Johto Starters Battle Royale

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 Johto Starters Battle Royale

You're starting a new adventure in the Johto region! Becoming the champion is your aim, and beating up others is your game! But everyone needs a first choice, right? Feel like you're stuck on which one to pick? Well, don't worry, this blog will tell you all you need to know! We're putting the Johto starters, Meganium, Typhlosion, and Feraligatr against each other to see who would win a Death Battle.


BEFORE WE START

Just like the Kanto starter episode, these Pokémon will be treated as wild Pokémon. They will not have EVs or IVs, they will not have access to egg moves, and they will not have access to TMs or HMs.


Basically, if they need a trainer to get it, they can't have it.


Their abilities will be comp’d, and they can use any moves they learn by level up.


Background

Meganium

Meganium is the grass type starter and is known as the “Herb Pokémon”. Its height is 1.8m (5'11”) and it weighs 100.5kg (221.6 lbs). Meganium is quite a gentle Pokémon with the pokedex saying it can calm people down with the aroma from its petals and blunt their aggressiveness and fighting spirit. It can also revive dead plants with their breath.


Typhlosion

Typhlosion is the fire type starter and is known as the “Volcano Pokémon”. Its height is 1.7m (5'07”) and it weighs 79.5kg (175.3 lbs). Typhlosion is a battle ready Pokémon and uses its fire a lot. It can create explosions on its body and create blazing explosive blasts that burn everything to cinders. When it gets angry enough, its body gets so hot that it burns everything it touches.


Feraligatr

Feraligatr is the water type starter and is known as the “Big Jae Pokémon”. Its height is 2.3m (7'07”) and it weighs 88.8kg (195.8 lbs). Feraligatr is said to be slow out of water but when on all fours, or attacking a Pokémon, it can go at blinding speeds. Its hind legs have a lot of power in them that let it charge forwards and its jaws can tear a foe up and intimidate them.


Equipment

Meganium

Petals 


Meganium’s petals can calm aggressive feelings and blunt a foe's fighting spirit


Typhlosion

Fur


Typhlosion can rub its fur together to create explosions


Feraligatr 

Jaw


Many pokedex entries mention Feraligatr using its jaws to intimidate and bite into foes, tearing them apart


Powers and Abilities

Meganium

Meganium has two abilities, Overgrow and Leaf Guard.


Overgrow boosts the power of its grass type moves when it's at low health.


Lead Guard prevents it from being status'd when the sun weather effect is in play.


Meganium can also use a variety of moves.


Offense


  • Petal Blizzard - A grass type attack that attacks the opponent with a swarm of petals. It hits two Pokémon.

  • Poison Powder - Inflicts poison on the opponent

  • Razor Leaf - Throws sharp leaves at the opponent and has a high chance for a critical hit. Hits two Pokémon.

  • Tackle - Hits the opponent with their body (like a tackle)

  • Magical Leaf - Throws leaves at the opponent. These leaves cannot miss

  • Body Slam - Slams the opponent with their body (like a body slam), which has a chance to paralyse them

  • Giga Drain - An attack that drains some of the opponent's health

  • Solar Beam - Fires off a powerful beam that takes a turn to charge. There is no charge in the sun weather effect


Utility


  • Growl - Lowers and opponent's attack by one stage

  • Synthesis - Heals itself. Heals more in the sun weather effect

  • Leech Seed - Seeds the opponent (🤨) and drains their health periodically

  • Reflect  - Puts up a wall of light that halves physical attacks. Doesn't stay up forever

  • Sweet Scent - Throws up some nice air that lowers evasiveness

  • Light Screen - Puts up a wall of light that halves special attacks. Doesn't stay up forever

  • Safeguard - Protects itself from status conditions



Typhlosion

Typhlosion has two abilities. Blaze and Flash Fire.


Blaze boosts the powers of fire type moves when health is low


Flash Fire makes Typhlosion take no damage from fire type attacks, and boosts its own fire type attacks in return


Typhlosion can also use a variety of moves


Offense


  • Double Edge - Yeets itself into the opponent. Does some recoil damage

  • Ember - Spews out some fire. Has a chance to burn 

  • Eruption - Sprays fire all around for huge damage. Hits every opponent and ally and deals less damage the less HP it has

  • Gyro Ball - A steel type attack that deals more damage the slower Typhlosion is

  • Tackle - Tackles the opponent

  • Quick Attack - Quickly attacks I guess??? Usually goes before other moves

  • Flame Wheel - Rolls into the opponent with flames all over itself

  • Swift - Shoots stars at the opponent. Hits two Pokémon and can never miss

  • Flame Charge - Cloaks itself in flames and charges at the opponent. Raises speed by one

  • Lava Plume - Shoots fire everywhere that hits two Pokémon. Has a higher chance to burn

  • Flamethrower - Shoots fire for big damage. Has a chance to burn

  • Inferno - Blasts fire for big damage. This move always burns but has a 50% accuracy

  • Rollout - Starts rolling at the opponent. Each turn it gets stronger until it misses but Typhlosion is locked into this move

  • Overheat - Blasts fire for huge damage. Lowers Typhlosion's special attack after using it


Utility


  • Leer - Lowers the opponent's defence by one stage

  • Smokescreen - Sprays smoke that lowers the opponent's accuracy

  • Defence Curl - Raises defence. Can be used in conjunction with Rollout to increase its power


Feraligatr 

Feraligatr has two abilities. Torrent and Sheer Force.


Torrent powers up water type moves when health is low


Sheer Force powers up moves with a secondary effect but removes the effect


Feraligatr can also use a variety of moves


Offense


  • Scratch - Scratches the opponent 😱😱😱

  • Water Gun - Spews out some water

  • Bite - Bites the opponent which can cause flinching

  • Ice Fang - Bites the opponent with ice. Has a chance to freeze or flinch

  • Flail - Deals more damage the lower health it has

  • Crunch - A more powerful bite that can lower the opponent's defence

  • Slash - Cuts the opponent with a high chance to critical hit

  • Thrash - Deals big damage but is locked into thrashing for a few turns. Confuses itself afterwards

  • Aqua Tail - Powerful whip with a tail

  • Superpower - Deals big damage but lowers attack and defence after using it

  • Hydro Pump - Shoots water for big damage


Utility


  • Agility - Raises speed by two stages

  • Leer - Lowers the opponent's defence by one

  • Scary Face - Lowers opponent's speed by one stage

  • Screech - Lowers opponent's defence by two stages


Stats

Meganium


Typhlosion


Feraligatr

Weaknesses

Meganium

Being a grass type, Meganium is weak to fire, ice, bug, flying and poison type attacks


Typhlosion 

Being a fire type, Typhlosion is weak to water, ground and rock type attacks


Feraligatr

Being a water type, Feraligatr is weak to grass and electric attacks


Verdict

I went back and forth with these three A LOT. This blog would’ve been out much sooner but deciding a win between these three is actually more complicated than you’d think, but alas, I came to a decision.


3rd - Meganium: Initially, I had Meganium winning and I was convinced they won. For starters, they can hit Feraligatr super effectively and heavily too. Petal Blizzard is nothing to laugh at and Solar Beam hits very hard, but it needs a turn to charge since there is no way of getting the sun up. Additionally, Meganium has a lot of defensive and healing options, which the other two don’t have. Synthesis, Leech Seed and Giga Drain can keep it healthy while Reflect and Light Screen can half any damage it takes. BUT, the real head scratcher here was the pokedex entries. “The aroma that rises from its petals contains a substance that calms aggressive feelings.” and “The fragrance of Meganium’s flower soothes and calms emotions. In battle, this Pokémon gives off more of its becalming scent to blunt the foe’s fighting spirit.” Meganium could very well not make the other starters want to fight Meganium, letting them fight each other and cleaning up afterwards. I really thought there was no way around this. However, wording is important. Meganium doesn’t stop their aggressive feelings like I originally thought, they just make them lower. While it sounds like it could still work, the big rabid fire badger should be able to counter the effects. Typhlosion is known for getting angry and it can get so angry that it sets everything on fire just by touch. The idea here is that Typhlosion would get angry enough from the aroma ontop the attacks it’s taking and just bypass the soothing effects. Meganium really has zero chance against Typhlosion so once the anger is high enough, Meganium is quite literally cooked. Meganium also just isn’t an aggressive Pokémon. It doesn’t viciously attack things normally and it’s offenses aren’t the greatest,


2nd - Typhlosion: Again, Typhlosion winning was a possibility. It’s the fastest of the three and it boasts the highest offensive stat with a 109 Special Attack stat. Like I said before, once it gets angry enough it should bypass Meganium’s aroma and beat them pretty easily. However, when dealing with Feraligatr, it lacks quite a bit. Its movepool consists mainly of fire type moves with not much else. To be fair to Typhlosion, it does have some pretty powerful fire type moves, that being Eruption, Inferno and Overheat. Inferno also burns the opponent but the flaw with it is that it has a 50% chance to hit, making it unreliable. Eruption on the other hand is the highest damaging move that any of the three can produce and it always hits. However, it’s only good right at the start as its damage lowers as Typhlosion’s health lowers. While it’s really good against Meganium, it’s not so great against Feraligatr and it just gets worse. Lastly, Overheat is very strong and reliable, but it comes with the downside of lowering Typhlosion’s Special Attack, making it only really useful as a last resort kind of move. Something else that’s worth a mention is the fur. “It has a secret, devastating move. It rubs its blazing fur together to cause huge explosions.” Now, devastating isn’t a light word and these explosions don’t really have a type so it’s not easy to say Feraligatr would tank these, but this is a “secret” move, meaning it wouldn’t come out unless Typhlosion is very low on health, but I still don’t think it’ll be enough as I don't think Feraligatr would be weak enough at that point. Typhlosion is very powerful here, but it’d get whittled down at the beginning from both sides due to Feraligatr not wanting to fight Meganium because of the aroma, and Meganium wanting to take Typhlosion out early due to the type disadvantage, making it unable to win.


1st - Feraligatr: After much debate with myself, I have Feraligatr winning this. Thanks to Meganium’s aroma, Typhlosion would only be focused on Feraligatr. A 1v1 between a water type and a fire type leads to a pretty victorious outcome for the water type. Feraligatr has strong water moves in Hydro Pump and Aqua Tail, with the latter coming off from a base 105 Attack stat. Feraligatr also has better defenses for the moves the two are going to be using. Typhlosion would be favouring special attacking moves like Flamethrower while Feraligatr would be favouring physical moves like Aqua Tail. Meaning it’s Feraligatr’s 83 Special Defence vs Typhlosion’s 78 Defence. Feraligatr even has Ice Fang to hit Meganium super effectively, it’s boosted by Sheer Force as well! The pokedex also shows it’s no stranger to battling, it may be slower normally but it gets access to Agility which doubles its speed, and when attacking, it can move at blinding speeds with its hind legs, giving it an advantage when striking with its physical attacks. “When it bites with its massive and powerful jaws, it shakes its head and savagely tears its victim up.” This entry should highlight Feraligatr’s physical prowess well and Typhlosion doesn’t have an answer to his mighty jaws while Feraligatr naturally resists any fire attack. There is a case to be made with Typhlosion using heat shimmers to hide plus using the move Smokescreen to reduce the chance of Feraligatr hitting, but Feraligatr can take any attack Typhlosion throws at it pretty easily thanks to its water typing and higher defenses. 


Feraligatr is able to come on top in this battle royale thanks to its immense physical power and its supporting type, plus its better utility options.

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