Well things have gone nutty mccray-cray, but I'm still alive and still going. I have made it to Blackthorn City, and here is my team:
Parry the Fearow (37)
Donald the Raticate (37)
Frank the Gyarados (37)
Florence the Swinub (22)
Marina the Heracross (22)
Azealia the Shellder (23)
From memory, I think my box contains:
Emeli the Gyarados (30?) (The red one from the Lake of Rage, I know it kinda sort of breaks my Duplicates rule but I couldn't catch anything else at Lake of Rage anyway, and it doesn't matter while Frank's still around)
Isaac the Poliwag (20)
Shania the Krabby (???)
Suzanne the Girafarig (19)
??? the Farfetch'd (???)
So yeah there are SO many Water types. Like just before I quit for the night I lost Guy-Manuel the Tentacruel at Level 31. Obviously I've also lost Natalie the Haunter and Pascal the Ampharos, both of which were devastating and happened in the rival battle in the Goldenrod Underground Warehouse.
As you can see it'll be a lot of grinding (Clair's highest is Lv. 41) so I'll update much later. Luckily I have the Exp. Share so things will go somewhat faster?
I don't get how people can play without loss, though. Like so much of the fun is playing with Pokemon I normally wouldn't play through the whole game with. I don't think I've actually used a Swinub, Heracross, or Shellder in the actual game. If you grind your pokes so high, then you just get to play with your favorites again.