Pokemon That You've Grown To Like Recently

PokePoindexter

PokePoindexter

If there's at least one Pokemon from a previous generation that has become one of your favorites within the past few months or so, feel free to share it and how it did here.

So to start us off, these are the most recent additions to my personal list of all-time favorites:

Can't really talk about one without also including the other, so I may as well talk about both. I've been feeling a bit burned out from online battling for a couple weeks now and wanted to take a break from it, so leave it to revisiting the Pokeathlon in HGSS and Contests in ORAS to provide it. I've always liked both Grumpig and Lumineon (and the former is actually pretty good in-game even if overshadowed), but now that both have become Medalists and Contest Stars, they've grown on me infinitely more than I ever would've expected. Sure, a lot of other Pokemon can excel in Contests and the Pokeathlon as well, but Grumpig and Lumineon were two mons that I had on hand and managed to pull through every time. They now join Umbreon, Drapion, Volcarona, and Beartic as the six Pokemon that I've won all 5 Master Rank Contests with (as well as Umbreon and Drapion in being the only mons to win every Pokeathlon event in addition to every Contest).

In the Pokeathlon, Grumpig gets up to 5 stars in Power, Skill, and Stamina, making it a full-on powerhouse in Block Smash and Snow Throw especially if all of those stats are maxed out, while Lumineon gets 3 stars in Power, 5 in Stamina, and 4 in everything else, making it all-around reliable in most events, particularly Relay Run, Ring Drop, Pennant Capture, and Hurdle Dash.

As for Contests, Grumpig is especially strong in Clever and Toughness Contests, with the respective sets I'd recommend being Psychic/Shadow Ball/Calm Mind/Psych Up and Payback/Giga Impact/Thief/Calm Mind (Endure would be even better, but you have to breed to get it), while Lumineon is amazing in Beauty and Cuteness Contests (Aqua Ring/Silver Wind/Aqua Tail/Rain Dance and Water Gun/U-Turn/Rest/Snore respectively).

So I wouldn't recommend using either for a serious online battle; Game Freak constantly seems to find yet another way to do both even dirtier than before with each new generation, and it pisses me off every time they do. But who says that being OU- or Uber-caliber in terms of usefulness in battle has to be the only metric that someone uses to determine how much they like a Pokemon? I certainly don't, and while I would still say they're a few steps behind the likes of Volcarona, Garchomp, Umbreon, and Alolan Ninetales for my all-time favorites, if I were a professional YouTube countdown maker who made a list of his top 10 favorite Pokemon, there would most certainly be places for Grumpig and Lumineon on that list that wouldn't have existed six months ago.

So, that's what I have to say regarding two of my newest favorites. Feel free to share your own.
 
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DuoM2

DuoM2

whao
is a Community Contributoris a Community Leader Alumnus
Clefable’s my most recent example. Most of the reason I start liking Pokemon is either some comp use or some ingame / Nuzlocke team, and Clefable happened to fit both of those. It was super fun to use in my replay of LGPE thanks to early evolution + Metronome + its TM learnset and I love using beefy mons like this on the rare occasion when I play OU and hadn’t really touched it at all until recently.
 
Ironmage

Ironmage

Ah yes, the tale of Bisharp the Ariados.

My first playthrough of gen 7 was mono-Bug, and this was my first time actually using the spinarak line for anything. Since it takes some time for Ariados to get poison jab, I was running Smart Strike as the anti-Fairy move on the team, and I kept doing so until I got the Poison Z-crystal because I liked having the option of a boosted Z-move. The nickname came as a result of the spider's moveset:

-Swords Dance
-Sucker Punch
-physical Steel move
-other physical attack

This was the first time I was using setup in an ingame team, and it certainly delivered, including nearly soloing Lusamine (it had screen support from Ledian)
 
Nickeljorn

Nickeljorn

I restarted my Ultra Sun save file about a year after that game came out so I could Shiny Hunt Poipole or something and I used three Pokemon I hadn't used before: Garbodor, Trevenant (From the in-game Trade) and Salazzle. I liked them a lot. I already kind of liked Garbodor because I was briefly into the TCG and last year I read on TV Tropes it may have been inspired by the Forlorn Junk Heap which is cool to me because MOTHER is my favorite game franchise after Pokemon. Trevenant was just fun in general. I liked Salazzle's Ability and unique type combination.
 
Suspicious Derivative

Suspicious Derivative

1609783466192.png

I will partly agree about Suicune, though I'm not sure if my opinion counts for this thread because I have always liked it. But I'll write about it anyway. Suicune has been my favorite Johto legendary for a very long time, but last year I started liking it even more. I used it on a team for the Battle Subway in White and it was just so good there. It tanked hits like a champ, handled opponents that the other members of the team had no chance against, and it could even pull of an occasional win against a bad matchup too. While PP stalling is a strategy that makes battles take a lot of time to get done, it is very efficient when done right. If I managed to fully set up Suicune along the way and sweep the opposing team, it was worth it.

1609783692987.png

Durant is another candidate. I had always thought it was pretty cool, but I had never used it anywhere. Until last year. Similar to Suicune, I used it on another Subway team in White 2. I had never used a TruAnt team at any battle facility before, but I had always wanted to give it a try. Now I finally got to try it, and it worked extremely well. How hard does TruAnt break the Subway? This hard. I reached my goal of 203 wins in a row on my first try with it. It is just that good.

1609783768335.png

However, I feel that the most suitable Pokémon to mention here is Whimsicott. While I have always liked it, I have generally liked its counterpart Lilligant better (and therefore, used it more). As for Whimsicott, I hadn't used it much in the past, only on my post-game team in Omega Ruby which was created back in 2016. On that team, I used Whimsicott as an offensive attacker with a moveset of Giga Drain/Moonblast/Shadow Ball/Tailwind. It was only for in-game use, and I have learned through the years that offensive sets generally works the best and gets the job done the quickest when it comes to pure casual play, so that's why I went with such a set. While Whimsicott was fun and worked pretty well on that team, using it there didn't really raise my opinion of it in any significant way.

But last year, I got to use Whimsicott again. This time, it was on five different teams in semi-competitive environments. I used it on three teams in the Subway in Gen 5, and on two teams in the Gen 8 Battle Tower (one was rental, the other was my own). In a semi-competitive environment, Whimsicott is a really great supporting Pokémon. It can support its teammate or the team on the whole with moves like Helping Hand or Tailwind, it can also annoy opponents or create opportunities for its teammates with moves like Taunt, Memento, Knock Off, Worry Seed and Charm. It gets plenty of other support moves too, but those were the ones I used. While it might not be the best attacker, it can still attack if necessary since it gets decently powerful STAB moves in Energy Ball and Moonblast. One thing that is really good about Whimsicott is that it does not necessarily need any investment in Speed since Prankster gives it +1 priority for all status moves, which are the kind moves it will be using a lot of the time. Or all the time, depending on the moveset. And if it needs to be faster, it can set up Tailwind on its own in order to make itself fast enough to outspeed most/all opponents. I had great success with Whimsicott on the five teams I used last year that featured it, and I really like it a lot more nowadays compared to just a year ago.
 
Nickeljorn

Nickeljorn

Suspicious Derivative said:
View attachment 305192
I will partly agree about Suicune, though I'm not sure if my opinion counts for this thread because I have always liked it. But I'll write about it anyway. Suicune has been my favorite Johto legendary for a very long time, but last year I started liking it even more. I used it on a team for the Battle Subway in White and it was just so good there. It tanked hits like a champ, handled opponents that the other members of the team had no chance against, and it could even pull of an occasional win against a bad matchup too. While PP stalling is a strategy that makes battles take a lot of time to get done, it is very efficient when done right. If I managed to fully set up Suicune along the way and sweep the opposing team, it was worth it.

View attachment 305195
Durant is another candidate. I had always thought it was pretty cool, but I had never used it anywhere. Until last year. Similar to Suicune, I used it on another Subway team in White 2. I had never used a TruAnt team at any battle facility before, but I had always wanted to give it a try. Now I finally got to try it, and it worked extremely well. How hard does TruAnt break the Subway? This hard. I reached my goal of 203 wins in a row on my first try with it. It is just that good.

View attachment 305196
However, I feel that the most suitable Pokémon to mention here is Whimsicott. While I have always liked it, I have generally liked its counterpart Lilligant better (and therefore, used it more). As for Whimsicott, I hadn't used it much in the past, only on my post-game team in Omega Ruby which was created back in 2016. On that team, I used Whimsicott as an offensive attacker with a moveset of Giga Drain/Moonblast/Shadow Ball/Tailwind. It was only for in-game use, and I have learned through the years that offensive sets generally works the best and gets the job done the quickest when it comes to pure casual play, so that's why I went with such a set. While Whimsicott was fun and worked pretty well on that team, using it there didn't really raise my opinion of it in any significant way.

But last year, I got to use Whimsicott again. This time, it was on five different teams in semi-competitive environments. I used it on three teams in the Subway in Gen 5, and on two teams in the Gen 8 Battle Tower (one was rental, the other was my own). In a semi-competitive environment, Whimsicott is a really great supporting Pokémon. It can support its teammate or the team on the whole with moves like Helping Hand or Tailwind, it can also annoy opponents or create opportunities for its teammates with moves like Taunt, Memento, Knock Off, Worry Seed and Charm. It gets plenty of other support moves too, but those were the ones I used. While it might not be the best attacker, it can still attack if necessary since it gets decently powerful STAB moves in Energy Ball and Moonblast. One thing that is really good about Whimsicott is that it does not necessarily need any investment in Speed since Prankster gives it +1 priority for all status moves, which are the kind moves it will be using a lot of the time. Or all the time, depending on the moveset. And if it needs to be faster, it can set up Tailwind on its own in order to make itself fast enough to outspeed most/all opponents. I had great success with Whimsicott on the five teams I used last year that featured it, and I really like it a lot more nowadays compared to just a year ago.
Click to expand...
I didn't put it in my post because I was thinking more "Pokemon you used in in-game playthroughs" but I've grown to like Durant recently too. I used it (Along with Acupressure Drapion and Shell Smash Cloyster) in the Battle Maison for my Ribbon Master challenge. 10/10 would cheese again.
 
DrumstickGaming

DrumstickGaming

Gokuzbu said:
I generally hate the whole concept of pikaclones and think they waste a dex spot. Morpeko won me over though. Cool unique typing, ultra adorable and surprisingly strong in-game!
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Try Togedemaru in Ultra Sun / Moon out.

Now I know what you're thinking: oh come on, THAT thing? But it's actually good! Zing Zap pretty much immediately, Iron Head tutor is literal steps away, and it has actually good Attack and Speed for in-game. While it's not the best thing ever, it's nice and I think it's like a good B tier in that game. It's late but it hits the ground running. The resistances really help too.
 
Dargad

Dargad

DrumstickGaming said:
Try Togedemaru in Ultra Sun / Moon out.

Now I know what you're thinking: oh come on, THAT thing? But it's actually good! Zing Zap pretty much immediately, Iron Head tutor is literal steps away, and it has actually good Attack and Speed for in-game. While it's not the best thing ever, it's nice and I think it's like a good B tier in that game. It's late but it hits the ground running. The resistances really help too.
Click to expand...
I agree. I've disliked pika-clones (and Pikachu for that matter) since the beginning, and when I saw Togedemaru, I disliked it as well. A chubby grey Pikachu ball? urgh... But then, its typing and abilities made me take a closer look. Togedemaru was in my second USUM play through, and I was surprised. It's fast for Alola, it hits reasonably hard, has a decent movepool. I was impressed!
 
pokemon4eva

pokemon4eva

is a Pre-Contributor
Total Clefairy said:
:ss/perrserker:

i really didn't like perrserker upon first seeing it. the big grin & the eyes & everything else just didn't do it for me - and did we really need another regional meowth line? however, it's definitely grown on me - the viking inspiration is nice, and steel-types in general are pretty cool.
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Same, I disliked it for being so simple with the viking aesthetic and compared to the other galar evos, but it grew on later to me. Specially in Galar Legends, when I got to unleash Zacian Perrserker combo to the combo and take lives. I still prefer Alolan Persian anyday, but you cool, Perrserker.
 
Eonatator

Eonatator

Hippowdon. It always seems to fly under the radar outside of competitive, probably because it's from a region chock full of cool ground types (Torterra, Gliscor, Gastrodon, Mamoswine and Garchomp). I can't say I've ever used on in-game so I have no anecdotal story here but I'm planning to and it's deinitely a cool looking, powerful mon.
 
aegon the unlikely

aegon the unlikely

my mon magnemite. electric/steel is an awesome defensive typing and magneton packs quite a wallop in pokemon crystal. t-wave is dope too.

the lack of coverage moves is admittedly annoying (and a subpar attack stat doesn't help either), but magneton is amazing at tanking dragons that don't have fire or ground type moves, which are more common than not in-game and thunder wave is just a clutch move that can turn battles.
 
Machoke

Machoke

Raticate-Alola. I didn't expect to keep it on my team in my Ultra Sun playthrough but I did and I named it Mr. Chonky and it grew a lot more lovable to me through the course of the game. The only issue I had was any mon with fighting coverage could kill it and it has mediocre stats, but for an in-game playthrough it's not too bad.
 
aegon the unlikely

aegon the unlikely

Machoke said:
Raticate-Alola. I didn't expect to keep it on my team in my Ultra Sun playthrough but I did and I named it Mr. Chonky and it grew a lot more lovable to me through the course of the game. The only issue I had was any mon with fighting coverage could kill it and it has mediocre stats, but for an in-game playthrough it's not too bad.
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that is one chonky rodent.
 
bdt2002

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
Really neat thread idea. Fitting that I make my first forum post of 2021 on a newer thread :)

I didn’t think much of this Pokémon in comparison to other Starters for quite some time, but ever since trying to start up my first ever Nuzlocke run, this one being of Alpha Sapphire, I’ve gained quite a bit more appreciation for Treecko. I’m historically a big fan of the water starters, and almost always pick them, but Treecko won a competition I held to see who would be my starter for this run. Aside from that, its design and its evolutions have grown on me a bit during the end of 2020 into the new year.

Edit: For anyone who’s curious I haven’t played very much of the Nuzlocke at all because I’m busy over at college. Hopefully I’ll find at least a bit more time going into February.
 
aegon the unlikely

aegon the unlikely

bdt2002 said:
Really neat thread idea. Fitting that I make my first forum post of 2021 on a newer thread :)

I didn’t think much of this Pokémon in comparison to other Starters for quite some time, but ever since trying to start up my first ever Nuzlocke run, this one being of Alpha Sapphire, I’ve gained quite a bit more appreciation for Treecko. I’m historically a big fan of the water starters, and almost always pick them, but Treecko won a competition I held to see who would be my starter for this run. Aside from that, its design and its evolutions have grown on me a bit during the end of 2020 into the new year.

Edit: For anyone who’s curious I haven’t played very much of the Nuzlocke at all because I’m busy over at college. Hopefully I’ll find at least a bit more time going into February.
Click to expand...
Treecko's very cool. What rules have you set for your Nuzlocke?

I disabled the Exp. Share and Pokemon Amie + Super Training. It made the game quite a bit tougher, Brawly legit killed my Pokemon at least once and Maxie was an absolute disaster due to how he crushed my entire team with his Camerupt and their endgame level moves...
 
bdt2002

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
aegon the unlikely said:
Treecko's very cool. What rules have you set for your Nuzlocke?

I disabled the Exp. Share and Pokemon Amie + Super Training. It made the game quite a bit tougher, Brawly legit killed my Pokemon at least once and Maxie was an absolute disaster due to how he crushed my entire team with his Camerupt and their endgame level moves...
Click to expand...
No Exp Share, no Amie, no Super Training, no items in battle, no Lucky Egg, and Shiny Clause enabled.
 
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