I really enjoyed reading the review of Red & Blue, took me back a few years.

Here is my squad from yesteryear:

Articuno- I used this to try to freeze an opponent's Mewtwo.

Mew- My mew had Softboiled which was good but also Metronome which made Mew/Mewtwo stalemates a bit more interesting.

Blastoise- I taught it Seismic Toss which came in handy.

Raichu- I liked Raichu more than Pikachu.

Mewtwo- Mine had Recover (which meant fights could take ages) but also Solarbeam which often surprised people with water or ground Pokemon.

Dragonite- This guy had Thunder Wave and Hyper Beam, the latter being not quite as good as it looked.

Can anyone else remember their original squads?

My friends and I got caught up in an arms race that put the cold war to shame. We kept replaying the game to get level 100 Mewtwos until we had to sign a treaty and agree not to use them anymore. Consequently, I can't remember my squad, but I can remember a few of my Pokemon.

Venusaur: Substitute, Toxic, Leech Seed, Absorb.
Use substitute first, then toxic, then leech seed, then absorb every turn unless the substitute breaks. Leech Seed, whether intentionally or by glitch, drains life not only from the damage it inflicts but also for the damage that poison inflicts! This makes Venny ridiculously longlasting unless knocked out in one hit.

Vaporeon: Substitute, Toxic, Acid Armor, Minimize (or one of those evasiveness-increasing moves)
Another let-your-opponent-die-a-slow-and-agonizing-death Pokemon. Really cruel to watch the toxic slowly do its worst while Vappy is basically untouchable.

I don't remember the others I had, but I was also fond of Blastoise, Muk, Gengar, Alakazam, and probably a few others I'm forgetting. Obviously, I'm a huge fan of Toxic and considered the move alone worth replaying the game constantly. Ah, to have that much time for one game... such good memories.

I'd love to go through this game again with someone. It's a shame that such a proposition is so potentially embarrassing at my age.

Adam:

I was very much the opposite, I would gamble with powerful moves on the first couple of turns rather than attrition. For instance, against your Venusaur, I would use Atricuno to try to knock it out in one with blizzard, if it missed then Articuno would die a slow and horrible death (sorry 'faint').

Fortunately Vaporeon was pretty fast, I think, so he could usually use Minimize before. Plus, your scenario assumes you'll know in advance that Venusaur is my first one up. If you don't have a powerful and Super Effective move lined up for the very first attack on a Pokemon, then he can use Substitute or Minimize or whatever as his first attack and highly decrease the odds of such a move doing much damage, if any.

True, I just used the Articuno/Venusaur example to model our contrasting styles.

Of course, my style is almost as frustrating for me as the opponent since I have to sit there using moves that eventually don't even do anything. Darn four-move limit!

I used to love using a similar strategy with my "stall" deck in the card game... but that's another topic!