Torchic because Blaziken is the best starter evo ever concieved. It's so good it is in uber and was the only hoenn starter to get a mega in x and y

>>27206921
Torchic because blaziken is OP. Also I wasn't going to use any other fighting types and all the other fire types in Hoenn suck.

Treeko is also really good if you don't want to use any other grass types (using one atm and it's great).

Swampert is good since it only has one weakness, but there are many other great (and better) water and ground types.

Personally I would pick between torchic and treeko depending on your other team members, pick the one that fills the gaps.

>>27207002

Interesting, which water/ground types would you recommend I pick up to compensate for a lack of Swampert?

>>27206921
Mudkip line is my personal favorite, water/ground is a bitching typing and spamming Surf and Earthquake late game feels great. Honestly, all three are pretty great, so just either go with the one who looks best to you, or check the Hoenn dex to see if you absolutely want to catch something who's type would overlap with a starter.

>>27206921
Honestly I'd say Mudkip.
In a vacuum Blziken is better than Swampert but picking Mudkip is a free win against Roxanne, Wattson, Flannery and Tate & Liza.

The Torchic line is the only decent Fire pokemon you'll find in Emerald before the postgame but I never felt like you need a fire pokemon in that game, the champion has a water team and so does one of the gym leaders and the ice type elite 4 has 3 ice/water pokemon, Winona's team is also super effective against you.

Mudkip is basically the game's easy mode. If you want more of a challenge pick Treeko.

>>27207046
None, Swampert is the best one in the game and in general. He's the best starter too in Gen 3 because of his learnset, stats, and because grass-types aren't as strong.

He's probably the best starter to pick too.

>>27207278
Am I remembering wrong, or does Swampert have 10 more BST than the other starters for some reason?

>>27207328
He might have 1 or 2 more, not 10 more. Swampert's stat distribution is really good and everything that's threatening to it is either slow, weak, or not there to attack you like Sceptile.

>>27207348
iirc the only real threat to Swampert in the whole game is Wallace's Ludicolo.

>>27206921

Swampert was objectively the best starter pokemon until infernape dethroned it in Gen IV. And was the best Water/Ground type until it the other Water/Ground types started getting recovery moves. I loved the shit out of Swampert because he was powerful at all phases of the game. Only problem is that Gen III has many water types available to you to use.

Blaziken doesn't get a good fighting move until much later and you will be stuck with double kick until the last Gym where you can teach it Brick Break. Blaziken has the usual advantage of an early fire type and most of the fire types in Gen III are trash.

Sceptile was one of the best grass types thanks to leaf blade, unfortunately you are stuck with a shit move pool because of generation III. Your grass type could easily be Breloom instead.

>>27207434
I forgot that thing existed. Wallace was very forgettable imo.

Meanwhile Sceptile has to deal with a bunch of things. Same with Blaziken. Swampert was just ungodly at that time, even better than Feraligatr for soloing the game.

>>27207348
>>27207328
It's both, Swampert has a full 10 more than some like Venusaur and Meganium, at 535, but others like Charizard, Delphox, etc, only have one less. It still has the highest BST of all the starters, and 5 more than the other Hoenn ones.

>>27206921
Treeko and never evolve him, unless you want to be another OP faggot pick Torchic.

>>27207563
Best starter?