This just seems to be my weird thing to do with the Gen IV games: to decide my team well in advance, and egg/trade them over to have at less than Lv.5 then play through with them, the more gimmicks the better.

I did it for Pearl http://www.psypokes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=16307 and Platinum http://www.psypokes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=24545, and all your suggestions and ideas were really helpful, and a lot of you ended up shaping my team in ways I didn't have the knowledge to do.

Now it's time for the remake of GENERATION 2, my very favourite one, and the only generation of pokemon I actively online battled for.

This time though, I want to put a bit LESS effort into making the team, because honestly for Pearl and Platinum I think I probably spent as much time doing research and breeding and stuff as I ended up playing the game itself >_<

If you don't care about my thoughts on my Platinum team, skip down to NEW TEAM IDEAS!!! (but it might give you a better picture of what to suggest)

My Platinum team went quite well, I think the hardest gym leader was Crasher Wake and his Floatzel; and it took a dozen retries to kill stupid Cynthia.

Tentacruel: Really useful as a special wall, or a physical one with Barrier. Toxic spikes were useful too for the harder long battles. Black Sludge regen was very nice too. Great pokemon.

Rampardos: Really strong, but kind of annoyingly fragile and slow. Didn't end up using Mold Breaker as often as I thought I would. Endevour + a Focus Sash on top of Tentacruels poison spikes was the ONLY way I could figure out to kill Cynthia's Platinum Garchomp, who was about 15 levels higher than any of my guys, and TORE them apart with Dragon Rush. Giving his life for the team was kind of keeping with his time on my team, which mostly involved dying.

Froslass: Less useful than I would have thought, nice and fast (and evasive in hail), but the resistances of ghost were somewhat cancelled by the frailty of ice. Died a LOT, and Ice Shard isn't terribly strong in her hands.

Honchkrow: It was great when super luck and scope lens critted. Also handy for switching into powerful psychic and ground attacks (or less powerful grass attacks). Breeding for Drill peck was time well spent as it was a brutal grass and bug killer.

Electivire: Almost more useful for its light screen than anything else. Passing that to Tentacruel made the Jellyfish almost invincible. Nice ability to switch into electric attacks too, since I didn't have a ground type. Thunderpunch + Light screen let it eat Cynthia's Togekiss for brunch.

Breloom: The rock star of the team. Toxic Orb + Poison heal + Leech seed (+ sometimes leftovers) was just a ridiculous combo. Facade to capitalise on the constant poison status was lethal as well. Even when it died in one hit to a flying attack, I felt more like it was my fault and not the Pokemon. Also Spore [3

NEW TEAM IDEAS!!!

So I'm sort of torn in two directions

(1) Making a team based around a particular gimmick, like a weather effect or something. So all the guys work well in unison.

(2) Making a sequel to my Karen team, when I was the Dark Elite 4 member in the PPG way back in the day.

I'm a bit less interested in hunting down hard-to-find pokemon, so I mostly just looked through my Pokemon boxes and filled one with guys I'm interested in using.

STRONGLY LEANING TOWARDS:

Umbreon: My favourite Pokemon. I bred an Eevee with Wish and ear-marked it for this team. Will probably also run leftovers. Won't really have a gimmick, is mostly for sentimental value.

Clefable: The Pokemon I pretty famously hated back in the R/B/Y days, and sometimes had on my E4 team as a joke. Magic Guard is a really interesting ability, and going all the way with a Life Orb and moves like Double Edge seems like it would be a fun gimmick. Also bred for Wish.

Hippowdon: I kinda missed having a ground type in my last playthough, and sand stream could be a lot of fun, especially if a lot of the other pokemon I end up using aren't negatively effected (Umbreon with Leftovers, Clefable with magic guard). Also female Hippowdons look very "dark" and would fit with the theme of a dark team if that's the way I decided to go. Already have a Vigoroth on hand to bred for Slack-off.


DARKS:

If I'm doing a sequel to the PPG Karen team, I'd want some Dark types on there:

Drapion: Don't know much about them. Sniper could be a fun ability, but I'd be putting a lot of hope into it's chances to crit.

Weavile: Seems good, but I'm kind of hesitant to use it after seeing how fragile Froslass was.

Cacturne: Leech seed and ingrain is nice and nasty. Also Sand veil for added sandstorm resistance.

Sharpedo: Having a water type is always nice, and the rough skin ability could add-up to a lot of damage over a playthrough.

Crawdaunt: Meh. I'd probably go with Sharpedo over this if I absolutely felt I had to have a Water/Dark.


GHOSTS:

Kind of like dark types, and there were never enough Darks in the Gen 2 days to make a full team. Low level ghosts in particular are always fun as they generally break the start of pokemon games (and they'd murder Faulkner and Whitney, I hope).

Drifloon: Interesting typing.

Rotom: Interesting typing also, electric types are always handy with how much time you spend on water in Pokemon games, and maybe I could branch out and make it one of the "Formes" since I have Platinum.

Mismagius: Pure ghost is a fairly safe typing. I'm a little concerned it might be boring though.

Dusknoir: Also pure ghost. Sounds like a bit of a tank, might be fun for walling stuff.

Gengar: I'm put-off gengar by how many times I've used him over different generations of Pokemon, but he's just so dang stylish, and the mechanics of battle have changed enough recently that he might feel different.

POKEMON IMMUNE TO SANDSTORM:

Kabutops/Omastar/Aerodactyl/Armaldo/Cradily/Aggron/Bastidon: I have a lot of fossils and rock pokemon knocking around that I've never used, and they have a nice variety of typings. Never used any of them either, but I might be less inclined to use Aerodactyl since it never evolves.

Scizor: Don't often use bugs, Scizor sounds like a beast.

Jirachi: I have a lv.5 one my friend gave me off his copy of Pokemon channel. It might feel like cheating, but breaking the game can be fun sometimes.

Magnezone: Electric/Steel is sweet typing. Electric types are always handy.

Lucario: Even though I have a lv.2 Lucario ready to go, this poor guy has failed to make the cut for my two previous playthroughs

OTHERS LEFT IN THE BOX THAT DON'T FIT INTO THE ABOVE CATEGORIES:

Toxicroak: Would only make it if I don't go with any other Poison or Fighting types. Dry Skin seems cool to switch into water.

Medicham: PURE POWA! Same typing as Gallade though, who I've used. Seems like he might be a bit boring.

Ninjask: A super speedy bug might be fun. I understand Yanmega supposed to be a lot better, but I don't have one handy. Major drawback of Ninjask is I can't take advantage of it's gimmick till it evolves from Nincada, who's kind of lame.

Togekiss: Like Lucario, has never quite made the cut into teams. The irritation of Cynthia's one has put me off them a little.

Manaphy: I have a Lv.2 Manaphy from Pokemon Ranger, could be as fun and cheating-y as Jirachi. Tail Glow would be sweet for sweeping high level bosses who I expect to have trouble with in the level difference (like I did with Platinum Cynthia)

Porygon 2: Pretty much only because I remember having a lot of fun with Gardevoir's Trace in Ruby, and he's the only other Pokemon that can use it.

huh...
ive been thinking about an ancient pokemon team

I think I'm gonna go with Toxicroak, Jirachi, Lucario, Umbreon, Clefable and Rotom.

A bit of type overlap, but everybody has an immunity and a gimmick (except Umbreon), and if I understand things correctly I can "evolve" Rotom to a forme once I hit the Silph Building.

Pokedex says Lucario starts with Dark Pulse, Metal Claw, Foresight, Detect and Quick attack, but my Lv.2 Lucario is missing Dark Pulse and Metal Claw and has Endure instead of Detect (on my copy of Diamond). Anyone know why this might be?