another rule is that i didnt use the starter, but was allowed to train the first pokemon i caught up to level 5 (the level of the starter pokemon). this makes the first few trainer battles actually quite hard! its people with like a level 7 pidgey or two level 6 rattatas when you only have like a level 6 pidgey, rattata or poochyena and level 2 or 3 caterpie or wurmple. (you get to access 2 areas with wild pokemon before the first trainer, at least in emerald. there's one battle with the rival when you only have the starter and one fixed battle with a poochyena to save the professor, so usually your starter gets to 6, and then you bank it once you have poke balls and raise the first thing you catch to 6.) i probably failed on those more times than i'm remembering, but i had 3 or 4 runs that went up to at least several gyms. i remember that i lost twice to flannery's torkoal. that mf is a real mf in emerald!! spoiler alert there i guess lol.

i also tried it in leaf green and succeeded on the first run, i think, or it didnt take very many tries anyway. emerald is probably a good deal harder with these rules, but also i had more experience in playing this way, so idk.

in my successful run, by the time i was on the champion, i only had two pokemon left -- armaldo and shiny butterfree. armaldo is s-tier in my experience because his ability battle armor prevents critical hits, which is huge, since every attack has a base 7.5% chance of critting and that can really bone you over. plus lots of attacks and abilities increase crit chance, so it negates a lot of risk. he's also generally tanky and not weak to very many types as a bug/rock, and has pretty high attack. plus when you get him as an anorith from a fossil he's already level 20 or 25 which is higher than most wild things -- as a result you dont need to invest much exp in him to get him up to reasonable fighting level, and exp is a precious resource with these rules.