How do you create your in-game teams?

[Linkachu]

With Black 2 & White 2's release on the horizon for Europe and North America, I got to thinking about how I'm going to put together my White 2 team. Then it made me wonder how you people create your in-game Pokemon teams. And thus, I made a topic. :3

Do you plan out your team well in advance before ever starting the game? Maybe you even go as far as to breed specific Pokemon so that you can raise them from day one? Possibly you simply dive into the game and catch/train whatever jumps out at you along the way. Or maybe you're like me and do things differently depending on which game you're playing and how many times you've played it. Whatever the method, tell us how you team build your main story teams (aka. not competitive teams).

For me, it largely depends on which game that I'm playing/replaying. When playing through my first game from a brand new generation, I try to do as little team planning as possible because it's much more fun, and feels more natural, putting my team together as I go. Even though White 2 isn't the start of a new generation I think that's how I'll play through it as well. There's about 25 odd Pokemon I have in mind for team members but whatever jumps out at me first is what I'll train.

On my second play through a new generation I'll generally do the exact opposite and plan out every member of the team (mostly filled with Pokemon I previously wanted to train but didn't). I may catch my planned Pokemon within the game or breed some, if not all, of them depending on how early you encounter them. Typically I like to have at least 6 Pokemon by the half-way point through my gym challenge, otherwise it feels like I'm missing out.

As for replays, anything goes really. Depending on how much time has passed since playing the game I may plan out my team or catch stuff on the fly. I've only run through a game with a specialized team once (a monotype flying team) and honestly didn't find it as interesting as I'd expected, so I'm unlikely to do that again. Using a team based on one of my RP characters or the like is different though and often times a lot of fun.

 

[Demelza]

Generally depends on the game and my mood at the time. Normally it looks a little like this:

First game: Whatever I find and like (I normally have a vague idea of what Pokémon can be found), and normally I'll get to five Pokémon and then have something planned for the sixth spot.

Second game: I'll plan probably half the team, and then that leaves room if I come across something in the wild I really want to train.

Third game: Normally because things have been shaken up, I'll just go by the rules of my first game, and train what I see and probably have just one Pokémon planned besides the starter.

In the event of a third game for Black & White I actually had a team planned out for the most part, but then Black & White 2 came along and spoilt that by having some awesome Pokémon added in fairly early on, such as Riolu and Eevee. So, I thought it'd just be nicer to catch them as I went over trading stuff across. Not completely sure what I'll do when I play through the two new games again though (Both in English this time when they get released), I'll likely completely plan something out at some point.

 

[PokeGirlPraure]

I mostly look up the Pokemon and plan in advance. For example, my White 2 team was planned a few months ago already and I will use it once I get my hands on the game itself. The way I put teams together has two major factors - my preference and type coverage. I look at Pokemon's movepool, location and design every time I plan a team.

 

[KoL]

I generally follow the same pattern for every playthrough nowadays:

1. Pick a starter.
2. Get one Pokemon that covers starter's weaknesses.
3. Get the region's game-breaker Pokemon (Gyarados in Gen IV, Haxorus in Gen V.)

I prefer functionality over favourites.

 

[Weeds]

I follow the same general pattern as Katie and Shiny; first playthrough I kinda have a couple of favs that I decide between as I go, sometimes just in the order they pop out at me. I used to do this for replays as well, but recently I've preferred to plan my team out more. Oh, and I seem to do a lot of Nuzlocke these days, so also that.

 

[Magpie]

Hmmmm~

When it's a new Gen, they'll be a few that stand out to me that I like the look of, and I'll do my best to find out when they're available in game. I'm a pain for refusing to use stuff I don't like, even if it means me having a very small team of two or three for the first half of the game. And I plan the hell out of it, as in, for Black and White I went as far as to write down all the movesets of my team and see how well covered I was and such :3

When replaying, I'll stick to favourites generally. I'll be a bit more relaxed though about who I use, and in all fairness, that often leads to me growing to love Pokemon I originally rejected. Like Weavile for example. I never liked Sneasel, and I hated Weavile, but during a team battle thingy with Katie where you have to use Pokemon provided (forget what it's called) the only useable Pokemon I had to choose from was Weavile... I adore Weavile now ♥

I like plans. I like structure. What can I say? xD

 

[Carmen Lopez]

I actually had to think about this question a bit...I'll use my Black team as an example.

While I'm never one to breed teams for story mode, I do come in with a general idea for what I want and what's good in-game--a lot of that is based on word of mouth. So I'm a mix of favorites and functionality. After my fiasco in Platinum, I always pick the easiest starter. Granted I was worried about how slow Emboar was, but KoL and Fuman gave it a good review, so I started with Tepig even though I preferred Snivy. It beasted Lenora pretty well

After my starter, I pick team members who will provide good coverage as I generally don't overlap types. Occasionally I'll have a Pokemon on my team because I just like the thing. That was Whimsicott in Black, but it was still very useful and the real I hax'd Ghetsis's face. Sometimes I'll catch the region's game breaker if it's convenient/my team hasn't already formed. I never used Gyarados or Garchomp, but I did use Haxorus. My chosen method leaves me plenty of room to try all types of Pokemon~

 

[Flame999]

For me I don't plan my team what so ever I just catch what I feel is good as for r/s/e games i do plan to catch 1 pokemon even thou you'll have to wait till you have all 8 badge to get it my favorite one Salamence.

sometimes I change my team members multi times but not like i count it thou and this works with Hacks of the game as well but after game is an entire different case sure sometimes I choose my favs but don't other people when they go to pick their team sometime I'll pick a pokemon I don't like very much and sometimes i find it is a beast

 

[Psycho Monkey]

For the first game of the series (Blue, Silver, Sapphire, etc) I have only one requirement for my in game team: They must be Pokemon new to that Generation. It forces me to try out the new 'mon over sticking with old favorites. After that I use which ever ones catch my interest of the new Gen. In the case of Gen II and IV new evolutions of oldies are allowed.

About half way through the game I have a general idea of who I want my main six to be at which point I'll either seek out the remaining members specifically, or I'll trade for them like with Larvitar in Silver and Bagon in Sapphire because I'd like to have my team finished before battling the 8th Gym.

The third games also have little planning for in game teams but now I allow myself to catch any Pokemon available at any point. The only exception is Platinum where I recreated Brian's team. Doing that included reseting until I got a Naughty Nature Chimchar and trading a Beldum holding an Old Amber early in the game. Getting Munchlax was no easy task either.

 

[Fumanshu]

I generally follow the same pattern for every playthrough nowadays:

1. Pick a starter.
2. Get one Pokemon that covers starter's weaknesses.
3. Get the region's game-breaker Pokemon (Gyarados in Gen IV, Haxorus in Gen V.)

I prefer functionality over favourites.

Yeah that works.
Also only pokemen that have direct hard hitting attacks for the main game.
No need for advanced strategies or long term planning when you can just hit them hard with stabs and they drop.
Dragon Dance and similiar fun stuff for quick sweeps is ok of course.
Another thing I always consider is that I never pick pokemen for the storymode team that dont learn good moves by leveling or through TMs that you get way too late.

Most of the time there are enough cool Pokemangs out there that are both cool and extremely effective.

 

[Stark]

At the moment, playing for fun instead of speed, I only use each Pokemon for one Gym battle. That forces a lot of variety in my teams and makes me use Pokemon I wouldn't normally use. Its a really neat rule, someone came up with it for me in my recent Fire Red run, I believe.

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

I plan ahead sometimes. Other times I just catch and train whatever, based on what's available and what I haven't quite trained yet. I don't think I have one continuous pattern that I follow, honestly. ^^;

 

[Coreysawrus]

I choose the Water, Fire and Grass or Bug type that appeals to me the most ,then choose something to fly me around and then choose 2 types to balance my team and choose my favourites of those types

 

[ShinyZekrom009]

For every single handheld Pokemon game I've played, I usually plan ahead. I always want a balanced team that doesn't share any types between Pokemon. So, I'll look at what Pokemon there are in the game BEFORE beating it, and I will chose a starter and five others that I want. I'll usually interchange them with others(I got Roggenrola, then replaced it with the one I wanted, Sandile), until I get the team of 6 Pokemon I want for my team. When I capture the main Legendary of the game, I'll replace one of those 6 with it(usually one that shares a type; it was Zebstrika in White and Simisear in Black).

I also prefer for the team to be made up of Pokemon that evolve(Exceptions: Legendaries and an Emolga in Black which was the only thing that perfectly filled the last spot). Plus, unless I need a Pokemon for the type advantages over a Gym Leader, or a placeholder, or it's one of the 6, I basically ignore any Pokemon I catch until after I beat the game.

Here's an example of my strategy:

Pokemon White: Plan: Snivy/Servine/Serperior, Blitzle/Zebstrika(Zekrom will replace it later), Panpour/Simipour, Pidove/Tranquill/Unfezant, Sandile/Krokorok/Krookedile, Litwick/Lampent/Chandalure.

Started with Snivy, got Lillipup and Panpour, beat 1st Gym Leader. Snivy evolved into Servine, Lillipup evolved into Herdier, caught Blitzle, Pidove, and Roggenrola, Pidove evolved into Tranquill, beat 2nd Gym Leader, Roggenrola evolved into Boldore, beat 3rd Gym Leader, Sandile replaces Boldore, beat 4th Gym Leader, Blitzle evolved into Zebstrika, Sandile evolved into Krokorok, beat 5th Gym Leader, Herdier evolved into Stoutland, Litwick replaces Stoutland, beat 6th Gym Leader, Servine evolved into Serperior, Tranquill evolved into Unfezant, beat 7th Gym Leader, Krokorok evolved into Krookedile, Litwick evolved into Lampent, beat 8th Gym Leader, Lampent evolved into Chandalure, Panpour evolved into Simipour, beat Elite Four, Zekrom replaces Zebstrika, beat N, beat Ghetsis, beat Champion.

This really long paragraph was just a description(a very basic one) about my White run. In Emerald, I did a lot more Pokemon switches. But now, I hope you get the gist of how I plan for my teams.