Anyone planning your team yet? What are your picks so far?

[AndyPKMN]

I'm still not completely decided. I know I want to start with Rowlet and evolve it into Decidueye. And I'm sort of eager to use Vikavolt as well, even though its shared Fire weakness with Decidueye does make planning the rest of my team slightly trickier.

Spoiler

The main thing I'm undecided on is whether for a Fire-type I want to go with Turtonator (a Fire-type turtle that's very neat-looking and similar in size to my original evolved starter, Blastoise) or Salazzle (a new Pokémon with a unique type combination, unique ability, and really cool aesthetic). To fill out the rest of my team I've chosen Bastiodon (an old favorite fossil Pokémon), Gastrodon (a cool Pokémon design with a cool basis that I've nonetheless never used on my team), and Absol/Mega Absol (a Mega Evolution I was fond of but couldn't find a place for in my teams in Omega Ruby or Y), all of which work well with either choice. But the choice of a Fire-type Pokémon is critical not just to how my team shapes up but what version I get, since Bastiodon is exclusive to Moon and Turtonator is exclusive to Sun (meaning that if I opt for Turtonator I will be forced to trade or transfer either way and can't rely solely on either version).

I haven't decided on nicknames for all of them yet, but I'm pretty sure Decidueye will be Oliver (after Oliver Queen, Green Arrow's alter-ego). Vikavolt will probably be Vic (after the Vic Viper from Gradius, which seems to have been an inspiration for Vikavolt's design) or perhaps Nielson (after Nate Nielson, aka "nnenn", the builder who popularized the "Vic Viper" style of spacecraft in the Lego fan community). And Salazzle, if I go with that, will definitely be Ragana (after the fire-aligned villain of this year's Lego Elves story).

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

I was afraid of this first too, but according to some of the reviews, the Exp. Share give less Exp. now and the AI has improved a lot. I've seen some of the Kahuna teams with their movesets and IV's and can confirm this. So it's definitely more difficult than XY and ORAS and people say it actually provides a challenge now Still gotta play it myself to see, but happy they at least tried. Still having unevolved mons on my team though, but only because I don't like their final designs

That is another downside to SM. Less experience points from Exp share. It was great in gen 6 because I got to train my whole team while using my starter for the main game.

 

[epicgordan]

Well, apparently, the EXP scaling had made its return from Gen 5 as well, so it's going to be tough to grind out levels.

Luckily, I have 720 out of 721 Pokémon already, so I really only need to worry about, eh, 80 Pokémon or so, including the Alolan forms. In a sense, I can sort of understand the reasoning behind making so many single-stage evolutions in SuMo since now I don't have to worry about grinding up everything. That's largely the reason why I prefer a team of Pokémon in which every member is capable of evolving than to have too many Pokémon in there that are single-staged.

Of course, if we can capture a Lv. 10 Salamence early on in the game, then logic would dictate that we can probably capture many other super-strong Pokémon between the two games as well.

 

[lavandula]

Hong Kong's franchiser allowed the games to be sold 2 days early in all Hong Kong game shops.
Got my copy on the 16th.

Now my team consists of Muk, Magnemite, Brionne, Growlithe, Kadabra, and Crabrawler.

This game is SUPER DIFFICULT!!. Maybe even more difficult than Red and Blue was.
You definitely need a full team.

 

[Tente]

Hong Kong's franchiser allowed the games to be sold 2 days early in all Hong Kong game shops.
Got my copy on the 16th.

Now my team consists of Muk, Magnemite, Brionne, Growlithe, Kadabra, and Crabrawler.

This game is SUPER DIFFICULT!!. Maybe even more difficult than Red and Blue was.
You definitely need a full team.

Hm; that's exciting to hear! Your team seems pretty solid; Muk and Magneton are two of my faves and def throw me back to that one episode of the original anime

 

[Dizzard]

This game is SUPER DIFFICULT!!. Maybe even more difficult than Red and Blue was.
You definitely need a full team.

I keep hearing from reviews that the games are a bit more difficult than usual. To be honest I'll believe it when I see it.

I didn't get the impression of difficulty from watching that Japanese live stream a few weeks ago. I don't think they encountered any trainer with more than one Pokemon. I guess that is just early game though...

 

[Tente]

I keep hearing from reviews that the games are a bit more difficult than usual. To be honest I'll believe it when I see it.

I didn't get the impression of difficulty from watching that Japanese live stream a few weeks ago. I don't think they encountered any trainer with more than one Pokemon. I guess that is just early game though...

Yeah, these games are not gonna be hard lol. You can only pretend they approach difficulty for so long before the Stockholm Syndrome gets excessive

Spoiler: leaks

I was looking at some teams that leaked and for example, the movesets on some of Lusamine's pokemon are a joke PLUS the first time you fight her, her pokemon have ONLY THREE MOVES EACH PLUS she's supposed to be a huge boss yet her pokemon don't even have items the fuck...

Also, that Ghost E4 member has a Sableye with like Fake Out/Confuse Ray/Irrelevant STAB/Irrelevant STAB, which makes me almost as angry as Phoebe's Prankster Sableye with Fake Out and three attacking moves.

I saw a video of somebody facing the Flying E4 member and as usual the battle was singles and the AI was dumb so the person set up one Nasty Plot on Salazzle and then basically swept. They did use a Z-move, which no player should plan to use, but still; it looked like you'd have to hold yourself back to not completely sweep

apparently no NPC has a pokemon over level 60

ALSO I saw a video of Totem Vikavolt and it either didn't have a single move to hit Ground types with (??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!) or the AI was dumb as fuck because it repeatedly spammed Charge against a physically-attacking Mudsdale until it got 4HKOed

I decided I'll play through the game with weak pokemon, since that's the closest I'll get to enjoying this game without feeling like I'm holding back. It's also cool this way because I get to use a bunch of weak pokemon I've wanted to use without feeling like any of them are not pulling their weight. The only problems are a) not feeling like I'm ignoring the Alola pokemon and b) getting a team that I'd truly want to go on an adventure with.

I'll update this post later with a tentative team

 

[DoctorWhy]

a tentative team

Ha... you mean a... "Tente-tive" team? Ha..ha...I'll see myself out.

 

[lavandula]

I keep hearing from reviews that the games are a bit more difficult than usual. To be honest I'll believe it when I see it.

I didn't get the impression of difficulty from watching that Japanese live stream a few weeks ago. I don't think they encountered any trainer with more than one Pokemon. I guess that is just early game though...

I never needed to use any potions or revives in any other Pokemon games (apart from Ghetsis' Hydreigon in Black 2)
But in Sun Moon, I used them like mad. I depleted my stock even when I was given them for free.
I end up having to buy my own potions and revives.

I don't even think it's possible to run a Nuzlocke on Sun Moon at all.

 

[Tente]

Can't decide whether I want to use Raticate or Persian!!! I kinda don't hate Persian anymore

 

[DoctorWhy]

I never needed to use any potions or revives in any other Pokemon games (apart from Ghetsis' Hydreigon in Black 2)
But in Sun Moon, I used them like mad. I depleted my stock even when I was given them for free.
I end up having to buy my own potions and revives.

I don't even think it's possible to run a Nuzlocke on Sun Moon at all.

This is super good news. I'm extremely intrigued.

 

[Guzma]

Hmm, maybe I should add some faster mons... I like having three of each type of attacker on my team, so I think my Electric will be A-Raichu, so between it and Prima, I'll have two. I need some more speedy Pokemon, so chances are I won't be using any Alola mons beyond the starters and A-Raichu. Ah hell, I'll just put Garchomp on there for my third Phys. attacker and... Shit, there's no real fast Spec. attacker other than A-Raichu that doesn't overlap with the others. Guess I'm going with another five member team even though I don't need an HM slave :/

 

[Alola]

I love Alolan Raichu. Have you ever played with one in Pokemon Refresh? Everything about it screams adorable and yet it can still kick ass.

However, I do think they should have had its stat distribution more specially inclined. Given how much it uses psychokinesis, even for mundane things like sitting, its physical attack could have dropped and been allocated to its special stats to reflect that.

For example, I would have liked to see a stat distribution like this instead:

HP: 60
Attack: 45
Defense: 50
Sp.Atk: 115
Sp.Def: 105
Speed: 110
Total: 485

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Got my full Sun team: Decidueye, Incineroar, Primarina, Vikavolt, Solgaleo and Zygarde.
All of them have two types each and all weaknesses have been covered.
Having all three starters in the game to celebrate anniversary.
Gotta have a Dragon type on my team and Zygarde was perfect for the role.

 

[Falconwing]

Alright, my sun team is as follows

• Primarina
• Lycanroc
• Mudsdale
• Braviary
• Alolan Raichu
• THIS ANNOYING SIXTH SLOT THAT I HAVE SO MANY THINGS I WANT TO FILL IT WITH!!!

So right now I'm debating between using a Tsareena (though I'm not a huge fan of grass types honestly), an eventual Glaceon, or a Palosand. Settling for Glaceon right now.

 

[Sakuraa]

I just beat Sun last week and this was my team.

Spoiler: Large images