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What do you take in to account when picking pokemon for a party?

Moonlight_Tails

Nocturnal Trainer
Type and move pool, sometimes stats, If it's a new release, I try lots of different pokes. After that, I just use my faves.
 

XionLord

New Member
I look at 3 main factors.
1:Team Comp
Made a mistake once. 4/6 of my team could get owned by a fighting type. I dont let that happen. I try to aim for a balance of stats aswell

2:Interest
Sometimes i pick a pokemon purely because they look interesting. If i catch it, and it seems to fit in i will try it out.
Gen 2 it was Ampharos (It was cute, then it got cooler)
Gen 3 it was Aron (It was Steel, gave it quick claw. Suddenly it was funny)
Gen 4 .... Bronzor, he was kinda something i saw and was like 'Huh...a coin i wanna flip'
Gen 5 was Litwick. I didnt have someone to give my Ghastly, and he seemed interesting.

3: Enjoyment
Sometimes I will pick something for the pure reason of trying something new. My biggest surprise was Nincada. I did not know about Shedinja, but i got one. He was such an interesting choice. Either he was op, or smacked instantly. he had no middleground.
 

Ninfia-Fan

Well-Known Member
Typing, level, stats, and even gender. Yes, I try to balance my team's genders.
I also go with my faves, too.
 

Enjolras

Master of the House
Mostly just Pokemon I've never used before. I don't balance genders or anything.
 

DoctorDark

Well-Known Member
Depends if you are talking about Gameplay or Competitive.

My competitive teams tend to run a range of factors. Is it a rain team, sun team, sand team, sweeper set, stall set, etc.

If you are talking about just the game I usually go something along the lines of this:
1. Starter.

2. Early catch. (This is a pokemon easily obtainable early in the game that scales well into the late game. Usually either a strong competitive pick or a pokemon that can evolve twice)

3. Counter to your Rival. Essentially a pokemon you build specifically to counter your rival's starter. If you started grass then you get a water/ground, started water then you get a fire/bird, started fire then you get a grass/electric etc. Double points if the pokemon you choose to counter counters BOTH subtypes of your rival's pokemon and has strong STABs.

4. The gym counter. In every generation there is always a gym that gives each person trouble unless they prepare for it. Some generations its one gym leader that pwns everyone (*cough* whitney I'm looking at you) other generations people have difficulty with different ones (Claire for example gives some people a lot of trouble). The goal of this pokemon is that it helps counter this troublesome gym while still providing balance in team composition.

5. The favorite. This particular pokemon is usually incredibly random and unique to each trainer but its usually a personal favorite of theirs. Whether it reminds of them of their old partners in other games, they like the design, or they find some excuse to keep it in their party this pokemon is usually in there regardless of team composition. [Oftentimes people's favorite Eevolutions go here.]

6. The HM slave. Yes we all need one in the game. Some generations we needed two (thank god Gen 5 decided against needing 10 different freaking HMs to play the game I honestly hope gamefreak does something about this). Its usually a pokemon we hate. Or if you are like me the same old lvl 100 dragonite that has terrible IVs, terrible EVs, wrong nature but don't want to throw away so I transfer him around using him as an HM slave for every game but never use him for battling.
 

Russell-Bowman

Well-Known Member
The main thing I go for is type balance. I try to avoid having more than two Pokemon with the same weakness on one team, for example Ground, Grass and Flying together because they're all weak to ice, or Flying, Bug and Fire together because they're all weak to Rock. My favourite types are Water, Flying, Fire, Electric, Psychic, Grass, Ice and Ground, so I usually go for those types.

Another important factor is stats. I try to have a good attacker, a good defender, a good special attacker etc. and I usually don't like having more than two of each on a team, so I wouldn't have three special attackers and only one physical attacker. I'm also more inclined to go for Pokemon that have high defence, special defence or HP, because I hate it when one of my dudes is OHKO'd by a strong attack that isn't even super-effective.

As for nitpicky things that don't actually matter in-game, I prefer Pokemon that are based on animals rather than inanimate objects or supernatural things, but I wouldn't say no to an awesome one like Magnemite or Baltoy. I'm also fussy with genders, I don't like having an all-male or all-female team, and if a Pokemon looks particularly feminine (like Roselia) I'll try to get a female, or particularly masculine (like Heracross or Pinsir) I'll try to get a male.
 

Cloud_Arcanine

Scarlett starlett
I next to never use the same type twice on my team. I like to attack, but I also like them to have quite decent defenses.

I also like to have my team of six as early as I can. I like to experiment too and pick Pokemon I wouldn't normally pick.
 
I mainly go with looks. If I see a Pokemon that I love, I will catch it and put in on my team. However, there are a couple of other factors, otherwise my Unova team would have been all grass types.

1. Are they strong enough? I don't mean Ubers or anything. I just mean, are they strong enough to where I don't need to tear my hair out every time I use them. As cute as I think Azurill is, I could not imagine using that little thing in a battle against a champion without getting extremely frustrated. So while I'm all for going against the odds and choosing the less gifted Pokemon, there is unfortunately a limit.

2. Typing. I can handle a couple of Pokemon with the same type, but I will not exceed three under any circumstances.

3. Have I used them before? I've used the same Pokemon on teams before, so this one isn't as big. However, it does factor into when I finish my teams up. Such as, if I'm deciding between whether or not to use a Butterfree, or a Vivillion on my team, I would end up going with Vivillion because I never used it. If I have to choose between an old Pokemon and a new Pokemon, more often than not will I go for the new Pokemon.

4. Does the team look right? This one isn't something I can explain. There are just some teams that seem to fit better than others. I can't really explain it.
 

Mr. L 500

YOOM-TAH!
If I like the Pokémon, then I use it. I don't care about its stats unless I'm working on a team to use for more competitive purposes (which I don't do until I've beaten the main game and finished training my original team).
 

bajuwa

New Member
If I like the Pokémon, then I use it. I don't care about its stats unless I'm working on a team to use for more competitive purposes (which I don't do until I've beaten the main game and finished training my original team).

I do that too. It's much easier to find/train pokemon once you have more access to the game, especially if breeding or EV training is involved.
 

DryBones

Event Collector
I have 2 reasons.
1. Balance. I try and make sure it's varied enough to be a formidable team.
2. Aesthetics. I generally only pick ones I like the look of. Mawile looks badass, always a favouite of mine when replaying 3rd Gen
 

x-sayrie-x

Well-Known Member
Mostly type coverage/weaknesses. In general, I end up with a fire type, a grass type, a water type, an electric type, a flying type, and then some miscellaneous Pokemon I thought would be fun to use. I did step out of these boundaries in Black 2 though with my team, but for the most part that setup has carried me through the games easily.
 

Everlasting

Everything stays.
I just use 6 Pokémon that I love introduced in the generation. I won't pick Pokémon from older generations in new game, unless their final evolution was introduced in the actual one.
 

Savanny Killersaurus

In Another Castle
I tend to go for looks when I'm playing through one of my games. I usually choose Pokemon I like. If I'm playing a new generation, I'll make my team out of Pokemon I find visually appealing in that generation. Power doesn't really matter to me in the long run, because in the games, even the weakest Pokemon can do pretty well.
However, for competitive battling, I choose Pokemon that synergize well together. I also have a habit of making a "theme" out of my teams, even if the Pokemon are classed as below the tier I'm currently playing in. I just like to have fun when I battle competitively instead of trying to make an unstoppable team.
 

bajuwa

New Member
hmmm a lot of people seem to like having new pokemon only in their party. Im working on a suggestions feature that probably benefit from options like 'only suggest new pokemon'. does this sound like a good idea? there can be other options too such as 'onky offensive pokemon' or ' only pokemon of a certain type'
 

ctmason39

Member
I use pokemon that I like, and I make sure that they all have decent stat totals. My teams are also highly focused on offense and speed, I really don't use tanks unless I really like the pokemon (I.e. Aggron or Vaporeon, both of which are offensive as well).
 
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