Trade Evolutions: The first four

Started by Ayselipera November 27th, 2010 9:56 AM
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Since the first generation of Pokemon there have been Pokemon that can only evolve through trading. In the first generation alone these Pokemon were apart of the Abra, Machop, Geodude, and Gastly lines. Because of this I have always associated these four evolutionary families together. Besides appearing in the first generation together and all having to be traded to finish their evolutionary path they also are all two-evolution families. Which only furthers my habit of associating them all together. This then made me wonder...

*Focusing on these four evolutionary families alone which family is your favorite and which one is your least favorite? Why is this?
*Do you like having to trade these Pokemon to reach their last stage or would you prefer another way?

>>LV16>> >>Trade>>

>>LV28>> >>Trade>>

>>LV25>> >>Trade>>

>>LV25>> >>Trade>>


My favorite out of these happens to be the Machop line. Having finally gotten around to using one in Pearl it ended up being one of the best Pokemon I've ever used. Once I evolved it into Machamp I just made my way through the game. Not to mention its ability No Guard worked out great for moves like DynamicPunch. My least favorite on the other hand is Gengar. I know Gengar tends to be one of the more popular ones with Alakazam, but I just don't see the appeal. I was all around bored while using it.

I would prefer to have them just evolve by leveling up rather then trading. For years I couldn't use Pokemon like the ones above simply because I wasn't able to trade with anyone. I know they're much easier to obtain now with the GTS, but still. :/
Holy Roman Empire
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Wow, I NEVER noticed before now Geodude and Gastly evolve at the same level. In fact, I was always thinking Haunter evolves at 26 or 27. Weird.
My favorite of these Pokemon would be Haunter (Gengar is meh though), it looks awesome and is fun to play.
Least favorite... maybe the Machop line, they're always a huge pain to beat but I can't get them to work well outside of generation 4 which I don't play often.

By the way, I REALLY hate trade evolutions for the exact reason mentioned in the OP. Not that I haven't said it about 87491 times before, but w/e.

Aquacorde

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My favorite would have to be Machoke. Despite not being fully evolved, it can hold its own in battle and worked wonders for me in Emerald. For this reason I prefer the Machop line.
My least favorite is probably the Abra line. They did not work out for me when I tried to use them; they couldn't take hits and did not interest me much. Gengar is my second least favorite, its only advantage being that it is a Ghost type.

I really would prefer that these guys leveled up to evolve, because I never had anyone to trade with. :/
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DoctorFred

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*Focusing on these four evolutionary families alone which family is your favorite and which one is your least favorite? Why is this?

Gengar>Machamp>Alakazam>Golem. My favorite is Gengar because it its defenses are weak, but not too weak, (alakazam's defense is so weak, it's unbelievable). It's speed and special attack are awesome, giving him the advantage as a special sweeper. The only reason alakazam doesn't interest me is because, its defense is so bad, if it ever encounters a Weavile or Crobat say bye-bye. My least favorite would have to be golem. Ok, I have ALOT more bad things to say about this guy than alakazam. First of all, what is up with its typing? Ground/Rock is a horrible type combo. If Golem has GREAT Defenses, he MIGHT be able to survive a Physical Water or Grass tye move. But his defense is the only good thing about this guy. His sp. def isn't good leaving him open to Grass and Water special moves (which is really bad since almost all water and grass moves are special, and very common). He might have good attack too, but doesn't have the speed to back it up. Leaving his attack stat useless. If you want a rock/ground pokemon, choose Rhyperior. :)

*Do you like having to trade these Pokemon to reach their last stage or would you prefer another way?

I definitly would prefer another way. I'm playing Ruby right now (because my ds broke), and can't get any of those pokemon because i need to trade. Also for a short while, my Wifi didn't work, and i was so mad, because these are the very few useful pokemon in D/P (except for Golem, of course).
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Though Golem's the only one out of the four that I've used in an in-game team, I think Gengar's the best out of the four because its stats are "just right" to make it a powerful force in battle.

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Kenshin5

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*Focusing on these four evolutionary families alone which family is your favorite and which one is your least favorite? Why is this?
Out of the four my favorite would be Gengar, on top of that he is my favorite first generation pokemon. He has always been the most useful for me when I do my play through's out of the four. There is no one I like the least, I like all of them equally outside of Gengar.

*Do you like having to trade these Pokemon to reach their last stage or would you prefer another way?
I actually like the trade evolution method. This is probably due to the fact that I have almost always had a Link Cable handy or Wifi so I can do trade backs or the GTS Evolution trick. If I didn't have those amenities I would definitely not be in favor of it, but since I do I am happy I can get a Stage 3 pokemon at a low level.

Brian - 0089 1621 6313 - White

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I've always hated trade evolutions, cause it held some of the best Pokémon unobtainable!
Luckily I've found VBA link, and safe to say that all my troubles were gone! :D
Can't say the same for DS generation though... :(
Well Alakazam is one of my favorite Pokémon, so my vote definitely goes to his evo line.
My least favourite... well I'd have to say Golem, just cause of it's low sp. def. which renders him dead against even the weakest Water/Grass attack... :/

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It was annoying having these in the 1st gen days, because none of my friends played.

It's a lot better with the GTS and wifi though, but now it's just trying with needing items to trade like King's Rock, Metal Coat, and Deepseawhatever items.

My favorite has always been Gengar, but he's so overused now. Probably Gengar>Golem>Alakazam>Machamp.
Having said that, I do not play pokemon based on stats and EVs/IVs at all because I don't really understand them.

champagnepapi

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For a long time I didn't like trade evos as said by the OP because I couldn't get them. It feels quite good when you do get another ds/gba to trade with though. I love to use Gengar, its moveset and stat spread are quite exciting and its one of the only good ghost types in many of the games. I was lucky enough to have a neighbor with Fire Red and a GBA, so I was able to obtain an Alakazam on my leafgreen, which was also quite fun to use.
There is also a girl in pokemon yellow who will trade you a Machoke, which evolves into Machamp upon trade.

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I love Alakazam. I don't even care that his defense is so weak.
In my experience, and he has been a staple on almost all of my teams across all generations, against a pokemon that hits him for super effective damage he can take at least 1 hit, and then his mass Sp.Atk wipes them off the face of the planet.

Golem is the runner up for me. Again, I know his defense is horrid and his typing is one of the worst there is, but he's the only one that'll stand up against Alakazam. Machamp and Gengar go down pretty quickly.
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Amore

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I have got to disagree on Alakazam taking hits and Golem standing a chance against Alakazam, but meh...if it hits it on a switch, it's screwed, so I can see where you're coming from....

Personally, I like the trade-evolutions...I disliked it in Gen III, once my friend told me why at lv.100 Machoke hadn't evolved.....but once I got Gen IV, then 2 DSes, their lack of obtainability in Gen III kept their pre-evos cool.

My favourite is torn between Machamp and Gengar. I haven't use Golem, although I once had a Graveler in Pokémon Emerald, and he was kickass.
For me, Alakazam was a letdown.....I know he's super-strong, but tbh he didn't seem much of an improvement over Kadabra....I later found this is because he hardly gains any stats, and Abra itself has base 105 Special Attack and base 90 Speed......so it kinda killed Alakazam for me.

PlatinumDude

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I didn't like the idea of trading Pokemon to evolve at first because I had no one to trade with. Now that I have 2 DSs, I can trade Pokemon between 2 of my games without having to rely on someone else.

As for my favorite original trade-related Pokemon, I'd go with Gengar because of his nostalgic creepy look, as well as his good Special movepool in Gen IV onward.

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1.) Focusing on these four evolutionary families alone which family is your favorite and which one is your least favorite? Why is this?

To be honest, I've never actually used any of these four Pokemon, but I have to say that Gengar's line is my favorite. I'm only basing it on how the design is since I've never used any of them before. :< My least favorite would be Machamp's line, and simply because it's so humanoid and looks disturbing... Especially Machamp with its four arms. X_X

2.) Do you like having to trade these Pokemon to reach their last stage or would you prefer another way?

I actually don't mind, since I've always had two DS's. I couldn't think of any other way for them to evolve. By level would be too... boring, IMO. :/
Age 33
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at the moment it has to be gengar for the best and second ...machamp...golem sucks....and when i was younger alakazam was my favorite but isnt that special to me now
fc-i gave all my pokegames away to random kids thru gamestop but maybe i get B2 to play with the lil bros maybe yea no maybe...


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Alakazam and Gengar happen to be two of my favorite pokemon. <3

I have a knack for speedy, spec. sweepers. That being said, on the other side of the spectrum, are the slow physical sweepers (Machamp, Golem). I don't necessarily dislike them, but I favor the other two over them.

And the trade evolution method is ridiculous. I hadn't owned a single one of these 4 pokemon until I think Gen. 4.
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I almost always have a Graveler and/or Kadabra on my in-game teams. I know that they aren't the most versatile Pokemon, but I find them quite useful for certain situations. I've never been a fan of the Machop line, personally, though I believe they were part of my introduction to Pokemon (or at least the TCG). Haunter is okay.
I definitely dislike the trading method of evolution. It just seems needlessly complicated to me, especially since I can't whip out my Pokemon Stadium for the trades with the newer games. I don't want to have to shell out an extra $100 for a second DS just to get a few additions to my Pokedex, and my friends don't really play Pokemon, so I have to go without.

Timbjerr

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Before GenII Introduced my current all-time favorite pokemon, Gengar fulfilled that role. His dark, spooky, and somewhat mischievous appeal drew me right towards him. XD

Golem had a spot on most of my GenII teams mainly because it was the earliest ground-type one could catch in the game (I was unaware of Phanpy due to how rare he was), and he turned out to be a decent tank and powerhouse, albeit worthless against grass- and water-types. XD

Alakazam and Machamp...I've never used them extensively. They just don't appeal to me as much. XD
Age 34
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I remember back in the early RBY days, I had nobody to trade with, so I always ended up with just a Graveler or Kadabra and they could never reach their final stage, which was really frustrating to me. Then Stadium came out which allowed me to trade between cartridges, so I liked them a lot better after that. And now there's wifi so it's not really a problem.

My favourite by far is the Gengar line. I find it very powerful, and I really like the designs too. None of the other appeal to me too much, though I'll admit I got a lot of use out of Kadabra/Alakazam back in the day and occassionally used Graveler/Golem. My least favourite line is Machamp. I've just never cared much for fighting types or their designs in general.
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Well Golem is my favourite pokemon and it annoys me that I have to trade just so I can get him and I don't have anyone to trade with. I also like Machoke as well but don't like Machamp. I never associate any of these with each other as I usually go by anime logic, where you can find wild final evolved forms. I think its stupid that in the wild, some pokemon would have to be caught and traded just so it can evolve in the games.
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Hmmm...I'd probably say my favourite was Golem. I use him so much in so many of my teams, he was in my Diamond team, I had a Graveler in my first time playing Rijon Adventures, a Geodude in my current playthrough, and I had him in many of my Sapphire teams too. My least favourite, however, would have to be Gengar. I don't know, I just don't like it so much, it's creepy smile and I have some bad memories of it in competitive play. So yeah, or me it would be Golem > Alakazam > Machamp > Gengar.