Generation 1 team rant

[KingRazor]

I'm one of those old stick-in-the-muds that tends to shun the later generations of Pokemon and cling to the first one. It's mostly the nostalgia goggles I imagine.

I've wanted to type this out for a very long time now, and this is probably old news but I felt this was a safe place to discuss it.

I've thought for literally years about what the "best" team could possibly be. I remember at 11 years old attempting to craft the unbeatable team. None of my friends were nearly as obsessed with this as I was so thankfully I had Pokemon Stadium to test my theories on.

I believe, without a doubt, that the best team, counting only 1st generation Pokemon, would include:

Mewtwo - This goes without saying. Mewtwo's power is just absurd. I basically solo'd the Prime Cup in Pokemon Stadium with him. Even in later generations he's overpowered, but even moreso in gen 1 specifically, where all psychics were OP.

Zapdos - I used to be all about single type Pokemon. It seemed like the added weaknesses gained from dual types didn't out-weigh the strengths gained from them. Zapdos is an exception. Even if he wasn't a legendary, electric/flying actually makes a lot of sense. It not only loses electric's biggest weakness, ground, it actually gains immunity to it! It gains weakness to rock and ice, but these types tend to be much less common. Plus, I think I can safely argue that Zapdos is, statistically, the strongest electric type.

Hitmonlee/Machamp - Machamp is stronger and has more health than Hitmonlee, but Hitmonlee learns better moves. Machamp's strongest fighting move is Submission. Hitmonlee learns both Jump Kick and High Jump Kick which are both more powerful and more accurate than Submission. Add to that, Hitmonlee is faster, so he's more likely to be able to hit first, and my strategies tend to revolve around being able to 1-shot the enemy.

Dugtrio/Sandslash - Sandslash is superior to Dugtrio in most ways statistically except speed. Sandslash doesn't learn any ground type moves in gen 1, but he can be taught both dig and earthquake via TM. Dugtrio is fast, really fast, so he works well with my playing style.

With those four above, you'd have a type advantage against normal, fire, fighting, water, flying, grass, poison, electric, rock, ice, and bug types. Meaning you'd be able to handle just about anything.

The 5th slot could be an ice type Pokemon to cover ground and dragon types, although you can just teach Mewtwo Blizzard or Ice Beam and then you'd have the whole spectrum covered. I like to have Starmie in this slot and just teach it an ice type move. Water/psychic is another great type combination and Starmie has great stats.

Ghost types don't really count in gen 1 since they're all ghost/poison, meaning they're all weak to both psychic and ground. Psychic only has one weakness, bug, and none of the bug type moves in the game are really strong enough to bother with. Sure, you could add a Beedrill to this list with Twin-needle and Pin Missile, but Beedrill is so weak he'd really just be wasting space.

For the 6th slot you could put whatever you want, or just leave it blank.

Now I'll admit I've never been in a Pokemon tournament and maybe I'm just full of hot air but I'm confident in my choices.

One thing I've been thinking about though is what is the best team to beat the game with?

If you think about it a lot of the best Pokemon aren't available until near the end of the game.

Although before I delve into that I should say this: These games are very, very easy, and just about any team you can think of is viable. With the exception of teams that are purposefully terrible like 6 Magikarps, you could pretty much beat Pokemon Red or Blue with any Pokemon you want, without a lot of difficulty.

But, if you're anything like me, that's just not good enough.

So I actually took the time to play through the game, fight every single trainer, and make note of what types they had, and came up with the following list:

poison 116

water 102

normal 73

normal/flying 66

fighting 56

electric 55

grass/poison 43

fire 41

rock/ground 39

psychic 35

poison/flying 31

ground 27

ghost/poison 22

water/poison 19

bug/poison 18

water/psychic 15

bug 13

water/ice 6

poison/ground 4

grass 2

grass/psychic 2

bug/flying 1

bug/grass 1

If you look at that list more than 1/3rd of all Pokemon you will fight in red/blue are weak to Psychic. So a Psychic type will basically shift the difficulty of the game down 2 or 3 levels. I remember 1-shotting Pokemon 10 levels higher than me with a Psychic type. It's ridiculous, really.

Another 1/3rd of all the Pokemon you would fight are weak to electric attacks. So taking the time in Viridian forest to catch a Pikachu is well worth it. He'll be a little weak in the beginning but as he grows in levels (and especially if you teach him Thunderbolt) he will steam roll through a good chunk of the battles in this game.

A fighting type and water type will round out the team nicely, to take care of all the normal types, fire types, and rock/ground types.

I also like to catch a Spearow right away on route 22, for all the grass and bug types you encounter. Plus, you need a flying type if you want to use fly anyway.

But, again, any team is viable. I don't like grass types much because they have so many weaknesses, but I've beaten the game with Venusaur a few times and it wasn't difficult.

One thing a lot of people forget: With the exception of Tangela, ALL grass types in gen 1 are dual type, and most of them are grass/poison. This means they're weak to psychic and ground types.

Also, all rock types in gen 1 are dual types. Most being rock/ground. Which means they're weak to ground! And fighting. Also, being rock/ground is why they're immune to electric attacks. Rock isn't even resistant to them.

I think that's all for now. If you actually took the time to read all this, you're a very patient person and you have my respect.