How Game Freak Broke Starter Pokemon 

Happy JPR Friday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start 🎉 Also made a minor oopsie when discussing the Gmax forms, meant to say that Blastoise and Venusaur won the Junior & Senior divisions, not Junior & Masters, my b 😅

I’ll never forget how much potential decidueye had as a sniper archer BUT THEN GOT THE MOST MID STAT DISTRIBUTION IMAGINABLE. They done my boy dirty

The fact that Game freak put an Incineroar in Kieran's team shows that they know they created a monster

Game Freak's intentions with Meganium need to be studied 💀

the thumbnail reminds me of Casey's Chikorita vs Ash's Charizard from the Johto anime

Meganium should get Regenerator. If it's gonna be a punching bag, it might as well make the opponent suffer to earn that KO.

2:48 just wanna say, Venusaur’s Base Speed stat is indeed 80, and doubling that IS 160. However, Chlorophyll doesn’t double the BASE speed of a Pokemon, it doubles the actual speed stat. For example, a Venusaur at level 100 with max speed investment will have a speed stat of 284. With Chlorophyll, that number gets doubled to 568. Which means its speed is basically equivalent to Base 209

The sad thing is that Inteleon has the stats of a good singles Pokémon, but definitely got robbed in the ability apartment.

Who at Gamefreak had the brilliant idea of giving Sniper to a special attacker when most high-crit moves are physical?

I am still beyond salty on how terrible GF treated both Delphox and Chesnaught while trying to make Greninja Charizard 2.0. I don't think there's ever been a generation where GF blatantly synthesized a favorite as much as they did with generation 6's trio. From stats, movepool, broken abilities, a pseudo mega form, anime screen time, to even animations in game, Greninja was just handed it all. Meanwhile, Delphox's signature move was delegated to being an apology letter coverage option for removing HP Fire, it's in game animations were truly a travesty that made it stiff as a board, and also got a hidden ability that might as well be a joke. Chesnaught over here got a severe allergy to flying types in a gen dominated by Talonflame, and also was the one starter to possibly receive the least amount of screen time in the anime (Chesnaught specifically). Listen, I do not hate Greninja, he's objectively cool and I did use him quite a bit. But I can only really see Gren as the starter that GF MADE from the ground up to be the favorite, rather than trying their hand to balance the other two starters accordingly to be just as loved. I can't be too harsh on the frog, it got nerfed pretty badly in gen 9, whilst also being just straight surpassed somewhat by both Cinderace and Meowscarada. But either way, I really think GF shifted their paradigm in starter mechanical design after they kind of blundered gen 6's trio. I've noticed that they really do want to try and emphasize a uniqueness to each starter to be a valuable member that can be used beyond the game credits ... some more than others (Incineroar). I do genuinely think Gen 9 has one of the best starter trios that we've gotten in a long time, in terms of mechanical power & balance. Here's hoping they can keep this trend going with Gen 10, and future regional starter variants moving forward.

To this day, I can’t believe they gave Meganium Leaf Guard. Why couldn’t they give it something useful? Maybe we’ll get a regional or mega in Pokémon Z-A.

5:45 Since Gen 5, all of the Unova starters had a signature move. Samurott had Razor Shell, Emboar and Heat Crash, and Serperior had Leaf Tornado

A bit bummed that you didn't mention about Primarina. Primarina's immense special stats (highest SpAtk and SpDef among ALL Non-Mega starters) and excellent typing make it great/acceptable in singles and doubles. However, in Showdown it had always lived in UU due to the superior Water/Fairy Tapu Fini. Then, Fini gets dexited from Gen 9, allowing Primarina to jump to OU, and as of August 2024, is the 15th most used OU mon. Edit: Primarina is also currently the most used starter in OU (among 3 others) and is the only Alola mon in OU.

What bothered me to no end, the Gen VI starters do not get mega evolutions while the Kanto and Hoenn starters do. Greninja does get a pseudo-mega-ish to coincide with the anime. But nothing for Chesnaught and Delphox.

I really hope meganium gets a mega/regional form someday, IT NEEDS SOMETHING

3:23 the Blaziken's name being censored is concerning

Gen 1 Starters: YEAH! We got mega evolutions and G-Max forms! We’re good again! Incineroar: 😛

I seriously wish that Swampert had a better hidden ability instead of Damp, I think the Regenerator ability would fit well since it's based on an axolotl, such a missed opportunity 🤦‍♂️

"gen 6 starter signature moves are disappointing" spiky shield is incredibly good though? Like moxie boosted recently put it as the best move in all of vgc, it's just a straight up better protect

Typhlosion: Heeey! I got myself a regional form! Meganium: Heeey! I'm getting mine next! Typhlosion: Heeey! I doubt it!

2:58 I petition we use JPR’s ability descriptions from now on (or if it’s the editor is coming up with it).

You made an error with Venusaur. Venusaur doesn't get a base 160 speed stat in the sun. Any ability or item that doubles a certain stat does not double the base stat, but the actual stat that you can see in its summary. A max speed Venusaur has a speed stat of 284, in the sun that would be 568, which is even faster than max speed Regieleki, which has a base speed of 200, its max speed is 548.

Greninja Gets defeated in anime for plot Immediately gets hardest Nerf in Pokemon history (which sucks more for him since he isn't pure type) Gets nerfed in smash etc etc Isn't present in many games after his introduction even though oldest starters were Gets sidelined by basically a grass type greninja which is one point faster...

4:36 It should have debuted as just Kecleon's hidden ability and I will die on that hill.

Maybe all starters could get a stat buff so they sit at 550? It'd be a small change that could be just enough to buy them a niche.

Mega Blaziken is worse than its regular form actually. Mega Blaziken can’t hold a Focus Sash to save it from being screwed over when it tries to click swords dance. Yeah, the Mega is faster, but that doesn’t matter when you’re gonna be outspeeding everything in only a few turns. Also, you can use a different and stronger Mega.

I thought Incineroar's dominance would only last for its own generation. Boy, was I wrong. As long as Game Freak keeps coding it into future games, it's never gonna go away!

Anyone: Mentions competitive Incineroar: Someone call? If not I can just Parting Shot out.

I know it won't happen, but I'm still hoping that Meganium will be a regional form Starter in Legends ZAAAAA... and that they'll actually make it good, not just bad again.

Torterra has shell smash now

In Inclement Emerald, they changed Meganium's hidden ability to Triage which gives priority to healing moves like Giga Drain. They also made it Grass/Fairy and gave it access to Draining Kiss. Not sure if any of this would be enough to make Meganium workable competitively, but at least it's something. That and they gave Delphox Magic Guard to ignore Stealth Rock.

Inteleon is already one of the most hated starters and then they also dunked on him in competitive, damn it.

Venusaur doesn’t have base 160 speed under sunlight, that’s not how it’s calculated

Mentions Hisuian samurot… doesn’t mention its signature move being one of the craziest moves added to the singles format.

"Why are we still here, just to suffer" -me a Meganium fan

Honestly last couple games I didn’t really vibe with any of the starters, and ended up using Pokemon I’ve not used before. Snowrunt -> Glalie for Sword, and Pineco -> Foretress for Scarlet. Interesting change to my main pokemon’s type matchups.

Incineroar just need Body Press and he gonna solo UBERS. EDIT: He only has 90 def, so it's not as strong as i thought it was.

Meganium is like that one friend who you're super chill with but is really easy to make fun of.

I used grookey in a shield play through and it became my favourite line so now people probably think I'm a competitive player

I never understood why venusaur got chlorophyll. It never came across like faster in the sun. You would think he would have got tanks ability

Love how you mentioned Tapu Bulu and Kartana as one of few answers to Mega Swampert in gen 6, when they weren’t out till Gen 7, right before segwaying to Gen 7

As a meganium fan, it makes me very sad But as a massive Blaziken&serperior fan (both in my top5 fav mon of all time) it makes me exceedingly happy (also charizard for being in my top10 I suppose)

Hidden Ability changes I would like: Blastoise: Mega Launcher Meganium: Triage Typhlosion: Drought Swampert: Regenerator Sceptile: Sharpness Torterra: Solid Rock Samurott: Swift Swim, also Ceaseless Edge Chesnaught: Iron Barbs Decidueye: Long Reach now gives a 1.3× boost to non-contact moves, also Triple Arrows

Watch them make totally Grass + Steel Meganium with Arena Trap regional forme (keep in mind Grass is the type that sucks but is good because it counters really good types, so any decent grass with a trapping ability would be completely busted)

I am now gonna spend my life trying to make a meganium thats kinda competitive

Primarina is also quite the monster was UU in 7 and gen 8 and is a OU staple in gen 9

Samurott: I don’t get it, how are you so much better than me? Hisuian Samurott: Let me see your swords. Samurott: [hands Hisuian Samurott his swords] Hisuian Samurott: Hmph, no wonder, I’ve seen hammers sharper than these blades.

7:27 Speaking of Lando-T, I think it’s important to note that Incin slowly managed to power creep it and drive it into minimal usage over the past couple years

Wait, didn't Empoleon's hidden ability Defiant was changed to competitive during gen 9.

Give this poor Meganium the fairy type or something... show some mercy !

I feel like Meganium should get a combination of Filter and Tinted Lens as a way of compensating for it being so mid. Call it… Power Flower

4:15 Looks like a mistake was made here. You're talking about Shell Armor for regular Samurott, but the pop up is for Hisuian Samurott's hidden ability, Sharpness, which you bring about later in the video. Oops.

2:55 Remember, it's the actual stat that doubles. Worth mentioning that there's been a tiny bit of BST escalation.

I really wish swampert gets regenerator with its flip turn.

Meowscarada is a prime example of a broken competitive starter.

Gen 3 started with signature moves Swampert Muddy Water, Blaziken Blaze Kick, Sceptile Leaf Blade. Gen 4 kinda didn’t have one besides Empoleon with aqua jet… Gen 5 heat crash, razor shell and i forgot what serperiors was

I'm just glad my favorite starter is viable. Contrary leaf storm is so much fun

I remember how excited I was that Meganium got new moves in gen 9 only for it to still be terrible one day Meganium will be good or decent idk ;-;.

JPR, you got the doubling wrong in misapplying to mean base stat instead of their actual stat yet again & Growth got buffed in Gen 5 to include both Attack & Special Attack like Work Up (twice that in sun). Think of Chlorophyll & its weather ilk (Swift Swim, Sand Rush, & Slush Rush) like an Agility/Rock Polish boost, & fathom how much Sceptile would appreciate Growth & getting Thunder Punch coverage back with mixed potential. You should also see how much of buffs Sinnoh starter lines got this gen

As a very early casual pokemon fan of the first 5 generations the power creep in modern pokemon is scary.

Don't talk about my daughter Chikorita like that

They could've gave Meganium Thick Fat for its HA

Torterra popped off in the Teal Mask🎲

It's pretty ironic that serperior is the best starter from unova competitively when in the unova games, it's barely even usable. Its movepool is so shallow it's not even knee deep and grass doesn't get a lot of good matchups in unova besides Clay and Marlon Like they should have given it some rock, ground, psychic and more offensive and accessible poison, flying, steel and dragon coverage with at least 70 base power. Heck, even give it superpower to really take advantage of contrary

Considering Samurott's stats are geared toward being a mixed-attacker, I'm _really_ disappointed it ended up with a defensive ability of all things -- and not a very good one. Samurott doesn't even benefit from negating crits, since it doesn't get Iron Defense or any Defense/Sp. Defense-boosting moves. Sharpness is a no-brainer, but if you wanna differentiate the Samurott forms between Sp. Attack and Attack, even just No Guard for perfectly-accurate Hydro Pumps and Blizzards (it doesn't get Focus Blast for some reason) would go a long way. Hell, if it NEEDS to have Shell Armor, why not just double down and give it Shell Smash?

9:15 LET'S GO!!! BLASTOISE, MY BOY!

Incineroar being good in double is probably on perpose he a tag team wrestler

Empoleon & Swampert are the goats for being competitively viable in solid tiers, OU & UU mostly, without really using their hidden abilities, damp is useless & defiant on Emp is extremely niche. two goated bulky waters

I haven't seen the vid, I probably won't, but the Johto reference! 👌 *chef's kiss*

Someone did not do their Primarina research. Top tier UU and niche in OU in Gen 7/8 and is currently OU in Gen 9 and VGC players think it might be great in Reg H.

That thumbnail has to be a reference to Ash's Charizard battling Casey's Chikorita in Johto or Richie's Pikachu in the Orange Islands

I think game freck did that on purpose because they know we going keep are strongest pokemon on are team.

My (overleveled) Serperior in Black Version: I'm too weak That same Serperior in Teal Mask: UNLIMOTED POWER!!!!

The fact that GameFreak doesn't make any stat adjustments to the Starters/change their regular form typing, makes me sad.

Some old starters need better hidden abilities to give them a competitive niche Then there are starters who want better distributed stats (or just a straight up stat buff in the case of Infernape) And of course updated move pools is always nice to have

Love the mini rant about the name, starter pokemon, at the beginning lol

Meowscarada uses Overgrow instead of Protean in VGC. Meowscarda's typing is actually good in VGC and changing to a pure type could be a very bad idea. Dark type protects from Prankster. Grass type protects from Spore and prevents redirection from Rage powder. The best reason is that Grass Tera Overgrow Flower Trick is a great always critical hitting defense stat ignoring nuke. Especially in a format where Dondozo is rampant. Dondozo's unaware prevents stat boost, which Meowscarda doesn't use anyway. Which meant that it is usually the only attack that can hit Dondozo that hard. Focus sash also allows Overgrow to more likely happen

Just slap Protean on everything and then they will be fine.

4:16 Ah yes, regular Samurott with Sharpness Armor. My favorite starter in gen 5

Gens 1-2 had very generalist statlines to get through the game, and they started min maxing and handing out signature moves in Gen 3. That said, the Kanto guys got new forms, Typhlosion got eruption, and Gatr got sheer force and lot of great setup and coverage options. Meganium has it rough.

Haven't watched the video yet, but wanted to say, how GOOD the thumbnail is!

Even outside a Wolfeyvgc video you can't escape the Heel Pokemon. I am pretty convinced one of the starters in Legends Z-A is gonna be like a Fire/Steel or Fire/Fairy Incineroar

1:14 actually from what I've heard it ended up being better post-split 'cause its new covarage moves and Energy Ball/Leaf Storm ended up being better than Thunder Punch/Dragon Claw and Leaf Blade it had in Gen 3. Still sad that it can't use its signature move effectively anymore.

Surprised how little mention of Primarina there was in this video despite its solid presence in OU this gen. And I've completely given up hope for Meganium. Gamefreak seems hellbent on keeping it terrible and there's nothing we can do to stop them 😓

they knew what were their doing...just don't know how much of a flood gate that is. is kinda like the quotes "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should"

Venusaurs speed in sun with chlorophyll is equivalent to base 209 speed, not base 160

Here are the only good starters in modern competitive (this does not include formats where these mons are made better artificially via banning more broken stuff): Venusaur, incin, rillaboom Yeah starters still need a complete overhaul

great video as always. what's the song that starts playing around 04:28?

Grassy Surge - "Meganium's breath has the power to revive dead grass and plants. It can make them healthy again." Silver, F-Red, DPPT, BW (& 2), Y, Violet Psychic Surge - "The fragrance of Meganium's flower soothes and calms emotions. In battle, this Pokémon gives off more of its becalming scent to blunt the foe's fighting spirit." (Every other pokédex entery) It's... Right there... They could even shoehorn in Misty Terrain and call it a compromise if they really wanted... I'm not even that big of a Meganium fan. But... Come on... please...

The chikorita line actually did far better than people think. Yes in terms of power it is not competing with greninja and company however it was not supposed to be that way. It is a support pokemon with few weaknesses being more of a wall compared to other mons at the time like that of the crippler vileplume. It worked with screens, could poison thanks to toxic, and heal itself. The only reason it feel off is over time other things started doing similar things to it pushing its usage down. It got a bad Hidden ability, being pure grass started to become a problem rather than a boon like it was in gen 2-3 and over all things went down hill due to that. It was never bad just outclassed due to others later down the line. Also not sure why it had swords dance but it did make for a good lower tier attacker in gen 2-3.

Look, another: "How bad is Meganium actually?"

They gave the wrong starter Chlorophyll. Venusaur did NOT need to double its Speed, but that could’ve been great on Meganium. A more suitable Ability for Venusaur would be something like Natural Cure or Effect Spore, rewarding Venusaur for tanking hits with its bulk.

Still annoyed that Charizard was the only Kanto starter that didn't win in the 2022 worlds. You let us down Spanish dude.

shoutout to the gen4 starters who kinda feel minmaxed toooo, just look at infernape. Empoleon clearly is a special tank and torterra a physical one. And shell smash is neat, makes it special as a grass type.

Hisuian Decidueye is actually quite good in the reg H format of vgc and will probably get a lot of usage soon!

Thanks for the superior ideas

Key point missing. Thet swapped empoleons ability. It was only the sister ability that raises the other offensive stat. But that means they are looking at old starter abilities

I loved playing showdown with serpirior sweeping teams with zapdos

Sceptile should’ve been a physical attacker. Literally its motif and most of its coverage moves (slashing moves) are all physical. Even its signature move is physical

I believe in Contrary-LeafStorm-Serpermacy