I tried to resurrect a couple in-game team threads and came up with an idea. I'd be interested to hear what other people think is their signature in-game team from a mainline playthrough. It could be your favorite team from your favorite game, or just a team that was especially memorable or enjoyable to play with. As a plus, try to think of what your signature or "ace" Pokémon from that team was (the Garchomp to your Cynthia, the Metagross to your Steven) to add a little more flavor to this thread. Try to also explain why this particular team is your signature one over others, perhaps explaining the composition or particular traits of the Pokémon, to keep this from being too PC++. With that said here's my team:
Infernape, Floatzel, Tangrowth, Luxray, Staraptor, Glaceon from Platinum
This team checks a lot of boxes for me. Platinum is my favorite game. The team matches up well against Cynthia. There's a nice FWG core there. No overlapping types. All Sinnoh Pokemon (I consider Tangela Kanto and Tangrowth Sinnoh, for example, though definitions may vary). I could also get everyone on this team before the fifth gym, which isn't too late. Three 3 stage evo's, three 2 stage evo's. By extension, three medium fast EXP mons, three medium slow EXP ones (I usually don't like other EXP groups, they're either too weird like Erratic or Fluctuating, or too tilted in one direction vs the other like Fast or Slow). Some people may think this is weird but I also like how the only OU Pokémon from that gen on my team is Infernape. Staraptor is UUBL, Tangrowth is UU, and the rest are NU. That gives them an underdog feel compared to Cynthia's team of two UU's, three OU's and one Uber. I know that seems weird but it fits a certain underdog narrative in my head.
As far as moves, by end game (ie post game) I had a nice balance of four mixed attackers, one special attacker (Glaceon) and one physical attacker (Staraptor). My Tangrowth was pure special before post game, but it got the right moves and had the stats to go mixed afterwards. My team could also handle the notorious number of HM's for Mt. Coronet and Victory Road by themselves without assistance from Bidoof/Bibarel, which was nice because I didn't want to have to keep swapping them in and out.
My ace of this team was Infernape for sure. Performs exceptionally well in-game (probably the best in-game starter performance after Swampert in RSE), great Platinum sprite, and the only OU mon on the team as stated before, and lives up to it. It's also the only dual type on my team other than Staraptor, who may as well be pure Flying considering how Flying is never on its own until Gen 5 and is quite often paired with Normal. That dual typing just adds to its uniqueness on this team.
Anyway those are my thoughts. Very curious about other people's opinions on this, in-game team building is probably my favorite casual Pokémon topic to discuss.
Infernape, Floatzel, Tangrowth, Luxray, Staraptor, Glaceon from Platinum
This team checks a lot of boxes for me. Platinum is my favorite game. The team matches up well against Cynthia. There's a nice FWG core there. No overlapping types. All Sinnoh Pokemon (I consider Tangela Kanto and Tangrowth Sinnoh, for example, though definitions may vary). I could also get everyone on this team before the fifth gym, which isn't too late. Three 3 stage evo's, three 2 stage evo's. By extension, three medium fast EXP mons, three medium slow EXP ones (I usually don't like other EXP groups, they're either too weird like Erratic or Fluctuating, or too tilted in one direction vs the other like Fast or Slow). Some people may think this is weird but I also like how the only OU Pokémon from that gen on my team is Infernape. Staraptor is UUBL, Tangrowth is UU, and the rest are NU. That gives them an underdog feel compared to Cynthia's team of two UU's, three OU's and one Uber. I know that seems weird but it fits a certain underdog narrative in my head.
As far as moves, by end game (ie post game) I had a nice balance of four mixed attackers, one special attacker (Glaceon) and one physical attacker (Staraptor). My Tangrowth was pure special before post game, but it got the right moves and had the stats to go mixed afterwards. My team could also handle the notorious number of HM's for Mt. Coronet and Victory Road by themselves without assistance from Bidoof/Bibarel, which was nice because I didn't want to have to keep swapping them in and out.
My ace of this team was Infernape for sure. Performs exceptionally well in-game (probably the best in-game starter performance after Swampert in RSE), great Platinum sprite, and the only OU mon on the team as stated before, and lives up to it. It's also the only dual type on my team other than Staraptor, who may as well be pure Flying considering how Flying is never on its own until Gen 5 and is quite often paired with Normal. That dual typing just adds to its uniqueness on this team.
Anyway those are my thoughts. Very curious about other people's opinions on this, in-game team building is probably my favorite casual Pokémon topic to discuss.
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