>>31107401I'm not a fan of the protagonist with Silvally. You get gifted one, and I know Red's canon team is all giftmon, but Silvally is Gladion's signature mon, and it's primarily associated with him. We only get one so we can complete the dex.
Also think going by just the most important Pokemon the protagonist encounters in-game is a bad way to do it these days. All gifts and mandatory fights worked for Red, but nowadays it's all legendary Pokemon. All of the gifts get rehashed over and over again gen to gen, Porygon, Eevee, Togepi, etc. I also think the story works better if the Tapu aren't captured.
I'd go with Starter, Nebby, Kommo-o, Alolan Exeggutor (first alolan form revealed, mandatory encounter on an island named after it, part of the story, you can wrangle up some romantic horseshit about the protagonist and lillie with it because of when they talked in that cave on that island), I'd agree on one of the fire/water/grass totem pokemon, and a Lycanroc for good measure.
Zygarde has an important place in theory but he just feels tacked onto the game. You know he's there because some bad shit is gonna happen and you can assume it's the Ultra Beasts, but he never gets anything associating him with them at all, you can completely ignore him for the entire game. Maybe he's more important than Kommo-o, but I don't think importance is a good metric because then you'll just get a team of legendaries. Box legendaries get a pass since they're mandatory captures since gen 5, and Nebby especially because there's plot attachment to it too. Or at least moreso than Xerneas/Yveltal, who has nothing. Reshiram and Zekrom justify themselves.
