Main game team-building style?

[Topaz Light]

I've noticed a number of people will keep many Pok?mon with them at all times, even if some of those Pok?mon aren't going to be on their final team.

The reason I bring this up is because I don't really ever do that; I tend to plan out which Pok?mon I want to use on my team, and then use just those Pok?mon, with all others caught for Pok?dex completion being deposited into the PC. I also tend to nickname each and every single Pok?mon I capture, even if I don't intend to actually use them for anything aside from Pok?dex completion. You wouldn't name a kid "Human", would you? (...Would you?)

How do you tend to go about building your teams? Do you shift through various Pok?mon before landing on your final team late in the game, or do you just use only the Pok?mon you intend to take with you to face the Elite Four and Champion? Do you nickname all of your Pok?mon, only some of them, or none at all?

Just to be extra-clear, I am talking about during the single-player main story section of the game, not the postgame/metagame!

 

[Zeostar]

Using my recent Silver team as an example, because it's how I build for most games

Started with totodile since it's my favorite of the starters

Need something for fly..and want to get that out of the way now, so i added

Was going to use crobat but decided I use it too much and went for something else

Now I have a double weakness to electric and need to cover it. I wanted Cubone but it wasn't available, So I added

I wanted something that could use status moves, not just attacks, and ended up with

Wanted something that could tank through hits, so I'm saved if I run into something I'm not ready for (reds snorlax, clairs kingdra)

Lastly, wanted something like a normal RPG mage, and jynx seemed cool for that

Ended with the final team of

 

[Alfieri]

I like to plan ahead and make a team based on type and stats. Even with each new generation, Bulbapedia and Serebii are pretty quick to get full stats up of Pok?mon so as I'm playing the game, I know which Pok?mon are good and which are bad. Having a fire, water, and grass or electric type is nice to have and so I go from there.

 

[noa]

I ALWAYS plan ahead based on type. I don't think i've ever winged it when it comes to my Pokemon team, I sometimes plan it months in advance lol. I don't really care about stats or builds, I usually just have different types. I try to have a fire/grass/water core though.

 

[Judge Mandolore Shepard]

When to comes to how I plan my teams, there are certain factors that I have in my planning. The first factor is the theme of the nicknames I will give my team members. After I have decided on the nickname theme, I then choose which six names I will use for the nicknames. Then I will choose which Pokemon I will use for my team. Course I also follow two certain rules. The two rules being as follows: Rule number 1. Never reuse a nickname I have used before. Rule 2. Make sure that no member of my Pokemon team has the same type as another member on the team.

 

[Mab]

<p>I don't bother keeping a Pokemon in my party at all if I know it's not going to factor into my final team - I'll deposit it immediately. I don't really <i>plan </i>my team per se, at least in the sense that I know what Pokemon I'm using in advance, but it's pretty apparent to me when a particular mon isn't going to work out, in which case I won't string it along longer than it takes me to get to a deposit box.</p>

 

[ShyRayq]

I'm the type to plan my teams in advance. Since around June last year, I've been playing with planned teams so there's no overlap. I like to make sure my team can learn a bunch of moves for large type coverage. Especially so now because I've used a lot of the 'good' pokemon already, so I need pokemon with good move coverage to cover for their 'mediocre' stats. That's why for USUM, I'm gonna wait until either the dex is leaked or its just fully revealed on Serebii.

 

[Janp]

I plan most of my teams, but I like to do my own stories inside the game, which can somehow alter my team. For example, I had planned my team for first run of Black. It had Emboar, Simisage, Musharna, Zebstrika, Seismitoad, Beartic. But when I got to Nimbasa and did Pokemon Musical thing, I thought: "It would be fun if one of my Pokemon liked this, so they would stay here." And so I left Blitzle "in Nimbasa".
In Y I remember leaving Lucario with Sycamore for some time, so he can study it's Mega Evolution.
I want to do something like this in Ultra Moon, as I still don't know my full team and would like to rotate my team this time.

 

[Sawsbuck]

I will almost always have my starter and definitely a Sawsbuck, Absol, and Sharpedo (if they're in the game I'm playing) and then as I go along I catch Pokemon that might be on my team

 

[EC]

The first time through a game, I just go with what looks cool, keeping type advantages in mind. Every run through after that though, I normally plan at least 3-4 Pokemon to be on my team.

 

[Link119]

I just use pokemon I like for the first playthrough, just doing basic "Different Types" shindig with no super strategy...

Then I just do whatever in any later playthroughs...Currently, on my Gold-file I decided to do a playthrough where I'm only allowed to catch pokemon who are weak to the STAB of my newest mon...Which means no Normal Types...Nothing super difficult it was just a thing I thought of doing...

Also have done Nuzlockes, Wonderlockes, just playthroughs where I use only pokemon I haven't, before, etc...

I don't really care to strategize beyond basic levels for the single-player game, cause I never really found the need to, for any of them...

 

[astraling]

When first playing through a new game (as in, I bought a copy and played through it while it was relatively new and not much was known about the viability of each Pokemon in the main story), I tend to wing it. That being said, I do have a starter in mind, and before Alola, I would make sure I caught Pokemon that could potentially learn Surf and Fly. Other than that, I just caught Pokemon based on design or what I saw in the teasers.

After finishing my first playthrough and acquainting myself with the region, I always plan teams. Usually, I try to use Pokemon I've never trained but have always wanted to battle with, but I'm not opposed to doing challenges such as Nuzlockes.

 

[LyokoGirl5000]

My team style depends on the game and whether or not I have a a copy that's farther in. I traded a Dratini egg to my Silver version after beating Red in Crystal so I would have a Dratini for my Silver run. Usually, I just catch them as I go along.

 

[HeroLinik]

I'm gonna say this outright, considering I go in from a competitive background, I don't really like the approach of using Pokemon that I like, because it results in a really stunted team that either has too much focus on one type, or a few Pokemon on there that have inferior stats when there is a better Pokemon available, hence it being outclassed. For example, I might say that I want to use Lumineon because I like it, but the problem is I'll falter in the long run because Starmie is the superior choice.

However, it doesn't mean I do any EV training or IV/nature breeding over the course of the playthrough, because there's literally no point. What I usually do is plan ahead based on the stats and typing of the Pokemon, and build the team accordingly, so usually my full team is planned in advance before I've even picked the starter. For example, do I want my team to be physically oriented or specially oriented? What types am I missing coverage for? A really good team is a well-balanced one that can take on anything and use the best Pokemon of each type at any one moment in time, but in the early game it's fine to use Pokemon you like because there's a lack of choice. For example, I used Yungoos until I was done with the Raticate trial, but I boxed it away immediately because I don't like to use the regional Normal-type in the long run. If HMs are a possibility, I will have to fit them on my team accordingly.

 

[colours]

When I first played SM, I used a team mostly consisting of seventh generation exclusives. Having themes like these kind of increases the fun factor of the game for me. I personally feel there's no point in being super competitive early on simply because it drains the fun from the game if you start too early. I don't really focus on building teams until the post-game.

 

[RoreyG]

Nowadays, I usually tend to plan teams in advance. However, that wasn't always the case. The first time I ever played a Pokemon game, my team was built purely on happenstance.

On my first ever playthrough of Red version as a kid, I had originally intended to only use my starter

. My cousin (who had already beaten the game at that point) advised me, however, that whilst it is possible to solo the game with my starter, it would be a much smoother and enjoyable affair if I built a team to journey with. I didn't know who I was going to use though.

My first encounter in Viridian Forest just so happened to be

. He was still a superstar back then because of how popular the original anime was. Hence was my desire to catch him and use him (and considering how OP Misty was, especially against my starter, thank God I did).

I then came across this fella

close to Celadon City's end of the Cycling Road and decided to catch him because I heard one of the other kids in school say that you couldn't find him anywhere else the wild. Since he was a rarity, I figured why not.

Next up, I realized that I needed a flier and, unfortunately, my starter couldn't learn Fly in Red. In order to remedy my situation, I caught

just outside of Fuchsia City.

I fought my way to Saffron City and decided that it would be a good idea to train my flier at the Fighting Dojo. To my delight, my prize for besting the Fighting Dojo was

. When I needed to switch it up against Team Rocket in Silph Co., he came in clutch.

When I was still in Fuchsia City, I picked up Surf and came to the realization that I would soon be needing a Surfer. I decided to cross that bridge when I got there and continued on my journey. Luckily, I received a pleasant surprise vs Team Rocket in Silph Co. By that, I mean

.

My final team ended up being pretty strong considering the circumstances when I first began:

 

[Star Arcana]

I do a bit of basic planning in advance, but it's often not set in stone, and can change as I progress through the adventure. Also, these plans tend to be incomplete, and I'll fill in the blanks when the right Pokémon pops up. My Moon run is a great example of this; Decidueye, Midday Lycanroc, and Greninja were pre-determined, but Salazzle and Jolteon were not.

Almost 100% of the time though, I'll have my starter picked out before starting the game. If there's an Eevee available, that is more likely than not going to end up on my team. Another consistent trend in my team building is type; I really dislike, and thus avoid, overlaps. At the same time, I prefer my parties to include a water, fire, electric, and grass type, espeically the two formers.

In the past, I would often use the mascot legendary, but I do so a lot less these days. I made an exception for Moon though.

 

[Imperator161]

It varies a lot by game, but I find that I frequently end up using more Pokemon than I originally intended to use. This is particularly true if I keep the new Exp. Share mechanic turned on, as I prefer to distribute the exp to more Pokemon and have more than a 6 member team.

Looking at my teams:
Red: Started with just my starter. Didn't understand the concept of making a team. On a replay, used a very starter-heavy team, which I planned out fairly early, so that involved a bunch of trading.
Gold: Didn't plan. Started using just my starter, then added other Pokemon I liked as I went along. The result was a highly unbalanced team. Once I settled on my team (used 5 of them), I had one extra slot that I would rotate through for training/Pokedex completion, and a few other Pokemon to fill it for battles (Pokemon that I trained several years after originally coming up with my team, as I grew more interested in competitive Pokemon).
Silver: Had a full team planned out with movesets. Didn't care about training anything else or about Pokedex completion.
Sapphire: Planned some Pokemon I wanted, then trained others as I went along. Later decided to try EV training, so caught some new Pokemon for that, and replaced some of my original team.
Emerald: Traded over a group of Pokemon to use, and mostly used those, plus a few other chosen Pokemon.
Diamond: Planned my team from the start. Again, starter-heavy (I like starters), plus some other Pokemon I picked out. Didn't use my non-team members too much, but did do my best to complete my regional Pokedex (catching everything) before battling the Elite Four for the first time.
Yellow/Crystal/Leafgreen/White: Trained everything evenly, and trained absolutely ever Pokemon on the cartridge (even the ones I wouldn't normally want to use), and trained them all as I went along. I got farthest with this approach in LeafGreen (every Pokemon on the cartridge is in the 60s at the moment, I think), but it's slow.
HG, X: Had a team in mind, stuck with it somewhat more closely, but trained other Pokemon as well beyond my "core" team of 9-10 Pokemon.
Moon: Have been using a lot of different Pokemon, but not all of them. Feel pretty scattered and unfocused. Also traded in a bunch of Pokemon I bred in X.

For some of the other games, I don't remember what I did. I have noticed that I like to use everything on one file per generation, and maybe trade in a bunch of Pokemon to use on another version. I don't tend to make one team and stick to it; rather, I tend to try to use everything, even Pokemon I have a feeling I'll eventually abandon). When I do plan teams these days, I tend to end up adding additional Pokemon that I didn't originally intend to use. With new generations, I also like to try out everything I find for a while to see if there are any Pokemon that catch my eye that I hadn't originally thought of.

I nickname all of my Pokemon, whether I intend to use them or not. The one exception is eggs, which I don't name upon hatching because (a) it takes too long and (b) if I want to give away or trade the breedjects to other people, most people don't seem to like nicknames, so I wait to give my Pokemon nicknames until I'm ready to start using them.

 

[porygoing]

Of course various type is important, but I always put my favorites, if I can find it. And if it has a good nature(without using synchronize to find specific nature), I use it. Team members are changed through the game, especially before the elite four. I try to put some pokemons who can take them.