Blastoise vs Feraligatr - Pokemon Crystal 

Hey everyone and welcome back to the latest installment of Scotts show "Both of these two pokemon can learn mud-slap but Gligar can not!".

I think the reason Emboar got so much hate was because he was the 3rd Fire/Fighting starter in a row(Blaziken then Infernape). It was more a fatigue issue than a design one. Great, now I wanna do an Emboar run...

I love the bit about the egg. Prof Elm is entrusting you with the mysterious pokemon egg cause he has so much faith in you since it's so important. Then Scott just immediately throws it in the trash once his aide leaves.

My favourite part of this video will inevitably be when Feraligatr says "It's gator time" and proceeds to beat Karen and Red without any resets

Scott: "There is only 1 Grass-Type Pokémon in the league!" Will's Exeggutor: "I'm a joke to you?!"

I actually knew about Mind Reader/Lock-On allowing you to hit Pokemon using Fly/Dig, because that was specifically taught in the Academy in Pokemon Stadium 2, with an entire trial battle focused on hitting Pokemon using Fly/Dig.

Rapid Spin is absolutely invaluable in competitive GSC. Spikes are extremely powerful, especially since instead of having 3 layers that do 1/16 each as in Gen 3 and beyond, they're a single layer that do 1/8. They're so powerful that Pineco is used in NU to set them up since all of the fully evolved Spikes setters are in the higher tiers (Forretress and Cloyster in OU and Qwilfish in UU). EDIT: I was incorrect about Spikes from Gen 3 on. The first layer does still do 1/8, and then the second layer is a fairly small increase in damage, I want to say around 1/6, then the third layer is 1/4. But even in modern gens, just one layer of Spikes is powerful.

Ypu know, I think we could make a decent "which mon is most fun to play" tier list by ranking mons by the ratio of the time their playthrough is on screen to their play times.

@Scott's Thoughts - Being able to get a time like that with no hidden power i think deserves something to show that fact (metric). Can i suggest putting a star or using the shiny sprite on the tier list for Pokemon that don't use hidden power? i really think that its important to some how show that fact in the rankings.

At the end of the day it feels like it came down to feraligator having stronger return and therefore better damage ranges, makes sense why he's the #1

I'm not surprised that the water starters did so well. Having access to surf relatively early gives them an amazingly powerful & reliable STAB move that the other's don't get. The fire types can get flamethrower, but that happens a lot later in the game, and the grass types don't get anything. One thing I feel is interesting when comparing gen 1 & 2 is the significance of the differing gym orders. In gen 1, the gyms types give a significant advantage to the grass types in the early game, a tough mid game for the water types and a late game advantage to the fire type, but that isn't really true in gen 2. Gen 2 is kind-of mean to grass types for most of Johto, whereas the Johto gyms tend to be easier for fire and water types in general. Flying & Bug gyms are a lot harder for grass types than rock & water ones, which maybe be why the Chikorita line is so defensive.

These videos are always a key part of my Saturdays to watch comfortably on my couch with a nice drink and snack

This was a really awesome versus series! Like I figured it would definitely be close for Feraligatr vs Blastoise, but it was like really really close! I wonder in the future for Emerald, we see 3-way versus videos for each of the starter types?

I wanted Blastoise to win so badly but the extra attack came in clutch. Especially with Red's Snorlax. Doing the gen 2 vs gen 1 starters was a lot of fun, thanks again Scott!

Just saw the second run... *WOW!* I...I have no words. These two did so well in Generation 2. Great job, Scott!

You are the man, Scott. Thank you for always giving us this incredible content. It was really neat to see how the 6 Pokémon stacked up against one another, and it now makes even more sense why Feraligatr is the speed runner’s choice for Gen 2. Keep up the awesome work!

I just love how each pair ends up ranked with exactly one Pokemon between them. Heck of a mini-series!

The transition at 29:30 really looks like you're taking a ladder to Jasmin's gym full of lava straight out of ice path lol. I always love the smooth edits in your videos Scott!

I really think feraligatr should have been given the dark type. It looks like a dark type. It was the new type in the game.

Thank you for the amazing series Scott, it's think they are my favorite on your channel. Totodile was my starter choice when I was a kid and I'm happy to see its final form perform so exceptionally well!

Scott - I have absolutely loved the trio of Gen 1 / Gen 2 Starters Versus Series. I have watched each of them 3 or more times. I think you did great in each of the runs, but I was particularly impressed with Feraligatr's Optimized Play-through. That was such a sick time. My favorite video of the 3 is definitely the Fire Starter video. You killed Typholusion's run as well, but the best part of that video was how much you managed to improve Charizard's Optimized Play-through - compared to its first run. These were some of your best work - if not your outright best work IMO.

"Blastoise can learn defense curl, it is a turtle after all" Turtles, well known for their flexible bodies that curl into a ball for defense.

Hell yes, feraligatr is my favorite water type. Great end result :)

I've missed your uploads since Ampharos but I'm glad I tuned in for this one, becauee WOW those final times are amazing! I like both of these starters and I'll be watching the other two vs videos as well, as this is exactly what I was waiting to see. Physical attacking usually means it won't do as well as a special attacker, but Feraligatr really proves that wrong today. What a great video!

Love your videos, Scott!

This is actually a seriously underrated thumbnail. You know what. I love it.

Great series Scott, you're really finding your stride. Also Shout-out to the editors! These videos are so well polished!

"Vileplume is the only grass type in the E4" - sad Exeggutor noises

Great video Scott, this series of vs videos was amazing.

I love your channel Scott, I’m glad I found you years ago on this platform

Gold was my first mainline Pokemon game and I instantly fell in love with the feraligatr line. He really is a bit too easy maybe, but it makes him a great introduction to the game if you're a tiny baby person.

Pleasantly surprised that Blastoise put in the showing it did. When I saw the stat distribution with no real powerful attack stats I was worried about a blowout.

In Meganium’s defence, it had the lowest level compared to all the others, which is a decent consolation prize. This has been an interesting series to watch. My favoured starters for the Gen 1 and 2 won their races (Venusaur and Typhlosion respectively). I might need to look into the water types a bit more and see if I can do a good general play through with them. I might have done a Squirtle run-through long ago and far away, so need to revisit. Putting a request to re-do Pokémon Yellow with Persian, Starmie and Kadabra. They are some of my favourites and are in my party often. Cheers! Keep up the excellent work!

Awesome runs by both of them:) Wouldn't fury cutter have helped Feraligatr with the Bayleef in the rival fight after Bugsy (to then be replaced by bite right after, probably)? Either way, awesome job, as always! You're incredible

This video series has been an amazing ride from start to finish, and it has been VERY satisfying seeing it scientifically confirmed without a doubt that childhood-me made the correct choice and picked Totodile as my very first starter pokémon ever ^^

Today was a hard day at work so i was so happy to come home and watch this.

It is interesting how you mention Feraligatr's Surf feeling weak when you were younger, because it is actually on par with Typhlosion's Fire Punch. The Base Power of the move makes up for the Special disadvantage. So until you get Flamethrower, Feraligatr's STAB hit as hard on the Special side as Typh's does.

Ahh I really needed this video to release today for night time anxiety reasons, thanks

You mentioned there only being one grass type in the league: Karen's Vileplume Another is Exeggutor but since Blastoise one hits it, I don't think forgetting to mention it is that big of a deal 😅

Hi first of all i am so excited my first EVER mon vs my fav starter of gen 1. Its E P I C!!!! Im sooooo happy Feraligatr did soooo well. I was a bit dissapointed in gen 2 Feraligatr since ive learned what physical/special attack distribution and what it means for Feraligatr and it saddend me greatly. Thank you for this result. Thank you very much!

Amazing video, as per usual, scott! Would you ever consider doing a legendary birds vs legendary beasts series? Would love to see how they stack up against each other!

Went through your catalog and didn't seem these combinations so thought I'd mention them: Poliwrath v. Politoed Slowbro v. Slowking Macargo v. Torkoal (emerald) Quagsire v. Octillery Love your channel. It is very relaxing and nostalgic

Wow,both of them had some incredible results, I was betting on Feraligatr ,but I'd never thought that would have the best time in gen 2 thus far.😊 Feraligatr was my first starter in crystal, so this run was kind of reminded me of how it was dominating the gen 2 games. I wonder if it could do that in firered or in emerald as well, without relying on ice punch basically.🤔 Maybe you should do a rematch with these in firered ,that could be an interesting concept to try out. Blastoise and Feraligatr could do it without hidden power , which amazing in its own right,and basically the access to a ground move and to an early ice move made these two unstoppable. I think that using dig to counter Miltank's rollout could have been a safer strat for some Pokémon especially if they are not as fast as Miltank is .😊 Other than that, these last three videos were really on point when it comes to the editing and the visual details. Well done 🫡☺️

"There's only one Grass-type in the League." *Will's Exeggutor huddles in the corner and tries to stifle its audible sobs.*

I'm happy to see Blastoise perform well because I love the Squirtle line. I suspected it would get beat out for the best time, so I'm glad I actually got a prediction right 😅

Feraligatr best water starter. Can’t change my mind

The Gligar economy stocks are dropping once more

That’s my boy, FeraligatR 🥲

When you mentioned the Ice path being the game telling you to catch an ice type before Clair that's actually something that I did as a kid. I got stuck on her quite a few times since dragons resisted some of my strongest pokemon and the combination of all her pokemon did super effective damage to most of my team. As a result, I started catch Jynx often just for this gym since I didn't want to drop any of my beloved pokemon long term. She learns ice punch at level 25 which was only a few levels after you caught her so it worked out really well.

Been a long week waiting for this

Wow, these mons are units. Can't believe how quickly they smashed through the game.

And thus the starters are complete. This was a fun ride, great work!

I loved the starter battle series! You should do the same thing with the different regional categories (Butterfree vs Ledian, Beedrill vs Ariados, Sentret vs Raticate, etc)

"Typhlosion edging Charizard" is not a line I ever expected to hear

They (and you!) did so well! So impressive.

My two favorite starters in my favorite region of Pokemon with the revelation that three of my favorite Pokemon in the gen are at the top. Perfection.

The additional ice coverage is just so good for water types, especially in a solo run context. I think this will always make a good water type like the starters a top contender. The other two starter types can sadly not compete with that in most cases but that might change (and already did in emerald for now) with future games and better movepools across the board.

Love watching these videos!!

That 105 base atk with 102 base power return really does wonders for Feraligatr

Thank you for doing this. I kind of figured Feraligatr was gonna be the best, Blastoise I felt was gonna beat the original starters cus of the orginal Pokemon game, but I expected the best from Feraligatr because I've seen speed runs and as far as I know they always choose Totodile as their starter. It was fun to see this, haha tho nowadays in todays remakes I'm sure Feraligatr would still be solid but I have a feeling Blastoise would probably get closer to last place. 😂

1:24 I think the most important thing keeping Charizard close to Typhlosion in terms of time was the fact he learns Flamethrower at level 34 while Typhlosion has to wait until 60. I lost count of how many times I solo’d Silver with Ty, and that always bugs me even today. Edit: Love your videos, by the way. Even my kids watch them with me sometimes.

my favorite poketuber strikes again and imo the best poketuber on platform i really wish i could meet u one day shake your hand give u a hug and thank u... u just seem so chill and awesome the way u talk is so down to earth don't be afraid to use to cuss words either alot of us our age prefer it

Feraligatr my favorite Pokémon from day one. Love to see it!

Just saw the first run...I was NOT expecting them to be *THAT* close!

Great versus video!

My favorite Starters won each Race! I'm so happy!

I've noticed that the gyms throughout the series have interesting placements. Diglet Tunnel near Vermillion Two caves around Azalea Cinnabar is an island "Grassy" patches near Cerulean Just on top of my head from the first two gens alone

Wasn't expecting the video to become twice as nice in such a short turnaround~

Firaligator to this day is my favorite starter. My boy did amazing 👏

Yaaaaaay another thought from my man Scott!

"Dog" -everywhere in Elden Ring, where one can find a turtle

I did have to laugh when you said you didn’t know if Rapid Spin was any good in Gen 2 competitive. RS is what give entire mons, teams and play styles viability in Gen 2 OU. It’s a defining feature of certain mons like Starmie, Golem, Smeargle, and yes, Blastoise.

oh my wow, I didn't see that coming, fair enough that is exactly how well I thought Blastoise would do, your Yellow run showed us the way with how good it could be, but Feraligatr just straight up blasted through the game and Lugia and out of the top spot, you're gonna have to run Mewtwo to top that, I loved this VS series, what you gonna do next, Gen 1 VS Gen 3 starters in Fire Red, how about Racihu vs Light Ball Pikachu?

Fun fact: bite is the only move to change damage types twice. From physical to special from gen 1 to gen 2 and back to physical later

WOO, I love the Totodile line, debatably my favorite from the entire series but I expected it to lose out because his STAB was weaker so he could miss some neutral hits but happy to be wrong.

Spikes are the only hazard in gen 2, so rapid spin is very good to have, but not a hard requirement like it was after stealth rock was introduced iirc

Wow that were some amazing runs. Now I‘m kinda curious how a pikachu with the light ball item would perform in crystal.

I’m loving this series

Thoughts on this run: Water is a good consistent type that's never bad in a Pokemon game. Especially when Surf is earlier to get in Gen 1 and 2. Since then, Surf is now in the midgame territory where you need Surf to progress except for Kalos, where you get Surf after beating the 3rd Gym Leader. Water types in Johto, while not as advantageous as the Fire types, are still very good. There's not a lot threatening Grass types other than Bayleaf in the earlygame, Vileplume and Venusaur in the lategame. And, it's only the Magnemite line for Electric types with average Special Defense when you have access to Surf when you get to Ecruteak City. They have Return for good Physical damage. And, even without Ice Punch, Icy Wind gets the job done for the ones who get Icy Wind instead of Ice Punch. After that, you have Ice Beam for Venusaur at the end. Feraligatr really did get one of the fastest times ever. The fact that it beats Lugia really tells me that Mewtwo might be the only one who can beat Feraligatr's time. And even then, I don't think that's gonna be a possibility, given that Mewtwo is leveling up slowly. And, it now has problems with not only Karen, but also Snorlax with that massively buffed Special Defense. It may have higher Attack than Feraligatr for non STAB Returns, but the Slow growth rate might be enough to hold it back from beating Feraligatr. Plus, if Mewtwo wants to use a Fighting move to deal with Karen and Snorlax, you either use HP Fighting, which gives out horrendous DVs, or Dynamic Punch, which is obviously worse than Hypnosis. As for Blastoise, pretty good. Blastoise is excellent in Fire Red and Leaf Green speedruns. Blastoise in Gen 1 Speedruns is not too shabby if you are not gonna be cheesing with Nidoking. For a defensive tank like Blastoise, it did very well. Being a Water type is far better defensively than being a Grass type like Meganium. Plus, having good and diverse coverage in the attacking department really helps.

Looking at this more, I think having native access to Ice Punch or Ice Beam is a good indicator of a pokemon's ability to succeed in gen 2. They trivialize Lance who can be a roadblock and mean you don't need to use Hidden Power for it. And generally if you have native access to a decent ice move, you also have access to water moves because those two tend to go together and if _that's_ the case then you don't really need to fear Jasmine either since the Magnemites aren't very tough and the Steelix is weak to water and has abysmal special defense. And of course it makes the Charizards and Arcanine trivial through the late game too.

I was going to mention this before but rapid spinners have been a staple in all aspects of VGC and Singles due to how common hazards are. Usually a team with have one or two Pokémon dedicated to spinning and hazard setting respectively. This also gives utility to lower power pokemon such as misdreavus and gastly who would otherwise have no use other than being a spin blocker.

Great vid Scott! Why no HiddenPower Fighting for Snorlax? Keep up the vids mate!

BTW Rapid Spin is a pretty good move competitively in Gen 2. While it isn't as important as it will be in later generations, it's not uncommon to run into teams that set spikes.

Blastoise has always and will always be my favorite Pokémon it was my very first starter vack in h days of rad and blue it has cannons how can you not love that

This is the one I've been looking forward to! I have no idea who could win this! I'm rooting for blastoise, though 😏

I gotta say, I really really like the execution on this starter vs series! Comparing the starters to their respective type counterpart was really interesting, considering how close each matchup ended up being. I’m also excited to see how the unevolved starters perform in Yellow!

In cases like the one where you froze the shiny gyrados you could catch it to use as your waterfall user and skip the dratini, but that probably wouldn't change things as far as saving more than a few seconds.

Could there have been a slight time saving with blastoise by skipping learning ice beam? Assuming ice punch would have hit the ranges (with nevermeltice) against Blue and the 2 hit against Reds venasaur?

These videos are always cool, what i wonder is if you would consider back porting pokemon from future gens like 3 and 4 to crystal, like say do mightiena or shiftry to crystal to see how they do, anf wonderful video

Grass i "rooted" for Venusaur. Fire i was hoping Typhlosion would "scorch" the competition. I love both these starters so honestly im happy with either of them winning so im gonna have to "wave" my pick

Hey! I really like your videos but I have one small advise. Maybe you could tune the background music a bit lower. I don't know but I noticed often that It's kinda stressing me out while you are talking :D keep going, I dig you videos!

What do you think about adding number of inputs as a metric? For every mandatory event it would be even for every pokemon, but somewhat tallies how many moves or interactions a poke needs and how long dialogue can take

Just for your information: this vid is missing in your VS Playlist. PS: Great format and vids :3

Idk who to root for. On one hand we have the guy who cracks the top 3 all time list for gen 1 starters, on the other, we have the nasty but thicc final form of my favorite mon.

Awesome video!

The winner of each of these should go against the their Gen 3 equivalent in Emerald

Feeling very proud of my favorite starter right now

AAA I'm really happy with these results. Of course, I'm a huge fan of Totodile, so of course I'm going to be rooting for Feraligatr! I'm really happy that the lower special attack stat didn't slow it down too much - it seems to have just the stats it needs for the most part. A bit of an aside, but when I rewatched your Typhlosion run, it came to me a thought something I find annoying with Gen II - the fact that they removed Rock Slide as a TM. They eventually re-added it in Gen IV, giving more Pokemon access to the move who didn't have it before Gen IV (such as Aerodactyl and Typhlosion), and I feel this would've been a really nice moveset upgrade for many Pokemon as an alternative to moves like Hidden Power and Rollout.

since you said you don't know- rapid spin is/was amazing for gen 2 competitive play, it's what put Fortress and Golem in OU tier, while greatly boosting the usability of Starmie, Tentacruel and Cloyster

I love the Water starters of early gens. Carrying me across water with a strong STAB since 1998