Roses On Paper

Building a personal Pokémon team tier list that actually means something

Tier lists have become a staple of the Pokémon community, sprawling across fan forums, Discord servers and YouTube videos where players argue over whether Garchomp deserves an S rank or whether Cinderace is genuinely top-tier. Most of these rankings follow a familiar arc: a creator picks a criterion, slots their favourite monsters into coloured bands and invites viewers to yell about it in the comments. A custom tier list flips that script, because the rules, the categories and the final order all reflect your own playstyle, aesthetic preferences and sense of fun. The goal is not to produce a universally accepted power ranking, but to build a personal reference sheet you actually enjoy revisiting whenever you open Pokémon HOME, jump into Scarlet and Violet, or spin up an older entry for nostalgia.

The exercise also turns into a surprisingly handy planning tool. Once you have ranked your roster, you start noticing gaps, redundancies and hidden gems you had forgotten about, especially when you begin sorting through the deeper cuts hiding in your storage boxes. For Australian players, this can be a welcome weekend project between trades at a local gaming meetup, a browse through EB Games in the CBD, or a long arvo spent organising your collection while the rain comes down outside.

Deciding what your tier list actually measures

Before you place a single Pokémon into a bracket, you need to decide what the tier list is for. Some trainers want to optimise competitive singles play, ranking creatures by base stats, typing matchups and their metagame presence in ranked formats. Others care more about a soft enjoyment score that rewards the creatures they love using, regardless of whether the strategy makes sense. A few go full nostalgia, ranking by how memorable each monster felt during their original adventure on Game Boy, DS or Switch.

Your purpose shapes the rest of the project. A competitive ranking leans heavily on hidden stats, ability interactions and the current VGC ruleset. An aesthetic tier list might focus on shiny forms, Sugimori-style artwork and regional variants. A "would I main this in a nuzlocke" list focuses on mid-game usability, encounter value, and how well each Pokémon carries a weak early roster. Picking one lane early means your decisions stay consistent later.

Think about whether you want the list to be evergreen or tied to one game. A Scarlet and Violet-specific list will lean on the current regional Pokédex, while an all-time list looks back across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and every region since. Many Australian fans who grew up trading over GBA wireless adapters still have a soft spot for older generations, so an all-time roster often pulls in creatures they have not thought about in years.

Picking the format that suits your style

The medium you build in changes how the tier list feels. Spreadsheets give you the most control, with custom colour cells, sortable columns, and easy drag-and-drop updates whenever a new game drops or a Pokémon HOME update adds new monsters. Tier list maker websites, such as the popular drag-and-drop tools that became mainstream through YouTube thumbnails, are quicker and produce a visual pyramid that feels closer to the classic tier list format.

Some trainers sketch their tiers by hand in a notebook, colour-coding each band and decorating each entry with stickers, washi tape, or a quick doodle. This option suits anyone who enjoys tangible projects, especially if they want a list they can pin above their desk while playing through a replay. Others prefer to build inside Google Slides or Canva, layering icons, type symbols and small stat cards next to each row.

Platform choice also shapes how you share it later. A spreadsheet works for Reddit threads and Discord debates, a picture-perfect pyramid suits Instagram and TikTok, and a video format lends itself to long-form YouTube breakdowns. If you want the list to feel like a community project, consider opening a shared Google Sheet so mates from your local gaming club can suggest swaps throughout the week.

Choosing which Pokémon belong on the sheet

Scope matters here. Trying to rank all 1000+ creatures as a solo project will burn you out by the time you reach the Unovan regional dex. Trim the pool to something workable, whether that means a single generation, a chosen type, or a specific roster size you want to use in-game. Many trainers stick to their Hall of Fame team plus the runners-up, giving each of around 30 to 60 Pokémon a real chance to be debated.

Consider weighting decisions based on availability in your own playthrough. A Pokémon you have personally raised, EV-trained and used through Victory Road carries emotional weight that an unused box legend never will. Equally, shiny hunts can pull creatures to the top of your personal list even if they would never see ranked play.

A useful approach is to break the candidates into three rough passes. First, write down the names you already know you love. Second, scan your Pokémon HOME boxes for hidden favourites. Third, do a quick browse through a Pokédex filtered by type or generation to catch anything you have overlooked. By the time you finish the third pass, you have a working shortlist without spending an entire afternoon on it.

Common approaches for shortlisting include:

Ranking methods that keep things fair

A good tier list resists impulse moves. One method that works well is the comparison pass: pick two Pokémon at random from your shortlist, force a decision between them, and place them in order. Repeat until the order has stabilised, which usually takes around three full passes. This cuts down on the bias that creeps in when you rank favourites first, and it gives you a written trail of why a creature moved.

Another method is the criteria-plus-score approach. Decide three or four traits that matter (for example, in-game strength, design, nostalgia, and competitive viability), give each a weight, then score every Pokémon on each trait. Add the weighted scores, slot the totals into bands, and refine from there. Numbers can sometimes hide the wrong call though, so treat the totals as a guide rather than gospel.

Whichever system you pick, write down the rule for each tier before you start ranking. Without written rules, S tier quietly becomes a dump for personal favourites, and F tier becomes a dumping ground for designs you dislike even when they are objectively useful. Stating the rule aloud, or in a column header, is the easiest way to keep things consistent, particularly when mates from your local gaming scene ask why their favourite landed where it did.

A few reliable criteria you can borrow from competitive coaches include:

Adding custom categories that reflect your playstyle

Standard S, A, B, C, D, F bands are a solid starting point, but custom categories give the list real personality. Some players add an "Ace" tier reserved for their all-time favourite, no matter the stats. Others carve out a "Nostalgia" tier where Game Boy era creatures cluster, a "Spooky" tier for ghost and dark types, and a "Couch Co-op" tier for the friendly trades they would always accept at a meetup.

Categories can also reflect how you actually play. A shiny hunters column ranks every alternate colour form a trainer has caught over the years. A "Replay" tier lists the Pokémon you would happily run through the Blueberry Academy DLC again and again. A "Hall of Shame" tier holds the monsters that have fainted at the worst possible moment across every run you have ever done, from Cerulean City gyms to the Elite Four halls of later regions.

Keep the categories meaningful rather than exhaustive. Two or three custom tiers are usually plenty, as anything more starts to fragment the rankings and confuse anyone you share them with. When the categories land well, the list becomes something you genuinely want to photograph or screenshot, especially if it has been a passion project carried over several weekends.

Sharing your list with the community

Once the tier list feels finished, putting it in front of an audience sharpens it quickly. Australian Pokémon spaces are friendly to constructive feedback, whether you post in r/pokemon, drop your pyramid in a Discord server tied to your local Nintendo community, or share a tidy screenshot on Instagram with a single graphic that summarises each tier.

When sharing, add a short note explaining the criteria, the generation scope and any personal context. A two-line caption like "All-time tier list, weighted towards design and personal use, Scarlet and Violet meta considered" gives readers everything they need to engage with the list instead of guessing your rules. That single line usually sparks better comments than the pyramid itself.

Take the feedback as inspiration for v2.0, not a mandate. Some suggestions will genuinely improve the list, especially if they bring up a creature you forgot or a typing you underrated. Others will push the list away from what makes it yours. Hold the line on anything that protects the personal flavour of the project, and adjust the spots that felt shaky from the start.

If you want to publish it more permanently, you can turn the project into a longer write-up on a blog, attaching the image and the rationale behind each tier. Lifestyle blogs like Roses On Paper sometimes run gaming-adjacent content, and an article format lets you explain the "why" behind every S rank pick, not just the result. Look for a category such as Lifestyle that fits the angle you want to take.

Refining the list over time

A tier list is never truly finished. Each new generation, HOME update, or DLC release throws fresh creatures into the mix, and your own preferences shift as you revisit older games or watch a mate pull off a clever strategy at a local event. Treat the first version as a snapshot, not a permanent ranking, and plan a quarterly pass where you revisit each band and adjust what feels stale.

When you revisit, ask simple questions. Did this Pokémon age better than you thought? Have I used it more than I expected? Is the ranking still defending itself in my last few playthroughs? A short pass like this keeps the list honest without turning it into a full rebuild every few months, and it gives you a reason to revisit older games you might otherwise forget.

Most of all, keep the project fun. The whole point of a custom tier list is to create a reference that feels like yours, with rules, categories and personalities only you fully understand. Once it does that, every comeback to your boxes feels a little more rewarding, and every argument in the comments feels a little more personal.

Ready to start your own? Grab your notes, sort through those boxes of favourites and dive in. Your S tier is waiting, and the rest of the tier list will fall into place once you commit to the rules that matter to you.