Great design, poor use

[Squirtkipfan01]

Im sure we have all had this problem. You end up finding a pokemon that you absolutely ADORE its design, but its incredibly poor for battles for whatever reason. A prime example for me is galarian corsola. Amazing design, but its poor speed and typing make it unlikely to last long in a fight.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

A prime example for me is galarian corsola. Amazing design, but its poor speed and typing make it unlikely to last long in a fight.

That's actually not true. Galarian Corsola is actually pretty good for stalling. Its defenses are pretty good for a first stage evolution, with both being 100. It can also learn the Strength Sap, which lowers the target's Attack stat by one stage, then restores the Corsola's HP by the same amount as the target's Attack stat before Strength Sap was used. If you equip it with an Eviolite to boost its defenses even further since it's not fully evolved, use an attacking move that does set damage to make up for its weak attacking stats such as Night Shade, and keep lowering the opponent's Attack stat and recovering your own health when you need to keep it alive, then you have a scary defensive Pokémon to stall your opponent for a long time.

Nonetheless, to answer the question, I would probably have to say Golisopod. In my opinion, it has a really cool design, but its ability Emergency Exit, which switches it out automatically when its health reaches less than half, makes it difficult to use to is full potential during battle. Another Pokémon is Guzzlord. Again, great design, but it's stats are kind of weird to say the least. It has monster HP, but horrible defenses. You would naturally want to use it as a bulky attacker, but because of its horrible defenses, it still wouldn't survive much super-effective attacks even if you fully max out its HP. It can be used as a physical Trick Room sweeper, but even then it's completely outshone by Stakataka. I still have love for Guzzlord though, mainly for its design and lore.

 

[ReKoil]

Delcatty. I've used it a couple times in Hoenn games, but dang is it weak D=
It's a stone evo and somehow Plusle and Minun are stronger than it lmao
It's roughly on par with a mid stage starter...

Also Volbeat/Illumise.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

Delcatty.
It's roughly on par with a mid stage starter...

The funny thing is Delcatty is actually weaker than a lot of mid-stage starters. Mid-stage starters tend to have base totals around 405. Delcatty has a base stat total of 380. Even a lot of first stage evolutions are stronger than Delcatty.

 

[ReKoil]

The funny thing is Delcatty is actually weaker than a lot of mid-stage starters. Mid-stage starters tend to have base totals around 405. Delcatty has a base stat total of 380. Even a lot of first stage evolutions are stronger than Delcatty.

Idk if Delcatty got buffed at some point, but it has a base stat total of 400, which is only 5 lower than the 405 of mid stage starters. Hence I said roughly on par.
I actually double checked it's bst before posting =P

Edit: seems to have been buffed a bit in gen 7.
Delcatty in Gen 6 has a bst of 380 like you said. It gained 20 points in it's Speed stat in gen 7.

 

[RadEmpoleon]

Mawile (not its mega). I've always liked its design, but power creep has not been kind to it. Not that it was any good in its original generation, when the only Steel type move it could use was Metal Sound, which does no damage. Its Mega was a great push it needed to be viable, but as far as we're concerned, they're never coming back.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

Idk if Delcatty got buffed at some point, but it has a base stat total of 400, which is only 5 lower than the 405 of mid stage starters. Hence I said roughly on par.
I actually double checked it's bst before posting =P

Edit: seems to have been buffed a bit in gen 7.
Delcatty in Gen 6 has a bst of 380 like you said. It gained 20 points in it's Speed stat in gen 7.

Yeah, you're right. I learned something new today. I had no idea that Delcatty got buffed, probably because I never used it and Delcatty wasn't in the Alola games without trading. Either way, Delcatty is still an unfortunate Pokémon. It needed a lot more than a 20 point increase in Speed. lol

 

[Devalue]

Seconds Delcatty.

Vivillon. Learns some nice moves (Quiver Dance, Sleep Powder + Compound Eyes). Picks up Quiver Dance so late, though. Cannot rely on its defenses either. Rolls the dice on surviving with every sleep turn.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I was never a fan of Delcatty's design. In fact, Delcatty looks kind of creepy to me. The part of its neck that resembles a baby's nursing pillow, those odd appendages that protrude out the nursing pillow-like body part, it's weird ears, it's limbs with no digits whatsoever, and its dark black eyes make Delcatty like an alien or something that doesn't look like it originated on planet Earth.

 

[Northern Lapras]

For me it's got to be Furret! I love the little guy but I've never been able to viably keep them on a team for very long, just couldn't ever seem to make it through a battle :(
I also thought of Skitty & Delcatty too, as well as Bidoof. I just adore the early game Normal types!

 

[Corveone]

Shiftry is one of my favorite designs... feels bad man. I also like Noctowl.

Honestly, I suppose many of the Pokémon I love design-wise are probably considered "poor" by many people, even if I don't necessarily agree. Aurorus and Miltank for example.

 

[Orion☆]

I was never a fan of Delcatty's design. In fact, Delcatty looks kind of creepy to me. The part of its neck that resembles a baby's nursing pillow, those odd appendages that protrude out the nursing pillow-like body part, it's weird ears, it's limbs with no digits whatsoever, and its dark black eyes make Delcatty like an alien or something that doesn't look like it originated on planet Earth.

AMEN! I never liked Delcatty's design either. In fact, it's one of my biggest evolution-related disappointments, so I don't care that it has poor base stats. At this point I'm just holding out for Skitty to get an alternate/regional evolution that stays true to what makes it so cute - something rounder and chonkier would be nice in addition to better base stats.

I agree with Golisopod above - it's very powerful, but its ability makes it hell to use it for longer battles, not to mention it's dangerous to use in Shiny hunting given that Emergency Exit will automatically end the battle. As a personal example, I'd mention Johtonian Typhlosion. I love the entire line and I've found it strong as well, but it has an extremely narrow moveset that makes it usable only in very specific situations. I'd mention Ninjask as well - Speed Boost gives it an edge, at the cost of poor defensive stats and HP. Lastly, there's Noivern, which also has good offensive stats but doesn't last long enough to prove its worth most of the time.

I have a few more examples of Mons I've used like Carnivine, Xatu, Gothitelle, Venomoth and Cloyster, but since I'm not as fond of their designs as I was when I first used them, I'll leave you to figure out what's wrong with these. (How the hell did I survive having frickin' Gothitelle in my team, anyway?)

 

[Sheep]

Loved Delcatty's design despite some opposing opinions but really struggled to use it because of its 65 base attack. Return helped a lot and I'm not sure how I'd have gotten through it otherwise. Also Jumpluff - again, really cute! But 55 attack and sp. attack made going through Johto really hard, especially when grass types were already at such a disadvantage in that gen. Its movepool is horrible too. :(