I don't even like Fire Starters that much...

OT: I also like King Dedede.

And how could I forget Meta Knight?! Here's my actual list:

1.) Lucario 2.) Meta Knight 3.) King Dedede

Meta Knight has a lot of killing potential. His Up-B has insane knockback, you can kill easily with F-Smash or D-Smash or N-Air.

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=321738

Mine would be Mr.Game and watch as of now.

But i love playing Yoshi

Toon Link and Marth are almost unbeatable when pros are playing them...

i like using his down B. the final smash is awesome. kills everything. my timing with his up-B is poor but yea, it gets kills. 

with every iterationg of SB's, my play style changes based on the design of the game.

examples:

SSB: i was all over th place. you couldn't get away from me.

Melee: Roy was the only character i could play with. considering i could play with every character from the first, this was disappointing.

SSBB: 90% ground. there are other reasons for this, but in the end that's how i played.

1 - Pikachu
2 - Toon Link
3 - Pit
4 - Link
5 - Yoshi

My favorite would be Samus, I'm too stubborn to change, even though I play better with some characters.

Zelda, well mostly Sheik, but yeah, she's awesome.

Every character in the original smash bros. And only in the original smash bros.

As far as actual potential goes, Metaknight is easily the best, not even a question. The only things that come close to a real weakness are his slow horizontal air speed, lack of a projectile, and being easy to ko off the top off the stage. Otherwise he has all the best of the best attributes in the game.

But for me personally I main Ice Climbers, who are also great characters. They can rack up damage like crazy because they attack twice, great juggling ability and an insane technical game (yet it does make them hard to get into) with de-syncing, infinite chain-grabs, icicle locking/resets, blizzard walling, etc.

I also use Wolf as a co-main/secondary. He has a lot of great attributes: a great D-smash finisher, good punishing moves, a great air speed and the some of the best aerial attacks in the game, a spammable projectile in his blaster, and one of the best counters in the game, his reflector. He also has a decent off-stage presence... Bair and reflector can gimp well and his sideB onto ledge glitches gives him cool mind-games. Just too bad every stupid chain-grab, lock, and 0-to-death in the game affects him.