The Game Theory of Competitive Pokémon
Team Building
If battling is science, team building is art - and art has no solved strategy.
The number
In 2019, Smogon Forums user Deli Bird Hart calculated the total possible distinct teams in the Ultra Sun/Moon era:
$$N_{\text{teams}} = 6.08701 \times 10^{218}$$
The observable universe contains roughly $10^{80}$ atoms. The number of possible Pokémon teams is incomprehensibly larger. More than there are stars in the sky, more than there are atoms in the universe.