So since my last post I have actually cleared the Pokemon League and am about to head into Kanto! The game difficulty picked up a lot the closer I got to Blackthorn especially with such low levels on my team. The Team Rocket business wasn't too difficult and I cleared out the admins without major issue. Clair was the exact opposite since her team is terrifying! Luckily Crobat was able to clear two of her Dragonair without sustaining any major damage before Feraligatr took out the third with Ice Punch. Kingdra then took out Feraligatr so I swapped to Dunsparce to paralyse and weaken its defence with Screech to allow Heracross to come in and KO with Strength right at the end. I did the Dragons Den stuff and got my badge and TM for Dragonbreath, allowing me to head into Kanto!
Kanto was a bit of a mess since Feraligatr cannot learn Waterfall in these games, so I had to ditch Dunsparce for the Red Gyarados so I could ascend Tohjo Falls and actually make it to the Pokemon League. Johto's Victory Road was awfully underwhelming (there's no trainers except Silver) and Silver was pretty easy to beat with my under-levelled squad. I decided to grind to Level 37, used my 3 Rare Candies on Dunsparce because Dig is awful to use in Victory Road and got ready for the League! My team's lack of strength was woefully apparent during this minor grind - Donphan's lack of decent STAB made fighting the Rock types an absolute pain, same with Heracross. Dunsparce was borderline unusable, Crobat I didn't even try but Umbreon did surprisingly well thanks to Dark being special in these games. Feraligatr was solid as well, as was to be expected.
To the Elite 4! Will was basically an Umbreon sweep since Bite spam took out the first Xatu, Slowbro, Jynx and Exeggutor. The second Xatu I believe was defeated by Feraligatr with Ice Punch. Koga was the worst Elite 4 member to deal with - Donphan cleared his Ariados and Venomoth with Rollout but Forretress always went for Protect to break the Rollout run. I used Feraligatr instead to Surf + Whirlpool the Forretress to death, spammed Bite on Crobat to clear out the Muk and swore angrily whilst Feraligatr finally KOed Crobat with Ice Punch after missing several times thanks to Double Team. Bruno was easy - Crobat swept all his Fighting types with Fly + Wing Attack, Feraligatr took out Onix with Surf. Karen's Umbreon was cleared out by Heracross, Gengar fell to Umbreon, Vileplume fell to Crobat, Murkrow was 2HKOed by Donphan and Dunsparce 2HKOed Houndoom with +2 Dig after sacrificing everyone else to heal him up.
Lance was scary because my team, as you may have noticed, has no Electric moves or ways to kill Gyarados. I used Dunsparce + Heracross for this - Dunsparce paralysed with Glare and then lowered its defence to -4 before weakening it with Strength, then Heracross used Strength again to KO. Donphan used its Defence Curl + Rollout combo to defeat Aerodactyl but fell to Dragonite's Blizzard. Feraligatr then dodged every attack the next two Dragonites used to KO both with Ice Punch! It took out the third one too but got KOed by Outrage in the process. It then beat Charizard with Surf and I became the Champion! Now it's time to take on Kanto, then probably the Pokemon League again, then catch the legendaries, then beat Red. Then I can move onto another game, at long last.
EDIT: So I beat the Kanto gyms pretty easily, I honestly can't remember how I did half of them but everyone got some use here and there. Turns out Leftovers on Dunsparce is awesome, who knew? I proceeded to take on the Elite 4 again and won handily, so I may repeat that a couple more times to get everyone up to level 50 or so before I take on Red. I went ahead and caught Celebi and Suicune but Whirl Islands caught me out and I had to reset so I now only have Celebi, which has put me in a very irritable mood I must admit! I'm taking a break now since my 3DS battery is low but when I next play I'll catch Suicune again and probably Lugia as well. I'd like to capture Raikou/Entei as well (plus Ho Oh) but I spent an hour trying to find either dog and it never happened so I don't know if it's worth it? Thoughts on this would be appreciated - I do want to capture every legendary from every game I play but screw wasting hours hunting down these dogs with low catch rates and constant fleeing, you know? Maybe I'll just limit to having one of every legendary from any game I play rather than from every game.
As for team thoughts (since that thread basically died) - these guys aren't very good. Even the best team members feel pretty weak especially compared to my Red team. Feraligatr is reliable but it feels lackluster due to relying on special moves to deal damage, Donphan and Heracross both lack STAB to go with their amazing Attack stats so they're not amazing, Dunsparce pretty much needs Screech to deal solid damage to anything, Crobat is good but has weak moves and Umbreon is never one-shotting anything, albeit it's also not dying. If I had to name an MVP it would probably be Crobat? With Umbreon and Heracross right behind. Feraligatr is good but disappointing since I thought it would be better and Donphan/Dunsparce just aren't good.
Crystal Team:
Chomper the Feraligatr, Level 47
Bite, Ice Punch, Surf, Whirlpool
Dumbo the Donphan, Level 47
Strength, Rollout, Defense Curl, Mud Slap
Darren the Dunsparce, Level 47
Strength, Dig, Glare, Screech
Vengeance the Crobat, Level 47
Steel Wing, Fly, Giga Drain, Bite
Hercules the Heracross, Level 48
Strength, Fury Cutter, Earthquake, Cut
Halo the Umbreon, Level 48
Faint Attack, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Mean Look