Starters for Each Type?

[SilverJakler]

This idea's been floating in my head for a while now. Yes, we've had seven sets of Starters for Grass, Fire, and Water, but what about the other types? Which Pokemon do you think fit the role best as Starters for the rest of the chart?

Personally, I think Elekid or Shinx would be good for Electric, while the Nido's could work for Poison. Also Lillipup could definitely work for Normal.

[zimvader42]

I've seen Shinx get used for starter pokemon in some fangames, and I can tell you right now, it works just fine for that role. It even evolves twice, once at level 15 and another at level 30, both of which are close to the range of 14-18 and 32-36 that canon starters evolve at.

Personally, I would choose with this criteria:

• 3 Stage lines only.
• Their primary type has to be the type in question, and must be kept that way throughout the whole line.
• The members should evolve all by level and as close as possible to 15-36.
• The final form should ideally have a BST of 500 or higher, but not 600 (no pseudos in this list). If the BST is at ~490 that's close enough for me.

So that would leave me with:

• Normal // Lillipup-Herdier-Stoutland --- they evolve at lvls 16 and 32, close enough. Good abilities on intimidate, scrappy and sand rush, all 3 of which can be useful in one situation or another. The final form, stoutland, is surprisingly good too: it has good coverage, good physical attack, and decent enough speed, even boosted by sand rush if need to be. A dog is familiar enough that it could be a starter line, and tbh, stoutland is one of the most normal-looking pokemon I ever saw. It is.... just a dog. A big fluffy dog. Is a great form of embodiment for the normal type.
• Electric // Shinx-Luxio-Luxray --- the afore mentioned electric cats evolve at lvls 15 and 30, good enough for me. Luxray is slow for an electric type, but at least it got just one weakness and a quite good physical attack, paired with good abilities on intimidate and guts. Even rivalry is good sometimes. It doesn't have the greatest coverage options ever but at least it got some staples like crunch and superpower. Being a cat/lynx thing, I think it is familiar enough to be a starter kind of line.
• Fighting // Machop-Machoke-Machamp --- I had to betray my requisites a bit here. As currently of gen 7, there aren't any known 3-stage lines that have fighting as their primary type and evolve all by level. Regardless of Machoke evolving by trade, the whole line serves the purpose pretty well otherwise. Machamp is a very strong pokemon in-game, with great abilities on guts and no guard, great attack and some rather awesome and powerful moves to chose from. Hope I won't have to make more exceptions for the other types.
• Flying // Noibat-Noivern --- aaaand I'm betraying my own requeriments just as I finished saying that. There aren't any non-legendary mons with flying as their primary type other than these two. Noibat is super weak, even for starter standards, and it evolves super late, at level 48. Meaning, if you choose this as your starter, you'll really need a team built to support you until you reach evolution levels. But once there, you get yourself a nice, strong and fast Noivern, which is pretty cool looking too. Dunno what else to say here.
• Ground // Sandile-Krokorok-Krookodile --- I was going to choose the flygon line originally, but it evolves quite late and is a bit weirder as by starter standards. Sandile on the other hand is just a sand crocodile, which is normal-ish enough, and pretty cool tbh. This line evolves at lvls 29 and 40, a bit missplaced but still good enough I'd say. They have a nice dark sub-typing and Krookodile has sweet stats, sweet abilities and a sweet enough movepool.
• Poison // Zubat-Golbat-Crobat --- in a bit of a predicament again here. So, there aren't any lines with poison as 1st type that evolve solely by level and are 3 stage. While the nidos are a nice choice, I think zubats get closer to what I like for a poison starter. Fast, good attack and with rather solid options in moves like super fang, taunt, toxic, etc. With a nice flying subtyping, and thus able to carry AND use the HM fly in-game. They evolve at level 22 and then by friendship.
• Psychic // Solosis-Duosion-Reuniclus --- for 3-stage lines with primary psychic typing, my only other options are gothitelle and alakazam. The first being a bit too human for a starter imo, and the later being a bit too overpowered by starter standards bar greninja, maybe. So, Reuniclus it is. One of my fav psychic types, I think it embodies most of the good things about this typing: great special attack, good abilities in regenerator, magic guard and overcoat, and some freaky yet awesome inspiration on real-life cells and such. They evolve a bit late, at lvls 32 and 41, and Reuniclus' BST is 490, it doesn't reach 500, but with 125 special attack? I think that's good enough. Solosis is not completely useless until it evolves, unlike Abra.
• Bug // Venipede-Whirlipede-Scolipede --- a rather straight-forward pick. A cool line, evolving at lvls 22 and 30, so close enough. Good poison subtyping for defensive purposes, and we all know scolipede rules! good attack, good speed and a great ability on speed boost. Poison point and swarm are...okay. Regardless, I chose this and not, say, leavanny, because it has less weaknesses going on in-game, despite its BST doesn't reach 500 unlike leavanny's (it should imo).
• Ice // Spheal-Sealeo-Walrein --- it was a very close call between the only 2 3-stage ice lines that aren't the vanilluxe one: walrein's and mamoswine's. I went with walrein because at least those evolve all by level, at 32 and 44, a bit late but oh well. Water is a nice subtyping, and walrein is quite bulky, with 3 good abilities and useable attack and special attack.
• Rock // Geodude-Graveler-Golem --- these 3 have some problems to be the pick here, but there aren't many more options other than gigalith and tyranitar, tbh. Golem is a nice mon with almost 500 BST, good attack and defense, sturdy making up for its important weaknesses and a good combo of STAB earthquake and stone edge. With explosion!
• Ghost // Gastly-Haunter-Gengar --- like, is there even a question here? even if there is, is not like there are many other 3-stage ghost lines. There's dusknoir and chandelure, both of which are pretty cool lines, but gengar outshadows them as the perfect embodiment of the ghost type, for starter purposes. It is scary, it is mischievous, it is silly but creepy, it is a shadow, what else? all the members of this line are good pokemon on their own regard, so I think if anything they could be a bit more powerful as starters than most other picks on this list, but between that, chandelure's 145 special attack and dusknoir's never ending bulk, I choose gengar.
• Dragon // Axew-Fraxure-Haxorus --- this line is literally the only dragon type 3 stage line that is not a pseudo or flygon. Literally. And thus, I went with them. Haxorus honestly has some rather sick-looking design, impressive attack, access to dragon dance and some rather cool moves at its disposal. If anything, the only con is that they evolve relatively late, at lvls 38 and 48.
• Steel // Aron-Lairon-Aggron --- This line definitely. The only other 2 that could fight for the spot are klinklang (a gear would be a rather weird choice for a starter, and they have some lackluster movepools) and aegislash (more ghost than steel to me, that and the fact it is a bit too powerful for a starter, with king's shield, stance change and all). Aggron is a good balance of powerful steel type that could be your first companion. Good attack, insane defense, but a couple very glaring weaknesses. The rock subtyping really helps its cause in the offensive tho, with STAB stone edge. It has a good movepool with dragon and ground options, so treat it well and wreck shit with it.
• Dark // Scraggy-Scrafty --- a bit of a cheat again, but there are no dark type 3-stage lines other than hydreigon that have dark as their primary type. A shame krookodile isn't an option. But anyways, I always loved scrafty. It has neat abilities, neat design, it can sweep if you let it dragon dance up, and it is a rare defensive fighting type, so cheerish it. Scraggy evolves a bit late, but it suffices the role of starter, I think.
• Fairy // Togepi-Togetic-Togekiss --- my only options here were clefable, florges and togekiss. As much as I love all 3 of them, clefable didn't had the BST, evolves by everything but level and is quite amorphous for a starter, imo. Florges is the de-facto fairy, but I think with that 550+ BST and its capability to sponge hits, it was a bit too powerful. Then there's togekiss. Originally normal/flying, togekiss is liked by some and hated by some other. Mainly because serene grace air slash is a thing. BUT, to all practical effects, togepi is a tiny egg, perfect to carry around and take care off, which is a nice embodiment of a fairy starter, I would say. The line needs friendship and later a shiny stone to evolve, but the sheer power and bulk of the final form is compensation enough.

Those are my 2 cents on the matter. Also re-reading this it came out as a super long post. Well shit.

[Red_Chaos]

I've seen Shinx get used for starter pokemon in some fangames, and I can tell you right now, it works just fine for that role. It even evolves twice, once at level 15 and another at level 30, both of which are close to the range of 14-18 and 32-36 that canon starters evolve at.

Personally, I would choose with this criteria:

• 3 Stage lines only.
• Their primary type has to be the type in question, and must be kept that way throughout the whole line.
• The members should evolve all by level and as close as possible to 15-36.
• The final form should ideally have a BST of 500 or higher, but not 600 (no pseudos in this list). If the BST is at ~490 that's close enough for me.

So that would leave me with:

• Normal // Lillipup-Herdier-Stoutland --- they evolve at lvls 16 and 32, close enough. Good abilities on intimidate, scrappy and sand rush, all 3 of which can be useful in one situation or another. The final form, stoutland, is surprisingly good too: it has good coverage, good physical attack, and decent enough speed, even boosted by sand rush if need to be. A dog is familiar enough that it could be a starter line, and tbh, stoutland is one of the most normal-looking pokemon I ever saw. It is.... just a dog. A big fluffy dog. Is a great form of embodiment for the normal type.
• Electric // Shinx-Luxio-Luxray --- the afore mentioned electric cats evolve at lvls 15 and 30, good enough for me. Luxray is slow for an electric type, but at least it got just one weakness and a quite good physical attack, paired with good abilities on intimidate and guts. Even rivalry is good sometimes. It doesn't have the greatest coverage options ever but at least it got some staples like crunch and superpower. Being a cat/lynx thing, I think it is familiar enough to be a starter kind of line.
• Fighting // Machop-Machoke-Machamp --- I had to betray my requisites a bit here. As currently of gen 7, there aren't any known 3-stage lines that have fighting as their primary type and evolve all by level. Regardless of Machoke evolving by trade, the whole line serves the purpose pretty well otherwise. Machamp is a very strong pokemon in-game, with great abilities on guts and no guard, great attack and some rather awesome and powerful moves to chose from. Hope I won't have to make more exceptions for the other types.
• Flying // Noibat-Noivern --- aaaand I'm betraying my own requeriments just as I finished saying that. There aren't any non-legendary mons with flying as their primary type other than these two. Noibat is super weak, even for starter standards, and it evolves super late, at level 48. Meaning, if you choose this as your starter, you'll really need a team built to support you until you reach evolution levels. But once there, you get yourself a nice, strong and fast Noivern, which is pretty cool looking too. Dunno what else to say here.
• Ground // Sandile-Krokorok-Krookodile --- I was going to choose the flygon line originally, but it evolves quite late and is a bit weirder as by starter standards. Sandile on the other hand is just a sand crocodile, which is normal-ish enough, and pretty cool tbh. This line evolves at lvls 29 and 40, a bit missplaced but still good enough I'd say. They have a nice dark sub-typing and Krookodile has sweet stats, sweet abilities and a sweet enough movepool.
• Poison // Zubat-Golbat-Crobat --- in a bit of a predicament again here. So, there aren't any lines with poison as 1st type that evolve solely by level and are 3 stage. While the nidos are a nice choice, I think zubats get closer to what I like for a poison starter. Fast, good attack and with rather solid options in moves like super fang, taunt, toxic, etc. With a nice flying subtyping, and thus able to carry AND use the HM fly in-game. They evolve at level 22 and then by friendship.
• Psychic // Solosis-Duosion-Reuniclus --- for 3-stage lines with primary psychic typing, my only other options are gothitelle and alakazam. The first being a bit too human for a starter imo, and the later being a bit too overpowered by starter standards bar greninja, maybe. So, Reuniclus it is. One of my fav psychic types, I think it embodies most of the good things about this typing: great special attack, good abilities in regenerator, magic guard and overcoat, and some freaky yet awesome inspiration on real-life cells and such. They evolve a bit late, at lvls 32 and 41, and Reuniclus' BST is 490, it doesn't reach 500, but with 125 special attack? I think that's good enough. Solosis is not completely useless until it evolves, unlike Abra.
• Bug // Venipede-Whirlipede-Scolipede --- a rather straight-forward pick. A cool line, evolving at lvls 22 and 30, so close enough. Good poison subtyping for defensive purposes, and we all know scolipede rules! good attack, good speed and a great ability on speed boost. Poison point and swarm are...okay. Regardless, I chose this and not, say, leavanny, because it has less weaknesses going on in-game, despite its BST doesn't reach 500 unlike leavanny's (it should imo).
• Ice // Spheal-Sealeo-Walrein --- it was a very close call between the only 2 3-stage ice lines that aren't the vanilluxe one: walrein's and mamoswine's. I went with walrein because at least those evolve all by level, at 32 and 44, a bit late but oh well. Water is a nice subtyping, and walrein is quite bulky, with 3 good abilities and useable attack and special attack.
• Rock // Geodude-Graveler-Golem --- these 3 have some problems to be the pick here, but there aren't many more options other than gigalith and tyranitar, tbh. Golem is a nice mon with almost 500 BST, good attack and defense, sturdy making up for its important weaknesses and a good combo of STAB earthquake and stone edge. With explosion!
• Ghost // Gastly-Haunter-Gengar --- like, is there even a question here? even if there is, is not like there are many other 3-stage ghost lines. There's dusknoir and chandelure, both of which are pretty cool lines, but gengar outshadows them as the perfect embodiment of the ghost type, for starter purposes. It is scary, it is mischievous, it is silly but creepy, it is a shadow, what else? all the members of this line are good pokemon on their own regard, so I think if anything they could be a bit more powerful as starters than most other picks on this list, but between that, chandelure's 145 special attack and dusknoir's never ending bulk, I choose gengar.
• Dragon // Axew-Fraxure-Haxorus --- this line is literally the only dragon type 3 stage line that is not a pseudo or flygon. Literally. And thus, I went with them. Haxorus honestly has some rather sick-looking design, impressive attack, access to dragon dance and some rather cool moves at its disposal. If anything, the only con is that they evolve relatively late, at lvls 38 and 48.
• Steel // Aron-Lairon-Aggron --- This line definitely. The only other 2 that could fight for the spot are klinklang (a gear would be a rather weird choice for a starter, and they have some lackluster movepools) and aegislash (more ghost than steel to me, that and the fact it is a bit too powerful for a starter, with king's shield, stance change and all). Aggron is a good balance of powerful steel type that could be your first companion. Good attack, insane defense, but a couple very glaring weaknesses. The rock subtyping really helps its cause in the offensive tho, with STAB stone edge. It has a good movepool with dragon and ground options, so treat it well and wreck shit with it.
• Dark // Scraggy-Scrafty --- a bit of a cheat again, but there are no dark type 3-stage lines other than hydreigon that have dark as their primary type. A shame krookodile isn't an option. But anyways, I always loved scrafty. It has neat abilities, neat design, it can sweep if you let it dragon dance up, and it is a rare defensive fighting type, so cheerish it. Scraggy evolves a bit late, but it suffices the role of starter, I think.
• Fairy // Togepi-Togetic-Togekiss --- my only options here were clefable, florges and togekiss. As much as I love all 3 of them, clefable didn't had the BST, evolves by everything but level and is quite amorphous for a starter, imo. Florges is the de-facto fairy, but I think with that 550+ BST and its capability to sponge hits, it was a bit too powerful. Then there's togekiss. Originally normal/flying, togekiss is liked by some and hated by some other. Mainly because serene grace air slash is a thing. BUT, to all practical effects, togepi is a tiny egg, perfect to carry around and take care off, which is a nice embodiment of a fairy starter, I would say. The line needs friendship and later a shiny stone to evolve, but the sheer power and bulk of the final form is compensation enough.

Those are my 2 cents on the matter. Also re-reading this it came out as a super long post. Well shit.

what about the starly, straviera, strapator for flying?

[SilverJakler]

Well shit, I knew I forgot something, the criteria

But that list is pretty damn solid. Elekid could've also been a choice for Electric, but it does get its second form rather late (level 30). And then Trade Held Item Evolution is kind of a hassle... but damn my Electivire hype will never die. Shinx definitely suits the starter criteria better.

what about the starly, straviera, strapator for flying?

When I usually make lists like this, I tend to treat the birbs as primary Flying types, because c'mon Game Freak. I'd say Staraptor also suits the starter criteria other than that. Evolves at Levels 14 and 34, with a really sick movepool and a BST that's juuuust 5 points under 490, it'd definitely be hard for me not to pick it. Also, it's the OG Brave Bird.

[zimvader42]

what about the starly, straviera, strapator for flying?

Well shit, I knew I forgot something, the criteria

When I usually make lists like this, I tend to treat the birbs as primary Flying types, because c'mon Game Freak. I'd say Staraptor also suits the starter criteria other than that. Evolves at Levels 14 and 34, with a really sick movepool and a BST that's juuuust 5 points under 490, it'd definitely be hard for me not to pick it. Also, it's the OG Brave Bird.

Well to be honest, I failed to consider that birds could work just fine for flying starters. I guess I was too focused on making the line's prime type a priority, and thus failed to see all other flyings except Noivern. Staraptor is a pretty solid 3-stage, with attack and speed backed up by close combat, brave bird, and good abilities on reckless and intimidate. So that could definitely work.

I never understood why is it that there haven't been any line with flying as their first type prior to gen 6, and any pure flying prior to gen 5. Is not like type order affects anything, so things like Staraptor could perfectly be flying/normal instead of the other way around. I guess there could be a "bird starter" category lol. When you think about it, all normal/flying early game birds are more or less built as lesser starters.

[Monochrome_Complex]

^I think the lesser starter think is why every rival uses an early bird line. It's arguably become Blue's signature mon even.

I do love the idea of starly line being the flying starter though. I feel out of all the early birds, they feel most in-game friendly.

[Timber Dragon]

If not for the pseudo legendary thing and its late final evolution, I was gonna say Dragonite for the starter. My reasoning is that it's one of the first mons I think of when I think Dragon-type, and like many other starters, it gains a secondary typing on its second or third evolution. But yeah, Haxorus probably works better as a 'starter' Dragon-type.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I hadn't realized that three-stage evolutions aren't as common as I thought. Fancy that.

[SilverJakler]

3 stage evolutionary lines are my favorite. I really want there to be more of them, especially for reasons like this list. Pokemon evolution is just one of the coolest things in the franchise for me, because it's like your Pokemon are growing with you as you become more of any adept trainer. Starters are the biggest example of that.

Also, I think the Ralts line could make for a good Psychic starter line, they level up around the same levels, at 20 and 30 (or dawn stone). But I do love Reuniclus as well and think it deserves more attention than it's been getting.

[zimvader42]

Indeed, Ralts is a thing too. In fact it is one of my fav mons to get early game, because with trace, you can scout every other wild pokemon and thus you'll know beforehand what abilities you're gonna get. Very useful. Also, its whole line on itself is very neat, and gardevoir is a surprisingly useful pokemon in game, a key special attacker that only got better after getting a fairy subtyping.

The only reason I didn't really consider it for a possible starter was that it branches out with gallade if you get a male kirlia and a dawn stone, which is unseen for starter pokemon, as far as I remember. Maybe they might do something like that for gen 7's, dunno. Would be cool tho.

[SilverJakler]

Indeed, Ralts is a thing too. In fact it is one of my fav mons to get early game, because with trace, you can scout every other wild pokemon and thus you'll know beforehand what abilities you're gonna get. Very useful. Also, its whole line on itself is very neat, and gardevoir is a surprisingly useful pokemon in game, a key special attacker that only got better after getting a fairy subtyping.

The only reason I didn't really consider it for a possible starter was that it branches out with gallade if you get a male kirlia and a dawn stone, which is unseen for starter pokemon, as far as I remember. Maybe they might do something like that for gen 7's, dunno. Would be cool tho.

If they introduce split evolutions for Starters, that shit would throw me for a giant loop. I'd totally be down for it if the designs are cool.