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f i r e f l y .

Age 30
Male
Adelaide, Australia
Seen July 4th, 2020
Posted December 21st, 2019
4,258 posts
14.3 Years
Sometimes, you have those challenges where you have Pokemon, lots of them in your boxes, which you'd love to use, but you only use them for certain occasions. Like, catching a Timburr specifically for Lenora, and then just ditching it back into the box, or catching a wild Zebstrika just to handle Skyla.

Do you train certain Pokemon for certain battles?

I don't and I think it's a waste of time. I think it's nice to have a variety of Pokemon for your battles, but why go all out and train a new team all the time, just for one battle? So if you were to battle Clay, would you just go out and catch a random Grass/Water/Ice Pokemon, just to use them in that gym battle so you have the upper advantage? I think it destroys the challenge of the game, just to go out and train a new team everytime to have the advantage. Most of the time, your standard team can handle the person you're meant to battle next anyway, so I just don't see the point in going all out just for one petty battle.

Oryx

CoquettishCat

Age 30
Female
Seen January 30th, 2015
Posted December 27th, 2014
13,184 posts
12.2 Years
I never do this. My goal is to raise a team diverse enough that it can take on all the Gym Leaders and Elite Four as a team, not with random, one-battle-only Pokemon thrown in there for more type advantages.

For the Elite Four in this game, my Pokemon were so tailored to every other battle in the game that I didn't have the types that were strong against them for the most part. I taught my Seismitoad a Dark move specifically to take on two of them, and when that Pokemon went down, I relied on secondary weaknesses or just didn't bother with weaknesses at all and hit it with everything I had. Now that I'm training up for the second Elite Four run, I'm using the exact same team.


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JP

wut?

Age 32
Male
USA
Seen December 13th, 2019
Posted February 27th, 2019
2,163 posts
14.8 Years
It really depends. If I'm having an extremely difficult time with the team I currently have, then I try to go out in the wild and find a Pokemon that can give me the upper hand.

Generally though, I give my Pokemon some variety in moves so that they can overcome their weaknesses and with that in mind, it's usually enough to turn the tables around in a battle for me and not need a new addition to my team.
Male
My house
Seen February 11th, 2012
Posted January 7th, 2012
1,016 posts
13.6 Years
Can't see myself doing this :/

The point of the game is to raise Pokemon, not capture random ones to win your Gym battles. I always train a team that's capable of handling whatever types are thrown at it.


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Age 30
Male
Castelia city
Seen December 15th, 2014
Posted April 29th, 2011
711 posts
15.1 Years
I only do it sometimes. If I'm at a horrible disadvantage I might train one pokemon. But for the most part I think that pokemon can do some pretty amazing things, type advantage or not. In the anime Ash has a point when he uses a type that's weak against it's foe. They're just trying to show that there are more possibilities.
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Age 34
Female
Allybahma
Seen April 5th, 2011
Posted April 3rd, 2011
111 posts
12.7 Years
I catch random pokemon if they have the type advantage only if my normal team just can't catch a break. I get it that not many people like it, but sometimes you just need a little help, and no one should be judged for that. Now, I did this only once for Lenora, but it turned out that the Sawk I caught sucked and my Dewott stole the show and defeated that evil evil watchog. So yeah, I've had moments where my original team decides to prove me wrong at the last minute, haha.

But I generally plan my teams before I play.
Male
Seen April 9th, 2011
Posted April 5th, 2011
21 posts
12.1 Years
I catched and used the pokemons I liked and thought covered my typ weaknesses. I ended up with lilipup with dig for the electric gym, galvantula for the flying gym and so on. I didn't ever have to train on wild pokemons to have the type advantage in gyms. But this also meant that I ended up with a team of only 4 pokemons with bad synergy, which did hurt in the elite 4.

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
No, I never do this. I always raise a balanced team that has enough diversity in it that I don't have to. Type advantage isn't everything either. And I would have to raise the Pokemon I caught for the specific battle because being a wild Pokemon, it would be to weak to face someone like a gym leader. Why would I do that when all those experience points could be going to a Pokemon that I am going to use through the whole game?

Xyrin

WOW REMEMBER THIS??

Age 24
Male
purdue
Seen September 17th, 2022
Posted October 17th, 2013
1,065 posts
15 Years
Well I guess guess you could say I did it once. But my team wasn't done yet, I caught a sawk and liked him but I eventually gave him up. But I was planning on keeping him but I had so many Pokemon that could use fighting type moves that could cover my normal weakness.

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Imperator161

Seen February 5th, 2023
Posted July 31st, 2020
1,415 posts
14.7 Years
I haven't finished White yet, but so far, I've found myself training almost everything I've caught rather than using a set team. For certain gyms (like the second one, for example), I did train a bunch of Pokemon that had an advantage over that gym leader's type (e.g., fighting types for the normal gym), but that was mainly because those were the Pokemon that I had just caught and wanted to train up a bit. I don't know when I'll actually develop a full team on White, as it just seems so easy to train everything I catch in this game (thanks to the new exp. system).

In other games, though, I haven't generally trained a new team to challenge the gym. I usually just use whatever I have with me (a balanced team, etc.) and get through the game with few problems.
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blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
Yeah, I tend to do this more times than often, but I'll sometimes use Pokémon that I'm training but that aren't weak to that specific Gym Leader type user.
Age 27
Male
Unova's Kantotown
Seen March 30th, 2016
Posted June 17th, 2014
263 posts
13.8 Years
Nope, never have I done this even once. If my team has a type disadvantage, I'll muscle through it. If the opposing Pokemon is stronger, I'll burn it or paralyze it. Diversity is crucial in my team.
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used Sacred Fire!

Age 31
Female
QLD, Australia
Seen June 5th, 2022
Posted April 23rd, 2022
35,988 posts
17.5 Years
This can apply to all games and not just B/W. Judging from the responses people are applying their posts to all generations. As a result, Syd gets another thread! :D

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 find that in Black and White they held your hand a lot more than in the other games, which facilitates cherry-picking Pokemon for specific battles. When you needed to defeat a Gym Leader whose type was specifically chosen to be good against yours, you're magically GIVEN a Pokemon that can counteract it. When you needed to fight a Normal-type Gym, there is a forest right next door filled with Fighting types. When you need to battle Bug-types, there is a desert full of Darumaka. Chargestone Cave is right next to Skyla's Gym and Cold Storage is right next to the Driftveil Gym.

They are leading us to do that. I think it's good that we're not taking the bait, because it's patronising.
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Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'

Age 97
Shimoda City
Seen 2 Weeks Ago
Posted January 25th, 2022
9,705 posts
15.5 Years
No, I train a dedicated team of six and use them for the entire game. I do, however, prepare for Whitney in G/S/C/HG/SS by making sure I catch a female Geodude on Route 46 early on. My teams are usually varied enough so that can deal with most Gym Leaders.

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Age 35
Female
Under Skyarrow Bridge
Seen November 22nd, 2013
Posted November 17th, 2013
134 posts
12.1 Years
Do you train certain Pokemon for certain battles?
Yes. I actually probably have a team of more like 8-10 Pokémon and 1-2 might get switched around depending on which gym I'm training for. I never bring in a team that is all or mostly super-effectives unless I built my team that way in the first place. I usually have 2 Pokémon in the team that are super-effective and then the rest are just whatever else is on the team at the time.
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