Which Pokémon COULD Be Starters?

- Greetings Pokefans, Michael here, and years ago I played and didn't come close to finishing a Pokémon ROM hack where the starting options weren't traditional starter Pokémon. It was still a Grass-Fire-Water trio, but the Pokémon you

could

choose from had never been

starters

before. I think it was Budew, Magby and Horsea, but I'm not entirely sure. Also, don't ask me what the ROM hack was, I don't remember. I thought it would be fun to do what those ROM hack creators did, create my own trio of starter Pokémon using existing Pokémon. Also, I'm not going to just do a Grass, Fire, and Water trio, I'll also do other types of trios.

Also, I should probably mention that other creators have made videos like this with a similar concept, but I promise mine will be distinctly different from theirs. There have been certain criteria for how they chose starter Pokémon, while my criteria will be whatever I want. So don't forget to subscribe to my channel and hit the bell to receive notifications, as less than half of my viewers are subscribed,

which

no, no, is not sad. And let's dive into choosing my own starting trios of existing Pokémon. First, I'll start with the classic Grass-Fire-Water trio. And basically the main thing I'm going to look for are Pokémon that are three-stage evolutionary lines for the three different types.

Also, I should mention that I don't care at all about their evolution methods. A start has to be a level of evolution, but if I limited myself to that type of leveling, then I would have trouble choosing options. So let's assume that the evolutionary methods have changed for leveling up for these Pokémon. Another thing I'm not going to worry about is strength or skills. Basically, just assume that all the Pokémon I review have the typical starting level of methods, abilities, and stats. First, let's go over all my Grass type options. And I actually have quite a few.

Right off the bat in Gen one, we have Bellsprout, Weepinbell, and Victreebel. They are poison grass instead of pure grass, but similar to Bulbasaur. These Pokémon work much better than the Oddish line, as Oddish's split evolution into Vileplume and Bellossom makes things a little weird. There is a stone evolution for Victreebel, but remember that we don't care about evolution methods. However, the biggest drawback of these three is that they are plants. It may seem silly to say that about a Grass-type Pokémon. But if you think about it a little more, it's not. Virtually all Grass-type Pokémon are plants with practically a face or some other type of creature with plant attributes, usually animals.

All existing Plant-type

starters

are animals with plant attributes instead of simply being sentient plants. Bell Sprout is just a sensitive plant. The next candidates would be Hoppip, Skiploom and Jumpluff. These have a secondary Flying type, but that doesn't cause any problems when it comes to canceling their Fire weakness. Additionally, Rowlet and Dartrix are also flying types. They would need a stat boost and evolution level adjustment, but other than that, they're pretty solid options. Well, except they're animals? I guess they're not just some kind of spots. Well, Hoppip's ears looked like a cat's. Then maybe. Next up are Seedot, Nuzleaf, and Shiftry.

These are pretty interesting options, as you start with a pure grass type, but gain a secondary type upon leveling up like many other starters. It would be necessary to change the evolution of the stone in the statistics. But other than that, they are in good condition. Unfortunately, Seedot is just a sentient plant, although yes, unfortunately for this criterion, I don't care. It's a live short acorn, it's so cute. So while Seedot doesn't really fit the animal with the plant attribute design restriction, Nuzleaf and Shiftry aren't just based on plants, but on the Japanese yokai, a tengu,

which

certainly isn't just a plant.

So Seedot doesn't meet the criteria but the other two do. The next ones would be Lotad, Lombre and Ludicolo. But these wouldn't work due to their secondary water type. Not only does that conflict with the trio's other starter type, but it also removes their weakness to Fire. They also wouldn't work as Water type starters for the same reasons. So when I talk about Water-type options, I just won't mention them. Next up would be Budew, Roselia and Roserade, another Grass Poison line. Surely everyone would need a stat boost, plus friendship and glowstone evolutions would have to go.

Other than that, they're pretty solid options except for the fact that they're just plants. Well, Roserade actually has arms and legs and is partially based on someone attending a masquerade ball. So maybe that

could

work. Next up would be Sewaddle, Swadloon and Leavanny. Get rid of the friendship evolution and buff their stats a bit and these could work well, especially since they're not just plants. The main problem with them comes from the 4X weakness to Fire. It might be fine in a game where your opponent picks the weakest starter, but otherwise you'd be screwed in the first battle if the opposing Pokémon already knew Ember.

Next would be Bounsweet, Steenee and Tsareena. They would work great if the stats were tweaked a bit and the evolution method was changed. Steenee and Tsareena are clearly based on more than just a plant and even have a fun signature move, Trop Kick. That's it for our Grass type options. But what about our Fire type options? Well, just like dating in a small town, your options are limited. First there are Magby, Magmar and Magmortar. Their levels and methods of evolution would need to be modified. Additionally, their stats would need a big tune-up as Magby and Magmar have much higher stats than typical starters in their stages.

However, once those changes are made, they will fit well as a three-stage Fire-type line. Then there would be Litwick, Lampent and Chandelure. Their stats, methods, and evolution levels should be tweaked as usual, but these also have a secondary Ghost type. While secondary types are pretty common for beginners, Ghost is pretty OP for the base form, making it immune to tackles, hits, and scratches in the early game. And that is. Those are literally the only two three-stage Fire-type evolutionary lines that aren't starters. And one of them took four generations to reach three stages. There are a couple more that seem to fit like Coalossal and Talonflame, but they don't because the base forms are not Fire types.

Unfortunately, neither Magmortar nor Chandelure meet the typical initial Fire-type criteria of being based on an animal that is part of the Chinese zodiac. Well, I think Cyndaquil is a rat and Fennekin is a dog, but everyone else fits in well. However, we'll have to live with that because of how limited my options are. If we expand it to two-stage Fire-type lines, Rapidash and Camerupt might work well for Horse and Ox, but I'm not going to do that. So they're not here. Now let's move on to the water type options. Poliwag, Poliwhirl, and Poliwrath would all work well in a first-generation game, but the added complexity of Politoed from the second generation onward ruins things in my eyes, just as Bellossom ruins things for the Oddish line.

Next would be Horsea, Seadra and Kingdra. This is a great line but with two big flaws. The first is that Kingdra's Dragon-type is probably too OP, since it is no longer weak to Fire. A starter getting a secondary guy that makes him no longer weak against the guy in the triangle who was strong against him isn't a big deal, he's done it before. Empoleon gained the Steel type, making it no longer weak against Grass, but they fixed that by giving Torterra a secondary type that was strong against Steel Ground. So, in his fully evolved forms, Torterra was still strong against Empoleon.

So, Kingdra could work as a starter if the starting Grass-type got a secondary type that was strong against Kingdra, i.e. Fairy. So if Whimsicott or Shiinotic are third stage, then maybe they'll work well with Kingdra. Dragon type would also work, but Dragon is weak against Dragon, so it would also reverse the triangle and be a bit crazy. But honestly, I still hope they do it one day because that would be crazy. And we'll probably end up with three really great starters. So free play, someday make Water-Dragon, Fire-Dragon and Grass-Dragon starters. However, Dragon writing is not Kingdra's only problem.

The other is that Kingdra has no legs. All water starters are capable of cutting through at least somewhat well on land. The one that drives this the most is Primarina, but she can still move on land, albeit slowly. All other water starters can simply walk up. This is why no water starter has ever been 100% based on aquatic creatures like fish. This is basically a long way of saying that if you put Kingdra on the ground, it would have some problems. Well, not in the games because she would just float, but in the anime she would roll a Golden.

The next option would be like Azurill, Marill and Azumarill. But Azurill is not a Water type. If they would change that then I might consider them. Next up would be Spheal, Sealeo and Walrein. They can traverse land and are a good design progression, but their secondary Ice type makes them strong against Grass early on, which shouldn't be the case for Water beginners. It's okay for a starter to get a secondary type that makes him strong against the other starter who was previously strong against him. The remaining sample was that Infernape got Fighting-type, which made it good against Empoleon's Steel-type.

However, this reversal of the confrontation does not occur until both are fully evolved. If you had a Spheal that could make powder snow as a Grass-type starter at the start of the game, that just wouldn't be fair. Finally there would be Tympole, Palpitoad and Seismitoad. These fit quite well as they can all traverse the ground relatively well, Tympole has to jump. And its secondary types don't cause any problems with the Grass type. In fact, the writing of his lines matches Mudkip's lines exactly. With all options covered, my new preferred starting trio would be Seedot, Magby and Tympole, becoming Shiftry, Magmortar and Seismitoad.

I choose Shiftry because its final evolved form is the least plant-like, aside from maybe Tsareena, but I also love Seedot. I chose Magmortar because my only other option was Chandelure and as I mentioned above, Ghostwriting seemed OP for an early game. Ultimately, I chose Seismitoad because it didn't have any disqualifying factors like all the other Water starter options. So this is my starting replacement trio. Let me know in the comments below which one you would choose. I'd probably go with Magby because while I don't love Magby or Magmar, I quite like Magmortar because the arm cannons are objectively great.

But what if there were initial trios for other types of triangles? What Pokémon would be part of them? Well, the first step is to decide what type of triangles we make initial trios from. And we actually have fewer options than you think. There are many offensive type triangles, for example, Psychic-Fighting-Dark or Ground-Steel-Ice. However, these are not perfect type triangles because while they work in the offensive direction, they do not work in the defensive direction. This Reddit post explains that Grass-Fire-Water is a perfect type triangle, meaning that each type is not only super effective against one type, but also resists it.

The other triangles I mentioned are not perfect because they lack resistance. There is immunity rather than resistance or a combination of both. But there are a few other perfect type triangles besides Grass-Fire-Water that the original Reddit poster mentions in his post. And I'm going to make initial trios for those triangle types. The first of them is Grass-Ground-Poison. The Grass type options are almost the same as before, but with a few different changes. The first is that the Ludicolo line is once again an option because the Water type no longer overlaps and Ludicolo is still weak to Poison.

However, that type overlap issue means I can no longer use Grass Poison-type Pokémon, namely Victreebel and Roserade. Then there are no more options. So what are our floor type options? The first would be Geodude, Graveler and Golem, classic Ground types, but also Rock types. However, this doesn't cause a problem with the triangle type, but it doesn't immediately make them terrible against the Grass starter, which seems unfair to me. Next would be Rhyhorn, Rhydon and Rhyperior. They are in a situation practically identical to that of the Golem line. Next would be Swinub, Piloswine and Mamoswine. These are great too, but their Ice typing makes them strong against the Grass starter, which they are also supposed to be weak.

It's the same problem this field line had. Next would be Trapinch, Vibrava and Flygon. But these have thesame problem as Kingdra: their Dragon type makes them too good and they are no longer weak to Grass. If the Grass launcher has a Fairy or Ice secondary type, this might work, but that's not the case with my existing options. Next up are Gible, Gabite, and Garchomp. They have the same problem as the Flygon line. The final land options are Sandile, Krokorok, and Krookodile. They have a secondary Dark-type from the start, but that doesn't cause problems with the Grass Ground Poison-type triangle.

These are probably the best options. Finally, the Poison, Weedle, Kakuna, and Beedrill type options cannot be used on Ground due to their Bug type. The Nidoking and Nidoqueen lines are almost good enough, but they are secondary Earth types at the end that cause overlap. Zubat, Golbat, and Crobat are not weak to Ground, so they don't work. Gastly, Haunter and Gengar have the problem of writing Ghost, I mentioned it with the Chandelure line, plus the first two are not weak to Earth. Victreebel and Roserade overlap with Grass as I mentioned above. So the bug type of Venipede, Whirlipede and Scolipede doesn't make them weak to the ground like the Weedle line.

And those are all my options, just disqualified like that. Wow. What the hell? Why are there so many Poison types that simply aren't weak to Ground? So it seems like this trio is impossible to complete correctly, at least in the way I was building it. However, since I've already done all this work, I don't want to throw it away. So I'm going to pick a two-stage Poison Pokémon to finish it off just because I can and I'll stick with Arbok, just because snakes are cool. So for the final trio, I choose our Arbok for the reasons I just mentioned, Krookodile because it's the best Ground-type option, and Ludicolo because I love Ludicolo.

I must say that even though this trio has many flaws, it looks great. The next perfect trio of types is Rock-Flying-Fighting. Golem and Rhyperior are the first Rock-type options, which I already covered in the Ground-type segment, and they work better here because they no longer have the drawback of the 4X weakness. Well. They still have their 4X weaknesses, but they come from types that are not in the type triangle. Then it's okay. The Alolan variants of the Geodude line are also options now and their Electric type is not a problem as it does not affect their matchup with Fighting or Flying, it gives them another type to beat Flying with, but they were already good.

Against. Next up would be Larvitar, Pupitar and Tyranitar, a trio was not an option for Ground since Tyranitar is not a Ground type. The type change from Rock-Ground to Rock-Dark is not a problem since the Rowlet line saw the type change at the same point. Next up would be Aron, Lairon and Aggron, but their steel type is a problem as they would be 4 times weaker to fight from the start, which would be really unfair. Next up are Roggenrola, Boldore and Gigalith. These are very solid options, as they are just a good all-around good Rock-type, and Gigalith is an amazing Pokémon to boot.

Finally there is Rolycoly, Carkol and Coalossal. The Fire type, like many other secondary types mentioned, does not cause any conflict with Flying or Fighting. The following are the Flying type options. The regional bird lines of Pidgeot, Staraptor, Unfezant, Talonflame, and Toucannon seemed to work, but their normal type is actually a problem as it causes them to no longer resist fighting in their base forms, which is something I think they should do. Zubat, Golbat, and Crobat could all work, though perhaps too well since 4X resisted Fighting from the start. Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff are options that work well since their Grass type has no conflicts.

Finally there is Rookidee, Corvisquire, and Corviknight, the only line that has pure Flying types at any time. Corviknight's Steel typing makes it no longer weak to Rock, but if Rock's starter gets a secondary type that Corviknight is weak to, that's fine, as is the situation with Empoleon and Torterra. Lastly, for this trio are the Fighting type options. Machop, Machoke, and Machamp are a classic option with no secondary types to confuse things. Really, the only other fighting option is Timburr, Gurdurr, and Conkeidurr. The Pokémon was intended to be the Unova version of the Machamp line. With all the options laid out, the trio I'm left with are Machop, Rolycoly, and Rookidee, becoming Machamp, Coalossal, and Corviknight in their final forms.

I chose Machamp simply because I like it better than Conkeldurr, but Coalossal and Corviknight need a little more explanation. I really wanted to use the Corviknight line because I love the fact that Rookidee and Corvisquire start out as pure flying types. It makes it much cleaner. However, as I mentioned above, Corviknight is not weak to Rock, so I could only pick a Rock starter that had a secondary type that Corviknight was weak too. Fortunately, I actually had two options, Alolan Golem with its Electric type and Coalossal with its Fire type. I chose Coalossal because I liked that Rolycoly starts out as a pure Rock type while Alolan Geodude is Rock Electric.

And also, I like Coalossal more than Alolan Golem. And now, the perfect final Fire-Steel-Rock trio. The Fire type options are the same two options we had before. But the Rock type options are much less than in the previous triangle type. The Aggron and Coalossal lines are no longer options due to overlapping types. Additionally, while Rock Ground types are still weak to Steel, they are also not good options since they all start as Rock Grounded, meaning they would be good against the starting Steel type right away. All the other Rock-type options I mentioned above are still fair game.

Now we just need to go over the Steel type options. First there are Magnemite, Magneton and Magnezone. They are secondary electrical types that do not cause conflicts with this triangle. Next would be Beldum, Metang and Metagross. They would need a power nerf and Beldum would really need to learn moves, but other than that they're fine since his psychic type isn't a conflict. Finally there are Klink, Klang and Klinklang, pure steel types without any problems. With all of these options covered, my Fire Steel Rock trio is Magby, Klink, and Roggenrola becoming Magmortar, Klinklang, and Gigalith. I chose Magmortar for the same reasons as before, not having the Ghost type.

I chose Gigalith because I love Gigalith. And the only other option was Alolan Golem and Klinklang was chosen to preserve the unique writing of the entire trio, which I thought was nice and clean. Long story short, my Grass Fire Water trio consisted of Shiftry, Magmortar, and Seismitoad. My Grass Ground Poison trio was Ludicolo, Krookodile, and Arbok, my Fighting Rock Flying trio was Machamp, Coalossal, and Corviknight, and my Fire-Steel-Rock trio was Magmortar, Klinklang, and Gigalith. Let me know in the comments below which Pokémon from each of these starting trios would be your choice. And thank you very much for watching.

With an eager special thanks to my Patreon patrons for helping support my channel regardless of YouTube's ad rate fluctuations. Do you want to help support me in the same way? The link is in the description below. Also, if you want to see more Pokémon content from my background, I recommend these videos here. Alright. That's all I have for now. So until next time, I have to catch you all.