Your team when you get Persona 4?

MC (Mandatory)
Chie or Yosuke (I can't decide which I want to add more)
Naoto (I love her already)
Kanji (Much lover for Kanji and I mean that in a non-gay way you faggots!)

How can you make a team for a game you haven't played?

I know the characters. I know who I'm going to want to use on my team. Simple as that. I don't have to play a game to know who I want to use.

I can't judge effectiveness of anybody, because I haven't played the game. Only two I definitely want in my party are MC & Rise.

I'm going by character-wise so far. If I see any advantages others have I might use them otherwise no.

Chie ~ Physical goddess. She can do the most damage in the game, sometimes surpassing the MC.
Yousuke ~ Wind magic/heals. Some physical. Basically a wind based Junpei.
Yukiko ~ Fire magic and the healer. Great stats and never fades in usefulness.
Kanji ~ Thunder man. The Akihiko with better stats.
Naoto ~ light/dark/alimight. The bane of all random encounters, really bad for boss fights.
Rise ~ analyst.
Kuma ~ strongest mage in the game. His ice spells are brokenly strong.

Me partay;

MC
Yukiko
Kuma
Chie