Crutch Pokemon

[leocain]

We've talked about "Magikarp Power" Pokemon. Weaklings like Ralts and Noibat, who, once evolved become powerhouses. Now, I'm seeing the opposite side of the spectrum, Pokemon that were useful at one point, but in the end couldn't keep up.

Mine is Garbodor, fairly resistant, could set up Poison Spikes or toxic as needed, but after Kiki, he took a nosedive and just couldn't win anymore. Any of yours?

[Jacobliterator]

Unfezant is mine. It was kick-ass for most of my play-through but the second I encountered a Braviary, suddenly Unfezant became very familiar with the PC.

[Nanami's-Egg]

In my ground type monorun, it was Trash Cloak Wormadan. It is one of the just two pokemon that are or can become ground types available before Julia (the other being Turtwig or Mudkip). STAB Bug Bite was good against Fern and Florinia, but it doesn't learn ANY ground type moves by level besides Fissure so it got benched before I fought Corey.

[Foamy]

None, surprisingly. All the Pokémon I've used in the early game have still been just as useful in the late game.

[Lostelle]

None, surprisingly. All the Pokémon I've used in the early game have still been just as useful in the late game.

Agreed here. Every Pokémon I've used pulls its own weight in a different way.

[fireflame]

for me, it was Noctowl. He has a special place in my heart because of Gold and Silver and the hypnosis/Dream Eater combo, but by now he is outclassed by Emolga, Noivern and soon Flygon. i used him heavily when I got him up until Radomus, then he went into the PC.

[foovy10]

I dont really have one but I did remove pokes cuz they got outclassed by others.

The 3 pokes this happened to were diggerby being outclassed by tyrantrum, dragalge by crobat, and klingklang by ampharos.

[Busti]

I really liked my exploud, but his "powerhouse" feature just wouldn't power through anything anymore....

[bepe]

Swoobat was really good at first, but started becoming to difficult to set up with so I dropped it.

[Cyclonegale]

Kricketune. Useful for about Florinia, and suddenly it can't kill jack diddly.

Meowstic. Great for about when you get Ralts. Then I dropped it for that sweet sweet modest Gardevoir.

[Flux]

Arbok was amazing for me until about the 4th or 5th gym. It's stockpile build was OP in the beginning of the game.

[Drymus]

Emolga was a staple on my team, but was dropped before Serra in favour of Jolteon, then got edged out of the flying position by Crobat. Not saying Emolga is bad, just got underleveled because of a weakness and switched out.

[Tempo17]

for me it was swalot. yawn+acid spray combo helped me get through a lot of tough battles but it just takes too long to set up. still holds a special place and i still use it occasionally for the toxic as well. Wouldn't have gotten through terra without it

[Joltz]

Had the same thing with my Garbodor at about the same time in the game. It helped me get very far early game though but it's not cutting it anymore so he's about lvl53 sitting in the PC with a Poison Barb I should take away from it but just can't!!

[Foamy]

Swoobat was really good at first, but started becoming to difficult to set up with so I dropped it.

I've been thinking about dropping Kingdra for this reason. It doesn't hit nearly as hard without Draco Meteor and Hydro Pump, but the former isn't available yet and I would like a non-HM-slave with Surf.

On top of that, it often gets outsped and 2HKO'd by a lot of Pokémon, and setting up an Agility on the first turn means it lacks the power needed to hit for more than around 45%.

[Joltz]

I've been thinking about dropping Kingdra for this reason. It doesn't hit nearly as hard without Draco Meteor and Hydro Pump, but the former isn't available yet and I would like a non-HM-slave with Surf.

On top of that, it often gets outsped and 2HKO'd by a lot of Pokémon, and setting up an Agility on the first turn means it lacks the power needed to hit for more than around 45%.

I was really hoping to get a Kingdra myself but then the game ended with getting Fly and I didn't account for it so it made me level up a Swanna to be my Fly and Surf Slave and still have it able to cover Water and Flying Type (with air slash) as a possible Sweeper. Reading your post made me happy I didn't get it hehe.

[Chilibunny]

When I first played through the story, I wanted to be a psychic/illusion trainer. So due to this (I started in Ep 12) my team was filled with underpowered Pokes like Gothitelle, Lunatone, Porygon and such who just didn't have enough variety in their learnsets to work after Noel. They were super slow which often was the reason for their demise, too. Lunatone however single handedly destroyed Kiki when nobody else could. Toxicroak had only Sucker Punch to hit it hard with, so I used Cosmic Power six times and laughed at her. Even that didn't work for first, since she got a crit a few times and I had to start over. Kiki was nearly impossible with a team of Greninja, Porygon, Gothitelle and Lunatone. Glad that until Luna I had trained a Metagross, a Chandelure and a Heracross and it became more of a semitype similar to B/W champion Alder.

[Foamy]

I was really hoping to get a Kingdra myself but then the game ended with getting Fly and I didn't account for it so it made me level up a Swanna to be my Fly and Surf Slave and still have it able to cover Water and Flying Type (with air slash) as a possible Sweeper. Reading your post made me happy I didn't get it hehe.

If you plan to give it Hydro Pump, then it should still be useful.

It's not that great at, well... not sweeping. It's really good when an opportunity to set up presents itself, but it's not that amazing in normal situations.

[Oracle]

Skuntank, Primeape, Swoobat

Replaced by Scrafty, Dragalge, and Eelektross

[bepe]

I've been thinking about dropping Kingdra for this reason. It doesn't hit nearly as hard without Draco Meteor and Hydro Pump, but the former isn't available yet and I would like a non-HM-slave with Surf.

On top of that, it often gets outsped and 2HKO'd by a lot of Pokémon, and setting up an Agility on the first turn means it lacks the power needed to hit for more than around 45%.

Have you tried the focus energy scope lens sniper combo? I have one of those trained up and while it's not the best thing in my box, it still hits reasonably hard.

[Autumneverlast]

Kricketune. Useful for about Florinia, and suddenly it can't kill jack diddly.

This. Other than that, I've generally kept most pokemon around that weren't trained for a specific purpose, like the Klingklang I trained up to take down Serra, and rotated them in when one of my pokemon was getting owned by type disadvantages..

[Myst]

For me, butterfree proved actually useful for me for a couple gyms. In this game and Rejuv surprisingly.

[CrazySheriff]

Mostly some Poison types. They are great for half of the game, but later on its just a pain to train them and I often end up replacing them. Also some birds, for example Pidgey line and Unfezant. Good early game but they really fall behind later.

[Antilegend]

I'm on another playthrough right now.

First it was Pidgeot, who had access to Feather Dance, which helped big time in a few situations, but it's hugely limited movepool made it replaced by Crobat.

Another one was my Moxie Mightyena, who was great right up until Kiki, then it's usefulness took a nosedive. Pangoro is slowly making it's way up the list on the chopping block.

My Golem, on the other hand, has proven to be shockingly useful. I needed a Ground-type on my team, and it's amazing movepool has made an impression on me. Still divided on whether or not I should replace it with Excadrill.

[bepe]

Golem maintains its usefulness for a while by guaranteeing stealth rocks for important battles