Help with my team in Platinum?

Question

Ok, so I plan on restarting my Platinum soon, and I've already planned out my team as
Torterra
Gastrodon
Girafarig
Yanmega
Electabuzz
Magmar

The problem here though is that I highly doubt I'll be able to fully evolve the Electabuzz and Magmar, as I don't know of anyone else with a Gen 4 game that could trade with me, so if I keep them in the team, they'll stay in their second stages. So should I still keep them on my team, or is it not worth it?

Comments

I'm pretty sure this is too open-ended to be allowed. This will probably help, though. http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/pok%C3%A9mon-diamond-pearl-platinum-in-game-tier-list-discussion.3603381/
I can tell you right now that Jolteon and Rapidash will be much better than those two, in case you're too lazy to click the link.

---

Could you elaborate on how it's open ended?

---

You're asking "Are Magmar and Electabuzz worth using?" which I think means the same as "Are there options better than Magmar or Electabuzz?". There are about 100 options to consider, so I think it's too open-ended.
By the way, why are you using Gastrodon, Girafarig, and Yanmega when you could be using Gyarados, Kadabra, and Scyther? Those are all easier to find or evolve and perform just as well in battle.

---

Oh... My intention was just to see if they're worth keeping in their unevolved forms or not, not to explore other options for replacing them. Sorry if I came off that way.
And I'm just using them because I like how they look. My teams are built by picking the Pokemon that I want to use on a team first, and then checking to see if they have good stats, a nice moveset, and just would generally perform decent on the team. If they wouldn't, then I search for a replacement.

---

In that case, what's your definition of "worth keeping"?

---

I'm fine with this honestly. "Are Magmar and Electabuzz worth using?" could also be, "Do Magmar and Electabuzz perform well enough in Platinum?" for which you could definitely make a case for them. There are plenty of ways to answer this objectively, the criteria is that they should fit the team well and perform better than Magmar and Electabuzz which is not really open ended. Linking that Smogon article could be the start to an answer to the question, even.
So long as the contributing factors here are how well the Pokemon performs in the game and not something arbitrary like how they look, this can stay up just fine. Thanks for getting me involved though.

---

"Do Magmar and Electabuzz perform well enough in Platinum?" Well enough for what?

Answer 1

Both Magmar and Electabuzz are very solid Pokémon are despite being in their middle stage, that are both viable. I would say try them out as they are still good Pokémon, but if you are struggling with them, some good alternatives for Magmar are:
Houndoom: Dark Typing can help out a lot with trainers like Lucian, it gets some powerful moves and you can get it early (Houndour can be found south of Veilstone City and evolves within one level of being caught). But Houndoom has low defences and doesn't get the best moves in the beginning.
Rapidash: Accessible very early, has amazing attack and speed and gets solid moves. But it takes a while to evolve and doesn't get amazing use of its physical attack (as seen with Flareon lol).
And some alternatives for Electabuzz are:
Magnezone: Great stats across the board and Steel Typing gives it plenty of resistances and an immunity to poison, which helps out a lot with all of Team Galactics Poison Types. Doesn't get the many (if any) coverage attacks.
Luxray: Accessible very early, Intimidate for its ability and gets some pretty good attacks. Doesn't get the best use of its high Physical attack with its strongest physical STAB move being Spark/Thunder Fang, which lack in power.
Jolteon: Has amazing Special Attack and Speed and you can evolve it from Eevee whenever you want to. Might have to wait a while for a strong Electric move on it and barely gets any coverage attacks.

To summarise, both Electabuzz and Magmar can work on your team, but not being fully evolves can cripple them quite a bit. I would say try them out on your team first, but if you aren't satisfied, swap them for some other Pokémon. If you do swap them out for other Pokémon, I would personally go with Houndoom and Magnezone.

Comments

Thank you very much!

Answer 2

Here's a rare occasion where I can answer.

I do have two possible fixes to the "holes" in your team. A fire-type replacement could be Houndour, and it evolves early so that's a plus, I guess. Its defensive typing is poor and it dies quick, but is pretty strong offensively. Shinx would be an electric-type suggestion. Its ability is especially helpful (well, only sometimes with Rivalry, but you can always use Attract if it doesn't). Intimidate gives it additional defense. I don't think it matters if you catch it later towards Sunyshore City as a Luxio and then instant Luxray, or earlier on as a Shinx. Be careful which moves you teach it, stuff like Shock Wave and Thunderbolt are ineffective on Luxray, I speak from experience.

If you really do want to continue with just Magmar and Electabuzz, they should work fine as they're both decent Pokes on their own and would be about as strong in-game as the two above. Note however Magmar/Electabuzz are special attackers, so it's possible that may present a problem but shouldn't hopefully.

Speaking as this was my favorite Pokemon game until ORAS. I hope I helped.

Comments

Thank you so much!

Answer 3

I think you should replace Magmar with Lucario because of its great attack and special attack and replace electabuzz with Gallade because of its good attack and special defense. That's all I got.