Pokemon you didn't know you loved

[FeralSlaaneshi]

Here's the story:
I'm currently doing a Poison monotype challenge in Pokemon X and just battled Korrina in Geosenge town. Was pretty tough until my Croagunk leveled up and learned Revenge, then it was fairly easy.
Immediately on the next Route I bump into a guy with a Sigilyph and it sweeps 2 of my Pokemon with Psybeam before I can really leave a dent in it.
That's where Swalot comes in and tanks like a boss.
If it weren't for Swalot's crazy special defense I probably would have lost a battle to some random NPC. This thing just saved my pride and I was sort of dreading having it on my team though I knew I'd probably need it.
To each their own but I never really liked Swalot. Gulpin's kinda cute but Swalot just never did it for me. I'm probably still going to swap it out for something a little tankier if it comes along, but I have a new-found love for this little blob.

So this thread is dedicated to the Pokemon you didn't know you'd love. What's your story with them? Did you get them because of a challenge and dreaded it, only to be pleasantly surprised later on? Did you just not know what to expect?

 

[Entermaid]

I hated Gastrodon/Shellos. I used to dread not liking any of the water types in gen 4...but then I played it another time, and since then have more often than not had one on my team. I love the squishy body and mud helmet especially of Shellos/Gastodon west.

Top picks per gen, that I didn't care for, but now love (based upon appearance)
I: Cloyster
II: Crobat
III: Cradilly
IV: Gastrodon
V: Mandibuzz
VI: Slurpuff

 

[Pendraflare]

Unfezant. In White 2 on Challenge Mode, back in the spring, I was doing one of my biggest challenges yet, where I couldn't use any items and fainted Pokémon were dead. When I came to Castelia City's garden, I only had 2/3 a team and my encounter were two Pidove, which at first I thought were the worst I could end up with (I had Servine+Liepard and Psyduck+Zubat). I caught the female, expecting it to not last long at all. But there were many occasions where it barely lived in parts where I was sure it would have died, such as:
-A wild Sigilyph in the Desert Resort that I was trying to catch. It was being difficult, and there was a point when it left me at 3 HP and I was about to be knocked out by the sandstorm, but I used Roost and eventually caught the Sigilyph.
-While I was training for Elesa, a wild Pinsir in the Lostlorn Forest scored a critical hit on me when I switched in, leaving my Tranquill with 9 HP. Then it wouldn't let me run away, but only used Harden.
-In Reversal Mountain, while it was an Unfezant, it battled a Hiker who had a Boldore. I had just managed to beat the Boldore thanks to Roost ridding my Flying-type, and then he had an Excadrill which I was prone to thanks to Smack Down. But my Return still did half, and I had to get the KO otherwise I would have died. And I got the KO despite not being very effective.
-When I battled Drayden, I was against his Altaria, which had +6 Defense thanks to Cotton Guard, and I had to wake up from sleep after one turn AND win a speed tie, and I did so. I beat the Altaria with 11 HP left.
-A Black Belt near the Abundant Shrine had a Conkeldurr that survived my Fly, and his Stone Edge left me at 13 HP, then the sandstorm killed him and left me with 3.

She had a lot of different partners, and while she died in the final battle against Iris, it was easily one of, if not the best contenders any -Locke challenge has given me, surely.

 

[Zenoah]

Venopede/Scoliopede as well as Petilil/Liligant

When I saw Venopede I wasn't impressed. However, after seeing Scoliopede, I started t want to give it a try. It's a pretty rad Pokémon. I'm glad I gave it a try.
With Petilil and Liligant, same thing. I did think it was just some weak grass type, but, again I wanted to try it. Now, when I play Black and White, I will go for either of these two.

 

[Margaery Tyrell]

Ohhh, man. I'd have to say Azumarill, Whimsicott, Toxicroak, and Jolteon.
-For Azumarill, well, I never had much of a reason to not like it besides that I thought it was weak. For some reason it landed a spot on my team in Soul Silver and I really enjoyed how much care I had to use in battling with it due to it's spotty defenses; Huge Power was another reason why I liked it too. Now I'm fond of the little blue rabbit.
-Similar reason with Azumarill, I just never was impressed with it's appearance. It's grown on me, and now I love using the little critter as a support Mon. :3
- I've always despised Toxicroak's design, and I hated it's 4x weakness to psychic. All of that changed when I decided to use it one of my playthroughs in Platinum. I appropriately named it "Ace", and during many gym battles and especially in the elite four it unexpectedly saved my team with crazy crits and nicely timed Revenges. I'd love to train a toxicroak competitively again, now. :)
- Hoooo boy, Jolteon has become most likely my favorite electric pokemon because of my experiences with it in Soul Silver. I never disliked it, but I never was fond of it that much either. Anyway, I needed an electric type on my team for later on in the game, and I was in Golden Rod city at the time, so raising an Eevee into a Jolteon was a convenient choice. Once that sucker evolved into Jolteon and learned some fairly powerful moves, it became a dangerous speed demon on my team. It's most memorable spotlight, however, was when I was up against Lance. My Gyarados was KOed after taking down one of Lance's Dragonites. None of my pokemon were suited to take on the rest of Lance's team, so I thought "f*** it, I'll give Jolteon a chance". Well, Jolteon had Thunder in it's arsenal, and it didn't miss once. With it's ridiculously high special attack, it wrecked pretty much anything Lance threw at us, and when he was at his last Dragonite, we ran into some trouble. Jolteon missed maybe twice, and Dragonite landed a Hyper Beam or Dragon Rush, I believe. Jolteon was down to red, and by some slim luck, the next Thunder hit and crit Dragonite. After that incredible match, Jolteon has become one of my most highly regarded pokemon. :)

 

[Sabrewulf238]

Are we talking about accidents that weren't planned?

If so my first time playing Pokémon White is my most memorable success story in terms of unplanned team members. I had planned to pick Oshawott and I loved the designs of Cofagrigus and Reuniclus so they were a must.

When I reached Lenora's gym I only had Oshawott so I picked up a Timburr to help my take her on. She did well so I decided to keep her on my team. (Plus I hadn't used many fighting types before) Then when I made it to pinwheel forest I picked up a Venipede for the heck of it. (Now I'd possibly put Scolipede in my top 10 Pokémon of all time)
Lastly when I reached the desert I added Darumaka to my team because I had a final spot open, he was cute and I was going to use him against Burgh.

Conkeldurr, Scolipede and Darmanitan have since become some of my favourite Pokémon.

So in the end my team was Samurott, Conkeldurr, Scolipede, Darmanitan, Cogagrigus and Reuniclus. Easily the most memorable and most lovable team I've ever had in a Pokémon game. It all felt so right.

 

[blue]

Durant for me. I remember first seeing it and not thinking much of it at all, but for some reason it made it onto my team and I was thoughtfully surprised by how often it helped me out during tough battles. Definitely one of my favourites from the Unova Region.

 

[Bounsweet]

Recently, Beautifly. I've always loved its design and I used it usually until the 3rd or so gym in Ruby and Sapphire, but after getting ORAS and using it throughout the whole game (even OHKO'd Steven's Mega Metagross with its Bug Buzz), I LOVE IT.

I've really grown to like Illumise too, after using it in XY and ORAS as my Sweet Scent/horde Pokémon.

 

[Venitardus]

Mandibuzz. I never thought of using one until black2 came out. I had made it to the area where you can catch it. I caught it and I was planning to put it in my PC. (Note: I was training for burgh's gym) I used it during the gym battle against burgh and I actually started to like it from then on. Never thought I would have trained one.

Another is furret. One pokemon I had absolutely not wanted on my team until I trained one in HG. It actually got me through some rough spots. And it was my first mono normal type I trained. So I was glad I trained one.

There are a few others as well

 

[TheUnit684]

Chatot!
I always thought Chatot was kinda stupid and weird. Like, what's the point? I never really play 4th Gen to begin with, and Chatot didn't really pop up in fifth Gen, so it was one of the Pokemon that I just never ever thought about. If I'm gonna get a normal/flying type, it wasn't near the top of my list. In fact, it was probably pretty close to the bottom.
But that all changed when I played my first Pokemon Y Nuzlocke. The whole point of a Nuzlocke is to use Pokemon you don't normally do, and in that regard, it succeeded. My team got wiped out in Reflection Cave, to the point where I only had the Carbink that I caught there when I finally got to the Tower of Mastery.
Desperate to not lose the Nuzlocke (I did end up losing way later, after the sixth Gym), I ran straight to the route that's just outside of Shalour City, where the guy gives you the Lapras. There, I encountered a Chatot. I wasn't happy about it at all, I was hoping for a Slowpoke or something. But, I didn't really have a choice, so I started Grinding and got it up to a decent level.
When I went to battle my rival in the Tower of Mastery, I ended up losing Carbink and was down to just Chatot. Chatot wrecked Serena, then went on to decimate Korrina and her entire gym. Chatter was so awesome, with that 100% confuse chance, plus Cauti (that's what I named my Chatot) had a positive Speed nature. I quickly grew to love my Chatot, and along with the Mega Lucario, Cauti carried me through the rest of the Nuzlocke on his mighty wings until I did eventually lose. I don't really remember how I lost, but I do remember Cauti. :P

 

[magicalgirlj]

It's not really in the game but Oddish. For some reason as a kid I never cared for Oddish, but now I think it is cute

 

[Hiatus]

There are a lot of Pokémon out there for me that could be categorized here, thinking about it.

Of them all, one is Forretress. Generally, I wasn't such a huge fan of this Pokémon, as its design didn't seemed to have been too appealing in my eyes. I'd also assumed it to be sort of weak and whatnot, as it's only a middle-stage evolution, and not final (I suppose it could have been put into latter if there were a baby-form of Pineco, but there weren't any). However, one day, friend gave a fully-trained Forretress to me so I could use it to battle against him, and I was pretty surprised to see the Pokémon withstand all those hits.

Throughout my test, I eventually began to figure out how easy it is to utilize Forretress and whatnot, making me become a fan. Aside from this, I also wasn't too fond of Tentacruel four to five years back, but have started to appreciating it more as time moved forward due to similar reasons.

 

[DyingWillFlareon]

Gen I: Victreebel
I was in a race with my siblings in FRLG and chose Belsprout for Cut, but used him ever since. (Don't worry I replaced Cut with Sludge Bomb XD)
Gen II: Meganium
Another Grass type, everyone said it was awful. I never used it because of this even though I liked Chikorita. One day I decided to choose it in an Italian Cristallo nuzlocke, and DANG HE WAS AWESOME. At one point I had believed he was going to die to the Electrode's in Team Rocket's Mahogany base, but he OHKO'd most of them. One had tried to use Explosion, but he survived with about half HP. Then he evolved. HE WAS A BAYLEEF AT THAT POINT. Unfortunaely I lost that game so I never finished. :(
Gen III: Dustox and Altaria
Dustox: I had only ever been able to get Beautifly before AS, so I hadnmt really cared for it. Besides, when I was younger I didn't like Bug types and thought they sucked, but now I like em. Dustox in AS was my first Pokemon I caught and he rocked, he flew circles over Winona's Altaria with Toxic and Venoshock, he did the same to Wallace's Milotic. He OHKO'd Sydney's team with Bug Buzz. Theif was helpful too.
Altaria: I had originally liked Altaria, but eventually it lost it's appeal. By te time AS came around it had a Mega Evo, so I thought it would be worth it to try out, and I have to say I love them again. Because of his dual Dragon/Fairy Mega typing, he wasn't as weak to Ice and could withstand Drake's team better than Gardevoir did. Probably one of the best Flyers I've used.
Gen IV: Bibarel
Once again a case of other's hate for it, I only recently used on in my first run of Diamond. Honestly, I don't get the hate. I love the easy rats of the games though, so that might be it. But his STAB Hyper Fang and Water Gun have carried us far and he's one of my strongest members being the first one I caught. Would totally use him again.
Gen V: Reuniclus and Unfeasant
Reuniclus: I thought it's line was cute but since it was a Psychic type I automatically assumed it was weak, because whenever I used Psychic types they couldn't do squat to the opponent besides use Future Sight. But he proved me wrong, and I love it's line now, and since him I've used a Psychic type in almost every team.
Unfeasant: I thought they were ugly and weak looking, so I demisreguarded them in favor of Braviary. But in White 2 I used a female one and she really saved us. I overtrained her at Burgh's Gym because she was the only one who didn't faint in one hit.(I only had Servine, Purrloin, Tranquil and Eevee) and she kicked tail feathers.
Gen VI: Chesnaught
Chesnaught doesn't get enough love. I thought Chespin was cute so I chose it while my friends both had Fenniken and Froakie. Honestly Chesnaught may be the best starter. Plus he's so derpy in Aime~ He can tank so much and hit back just as hard.

 

[Scotash!]

Crobat. I hated Zubat, I'd only ever caught them to use towards my Pokedex. But I was watching Purple Rodris walkthrough on Youtube of Heartgold and thought, yeah I'll try using one in Pokemon X. By far my most surprisingly loved member of my team, such a boss. I'm going to use Zubat/Golbat in Pokémon Red now as they are two I've never used.

 

[Brivoo]

Primeape. I have no shame in admitting I've never played a gen I game, but with all the features that were scrapped in FR and LG it;s basically the same anyway, so that's fine.
I played through my copy of LG again recently, and decided to catch a Mankey for the sake of diversity. I never really liked the thing when I first started, but I found myself kind of charmed by it on my second playthrough. I kept it on the team as a sort of mascot, and even gave it a cute nickname (God's Mistake).
But then it evolved, and suddenly God's Mistake was steamrolling everything left, right and center. I'm pretty sure I could have used it to single-handedly (single-pokémonly...?) defeat my rival, Butt Fart.