How do you choose the pokemon on your team, or the cornerstone of team design?

StarmanXL

StarmanXL

I'm asking specifically about how one makes an effective team, but the thought process that goes into making, specifically, the choosing of the pokemon.

How do people usually go about this? Do you start with a certain pokemon in mind you know you want to use and go from there? Do you think up a strategy or theme first then choose pokemon which can competently perform the stategy? Do you create lists of pokemon you like, then form certain pokemon into competent teams? Do you think up predetermined roles, such as a wall, a tank, etc., then use pokemon that fill those roles? Do you mimic successful teams of others? Do you just go through analysis, think, "That looks cool, lemme try that set and that set," and then try to fit them together on a team that works well together? Do you take tier placement (no specifically functionality) into account when restrictions are not in place (such as playing in UU tier)? Does it just seem to come together at random?

I mean, for my first workable team, I honestly just took a bunch of pokemon I liked and threw them together, then stumbled across a strategy and realized my team would be perfect for it, then tweaked it to fit the strategy. I've also made plenty of themed teams based solely on type. I dunno. Your thoughts?
 
I started with one of my favorite Pokemon, Porygon2. With experience in the games, I'm in the process of building an effective Trick Room team. I usually put my Pokemon together in an order of how they counter the last Pokemon's counters---for example, Vespiquen kills some of Blastoise's, Porygon2's, and Hypno's counters, Blastoise kills Rampardos' and Vespiquen's coutners, and so on. Countering the previous Pokemon's counters goes in a circle as I go down my team's roster, so to speak, so nobody is left uncovered or unprepared.

I'm a bad explainer, but I hope you understood. xD

From there, researching roles, movesets and spreads fall into place. It takes me hours to research, but in the end, it all pays off.
 
I major in UU, and I've tried to make a team with a bunch of my old favorites from RSE, which lost about 3/4 of my matches. Then I thought about using a Choice Scarf Primeape as a starter, which works awesome, chose special and physical walls and built my remaining team around those pokes. Now I win almost every match!

I like to start out with an interesting idea, think about what would beat it and then figure out what would beat the counter, and so forth.
 
I usually find a cute two-pokemon combo such as Tyranitar + Garchomp or Scizor + Rhyperior and find pokes that complement them, generally using my last couple slots to patch up holes.
 
I'm wondering the same question myself...
The teams I've made have all (err... both) centered around one main idea or Pokemon. The team I'm currently making follows that trend, but now I'm focusing on team synergy (that word just sounds so good...), which has been so stressed recently. Not only covering weaknesses with other Pokemon, but creating holes so that certain Pokemon on the team can switch in more often.
 
Well what I usually do it start with pokemon that I want to use (not necessarily like, just want to use because they seem good), then build a team to make them work, covering as many weaknesses and common threats as possible.

For example, for one of my first teams, I wanted to try out a scarfchomp in a sandstorm team because outrage just seemed really good being only resisted by steel types. So I started off my team with a tyranitar and a garchomp. Then I thought if outrage is only resisted by steels then I should try and get rid of steels to open up a sweep so I added magnezone. For the remaining 3 pokemon, I put together 3 pokemon that could defend me against as many threats as possible so I wouldn't get swept.

Then you go into a game with your newly made team and see how it does. When you lose, you find out why you lost and whether it's because your team is not equipped to handle certain pokemon. I found the weaknesses of my team and went on to change a lot of the pokemon, even the underlying strategy of getting rid of steels for chomp to sweep.

I think the basis of any team though, is to be able to deal with common threats for long enough to weaken your opponent and be in a position for your sweepers to clean up late game. Your team should basically revolve around clearing a path for your sweepers to win you the game.
 
Here's what I like to do: pick a strategy/theme, pick Pokemon that work in that strategy, and move from there.

One thing I've been toying with as of late, however, is trying to stick 6 Pokemon that
1. work well together.
2. fill specified roles. I like having Special/Physical Sweepers, Special/Physical Tanks, and Special/Physical Walls as a starting point.
3. (the big one) have as many resistances and as few weaknesses as possible.

I don't really have the time to test teams, so it's been an exercise of mine to fiddle around with Marriland's Team Builder and find 6 Pokemon that have very few weaknesses (less than 2 per Pokemon, on average) and enough resistances to cover those weaknesses... and then some... and then have every type of attack resisted by at least one Pokemon. THEN, those Pokemon have to be able to fill all of the different roles; if they can't, I start all over. It's harder than it looks.

Still, I've come up with three different teams with this method, and I keep looking for more. Interestingly enough, I find that Sandstorm and Hail teams don't work like this very well. SS teams have Water problems and Hail teams have Fighting and Rock problems; that's not news, but seeing as though they should have issues with more types just might be.

Anyway, pick a strategy and pick Pokemon that fit the strategy. It's probably easier than just sticking 6 standards together IMO.
 
I create many test teams and choose someone who sticks out. Walrein is one example, but some of my other tests were:

1. Scarf Weavile
2. Taunt / Hypnosis crobat
3. Roost / Nasty Plot / aura sphere / shadowball togekiss with max HP / Sp. Def
4. Fake Out / Return / Nasty Plot / BP Ambipom
5. HP Fire Swampert (WTF was I thinking...)
6. Special Wall gallade (another wtf, although I plan to revisit the idea)
7. 252 Atk 252 Sp. Atk focus sash Download Porygon-Z
8. Bulky Arcanine
9. 252 Atk 252 Speed Gyarados lead with Focus Sash, Dragon Dance, Taunt, Waterfall and Flail (it was fun :-p)

Some of them were successful tests, most of them I couldn't build a team around, and many of them are idiotic / failures. But thats what happens when you test.

----------

After testing, it becomes obvious what you need to give your core proper support. And then you test your supporters and think if you can find a better support pokemon, etc. etc.
 
I have these thoughts on what every team (imo) needs. A Dragon restist, at least 1 wall / tank for each type, something very fast that can hit, equal sweepers of special / physical, etc. phazer, spinner, spiker. Rock resist (HI AERO!), some wish support mainly.

I really can't make a team without Steelix these days. It's so good.
 
I start off with one pokemon that I really like, and start building off of it's strengths and weakness's. For example, (this was a failed team, but that's OK) I wanted to build a team around Porygon-Z, one of my favorite new pokemon in D/P. I built the team so that it could easily take down Blissey early in the game. The other problem is is that Porygon-Z is slow (faster than Heracross, but still not that fast) so I ran a paralyzing move on all of my walls to try and cripple faster pokemon that would normally outrun Porygon-Z. As I said before, this team failed, but I did learn that Porygon-Z is like the special version of Heracross, and that the Nasty Plot sweeper is possibly the worst Porygon-Z build other than gimmick sets.

I've now built 2 successful teams, each around 2 pokemon that I like, but are also very strong once I manage to get one specific pokemon out of the way.
 
What I normally do is try to find a niche for a pokemon that everyone else would say "sucks ass". Take for example a pokemon like Farfetch'd...well obviously remove the quotation marks from the sucks ass part, but this is the best niche I could find for it that not other pokemon can do:

[ Farfetch'd is the only Normal/Flying that can learn Knock Off, and is the only pokemon that can learn both Knock Off & Wish on the same moveset. ]

Honestly, give me any pokemon and I can find a niche for it.
Every pokemon has something it can do that no others can unless their name starts with an "L" and ends with an "Uvdisc".

[P.S. Luvdisc's only niche over any other pokemon in the existance of gamefreak's creation is that it has the fastest Aqua Ring in existance....too bad its defenses are fuck.]

As for actually choosing which of those niches to build a team around, on my teams I tend to try my best and go something like 1 OU/2 BL/3 UU and under with the niche being one of the 3 UU and Under pokemon.

After I choose a pokemon, I tend to throw in Shuckle or Dugtrio. Shuckle because it's one of the best Encorers in the game and is almost guaranteed to get off a Stealth Rock, and then Dugtrio because it revenge kills like a champion.

I usually choose one or the other, but only on my first team ever was there both...that coincidentally happens to be my team that has ahd the most success.

The rest of the team is there to support the niche pokemon, or if I have more than one of them on my team, then I simply make a plan A - F with everyone pokemon being able to support the team and being able to support themselves.

I think the best about which movesets to put in the shower for some reason, or yeah anywhere where I 'm just standing and I'm able to think with humming or music.

Having resists to as many types as I can is the way I play, and having resists on your team to compensate for your niche's weaknesses is the key to using shit pokemon. Well, prediction too, but we're talking from a team-building point of view!

That's my team building stuff.
 
Find two pokes who cover eahc others weaks quite well, then use other pokes to fill in the gaps of pokemon that have attacks that could KO them both. Then build from there.
 
Do you think up a strategy or theme first then choose pokemon which can competently perform the stategy?
Click to expand...
"Hmm, how can I abuse Gravity..."
I knew I'd need a good wall-ish user of Gravity, that could last a long time and maybe even support the rest of my team. Hi Jirachi.
I knew I'd need an attacker to abuse EQ, and maybe even the accuracy boost, too. Hi LOGarchomp.
I'd need a Counter for... Well, Garchomp. I don't want my Gravity to blow up in my face. Something that, at bare minimum, could revenge kill chomp. If it abuses EQ, even better. Hi CBMamoswine.
I'd need a generic whore, hiblissy.

And that's all of my team and thought processes I'm listing off. >_>
 
Usually I choose two pokemon to be the centerpiece of my team then build from there.(Adding pokes to counter my core's counters and pokes to take hits for my team)
 
well lets see... i started off with pokemon that i like, but that was like one or two. then i looked in the tiers list to get a list pokemon who aren't used often. i then got like 3 off the list. and thats how my party came together.
 
I usually just look through the pokemon until I find something sexy. Like CBazumaril & trickspecs rotom. I then design a team that covers weakness has a few more walls & attackers and see how it does. If I notice I'm loosing too often, I'll go back and fix the problem. I keep doing this until my team owns 9/10 of the times I play.

And just to go into slighty more detail, here are my teams.

Orginal-steelix/azumaril/scizor/rotom/cresselia/blissey
Final-azumaril/weezing/slowbro/jolteon/scizor/blissey

This particular teams went through 4 changes. Some of my other teams have gone through as many as 9.
 
Hmm most people try to build around a Poke then put counters to stop the things that stop them. Now that looks all fine and dandy on paper, but in my experiences, it'll probably never go right, as depending on the situation during the battle is what matters. For example, your whole team might have 5 things to be faster and ohko Garchomp, so you'd think you have it covered, but the second someone gets Garchomp on the 6th Poke that couldn' and starts setting up SubSalac or something, you're swept, etc.

So with that said, I just randomly stick 6 Pokes that have useful resistence but are especially offensive to over power them. They won't ever get off the designated sweep with a specific Poke they were building around, if they can't stop any of the 6 of my Pokes at any given time. =]
 
Aeroblacktyl said:
So with that said, I just randomly stick 6 Pokes that have useful resistence but are especially offensive to over power them. They won't ever get off the designated sweep with a specific Poke they were building around, if they can't stop any of the 6 of my Pokes at any given time. =]
Click to expand...

That's what i'm doing right now. 6 pokemons, all with the ability to move fast and attack hard. For some reason i've been killing the stall teams, but a hail/sandstorm team really screws me up.
 
I've been making theme teams recently, and my newest project has Iori Yagami of King of Fighters fame at the helm. I always thought if he was a Pokemon, he'd be a Garchomp, so that went into his team...then the rest kinda grew around Chompy.
 
I usually take a look at what the common metagame Pokemon are, and plan from there usually. For example, as Garchomp is very common on most teams (or dragon types in general), it helps to have a Pokemon that can both potentially outspeed (or take a hit) and KO back with Ice Beam. Something with EQ is always nice to have as well, and most people throw in Blissey or something to wall special attacks.
 
I always think of chess when i make a pokemon team. Just make sure you have every member on the team covered. So if one dies you have a back up version to kill watever killed it.
 
I rely on the element of surprise to win battles. Thusly, I use Pokemon that no one else uses, but not without making sure they work well together. It's a riskier way to play, but the payoff is sooooooo worth it. Few things are more satisfying than taking out a Suicune with nothing but a Hitmontop.

Of course, you can always still surprise people with commonly used Pokemon by simply giving them unorthodox movesets. When Specsmence was first invented, for example, it must've been devastatingly surprising.
 
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