Unexpected pokemon that ended up carrying your team

I was expecting to keep Nacli on my team in Violet just long enough to see what the funny rock mushroom evolved into and then box it, because non-fossil Rock-Types are usually not my thing. But I surprisingly really liked Garganacl, so she stayed. And my goodness did Salt Cure's lingering damage come in clutch for the Team Star boss fights. She ended up getting the "Reliable Partner" title and completely deserved it.
 
In one playthrough of Scarlet I realized that my pre-planned team had a serious Rock and Electric weakness issue (more Electric than Rock), so I caught a Deerling as a last-minute addition to the team. Maple the Sawsbuck ended up being a crucial lynchpin in the team, as she took out every Rock type that looked at the team funny and thanks to some Ground coverage in Stomping Tantrum she was able to flatten any Electric types (with the added bonus of taking out any Poison types she'd be weak to). Plus thanks to Sap Sipper I could have her absorb the Spore and Powder moves and get a free Attack boost. As a result I gained a much greater respect for Sawsbuck (I never hated it, mind, but I wasn't really fond of Grass types as a whole so Sawsbuck fell under the radar for me), especially since the line has gained some nice new toys over the generations (ie: better coverage moves, more moves to take advantage of Serene Grace, etc). So while Deerling/Sawsbuck was a last-minute addition she ended up being extremely crucial in keeping the team together.
 
I’ve been in a vgc draft league for a couple years now. Unfortunately my season just ended, but this was by far the best one I’ve had! Some notable Pokemon who have stood out over the years are:

Skeledirge: this thing is surprisingly hard to hit and extremely tanky. Very fun to use

Munkidori: Fakeout + Trick black sludge is very funny. Also synergies suuuuuper well with Zama (unsurprisingly carried my team lol) cuz it can just run sludge wave spam, and any steel types can just get body pressed.

Morpeko: the right set on this basically allows you to get two free kos. Very broken into rain teams.
 
Sudowoodo in my first playthrough of Crystal, of all things. I couldn't get access to Golem since I didn't have a method of trading or cheating

I was not expecting Sudowoodo to actually hold up throughout my journey. High attack and Defense, access to the decent Low Kick immediately, and Rock Slide at level 28 is very good. Although it lacked the ground typing of a Graveler, that also meant it didn't have the 4x weaknesses that came with it. Also, it actually has a higher attack than a Graveler too. Sudowoodo impressed me. It did better than I thought.
 
Oh, interesting thread.

HeartGold
I didn't have high expectations from Noctowl. The sole reason why I added her to my team was because I'd traditionally have all the regional birds on my team regardless. But that beast is one hell of a Pokémon. She had great psychic type moves and didn't go down oh so easily.

Sun
I could say the same about Ribombee. I only added it despite having two other Fairy-types already, because Cutiefly was so adorable, but it was quite strong especially with Dazzling Gleam and Pollen Puff.

Violet
Kilowattrel. That was a blind playthrough, as in I didn't know any Pokémon aside from officially announced ones by the release date of the game. I found a Wattrel early in the game and thought it was so cute, and I didn't expect a lot from it, but it ended up being the captain of my team in terms of strength and power.
 
My Butterfree in Shield. I like Butterfrees so I get one almost time when I first play a pokemon game, but that one from my Shield play is the King of Luck. Critical hits just when I needed it, hits the target after several debuffs, you name it.
Eldegoss is another of my carrier. He can handle most enemies except for the fire breathers. I wasn't excepting this much from him though, I thought he's just someone to travel with in the earlier stages, but I ended up slipping to him whenever I face a difficult enemy.
 
Primeape in FireRed! I still think about her to this day lol.

Right now my Charjabug in Sun is holding our team together with duct tape. Just a really good, versatile typing. I'm less annoyed by the fact I can't evolve him until Poni Island because he's just that good!
 
oh really good thread and i loved reading everyone's answers! (i backread all the posts so far...)

there's a lot of pokemon i could mention here but i narrowed it down to one little story. i recently replayed leafgreen for the millionth time because i was really sick and leafgreen is my comfort food pokemon game - really easy to play because it was my first and i know it like the back of my hand. i tried to use pokemon on my team that i hadn't used in a leafgreen playthrough before, somehow (except for Soup the pikachu, special shoutout to Soup who i never evolved) and i named all my pokemon after the few foods i could eat without getting sick :slowpoke: hence Salt the Seaking.

i wasn't expecting much from the fish but i wanted to give the common fishing encounter a chance since i don't think i've ever used a goldeen/seaking nor have i ever seen a friend use one. she ended up being surprisingly useful. final moveset was surf/ice beam/flail/rain dance. but she gets a special mention here because my LEVEL 50 SEAKING absolutely swept lance, who has pokemon up to level 60!! aforementioned Soup the Pikachu took care of his lead Gyarados but after that i hard swapped into salt and she took on the rest of lance's entire team by herself. and mind you i don't use any items in battle (other than hold items) plus i use set mode in any pokemon playthrough i do so she just survived his dragon onslaught that entire time, albeit with barely any health to spare:
Salt the Seaking staring down Lance after winning the battle. Lance is saying I hate to admit it, but you are a Pokemon master!

tldr; she was able to set up rain dance to activate swift swim and outspeed lance's pokemon and kill them all with ice beam. at the very end, the rain ran out, but lance opted to use hyper beam with his level 60 dragonite and salt lived on 13 HP to set rain dance back up again and take it out with ice beams. lance only had his aerodactyl left, which is one of the fastest pokemon in generation 3, but he was still outsped by my swift swim fish and annihilated with a singular surf. i could not believe the performance of my fish and how much damage she was putting out. salt was the absolute GOAT (greatest of all time)
 
As somebody who wasn't impressed with it in the inital screencshots, Espathra was a reluctant team member in Scarlet. I was struggling with Atticus and his Team Star group with their poison types, and the surrounding area just so happened to be filled with psychic types. I briefly filled up my team with multiple of them including Espathra, and aced Atticus easily. Even when I removed the other psychic types, I kept Espathra on, and it ended up being a major team player and scoring me a to if victories. It grew on me so much, I now consider it my favorite Pokémon of Gen 9.

Also, Starmie in my playthrough of Sword. I briefly did Isle of Armor in the middle of my main playthrough and caught a Staryu there, then continued on with Sword's main story. Little did I know Stramie would end up being like one of my key players. Definitely appreciate the Pokémon itself a lot more now.
 
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I did not like my initial playthrough of Pokémon Platinum. In fact, I don't like Pokémon Platinum in general, but that's something I'll save for a different chat.

In this initial playthrough, I was surprised to see just how good Floatzel was. With shockingly high speed, attack, and access to Ice Fang, even while severely underleveled, I found myself outspeeding my opponents a handful of times. It really came clutch at some points.
 
Many, many years ago, I did a challenge run of Yellow only using Pokémon Ash had in the show.
Pidgeotto was a real hero, there, surrounded by first stagers for quite a while. Even as Pidgeot he was pretty good and I believe he even made my final team.

Juliyet said:
Also, Starmie in my playthrough of Sword. I briefly did Isle of Armor in the middle of my main playthrough and caught a Staryu there, then continued on with Sword's main story. Little did I know Stramie would end up being like one of my key players. Definitely appreciate the Pokémon itself a lot more now.
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It's easy for various reasons (unimpressive appearance, early game boss back in gen 1, poor showings in the anime) not to realize how beastly powerful Starmie can be in the games.
 
Daren said:
It's easy for various reasons (unimpressive appearance, early game boss back in gen 1, poor showings in the anime) not to realize how beastly powerful Starmie can be in the games.
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I am currently using a Starmie on my Black 2 playthrough (absolutely not the first time I played the games and it will probably not be the last). First time I'm ever using a Starmie.
 
In my current playthrough of Pokémon Platinum, I have both a Bibarel that ended up being really helpful against the Elite Four, and also a Drifblim. I'm in the post story where I'm just doing training before challenging the Elite Four again. Also, in one of my attempts in the Battle Tower, my Lucario and Torterra got knocked out by the trainer's first Pokémon, but my Glaceon took care of all three of those Pokémon.
 
One that I can remember right now was Cloyster in XD: Gale of Darkness. When I replayed XD a few years ago, I got a Shellder with a Bold nature. Its massive defense was unexpectedly helpful sometimes, and it did plenty of damage with Surf boosted by Mystic Water. Cloyster was actually my 2nd best Pokemon on that playthrough, only behind Jolteon.
 
Recently, I played Pokémon Platinum for the 50th time or something, and as I've been trying to do lately, I wanted to use Pokémon I had never used before. Most of the team was a no-brainer; I always overlooked stuff like the Onix line, or Spiritomb. But for whatever reason, I really wanted a Lanturn on my team. I think that's because my original draft for the team did not contain any Surfing Pokémon. Unfortunately, the Chinchou line can't be found in DPPt, so I made an egg in my copy of HeartGold and sent it over, and...

My god, that fish is broken!

The combination of Water and Electric moves (with Ice Beam for coverage), plus Volt Absorb, made this Pokémon into an absolute beast! I don't think there was anything in Platinum that could stand up to it. Its stats look mediocre, but don't be fooled: with a typing, movepool, and ability like those, it can do anything!
 
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