It's funny because I stumbled upon this thread RIGHT after I started Pokemon Omega Ruby. I'm doing my Electric Gym Leader Challenge where I sent myself 6 eggs from Alpha Sapphire to Omega Ruby and hatched them. I actually carefully chose who I was going to use: Ampharos, Galvantula, Lanturn, Rotom, Magnezone, and Luxray. I wanted Pokemon to use the necessary HMs (everything but Fly) so my Lanturn will be the HM slave with Surf, Waterfall, and Dive. Rock Smash will be on Ampharos, Galvantula if I really need it will have Cut, Luxray will have Strength, Flash will probably be on Magnezone, and Rotom will get Secret Power (or maybe vice versa).
This playthrough is teaching me a lot about what makes a Pokemon fun to use. I think there are three criteria for me: 1.) Design, 2.) How it performs when I get it, and 3.) How it performs in the end-game. With the exception of Lanturn, I love all the Pokemon I chose (I wish Lanturn was a bit stronger but eh). I can't answer how my current team will perform up to the Elite Four but I have high hopes for it. But, what I can do is tell you about the tortuous beginning.
Long story short, Mareep, Joltik, and in particular Magnemite were REALLY underwhelming. Mareep and Magnemite had no STAB moves upon birth, and Tackle used the weaker attack stats. Mareep at least picked up quicker because it had a stronger attack stat than Magnemite. But Magnemite fell behind hard until it learned Thunder Shock. Joltik had a problem since its only attacking move until it reached level 12 was the 20 BP Leech Life. It, surprisingly, had more survivability than Magnemite due to how it would heal itself with Leech Life. It also was able to get super effective attacks against the Lotads, Seedots, Shroomish, and Poochyenas of the beginning game even though it was worthless against Tailow and Wingull.
Rotom confirmed to me how good it was. It was the real champ of the early game since it was a Ghost type with good base stats (Base 95 special attack for the beginning of the game is amazing), a STAB move, and quickly learned a 90 BP Normal move. I'm going to wait until I beat Norman to give it an appliance form, but I'm thinking of Heat Rotom since I already have a water type Pokemon and I can use more coverage here. Chinchou had a STAB move with Bubble and it was great that it provided great synergy with a team where most Pokemon are only really getting electric attacks. Shinx, despite being underwhelming in competitive play, was a veteran Pokemon from my Diamond playthrough so I knew it could carry its weight. Shinx, in addition to being a stronger attacker due to having a stronger attack stat, even had Thunder Fang as an egg move thanks to his mommy.
Thanks to my craziness to slightly EV train them using Super Training before the first gym (netting them around 100 EVs in their (special) attack stat), it took me over 5 hours to beat the first gym leader. Next time I do this, I will try to make sure that I choose Pokemon that will not take like over 5 turns to kill a level 2 Pokemon even when it is level 4.
I'll see how this team actually ends up in the end. I just beat Dewford Gym. Now that everyone had their proper STAB moves, Dewford was an easy win for me now that anyone but Magnemite can hit with STAB and not be hit with a super effective move. It was better than Rustboro where only Chinchou could do anything.
Tentatively I'll tell you that with the exception of Magnemite, everyone is doing great and I would probably do it again if I didn't have to start at level 1. Magnemite is just the most underwhelming in terms of power. I know Magnezone is pretty great, but until then he's weak.
I'm also expecting Joltik to quickly lose its great power that it has now, because it evolves way late (level 36). But around the time it should evolve, I should be fighting Winona so I might not have a terrible time forcing Joltik to evolve (aside from being weak as hell).
