Who Should the Replacement Pokemon on my Platinum Nuzlocke team be?

Question

Hey guys, its been a while since I was on here, but I had a good question that I feel like would be best answered here. I am doing a Platinum Nuzlocke, and am about to fight Crasher Wake, when I realized that I have way too many Ground types on my team. My team is currently: Torterra, Gabite, Gallade, Luxray, Gastrodon, and Staraptor. I also have a decently high level Houndoom, which I sometimes swap into the team (usually boxing my gastrodon). I was thinking of replacing Torterra or Gastrodon, or both, more permanently with something, either right now or in the near future to fill out my final team for the Elite 4, but here's my questions. Which of the two (Torterra or Gastrodon) should be replaced, and with what? Should both or neither be replaced? Should a member other than those two be replaced? The four Pokemon I think would be good fits would be Scizor(caught a Scyther on 210), or Frosslass (I hesitate with her because getting a female Snorunt is not only a while away from where I'm at in the game, but only a 50% chance at best with dupes clause(I can only catch one snorunt)), or an Eeveelution(I didn't evolve my gift Eevee yet, so that'll allow me to pick the best one for the team). And lastly, I recently caught a promising high level Magikarp with a speed raising nature and good IVs for a future Gyarados, but I'm not sure what to pick, or if there's a better option than all of these. If it helps, I can show you some of the stats of my Pokemon if necessary(ie. Natures, movesets, items held, EVs, IVs etc.), or can show you what Pokemon I still have available in the PC from past encounters. Thanks so much! Glad to be back on here, and I know I'll get a good answer here.

My Rules for the Nuzlocke:
Traditional rules, ie. Pokemon faints it dies(One exception being for the first few gyms, I allowed myself one extra life for one 'mon, just because I'm just starting back up with playing Pokemon. This exception no longer applies, due to how far I've gotten now.), nicknames, one encounter per route, (exceptions being the multiple floors of a cave count as separate areas, if they contain different encounters on each level. For example, since Gible is exclusively on the 2nd floor of Wayward cave, that 2nd floor counted seperately from the first.)
Dupes Clause: (If I've already caught a Pokemon from the line of my encounter, I can't catch it again, and that Pokemon doesn't count as my single encounter for the area. As an example, I caught a Starly on route 201, so the staravias near veilstone didn't count as my encounter, and I didn't catch them, but waited for the first new Pokemon encounter.)
Shiny Clause: If you come across a shiny, you can catch it regardless of if you've already had an encounter in the area, but can only use it if its the first encounter of the area.
Level Cap: Can't use any Pokemon if they exceed the next gym leader's ace level before fighting that gym leader. Leveling up past their ace during the battle with them is fine to keep using them in that battle.

Comments

What is your Gastrodon's ability? Is it Storm Drain? Also, none of your ground types are weak to water.

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Yes, it does have Storm Drain, and I realize none are weak to Crasher Wake's Water types, that's just when I really realized my overabundance of Ground types, and wanted to change that. It's just I don't want to go super far into the game with a Pokemon I'm not going to try to use on the final team, and Crasher Wake is already the 5th Gym Leader. Going much farther than that without your final team could mean a lot of grinding for the likely lower-level replacement Pokemon, plus I want to be prepared for future battles beyond Crasher Wake.

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I would recommend dropping Gastrodon from the team to give the rest of your party more exp, as it doesn't offer anything your Torterra can't do. Additionally, Storm Drain neither gives a Water-type immunity or a Sp. Atk boost in Gen 4, making it relatively worthless.

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This probably breaks rule 1.6 but since most of the issues on https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/meta/82917 likely won't apply to this, we'll see how it goes. Would help to include your rules for the nuzlocke.

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@Fizz, I added my rules for the nuzlocke to the question if you'd like to look them over.

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Also, JustATypical Person, thanks! I had no idea Storm Drain was so bad in Gen 4. I mostly already swapped it out for my Houndoom anyway, so I think I'll make that a permanent change, but there's still the matter of whether Torterra should stay on, and whether the rest of the team should.

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Also, I just realized, since I'm swapping Gastrodon for Houndoom, I will need to swap someone else for another Surfer, since I prefer for my Surfer and Flyer to be members of the team, not HM Mules. Unless you think I should just not use Houndoom at all, and swap Gastrodon for a better Surfer, but I don't want it to come to that, because I just spent a long time training up my Houndour and getting him on par with everyone else on the team.

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Could someone give me an official answer? I'm pretty sure I want to make the swap of Gastrodon to Houndoom a permanent one, but I'm still not sure about whether to keep Torterra, since I already have a stronger ground type with Gabite, and Grass Type isn't all that useful anymore. I'm thinking of swapping it out with a surfer, but don't know which one to pick. I've caught many different fish pokemon via all the water spots I went back and got with a good rod, which previously had no encounter, so I'll likely have something good for it.

Answer 1

The most efficient solution to your problem is just to replace Torterra with Gyarados. If you've already replaced Gastrodon with Houndoom, you will need another Surfer; Gyarados fills this role well. Additionally, Gyarados is easily one of the strongest Pokemon in the entire game thanks to Intimidate, high Attack, and strong moves like Aqua Tail, Strength, and Ice Fang.

You should keep Torterra around for Crasher Wake. Also note that Volkner becomes marginally more difficult without a Ground type, so account for that when forming your team.

I will also refer you to this article and the relevant tier list espousing Gyarados' strengths, in case you aren't fully convinced yet.

Comments

Do you know why Houndoom is B tier on that list? It has good stats and learns fire blast.

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I think that list ranks Pokemon lower if there's another Pokemon that can do its job better. In this case, that might be Infernape, Weavile, or assorted other frail attackers, though I couldn't tell you the exact thought process behind the placement.

For what it's worth, https://youtu.be/IdBz4yRqMXw?t=2660 ranks Houndoom in S tier, though that tier list is more liberal with its S tier placements. I don't think FlygonHG places as much importance on a Pokemon being outclassed by another, though he does acknowledge Houndoom's poor level-up movepool.

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Houndoom has slow growth rate.

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@Amethyst Wouldn't outclassing be less relevant in Nuzlockes when people can't catch whatever they want? Like Houndoom wouldn't be outclassed by Weavile if the player doesn't find a Sneasel.
@Fizz I don't think leveling rate is relevant when people always grind their Pokemon to the next boss's highest level.

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@sumwun I'm inclined to agree with you. Like I said, I'm not totally sure why it's ranked the way it is — maybe the creator put a lot of stock into 1. its level-up movepool and 2. its competition with the guaranteed Infernape (though that obviously locks the player out of other starters). Either way I think the original asker's decision to use Houndoom is intelligent and probably shouldn't be changed.

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Thanks so much Amethyst! I will definitely start training up Amphitrite the female Magikarp (Going for a mythological theme with all my nicknames, particularly Greek and Roman characters and creatures. It's been fun to stretch my knowledge coming up with new but fitting names for everyone.)

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Happy to help! Good luck :)