Essentials For Your Pokemon Team

Started by vaporeon7 February 5th, 2011 6:37 PM
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vaporeon7

My life would suck without you

Male
Preparing for trouble and making it double.
Seen September 6th, 2016
Posted May 27th, 2014
5,143 posts
12.7 Years
What are some of the essential things for your Pokemon teams? Do you always have to have the move Surf, Fly or need a Ground Type? What about a HM Slave, a physical sweeper, a cleric or anything else? Post what you almost always try to have on your teams (not in challenges).

Personally I always try to have a Pokemon with Surf and one with Fly for maximum convenience. I don't like HM Slaves.

Sydian

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Age 30
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Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
Gotta have someone that can learn Flamethrower. Or some powerful fire move at least. And um I've gotten into the habit of having to have Furret or Aipom on my team. Yeah idk. lol <3
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Imperator161

Seen February 5th, 2023
Posted July 31st, 2020
1,415 posts
14.7 Years
I need something in my team to know Surf, and I also really like to have my starter on my team. For my "main" game in each generation, I typically pick the water starter anyway, so those two requirements are easily taken care of in one Pokemon. It's really useful to have a team member with Fly, too, though I'm willing to use various throw-away Pokemon for that move if necessary. I tend to stick the other HMs onto Pokemon that only come out of my PC when I need their moves.
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SquirtleGirl

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Age 29
Female
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Seen January 7th, 2012
Posted January 7th, 2012
553 posts
13.8 Years
Fly and Surf. I never have HM slaves. And I always seem to end up with an electric type no matter how hard I try not to have one :P

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Age 32
Male
Beyond reality's reach
Seen December 11th, 2013
Posted October 27th, 2013
251 posts
15.1 Years
Using my starter is essential for sure, but aside from that my team needs to have a fire, water, and psychic type along with either as Electric or Grass type pokemon.
I also like trying to make sure I can have something like Nidoking or Aggron in my party, you know, a pokemon with a large movepool with plenty of variety in there.
By this type I should have five Pokemon, and the last spot I usually try to have a dragon in, if not there I leave it as a wild card so to speak

I do try to have someone that know essential HM moves like cut, surf and fly.. providing my team doesn't already know or is soon to learn better moves. Fly is normally one that doesn't get fitted into the team well, so I just have to swap out a random flying pokemon to get around and swap back in the pokemon removed for it after I finish flying



Female
She went that-a-way!
Seen July 25th, 2011
Posted March 18th, 2011
199 posts
12.3 Years
Well, there aren't a huge amount of things that I find are essential, and I often enjoy experimenting with a team of mis-matches when the mood takes me, which can often end with surprising results, both good and bad. But there are a few things I try to do when I'm taking the game seriously.

The Four Base Elements - And by this, I mean one Pokemon from each of these types. Fire, Water, Grass and Electricity. Using this, you can cover each others weaknessess easily, managing a wide array of different attacks.

Starters - An easy Pokemon to retrieve which is usually of a type not found easily early in the game, unless of course you chose the Grass type. Usually my choice would be the Fire type as they seem to be becoming increasingly rare in the Pokemon world, and it sets you up with a decent combatant against the some-what common Bug-types in the early game stages.

Double Typing - A Pokemon with more than one type - in my opinion - is better than one with only a single element. Dual typing allows for further STAB moves, and usually a wider array of tactics and abilities for the user. While you may face the downsides of having further weaknesses (or less if you're lucky), it is brought back with a greater chance to fight with a higher likelyhood of approaching a foe in which an attack would be super effective.
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Age 29
Female
Lake of Rage
Seen December 12th, 2015
Posted August 15th, 2012
1,931 posts
13.7 Years
Well not just the moves surf and fly, but specific pokemon. I MUST have a Flying and a Dragon type on my team. And that is mostly it. Im not too picky :3
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Male
Seen November 9th, 2015
Posted November 16th, 2012
86 posts
12.3 Years
I always have and always will keep my starter... It's been there since I left the first town, and we've gone through so much together :') I don't even put my starters in the box... At all. Ever.

Haha but other than that... I had never heard of the term "HM slave" until a few years back, so I always had to make sure I had at least one water type (maybe two for Hoenn because of it's unnecessary amount of water HMs), and one half-junk Pokemon that was still useable in battles, but had that terribile move Rock Smash...

I almost never have dragon types, they come way too late in the game for me to feel like integrating them into my team :/
Age 33
Female
Goldenrod City
Seen March 28th, 2021
Posted October 19th, 2014
398 posts
14.8 Years
I always keep my starter, and I always have a Water type for Surf and a Flying type for Fly, mostly because it's terribly inconvenient to have to run back to the PC if I need to do either of those things. I don't usually like to keep a permanent slot for an HM slave, since I like training a full team of 6.
Other than that, I'm not very picky. :P

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Age 97
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Seen 2 Weeks Ago
Posted January 25th, 2022
9,705 posts
15.5 Years
1. A Water Type.
2. An Electric Type.
3. A Ground Type.
4. Something with Fly (except in XD/Colo)
5. The moves Earthquake, Ice Beam, and Thunderbolt.
6. A cat-like Pokemon whenever possible. Yes, that does mean I suffered through Delcatty in Sapphire and Emerald, and Purugly in Pearl. Said cat Pokemon must be female.

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Age 29
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Ankh-Morpork
Seen 11 Hours Ago
Posted March 15th, 2023
12,275 posts
18.9 Years
Fly, Surf, Starter, Crobat and/or Gyarados. I also like to have a variety of types, though I usually end up with two water types.
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Age 30
Female
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Seen August 17th, 2011
Posted April 26th, 2011
191 posts
12.5 Years
I always keep my starter, a Water-type with Surf, and a Flying-type with Fly. The rest varies, but I've found I usually end up with some variation of Water, Fire, Grass, Flying, Electric, and a wild card slot, often but not always filled by a Dragon-type.

Shining Raichu

Expect me like you expect Jesus.

Age 32
Male
Australia
Seen October 17th, 2020
Posted December 21st, 2017
8,958 posts
12.3 Years
I follow a basic pattern for all of my teams:

- A fire type
- A grass type
- A water type (which usually ends up as an HM slave because there are so many water HMs, though luckily they're powerful)
- An electric type
- A flying type
- One other. Usually it ends up being Ground or Psychic, though I have had Dragons in there from time to time.

I always teach Cut to the Grass Pokemon.
Male
Seen March 13th, 2011
Posted February 15th, 2011
15 posts
12.8 Years
I always have to have the starter in my team and they never ever leave my team. Another few requirements is a Flying type and Water type and the moves Surf and Fly on the team. I also like to have a Fire-type although that isn't exactly an essential for the team(but almost all my teams have it)


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Age 28
Male
Somewhere over the rainbow
Seen February 24th, 2016
Posted February 24th, 2016
3,252 posts
16.3 Years
Here is my checklist:

Starter - A must have, if starter pokemon sucked, too bad. (I suffered when I chose Chikorita as a starter. Why did I chose a 'defensive' starter?)
Flying - it's really annoying when you can't fly.
Water - It's also annoying when you can't surf.
Grass/Fire/Water - 2 of those to counteract the elemental triangle.
Psychic, or atleast, a pokemon who can learn Psychic.
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Brendino

The Ruins of Alph
Seen 15 Hours Ago
Posted April 6th, 2023
8,567 posts
13.4 Years
The only thing that is usually consistent on my teams is that I have one Water type Pokemon as an HM slave, and usually one other HM slave. Another constant is that I always have a Flying type on my team, even if I don't have the HM yet.
Female
Under N's Bed <3
Seen November 20th, 2011
Posted March 1st, 2011
58 posts
12.3 Years
On my team I MUST HAVE:

My starter(its a big habit of mine to keep the starter I've had since the beginning)
Flying-Type Pokemon(To carry Fly, HM Fly slaves are annoying to move back and forth)
Water-Type Pokemon(To carry HM Surf)
Electric-Type Pokemon(To balance things out)
Grass/Fire/Water-Type(To counter)
A Wild Card(Basically any Pokemon that I see fit to add to my team)

Shining Raichu

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Age 32
Male
Australia
Seen October 17th, 2020
Posted December 21st, 2017
8,958 posts
12.3 Years
I'm surprised that people are even thinking to mention that they keep their starter on their team. I just thought that was something everyone did. I cannot conceive of a Pokemon team without a starter. It's like a catering team without a point man.
Age 29
Male
99th Floor in the Silver Trench
Seen July 5th, 2011
Posted February 24th, 2011
184 posts
12.3 Years
The starter is not that important to me for my team especially in the post game but if it's three things I have to have on my team it would be these:

1.One of the Eeveelutions
2.Something with Fly
3.A dragon type

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gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
I basically always like to have a Flying type and a Water type, they're the two main essentials for me really.

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Pokemon Bard

Male
The Stage!
Seen March 27th, 2022
Posted February 23rd, 2022
1,237 posts
18.1 Years
The only thigns I require are To have a Grass pokemon in my team (Usually the starter)
And I always catch the first flying type available, (Pidgey, Starly etc)

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