Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?

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Herdanos
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PostPokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Herdanos » Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:37 am

What criteria, if any, do you apply when you "build" your team of six party Pokemon?

Do you even bother, in the newer games, now that boxes are accessible anywhere?

Do you stick with your starter and simply add the five favourites you find along the way? Or do you set off with an intention to find a specific six?

Do you try to vary types? Do you always follow a similar type split?

I blame the TGC but ever since Gen I I've mostly tried to build my "main" 6 on the basis of:

1 x red i.e. fire
1 x blue i.e. water / ice
1 x green i.e. grass / bug
1 x yellow i.e. electric
1 x orange/brown i.e. rock / ground / fighting
1 x purple i.e. psychic / ghost

Then Gen II added two new types and mucked it all up :lol:

Since the addition of Fairy as a type there are now 18 - so for a team of 6, even if all were dual type, I'd still be missing out on STAB for a third of available types, so I've generally worried less about this nowadays, though I still try to avoid type clashes, and ensure I've got at least one party member with STAB for those moves that have a broad super effectiveness on a wide number of types - water, psychic, etc.

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aayl1
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by aayl1 » Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:07 am

Pretty much the same as you, so the coolest looking one of each colour.

Magmar
Articuno
Scyther
Electabuzz
Kabutops
Gengar

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Tsunade
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Tsunade » Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:12 am

For me I always try to vary my teams so they all are different types. I've always kept my starter with me but each team I've never really got a particular team in mind.

When it comes to STAB my pokemon typically have one move they've got thats their type, but I try to mix it up a bit so that there's a bit of variety in their move sets. I don't think I've had a pokemon with a full set of the same type of move in a long time!

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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Robbo-92 » Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:16 am

I go for Pokémon I like the look of for the first tun of a new game, for the remakes I put a little more thought into it about when I could have the full team available by for example, how much coverage I can try and get with a the 6 Pokémon and so on.

I’d still opt to use a poorer Pokémon stats wise if there was one that appealed a lot more to me though.

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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by andretmzt » Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:38 am

I had my favourites in each generation which would always make an appearance at some point. My team often ended up with Meganium/Ampharos/Ariados/Crobat/Lanturn in Gen II. I tended to add pokemon to my team as I caught them if they were solid and could cover for a type weakness. I'd very rarely want to use something that took ages to train.

Later in life I'd actually pick up some of those pokemon that were harder to train to make a more powerful team but it was never quite as fun. Difficult to relive the magic of Gold/Silver from release though. :wub:

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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by OrangeRKN » Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:44 am

Starter + cool looking pokemon

Don't need to worry about HMs these days (although still have to have Flash in BDSP...) and I try to have a variety in types

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Herdanos
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Herdanos » Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:50 am

aayl1 wrote:Pretty much the same as you, so the coolest looking one of each colour.

Magmar
Articuno
Scyther
Electabuzz
Kabutops
Gengar


A Rock/Ground type Pokemon with moves of both types would wreak havoc with this team

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aayl1
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by aayl1 » Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:54 am

Herdanos wrote:
aayl1 wrote:Pretty much the same as you, so the coolest looking one of each colour.

Magmar
Articuno
Scyther
Electabuzz
Kabutops
Gengar


A Rock/Ground type Pokemon with moves of both types would wreak havoc with this team


Articuno would strawberry float it up first

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Rik_
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Rik_ » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:07 pm

Yellow through to Sapphire I didn't plan them out at all, I just used the ones I liked.
FireRed I tried to use the Pokemon I remembered using most in my various playthroughs of Yellow, although I swapped out Pikachu for Jolteon. I did the same for AlphaSapphire (which ended up being a very imbalanced team because my younger self did not care about tactics at all).
Pearl was the first one I planned properly before launch since I had a massive poster from Pokemon World magazine that had all the new Sinnoh Pokemon on it. I think this is where a pattern started emerging where I'd use a team that was basically starter, route 1 bird, legendary and some others to fill out specific niches (wall, ghost/psychic/dark type, water type, electric type, fire type). That ended up being what I did for Black, SS, and Moon too, although B2/W2 (can't remember which) I did a 5-gen run instead using one of my favourite Pokemon from each generation plus an extra gen 1 (I had to trade in some of the eggs to make it work!).
X was a bit of an outlier because I planned around getting Chesnaught, Blastoise and Blaziken for a trio of starters and then filled in the blanks, I also didn't bother using a legendary in the team since by the time I got Xerneas Florges had grown on me too much as a resident Fairy type.
I've not actually played anything past gen 7 yet, but I've been replaying earlier games and romhacks as Nuzlockes or monotype runs a lot recently (latest one is Kalos Crystal, very fun Crystal hack that uses gen5 + 6 pokemon instead of 1 and 2, highly recommend it!) so I'd probably end up using Nuzlocke rules for catching a team when I do get round to SwSh.

Teams in spoiler to save space:
Yellow through Sapphire - no idea for exact teams but I tried to use the ones I remembered using most for the remakes.
FireRed - Charizard, Pidgeot, Machamp, Lapras, Jolteon, Articuno
Pearl - Infernape, Staraptor, Luxray, Lucario, Weavile, Palkia
SoulSilver - Meganium, Lanturn, Gengar, Machamp, Pidgeot, Ho-Oh
Black - Samurott, Unfezant, Eelektross, Golurk, Gigalith, Reshiram
B2/W2 - Emboar, Alakazam, Dragonite, Lanturn, Pelipper, Lucario
X - Chesnaught, Blastoise, Blaziken, Talonflame, Aegislash, Florges
AS - Blaziken, Pelipper, Ludicolo, Armaldo, Glalie, Kyogre
Moon - Decidueye, Vikavolt, Toucannon, Golisopod, Alolan Marowak, Lunala


andretmzt wrote:My team often ended up with Meganium/Ampharos/Ariados/Crobat/Lanturn in Gen II.

Meganium + Lanturn squad rise up

Last edited by Rik_ on Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Jezo » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:11 pm

aayl1 wrote:
Herdanos wrote:
aayl1 wrote:Pretty much the same as you, so the coolest looking one of each colour.

Magmar
Articuno
Scyther
Electabuzz
Kabutops
Gengar


A Rock/Ground type Pokemon with moves of both types would wreak havoc with this team


Articuno would strawberry float it up first

Kabutops would strawberry float it up harder.

But yeah generally beast starter, pick up cool ones along the way, but tbh you only really need about 3 good mon. With forced exp share levelling up everyone it's pretty free

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site23
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by site23 » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:31 pm

When I'm building a team I'm not too worried about type balance. As I go along I pick up Pokemon that (a) I like the design of, and (b) which are effective battlers. It has to be both! Appealing (cute or cool or interesting) and strong. I'm in no rush to fill my team, and I'm not really a Pokedex person, so I'll only bother catching the mons I think have a shot at making it big.

Saying that, I tend to avoid any legendaries which are clearly a league above other Pokemon - Arceus, Mewtwo, Rayquaza, and so on. I want a team of monsters, not literal deities. The "less good" legendaries like Articuno (or even Mew and Celebi) are fine though. Also, I don't give my starter any special treatment - all Pokemon deserve an equal chance at the spotlight! - so it will sometimes be benched by the end.

I don't bother with IVs / EVs but I do try to make sure the Pokemon I catch don't have an actively detrimental nature or characteristic.

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shy guy 64
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by shy guy 64 » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:38 pm

my main two factors are: 1 like them, 2 type variety. thats all i need

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Frank
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Frank » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:39 pm

wtf does STAB mean in this context? Single Type... Awkward Bastard?

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site23
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by site23 » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:41 pm

Same Type Attack Bonus - an attack is stronger when it has the same type as its user

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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by GrinWithoutaKat » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:43 pm

I've reverted back to going with the 6 I like the look of the most. I used to try and avoid any type overlaps but now I feel like you don't need to worry as you end up over-levelled without any grinding. I also generally try to stick to Pokemon that are new to that game, but this isn't a hard rule.

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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Jenuall » Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:50 pm

Entirely random and I don't think about it at all.

This is probably why I'm still only on 2 gym badges after 25 years...

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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by OrangeRKN » Tue Nov 30, 2021 1:15 pm

This thread has me thinking about how your team of Pokemon compares to equipping pins in NEO The World Ends With You. In that game you collect pins which all correspond to different moves with different elemental types in battles, you can equip a maximum of 6, they all gain XP individually and level up to get stronger and many of them have evolutions into stronger pins.

Mechanically quite similar to managing a pokemon team, but in NEO TWEWY I was encouraged and compelled to constantly change my pins in an effort to fully level all of them and get all the evolutions. That's a bit like completing a pokedex in Pokemon, but also if you were trying to get every pokemon to level 100. I wonder if Pokemon would benefit from encouraging that kind of play, where you are constantly switching up your team rather than finding one and sticking to it. A main contributor to that in NEO TWEWY is that pins can be maxed out relatively quickly and are quickly outclassed/nonviable compared to later pins, so for the same effect in Pokemon you'd have to have some pokemon just being inherently much stronger than others and a much lower level cap.

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Ironhide
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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Ironhide » Tue Nov 30, 2021 1:35 pm

Fire starter (twisted fire starter), usually an electric type, a water type and grass type then a Gyarados (raised from Magicarp) and a 'utility' 'mon for HM use.

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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Balladeer » Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:58 pm

I don't pick mine beforehand any more, not like I used to. The discovery of new monsters is, for me, the best part of the series; so I try and keep those as secret as possible until I start the game. My actual squad will be of different types (trying to make sure I meet all the main weaknesses, i.e. ground and fighting types or moves are a must), they'll be all-new where possible (what's the point of re-'meeting' monsters I already know?), and they'll be kept within three or so levels of each other as a matter of course. Plus, they generally won't contain any legendaries. There'll generally be a couple of status moves, a couple of setup moves, and the rest will be the best varied high-powered attacks TMs can buy.

In the last few games, with the permanent Exp Share enabled, I've shifted to a 'team' of nine or ten Pokémon. Everything else has stayed the same.

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PostRe: Pokemon teams: how do / did you "build" yours?
by Skarjo » Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:24 am

I don't really have a set plan before I set out, I just pick up what looks cool and gives type coverage on the way. I usually hold on to my starter for the majority of the run (can't actually think of a playthrough where I've boxed them), and then pick up whatever I find that rounds out the team better than whoever's on the current roster.

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