"Focusing on raising a particular kind of Pokémon makes it easier to grow stronger, but it also makes you much easier for other Pokémon to counter.
Take me, for example. I'm a Pokémon Trainer who specializes in Bug-type Pokémon, so Flying-, Rock-, and Fire-type Pokémon are all very difficult for me to fight.
Ai Xing specializes in Dragon-type Pokémon, so he has an especially hard time against Ice-, Dragon-, and Fairy-type Pokémon.
Specializing in one type might help you improve quickly at first, but it makes you easier to counter as you develop. After all, compared with a diverse mix of Pokémon, a team with only one type gives its Trainer narrower offensive coverage in battle, and its weaknesses are easy to predict."
Chu Xin easily understood what Tao Lu meant. Pokémon Trainers who specialized in a single type might develop faster, but they were also easier to counter. That sort of lineup did not offer a better future.
Pokémon was ultimately a strategy game, not a fighting game, so battles required more strategic thinking, and putting together a lineup also required a clear approach.
There were all sorts of possible approaches to team building. For example, a team could be built around a single powerful Pokémon-or one made powerful through a particular tactic-with the other Pokémon added gradually to set the stage for that core Pokémon, cover gaps in its offense, deal with problems it left behind, and compensate for weaknesses in the team as a whole, such as gaps in its defensive type coverage.
Simply put, this meant building a team around a single core, with every other Pokémon providing tactical support or filling gaps in the team. (This mainly referred to an offensive core, though teams could also pursue special win conditions built around a single impenetrable