Aquat the Wailord

My Platinum team right after defeating the League! Long post about it here:

One thing I love about this team are the Natures and attributes of each team member. It’s mostly a team full of chill peaceful mons, and then there’s Chook the Chansey of all mons who’s Adamant and strong willed.

(No room for the last image but Snover is Relaxed and “has good endurance”)

Just finished the main story in Platinum with my baking themed team! This one might be a bit harder to see than some of my other theme teams so I‘ll break it down.

Rowan the Grotle, GrosMichel the Tropius, and Abominique the Snover all grow berries and fruit that are mentioned in their Pokédex entries. Perfect for pastries! Grotle and Tropius really pulled their weight in battle and Snover was... very cute! To be fair Snover’s auto hail and Ice Shard did occasionally come in clutch but it was just too slow, too frail, and not powerful enough in most scenarios. I don’t know if he came out at all during the final run through the Elite Four 😬

Speaking of clutches, Chook the Chansey is our egg layer. I know Blissey looks more like a chook and is more usable in-game but Chansey is the Egg Pokémon whereas Blissey is the Happiness Pokémon so I figured it was more thematic to stick with the OG egg girl (egggirl?). Chansey was about as useful as Snover for most of the run but during the later battles and especially the Elite Four, she was amazing at turning the opponent into setup fodder using Icy Wind, Light Screen, and eventually Flash (and an empty fourth moveslot lol) for either Rowan or Nevo the Rotom, our next team member and probably the MVP of the whole operation.

I wanted Rotom to be in the Heat form so it’d be an oven, but changing Rotom’s form in Platinum requires an event that has long since passed. In gen 4 changing Rotom’s form makes less of a difference as all the of them retain the same Electric/Ghost typing (and let me just say it was an amazing defensive typing for this playthrough), except they lose just 5 points in speed and gain points in everything else except HP. So basically I had to use a slightly nerfed Rotom without a fire type move, which was actually fine since its moveset was all kinds of fire already. Double Team, Substitute, Discharge and Ominous Wind; all learned by level up. Rotom is a little hax demon.

Finally, we have Reina the Vespiquen, who provides sweet honey. I initially considered using Combee but this is gen 4, the generation with some of the most challenging games in the main series. Additionally, logistically speaking, one Combee would only provide one Combee’s worth of honey whereas a Vespiquen controls a whole hive of them. Even her signature moves—Attack, Defense and Heal Order—are references to the fact that she calls on her subordinates even in battle. And so, Vespiquen it was.

Additional notes:

- I would’ve loved to have Miltank and perhaps even Shuckle in the team, but neither are available during Plainum’s main story.

- I had trouble in completely different areas than I did during my first playthrough of Platinum with my Bug Run team, which was interesting. Fire gave me loads of trouble in both runs but I had an easier time overcoming it now thanks to Chansey support and Rotom having a sneaky lil moveset. I can’t even call it cheesy this time because it’s literally only stuff it learns by level up.

- Since I had two unevolved mons, several common weaknesses and one mon in its weakest possible form, and this is Platinum, I figured I’d cut myself some slack. I didn’t change the battle mode to Set for this playthrough, which I normally do. I was grateful for being able to switch mons after defeating each opponent.

- I only used one dedicated HM user, It’s Okay the Quagsire who had Surf and Waterfall. For some reason Chansey doesn’t learn Surf when she basically looks like a buoy but she gets Strength and Rock Climb. Rock Climb Chansey. Just picture that for a moment

- Every team member is in a different Pokéball! Rowan the Grotle has a regular Pokéball, Reina the Vespiquen has a Premier Ball, Nevo the Rotom is in a Dusk Ball, Chook the Chansey has a Heal Ball, GrosMichel the Tropius has a Marsh Ball, and Abominique the Snover has a Nest Ball. Not that exciting but I had fun planning out what I’d catch each of them in. I especially like Chook in the Heal Ball!

This post is long as is so I made a separate one with the movesets and natures of each team member: