Types that you never use on in-game teams?

[BettyN]

Even though there are 17 (15 in RBY, 18 in XY) types, some are always going to see more use than others for whatever reasons. What are the ones that you use the least on your in-game teams?

(Note: Only count Fairy if you've played XY.)

Here's mine...

Fighting: I think this one's mostly a side-effect of me preferring RBY/GSC. The type's near-useless in those games, and most of the earlier Gen Fighting Types are kind of "boring" in comparison to later ones like Lucario, IMO. It's telling that the first game where I actively sought out a Fighting Type was in Emerald, where Fighting types are much more useful (all those Dark Types in Hoenn) and considerably less "boring." I loved my adorable little Breloom.

Ice: When nearly every Water Type sans Magikarp can learn Ice Beam, why bother wasting a team slot on a dedicated Ice Type? Surf pretty much mandates that your team have a Water Type, anyways, and Water Types are usually sturdier, have better attacking stats, and have better movepools than Ice Types. Plus, Ice Types are usually rare and don't show up until very late in the game, after you've already encountered a million Water Types. The only Ice Type I've ever used with any regularity was Lapras, but surprise, it's also a Water Type.

Steel: Like Ice Types, they tend to be rare/late encounters (2 out of 5 are trade evolutions in GSC), and the vast majority of them are slow and overly defensive, which makes them harder to use in-game (which is mostly based around offense). Plus, Steel STAB is completely useless (pre-XY) and can easily be covered by other, more common types.

Bug: While I usually pick up an early-game Butterfree in RBY, that's about it as far as Bugs go on my team. Most of them have bad stats, and the ones that don't are usually hard to get and have terrible movepools. Similar to Fighting, Bug was another type that started out kind of "boring" early on, but became better and more interesting in later Gens (notably, Gen 5), which means that the games where Bugs have any use are the ones I don't play.

Rock: Sorry, but it's the most boring type ever, IMO. It has way too many weaknesses for being full of so many slow, "defensive" Pokémon (too many of whom are part-Ground and have horrible Special Defense, which means that they can be one-shotted by Bubble), and its STAB can be more easily covered by better types like Electric, Water, and Ground. I'll usually use Tyranitar (one of the few Rock Types that isn't "boring") whenever I can get a hold of it, but otherwise, my team will be Rock-free.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I tend to design my team so that it can hit everything super effectively, so there's only one type I've never really liked having on my team and that's Normal, simply because it's the only type that can't. Even the weaker types like Grass, Rock, and Bug I'll sometimes use just to mix things up. Pre-6th gen, I also didn't really use Poison or Steel because other types did their jobs better, but Fairy changes things, and now I want one of them on my team to counter it.

Likewise, I almost always use a Fighting and Ground type because they're the only ones SE against Normal and Electric.

 

[zoroarctic]

I have never used a bug or ghost type to complete the main story. The main reason to use either type is their effectiveness against psychics and other ghosts types, and since dark can counter both, I never saw much use for them. Although, as I stated in another thread, I've recently fallen in love with mega-Banette and I'm considering using it (or Dusclops) in OR.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I have never used a bug or ghost type to complete the main story. The main reason to use either type is their effectiveness against psychics and other ghosts types, and since dark can counter both, I never saw much use for them. Although, as I stated in another thread, I've recently fallen in love with mega-Banette and I'm considering using it (or Dusclops) in OR.

Bug is useful against other types like Grass and Dark, though.

 

[zoroarctic]

I have never used a bug or ghost type to complete the main story. The main reason to use either type is their effectiveness against psychics and other ghosts types, and since dark can counter both, I never saw much use for them. Although, as I stated in another thread, I've recently fallen in love with mega-Banette and I'm considering using it (or Dusclops) in OR.

Bug is useful against other types like Grass and Dark, though.

Grass isn't a problem for me because I always carry at least one fire and flying type, and I like using fairies as well for darks.

 

[Jenneta]

I have never used Rock and Bug. Never. I just don't really like alot of Pokemon with those types. >3< But, I'm sure there will be some Rock/Bug pokemon I'll use someday. ;D

 

[Steel_Justice]

Here's what I got

Electric: They are primarily counters for water and flying types but since I usually pick the grass type starter and every water type not named Magikarp can learn Ice Beam Electric types become a bit redundant for me. That and I tend to use Pokemon who can learn Electric moves like Thunder bolt/punch like Gardevoir.

Ice: As previously stated every water type not Magikarp can learn Ice Beam so having the type is not as necessary. Ice types are also frail, don't generally have good stat distributions and come late which also makes them less appealing to me

Ghost: They tend to be rare, come late or evolve by trading which make them more difficult to get and use compared to Dark types which mostly counter the same types.

Normal: STAB isn't super effective against anything and strong easily accessible ones are hard to come by. The only ones I used during a play through are Staraptor (though that was mostly for the flying type) and Stoutland.

Poison: Unless Venusaur is in the game and is a starter this type doesn't see much use in game for me for obvious reasons.

Bug: Not many strong easily accessible bugs in most games and their STAB is resisted by many common types. The only ones I used are Galvantula and Heracross and they have strong moves and secondary types.

Ground: I have no idea why this is so since the STAB is great. I guess it's because often use fighting types which hit 3 of the same types as Ground and the other 2 types are less of a concern for me since I often use Grass and Steel types.

 

[henrymidfields]

Ice: Weak defenses and too many type weaknesses. Plus Water-types can learn most Ice-types, making Ice-type Pokémon redundant. Even their strength against Dragon isn't really saying much, since unlike Fairy-types, Ice-types can't stop stuff like STAB-Outrage.

Bug until Gen 5: I also ignored Bug-types until when I found about how the new Bugs got buffs since Gen 4-6. Butterfree/Beedrill were utterly sucktastic, Venipede is straight-out fantastic.

Normal: It's STAB isn't much of use since it doesn't have anything that it can hit super-effectively. Besides most pure-Normal ones are Com Mons and utterly craptastic anyway. Audino, I did use for Gen 5-6, as that allowed me to buy time against a strong opponent while I used medicine. I also found out how useful a max-friendship Return-Lillipup was, and I intend to keep my Lillipup for Black 2.

 

[CynthiaLover]

This is what I've got:

Grass: Grass types were not my cup of tea. Their moves were heavily resisted, their move pools were limited at times, and they just didn't seem to pack much of a punch. There are some exceptions, such as Torterra and Gogoat, who have earned my respect for their power and bulk, but most Grass types are pretty lackluster to me. I tend to use Electric more than Grass for combating Water types. While Grass types have improved over time, they still aren't that great to me.

Normal: Let's face it, Normal may have the widest range of moves, but the Normal type itself can't do Super Effective STAB moves. They are also so bland and plain, not much is exciting about them. While I'll use Normal/Flying types, it's usually because I need a decent Flyer or if it has secondary benefits (like Staraptor's Close Combat or Noctowl's psychic moves). The Normal type itself isn't interesting to me, especially since they can't do Super Effective damage of their type. So while I may use a Normal type early on, they get boxed pretty quickly after that.

Steel: Steel is one of those odd types. For the longest time, Steel types were limited at best. While they were bulky and sturdy, a single Fire type (one of my most used types) could knock them down several pegs. They usually needed a second type to compensate for their lackluster abilities. While the new Fairy type has increased their abilities, they still aren't high on my list, with some exceptions like Lucario or Aegislash.

Rock: Probably one of the worst types of all. With so many weaknesses, painfully slow, and often times limited moves, they were the pits. They can be trashed from something as simple as a Bubble attack, especially if they had the Ground type pegged with them. While the Rock type is now a more common attacking type for me (Rock Slide in particular), I rarely, if at all, use the Rock type Pokemon. Gigalith and Tyrantrum are probably the only examples of Rock Pokemon I've ever used, but overall I rarely even consider them.

 

[Sirro]

I think I'm the only person in the world that doesn't use Dragon types. Most of them just seem too overpowered for my liking.

 

[Osprey]

I usually don't use Rock-types or Bug-types on my story teams. The only exceptions to the Rock thing are Rampardos in Sinnoh and Aerodactyl in FireRed, once. Those two were difficult to raise, but Rampardos/Cranidos's excellent attack and Aerodactyl's high speed, coupled with Rock Head and Double-Edge, made them usable. As for Bug types... they're either terribly weak or too rare to be useful during a campaign, like Volcarona. The only exception to this is my level 60-something Butterfree from HeartGold.

I also haven't used fairies much at all. Maybe it's because they're too new to me, or maybe it's because none of them (barring Xerneas) really look that good to me. None of the newcomer fairies looked appealing, and many of the old ones whose types were retconned were the kinds of Pokemon I never used in the first place.

 

[Silverwynde]

Rock: It's not for lack of trying but I never have a Rock type on my team for long. It's too frail and doesn't seem to help me out at all.

Poison: It's rare for me to have a Poison anything in my team. I've just never used them.

Bug: Very few Bugs have stayed on my team, the exception being Beedrill. Nine times out of ten they can't stand up top the rigors of battling and end up staying in a box for all eternity.

Grass: I almost always have a Water type, which does the same thing as Grass so it's redundant to have a Grass type with me.

Ice: The same as Grass, since I make sure my Water type knows Ice Beam and the Water type is usually sturdier than an Ice type.

Dragon: I've never been fond of the type and if I use one, it's a half type like Palkia.

Normal: They might look cool, like Zangoose, but they don't stay on my team at all. That weakness against Fighting is just a deal breaker with me.

 

[DasManiac]

I can't honestly think of a single Psychic type I've used. Never used a Fairy either. Have no interest in the type.

 

[Tyrfing]

I have never used a Bug type, although I'm considering using a Beedrill for the heck of it in a LeafGreen run soon. I also am not certain if I have ever used a Psychic type, at least before post-game. I've also never used Fairy, but that's excusable considering there's only two games with them in it. I also never keep Normal types, even if I plan to use them. The closest I've ever gotten is a Castform, but then I looked up the stats.

 

[homer.homs]

Ghost type- I never use them in the playthrough because of their weak starter moves and low def and spd. Though some of them are good stallers, but i cannot afford to have wild Pokes to be knocked out in more than 2 minutes.
Psychic type- Because most of wild Pokes are Atk-specialized, I never use Psychic-type Pokemon.
Poison type- Poison type is my most favorite type, but because most of their decent poison type moves are obtainable in higher level, I cannot afford to use them in the earlier part of the game.

 

[DoctorWhy]

I've used probably every type at some point...

However the types I use least often are probably like Bug, Normal (pure), and Ice.

 

[Stuntology]

I thought I'd used every type at least once, so I checked my old hall of fames and made a list to check! I got some interesting stats out of it:

First of all, I've used a pokemon of each type in-game at least three times, except for three types: rock, ice, and fairy.

The only fairy type I've used is florges, which makes sense, as there was only ever one game that was possible.
The only rock type I've ever used was solrock in emerald, and I strangely had TWO on my first hall of fame. I was crazy back then...

And I have not used a single ice type. I was shocked! Next game, I'll use one for sure!

Some other neat little facts I found:
The two most popular types on my teams are by far water and flying, probably due to fly and surf. From most popular to least, by number of pokemon (for eight in-game teams):
water(11), flying (10), psychic (7), grass and fighting (6), fire and normal (5), poison, dragon, and ground (4), bug, electric, dark, ghost, and steel (3), rock (2), fairy (1), ice (0).

And for all of those, I've used five pokemon on two different teams: exeggutor, ampharos, chandelure, feraligatr, and solrock (again, both on the same team...)

 

[Sakuraa]

I've now just realized that I've never used a ghost-type on an official in game team before. It's not that I dislike them or find the "useless",or anything but I will say I can't think of many ghost-types that I love. I just tend to find dark-types better for ghost or psychic types since, well, their not weak to ghost, their immune to psychic, and I just tend to like more dark-types design wise.

Otherwise, I don't avoid using specific types altogether for any reason. If I like a Pokemon, I'll use it, whether or not I already have coverage. I've had some teams with both a water-type and an ice-type, and both an electric-type and a grass-type. Type repeats on one team however, no, I don't do that. (Or try to avoid it like the plague)

 

[Team Gaara]

I'm pretty sure I've used every type on an in-game team at least once. Some I have admittedly used some types less than others, like Bug and Poison, but I'm fairly certain I've used each one before.

 

[EvilChameleon]

I rarely use normal-typed Pokemon unless it's half normal and half something else. Bug is another one I rarely use.