Pokémon you had fun using in in-game runs

[StarKirb94]

I've always seen discussions around this forum about which Pokémon are the most useful to use in-game, but I don't really see much of the more subjective part of this matter, of Pokémon that are simply subjectively interesting to use on the games' main campaign, so what are some Pokémon you've had fun using in in-game runs?

To clarify something, I'm not making this thread with the purpose of discussing about what makes certain Pokémon fun to use, but rather to share some interesting moments relating to Pokémon you've found to be interesting or enjoyable to use in your playthrougs.

To give some personal examples, I've been playing Pokémon Black recently, and Minccino is pretty cool to use. While Skill Link is the preffered ability competitively, Technician is super fun to use due to it learning a bunch of low BP moves (such as Thief or Wake-Up Slap), Tail Slap in particular gets really strong with this ability, and due to this being a regular playthrough, it's more forgiving to rely on the move's RNG.

A few months ago I also played through Crystal, and decided to use a Scizor this time. The thing about Scizor is that it had a horrendous moveset back then, you had to rely in a bunch of low BP moves, so I didn't have the biggest expectations for it, but I was shocked with how much its high stats compensated for the bad movepool. I remember sweeping a lot of trainers (including some bosses, like Will) using just Fury Cutter over and over again. As soon as the move hits its maximum power, nearly everything will get one-shotted by it due to Scizor's high Attack + STAB, it's incredible.

 

[Hugin]

Orbeetle in SWSH was my MVP. Not because he swept everyone(he didn’t) or he was particularly tanky(though he did take hits well). Nope, I did a no-Dynamax challenge on my first run, so a moderately bulky, very fast mon that gets dual screens at level 10 was perfect. Set up whichever screen is obvious before fainting their pre-ace mon, swap to something with a type advantage, and laugh as you take ~30% from a STAB Max move.

 

[sb879]

The most fun Pokemon I've ever used was Smeargle. I'd been interested in using it for a long time, but it wasn't readily available for a long time after GSC. I finally got around to using it on a run through Sun, where it's available quite early. Sun has the weird complication of having the move relearner at the end of the game, so I had to think carefully about each Sketch use. The first Sketch got Vice Grip from a Grubbin, which with Technician was an 82 BP STAB move right at the beginning of the game. Even backed with base 20 attack, it was pretty strong and carried Smeargle through most of Melemele. With the Level 11 Sketch I got Pluck from a Rufflet to help with Hala. It let Smeargle 2HKO his Makuhita, which was something, I guess. By Akala, Smeargle was pretty weak even with its strong moves, but fortunately Akala also has Salandits with Dragon Rage, which I used the Level 21 Sketch on. This let Smeargle be pretty strong for a while, and while it would have faltered again with all the evolved Pokemon on Ula'Ula, it was able to get Spore with the Level 31 Sketch from wild Paras. Broken as always, Spore let it get several free turns to break through the new, bulkier Pokemon.

By the end of Ula'Ula, though, Smeargle was having trouble keeping up with the power creep, and the Level 41 Sketch had nothing to keep it afloat. I got Minimize in a desperate attempt to BS my way through trainers, but my luck wasn't strong enough to keep Smeargle from being terrible. Without exaggeration, I'd say it spent half of this period of the game fainted. However, the move relearner at the Pokemon League turned its fate around. Now, in addition to using Sketch as much as I wanted, I could have any Pokemon learn any move it could learn, have a wild Smeargle Sketch it, then Sketch it right back. I used this to transform Smeargle into something more reminiscent of a competitive set. My set ended up being Spore, Baton Pass (from Ledian), Cotton Guard (from Cottonee), and Quiver Dance (from Butterfree), which could basically abuse any slower, physical Pokemon into an easy set-up that let any special Pokemon sweep. It led to a fairly triumphant end for Smeargle, getting set up on Kukui's Snorlax to let my Persian sweep the remainder of his team.

All in all, while Smeargle wasn't really worth it from a viability perspective, it was a ton of fun to use and plan out. It's certainly not a Pokemon to use on a blind playthough, but I definitely recommend others to give it a shot and see what you can come up with.

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

Serperior in any of the Unova games. Leech Seed/Coil/Leaf Blade/Giga Drain can grind its way past more opponents than you might expect.

Jumpluff in Colosseum, mostly just for the fast Sleep Powder support.

 

[MirandaPkmn]

Vigoroth in Emerald. It might have some lacking stats since it's a pre-evolution, but it's still got some great speed (base 90) and pretty good attack (base 80). I discovered it a few months ago after opting to not evolve my pokemon into Slaking so that I wouldn't have to suffer from Truant.

The set I usually run on Vigoroth is Bulk Up/Slack Off/Strength/Shadow Ball. Bulk up raises Vigoroth's slightly lacking attack, Slack Off is a great recovery move, Strength is a nice STAB attack with no drawbacks, and Shadow Ball hits ghost-types.

 

[tondas]

A few things from playthroughs of various games:

Mawile (Alpha Sapphire): Mawilite is obtained at Verdanturf town (which you can access before the 3rd gym iirc) so you get a pretty powerful beast early on. Like this thing is beyond unfair

Drilbur/Excadrill (BW + BW2): Absolute behemoth and anyone who has used this can attest that it can solo the entire game. Choosing to evolve Drilbur two levels late gives you access to early Earthquake and at that point you're golden.

Corvisquire (SwSh): Hone Claws + Power Trip is pretty nutty if you find the right thing to exploit. Up against Nessa, it set up on Goldeen pretty dang easily and it OHKOed dynamax Drednaw even though my Pokemon was lower level which made me laugh pretty hard.

 

[Random Passerby]

Didn't we already have a thread like this?

 

[HottieLamatie]

I only got a Pyukumuku after beating the Elite Four in Pokémon Sun. Fell in love instantly. I thought it was really fun taking on Pokémon in the 50s and 60s in level when Pyukumuku was only level 20 or so. Being able to fight as such an apparent underdog really was a lot of fun.

Perhaps one of the things I found most nice about playing through Pokémon White with Dewott (never evolved into Samurott) was how often I got to learn new moves on the way to the Elite Four. Being able to switch up moves on a regular basis, especially moves that other Pokémon on my team couldn't learn, made Dewott's use even more worthwhile.

 

[Bayleef030]

Ledian in Crystal. Often seen as a weakling, but with Ice Punch and Thunderpunch hitting a lot of stuff super effectively, it can actually damage something in-game. Combine that with Reflect and Light Screen to be a team player, it can actually be a fun in-game Pokemon. Sure, there are lots of stronger Pokemon, but Ledian is not completely useless. I mean, I once swept Lance's three Dragonite with its Ice Punch and his Gyarados with Thunderpunch.

If you want to have fun with some less strong Pokemon and make a playthrough more challenging, without using a completely useless team member like Unown, Ledian is a fun choice. And hey, sweeping Lance with a Ledian is fucking satisfying! :)

 

[hjyboy1218]

Magneton in Emerald.

Nothing is more euphoric than OHKOing mon after mon with SE thunderbolt on the water routes of Hoenn. Sure, it had a moveset consisting of T-bolt, S-wave, Spark, and Flash(In my defense, I needed to save on PP), but did it OHKO things? Yes it did.

 

[MegaFlareon]

I had fun using Beedrill in Pokémon Blue, thanks to Generation 1's different type mechanics. In this game, Bug was super-effective against Poison types so Beedrill gets a lot of time to shine midgame. Common Grass/Poison type Pokémon have double weakness to Beedrill's Twineedle. Beedrill has swept Erika, Team Rocket grunts, and many Jr. Trainers while also putting a decent fight against Agatha. Despite its low stats, Beedrill would usually be overleveled thanks to the large amount of Pokemon it could beat midgame.

 

[pokemon4eva]

- Kangaskhan from my HG Pokewalker run. It comes extremely early, on the very first Pokewalker course, and it's so ungodly powerful at early game. Even though it loses luster by the end game it has a great level up movepool including priority moves like Fake Out and Sucker Punch, and Outrage for Lance's Dragons.

- Grimer/Muk, also from my HG Pokewalker run. I was surprised to see how effective it was, being a mixed defensive tank that packs quite the punch and can cripple the opponent with attacks w/ high chance of poison, Screech to help against overleveled monsters, stall with Acid Armor, etc.

- Delibird from my latest Silver run. It's a pain to catch it and teach it new attacks but being a late game Ice type is useful against bosses like Clair and Lance. But what makes Delibird so fun to use is Present. In Silver, this move is glitched, working differently from any other Pokemon game. tl dr Present deals an insane amount of fixed damage to "special" types (Fire, Water, Grass, etc.), 2HKO or OHKOing them with little effort. Best moment was OHKOing Will's Slowbro despite using around 6 Curses XD.

 

[Primal Ivysaur]

In a recent run of Crystal I ended up using Venomoth on a whim and honestly I ended up loving it, while it might have that ever-persistent issue of being about as resilient as a wet napkin and having no STAB to take advantage of its good Sp.Atk stat, it actually has some really useful coverage moves and ends up playing like a suped up Butterfree. Makes me appreciate the little moth dude.
Honestly though one of my favorite kinds of runs to do is a 'new dex run' as me and my buddies call it, where you can only use your starter and pokemon you normally would never use, makes you appreciate some of the stranger Pokemon you might have passed up for an old favorite normally.

 

[Bayleef030]

In a recent run of Crystal I ended up using Venomoth on a whim and honestly I ended up loving it, while it might have that ever-persistent issue of being about as resilient as a wet napkin and having no STAB to take advantage of its good Sp.Atk stat, it actually has some really useful coverage moves and ends up playing like a suped up Butterfree. Makes me appreciate the little moth dude.
Honestly though one of my favorite kinds of runs to do is a 'new dex run' as me and my buddies call it, where you can only use your starter and pokemon you normally would never use, makes you appreciate some of the stranger Pokemon you might have passed up for an old favorite normally.

Nice! I once did a bug monotype run in Crystal, and used Butterfree, Yanma, Ledyba, Ledian, Scyther and Venomoth. And Venomoth did very well. Sludge Bomb, Psybeam/Psychic, Attract, Hidden Power Electric. :)

I always try to have a mix of old favourites and Pokemon that I rarely or never used before.

What other Pokemon did you use for the first time, and surprised you? :)

 

[Primal Ivysaur]

What other Pokemon did you use for the first time, and surprised you? :)

Oddly enough, Lanturn. I usually forgot that it even existed until I yoinked a chinchou while fishing and decided to use it, instantly fell in love with its bulk and access to so many useful moves (parafusion anybody?) by the end of the run I legit ended up considering it one of my favorite water types!

 

[Bayleef030]

Oddly enough, Lanturn. I usually forgot that it even existed until I yoinked a chinchou while fishing and decided to use it, instantly fell in love with its bulk and access to so many useful moves (parafusion anybody?) by the end of the run I legit ended up considering it one of my favorite water types!

I love Lanturn. Very good experiences in Crystal and SoulSilver. And competitively. :)

Another Pokemon I used in-game that might surprise people if they gave it a try... Misdreavus. In Colosseum, Pearl and SoulSilver.

In Gen 3, no special STAB, but still good. Nice special attack and speed, lots of resistances and immunities, decent special bulk... Available early in the game in Colosseum. Moveset? Thunder (alongside a Rain Dancing Mantine), Psybeam > Psychic, Confuse Ray and Attract... Worked very nicely.

In Gen 4, a strong special STAB Shadow Ball and good coverage moves... Very nice. Not the strongest Pokemon ever, but definitely not useless. And nailing an opponent's final Pokemon with Perish Song feels really, really good.

Misdreavus is locked away in the final part of the post-game in its debut generation, Gen 2. You can't get it until you reach Mt. Silver. That always gave Misdreavus a 'rare', 'elusive' vibe to me. Luckily, it's available early in Pearl and Colosseum, and mid-game in SoulSilver.

In Crystal, I always wanted to use Misdreavus in-game, but wasn't able to, since it's only there in the post-game... Luckily, SoulSilver gave me the chance to use it in Johto after all. :)

 

[Clambats]

I’m not sure which game it was, but the first time I used skill link Cloyster was a blast. It was a little bit of a push button to win kinda situation, but it sure was fun. Cloyster’s been a staple of my teams since, mostly just to swap in when I need to hit something really hard heh.

In sw/sh, Octillery was pretty fun. I always loved his design. Hitting almost anything super effectively with a high powered move is super useful. He may be slow, but he almost never died and probably had more wins under his belt than most of my team.

Persian with fake out and technician was a lot of fun. Alolan Persian as well. I enjoyed the u-turn shenanigans. Alolan is also a thicc cat so it was nice being less frail.

In moon, Shiinotic was probably my favorite. Status and fuckery is my favorite play style and this guy had everything I wanted.

Vaporeon in X/Y with rest, sleep talk, acid armor, and scald or surf (don’t remember). In game, acid armor makes vaporeon nearly unkillable. Very repetitive strategy, but when you’ve got a full team and some on rotation, throwing Vape out and watching it no sell everything was a lot of fun.

 

[DreamPrince]

Chatot in XY. Chatter’s 100% confusion rate was funny since I could get out of tough spots potentially through confusion. The best part was that I once did a free battle where I went against FEAR Aron and won because of confusion hax.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Perrserker in SWSH: I thought it was gonna suck at first when all it had was Scratch, and then I got the Play Rough TR early and it learned Metal Claw after just 1 level. From there it put in work throughout the rest of the game

Gyarados in ORAS: Absolute legend from the moment it evolved, its most badass moment was easily the final showdown against Steven's Mega Metagross with its own Mega which happens to be probably one of the best counters to that monster in the game

 

[bdt2002]

I don't know if this discussion is still active, but I'd like to "nominate" everyone's favorite egg baby, Togepi. Specifically in HGSS. Good heavens, this thing is a blast to train up.

(Not my artwork)

In my 100% run of Pokemon SoulSilver that I've since postponed for a long time now that started in late 2018, I wasn't sure what Pokemon i wanted to use that fit the top tier theme I had going on that was also a good Fly user. I thought about it for a while and realized that when you stop and think about, Togepi is an underrated threat in the remakes compared to GSC, and a darn fun one to use at that. I was even able to trade over a Shiny Stone to get Togekiss from one of my Sinnoh games. On just my second attempt, I got a Togepi with Serene Grace and a neutral Nature. Perfect. Not only was the usual Metronome shenanigans fun as usual, but I also realized Togepi could cheese fights it shouldn't be able to win with the combination of Serene Grace, Headbutt, and the new Extrasensory. It could also inflict status with moves like Yawn, Sweet Kiss, etc., spam Flash to be even more of a pain in the a**, and if you really wanted to, you can even get special STAB Hyper Beam as early as Togetic since it used to be a fully evolved Pokemon back then. Even raising its friendship was easy, with all the wild Poison-types falling to Extrasensory during level grinding and the haircut guys in Goldenrod.

 

[pokemon4eva]

Having just finished another walkthrough of Pokemon Sword, including the dlc bosses, I have to say these two have to be among the team members I had most fun with in any Pokemon game.

Cramorant can be obtained much earlier if you have the Isle of Armor dlc, rather than wait for a rainy weather or late route. It's a balanced Pokemon with a unique and funny looking ability that can be a game changer. That said, I had to earn the Surf TR in a max raid since it can't learn it by level up and its low stats start to feel like a weight by the end of the adventure. But even then, it was pretty good for chipping off free damage, defense drops and paralysis. Also, it's quite hilarious when the gulp missile ends up doing the killing blow XD.

Slowpoke-G can also be obtained very early after the update, it begins quite bulky and useful but it takes a good while until evolving so it remains underpowered for a good part of the game. But after you get the surfing bike, it can finally evolve into a bulky mixed tank qith quite the expansive movepool. The fun comes with its ability, Quick Draw. My Slowbro came in clutch in many important battles, especially since I played the adventure at low level and no dynamax. Slowbro was the trump card against Leon and Mustard, when I was left with no options left, with Quick Draw activating at the best possible time and winning the fight. Use this mon if you have the chance, you won't be disappointed.

 

[NaturalTropius]

Interestingly enough, I've been really enjoying using Serene Grace Dunsparce in Ultra Moon so far. It comes at a point where its stats are more than solid, it gets Body Slam and Ancient Power pretty early (both of which are fun to use bc the sheer hax you can get) and even with mine having a -Speed nature, it still can paraflinch things with Body Slam (or Glare) and Air Slash. It helped me through a good chunk of Aether Paradise, and it's my highest-leveled team member at the moment, too!

(obviously it's still a Dunsparce, but it's surprised me)


EDIT: Guess who soloed Ultra Necrozma?

 

[Gokuzbu]

Morpeko was surprisingly good in game. The usual Pikaclone he is not. Blackglasses STAB Bite always was surprisingly strong, later got Crunch. Plus I gave the Wild Charge TR which is a big upgrade over Spark. The fun stuff comes late at lv 55 but once you get your hamster wheel move you outspeed everything 100% of the time and hit quite hard. I shelved my Toxtricity after a while just because Morpeko was so fun (and cute).

 

[mertyville]

In Pokemon XD I used in my previous run both Ariados and Shiftry.
Ariados I used because it had Signal Beam and I wanted to see if it redeems that Pokemon from my previous experience with it and Shiftry because I have had never used it in-game.
And they were really useful and fun once they fully evolved which was really quick because early Leaf Stone and decent evolutionary level.

Both carried me through the end game. I only swapped them out for the final battle in favor of a full team of Shadow Pokemon to stall out for Timer Balls and get all the shadow Pokemon

In my current run of XD I got a Vulpix and Gulpin which I evolved both fully. I am in the Team Snaggem hide out and they are doing pretty well. I don't remember if I ever used a Pokemon with Heat Wave in Generation 3 to be honest. It's kinda satisfying to use it in a game where Doubles are very common.

 

[DrumstickGaming]

Morpeko was surprisingly good in game. The usual Pikaclone he is not. Blackglasses STAB Bite always was surprisingly strong, later got Crunch. Plus I gave the Wild Charge TR which is a big upgrade over Spark. The fun stuff comes late at lv 55 but once you get your hamster wheel move you outspeed everything 100% of the time and hit quite hard. I shelved my Toxtricity after a while just because Morpeko was so fun (and cute).

Speaking of Pikaclones, Togedemaru is actually a valid pick in USUM. Right when you get it you get Iron Head via the nearby Tutor and Zing Zap, it resists loads of types, has a decent ability in Iron Barbs and U-Turn access via TM, plus good Attack and Speed.

It’s not like Mimikyu good but it’s pretty great! Would put it as like a B tier in USUM honestly.