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Pokémon you thought would suck, but have surprised you

Lord of Fire

The Great Conqueror
I always thought that the Goodra line was sorta, well, 'useless'. But now, Eviolite Sliggoo makes a decent stall/wall.
 
For me would have to be Bidoof & Bibarel. I kept reading from others that "it's only good for HM's and useless for everything else" - I decided to give one a chance (not expecting it to be any good) and was surprised how good of a Pokemon it was - with good moves, a good item, and max affection it never failed me in battle (it never failed me either before acquiring the max affection) - it accompanied me all the way to the Elite 4 & Champ - since then I never belief that it's a useless Pokemon or that it sucks.
 
Sawk, not as stupid looking as Throh but still never wanted to use it. In black 2 I was catching every pokemon I encountered in order to get the shiny charm at the end of the game and the first sawk I caught had an adamant nature. So I thought, meh, why not give it a try. It turned out to be a beast and ended up staying on my team until it was I the lvl 60's.

Emolga. Cute looking but I thought its stats sucked. Well, aside that it was frail from its low hp it still surprised me and managed to stay on my team for a long time as well.

Vivillon! Lol, I thought it was going to be another weak bug like beedrill but man its stats are pretty good and its got a good movepool. Add in that I'm using one of my fave wing colors and its still on my team :)
 

Retro-Chaos X

Psychic Aficionado
Emolga. On X I found a shiny Emolga near the start of the game, but a lot of people say it sucks, so I wasn't going to use it at first. However, I started using it anyway and it turned out to be key in my team - I don't see why people dislike it as I find it to be useful both ingame and again other players.
 

Archangel Azazel

Fallen Angel
In BW it was Mandibuzz. I thought it was hideous and pretty weak. I was planning on getting a Braviary but realized I couldn't get it because it was an exclusive. I needed a flying for my team so Mandibuzz it was. Turned out to be pretty much my teams' powerhouse XP

In XY it has to be... Vivillon. I caught one simply because I wanted to see what my pattern was. I have always seen most of the bug types as weak to "everything" but Vivillon completely turned that over. Its actually my powerhouse in my Y team. It can hold its own in battle and I fell in love with its cute cry X3
 

Buttons

Mountain Trainer
In blue I learned that Dewgong, Tentacruel, and Marowak were all worth their weight in awesome, even if no one else used them.
In gold I found Octillerey and Quagsire.
In ruby I was all about Exploud and Camerupt.
In Diamond there were the replacement evolution trade lines that I was convinced couldn't be better than Machamp and Golem.
And I haven't finished gen6 yet to have an overall idea :3
 

Moonlight_Tails

Nocturnal Trainer
I thought Fenniken would be poor. Sure fooled me. Now Delphox is my fave of the Gen 6 starters, and I don't usually like Psychic types. :)

In gold I found Octillerey and Quagsire.

For a long time I wouldin't use Wooper/Quagsire cause I hated their design. Then on a playthrough of SS. I needed to fill a hole a hole on my team. and Quagsire was the only thing that really fit. Now its my fave Water/Ground Pokemon.
 
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11Slimeade11

The Great Birdman!
Tentacruel and Crobat, mainly due to their Pre-Evo's reputation.

And Noctowl, ironically. Didn't expect much from a 'Early' Flying Type.
 

Haddy

Active Member
Sceptile to me just seemed like a typical grass type pokemon in that it was fast, but could normally be killed fairly quickly, though in the last 2-3 gens I was proven wrong.
Fastest Subseeder outside Prankster, Decent special movepool, and coupled with Swords Dance for a physical set showed potential in generation four alone. Gen 5 was the peak in that it brought about unburden, bringing the ability to use a consumable item to make it nearly impossible to outspeed outside of priority. My personal favourite set became Sub-Petaya, as it caught out people who expected a standard physical set.

Others that have surprised me are Absol,Clefable (particularly now!), Staraptor (expected your usual first route bird, but close combat), and I was also pleasently surprised with Escavaliers sheer power with a Choice Band slapped on, along with Trick Room support. I also believe Goodra deserves a mention, as once again it can be so versatile with 3 excellent abilities, (although hydration has lost some usefulness with weather nerf)
 

SuperSceptile

Sceptile is super!
A lot of the regional birds have suprised me! I decided to use Staraptor in Platinum just because it could fly, but then I fell in love with it once I used it in battle! Then, in Y, I decided to use Talonflame and I never thought it would be so amazing!! The moral of the story is, just because you find them on the first route, doesn't mean they suck.
 

Rainpurge

Active Member
Sigilyph. My first thoughts upon seeing it where that it had a stupid design and would be boring as to train and use. Ends up as one of my favorite Pokemon.
 

Weavy

I come and go suddenly
I'd probably go with Emboar. Many people said that it sucks, but since I always choose the Fire starter in my main game and I generally like Fire types, I went with it anyway. Sure it was slow, but it hit like a truck and was pretty difficult to take down. I did not regret choosing Tepig in White.
 

tomatohater

Golden Sun 4?
Sableye and Gliscor surprised me a lot! I loved Sableye's design, but I thought, competitively, it would be ****. I was so wrong! It is very useful for being a Wall and crippling other Pokémon.

The same applies for Gliscor, but it a great Toxic-Staller!
 

Sylpheon

❀Sylveon❀
I thought Talonflame was pretty surprising. Although it is frail like most people say, attach a Choice Band to it and use Brave Bird with Gale Wings, I've got a lot of wins using Talonflame. :3
 

Eango

Totally a Wizard
Trevenant!

It's such a good staller with sitrus berry plus it's harvest ability. And it is fairly bulky too.
 

phanpycross

God-king
I thought Excadrill in the anime looked stupid and overdesigned, then i played white, now he is my fave pokemon after ivysaur, phanpy, heracross,klefki,goomy line,haunter,horsea line,yanmega,sceptile, and a bunch of others.(he is top 5)
 

fitzy909

Just another guy
I thought Talonflame was pretty surprising. Although it is frail like most people say, attach a Choice Band to it and use Brave Bird with Gale Wings, I've got a lot of wins using Talonflame. :3

i agree. I thought it was just another regional bird with a different typing, but man was i wrong. That thing can do a serious amount of damage.
 
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