>>57131901ghost/bug would have been great for it in gen 1 competitive
being able to resist earthquake and completely negate body slam or hyper beam would give it a lot of options. rock slide would still blow it out but mega drain would also check rhydon/golem. having the best move in the game, spore, seems like it would be great, but typically sleepers in gen 1 are run on turn 1 and with it's abysmal speed it will only put sleep powder users to sleep 25% of the time, 100% of the time. probably run it with an offensive paralyze lead (zapdos or alakazam) then save pocket spore for switching in on obvious hyper beams to force a sleep trap. only trouble is the opponent can just as easily block it with an already para'd mon and it will still get checked hard by drill peck zapdos even with 2x weakness instead of 4x.
ghost/grass would be relatively the same deal but instead of getting fucked by rocks and fire it would get fucked by fire and ice, but would also gain better resistance to thunderbolt spammers.
it may be picked up for a niche use in mid game bruiser (high atk and swords dance along with powder coverage is really good) but i don't think it would rank anywhere past the top 32 pokemon. in it's current grass/bug form it's dog shit across all formats. in PU it's far outclassed by gastly and drowzee and ZU is currently a lawless wasteland of pidgeot sand attacks, ponyta fire blasts and primeape rock slides making it's viability there questionable at best.
doesn't help that gen 1 bug is weak to poison too, so even shitty 65 BP sludge stab from weezing or arbok will absolutely destroy it. being parasect is suffering and it really hurts because it's one of my favorites. always disliked breloom getting it's exclusive move and becoming the mushroom pokemon of all time.
