Either-Or

[Guest MegaMagikarp]

Which Pokemon are similar to you or you are always conflicted in playing due to similarities, personal fancies or similar movesets and stats and what is your deciding factor?

For example:

* Mandibuzz or Honchkrow?

* Arbok or Seviper?

* Crawdaunt vs Kingler vs Clauncher?

* Generic bird Pokemon?

For me, I often have to contest between my Rhyperior vs my egg-gift Excadrill in Reborn, as Exy kept getting crisped in fire battles. I also had a Bibarnacle I love, but Kabutops was a tough contender. Obviously in both scenarios I chose BOTH.

What about you? What is your Sophie's Choice of Pokemon?

[Mistyride]

-Honchkrow cause it's cooler.

-Arbok because idk honestly

-Clauncher looks the best

-Staraptor is one of the only early game Normal/Flying types (so Talonflame doesn't count) that's actually useful.

[TRHStatement]

- Honchkrow because its offensive greatness

- Arbok because bulk + coil = SWEEP

- Kingler because it is the OG of the crab-mon

- POWERFULStaraptor because I feel like it's the only bird PKMN that actually serves its purpose.

[Ironbound]

Well, technically these things all serve different purposes. For instance, Mandibuzz is a defensive bird and defogger that can be good to check Hoopa-U and stuff while Honchkrow is a frail but powerful Murderkrow.

Either that or, if Pokémon are similar, then one will always have some edge over the other.

Crawdaunt is better because of its better offensive type, access to aqua jet+SD, etc. Arbok may advise Intimidate or shed skin+Coil. And of all the early game birds, each has its place in its respective tier, but Talonflame and Staraptor have proven to be the most useful owing to their attributes: Priority and good movepool on Talonflame, and raw POWER on Staraptor (I mean, c'mon. A bird getting Close Combat? Pure awesomeness.)

I'm sorry if you meant a choice based on non-competitive factors. I don't consider those for deciding teams, though I appreciate aesthetic designs of some of them.

[NickCrash]

Usually when creating a team I begin with a plan in mind, and as I move forward I change things and end up with something different from what I started with. Usually it's when I build balanced teams and decide on a slow, yet powerful physical attacker with priority. It goes between Breloom, Conkeldurr and Bisharp. One could argue that they all fit different roles, and they do, but until your team is made, you can't decide, unless you need it for glue.

Other times you need a fast revenge killer or scarfer that hits both spectrums. Keldeo and Alakazam immediately come to mind. Completely different in terms of design, movepool, even potential variations, yet here we are, comparing them.

The hardest choices come in pairs.

a. Choose M-Manectric and use Gengar to deal with stall teams .. or ..

b. Choose Raikou for the electric coverage and pivot, and use M-Charizard-Y to wallbreak your way through?

c. Choose Thundurus-I for the niche t-wave prankster, have your Garchomp get a fire coverage move, and use a M-Beedrill to keep a volt/turn momentum core?

As you see, when you dig into this, there's not really an Either Or scenario, because not all pokemon have similar qualities. Even when they do, one is better 90% so you have to choose it.

A few comparisons can be made, but they are most times targeted towards stall gameplay, and we all hate that. Eg Skarmory/Mandibuzz, Slowbro/Alomomola, Clefable/Sylveon, Cresselia/Reuniclus etc