Yes the Char line is fantastic! It's really hard for me to choose a favorite starter out of the first game. And Alakazam was my original favorite Pokemon of all time :) Raichu is super cute and fun -- kinda gets overshadowed by Pikachu, since it's the mascot of the franchise. Tenta is a big favorite of mine, you just get it kinda late in the game. And Dodrio... always thought it was kinda cool and never saw anyone use it. To my surprise it's the strongest of the birbs!
The main point of this team/playthrough is to create the strongest team to actually play through the game with, and getting Mewtwo is the very last of the post-game content, so you wouldn't be able to use him at all throughout the actual playthrough. So that's my reason for not including him -- he IS a big step up from Alakazam. Similar movepool but better stats, but most importantly, access to the move Amnesia.
I also wanted to avoid using legendary Pokemon just because I thought that if you did, your team would just be legendary Pokemon and nothing else. Though that's actually not the case! Moltres and Articuno are quite... lackluster, and overshadowed by other Pokemon. Tentacruel handles ice and goes faster and stronger than Articuno, and the Charizard has the edge over Moltres in key stats and has a better movepool. Zapdos, however, is one of the strongest Pokemon in the entire game, so much so that speedrunners actually go through the entire sidequest to get him because he's THAT powerful that he saves you that much time.
Zapdos could replace BOTH Charizard and Dodrio in the team and the only thing we'd really "miss" is Flamethrower, but Flamethrower is more a novelty than anything, as rarely is anything weak to fire. Most Ice Pokemon are also Water-typed in this game, and can be taken out by Raichu's thunderbolt, and grass Pokemon can be taken out with Dodrio's Drill Peck, and even then almost every Grass Pokemon is also Poison-typed in this one, so Pyschic destroys them easily.
The idea of Mewtwo got me thinking -- what would be a good 'Mewtwo killer' to counter Mewtwo if you were making a PVP team? I don't think there's actually any options -- the only Pokemon faster than Mewtwo is Electrode, and it has lackluster stats outside of Speed; however, it does get access to Explosion. I think the real answer would be the slower Dragonite, who has decent enough Special and HP to tank some of Mewtwo's Psychic, and hope that you could Strength Mewtwo to death before it could take you out. Maybe a mix of both -- Wear it down with Strength and then Explosion it at the end. Maybe even carry Hyper Beam for a critical moment...? (Hyper Beam has a power of 150 but can only be used every other turn, while Strength has a power of 80 and can be used every turn, making it effectively the higher damage-dealer, but you might need to 'finish him off' with a well-timed Hyper Beam instead of losing another turn to Strength...??? IDK. Mewtwo also gets access to Recover so he can tank all day anyway X_x I don't think there's a real answer to Mewtwo lol)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2023-08-07 11:24 pm (UTC)The main point of this team/playthrough is to create the strongest team to actually play through the game with, and getting Mewtwo is the very last of the post-game content, so you wouldn't be able to use him at all throughout the actual playthrough. So that's my reason for not including him -- he IS a big step up from Alakazam. Similar movepool but better stats, but most importantly, access to the move Amnesia.
I also wanted to avoid using legendary Pokemon just because I thought that if you did, your team would just be legendary Pokemon and nothing else. Though that's actually not the case! Moltres and Articuno are quite... lackluster, and overshadowed by other Pokemon. Tentacruel handles ice and goes faster and stronger than Articuno, and the Charizard has the edge over Moltres in key stats and has a better movepool. Zapdos, however, is one of the strongest Pokemon in the entire game, so much so that speedrunners actually go through the entire sidequest to get him because he's THAT powerful that he saves you that much time.
Zapdos could replace BOTH Charizard and Dodrio in the team and the only thing we'd really "miss" is Flamethrower, but Flamethrower is more a novelty than anything, as rarely is anything weak to fire. Most Ice Pokemon are also Water-typed in this game, and can be taken out by Raichu's thunderbolt, and grass Pokemon can be taken out with Dodrio's Drill Peck, and even then almost every Grass Pokemon is also Poison-typed in this one, so Pyschic destroys them easily.
The idea of Mewtwo got me thinking -- what would be a good 'Mewtwo killer' to counter Mewtwo if you were making a PVP team? I don't think there's actually any options -- the only Pokemon faster than Mewtwo is Electrode, and it has lackluster stats outside of Speed; however, it does get access to Explosion. I think the real answer would be the slower Dragonite, who has decent enough Special and HP to tank some of Mewtwo's Psychic, and hope that you could Strength Mewtwo to death before it could take you out. Maybe a mix of both -- Wear it down with Strength and then Explosion it at the end. Maybe even carry Hyper Beam for a critical moment...? (Hyper Beam has a power of 150 but can only be used every other turn, while Strength has a power of 80 and can be used every turn, making it effectively the higher damage-dealer, but you might need to 'finish him off' with a well-timed Hyper Beam instead of losing another turn to Strength...??? IDK. Mewtwo also gets access to Recover so he can tank all day anyway X_x I don't think there's a real answer to Mewtwo lol)