Favorite of Ash's Pokemon Teams?

[Jewel the Quaxly]

Which of Ash's pokemon teams out of all the sagas is your favorite one? Whether you like them for their personalities, character traits, story-lines, dynamics, etc.? And why?

I've already talked about it to death, but my favorite team is Ash's Kanto team. Specifically in regards to his first six pokemon as I adored their dynamic.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

XY. All of Ash’s Pokemon are super cool. Greninja, Talonflame, and Hawlucha are badass. Goodra was cute as a Goomy and Noivern as a Noibat.

For the other teams

OS (Kanto-OI): Ok
OS (Johto): Very underrated
AG: Very underrated and one of his most balanced teams in everything.
DP: Awesome team but Infernape stole the spotlight
BW: Too much Pokemon but I love Oshawott and Krookodile
SM: I love Incineroar and Lycanroc (former needed more battles) but the rest I don’t like
JN: Boring team aside from Sirfetch’d, Lucario, and Dracovish. It doesn’t help that they don’t do much.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Kanto: The classic original, has plenty of fun mons like Bulbasaur and Squirtle and of course the debut of lovable ol' Pikachu.
Johto: A bit uneven but at least there's the likes of Bayleef and Totodile to make me smile.
Hoenn: Another good one with Sceptile leading the fray though Torkoal and Glalie stick out like a sore thumb.
Sinnoh: One of the best teams possible... unless your name is Torterra in which case you are destined to fall from grace.
Unova: Not all that great. Snivy and Krookodile were great but it felt like Ash was playing the quantity over quality card with this one.
Kalos: Sure, it tuned into the Greninja show by the end and about half of it was flying types but I just can't get enough of Hawlucha or Talonflame.
Alola: Another banger of a team... unless your name is Rowlet.
Journeys: Should have been good but instead we have the most boring, useless and lifeless team I've seen possible. If the writers don't care to give them life, then why should I? Only Dragonite fares any better and even he can't carry the team.

1: Sinnoh
2: Alola
3: Kalos
4: Hoenn
5: Kanto
6: Johto
7: Unova
8: Journeys

 

[Audino1008]

What I like about the Alola team is that no one Pokemon steals the spotlight, every team member feels like an Ace in their own way, instead of Ash having one shillmon Ace like in every other series (except for Journeys I guess, since both Dragonite and Lucario are aces, but you can't really be sure since there are so few non-Pikachu battles in Journeys).
So anyway, yeah, every single one of Ash's Alola Team could be considered his Ace in Alola.

 

[PikachuSmasher]

1. Kalos
2. Sinnoh
3. Alola
4. Unova
5. Kanto
6. Journeys
7. Hoenn
8. Johto

Kalos is carried by Gekkouga, one of my fav Ash mons. Sinnoh had a good roster with decent battling skill except for Torterra. Alola was the team that got Ash a win, so its high. Many fans hated the Unova team, but thats because of the Plasma Arc. If it did happen, Oshawott would have fully evolve or partially evolved. Boldore was also slated to evolve, but it was scrapped due to budget. Also Unova was the first series I sorta watched, so it is high. Kanto is the OG team and I liked the Pokemon there, they've become nostalgia. Journeys is ok. Ash lacks Galar representation, but we have got to see Pokemon like Lucario and Sirfetch'd get development and evolve in a grand show. I like Hoenn, but I don't agree with Ash not having Mudkip. It could have replaced Corphish who is a good battler, but is an Ash Pokemon I don't like that much. Johto is low because of Totodile. It was kinda boring and didn't do much till later series. Cyndaquil is another one. Why didn't it evolve in Johto in that one gym battle. Then there's Phanphy. It was not too great in Johto and the only win it got was against Macy and her Slugma. It got to shine in Battle Frontier which was great, but it could have gotten development so much earlier.

 

[Alola]

Hmm. I don't have a favorite yet, but I've been rewatching the Hoenn saga due to playing Emerald. I gotta say, and I agree with @cricketlaxwolvesbandy, his Hoenn team is underrated.

It was the first iteration to not have Ash obtain every Starter Pokémon, which allowed him to better represent the player character's regional choices (which he is supposed to do, anyway) since his team was more realistic. Pokémon such as Torkoal, Corphish, and Snorunt/Glalie all got spotlight and screen time they wouldn't have originally, which I think is really notable (ex. I never would have pegged Glalie and Ash together, no sir); it certainly put Torkoal on the radar for me as a kid, when I was watching. I also liked their personalities, such as Corphish's haughtiness (even though I wanted to smack it several times), Torkoal's very emotional outbursts, and Grovyle's cool and calm demeanor (the original of this trope, mind you). The makeup of the team still stands out to me, to this day; we had the electric mouse, a regional bird (who actually got to battle), the reptilian Starter, a fire tortoise, a big pincered crab, and a floating head made of ice. And speaking of the team's diversity in image, they were also diverse in typing as well and were able to hit every current type effectively with their movesets (which weren't that bad, compared to Ash's other Pokémon).

The team didn't have a particular ace either, which I enjoyed; even Grovyle didn't fully evolve by the region's end, with its evolution relegated to the Battle Frontier. Everyone felt like they contributed roughly equally, be it in a Gym, or against CoTD Trainers, or Team Rocket; do you all know how many times Ash called on Corphish to battle outside of Gyms? Even Glalie got to put on a decent showing in the Pokémon League following its evolution, in spite of its late appearance; better treatment than Gible got, in my opinion anyway. The team all had their fair share of KOes too. That said, Pikachu did tend to decisively end things, but not so often that he felt overplayed, such as in Unova or Johto.

Ash really worked with this team as well, with everyone aside from Torkoal and Corphish, having to dedicate multiple episodes to learning vital moves for their move-sets; Iron Tail for Pikachu, Bullet Seed for Grovyle, Aerial Ace for Swellow, and Ice Beam for Glalie. The effort made their strength feel better earned given the practice Ash explicitly spent with them. I also enjoyed, even if it may have been a bit unbelievable at times, that Ash made use of Corphish and Torkoal's defensive capabilities with Harden and Iron Defense quite often as well.

 

[Blob]

In reverse order:

8. Journies - Shouldn't count since the Pokémon don't even matter at this point of the anime.
7. Unova - Ash needing to rotate teams is never a good idea and because of that some Pokémon were barely even seen or won many battles.
6. Sinnoh - Starts out strong but by the 2/3 mark, it's clear the writers didn't want to give Ash's Pokémon and Paul's Pokémon a rivalry. Paul uses a different team to what Ash fought before and IMO should have used his Lake Acuity team instead. I also hated the way Torterra was treated and how the dumb monkey stole the spotlight constantly! Doesn't help that Paul's Torterra barely got used either.
5. Johto - What really brings this team down is the lack of evolved Pokémon and how up until halfway through, he still used Pokémon from his Kanto team. Other than that, a strong team.
4. Alola - His Alola team wasn't bad, I just think that the evolution of Torracat to Incineroar was completely pointless and Rowlet got a dumb win against Decidueye. The rest of the team was great though.
3. Kanto - Very starter and Pikachu heavy. One downside is that Muk, Tauros and Kingler were only used as reserves for league battles back when Ash even USED reserves. Overall great character development for the Pokémon though.
2. Hoenn - A pretty good team overall, only let down by the late capture of Snorunt and the completely forgotten Torkoal. I liked how Ash brought back Phanpy in BF so it could get proper development due to being a late capture in Johto. I wish the other series did this.
1. Kalos - The only time Ash had a complete team of fully evolved Pokémon (excluding Pikachu and excluding Journies since it shouldn't count) overall a pretty strong team, even if it does favour the frog over the dragons.


The top 5 slots are meant to be more interchangeable since I didn't have many major issues with them and it doesn't mean I think the Johto team is way worse than the Kalos team.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

should have used his Lake Acuity team instead

It wouldn't have fit Paul’s forte of battling though? Like he has this all new team to use against Ash, and has an exact idea of what to expect; while Ash is using the same team and has no idea of what to expect. Not to mention most of Paul's pokemon didn't have any personality sans his Torterra and there was a lot of buildup to that final battle that made sense.

evolution of Torracat to Incineroar was completely pointless

Can somebody explain to me how it was pointless? It was a sign of growth and accomplishment, as Torracat evolved after beating the pokemon he's been trying so hard against. It didn't feel pointless to me as it was more symbolic than anything. Not every evolution in the anime has to do something in order for their evolution to have worth...

 

[BugLoverCody]

The X/Y team was great. I absolutely loved his 6vs6 battle against Alain and watch it often even after all these years.