Do you plan your teams?

[Palamon]

When playing a new save file in Pokemon, do you usually plan out your teams, or are you spontaneous about it?

I'm a little of both. I will honestly say I do sometimes plan out entire teams, or plan to use a specific Pokemon (like Dunsparce in soul silver and Hitmonchan in White 2) but things don't always work out as a planned, and I sometimes just catch whatever Pokemon I come across randomly. I never planned on using Vullaby and Pancham in Shield, for example, but did anyway when I came across them in the wild.

 

[colours]

nope

it's way too much work to do planning on which pokemon i'm going to catch and add as part of my team, so i just catch whatever i'm generally in the mood to catch. it's likely my team may change party members quite a few times throughout the story anyway so (for me, anyway) planning out beforehand doesn't seem very practical.

 

[Devalue]

Usually locks in one or two Pokemon from the outset. Decides the rest as they come.

 

[Janp]

I do plan my teams a lot of the times. Especially in challenges that somehow limit usable Pokémon like monotypes. But there are times, when I encounter a Pokémon and randomly feel like using it. Last time this happened was with Sandygast in Ultra Moon in my Shiny Badge challenge.

 

[_pheebee]

Sort of?

With any new generation of Pokemon I explore a little bit and see what new Pokemon are up for grabs in the wild.
Any cool looking ones I catch and if it's a type not yet utilised on my team, they can stay~

 

[Megan]

Kind of; I have this one rule to only catch Pokemon until I have a full team of six. This meant that in games that use HMs I have to keep track of what I want because if I can't fit them onto my team I've pretty much lost. What Pokemon I catch in that instance is usually up to whatever I feel like. Sometimes I want certain Pokemon, so I'll make sure to keep room for them.

There was also a soft rule that forced me to count gift Pokemon. it was a very limiting one, especially in those games with forced gifts, so I dropped it eventually.

 

[Percy]

No, if I'm playing the game for the very first time. I usually just see what pokemon I encounter and if I think its cool and the typing fits along with the starter then cool. Also, gift Pokemon are my favorite, I always try to have them.

If I'm replaying though, I always plan my team. I would have a mental list and all that. But sometimes, I'd just forget that list once I encounter a Pokemon I forgot about but I want on my team 😂

 

[Corveone]

Sometimes. It depends on the game.

For official games, if I'm playing for the first time I normally start blind and just begin picking two or three early game Pokémon that I like or seem interesting to try. Once I have that "half team" I consider their strengths and weaknesses, look for common weaknesses or types they might have trouble dealing with, and see what other Pokémon would be good to complement them and complete the team.

So, it's somehow like a transition, with the first Pokémon being "what do I want?", and the last one being "what do I need?", but considering these games aren't that hard to begin with, I don't put a huge effort on team building or anything.

For fan-made games, I usually follow the same formula, but sometimes I do plan my team from the very beginning, it depends on the game, its difficulty, and what are the options, because I like to check if my team idea is actually possible. For my Pokémon Prism playthrough, for instance, I did plan my team because I've read there were a lot of custom made changes on the Pokémon movesets (which favor some mons but kinda ruin some others), and things like move-relearner and many valuable TMs aren't available until the post-game, so for that one I didn't feel like just improvising and potentially get stuck with a bad team, I googled Pokémon availability, learn sets, and if it was necessary to hold their evos for certain moves.

 

[ReKoil]

I only take typings into account to prevent overlaps as much as possible and have a diverse team typing wise.
Other than that I'll just go with whatever strikes my fancy.

 

[Lysander]

I plan to include certain Pokémon on my team during playthroughs of an old game, though the rest of the team is something I decide upon during the playthrough

 

[Drayton]

I play as I go and often times plan first before catching because if I missing crucial pokemon for the next town I'll be dead if I didn't

 

[fir3princ3ss]

I don't plan out my teams. I catch any Pokemon I don't have since I like to complete the dex in games. For my team, I tend to make sure I have a good variety of types from the first few encounters in game. Later on, I can train up any Pokemon I have caught from filling the dex along the way who might help if I'm struggling with a gym leader down the line.

 

[Aslan]

Sometimes! When I first started playing, I had a guidebook that my parents bought me so I remember reading through it and looking at all the Pokemon in it to determine which ones I wanted in my team. Later on when I played new generations, I would have an idea of what new Pokemon were released beforehand so I had certain Pokemon that I knew I wanted to catch. These days I still plan teams but more so around the idea that I want to experiment and play with new Pokemon I haven't used before so I make a mental list of which Pokemon I want to try out on my new run as otherwise I tend to stick to the same ones.

I've done a lot of randomized Pokemon challenges both by myself and together with friends over the years so I can't plan teams when I do that but something I've found out that I've liked a lot is swapping out party members during the run! I used to firmly stick to the 6 Pokemon I caught for my team but its been more interesting switching up and trying new Pokemon after a certain gym etc. It's something I want to try more in regular runs so I think my teams will start being much less planned \o/

 

[Sheep]

It depends! If I'm doing a challenge run/repeat playthrough I usually know more of what I want to use, but for first-time plays I'm more open to trying whatever (but still typically plan for at least one or two). So I'm fairly mixed I suppose, but don't plan more than I do!

 

[TheClassyHerddIer]

I wouldn't say I PLAN my team, but I do consider my teams when I play for example when I encounter a mimiku I consider if I already have a ghost or fairy "I don't like having more than one of the same type" and if there's another Pokemon coming up that I know about with a similar type that I may want.

TLDR well yes but actually no

 

[Gardevoir1]

The only planning I do is to make sure I don't end up having too many of the same type (like 3 steel types *ahem* platinum *ahem*). Other than that, as long as I like the aesthetics of a pokemon, I dont really care about stats because lets be real, in the official games you can pretty much use whoever you want and still come out on top.

 

[Adam Levine]

Recently, I've put a bit more thought into my team composition, and typically it's my favorite Pokémon that stick in the team, but I also aim for type diversity and coverage.

My recent Black 2 main-game team had Sneasel (because I didn't have time to evolve it), Golurk, Whimsicott, Ampharos, Sigilyph, and Arcanine. I originally wanted a Heatmor, but realized it was only available in the postgame, and having to evolve my Growlithe at around level 51 put a lot of strain on me until late-game.

I wanted my post-game team to be different, since more Pokémon species were available to me. Not only did I want this team to consist of my favorites (mostly), but I also wanted a team of Pokémon most people weren't eager to put on their team: Manectric, Tropius, Zangoose, Castform, Lunatone, and Relicanth. It took a while for this team to find its footing, but I'm glad I made it work.

 

[Zeostar]

I no longer plan my teams, but sometimes I get ideas in my head for what I feel like using.

 

[Sydian]

a bit of both. when i was a kid, i planned out everything about my teams from nicknames to movesets to even the gender i wanted my pokemon to be. nowadays, not so much. i do it sometimes, but usually if i'm playing a game for the first time or the first time in a long time, i just kind of see what pops up. i find this even easier in newer gens with the updated exp share bc it makes it so much easier to try out different pokemon and see what you like and what works well and stuff. you don't have to take so much time out to grind up a party member only to be let down and feel like your time was wasted.