Recently replayed Platinum with a team of six mons I had never trained before, and here are my thoughts on them:
- For whatever reason, I never thought to pick Chimchar before now. Took me long enough to finally do so. Infernape was as great as advertised overall, but I don't like how it's stuck with Flame Wheel as far as Physical Fire-type attacks go until Level 57. You pretty much have to teach it Flamethrower or Fire Blast if you want a decent Fire-type attack to handle the myriad of Bronzors that you'll have to battle along the way. But it's great otherwise.
- I'm honestly disappointed. I thought Pure Power would pretty much enable Medicham to flatten everything, but this all falls apart when you consider that Medicham's movepool is
abysmal. Other than Hi Jump Kick, it doesn't learn anything noteworthy, and it can't get any Physical Psychic-type attacks except via breeding or Move Tutor. So I'm glad I tried it out, but I'm probably not going to train one again anytime soon.
- Something about being a Steel-type with 145/150 defenses convinced me to give this a shot, and I don't regret it. Probopass is actually pretty good in-game for what it's worth. Base 75 Sp. Atk is okay, and it can somewhat circumvent its low Speed with Thunder Wave. The moveset I ultimately ended up using was Thunder Wave, Flash Cannon, Power Gem, and Thunderbolt. Virtually nothing can KO it unless they can hit it super-effectively.
- Yeah, there's a pretty good reason why Garchomp is the more popular Ground-type. But Hippowdon isn't terrible either; respectable bulk, solid Attack, and access to Yawn and Crunch can be useful, especially when dealing with fast power hitters (Lucian's Alakazam, I'm looking directly at you). I wouldn't advise going out of your way to use one unless you really want one, but it won't be a dud if you do. I'd still take Garchomp over it any day, though.
- I'm genuinely impressed. I figured Lumineon was just going to be okay at best, but as soon as I reached Celestic Town and got both HM03 and the Choice Specs, it singlehandedly drowned all of its competition. And TM13 later on didn't hurt either. I think that says more about the Specs than it does Lumineon, but on the other hand, it also doesn't hurt that Lumineon levels up pretty quickly. Either way, I'm satisfied with what I got, and while I don't think I'll ever recommend using a Lumineon over most of the other Water-types Sinnoh offers, at least there's a way to make it work well.
- I hate the Great Marsh. I hate it with a burning passion. I hate the mud, the existence of a step counter, and how you can't battle the Pokemon there normally. And yet... I somehow put up with all of that bullshit in order to catch this thing. As a Yanma, it was pretty underwhelming. But the nanosecond it evolved, it proved to be worth it. Tinted Lens coupled with a Base 116 Sp. Atk and a decent level-up movepool makes Yanmega into a surprisingly potent powerhouse that virtually nothing is safe from. This was pretty much the MVP of my team, and if we do indeed get Sinnoh remakes, this will be one of the first that I consider for my team in those games.