Grass, fire, or water: is there any more stressful decision to make in a Pokemon game? Will you be happy with your choice? Will you love the final design? Will it help you beat the game?
What decision is more iconic than from the very first game?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_8htiBjTCY
The correct decision is Squirtle, then Bulbasaur, then Charmander. Don’t @ me.
Now unfortunately we won’t be talking about this cool dude today:
Today we will be talking about the most competitive viable of the original three starters.
https://twitter.com/BulbaGanda/status/1085042186813652994
As Bulbasaur Propaganda will be only too happy to let you know, Venusaur is objectively the best competitively of the three.
In the current generation, both Charizard and Blastoise are in Never Used, while Venusaur sits firmly in Rarely Used. This is because Venusaur is simply capable of doing more than either of them. Let’s get into it.
Here’s the chunky boi. With a respectable 525 base stat total, Venusaur looks quite balanced. The two stats that stand out are special attack and special defense, but about 80 for speed, attack, defense, attack, and health are all respectable.
Some weaknesses, but but it has even more resistances, most notably to the common grass and water type moves, as well as being immune to Toxic and Toxic Spikes.
It’s ability Chlorophyll fixes that rather mediocre speed stat, by boosting its speed by two stages in the sun. Sleep powder gives Venusaur a free set up, Growth boosts both its attacking stats by two stages when used in the sun, and Synthesis heals 2/3rds of its health when the sun is up. This makes Venusaur one of the most common staples of any Sun team.
It has some physical moves, namely EQ, Power Whip, and Knock Off, but its special movepool is much stronger with that 20 point difference in attack, Solar Beam, providing a powerful move in the sun, Giga Drain helping with longevity, Sludge Bomb being great for coverage, and any Hidden Power patching up whatever weaknesses your team has.
Yet you look at Venusaur, and you don’t expect a fast special attacker. That large boy looks like he was made to sit there and eat attacks. When Venusaur was granted a Mega Evolution it gained the tools to do exactly that.
Thick Fat helps with the weaknesses, making Fire and Ice type moves hit with simply normal effectiveness. Yet much more significantly is the buffs to defense, special defense, and special attack. With Synthesis, Giga Drain, Leech Seed, and Toxic, this beast will last longer than you ever will. Modest Mega Charizard Y can’t even OHKO this thing with Fire Blast.
Knock Off, Sleep Powder, and Roar are other good coverage moves, but generally this plant dinosaur is made to be a wall and a pivot for the rest of your team. Strong psychic and flying coverage is not the most common, but it makes any good steel type a great partner for Venusaur.
Good luck using this fellow, either as a the high tier wall, or the lower tier sweeper.
As always, good luck and have fun while playing!