>>41963042There's always been bias between pokemon and starters because of internal reasons or as a reaction to reception, it just used to be more subtle, but nowadays they don't bother hiding it. The first notable instance of it, at least from a competitive aspect is how Gen V introduced HA's to buff old Pokemon, and Blaziken, who was previously outclassed by Infernape in almost every way, got the perfect HA for it compared to the garbage most other starters got. It was made even clearer by the fact that early adopters of X/Y received a free HA Torchic and Blaziken was at the time the only Non-Kanto starter that could M-Evolve. It was surprising to see Greninja in exponentially more teams despite this. Speaking of which, they tried to make Greninja a not-so-obvious promotedmon by saying "ITS A NINJA! BEING ABLE TO USE ALL ELEMENTAL NINPO MAKES SENSE!" and making his signature move absolute fucking garbage, but he still clearly had 2 of them, and Mat Block was useful for Doubles, which is their favorite Meta, so Doubles usefulness also serves to track their faves. Cinderace is the most fucking obvious competitive Shillmon ever, though: Also gets 2 Signature moves, but they're both extremely fucking busted, and of course it makes sense for a soccer player to be able to become any element they want because that's what they're known for, kek.
