Have you ever used any “theme teams” for in-game playthroughs?

[bdt2002]

How’s it going, everyone? During the 2022 calendar year, I’ve started making some new changes to how I make my teams for new Pokémon playthroughs, and that got me thinking about something that could be a fun little discussion. Often times, we’ll find that there are certain “themes” of Pokémon we like to use. Arguably the most well known kind of theme team out there are Monotype teams, but there’s all sorts of categories to pick from, like regions, colors, habitat, et cetera.

Ideally we can keep this functioning as one of those more casual threads, and who knows? Maybe we can give each other some new ideas in the process. I just think myself and maybe some other users would be interested in discussing the kinds of themes we’ve come up with for various games, and as the thread title implies, if we’ve ever had the chance to experiment with these themes in playthroughs before. So, uh… yeah. That’s pretty much it, I guess. Happy posting :)

I’m trying to get better about keeping my thread introduction posts on the shorter side, so if you have any questions about things I didn’t cover here, please feel free to ask.

 

[Ishiftyounot]

This was a Platinum team I used back in 2020, with a colour theme - be (somewhat) blue! They even had names based on shades/hues of blue: Azure, Tufts, Dodger, Brandeis, Majorelle and Cyan respectively. I don't really know why I went with this theme - we all know what went down in 2020 so I was bored, blue is my favourite colour, Platinum is in my top 5 Pokemon games and I wanted to use Lucario + Togekiss + Glaceon? It was a good team though - I traded a Riolu egg over from Diamond and the Extrasensory Togepi from HeartGold, then evolved Eevee and taught it Icy Wind via Heart Scale relearner via my Diamond file so it had STAB early on. Those 3 in particular turned out fantastic - I hatched Riolu before Roark and taught it Return for some solid power, Extrasensory made Togepi decent enough at beating opponents and Glaceon became an absolute menace thanks to earlier evolution + STAB Icy Wind! It was a lot of fun.

This was a White team I used also in 2020, with a nuzlocke-but-not-really theme? I saw a Reddit post about a way to mix up your team in-game where you followed the nuzlocke rule of capturing the first encounter on a given route, but rather than losing a Pokemon if it's KOed you could roll a die after each gym badge to determine how many Pokemon you're allowed to swap within your team. I wasn't super strict with the die-rolling aspect (if I rolled a 3 for example I was allowed to swap up to 3 Pokemon, but I didn't have to if I liked my team) and I ended up with this squad! Emboar was the only Unova starter I'd not beaten the game with yet so using that was sweet, Leavanny was a Pokemon I always dropped by the 5th gym but kept all the way to the end, Archeops was absolutely broken outside of Defeatist woes and the other 3 were Pokemon I liked but hadn't really gotten the chance to use yet? Was a fun team to use though!

These are my Brilliant Diamond and Let's Go Eevee teams. The "theme" (if you can call it that) is that these are my favourite Pokemon from their respective regions. I'm currently trying to complete (not 100% but close enough) all my Switch Pokemon games so I can move onto other franchises for a bit and I wanted my completed file to have my favourite Pokemon from that region as my definitive team for those games. Let's Go isn't entirely accurate (Scyther > Pinsir in my opinion) but that theme was to have my starter Eevee alongside a Pokemon of each type on one rotational squad. Was my first try at a rotating team as well, was an okay experience? I'll move onto Scarlet next, then Shield / Legends: Arceus.

As for Scarlet, I recently got to chatting with someone on another forum about the concept of an OC and playing the game as if the player character was an actual character, and it seemed interesting! They envisioned character arcs for their character and the team they used (a bit like the anime really) and their team choices were influenced by what their character would realistically use from that region. I am tempted to follow with this idea, in which case my team would be what you see in the spoilers below. We'll see though, might just be the same as Brilliant Diamond / Let's Go Eevee where I pick my 6 favourites (we'll see what they are, not an easy choice this generation) to represent my Paldea file.

Scarlet / Violet Team:

Generally my teams all follow the "region" theme, to the extent that I don't really consider it one? I just like using Pokemon from the region they debuted in, it lets me develop new favourites and tastes rather than just relying on what I've liked previously. Regional forms count as new Pokemon for that purpose - Alolan Ninetales for example is as usable in Alola as it was in Kanto, should I ever go back and play the Alola games again.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

So my country (the UK) has been going through utter political chaos for the last 189392 years - well, just 6, but it sure feels that long. At several points during the messy period that was 2018/2019, a government of national unity (composed of politicians from multiple parties as well as independents) was mooted as a potential way of ending the paralysis and parliamentary stalemate. It never happened, but I liked the idea and it inspired a team I used for Ultra Moon a couple of years ago: a team of national unity, composed of Pokemon from all seven generations; for added aplomb, they all came from previous generations.

How is that possible when you can only have six Pokemon on a team? By doubling up with Alolan Forms, of course.

My team of national unity was as follows:

I/VII: AlolaWak

Doing double duty for Gens I and VII, Alolan Marowak served as the linchpin of the team. Fearsomely strong once I found a Thick Club for it and has a wickedly good typing in-game. Bred in HGSS and I taught it a couple of elemental punches before starting so it cleaned up.

II: Sudowoodo

The wiggly tree attacked! Sudowoodo is a funky option that occasionally proves itself to be pretty fun. Not my favourite Johto mon by any means but I figured the time spent with it might induce some additional fondness. No such luck, sadly. Despite largely being dreadful throughout my journey, it redeemed itself by being the sturdiest of walls in the fight against Ultra Necrozma. Also bred in HGSS (as a Bonsly); the baby period was thoroughly un-fun.

III: Masquerain

One of my favourite Bugs, period. But annoyingly one I'd never used in a playthrough - Surskit being so irritatingly rare in Gen III meant I never had the opportunity, and while I caught one early on in Alpha Sapphire, it was grossly overlevelled so I put it aside and never came back. Eventually I bred one I caught in Orre and ended up hatching a wonderfully outstanding Timid Surskit in Emerald that knew Hydro Pump. It was a long time before it was put to use. But well. Weren't you just worth the wait. Getting a Quiver Dance off in-game is hilariously easy, and it demolishes stuff after just one. What an absolute treat.

IV: Toxicroak

A longstanding favourite, but surprisingly another one I'd ever used in a playthrough. I suppose it always comes too late to be a realistic option. Toxicroak was a curious one, being a generally dependable member of the squad but not really distinguishing itself with any major victories or feats of aplomb. Caught in Platinum in the Great Marsh; god damn that Safari Ball looks good on it.

V: Crustle

Another Bug I love, but again one that comes (relatively) late in the Unova games. I like to have a full team of six as soon as possible so I just never ended up running with one. But I bred a fabulous 5IV Dwebble some time ago on Black 2 and felt that the time was ripe to let it stretch its many legs. What's there to say - it's solid and dependable; slow as molasses but it pulls its weight.

VI: Vivillon

ANOTHER Bug?! Why, yes. I decided to make use of the Fancy Pattern Vivillon that had been languishing in my Bank for ages and added it to the squad. And Vivillon, much like Masquerain, is pretty darn good in-game. Lots of fun and you feel SO fancy using the Fancy Pattern. Sometimes needs a little support to sweep but also works well as a general supporter for the others.



This team largely came together by accident, chance, and me thinking "what have I not used yet?" but it was such fun to use, and the poor synergy of the squad only made it more amusing. I'd love to repeat this formula, though - after so many years playing this series, there's a surprisingly small pool of species I've never used. But after some thought I've settled on six I'd be interested in using if I ever do a second Team of National Unity. Maybe as a challenge run of some sort in the future (I'll get back to my Pearl challenge eventually. Promise).

GT's Team of National Unity, Take Two

I & VII: AlolaPersian

I did consider Exeggutor, but Persian is just more amusing. I've never really liked Alolan Persian, purely on aesthetics, but that's all the more reason to give it a shot and see if, like Sudowoodo, I can warm to it. There's no reason it shouldn't be a competent enough squad member; regular Persian is decent, so I expect Alolan Persian to do well enough with a few strong Special moves.

II: Hitmontop

Never used this in a playthrough (sans Colosseum) for the obvious reason that it's so fucking difficult to get a Tyrogue to evolve the way you want, not least when it has a nature that swings its stats one way or the other. I'm a masochistic sucker for a challenge, though. I bred a Tyrogue years ago on HeartGold with a bunch of cool egg moves so I reckon this'll clean up.

III: Crawdaunt

I've always liked Crawdaunt since it first showed up being used by a Team Aqua grunt in the anime. But never actually used it, since I know full well it's generally shit. However, the various generations have been kind to it, giving it nifty tools like Dragon Dance and a sick Hidden Ability in Adaptability; I have one with both of those, and it's in a Beast Ball, too - so frickin' stylish. The time is definitely ripe to utilise it.

IV: Mothim

Well, we couldn't not include at least one Bug. As members of that type go, Mothim is generic in the extreme. However, I've got a shiny male Burmy, and Mothim's shiny truly is gorgeous - one of the best in the series in my opinion. Yes, aesthetics are the principle criteria here. However, I do think that Mothim's poor perception is slightly unwarranted - for an early-game Bug, it's stats aren't utterly horrendous, and Tinted Lens (which my shiny will have) is a banger ability, so I think this mon can put in some good work. Let's see, shall we?

V: Simipour

Oh no, the monkeys. Yes, I'm doing it. Ironically given its onetime placement as the most unpopular Pokemon ever, Simisear is my favourite of the trio - it's Fire, comes with the territory - and Simisage has a certain grizzled charm, but Simipour? Not so much. All the more reason to give it a second chance. Plus, now we've got two Water and two Dark types to continue the grand tradition of doubling up on types.

VI: Hoopa

Well, this is an unexpected choice. But I've used just about every species from Gen VI because it's, to put it bluntly, damn small. I like Hoopa, and was intrigued to notice that Gen VII did an obscure distribution at level 15. That's just about low enough to merit inclusion into this team. IIRC in USUM the Prison Bottle is post-game, so it's stuck to the basic form for the duration. That could be interesting. I never usually use legendaries in-game (the only other time was Keldeo, which was distributed alongside B2W2's release so why not roll with it) but I'll make an exception this time around.



Who knows when I'll get around to running with this team, but hopefully it'll be the near future rather than the distant future! Till then.

 

[Hugin]

I'll often do theme teams on replays, just to keep it fresh and/or add a challenge. I like monotype runs for that, but there's others I've done.
Mono-flying in Gen 1.
Mono-water in Sapphire, and I did a Rocket-themed Nuzlocke that used gameshark codes to steal enemy mons instead of catching Wilds.
All base-100 Pixies in Brilliant Diamond to take advantage of the various gifts. (Mew, Jirachi, Shaymin, Manaphy, Infernape, I don't recall the final mon)
I did mono-bug and mono-dragon in X(I LOVE how that gen has a wide variety of mons available from the beginning).
US, I did a gift/trade/totem mon only run(this was basically easy mode, even if I did try to use all of them to some degree). I also tried a 6x imposter Ditto run, but gave up on that due to it being impossible without item spam, which I consider cheating.
Eeveeloutions-only in Shield, which turned into a Baton Pass run. Made for an interesting challenge, though getting started(grinding raids for 7xEevee, then grinding the dig bros for an ice stone) was not fun. I also always ban DMax in my runs of this game.

 

[Ironmage]

I pretty much started using theme teams when I first played gen 7, and have used them consistently thereafter (excepting my damageless challenge). I was spite-motivated then, but it produced enjoyable results so I kept doing it. Specifically, I felt that Alola was leaning to far into regular nature and wanted to push back a bit, so I started Moon with a less-loved but unmistakably natural type, Bug. Ultra Sun was less subtle, dropping the type constraint for a general artifice theme. So far I've had:

Moon Mono-Bug

Ultra Sun artificial

Emerald Ghost/proto-Fairy

Brilliant Diamond Toxic spam

 

[Siggu]

Nearly all of my first-time playthroughs involve teams that exclusively have reptiles in them.

 

[bdt2002]

I managed to find some time to reply to my own thread again, so I figured… Wynaut? No, seriously, why not? (I’ve been looking for an excuse to make that joke.)

The teams on this list are ones I plan on using in the not-so-distant future.

Team #1: Pokémon Legends but Johto themed


Turns out that if you take every Pokémon that got a new form that concurrently has something Johto related about it, you get exactly six Pokémon, the perfect number for a full team. Why Johto? Honestly, who knows. Now’s as good of a time as ever to mention that I don’t know how to use PLA models for the purpose of posting yet, and that for continuity’s sake I have always considered Scyther as a Johto Pokémon more than a Kanto one.

Team #2: Somewhere Over The Rainbow


This theme team has a unique twist to it that might be of interest to any Shiny hunters out there. The team can be made in any game that has access to both Eevee and to Shiny Pokémon. I’ve posted about this elsewhere before if I remember correctly, but if the player is able to get three normal Eevee and three Shiny Eevee, they can be evolved accordingly to make the six colors most commonly associated with the rainbow. (Please don’t turn this into what happened when I revealed this theme team in the YouTube comments… trust me, you don’t want to know.)

Team #3: The Hexagon Team Members


As fans of these games are hopefully already aware, the GameCube Pokémon games involve getting your team members differently than in the other games. Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness introduces a set of six NPCs called the Hexagon Brothers, who if I had to guess were the spiritual successors to those three NPCs in Pokémon Colloseum who have each of the Johto starters. There’s six members, each with a Shadow Pokémon. You can have six team members. And you can actually battle all of them in one playthrough if you feel like it, which is a nice option to have for team building since they’re battled relatively early in the game. Knowing this, I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t the only person who’s had the idea of making all six of their Shadow Pokémon my own team members.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

"team of national unity"

So I was thinking about this and I wondered, could you do a similar team for Sc/Vi now there's nine generations (but ten regions if you count Hisui)?

And the answer is yes, just about!

1. Kanto+Alola
   This one is obvious since only Gen I Pokemon have Alolan Forms. Thankfully, there's lots to choose from.
   
   
2. Johto+Paldea
   Due to the small number of Paldean forms, Paldean Wooper is the only Pokemon that works for this, making it the only mandated inclusion. Debatably evolving it into Clodsire wrecks the theme, so it's open to interpretation whether that counts.
   
   
3. Hoenn
   Hoenn gets to stand alone since the only Hoenn mons with regional forms are Zigzagoon and Linoone.
   
   
4. Sinnoh
   And so does Sinnoh.
   
   
5. Unova+Galar
   Unova has two options that would work - Galarian Stunfisk or Galarian Darmanitan.
   
   
6. Kalos+Hisui
   Again, there are two options which work - Hisuian Avalugg or Hisuian Goodra.

Given this criteria, here's a couple of pleasing team setups with some reasonable type diversity

1. Alolan Persian
2. Paldean Wooper/Clodsire
3. Breloom
4. Luxray
5. Galarian Darmanitan
6. Hisuian Goodra

1. Alolan Raichu
2. Paldean Wooper/Clodsire
3. Torkoal
4. Drifblim
5. Galarian Stunfisk
6. Hisuian Avalugg

I'm still undecided whether I get ScVi or not so if someone wants to run with this idea you're very welcome!

 

[QuentinQuonce]

So I was thinking about this and I wondered, could you do a similar team for Sc/Vi now there's nine generations (but ten regions if you count Hisui)?

And the answer is yes, just about!

1. Kanto+Alola
   This one is obvious since only Gen I Pokemon have Alolan Forms. Thankfully, there's lots to choose from.
   
   
2. Johto+Paldea
   Due to the small number of Paldean forms, Paldean Wooper is the only Pokemon that works for this, making it the only mandated inclusion. Debatably evolving it into Clodsire wrecks the theme, so it's open to interpretation whether that counts.
   
   
3. Hoenn
   Hoenn gets to stand alone since the only Hoenn mons with regional forms are Zigzagoon and Linoone.
   
   
4. Sinnoh
   And so does Sinnoh.
   
   
5. Unova+Galar
   Unova has two options that would work - Galarian Stunfisk or Galarian Darmanitan.
   
   
6. Kalos+Hisui
   Again, there are two options which work - Hisuian Avalugg or Hisuian Goodra.

Given this criteria, here's a couple of pleasing team setups with some reasonable type diversity

1. Alolan Persian
2. Paldean Wooper/Clodsire
3. Breloom
4. Luxray
5. Galarian Darmanitan
6. Hisuian Goodra

1. Alolan Raichu
2. Paldean Wooper/Clodsire
3. Torkoal
4. Drifblim
5. Galarian Stunfisk
6. Hisuian Avalugg

I'm still undecided whether I get ScVi or not so if someone wants to run with this idea you're very welcome!

It's also just occurred that ScVi are the first games in which one can have all 18 types within a party of six (six unique dual-types, all with Tera types that make up the other six not represented). Someone else must have done this already, right?

 

[Golden Duke]

The only theme teams I tend to do are monotype. I have all the Grass Pokémon on Platinum atm (sans Snover) and they’re all exactly level 30 (the minimum level required to use Pokes on PBR) Round 1 of that game is easy so I decided to use my Grass dudes on that before I progress any further.

I guess it would be cool to take a leaf out of Cheryl and friends book and do stat focused teams. Like all my Pokémon have to have speed as their best stat in their final form (not sure if I’d allow ties like Ninetales though)

I was also thinking of breaking down all the useable Pokémon in any given game and devising the optimal way of using them all either in a single run or multiple. For the latter, I could probably use a starter Pokémon every time and still think of a fun and different way to use it. I always play on set, rarely grind and don’t use items in battle because it just devalues defensive properties and moves too much.

 

[Hugin]

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but since I found this thread again:
My second runthrough of Violet I completed each storyline separately, using a different team. All Birds to beat the Titans, all pseudolegendaries to beat the Gyms, and all ghosts to beat Team Star. Area Zero I tackled with 2 members of each team, and then the postgame I trained and used 6 Paradox mons.

There was a lot of grinding, especially around the midgame for each story, and items/TMs have the potential to really break things, but it was definitely fun and different. If nothing else, "Play through one story, then catch a bunch of lategame mons and breed lvl 1 forms to take on the other stories" is worth trying out in this game.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

This is beyond my capability to do but I had a sudden thought for a dumb novelty theme: Pokemon with unreleased Hidden Abilities.

Obviously nothing in the current games is unreleased since afaik you can change everything's ability with the Ability Patch. So this'd be in Gens V through VII, which in Gen V is just... *checks* Litwick line, Larvesta line, Gen II starters, Gen V starters, several legendaries. There are a few unevolved forms which technically can't get their HA like Klink and Rufflet but as the evolutions can I'll ignore those ones.

Hmm. Not a lot, but it'd be a funny mix of useful and useless. A lot of the Pokemon which never had their HA released would likely have been very powerful, which is why some were changed in later generations. But then you consider Shadow Tag Litwick - that's basically useless in-game, since opponents never switch. give Slakoth Slow Start as a HA you cowards

So we've got:

Shadow Tag Litwick - as covered, useless
Swarm Larvesta - neither of its abilities are brilliant in-game, but on balance this is probably more useful in general.

Leaf Guard Chikorita - unlikely to find much use for this in-game
Flash Fire Cyndaquil - decent enough, but very situational
Sheer Force Totodile - massive upgrade, definitely the best thing on this list

Contrary Snivy - potentially quite busted
Thick Fat Tepig - definitely an upgrade
Shell Armour Oshawott - yeah, not great

May as well look at legendaries too. Using legendaries with unavailable HAs would make the run even MORE novelty/taboo!

Snow Cloak Articuno - meh, boring. Too situational and unreliable
Lightningrod Zapdos - yummy. This would have been truly excellent
Flame Body Moltres - meh. the sort of thing that might come in useful one battle in twenty

Volt Absorb Raikou - excellent
Flash Fire Entei - splendid
Water Absorb Suicune - superb

Flame Body Heatran - meh. It's funny that this went unreleased for so long, I like to think that no-one cared enough to change things

Honestly I've reconsidered, I think a HA bird/beast team would be so hilarious. If only you could get them at level 5 like the Dream Radar mascots...

So Gen V's list of missing HAs isn't actually that great, but then Gen VI and VII are even smaller - it's basically just the beast trio, Fancy+Pokeball Vivillon, and Heatran in Gen VI, and the Tapus/Pokeball Vivillon/Heatran in Gen VII. I suppose if you want to be quietly rebellious you could hack the Hidden Ability onto a Flabebe with a colour it shouldn't have...