Ouch, yeah, that really would suck... I get it, though- that Gyarados I lost, I hooked with an Old Rod on the S.S. Anne (on the little walkway leading to the ship- it's the only way I would've been able to get a Pokémon out of that area) as a level 5 Magikarp. Took a lot of effort to train it up without letting it faint even once. But yeah, if that file I played in LeafGreen had been a Nuzlocke, I'd have lost my Butterfree a long time ago- fainted quite a bit. Still, my patience paid off in the end- that Butterfree took out half the Champion's team, including Blastoise, while forcing him to waste his Full Restores in the process! OK, granted, I got lucky with a couple of Silver Wind stat boosts, but still, taking out half of the Champion's team with a level 50 Butterfree, that's gotta count for something!
True. Still, something as powerful as STAB Hyper Fang as early as it gets it, that's nothing to sneeze at. I speak from experience.
Oh, yeah, and on a semi-related note... just how many Full Heals did Gym Leaders have access to in R/B/Y? Because I was playing Red recently, and Charmander's Ember managed to burn Geodude three times in a row. I say three times in a row because each and every time, Brock would immediately use a Full Heal. As in, in place of Geodude attacking. As if he had known at the beginning of the turn that Geodude would be burned. I mean, I won, but still, that was just cheap.