attacks without TMs (so Bullet Seed, for the longest time).

Answer 4

Although my competitive side wants to scream Breloom, I say Shiftry. If Shiftry can get a sunny day up it can outspeed anything ingame with the ability Chlorophyll, which shouldn't be a problem. Shiftry can also use solar beam in the sun, which can easily sweep an ingame team with Chlorophyll. It also has all around higher stats, so it can take hits easier because of its HP. Most notably, Shiftry isn't limited to special attack or attack so that greatly widens its move pool. This was a very easy decision.