No other starter pokemon will ever surpass my attachment to Torchic and it's evolutions. It's just such a well rounded pokemon for doing the thing I enjoy the most: kicking serious amounts of ass! It does have a lot of type weakenesses and it's probably not as a good as Mudkip/Marshtomp/Swampert for use in Generation III games (there are very few good water types in Gen III that are easy to obtain and Torchic/Combusken/Blaziken's relatively low special attack stat really hurt it's ability to be a strong fire type before Gen IV), but that aside, it's versatility and power is incredible whether you're playing casually or competitively.
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Nosce te ipsum - Know thyself