Pokemon: Gen 1 Starters

First of all, I would like to point out that, appallingly, you've spelled "Ivysaur" wrong. To be unable to spell an object in one's own premise is the kind of thing that severely dents one's credibility.Moving on, my opponent's arguments about smogon-related analysis are fine, but what I severely disagree with his arguments about the B/G/FR/LG games.I would like to remind Pro that they are called "starters" for a reason. The main purpose of the starter pokemon is to help the trainer get a good initial stride.Charizard is easily overrun by Arcanine. And Blastiose is overrun by Slowbro, Starmie, and Gyrados.Where would I find a Growlithe or a Staryu in the beginning of the game?And even if I did find a Magikarp, he won't get to Lv30+ in the course of 2 or 3 routes.On the other hand, I can find an Oddish fairly easy right into the game. Which would mean, according to Pro, that right off the bat, my bulbasaur becomes obsolete.But vileplume can not cover for its weakness.I don't understand what Pro means by this. Venusaur and Vileplume are of the exact same type, and hence have the exact same weaknesses.What I would like to point out is that although Bulbasaur gets a dual STAB (same type attack boost), it is also the starter with the most number of weaknesses in basic form.Bulbasaur is weak to 4 types - Flying, Fire, Psychic and Ice. It is also strong (defensively) against 5 types.http://pokemondb.net...Squirtle is weak to 2 types - Grass and Electric. Defensively, it is strong against 4 types.http://pokemondb.net...Charmander is weak to 3 types - Ground, Water and Rock. Defensively, it is strong against 6 types.http://pokemondb.net...Therefore, in terms of defense, Bulbasaur has the most weaknesses, and it does not have the most strengths either.Now we shall see the relative ease in both offense and defense of each of the starter pokemon against the main trainers i.e. the 8 gym leaders and the elite four.This chart shows the relative ease in offense of each of the starter pokemon against the 12 "leader" trainers: If you count the number of instances where each of the starters have the upper hand (rows remarked "Super!" and/or "OK"), then we have:Bulbasaur(and evolutions) - 13Charmander(mostly Charizard) - 5Squirtle & Co. - 14Now, counting the number of instances where the starters are at a disadvantage (rows remarked "Not very effective" and "Bad"), we see that:Bulbasaur & Co. - 20Charmander & Co. - 18Squirtle & Co. - 13So, offensively, not only squirtle and its evolutions have the most number of advantages, but also the least number of disadvantages.Now, here is a chart showing defensive statistics against leaders: Number of instances where the starters have defensive advantages (rows remarked "Not very effective" and "Bad"):Bulbasaur & Co. - 19Charmander & Co. - 12Squirtle & Co. - 11Number of instances where the starters have defensive disadvantages (rows remarked "Super!" and/or "OK"):Bulbasaur & Co. - 19Charmander & Co. - 20Squirtle & Co. - 6This shows that although squirtle has few defensive advantages, it has the absolute least number of defensive disadvantages. I would also like to point out that squirtle's defense and sp. defense stats are high and in most cases its defense is "Normal", hence it takes less damage, which is almost as good as having that many defensive advantages.This has conclusively proved that Squirtle is the best starter against the gym leaders and the elite four.Hence, Squirtle, and not Bulbasaur would easily be the better choice in B/G/FR/LG gaming.Source for charts: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com...