Noctowl falls a bit short, considering it took, like, one hit and went down, in it's league battle. Sucky defense, strong offence.
Noctowl is a beast.. and you're wrong. I Don't know what battle you had been watching, but it was struck to the ground two times, twice by Power Trick Shuckle. It got back up both times and continued to battle and beat Lickilicky.. Then it got lucky shotted in the back by Dusknoir's Thunderpunch. Same thing would've happened if any other pokemon would've been punched from the back into the ground. You can't say that Noctowl has sucky defences when it already got back up again twice from high powered attacks and falling to the ground.
Yes, because dancing and biting its way to victory about three times compares to Cyndaquil's overall win streak of ~15+.
15+...
Here we go:
Scyther
Nidorina
Clefairy (Technically)
Gastly
Steelix
Dewgong
Looks like somebody overestimated Cyndaquil! xD Anyway, Torkoal has a grand total number of wins adding up to three, so yeah, no doubt that it's at least on equal footing. I don't doubt however that Quilava would be able to do just as well against Registeel though, especially with moves like Eruption.
No, it isn't safe. Heracross and Donphan are strong, but the others are strong aswell. All Johto pokemon got attention, although it wasn't in the same saga. Donphan showed his power after Johto.
Bayleef is really strong with direct attack, like Body Slam. She couldn't show her real power, cause the only gyms she entered were the 1st and 2nd, and both in advantage of the gymleader.
Cyndaquil was the baby in Johto, but after evolving all his moves were improved.
Totodile is strong, but needs the time to show it.
Noctowl is, IMO, not counting Pidgeot, Ash's best regional bird, cause of his special attacks. It isn't used for physical attacks only, but knows also moves like Extrasensory.
It isn't safe, indeed, and in the case of Bayleef and Totodile, it isn't even fair. Noctowl, Quilava, Donphan and Heracross got updated, and can now be seen as very respectable and able pokemon.
Bayleef was good in Johto, no doubt one of his better Johto pokemon. You made a small miscalculation however, Bayleef entered the fight against Falkner, Bugsy, but most notably, Chuck, where it took down both his pokemon. Where it basically won in a tug of war with a Machoke.
Cyndaquil was the baby in Johto until Phanpy arrived, but statistically it was Ash' best pokemon in Johto. That being said, it wasn't no push over either. It took four turns of Whitney's Miltanks Rollout before it finally fainted. That's a move it is weak against, and which gets stronger each turn, while already being used by what's probably the most feared gym pokemon in the history of Pokemon.
Noctowl did great when it got used most of the time. It's only gymbattles were in Morty's gym, in which it did extremely well. Then we have its fight against Steelix, which made it seem weak, but it still stayed in after a Sandstorm/Dig combo from the Steel snake before it fainted due to Iron Tail. Keep in mind that Steelix was portrayed as an almight beast with no comparison in Johto. In its battle against Conway it showed it can take a hard hit or two, and still dish out with new found strength.
This thread isn't fair to Totodile because it hasn't had a chance to redeem itself yet. Bayleef doesn't need the retribution as much, since when it did win, it was fairly impressive.
In my opinion, the Johto team
is respectable, and able to win its battles without the need of Kanto helping out anymore. Sure Totodile hasn't had that chance of retribution or anything, but if it is the sixth slot on Ash's team against Darkrai then there will be nothing holding me back that Johto is fully retributed, because Totodile would without a doubt show up with three new powerful moves.
Without a doubt, Quilava, Heracross, Noctowl, Bayleef and Donphan are all on the same level of strength, and Totodile wouldn't be far behind if he does well against Darkrai. In any case, I doubt they would be upstaged by Hoenn by the amount Cyber thinks they would be. I think Johto's strength all around is comparable to Swellow's and Corphish's strength. It just doesn't have a single powerhouse that stands out like Sceptile or Infernape. They're just all strong, and with a team effort they could bring Hoenn down a peg.
Edit@Cyber: The writers don't favour the Hoenn team, the Hoenn team got zero wins in this league, while the Johto team has three. The Hoenn pokemon are going to get knocked out against Darkrai no matter how you slice it, I can't see how you can be so stubborn to believe that after the events of this league you still think that they favoured the Hoenn pokemon over the Johto pokemon. Just look at how many Johto and Hoenn pokemon appeared (not counting stills) in DP182:
Johto: Cyndaquil, Bayleef, Totodile.
Hoenn: Corphish
Then look at the number of wins Johto has compared to Hoenn:
Johto: Heracross, Quilava, Noctowl.
Hoenn: Zip, nada, nothing.
Where's Sceptile's win? Oh that's right! It's getting crippled by Darkrai! Where is Blaziken in all this? It's current situation is unknown! What happened to Marshtomp? I guess the writers do favour the Hoenn starters over the Johto starters...