Pokémon that exceeded your expectations in-game despite looking bad initially?

[mertyville]

Because easter I used Marill in my Sapphire run and evolved it. Luckily I got covered by Brave Nature Huge Power. I was expecting something decent. But to my surprise Azumarill OHKOed almost anything with Strength. I don't think I used any other move besides that and Rollout. Well, BubbleBeam did come in handy against random Geodude but not needed. Now it learned Double Edge. That bunny is a monster.

 

[bdt2002]

My first two times using this Pokémon both happened within the past year, one in Alpha Sapphire and one in Legends: Arceus;



In both games it demonstrated why I like the Water/Ice typing so much, backed up by excellent natural bulk by Ice-Type standards. Unresisted STABs and the ability to hit aversive Grass-Types super effectively is always a great quality to have. I've historically compared Walrein to Kanto's residents Lapras and Dewgong (and I guess Cloyster to a much lesser extent), and I can't say for certain that any of them match Walrein's viability ceiling in practice. Lapras comes the closest by far, but it's only in certain games (hilariously, none of which have Walrein in the regional PokéDex as direct competition).

What about Walrein's moves, though? Out of these four, I'd say Walrein is either the first or second best physical attacker out of the group, while still having access to the strong special game of its Water/Ice competition. Probably my favorite part of the Walrein experience, though, is how freaking stupid Rest is now in Legends: Arceus. It hadn't even occurred to me that even a nerfed version of the move would be wildly better than usual with Drowsy status over traditional sleep. Walrein's easily one of the best users of this strategy in all of Hisui, able to take advantage of Agile Style Rest > regular Rest for free healing all the way back to 100% while still having the bulk to take hits on turns where Drowsy status does kick in, which given Rest's mechanics compared to other sleep moves, is almost never.

 

[khlaylav]

So a couple years back I did a Burmy only run in Y (was, well, the biggest of oofs) and was stunned at how useful Mothim, of all mons, was. It may be slow and frail but STAB Acrobatics still hurts and then Quiver Dance is as amazing as promised. Then Wormadam Ground was able to absorb some hits and fire back with STAB Ground moves.

A Burmy run through Pokémon Y | Smogon Forums

 

[aegon the unlikely]

Some years ago, I did a GSC playthrough using only Dunsparce. It wasn't even planned. It was the first Pokémon that I encountered in the Dark Cave and I obviously took that as a signal from the heavens. The thing was a monster, altho I acumulated more than 50 videos on my phone trying to beat Jasmine by using Glare + Headbut (no heals). Hax was needed, but I triumphed.

After that, everything died to Defense Curl + Rollout.

Old post, but if you do a solo Dunsparce run, this is probably how it would go.

 

[mertyville]

So I decided to use N's Zorua. At first my expectation were kinda high because it is a gift pokemon treated as a trade Pokemon, so you get more EXP. 30 ivs in every stat, Hidden Power Fighting with 70 Base Power? Sounds great. Hasty Nature guarantied? Sign me in.
But then you use it and it doesn't do much most of the game until it evolves where Night Slash starts to deal some damage. At that point I started to lose hope in Zoroark. But then there is a shining light at the end of the tunnel: Nasty Plot and TM30 Shadow Ball. Not very impressive but you can set up and break through problematic trainers.
However the real moment Zoroark became an MVP is when I found TM35 Flamethrower and leveled it up to 64 (which went surprisingly quick) where it finally learned Night Daze.
I swept 3 members of the elite 4 and almost beat Iris until her Haxorus showed it had Focus Sash and Dragon Dance where she turned the tables. In the post game Zoroark also helped a ton sweeping Cynthia and Alder.

The only thing that bothered me is that after Illusion is broken, the move cursor goes to the first move so you can't just spam A throughout the battle without worry once Zoroark shows its true form.
Sadly I never got to buy TM10 Hidden Power but found Focus Blast which I taught it. Was looking forward to try out Hidden Power Fighting for once in game. Oh well.

 

[Karxrida]

So I decided to use N's Zorua. At first my expectation were kinda high because it is a gift pokemon treated as a trade Pokemon, so you get more EXP. 30 ivs in every stat, Hidden Power Fighting with 70 Base Power? Sounds great. Hasty Nature guarantied? Sign me in.
But then you use it and it doesn't do much most of the game until it evolves where Night Slash starts to deal some damage. At that point I started to lose hope in Zoroark. But then there is a shining light at the end of the tunnel: Nasty Plot and TM30 Shadow Ball. Not very impressive but you can set up and break through problematic trainers.
However the real moment Zoroark became an MVP is when I found TM35 Flamethrower and leveled it up to 64 (which went surprisingly quick) where it finally learned Night Daze.
I swept 3 members of the elite 4 and almost beat Iris until her Haxorus showed it had Focus Sash and Dragon Dance where she turned the tables. In the post game Zoroark also helped a ton sweeping Cynthia and Alder.

The only thing that bothered me is that after Illusion is broken, the move cursor goes to the first move so you can't just spam A throughout the battle without worry once Zoroark shows its true form.
Sadly I never got to buy TM10 Hidden Power but found Focus Blast which I taught it. Was looking forward to try out Hidden Power Fighting for once in game. Oh well.

I've used N's Zoura in BW2 before and it mostly shines against things with Psychic attacks. Illusion just shits all over the AI if you disguise as a Fighting- or Poison-type in these cases, as the opponent will continue to spam ineffective moves because of some inability to comprehend the ability's existence.

 

[aegon the unlikely]

Furret. Kind of a rough start given their abysmal stats and moves at first as Sentret, but eventually turned out to be one of the best Pokemon I ever used in Pokemon Crystal. Helped beat Falkner and the Azalea Rival, literally crushed Whitney with a bit of aid from Bellsprout, soloed Morty, and crushed 4/6ths of Lance with some Sleep Powder aid for Gyarados from Victreebel; also helped take down Misty in Kanto. It took Red to put him down. Curlout is a brutal strategy, and Normal-type STAB is exceptionally powerful in GSC thanks to badge boosts giving you an effective 24% boost.

Technically, I tested Sentret/Furret first for the GSC Ingame Tier List, and it was there I realized how good they were...but if I had any remaining doubts, the Nuzlocke cleared them away. Dude was probably the single best player in my Hardcore Nuzlocke overall (pre-Red)...and that's saying a fair bit, IMO.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

For me it was Smeargle. I though it was going to being really bad since it is really frail and happened to struggle often. A lot. Even after catching some I wasn't impressed since I was sketching some weak moves. Then once I perfected the move set and everything else it turned into a straight up godzilla.

 

[mertyville]

To finish the game in a quicker way, I traded some Pokemon from SS to Diamond. One of them was Cacnea from Pokemon Emerald lv5 Timid Nature with Cut. Eventually I realized that Cacnea still hits hard despite the -atk nature. It came with its 60 base power grass signature move which was impressive early game and eventually learned Faint Attack. Once it evolved, pretty much anything got 2hkoed and I decided to teach it Focus Blast to take advantage of its Special Attack and before the league Dark Pulse. Obviously the trade bonus helps out here but I did not expect it to do this well.

 

[Kin+ak (✧∇✧)]

definetly unfezant in swsh. found a shiny one in early game, used it a lot, won All games.
also toxtricity, friend from fairy gym(i had to find a breaker to that Type) till the end. My firsr ever lvl100 mon.

 

[Kin+ak (✧∇✧)]

also gurdurr. despite sus looking, it has a lot of tools to Be goof even unevolved at league

 

[SturdyShedinja]

I tried audino on a whim in a recent playthrough of Pokemon Black just so I could mess around with the reusable tms more and it really suprised me. Being stuck with double slap at the start was annoying, but once it got secret power and later return it was doing pretty respectable damage. Unfortunately, most of the strong tms were postgame, but dig, thunderbolt, and shadow ball were usually enough. It definitely peaked midgame, where it swept elesa by abusing regenerator with a sandile in the back, but even if it wasn't amazing lategame, iit held it's own much better than I expected since it's usually just a punching bag for easy exp. I highly recommend it, it's movepool was fun even if I expected more and defensive abilities are very underrated in casual playthroughs.

 

[HallowedHarlequin]

Jumpluff in Violet. I caught a Hoppip in the first route and kept it around for the early Sleep Powder, but then it actually got some damage output with Acrobatics as a Skiploom. Later I realized it got screens and memento, which, combined with its amazing speed, made it incredible for trying to march straight up to the nearest overleveled badge and cheese through it. I beat the Iron Treads titan with a team in the 20s, for example, with intimidate switching+screens+sleep+screech etc. It was also a champion against the Elite 4 with the same set of options letting another teammate set up for a sweep. MVP.

 

[Ransei]

For sure Audino, any mainline game it's in really.

 

[DaRotomMachine]

Illumise.
Yes, Illumise.

This tiny bug can singlehandedly break down many of the hard battles you find in Pokemon Radical Red.
Prankster is a broken ability, as well as ENCORE. This move will help your battles alot
With Illumise being given the Fairy type and better defensive stats (I think?) You can force switches wheile the opponent sets-up and can U-turn after it.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

Scream Tail. I used it on the team I made for the Indigo Disk (named ID:009, full details here). The reason I went with it was that I needed a Fairy-type, and it was the only one from Gen 9 that was left. I had previously used Dachsbun, Tinkaton, Iron Valiant and Flutter Mane, I didn't want to use Fezandipiti since it is a legendary, and I didn't want to use a Pokémon from an older generation. Which left me with Ancient Jiggly as the only alternative.

Scream Tail is an odd Pokémon. It is fast and defensive with lower offenses, having base 65 in both Attack and Sp.att. Those stats made it feel unsuitable for in-game use. When I learned that the Indigo Disk would focus on Double battles, my expectations got even lower. But despite that, I decided to stick with Scream Tail, expecting it to be a burden and a disappointment that I wouldn't use in many serious battles.

To my own surprise, it became the MVP of the team. It could rarely OHKO opponents, but that didn't really matter since high Speed pretty much always allowed it to move first, and high defenses allowed it to live most hits, usually with more than 50% HP left, letting it attack again and again. It would also heal with Leftovers at the end of every turn, letting it live even longer. Dazzling Gleam is also a good move in Doubles since it damages both opponents. If it needed some extra firepower, it could use Calm Mind to boost (although I rarely used it, attacking right away was often the better option), or Terastal into a pure Fairy-type to power up Dazzling Gleam. I found that Scream Tail worked best if I didn't lead with it but kept it in the back, bringing it out when the battle had been going on for a while. This allowed it to take down the remains of the opposing team, or at least parts of it. It was amazing in my battles against Crispin, Lacey, Drayton, Kieran and Terapagos. Since I am playing Violet, my Scream Tail was traded, which meant that it got boosted Exp. It was usually a few levels above the rest of the team, and it was the first one to reach level 100.

After playing through the Indigo Disk, I can appreciate Scream Tail a lot more, and it is defintiely one of my (many!) favorites from Gen 9.