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The Ones Left On The Table: Worst Starters


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Hi folks.

Today's bemusements came when beginning to watch an LP on Youtube. I'm going to list the top 5 worst starter Pokemon - or the ones that get left behind at the lab. Don't agree with me? Fantastic, post your own opinions below!

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5. The Emboar evolution line. (FIRE)

Blaziken was cool. Infernape was forgivable. Emboar just made the firefighter starters severely tired. It doesn't stop with release perception for ole' Bacon here though. At RarelyUsed, Emboar is also the least viable of the three. It's not particularly fast either. Reckless is a fantastic ability and Emboar is blessed with many great recoil moves to utilize it with, and Sucker Punch gives it competitive head-to-head value over the next mon on this list. Emboar has no outstanding story mode drawbacks, but no real wow-factor on journeys either.

4. The Delphox evolution line (FIRE)

Delphox is an aesthetic letdown. Fenniken and Braixen look youthful and chic, only to "evolve" into an arguably "old crone" magical vulpine that loses to Non-Choiced Emboar in RU due to priority and stealth rock damage DESPITE type advantage. It's speed and typing is great, but it will mostly be choiced itself. Magician is a "cute" ability but it doesn't get the same amount of praise Reckless does. Same story with the story. Nothing hurtful, not much distinct either.

3. The Feraligatr evolution line (WATER)

Feraligatr shines competitively and looks really cool. Where's the harm? It's "learn-set" is the culprit. This line of Pokemon is known for being a physical attacker - and if you plan on using Totodile as your first partner, prepare to be patient for a physical STAB. Like. Endgame levels of patient. That's not good for a pure Water type. Also, the 'Gatr needs some TM or breeding support to get going. Once set however, this thing can clean house, unlike,

2. The Empoleon evolution line (WATER)

Empoleon is a great hazard controller and is adept defensively in the competitive sense. It also looks really sleek. However, it's a passive mon not only in it's stats, but it's moves. Defiant can salvage this fact story-wise, but not much competitively. Not straight-forward at all, which is either interesting, or frustrating. It's okay in many respects, while not fantastic in anything.

1. Chikorita line.

The most underwhelming 'mon competitively. The most uphill-battle starter (Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney, and Morty have distinct advantages over the line) The most simplistic aesthetic evolution. Non-influential ability. The reason anyone should be picking Chikorita? Challenge

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I love Dephox and Feraligtr.

Anyway my bottom five would be

5) Blaziken

Yes, you read that right. I never liked Blaziken. I found him mediocre in my Emerald playthrough (not as good as Swampert) and don't like his design. You can't mess with speed boost though.

4)Torterra

I just dislike it for some reason. I always though Turtwig was really ugly.

3)Empoleon

Piplup was so cute and Empoleon is just not. Also I found it never really helped me out in platinum.

2)Chikorita

As stated before Chikorita is just weak and looks kind of boring.

1)Emboar

You have no reason to exist. It just boring, stupid and really not very good.

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Delphox I would disagree with. It's essentially a Psychic type Infernape when you get down to it, bar the priority, typing, and other things. Other things look kinda crappy when they evolve too.

Replace Fennekin line with Squirtle line and I'll totally agree with that list. Squirts is just garbage with it's learnset unless you breed it. Although the only reason you didn't put Squirts on the list was because Blastoise has a Mega. Which isn't half bad, which sets apart all the other Mons on this list.

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Blastoise gets a large boost from Mega Evolution, but let me dissect the major improvements

- Mega Launcher complements it's bulk with a plethora of offensive capability.

- Rapid Spin gives Blastoise a niche.

- Mega Evolution boosts it's Base Stat Total by 100.

This makes Blastoise a bulky offensive rapid spinner. Pretty rare and neat.

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IN MY OPINION those are the worst startes for every gen:

-Gen 1: Squirtle

It is awesome, I actually love it, but come on...Charizard and Venusaur are too much to be compared with...and when Megas were a thing, it just became worst.

-Gen 2: Chikorita

Lmao it is Chikorita.

-Gen 3: ???

I actually don't know... maybe Torchic before megas came through(?

-Gen 4: Piplup

I love it, and Empoleon is just awesome, but both Chimchar and Turtwig look way cooler than poor Piplup; So despite Empoleon's unique typing, I think it is the one chosen the less.

-Gen 5: Tepig(?

I personally hate Oshawott, it is the worst starter in my opinion, but I think Tepig wins this just because we were all tired of the Fire/Fighting starter.

-Gen 6: Chespin

It doesn't have protean, it doesn't have that offensive presence overall. (which I think most of us look for when picking a starter for a pokemon playthrough).

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*Grumbles that Chikorita is actually really good in the games if you use it properly*

Okay, so my top 5 worst starters, largely based on my favorites, but I'm also taking their usefulness (mainly in game, not so much competitively since most of them are outside tiers I know anything about) into account

5. Samurott

Okay, don't get me wrong, I love this guy. But he's just so damn bad. Literally the only positive he has is that he has a great movepool. But he just doesn't have the stats to back it up

4. Delphox

Okay, no, Delphox, you suck and I can't stand your design. Fennekin was awesome but then you stood up on your hind legs and became this weird wizard thing. It's nice and fitting considering the other two starters, but I still don't like it. And you're just useless in a fight most of the time, at least compared to the lightning fast Greninja and the unbreakable bastion of Chesnaut

3. Charizard

I have never liked Charizard at all. But then Charizard Y happened. Charizard Y was awesome and well designed whilst still remaining simplistic and not over-the-top. And then Charizard X happened and all that went out the window. However the main reason I dislike this Pokemon is because of the way people who like him act about him. He's like a T-rex, everyone acts like he's the biggest and most powerful even though he's not actually all that great

2. Pikachu

I started with Pokemon Yellow, so I'm actually really attached to this guy. I didn't even mind that he couldn't evolve, he was my partner and I didn't care what choices he made. Then I found out people P much act the same with him as Charizard and while I still love Pix, I am not a fan of his species as a whole any longer. Unlike a lot of the other things on this list, he's actually useful going through the game he's a starter in, so that's worth noting. He packs Thunder Wave as well as a slew of powerful offensive moves allowing him to sow status and dish out damage. The only downside is he's literally useless against Brock as nothing in his movepool at the time can even do anything to Ground/Rock types. Still, I can't get over the T-rex syndrome applied to him so overall he's really low on my list

1. Emboar

Okay, so, Fire/Fighting typing was bad enough. But then they turned Tepig (which is adorable) into this obese monstrosity that looks like a Snorlax had an affair with a Grumpig and the baby was left to grow up with a family of Torkoal (I am really not a fan of Emboar. though I actually like all of the aforementioned Pokemon) On top of that, it's generally pretty bad as well. It's got great offenses and HP, but then it's terribly slow and has fairly low defenses. IIRC it's movepool is okay but not the greatest

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Y'know honestly, I'd say when stripped of their Megas and special Abilities, I thought to myself that all the starters actually kinda suck, particularly because most of the time, there's just simply a better Pokemon out there that can do the job of a starter it's compared to. Then you essentially got nothin.

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I actually had a ton of fun using Feraligatr and Delphox in SS and Y, I didn't hate them too much. My list would probably be:

5. Turtwig. I had a 'traumatic experience' back when I was 11 or 12 playing Diamond, not saving (for I had another file) and me ragequitting after Torterra lost to the Ice Gym twice in a row. Good times.

4. Piplup. Bad in battle, and back when I was a wee smalljra I absolutely hated this little shit in the anime

3. Tepig. Only because it's not as good as it's predecessors.

2. Snivy. Coil Coil Potion Leaf blade. Repeat every battle.

1. Chikorita. Dual screens can't save this pokemon.

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I'm no competitive pro so I'ma just post my own "foreveralone on the table" list, i.e. what I absolutely never take in any run (Gen 3 is probably the one gen where I end up torn on what to take every time I play a gen3 game i: )

5. Chespin - I really loathe the path they took with its evolution design and would rather not have to look at it at all

4. Tardwig - Really disliked everything up till Torterra, and 'Terra itself wasn't all that much

3. Tepig- can't compare to the others before it and hated its evolution line much like chespin's

2. Bulbasaur- hate Venusaur's design and the other 2 are just so much better

1. Chikorita- yeah. well... the other posts pretty much said it all

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Y'know honestly, I'd say when stripped of their Megas and special Abilities, I thought to myself that all the starters actually kinda suck, particularly because most of the time, there's just simply a better Pokemon out there that can do the job of a starter it's compared to. Then you essentially got nothin.

I mean, there's plenty of Pokemon that rely on their abilities to get their jobs done so I'm going to ignore that requirement. So looking at it without megas:

There's always Infernape who's had a place in the competitive meta since his release in Gen IV

Nonmega Venusaur is probably the best Chlorophyll sweeper in the game currently

Even without Protean Greninja is still stupidly fast and hits stupidly hard. Protean just drives it through the roof

Speed Boost Blaziken is Speed Boost Blaziken whether it's mega'd or not

None of these are outclassed at their jobs by another Pokemon (though personally I only like two of them)

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My bottom 5 least favorites would be:

5: Emboar. i'm kinda "Meh" towards it, which is why it only gets #5. Snivy was also a contender for this spot because of the Grasshole, but i actually see Snivy as an OK Starter if you want to use a Grass-Type. The fact that Snivy can have Contrary is a huge help for it, too.

4: Mudkip. I never really liked it all that much, and the Meme it has is even more trollish. Torchic is close for this spot (Dang it, ORAS May, stop KO-ing Cynthia! [Yes, I like Treecko and Multi-faceted Puns. So sue me.]), but the mega is its saving grace.

3: Totodile. I'm giving you two words for this one to state the main reason, and then i'll explain further: Your Rival. Cyndaquil is one of my favorite Starters, and i just was annoyed by how "Silver" steals the Pokemon that is strong against yours. and since i grew to associate Totodile with "Silver"...

2: Empoleon. I just dislike this one in general, since i find it to have a poor design, a bad Moveset for my Style, and bad stats.

1: Charizard. Two words and a Letter: Mega Charizard X.

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I tried posting this before but the website was down then so here's my answer. By the way, the way that I'm interpreting the prompt is 'which starter will you pick the least' and thus will answer for each region separately.

Gen 1: Squirtle. I don't hate Squirtle, but it's just the one I haven't picked yet. Charizard is awesome, though sometimes over-hyped, and I've always thought Bulbasaur looked cute. Besides, Squirtle is the only gen 1 starter that doesn't gain a double typing. I will be picking Squirtle the next chance I get though.

Gen 2: Chikorita. It's sad how Chikorita gets so much flak but it's useless. I value a variety of moves in a Pokemon and Chikorita is straight up grass type. Plus the designs of the other two are much cooler.

Gen 3: Torchic. This one's hard. I started playing Pokemon in gen 3 and love each of the starters. I chose Torchic partly because it gets too much attention. It's cool and all but you can only pick it so many times before it gets old. Also Treeko is by far my favorite and you have herd right, I do liek Mudkipz.

Gen 4: Piplup. This one isn't my choice because the other choices were that much better, but solely because of the Pokemon itself. It looks weird. Somehow it's final evolution didn't impress me enough. Also, its personality in the show just ruined it as a serious Pokemon for me.

Gen 5: Oshawott. Before now I've had to choose my least favorite from a group of awesome or acceptable starters. Now I choose the worst of three evils. Tepig might have gotten flak for its typing and Snivy is just a grass snake (that's the best they could come up with?), but Oshawott takes the cake for me. Why? it got my hopes up. When I first saw it I knew I wanted it. It was cute and somewhat cheeky. When Dewott came out I had hopes for an awesome final evolution ( I like humanoid Pokemon btw, Gardevoir, Mewtwo, Lucario). But then came Samurott. On all fours. What water samurai would go on all fours to attack even if they're an otter? My favorite, my one hope, and it failed.

Gen 6: Chespin. I haven't played these games but I watched as news came out. Chespin looked great. I had hopes it would become what Oshawott failed to be, but it too disappointed.

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By Gen

- Squirtle - I like Blastoise more than I like Venusaur, but it's usefulness in-game is not nearly as high as it could be competitively without help - and the other two 'mons being in OU while this guy is left behind in UU speaks for itself. It gets outbulked by one, and outsped by the other. The cool thing about Blastoise is it's a got a bit of both, but when you're a jack of all trades, you tend to splay your stats to where you're not fantastic in anything.

- Chikorita - Like I said. Difficult 'mon to use in it's maiden voyage generation, is extremely passive, and doesn't have anything going for it in the metagame outside of dual screens and reasonable bulk. It's design is seemingly lazy compared to the other two Johto starters.

- Treecko - Hoenn gave us a genuine toss-up between three really good Pokemon - and the Gen III remakes made decision time much more difficult. Blaziken - for how overpowered it is in any situation - can't be seriously considered here, and then you have to look at Sceptile and Swampert head-to-head in various situation. The Water/Ground typing makes Swampert win what genuinely is a coin-toss.

- Piplup - The cutest and most well designed family of starters from Sinnoh just doesn't have much going for it outside of it's sleek appearance. It was very much the "contest" Pokemon from the anime without trying to be in terms of learn-set, and as someone who likes offense in all situations, Empoleon isn't the best Pokemon to deliver it.

- Tepig - Tepig is probably as equally bad as Oshawott without TM and breeding help. Tepig's speed leaves it out to dry during story runs, which is frustrating.

- Fenniken - Outward beauty is ever fleeting. Chesnaught is my clear favorite out of this group, and just like Blaziken it's hard to knock Greninja here.

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Feraligtr was my favorite pokemon period before gen 4 came along. Infernape kind of dethroned his starter status and Greninja sort of dethroned his water starter status,. although he's still my 3rd favorite. I kind of wish his old design was still used though, he looks a lot derpier than he did in gen 2 . Seriously, check out his gen 2 sprites, guy looked pure boss.

Aesthetically my least favorite starters by type are: chespin, fennekin, and mudkip. Mega swampert does look badass though.

In terms of use, TBH I never touched Mudkip. Fennekin I always got bored with to where I never even used Delphox. Blaziken was major disappointing back in gen 3 though, and Typhlosion was MASSIVELY overrated in gen 2. Later gens really made them better though. Feraligtr kicked butt on my SS playthrough so idk I still love him.

I actually thought Samurott was the most underwhelming in gen 5, personally. But i never used them competitively. Snivy sucks at first in-game but once he got Coil/leaf blade he gets really fun and starts to whoop.

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In no order :

1) Chikorita line : As the OP said, the most underwhelming starter of the century :P, both story mode-wise and competitive-wise. Leaf Guard is a horrible ability as set-up is required for it and Meganium still has only decent defenses (100 isn't too good). While it does have good attacking moves like SB, PB etc it can't make use of them with it's bad attacking stats and Grass is just an overall weak type. (5 weaknesses? Come on :/)

2) Feraligatr line : 'Feraligatr - B1g @$$ Pokemon' - Bulbapedia (L0l). Decent at best and worst in appearance, second only to the Unova fire starter. It does have good bulk and a decent attacking stat but that ain't much and it is weighed down by it's speed. The best water-type move it gets is Aqua tail and Aqua Jet. It also learns DD to take care of faster mons and it is an overall decent but simple Pokemon. The biggest downside factor is it's appearance :P.

3) The fire Unova starter - I don't know it's name and I don't care to know. HORRIBLE :/. Great HP for bulk but can't last long with it's frail defenses and good offenses but horrible speed so it'll most likely be OHKO'd. Also, just like the 'B1g @$$' pokemon above, it has a terrible appearance ;p.

4) Delphox - I like all the other remaining starters except this one and the one below. I don't really know much about it ;p. It has so much wasted potential though.

5) Chesnaught - Same as above.

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Let me prefece this by saying one thing... I am not fond of really any starters. Most I'm entirely neutral towards and half the time in game I drop them from my team cause I don't really like any of them that much. ((Two Exceptions in Feralgatr and Torterra... but that's a story for a different day.))

By Gen ((Megas aren't being considered. I personally, consider Megas as different Pokemon from their normal forms cause they might as well be. Now... I know it's not really the case, but practically it is true.))

1: Charizard; I'm not a big fan of face of the Red games ((both original red or Fire Red[funnily enough... Fire Red being the first Pokemon game I played..)) Not only did I prefer literally any other Fire type over the pretend dragon, I just found the thing... pretty boring. I dunno... I just didn't really care much for it in my playtroughs of the game as I noticed that I had more success with literally any Fire Type. I dunno... Charizard jsut never clicked with me in a way that other Fire Types did of the Gen... but mainly cause I almost always used Arcanine. I just liked the Dog better looks-wise and had more fun using it. Arcanaine's SpAtk was almost the same but it also had a huge attack stat and slightly better bulk. This allowed it to use Extreme Speed to negate the one worse point it has from Charizard... it's speed. Therefore... I've always just Arcanine. WHich of the other starters I used was a total toss-up thought it was usually Blastoise.

2: Meganuim... I don't really need to tlak on why this thing wasn't so great. THe poor thing has jsut gotten kinda screwed on it's stats and it's movepool. It gets mostly a Support Movepool, the sub-par Grass Type and a highly ambiguous Statline that leaves it mediocre at everything. Funnily enough, Venusaur nearly shares this Statline, but has a better Movepool, better SpAtk, and most importantly... Is Grass/Poison. The Poison dual typing really is key as it negates quite a few of Grass's weaknesses while adding on only Psychic. ((as Grass resists Ground.)). Meganuim being a pure type... It's just limited in it's job. It can only really be support, but doesn't carry the typing or the stats to be able to do it properly. Offensively... literally the only set I could come up with is Petal Blizzard/Earthquake/Synthsis/Swords Dance. The issue... it is horribly outclassed by nearly any other setter. If it had chlorophyll... it might actually make something of itself to a degree since unlike Venu it could boost, but instead it got Leaf Guard, a very lacklustre ability.((and as I should note... the dud ability of Gen 2. Feralgatr got Sheer Force while Typhlsion got Flash Fire. Both of those abilities actually caused each of them to move up tiers on release. Meganuim stayed right the hell where it was.))

3: Literally all of them. I just don't like any of the Gen 3 starters. All three of them end up kinda being boring to me. Sceptile... yet another Pure Grass ((which uh... if half you guys noticed... There are 3 Pure Grass starters just like there are 3 Fire/Fighting. If that's not acceptable, neither is 3 Grass Starters being pure type. Now granted they weren't all in a row, but it's still not excusable in me book... Hell Water Staters are jsut as bad, Swampert just happened to be one of the Dual typed ones though.)). But really... I jsut don't care for any of these guys. SInce the last entire half of the game involved Water Pokemon ((made at least 5000 times worse by the fact they decided it be a good idea in Emerald to also make the champion USE ALL WATER TYPES AFTER THE ICE LEADER HAS NEARLY ALL WATER TYPES TOO....)), I felt like Swampert and Blaz were just a liability to my team ((and Blaz didn't get Speed boost at this point. It had to deal with it's shitty Base speed for an Offensive mon.)) Rant over...

4: Infernape: While the most competitively sound out of the bunch for certain... I just don't like this guy. I guess I just am sick of the whole... Let's put Sun Wukong in everything craze. ((to be fair this was a bit before that... but even still.)) I'm jsut tired of seeing the character or refeerences to him because so many media take him from the Journey form the West... make minor edits... and drop him in. It's just... boring to me. So this one's a bit personal I suppose. People will probably always say Torterra here otherwise... but I personally don't agree. Maybe it's just me.

5: Samurott: While actually my favourite of the gen... I can;t deny this guy just doesn't have shit going for him quite the way he wants. His Movepool is fantastic on both ends, Physical and Special, and he has the stats to abuse both! However... he lacks in Speed and... in Bulk. If he had one or the other, he might be usable, however he has mediocre of both rather than giving up one to make the other better. His base 70 spd is crippling on an Offenseive Mon and his ability in SHell Armour is super defensive... however he doesn't have the bulk or the ability to boost his defenses to make it scary. ((like Mega Slow Bro.)) Emboar at least has Reckless and the movepool to abuse the ability, While it's Speed is also crippling, it raw power is jsut HUUUUUGE making it somewhat more usable than Samurott.

6: Delphox... Simply because the others jsut outshine it. Gren does the fast sweeper thing better and Ches is a big thick wall of... some sort of rodent... I think. Delphox is by no means complete garbage. it actually makes a pretty scary name for itself in the RU tier where it is one of the biggest threats. This pick is more cause I ahve to... than because I think Delphox is bad.

Top 5 Disliked.

1. Meganuim

2. Blaziken

3. Emboar

4. Infernape

5. Charizard

I think you guys can tell I don't like Fire Starters much... lol

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Well, let's do by Gen too

Gen I: Charmander.

Honestly, this doesn't even require the same arguemtn as above, I just like the other two better. Squirtle is my choice 90% of the time when I play FireRed and Bulbasaur is cute whilst Venusaur is friggin awesome, so Charizard just kind of gets left out

Gen II: Totodile

After playing through the Johto region at least three times with each starter on my old broken Gold cartridge there's really no contest. Cyndaquil looks friggin awesome and is great in-game. Chikorita's plethora of early status moves make it a great support mon even if you do decide to replace it with a better statuser later on. And then there's Totodile who is stuck with Scratch/Rage and Water Gun until it finally learns Bite at level 20/21 (depending on whether you evolved it or not) And back then Bite was still Special. Great job Totodile, way to make yourself useful

Gen III: Torchic

Okay, I adore Treeko, I always pick Treeko, I will never pick either of the others outside challenge runs, ever. But then there's Torchic who's super cute and evolves into... Combusken. And don't get me wrong, Marshtomp is no beauty.... But, Combusken... *Shudders*

Gen IV: Chimchar

Okay, this thing has literally the exact same issues as Torchic, though to a slightly lower degree. Plus it mimics it's typing. Empoleon and Torterra are awesome and their starting forms are adorable

Gen V: Tepig

And again, starts cute, turns into ugly AF Fire/Fighting type

Gen VI: Fennekin

...Is basically the same as the above Fire starters, except it started awesome and became a weird mage thing, I think I already explained why I don't like this one P adequately above

EDIT: OMG, Huk, we hate like the same things when you pick it apart by generation :P

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The pokemon i wouldn't use would be

5- Squirtle. Like the bulk but movepool has nothing.

4- Bulbasaur. Like the bulk again, but without giga drain it becomes useless -better use a roserade-

3- Mudkip. I do like it's typing, but it's a physical attacker and it gets mostly special moves early without any physical water moves, it's slow and has 4x weakness to grass. I wouldn't really call it tanky.

2- Turtwig. Never liked it, never will.

1- Chikorita. Undoubtedly, by far the worst pokemon to have in a regular game run. All it can do is be a support and set up screens and stuff and there are other, better/faster or with prankster pokemon to do it imo.

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I'm surprised I haven't commented here yet lol. I guess it is because I don't really that many dislike starters (two of them only), but from the ones I've tried, the worst I think would be:

Charmander/Squirtle/Bulbasaur: yeah I know this is an unpopular opinion and I'm not even "proud" of it (I've tried to make myself into liking them, many times), but I just can't get to it. Design-wise I only find Charizard somewhat appealing (its X mega is amazing), but overall they have nothing that interests me. Charizard is just above average fast and its SpA is nothing that incredible, Venusaur is bulky but not much else and Blastoise if anyone has noticed is basically water type Meganium (which means it is better at the role of defensive mon since it has only 2 weaknesses). I can't think of anything they shine at particularly and since they don't bring me much joy aesthetically, I have no problem replacing them in my team.

Chikorita: I like the thing, it is very cute and Bayleef specially (more than Meganium IMO) is very beautiful-looking, but that won't save it from mediocrity. I tried one in a fan game and was very excited because at that time it was the gen 2 starter I liked the most (nowadays that would be Typhlosion xD), but it couldn't do much in most battles. It has defenses just above average by very little, so any actual effort GF might have put on making it defensive is kinda foiled because A) grass type, weaknesses>resistances and B ) Leaf Guard works on sunlight, which makes its main weakness STRONGER, so is not like anything will try to status a meganium to begin with. Should also consider the fact that it is hard for it to use attacks (maybe the one I used had low IVs or bad nature or something, can't remember that), but I remember it had a hard time damaging stuff and it was easily outsped. If GF reduced this thing's attack to make it an all out special attacker, or gave it a secondary type that helped it defensively, that would help it a lot, but still...

Chimchar: this is the biased of the list. I just don't like Chimchar, or Monferno, or Infernape. I like monkey pokémon, but I just really really do not like this fire monkey starter line for some reason (yep, I'm not even sure why I don't like them, that's why I say is a biased opinion). They're fragile but decent offensively, and have a decent movepool. Even their designs are good, but when I'm forced to choose between this and, say, the other two gen 4 starters.... I have one of the hardest times, and that's one of the reasons I have a hard time playing games that use the gen 4 starters. I just can't pick because I don't like any in particular, so I just throw a coin or something and pray to go with Piplup the one that follows.

Turtwig: in pair with Chimchar for the starter that I like the least design-wise. Is just looking at it and I want NOT to pick it. That huge chin it has... it bothers me. However, Torterra is so fucking cool-looking, I absolutely love its design. It has two little problems however, called Ice Beam and bad movepool. The first explains itself as "Torterra dies to ice beam, period", and the second is more like, the strongest physical grass STAB it gets is seed bomb, that you have to BREED for; did I mention it gets Leaf Storm as strongest grass move? a SPECIAL move? on a 75 SpA mon? a move that harshly lowers SpA? yeah...

Tepig: I'd love so much if this thing was a fire/dark guy, but leaving that aside, I just never get to use it when I can choose Snivy over it. Not because the "oh my god 3 fire/fighting in a row what is this GF!?", I couldn't care less about that, but mostly because it has so much potential for an oni/demon-like pig thing with dark as second typing, and moves like knock off or dark pulse or stuff. Also, despite its HP, it is likely to die soon, because reckless is paired with fire blitz, which means it WILL die soon, and then you have its poor defenses that won't help. It just burns too fast in battle (no pun intended) and is too slow to pull most things out.

Fennekin: my fav starter of all times in pair with Snivy, but even I can see why it is less used than its two other brethren. Greninja is likely to be the single best starter mon of all times (I wouldn't ban it tho, since it is fragile), and Chesnaught, while slow, is very tanky in the physical side (will die to birds and fire, but it will handle against physical threats, and can use leech seed). But Delphox... well, it is relatively fast and has decent special attack, but is just too fragile. Like, Greninja compensates fragility with insane protean shenanigans, but Delphox got magician... which I have been given 2 or 3 sets to make it useful, and that's about it. If it got magic bounce/guard, or even flash fire or something like that, it would be much better IMO, to compensate for how easy it goes down, it could at least take no shit from rocks, poison and such, but no, it got magician. In any case, I still love it and is very useful in-game with calm mind and stuff, but it dies if you don't pay attention.

Honorable mentions of Oshawott (I don't like Samurott but is not a bad pokemon), Totodile (same as Oshawott), Mudkip (strange movepool to me), Treecko (WILL.DIE.TO.EVERYTHING) and Chespin (don't like that unfortunate x4 weakness to flying).

Edited by zimvader42
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I guess i can take from each gen, just for something i had experience with it.

Also i could say i pick grass/water starters really.

Gen 1: Squrtle

I don't hate it, but i'm somewhat netrual and always was boring to me in playthrough.

I could just replace other pokemon that i loved a lot.

It got a Mega evo, and it was really nice using it in showdown or such. But it was boring still in my playthrough experience.

I loved to use leed seed and draining moves a lot with bulbasaur. Also charmander was a fun memory i had.

Gen 2: Totodile/Chikirota

Chikirota and todidile i never used in playthrough. I was more of an cyndaquil loyal in gen 2.

Chikirota is often sucked, but i had fun with it tbh in HGSS, same with totodile.

Gen 3: Mudkip

Actually like this thing or all starters in general, but least favourite starter of all starter.

Torchic was a hell of fun to use since i liked a lot with fighting type, and treeko have always been a personal favourite of mine biased.

Mudkip is really cool, but also sometimes i have to say i'm really got sometimes annoyed with the mudkip meme a few years ago.

But yeah, loves all of them but mudkip is my least of all of them.

Gen 4: Turtwig

I just didn't care this pokemon so much.

Tried with this guy, kinda fine but i get often off when the starter isn't fast unless if the pokemon can have the draining moves or such etc.

Also ice attacks just crack this pokemon to death.

Gen 5: Tepig.

Self explaining, got tired of fire/ fighting type.

Also slow as fuck, that made me just drop it.

Short and simple. Not hate it, but it's meh.

Gen 6: Chesnaught

Kinda nice typing, but flying type erk also talomflame rip.

Like the spiky shield, but still meh for my taste.

Don't hate it, but it's meh.

I think the reason i don't dislike most of the fire starters is because of i really love the speed(fits for my playstyle), which many of the grass/water starter is kinda slow for my taste. In general i just think i dislike water starters more than the others. Most of my favourite was either grass or fire.

Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil, Treeko, Chimchar, Snivy, Delphox.

Greninja could be a fitting pokemon for me, but i just got dropped of it. I just don't know.

Oshawott could potentially be close to tepig in past years, but i loved the little guy more really when i used it a second time. Aqua jet was a funny move and megahorn is a move i like nicely. It may be more, but i'll not overwrite it, so done here.

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