What if Kricketune was in RBY?

(This is part of a weekly series. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/comments/1hhy8d2/ksyons_rby_port_ideas_masterpost/) for information on my general methodology, links to previous entries, and a list of pokemon I plan to cover in the future. If you want to make suggestions for other pokemon you want me to cover, please make those suggestions on that post.)

**Kricketune**

*Bug type*

* HP: 77 * Attack: 85 * Defense: 51 * Speed: 65 * Special: 55

Moves:

* Growl * Bide * Leech Life * Sing * Focus Energy * Slash * Screech * Swords Dance * Toxic * Take Down * Double-Edge * Hyper Beam * Rage * Mimic * Double Team * Reflect * Rest * Substitute * Cut

I was looking at the list of pokemon that learned Sing via level up, and out of the available offerings, Kricketune kind of jumped out at me, not because it's *good*, really, but because it seemed fairly unique, being a mono-bug with a relatively high physical attack, when most sleepers tend to be specially biased grass, psychic, or normal types. Kricketune's movepool is very shallow, and the lack of Body Slam in particular is disheartening, but with both Sing, Slash and Swords Dance, it has the tools to carve out a niche for itself, at least in some lower tier.

Kricketune obviously has no chance of even getting a whiff of OU, or even UU most likely - it's basically just a really bad Pinsir with a hair more special bulk and access to Sing, trading Body Slam, fighting coverage (including Seismic Toss to hit ghosts), and vast amounts of attack, physical bulk, and speed for a 55% chance to eliminate any enemy pokemon, but it's only a 55% chance on a pokemon that absolutely *does not* have the bulk to be able to afford a miss. Bug is a fairly decent defensive type in RBY, being one of the only ways to resist Earthquake without incurring an ice weakness, but Kricketune has nowhere close to the physical bulk needed to capitalize on this.

Pinsir currently resides in ZU, so it's very unlikely that Kricketune would reach a tier higher than this, but Pinsir is currently one of the *best* pokemon in ZU, so Kricketune might have what it takes to be decent if it can find a way to stand out from ol' Sir Pin, which is obviously going to come out of the utility it gets from Sing. With [Poliwag out of the equation](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/comments/1szeuqo/poliwag_has_been_banned_from_rby_zu/), Kricketune is the second fastest sleeper in the tier, with only Butterfree being faster. As a sleeper with a setup move, its main competition is Vileplume, who has much better bulk, a much more accurate sleep move, and access to Stun Spore for paralysis support once sleep clause is active, while Kricketune can't spread paralysis at all due to not even having Body Slam. Kricketune's only advantages are that it's faster and has Slash, letting it hit harder without needing to set up. Kricketune's lack of an ice weakness doesn't really come in to play that much since Fire Blast is the far more common coverage move in ZU. At least Kricketune doesn't have to worry about its lack of any ability to hit ghosts in ZU, since even *Gastly* is up in PU!