A fun experiment I like to see with videos, art and other mediums taking characters from one series and making them fit into another and since Pokémon and Digimon are in the same “kid makes friends with dangerously power creatures” genre figure it would be fun to take the DigiDestined from Digimon Adventure 01 and giving them a full team of 6 Pokémon. Here are the main rules I followed when making these teams:

*No Starter Pokémon

*No Legendary or Mystics

When making these teams I didn’t keep what would work in the competitive scene and more about picking Pokémon that could be tied to reference to the DigiDestined or their partner Digimon. I did this by picking at least 3 types based on the Digimon’s design or elemental attacks, along with the associated crest and other references that surround the characters. With the basic covered, let’s start with Tai and Agumon.

For Tai and Agumon, I figure the team would have to contain Fire type given that is element of Agumon’s attacks, Steel-type for a MetalGreymon reference, Dragon-type as the line seems to have refences to dragons and I decided 1 had to be fossil Pokémon since Agumon for most of its digivolutions look like dinosaurs. For Tai’s Pokémon team I picked: Turtonator, Aggron, Duraludon, Houndoom, Pyroar and Tyrantrum being the ace.

I picked Turtonator and Duraludon as they fit the typing and have a bit of a t-rex look to them. Aggron was picked as it fits the dinosaur look Agumon has and I picked Houndoom to be a reference to SkullGreymon a dark digivolution of Greymon and Houndoom was one of few Pokémon with a skull in the design. Pyroar was kind of a random pick as I needed another Pokémon and thought it can be a reference to Miko, the family cat, or a reference to Leomon one of the reoccurring characters in the series. Lastly is Tyrantrum, which I think fits perfectly as Tai’s ace as it is the easiest design wise to complement the Greymon line. Next up is Matt/Yamato and Gabumon.

For Gabumon and it’s given line, I focused on Fire, Fighting and Steel type. As much as I tried not to have too much cross over in typing it doesn’t help with 3 out of the 7 characters have Digimon with fire elements, which is why I went with Fighting (to reference WereGarurumon) and Steel (to reference MetalGarumon) to limit the cross over with the other DigiDestined. So, for Yamato’s team I went with: Arcanine, Rapidash, Pangoro, Bisharp, Magmortar and Lucario as his ace.

Arcanine and Rapidash were picked due to their references to speed and Garurumon is also known for his speed (more referenced in the Digmon Adventure 2020 series). I chose Pangoro as it is a beast fighter looking character and Bisharp was chosed to reference to WereGarurumon’s Sagittarius mode that equipment that it used as a blade from time to time. Magmortar was solely picked as picked for the arm cannons to reflect MetalGarurumon’s cannons and I picked Lucario as his aces since both Lucario and WereGarurumon are fighting wolf looking creatures so it just seemed to fit. I will admit I was tempted to give Matt all friendship based evolving Pokémon due to his Crest of Friendship but I figure would be more of a help for our next trainer, Sora.

I really did try to give Sora a varied team, however, given that the Piyomon lines goes from tiny bird to big bird to big bird-humanoid back to big bird all of which deal attack with fire, I went with mainly flying Pokémon. Sora’s team is: Pidgeot, Staraptor, Braviary, Hawlucha, Togekiss and Talonflame as her ace.

Pidgeot, Staraptor and Braviary were chosen as I thought they were the better bird related Pokémon for this team. Hawlucha was picked to be reference to Garudamon and Togekiss not only because it is one of the better flying-type Pokémon but it has a friendship-based evolution line which I thought would fit Sora’s Crest of Love. Finally, we have Talonflame as her ace which just fits with her fire-bird Digimon partner. Now we move on to Mimi and Palmon which will hopefully be a more fun build to say the least.

For Mimi and Palmon, I figure we would Grass, Fighting and Fairy type. Grass since there is plant theme throughout Palmon’s design, fighting to reference Togemon and Fairy as Lilymon is a little pixie looking creature. Mimi’s team could be: Breloom, Ludicolo, Hitmonchan, Whimsicott, Florges and Cacturne will be the ace.

Breloom and Hitmonchan were selected to be references to Togemon and Ludicolo was selected to be a reference to Ponchomon, a new digivolution that was introduced in Digimon Adventure 2020. Picked Florges to be references to Lilymon and Roserade to be a reference to Rosemon. Lastly, I picked Cacturne to be Mimi’s ace as Togemon out of all the Digivolution get the most screen time. Next up is Joe Kiddo.

Joe and Gomamon was a bit easier to pick for since one of the types I associated with Gomamon is water and there are plenty to chose from. The other types I picked from for Joe is Ice, due to Vikemon and Electric due to Zudomon. I was debating doing Electric or Steel or both for Joe but I figure I have done enough Steel types between Tai and Yamato. With that in mind, Joe’s team contains: Dewgong, Lapras, Lanturn, Alolan Sandslash, Beartic and Walrein as his ace.

Dewgong to represent Gomamon and Lapras to reference Zudo as they both have hard shells on their back and fall into the Water/Ice typing. I picked Lanturn to reference Zudomon’s electrical attacks, while for Vikemon I chose Alolan Sandslash to reference its ice attacks and giant maces and Beartic to reference the design of big hairy monster with ice attacks. I picked Walrein as the ace as I think it best represents the Gomamon line of being big hard hitting and tanky creatures. Now, let’s move on to one of my favorites Izzy.

Izzy and Tentomon was a fun one as I got to pick some of my favorite Pokémon to be on his team. I focused on Bug, Electric and Psychic type Pokémon and came up with the following team: Pinsir, Heracross, Orbeetle, Galvantula, Golisopod and Vikavolt as the ace.

Heracross and many of Kabuterimon Digivolutions have the big horn in the middle and I picked Pinsir to reference Kabuterimon’s rival Kuwagamon which as pincers as its main weapon. Galvantula many for it being an electric type and I chose Golisopod to be reference to HerculesKabuterimon given its more intimidating design. Now, it was a tossup between the ace Pokémon Orbeetle or Vikavolt the ace Pokémon. Orbeetle was chosen because the psychic type could be seen as a reference to Izzy’s crest of knowledge and Vikavolt was picked to be a reference to Kabuterimon as an insect with electric attacks, but in the end, I made Vikavolt the ace as I felt that it fit Izzy better but to be honest, either could of work. The last two DigiDestined were a bit harder to figure types and teams for but hopefully I have done a descent job.

First up is T.K. and Patamon and the “closest” thing I could probably get to Angelic based Pokémon is fairy type or maybe psychic type, so for this team I focused on Fairy, Psychic and Flying (since most of the Patamon line can fly, seemed like a good choice). With that in mind, I gave T.K. the team of: Wigglytuff, Gallade, Swoobat, Sigilyph, Xatu and a Galarian Rapidash for the ace.

Wigglytuff was an easy pick to reference Patamon as both are big balloons and Swoobat as it is a cute flying type that could be Pokémon version of Patamon. I picked Gallade as a reference to HolyAngemon and Seraphimon for its “knight” like design. Sigilyph and Xatu were mainly picked for their “ancient” which I thought were good reference to the Angemon line as a whole. Lastly, I picked Galarian Rapidash to be T.K.’s ace as I thought it be a good reference to Patamon’s armor Digivolution, Pegasmon. Now for the final DigiDestined duo, Kari and Gatomon.

For Kari and Gatomon, I copied the fairy and psychic typing I used for T.K. as Gatomon has a lot of Angel digivolutions, however, I gave them the Dark type to reference Gatomon’s time of being on the villains’ side for part of both Digimon Adventure 01 and Digimon Adventure 2020, which I thought could be interesting. So, for the final Pokémon team we have: Gardevoir, Grimmsnarl, Hatterene, Liepard, Umbreon and Espeon as the ace.

Since I gave T.K. Gallade, I felt like I had to give Gardevoir to Kari as they are counterparts to each other in the series. Hatterene was picked to reference Wizardmon, one of Gatomon’s friends in the original series. Liepard was picked to not reference the dark side of Gatomon but also Miko, Tai and Kari’s family cat. Grimmsnarl was picked to reference, SkullKnightmon, which has ties to Gatomon in Digimon Adventure 2020 and lastly, I picked Umbreon and Espeon to again reference Gatomon’s dark and light side and making Espeon the ace as Kari’s has the Crest of Light and it requires to be evolved in the daylight.

There are 7 Pokémon teams for the 7 DigiDestined from the first Digimon Adventure series. Hopefully the teams made sense is one way or another for each character and have some descent value to them. And with that, thank you for taking the time to read this and until next time; Stay Safe, Be Kind and Game On!

P.S.

Here are 7 codes for the online version of the Pokémon TCG:

25^th Celebration Packs:

X96-7DKR-RZ6-TGK

P6J-DJTH-CTC-L2V

XM7-YK9R-2ZX-VZG

XQP-KTQH-DWY-GVV

Sword & Shield-Vivid Voltage: 96B-LTWT-2RW-7L9

Sword & Shield-Darkness Ablaze: NL6-4MT9-DCC-2HY Sword & Shield-Battle Styles: HZG-NTYB-PLG-YHX