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Intense Mode Starter Picks


enderowl

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1 hour ago, enderowl said:

What would be a good starter to pick when doing Intense mode besides Torchic and Froakie?

I personally recommend Mudkip, you'll find a bulky mon is a godsend in intense, other good picks are Snivy with Contrary or Cyndaquill, i also heard that many people like to use Fennekin 

Honestly Froakie is not that good in early to midgame on intense, it lacks firepower to bring down your opponents pkmn fast and its to squishy to tank a few hits

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Well since we're getting gen 8 soon, Rillaboom and Cinderace will definitely be very solid choices with their Hidden abilities.

 

It's also worth mentioning that Rejuv's Move Relearner becomes able to teach Egg moves after a certain side quest (after badge 7, so halfway into the current version). This increases some starters' viability.

For instance, Charmander and Totodile can learn Dragon Dance,

Empoleon gets Agility and Power Trip (great with Swords Dance, and later the Crest)

Emboar gets Curse and Sucker Punch

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really, an argument could be made for any starter.

 

Venusaur is more or less the metric by which all other Chlorophyll Pokemon are judged

Charizard has Bonkers damage whn properly supported by a team

Blastoise is a fantastic doubles support, and in gen 8 will arguably be the best Shell Smash user, even moreso if it can Mega Evolve

 

Meganium has a fantastic early game, learning Razor Leaf Super early, and is amazing at keeping the party alive

 

Feraligatr has Sheer Force, so overwhelming amounts of physical damage

 

Typhlosion is quite similar to Charizard, but Eruption instead of HeatWave.Delet

 

Sceptile has Unburden, which is broken with seeds, but you have limited ammunition for that. it can outspeed Souta's Hawlucha with Seed, tho.

 

Blaziken is Blaziken. it's called "Uberchicken" for a damn good reason.

 

Swampert is....a Water/Ground? i'll be honest, it's probably the most aggressively mediocre of the starters

 

Torterra has a unique typing, and is the earliest learner of Earthquake in the game. also a solid choice lategame because Crest fixes most of the issues it's typing could have.

 

Infernape can be built in a number of ways, but most everyone seems to designate their starter as an attacker.

 

Empoleon bullies the game. Swords Dance at level 10, defiant, and Aqua Jet. so say nothing of the Power Trip set.

 

Serperior is just Contrary Leaf Storm. however, defensive and coil sets are viable.

 

Emboar can oneshot a lot of things. not quite spectacular, but gets the job done.

 

Samurott is one of very few natural learners of Swords Dance, much like Empoleon.

 

Chesnaught is physically tanky, but it's also kinda meh. Leech Seed+Spikey Shield is good, so is Bulk Up via level.

 

Delphox is...i'll be honest, it's kinda bad in my experience.

 

Greninja lives and dies by it's movepool. so, very strong lategame, but for earlygame, you're better off picking something else.

 

Decidueye is surprisingly good, just gotta keep sucker punch.

 

Incineroar is ugly, but some people like it, i guess

 

Primarina is a nuke. a bulky nuke. with excellent natural coverage. you can't really go wrong choosing Primarina.

 

Rillaboom (In gen 8). Grassy Surge. 'nuf said. even without that, it's got fantastic stat distribution.

 

Cinderace is basically Greninja without the earlygame problems.

 

Intelleon is somewhat unfortunate. a nightmare to fight on Water's Surface, though.

Edited by Generic Gamer
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I'll have to politely disagree with you on the Empoleon front, Paperblade. What allows SD Empoleon to work is it's defensive typing, Water/Steel, which is one of the best in the game. This allows Empoleon to set up in front of more Pokemon than Bibarel. Furthermore, it's attempts to sweep arent stopped dead in their tracks by Intimidate because Empoleon gets Defiant. 

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I'll comment on the few starters that I have tried or feel safe talking about.

 

Venusaur I don't see why you would pick for your starter ever considering you get it at the same time you get Torkoal which is pretty early in the game.

Charizard seems really good when you build around it.

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For Typhlosion see Charizard.
If you want to use Feraligatr, get it when you can surf. I'm not sure its worth your time before then but I also haven't tried it so...

Meganium is cool I have a friend who absolutely loves this thing you can make it work if you want to pick it up and while you can pick it up as soon as you get 5 badges, you will still get a lot of value out of it before those 5 badges.

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I haven't tried Sceptile but another thing thats worth noting is I believe that thing gets Nature Power. It seems like a fun mon to make a run with. Also makes as a good starter choice considering you can't get it in the game atm aside from it being a starter.

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Torterra getting EQ early is super cool but you also get swinub after the gym you would get a Torterra in. If ur using it just to spam earthquake I feel like it just gets replaced by Mamoswine. If you want to use this thing because of its Crest I don't see why you would pick it up as a starter, it would just be better to get it when you would normally get it in the game. Either way I bet you could make it work for sure.
Empoleon actually seems legit there's a lot of intimidate in the game and I'm sure there are a lot of ways to proc defiant. You can also pick it up when you get Route 11 access which is actually pretty early 

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Hot Take: Serperior isn't a fun mon to use.
Samurott is not something I can recomend. I dropped it just before val or after val and never used it again.

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GC didn't talk about Incineroar, but let me remind you that this thing is beyond busted in gen 7. It may get overshadowed by Blaziken because most pokemon players who visit this website play singles. You can get it pre-crawli (I think thats when you get the Dull Key) but when I used it, I got a ton of value out of it before you could pick it up normally. Incineroar is super good especially since Rejuv has a lot of double battles. It's not even that bad in singles too because its really bulky. I used it and I loved it, it put out a ton of value throughout the whole game and its actually one of the few mons I think I wanted to bring with me to mostly every fight.
Primarina is actually next on my wish to try.

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Gen 8 starters aren't in the game, BUT I honestly think all of them including intelleon have potential to be really good.

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