Designing a Pokémon Team for your OCs

Solar

Solar

— 3 min read
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Designing a Pokémon Team for your OCs
Gotta catch ‘em all!

Welcome to the world of Pokémon! I’m Professor Solar, and I’ll be your guide to creating a Pokémon team that will be the very best (that no one ever was). I won’t be delving into info about Pokémon’s history and what games have been published, instead giving newbies an easier way to get into picking a team; but as a fan, I’ll definitely be going into extra detail.


Welcome to the World of Pokémon!

To start with, a Pokémon trainer (a person who raises Pokémon for competitive battling) can only travel with a party of 6 Pokémon at a time. Some trainers try to diversify their teams so they can tackle anything the world throws at them, and others prefer to stick to a single type. Types are ‘themes’ for Pokémon and they decide what Pokémon can win against another in a fight, similar to the game rock-paper-scissors. There are currently 18 discovered Types, and a Pokémon can have one or two types.

Types include: Normal, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock, Psychic, Ice, Bug, Dragon, Ghost, Dark, Steel, and Fairy. Each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, and some are even immune to certain types! Pokémon also have four Moves they can perform in battle, and those moves can be different types from the Pokémon itself. If you really want to go all in on making your party, deciding a moveset for each member doesn’t hurt.

One last thing; a Pokémon’s personality is called a Nature. There are 25 natures, and they raise or lower a Pokémon’s stats (their battle skills). More importantly for you, young trainer, they affect what flavours a Pokémon prefers! If you want to give your Pokémon a treat, make sure to check their nature and preferred flavour.

“Hmm… now, who do I pick for my party?”

Picking a Party

When it comes to picking the right Pokémon for your OCs, if you’re new to Pokémon I’d suggest picking a type and choosing Pokémon that look cool to you. Some say that a truly strong trainer can become powerful with only the Pokémon they like, after all, so don’t worry about picking a strong Pokémon. Your OC might already suit a certain Type; a gardener could have grass-types, a mermaid could have water-types, a whimsical character could have fairy-types, and so on.

You could also choose more specifically themed Pokémon. As an example, if your OC is a chef, you could choose the trio of Pansage, Panpour, and Pansear; sweets themed Pokémon like Alcremie and Swirlix; or maybe even Sinistea, a teacup Pokémon. If your OC loves Pikachu, they could have a team of electric rodents from across the world! (Don’t forget Mimikyu!)

If you want a special and unique Pokémon for your party, you could seek out a shiny Pokémon; these uniquely coloured ‘mons have 1/4096 odds of appearing out in the wild, making them popular with collectors. Sometimes trainers find a shiny out in the wild and make a new best friend or discover a new favourite Pokémon.

The last way I’d recommend picking Pokémon (besides picking the ones you like) is by region. There are many regions besides the core games, but focusing on Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, and Paldea is your best bet for choosing your party. Of course, if you’re starting your journey in a specific region, taking a starter Pokémon with you will be a great help.


Now that you’ve got some ideas for your party in your head, here are a few trainer OCs from the Unvale community to check out:

Here are some Pokémon communities on Unvale:

  • The Pokémon community on Unvale is dedicated to art only, so make sure you follow the rules!
  • Pokémon-trainer-ocs is a place you can share your Pokémon trainer OCs.
  • PokémonOcs is a place for your Pokémon OCs; please don’t post fan-created Pokémon though (known as ‘fakemon’).
  • thepokémoncenter, a general community for all your Pokémon needs!

There are more Pokémon communities you can find, but they’re pretty small; so give them some love! If you want to share your Pokémon OCs with other blog readers though, post them in the Unvale-Blog community; I’ll share my Pokémon OCs there too.

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