Pokémon Black & White: Which Starter Is The Best? (2024)

While they’ve yet to get a reboot of their own, Pokemon Black and White are still widely regarded as some of the best Pokemon games. And while the initial release did have limited Pokemon on offer, it was the first Pokemon game to ever get a direct sequel.

And like with all new Pokemon games, Black and White offered us three new starters to choose from: Tepig the Fire-starter, Snivy the Grass-type, and Oshawott the Water Pokemon. Choosing a starter in any region can be tough, but we’ve weighed the pros and cons and found the best Unova starters below.

Updated on May 28, 2023 by Gabrielle Castania: With the spotlight always on Pokemon and some time left until we get the DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, fans have circled back to replay the older games, and we’re circling back to our content on the older games because of it! Whether you choose Pokemon Black or Pokemon White is up to you, but for help in picking the best Unova starters, we’ve got you covered.

10 Tepig

Best Early On

Tepig is the Fire-type starter of the Fifth Generation of Pokemon, and, as luck would have it, Fire is very effective against the early Gym Leaders. By the time you get to (which specializes Normal Types), Tepig will likely be evolved into Pignite, meaning it will know a Fighting Type move in Arm Thrust.

Its usefulness will carry into the third gym as well, which uses Bug-type Pokemon. Due to its double typing once it begins to evolve, Tepig can practically blow through early gyms all on its own.

9 Snivy

Best Defensive Utility

Snivy, the Grass Starter for Unova, has the best Defense stats compared to the other Unova starters, with the downside of having less overall HP. Despite this, Snivy can hold its own thanks to just how good its Defense stats are.

Thanks to that, by the time Snivy evolves into Serperior, it can be used as a great support Pokemon, since it can learn both Reflect and Light Screen to dampen the damage other Pokemon can do to your team. Mix this with its already good defenses, and it this makes Snivy the hardest to get rid of for your foes.

8 Oshawott

Best Final Stat Spread

What's wild about Oshawott, the Water-type starter in Pokemon Black and White, is that it doesn't really have a stat that stands above the others. This is because all of its stats are pretty good - there's no particular great stat, but all of them are still above average.

By the time Oshawott is finished evolving, even its two weakest stats (Speed and Special Defense) outclass the other starters', and these can be boosted if desired with the help of IV and EV training. There's no glaring downside to Oshawott, making it the most balanced overall.

7 Tepig

Two STAB Moves

Tepig after evolving into Pignite gets a dual typing as a Fire and Fighting Type, continuing the "Fire-Fighting" type combination trend that started in Generation Three of Pokemon. Thanks to this, Tepig gets two STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) moves since it learns both Fire and Fighting-type moves innately as you level it.

This adds an extra layer of type coverage that Tepig gets that the other two Unova starters don't. While this does mean Tepig winds up with more type weakness, it also means he gets more resistances while being able to whip out its Super Effective STAB moves on tons of opposing Pokemon.

6 Snivy

The Fastest

Snivy has the fastest Speed stat compared to Tepig and Oshawott, and this can be seen before any of them evolve, even when most of their stats are nearly identical. The gap becomes even greater by the time they reach their final evolutions, so much so that Serperior's Speed is almost double that of Emboar's.

Thanks to this, it's easy to get Snivy to incredibly high Speed when combined with EVs and IVs, allowing it to attack before any other opposing Pokemon. This allows you to get the jump on opposing trainers, and while its attacking stats are somewhat subpar, Snivy can still be quick enough to handle the fight.

5 Oshawott

Fewest Weaknesses

Oshawott is a pure Water-type Pokemon, and that means it has limited type weaknesses And while Snivy shares this trait, Grass has five type weaknesses, while Water-types only have two weaknesses. The two types that can damage them most effectively are only Grass and Electric-types.

These types both do a colossal amount of damage to your poor little sea otter, but they're both fairly under-represented in Pokemon, especially during this generation, so your limitations will be few and far between than any of the other Unova starters.

4 Tepig

Most Competitively Viable

In the competitive scene of Black and White, there are multiple tiers in which Pokemon lie. Both Serperior and Samurott belong to a tier below Emboar, making Emboar the best in the competitive scene of Pokemon.

When it comes to competitive Pokemon, power is king, and thanks to Emboar's devastatingly high Attack stat mixed with a great HP stat, this make it a solid pick for competitive teams. With Fire-Type moves having some of the highest damage outputs in the game, it's not uncommon for Emboar to knock out opposing Pokemon in just one hit.

3 Snivy

Best In Later Generations

Snivy has an incredibly powerful Hidden Ability in Contrary, which will raise its stats when they're meant to lower and vice versa - anytime a move is meant to hurt the user, Snivy will be boosted instead. This allows it to use moves like Leaf Storm, which has a devastating 130 base damage. This normally drops a Pokemon's Special Attack, but Snivy's will be boosted on top of all that damage.

The only downside is that the Contrary ability is unobtainable in Black and White when the game originally launched; this wouldn't come until Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. As such, while it has fair competition in its debut Generation, it leads the pack in later Pokemon installments.

2 Oshawott

Most Versatile

By the time Oshawott becomes Samurott, its stats are all balanced, with no clear one stat rising clearly above the rest, which plays into how versatile Samurott can be. It can be played as either an offensive or defensive Pokemon, thanks to its rather large move pool.

Samurott can learn a wide variety of moves, making for great type coverage and, using that pure Water typing it retains, limited defensive weak spots. It can learn decent support moves, or, if you're more of an offensive player, has priority with Aqua Jet and colossal damage with Hydro Pump.

1 Tepig

The Best Unova Starter

We may have given the title to Snivy, had Contrary been around in the Black and White days, but as it is, Tepig wins out in this particular battle. While its slow speed stat may be a hindrance to a defensively under-prepared team, its raw damage-output power more than makes up for this.

It has a good HP pool to absorb some of the damage that's sometimes inevitable with going second, and when it does get to attack, the dual Fire-Fighting typing will allow Emboar to make great use of its STAB bonuses with those move types to really do the kind of damage we want to see out of our final-stage Unova starter.