5 Of My Favourite Pokémon Teams

Given my earlier reviews of Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon Legends Arceus, I thought that it may interest some of you Pokémon fans out there to see what teams I've used to beat certain games with over the years. I won't be covering every single team I've used for EVERY single run I've had in EVERY single game as I haven't memorized them all and frankly, I don't want every blog post to feel like a novel to read. I'll keep italking about just five noticeable teams I've beaten certain Pokémon games with. I'll be covering how well they did in winning the game, their most memorable moments for me during gameplay, how effective they are as a team and why I chose these particular six Pokémon for each team.

Sit back and enjoy as I unveil some of my favourite teams I've used to beat the Pokémon games with...

Team 1: My Pokémon Sword Team

Feels fitting I start with this team given what I reviewed a while back.

This was my team when playing Pokémon Sword for the first time in March 2020. Upon seeing the new Pokémon, I immediately decided that I wanted Scorbunny to be my starter and that I wanted to use Drednaw, Obstagoon, Sirfetch'd and Corviknight as they appealed to me the most. Raichu was included solely because he's my favourite Pokémon of all time and I wanted my first adventure in Galar to include it.

This team really pulled its weight through my first time playing Sword and Shield with Cinderace, Drednaw, Obstagoon, Sirfetch'd and Corviknight setting great first impressions for what Galar has to offer in terms of new Pokémon and they lost very few battles throughout the run. The most memorable moments for me include the first time I ever Dynamaxed my Scorbunny in my first Dynamax battle (I can't remember what it was a battle against), Raboot and Corvisquire carrying me through Milo's Gym, having Corviknight take revenge on Opal's Alcremie after it defeated my Sirfetch'd, going up against Eternatus for the first time and having the final battle end with Leon's Charizard against my Raichu. Funny enough, that was literally planned from the start. Yes, I genuinely PLANNED that my battle with Leon would end this way. Have I mentioned that Raichu's my favourite Pokémon yet? XD

If you were to use this team yourself:

• Cinderace will carry you through Milo's Gym, Melony's Gym if you're playing Shield instead of Sword, Opal's Gym if you teach it Iron Head or Gunk Shot to deal with Fairy types, Piers's Scrafty and Obstagoon if you teach it Fighting attacks, Marnie's team if it knows Fighting attacks and also a Steel attack to handle her Grimmsnarl, Chairman Rose's whole team and in the Champion Battle with Leon, he will take out his Aegislash and Mr. Rime (A Pokémon that he has if you choose Cinderace as your starter.) or his Rillaboom for Inteleon players.

• Raichu will carry you through Nessa's Gym, Opal's Gym if you teach it Iron Tail, Allister's Gym if you're playing Shield and teach it Brutal Swing to deal with Ghost types, Gordie's Barbaracle in his Gym, Piers's Scrafty and Obstagoon if you teach it Fighting moves like Focus Blast or Brick Break, Raihan's Gigalith and Sandaconda if it knows Grass Knot, Bede's Fairy-type team if it knows Iron Tail, Nessa's Champion Cup team and for Cinderace players such as myself, they can use it against Leon's Aegislash if it knows Dig, his Inteleon and his Charizard (like I did) while also dealing with his Rhyperior or Seismitoad (depending on your choice of starter) if it knows Grass Knot.

• Drednaw will carry you through Kabu's Gym, Allister's Gym for Shield players if it knows any Dark attacks like Crunch or Jaw Lock, Gordie's team for Sword players, Melony's team for Shield players if it knows any Rock or Fighting attacks, Raihan's team if it knows Ice Fang to deal with Flygon or Stomping Tantrum to deal with Duraludon while its water moves deal with Gigalith and Sandaconda, Bede's Psychic-type team if it knows Dark attacks, Allister's Champion Cup team for the same reasons, Piers's Scrafty and Obstagoon if it knows Revenge or Superpower and his Skuntank if it knows Stomping Tantrum, Raihan's Champion Cup team with Ice Fang to deal with Flygon and Goodra and Stomping Tantrum for Torkoal (it sets up a Sunny Day to weaken Water moves so a Rock or Ground attack is more recommended), Tutonator and Duraludon, Eternatus if it knows Ice Fang or Stomping Tantrum and for the Champion Battle, it'll deal with Leon's Ageislash with Stomping Tantrum or Jaw Lock, his Haxorus and Dragapult with Ice Fang and his Mr. Rime with Crunch or Jaw Lock or his Cinderace for Rillaboom players (wow, Drednaw has a lot of coverage for Sword and Shield!).

• Corviknight will carry you through Milo's Gym, Kabu's Centiskorch, Bea's Gym for Sword players, Opal's Gym, Melony's Gym for Shield players, Piers's Gym if you teach it U-turn or Revenge, Bede's Fairy-type team, Nessa's Golisopod in the Champion Cup, Bea's Champion Cup team and for the Champion Battle, it will take out Leon's Rillaboom for Inteleon players, his Rhyperior if it knows Revenge or a strong Steel attack and his Mr. Rime for Cinderace players.

• Obstagoon will carry you through Nessa's Gym if it knows Seed Bomb, Bede's Psychic-type team, Allister's Gym for Shield players, Piers's Scrafty and Obstagoon with Brick Break and his Malamar with X-Scissor, Marnie's Scrafty, Morpeko and Liepard with Brick Break, Raihan's Duraludon, Gigalith and Sandaconda with Seed Bomb and Brick Break respectively, Allister's Champion Cup team, Raihan's Dragons if it knows Ice Punch and his Duraludon if it knows a Fighting-type attack, most of Chairman Rose's team for the same reason, Eternatus with Ice Punch and for the Champion Battle, it'll handle Leon's Aegislash, his Haxorus with Ice Punch, his Dragapult and his Mr. Rime for Cinderace players and his Seismitoad with Seed Bomb for Rillaboom players.

• Sirfetch'd will carry you through Bea's Gym if it knows Brave Bird, Allister's Gym for Shield players if it knows a strong Dark Attack, Opal's Gym if it knows Poison Jab or Steel Wing, Gordie's Gym for Sword players and Melony's Gym for Shield players, Piers's Scrafty and Obstagoon, Marnie's Liepard, Morpeko and Scrafty, Bede's Fairy-type team with Poison Jab or Steel Swing, Nessa's Golisopod in the Champion Cup with Brave Bird, Allister's Champion Cup team for Shield players if it has a Dark-type move, Bea's Champion Cup team with Brave Bird, Chairman Rose's team and for the Champion Battle, it'll handle Leon's Aegislash with Brutal Swing, his Dragapult and Mr. Rime for the same reason (it can use Steel Wing to defeat Mr. Rime too) and his Rhyperior for Rillaboom players.

So bottom line, this team has a surprising amount of coverage for Sword and Shield players.

This team will be special to me because of the fact it's my first team I used to beat what would become my favourite Pokémon games. It was a team that gave me a great first outing in the Galar region.

Team 2: My Pokémon Sapphire/Alpha Sapphire Team

This team is notorious for I literally used it twice, and in two different versions of the same game no less. This was my team I used to beat Pokémon Sapphire and its remake, Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and both times, it served me beautifully.

This team is pretty much a collection of some of my favourite Pokémon from Gen 3, which is also my favourite Pokémon generation. Mudkip is my favourite starter Pokémon of all time so naturally I'd do a Hoenn run with a Swampert on my team. Aggron is my favourite Gen 3 Pokémon and one of my favourite Pokémon of all time and Flygon and Salamence are among two of my favourite Dragon types so you can see why I coined together a team like this, as well used it in both versions of Pokémon Sapphire.

Together, this team is a true powerhouse of heavy hitters that carry me easily through the Hoenn region. In the original Pokémon Sapphire, the team had a hard time against Champion Steven due to the fact that grinding is so tedious that I went in under-levelled but miraculously, going in again with my Salamence fully evolved seemed to make all the difference for I was able to beat Steven the second time. The most awesome moment for me was when my level 51 Flygon KO'd his Level 59 Metagross with just a couple of Earthquakes. That tells you how powerful Flygon is!

In Alpha Sapphire, the team was equally as effective, if not more so thanks to the EXP share system making grinding a lot easier than before. I also helps that I'm able to use Mega Evolution in that game too and all but one member of this team is able to do it. Memorable moments for me include Mega Evolving Aggron for the first time, Aron tanking a hit from Flannery's Torkoal enough to defeat it and then evolving into Lairon after the battle was over and curb-stomping Elite Four member Sidney's entire team with just Salamence using Brick Break over and over. Man I love Dragon type Pokémon!

For how this team performs in a Hoenn run:

• Swampert is the best starter to use in any of the Hoenn games. It'll carry you through Roxanne's Gym, Wattson's Gym due to its half Ground typing, Flannery's Gym, Winnona's Gym if you can teach it any Rock attacks and for the Elite Four and Champion, it'll carry you through Sidney's team if it knows any Fighting attacks, Glacia's team if it knows any Rock attacks, Drake's team if it knows Ice Beam or Ice Punch and for Champion Steven, it'll take out his Aggron and Metagross with Earthquake and his Armaldo with a Water attack. For Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire players, it can Mega Evolve for extra power.

• Aggron will carry you through Flannery's Gym (but be careful), Winnona's Gym if it knows Rock attacks, Tate and Liza's Gym with its Steel attacks and for the Elite Four and the Champion, it'll handle Sidney's team if it has any Fighting attacks, Phoebe's team if it knows Shadow Claw, Glacia's team with its Steel Attacks and for Champion Steven, it'll take out his Aggron with Earthquake, his Claydol with Shadow Claw and his Cradily with its Steel attacks. For Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire players, it can Mega Evolve for extra power.

• Camerupt will carry you through Flannery's team with any Ground attacks, Winnona's team if it knows any Rock attacks and for the Elite Four and Champion, it'll carry you through Glacia's team with any Fire and Rock attacks it can learn, Drake's Salamence and Altaria with any Rock attacks and for Champion Steven, it'll take out his Aggron with any Ground attacks it can learn, his Skarmory and his Metagross for the same reasons as Aggron. For Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire players, it can Mega Evolve for extra power but you don't get it until the post game.

• Manectric will carry you through Winnona's Gym (but it may struggle against Altaria), Tate and Liza's Gym if it knows Bite, Wallace's team sans his Whiscash as its Ground typing nullifies its Electric weakness, and for the Elite Four and the Champion, it'll carry you through Phoebe's team if it knows Bite, Glacia's team if it knows Flamethrower and for Champion Steven, it'll take out his Skarmory with Flamethrower. For Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire players, it can Mega Evolve for extra power.

• Flygon will carry you through Flannery's Gym, Tate and Liza's Gym with Crunch and for the Elite Four and Champion, it'll carry you through Sidney's team if it knows any Fighting attacks, Phoebe's team with Crunch, Drake's team if it's fast enough to hit them first and for Champion Steven, it'll take out his Aggron and Metagross with Earthquake, his Claydol with Crunch and his Armaldo and Craydily with any Steel attacks it can learn.

• Salamence is only available after you've beaten the Gym Challenge as you can only find Bagons in an area of Meteor Falls that you need Waterfall to access so you won't get to use it in any Gyms. For the Elite Four and the Champion, it'll carry you through Sidney's team with Brick Break (as it did for me), Phoebe's team if it knows Crunch, Drake's team if it's fast enough to hit them first and for Champion Steven, it'll take out his Aggron and Metagross with Earthquake, his Skarmory with Flamethrower, his Claydol with Crunch and his Craydily with any Fighting or Steel attacks it can learn.

So as you can see, this team is really well-balanced and will carry you through much of the game, though you'll be stuck with only five of them before you get to use Salamence so it's best to have a filler member until then, like Hariyama, Altaria or Breloom.

This is a team that rolled the dice and triumphed twice and I'll always remember this as my go-to team for a Hoenn run.

Team 3: My Pokémon Platinum Team

This team is will forever go down in the Hall of Fame as it was my first ever team I ever beat any Pokémon games with. Despite Gold, Yellow and Sapphire being the games I grew up playing, I never completed any of them so the Platinum team is very special for being the first team I ever completed a full game with.

Given I hadn't played a single Pokémon game since Gen 3, Platinum was my first adventure in the Sinnoh region so I was literally going in blind with no idea on what to expect. The team boiled down to mostly picking new mons I liked the look of such as choosing Chimchar as my starter and catching Starly and Shinx to see what Staraptor and Luxray were like, and picking mons I was already familiar with such as Golduck and Machoke. I had a Graveller for most of the game until I caught Giratina in the Distortion World and decided to keep it because I thought it'd be cool to have a Legendary on my team. Giratina ended up becoming my favourite Legendary Pokémon of all time afterwards. This playthrough gave me a good first impression of all the Gen 4 mons on the team and gave me a time to truly see what Golduck and Machoke were capable of. At the time, I didn't have a spare DS so I couldn't evolve Machoke into Machamp by trading so it was stuck as a Machoke throughout the game. Still, it pulled its weight well enough.

The most memorable moments involving this team for me include catching Giratina for the first time in the Distortion World, Golduck sweeping through Bertha and Flint by itself, my Staraptor one-shotting Lucian's Gallade with a single Brave Bird and getting a taster of how insanely strong Cynthia is when she ended up kicking my butt at least twice. I bet nobody's surprised that happened given Cynthia's infamous reputation. XD But on my third try, I was able to defeat her at last and thus become Champion for the first time ever in any of my times playing Pokémon. To think I grew up with the first three gens and yet Pokémon Platinum from Gen 4 is my first game I ever fully completed and won, so this team will always be special to me for that reason.

For those that might want to use this team in their own Platinum playthrough:

• Infernape is the best starter to use in a Sinnoh run, bar none. Whether it's Diamond, Pearl or Platinum, he'll carry you well. He'll carry you through Roark's Gym if you level Chimchar up enough to evolve into Monferno and learn Mach Punch, Gardenia's Gym, Byron's Gym, Candice's Gym, Volkner's Gym if it knows Dig and his Ambipom if it knows Fighting moves, Cyrus's Weavile and for Platinum players, also his Houndoom and for the Elite Four, he'll decimate Aaron's entire team, Flint's Lopunny and Steelix for Diamond and Pearl players and Flint's Houndoom for Platinum players (heck, if you teach Infernape Dig, he'll handle Flint's team single-handedly) and for the Champion battle, he'll handle Cynthia's Roserade and Lucario.

• Golduck will carry you through Roark's Gym with Water Gun, Maylene's Gym if it knows Confusion, Byron's Gym, Cyrus's Crobat if it knows Confusion or Zen Headbutt, his Weavile if it knows Brick Break or Focus Blast and his Houndoom for Platinum players with any Water attacks. For the Elite Four, he can sweep through Bertha and Flint's teams by itself (for Platinum players that is. For Diamond and Pearl players, it'll handle Flint's team except for Drifloon), Lucian's team if it knows Shadow Claw and for the Champion battle, it'll handle Cynthia's Garchomp if it knows Ice Beam and her Lucario if it knows any Fighting moves.

• Staraptor is one of the best Flying-types and early bird Pokémon you can use. It'll carry you through Gardenia's Gym, Maylene's Gym, Byron's Gym if it knows Close Combat, Candice's Gym for the same reason, Cyrus's Weavile and Houndoom also for the same reason and for the Elite Four, it'll sweep through Aaron's team, Flint's Infernape and Lucian's Gallade if it knows Brave Bird (believe me, I literally one-shot his Gallade with just Brave Bird!). For the Champion battle, it'll take out Cynthia's Roserade and Lucario.

• Luxray is a Mon so good that I've played through BOTH Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Platinum with it and it hasn't let me down in either game. It'll carry you through Crasher Wake's Gym (except his Quagsire), Fantina's Gym if it knows Bite, Volkner's Gym if it knows Dig, Cyrus's Crobat and Honchkrow and for the Elite Four, it'll handle Aaron's Bug-types that are half-Flying types like Yanmega and Vespiquen, Lucian's team if it knows Crunch and for the Champion battle, it'll handle Cynthia's Milotic and for Platinum players, her Togekiss and Lucario if its knows Dig (her Lucario knows Earthquake and Diamond and Pearl but not Platinum so it's safer to use Dig for Platinum players to fight Lucario).

• Machoke will carry you through Maylene's Lucario, Byron's Gym, Candice's Gym, Volkner's Ambipom for Diamond and Pearl players, Cyrus's Weavile and Houndoom and for the Elite Four, it'll handle Flint's Steelix and Lopunny for Diamond and Pearl players while for all round, it'll handle Aaron's team if it knows Rock attacks, Flint's Fire-types for the same reason and Bertha's team if you teach it Ice Punch. For the Champion battle, it'll handle Cynthia's Lucario and her Garchomp if it knows Ice Punch. As a Machamp, it'll obviously be much stronger.

• Giratina will only be available to you after you've beaten the first seven Gyms and concluded the Team Galactic plot. From then on, it'll carry you through Volkner's team if it has any Ground attacks or Aura Sphere to handle his Ambipom and for the Elite Four, it'll handle Aaron's team with Stone Edge, Bertha's Rhyperior with Aura Sphere, Flint's team with Stone Edge and/or Aura Sphere (Platinum only as it's only available post-game in Diamond and Pearl.) and Lucian's team with Shadow Force. For the Champion battle, it'll handle Cynthia's Garchomp, her Togekiss and Milotic with Thunderbolt, her Lucario with Aura Sphere and will handle her Spiritomb best of anyone due to its great power. If you get the Griseous Orb to access Giratina Origin Form, it'll be even stronger.

So as you can see, this team has plenty of coverage all round and with the right movesets, these Pokémon will give you what you need to win the Sinnoh League. No wonder this was the team that gave me my first ever win in a Pokémon game...

This is a team that I'll remember for many years to come, especially from a sentimental stand point as this was my first full team I ever cleared ANY Pokémon game with...

Team 4: My Pokémon White 2 Team

This was a team that really boiled down to strategy and picking the best choices to handle Iris with more than picking any favourites. Needless to say, it paid off.

This team consists of Pokémon I haven't had an opportunity to use (and in most cases, can't use as Volcarona and Braviary take way too long to evolve) and thus White 2 gave me the perfect opportunity to use these for the first time. I chose Serperior as I'd already done a run on both Black and White with Emboar and Samurott and I was mostly inspired to use Volcarona after Alder kicked my ass with his Volcarona over on Pokémon White (yes, I actually lost to Alder in an actual Pokémon battle. Don't judge!). Braviary was one I always wanted to use but due to how long it takes for Rufflet to evolve, there's no real opportunity to use one but White 2 lets you catch an under-levelled Braviary with its hidden ability, Defiant, on Tuesdays in a certain town so that's the best chance I had to use one. I originally wanted to use a Milotic for this run but there was no way that was going to happen so Azumarill filled in nicely, even if I didn't get one with the Huge Power ability. Cofagrigus was down to me just wanting to use one.

The most memorable moments of this team for me include Lucario single-handedly destroying White Kyurem with a couple of Aura Spheres (I'm dead serious), Braviary revenge killing Iris's Haxorus after it defeated Lucario (lucky me, Iris was an idiot and wasted a turn using Dragon Dance so Braviary could finish it off), Volcarona one-shotting Iris's Hydreigon with a single Quiver Dance boosting its Special Attack enough to take it out with one Signal Beam, Lucario carrying me through a large majority of the Gyms and single-handedly beating Ghetsis with only Volcarona taking the fall because his Hydriegon knew Rock Slide.

As for my strategy, my plan was that Volcarona would handle Iris's Hydreigon, Azumarill would Ice Punch her Druddigon into oblivion, Lucario with Dragon Pulse would take care of Haxorus, Serperior would deal with her Lapras, Azumarill would handle her Archeops and Lucario would finish off Aggron. The plan went off mostly as I'd intended...until Haxorus used Dragon Dance and wasted my Lucario with an Earthquake. Because Lucario was down, I had to hope my Volcarona could one-shot Aggron with Heat Wave but it didn't get close enough and Aggron took it out with Rock Slide and thus I had to bring Cofagrigus in to revenge kill it and win the battle. Goes to show strategy means nothing in Pokémon as nothing is guaranteed to go according to plan. Still, this team really proved its worth with Serperior especially being much better than most people make it out to be (seriously, this thing's pretty tough!) and I can see why Lucario's so popular with Pokémon fans. It's such a trooper! Azumarill could've been better as without the Huge Power ability, it's pretty weak.

For those who want to use this team themselves:

• Serperior will carry you through Clay and Marlon's Gyms and in the Ghetsis boss fight, will take out his Seismitoad. For the Elite Four, it'll handle Grimsley's Krookodile and for the Champion battle, it'll take out Iris's Lapras. Yeah, it doesn't have that much coverage but it has its uses.

• Lucario will carry you through Cheren's Gym, its Steel-typing will nullify Roxie's Poison attacks, it'll take out Burgh's Gym with a Rock attack, Elesa's Emolga with a Rock attack and her Flaafy and Zebstrika with Dig, Clay's Krokorok and Excadrill with Force Palm, Skyla's Gym with Rock Slide and Ghetsis's White Kyurem and Hydriegon with Aura Sphere as well as his Drapion and Toxicroak with Dig and his Cofagrigus with Dark Pulse. For the Elite Four, it'll take out Grimsley's team and Caitlin's team with Dark Pulse. For the Champion battle, it'll handle Iris's Hydriegon (but watch out for its Flamethrower), her Aggron and her Druddigon with Dragon Pulse.

• Azumarill will carry you through Burgh's Gym with Rollout, Clay's Gym, Skyla's team sans her Swanna with Ice Punch, Drayden's Gym with Ice Punch and Ghetsis's Hydreigon also with Ice Punch. For the Elite Four, it'll handle Grimsley's Krookodile, Shauntal's Chandelure (watch out for Energy Ball) and for the Champion battle, it'll handle Iris's Dragons with Ice Punch and her Aggron and Archeops with Water attacks.

• Volcarona is only available after you beat Clay's Gym. It'll carry you through Ghetsis's Hydreigon with Signal Beam (watch out for Rock Slide) and his Toxicroak with Psychic. For the Elite Four, it'll take out Grimsley's team with Signal Beam, Caitlin's team with Signal Beam also and Marshal's team with Psychic. For the Champion battle, it'll handle her Hydriegon with Signal Beam and if boosted with Quiver Dance, should be strong enough to take out much of her other team too.

• Braviary isn't available until after you beat Burgh's Gym. It'll carry you through Skyla's Gym if it knows Rock Slide and Ghetsis's Toxicroak with any Flying attacks and his Cofagrigus if it knows Shadow Claw. For the Elite Four, it'll handle Marshal's team (watch out for any Rock attacks), Shauntal's team and Caitlin's team if it knows Shadow Claw and Grimsley's Scrafty. For the Champion battle, it's great for revenge killing if Iris takes any of your team out.

• Cofagrigus will carry you through Marlon's Gym with Energy Ball, Ghetsis' Seismitoad with Energy Ball and his Toxicroak with Psychic, along with his own Cofagrigus but that depends if your Cofagrigus can outspeed it. For the Elite Four, it'll handle Caitlin's team and Marshal's team with Psychic. For Shauntal, it's best not to due to how slow it is. For the Champion battle, it'll handle her Lapras with Energy Ball.

This team may not have the biggest coverage but it really pulled its weight for me and was a great mix of Mons for me to try out.

My White 2 team has been a good lesson in that strategy is effective but sometimes, you can't expect everything to go according to plan and that improvising can pay off. Also it's taught me that the right abilities can make all the difference...

Team 5: My Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Battling and Contest Teams

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My second run on Pokémon Alpha Sapphire was one of my most unique experiences ever playing a Pokémon game. Not only did I have a strong team to battle the Gyms, Elite Four and Champion with, but I also did the game with TWO teams, one for Contests and one for battling! And BOTH teams yielded awesome results!

The battling team consists of my second favourite starter in Hoenn, Blaziken, and mostly Gen 3 Pokémon that I've never had a chance to use before so it was interesting getting to use them, especially Hariyama and Altaria. Altaria was especially awesome when I unlocked its Mega Evolution and had it casually curbstomp Drake's team with him unable to fight back due to Mega Altaria's half-Fairy typing. Sadly, Grumpig didn't get much of a chance to shine as Hoenn just doesn't have a lot of opportunities for Psychic types to show their stuff so I feel I could get a better use of it in another game.

As for the Contest team, I decided to use Pokémon that better suit Contests like Skitty and Beautifly, who are pretty weak Pokémon overall and no good for battles. Absol and Zangoose were Pokémon I've wanted to use but I already decided on my combat team so as a compromise, I used them here for the Contest team. I used Skitty for Cute Contests, Roserade for Beauty Contests, Beautifly for Clever Contests, Zangoose for Tough Contests and Absol for Cool Contests with its Mega Evolution added for extra appeal. I assigned these Pokémon to these particular Contests as I felt that's what suited them best and lo and behold, it worked out for me! All five of them performed brilliantly in each of their contests and I was even able to beat Lisia and become a Contest Master after only two tries! No really! I would never use this team competitively as Skitty is useless and Beautifly is just an inferior Butterfree but Roserade, Zangoose and Absol would be great to use in a battling team one day.

For those using the battling team:

• Blaziken will handle Wattson's Magneton, Norman's team with any Fighting attacks, Winona's team with Rock Tomb and Tate and Liza's Solrock and Lunatone with Shadow Claw. For the Elite Four, it'll handle Sidney's team, Phoebe's team with Shadow Claw and Glacia's team. For the Champion battle, it'll handle Steven's Skarmory with a Fire attack, his Aggron with a Fighting attack, his Claydol with Shadow Claw and his Metagross with a Fire attack or Earthquake, but watch out for its Zen Headbutt attack. It can Mega Evolve for extra strength and the Speed Boost ability.

• Swellow is sadly the weak link in this team. Aside from Brawly's team, it has no other coverage in the game. It'll handle Sidney's Shiftry in the Elite Four but why bother when there's going to be a Pokémon with a strong Fire attack or Fighting attack anyway? It has no use against Steven's team at all. Swellow is simply just a vehicle for this team to fly you around place to place whenever needed. Hoenn is NOT kind to Flying types.

• Hariyama will carry you through Wattson's Magneton, Flannery's Gym with Rock Tomb, Norman's Gym and Winona's Gym with Rock Tomb. For the Elite Four, it'll carry you through Sidney's team, Pheobe's team with a strong Dark attack, Glacia's team and Drake's team if it knows Ice Punch. For the Champion battle, it'll handle Steven's Aggron and Cradily with a strong Fighting attack and his Metagross with Earthquake.

• Grumpig has very little use too. Aside from handling Winona's team with Charge Beam or Power Gem, Tate and Liza's Gym with Shadow Ball and Wallace's Gym sans his Whiscash with Charge Beam and Steven's Claydol, you won't get the most mileage out of the psychic porker. You could try teaching it Focus Blast to deal with Sidney's Dark types and Steven's Cradily and Aggron, but it's not practical as Focus Blast has poor accuracy.

• Crawdaunt will handle Winona's Gym with Rock Tomb, Tate and Liza's Gym with either a Dark or Water attack and for the Elite Four, it'll handle Sidney's team with Brick Break or X-Scissor, Pheobe's team with Night Slash, Glacia's Glalies and Walrien with Brick Break and her Froslasses with Night Slash. For the Champion battle, it'll handle Steven's Armaldo, Claydol and Aggron with a Water attack.

• Altaria will carry you through Winona's Altaria and Wallace's team with Solar Beam. For the Elite Four, it'll handle Sidney's team with Dazzling Gleam and Drake's team with its Mega Evolution to nullify his Dragon attacks. For the Champion battle, it'll handle Steven's Claydol and Craydily with Ice Beam, his Skarmory with Flamethrower and both his Aggron and Metagross with Earthquake. It can Mega Evolve for extra power.

This is a team that carried me through both Gyms and Contests in Alpha Sapphire and it made my second trip through the game an experience to remember. I may do this again next time I play Alpha Sapphire, or even when I play the Diamond and Pearl remakes...

And that's it for this list. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to share your personal favourite Pokémon teams in the comments section. Which Pokémon did you use and what memorable moments did you have with them? What makes them sentimental to you? Let us know down below!

Tune in next time as I'll be moving over to the world of DC Comics as I'll be talking about one of the biggest movies of 2021...as well as a long overdue conclusion to Zack Snyder's original vision. See you later media fans!