Teambuilding / First Steps

When you start a new team, add a Pokémon to a team, or make the tiniest change to an EV spread or moveset, you have some reason for doing so. Intent-- or the reasoning behind your decisions and choices-- is the backbone of all things teambuilding. Intentions can be straightforward (I’m adding Incineroar to my team because it’s so good!) or highly complex (I’m going to give my Cresselia a 8 Speed IV so it hits 84 Speed stat because I want it to move before minimum Speed Groudon and Kyogre in Trick Room). 

It’s not the case that every aspect of every Pokémon on your team has to be overly thought out and extensively planned; that might be overdoing it. Your job is simply to try to understand and accept every piece of reasoning behind the decisions that you made to build your team. 

When you start a new team, here are some possible reasons you might have for doing so:

• You want to work with a Pokémon or mechanic that interests or excites you

  • I want to build a Groudon team, and partner it with Gravity so its Precipice Blades always hits!

• You think a team is especially strong and want to use it yourself

  • I really like where Xerneas is at in this metagame, so I’m going to build around it

• You want to be strong against popular teams

  • Grimmsnarl and Togekiss are everywhere, so I’m going to make a Durant team to beat them. 

Here are some examples of possible intentions for adding a Pokémon to a team:

• Because you like it or have had success with it in the past

  • I’m going to add Lucario because it’s my favorite Pokémon!

• Because you think it’s especially strong

  • Incineroar is one of the best Pokémon in the metagame right now, so I’m going to add it to my team.

• Because it has good synergy with the rest of your team

  • I have Tapu Fini and Kartana on my team, so I’m going to add Arcanine, which covers both of their weaknesses defensively.

• Because you are weak to another Pokémon or type

  • I’m really weak to Dragon-types! I’m going to add Togekiss.

• Because it specifically enables one, or multiple Pokémon, on your team

  • I want to sweep with Weakness Policy Yveltal, so I’ll add Comfey to easily activate its Weakness Policy

Evaluate your choices

Keeping track of intent is important because, once you get to battling, it’s a large part of how you evaluate how your team is performing. Double battles are dynamic and complex, and it can be challenging to figure out whether you made a mistake in your play during a battle or whether your team is underperforming. Understanding the intent behind each Pokémon lets you frame each battle in much simpler terms. Did this Pokémon do what you wanted it to do? Why or why not? If a Pokémon isn’t performing how you wanted it to or intended it to, you might want to revisit why it’s on your team, or approach battling from another direction.

I don’t know what my intent is

When you add to a team by quickly following your gut instinct, you’re “slapping on”. There’s nothing ultimately wrong with slapping on, because inherently, you have some reason for making that choice-- it’s just implicit rather than fully articulated. 

When the intention of a team, move, Pokémon, or EV choice isn’t clear, it can be a sign that it might require some more thought. This may be part of why it’s so hard to use teams made by other players without a guide, or to take EVs from another player-- you don’t know why these choices were made!

If you’re stuck on why you added a Pokémon, try brainstorming a few reasons why you think it belongs, or what you might want from other Pokémon.

Working with others

When someone asks me to take a look at their team, my questions will usually be in the form of-- why did you do this? Why did you make this decision? Then I can give them subjective feedback based on whether I agree with their goals and decisions, and hopefully we come to a consensus about which aspects of the team are good and which need to be changed. 

If you don’t know why someone did something, ask-- there are no stupid questions in Pokémon. You’re not only learning more about that other person’s thought process, which is helpful for you, but you’re asking them to put their thoughts into words-- which is a useful and important exercise for them. 

Conclusion

Pokémon is not a game where choices can be made passively-- you must be an active participant. Understanding intention is the first step to doing so. Over time, you’ll be able to come up with more complex intentions as you practice and grow with the game.