Unpopular Pokemon that you like

[Jungle cruiser]

Hello everyone! This is my first time posting a thread like this, so sry if this isn't a particularly interesting topic. And to the mods, if this thread happens to break the rules then just know I didn't mean to and I won't do it again (assuming I don't get banned ofc. I rly hope I don't tho....)

Anyway, with a franchise like this, there's bound to be creatures that get more attention than others. While some get all the praise, marketing and attention, there's others that either get stuck in the shadows or are outright despised, either due to irl controversies, bad battling performance or just unappealing appearances. Tho, thankfully, these guys aren't universally ignored/hated, and here we'll talk about them! The little guys that u like regardless of their status in the community and why.

And since I made the thread, I'll put mine first!

Lunatone and solrock have always been a couple of interesting little fellas. They're a psychic sun and moon that came from a meteorite from space (at least, that's what their dex entries state). Many people pass them over due to not being particularly strong or interesting looking, but I personally rly like them! They did solgaleo and lunala's thing WAY before they were conceived (and minior's too to a minor extent) and both have been functional enough in game and competitive lower tiers. And...idk tbh, I just think they're neat!

I'd put more examples, but I think this message is getting too long. Oh well.

 

[Scorpio]

Largely cuz I caught a full-odds shiny one in Y. Still my crowning achievement shiny-wise.

 

[Mex]

It's hard to say what's truly unpopular in this series, every mon is gonna have its fans, but for pokemon I like that aren't what i'd call traditionally popular, there's three (kinda four) main examples

First up:

and

are both mons I adore. First off,I just find them cute, the Ice/Steel dual type on Alolan Sandshrew makes it appeal to me, as someone who considers the Steel type their favorite type, and as a fairly serious Pokemon GO player, I have a lv50 best buddy hundo of each of them that I use in Great League PVP sometimes, the alolan varient being one of my few shundos


Second, I've always liked Snake pokemon for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, and my favorite of the bunch is probably

.
Again, this is at least moderately due to Pokemon GO, as this mon being a regional that I'm normally incapable of catching makes it stand out to me. There's also a, frankly, dumb team i made with it for pvp usage involving Serperior and Dragonair alongside it, and it held its own surprisingly well, for a mon most people wouldn't give a second thought.
Finally, there's Jessie's usage of it in the anime, which as someone who grew up with the Sinnoh anime, it always felt like one of her more iconic mons to me, though that's almost certainly personal bias.

Finally, my favorite of these Pokemon I'm rambling on about, would be

.
This is, once again, mostly due to Pokemon GO, though this is slightly more personal than the other two, as I didnt start playing until long after the game's popularity had died down from its initial launch, and after the release of all of the gen 2 mons. On my first day of playing, I ran into a Mantine at a Pokestop that was a mural of a Manta Ray in my town, and it was among my strongest Pokemon at the time. This was obviously not true for long, but it's a standout memory of the early days of playing the game, and it gave me a greater appreciation for a mon I hadnt ever paid much, if any, attention to prior. I still have that Mantine I caught to this day, and it will likely remain on my account forever.

 

[Ketchup69420]

Wailmer for sure. I always loved whales, so when kid me got Moon and found a shiny one, I was popping off. I used him in the whole playthrough, and he's been one of my favorite mons since. He just looks like a cute little swimming beach ball.

 

[MegaFlareon]

I loved dinosaurs as a kid, and Meganium is an awesome looking one! It didn't matter to me that it is the "weakest starter" in Johto, it still pulled its weight and did a great job in my Pokémon Gold gameplay. It's a shame that even being the Johto ace of Ash Ketchum could not boost its pre-evolution Bayleef's popularity. Still waiting for GF to give it a significant buff.

On another positive note though, Meganium is fantastic in Pokémon GO PvP!

 

[QuentinQuonce]

God, too many. Not sure I've got the time to write them all up but here's a few off the top of my head.

Yeah, Cloyster got popular when it could abuse Skill Link + Icicle Spear, but I liked it long before then; back when all it was known for was access to Spikes & Rapid Spin and being the butt of various unfortunate female anatomy-related jokes. Cloyster has always been a favourite of mine; I'm not sure why. Maybe simply because it's badass; the Pokedex tells that its shell is so strong it can withstand a bomb blast. And that's reflected in its colossal Defence stat. I'm weirdly entranced by Pokemon with massively unbalanced stat spreads; Cloyster's super-high Defence leaves its HP and Special Defence distinctly lacklustre, so it's never been an all-round tank.

It's also always been a Pokemon that tended to get rare and unusual moves, especially in earlier generations. Rock Blast and Toxic Spikes are rare among Pokemon not of their respective types; Barrier and Clamp are bad, but oddly stylish; and Explosion is always a cool option. It even gets Teleport and Tri Attack in Gen I for whatever reason.

Yeah. Real men use Cloyster pre-HGSS.

In a world where Salamence, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Kommo-o, and Baxcalibur roam free, Kingdra has always been an incredibly underrated Dragon. It seems to get overlooked a lot.

Kingdra is in the same boat as several of the Johto gym leaders' signature Pokemon - in that when you fight it it seems insurmountably tough, and then when you catch one yourself it turns out to be fairly underwhelming. When I first fought it in Gen II, it seemed insurmountable - like it had no weaknesses at all. I had to resort to Electric moves and hope that'd work. But even despite Kingdra's fantastic typing and the fact that it's largely gotten better and better options each generation - Swift Swim, Sniper, Dragon Dance, Outrage, Hurricane, Iron Head, and it actually benefited from the physical/special split really well - it feels like it's never really lived up to its potential.

The whole Horsea line is a favourite of mine and I'm glad it got a cross-gen evolution so soon. I really like this mon, and always love using it.

One very pretty birdie. I loved Oricorio from the first moment I saw it - a form-changing bird representing all of Alola's islands is such a neat idea.

The Baile form is indisputably my favourite (as a European, very happy that it's our regional); I'm not hugely into the other forms - Pom-Pom and Sensu are alright, but the Pau'u is utterly dreadful. But look at how beautiful the Baile form is! Elegant, sultry, and the shiny is phenomenal.

Plus Dancer is a sick ability. Feels incredibly broken that it doesn't cancel or override your intended move, so you can attack or use Protect or whatever else, and still get a boost as well! Utterly wild. I made a Ribombee/Oricorio Doubles team for the Battle Tree ages ago and it was great - really should go back and invest some more time into that to try and get a decent streak. It got me to Blue, but I know I can do better than that.

Even without nabbing loads of Dancer boosts it's not terrible - on its own it's more than good enough to be a great contributor to any team. But I'm quite in love with it. Cool design, cool mechanics, cool mon.

Five in one. It's well-known in my local Pokemon Go group that I'm a big lover of bugs, particularly the funkily-coloured shiny ones. And I have a lot of favourites. Snapshot round, let's go!

Mothim? On paper this thing looks it should be fantastic: decent offensive stats, Tinted Lens, and Quiver Dance! Has enough variety to put together a decent movepool; it absolutely has the potential to be a decent player in the lower tiers. And its shiny is legitimately in the top 10 in the series. That royal blue is simply gorgeous.

Ledian? The bruiser with no muscle. I love that it's all about punching and being a spunky little scrapper and yet does not remotely have the stats to back that up. But it's always learned some great moves: Ice Punch, Psybeam, Dynamicpunch, Reflect, Baton Pass. The fact that it has an absurdly high Special Defence tickles me. People (especially on here) write this bug off, but I've used it in Johto, Hoenn, and Orre and always been pleasantly surprised by what it's managed to accomplish. Plus it's way cuter than that fucked-up monstrosity Ariados.

Shuckle? Literally so much fun to use. It's one of those Pokemon that's either hilariously easy or downright impossible to beat, with absolutely no middle ground. And for something so specialised there's all sorts of fun shit you can do with it. Toxic-trapping? Rollout? PP stalling? Boosting with Shell Smash and Contrary? Turning it into an absolute physical wrecking ball with Power Trick? Yeah, go nuts. I love Shuckle very hard, always have.

Masquerain? Oh boy does this thing slap. Intimidate is such big dick energy on an early-game Bug-type. That said, it's unlikely you'll be getting it as an early-game Bug because hahahahahahaha 1% appearance rate in RS, totally absent in Emerald! God, how much I wanted this thing back in the day before I finally got my hands on one. It's just so cool. Should have stayed Water/Bug, but it gets so much mileage from having briefly been that type: breed Hydro Pump onto it and watch your enemies quake in fear. Giga Drain is nice as a further method of wrecking Rock-types who want to stop you in your tracks. 10/10 Bug mon, Quiver Dance just made it all the more impressive.

Crustle? So cute! Genuinely adorable. Truly the best of Unova's bugs. Yes, absolutely! And it learns Rock Wrecker! Come at me with your Volcarona, I will quite literally shoot you down.

_____________


I'll probably think of more later.

 

[Hugin]

Whiscash. I got one early in an Emerald Nuzlocke once and it carried me despite being on a team with legit beasts. No one uses it in competitive(every other water/ground is unambiguously better), it always shows up too late in-game, and it's banned from the anime, so there's no reason for anyone to like it, but it's cute and it saved me once, so I will always side with it.

I also tend to enjoy mons with form changing abilities, but they're usually not unpopular.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Whiscash. I got one early in an Emerald Nuzlocke once and it carried me despite being on a team with legit beasts. No one uses it in competitive(every other water/ground is unambiguously better), it always shows up too late in-game, and it's banned from the anime, so there's no reason for anyone to like it, but it's cute and it saved me once, so I will always side with it.

I also tend to enjoy mons with form changing abilities, but they're usually not unpopular.

Also quite fond of Whiscash, mainly since HGSS gave it Dragon Dance as an egg move. Was intending to use one in my current Pearl challenge, but as you say it always comes too late - didn't want to carry a Barboach for ages.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I think Cacturne is really cool mechanically, and a really well-designed mixed attacker. Its go-to STABs are both special (Energy Ball is stronger than Seed Bomb, and Dark Pulse is its only strong reliable Dark STAB) but it also makes great use of Sucker Punch to bypass its slow Speed. Additionally, its physical coverage is much wider (Fighting, Ground, Poison, Electric) than its special coverage (just Fighting) and even in the Fighting overlap, Superpower is more reliable than Focus Blast.

 

[lavendercookieEnjoyer]

So majestic! Cool shiny! Rare typing only shared by Drifblim family. I wish it was earlier to use in Alola playthrough!

 

[bdt2002]

I wouldn’t exactly call an unpopular Pokémon, but ever since showed up on the scene, Flygon’s always been playing second fiddle to the land shark, and that makes me really sad. This thing has a lot going for it, too- it got access to Dragon Dance in Gen 7, its Shiny coloration is way, way better than Garchomp’s ever was, and the many bug-like characteristics it has helps Flygon stand out amongst its peers, so much so that the Elite Four’s Aaron even uses one on his Bug-Type team on his BDSP’s second rematch lineup.

Speaking of bugs, I’m a huge fan of too. I’d even go as far as to say Beedrill has my single favorite Mega Evolution in the series for several reasons. It was the first Mega Evolution added to Pokémon GO (I got a 100% IV purified Weedle at some point that loves this), it was an incredible free-to-play asset for the cult classic Pokémon Shuffle, and both its design and battle performance scream awesome.

View attachment 503401
In a world where Salamence, Garchomp, Hydreigon, Kommo-o, and Baxcalibur roam free, Kingdra has always been an incredibly underrated Dragon. It seems to get overlooked a lot.

Kingdra is in the same boat as several of the Johto gym leaders' signature Pokemon - in that when you fight it it seems insurmountably tough, and then when you catch one yourself it turns out to be fairly underwhelming. When I first fought it in Gen II, it seemed insurmountable - like it had no weaknesses at all. I had to resort to Electric moves and hope that'd work. But even despite Kingdra's fantastic typing and the fact that it's largely gotten better and better options each generation - Swift Swim, Sniper, Dragon Dance, Outrage, Hurricane, Iron Head, and it actually benefited from the physical/special split really well - it feels like it's never really lived up to its potential.

The whole Horsea line is a favourite of mine and I'm glad it got a cross-gen evolution so soon. I really like this mon, and always love using it.

With all due respect, this annoying piece of crap seahorse dragon thing has caused me more of a headache than almost any Pokémon I can remember off the top of my head. Do I agree that it’s a cool Pokémon? Yes. Do I admit that a lot of my struggles with Kingdra back in the day were because of Clair? Yes. I’ll even admit to Juan’s and Drake’s Kingdra(s) in Pokémon Emerald being one of the reasons I didn’t want to play through it instead of just Ruby or Sapphire on the GBA when I had the chance.

Nowadays, almost all of what made Kingdra so obnoxious for me as a kid isn’t a problem anymore. Generation 6 absolutely hammered this thing with indirect nerfs in every possible way I can think of, so much so that it went from my most feared Pokémon to one I feel genuinely bad for nowadays.

 

[pika pal]

These derpy dudes are just really funny and appealing to me. Stunfisk original is just funny to look at, and I'm amused that its design concept was to make "the flattest Pokemon" possible. Galarian Stunfisk meanwhile captures the kind of stuff I want to see more of from regional forms, being a natural adaption based on the difference in environment, and also just not another goddamn Kanto Variation (Gen 8 was better in general about it but still had enough that I was sick of them). The Bear Trap and Pokeball Mouth also make G-Fisk the most realized Pokemon has ever made a Mimic concept, giving Stunfisk an ability, design, and motif that both play into the mimicry and exploit it by trapping the prey (Amoongus and Electrode look like Pokeballs but then just kind of battle normally if approached). The typings are also fairly rare ones that aren't explored as often as you think (base Stunfisk even being unique up until the deliberately-alien Sandy Shocks in Gen 9).

I'm also partial to them because Galarian Stunfisk is a staple in PoGo PVP, where I got to see its Snap-Trap animations and such too.

 

[Yung Dramps]

It's unreal how sick and tired I am of the Mr. Mime slander. "B-b-but muh creepy clown" No. Fuck you. He's just a funny dude who makes barriers! Leave him be!

 

[khlaylav]

God help me, I have become a full-on Wormadam stan. Until I finally get another Bug/Ground type, Sandy Cloak must be my icon.

 

[Local Dog]

Cloyster is cool. Has new roles all the time and always managed to stay relevant someway. That stupid smile, the color scheme and the vagina design is also kinda cool

Conkeldurr is ugly as fuck but still awesome. Big buff construction worker

 

[Ironmage]

Objectmons are great.


You can chalk this one up to pure nostalgia if you want, that's probably why Zone doesn't quite make the cut. My first pokemon game was MD blue, so Magnemite has the honour of being the first non-starter mon I was able to play with.


I like the mythological connection here, and how it plays into the Heatproof ability. Speaking of, I really like the mindgame aspect of being able to block either weakness (it obviously got less prominent when the Steel nerf gave it more weaknesses, but I can't count that against the original designs).


I've been very impressed with Chandelure's performance both in and out of the main series. In addition to OHKOing reshiram, I'm a really big fan of how it plays in Pokken. That game is very good at being accurate to the main games in general, Chandelure standing out for both being outside normal fighting game material and playing up how certain moves behave (Hex, in this instance).


I like the concept the line ended up with, even if it lacks in execution. It can use Plus/Minus to scale either offenses (with Gear Up) or defenses (with Magnetic Flux) in addition to the usual boost for being on the field with a suitable ally. It's HA also gets in on the boosting shenanigains since Clear Body hinders the removal of boosts from Shift Gear.


Cryogonal impressed me as an Ice type that almost works defensively without relying on another strong defensive type in Water. Special counterpart to Avalugg, I suppose, though it also has seniority.


I'll admit it took a while for me to warm up (heh) on the line. Not really for an aesthetic reason, though. I had brought Vanillish in to counter the Dragon gym on my first playthrough, only for it to immidiately get KO'd and causing me to rely further on my two Steel types. I do now consider it the best-looking Snow Warning mon


Stance change is a fun time, as is doublade making a good eviolite user or the fully-evolved literal sword having equal attack and SpA.


Prankster spikes. I was unnerved by a lot of the gen 6 Fairy mons, so having one with a design archetype I've liked elsewhere helped.


I felt pretty iffy about Alola since before release. After, well, the above list, the focus on Nature was off-putting. Thankfully, we also got UBs to fill the void. I don't consider the group as a whole as really adhering to the "breaks design principles" idea, they're just more mons. Stakataka in particular brings to mind other colonial inorganic mons like Magneton, Klinlkang, and Metagross. The mechanics for these three help as well: celesteela is interesting for getting access to normally Grass-exclusive utility (because they couldn't make it triple-typed), while both Kartana and Stakataka have funny setups to manipulate beast boost (to mixed success, admittedly).


Steel/Poison wasn't going to be an easy typing for me to be satisfied with. I wanted both an inorganic mon and one that isn't directly at odds with the rest of the whimsical ecosystem. This line does a pretty good job at that, though it is dampened a bit by being tied to boss fights that I'm not the biggest fan of the mechanical design of.

 

[bdt2002]

Objectmons are great.


You can chalk this one up to pure nostalgia if you want, that's probably why Zone doesn't quite make the cut. My first pokemon game was MD blue, so Magnemite has the honour of being the first non-starter mon I was able to play with.


I like the mythological connection here, and how it plays into the Heatproof ability. Speaking of, I really like the mindgame aspect of being able to block either weakness (it obviously got less prominent when the Steel nerf gave it more weaknesses, but I can't count that against the original designs).


I've been very impressed with Chandelure's performance both in and out of the main series. In addition to OHKOing reshiram, I'm a really big fan of how it plays in Pokken. That game is very good at being accurate to the main games in general, Chandelure standing out for both being outside normal fighting game material and playing up how certain moves behave (Hex, in this instance).


I like the concept the line ended up with, even if it lacks in execution. It can use Plus/Minus to scale either offenses (with Gear Up) or defenses (with Magnetic Flux) in addition to the usual boost for being on the field with a suitable ally. It's HA also gets in on the boosting shenanigains since Clear Body hinders the removal of boosts from Shift Gear.


Cryogonal impressed me as an Ice type that almost works defensively without relying on another strong defensive type in Water. Special counterpart to Avalugg, I suppose, though it also has seniority.


I'll admit it took a while for me to warm up (heh) on the line. Not really for an aesthetic reason, though. I had brought Vanillish in to counter the Dragon gym on my first playthrough, only for it to immidiately get KO'd and causing me to rely further on my two Steel types. I do now consider it the best-looking Snow Warning mon


Stance change is a fun time, as is doublade making a good eviolite user or the fully-evolved literal sword having equal attack and SpA.


Prankster spikes. I was unnerved by a lot of the gen 6 Fairy mons, so having one with a design archetype I've liked elsewhere helped.


I felt pretty iffy about Alola since before release. After, well, the above list, the focus on Nature was off-putting. Thankfully, we also got UBs to fill the void. I don't consider the group as a whole as really adhering to the "breaks design principles" idea, they're just more mons. Stakataka in particular brings to mind other colonial inorganic mons like Magneton, Klinlkang, and Metagross. The mechanics for these three help as well: celesteela is interesting for getting access to normally Grass-exclusive utility (because they couldn't make it triple-typed), while both Kartana and Stakataka have funny setups to manipulate beast boost (to mixed success, admittedly).


Steel/Poison wasn't going to be an easy typing for me to be satisfied with. I wanted both an inorganic mon and one that isn't directly at odds with the rest of the whimsical ecosystem. This line does a pretty good job at that, though it is dampened a bit by being tied to boss fights that I'm not the biggest fan of the mechanical design of.

I feel like object inspired Pokémon are part of what give the franchise a bit of extra flavor compared to other monster collector RPG titles. Some of these just feel like they work in Pokémon but wouldn’t work in other series. I also tend to enjoy their originality, as I would rather have fresh new ideas for Pokémon as opposed to the same rehashed ideas over multiple generations. My only nitpick is that I wish there were more of these kinds of Pokémon that had more type variety. I understand why most of your list was Steel-Types, but I’ve always been interested in how this could be stretched to its limit.

 

[Rapti]

These guys, I'll forever hope to get one for every type (except maybe Normal because of Aipom)

also this guy, star of my favorite playthrough ever

 

[TerrickTerran]

A whole ton of pokemon for me, Golem, Bellossom, Pan/Simipour, Shuckle just to name a few.

 

[1LDK]

Its the single most neglected starter ever
Delphox has the degenerate site of the fan base behind her
Greninja has the casual and comp fan base behind him
what does Chesnaught have?
NOTHING
LITERALLY
NOTHING

The spiky boy carried me through my first ever Pokémon game, carried me through pixelmon, and It has grown on me, he deserves better

 

[bdt2002]

Its the single most neglected starter ever
Delphox has the degenerate site of the fan base behind her
Greninja has the casual and comp fan base behind him
what does Chesnaught have?
NOTHING
LITERALLY
NOTHING

The spiky boy carried me through my first ever Pokémon game, carried me through pixelmon, and It has grown on me, he deserves better

Saying this in the nicest way possible- this is what you get when you’re the starter of the wrong region. Literally all they had to do was swap Snivy and Chespin so Snivy could be in the France-based region.

Other than that, I like this Pokémon. :)

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

On that note, I've seen my all-time favourite starter too low on too many tier lists. Great design, fun in-game, good Contrary sets.

 

[Nokocchi]

On that note, I've seen my all-time favourite starter too low on too many tier lists. Great design, fun in-game, good Contrary sets.

View attachment 504114

The problem for Snivy in-game is that Contrary Snivy was unobtainable in Gen V, for whatever reason it was never made available until Gen VI. And for the purposes of in-game, it wouldn't even be able to utilize Contrary consistently until much higher levels(since the only move it has to use it with is the near-endgame grass move Leaf Storm) and its only special coverage to take advantage of the special attack boosts were other Grass moves, Hidden Power(near-impossible to rely in-game without dumb luck), and a handful of special Normal and Dragon moves(the only one among both types of any note being Dragon Pulse)

It's one of the cases where the Pokemon is significantly more useful in PvP than it is for in-game runs. Also whenever it comes back it will have to deal with the loss of Hidden Power unless it gets a movepool boost(like how Johtonian Typhlosion just got access to Shadow Ball in SV), since there are a lot of things that can completely wall Grass/Dragon/Normal

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

The problem for Snivy in-game is that Contrary Snivy was unobtainable in Gen V, for whatever reason it was never made available until Gen VI. And for the purposes of in-game, it wouldn't even be able to utilize Contrary consistently until much higher levels(since the only move it has to use it with is the near-endgame grass move Leaf Storm) and its only special coverage to take advantage of the special attack boosts were other Grass moves, Hidden Power(near-impossible to rely in-game without dumb luck), and a handful of special Normal and Dragon moves(the only one among both types of any note being Dragon Pulse)

It's one of the cases where the Pokemon is significantly more useful in PvP than it is for in-game runs. Also whenever it comes back it will have to deal with the loss of Hidden Power unless it gets a movepool boost(like how Johtonian Typhlosion just got access to Shadow Ball in SV), since there are a lot of things that can completely wall Grass/Dragon/Normal

Snivy is still pretty alright in-game in Unova. It's pretty decent early on with early Growth (which is basically Work Up in Gen 5 and onwards), and as it evolves it gets access to a strong Grass STAB in Leaf Tornado pretty early, has pretty solid bulk even if it doesn't have immediate power, and ends up solid as Serperior once it can get Coil and Leaf Blade, which in tandem with Leech Seed (a move Snivy can start abusing early on) can make Serperior both hard to take down and be able to clean late-game so long as it's up against opponents that don't have anything that resists Grass and Normal.

It has good bulk for what it does, is *very* fast, outpaced only by very few mons in Unova, and is generally pretty solid if you abide by its gameplan. That said, its specific gameplan and stat build is definitely designed for longer, more drawn out battles and its lack of immediate power does mean it relies on setting up to win, so if you want to speedrun Unova or immediately steamroll shit then Serperior isn't the best choice, but as an overall starter it's got a good niche as a cleaner with good bulk+Speed+Leech Seed to give it some defensive utility. Its shallow movepool and lack of coverage does admittedly suck, especially for a starter, but it has what it needs to work. It's even better in BW2, where despite some shaky match-ups early on it absolutely is much better in BW2's late game than BW1's late game thanks to an array of tutor moves, namely Aqua Tail, and having a bit more coverage up its sleeve can definitely help.

As far as sweeping teams in-game is concerned, though, Serperior does it best of the three Unova starters. Emboar and Samurott are on the slower end despite their more immediate power, Emboar focuses more on its raw power to nuke opponents it has the advantage against while Samurott has good offensive stats on both sides and a colorful range of coverage to get KOs here and there, so neither of them are practical for a speed run by themselves in that regard in that they're more team players for an in-game team than the mon who will destroy everything.

Admittedly it still has faults, that said, Unova's roster is ripe with a lot of mons with immediate power to cover for mons Serperior can't beat if you need them, like Conkeldurr (if you can trade lol), Darmanitan, or Chandelure, and a lot of Unova's mons are incredibly fun and splashable and as such Serperior is quite fun to build a team around in-game in BW1 and especially BW2.

Its the single most neglected starter ever
Delphox has the degenerate site of the fan base behind her
Greninja has the casual and comp fan base behind him
what does Chesnaught have?
NOTHING
LITERALLY
NOTHING

The spiky boy carried me through my first ever Pokémon game, carried me through pixelmon, and It has grown on me, he deserves better

Ayy same, my boy Chesnaught is such an underrated gem. I love the Kalos starter trio all equally and think they're great designs but I do love Chesnaught a lot.

I love its design, it's a rugged knight, its signature move looks cool, and it's pretty solid for in-game runs with its immense bulk and good offensive+support movepool which gives it a variety of flexible uses. Good mon overall. It also has a decent competitive track record thus far having been a great tank+utility mon in UU for two gens historically, it has yet to be available in Gen 9 but it'll have its place wherever it ends up this gen I'm sure. It's just a nice, strong looking mon who is also surprisingly cute and cool at the same time, it really feels like a loyal partner in every way and a worthy starter who is a great friend and partner who will fight at your side no matter what. Very befitting of its Fighting-type and "noble warrior" aesthetic.

I guess the big thing against it in terms of popularity is that its design doesn't really have a clear "target demographic" it can appeal to that's particularly wide. Greninja and Delphox have that "shonen" and "shojo" appeal respectively, Greninja has that ninja/assassin vibe that makes it really cool and badass in a way while Delphox is a wicked mage, and its entire line as a whole has that sort of "magical girl" vibe that makes it appealing to its own target demographic. They both look really striking in action with respect to their respective target demographics that allow them the popularity they have.

Chesnaught is a lot less standout in that regard, in that it's the "just a guy" member of the trio amongst two other standouts in the trio who have more striking designs that make them more appealing to different audiences. When Delphox and Greninja stand out that much...Chesnaught merely being a solid design and nothing else is something that works against it in that regard in terms of fan appeal.

But that will never stop me from loving it all the same.

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

Right, I listed in-game separately from Contrary because I was thinking of them as two separate things. I've had fun with Coil Serperior in-game.