- Greetings Pokefans! Michael here, and
a few months ago I made a video going
over which starter was the best one to pick for
every main series Pokemon game in regards to how
well it matched up against its particular game. This video will be
a similar concept but instead of the best
starter, it's the best Pokemon, in addition to your starter. I will be going over what I
believe to be the best Pokemon to have on a play through team, alongside your starter in
every main series Pokemon game. For a Pokemon to be
selected as the best, it must be obtained
relatively early and easily, match up well against a lot
of the big battles in the game and of course be a strong
and useful Pokemon. Also, my goal is to find
Pokemon that are useful no matter which
starter you pick. So because of that, I will
be intentionally excluding any grass fire or water type
Pokemon plus electric or normal if it's one of the games where
that is the starter type. And I think this
goes without saying, but just in case this
will be my opinion, which Pokemon is the best for
this is a subjective thing, since there's no
way to know for sure with a mathematical
method or formula. I can assure you
though my decisions
are based on hard data, like their stats, movesets,
location, et cetera, not just on which
Pokemon species I happen to personally like. So don't forget to
subscribe to my channel. Tap that bell for notifications,
you know the thing. And let's get started
with Generation 1. The games being Red,
Blue and Yellow. And for these I narrowed
it down to two Pokemon. The first is Nidoking. You can get Nidoran-Male
very early on Route 22 next to Viridian before you
even enter Viridian forest. And since it evolves
Nidorino early and the Moon Stone is
obtained early in Mt. Moon, you can get a
Nidoking very early. It's level up
moveset is atrocious but it's TM movepool is so wide that you can easily
make up for that. Nidoking is actually the Gen
1 speedrun Pokemon of choice since it can be so
strong as so early. Learning Thrash
at just Level 23. Combine that with its
ability to learn Horn Drill and OHKO move you can make
always hit with a times accuracy and you've got a Pokemon
that can sweep through a lot. However, Nidoking
has a few drawbacks. They're not huge ones but
they're worth mentioning. The first is that as I said,
it needs TMs to have good moves aside from Thrash and
I guess Horn Drill too. So that kind of is gonna burn
through your TM reservoir. Since TMs are one-use then done. Also, it's a Poison
type which is not great. Poison is pretty much
not useful offensively since most Grass types
are also Poison types. And it makes it overlap with
Venusaur, if you pick Venusaur. Like I said, these
aren't huge drawbacks. Nidoking is still great
and I think worth using, but there's one Pokemon
that I think is a bit better than Nidoking in Gen 1, and
that Pokemon is Alakazam. Alakazam is a psychic type, which by nature makes
it overpowered in Gen 1. I won't go into too
much detail about this since I have discussed it
a lot in videos lately, but in short, the
psychic type was amazing because it had
effectively no weaknesses. The Dark type didn't exist. Psychic was immune
to Ghost in Gen 1 and the Bug moves were so weak, they may as well
not have been there. So a psychic type, you should
probably have one on your team in Gen 1 no matter what it
is, but Alakazam specifically, is the best non legendary
psychic type out there. It's the strongest. There are a few that technically have higher base stat totals,
Starmie, Exeggutor and Hypno but Alakazam has the
highest Special stat and highest Speed stat of all
of them, which in my opinion are the most important
stats for a psychic type. Side note in Gen 1, Special
Attack and Special Defense. We're just one stat. So Alakazam's massive
base 135 Special stats means it hit like a truck and took Special
hits extremely well. It doesn't take
physical attacks well, but it's so fast
and hits so hard that it's just gonna
out speed and OHKO most of the time anyways. It's also extremely accessible. Abra can be found before
you get your second badge and while switch training
it to evolve into a Kadabra is a bit annoying,
once it evolves, you can make it an
Alakazam immediately since it evolves by trading. So you can have an
Alakazam at level 16 and it'll have
Confusion right away and continue learning better
and better psychic moves as it levels up. Yes, it does require trading
to evolve, but honestly, I don't think that should
be a disqualifying factor since if you're playing on a
ROM you can get around that and if you're playing
on the virtual console, you can do the training with
the virtual console versions. If you're playing on a legit
cartridge on an old Game Boy you might have more trouble. but honestly Kadabra
is still pretty good. It's just a slightly
less good Alakazam. In short, Alakazam is
very strong, very fast, easily accessible and has
the best typing in the game. The most broken a
type has ever been. It is wildly helpful
for any Gen 1 team. Next up is Generation 2, the games being Gold,
Silver and Crystal. And the best team member in
my opinion is still Alakazam. Although first I
suppose I should mention my two runner-ups, runners-up? I'm not sure which one. Anyways, those two are Kenya
the Spearow and Ampharos. Kenya is the Spearow that
you're supposed to take to some guy's friend but
you are completely capable of just holding onto it and
committing grand theft Spearow. Kenya is great because
it's a strong flying type with access to the best
single-turn Flying move in the game Drill Peck and it's
technically a traded Pokemon meaning it gets boosted
experience, which
is wildly helpful. It's normal typing
can also come in handy against the occasional
ghost type foes. Ampharos is also very good. It's electric typing helps
out in a lot of places and it's found extremely early, allowing you to have
super effective damage against the first gym
and the second gym strongest Pokemon Scyther. It also matches up well against
several later game battles and being an electric type means
that only has one weakness. Unfortunately it's not
available in Crystal, but in my opinion neither are
as widely useful as Alakazam. Now, Alakazam did get some
nerfs between Gen's 1 and 2 that I should cover. The Dark type is now a thing. It lost its immunity to Ghost
and is weak to it instead and its Special stat was
split into Special Attack and Special Defense
resulting in a drop to its Special Defense. The bug type was still
mostly garbage though, so that's still not
much of a problem. But the buffs that
Alakazam got in Gen 2 more than outweigh the
nerfs in my opinion. Fearow and Ampharos excel
at their particular types. Alakazam can excel at several. Fearows only physical
coverage moves are the 20 base power,
Mud-Slap and Steel Wing, which is risky coverage
since it's only good against the types that
Fearow is weak to. Ampharos's only Special
coverage move is Fire Punch, which is good but very limited. Meanwhile, Alakazam can learn
all three elemental punches, which nowadays are useless on it since they're physical moves, but back then they
were special moves, which means they can take
advantage of Alakazam's incredible base one
35 Special Attack. This coverage is so good that literally not a
single Pokemon in the game resists all four of those types. And incredibly, the elemental
punches are TMs you can buy in the Goldenrod
department store, you can catch Abra right
outside of Goldenrod and like before trading
involves Kadabra right away, which means you can have
an Alakazam with Confusion, Thunderpunch, Ice
Punch and Fire Punch at the absurdly low level of 16. that incredible
coverage of strong moves and you'll only
replace Confusion with better psychic moves
as it levels up means that, you can just body most of
the game with just Alakazam. It's psychic typing sweeps through Team Rocket's poison
types, Morty's poison ghosts, Chuck's fighting types,
Koga's poison types and Bruno's fighting types. Its coverage is also incredible. Giving it super effective
moves for at least one member of every single Johto gym leader
or Elite Four member's team other than Whitney, but
Whitney's gonna suck, no matter what you use. Like I said, Kenya and
Ampharos are still very good and absolutely worth
using in my opinion. But Alakazam's incredible
power and speed and move pool and the fact that you can
have it at such a low level makes it the best by a
sizable margin in my opinion. Yes, it is still
a trade evolution, but hey, like I said,
you can get around that. And also Kadabra
is still very good. It's got like base one 20
Special Attack in 105 speed, which isn't as good,
but that's still great. Next is Generation 3 starting
with the Hoenn games, Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. And these games don't have
as much of a standout Pokemon like the first two
generations did. Well they do, but it's
a starter, Swampert. Swampert is amazing
in these games, but obviously I'm not picking
a starter in this situation. A Pokemon that is not my
pick for best team member, but I think should be
mentioned as Hariyama. It's obtainable very early
and the fighting type is excellent for many
battles in the game. I might have picked Hariyama
as the best team member for this video if
not for Blaziken, because Blaziken
is a fighting type. So if you choose Torchic, there's really no reason
for you to pick Hariyama. Although I heavily recommended if you pick Treecko
or Mudkip though. My selection for these
game is a Pokemon that is really important no
matter what starter you pick. And that is Manectric. The electric type is
basically a necessity in Hoenn because after all,
water is everywhere and Grass cannot handle
all water types on its own. Manectric is your best
option for an electric type because not only does it have very solid Special
Attack and Speed, but it's also the earliest
accessible electric type being found between the
second and third gyms. Okay, technically
Plusle on Minun are also found in the
same spot, but dear God, do not use them. In addition to having
electric attacking power, it also comes with
Thunder Wave right away, which is always helpful, eSpecially for catching
other team members later. Bite is not the most
stellar coverage move, but at least it uses
Manectric's superior Special Attack stat in this gen. Manectric has the
best time in Emerald because you fight
both Juan and Wallace, but it's still gonna
be super useful in all three Hoenn games because water and flying
types are everywhere. You need an electric type and
Manectric is the best one. Next step is FireRed
in LeafGreen. The first remakes in this video. Now in most of my something,
something in every game videos, the answer for the remakes
is the same as the originals, but that is not the case here. because Alakazam got worse
while Nidoking got better. The reason for
Alakazam getting worse is that the nerfs to
Alakazam between Gens 1 and 2 were balanced out by Alakazam getting the three
elemental punches in Gen 2. However, in FireRed
and LeafGreen, it can't learn them at all. Alakazam's FireRed
LeafGreen coverage is limited to just a
Shock wave and Thief. I mean there are
other physical moves but physical moves don't
matter for Alakazam. Now don't get me wrong, I still heavily
recommend using Alakazam. The psychic type is still
incredible in the Kanto region due to the
underwhelming bug types and complete lack of Dark types. And it's still a very
powerful Pokemon, you can get at a very low level. And it's just not my pick
for the best one anymore because it's not as
ridiculously overpowered as it was before. Meanwhile, Nidoking, which already had a
fantastic move pool, has an even better one in Gen 3, and it can take advantage
of all of these attacks since its physical and
Special Attack are both solid. It learns Water, Ice, Fighting,
Fire, Steel, Electric, Ground, Ghost, Poison,
rock, Dark and Normal moves. Plus the only good bug
move at the time, Megahorn. That is at least
one attack from 13 of the 17 types at the time. That is absurd. Combine that with it's
all-around solid stats and the fact that you can,
again get one as low as level 16 and you have just a fricking
incredibly versatile Pokemon. Yes, it's still a poison type,
whichever overlaps with Venusaur and yes you're
probably gonna have to use single use TMs on it. But those are the only
cons and the pros of it vastly outweigh the
cons in my opinion, Nidoking, you can use it for
pretty much any major battle if you make it's movepool
right, which you can. Now onto Generation 4,
starting with the Sinnoh games: Diamond, Peal, and Platinum,
and for me this choice was easy Staraptor. Every pre-gen-7
team needs a Flyer, and Staraptor is not only the
best Flyer option in Sinnoh but it's also just freakin'
incredible, period. First off, it's accessible. You literally can catch Starly in the first route of the game. Secondly, it has
fantastic stats. Base 120 physical attack
and 100 speed is very good and it's not super frail either. Finally it has access to the
moves it needs to dominate. Fly was buffed in 90
base power in Gen 4 so you can do big damage with
that or another Flying move like Aerial Ace or Brave Bird. It of course can devastate
enemies with STAB return, but then it also
gets Close Combat the best fighting
move in the game, which allows it to take
out Rock and Ice types two of its three weaknesses. Basically, if you're not
using a Staraptor in Sinnoh you're doing something wrong or you've already
used one before and you wanna change
it up, which is fair. But still you should
be using Staraptor. Next is HeartGold
and SoulSilver, and like with FireRed
and LeafGreen, I'm not keeping
my answer the same between the originals
and the remakes. So Alakazam has been dethroned. Alakazam is still very solid
but it's got the same issues it had in FireRed and
LeafGreen, not much coverage. The elemental punches are
now post-game move tutors, not early-game TMs, but even
if they were early-game TMs, they're physical now so
they're useless on Alakazam. Plus Dark types are
in the Johto region. And the bug type
is not bad anymore. So Alakazam is really hurting
in Gen 4 it's still very good. It's a solid psychic type but it's definitely
not OP anymore. So to me it makes sense
to swap out Alakazam for one of my two original
runner-ups, runners-up, still don't know. Kenya, the Fearow or Ampharos. Both of these Pokemon got
some pretty substantial buffs between Gen 2 and Gen 4. Fearow on now has
access to stronger Fly, Aerial Ace at a pretty low level and a few other coverage
moves like U-Turn. Ampharos now gets Discharge
not long after evolving, plus the coverage moves of
Signal Beam and Power Gem. Both of these Pokemon
hit pretty hard. Fearow is just faster
and Ampharos is bulkier. Both of these
Pokemon are excellent and I definitely
recommend using them, but I think I have to
give the edge to Ampharos because of how absurdly
early you can get it before you even fight Falkner. You can use it for
super effective damage in his gym right away than
against Bugsy's Scyther, then use it to paralyze
Whitney's Miltank, which is very helpful and I
highly recommend doing that, which means that this Pokemon
is at least partially helpful in all three of the
first three gyms. It continues to
be helpful later, particularly against
Clair in Lance and once it gets Signal Beam, and that's some really
nice Bug type coverage. Also, it only has one
weakness which is nice. Ampharos is not as much of
a standout as Alakazam was in Gen 2 but it is still a
staple member of any Johto team. I still recommend Kenya
and Alakazam though it's just that Ampharos
is I think the best one. Now on to Generation 5
starting with Black and White and one thing I wanna
say up front is that I think your team should
have a fighting type like Conkeldurr or
Sawk or Scrafty. However, I can't select
any of these Pokemon as the best member for any
starter because of Emboar. It doesn't make sense to use
one of these fighting types if you've picked Emboar. But you should use a fighting
type if you don't pick Emboar. The Pokemon I decided
on his Excadrill. You can get Drilbur very
early before the second gym, and it's ground typing
is helpful against Elesa. Then once it evolves
into Excadrill, it becomes very
versatile and useful. And either resists or is
immune to 11 of the 17 types and it has very diverse
coverage that lets it be useful against a lot of big
important plot battles. Combine those benefits with
a monstrous attack stat, decent bulk, and great HP and you've got a fantastic
Pokemon on your squad. I do want to mention
that Krookodile is also a very
useful Pokemon here. I just gave the
edge to Excadrill because it's Steel typing is
really helpful defensively. Now onto Black 2 and White 2, and a Pokemon I wanna
mention up front that is not my pick
here is Lucario. Riolu is available
before the first gym and if you devote the effort
to raising its friendship, you can have a Lucario very
early, which is fantastic. Lucario is not only strong but
the Fighting and Steel types are both very good
in the Unova region. However, like in
Black and White, a fighting type Pokemon
overlaps with Emboar and therefore it doesn't
make sense to use Lucario if you pick Tepig. Since Lucario is not a smart
choice for all three starters, it can't be my selection here. Although I think it
would be the best if Emboar was not
a fighting type, but since I can't
go with Lucario, I'm going with
another Steel type. This time Magnezone. Magnemite can be caught
before the second gym, which is very early so it
can be a reliable team member close to right off the bat. While it's not strong against
poison, it is immune to it, making it useful against
Roxie immediately. Additionally, since the
electric field location is timed quite nicely,
your Magnemite will likely have just become a Magneton
when you get there. So you can turn it into
its strongest form, which has incredible
stats immediately. Another reason it's great is 'cause the steel electric
typing is very good. Electric is of course strong
against Skyla and Marlon, but Magnezone resists the
primary attacking type for every single gym
leader except Clay. Excadrill is still pretty solid, but you get it later
in the game now, plus the swapping of
a gym leader that it
was strong against Brycen for a gym leader that
it's weak against, Marlon, hurts it a lot in my opinion. Magnezone will be an
effective wall for you for many different battles. Plus it gets Thunder Wave
early, which is always nice and it hits like a truck. Next up is Generation
starting with X and Y and an honorable mention
I wanna say upfront is Talonflame. It's got great stats
available very early on, very solid Pokemon. However, it's a fire type. and an X and Y you have
two different chances to select a fire type starter. So chances are high that it's
fire typing will be redundant. Therefore it is not a good
pick no matter your starter. To me there is a
clear and easy choice for the best team member
in X and Y, Mega Lucario. Riolu is found extremely early, before you even
fight the first gym. And while it's not much
help in that first gym, it's stellar
against Grant later. You could wait to just get
the gift one from Korrina. But I personally recommend
catching a Riolu early because it's helpful
against Grant. By the time you get to
the Tower of Mastery, it's likely a Lucario and then
you get it's a Mega Stone, the first mega evolution
you use in the game. And let me tell you something,
Mega Lucario is busted. Adaptability changes
its STAB boost from 1.5x to 2x, so
that's already amazing. But then the thing
has base 145 Attack, 140 Special Attack
and base 112 speed. And you have this monster before
you even have four badges. Mega Lucario can easily
sweep through the rest of the game doesn't even matter
the tight matchup honestly. Ramos can't touch it, two of Clemont's three
Pokemon are weak to Fighting. Valerie gets destroyed,
Olympia is neutral Wulfric gets obliterated,
it resists Drasna and then it beats half
of Diantha's team. It is wildly overpowered. Now I know what you're thinking. Lucario is a fighting type
which overlaps with Chesnaught and I just disqualified
Lucario in Black 2 and White 2 for overlapping with Emboar. However, there's
a difference here. Lucario and Emboar are
pretty equally effective fighting type Pokemon
for a play through, but Mega Lucario is
a vastly superior, fighting type Pokemon
to Chesnaught. But besides the two only
share one weakness to Fire. It is absolutely worth
it to use Mega Lucario even if you picked Chesnaught. But honestly you shouldn't
pick Chesnaught anyways. Mega Venusaur is a vastly
superior grass type. Now onto OmegaRuby
in AlphaSapphire. And actually for these remakes, I'm keeping my answer
the same, Manectric. The electric type is
still very important in the Hoenn region
and Manectric was the
best one in Gen 3. But now it's even better. Manectric got three big buffs
between Gen 3 and Gen 6. Number one, Lightningrod
makes it immune to electric and boosts Special
Attack when it's hit. Number two it has many
more coverage moves including Flamethrower
and Snarl. And number three it
can now mega evolve. The stone can be found before
you get the mega bracelet, which means you can mega
evolve it as early as possible. And let me tell you Mega
Manectric is vicious. Base 135 Special
Attack and speed. This thing will decimate
so many opponents. Next up is Generation 7
starting with Sun and Moon and upfront I wanna say
that Ribombee is great if you don't pick Primarina. And Alolan Muk is great if
you don't pick Incineroar. I highly recommend both of
those Pokemon but of course they substantially
overlap with starters so they can't be my pick here. They are excellent though. The Pokemon I think is the
best that doesn't overlap with any starters
is to Toucannon. It's the regional bird which means you can
pick it up right away on like the very first route
of the game which is nice. It's not as impressive stat-wise as some of the other regional
birds, having great Attack, decent bulk but
disappointing speed but that's not a big
issue here in my opinion because the Flying type
is just so good in Alola. A Normal-Flying Pokemon is
good for Hala, The Grass trial, the Ghost trial defensively,
Guzma, the Dragon trial, Hapu defensively, Hala again
and Acerola defensively. Clearly a Flying type
Pokemon potentially with the normal type tacked on is very useful for
an Alola playthrough. And Toucannon is your
best flying type option in Sun and Moon but
it doesn't stop there. Because it can fulfill
other roles too, thanks to its surprisingly
solid coverage with moves like Smack Down,
Brick Brake, Flame charge Steel Wing, Thief and U-Turn, plus Skill Link boosted
Fury Attack, Bullet Seed, and Rock Blast, once you
get to the move tutor. Like I said, it's held
back a bit by its speed, but hey, you get the Quick
Claw pretty freaking early, so that can it sometimes
get around that. Toucannon is a
very solid Pokemon that I absolutely recommend
you use in Sun and Moon. However, in Ultra
Sun and Ultra Moon, a new Pokemon was
added to the game that out classes Toucannon. Hawlucha, this Pokemon
is absurdly useful in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Like, Oh my God, let's just
list off the reasons why. Number one, Hawlucha
has excellent stats, which are made even
more impressive due to how early you can
get it at like level nine. Number two, you can
get Cha the Hawlucha from an in-game trade
before the Normal trial. Meaning you can use
it for that battle and it's a traded Pokemon, allowing it to conveniently
level up faster. And number three, the
combination of Flying and Fighting STAB
is super effective against the majority of the
major battles in the game. The Totem Gumshoos/Raticate,
Hala, the Totem Araquanid, the Totem Lurantis, Olivia,
the Totem Togedemaru, Guzma, Nanu, the Totem
Kommo-O, the Totem Ribombee, Molayne and Olivia again are all weak to
Fighting or Flying. Sure some of them
can Hawlucha back with super-effective
damage, but like come on. The fact that
Fighting and Flying cover all of those
battles is ridiculous. Seriously guys, whether it's
the in-game trade Hawlucha named Cha or just one
you find in the grass, use a Hawlucha. I've done it myself,
it was great. Next step is Let's
Go Pikachu and Eevee. And I'll keep this one
short, it's still Nidoking. Alakazam is still quite good, but it's limited coverage
simply cannot measure up to Nidoking's
unrivaled move pool. Plus Venusaur is not
a starter anymore. So there's not even the con
of Nidoking's Poison typing overlapping with one of the
starters, Nidoking's incredible. Then finally is Generation
8, Pokemon Sword and Shield. And to me the choice
clear Corvinight. Rookidee is found on literally
the first route of the game, which is as
accessible as it gets. It's pure Flying type
is also very good, completely walling
Fighting types rather than being
neutral to them. The type combination of
Flying-Steel is also excellent. Not only is it
fantastic defensively since it has two immunities,
eight resistances and only two weaknesses,
but it allows Corvinight to help out in six of
the eight gyms in Sword five of the eight in Shield: Milo, Kabu's
Centiskorch, Bea, Opal, Gordy, Melony, and Raihan. It's not hurt by sand and it has the type
advantage over Gigalith. Combine those benefits
with it's very solid stats. It's quite a bulky
Pokemon which is nice and you have a very good
Pokemon to use on your team in Pokemon Sword and Shield. So in summation, the best
non-starter team members to pick in every game are
Alakazam in Gen 1, Alakazam in Gen 2, Manectric
in the Gen 3 Hoenn games, Nidoking in FireRed
in LeafGreen. Staraptor in the Sinnoh games. Ampharos in HeartGold
and SoulSilver Excadrill in Black and White Magnezone in Black
2 and White 2. Mega Lucario in X and Y. Mega Manectric trick in
OmegaRuby AlphaSapphire. Toucannon in Sun and Moon. Hawlucha in Ultra
Sun and Ultra Moon. Nidoking in Let's Go
Pikachu and Eevee. And Corvinight in
Sword and Shield. Thank you so much for watching and an extra special thanks
to my patrons over on Patreon. Who are helping support
my channel during a time, for lower than they should
be YouTube ad rates. If you wanna help support
me in the same way the link is in the
description below. If you wanna check out some
more of my fan Pokemon content, I recommend these videos here. All right, that's
all I have for now. So until next time Pokefans. Gotta catch them (in
a draggy tone) all.
Thanks for the info, Pal!
I've seen this guys videos he's pretty cool.