>>28273883Only going by in-game use. Competitive use, egg moves, post-game TMs, and Hidden Abilities will not be considered. They will also be considered alongside the regions they appear in.
1: Bulbasaur, Charmander, Blastoise.
Bulbasaur gets Sleep Powder and Leech seed. Along with either that sexy Crit rate in gen 1, or the absolutely based Thick Fat ability of Mega Venasaur, there is really no question here. Venusaur is at its weakest in FrLg, since its moves are outdated, while Charizard and Blastoise get amazing TM options.
2:Cyndaquil, Totodile, Powergap, Chikorita.
Cynaquil wins out in GSC while Totadile is better in HGSS. However, Cyndaquil is still good in HGSS, while Totadile is only meh in GSC. Typholsion avoids the movegap that Charizar got, largely thanks to Flame Wheel, and Thunderpunch is lovely. In the newer games, Gatr gets a fuckton of good coverage options, while Typhlosion looses Thunderpunch. In both games, Chikorita has the deck stacked horribly against it, with Chucks Poliwrath and Will's Slowbro as literally the only relevant Pokemon it has an advantage against. Over half of the game has an advantage on Chikorita. Relatively speaking, it is by far the worst starter, even if it compares favorably when directly compared against a few others.
3: Mudkip, Torchic, Treeko.
Treeko has Gen 3 stat distribution syndrome in gen 3, while in gen 6, it looses the Mega lottery, and has a less impressive movepool. Swampert has fuckawesome typing, and good stat distribution. Blaziken has movepool issues in gen 3, and seemed a bit frail in gen 6. It was absolutely better in gen 6, but Swampert was at least on par there.
4: Chimchar, Turtwig, Piplup.
Chimchar wins for one part fire-type meme, one part Close Combat, and one part it has very few unfavorable match-ups in-game. Turtwig gets good typing, and is bulky as fuck with good moves. Piplup has awkward typing, and few good moves. It's typing is nice, but it has issues actually doing anything with it.
