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Unpopular Pokemon opinions V2 (READ FIRST POST)

SWSH's graphics are amazing.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Unova is not the worst starter trio!
I agree. I hate to say this but I think that Johto’s starters in Gen II are probably the worst mainly because of how awful Chikorita does in any play through and only getting an actual break with Whitney if you manage to get a female and Chuck’s Poliwrath. And on top of that the Gyms the Chikorita line can wipe clean are in the post game in Kanto. Cyndaquil suffers from Gen II Falker and Mud Slap, Whitney’s Miltank’s Rollout, Chuck’s Poliwrath, Pryce’s Seel And Dewgong, And Clair’s Team wipes out the line while taking minimal damage. Which means that Totodile pretty much is the only starter that can at least take several hits during Gym battles without fainting too soon.
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
I agree. I hate to say this but I think that Johto’s starters in Gen II are probably the worst mainly because of how awful Chikorita does in any play through and only getting an actual break with Whitney if you manage to get a female and Chuck’s Poliwrath. And on top of that the Gyms the Chikorita line can wipe clean are in the post game in Kanto. Cyndaquil suffers from Gen II Falker and Mud Slap, Whitney’s Miltank’s Rollout, Chuck’s Poliwrath, Pryce’s Seel And Dewgong, And Clair’s Team wipes out the line while taking minimal damage. Which means that Totodile pretty much is the only starter that can at least take several hits during Gym battles without fainting too soon.
Nonsense, Chikorita is the bulkiest of the three and can easily tank even hits it's weak to. It can tank both Falkner and Bugsy really well with Reflect, and is by far the best starter to have against Whitney. Chikorita gets its STAB the earliest and has the best early STAB out of the three, people just don't look beyond typing and then whine when they can't beat Whitney.
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Nonsense, Chikorita is the bulkiest of the three and can easily tank even hits it's weak to. It can tank both Falkner and Bugsy really well with Reflect, and is by far the best starter to have against Whitney. Chikorita gets its STAB the earliest and has the best early STAB out of the three, people just don't look beyond typing and then whine when they can't beat Whitney.
Well I’ve never liked using Reflect and I do agree that it is the best against Whitney but I think that is only if you got a female Chikorita because of Attract being able to randomly cause your Pokémon to not attack every turn.
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
You can just switch out to neutralize Attract. Reflect, Poisonpowder, and Growl debuffs will all stay active. It's really not that big of a deal and Whitney doesn't even use it that much, she can't use it at all if it's locked in Rollout.
 

Luthor

Well-Known Member
When it comes to the Johto starters I feel like all 3 could do with a buff. Typhlosion and Meganium really would benefit from a movepool boost. Feraligatr has a bit more moves available but a few more moves wouldn't hurt. I've also always thought that Typhlosion and Meganium's hidden abilities are a bit disappointing. Love the designs of all three but for in-game they could be improved.
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
Meganium probably could use a buff competitively. A different Hidden Ability, like Grass Pelt or Flower Veil, would already go a long way. It's not offensive enough to really use Overgrow that well and Leaf Guard is just too situational and doesn't even work on confusion or cure status conditions already present. I think Typhlosion is fine. Might not have the greatest movepool but Flash Fire Eruption is an insane niche it has when nothing else has that combination, and it has Focus Blast to cover Heatran. When you have that kind of raw STAB power you can just blast your way through resists coverage isn't that important. With sun support and Flash Fire activated Typhlosion hits harder and faster than Primal Kyogre's Water Spout without even considering items on Typhlosion.
 

Luthor

Well-Known Member
Meganium probably could use a buff competitively. A different Hidden Ability, like Grass Pelt or Flower Veil, would already go a long way. It's not offensive enough to really use Overgrow that well and Leaf Guard is just too situational and doesn't even work on confusion or cure status conditions already present. I think Typhlosion is fine. Might not have the greatest movepool but Flash Fire Eruption is an insane niche it has when nothing else has that combination, and it has Focus Blast to cover Heatran. When you have that kind of raw STAB power you can just blast your way through resists coverage isn't that important. With sun support and Flash Fire activated Typhlosion hits harder and faster than Primal Kyogre's Water Spout without even considering items on Typhlosion.

The problem is that there are a lot of Pokemon that do resist or are completely immune to eruption (other flash fire users) and Focus blast often misses and a lot that can easily outspeed and render Eruption much less powerful . Its got a niche no doubt but I don't think its quite enough by itself. There's a few moves I think are plausible that would help it without going overboard. Energy ball (similar to Vulpix), Grass Knot (quite a few fire types get this including Pansear), or Earth Power (similar to Torkoal) or Scorching Sands ( also similar to Torkoal) could work. Typhlosion at least probably should get something given it may not have hidden power grass when it returns.
 

Sceptile Leaf Blade

Nighttime Guardian
Flash Fire users aren't that common. Arcanine usually runs Intimidate over Flash Fire, Ninetales usually runs Drought instead, virtually nobody who actually knows what they're doing uses Flareon, Rapidash, or Heatmor, and Entei never had Flash Fire available in any generation. Heatran and Houndoom are weak to Focus Blast. I'm not familiar with the gen 8 pokémon so I'll leave Centiscorch and Coalossal out (although Coalossal is weak to Focus Blast too), which leaves just Chandelure as a problematic target, but that's not really common enough to be of major concern, and neither is the mirror match against opposing Typhlosion.
 

OshyHikari

c l a r i t y
I agree. I hate to say this but I think that Johto’s starters in Gen II are probably the worst mainly because of how awful Chikorita does in any play through and only getting an actual break with Whitney if you manage to get a female and Chuck’s Poliwrath. And on top of that the Gyms the Chikorita line can wipe clean are in the post game in Kanto. Cyndaquil suffers from Gen II Falker and Mud Slap, Whitney’s Miltank’s Rollout, Chuck’s Poliwrath, Pryce’s Seel And Dewgong, And Clair’s Team wipes out the line while taking minimal damage. Which means that Totodile pretty much is the only starter that can at least take several hits during Gym battles without fainting too soon.

I don't really like the Chikorita line either. Meganium's design is not as good as Bayleef and the line's lack of battle prowess severely hurts them in Johto playthroughs, as you said, their only good Gyms are in the postgame. Cyndaquil does have advantages against Bugsy and Jasmine, along with Pryce's Piloswine, but its weaknesses are also easy to come by due to as mentioned, the movesets of several Gym Pokemon. Johto is definitely collectively my least favourite starters as a trio.

How I personally rank them collectively: Hoenn > Sinnoh > Alola > Unova > Kanto > Kalos > Galar > Johto
 

Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
I don't really like the Chikorita line either. Meganium's design is not as good as Bayleef and the line's lack of battle prowess severely hurts them in Johto playthroughs, as you said, their only good Gyms are in the postgame. Cyndaquil does have advantages against Bugsy and Jasmine, along with Pryce's Piloswine, but its weaknesses are also easy to come by due to as mentioned, the movesets of several Gym Pokemon. Johto is definitely collectively my least favourite starters as a trio.

How I personally rank them collectively: Hoenn > Sinnoh > Alola > Unova > Kanto > Kalos > Galar > Johto
I don’t dislike the Chikorita line. The Johto starters aren’t nearly as bad in HGSS as they were in GSC. Having Abilities in the games helps you out in the remakes as the starters’ Abilities might only active after losing half their HP but the boosted STAB does at least give you a better chance to turn things around and all three lines have access to more moves to cover some of their weaknesses better than in the original games.
 

OshyHikari

c l a r i t y
I don’t dislike the Chikorita line. The Johto starters aren’t nearly as bad in HGSS as they were in GSC. Having Abilities in the games helps you out in the remakes as the starters’ Abilities might only active after losing half their HP but the boosted STAB does at least give you a better chance to turn things around and all three lines have access to more moves to cover some of their weaknesses better than in the original games.

I feel the only quality Chikorita's line had going for it was the personality of Ash's Bayleef in the anime. Sadly I barely ever see Overgrow/Blaze/Torrent activate in the games, especially when you consider how undesirable they are in the competitive scene.
 

Luthor

Well-Known Member
I never really plan out a team in any game. It doesn't work for me. I don't think there's a better example than in my sword playthrough. As I hadn't looked through most of the post game release spoilers planning a team would be very difficult as I was unaware of a lot of the new Pokemon and i wouldn't stick to just 6 anyway but I did decide my Starter and one Pokemon (Sirfetch'd) who I was confident I'd use. However when I went across the route where Galarian Farfetch'd are I either didn't see any or I wasn't paying enough attention because I completely went past it. Ended up using a Grappleoct as my fighting type instead and didn't get a Sirfetch'd until post-game
 
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Teravolt

cilan lives forever in my heart
Boutiqueshipping >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Amourshipping.
 
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