I started my adventure on Pearl the same day that my friend started his on Diamond (he bought both Diamon and Pearl). He chose Piplup becasue he thought it looked cute and would hopefully evolve into something awesome looking. I chose Turtwig since I chose Treecko in Sapphire and decided to continue with that streak. When it evolved into Torterra, I fell in love with the whole turtle as a landmass design. My team for the majority of my Pearl run until I Pal Park'd my Pokemon over from Fire Red and Sapphire consisted of:
Torterra, Staraptor, Palkia, Medicham, Rapidash(for when I needed a Fire type) / Pachirisu, Drifblim