I wouldn't say I blindly go at it because yeah a lot of it is intuitive at this point. I still do break down the parts for each Pokemon mentally, but more in terms of shape and color (so Pikachu was like, 1. head-body, 2. set of feet, 3. set of arms, 4. set of ears, 5, tail. Colors yellow, black, red.) As much as I can, I like to make details in line with the normal crocheting, so in the Pikachu example, I would just switch between yellow and red yarn while crocheting the head instead of making the cheeks separately. I will never glue pieces on, that honestly sounds insane to me. I might embroider some details if that's more cost effective in terms of time, or if the details are too fine to portray as well with just color switching. If the specific part is something that bulges or distinctly "added on" (like the red crystals on a Gigalith), then I'll either make those pieces separately and sew, or crochet them on top of the main piece. I don't do practice/trial runs, I just go and write down what I do every row or few, frogging and adjusting as needed. A lot of it is very intuitive for me now.
Closest I can think to describe how I do these is like, back in the days of dial up internet when an image would load from the top down, line by line. It's like that but in 3D. Like if you built a hollow lego structure from the top down. Like reverse 3D printing. I look at the 3D model in the pokedex as reference, identify the major shapes and the colors, then make each shape by working at it from one side and working at it in a spiral, switching colors as I go.
