@Smote Thank you for the help, ill keep that in mind for my next challenge post :)
Sadly, im putting this challenge on a semi-permanent hiatus. I just lost like 5 hours of progress due to a freaking save state mishap and i do not have the motivation to go through ALL OF THAT (including the Distortion World, which, on an emulator is a pain) again. I may return, but i make no promises about when that'd be.
HOWEVER, i absolutely loved this challenge and enjoy the concept, so i would like to post my thoughts on my pokemon with what i managed to get to, if i return to finish the platinum 802 challenge, ill make sure to attach it to this particular post.
Endemon was a beast once i got him thunderbolt and flamethrower. that and sludge meant he could deal with almost anything that came his way. Real shame that his Special defense stat was so...meh, compared to his great defense, but he could wall most physical attackers. Wish i'd gotten to see him face off against the ground elite four member (isn't her name bertha?) with levitate and (hopefully) leftovers/black sludge.
Pevom was AMAZING with his punching moves and coverage. I don't understand why everyone seems to dislike him, and im eternally grateful for the guy who skipped him, because the early game would've been much harder w/o Pevom (i cheated him in at Hitmonchan because getting a tyrogue to evolve into hitmonchan is really, really irritating and i didnt wanna have to cheat in 5 different tyrouges just to get one hitmonchan.
Alrecta proved to be, quite honestly, the MVP of the team. I never expected normal Kanghaskhan to prove so useful, and while she was walled by a few things (bronzor after she lost crunch) her Fake-Out+any of her other moves usually meant someone was being defeated. She also looked like my best bet for a special wall because of her HP and everyone elses relatively stihz special defense (my two highest SpD were Pevom and Alrecta, which is...interesting, but Alrecta did amazing when she got to wall special attacks ((golbats+crobats couldnt touch her HP in any meaningful way if they were using special attacks))
When i first got tangela, and it essentially soloed the fighting gym, i thought that he was gonna be the MVP of the team. After the water gym though, his lack of decent coverage (mega drain as his only attacking move until i got the sludge bomb tm was...bad, and even after Sludge Bomb, if it was a poison type, tangela couldn't do ANYTHING except set-up Reflect for someone else on the team) however, after the sludge bomb tm, while tangela was still walled by anything and everything that even resembled a poison type, sludge bomb let him deal crazy good damage to anything that didn't resist it, and killed anything that was weak to it.
Adei was rough to train. He died to anything special, and couldnt take water or grass type attacks at all. Luckily, however, once he evolved into rhydon, he became a much greater threat (especially with rock slide instead of the horrid rock blast), killing lots of things relatively easy. He could actually take one (1!) weaker grass or water type physical attack with a little bit of luck, and could withstand quite a few hits weaker ice type physical attacks with relative ease. still died to anything special but hey, can't have everything *shrug*
I loved Diadem from start to finish. She was a bit rough, and a bit squishy, but when she crit WOOO boy was something going down. Focus Energy let her take down things that would've resisted her attacks because of the increased crit chance wrecking anything that got crit and made them more frequent. Once she got surf and ice beam, along with hydro pump, she became REALLY good at breaking things down. and thats WITH an adamant nature ((i only caught one of each of the pokemon for the team, to kinda up the challenge a bit, if i got bad natures/IVs))
I may return to this platinum challenge in a few weeks, but for now im taking a break from platinum in general. I can't with all of that lost progress.
However, if the OP doesn't mind, id love to sign up for a second challenge w/ a different game (probably soul silver, i've always wanted to play that version (i had heart gold as a kid)), but i know that that could be a bit '??', so i'll wait for a response before signing up.
hums along to a tune only i can hear