best of the worst

have you ever used a Pokémon that's usually considered terrible in a playthrough? (bad stats, bad moveset, some pokemon are just awful, etc)
did it work out in the end?

I think I once stuck with the Spiky-Eared Pichu through my first challenge of the Elite Four in Johto. I know its an in-game event pokémon, but its still Pichu and its strongest move, Volt Tackle wipes out 1/3 of its miniscule hp as well. It could sometimes be frustrating but also well worth it.

I also had Castform in my Emerald team up until I caught Latios about a year back - the fact that it needed a turn of setup could be damaging but other than that it was great fun. When it came to EV training for Battle Frontier though, the little guy was out. He beat the Sinnoh E4 after migration as well though. The same team also featured a Torkoal despite his vast limitations in terms of movepool, typing in such a water-dominated game, and stats.

N's Zorua is the only other one I can think of in recent years, with only 330BST making it pretty awful in spite of its movepool, but back when I played a lot more when I was still in school I used quite a few others I believe.

I'll often keep an under-evolved pokémon until it can hit its 3rd stage or learn a particular move i.e. Oshawott not evolving until it can go straight through the stages to Samurott also.

I kept my Charjabug as a Charjabug and never evolved it, even after the Hall of Fame. Is that a bad thing?

In Ruby, I actually used a Roselia on my team. That's right, a Roselia that at-the-time didn't have that evolution line.

I even had an odd moveset on her, which included Cut, Magical Leaf, Protect and Aromatherapy. Somehow, it made her become my only Pokemon to ever win a Master Rank Pokemon Contest, in this case the Beauty category.

Somehow, her success was what led to me often using the Roselia line as a notable staple on my story team in future games, such as Platinum, Black 2 and X.

I know there have been plenty of Pokemon I've used that aren't considered great but the only ones I can think off the top of my head are Floatzel, a decent niche Pokemon but pretty awful movepool, and Delcatty...yes...Delcatty. To be honest though it was probably my second favorite on the team, next to Mega Sceptile, in Omega Ruby.

I used Ariados in Silver many years ago and it's now one of my favourite Pokémon to date. Even Guzma is using one..

on heartgold I made an all bug team of butterfree, beedrill, scizor, pinsir, ledian, and yanmega.

as time went on I could only rely on scizor, pinsir, and yanmega. beedrill did okay, butterfree was almost useless and ledian held on for dear life in every battle. literally every battle revolved around just trying to keep ledian alive.. will never use again

Yeah I also used a Roselia when playing Emerald many years ago. It's safe to say, without an evolution and being generally weak, it was pretty frustrating to use but I loved it all the same.

I used many of them but early in game and end up replacing them :(

I once played through Heart Gold with an Everstone-holding Poliwag on my team purely for the fact that I loved his adorable little sprite following me around.

Blue said:

I used Ariados in Silver many years ago and it's now one of my favourite Pokémon to date. Even Guzma is using one..

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Get this, I actually watched a Wedlocke of Heart Gold on YouTube and an Ariados was among the team that made it to the Elite Four, along with her longstanding partner which was a Gengar. Sadly she failed against Lance, but still it was cool to see an Ariados having its full potential brought out.

Dunsparce in Silver. It was a strong-ass Pokémon and worth the seven days it took me to encounter it in Dark Cave. I actually decided against using it again in Black 2 because I knew it would overpower the rest of my team.

Other than that, I have used Shedinja in Emerald because I love it so much. Thankfully, despite its HP, it turned out to be a veeeery useful and strong Pokémon. I actually won the Pokémon League with it by sending it out against Drake's Kingdra and Wallace's Wailord and spamming Confuse Rays and Shadow Balls, because they couldn't attack it. It's my bae. Some other less useful Pokémon I've used have eventually been replaced halfway because they were too weak or didn't have a good movepool, but because of these experiences, Dunsparce and Shedinja will always have my respect.

TechnicolourMemecoat said:

I once played through Heart Gold with an Everstone-holding Poliwag on my team purely for the fact that I loved his adorable little sprite following me around.

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That's one great thing about HeartGold / SoulSilver - they reward your persistence with under-powered pokémon by letting you see their cute little sprites! That's like 80% of the reason the Spiky-Eared Pichu made my team for so long, and when I finally decided to use one of my 2 event Mew, whilst the exact opposite of the subject of this thread, seeing it follow me around made me more comfortable with the fact that I'll now never have a lv. 5 Mew again.

BlazingCobaltX said:

Other than that, I have used Shedinja in Emerald because I love it so much. Thankfully, despite its HP, it turned out to be a veeeery useful and strong Pokémon. I actually won the Pokémon League with it by sending it out against Drake's Kingdra and Wallace's Wailord and spamming Confuse Rays and Shadow Balls, because they couldn't attack it. It's my bae. Some other less useful Pokémon I've used have eventually been replaced halfway because they were too weak or didn't have a good movepool, but because of these experiences, Dunsparce and Shedinja will always have my respect.

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I'm literally riding up and down the famed straight line from Verandturf Town through to Route 118 on my Emerald file right now trying to level up my Shedinja and Ninjask in day care so I can use their False Swipe to obliterate all the legendaries in the game :) Never used it in-game though, was going to this time but I'm such a fan of all the early-route pokémon in Emerald my team was going to be too full and under-powered.

I'd kept my Surskit from day one of both my Emerald & ORAS runs, Masquerain might have all the weaknesses in the world but I wouldn't trade it for the whole world c:

I've used Aipom in pokemon Gold and Silver. He was pretty much worthless but he looks so cool!

I had Amaura/Aurorus on my team from the day I resurrected it from the fossil to the day I beat the E4 in X just because I really liked its design, lol. I don't think it's the worst Pokémon, but, you know, that's a lot of weaknesses.

Juno said:

I had Amaura/Aurorus on my team from the day I resurrected it from the fossil to the day I beat the E4 in X just because I really liked its design, lol. I don't think it's the worst Pokémon, but, you know, that's a lot of weaknesses.

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Used him too. So awful but looks amazing.

I mean Dedenne was considered absolute garbage when X&Y first came out (probably still is by many) and I still used it. It's super adorbz hehe~

Dedenne1 said:

I mean Dedenne was considered absolute garbage when X&Y first came out (probably still is by many) and I still used it. It's super adorbz hehe~

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You do have to admit it's not as good as most Pikaclones, especially since it gets only one Fairy-type attack... which unfortunately works off its weaker attacking stat.

But then its own successor Togedemaru had to be cursed by learning only one Steel-type move that it can't even use effectively.

Why Game Freak, why?

Hikamaru said:

You do have to admit it's not as good as most Pikaclones, especially since it gets only one Fairy-type attack... which unfortunately works off its weaker attacking stat.

But then its own successor Togedemaru had to be cursed by learning only one Steel-type move that it can't even use effectively.

Why Game Freak, why?

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Oh yes it could be far better. Design wise its my favorite along with its typing but then its like to the point where you give a Pokemon a halfway decent special attack stat and instead of giving it moonblast (which is understandable) or dazzling gleam (which would work perfect with an electric fairy you would think) GF gives it freaking play rough.

So yes I do love Dedenne but GameFreak certainly tried to make it as useless as possible and basically unusable in competitive.