Pocket Monsters, Dear Readers! - Let's Play Pokémon Platinum

Starly (Staraptor) has higher speed and much higher attack to use to its advantage as well as access to a Fighting Move (Close Combat) to batter away Rock- and Steel-types and an ability (Intimidate) to ease switches, so it works better as a physical attacker than Pidgey (Pidgeot), who has average stats all-around and no real moves or abilities to stand out with.

Also, the former's a starling while the latter's a pigeon, but you probably already noticed that.

General rule of thumb in the Pokémon world is that you want something to specialize in a stat for it to succeed - averages tend to be a sucker's game since they don't really tend to stand out as much. There are exceptions of course - the legendary pixies have pitch-perfect utility because of their stat distribution, and some Pokémon like Flygon, Kingdra, etc. make up for average stats with a great typing, ability or even just movepool - but usually you want something to either hit hard, take hits well or offer team support and trying to attempt all three only ends up in disappointment.

Also, it's named Star Raptor. How can a Pokemon with a name like Star Raptor NOT be awesome?

Starly is more of a fighter than Pidgey, kind of a middle ground between it and the crazy-offense Taillow. It's also notable in that it's final evolution obtains the awesome Fighting move Close Combat.

AND THEN NINJAS HAPPEN EVERYWHERE.

It also learns the best flying move in the game, brave bird. He totally owns the bug member of the elite 4. Also, staraptor his almost half and again Swellow's attack, but he's a bit slower. The gen 4 games do a really good job of giving you pokemon in the beginning that will last you the whole game.

Staraptor is one of my personal favorites. I caught a Starly both times I played through Diamond and Platinum. I named my first Starly Sarah after it's voice actress. When Black and White come out, I'm going to name them after whoever voices them in the anime.

Also, catch a Zubat. It's evolutions are nice and I've never leveled one.

You have a distinct lack of electric cats, I suggest you remedy this with a Shinx!

I <3 Shinx

Crobat is a great Pokémon, especially as a lead - lightning fast speed and decent attack means he can shut down a lot of defensive Pokémon with little effort at all. The last time I fought Phantoon, he Taunted and U-turned his way to an epic Gyarados cleansweep because of it.

EDIT: Luxray is a really sad case for me. He's got such a high attack stat to abuse, but no decent moves to use it with! The fact that he's not Electric/Dark (which would've been damn awesome) makes it even worse. But still, he's got style in spades and that's all that really matters in the main game.

Luxray is a solid electric type for finishing the game. It is a shame that he's stuck with thunder fang as his physical stab, but discharge works well enough off of his SpAtk. I wish he learned volt tackle because that would be amazing on him.

I named mine Steelheart

You should totally catch a Zubat, so that you can Negotiate away the million and one wild Zubats in the cav-- wait, what? Wrong franchise? You have to fight the million and one wild bats in the caves and after dark? Aaaaaaaaagghhhh.......

I named mine Pecksalot, though he's more of a Close Combatsalot or Endeavorsalot now.

Geodude and Onix, my dear Watson.

I'd like to request Onix and Psyduck. Can't go rock wrong with an enormous stone snake, and getting a pysduck before the game is half-over is just so novel to me. Plus they both have the qualifications for Zubat-sweeping.

Fixed; Wat(t)son's the name of an actual Hoenn Gym Leader in Gen 3.

You'd have to get that Onix traded to you from one of the FR/LG games, though.

Actually, you can catch one in the Oreburgh Mines I believe. Which is good, since Steelix is pretty cool (massive defense + great typing = yay).

I was referring to Hoenn, not Sinnoh. Yeah, Sinnoh has Onix. Hell, it has wild Steelix on Iron Island. An item trade Pokémon catchable wild was definitely a shock; wish they'd do it with a couple of stone evolvers, too.

Or, y'know, you could bring a decent-leveled Makuhita and destroy all the pokemon who are an actual problem, and not bother with annoying rock ypes more than needed.

OH MAH GAWD



It's official, this LP has to use a Natu at some point.

Daaaaw

It'll have to be traded over, since they're not available in Platinum until the post game.

Man you guys, now that I think about it, that's the second pokemon Parish has suggested, and it'll apparently make it into the team too.

/conspiracy

Pssh, whatever, I've got a super secret gimmick coming Knight's way.

It... it looks edible.

I want to bite it.

Heh, like I've said before, even traded Pokemon will still have to be kept on the team by people voting. Although it'll probably be less of an actual vote and more like me providing a list of what I have, and people posting "You should use _____" and then between reader popularity and my own decisions, I'll change the team line-up. And Parish isn't the only one who wanted to a Natu/Xatu. :P

Huh, I guess I missed you when I was sending out my egg trading PMs this morning.

Alrighty, before moving on, let's go catch some Pokemon!


Electric kitty!


A Naughty nature adds to Attack and subtracts from Sp. Def. Which isn't bad, since Shinx has a higher Attack stat than Sp. Atk. So while not optimal, it is a decent nature for it to have!


Finally got around to catching one of you!

Fun Fact: If I actually went along with my Nuzlocke run like I originally intended, I would have 3 Bidoofs on my team, because they were the first Pokemon I encountered on each route up to this point!


Aaaand we're back to getting crappy natures. Although it doesn't matter much, since Bidoof isn't good for much beyond being an HM slave, but it's good at it's job. Modest boosts Sp. Atk while subtracting from Attack, so while this a great nature for a special attacker, like Alakazam,


Speaking of Alakazam, an Abra decided to show up! For those of you who don't know, Abra only knows one move when you encounter it in the wild: Teleport. So unless you have a Pokemon that's faster than Abra and can put it to sleep or something, you pretty much have to just throw a Poke Ball and hope for the best, which is what I did here. Except I was too busy having my fingers crossed and then shaking my fists angrily in the air, so I missed getting screenshots of it breaking free and teleporting. Wasted my fancy Premier Ball too.


Oh god! You're not gonna start saying I'm moe, are you?


Sweet, free stuff! Just what I need for all my rock smashing needs.


And we put this on our resident HM slave!


Why would you go camping in a cave?


Really? You're going to celebrate walking through like a 50 foot cave?


Oh hey, it's Tezuka!


I'm not slow, you're just a hyperactive runt who thinks everything is a race.

Oh great, here come the daddy issues again.


Argh. The Gym Leader is supposed to stay at their Gym! That's their damn job!

And now we fast forward a few days, since I had played that far early to unlock the WiFi section of the Pokemon Center.


And here we have an Igglybuff, provided by TheSL. It came pre-hatched, so it has delicious bonus EXP for being a traded Pokemon. It was bred to learn Present, a move normally only found on Delibird. It has a Brave nature, which increases Attack and decreases Speed. A good nature to go with the Present gimmick, since it's a physical based attack.


I'm pretty sure all these coal chutes are new to Platinum.


Uh, I'm pretty sure you don't need to sneak your Pokemon with you to work, dude. There's all these other workers having their Machops help out, I don't see why your Geodude couldn't help either.


Yea, I know that, that's why I'm looking for...


Well then. I guess that takes care of that.


Poor Geodude gets one-shot, and a nice crit takes out Machop in two hits.


We encounter an Onix on the way out, and after wasting 9 Poke Balls on it, I decide to take a chance and switch in Charity to put it to sleep, and it pays off. Onix wastes time using Harden or Screech, and Charity's Sing works on the first try, putting it to sleep, and making it easier to catch.


I forgot to take the Nature screenshot until later, so that's after the post gym grind. Relaxed nature boosts Defense and lowers Speed, so at first glance, this might seem great for min/maxing Onix. But when it becomes Steelix, its Defense is already so high that that extra 10% doesn't matter that much, so you'd be better off with a Sp. Def boosting nature. But hey, at least it's not a Speed or Sp. Atk boosting nature.


I avoided the long way around because I wanted that sweet, sweet trainer EXP.


Well of course I want to win, why else would I be here?



Well, yea, considering he's a Rock type, and how awesome Razor Leaf is, I think Cranidos will still go down like your chump Geodude and Onix.


Huh. How about that. Well one more hit will do it.

Considering that you're the first one on the Pokemon League Badge case, I'm not sure why you'd be surprised at being beaten by someone with no badges.


He also gives us TM 76, Stealth Rock. It's a Rock type move that sets up spikes on the battlefield, so when your opponent switches Pokemon, they take damage from it. It's ridiculous and pretty much ruins fire types in competitive battling.

To be fair, though, Platinum did rearrange the gyms, so the badge case's order is incorrect to begin with. It would also probably be safe to assume that in a world without RPG mechanics, Roark is probably faced later in most Sinnoh trainers' paths, since he's on the opposite end of the region from the majority of the populated areas.


But I do always find it somewhat odd about gym leaders complaining about losing. That's what they're there for! Sure they're not supposed to just roll over and let you win, but they're not supposed to be an insurmountable wall either! Or a cheater (*cough*Clair).

I didn't know somebody else on TT knows hebrew!

Stealth Rock is the worst move. It also ruins flying types. And god help you if you want to use a Fire/Flying like Charizard.