Change a Trainer's team

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Have you ever thought a major character in a Pokémon game could've used different, more fitting Pokémon than they did use?

Name any notable Pokémon game character and tell us how you would have changed their in-game Pokémon team around if you had been given the chance.

 

[Blaine.]

Easy.

the X and Y gym leaders

Give Viola a Beedril, that would make her strong

Cliff is strong, but let's give him either an Aron or a Onix

Korrina, let's replace Meinfoo with a Mega Lucario. Machoke to Machamp, keep Hawlucha and add Meditite

Ramos, give him a Gogoat, an Ivysaur, Parasect, and Victreebell

Clemont, Magnezone, Emolga, Zebstrika, Heliolisk, Luxray

Valerie, Gardevoir, Mawile, Sylveon, Mr. Mime, and Togekiss

Olympia, Alakazam, Slowking, Meowstic, Reuniclus, Sigilyph

Wulfric, Avalugg, Weavile, Walrein, Beartic, Abomasnow, Mammoswine.

Thanks for my ted talk

 

[Blaine.]

Double post, but if you saw X and Y with teams like that, you'd be scared right? Especially since Beedrill is insanely fast, and personally I like Valerie and Clemonts the most

 

[Esserise]

Perrserker doesn't really seem on-brand for Rose in my opinion. I'd either give him a Mawile (because it and he are two-faced) or a Steel-type Silvally (because his company appears to have nicked the project notes from Aether and started making their own, and it would give Silvally a bit more justification for being in the Galar Dex than just being a random aftergame bonus). Maybe I'd even give him both, and also swap out his Ferrothorn. Copperajah being on his team is unimpeachable, and then I'd say Escavalier fits because of his outwardly noble behavior, while Klinklang makes sense because he's a big tech mogul. Perrserker and Ferrothorn on the other hand are a bit "just there."

 

[CynthiaLover]

The XY Rivals, namely Calem/Serena.

For starters, they both got a Kanto starter from Sycamore, yet they don't exist on their teams. I say they should have it. Like say, if you picked Bulbasaur, then Calem/Serena would get Charmander to further the whole "rival-has-type-advantage" thing, while Shauna gets Squirtle. Likewise, Calem/Serena and the PC get a fossil from one of the scientists after their first encounter with Team Fail... I mean Team Flare, yet they don't use it, either. Again, playing into the above, if you picked the Jaw Fossil, they pick the Sail Fossil, and the Mon revived from it will be on their teams. On top of that, the Fletchling they had at the start of the game suddenly disappeared after your Tag Battle with them against Tierno and Trevor. A Talonflame on their team would've been good, as it's a pretty potent bird, and it would fit their competitive nature. And yet, despite having three potential Mons practically handed to them (two of which literally), they don't use them, instead opting for an Absol, Eeveelution, a Meowstic, and a Clefable (in the post-game). I mean, they could've axed the Clefable (since it isn't available until post-game anyway) for a Talonflame and a Kanto starter, which would've given them a full team before the credits rolled, since the fight you have with them on Victory Road, they still only have 4 freakin' Mons.

At least Shauna is somewhat excusable, as she's not competitive and is mostly looking to make memories, but Calem/Serena have absolutely no excuse for such a pathetic team. I mean, even HAU got a fully fleshed-out team in USUM before the main game ended, including powerhouses like Noivern and Tauros, and even had 5 Mons by the midway point, something that neither Calem or Serena had remotely come close to doing by that point. So, basically, Calem/Serena need their teams heavy revamped, especially considering the lost potential they had when they didn't use the Kanto starter or Talonflame.

 

[Phosphene]

To me, Raihan's gym team needs some updates. He is a Dragon-type gym leader and yet half of his team (Sandaconda and Gigalith) are non-dragons. I get that they're there to set up the sandstorm, but they sort of ruin his type gimmick. I'd swap them out for a Garchomp with Sandstorm and either Dracozolt or Dracovish with their HA, Sand Rush. Not only would this make his team all dragons, it would give him some Pokemon that have abilities that benefit from sand.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Johto Gym Leader teams:

Falkner: Replace Pidgey with Hoothoot or Pidgeotto with Noctowl.
Bugsy: Ledyba, Spinarak, and Heracross.
Whitney: I think her team is fine as it is.
Morty: Replace one of the Haunter with a Misdreavus.
Chuck: Replace Poliwrath with a Hitmontop.
Jasmine: Replace her two Magnemite with a Magneton and a Skarmory.
Pryce: Dewgong changed to be in the lead, followed by Jynx. Piloswine is a good enough ace.
Clair: She should have the remake team, maybe excluding one of her two Dragonair.

 

[RK9]

A lot of teams in general. GameFreak always tends to fall back on the same Pokémon for a lot of teams which makes it kind of boring. Like, if you see a Water-type Gym leader, you can guess that 9 times out of 10 they will have a Gyarados for example.

ANyways, more specific:

Gladion: His team is literally the epitome of popular Pokémon/overused by evil teams/furry incarnate teams. The Silvally and Porygon-Z can stay, but anyhting else really needs to go.

Red: I know why they did it. But I just find it incredibely boring that his team is Pikachu + 3 starters + 1 gift Pokémon + 1 interactable Pokémon. His Adventures team blows this one of the water in every possible way.

Calem/Serena: I wouldn't overhaul these too much. The Meowstic and Starter can stay, just like the Absol as its their resident Mega. I just wish they also got a Kanto Starter, while the Eeveelution and the Altaria goes since everyone and their mothers also use that. Indifferent on Clefable.

Marnie: Liepard and Scrafty line are already everywhere. Toxicroak line a bit less but it isn't even a Dark-type. But I guess this is cause the only 3 Dark-type Lines Galar introduced are already used between her and Piers.

Lysandre: See Gladion. Lysandre's team, outside of Mienshao and Pyroar, are literally evil team incarnate. Ghetsis shows how it should be done.

Silver: Now I'm quite torn on this one. I like Silver's team and the message it conveys. But again, Crobat, Gengar, Alakazam, Sneasel. 4 very overused Pokémon. It's cool that his Magneton doesn't become Magnezone so bonus points for that.

Brendan/May: Just look at that team and you know enough. Literally easy mode.

Bede: I... kinda wish Bede... didn't specialize in Psychic-types. I felt kinda bad for his Psychic types after he became a Fairy Leader considering they weren't going to get used unless they became part Fairy.

Hau: A Pikachu line. *Yawn*. An Eeveelution. *Yawn*. A line his grandfather also uses. *Yawn*. Starter is a staple for rivals so nothing there. Remains only the Komala/Tauros and Noivern.

 

[JFrombaugh]

I will always see the fact that they didn't give Marnie a Toxitricity as a huge missed opportunity. Yes, it's not a Dark-type, but neither is Toxicroak, and Toxitricity is the punk rocker Pokémon incarnate for crying out loud!

Bede should've gotten Koffing/Galarian Weezing instead of Galarian Ponyta/Rapidash, because Galarian Weezing is still part Fairy-type so there'd be no problem with his character development arc, and it'd give his earlier Rival battles a bit more type variety. Galarian Rapidash would've fit Opal WAY better.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I will always see the fact that they didn't give Marnie a Toxitricity as a huge missed opportunity. Yes, it's not a Dark-type, but neither is Toxicroak, and Toxitricity is the punk rocker Pokémon incarnate for crying out loud!

Piers actually has a Toxtricity during the post-game rematches. That's probably why Marnie didn't get it. Piers is more of a rocker than Marnie.

 

[Esserise]

To me, Raihan's gym team needs some updates. He is a Dragon-type gym leader and yet half of his team (Sandaconda and Gigalith) are non-dragons. I get that they're there to set up the sandstorm, but they sort of ruin his type gimmick. I'd swap them out for a Garchomp with Sandstorm and either Dracozolt or Dracovish with their HA, Sand Rush. Not only would this make his team all dragons, it would give him some Pokemon that have abilities that benefit from sand.

I'm torn, because on the one hand, you are right that Draco- and Garchomp are fantastic fits for his strategy (and Garchomp especially matches Raihan's outfit). On the other hand though, type specialties are super-ultra done to death to me and I liked that Raihan bucked the trend a bit by putting more emphasis on a different battle format and an elemental weather condition. His "type gimmick" as you say isn't actually his gimmick so much as Sandstorm is; the draconic aspect is a little more secondary for once, although I'd also say that Gigalith and Sandaconda at least aren't as egregiously mismatched (Gigalith has the same tough, spiky aesthetic you usually see with dragons and for Sandaconda, our cultural ties between snakes and dragons are pretty firm) as the type outliers in DP's League often were, since this isn't a case of Game Freak simply not including enough of a certain type in the Galar Dex.

My instinct is to say that you could just replace his Flygon with Garchomp outright, and then maybe add a Draco- to his team in the Championship Cup and have him continue focusing on the Sandstorm instead of attempting some kind of disjointed all-weather clusterfuck.

 

[Blaine.]

Let's talk Cheren's final main story team in Black and White.

4 Pokemon on the final route is depressing, and so is his team.

Keep his starter

Change the Semis to go
Emboar - Amoongus
Samurott - Chandelure
Serperior - Basculin

Give him a Fraxure or Haxorus

Replace Liepard with Reuniclus

Replace Unfezant with Sigilyth

and for the extra mile, give him a Golurk

 

[Daren]

This is a very minor change, but I've thought for a long time that in R/B/Y one of Bruno's Onix should have been a Golem instead; I don't think there's a single in-game Golem in those games and I think it would be a good place to put one--Onix is also really weak for an Elite Four member.

 

[prog rocker]

Johto Gym Leader teams:

Falkner: Replace Pidgey with Hoothoot or Pidgeotto with Noctowl.
Bugsy: Ledyba, Spinarak, and Heracross.
Whitney: I think her team is fine as it is.
Morty: Replace one of the Haunter with a Misdreavus.
Chuck: Replace Poliwrath with a Hitmontop.
Jasmine: Replace her two Magnemite with a Magneton and a Skarmory.
Pryce: Dewgong changed to be in the lead, followed by Jynx. Piloswine is a good enough ace.
Clair: She should have the remake team, maybe excluding one of her two Dragonair.

Agree with most of this, although I would make Misdreavus Morty's ace just to make all leaders have a local ace.

 

[sixdragons_in_atrenchcoat]

I say give Byron from DPP a Skarmory. If you caught Gible early on, or have any good Ground-Type, you can sweep him. He gets one in the Battleground but his Gym Battle is still one of the most forgettable, as a loyal garchomp fan.

 

[Almonds]

Tate and Liza should have a Gardevoir and a Gallade as part of their team. The whole tag battle gimmick using counterpart pokemon would be much fitting than Xatu and Claydol.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

I love how in Pokémon world gym leaders can have three types of teams

1- The ones who uses different Pokémon of the same type (Most of SW/SH gym leaders, Kahunas)
2-The ones who uses a same species or Pokémon with different movesets (Lance, RBY Koga,Glacia)
3- The ones who uses Pokémon who are not the type of the gym but can use moves of that type (DP Volkner and Flint,Lance, RB Sabrina)

Well, a team I would change would be Rose in two ways

1- A better steel type team (if the whole pokédex was abailable)

Duruladon*,Metagross, Copperajah,Escavalier, Corvinight,Lucario

2- A Dragon type team

Duruladon*,Dragapult,Noivern,Dragalge,Kommo-o,Kingdra

Also I would have made Oleana pure Poison types

Garbodor*,Roserade,Salazzle,Marearnie,Nidoqueen

My idea was to make a redessign of Pokemon Yellow Gym leaders, but to be fair LGPE made a good job for that

 

[prog rocker]

2-The ones who uses a same species or Pokémon with different movesets (Lance, RBY Koga,Glacia)

Well, in the case of Lance and Glacia it was due to having limited Pokémon available. Koga had no excuse for not having a varied team, specially with the amount of Poison Pokémon in Kanto.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

Well, in the case of Lance and Glacia it was due to having limited Pokémon available. Koga had no excuse for not having a varied team, specially with the amount of Poison Pokémon in Kanto.

Maybe it was because he could not have Victrebell and Gloom cause Erika has them, he could not use Golbat, Gengar line and Arbok cause of Agatha and he could not use the Nidos cause of Giovanni also Venomoth was from Sabrina

I would have used a Koffing 39 , Golbat 40 , Weezing 42,Muk 43 in original Red and Blue with him.

 

[prog rocker]

Maybe it was because he could not have Victrebell and Gloom cause Erika has them, he could not use Golbat, Gengar line and Arbok cause of Agatha and he could not use the Nidos cause of Giovanni also Venomoth was from Sabrina

Point taken. So it was also like that thanks to limitations, although of a different kind.