What if Magikarp were the starter Pokemon?

[Fishies]

Imagine this: You're about to take the Pokeball on the table... and your rival pushes you out of the way to take it! Don't worry though, Oak has a pikachu for you. Then your rival challenges you! His Pokemon is... Magikarp. Thundershock, one hit KO. "Oh no I must've chosen the wrong Pokemon!"

[Setra]

Rare Candies

Oh! You mean if Blue/Gary chose Magicarp?

Well I bet 20 levels later you'd be a tad miffed.

[mikeejimbo]

And you still have an electric versus his water?

No, they always make sure that the opponent takes the one that has the advantage over yours.

[Setra]

And you still have an electric versus his water?

No, they always make sure that the opponent takes the one that has the advantage over yours.
But... Gyridos(I know I spelled that wrong) Is awesome!

Actually he is the Worst Pokemon Ever for Electric types, because he is Water/Flying.

At least in Red, and Blue, and Yellow, I can't recall if they changed it in Silver/Gold Ruby/Sapphire

[Fishies]

Where would you get the Rare Candies?

[Setra]

Where would you get the Rare Candies?
Notta clue, though you know I bet he could, with some luck, catch like a Rattata at full health.

[averagejoe]

Geez, I remember that game. Sooo long ago.

HOWEVER, there was always the trick of starting with that lovable carp guy and then pulling him back to have someone else fight. In the original red/blue there was no penalty for doing this. MK would get only half the xp, but it's still better than nothing. Plus garydos (or however you spelled it) was PURE awsome.

[Setra]

Geez, I remember that game. Sooo long ago.

HOWEVER, there was always the trick of starting with that lovable carp guy and then pulling him back to have someone else fight. In the original red/blue there was no penalty for doing this. MK would get only half the xp, but it's still better than nothing. Plus garydos (or however you spelled it) was PURE awsome.
Yeah but if it's your ONLY Pokemon... yeah

Discussing Pokemon makes me feel like a geek.

[Tengu]

Should I feel proud that I understand the context of one word out of ten?

[Setra]

Should I feel proud that I understand the context of one word out of ten?
Hey the games are alright.

Only the anime sucks, heck I saw some of the manga, a Poliwhirl turned a Graveler into Ice and shattered him.

[averagejoe]

I dunno, it's kinda fun the first time you play it. Like one time awhile back I was playing my cousin's game boy advance (the last one I had was a color) and he had one of the newer ones (I dunno which, I've only ever played red/blue in depth), and it was pretty cool just because it was all so new. I mean, it doesn't win greatest game ever, but it's a fun game to go into knowing nothing about it, then discovering things. I mean, I was fighting people with a baby chicken that breathed fire! How cool is that? (Answer: pretty freakin' cool!)

I mean, I didn't get very far, but that's beside the point. It was just awsome fighting with my mushroom guy.

[Indon]

Simple enough: You avoid any and all encounters until you get to a part where you can fight one of the bug pokemon that do nothing but use Harden. You run out of Splash and struggle your enemy to death. Rinse and repeat a few hundred times.

[Mewtarthio]

Simple enough: You avoid any and all encounters until you get to a part where you can fight one of the bug pokemon that do nothing but use Harden. You run out of Splash and struggle your enemy to death. Rinse and repeat a few hundred times.

The Kakuna/Metapod will expend all its Harden PP before you run out of Splash. I think Splash has, what, 40 PP or some other ridiculous number? And every time you go to the Pokecenter to heal, it all gets replenished.

All you can do is hope to luckily catch a full health Rattata or Pidgey. Maybe at level 2.

[averagejoe]

Nah, fight whoever you want, just pull him back before attacking. He gets half xp from the fight. You don't solo stuff with magicarp, you teamwork it. It's quicker than level 2 pidgey, anyways, and even the level (four-ish?) kakuna/metapod.

[Sucrose]

Nah, fight whoever you want, just pull him back before attacking. He gets half xp from the fight. You don't solo stuff with magicarp, you teamwork it. It's quicker than level 2 pidgey, anyways, and even the level (four-ish?) kakuna/metapod.

Yeah, but the whole point of the thread is what one would do if that were the starting pokemon.

[Mewtarthio]

Nah, fight whoever you want, just pull him back before attacking. He gets half xp from the fight. You don't solo stuff with magicarp, you teamwork it. It's quicker than level 2 pidgey, anyways, and even the level (four-ish?) kakuna/metapod.

Fight with what? You've only got Magikarp, and I don't recall any handguns in Pokemon.

"Magikarp, I choose you!"
"A Magikarp? Please! That's the most pathe--"
*BLAM BLAM BLAM*
"Yeah! I beat the Elite Four!"

[averagejoe]

Yeah, but the whole point of the thread is what one would do if that were the starting pokemon.

Well, then you could just weaken a level two pidgey until you can catch it, then you've got your second one. I mean, MK can't beat some of the tougher ones, but he can certainly do that much.

[Fishies]

Another thought.

"Your Magikarp seems to dislike Pokeballs!"

[Setra]

Well, then you could just weaken a level two pidgey until you can catch it, then you've got your second one. I mean, MK can't beat some of the tougher ones, but he can certainly do that much.
Only with Struggle.. and he'd have to live long enough to use it.

[averagejoe]

Not saying it wouldn't take some luck, but it is doable.

[Setra]

Not saying it wouldn't take some luck, but it is doable.
Hmm, I don't think so.. Splash has.. 40pp?

It would take 40 moves, and you'd have trouble getting money. And healing Magikarp with the Pokemon center would restore his PP.

Edit: Talking about Pokemon.. urges to watch DBZ.. Help! I'm turning younger!

At least my typing isn't being reversed as well, it wasn't leet or anything, but I did type horribly slow and without punctuation.

[Tola]

...Not feasible naturally.

Magikarp has tremendous physical defences, from what I remember, but no way to attack. I don't even know if it can ACCEPT TMs(TMs teach moves), which might ease the issue.

[Dhavaer]

The Kakuna/Metapod will expend all its Harden PP before you run out of Splash. I think Splash has, what, 40 PP or some other ridiculous number? And every time you go to the Pokecenter to heal, it all gets replenished.

All you can do is hope to luckily catch a full health Rattata or Pidgey. Maybe at level 2.

Before Silver and Gold, enemy pokemon never ran out of PP, so you'd always have the option of draining PP until you could struggle.

[knightsaline]

Before Silver and Gold, enemy pokemon never ran out of PP, so you'd always have the option of draining PP until you could struggle.


So THAT explains the 8 blizzards in a row!

[Dhavaer]

So THAT explains the 8 blizzards in a row!

It makes Sabrina a nightmare to fight, as well, because she can constantly use Recover. Her Alakazam is almost invincible.

[Setra]

It makes Sabrina a nightmare to fight, as well, because she can constantly use Recover. Her Alakazam is almost invincible.
Charizard to the face!

Yeah that's like.. my answer to everything in the first Pokemon game.

Well either that or Gyarados, Dragonite, or Articuno.

[Rockphed]

Mine was Charizard to the face, and them blizzard to the face. Life am good with arcticuno!

[Setra]

Mine was Charizard to the face, and them blizzard to the face. Life am good with arcticuno!
Agreed :smallcool:

[Closet_Skeleton]

Bah, Rare Candies and daycare make him weak. Real Magicarp send in the magicarp first and then swap him out for someone who can attack.

[JadedDM]

...Not feasible naturally.

Magikarp has tremendous physical defences, from what I remember, but no way to attack. I don't even know if it can ACCEPT TMs(TMs teach moves), which might ease the issue.

Negative. Magikarp cannot learn TMs. At least, not in the original versions. I can't speak for any beyond that, as I outgrew Pokemon a long time ago.

[Mewtarthio]

Another thought.

"Your Magikarp seems to dislike Pokeballs!"

Hmm... I wonder how well the show would have done had Oak given Ash a real punishment for showing up late...

"Hear me, Spearows! I am Ash from the town of Pallet! Come and get me! Quick, get inside the ball, Magickarp!"
"karpkarpkarpkarp" *flop* *splish* *splash*
*PECKPECKPECKPECK*
"YEEAARGH! My eyes! My beautiful, oversized anime EYES!"

---

Is it a bad thing that I distinctly recall how much it bugged me when, in the sunken SS Anne episode, Meowth says of Magikarp "Forget about swimming; it can barely splash"? Come on, Splash is Magikarp's main move!

[Woot Spitum]

It's easy. Start with Magikarp, then use a gameshark to get Mew. Laugh at everything you come up against.

[BrokenButterfly]

Well if you couldn't put the Magikarp in a pokeball I'd just put it on the end of a rope and use it as some sort of flail to beat Pidgeys and co into submission. I mean its not as if the fish actually has lungs, for the same reason those monsters dont stay down when they're "Guillotined".

But seriously, I thought that you could catch a few of the rubbishy pokemon at the start without weakening them whatsoever. That's why you had those weirdoes telling you nuggets of info such as "A Pokemon is easier to catch if you weaken it first..." (obviously not exact, but you get the point).

I'm actually still playing my copy of Sapphire just because I'm four away from completion and really paranoid about finally finishing a Pokemon game. I dont mind the anime so much, except I become enraged whenever a rock/ground pokemon is electrocuted. They know it can't be done, so they always come up with a laughable excuse to justify it...

[Artemician]

I dont mind the anime so much, except I become enraged whenever a rock/ground pokemon is electrocuted. They know it can't be done, so they always come up with a laughable excuse to justify it...

Heresy! For one, it isn't an anime. It stopped being one the moment 4kids bought it over. For two, rock pokemon CAN be eletrocuted, its ground which can't. For three, you use the word "excuse". Everyone knows that the anime Cartoon TV thingy is completely Canon and the game is false.

Oh, and you forgot that they run a random plot_generator now, so it's become more like a showcase of whatever spiffy pokemon they come up with or whatever new "technique" that people use. And Ash gets mindwiped every episode. I swear.

Maybe we'll see an episode where Ash wakes up and finds he's actually a Fuchikoma. ~Gwahaha!~

[The 8th Sin]

Okay magikarp; I can deal with it. I'll just trade over some various starters, pupitar, or dratini from gold version. It's really fun to start a game with those things.

[Ettlesby]

Magikarp? I've got an idea. Just pick it up, and beat the other guy into submission with it. It's LIKE you won the battle, right?

[Fishies]

Maybe you can breed.

Male Charizard with Fire Blast x Female Magikarp = Egg which will eventually hatch into a Magikarp with Fire Blast

The only problem is that Magikarp doesn't have any egg moves. Damn.

[Setra]

Everyone knows that the anime Cartoon TV thingy is completely Canon and the game is false.
The games came first

Pokémon is a metaserial anime that is based on the Pokémon video game series and a part of the Pokémon franchise. It was created in Japan titled, Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター, Poketto Monsutā?), and was then adapted for the North American television market. Pokémon is the longest running and most successful television show based on a video game series.

Also

The Pokémon anime series and films are a meta-series of adventures separate from the canon that most of the Pokémon video games follow (with the exception of Pokémon Yellow, a game based on the anime storyline).Emphasis mine.

[Mr. Mud]

well if u got it that would open a world of possiblities

1.) Graydos at a relatively early point, episcally if You level him at day care or give him to a friend to elite 4 scum
2.) If your rival picked a grass starter it would be easy pickin's for you
3.) Garydos Owns all becasue he is super weak to electric but everything else he kills, so just carry around a Geodude or another rock/ground pokemon

[Fishies]

1.) Graydos at a relatively early point, episcally if You level him at day care or give him to a friend to elite 4 scum
2.) If your rival picked a grass starter it would be easy pickin's for you
3.) Garydos Owns all becasue he is super weak to electric but everything else he kills, so just carry around a Geodude or another rock/ground pokemon

1) Get to the day-care how?
2) Grass > Water
3) My Gyarados can pwn electric Pokemon.

[Setra]

1) Get to the day-care how?
2) Grass > Water
3) My Gyarados can pwn electric Pokemon.
Bet your Gyarados is no match for my Alakazam!

[Reinboom]

Letsee... if your rival got the same bit of items you get at the beginning, that's at least 2 potions.
I could conceive it to try to get to Kakuna/Metapod and draining your pp of splash (but not using struggle on them), then running from battle and trying to find a lvl 2 pidgey or ratata to hit a few times with struggle. Use potions to stay in tact and it should be possible.

For Red/Blue/Yellow, if all I'm concerned about is getting through the game, I will go for a nidoran male asap and just stick with that through. Seriously, it's an awesome type abusing pokemon in the first few games, it can learn Surf (water), Double Kick (Fighting), Lightning Bolt (electric) - and you get it early.
The only hard issue it has is Sabrina who just has to be put aside for a bit, then max Carbos on the Nidoking.

[Setra]

You don't need to type abuse to beat the game though, any one pokemon can probably be used to defeat the Elite 4 by itself, just use that one by itself and it should be about level 85 by the end.

Heck, I could go through all the Elite Four (Though not Blue) with just Vaporeon, who was level 65.

On another note, Red is my favorite, so it's the one I usually refer to, I have beat Blue/Yellow/Gold/Silver/Ruby/Sapphire.

[Aotrs Commander]

I have played all of the Pokemon games, and still play them (I have all the games of the current generation!) While I'm not the world's greatest expert (since I don't spend hundreds of hours on raising Pokemon), I like to consider myself pretty knowledgable...

So, what I would do, armed only with Magikarp, is head out and try and lob some Pokeballs at Rattata or Pidgey (or whatever the local level 2-4 Pokemon happens to be). You can catch them at that level without too much difficulty cold (though you might have to reload a couple of times). Once you've got one, level as normal. You'd probably want to whack MagiKarp to at least level 15 for Tackle before you did anything useful (and if in G/S generation, you'd have a fairly kicking speed IV by the time you'd done wth Pidgey and Rattata!), maybe 20 and Gyrados if you had the patience.

I think the danger with trying to get to Metapod/Kakuna is that you first have to fight a couple of trainers as I recall to even get to Viridian Forest (or whatever equilent locale they frquent in G/S/CR/S/E). You could jst get beaten, of course, but that drains your - by then - limited cash reserves. (Especially as I seem to recall you need to fight said trainers before you even get your first Pokeball; I can't remember off the top of my head.)


3) My Gyarados can pwn electric Pokemon.

Only, I would guess, if can get off Earthquake before they hit you with Thunder or Thunderbolt. Risky...

[lumberofdabeast]

My Metagross can pwn your Gyarados and your Alakazam.

[tgva8889]

Only, I would guess, if can get off Earthquake before they hit you with Thunder or Thunderbolt. Risky...

First, Thunder < Thunderbolt because of accuracy reasons. Against Gyrados, Thunderbolt is perfectly suffcient.

Second, if the Gyrados gets to Dragon Dance once, most pokemon that can learn Thunderbolt that aren't Jolteon or Electrode will have some trouble outracing a Gyrados. And a lot more trouble surviving an Earthquake from it.

I am a competitive Pokemon battler, so you know, so I am familiar with that stuff.

As for Metagross, I'm pretty sure he's a pretty retarded pokemon anyways, so whatever. My Marshtomp can most likely "pwn" most of the mentioned pokemon. Unless your Alakazam has a Grass-type Hidden Power. Then I may be in trouble.

[lumberofdabeast]

As for Metagross, I'm pretty sure he's a pretty retarded pokemon anyways, so whatever. My Marshtomp can most likely "pwn" most of the mentioned pokemon. Unless your Alakazam has a Grass-type Hidden Power. Then I may be in trouble.

Yeah, Metagross is silly. One of my faves, because of said silliness.

As a side note, is the IV stuff from RSE still applicable in DP?

[Setra]

First, Thunder < Thunderbolt because of accuracy reasons. Against Gyrados, Thunderbolt is perfectly suffcient.

Second, if the Gyrados gets to Dragon Dance once, most pokemon that can learn Thunderbolt that aren't Jolteon or Electrode will have some trouble outracing a Gyrados. And a lot more trouble surviving an Earthquake from it.

I am a competitive Pokemon battler, so you know, so I am familiar with that stuff.

As for Metagross, I'm pretty sure he's a pretty retarded pokemon anyways, so whatever. My Marshtomp can most likely "pwn" most of the mentioned pokemon. Unless your Alakazam has a Grass-type Hidden Power. Then I may be in trouble.

Actually no.. he doesn't, then again I've got at least 50 pokemon that are level 80+. I think like 4 are Grass types.

[Fishies]

Pssh, Alakazam is overpowered. Oh, and Thunder? Raindance.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

1) Magicarp can at least Struggle. Granted, it would be pure hell to keep enough potions to level him up to 15 when he gets Tackle. Once he hits 15, he can start beating lower level other types of pokemon for you to capture. From there... well, once he hits 20, you got one of the better Pokemon out there, although rather sucky against lightning. He does very well against ground types, though...

2) Sabrina's Kadabra is nasty. Charizard would never get a chance to Fire Blast. Kadabra is one of the fastest pokemon in the game (a trait shared by most psychic pokemon). Your Charizard would get hit by a Confusion or Psychic and would be nearly dead. Next turn he Disables your Fire Blast, which keeps you from using it, then Recovers the damage you do. Then continues the barrage of psychic attacks until you either switch out pokemon or he falls over. To beat him, you need a psychic pokemon yourself. I usually use a Slowpoke or Slowbro, so he's resistant to psychic attacks but can use physical or water attacks with relative impunity.

3) Magicarp is a difficult one to start with, but how about Abra? His only attack makes you flee the encounter...

[tgva8889]

Pssh, Alakazam is overpowered. Oh, and Thunder? Raindance.

Then turn you spend using Rain Dance, I spend using Dragon Dance.

Then, I proceed to outrace you and use Earthquake. Thanks, now all of my Gyrados's Water attacks are even better.

As for pokemon that are level 80+, I actually don't personally own any. I'm talking about my competitive Marshtomp, who's a tested method of Cursepert, which is one of the most annoying and ridiculous pokemon there is.

I'm pretty sure my competive team could beat a lot of teams out there.

As for Abra, you could have it use Teleport the required number of times, which is only about 20 or so, then use Struggle and potions to weaken a wild pokemon and hopefully capture it. You'd lose the Rival battle, though.

[Mewtarthio]

3) Magicarp is a difficult one to start with, but how about Abra? His only attack makes you flee the encounter...

Splash has more PP than Teleport, plus you're still in battle while SPLASHing around to no effect. Teleport eventually gets expended, plus you don't have to lose HP every fight.

[NullAshton]

A little fact: Rare candies don't hurt your pokemon in the long run, at least in the later games.

Rare candies level you up by 1 level. They don't use EVs to increase stats, though. Contrary to public believe, you do NOT get a set amount of stats every level. You get stats by fighting creatures that have a high stat of the one you want.

To fix your stats, you can either A. Level up normally. You should get double the stats you would have gotten, or something along those lines. You can apparently also B. Put your pokemon in a box, and then withdraw it. Pokemon stats are apparently recalculated every time you take them out of a box, and you can use this trick in order to raise your level 100 pokemon stats.

[Firestar27]

The Pokemon game was great. Actually, for combat, I think it is similar to FF and Adventure Quest and similar games. (Though I've never actually played FF so I'm not sure). The anime ruined. Once they marketed it to a little kid market, you get ridiculed for playing it if your older than 8 years old. Even though the game is nothing like the anime, (except characters and yellow version plot). Red and blue and yellow were the best. There were much more challenging. In r/b/y, you had to defeat many, many team rocket members in that city with the plant type gym leader. They were there in the multiples of ten. In Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, there were never more than fifteen members of team aqua in one place (to battle, not to talk) with only one exception.
If Magikarp were a starter, it would be very hard. Leave it at that.


To fix your stats, you can either A. Level up normally. You should get double the stats you would have gotten, or something along those lines. You can apparently also B. Put your pokemon in a box, and then withdraw it. Pokemon stats are apparently recalculated every time you take them out of a box, and you can use this trick in order to raise your level 100 pokemon stats.
What version was that?

[Aotrs Commander]

First, Thunder < Thunderbolt because of accuracy reasons. Against Gyrados, Thunderbolt is perfectly suffcient.

Yes, I agree. I mentioned Thunder as it is quite common, especially with 2-on-2 battles when paired with a Rain Dancer. (I find the 2-on-2 to me much more fun than 1-on-1.)

I must add that I don't unfortunatley get to play against people, only the AI, since nobody round here is a Pokemon fan...

I personally tend to prioritise on Gyrados anyway, since they're a big threat that can be relatively easily neutralised if you can land an electric attack (like most dragons and Ice Beam).


Second, if the Gyrados gets to Dragon Dance once, most pokemon that can learn Thunderbolt that aren't Jolteon or Electrode will have some trouble outracing a Gyrados. And a lot more trouble surviving an Earthquake from it.

I am a competitive Pokemon battler, so you know, so I am familiar with that stuff.

Oh, I didn't say it was impossible, by any means. Just a bit of a risky tactic if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Which you clearly do.

[Dihan]

Yes, I agree. I mentioned Thunder as it is quite common, especially with 2-on-2 battles when paired with a Rain Dancer. (I find the 2-on-2 to me much more fun than 1-on-1.)

Or Volt Tackle if you have a Pichu, Pikachu or Raichu.

[PlatinumJester]

well lets see he wouldn't be able to catch any pokemon since magikarp would die within 2 seconds and then you wouldn'y have the satisfaction of beating him when ever you meet him thus the game would suck

[Indon]

A little fact: Rare candies don't hurt your pokemon in the long run, at least in the later games.


In Blue/Red, you got the equivalent of EV's for all stats from pretty much everything, and the box trick still worked (Though you had to do the Elite Four like 20 times with a single Pokemon to fully train it).

So really, Rare Candies never _hurt_ your Pokemon... but if you used too many, you would end up needing to continue 'leveling' it after it hit 100 anyway so it wouldn't save you time.

[tgva8889]

In the later games, they actually could hurt you in the long run, if you level to 100 before you maxed out your EVs. Because, you know, then your EVs wouldn't do anything.

The "Box Trick" doesn't work in the Advanced set, and it probably doesn't work in D/P, either. If it gives you the satisfaction of trying it in the older games, do whatever you want.

As for Volt Tackle, that would mean you're using the Raichu line, which, sadly, isn't too great. Below average defenses and only average to high average attack stats really doesn't make a good combination.