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Pokémon you didn't expect to like

I never thought anything of Azumarill or Hariyama until they became my best Pokemon in my Nuzlocke runs of White 2 and Sapphire, respectively.
 
Bronzong- As for Bronzong, I thought he just looked weird and was some metagross clone. Then when I was looking for a Pokemon with levitate and trick room for my shuckle to pair up with, look who showed up. I checked out his stats and moves, and he had good defenses and more importantly, HYPNOSIS! So now while shuckle sweeps with powerswap, he puts survivors to sleep
 
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Mostly Gen 5 Pokemon, but there were a few that REALLY made me like them.

Ferrothorn- I used a Ferroseed in Black, and I DESPISED it. It was slow and useless. But finally, in Opelucid Gym, it evolved. I decided to use it against Drayden, and it tore his team up! Then, at the E4, all of my Pokemon had fainted, I had no Revives left, and Ferrothorn swept the floor with everyone. It is now my second favorite Pokemon ever.

Archeops- Used on the same run as Ferrothorn, and it was the best member of my team until Ferroseed evolved. It's my third favorite.

Mantine/Altaria/Claydol/Magnezone- All used in my first run of White 2. All of them were star battlers, especially Claydol, who was arguably the best member of the team. None of them even took any damage in the battles with Marshal and Caitlin, and I used all of them once each in each E4 battle.

Last but not least, Lanturn- In HeartGold, I decided to use one. It wasn't the best member of my team, but it could get the job done. It had wonderful moves, too. But what made it really special were the battles with Lance and Red. It was my last Pokemon in both battles, and it just barely defeated them.
 
Jumpluff. Seriously, speed and status problems make Jumpluff one of the most annoying things ever and I love it. Used it in Colosseum and it was one of my most useful members.
 
Leavanny
Its typing doesn't help much in the main game (white 1) and I wanted Accelgor instead, but hey! Shiny. Not a bad mixed-type attacker, either

Musharna (Thank you, Dream Radar)
Really poor speed usually disqualifies certain 'Mons from my team. But when something tears up as many gyms as it did, I made it an endgame teammate.

Torkoal
Actually, I'm starting to like more of the slower ones... Maybe I should change my policy.
 
Mareep. I didn't really like or dislike it before HGSS, but then I encountered one and went "Aaah! It's cute!". I decided to train it for giggles and when it began Wreaking Everything's Shit I realized I had a monster on my hands.
 
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Jigglypuff. When I first saw it, it was just a pink circle with this weird Elvis hair. But after watching the anime it turned out to be one of my favorite gen 1 pokemon. When I was little I used to laugh so hard when everyone fell asleep and she got so mad, and I still do.
 
Serperior- The main reason why I usually don't pick grass starters is because that they have to many weaknesses. This is why I didn't bother picking snivy when the first pokemon Black/White, that and the fact that the line had a crappy move pool didn't help. But when I saw the type of moves the line could learn in Black and White 2, I changed my mind about Snivy and picked her (yes, my Serperior is a girl, and I named her princess). And as the game progressed I eventually began to love this pokemon and now she's one of my mains. And you can bet that serperior, my swampert from emerald, and fennekin's final evo are gonna be my main's when X and Y come out.
 
Gotta add Golett: before I got my copy of Black, I wanted Golurk more than Golett. But once I worked with the little guy, I fell in love with Golett so deeply that the rest is history.
Conkeldurr no doubt. When I saw Conky for the first time, I was like "awful design". After using him both competitively and ingame, I've warmed upto him. Now, I also think of him as the old captain of the team, with loads of experience and ability but no speed, like in football, so I appreciate his design as well now.
I'm warming up to him, too. But in my case, it's different.

I've been writing a fanfic as of late and one of the characters is a Conkeldurr who is known as being stern but caring. The more I write about the character, the more I warm up to old Conky and now I'm working with a Gurdurr on my copy of White. He's surprisingly effective and I actually like the goofy looking thing. I'm not seeing them as ugly anymore; in fact, when I look at Conkeldurr, I can see some kindness in the big lug's eyes.

Yes, I'm weird. I admit it.
 
I didn't expect to like Volcarona but after having one hatching eggs for me with it's flame body ability, I started thinking that it was awesome.
 
Magcargo. It's cute, but I didn't consider using for battle. Once when I needed a certain move, I needed to train a magcargo, since it had that move (which I don't remember) and it could breed with the other pokemon ( I think it was mismagius) for the egg move. I thought the training process would be slow and boring. Actually I had a lot of fun battling with it, although it's a little slow. I normally don't use fire types, and I guess training magcargo was a change of pace.
Eelektross. At first I thought the design was gross. However the more I looked at it, I couldn't resist but to think it looked kinda cute. I'm gonna catch a tynamo and add it to my Black2 team.
 
Emolga

The first Emolga I got was the in-game trade where you get that Emolga named "Minipete." When I got it, I was around the part where I had to face the Flying type gym so I decided to use it since Electric is super effective against Flying. This Emolga was a BEAST, solo-ing the entire gym with only one stop to the Pokémon Center right before the gym leader. I decided to keep it in my party seeing how well it did. However, I am starting to lose favor for it since all I find it doing is using Thunder Wave everytime it comes out and having bad defenses with a rather low health compared to my other pokemon. But I do believe I may not be using it to its full potential so I might consider breeding a better one.
 
I'm not laughing, far from it, I think you might be a genius :) I'll try Slowpoke out. I couldn't get past the stupid-lookingness of Slowpoke before, but Slowking is probably not something to be messed with...

It's true. He's become really helpful, especially since I can use Power Gem, Zen Headbutt, and Water Pulse with him. And he's shiny to boot!

Smogon University entry for Slowking (B/W version, but there are archived strategies for its other versions):

Slowking (B/W) - Smogon University
Slowpoke is a hell of a "bulky" Pokémon. I had problems battling with one Slowbro in-game (a trainer from Platinum's survival area - route 225) and I'd never underestimate it competitively.


The one I thought I wouldn't care about was Vanillite / Vanillish / Vanilluxe. I was never into any siamese Pokémon but this one really captivated me. ^^ Some people deem its design as uncreative but to me it's the complete opposite! It can win some battles with some strategies too. :)
 
Snivy- got it bcuz my friends did- I called it snī-vy because I was new. Haha. Thought it was stupid, but it worked. :) I was gonna get Osha, but I didn't know about saving and turned it off.
 
Azumarill.I caught marill in Hoenn simply because i needed a water type and other were horrible to my mind, so I decided to go with a marill and I loved it, next to my Blaziken strongest pkmn in my Hoenn party
 
Porygon-Z - When I first saw it, my initial thought was "over-designed" and I much preferred the simplicity of Porygon2 or the retro Porygon. When I needed something for Trick Room that wasn't Psychic I decided to try it since it also learned the move naturally. I now love almost everything about it and can't wait to hear its updated cry in X/Y (it was already pretty good).

Gallade - I was a big Gardevoir fan back when RSE came out (NOT that way...) and was initially not willing to use Gallade since I much prefer special Psychic types. But I slowly realized that I needed something physical with really good coverage and Medicham wasn't going to cut it. Gallade was a very viable choice, but I didn't quite like its design. I now like it a lot more and, though not as much as Gardevoir, it's definitely in my Top 20.

Mandibuzz - I thought the idea of a vulture-based Pokemon was pretty bad and when I first saw its design I just confined it to the PC and never looked back. But looking at it several times over the past couple of years has actually softened my stance on it and I now think its design is ace and am considering using one competitively.

Muk - When I first saw Muk, I thought it was a pile of (literal) crap. Cue the anime presenting Ash's Muk and I suddenly chuckle whenever I see Muk or hear its cry. It wasn't until Gen 3 came around that I thought about using Muk though and I'm glad I did since it has such utility with that bulk and Attack.

Mantine - It looked goofy and wasn't a good Pokemon at all, so I never used it at all for the first 4 Gens. It has only been this Gen I've turned around and thought "You know, it really doesn't look THAT bad". I've yet to use Mantine, but that's only because I can't really make it fit on a team easily.
 
Fennekin: I am usually not a fan of canine Pokémon, but fuck man, Braixen looks amazing.

Lucario: I always liked its design, but its fans made me dislike the species entirely. Still, after using one in Black 2, it became one of my favorites.

Keldeo: It is rare for me to like biped Pokémon, but Keldeo's Resolution form design is so great. I love its Misty-like hair.

Samurott: I am more into Grass and Fire starters and as I said, it is rare for me to like bipeds, so being a fan of Samurott wasn't something I expected.
 
I didn't expect to love cubone when I first played pkmn, but one time playing through I decided what the heck, and he was incredibly powerful much to my surprise! :D
 
As I grew older and started to design my own Pokemon, I have come to a point where I just appreciate every Pokemon and their unique designs, ideas and concepts. c:
 
Please note: The thread is from 11 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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