Update: Beat Winona.
Team (here I made by far more progress than in the story):
Grave / Graveler f Lv.43 @ Soft Sand
Impish Nature / Rock Head
- Secret Power
- Defense Curl
- Magnitude
- Rock Throw
Wait, did I say I made more progress with my team than in the story? Well, Graveler is the exception...
Grima / Muk f Lv.47 @ Blackglasses
Quiet Nature / Stench
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Bomb
- Dig
- Thunderbolt
As Grimer this was already a good Pokemon, but Grimer was nothing compared to Muk. This thing is purely made of awesomeness, seriously.
Next: Getting Natu, doing all that Team Magma stuff, and maybe even beating the twins.
Update: What I said above+Wallace. I also tried to kill as many of these annoying swimmers as possible while Groudon's drought was active. That made it a lot easier for me to let Xatu catch up.
Team:
Grave / Graveler f Lv.45 @ Soft Sand
Impish Nature / Rock Head
- Secret Power
- Defense Curl
- Earthquake
- Rock Throw
I really need to improve this moveset, it's horrible. I only can think of Brick Break currently though.
Grima / Muk f Lv.47 @ Blackglasses
Quiet Nature / Stench
- Flamethrower
- Sludge Bomb
- Dig
- Thunderbolt
I still didn't do what I wanted to do all the time: Get rid of these damn Blackglasses.
(Edit:Muk was definetely not 47 at that time (copypasting fail), it must have been somewhere in its lower or mid 50s.)
Sacrifice! / Xatu f Lv.46 @ Lax Incense
Rash Nature / Synchronize
- Shadow Ball
- Giga Drain
- Night Shade
- Aerial Ace
Xatu looks like the statue of some kind of deity, so sacrifice a goat or something to it!
Update: Beat Elite 4. because of Graveler and Xatu being underleveled, most of the stuff was up to Muk. So, naturally I had a lot of problems with anything Muk can't handle that well.
*bulbagarden.net image removed*No problem. Muk killed most stuff, but Graveler also saw some action in this battle with Brick Break.
*bulbagarden.net image removed*I hate how she manages to waste tons of my PP every time I fight her. Xatu failed to kill even the first Dusclops, so Muk had to do stuff again. And since Ghost resists Poison, this was anything but easy. Somehow Muk managed to beat her, but it took me quite some Hyper Potions because Psychic kept reducing Muk's awesome Special Defense.
*bulbagarden.net image removed*Easy. Muk's Sludge Bomb or Flamethrower 2HKOd everything, even Walrein.
*bulbagarden.net image removed*Shelgon died pretty fast, but then I had a problem: 2 Flygons. Luckily, it turned out that none of them has Earthquake, so Muk could slowly defeat them, again with the help of Potions. Altaria died fast, while Salamence caused some problems. It killed Muk with a crit Fly, so I had to use my first in-battle revive.
*bulbagarden.net image removed*Aargh. Why? Because most of his Pokemon know Earthquake. First was Skarmory, no problem for Muk. After one round he switched to Claydol, so I went to Xatu. It managed to weaken the weird thing significantly, so Muk could kill it. Then, Skarmory returned and died. Next was Aggron, it took a lot of Potions for Muk to kill it. Then it was Metagross time. It outspeeded Muk and could 2HKO it with Earthquake, so I couldn't hit it and he soon got a crit. Then I had to use repetive revives, until he finally started using Hyper Beam. He missed with it 3 or 4 times in a row (finally some luck for me), while Xatu revived my team weakened it with Night Shade. When it hit, Muk returned and killed it off. Finally.
But the battle was not over yet, Steven still had 2 Pokemo remaining. One of them was Cradily. It got boosts on both his first 2 Ancient Powers, but Muk still killed it easily. Armaldo was a different thing. Again, it got +2 on all stats very fast (seriously, wtf?), but luckily it could still only 3HKO Muk so I could occassionally hit. After a lot of Hyper Potions (on Muk) and Full Restores (on Armaldo), it finally died.
Conclusion of this challenge: I should have done a Muk Solo run instead, since it outclassed my other teammembers by far. And I should have done some grinding before challenging the Elite 4.
Final Team, in very compact form
(natures and abilities didn't change anyways, of course):
:t075: Lv. 49 @ Soft Sand - Secret Power, Brick Break, EQ, Rock Throw
:t089: Lv. 62 @ Shell Bell - Flamethrower, Sludge Bomb, Dig, Thunderbolt
:t178: Lv. 48 @ Lax Incense - Shadow Ball, Giga Drain, Night Shade, Aerial Ace