Another round of Emerald

Finally succumbed to the temptation to play through Emerald again.

After spending HOURS of beach time hand-raising a Swalot (Slurpea, from Sam's game) it occurred to me that, with rematches dependent on Match Call, raising all the max evo's I still needed would take for-freakin'-EVER.  It'd be much easier to raise them as part of a core team, in a new game.   Which would either mean cleaning out and restarting my Emerald cartridge -- or getting another one.

As luck and the Internet would have it, there was a GameStop right nearby in White Marlin Mall.  Which had not just one, but three cartridges of Emerald.  One was defective -- but the second was perfect:  trainer Drake (heh) had only 6 hours and 12 Pokemon on his game, so I could just restart without feeling the need to clean out the cartridge first. 

So now I've got a second game of Emerald going, have completed Rustboro, and am about to head out to Slateport to deliver the Devon Goods, stopping at Dewford to bring Steven his Letter.  The guiding principle for this play-through:  Concentrate on catching and raising the Pokemon I'm missing in the first Emerald cart.

The team so far is: Tabasco (Torchik), Sancho (Lombre, evo'd from Lotad), Sybil (Ralts), Hemmingway (Slakoth), and Twitter (Taillow).  Plus I've got a nameless Zigzagoon along, because Pickup is just too useful.  I've also caught Drama (Whismur) to raise later on, and also plan to catch and raise a Spheal. 

This leaves me with a couple problems.  First, neither Torchik nor its evolutions can learn Fly.  Raising a Swellow, Pelipper, or Altaria is a waste of time, as all of these can be caught wild.  Things like Skarmory or Tropius don't evolve.  And I've already raised a Flygon and Salamence.

The other problem is the lack of decent Electric types, when the end of the game is so slanted towards Water.  Again, there's no point in raising an Electrike when Manectric can be caught wild, and Plusle and Minun don't evolve.  I could go for a Magneton, but again, I already have one (finally caught one in New Mauville).

Maybe I should go for a Tropius.  Grass is just as good against Water as Electric (even though it's weak to Fire).  And Tropius make great HM slaves, too.  The other option would be to trade in that female Bagon, and raise her as a match for Fafnir.

[later edit:  Did I mention I finally got the solid walloping of the Elite Four that I wanted, in my original Emerald game?  With the team finally at lvl 70, I did. ^_^ ]

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Didn't get in much swimming at the beach.  Though Hurricane Igor was nowhere near the coast, it was raising more surf than I've ever seen at OC.  But I sure did get my steps in.  So I've caught pretty much all the Pokemon I needed off every Pokewalker route up to Sinnoh Field.

Am still standing outside Diglett's Cave, in SS.

Entei continues to elude me.