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Published on July 22nd, 2012 | by Huy

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I Choose You!

Who is Ash Ketchum?

Ash Ketchum is one of the most famous Pokémon trainers in the universe second only to Cybertron and Ray. Like many of us, Ash has an insatiable desire to become the greatest Pokémon trainer and has been on his quest since the tender, young age of 10. When looking for role models in the Pokémon world, one does not need to look any further than Ash. His desire to win and ability to use almost any Pokémon to its full potential would be an asset to anyone playing competitive Pokémon.

What is an Ash team?

An Ash team is a team based on the Pokémon that Ash Ketchum has captured or owned throughout the course of the Pokémon Animé. A few rules exist when building an Ash team that one should take note of:

1. Pikachu must always be on your team
2. The Pokémon you use must have been owned by Ash at some point in the animé.
3. The Pokémon must be in the final form that Ash owns them in. For example, Charmander must be Charizard, but Squirtle can only be Squirtle because Ash did not evolve it further.
4. The money you earn in competitions must be used to buy Misty a new bike.
5. Always believe that you can win. It doesn’t matter if your opponent has a gigantic type-advantage. Just aim for the horn!

Pokémon Eligible for an Ash team

While Ash does own a good number of Pokémon of varying types, he’s also been known to keep his Pokémon from evolving. Rumor has it that the only reason some of his Pokémon reach their final forms is because he was EV training while watching TV and forgot to cancel their evolutions. Since we are not playing Little Cup, I’ve taken the liberty of sifting through Ash’s Pokémon and have compiled a list of Pokémon that can be seen as somewhat viable in a format where you don’t win matches by shooting cans off of a table or racing through the mountains in a sled that you and your Pokémon carve out of a tree. Maybe next season.

Going through this list, you can see that Ash doesn’t own very many of the Pokémon you’re used to seeing in standard VGC play. He does, however, own a lot of very niche Pokémon that do certain things that no other Pokémon can do. Offensively, Ash has access to Pokémon such as Heracross, Staraptor, Charizard, and Pikachu for firepower, but he also owns some very good support Pokémon like Infernape and Butterfree who can back up the team. While looking at this you have to realize that Ash owns a lot of very frail Pokémon, so Pokémon such as Gliscor, Snorlax, Donphan, and even Staraptor to an extent have to be considered so that a fast and strong sweeper doesn’t just run through your team. The other few can be used for coverage due to the unfortunate lack of diversity of the Pokémon in Ash’s pool. With the removal of a lot of the starters, Ash loses a good chunk of his special attackers which is why Torkoal barely made the list. Glalie and Primeape made the list for their abilities (Inner Focus and Defiant respectively) which kind of but not really make them somewhat decent in the metagame. Muk makes the cut because of its ability to counter Bellsprouts.

A Sample Ash team

Now, just like the real Ash Ketchum, I believe that your Pokémon team shouldn’t just be what other people are telling you are the best and strongest, but rather they should be a group of your closest non-human friends. The following is an Ash team that I constructed, but it is by no means the best Ash team. The best Ash team is one that you come up with because the stronger the bond between you and your Pokémon is, the stronger the team will be as a whole.

Pikachu (M) @ Light Ball
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
– Fake Out
– Thunderbolt
– Grass Knot
– Protect

Your best friend and most potent offensive threat. Pikachu has one of the faster Fake Outs in the game, allowing you the first Fake Out in most situations. Pikachu’s Lightning Rod makes it useful to draw Thunder Waves away from the Pokémon on this team that have very sensitive Speeds and can catch newcomers off guard by switching into Electric attacks. Even without the Lightningrod boost, with the aid of Light Ball, Pikachu’s Special Attack reaches staggering levels and will seriously put a dent in anything that doesn’t resist it.

Butterfree (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Compoundeyes
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
– Sleep Powder
– Protect
– Tailwind
– Whirlwind

Butterfree is the engine that makes this team run. With the help of a Pikachu Fake Out and a little bit of protection from Lightningrod, Butterfree is free to put things to sleep 97.3% of the time. With the new sleep mechanics, you can take your chances and hope for a 2-3 turn sleep to set up Tailwind. After that, you’re free to Whirlwind out the sleeping Pokemon in order to reset their sleep counter. This is especially effective when you’ve seen a Pokémon sleep for more than 2 turns. When they come back in, you know how long you can leave them alone before you have to switch them out again. Since the rest of the team is very very fragile, it is very dependent on having Butterfree do early work to disable the opposing team. Timid was chosen because of Butterfree’s shyness when it comes to female Butterfrees.

Staraptor (M) @ Charti Berry
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Brave Bird
– Close Combat
– U-Turn
– Protect

Staraptor is here to provide some very necessary fast fire power. Intimidate helps make his paper-thin teammates somewhat safer while they attempt to disable and outspeed the competition. Brave Bird and Close Combat are sure to do massive damage to anything that doesn’t resist. When you’re staring down an opposing electric Pokémon, you can score some quick damage with U-Turn and switch out to Pikachu in hopes of snagging a boost.

Heracross (M) @ Flame Orb
Trait: Guts
EVs: 4HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Megahorn
– Rock Slide
– Close Combat
– Protect

Heracross is here to do the cleanup work for Pikachu and Butterfree. When things start to get worn down or put to sleep, big, bad Heracross can come up and wreak havoc on your opponent. With a Guts boost, nothing really wants to take a hit from Heracross. A Guts set is used because with the terrible defensive synergy of this team you can’t really afford to switch in and out to reset your Choice item.

Snorlax (M) @ Normal Gem
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 36 HP / 252 Atk / 156 Def / 64 SDef
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
– Double-Edge
– Earthquake
– Protect
– Fissure

Snorlax is here because you can see we kind of have issues with Ice and Fire attacks. Snorlax’s main purpose is to sit there and shrug off those hits and Double-Edge everything into oblivion while also holding onto all the Pokémon. Snorlax also functions decently well under Trick Room so if you see a Trick Room setup you can’t handle, Snorlax is your guy. Earthquake hits the pesky Heatran and Metagross while Fissure is…. Fissure. I mean, let’s face it. You’re Ask Ketchum! You’re going to hit it. And if you don’t the chances are you’ll set off a sprinkler or something and disable the opposing Pokémon anyway!

Lapras (F) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
– Perish Song
– Ice Beam
– Protect
– Hydro Pump

Lapras. You sort of need this on your team if you’re gonna be Surfing your way to Hawaii! While Lapras has a massive amount of weaknesses, she makes this particular team simply because of her ability to use Perish Song. If you find that you have an unwinnable matchup, your best bet is try to disable everything with Butterfree and clear the way for Lapras to Perish Song to victory! And also coverage, I GUESS. But it’s way more fun to win via Perish Song. Lapras also really appreciates it when Pikachu rides on its back and absorbs Electric attacks to protect it.

Though this may not be the best team, it still wins its fair share of matches. Pikachu and Butterfree make things incredibly difficult for your opponent to get going, and as soon as they’re disabled, you should be taking advantage of your super special awesome Pokémon in the back to clean up. If you lose Butterfree, however, you’re gonna be in for an uphill battle. But never fret! Even if you lose, the gym leader will still give you a badge because of your courage and tenacity. Everyone’s a winner!

And thus concludes our brief look into the world of Ash Ketchum. If you’re feeling a little bored with the metagame, consider trying out an Ash team. Build it to your liking and prove to the world that with the power of friendship, anything is possible. Just keep fighting hard, having fun, and eventually you can be the very best like no one ever was.

About the Author

Huy is a grizzled Pokemon veteran. Having played competitively since RBY, he picked up VGC in 2009 and never looked back. He has played in 3 World Championships (Second only to Ray Rizzo) and has placed in the Top 10 in all 3 while managing to secure Top 8 in 2. He is the only American in the world to have won two Customized Worlds DS'es.

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