The Best Starter For Tandor (Story)

[HuckebeinTheRaven]

Hey all. 

As some of you may know, a youtuber by the tag of Eriyzo has made a series of videos detailing the "best starters" for the various generations of pokemon, using how the pokemon individually matches up against the challenges faced in the game. Naturally, this is based solely around the starter, as with a well-balanced team supporting it, any pokemon can have a measure of success.

Inspired by this, I decided to go over the starters presented in our own Pokemon Uranium's Tandor region, to determine the starter that is best, based on overall matchups against the different foes and important main-game sidequests.
Note: Due to potential plot spoilers existing in my analysis, I have put the bulk of it into spoilers. If you wish to avoid game spoilers, be warned, some are here.

First off, there's Eletux. Bambo'o states that Eletux is the balanced starter, favoring a mixed approach, and that consensus summarizes Eletux quite brilliantly. 

Spoiler

Against Theo, it starts very strong, as Theo's Raptorch is an almost a guaranteed OHKO for Eletux, but this vast superiority dies off after this first battle. While it continues to do well against Theo's starter, it at best runs even with the pokemon that eventually join Theo's party, and by the Snowbank Town rival battle, it is finally inadvisable to attempt a solo sweep of Theo's team, as there are a few pokemon that will give Eletux a reasonably hard time. 

Against the Gyms, Eletux lives up to it's description. It runs even with Maria, with a slight advantage possibly gained with it's "Static" ability. 
Against Davern, Eletux actually does reasonably well, as it can super-effectively hit two of his pokemon, and neutrally damage the others. Eletux does about the same against Cali, being able to down two of them fairly easily, while having some trouble with two (Cararalm and Sableu). 
When you get to Sheldon, Eletux again is a decent option, neither good nor bad. The options given for resistance and paralysis use are helpful, but most of his mons are slow anyways, and one (Tracton) resists both STABs heavily. 
Tiko is where Eletux finally truly shines, where the dual electric and water typing reaches it's full potential against Tiko's fire types. Eletux utterly dominates this gym, taking no prisoners. 
This, however, fades, as Rosalind's gym is yet another where Eletux has no obvious strengths or weaknesses. 
This continues to Vaeryn's gym as well, where Eletux has a few resistance options against Vaeryn's Ice types, but again, has little in the way of super-effective stopping power to bring to the table. 
Finally, at Hinata and Kaito's gym, Eletux suffers at Hinata's hands, with the only pokemon it is capable of stopping being Hinata's Flareon, and upon facing Kaito, it doesn't have the same struggle, but it also has no overt advantages either.

Against the Nuclear type threats faced during the game, Eletux, at best, runs even with them. Despite being 4x weak to their moves, it can usually outspeed the threats faced, and it can easily dispatch them, but at the cost of almost certainly falling to any hit landed on it. 
Against CURIE, to say the same is at best, hopeless optimism, since CURIE's mons can at least match Eletux with speed, and attempting to outspeed her Nucleon is often a losing gamble. However, if able to land a hit in return, it can still do serious damage, so one can't exactly discount it either. 

In the sidequests, Eletux is again the stable, balanced option, going even with Garlikid, the Seikamater, and Larkspur, with no obvious superiority had over any of them.

Finally, in the Championship, Eletux/Electruxo goes even, with no obvious advantage, and potentially suffering a bit against Urayne in the final battle, provided one doesn't outspeed the radioactive monster. 

Overall, Eletux/Electruxo did the worst of the three, by a very narrow margin, statistically running even with most of the primary threats faced in the game. 

Next, we have Raptorch. Raptorch is stated as being the starter that favored all-out attack and a generally offensively-oriented approach to battle. 

Spoiler

Raptorch ends up being a bit of a mixed bag, running even with a lot in the game, but having a number of times where it either does very well, or rather poorly.

Against Theo, it's pretty much the same story as Eletux. Raptorch starts strong, but Theo begins introducing pokemon that Raptorch does not have the same dominance over. Raptorch remains competitive to Theo's team as a whole for a time, but by the battle after the Third gym, he will have a team able to counter Raptorch almost perfectly, albeit with some difficulty. This carries out the same till the end of the game.

Against the gyms, Raptorch does similarly to Eletux overall, but is less consistent. 
Against Maria and Davern, it has no real advatages, yet no extreme weaknesses. 
When you get to Cali, on the other hand, things drastically change. Cali's team is thoroughly capable of destroying Raptorch, as her Water types counter all of Raptorch's main STABs, and only Cararalm is even remotely vulnerable to it. 
The flipside comes again with Sheldon's gym, where Raptorch runs rampant, devastating all of Sheldon's team with at least one, if not both of it's STABs. 
Tiko is where Raptorch goes even again, as it has some possibilities with it's ground STABs, but that doesn't cover all it's bases. Like Eletux in Rosalind's gym, it isn't bad, but neither is it good. 
Once you get to Rosalind's gym, a similar story plays out. Fire's resistance to Fairy makes many of the pokemon unable to land nasty hits, but in some ways, neither is Raptorch. It does reasonably well, but it isn't an obvious sweeping option (that being said, STAB EQ will seriously mess up a lot of the mons there, so Raptorch is certainly capable of wrecking house). 
Against Vaeryn, the matter gets complicated, as Raptorch can so some damage, but it's also hindered by the proliferation of dragons in the gym, making it again, possible, but not guaranteed to sweep. 
Finally, against Hinata and Kaito, Raptorch reaches a fairly good finish, able to take down both teams with relative ease, with Hinata's largely grass-type team and Kaito's Poison types being fairly easy kills.

Against the Nuclear threats, it's a similar story to Eletux, with a slight twist. Raptorch (and Archilles) are fast. Very fast. This makes them very much able to outspeed and use their power against the fragile Nukes. It too, is somewhat fragile as well, but it's speed usually makes up for it. Against CURIE, it has the best chance to outspeed Nucleon of the three, and if it can do that, a sweep of the rest of the team is inevitable. 

Against the sidequests, Raptorch overall does the best, running even with Garlikid and Larkspur, and stomping S-51A and the Seikamater.

Finally, Raptorch goes more or less even with the Championship, having few obvious weaknesses or strengths, the only exception being against Hokage, who is very capable of stomping it. It's also the one most likely to outspeed Urayne, making it technically the best at taking out the gamma-beast, but this banks entirely on it outspeeding Urayne, which is by no means guaranteed. 

Overall, Raptorch was the middle ground of the three. Ultimately, it's mixed bag of strengths and weaknesses averaged out slightly better than Eletux's. Despite this, it still had more overall struggles than any of the three, albeit by a small amount.

Finally, we have Orchynx, everyone's favorite defensively oriented grass kitten

Spoiler

Orchynx provides an interesting case, and also shows why gamefreak tends to leave steel types to the mid-game of any given Gen: The defensive potential is unmatched. That being said, Orchynx does have it's pitfalls. 

Against Theo, it has the most interesting matchup of the three. It's first battle is arguably the worst, and it's the only one where there is a possibility of losing the fight, thanks in no small part to Eletux's "static" ability. This, however, is as bad as it gets, at least for a little while, as until Theo gets his Chimical, Orchynx is perfectly comfortable soloing Theo, and can even still pull it off up until the Maskara Island battle, albiet with some difficulty. Overall, Orchynx's number of resistances and immunities against Theo's team make it marginally the best starter versus Theo, and also the only on that can survive getting Hyper Voiced by Nucleon, however Chimiconda and Luchabra's Fire and Fighting STABs will give it trouble nonetheless.

Against the gyms, Orchynx does rather well overall, however when it fails, it fails hard (more on that later).
 Against Maria, it's the only one that resists the attacks thrown at it, and this allows it more time and ability to bring down her team, although Orchlynx's speed makes this more necessary than for the others. 
Against Davern, it either resists, takes neutral damage from, or is outright immune to the attacks brought to bear, and is able to hit most of them super-effectively, having only small troubles with whittling down the Tofurang. 
Against Cali, Orchynx sweeps hard, able to resist most of the assaults against it, and able to OHKO most of her pokemon, save for the Cararalm, which will take a little work. 
Sheldon is where Orchynx is brought back a bit, as while it isn't awesome against Sheldon's team, Sheldon's team isn't especially strong against it either, resulting in a tankiness stalemate. 
Where Orchynx truly falls is against Tiko, who does not have a single pokemon not capable of tearing Orchlynx a new one. Much like Raptorch against Cali, or Eletux against Hinata, this is one where the starter is probably better off sitting out. 
Orchynx rebounds, however, against Rosalind, as by this time it can know both dark and steel type moves, the two that will tear through her gym. The only slight issues that could be had will occur at the hands (or paws) of Rosalind's Winotinger, but since it isn't all that fast either, it's very possible to get a Meteor mash off before it can land a High Jump Kick on you. 
Much like the others, it goes more or less even with Vaeryn, not really having any real weaknesses, but at the same time not possessing anything super-effective to bring to the table. 
Finally, against Hinata and Kaito, Orchynx ends on another neutral note, having it's only real issues with Hinata's Flareon, while being able to wall and break down the rest of her team, and resist or have immunity to most of Kaito's offerings. 

Against the Nukes, Orchynx probably fares the best, objectively. It's the only starter to take neutral damage from nuclear attacks, and it has the bulk to back that ability up. Being one of the few 'mons able to take a Nucleon Hyper Voice, this also makes it good for clearing out CURIE in ZETA as well, if outspeeding becomes not viable.

In the sidequests, Orchynx is more notable for it's defensive prowess than anything else, but it's offense fares decently against all major story sidequest foes.

Finally, against the Championship, Orchynx fares slightly better than the others, being able to resist much of Sir Goldkorn's team, sweeping Angelica, having a better overall chance against whatever gym leader is picked, and doing well against Hokage. Performance against Urayne is dicey, as it's certainly capable of OHKOing the monster, but this comes at the possible cost of not outspeeding, and being forced to chance not being similarly hit by Urayne's Overheat move. Like the others, it's very much a gamble, but one that has a slightly greater possibility of paying dividends.

This concludes my own analysis of the starters, with my verdict going to Orchynx, the grass type starter, as being the best starter to pick in Pokemon Uranium. The places of second and third place were very close however, and even Orchynx's lead over the others was not astronomical

Note: This is not a decry of the other two starters, and I will admit mild bias on my part, as Orchynx was the starter I picked and used/am using in my primary Uranium save. This is, nonetheless, my own honest assessment of the starters and the abilities of their evolutions. 
And yes, I am aware I referred to them by their first stage evolution, even when it was obvious that Orchynx would be a Metalynx at that stage, or so on, this was just my method of categorizing them as I compiled this.

I hope you were at least entertained, and if it's liked, I might even try to do a "Best Team For Pokemon Uranium" topic as well.