Unpopular Pokemon that you like

[Just A Shroom God]

maybe this doesn't count because it's a gen 9 pokemon, but lokix might be my favorite mon of all time and it's hard to explain why. He's just such a lovable little fella. He looks like he's trying to be so threatening but also is so small and tiny and I just love it. It also helps that he can do funny little things like OHKO Tera Flying Moon and Pult with First Impression and 2HKO "The Pex" which gives me so much joy. Seeing my little assassin bug killing things like that up in the big leagues makes me so happy, like a proud parent.

 

[Monai]

natu is pretty cool but if hes too popular to count i adore ferroseed

 

[Castersvarog]

is absolutely a lacking Mon for so many reasons, being a physical Fire type before Gen 4, it’s awkward stats not quite being enough to give it a niche and being horribly outclassed in all but 1 games in the franchise despite having a really good movepool for a pure fire type. And yet I can’t help but like it a lot more these days despite it being just a flaming horse. But maybe that’s why I find it neat.
Plus is a rare physical Psychic and Fairy type which is neat, shame it’s exclusive to Shield.

 

[PokemonCrusader]

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.



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.

Unfortunately, his fan base mainly existed back in the 1400s when knights and chivalric romances were all the age. Or the 1800s with the Romantics and Victorians.

But this modern day knight loves him!

 

[Golden Duke]

Bruxish! 105 Base Attack + 127 power STAB moves hurt. Yeah he looks like a more literal “clown fish” but at least he stands out.

 

[PokePoindexter]

I've talked about most of these before, but since we have yet another thread about it, I guess I may as well do so again.


In the Pokemon universe, it's the swine who casts pearls before you. Now we just need Alolan Ninetales to learn Aura Wheel so we have a dog doing the same with holy things. Yeah, I primarily love Grumpig for that very reason - I may not be particularly religious myself, but Matthew 7:6 is definitely a verse that resonates with my real-life self. Plus, it's surprisingly useful in pretty much any main series game you choose to use it in, as it can learn a treasure trove of interesting attacks, has decent Special stats to make use of them, and only needs 800,000 Exp. Points to reach Level 100.


Back in late 2020, I came up with this novel idea to replay Platinum with a team of six Pokemon I had never previously used on an in-game team before. Lumineon was one of those (mostly because I had never seen anyone else use it), and while I always had a soft spot for its design, I had never even considered using it on a team before. And despite going in expecting nothing, I was... actually pleasantly surprised with how well it served me. And I couldn't help but grow to love it by the time I beat Cynthia, especially after it Ice Beamed her Garchomp to seal the win. A few months later, I discovered an interesting combination of Storm Drain + Tailwind + Psych Up, which, it turns out, makes it a surprisingly potent Doubles partner for the likes of Volcarona and Kommo-o. And since then, Lumineon has pretty much been one of my top 10 favorites of all time.

Now I'm trying to find a way to get it to thrive in VGC or BSS; losing Psych Up means I can't use my previous strategies, but at least now it has Hydro Pump and a few interesting Tera type options, so maybe I can find something... or maybe I've just been huffing way too much copium lately because I really wanted Lumineon to get either a regional variant or Quiver Dance (or even the former with the latter) in SV. Oh well.


It's a polar bear. Polar bears are cool. No pun not intended. Anyway, Beartic is arguably one of the best late-game additions I've ever added to a team - my first time playing Black, I caught a Cubchoo, and after it evolved, it proceeded to stomp all of the final three gyms, and eventually Ghetsis's Hydreigon. And ironically, it has only gotten even better since then; Gen 7 buffed its base Attack up to 130 and gave it Slush Rush, Gen 8 gave it Play Rough and Dynamax, and Gen 9 gave it Close Combat and Tera types. Just wait until Alolan Ninetales comes back; Beartic's going off big time once it does.


Its bonkers signature attack (in the blurred text for Grumpig) and adorable design that would make a Buzzwole squeal in delight made Morpeko my favorite Pikachu clone by a country mile in short order. And then I started using it in competitive battling and found about 15 different metagames it could dominate in.


I feel obligated to mention Iron Moth here after all the times I've seen people complain about Violet's Paradox mons all being robots, or having "Iron" as their prefix, or how only one of them is Steel-type, or whatever other crap about them someone decides is worth complaining about. Granted not all of them hit home run for me per se, but let's just say I've got a Skyarrow Bridge to sell to anyone who expects me to have any negativity towards a futuristic version of my favorite Pokemon of all time.

 

[GoldenCyber]

Kangaskhan was always one of my favourite Kanto pokemon, especially after reading the manga when I was a kid. It was quite touching whenever she would try to protect her baby from harm.

 

[Frostlord84]

You can probably guess from the profile pic, but Regice is such an underrated pokemon. Most people don't realize just how good of a special wall it is because chansey/blissey exist, and it actually somewhat overcome its mono-ice typing because fire is the only weakness it has that is a common special attack, and it can treat most neutral special hits like resistances, and unlike chansey and blissey it actually can have an offensive presence. I also used this thing in a mono-ice hardcore randomizer nuzlocke and it literally couldn't die. Just need to keep it away from physical supereffective attacks. It also has a great design. People also hate its shiny (with good reason) but it had a good shiny in Colosseum and XD.

Dustox is my favorite bug. He is just a big happy purple moth. Also super powerful in the early game of just about any game you can get him, especially older games. It even gets quiver dance.

I've seen him mentioned a bit, but I also like lunatone. Very unique pokemon, good design. Also is a good subtle shiny.

Claydol was my first shiny, so I will always appreciate him. He is also very versatile battling-wise.

Not exactly unpopular but I really don't understand why venusaur seems to be completely forgotten next to charizard and blastoise. Still my favorite starter of any gen. I also have a tcg deck that uses almost entirely mega venusaurs and regular venusaurs that is very fun to use.

I got into pokemon almost 15 years ago now because of settling a debate over a drifblim card, so I really can't dislike him.

The kabuto line is probably my favorite line as a whole (not sure how popular or not it is exactly), kabuto is adorable and kabutops is sick. There is also the skeleton kabutops missing no. you can catch in gen 1 is looks incredibly awesome despite being a gen 1 sprite.

 

[Omastar68]

Er I think all of them. I don't really go for anything common, or at least not if it's a common set too. I would imagine one that counts highly among unpopular stuff that I really like is

 

[PsychicAcademic]

Among my typical favs like certain Vees, I do have some favs that is outside the common consciousness' radar, actually. But I think I'll go for one at a time.

Delcatty. This delicate kitty is probably only remembered for two things: being evolved from a kitten that gave its name to a certain infamous term about breeding, and being only good in Cute Contest as its sole reason of existence and nothing else to save its life. But among cat-mons (that is 4 pedal, we're not going to talk about certain furbaits), this catto actually looks the most typical of cats in internet, which makes them indeed famous as internet's beloved pet.

Unfortunately GF made its Pokédex entry a little too accurate this time that it dislikes and is not good in fighting, which reflects into its Arceus-awful stats that should warrant a new evolution which probably would still be mid again.

I'll edit later if I have time to find some good illustrations from TCG maybe....

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I feel obligated to mention Iron Moth here after all the times I've seen people complain about Violet's Paradox mons all being robots, or having "Iron" as their prefix, or how only one of them is Steel-type, or whatever other crap about them someone decides is worth complaining about. Granted not all of them hit home run for me per se, but let's just say I've got a Skyarrow Bridge to sell to anyone who expects me to have any negativity towards a futuristic version of my favorite Pokemon of all time.

Iron Moth's movepool is so weird and cool. It's one of the few non-Electric Pokemon to learn Discharge, and the only Pokemon in general to learn Discharge and not Thunderbolt. It's also one of the few Pokemon to learn Sludge Wave and not Sludge Bomb, and the only Poison-type without a limited movepool to not learn Sludge Bomb.

 

[Epicgamergod69]

beheeyem is my favorite pokemon and I guarantee over a quarter of people reading this don't even remember it existed

 

[bdt2002]

I had an opportunity to talk with some of my college friends about this topic, specifically in regards to unpopular starter Pokémon (yes, they do exist), and as a longtime Totodile fan, even I have to admit… Chikorita’s not that bad, guys. This Pokémon consistently gets a bad rap among newer fans and veterans quick to dismiss its pure Grass typing, rather plain looking design, and its lack of offensive firepower. But that’s just it. Chikorita’s simplicity in design and gameplay execution are probably my favorite things about it. One of my friends who’s much less involved with these older generations than myself said Chikorita was one of the worst Pokémon of all time, although I couldn’t quite tell what context he was talking about. Its design seems perfectly fine to me, and I also don’t hate its Shiny unlike what they did to Cyndaquil’s.

I mean, let’s take a look at this little guy a bit closer. Let’s get the immediate concern out of the way first- it’s a Grass-Type in a region where Grass-Types supposedly perform terrible in. But do they really? The list of available Grass-Types in the Johto games is a bit larger than one might expect at first glance, and what they lack in “important type matchups”, they make up for in offering impressive utility and surprisingly solid stats. Prior to its evolution into Meganium, I would even go as far as to say that I think Bayleef is the best middle stage of the three starters. Its damage generally outdoes Croconaw because of its inability to use physical STAB for most of the main story, and it’s also less explosive but generally more consistent than Quilava in both the originals and especially the remakes where Quilava players have to over-rely on Fire Blast’s accuracy and PP issues. Leech Seed in particular is a great tool for any Grass-Type, and the bulky Chikorita line especially makes great use of it in matchups where, even if you can’t break through your opponent, your opponent might also struggle to break through you, too.

 

[dawnbuster]

I have spent the last three and a half years destroying people with Stantler in GSC NU. I love him.

 

[BeeOrSomething]

View attachment 569437
I have spent the last three and a half years destroying people with Stantler in GSC NU. I love him.

omg me too bestie

 

[Axiemeister]

most of my faves are popular enough - some are obvious (basic?) choices like arcanine and starmie, and some like slurpuff and froslass found enough competitive success to not be exactly unpopular - except beautifly. competitively outclassed, designed to be eventually dropped in-game, always in the shadow of butterfree and later vivillon as the fandom's favourite cute early bug - and yet i adamantly took it all the way to the elite four in my original emerald AND diamond playthroughs and other times since then. i love it enough to make it work. its shiny is also gorgeous.

 

[Epicgamergod69]

most of my faves are popular enough - some are obvious (basic?) choices like arcanine and starmie, and some like slurpuff and froslass found enough competitive success to not be exactly unpopular - except beautifly. competitively outclassed, designed to be eventually dropped in-game, always in the shadow of butterfree and later vivillon as the fandom's favourite cute early bug - and yet i adamantly took it all the way to the elite four in my original emerald AND diamond playthroughs and other times since then. i love it enough to make it work. its shiny is also gorgeous.

View attachment 569464

Omega based I love that little guy, speaking of I also love baby bug mons In general

 

[Band]

they deserve more love :<

 

[Just A Shroom God]

coming back with a weird new favorite after getting into gen 7 randbats, minior.

His gimmick I think is just so well designed. For those who don't know (I didn't), it starts in its Meteor or Shields Up form, , which has 60 in every stat except its defenses, which are 100 each. Upon reaching 50% or less HP, its ability, Shields Down, activates, transforming it into its Shields Down or Core form, , which comes in up to 7 different colors.

minior forms (warning, may be too epic for sensitive eyes)

red
orange
yellow
green
light blue, classified as just blue
indigo
violet

This form, besides looking fucking epic, switches its offenses with its defenses and gives it 120 speed. It also gets access to the coveted move Shell Smash, which presents a pretty interesting situation for it: it simultaneously has the bulk to set up and the speed and attack to pose a threat once it has. The opponent is put into a position where they don't want to attack it lest they give it extra speed and attack, but they don't want to stall it out due to Shields Down's status immunity and its ability to repeatedly Shell Smash. In theory, this makes it a great, maybe even broken threat that will clearly be at least decent in the higher ti-

WHAT THE FUCK SMOGON

So Minior struggles with what a lot of gimmick pokemon struggle with: severely underpowered stats. 60/100/100 defenses are nothing to write home about, especially with a SR-weak rock type you typically don't want to invest a lot of defense into, which means most often the opponents can KO it even in its defensive form. In addition, even if you let it get to Core form, 100 base offenses are nothing special, even at +2, which means many opponents can tank one hit and KO it back due to its -1 base 60 defenses. This is compounded by its merely-decent movepool, having only Acrobatics as good flying STAB and Stone Edge/Power Gem as rock STAB which all come with their various issues. Gamefreak did throw this lil guy a bone by giving him Earthquake for SOMETHING against the steel-types that would otherwise ruin its day, but other than that, it severely lacks coverage. All this adds up to a setup sweeper that can't setup effectively nor sweep when it gets going

Fortunately, all of these problems are fixed in randbats, where SR is less omnipresent and level scaling means that it will hit harder and be bulkier. Yet in teambuilder tiers, I mourn the addition of yet another conceptually cool pokemon ruined by horrible stats and typing.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

In my recent efforts to finally conquer the Battle Frontier, I've learned that Hariyama (or at least my Hariyama, uncreatively named Punchy, I was like six when I caught him) is incredible. Not only does Vital Throw bypass the many evasion-spamming Normal-types in the Frontier, but Punchy is way better at the Battle Palace than I ever expected him to be. He Vital Throws almost everything, Rock Slides the things that don't make sense to Vital Throw, Protects for Leftovers recovery when at low HP, and almost never skips a turn. So many battles there are won by Punchy alone.

 

[Scorpio]

In my recent efforts to finally conquer the Battle Frontier, I've learned that Hariyama (or at least my Hariyama, uncreatively named Punchy, I was like six when I caught him) is incredible. Not only does Vital Throw bypass the many evasion-spamming Normal-types in the Frontier, but Punchy is way better at the Battle Palace than I ever expected him to be. He Vital Throws almost everything, Rock Slides the things that don't make sense to Vital Throw, Protects for Leftovers recovery when at low HP, and almost never skips a turn. So many battles there are won by Punchy alone.

Would Punchy happen to be Brave or Impish? Cuz those Natures are the ones I found to best complement that sort of battle strategy, and thus six-year-old you might’ve stumbled upon a great Frontier (or at least Palace) strat pretty much at random.

Also yeah, Hariyama in general is cool, used one in Ruby.

Oh, and you might wanna post this in the Gen 3 Battle Frontier discussion thread in case Hari is worth looking into

 

[DrPumpkinz]

Would Punchy happen to be Brave or Impish? Cuz those Natures are the ones I found to best complement that sort of battle strategy, and thus six-year-old you might’ve stumbled upon a great Frontier (or at least Palace) strat pretty much at random.

Also yeah, Hariyama in general is cool, used one in Ruby.

Oh, and you might wanna post this in the Gen 3 Battle Frontier discussion thread in case Hari is worth looking into

Sassy, actually. Which also makes him GOATed outside the Palace since it compliments Bulk Up so well (which six-year-old me taught him, not fully grasping that maybe these TMs might actually be valuable; thank god the Whismur I gave Shock Wave to was male, otherwise I couldn't have bred it onto the Ampharos that's also been accompanying me on my recent conquest)

 

[Ironmage]

In my recent efforts to finally conquer the Battle Frontier, I've learned that Hariyama (or at least my Hariyama, uncreatively named Punchy, I was like six when I caught him) is incredible. Not only does Vital Throw bypass the many evasion-spamming Normal-types in the Frontier, but Punchy is way better at the Battle Palace than I ever expected him to be. He Vital Throws almost everything, Rock Slides the things that don't make sense to Vital Throw, Protects for Leftovers recovery when at low HP, and almost never skips a turn. So many battles there are won by Punchy alone.

I should look into Guts users to tech around persistent status in the Pike and Pyramid. Every time I actually tried to think of something for that I got stuck in a loop of "man, I wish there was a later-gen frontier I could be using Komala or Garganacl in."

 

[khlaylav]

I think doing challenge runs basically gives me Stockholm syndrome for certain mons because I went from not liking the Burmy line or the elemental monkeys to being willing to die for them lol

 

[cosmogii]

call me weird, but even before i knew annihilape was going to exist, has been my favorite fighting type. i couldn't tell you why i was drawn to it in the beginning, before i knew the thing was just plain fun to use, but i do have some reasons you should appreciate it now!!!!

for starters, it was the fastest fighting type for 3 generations straight, until gen 4 came along and mucked it all up with infernape. (and i guess arceus holding a fighting plate, but shhhh)

secondly, the ape still has really good utility, even disregarding rage fist bulk up sets. it functions well as a scarfer, tossing around high base power moves and preying on defog for offensive teams with defiant! its like a mini galarian zapdos, and i adore it.
my bias only grew when i decided to use it on a heartgold nuzlocke, (once again giving it a choice scarf) and the thing lasted the ENTIRETY of the playthrough, even killing reds lapras after stealth rocks and SEVERELY denting blastoise with a crit u turn. granted it didn't have defiant, but vital spirit was arguably better for all the rogue sleep powders and yawns that existed.

tldr; funny pig ape punched its way into my heart even before it got an evolution