u/Dasdi96

Everyone knows how the hoenn starters perform, but what if you could start with a kanto or johto starter?

For the grass starters, treecko seems like the worst due to an awful early learnset and extreme frailty. Bulbasaur gets vine whip at level 10 and razor leaf at level 22. Chikorita gets razor leaf at level 8. With a better typing for the early game, the bulbasaur line can actually solo brawly and wattson thanks to leech seed and sleep powder. This same combo makes it decent for norman and winona. It even gets sludge bomb as a second stab. Venusaur is the worst grass starter for tate and liza which obviously holds it back. The chikorita line can solo brawly thanks to reflect and razor leaf and do more vs wattson. Reflect helps a lot vs norman and even vs winona. Meganium then has solid matchups vs the last 2 gyms although it does fall off a little thanks to only having razor leaf as stab. Overall, I think bulbasaur and chikorita are better than treecko for the early game while I still think treecko is the best late game grass starter due to potential overgrow sweeps and a better stab attack.

For the fire starters, charmander and cyndaquil play very similarly. They don't have the fighting type which makes the torchic line good, so they are likely worse. Charmander doesn't even get metal claw unlike in frlg. I guess they perform a little better against winona and tl. Charizard also gets dragon claw for drake. The higher speed doesn't really give any benefit, so torchic still remains the best fire starter.

For the water starters, squirtle and todotile are a little similar as pure waters that have access to eq in their final form. Blastoise's high spdef is arguably more useful than feraligatr's higher attack with no physical special split. Compared to the mudkip line, they are bad against wattson. Feraligatr does have the advantage of being full evolved for norman and winona. Swampert does a little worse against tate and liza due to being quad weak to solarbeam and being slower, as well as against glacia due to taking neutral damage from ice. I still think mudkip is the best water starter for emerald due to the wattson matchup.

The only real fights where it doesn't do much are Bugsy, Morty, and some team rocket bosses. The other boss fights it does decent. Picking chikorita gives you an easier Chuck, Pryce (yes this is a good matchup for meganium), and Clair. It also gets sd and synthesis so you can sweep some e4 fights with decent rng. I would say it's on par with cyndaquil line in terms of viability. I still think totodile is the best starter for Johto.

Venusaur is the classic example. In kanto, the gym matchups get progressively worse for the bulbasaur line from 1-7. Additionally after it gets razor leaf it's power starts plateauing while the other 2 starters will eventually get flamethrower and surf. In other regions there is a sludge bomb tm which would be very useful for venusaur but it is post game in kanto. It still provides insane utility with leech seed and sleep powder.

Another example is emboar in both unova games. The tepig line has high damage all game, but its flaws really come into play the later the game goes on. Emboar has the "hoenn special" stat spread that becomes a liability in a power crept game. It's high hp provides it a false sense of security because of its low defenses, which makes it feel like it is 1 crit away from dying. This gets compounded by bad gym matchups like Clay, Skyla, and Marlon.

Water types are generally very overrated in emerald (ironically considered the water region). The best water types for the league have a secondary type that gives them a good stab to use when water is resisted. (walrein, ludicolo, lanturn, swampert, tentacruel). Pure water types like milotic tend to be very underwhelming as they will end up just spamming resisted surf until they run out pp because the elite 4 uses full restores.