What do you do with your starter?

[HoppytheCourier]

Re: What do you do wih your starter?

I always use my starter on my team throughout my adventure. I' am not a competitive player so I have no need to EV train or anything like that. I just play a Pokemon game to have fun and to raise my Pokemon as though they were my pets in real life.

 

[Kiyou]

I just can't take my starter out of my team. I don't know why... I mean... It's the first pokemon I got during my journey. For wifi battles, PWT, even when just trading with a friend, I never put it in the PC.

 

[Dragonfyre]

In SS I pretty much solo'd the game with my starter, but in White it wasn't part of my team's core, especially when I got to late game. I still kept its level close to that of its peers', but it was one of the pokémon I only put in the team when I needed six pokémon (for more death fodder or potion dummy options) or when I need its typing somehow (advantage over some of the next opponent's pokémon or coverage for a type one of the core pokémon are weak to).

 

[acapellaguy]

I trade mine out for whatever I want to use at the time. If you offer someone a starter pokemon, they will most likely take it. Im guessing just so that they can say that they have all the starters.

 

[Magma Bomb]

I usually keep it on my team through the entire game out of convenience. Even if they don't do that good at online play I don't think the game is going to be hard to the point of throwing at me a level of difficulty my starter can't handle. They may end up replaced in the post-game, though.
It is also usually the strongest Pokémon on my team, except for some rare exceptions.

 

[Mokoniki]

I used my starter throughout the entirety of the games except for the Gen V ones. I tried to use it in the beginning, but there were so many great Pokemon in Gen V they just completely overruled my starter.

 

[Demon Fang]

I usually keep it within my in-game team, since it's a strong choice. The only time, that I didn't use one, was during DPP era, but I quickly swapped it back into my team.

 

[Miar]

Depends on how good they fare to others of their types, but in general:

Grass: Box when it falls behind. If it's Chikorita, it won't even reach Meganium.
Water: Useful fighter and Surfing tool, so I generally keep it for the entire game.
Fire: Depends on its usefulness. I found Emboar and Typhlosion great, but Blaziken less so.

 

[Dex]

If I don't like any of the starters, I'll usually have a friend breed a different Pokémon and trade my starter for it. The only generation I've had to do this was V though, all the others I was at least able to find one that I sort of liked.

Whether my "starter" is the one given by the professor or one brought in from elsewhere, I almost always keep it at a higher level than everything else. The only exception is if I have a pokémon I need to get to a specific level (recently, an Eevee I wanted to get to 57 for trump card before evolving it).

If I do trade my starter, I have to pretty much not use it at all and sever the bond completely as soon as possible. If I don't, I get too attached to it. I have an equally hard time at stopping using some of my early captures (like Lillipup, Purrloin, and Whimsicott in Black).

 

[妖精ちゃん]

I keep it for the entire game, leveling it as fast as I can before reaching the first gym.

 

[The Kreaminator]

I keep it for the entire game, leveling it as fast as I can before reaching the first gym.

That's what I do but once I get other Pokemon I also overtrain them but the starter is at the highest level all the time.

 

[Supreme Leader Palpitoad]

I keep mine in the team. In W2 Ithrew my Emboar out of the team because of it was too slow and replaced it with Heatran. It did not feel right so now Emboar is on my team again!

 

[妖精ちゃん]

I can't train them too much before going to the first gym because then it will be difficult to catch other Pokemon. :shy:

 

[Warrior of Fire]

Starting with Gen IV, I give the Pokémon a nickname that fits it or one of its evolutions (Inferno for Chimchar, Torch Hog for Tepig) and train it, always keeping it on my team. When I played through Black, I used the action replay code so my team gained experience and EVs without having to go in so I could train everyone at once without sacrificing training time, so that was a huge help there. As for EV training my team, in Black I used the aforementioned code as well as the EV vitamins (since Rare Candies, PP Ups, and PP Maxes count as vitamins) for the training. Battled a lot, then when I reached SMN, I bought a bunch of vitamins and attempted to use them. When none of them worked on a given Pokémon, I knew it was EV maxed. And it is that point where I would use the Rare Candy code for a bleep-ton of Rare Candies and make my team level 100 (and of course, when I got a new Pokémon to add to my team or just maxing everyone out, I'd skip the battling part after I got the eighth badge). And now that I'm gonna be joining the Bulbagarden trading community, I'm gonna breed my starter so I can trade for someone else's newborn starter once it's past the level where it'll learn its last move by level up.

 

[Dralcax]

I always use it. They might not always be the strongest, or the highest-leveled, or my favorite, but I started out with that Pokemon. I chose it over the two others. I raised it from level 5. There's always something special about that, and I will never let it leave my team unless absolutely necessary.

 

[Phijkchu]

If its a Nuzlocke, I usually don't keep him unless I don't get anything good. If its normal gameplay, he is usually about 5 levels ahead and is the basis of my team.

 

[DragonCIaw]

It depends on the game. For gens 1-3 I keep the starter as my prime team member, but for gens 4-5 I usually ditch them. xD I don't know why, it's just a subconscious thing, I guess.

 

[JustAnotherLeafeon]

Usually, I keep them around until there isn't much left to do in the game; in which case, I put it back in the pc and train various pokemon and evolve them.
The only exception was in my White version and Serperior. I discovered through various battles that it kind of sucked. So I threw it back into the PC, substituting him with a traded Vaporeon, and moved on. Eventually, I beat the E4, N, and Ghetsis. He wasn't involved.

 

[Chronos]

I always keep my starter on my team. I just feel weird without having it there. It's the Pokemon I started out with, so I feel a sort of bond with it that I don't have with the others (I know it's a game and all, but still...). I didn't even box my Piplup in Gen IV, even though I really wanted to. I didn't like any of the starters. ;_;

 

[Dakhem Uaid]

I usually have my starter on my team, I never pick the useless ones. Well, I did choose Oshawott in White, and I sometimes use Samurott but it is pretty useless.

In most games, I build my team from pokemon available early on before I even get the game; I choose a starter based on that.