Do you use your favourites?

[Green Blockhead]

When playing in a competitive WiFi match, do you ever use your favourite pokemon?

I always do. My team is pretty much filled with Pokemon that I have a place in my heart for. Only occasionly do I place Pokemon that I don't really care about in my team for their ability, such as an Accelgor with Sunny Day to set up for a sun team.

[jesusfreak94]

There's actually a lot of Pokemom that I love using in OU that are my favorites, such as Dragonite and Terrakion. I even like to find a place for some of my non-OU favorites, like Tangrowth. Otherwise, I'll just play with them in lower tiers (Eelektross in NU is amazing). On Wi-Fi matches, I pretty much use anything that I like to. Some Pokemon have niches in Wi-Fi that they never had in OU due to the non-existence of Evasion Clause, Sleep Clause, Drizzle + Swift Swim ban, etc. There's also the fact that you can goof off as much on Wi-Fi as you want, since you opponent is probably going to DC if they lose anyways, lol.

[Jacobthepokemonfreak]

I like gardevoir but I can't think of a proper moveset for it, so when i use one it normally follows the standard psychic type move+thunderbolt+ weakness coverage. Absol doesn't really have the right stats but maybe it'll get good somewhere.

So, I try to but they're not always very good.....

[rckstr]

No I dont.I use whatever Pokemon make me win.

[Auaria~]

I only use my favorite Pokemon. Most are in the NU or UU tier,but I don't care,alot of good Pokemon are in them! Most of them can beat pokemon in the Uber tier! :P

[your boss]

Yes, Durant especially now it got Superpower and dropped the knight in RU.

[AquaRegisteel]

Escavalier is a monster in UU. I loved it with my Flash Fire Arcanine team. It destroyed lots of teams and got me ranking high on the UU Ladder.

I also have a liking for Tangrowth (who makes a great Terrakion Counter) and I really like Rotom-C and Kyurem (the former is great in rain, the latter is a great SubRooster.

So yes, I do.

[PokéMaster Forever]

I do, as evident by the fact that my best Übers team contains Reshiram (which is my favorite Pokémon in that tier along with Kyurem-W), while I have yet to create a single OU team since Generation II which did not contain a Dragonite, by far my favorite Pokémon ever.

[That Crazy Russian™]

i try to, but they never function as well, due to the majority being nu or ru. my favs are, golurk, dunsparce, ludicolo, slowbro, and jirachi, not in that order. but i almost always find time for my rachi

[jstinftw!]

Oh I love this topic!

Yes, I do use my favorites! I'm a big advocate of using your favorites on your team. Granted, you do have to mindful of what you're doing, but if you play intelligently, using your favorites really isn't that big of a problem. I'll admit, you'll probably have to accept that you won't win 99% of the time, but that doesn't mean you'll be bad. You definitely have to do a lot of testing, revision, swapping in and out, etc. It's more complicated for a strategy that can possibly be less effective than playing the standard. But it's more custom, more personal, and you feel more accomplished making a team that isn't exactly standard work.

I personally have played one OU team, multiple VGC teams, and I have an RU team in the works. I have never played the standard teams; I prefer using Pokemon that I love, and then Pokemon that I like, find interesting, can come to appreciate etc. And I actually don't do terrible (although I sometimes test out some really bad VGC teams *coughcoughPlusMinusKlinklangManectriccough*).

My most favorite Pokemon is Luxray, and my OU team actually incorporates a Luxray in it. It's a Volt-Turn team, with Intimidate. I also use Milotic and Staraptor. I received a lot of heat for using them, but I actually faired pretty nicely. I had a bigger win to loss ratio than I would have expected.

But anyways, yeah. I love testing out Pokemon that people wouldn't really expect, and using Pokemon I like. The biggest reason I don't play the standard, common Pokemon (for the most part) is because I'm not fond of most of the overplayed Pokemon. I'm also a bit of a hipster when it comes to Pokemon, so that's another factor, but I honestly just prefer using Pokemon I love. It helps create a nice blend between the competitive, "I have to win" aspect of the game with the in-game "Strong Pokemon, Weak Pokemon, doesn't matter as long as you love them" aspect of the game. (:

[ParaChomp]

I remember this topic, thanks for booting it back up. Let's see...

Feraligtr is usually outclassed by Gyarados in terms of a water sweeper for now. Charizard's ability to quickly lose HP due to residual damage and iffiness outside the sun makes me usually pass up on it. Although I prefer Nasty Plot Lucario, I've never found the urge to use it. Mewtwo's banned. Shuckle's super gimmicky thus is hit and miss.

In the end, it varies from person to person. Why were 3 of my favourites at some point a fighter in the Super Smash Bros. series?

[SoulMuse]

A number of my favorites are in OU so yes, I do end up using many of them. A number of others though, aren't, and well, after some use, I can see why, alhtough that is what other tiers are for.

That said, I also can fit in those things that help me win, such as the Alakazam that every single one of my successful teams has, despite teh fact I don't care for it as a pokemon.

[Gamefreak]

I tend to use my favorite pokemon pretty often, IF they happen to be good in the tier in question.

[TerraWolf]

I use whatever helps me lose less often than I already do

[John Wallrein]

I would like to use my favorites, but my desire to win is stronger than that. I am glad that some of my favorite Pokemon are very viable and used OU Pokemon, for example I've always loved Dragonite, and Tyranitar since they came out. I do however have to refrain from using my current favorite Pokemon in Articuno, as it just... is not good. It has fairly good defenses, but ice is just not a useful defensive type and w/ a 4x SR weakness... ugh. I might try a team to mess around using Snow Cloak Articuno w/ a Sub Roost set to spam and annoy random people on a hail team. Damn you 4x SR weakness, you ruin all my old favorites (Articuno, Moltres, Charizard)

[Soperman]

I used to use my favorites, but then somehow stopped. I don't know if it's because I became a better battler, or vice versa, but I don't use them anymore. I definitely use pokemon I like (I refuse to use anything I don't like), but nothing I really love. A lot of pokemon in OU just aren't pokemon I dislike, so I use them.
Unfortunately, competitive battling has sort of morphed my definition of "love" and what makes a pokemon worth liking for me.
In-game, I train all of my favorites; from Arcanine to Porygon-2, if I think it's cool, I'll train it. Darmanitan remains my all-time favorite, however, and is decently viable, with a cleric on the team.

[pokemonjoe30]

Sometimes, but usually the pokemon I use grow on me so I guess I use my favorites when battling.

[Eliteknight]

Many of my favs are in OU examples include Gengar Tentacruel and jirachi

[D Dog Master Of War]

yes i use one or three of my favorite pokemon in all my teams

[Shinluxray348]

yes I do. I milotic is a monster of a special wall :3