I always play with my favorites. I could care less about the meta or whats good. I prefer whats personal~
I find the spirit of pokemon has kinda diminished in that way.

Because I got rid of my Pokemon games after pretty much being done with it, I have to say that I surely must have had my favorite(s) Pokemon in my team for sure XD.

Yeah I choose my teams based on what looks cool/cute

So Lopunny/Togetic/Azumarill/Charizard/Meganium/Porygon or something.

Honestly it's so boring raising pokemon and I'm tired of buying expansion packs that I've given up on actually playing the games and just draw pkmn whenever. XD

My most favourite Pokemon is Manaphy and I am hoping there will be an event where you get a Manaphy Egg in ORAS or atleast pick one up from the Mystery Gift Delivery Lady so i can raise one again.

My beloved Serperior was always on my team <3
And my Zoroark
And Arbok
And Lucario

I use my personal favorites depending on the generation the game is based on

I always like using my favorite pokemon on my team. :)

I always had my favorite pokemon on my team. I loved Lucario (points at website) and most dragon types. Sceptile was my absolute favorite though. But just because your favorites are on your team doesn't mean that it's a good team X3

Because I never found a way to use Mewtwo without him being OP or useless. And I never got any game past 3rd Gen.

well i have a minccino on my team since he is my fav. mine is a level 100 ev trained skill link minccino

Having your favorite pokemon on your playthrough team is part of what makes pokemon so much fun. If it's not a 'good' team, then you just have to think more, which is fun in its own right.

I never really play online much, and I simply just play with the Pokemon I've come to enjoy.
Sometimes my favorites may be good tier, but I think most of the ones I use I just like their looks and color schemes. XD

My entire team is my favorite pokemon. play for fun first and foremost

Theres always at least ONE of my favorites, and in most cases theres 2-4. Always a toss up between Lucario, Dusknoir, Zoroark, or Regigigas. Mewtwo never leaves my party. I feel naked without him. o_o

My mon is not in my team in this moment.... because I have it in the bank awaiting for ORAS. Right now, except for Fluttershy the Scolipede, I have no favs in this run; I am going on with the game so I know what to draw in my comic.

I only don't have gengar on my team because I haven't caught him in oras yet. He's usually in there since I don't play competitively.

Honestly, ever since my friend brought EVs and IVs to light for me in emerald version, I just had too much trouble with the nagging voice saying "If you knew what you were doing you'd be fighting ____" haven't been able to play main series pokemon game since.

Mystery Dungeon though, those I LOVE. Playing Explorers of Sky, [still/again as I don't own a 3ds] I do not have a Rattata on my team yet [yes rattata really is my favorite] but when I get one, I shall be naming him Matti [after my first Rattata, and also one I rp at times] so no, but he will be, eventually.

Absolutely

most of my favourites tend to not be able to take hits too well though :(

Though i find its better to limit yourself to only new generation pokemon until you beat the games, if able - allows more room to get some new favourites

Part of why gen 5 was such a breath of fresh air, to me

I always had my favorites on my team. Heck my entire team usually consisted of my favorites, though I tried to catch diverse team to deal with as many types as I could.

Feraligatr and Arcanine. Lovelove them.

Yes, at least one! Unless I'm Masuda Methoding, then it's just a male Larvesta I called Penelope.

Otherwise, I always have a Blaziken, Greninja, or Ray-Ray on hand! Sceptile, Dialga, or Flygon come second.

Sylveon will never not be on my team; you absolutely gotta keep at least one favorite on your team, at least when you're not playing competitively or some such.

Charizard, Lucario, and Luxray are some of my favorites and on the team. Lugia is my favorite legendary but not on my team at the moment cuz using Legendaries is considered unfair especially in online competition.

If I can manage to play a Pokemon game with my Arcanine, then you know that I'm going to have Arcanine on my team when I play that game. *Nods matter of factly* He's been my favorite since I first saw him, and even with six hundred or so more Pokemon to choose from, Arcanine remains my favorite now. ^_^ So, yes, definitely on my team!

When I used to play, Goodra was on my team, definitely one of my new favorites.

That being said some of the others (I.E Zorua) are not practical to really bring. :V

i almost always have Charizard and Marowak on my team.

I remember when gen 4 came out, played online, almost everyone had the exact same team

I have several favorite pokemon, but the problem I have is I'm not liking my play though for Omega ruby so I'm thinking on just beating it real fast and dumping my boxes to my bank and just starting fresh with a pink themed team

Victreebel with suckerpunch, swordsdance, leaf blade, and sleep powder/substitue

I put it in whenever i can. does surprisingly well without taking up leftovers.

So you don't use your favorites is what you're saying?

Not at all. If you build your team correctly, you can fit any Pokemon into a team. And I am talking competitive play here. That Victreebell is meant to be a sweeper, putting the enemy to sleep, setting up and then destroying. Suckerpunch even has priority for when they have someone faster.

Also, I think you are missing an important point. A lot of people's favorite Pokemon ARE the powerful ones. They look cool and hit hard, so people eat them up. Victreebel is not strong or "cool" looking by most peoples standards, so I am used to the confused response.

No, I think you're missing the point.

The journal is about Favorite Pokemon, not about telling strategy for Competitive Play.

The I will answer this as succinctly as possible.
Yes
Hope that clears things up. In game he is always on my team and in competitive he is on my team very often.

I usually run my favorites, even competitively because I'm dumb.

It's also the reason I hated ORAS, because I don't care for Hoenn's line up of pokemon.

ABSOL AND UMBREON DREAM TEAM LETS GO

Scyther every time. Any chance I have hes in my team. Hell, if it was an option I'd choose him as a starter.

Always have to have Skarmory. And Umbreon. Those are my two non-Legendary favorites.

Always my favourites here! If I can get em at least, sometimes I can't :<, depends on the game.

Shoulda stopped it!

always my favs although 2 of my favs are tier 1

I always have a floatzel/buizel on my team. Floatzel is a freaken tank anyway!

WATER TYPE MASTER RACE :V

I'll never not have a ground type on my team. I'll usually have a sandshrew or drilbur if possible (Though let's be honest, probably evolved to sandslash or excadrill even if I don't like the look as much)

I tend to focus on favorites, so long as they're at least somewhat feasible to use.

Emerald-> Gardevoir Dusclops Noctowl Blaziken Swalot Banette ftw
Easily my favorites from that gen

my main team is consisting of my favorites and atleast one pokemon that is considered competative or atleast it was.

No matter where I go, I always keep my Vaporeon with me <3

If I played with only my favorites, then I'd have a near or full Electric type team and would be crushed fantastically every ten to fifteen minutes or so.... that of course also assuming it was possible to get all of them early game... which it generally isn't. So I typically find it more a process of "making due" with what you've got until favorites come along, then fit them in where possible. Cause I still want a "balanced" team if I can manage it and sometimes that requires sacrifices... painful, irritating, sacrifices... -.-; Rip the Dream

Recently I've been EV/IV/Egg Move breeding obscure Pokemon for the sole purpose of making teams that aren't cliché and predictable. In doing so, some new favorites have arisen, such as Amoongus and Kingler.

My team consists of my Shiny Lucario and Shiny Mew and my HM slaves c:

Shiny Mew cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaat

xD I got it from a friend but yeah, I'm 99.9% certain he cheated it in for me. The shiny Riolu, on the other hand, I had to farm for like 4 hours to find 83

The thing about said "good" Pokemon is that, because they get used so frequently, most competitive players (the good ones, anyway) expect to have to fight them and build teams, not out of them, but for the purpose of countering them.

Which is precisely the reason the good ones I count among my favorites are the ones that DON'T make my team. I take greater pride in being unique and unpredictable, not in being able to land an easy one-hit-kill every single time (though being able to do that unexpectedly is hilarious).

Been a while since I've played competitively, but my last team for such was:

Pelipper
Ninetales
Luxray
Dewgong
Clefable
Kangaskhan

Didn't do too shabby with it either. Because few people expected Pelipper and Clefable to be defensive tanks, or Ninetales and Luxray to have Energy Ball and Ice Fang. ^_^ Much more satisfying than using Spacial Rend every other turn.

Yes. Mienshao is made of paper, never lasts more than two attacks and looks weird. But it's my weird lookin weasel and it's my favourite, so I include one whenever I can. Both of my last "competitive" teams have included one.

Yes! I almost always have some of my favorites on my teams~ The only time I don't is when I do a playthrough with a randomized team (pokemon in the randomizer are always pokemon I don't like) so I can try new ones out and possibly get more favorites. :3

Kirlia, Lilligant, Lucario, Flygon, Mightyena, Vaporeon, etc, etc. So many awesome pokemon, and I'm always finding new ones to love~

Always. Arcanine will never not be on my team!

Ever since I got back into it with Platinum, I've kept most of my favorites in my team up to X. I still have most of them in my team, but the only problem is...I have too many favorites, and there's only 6 slots I can use! D:

I hope to get my dream team revised and drawn up sometime, with the new additions that I've come to love, as well as the older ones I adore; Floatzel being one of them, of course. They're all pretty powerful, but certainly not without their weaknesses and not quite competitive-tier, but I don't care, because I love my buddies all the same~

My two are always on my team

Octillery is the sniper king.
and Trevenant is just plain awesome always.

You know, I kinda alternate. I change my team around every now and then to give new 'mons a chance.

A lot of my favorite Pokemon are unevolved anyway so using them for battling wouldn't be too smart beyond the lower levels.

That's a pretty bad reason to evolve them, just so they can be stronger. You're choosing not to play with your favorites just so you can have a stronger team.

This isn't the Pokemon anime. Yes, you can technically beat the game with a Weedle or Rattata or something but that's senseless. You have to have massive level advantages over every opponent in order to even stand a chance at beating them. What's the goddamn point at playing Pokemon then if you aren't even going to go through the storyline? Are you just going to waddle across the first few routes for 4 hours before getting bored and go play some other game? That's absurd.

I evolve them because I want to see them grow. I want to feel accomplished and I want to go through a journey, not act like a spoiled genwun brat and wade in a pointless sense of nostalgia. That's like if you played Minecraft but refused to get diamond tools just because you like iron better. There's being loyal to your favorites and then there's being just flat out stupid, and I think that crosses to the latter category.

That would be a very good point, if that was the only pokemon on your team! You're making it sound like having 1 pokemon stay in a previous state would ruin the entire game.

Especially considering the stat increase from evolving is really minor.

But having that one unevolved Pokemon in your team is completely pointless; it does nothing but waste a team slot. In a different kind of game where you could inteact with the creatures in your team in a more meaningful way I might agree, but there is no true social or emotional interactivity with your Pokemon in the games beyond some of the Gen 6 minigames like Pokemon Amie. What exactly are you going to do with your unevolved Vulpix or Eevee? Look at it? Using it in battle is pointless because that's just asking for it to get defeated very quickly by statistically superior opponents. Like it or not, Pokemon is a game fundamentally built upon the foundational game mechanic of Pokemon battles. Most of the additional features and mechanics are there to increment that basic experience and add depth to it, but at its core Pokemon is a battling-based RPG.

Ya really? Eevee for example goes from 325 base stat total to 525 upon evolving to any of its evolved forms, increasing by a total of 200 points. Turning into Flareon for example makes its attack go from 55 base to 130 base, which is a massive difference, more than doubling the previous value.

I think you missed the point of the journal.

Oh really? Then was there ever a point to this in the first place other than trying to feel high and mighty by having some sort of imaginary moral high ground over how others play their video games?

Said the person trying to enforce that it's stupid to play with your favorites if they're weak.

I'm not trying to enforce anything, now you're just putting words into my mouth. You're free to play your video games with any stupid way you want, even when there is no enjoyment to be had in the method you choose. Meanwhile the rest of us are having fun, which is the point of most video games the last time I checked. And besides, you have not refuted a single point I've made, have you? You've just descended into trying to use ad hominem attacks and straw men to make your points, whatever they might be. Honestly you haven't said anything of signifigance, just whined about people who actually want to enjoy their game rather than fit into your narrow-minded definitions.

You seem to be trying your darndest to prove me wrong, as if you're offended by something I've said, despite the fact I haven't said anything offensive.

Continuing to voice how you think I'm wrong and you're right.

The way I play, I find fun. And apparently so does everyone else besides you that commented on this journal.

But I know you'll probably reply with something like "That's because they're dumb like you." So don't you worry, I went ahead and blocked you, for being a jerk for no reason.

Always!

Has been a while since I played, but...since I never did any competitive Pokemon gaming, and my Pokemon-playing heyday was back from generations 1-3 so online multiplayer wasn't an option, I had little reason at all not to favor the pokemon I liked. o3o

It wasn't an easy thing to do, since you're only allowed six, but yeah. I always try to make a team out of my favorites.

Its way too dangerous

What?.......

It doesn't matter how good at training you are. If you put that many hungry-type pokemon together on a team, all alone out in the middle of nowhere with just their trainer? What do you think is going to happen?

Not really the point of the journal...

There is always room for one more vore joke

I have different teams which happen to have some of my favorites, as many of my favorites are strong or very useful anyway.

hurm thats hard to tell ..

it use to be my mewtwo back in the day ... thought i dont remember him quite well just that it had at least this 3 attacks ..psychic , swift and blizzard

and that i call him Jason cause of Friday the thirteenth

however ... if yoou would ask me who is may favorite Pokemon now on the emulator game i have omicron

i would be able what to tell you .. some possibilities are


hurm I like a lot my male umbreon of the same name that I have ..Pkelton .. i always been a sucker for dark Pokemon for their abilities to kick down .psychic type and ghost but being also able to learn psychic and kick down fighting types

aside this Pkelton was my fastest leveling up Pokemon ever .. he went from being and eevee level one to be my strongest Pokemon in just one game session that was extreamly fun


but the their is aslo Pistache my female pikachu .. which to be fair is quite weak but also knows grass knot which makes it extreamly easy for her to bring down ground and rock type .. that funny as heck ..aslo i love her name pistache http://eldiariodelanena.com/wp-cont.....9858621517.jpg



but there are also my more useful Pokemons in the team game like Magy my female gyarados with is a power house that regenerates itself and has fire , earth or electrics attacks aside the water and bite depending the situation (thanks to the power of not disappearing TM's

or swag my female primeape which is also a powerhouse in my team


not to mention my male bellsprout sketchydraw .. that is weak but also quite practical to keep around

If I started playing Pokemon again, I'd only be happy if I could have Lugia on my team again. :C

I always play with Pokémon I like. If you set up your team right, you can use any Pokémon effectively.

I do love Glaceon ~

I use my favorite mightyena

For me it's hard to define exactly what my official 'team' is. Like I have one that's filled with old friends whom I've collected and transferred through the series since Saphire, and I have another that's built competitively.

In one case they're all pokemon whom I decided to keep because I really like them despite their lack of usefulness in a competitive sense, but in the other case it's not as though I outright despise any of them either, I really have fun with them because of their competitive aspects.

Like... favouritism doesn't necessarily have to apply in only one sense. Smogon's 'top-tier' still has plenty of room for variation, and I highly doubt that anyone except those who are actually competing in tournaments would choose pokemon who they don't admire in one way or another. They still have their favourites in a sense.

Though you make a good point! If you're not competing at a tournament level there's no reason to not try and work your favourite 'mon into a team. You can always find a way to make them work competitively, and while you might not win as much that's not really the point anyways.

I only use pokemon I like, aside from hm slaves. My new favorite was the first pokemon I got; Delphox. There's also furfrou, absol, and ninetails.

sure thing!
my serperior is always in my team ;3

When I played the game I was obsessive compulsive about leveling up (and naming) everything, and so I used literally whatever was next in the queue to go up levels, the same way I played Shining Force, which made trouble if those happened to be a bunch of wimpy ones like voltorb and psyduck (which didn't actually get any psychic attacks for some reason). Of course I think there were only about 50 potential pokemon at that time, not counting multiple forms of the same creature or ones that were only available by trading with somebody using the other version. I think I would have a very hard time sorting that out if I tried to use a current version of the game now!
My favorites were probably the char-lizard that I started with, the scyther and the sleek dragonair before it turned into a dopey dragonite (unless they only do that through trading; I do not remember).

I only use my favorites for my team. I don't even catch Pokemon I don't like lol

Absol, Golurk and Crobat

:3 Hah Crobat such a troll pokemon, Bite, Confusion Ray, Toxic, and Substitute while holding leftovers
Golurk is my muscle, Rock Polish, Hammer Arm, Shadow Punch and Earthquake also wearing a quick claw
Then Absol, My favorite which is using Psycho Cut, Sucker Punch, Taunt and Super Power while using Absolite as a held item.

I haven't gotten an Eevee yet, but the Fennekin family might be my new favorites anyway and Braixen is one of my heavy hitters.

Many of my favorites are events that I can't ever have because they are not tradable and because I had the newest 3DS update before I discovered Pokegenning

mightyena ,and im still trying to get my most favorite sandslash.

If I only play with my favorites, how will I discover new ones?

Every now and then i try something new, but for the most part i play my faves. I think taking your fave, even if an underdog, and making it a contender is a true testament of skill.