Pokémon that are great competitively but suck in-game (and vice versa)

[AOPSUser]

I think most pseudo-legendaries have the issue of being pretty bad in-game. Think of DNite: It evolves at Lv 55 which means it is stuck as a Dragonair for pretty much the whole game until the Elite 4. Hydreigon is even worse since it usually won't evolve until post-game. Good luck hitting something while you have the Hustle Ability. They also have pretty bad movepools outside of egg moves and TMs (which is a problem until Gen 5)

Slow pokemon are also pretty bad. The Slowbro family, Reuniculus , Conkeldurr, Musharna all pretty much have to eat a hit before killing an opponent.

However, Special mention must go to Ditto, Smeargle and the Chansey family.

Hustle is pretty bad when it misses, yes, but it's a 20% chance for you to miss, normally. Opponents using Sand-Attack lower your accuracy more. And Hustle comes with a pretty big boon, making Zweilous hit hard enough to take out large chunks of the E4. It's Dark typing is pretty godly in Unova's E4 and its Dragon typing helps it sponge hits from Jellicent and Chandelure. It's not completely useless. And then in BW2, the levels of everything increase, and it doesn't exactly take hours to grind to lv. 64 thanks to Audino and Lucky Egg, in addition to being caught at lv. 50 instead of 40 like in BW. In XY you can catch wild Hydreigon if you try hard enough, and even if you don't you can still catch and train a Zweilous. You should be lv. 64 by the League anyways.

Dragonite's main problem is that it is not available in the games with Lucky Eggs and Audinos. And infinite use TMs. If you've ever used one in a playthrough, you can see how good it is once it hits lv. 55.

Metang's also pretty good in BW2. You just pretty much can't catch it since its catch rate is 3. You can also find wild Metagross in shaking grass, which is pretty epic.

Conkeldurr and Musharna are amazing, at least in BW. Sure they have to take hits, but they can take lots of hits and dish out lots of damage, especially Conkeldurr. Or even Eviolite Gurdurr, which trades power for a bit more bulk and no trading requirement. Timburr comes with STAB in Low Kick and gets strong STAB in Wake-Up Slap which gets you through Lenora. Then you evolve, pick up Hammer Arm, teach a couple TMs, and you're all set. Musharna is awesome because of its early evolution into a really bulky and powerful attacker, and your only Psychic-type at that point other than Woobat. It does get worse later on but it's still really bulky. Reuniclus isn't too bad either, thanks to its power and Magic Guard.

 

[Kurona]

Conkeldurr and Musharna are amazing, at least in BW. Sure they have to take hits, but they can take lots of hits and dish out lots of damage, especially Conkeldurr. Or even Eviolite Gurdurr, which trades power for a bit more bulk and no trading requirement. Timburr comes with STAB in Low Kick and gets strong STAB in Wake-Up Slap which gets you through Lenora. Then you evolve, pick up Hammer Arm, teach a couple TMs, and you're all set. Musharna is awesome because of its early evolution into a really bulky and powerful attacker, and your only Psychic-type at that point other than Woobat. It does get worse later on but it's still really bulky. Reuniclus isn't too bad either, thanks to its power and Magic Guard.

Musharna's pretty dire due to an extremely lacking movepool unless you hold off evolving it to the late levels, which is generally a detriment to your team. There's few good TMs it gets in-game too, I just wouldn't use it unless you really really loved it.
Speaking from experience though, Solosis is pretty fucking amazing. It gets Psyshock very early on when you catch it and it evolves into Duosion relatively early, then when it becomes Reuniclus it's amazing as heck with Shadow Ball and Psychic at it's disposal. I've heard a lot of good things about Conkeldurr/Gurdurr as well despite never using them.

 

[AOPSUser]

Musharna's pretty dire due to an extremely lacking movepool unless you hold off evolving it to the late levels, which is generally a detriment to your team. There's few good TMs it gets in-game too, I just wouldn't use it unless you really really loved it.
Speaking from experience though, Solosis is pretty fucking amazing. It gets Psyshock very early on when you catch it and it evolves into Duosion relatively early, then when it becomes Reuniclus it's amazing as heck with Shadow Ball and Psychic at it's disposal. I've heard a lot of good things about Conkeldurr/Gurdurr as well despite never using them.

Ehh when I last used it Musharna pulled its weight for quite a while before becoming deadweight. It's certainly one of the best mons you can get at the point when you evolve it. It's not that horrible overall either, at least not Deino/Pawniard/Vullaby-level bad.

I've never actually used Reuniclus since I never played White but I've heard lots of praise for its power.

 

[Scorpio]

Geodude in HG/SS. Sure, you need to trade it to fully evolve it, but it comes before the first gym (which it destroys), and can also take on the next two gyms, and is pretty much all-around useful. Competitively, in Gen 4 its OU glory days are far behind, though it sees use in NU.

AOPSUser: Incidentally, those three Pokes you mentioned are early-game antagonists in Pokemon Rumble Blast. Must've gotten tired of being useless in B/W. :P

 

[ZapperredGrixis]

porygon is the worst i mean its near impossible to get and it takes 2 freaking trades with held items to even reach the last freaking form

 

[Kurona]

porygon is the worst i mean its near impossible to get and it takes 2 freak ing trades with held items to even reach the last freaking form

There's a couple flaws here.
First off, the two problems you mentioned are independent of each other. The only game you can get Porygon-Z in-game is the one it's EASIEST to get it in - as a gift from a guy in Veilstone.
Porygon is pretty damn shit in FRLG, the only other game you can get it before becoming champ. But as you can't evolve it in that game at all until you get the national dex, we have to count it as Porygon and not Porygon2/Porygon-Z. And Porygon is awful as a Pokémon in every sense, including competitive, so we can't really count it.
Trading is obviously a problem for those who have no other person/DS with gen 4 game. But here's the thing - if you do, as soon as you get Porygon in Platinum you will have the Up-grade by then, so you can immediately evolve it if you're able, which gives you a pretty damn decent Pokémon to carry you throughout the game - it's decently bulky, has a nice movepool and abilities and has pretty decent special attacking prowess.
Then you get to Galactic HQ, get the Dubious Disc and OH BOY SHIT'S GOING DOWN NOW. Porygon-Z is ridiculously good with two fantastic abilities, a wide movepool and a Special Attack stat which at the time, was the highest among non-legendaries (Drawn with Alakazam, who also needs a trade to evolve). It's base 90 speed is usually the biggest problem for it in competitive, but in-game this doesn't matter due to you being the only one with Speed EVs, not to mention how many levels above most enemies you'll be.
So if you're able to evolve it, you have an easy to get Pokémon with great speed, amazing special attack, a wide movepool and two really good abilities that never feels like dead weight. I don't know how it's ranked on DPPt's in-game tiers here on this site, but in my opinion, it is well worth a teamslot if you want one.

 

[Ankebut]

I did the mistake and taught Stealth Rock to my Gabite (it's nature isn't very good at competitive side). I had the easiest walkthrough ever but i couldn't participate in any Wi-Fi battle.

 

[UXQ MegaMan775]

Wobbuffet. Competitively, it was so good it was deemed broken for two generations. In-game, however, I think it's hard to find a worse Pokémon. Even Magikarp can at least deal damage consistently, and it actually improves as it levels up.

Ditto is also pretty bad, even with Imposter.

And another mention should go to Dragonite and Salamence. They are good... once past lvl. 55 and 50, respectively. Until then, however, they are disappointingly weak, slow and all-around annoying to train. Use them in your game playthrough, and they'll be good for nothing but cannon fodder until you're ready to take on the Elite Four.

Hydreigon is so much worse to train than Dragonite/Salamence.
Haxorus isn't fun either.

 

[Ankebut]

Hydreigon is so much worse to train than Dragonite/Salamence.
Haxorus isn't fun either.

Haxorus is nice in generation five after game, i don't know how it is in generation six tough.

 

[Prince Phantom]

You could kinda say talonflame, as even thoughit's stats are good enough, it most likely wont have gale force. plus most of its best attacking moves hurt itself, meaning you need to constantly heal it. although i certinly wouldnt mind watching that amazing animation for brave bird over and over again. its still usable of course, but i think there are better offensive options for the story

 

[AOPSUser]

You could kinda say talonflame, as even thoughit's stats are good enough, it most likely wont have gale force. plus most of its best attacking moves hurt itself, meaning you need to constantly heal it. although i certinly wouldnt mind watching that amazing animation for brave bird over and over again. its still usable of course, but i think there are better offensive options for the story

Talonflame in the story is actually (imo) a ton better than it is competitively. There are zero instances (at least in major battles) in which Gale Wings would be useful, and its Speed is super helpful. As a Fletchling it sucks complete ass, but upon evolution into Fletchinder it gets something that no other Flying-type (other than Charizard but that's primarily useful as a Fire-type) can boast--STAB Ember. It might not sound that good, but it is STAB Fire coverage at a very early level, something that earlier Flying-types, even DPP Staraptor, can only wish for (Close Combat is no good against Bronzong). Furthermore, it has a very good matchup against gyms, handily beating Viola (its only gym as a Fletchling!), Korrina, Ramos (at which point it has ACROBATICS), Valerie, and Wulfric by virtue of typing alone. STAB Acrobatics before the fourth gym is also insane, and it gets Flame Charge and Fly around the same time (and those three moves are enough to pull it through the entire game).

Also if you think about it, Talonflame has an awesome defensive typing for in-game purposes. It really only has to worry about Rock-types, given the scarcity of Water and Electric types in Kalos (and most Water-types can be beaten by Acrobatics anyways), while it is immune to Ground, resists Fairy, Grass and Bug (4x!), Fighting, and Steel. It also gets Roost fairly early, so that's always an option.

 

[Prince Phantom]

Talonflame in the story is actually (imo) a ton better than it is competitively. There are zero instances (at least in major battles) in which Gale Wings would be useful, and its Speed is super helpful. As a Fletchling it sucks complete ass, but upon evolution into Fletchinder it gets something that no other Flying-type (other than Charizard but that's primarily useful as a Fire-type) can boast--STAB Ember. It might not sound that good, but it is STAB Fire coverage at a very early level, something that earlier Flying-types, even DPP Staraptor, can only wish for (Close Combat is no good against Bronzong). Furthermore, it has a very good matchup against gyms, handily beating Viola (its only gym as a Fletchling!), Korrina, Ramos (at which point it has ACROBATICS), Valerie, and Wulfric by virtue of typing alone. STAB Acrobatics before the fourth gym is also insane, and it gets Flame Charge and Fly around the same time (and those three moves are enough to pull it through the entire game).

Also if you think about it, Talonflame has an awesome defensive typing for in-game purposes. It really only has to worry about Rock-types, given the scarcity of Water and Electric types in Kalos (and most Water-types can be beaten by Acrobatics anyways), while it is immune to Ground, resists Fairy, Grass and Bug (4x!), Fighting, and Steel. It also gets Roost fairly early, so that's always an option.

Welp, that just shot my thought out of the water XD. but nevertheless, those are all good points and make alot of sense. talon does outspeed most pokemon though the story, so gale wings would be useless, and overall it would be amazing to have on your team. im not so sure id say its better than in competitive, but either way, your completly right XD

 

[Random Passerby]

Hustle is pretty bad when it misses, yes, but it's a 20% chance for you to miss, normally. Opponents using Sand-Attack lower your accuracy more. And Hustle comes with a pretty big boon, making Zweilous hit hard enough to take out large chunks of the E4. It's Dark typing is pretty godly in Unova's E4 and its Dragon typing helps it sponge hits from Jellicent and Chandelure. It's not completely useless. And then in BW2, the levels of everything increase, and it doesn't exactly take hours to grind to lv. 64 thanks to Audino and Lucky Egg, in addition to being caught at lv. 50 instead of 40 like in BW. In XY you can catch wild Hydreigon if you try hard enough, and even if you don't you can still catch and train a Zweilous. You should be lv. 64 by the League anyways.

Dragonite's main problem is that it is not available in the games with Lucky Eggs and Audinos. And infinite use TMs. If you've ever used one in a playthrough, you can see how good it is once it hits lv. 55.

Metang's also pretty good in BW2. You just pretty much can't catch it since its catch rate is 3. You can also find wild Metagross in shaking grass, which is pretty epic.

Conkeldurr and Musharna are amazing, at least in BW. Sure they have to take hits, but they can take lots of hits and dish out lots of damage, especially Conkeldurr. Or even Eviolite Gurdurr, which trades power for a bit more bulk and no trading requirement. Timburr comes with STAB in Low Kick and gets strong STAB in Wake-Up Slap which gets you through Lenora. Then you evolve, pick up Hammer Arm, teach a couple TMs, and you're all set. Musharna is awesome because of its early evolution into a really bulky and powerful attacker, and your only Psychic-type at that point other than Woobat. It does get worse later on but it's still really bulky. Reuniclus isn't too bad either, thanks to its power and Magic Guard.

Zweilous pretty much has nothing bar an 80% accuracy Crunch to work with when you got it (Dragon Rush is shit with Hustle). In BW, you catch it as a Deino and have to train it in Victory Road, which is infested with Durants who OHKO you with STAB X-Scissor and you can't do much back.(Perhaps there is something I'm missing but it is also under levelled when it joins so ...(I didn't use it in BW2 so can't comment much there)

I used Dragonite in a playthrough of HGSS and it is just not worth it. It sucks up so much experience and I had to fight the Elite Four with a Dragonair. Maybe it gets better with infinite use TMs but before Gen 5 it is lagging behind too much.

Metang I have no complaints about except the ridiculously low catch rate. I used it in my BW2 run and it almost always pulls its weight.

Musharna though is pretty dire. You are stuck with Munna if you want some level-up moves. Sure, you can use your Moonstone to evolve it early but that means you are stuck with shit moves until you get TMs. It also does jack against Team Plasma.

 

[rufus drumknott]

I used Dragonite in a playthrough of HGSS and it is just not worth it. It sucks up so much experience and I had to fight the Elite Four with a Dragonair. Maybe it gets better with infinite use TMs but before Gen 5 it is lagging behind too much.

I got a Dratini for my Egglocke and so far, it has done jack squat for the team. It doesn't get any good level up moves for ages and the Egg Moves I got it with are too low in accuracy for a playthrough.

 

[Lady Vader]

I used Dragonite in a playthrough of HGSS and it is just not worth it. It sucks up so much experience and I had to fight the Elite Four with a Dragonair. Maybe it gets better with infinite use TMs but before Gen 5 it is lagging behind too much.

I had a similar problem when I played Yellow (and that was a team that consisted of Pikachu, Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Dragonite, and Mew).

 

[AOPSUser]

Zweilous pretty much has nothing bar an 80% accuracy Crunch to work with when you got it (Dragon Rush is shit with Hustle). In BW, you catch it as a Deino and have to train it in Victory Road, which is infested with Durants who OHKO you with STAB X-Scissor and you can't do much back.(Perhaps there is something I'm missing but it is also under levelled when it joins so ...(I didn't use it in BW2 so can't comment much there)

I used Dragonite in a playthrough of HGSS and it is just not worth it. It sucks up so much experience and I had to fight the Elite Four with a Dragonair. Maybe it gets better with infinite use TMs but before Gen 5 it is lagging behind too much.

Metang I have no complaints about except the ridiculously low catch rate. I used it in my BW2 run and it almost always pulls its weight.

Musharna though is pretty dire. You are stuck with Munna if you want some level-up moves. Sure, you can use your Moonstone to evolve it early but that means you are stuck with shit moves until you get TMs. It also does jack against Team Plasma.

Yeah Zweilous is a piece of shit in BW, but it's still not on the same level of useless as, say, Liepard or Watchog. BW2 it's a bit easier to get it to Hydreigon, but still quite a bit of grinding (you will be rewarded though!).

Dratini isn't even available in games with infinite use TMs, so we may never know. Dratini is good for at least one thing in HGSS though--it reliably 2HKOes Whitney's Miltank with Dragon Rage. If you didn't start with Cyndaquil Dratini is probably the fastest way to beat Whitney.

Musharna still isn't that bad. You're stuck with Psybeam, yes, but it's STAB Psybeam coming off a Base 107 Special Attack (like Espeon's but a bit weaker). It also has 116/85/95 bulk, which means that nothing (except Burgh) can touch you for the next couple gyms once you evolve it. Reuniclus and Beheeyem are better in the long run, but Musharna is a decent choice because of its performance between Gyms 2 and 6.

 

[Kurona]

Dratini isn't even available in games with infinite use TMs, so we may never know.

It's late-game in XY.

Yeah Zweilous is a piece of shit in BW, but it's still not on the same level of useless as, say, Liepard or Watchog.

Patrat and Purrloin are pretty good for being a Cutslave for the first part of the game, so even those has uses. Keeping in mind that Hydreigon is unrealistic, Zweilous is almost if not completely outclassed by Haxorus, which is far easier to obtain and raise, doesn't have lowered accuracy, has great STAB in Dragon Claw, gets two fantastic boosting moves (Pretty sure it gets swords dance and dragon dance by level up before 48), better speed with a ridiculously high attack stat to make up for the lack of Hustle boost, and Shadow Claw if you really want to argue for Zweilous' dark moves.

Dratini is good for at least one thing in HGSS though--it reliably 2HKOes Whitney's Miltank with Dragon Rage. If you didn't start with Cyndaquil Dratini is probably the fastest way to beat Whitney.

There's this little thing called Heracross...

 

[AOPSUser]

It's late-game in XY.


Patrat and Purrloin are pretty good for being a Cutslave for the first part of the game, so even those has uses. Keeping in mind that Hydreigon is unrealistic, Zweilous is almost if not completely outclassed by Haxorus, which is far easier to obtain and raise, doesn't have lowered accuracy, has great STAB in Dragon Claw, gets two fantastic boosting moves (Pretty sure it gets swords dance and dragon dance by level up before 48), better speed with a ridiculously high attack stat to make up for the lack of Hustle boost, and Shadow Claw if you really want to argue for Zweilous' dark moves.


There's this little thing called Heracross...

It's late-game in XY? That just lessens its usefulness a lot, since it's most useful early-game when it has Dragon Rage and all its opponents are Grass and Water-typed (although those opponents are rarer in XY).

Axew is also quite difficult to raise. It's in the Slow EXP. group and has really bad stats. Fraxure really isn't that much better, although it can pick up EXP against Drayden. It gets boosting moves, but those are only really useful in the last two battles of the game. Yeah, it's a lot better than Zweilous, but let's just say you don't want to use Haxorus. :P

Oh, and in BW2 you can get Hydreigon reasonably easily if you want to use it (though it's still not recommended), and in XY there's almost no way not to have one before the Elite Four.

Also literally every early-game mon except Lillipup and Tepig gets Cut, and Patrat at least gets a STAB early on so there is no excuse for using Purrloin unless you REALLY like the mon.

Also unlike Heracross Dratini is not uncommon and does not come at lv. 2.

 

[Kurona]

Also unlike Heracross Dratini is not uncommon and does not come at lv. 2.

Dratini instead requires hours of voltorb flip. I'll take about 10 minutes of headbutting trees to find a Pokémon that's not that hard to raise and is useful throughout the entire game instead, thanks.

Axew is also quite difficult to raise. It's in the Slow EXP. group and has really bad stats. Fraxure really isn't that much better, although it can pick up EXP against Drayden. It gets boosting moves, but those are only really useful in the last two battles of the game. Yeah, it's a lot better than Zweilous, but let's just say you don't want to use Haxorus. :P

I'm not saying it's brilliant, but it's miles ahead of Zweilous and you have no excuse of using Zweilous over it unless you really, really like it.

 

[AOPSUser]

Dratini instead requires hours of voltorb flip. I'll take about 10 minutes of headbutting trees to find a Pokémon that's not that hard to raise and is useful throughout the entire game instead, thanks.


I'm not saying it's brilliant, but it's miles ahead of Zweilous and you have no excuse of using Zweilous over it unless you really, really like it.

Dratini takes 15-25 minutes at worst unless you suck that much at Voltorb Flip and/or have insane amounts of bad luck. When you take into account the amount of time it takes to get Heracross to a decent level from level 2-5, that's easily more time you put into Heracross (and it's not even that useful imo). Also Haxorus might be better than Zweilous, but that's no reason not to use Zweilous. I only use Haxorus because I like it, after all.

 

[EJ190]

How godly is the Garchomp line in gen4? It's definitely the best ingame pseudolegend. It's late game in diamond/pearl, but you can get it just before the Riley tag-team making it easy to raise then. And Gible is available just after the 2nd gym in platinum WITH earthquake. That and dragonrage makes the 1st part of platinum a cakewalk.
Also, i don't know about you guys, but lucario is a MAJOR disappointment in sinnoh: too late game, too frail, too weak for me. Infernape is 100x better

 

[Lady Vader]

How godly is the Garchomp line in gen4? It's definitely the best ingame pseudolegend. It's late game in diamond/pearl, but you can get it just before the Riley tag-team making it easy to raise then. And Gible is available just after the 2nd gym in platinum WITH earthquake. That and dragonrage makes the 1st part of platinum a cakewalk.
Also, i don't know about you guys, but lucario is a MAJOR disappointment in sinnoh: too late game, too frail, too weak for me. Infernape is 100x better

I would just run Infernape anyway, especially in Diamond and Pearl since the only other Fire-type before the Elite Four is Rapidash (look at Flint's team!).

 

[Kurona]

I would just run Infernape anyway, especially in Diamond and Pearl since the only other Fire-type before the Elite Four is Rapidash (look at Flint's team!).

Magmortar and Houndoom at least offer great alternatives in Platinum. But yeah it's pretty dumb.

 

[Olaph Olaffsson]

How godly is the Garchomp line in gen4? It's definitely the best ingame pseudolegend. It's late game in diamond/pearl, but you can get it just before the Riley tag-team making it easy to raise then. And Gible is available just after the 2nd gym in platinum WITH earthquake. That and dragonrage makes the 1st part of platinum a cakewalk.

You can get Gible in D/P with Sweet Scent/Honey (you can enter the cave, but not move around in it). Combee is available, starting with Sweet Scent, after you have defeated Team Galactic at the Valley Windworks. After the second gym is hardly late game.

 

[DeBlois]

In-Game: Not sure if it has been said but the Mareep - Ampharos was really good in game. With the first gym being Flying, it was amazing having an Electric Pokemon just outside. It meant you could easily start Chikorita and have no real problems.

Competitive: Well, Mega-Amph has some play here and there, but Ampharos has a tough time keeping up.