I don’t know why we do this to ourselves. How can you pick just six Pokémon out of well over one thousand? I could easily come up with a team per region, but for this post we decided to create a single team of six Pokémon, choosing only one from each region. Of course, there are nine generations, which means three groups of Pokémon won’t even be included.

This will be a bit of a challenge. We each have plenty of favorite Pokémon that we’ve used on our game teams, so to narrow them down to only a team of six as well as choosing one Pokémon per region is going to be tough. Granted, I already know a couple of the regions that I most likely won’t choose a Pokémon from, as they were the regions that I played the least – no offense to the Pokémon themselves, of course.

It will be tough especially because when I think of my top favorites, some of them are from Kanto. Which is kind of ironic now that I think about it… but anyway, I’ll make it easy-ish and start off by choosing my starter. I always go for fire, so that narrows it down to nine Pokémon. As much as I love every single fire starter, I have to go with Skeledirge. My first instinct would have been Charizard and then Scorbunny, but Skeledirge is just as much of a beast and it’s fire and ghost type. Kills two birds with one stone and both types are my top two favorites.

I am surprised to hear that Charizard is not your choice for your starter for this hypothetical team, but your reasoning makes perfect sense. I’m actually going to choose my starter based on my favorite, though, essentially going the opposite route as you when it comes to this decision. The Treecko line from Hoenn has always been my favorite. They’re not the strongest, no, but I enjoy their design and the speed that they tend to have. If Mega Evolutions are something to consider, Mega Sceptile is one of my top Mega Evolutions, too.

Oh, I didn’t even think of Mega Evolutions… Skeledirge doesn’t have one of those. Actually, Skeledirge doesn’t have any of those specialty gimmicks aside from the Paldean one, which was terastallization but the one I had was just fire. So, it’s not like Skeledirge had three types. For my next Pokémon, I would probably have a water type. I usually build my team with the same static types I’ve always done since I was a kid. This is another one that’s super tough. My first thought was to have Psyduck. But then I remembered Wugtrio. And then I remembered Drednaw. Logically, I’d choose Drednaw for the water and rock typing, but honestly… I have to go with Psyduck. He’s one of my first loves, after all.

I would be disappointed if Psyduck wasn’t on your team! I think that’s perfect. For my second Pokémon, I was having a hard time choosing between Steelix and Crobat since we’re doing only one Pokémon per region. Both of my choices were introduced in the Johto region (even though I first used both of them during my Sinnoh/Platinum run), so it’s a tough choice. I think I will have to go with Crobat, though. Its speed and Poison-typing is too good of a combination to pass up.

I don’t know why but I thought you were going to go with Steelix, in all honesty. I’m not surprised you chose Crobat, but I’m a little surprised. It makes sense though, Crobat and the Zubat line in general needs some love. For my third Pokémon, I’d have a grass type. There are a few Pokémon that come to mind in the Paldea and Galar region, but I’ve already chosen Pokémon from those generations. So, I’m headed to the Alola region to get a Tsareena for my team. She’s only grass type, but I’ve raised her before and she’s a great asset to the team. Also, she’s one of the many majestic-looking grass type Pokémon, which I love.

You’ve always said good things about Tsareena. I should probably give raising one of those Pokémon a try. While Alola is probably on the lower end of my list, I may actually follow you there to get my next Pokémon. Since I can’t have Steelix on my team, I’ll choose Mudsdale as my Ground-type. It was one of my favorite team members when I played the Alola games, a heavy-hitter that got me out of plenty of tight spots.

Oh, Mudsdale! Solid choice. I forgot you had raised one of those. Our teams, so far, are so different. I tend to gravitate toward the more common types, if you will, and you don’t. And I say that because I always grab the three starter types on my team. After all, they must be important or else why would they be the starting types? I don’t know, that’s just how my brain always worked as a kid. Anyway, I’d always then grab an electric type. I’ve raised lots over the years, but I think my all-time favorite is Luxray from the Sinnoh region.

It is funny, now that you mention the different types we tend to raise. I always gravitate towards the Grass-type starters, but it’s a hit or miss if I grab a Water or Fire type during the games to help round out my team. In the earlier games, I tended to make it a point to grab at least a Water-type since the surfing mechanic was prominent, but lately Water-types are not one of my main battlers. Case in point was how my next Pokemon was also going to be an Electric-type. I was going back and forth between Jolteon and Luxray, and I too have settled on Luxray. At least we have that Pokemon in common for our teams!

That doesn’t surprise me. I know you have a soft spot for Jolteon, but we both utterly love Luxray! My fifth and final staple on my team is a flying type. My first thought of Talonflame, but with Skeledirge, I probably don’t need another fire type. So, I’m going to Noivern from the Kalos region who duals as flying and dragon. Noivern was, I believe, the first dragon type I ever raised and I loved every moment of it.

That is a great choice! I’ve raised very few Dragon-types, to be completely honest, but I know you’ve mentioned Noivern often. For my fifth Pokemon, I believe I’m going to head to Paldea and pick up a Dachsbun. It was one of my favorites from the latest generation, and a Fairy-type with a unique ability sounds like it’ll be a great addition to a team.

I wondered when you were going to choose a dog Pokémon. You tend to gravitate towards those cutie-patooties. I struggled to figure out which Pokémon I’d have for my sixth and final addition to my team. I normally catch whatever Pokémon tickles my fancy as I play through the game without worrying about its type once I’ve gathered my standard fire, water, grass, electric, and flying types. That said, I usually end up with one of the early most common Pokémon, such as Bidoof, Lechonk, Starly, Kricketot, etc. But then I remembered I raised an Absol one time. So, why not add a dark type to my team? I’ll head to Hoenn and grab an Absol.

Absol is a great Pokemon – I finally raised one for the first time in Pokemon Z-A! And, honestly, I think it was because you spoke so highly of the species. I was also going to say that I’m extremely surprised that you did not choose a Ghost-type Pokemon, like Gengar from Kanto, but then I remembered that Skeledirge fills that role. For my last Pokemon, I’m heading to Galar. While I adore Dubwool for a solid Normal-type Pokemon, I think I’m going to choose Orbeetle. The duel typing and strong special moves on Orbeetle make it a great addition to any team.

Orbeetle is a great choice. Honestly, I think our teams are relatively well-rounded and, while this was tough to think about, it’s nice to give some Pokémon from each region love. So, to recap, I have Skeledirge from Paldea, Psyduck from Kanto, Tsareena from Alola, Luxray from Sinnoh, Noivern from Kalos, and Absol from Hoenn. We’ll have to discuss our full teams from each region some other time.

We did great with our teams, despite how tough I initially thought it would be! My team is Sceptile from Hoenn, Crobat from Johto, Mudsdale from Alola, Luxray from Sinnoh, Dachsbun from Paldea, and Orbeetle from Galar. I find it interesting that neither of us chose Pokemon from Unova, and I was personally surprised at myself for choosing a Pokemon from Alola – as much as I love Mudsdale, I thought for sure that I would have a Pokemon from Kanto, my first region. This was a fun challenge!

Kris

Kris is the older sister of the pair, and has been playing video games since she was able to read. She was introduced to the gaming world mainly by her uncles with the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 consoles.

As a child, she wanted to grow up to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle, but instead she works a typical 9 to 5 office job. Much of her other time is spent pet-sitting, writing, and role-playing shenanigans in tabletop RPGs.

Rachel

Often seen as the second player, Rachel grew up watching Kris play video games before she was old enough to pick up a Nintendo controller herself. Now she only sometimes gives Kris the hard bosses to defeat.

In real life, Rachel is a full-time pet sitter and part-time storyteller. She writes game reviews for Pure Nintendo Magazine, and is working on creating her own video game.