#21 The Art of Team Building: Creating a Powerful Team for Battle | Pokémon GO

Introduction

In Pokémon GO’s trainer battles, since players cannot know the opponent’s lineup in advance, it is particularly important to allow their team to respond to various potential opponent. This article will lead players to understand the basic knowledge and methods of team building in order from how to judge whether a team is good or bad, common team terminology, etc., so that everyone can find a team that suits them.

Four elements for evaluating teams

Trainers can build a team that suits their own operating habits and abilities based on the above four elements. Here, I will take myself as an example to give you a reference. I prefer to use a team with strong counterattack capabilities, so when building a team, safety and coverage are the main considerations, followed by consistency, and finally bulk.

Three Types of Lineups

Classic Team Formula

GO Battle League has been going on for some time, many good type combinations have been discovered by players. Here are some common attribute combinations for reference.

Grass double steel	Steel double dragon	Flying double fighting	Fighting double ice
Steel double grass	Dragon double steel	Flying double water	Fighting double steel
Poison double dark	Double charm	Double ghost	Double weak to fighting

延伸閱讀：#13 超級聯盟（Great League）S16 角色與陣容介紹｜Pokémon GO

Classic does not mean All Purpose

The first thought of many players when building a team is to substitute the pokemons into the classic formula, but is such a team really good? Imagine today that a player wants to try using a steel-type Perrserker. What will happen if the Perrserker is substituted into the formula of steel with double grass? Assuming that the second order pokemon lures fire-type characters such as Charizard and Ninetales, can Perrserker really be able to suppress opponents like the original Bastiodon?

To give another more intuitive example, the flying double fighting lineup of Noctowl, Sirfetch'd, and Chesnaught, uses Altaria, which is also a flying type, to replace the Noctowl. Conceptually, it seems to be no different from the original version. However, All three characters have fairies' weaknesses, making them a terrible team that will lose when encountering fairies.

These two examples are not meant to express that classic formulas cannot be used, but when building a team, one must consider the characteristics of the pokemon. What are the types of pokemon? What about its bulkness and the speed of throwing the moves? What are the results of games with different shield numbers? ….

Myths about Choosing Pokémon

For example, in the video of Meowscarada, the team builded by me is Froslass, Sirfetch'd and Meowscarada. If you choose the teammates based on the ranking, you may decide to use Medicham to replace Sirfetch'd. Note that when Medicham battles with Medicham, the Medicham which first switched out has advantage, in other words, we can't lure the opponent's Medicham out. Because it is impossible to let Medicham face the Froslass, the opponent's Medicham may be stuck at the final and Meowscarada will bump into the opponent's fist and have no chance to perform.

Therefore, choose a suitable pokemon instead of a high-ranked pokemon. If your teammates can complement each other to achieve the effect of 1+1+1>3, it will be easier for you to win the battle.

Build Your Own Team!

Now that we know that four factors can be used to judge whether a team is good or bad, and we also know the three major types of teams, classic lineups and the importance of choosing teammates, let’s return to the original question, how can we use these knowledge to build a good team?

STEP 1 Analyze the pokemon you want to use

Whether you are a player who focuses on climbing elo or playing for fun, I believe there will be a pokemon that you think is worth using or loving. The first thing to do when building a team is to analyze this pokemon. The following are some pieces of information that need to be analyzed.

• How is the bulkness? Tank or glass cannon?
• What is the value of attack? Who can take priority during cmp?
• Can the damage of the charged move be more than half? Is it easy to take out an opponent's shields?
• How does it perform in battles with different shield numbers? Which case performs best?
• How much weakness and resistance? Are they a common type in battle? What are the chances of facing the nemesis?
• Does it have unique types or moves? Corebreaker for common teams? Can you catch your opponent by surprise?
• How much damage can be given by fast moves? Is the coverage sufficient? Are there any types or pokemons that are completely unbeatable? How is the DPE of the moves? Is it fast enough to throw the moves? How efficient is the overall damage output? Are there any effects caused by the moves?

STEP 2 Decide on the appropriate team strategy

After analyzing the pokemon, the type of the team is decided based on the number of pokemon's weaknesses, performance in different shields and your own operating habits. Besides, the order of the pokemon is usually determined at this stage. The following are the directions that are commonly used to position the pokemon.

• If it throws the moves quickly or performs well in a two-shield matchup, it may suit to be placed first.
• If it throws the moves slowly or performs terribly when the opponent has a shield, it may suit to be placed second or third.
• Glass canon whose damage output is astonishing when the opponent has no shield, it may suit to be placed third.
• A pokemon with special moveset that have the chance to grab the switch unexpectedly, may suit to be placed second.
• There are pokemons or types that cannot be dealt with, and it is difficult to rely on the ABB lineup to eliminate the nemesis, may suit to be placed first.
• There are pokemons or types that cannot be dealt with, but it is easy to rely on the ABB lineup to eliminate the nemesis, which may suit to be placed third.

STEP 3 Select teammates who can compensate for weaknesses

After deciding on the type of team to use and the position of the main pokemon, the next step is to select two teammates who can effectively assist the protagonist. The following are some points that I often consider when selecting teammates.

• Complementarity of type weaknesses and resistances
• The ability to grab the switch
• The ability to grab the shield advantage
• Ability to assist with effects such as reducing attack and defense
• Is there any shield grabbing problem among teammates caused by each pokemon being too glassly?
• Is the overall damage given by fast move too weak to beat the lower HP opponents?

STEP 4 Scenario planning

After building a team, don’t rush into GBL. Think about the practicality of such team building strategy through scenario planning. Can the following requirements be met? If it doesn’t work, go back to the second or third step and continue thinking.

• Are there any Meta can corebreak the team?
• Can you suppress or counterattack stably when you have an advantage or disadvantage at the beginning?
• Will the nemesis be stuck in the back row during the operation, resulting in a disadvantageous match for the final pokemon?
• Can it beat classic teams and current popular teams?

STEP 5 Practical test

After thinking about each game situation, you are fully looking forward to starting the game and battle. At this time, the friendly system will tell you what you overlooked during the scenario planning. If you find that there are common teams or common pokemons that you cannot win, or the strategy is not as practical as imagined. It is recommended to go back to the second or third step to fine-tune the team.

Team Build Example - Meowscarada

Finally, take Meowscarada as an example to demonstrate what I thought about during the team building process.

STEP 1

• Grass and dark type Pokémon.
• Stats with attack 233, defense 153, endurance 183, indicating that it is a pokemon with high attack.
• There are many weaknesses and resistances. Among the weaknesses, ice, fairy, flying, fighting and poison are all types that can commonly be seen in the battle. The resistances of ground, grass, water, ghost and electricity are the types that are often seen.
• Too glassly to withstand the damage from fast moves, it must avoid facing the fairy and fighting opponents.
• The speed at which Leafage accumulates energy is not bad. Night Slash is quick to use but the DPE is not high, estimated that it may take two hits to force the shield. The DPE of the Grass Knot is good, the damage when hitting is pretty good but the energy consumption is high.
• The moveset coverage is pretty good, so there is no need to avoid specific opponents.
• The result of the two-shield match between the two sides was disastrous. The result of one shield for each is also terrible. However, the performance is okay when one's own side has one shield and the opponent has zero shield, so shield advantage is required.

STEP 2

• Perform well with shield advantage.
• The damage output is amazing when the opponent has no shield.
• Be sure to exclude fairies and fighting types
• All things considered, use ABB and put it at third

STEP 3

• Froslass is resistant to ice, poison, and fighting, and can also counter flying and fighting. It is suitable to be paired with Meowscarada, so choose it as the starter.
• Switch the Froslass down can lure the opponent to switch the fighting and flying out, but it cannot lure out the fairy. Use a weak fairy pokemon in the second order.
• ABB with the same types is easy to guess, and I personally don’t like it that much.
• Froslass is weak to dark type, choose fighting type pokemon as safe switch matches the needs of counter dark and weak fairies.
• Shield advantage is needed, choose Sirfetch'd due to its good performance at forcing the shield.

Conclusion

Over time, many useful teams have been gradually developed. However, this seems to have made players' team strategy too rigid. It’s quite a pity to see many characters being mechanically fit into classic formulas, their potential is eclipsed by the same team formation, which made me feel inspired to write this article to share my own team building experience. I dare not say I am a team-building master, but I believe that my team-building experience, which can make spicy pokemons stand out a little bit, has some reference value. I hope this can serve as a starting point and ignite players' team-building creativity.