Contest Contest-of-the-Week: Treecko vs Torchic vs Mudkip

[Winterdaze]

Welcome to Contest-of-the-Week! With the release of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the horizon, the attention of Pokémon fans everywhere turns to Hoenn, and all the cool and interesting Pokemon that live there.

Every week, we'll be looking at a few of the many Pokémon you'll meet along your journey through the Hoenn region, and asking for your opinions on them and how they stack up next to their counterparts or rival Pokemon looking to fill the same spot on your team.

vs

vs

After taking your first steps out of Littleroot town into the wide world beyond, you encounter Professor Birch being attacked by a wild Pokémon! Lying on the ground is a bag containing three Pokemon, one of them could fight off the attacker, but which to choose?

Treecko is a Grass type that favours speed and quick special attacks, and remains Grass type until its final form. Fire type Torchic focuses on pure firepower, evolving into a Fire/Fighting type. The Water type Mudkip is slow and tanky, and gains the Ground typing upon evolving. All three have gained Mega Evolutions for their final forms as of ORAS, making the choice more difficult than ever.

Whoever you choose will be you partner throughout the game. Which is your favourite, and why?

-Which has the better design?
-Which one is easiest to train?
-Which is the most useful throughout the game?
-Which is the most useful in the competitive environment?
-How do they compare to the other starters of their type?

Let the contest begin!

---

Next week: Linoone vs Mightyena

 

[winstein]

All three starters have quite good designs, but I prefer the cuteness of Torchic, because chickens are cute animals. Treecko looks fine as well, though Mudkip, not so much. I am grateful they went for a three-petal crest as opposed to the two wing-like protrusions found in early Torchic designs. I guess the twin flaps go on to inspire Mega Blaziken's design, which looked better on it than it is on Torchic. I suppose having that wings might make Torchic look more like it will be Flying, though.

Easiest to train is difficult to say. The starters have equal footing since they start from the same origin, they have the same levelling pace and they have their advantages. Sure Treecko's Speed make it easier to train, but Grass is not the best of types. Mudkip is notably bulkier than its peer, even if it is the slowest. Torchic has an Egg Move advantage since chain-breeding is not a necessity compared to the other two, and it has good Attack and Special Attack, so I believe that Torchic is the easiest to train. Mudkip is close on account to its good defences and lack of weaknesses compared to the other two.

I am not certain Treecko is the most useful since it is a Grass-type, and Speed is its advantage. I think for in-game, Speed isn't necessary to be that high to be victorious since the opponents all have no EVs on their Pokemon, so Torchic and Mudkip are great choices in-game. After all, Oshawott and Tepig are great starters in Unova since their good offensive stats made them useful choices. I think that it's a tie between Torchic and Mudkip.

It goes without saying that having Speed Boost and ability to boost offensive stats gives Torchic the edge. It could pass any boosts, which is bound to be a great way to escape unharmed. This is more so for their evolutions, since Torchic do not have raw power behind its Physical attacks. Mudkip is not useful at a young stage since Water/Ground is a lot better than pure Water, considering how the latter is a crowded group. After all, Electric immunity is already an advantage for a Water-type, as well as Ground STAB. Not only that, Mudkip does not learn Stealth Rock, unlike its evolutions. Treecko could do some unique Grass-type things like Sub+Leech Seed, or use Unburden + Swords Dance, but I feel that Grass-types need something very good in order to break through. Overall, I believe Torchic is the most useful in competitive battling.

Torchic seems like the best starter, in my opinion.

Thanks for reading.

 

[cityvillain]

Outside the competitive and inside my personal two cents, Treecko is my favorite among the 3. I love its creative design especially at Sceptile. I also believe Treecko has one of the most consistent design throughout the stages. A lot of second stage designs of the starters can look awkward or just plain awful. I also loved Ash's Treecko's (Sceptile) personality in the anime and hoping we'd see him again in the Kalos episodes. I thought it would be interesting to see him interact with Froakie. I'm really looking forward to how Mega-Sceptile would play in the game. Mega Venusaur sure did boosted Venusaur's performance in game and I hope Sceptile gets the same benefit.

 

[Fairy Ice Ricky]

I would say Mudkip is the easiest starter to train, mainly because type resistances are not as much of a concern for Swampert compared to Blaziken and Sceptile. In general you have a much higher chance to hit a Pokémon for at least neutral damage with either a Water-type attack or a Ground-type attack--this is especially important for beginning trainers who may not completely understand the type chart, because they're much better off spamming a Water- or Ground-type attack against a Pokémon they don't know the type(s) for and still do damage. While Blaziken's Fire- & Fighting-type attacks also have decent coverage, there are more resistances to take into account with these two types, so using a Blaziken requires a bit more knowledge about Pokémon types in order to be successful. Unfortunately the Grass type is known for being the most resisted type in the game (tied with the Bug type), so it's not a good type for beginners or for quick training, in my opinion.

In terms of most useful starter, I would say that Mudkip also takes the cake, mostly because of HMs. You can't explore half of the region without having a Surfer, and the Mudkip family is the only Hoenn starter family that can learn it. Dive and Waterfall spots are less prominent in Hoenn, but it's important to note that you can't get to Hoenn's Pokémon League without having a Pokémon that can use Waterfall, an HM that, again, only Mudkip can learn. Mudkip can't learn Cut--somthing Treecko and Torchic can--but from what I remember it's never required in Hoenn to continue the story, unlike in, say, the Unova region. (Lemme know if I'm wrong!) And as for other HMs required for story progression (Strength & Rock Smash), all three starters can learn these attacks. (Treecko is the only starter that can use Flash, but you can still technically traverse through pitch black areas without using it. None of the starters learn Fly, but it's never required to Fly in any game iirc.) This makes Mudkip a "Swiss army knife" of sorts, since it has the ability to learn so many HMs in case you can't/don't want to teach these attacks to another Pokémon. Oddly enough, this is Mudkip's main disadvantage as well, since it suffers from "four-move-syndrome", but at least the potential to learn so many HMs is there.

Competitively speaking, Torchic has it hands down. Not only does it have amazing sweeping stats, but with the Speed Boost ability, Blaziken can take its biggest problem as a sweeper and fix that problem up in one or two turns. But what's important to remember is that Blaziken is a monster even with the Blaze ability, 'cause if you're able to keep your Blaziken's HP in that Blaze-activation zone without making it faint, you're getting that boost on top of high attacking stats and access to three of the most powerful moves in the game--Flare Blitz, Brave Bird, and High Jump Kick. Granted these attacks have major drawbacks (damn recoil) but that raw attacking power is nothing to scoff at. Swampert and Sceptile simply cannot compete.

Personally speaking, I love all three Hoenn starters because they're the most memorable starters in my opinion (outside of the Kanto starters). My personal favorite is Mudkip, but I wouldn't mind using any of them in a play through!

 

[Lysson]

Ohhh tough! I chose Torchic simple because it was my first but I love certain aspects of the starters.
Mudkip: Favourite base evolution of the trio
Torchic: I use Blaziken loads in competetive and it's really damn good!
Treecko: I damn well love Grovyle, PMD is why!

 

[Gravitas]

Mudkip. Not only is it the cutest, but its evolution Swampert isn't all that bad. I was able to sweep all the gyms with its Mud Shot (because screw competitive teambuilding, I wanted to have fun.)

 

[Odinn]

I really loved Harrison's Blaziken at the time. Also really hated May and her Torchic. That's why I'm gonna start with Torchic and show how a Blaziken(Torchic-line) should be.:-D

Design; I'm not really particularly fond of these starters. But if Pokemon were real, I'd have Torchic I guess.
Training; Do not care tbh. I'll bust my ... off to reaching level 100 asap.
Usefulness; Treecko-line.
Competitiveness; all 3 line is great IMO. Blaziken has the most potential. But Swampert is a huge blessing with being 2 overpowered types. Swampert allows your team to be more diverse.
All Hoenn region starters can be called the best in their types among the starters.

 

[Felly]

None of them are really that appealing, but if I had to pick one, I'd have to say Treecko. Torchic's become overrated since it was released in gen 3, and Mudkip is just eh with its 4x weakness to Grass. Not to mention Treecko got a pretty cool Mega Evolution in the remakes.