I have been playing Pokemon for most of my life. I’ve been through nearly every main series game on the gameboy, ds, and 3ds, and I will shamelessly admit that I have an attachment to a number of Pokemon I have caught and used on my teams over the years. With another decade of Pokemon ending, these are my five favorite pokemon I’ve used on my teams, and a breakdown of their importance to me.

5. Mightyena

In every game, some pokemon can be found anywhere in the wild while others can only be found in specific locations in the wild. Poocheyena, Mighteyena’s pre-evolution, is one of the latter. My earliest memory of knowing exactly where a pokemon was and grinding to get it is when I spent nearly weeks playing Pokemon Diamond after this thing and I remember being so elated after finally catching him. While I never transferred the specific Mighteyena I caught then as it was on my cousin’s game and ds, I did recently catch another one in a playthrough of Diamond I did earlier this school year.

4. Ninetails

Foxes are my favorite animals, so I am disappointed this pokemon isn’t higher on the list. Nonetheless, Ninetails is a well-designed, decent-strength pokemon. I used this for a good portion of one of my first HeartGold playthroughs. I eventually had to swap it out for a stronger fire type but the majestic design of it fit the style of HeartGold’s autumn, perpetual sunset theme and gave me such good vibes while playing.

3. Typhlosion

Typhlosion is of course the end of the Cyndaquill starter line, and isn’t difficult to obtain at all. However, the release of HeartGold, Cyndaquill’s respective game, came with the Pokewalker, a pedometer that could hold one pokemon from your game and have it “walk about” the real world with the player. I took that thing everywhere; school, church, car rides, etc. The more the player held a pokemon in the Pokewalker, the friendlier the pokemon would become in addition to leveling up as well. I just remember fourth grade me going in on getting my Typhlosion to form the biggest bond with me. I do still have this Typhlosion as one of my older cousins had a Soul Silver, HeartGold’s generation twin, copy that she held my Typhlosion in until I could transfer it up, and I can’t wait to shift it up to my Switch for Pokemon Sword use.

2. Staraptor

Every game has a staple bird or birds. Black and White have Unfeazant, X and Y have Talonflame. HeartGold’s storyline legendary is a bird. Pokemon Diamond’s famous bird is Staraptor, the end of the Starly line. I never go a Diamond/Pearl without s Staraptor on my team because the bird is seriously overpowered. Due to its typing it can wipe out several of the first few gyms and hold its own in the elite four and champion battles of the region. I’m just waiting for Nintendo to release its app that allows transfers from 3ds Pokemon games to the iPhone to the Switch so I can transfer it to my Sword game.

1. Gengar

Gengar is my favorite pokemon, yet it’s such a piece of work. It’s neither accessible in every region nor is it accessible in many parts of the regions it is in. Recently in my first Pokemon Sword playthrough I caught a Haunter, the pre-evolution for Gengar, and used it through the champion battle and legendary arc of the story. Post game I discovered the only way I could evolve my Haunter into a Gengar was through trading it with another player. I texted one of my friends and he agreed to trade my Haunter so it could evolve and then trade it back to me, and so it happened. This was certainly not the most I’ve put into obtaining a Gengar, but to have beat Pokemon Sword as fast as I did and got one of the more difficult to obtain pokemon shortly after gave me a sense of satisfaction that has lasted quite awhile.

These five are a small portion of the immense amount of past pokemon I cherish. I wouldn’t be surprised if in just another few years my top five change dramatically. With a new decade of Pokemon beginning soon, I’m excited to see where the series goes.