Which Starter Pokemon does you best in battles?

[wraith89]

Old poll is old bro. This was made a long time ago. Though... I'd like to modify my choices just a bit...

Competitively (for each Region)

[hgsssprite]003[/hgsssprite]

Oddly, it seems Venusaur did me best of the Kanto starters in terms of battling. Blastoise is very good in terms of utility, but Venusaur for some strange reason cleans everyone's clocks out. Sleep Powder, Swords Dance, STAB Power Whip, access to Earthquake, decent defences all make it quite the scary offensive threat. Starting from BW, Chlorophyll Venusaur is just... evil. Pair it up with Drought Ninetales and add Growth to the equation and you get a monster. Charizard was much outclassed by other fires ever since new guys came out but by no means a bad Pokemon

[hgsssprite]160[/hgsssprite]

This one still does me the best of the Johto starters. It is like a miniature Gyarados, minus Intimidate and quad weakness to Electricity, but has his own little uses, such as Torrent, Flail, Swords Dance, and priority Aqua Jet. Oh, and Ice Punch is way better than Ice Fang and it has slightly larger overall physical defence than even Blastoise due to the extra HP he gets. The guy can hold on his own, and Dream World versions with Sheer Force allows for moves like Waterfall, Rock Slide or Ice Punch to get even stronger. Can you say terror? The other two Johto starters are not even worth mentioning, unfortunately. I tried using Meganium, who is one of my favourite Pokemon, but she has nothing over the other Grassers, it seems, while Typhlosion has the same syndrome; other Fires are simply better. That does not mean, however, Typhlosion is a bad Pokemon. The guy is still rather powerful and still has Eruption to claim over most of the others, especially since he is the fastest user of it. However I cannot say the same about Meganium; she cannot hold on her own, and learns Leech Seed through breeding, which just trolls.

[sprite]260[/sprite]

I still like this guy, even though things are hitting much harder now. His great typing, versatility, and access to very useful moves allow him to be a great counter to many things that plague the metagame such as Tyranitar. Blaziken with Speed Boost is apparently banned, so I can't really say... though if we counted that evil jerk, sure, Blaziken is the absolute best starter for now, while Sceptile is a bit wishy-washy; he works and he doesn't work depending on how he is played. Swampert remains reliable throughout.

[sprite]392[/sprite]

Infernape is sheer evil. A wallbreaker of multiple attacks, great speed, and great offences, and he doesn't even get OHKOd by most moves that aren't super effective (and sometimes it survives a super effective attack). Very annoying, but it is a great contender, though Blaziken (Dream World) pretty much took its crown as the better Fire Fighter. Torterra is a great Pokemon but sometimes that low speed is a problem while Empoleon, which I use often, proves to be a great tank or even a scary water type sweeper, its three weaknesses are just too common (Electric/Fighting/Ground) and it does not start off with high speed unlike Infernape. I do, however, find Empoleon incredibly useful and it makes an amazing dragon counter.

Yes, Serperior. No, this isn't the Contrary type I'm talking about. I'm simply talking about the Subseeding versions since she has access to all the moves a Subseeder would like. Attack/Def/Acc boost in form of Coil is wonderful, making simple moves like Leech Seed and Dragon Tail not miss, and her stats may be a little off Meganium's, that speed is wicked enough to take advantage of Subseeding strategies, and unlike most subseeders, she isn't fragile (I'm looking at you Sceptile). Yeah, she isn't quite as fast as Sceptile, however, and nowhere near as versatile, but she can hold off her own. Double screens, Taunt, Torment, GLARE, she has it all, but not quite a lot in the offense department. And we all know about the Contrary version, which is overrated, but still scary because basically, she uses Leaf Storm and it doubles her Special Attack instead of halving it. Samurott is just another water made to make Empoleon look bad (minus steel typing and utility uses) and Emboar is a great wallbreaker... but that speed is a BIG problem.

In Game Battling

[hgsssprite]003[/hgsssprite] / [hgsssprite]009[/hgsssprite]

Truthfully I cannot really choose between the two. Both have their advantages against the gyms, though it is mostly the former over the latter, but Blastoise is very reliable for a starter and lasts you throughout while Venusaur does well in the early stages, loses usefulness in the middle, and becomes good again in the late part of the game. All preferences I suppose.

My RGB starter: [icon]007[/icon]

My FRLG starter: [icon]007[/icon]

[hgsssprite]157[/hgsssprite] / [hgsssprite]160[/hgsssprite]

Ty was the absolute best in GSC, but that wasn't saying much since the Johto starters weren't anything special. In HGSS, however, Typhlosion is still great, with Lava Plume and such, but... make way for the new and revamped Feraligatr, who just trumped Typhlosion as the best starter in Johto. Access to Ice Fang, Rage to make Whitney cry, and Crunch to deal with Morty and all sorts of physical tools to deal with the game just made this guy much better than before. Oh, and let's not forget how early he evolves into his final stage (level 30).

My GSC starter: [icon]158[/icon]

My HGSS starter: [icon]152[/icon]

[sprite]260[/sprite]

I still say Swampert does the best in-game. The other two don't hold up as well, though at least Sceptile can actually run away from wild encounters. I do hear of Blaziken sweeping through the league, but I haven't quite got that.

My RSE starter: [icon]258[/icon]

[sprite]389[/sprite]

No contest, this guy is the best Sinnoh starter in-game, ever. He learns so many moves all the other grass Pokemon can only dream to learn naturally, such as Leech Seed, Crunch, and an early level 32 Earthquake as opposed to Swampert's... er... 54? People would say Infernape, but ape is kind of lackluster, seeing how he only learns Fire and Fighting moves, Close Combat at 36, Flare Blitz really late, meh he doesn't cut it. I was stuck with Flame Wheel for a long time with this guy even... and that's not cool. And Empoleon? He got trolled in his natural learnset. Really, you look at the other two and you wonder what the heck they did with the penguin. Seriously, his in-game moveset doesn't help at all and relies on TMs and HMs to be "decent".

My DPP starter: [icon]393[/icon]

He learns more moves than the other two. He destroys everyone without questions. Yeah I know, he's slow, but so what? Serperior doesn't really attack and requires setting up to do decent damage, and Samurott is a very good Pokemon in-game but is somehow limited in movepool. Emboar it is.

My BW starter: Snivy

EDIT: Added Unova Pokemon. Art thou happy now breh?

[Relyte]

Derp. Only thought I could choose one

So went swampert. That thing has served me best throughout the years.

But if I could have, I would have gone Charizard, who's served me as the rock to ground my Blue/FireRed teams on. That thing... oh, Charizard. Remember the days when submission was a great move because Charizard in the anime took out a magmar with it? aaaaah....

Gen 2: Typhlosion. That thing was amazing! (gen 2, that is. Not HeartGold.) I probably would have gone for Feraligatr, except that thing didn't make it to 100 like mine did and it hadn't got ditched at goldenrod

Gen 4: Torterra. Chose him as my first starter and good grief! He's a beast! A tank! Pure good fun for ingame! Close tie with the other two though. They're all quite balanced (ingame, not for realz.... poor torterra....)

Gen 5: Samurott, but I haven't played with any of the others, so it's hard to say. Samurott's a great set-up sweeper, but so is Serperior.

[wraith89]

I thought it was Seismic Toss that took down Magmar. Spinning around with the world, then end the battle with a BAM!

Submission was and always will be lackluster. What in the world, Gamefreak.. 80 Base Power / 80% accurate / 25% damage recoil? No thank you. It was the best fighting move at Gen I though, and was put on Gen II Mewtwo for the sole purpose of hurting Dark Pokemon like Houndoom or Tyranitar. You'd think Gamefreak would learn by now because a lot of these lackluster moves got improved, but Submission remained forgotten, along with things like Razor Wind. And they keep pumping stuff like Hi Jump Kick up (100 to 120 and even in Gen V they troll by making it 130). Heck, even TACKLE got improved as of late (35/95% to 50/100%). When it comes to improving, Gamefreak seems to make the already strong stuff stronger (Zapdos) and the weaker ones largely ignored (Pidgeot), and that also applies to moves. Oh whoops look at me I'm digressing teehee.

My lack of mentioning Charizard isn't because it's bad, but it's not as great as it's hyped up to be. It is still strong though and a LOT of kids pick this guy... I mean who doesn't want a flying dragon? It gets a special mention for being the only flying starter, and that's always a plus.

[Sunny day]

I thought it was Seismic Toss that took down Magmar. Spinning around with the world, then end the battle with a BAM!

My memories told me it was Earthquake that defeated Blaine's Magmar, including that extravagant visualisation you are talking about. ^^

Anyway, that was not what I wanted to tell here.

I do not really have much with those fully evolved starter Pokémon... Back in the days of Red, I always have chosen Venusaur, no matter what. You could depend on your Venusaur if something went wrong and Razor Leaf was just crazy with that Critical Hit rate. For G/S/C, it was a different story, because I started to take different starters in different games. I played with Meganium, Typhlosion and Feraligatr, but I picked Meganium a little more, just because... I liked Bayleef. So, after a while, I got myself a Bayleef and did it hold an everstone. In the R/S/E games it was almost the same. I wanted to check every starter, but after a while I liked Grovyle/Sceptile and Marshtomp more (although I have had many Swampert, because of their great typing). It is a whole different story for the starters of D/P/P, because I did not like them all. I think Infernape was the most handy to have - I got her in my Platinum game - because she was able to take down a very wide range of Pokémon. I believe I set some records in the Battle Hall with it, too. Anyway, in Heartgold I am not really fond of Bayleef anymore, so I am sticking with Quilava most of the time (or I abandon my starter after a while). To make a long story short; I liked to vote on Bayleef, Quilava and Marshtomp, but since there are no options for them, I chose the remaining Grass Pokémon.

So, for the poll, I chose the options Venusaur, Sceptile and 'I have no preference'. Just because I feel it is much more weird to create such a contradiction, instead of choosing 'What's Pokémon?'.