Ike for President

At long last, I have been blessed with a copy of Pokemon Diamond. Sorry, Dtrain, I might have bought Platinum, but the offer of Diamond for free was too good to turn down.

My projected team follows: Emi, Pachirisu; Tails d'Buizel; Peter, Buneary; Gratiano, Chatot; Max, Lucario.
Now taking votes for the final member of the team. I've already covered HMs, so don't take those into consideration. Don't suggest super-cute things like the Eevee or Togepi families, because for some stupid reason those can't be acquired pre-Elite Four. Alternatively, I could follow my Yellow strategy and have no sixth member, instead leaving the spot for whatever Pokemon I would be evolving by leveling up.

Please share your opinions on the matter.

Your team seems to be lacking any sort of defensive pokemon. Might I recommend a Bronzong or Torterra? These are your best options without access to Bastiodon.

You will need to do a lot of healing with the lack of evolution in your team, and you will NOT beat Cynthia without reliable healing, even if they're all fully evolved.

Other good options for a sixth member would include Drifblim, a massive health pokemon with decent special attack and average defenses. It's speed is slow however, and it needs to be coordinated with fighting types, although Lucario covers that.

I just wouldn't recommend another offensively based pokemon though, that much is for sure.

Fircoal recommended Pikachu or Quagsire.

Dtrain recommended Torterra and possibly Staraptor in place of Chatot.

Now if only we could call the vote of the Buizelly member.

Shinx: Hello, everynyan.

Buneary: You're not a real cat.

Shinx: Nyaaaaaaa~ I have a cat tongue. Guess what we did today?

Pachirisu: First, we beat an ice gym leader, styled by her town as Candice the Diamond Dust Girl.

Lucario: She was a breeze. I mean, come on, she's the seventh gym leader, and she countered my Swords Dance with Leer. Yes, Leer, and from an unevolved Pokemon.

Pikachu: Evolved or not, you couldn't deal with her Medicham.

Lucario: You couldn't either. I don't know what an ice-type gym leader is doing with a fighting-type, unless it's to deck a poor level 37 Pikathingy with a single Ice Punch.

Pikachu: It was hard and cold. At least I had the guts to smack the psycho fighter with a Thunderbolt before I went down. Then Pachirisu scored the assist with a critical hit from Discharge.

Pachirisu: It's my trump card. Our trainer says Spark is prettier, though.

Lucario: Then Candice sent out her so-called trump card. What was it again? Some grass/ice-type.

Pikachu: I don't remember, either.

Buizel: You were out cold at the time, silly.

Gastrodon: Pikachu can be silly? I thought that was a term reserved for Buizel.

Buizel: What makes me sillier than anyone else?

Buneary: You go bui.

Buizel: So?

Everyone: So! *they all poke Buizel's nose*

Pachirisu: It was called an Abomasnow.

Lucario: Right. 'Twas so wussy I couldn't recall it.

Shinx: Then Mr. Trainer said Pikachu and I had to stay in the storage PC. It was nyot fair.

Buizel: The reason was that we were to do some butt-kicking and we'd come back to when we were done.

Pikachu: Ahem. Since when can a Buizel kick butt?

Buizel: I've beaten a lot more Pokemon than you have.

Pikachu: Right. That's why you're a paltry three levels higher and you have no moves exceeding 60 power.

Buneary: Anyway, the lot of us minus Shinx and Pikachu got to go rescue the three lakes' Pokemon.

Drifblim: I flew us there. It was great to get out of the PC.

Pikachu: I bet our silly trainer brought Buizel instead of Pikachu so he could laugh at Galactic Grunts, saying, 'Ha! You lost to a Buizel.'

Buneary: That is precisely what he did.

Gastrodon: Team Galactic is so much cooler than Teams Rocket, Magma, and Aqua.

Lucario: Bah, they're all the same: Pokemon are our tools, the world is ours, et cetera.

Gastrodon: But Team Galactic Boss Cyrus is so cool. He's the first enemy in the series to willingly give the guy who raided his base a Master Ball.

Lucario: Yes, so incredibly cool, as shown by his statement that emotions like compassion and pity are from the weak human heart and thus should be disregarded.

Buneary: Mesprit is so cute.

Drifblim: It was really fun to free it along with Azelf and Uxie.

Lucario: But the best part was how the great Team Galactic Boss had weaker Pokemon than the last two gym leaders. A Murkrow and a Golbat, both at level 40, and some other Pokemon so wussy I can't even remember its type? Oh please.

Buizel: I beat the Murkrow.

Lucario: Case in point.

Drifblim: I think Cyrus was going easy on us the first time. His flunky Saturn said something about seeing him again atop Mt. Coronet. I'm not looking forward to climbing that thing.

Buneary: Tee hee hee, a balloon, afraid of heights?

Drifblim: More the purported hassle of a maze inside the mount.

Gastrodon: Sadly, I can only Dig us out of there.

Lucario: For some strange and odd reason, my Rock Climb won't get us to the top at a Rapidash's gait either.

Shinx: Does that mean Pikachu and I get to come out and play some more while everyone slacks off instead of going to go through the cave in a hurry like we're supposed to?

Pikachu: Yeah, let's put off that harrowing prospect as long as we can.

Shinx: Nyaaaaaaaaa~ Let's go catch some Honey-drawing Pokemon right meow.

Lucario: I guess I'll go practice my forms.

Buizel: I'm going fishing.

Gastrodon: I'd like to try some fish too.

Shinx: But we need mew to Surf us around.

Drifblim: I'll blow away to never-never land. You'll never grow up there.

Shinx: But mew must be on call so we don't have to foot it everywhere. Eliminate the middleman.

Buizel: Actually, we're all on call whenever our trainer darn well pleases. That's why he's Dimensional Master Yippius the Ninth, Summoner of the Infinite Planes, Supreme Lord of etc.

Pikachu: I'll have to shock some sense into him.

Shinx: So long, everynyan. Good-bye for meow.

Breezy was quite right. I met my first defeat at the hands of Cynthia.

I've revised my team to be: Dialga, Azelf (with Fire Blast!), Lucario, Drifblim, Gastrodon, and Pachirisu. That's two legendaries, three evolved Pokemon, and a deadly Pikachu clone. Victory is still a ways away, because we're way underleveled.

Pokemon Diamond Clear: If you consider becoming the Pokemon League Champion as beating the game, then it's done, with:

Emi Pachirisu, the team's mascot, noted for beating Lucian's Alakazam and being incredibly fast, not to mention cute,

Azelf the Azelf, a lake legendary, who I set up with no psychic moves, but whose Lax Incense + Payback took care of a psychic or two nicely,

Breezy Drifblim, not to be confused with Breezepup the Breezy Puppy, although named after him, incredibly useful against Elite Four Bug Catcher Aaron,

Silver Dialga, time-roaring legendary, particularly nice against Cynthia's Garchomp and Milotic, whose Aqua Ring was more useful than I expected but couldn't stand up to Dragon Claw,

Max Lucario, the kind Max the Riolu should involve into, triumphing over Cynthia's Lucario with Aura Sphere for the finishing blow, and

Vivien East Gastrodon, trump card and VIP, for soloing ground user Bertha's team, beating half of the fire elite's team, and beating the two Full Restore-consuming West Gastrodon.

Hip hip huzzah! I couldn't wipe the silly grin off my face for a few minutes after becoming the Diamond Champion. For a Buizel-containing game, the ending was supremely exciting. I had done it before, but that was with a friend's save file. It's a whole different experience with Pokemon I raised.

So what's next? I want Pokemon Black/White so effing bad. (Buy all the things I never had.) Just kidding. Black/White is for Minccino, especially the kind that is the opposite side of the same Poke Ball with Pikachu.