why do most of you trainers always use ledgendaries and starters???

[Bloody_Snow]

i was reading the post about "what is your favourite pokemon?" and almost every reply included a ledgendary and starter? where is the originality guys?

have you ever tried not using those pokemon in a battle?

i find it worrying that there are so many ttrainers who need to use those pokemon!
Bah!

so my question is: any team out there with any wierd teams????

[Lady Vulpix]

I never use legendaries. Starters, yes, but not all the time. I normally have a team of around 10 pokemon and rotate them, so sometimes I have a starter among the pokemon I'm taking with me and sometimes I don't. I don't think it's a matter of originality, you like what you like. When I played Pokemon Gold I had a female Butterfree in my team and she was the one who won most battles (including the one against Red's Pikachu), but Charmander has always been one of my favorite pokemon (along with Vulpix and Vaporeon) and I'm not changing the way I feel about them just because others like them too.

[Jeff]

Well, I didn't post legendaries, I did forget to mention Mew and Mewtwo though, always liked them.

Anyway the thread did ask for what pokemon are your all around favorites, if that happens to be a legendary or starter, you can't call that person unoriginal. The thing is, just because a pokemon is someone's favorite doesn't mean they always use it on a team, I know good enough not to use Mewtwo on every one of my teams. I guess you just took the thread the wrong way, it's not the pokemon we use on teams, just the ones we like in general.

As for starters, I hardly use them. I used to think that like all the other pokemon you find around the beginning of the game, starters were useless, so I always stashed my starter in the PC sometime before getting to the Elite Four. I wised up by the time RS came out, and now my Swampert is on my Lv 50 Battle Tower team.

[Musourenka]

I guess people love legendaries because they love raw power. Personally, I think they're boring.

I've always viewed starters as sort of the main character and I rarely move around the game without them (at least until I beat the game). Considering how few Fire, Grass, and Water types you get in the first few stages of any Pokemon game, and more importantly, how few <i>better</i> pokemon of those types you get through the game, you can see how people get attached to their starters. I tend not to use starters for link battles, though.

If I were forced to choose a team, I'd go with Venomoth, Tentacruel, Magneton, Ninetails, Clefable, and Umbreon, simply because those six are my favorites. Honorable mention goes to Spinda for all its whacked-out goodness.

[Magmar]

I like what I like... any complaints can be brought up with my fist

Honestly, Dewgong is the shit I also like Pinsir, Spinda, Venomoth, Aerodactyl, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Seel, Jolteon, Dragonair, Psyduck, Mr. Mime, etc.

[Sceptile_Master]

I don't really use legendaries much at all. I use starters quite a bit though besically becasue they re some of the coolest pokemon, epsecially the grass starters which i have always been fond of.

People that generally use them are n00bs anyways. I remember facing many people on netbattle with whole teams of legendaries and they weren't even hard to beat. They think sticking hyper beam on every pokemon and having all legendaries makes them good but it doesn't. They are really easy to take down when n00bs use them anyways.

[AntiAsh Superstar]

There is a difference between 'liking' and 'using' yanno... hell, I have an inexplicable soft spot for Beedrill... I do try and get as far as I can in games with one in me team until a point is reached where it has to be axed for something more useful to the current situation. I just accept it's not really all that great a battler as funky as weilding something that underused may be. I do, however, make a point of always taking a Raticate into battle with me cuz rats are the coolest things ever.

To be honest the only legendaries I'm even remotely fond of are Mewtwo, Suicune and Rayquzza anyways and as for starters... pff, I lost interest after RBY to be honest (now that was one MEAN set of starters and I don't deny I love em all), I mean I use them in my team coz the one you start off with is always gonna be your strongest ain't it... eventually it'll hit L100 and can be retired for something more interesting like Dewgong (btw, Magmar, I salute your taste - liking Dewgong *and* Vendetta Red? Kudos, my man. )

I'm playing through Fire Red atm and am sorely tempted to start weilding a team of neglected pokémon just for the hell of it. I'm sure a reasonable strategy will come to me after a while and it'd be more of a challenge anyways.

[Sceptile_Master]

I thought I was the only one who ever raised a dewgong to a high level. *sniff*

[homeofmew]

Smeargle: Locl On, Sheer Cold

[Deviou$]

I never really liked the starters, because they always get such undue attention from beginning players, who are obsessed with getting all the starters and have teams that invariably look like starter/starter/starter/00ber/00ber/00ber.

I like a few of the legendaries, particularly Articuno and Mew. Articuno used to be my favorite, and it's cry always gave me a little chill when I sent it to battle. It also saved my team from the final Gary when I faced him for the first time - although it wasn't my last remaining Pokemon, all the others that hadn't fainted were below level forty and not dependable against Gary's Blastoise.

My favs are Tentacruel, Rapidash, Electrode, Ludicolo, Gardevoir and Weezing. None of these are legendary and half of them are underused.

[Number1ChanseyFan]

Meh, typically I always avoid using the legendaries, but I have started using them at the Emerald Battle Frontier, because I am getting rather frustrated with trying to get those gold symbols. I have over 310 hours on that game, and over two thirds of that has been raising Pokémon for the Battle Frontier and fighting at it. Yet I only have 2 of the gold symbols. I have to admit, if they weren't banned from the Battle Frontier, I would not hesitate using Kyogre, Groudon and Mewtwo there. lol

[Orion]

I'm pretty much against using Legendaries of any sort in the games. I tolerate them, but I just don't like to use them at all. And I'm completely against using 00bers. I do like some of them, but just for looks.

As for Starters, I just like a few, and only Blastoise tends to be used in any of my Teams at the end.

But at the end, it's personal preference. If people like a Pokémon, you can't make them change. After all, it's their likes and dislikes...

[Arnen]

I typically just don't use Legendaries. They come in so much later in the game, and already at such a high level, that the Pokemon I already have generally serve their purpose better than the legendaries. The only one I have ever used is Articuno. As for starters, I try to keep them in my party throughout the game, though it's harder in GSC, since I don't particularly like any of the starters for those.

[SoulflameNinetales]

I don't use most legendaries. If fact, the *only* legendary pokemon i've ever included in a team was Suicune.

I'm ok with starters but lately i've stunned using starters in favor of others.

My teams have changed other time. I was once a water/psychic fanatic, well until i'd tried using vulpix, Thiese days i'm a dark/fire fanatic. Also i proved to myself legendaries aren't what they are cracked up to be, when facing a friend with a team of legendaries and a starter, I managed to beat Mewtwo and all the legendary birds (Not Lugia and Ho-oh, just the Red/Blue ones) and one other pokemon(think it was dragonite) with a well-breed Jolteon. It turned out that because of her team, 4 of her pokemon were weak to electric! and not only that I'd mistakenly left 3 pokemon of my team in the box, so it was a 3 on 6 Battle with level 100's, my three "normal pokemon (Jolteon, Rhydon and Lapras) vs. so-called uber powerful team with 4 legendaries, a starter and a dragon. I won it losing only 1 pokemon.

Since then, i crushed away "legendary" team i've come across, to show them the error of thier ways, to show that legendarys aren't invincible.

These days i just always have to use an eevee, hariyama or vulpix in my team. I can't help it!

[Sceptile_Master]

When did you join the forum Ben? Nice to see you though.

[Lady Vulpix]

That's right! I was so used to seeing him on TL that it didn't even catch my attention when I saw him post here. Welcome to TPM, Ben!

[SoulflameNinetales]

Thanks!

Its actually quite funny...i originally stumbled accross here and didn't like it much and just by pure accident (I mean pure accident) clicked on a link with led me to TL and when i first saw it, i said to myself "Yes, finally a decent forum...". but enough about how i found myself hereand there.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

I think the answer is quite simple, people get more attached to the starters cause they will most likely use them for a very long time. And the legendaries are sort of cool cause they are rare and powerful, always a good reason to like the critters.

Personally I always had a thing for the "losers", that's why I always have a Weezing in my line up. I also try to have more diversion lately, especially in Ruby and Fire Red I started to use Fighting type Pokémon a lot, a class I always pretty much neglected.

[Bloody_Snow]

wow what a cool response, now i want to know if my sig works

[The Blue Avenger]

Yeah, HTML code doesn't work on this forum.

And as for underused Pokemon, I always have had a soft spot for Hypno and Mr. Mime. I like the concept of the defensive Psychic Pokemon...

[Lawrence III_Fanatic]

As others have stated, it's the attachment and the bond (sad as it sounds with a video game) we make with our pokémon. We either spend hours raising them from their teensy little level 5 selves, or probably work hard to get them, in the case of legendaries. I can't stand my team without the starter.

[Crazy]

Yeah I don't think I've ever made a team without a starter. I just like to use them.

[chavajo]

I don't know if anything that I say will make much of difference, but I use starters, because- yeah like most they mean so much to me after raising them from low levels. I also like to use them cuz - well, I can't think of the other reason. I don't really use legendaries though, it's like when u catch them there is nothing else to do, they already learned all of the good moves they possibly can, and they can't be bred, which makes me despise them even more.

[Powarun]

Starters are the only pokemon you are forced to have, and they have their mass advantages, they are the standard for their type, most learn the best moves of their type, and have 3 steps of evolution. Its like they are the founding pokemon in the game and you have to follow their lead/example. For nOObs, if it doesn't evolve more than once it sucks, unless its a legendary, or it can't learn hyperbeam, then it sucks.

[Lady Vulpix]

I've heard of that 'rule' before and it never made sense to me. Even Eevee can't evolve more than once and almost every newbie has an eeveelution in their team. I had a Vaporeon in my main lineup when I first played a pokemon game (Pokemon Red), and on every game I've played. As well as a Vulpix/Ninetales whenever I could find one (not all my Vulpixes got to evolve).

[Gnight]

I really don't like singling out ledgendary pokemon. Latias and Celebi are among my top favorate pokemon and they happen to be ledgendaries. The term ledgendary is little more than a title that symbolizes rarity and power and I don't decide what pokemon I want to use based on how strong it is. It's usually not much of a problem to crush a n00b with all ledgendaries on his team and he'd wouldn't be a n00b just because of his ledgends, it's how the trainer used his pokemon which would've been n00bish.

About starter pokemon, that's just what they are, the pokemon you start with. That has to mean somthing. I wouldn't feel right not keeping my starter with me.

[VanirElf]

I don't use legendaries ever, except for in game play, I personally consider them cheap.

as for starters...I occasionally use them, my favorite of them being Venusaur, but again mainly for in game play.

I usually prefer to catch breed and raise the far less common pokemon, they usually have nice surprises.

not to mention that legends and starters are extremely predictable.

[Eurodex]

Ive raised a number of pokemon to level 100 (i played pokemon alot more with red n blue version, so my linup wont consist of new pokemon. this linup was specifically designed to handle any trainer with any pokemon.

1. Dewgong (yeah, he's one killer ice pokemon. and fire has less affect on him due to his water type also. he also has a nice special attack stat for that extra punch behind his blizzard and ice beam! this was actually the last pokemon i raised up to be part of my usual 6 in place of articuno before i stopped playing and sold my blue version i regret it, i had all 150 and quadruples of legendaries and everything. bak to business,,
-Blizzard
-Ice Beam
-Hydro pump? if it was a tm in blue n red, then he would have this move, but i dont remmember.
-(this move would have been a fire blast or thunder or something.)

2. Venusaur (i like his leech seed, sleep powder!, and razor leaf. so i had to have this guy in my lineup.
-Sleep Powder
-Leech Seed
-Razor Leaf
-Earthquake

3.Blastoise (yeah 2 starters, dw, i hate charizard. i find his flying type to be a pointless weakness for him.
-Hydro Pump
-Blizzard/ice beam (whichever was a tm... maybe they were both tms in which case i would choose blizzard)
-(powerful rock move here... i really cant remmember which ones were in red n blue now with all these new moves in the new versions.)
-Megakick

Note: looking back, i had just added dewgong and this guy was probably due for replacement as we dont need a water pokemon wen u have an ice one. I think because he was my first ever pokemon i found it difficult to get rid of him.

4. Flareon (i was never fully convinced that this was the fire pokemon for the job, but i'd pick flareon over charizard any day. hes so overrated. pokemon with 2 types can often be more of a weakness than a good thing).
-Fire Blast
-Flamethrower
-Sand attack (u gotta have a guy or two with an accuracy affecting move. especially if your not maxed out at 100. Ive won many battles against tougher trainers thanx to the sand attack.
-Light Screen (This is a mother of a move. since flareon doesnt have the highest defense stats in the world, using this makes up for your weaknesses).

5.Gyarados ( i remmember getting this guy before anyone knew who he was. and he is one tough nut. you can teach him alot of moves like thunder, hydro pump, fireblast. which i liked. But now that ive been playing emerald with him, ive noticed his special attack stat isnt too great and thaT HE is best suited for pysical attacks.
-Hydro Pump
-Blizzard
-Thunder
-Fire Blast
(if i were to raise him again, i'd get him to learn pysical attacks instead. maybe hyper beam and ''earthquake''?
6.Gengar (pokemon that evolve twice are 'generally' stronger than others. this is not always the case but it is for this guy. It's good to have a ghost pokemon for wen you fight those pokemon with no special attacks.
i forget the moves i had, but i think i went for the moves that made him fall asleep and and attack like rest? and dream eater. he definetly had the çurse'move as well, great to open the battle with a curse then next rest it off and fight in yoiur sleep. i think there was a move called dream eater that i had him use but truth be told i dont remmember how this guy worked.

as u can see virtually all my moves were special attacks. i found the pysical pokemon to be pointless. if you can get a decent defense stat then your fine cuz most pysical pokemon dont have high special defense.


yeah, ive said too much. but this is my first post so im a little giddy. gunna have some hong kongs if anyone in melbourne/australia likes pokemon n wants a battle, come n get it. im undefeated (very lucky to be undefeated. good ol trusty 'sand attack!) and i dont know enuf geeks to get some competition. and i want good geeks!!!! the kind that know what level every pokemon learns every move (yeah, im sad, i used to9 know that stuff myself!)
...bring it on

P.S. For those who dont know already: Don't use rarecandy! a raised lv75 is more powerful than a rarecandy junkie at 100!

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Umm... Eurodex... the topic's about debating why people use legendaries, to be honest your post didn't have much to do with that... check what the topic of discussion is before posting next time, k?

[Phoenixsong]

Yes, yes, everyone's already said this before, but legendaries and starters are pretty cool Pokémon as long as you treat them as Pokémon and not uber-ultimate-super-mega-death-power machines. Me, I drool over Latios, Suicune, Articuno and Raikou, even though I actually don't use them that often. Latios just rocks; Dragon and Psychic are two of my favorite types, and where else (other than Latias, which I don't like as much) can you get the two of them rolled into one? And what someone (I don't recall who) said earlier about some of the starters being better than several others in their types, well... it's not true all of the time, but a lot of the time it is. I mean, Flareon, Magmar, Ninetales and stuff like that are great, but on the other hand most of the Grass Pokémon are pretty bad IMO (especially for someone who obsesses over fast Pokémon like me- if it can't attack in front of a Pinsir or a Vaporeon then it's probably too slow for me and belongs in the computer. Sceptile and Jumpluff are currently the only fast Grass-types, and as Jumpluff is really NOT a very good Pokémon, well... it's understandable why I'd use Sceptile over just about any other Grass-type).

Anyway, I also agree with the idea that it just feels mean to put your starter away and leave it there. Everyone has their preferences, but it's just a teeny bit like getting a puppy, promising you'll love and care for the cute lil' thing forever and ever and ever... and then two weeks later completely forgetting it exists and leaving your parents to take care of it. I probably shouldn't equate video games to animal abuse, but you know what I mean. My starters have, with one exception, been major players in my teams- I honestly don't know what I'd do without my buddies Aciara, Heath, Bragoon, Phoenix, Chihiro or Regal- but it's not like I level one up to level 100 and the rest of my team looks like a level 98 Groudon, a level 100 Rayquaza and then two level 3 Rattatas and a level 5 Pikachu that I caught five minutes into starting the game but never got rid of because it's cool to have six Pokies even if you use less than half of them. That's just unbalanced, ridiculous and newbish (and I don't have the time or patience to raise Pokémon to level 100 anyway... eheheh). And I normally only use my starter in my main team anyway, and have at least four other teams that consist almost entirely of "normal, underrated" Pokémon and ignore my starter completely. In fact, right before I started my Gold over I made a list of every Pokémon (as of GSC) that I like and/or can tolerate but never use and made a promise to myself to make as many kick-@$$ teams as I could with as many of them as possible. How's that for appreciating the under-appreciated?

Well, that was long and unnecessary, but reading what everyone else said made me want to say it. So I close with a final note to the novice players out there who SO OVERUSE legendaries- Pokémon players use the term "Legendary Pokémon" to mean "so-freakin'-hard-to-find-that-there's-only-one-per-game-and-it-probably-runs-away-from-you-too Pokémon", not "totally-absolutely-the-best-uber-cool-all-powerful-utterly-invincible-you're-a-weenie-and-a-nerd-if-you-don't-have-a-team-of-six-of-these Pokémon". That's not to say a team of six legendaries can't be a great team, but that's only if you raise 'em right... and it's just as easy, maybe even EASIER to raise a team of six lesser-used Pokémon like Nidoqueen, Electrode, Rapidash, Raticate, Lapras and Victreebel to exactly the same strength. And that goes for the "normal" Pokémon that are overused too, like Swellow, Manectric, Houndoom and the various Eeveelutions. Use 'em if you want, they're good and cool and I love 'em too, but stop complaining about Ru/Sa's glaring lack of Houndooms, shut up and use a Mightyena (or a Ninetales) already. Mighty can be just as good and has way better defense anyway.

Right, I'll go away and shut up myself now... but first I have to get one more thing off my chest: Of all the overrated and overused legendaries, the Regi-things probably take the cake... why? No, seriously... why on earth would you drool over something as stupid as Regice? They're not as good as the other legendaries, they can't learn as many good moves, and they don't look like Pokémon at all so much as they look like rocks with arms and bad acne. And yet so very, very many of the good in-game teams have at least Regirock or Regice, or else all three, and other people use at least two out of three as well... Do you people not realize that a good Fire, Fighting or Steel Pokémon could decimate half your team in four turns or less?! Arrrgh, I think they're the most pointless Pokémon ever as far as gameplay is concerned (but as far as the story and my fanfics go, they're awesome); can someone PLEASE tell me why people like these things so much? I think I'll explode if I don't find out...

[SilverMaster]

i use a some legendaries (3),some starters(4), and some ordinaries (3). This is not because of prejudice to ordinary.Starters and legendaries tend to have more power than ordinary pokemon (stats wise).This is because the people at nintendo need to make starters strong to give you an easy introduction,and legendaries powerful because they are their centerpieces and must be hard to catch. The other reason people choose starters and legendaries is because its built into their game to catch them, and they're not going to switch because it takes too much effort.Ex. at the start, rattatas, pidgeys,sentrets ect. are the pokemon your supposed to catch.By the time you've got somewhere decent, your starters are trained higher than wild pokemon and so they don't bother switching.

I like ordinaries as they give different movesets, types and vary in stats, but others think its too complicated, because they're kinda dumb.

[rinku]

I generally avoid legends, though my Green fetish means I have a soft spot for Rayquaza, because you can't breed them. One of the really great features of the game is that it does reward the careful and patient trainer for breeding for better stats and movesets and selecting the right personality.

Legends are much less likely to be optimal than the result of a dedicated breeding program (especially on Emerald with its extra breeding freatures).

I have no issue with Starters - they generally have quite focussed (even limited) move-sets, and their stats are in the same range as most other final evolutions. They also have a general tendancy to have too much Attack for the special types they all are bar Swampert, Venusaur and Blaziken. They are either split physical/special types (which ditutes effort) or have significant base points allocated to a stat they don't use. None of them are as optimised as, say, Alakazam, which has 40 base points less, but is a far better special sweeper than Sceptile (which has only Grass, Dragon and Dark attacks available to boot, although Thunderpunch was added with Emerald... which doesn't much help it vs other Grass types).

[Super Pabs]

I personally love a bunch of different Pokémon, for many reasons. All of my teams have a starter because they are built in-game and I get very attached to the starter Pokémon! But as for legendaries, I very rarely use them (unless we're talking about my super awesome shiny Regice! :-P).

[Kaboom]

I always keep my starter on the team. It just seems kind of a shame to not use them, you know? I always get emotionally attached to them, anyhoo. Besides, you're meant to have and use them. And even though their stats are higher than most other pokemon, they're not so radically high that you're going to just effortlessly blaze through the game with them.
But legendaries; no, no, no... I never use 'em, unless I'm in desperate need of them for some reason. Like on my current FireRed team, I went and got Articuno (after much frustration) for some extra help against Lance in the E4. Now it's just my Fly and Rock Smash slave. I think using legendaries against anyone, even in-game, is cheap.

[Buffpiezan]

golduck, salaybe, heretyama, pigeot, nidoking, electabuzz or Magmar

[AntiAsh Superstar]

GRAH. Dude, if you're gonna post your team that doesn't include legendaries can ya at least explain what you have against using legendaries as that actually helps the discussion? :O