Finally got the run that met all my goals: Sub 2:30 IGT (Wii U equivalent), DS WR and beating my emu PB.

This run had another solid start until Great Canyon where I starved on the last floor. Found a Frust TM though which made me feel safer using wait there strats for basically the rest of the run. Good fugitives, double chestnut and 12-minute Magma Cavern brought the run into best pace entering Sky Tower. However I had a rough time in there, spawning in a monster house without orbs and making also a stupid movement mistake by swapping with partner. The rest of the dungeon was pretty meh too, for example getting bullied by Scizors in an unforeseen manner. All that meant being even with PB going into Summit, but luckily that run had my worst split there meaning I was able to pull ahead far enough to hit the target.

Done using Cyndaquil partner. Better stats and type coverage make early game way more reasonable, being able to one turn kill almost every enemy. While the lack of a second STAB-move hurts a little from midgame onwards, better stats and Skitty having Double Slap by that point makes it more than fine to run with. Endgame seems pretty good too with Ember+Leer+Tackle+Quick Attack. Optimal if you find a Frust TM on the ground at some point, which isn't that unlikely actually.

Not needing to reset for Frust to get good early games makes me prefer this over Squirtle. While I think that using Squirtle and going for Frust on Skitty is still "optimal" from the standpoint of an individual run, being able to get runs going more often means that you get to have more shots at the rest of the run.