Took a short team (a Jolly Synchronize Munna plus Dewott and a couple of others) to the edge of the desert, then just turned circles until I caught the Sandile and the Darumaka I wanted. The Darumaka was about the second or third one I caught - Jolly and 31 Atk, with nice solid numbers in everything important, but the Sandile took a while. Finally settled on one - Jolly also, with high-20s for Atk and at least nothing less than the teens for everything else. Then I went back to the PC and swapped out the Jolly Munna for an Adamant and went back to catch a Scraggy. That was the most important one, since I'm tentatively planning on keeping him on my team through the E4. In the end, it took a couple of days here and there (probably only a couple of hours of game time) before I found the one I wanted - Adamant male with Shed Skin, 31 Atk, high 20s HP and fairly even high defenses. He only has mediocre speed, but even with good IVs, he'd still have only mediocre speed, so that's fine. Then I rearranged the team and went through the desert and fought all the trainers, then it was on to Nimbasa City.
Did the rounds, got the Strength HM, fought in the stadiums, then I realized I didn't have a Watchog for my next HM slave and couldn't catch one until after Driftveil, so I had to find something to stick that HM on. I finally decided to put it on a Dwebble (I'm also sort of planning to include a Crustle on my final team), so I went back to the PC and got back into the Munna box and went to Desert Resort to catch stuff. Fought the Doctor, then just turned circles close to the entrance with a Careful Munna until I came up with the Dwebble I wanted, then went back and swapped for a Modest Munna and caught a really nice Modest Sigilyph. I considered catching a Maractus and decided against it, then rearranged the team again and fought all the trainers around Desert Resort and at the beginning of Relic Castle. Then I put Strength on the Dwebble and went out onto Route 16 (picking up the Macho Brace along the way) and pushed the rock and fought all those trainers and poked around Lostlorn Forest, but didn't try to catch anything. Then it was all the way back home to push rocks and EV train and grind for levels, getting ready for N and for Elesa's gym.
Went into the Amusement Park with Scraggy, Dwebble, Dewott, Cottonee and... some others... and went on that dull ferris wheel ride with N, then fought him and beat him pretty soundly. Went back to the PC and healed and swapped out some of the team. Went into Elesa's gym with Sandile, Dwebble, Darumaka (who had Dig) and I don't remember who else. Those three did most of the work - Sandile and Darumaka used Dig on the Blitzles and Dwebble had Rock Blast for the Emolgas. It was easy.
Then put together a traveling team and went out onto Route 6 and fought the trainers and poked around in the grass with Modest Munna in the lead until I came up with a really nice Gothita - 31 Sp Atk and high 20s elsewhere. Then swapped out for the Jolly Munna and spent a long time finding a nice Jolly Minccino. Then it was on to Driftveil Drawbridge. Rode back and forth and collected wings for a while, until I managed to catch a pretty good Timid Ducklett, then went into town and just breezed through everything. Darumaka and Scraggy completely owned Cold Storage and Dewott took Clay's gym down pretty much single-handedly. Then fought Bianca and demolished her as usual and got the Fly TM, put Fly on Ducklett and flew home. Spent some more time here and there EV training and grinding for levels, then flew back to Driftveil and battled our way through Route 7 and caught two Deerling along the way. One was to keep around to show to the scientists, but the other was a deliberate hunt - Adamant with amazing stats - a couple of 31s and nothing less than 25. Also caught a Watchog HM slave. Then into Chargestone Cave.
Scraggy and Sandile did most of the work along there (Sandile and Dwebble both got Bulldoze from Clay's TM) with some assistance here and there from Darumaka and Dwebble. Spent a long time just inside the entrance catching a nice Timid Joltik and happened on a Quirky Tynamo with surprisingly good stats. Also caught a Ferroseed, but I didn't pay any attention to anything other than that it was female, since I planned on breeding it with a Whimsicott to get a baby with Leech Seed. The cave was sort of tedious and long but uneventful, just like it was the last time. Got out into Mistralton City and immediately went to the move family's house, where Dwebble forgot Strength, then flew to Striaton to breed Ferrothorns. That took most of a day, but I ended up with a Brave with nice stats. Then flew back to Mistralton, did all the stuff around there, then went up to Celestial Tower and caught two Litwicks - one with Flame Body to use as an incubator and a Modest one with Flash Fire and amazing stats to include with the team, and also caught a decent Modest Elgyem. Back to town and blew (flew?) through Skyla's gym, with Dwebble's Smack Down and Tynamo's Spark doing most of the work. Then we made our way through and over and around the tall grass and out to the entrance to Twist Mountain. And ran into a bit of a brick wall, in the form of Cheren, who's never really been a problem before, but now his Panpour was a Simipour, with Scald, and it was raining. I knew it was trouble when I sent poor Tynamo in, expecting to easily deal with the water monkey, and it one-shotted him with a Scald. Then I sent Samurott (recently evolved) in and it burnt him on the first hit and fainted him on the second. Then I reset the game and went back to plan a better strategy.
The only electric I planned on potentially using was Tynamo, and it's going to be a long time yet before he evolves, so he was out. There's no way that Joltik or even Galvantula would survive that rain-boosted Scald. I had a Cottonee I'd been using off and on, and figured it could at least survive a bit, but there's not much it could do in return. Deerling was still a long way from being a Sawsbuck, and there was no way that Deerling would survive that Scald. Most of my stronger pokemon were only neutral to water, and most of them were physical and would be crippled by a burn. But you know.... I had been kicking around using a Lilligant, since I didn't really get to use one a lot in my White playthrough, since I was enjoying Leavanny so much. But the only one in Black is the Petilil you get in trade, and it was only so-so and didn't have the ability I wanted. So, I got out the male Whimsicott I'd used to breed Leech Seed onto Ferrothorn and took him, the Petilil, Ducklett and the incubator Litwick and flew to Striaton. Spent another good chunk of a day breeding a Modest Petilil with Own Tempo and nice stats, then flew to Driftveil, gave her the Lucky Egg and scared up some Audinos. Her share of the experience for the first one (Litwick fainted it - that's the other part of her job, alongside incubating eggs) bumped her all the way up to level 16, and by the third she was about level 19 and handling them on her own. Leveled her up to 26, so she got Giga Drain, then evolved her to Lilligant and leveled her up to 28, so she got Quiver Dance. Then flew back to Mistralton and went back to fight Cheren again. And that one was much easier. Servine was a bit of a hassle, but that was it. Simipour went down to a single Lilligant Giga Drain. And we're currently saved at the base of Twist Mountain...