White2 was the first time I ever ditched my starter in the main story. I noticed that from about Clay onwards, I wasn't using my Emboar much, and he was about 6-7 levels lower than the rest of my team, so I boxed him for a while. I did bring him back for the plasma frigate near the end, though that was because I was in a grinding mood, and brought him up to level. but Fire/Fighting is fun at the start, but gets very boring, very fast. I even traded an oshawott egg in and evolved it completely.
though on another note, I do find the story in BW2 lacking compared to its predecessor, which is a shame, since BW's story was what interested me enough to but the sequel.