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If you could only pick one Type for your starters...

Which type would you pick?

  • Grass

    Votes: 15 20.5%
  • Fire

    Votes: 21 28.8%
  • Water

    Votes: 37 50.7%

  • Total voters
    73

Chibi_Muffin

Smart Cookie
Let's say that you had to play through all six regions from the very beginning. You would receive a starter from every generation... with a catch. Instead of picking your starter individually, you pick either the Grass, Fire or Water type and get all of the starters from that instead. There is no way to change the type after you've picked it and you cannot trade for a different starter afterwards. So, which starter type would you pick, and why?

For me, I would say Grass. It has the most of my first choice starters of the three types (Venusaur, Meganium and Serperior) and I like Sceptile, Torterra and Chesnaught enough that I wouldn't feel like I was missing out on anything. Water's alright - most choices are cool, but I don't care much for Blastoise and Feraligatr. I definitely wouldn't pick Fire, out of the six Fire starters I only like three of them.
 

Poetry

Dancing Mad
I think Water has the most consistent starters throughout, in terms of design and overall usefulness in the games. Fire would come second, and Grass last (but I dislike most Grass Pokemon in general, so that's just my personal bias more than an objective view of the starters).
 

dirkac

I smash your Boxes.
Let's say that you had to play through all six regions from the very beginning. You would receive a starter from every generation... with a catch. Instead of picking your starter individually, you pick either the Grass, Fire or Water type and get all of the starters from that instead. There is no way to change the type after you've picked it and you cannot trade for a different starter afterwards. So, which starter type would you pick, and why?

For me, I would say Grass. It has the most of my first choice starters of the three types (Venusaur, Meganium and Serperior) and I like Sceptile, Torterra and Chesnaught enough that I wouldn't feel like I was missing out on anything. Water's alright - most choices are cool, but I don't care much for Blastoise and Feraligatr. I definitely wouldn't pick Fire, out of the six Fire starters I only like three of them.

Basically this, except for Chesnaught, which I don't particularly like or dislike.

So, Grass.

Although, maybe Water, because my favorite Starter, Piplup, is in that pool, but eh, I'll just go with Grass.
 

Chalis

Victorious
I would have to choose grass. It has the most starters I like (except Meganium, but it's okay.) Chesnaught looks a bit weird though. As for fire, most of them aren't fine to me, Emboar is just messed up.
 

Dragon Trainer X

良い感じ!
Grass. It was my choice when it came to Hoenn and Unova, and with those two being my favorites period, it would have to be Grass starters.

I noticed how nobody picked Fire yet. Something to do with the consistency of Fire/Fighting-Type ones? :/
 

worldwaker

Elebug disaproves
i chose swampert,so water
 

Everlasting

Everything stays.
I would go for Water. It's one of my favorite types (after Dragon, Steel and Ice) and also contains most of my starters in it (Blastoise, Empoleon and Samurott), although I picked an equall number of Grass (Meganium, Serperior and Chesnaught). Definitely not Fire, as the only one I truly liked over the two others was Torchic (I really like Charmander and Fennekin too).

I like all the starters, really. I always struggle to choose one favorite. They are always more unique than the rest of the Pokémon found in the wild. I like Feraligatr, Swampert and Greninja, so picking Water wouldn't be a problem. :p
 

WizardTrubbish

much more beastly
Seeing has how I've picked each starter type exactly twice, this is hard. Fire I guess, because i love every fire type starter, sans Fennekin,.
 

CuriousHeartless

Well-Known Member
God, that is hard because I'd have to choose between Sceptile and Greninja (FIre ain't even a real option here). Guess I'd have to rate the other starters.

Grass:
Bulbasaur Line- Cool, add some type coverage a bit. I'll give it a 4/5.
Chicorita Line - No. Past experience tells me no. 1/5.
Sceptile (And its other two forms, I guess) - One of my favorite pokemon. 5/5.
Turtwig Line - Meh, okay. Nothing too great, but it does add coverage. 3/5.
Snivy line - The coolness has long worn off. In fact, I had to look at Serebii's pokedex just to remember Snivy's name. 2/5
Chespin line - I really don't like Chespin or Quilladin. But Chesnaught is pretty cool. 3/5.
Total for grass: 18/30

Water:
Squirtle line - Okay, they are very cool. Don't even care on stats here, I like Squirtle. 4/5,
Totodile line - Pretty cool. Pretty much a Squirtle with a different movepool, but that different movepool does make for a different play style. 4/5.
Mudkip line - I actually do like Mudkip's line. In fact, I like all of the gen 3 starters. And it gives coverage on some stuff. 4/5.
Piplup line - I also like this line. Not the coolest, but usable. 3/5.
Oshawott - It is a samurai otter/sea lion. And its movepool/stats are pretty decent. 3/5.
Froakie line - I haven't played Pokemon X or Y yet, but I've still looked over stats, movepools, and designs. 5/10.
TOtal: 23/30.

So I guess Water.
 

Crimson Penguin

Marchin' on
This is kind of difficult because I have different relationships with each starter type as a whole.

Despite my favorite type being Fire, I've picked the Grass starter first in 4 of the 6 generations - Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Treecko, and Snivy. All four of them are my favorite starter line of their respective generations, and I've always enjoyed using them. However, Turtwig is kinda meh, and while I think Chespin is cute and brings uniqueness to the Grass starters, I can't stand Quilladin and Chesnaught's designs.

As for Fire itself, I love Fennekin and Torchic, and I like Charmander and Cyndaquil, but I'm indifferent towards Chimchar and Tepig suffers from the same syndrome as Chespin. One thing to note, though, is that there are generally only a few other Fire-types available aside from the starters (especially in Sinnoh), while Water and Grass usually have plenty of options, so that's one thing Fire starters have going for them.

For Water-types... Obviously Piplup is my absolute favorite starter, but again, the rest are kinda meh. I used to like Squirtle, Totodile and Mudkip a lot better back in the day, but not quite as much anymore. Oshawott is cute, and Dewott is cool, but I'm not a huge fan of Samurott. Froakie is unique in that I actually like it better as it evolves (surprisingly, I think Greninja is awesome).

So with all that considered, I think I'll have to go with Grass - I just have such a long history with them. I think I'd opt not to evolve Chespin, though. :p

Edit: Surprised at the poll results. I usually see so many people saying Fire is the best starter type evah. XD
 
Last edited:

Weavy

I come and go suddenly
For me it'll always be Fire.

In my main game, I always pick the Fire starter, no matter how good or bad they are and seeing as Fire is one of my favourite types, that further justifies my point. Plus, out of the Fire starters, I only dislike the Charmander line, the rest I kinda like, even if I do think Blaziken is a bit on the overrated side and the Fennekin line are my absolute favourites. Though I was one those people who was annoyed with the Fire/Fighting thing, I still picked them anyway. Just goes to show how much I like Fire types.
 

Excitable Boy

is a metaphor
This is definitely interesting.

I'd say Grass would be out for me, because half of those starters lack the offenses and the movepool needed to pull through in-game (specifically, Chikorita, Treecko, and Snivy), so it'd be between Fire and Water.

Both Water and Fire are pretty consistent in-game in terms of usability, but Fire does have the advantage of being something of a more rare type in-game; while most regions offer a good selection of Water-types to use, it's usually difficult to get a good Fire-type to use (except for Unova, which has Darmanitan available, while the best thing it has for Water is probably Seismitoad). Fire-types also arguably carry more usability during the early game and the late game, between fighting Grasses and Bugs and later Steels and Ices, compared to Water's coverage against Rock, Ground, and Fire (the former two of which can be covered by Grass, and the latter of which is usually rare in-game and has weaknesses to Rock and Ground). However, Water-types generally fare better against opposing Waters than Fire-types do, as their more diverse movepools allow them to get around NVE damage.

In terms of what the individual starters bring to the table, it's more of a toss-up. Water starters are typically slow and bulky (with the exception of Greninja), but have fairly decent movepools to work with, and can generally find success going mixed. Only half of them have secondary typings to fall back on, but it's generally easy to keep Water-types away from their more common weaknesses. Fire-types, on the other hand, have secondary typings more often than not, but usually rely more on their STABs to deal damage than Water-types. Their more offensive stats are better suited for in-game than the spreads of Water-types, and can fulfill more roles on a team thanks to their common secondary types.

I'd probably have to go with Fire-types here. If I need something with STAB Surf, I can always fish up a Slowbro or a Tentacruel or whatever, and being able to dominate early game and late game bosses is too good to pass up. I can always just ditch Tepig for Darumaka in Unova.
 

bolter1

Swampert Trainer
I'd choose Water. On top of Water constantly vying with Dark for the spot as my favourite type, Water is a pretty balanced type in terms of defensiveness and offensiveness. All the Water starters also learn Ice Beam by TM so they have more access to a good coverage move that Grass and Fire starters may not have as easily or at all. I also like the Water starters' designs in general better than than the Fire and Grass starters' designs and I get Swampert.
 

Pyroli

Banned
I'd say Grass.

The only region where I have not chosen the grass type was X&Y, so it would only make sense for me to pick this option. It's not that I disliked Chespin and it's evos, I just prefered the lovely Frog prince. ouo
 

SoulMuse

Shadow of nothing
Hrm, this is remarkably hard to decide.

Grass is right out, as I dislike the look of half the grass starters, and most of them, and the rest, have subpar movepools, and stats. That leaves Water, which has great in game potential, carrying a number of HMs without sacrificing slots to them, along with generally good coverage and stat lines. Fire, by contrast, is a wondrous offensive type, generally sporting good movepools, and high offenses. Hm...let's break this down.

Water has: Squirtle, Totidile, Mudkip, Piplup, Oshawatt, and Froakie. I've used all of them except the Gator line in game at least once with good success. The water starters can use the Surf/Waterfall HMs in game to good effect, effectively eliminating the need to catch a dedicated surfer, or potentially HM slave at all. They all have good movepools, and stats that complement those movepools, for the most part. In terms of looks, I don't have any serious quibbles, of them the only one whose design I dislike is the Oshawatt line, and that is just a minor dislike, nothing major.

Fire has: Charmander, Cyndaquil, Torchi, Chimchar, Tepig and Fennekin, or however you spell it. I've used most of them, except the last two, because I hate Emboar's looks, and Delifox is almost worse. In the Fire types have less use than Water, although most of them could run strength for filler easily enough, and Zard can run Fly. Movepool wise, all of them fare well, and, with the exception, in my opinion of Emboar, the stats back up those movepools well enough. Looks wise, I've said my piece already.

So lets rate them on: Out of Battle Use, Movepool, Stats, Looks, and....something else.

Water:
Out of Battle Use: 4.5/5
Movepool 4/5
Looks: 4/5
Anythign else not covered above: 4/5

Fire
Out of Battle Use: 3/5
Movepool: 4/5
Looks: 3/5
Anything else not covered: 4/5

Welp, I guess the numbers don't lie. Water it would be.
 

The Hiker king

Non Sequitur
I tend to stay away from the fire types because they're usually frail and I just don't like grass types. Thus I usually start with water types because they just tend to be more useful on an in-game team. The only time I started with a non water type was when Piplup was a choice... I went with Turtwig instead.
 

Moonlight_Tails

Nocturnal Trainer
Water, because that's what I usually go for anyway
 
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