I used Buttefree before it was cool.

...Wait. It was never cool, was it? That's right... I just got made fun of... until my Bug Buzz brought their Steelix from 100% to 20% while they set up Stealth Rocks. We call that "dead" my friends.

Welcome! Another week, another Pokemon for me to talk about. This time, the Pokemon we all feel bad for in the Anime. You know the one, Ash (the bugger) released this poor thing twice. Well, let's make him look at what he missed out on. It's Butterfree!

If you don't think that is adorable, what kind of monster are you? I want to un-know you.

Let's get one thing out of the way right off the bat: Butterfree is a pretty bad Pokemon competitive wise. It's stats are poor, Its movepool, while good for it, is pretty shallow, making it pretty predictable, and its typing is just... please, why? It's outsped by a lot of Pokemon in its home tier, Never-Used, and in general... you would probably gloss right over it. Cause when it comes to special attacking Bug/Flyings, Yanmega's got that corner covered pretty well, doesn't he? You should probably pick him over Butterfree.

...Or should you?

You see, Butterfree is known for one thing. Sleep Powder, Quiver Dance, Giga Drain, Bug Buzz with Compound Eyes for 100% (or near so) accuracy sleep powder. That means at the bare minimum gets 1 free Quiver Dance. Pretty good if I do say so myself. What Butterfree is NOT known for is its raw power, and is that really surprising? Look at these stats.

Look at that nonsense. Complete. Garbage.

But, you know what they say, right? One trainer's Garbodor, is another trainer's Arceus. ...What? They don't say that? They should.

What I'm hinting at here is that Quiver Dance set does not have to be what you settle for, because that set makes Butterfree predictable. You know what happens when you're predictable in Pokemon? You lose. You lose a lot. If you send in Lanturn vs. a Rhydon when they have a Water Absorb Quagsire at 30% health and you click Scald, you LOSE. Don't be predictable unless you know for SURE it's gonna work. In Butterfree's case, that set doesnt always work. People can get into you head when you use that set. You get outplayed trying to just get that 2nd or 3rd Quiver Dance up and BAM Shiftry hits you with that Knock Off aaaaaand you're dead. GG.

The set that I run makes Butterfree a threat right away. No waiting for that 2nd Quiver Dance. No getting outplayed and dying to some bullcrap 'mon you should've been able to kill given 1 more turn. We focus on Butterfree's raw power, cause if you look a little deeper, you might find something Yanmega doesn't have. The element of surprise. Nobody expects this set, and I will prove with RAW MATH that it makes dreams come true... sometimes. That sounds way less exciting then I wanted it to sound.

In all honesty, though. Slapping a Choice Specs on Butterfree turns into a surprising monster. That Sp. Attack, while not great, is not terrible, and shouldnt be unaccounted for. Here's the raw numbers.

Butterfree (Item: Choice Specs)
Ability: Tinted Lens
Modest Nature (Timid viable as well, just slightly less so)
252 Sp. Attack EVs, 252 Speed EVs (supertraining)
- Bug Buzz
- Psychic
- Giga Drain
- U-turn

Okay, listen up here. While your opponent laughs and goes into their Steelix or whatever to wall the crap out of you, You don't give a care in the world. Why? CAUSE HERES THOSE MATHEMATICS, BABY.

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Butterfree Bug Buzz vs. 244 HP / 128 SpD Steelix: 224-264 (63.6 - 75%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Butterfree Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Weezing: 252-298 (75.4 - 89.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Butterfree Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mismagius: 180-214 (55.5 - 66%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Butterfree Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Archeops: 296-350 (101.7 - 120.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Butterfree Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 4- SpD Magmortar: 218-258 (74.9 - 88.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Butterfree Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Hitmonchan: 174-204 (72.1 - 84.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

"Switch ins"? HAH. You see, I just listed some of the "switch ins" Butterfree would have to deal with in its home tier of Neverused using the Quiver Dance set. This is all cause of that neat hidden ability it's got called "Tinted Lens" which lets not very effective moves do a whole lot more than they would usually do. Pop a Modest nature and Choice Specs on there, and you're good to go, cause NOTHING can switch in safely on a Pokemon-switch (not a send in after a faint). They will ALL get a HUGE dent in them. Even walls like Steelix and Weezing get their butt handed to them after only two turns. So, while that Steelix thinks he's okay to set up Stealth Rock, hit him up with that Bug Buzz and see how he likes it. And as you can see, Archeops is straight up one shotted by a not very effective move from a BUTTERFREE. U-turn is on there for when you predict a switch into one of the few things that can take that Bug Buzz (Assault Vest Magmortar, Assault Vest Hariyama), or something clearly faster than Butterfree and will always be that isnt 1 shotted by Bug Buzz.

Alright, so that's how it works, but what are some good teammates? For one, Sticky Webbers. Leavanny, Ariados, Galvantula, to name a few good ones. Butterfree still isn't very fast, and a speed loss on the other side could save you a lot of hassle in the future. You'd also like a rapid spinning tank like Claydol to tank hits that Butterfree wouldn't usually be able to take while removing pesky stealth rocks that cut Butterfree's HP in half just when its sent out. If you set it up right, Butterfree can be an absolute monster, and that's something that nobody prepares for.

Ash, man, you should have kept that guy and gave him some glasses. He hurts!

Let me know what you think! Surprised Butterfree can put in this kind of damage? I'm always open to criticism and questions!

on a side note I found this while searching for pictures and I can't stop laughing at it

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I've never really been much of a competitive player, but I've almost always used Butterfree in the early game when I could because I think it's awesome.

(Definitely better than Beautifly, at least.)

5195802 Beautifly is just straight up awful. You are correct with that. All I aim to do is make people that want to learn how to run interesting and underrated sets on their Pokemon have some insight on what could be done. But yeah you're right about Beautifly it's pretty hopeless. But it's still not as hopeless as Dustox

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Nothing will ever come close to being as good as the OG Bugs.
Also, I found this photo. Enjoy your daaawabeetus.

5196007 When it comes to the newer bugs, the only one I've really REALLY come to enjoy is Volcarona, but that's just cause it's just so dang cool.

This is what my life has become......

Taking training advice from a Durnsparce

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Butterfree is my Mewtwo counter.

Modest, with a Focus Sash makes it so it'll get the sleep powder out and then get at least one Q Dance up before needing to attack. I switched out Giga Drain for Substitute though, so I might be able to get a double Q Dance and a safe turn if they try and wait out the sleep.

Also a major wall for Butterfree are bug or poison types, expecially the somewhat common Scoliopede and occasional Muk.

And Parasect just reks ass.