User blog:Mrdaimion/Top Fifteen Starter Pokemon - Part One (15-11)

As some of you may have noticed, I like Pokemon. A lot. As some of you may have also noticed, I also like ranking blogs. A lot. Because of my not-so-secret love for them, I've decided to make a countdown blog about Pokemon discussing something very important- the starters. Some starters are amazing. Some starters are absolutely terrible. However, today I gather to talk about both of them- the good and the bad- to say which one I think is the worst, the best, and everything in between. Will anyone agree with my opinions? Probably not, but let's get started anyways!

Also, just so you all know, I'll mainly be going over the Pokemon's final evolution even when I refer to them as their first form's name, simply because you'll be using the final form for most of the game.

Fifteen - Tepig
Tepig is horrible. For starters, its design is pretty awful even by Unova standards (especially it's final evolution Emboar), and we all know how horrible those are (though I do like Unova's Pokemon once you get past the designs). It's the third fire-fighting type starter in a row, and it doesn't even really make much sense with him- although it didn't for Infernoape either, and typing really only worked with Blaziken. Tepig is also pretty awful in battle- although it has the best attack of the starters, and debatably the best move pull, it's defense is so horrible that it can't put a hit in before it's taken out- especially since its speed is horrible as well. Also, it kind of annoys me that despite his huge- and for the most part really good- move-pull, the only Fighting move he naturally learns is Arm Thrust, which really isn't very good. All in all, Tepig has to be one of my least favorite Pokemon period, not just with the starters, and if you ever choose him, the only fitting nick-name for him would be "Bacon".

Fourteen - Turtwig
Yeah, I'm just gonna tell you right now, I didn't really like any of the Gen IV Pokemon all that much, the starters being no exception. Although I guess Turtwig could be worse, it's still not a very good Pokemon. It does have a really bad typing, though, since although Grass/Ground sounds cool, and is really unique with no other Pokemon sharing the type combo, it makes him have a 4x weakness to Flying and Ice, which gives him a huge disadvantage (Flying Pokemon are common, and there's both an Ice Gym Leader and an Ice E4 Member). Turtwig's stats are alright as well- it has a really bad Speed, but since it also had really high Defense, unlike Tepig, it's speed isn't a fatal flaw. A big problem with Torterra though is the fact that it has a bad move pull- it's only really good move is Earthquake, none of it's other moves are all that great (Giga Drain has low PP and base power, and while Leaf Storm has really high base power, it has low PP and gets weaker every turn since Leaf Storm lowers the user's Spec. Atk by two levels every time they use it). I will give Turtwig this, though, Torterra's design looks awesome, especially being based off of a Turtle, one of my fave animals.

Thirteen - Chikorita
I'll be honest here, I don't have too much of an opinion on Chikorita since I never used it. Why? Well... Not only does it have a disadvantage against most gym leaders, but your other choices are something that has fire coming out of it's back and Totodie who, let's face it, is adorable. Choosing Chikorita never really crossed my mind. However, now that I really look at it, it's actually not a bad Pokemon: it has pretty good stat coverage, majoring in Defense (like Torterra), really good move pull if you teach it Sunny Day (it learns Synthesis and Solar Beam), and, now that I think about it, I really like it's idea of "blooming" more as it evolves. Again, though, I don't have much to say as I lack too much of an opinion on Chikorita, and it's mostly this low since I never used it.

Twelve - Piplup
To be completely honest, the main reason Piplup's is above Turtwig and Chikorita is because (A) I love penguins more then turtles (for Turtwig) and (B) Nostalgia reasons as my old best friend used to really love this Pokemon. That aside, though, Piplup, to start off with, also has a pretty double-bladed type combination- sure, Water/Steel is also unique, but the thing is, that gets rid of it's advantage against Infernape (Fighting is super effective against Steel, and so is Fire so that's neutral against Empoleon), but it's also good as it gives it resistance against almost every type and gets rid of it's Grass weakness. and the typing doesn't even make all that much sense with him- it would have been better with the Oshawott line, in my opinion, as they're based off of Samurai, who use steel swords. Piplup also has a pretty bad move-pull, for it's only good Water type move is Hydro Pump, which it doesn't learn until Level 59, and it's only Steel type move is Metal Claw (although that's forgivable, as there aren't very much Steel type moves). In it's defense though, it learns some good TM moves (such as Earthquake). I also hate it's Empoleon design- I'm not sure why, it just always looked ugly to me.

Eleven - Mudkip
Mudkip's kind of a weird case with me- I do like it, I just don't know why I don't like it more (probably because I find it over-shadowed by the other two Hoenn starters). First off, let's start off with it's type, which is actually really good- it makes it immune to Electric, and it only has a weakness to Grass (which does prove to be a problem, but still good). It also has a really good move-pull, with a kick-ass signature move (well, it was only their signature move in Gen III to be fair, but still) that they not only learn at an early level (39), but it also has alright accuracy (85), 95 Power, and has a 30% chance of lowering the foe's accuracy- so, it's basically Surf but better. It learns other really good moves as well, such as Earthquake and Hammer Arm. It also has, for the most part, good stats, with an Attack of 110 (though it's a shame that most of it's Water moves are Spec. Atk). Though it suffers from a bad speed, it's good defense and type coverage makes it so that it isn't a very big problem. I also really like Mudkip's design, it looks bad-ass. So, yeah, I'm really not sure why I like Mudkip, as it is a really good Pokemon.

To be continued...